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Real Wizards: The search for Harry's ancestors
Shamanic visions
Magic is older than current ideas of wizardry, older than the legend of Merlin, older than the druids themselves. Magical practice began in a world very different from ours, a world where survival from one day to the next depended on natural forces.
The earliest forms of magic were ways of trying to control this terrifying world by working with the powers of nature; the earliest wizards were shamans.
Who were the shamans?
The origins of shamanism are unknown, but it may go back as much as 40,000 years. Shamans were figures of great authority in early human communities, and shamanic practice had three main elements:
- trance followed by
- spiritual flight leading to
- insight
Typically, the shaman would induce a trance state through fasting, chanting, dancing and drumming. In some cases, drugs would also be used. Once an altered state of consciousness had been achieved, the shaman would mentally 'fly' to another level of reality, in which they would be able to communicate with the spirits of the natural world. It was believed that humans and animals were fundamentally alike on the spiritual plane and had once been interchangeable, with humans able to transform themselves into animals and animals into humans. By journeying to the spiritual plane, the shaman was able to restore this lost connection and mediate between animals and humans.
Man the hunter
Shamanic magic was particularly important to societies which depended on hunting. The shaman could tell the hunters where their prey was likely to be found, or even make it go to certain places. Shamans were accorded considerable reverence by their communities; they were seen as being in touch with nature, at a time when losing touch with nature could be fatal.
Traces of shamanism have been found all over the world, from Australia to South America to the Arctic. Shamanic practices still survive in some parts of the world; their strongest bases today are Mongolia and Siberia. Shamanic activities and beliefs have also helped to shape our ideas of magic. The original image of Merlin - living wild in the woods, travelling with a wolf and a boar, running with the deer - has elements of shamanism. More generally, the idea of spiritual communication with animals has been a key part of contemporary depictions of wizardry, from TH White's Merlin through Terry Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax to the shape-shifting wizards of Hogwarts.
Drugs and poisons
The most enduring legacy of the shamans in Europe has been their use of drugs. To avoid a fatal overdose, shamans had to become experts on consciousness-altering substances. Shamans would build up resistance to common poisonous substances, to the point where a drug which would normally be fatal would only induce unconsciousness or hallucinations. The druids' worship of the toxic plant mistletoe suggests this kind of habituation; it may also explain the presence of ergot in Tollund Man's stomach.
It has even been suggested that the figure of Father Christmas derives from this type of shamanic practice. At the winter solstice, Finnish shamans would eat large quantities of the highly toxic fly agaric mushroom. They would then go around the village, dressed in red and white to mimic the colouring of the mushroom, and urinate down the smokehole of each hut. The villagers would drink the urine, which would contain a potent - but not life-threatening - dose of the fly agaric toxin.
Less bizarre echoes of shamanic drug lore can also be found in the mysterious herbal substances supposedly used by witches. The witch's cauldron, bubbling with spellbinding potions, was made famous by Shakespeare's Macbeth, which features three witches chanting over a cauldron. But the truth behind the idea is another matter - the chemistry of wizardry may still hold some surprises.
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