Magic in names and in other things / by Edward Clodd.

  • Clodd, Edward, 1840-1930.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Magic in names and in other things / by Edward Clodd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/256 (page 8)
    In the initiation ceremonies accompanying the admission of youths to membership of the tribe on attaining puberty, he sees anticipation of the rite of confirmation and of the preparation for the “ Communion of the Saints.” In the universal barbaric belief that the eater absorbs the qualities and virtues of the thing eaten, he admits a fundamental connection with the most sacred and magical of Christian rites, “ the sacra¬ mental element becoming more and more pro¬ nounced, till at last in the Eucharist wherein man dwells in Christ and Christ in man it finds its consummation.” In the purification and lustration customs attending women at childbirth and the newly born, especially in the Isis rite of baptism with water, he finds preparation “ for the proclamation of the one baptism for the remission of sins.” 1 The Christian magician, he contends, is success¬ ful as one of “ a priesthood possible only where a definite relationship exists between the deity and the community, since the office of the priest is to propitiate the gods or act as their mouthpiece. By virtue of his initial ordination, he becomes invested with Divine authority . . . and is therefore regarded as a sacred person ” ! All the lower religions, in the view of this writer, have been 64 schoolmasters to bring us to Christ ”; for him 1 Primitive Ritual and Belief, p. 13, Rev. E. O. James.