Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

The Characteristics of Modern Magic: Students’ Superstitions
Eglė Savickaitė
Abstract
From old times people tried to attempt to control natural or chance events or to
influence the behavior or emotions of others. Folk magic (special practices, rituals,
spells) was oriented into the welfare of all society. Talking about modern magic, it
seems that it should differ from traditional, folk magic according to its function and
utilization in different spheres/activities of life that are common to nowadays urban
society. But still the question stays, if traditional or folk magic could be completely
distinguished from modern magic and, finally, how do we understand the word
‘modern’. This author asserts that modernity cannot be understood as something
completely new. There is something behind that. Modern cultural magic elements
can be created according to the model of folk magic or those cultural elements can
be understood as a continuity of one or several modified different traditions. The
object of this chapter is the characteristics of modern magic. The purpose of this
chapter is to discover the characteristics of modern magic on the basis of students’
superstitions based on research carried out in Lithuania.
Key Words: Modern magic, folk magic, tradition, modernity, students’
superstitions.
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While doing a research on students’ superstitions in the context of
contemporary magic, the concept of tradition is very important. Tradition is often
understood as constant, stable, non – changing, archaic category. So, it is mostly
linked with some settled point of views, convictions that are orally transmitted
from generation to generation. All of this is usually contrasted with something
modern, in our case, with modern magical cultural tradition. Naturally arise the
question, how do we understand traditional and modern culture? Looking from the
perspective of these times, we could name cultural phenomena as modern, but it
does not mean that traditional aspect disappears. In every contemporary cultural
phenomenon, elements of magic also, we can keep looking for the indications of
tradition succession (that is why folk texts are for). Similar comparative researches
perfectly disclose the problems of contemporary cultural phenomena. So, as a
matter of fact, I would disagree with brave theoretical preposition of D. & Ch.
Albas that students magic is mostly invented by those who practice it themselves,
and that it is not traditional or socially shared as the preliterate magic is. 1 Is
students’ magic a unique, newly invented product? If it is, then how does it exist
for about hundred years (in other states much longer) among university students
and is universal? Modernity does not mean that something new or unique appears