Love magic – a brief historical outline
The earliest known examples of love spells are several thousand years old. Today they are criticized as examples of looping someone’s will. But nevertheless, they enjoy great and growing popularity as extremely effective if used by the right people with the right knowledge and skills. They are still in great demand.
Love magic has been used since time immemorial, most often based – and still is – on the principles of affection (similarity) and tangency. The first magic rituals we know of date back to Sumer from around 2000 BC. At that time, they were mainly intended for men. Although nowadays love magic is commonly associated with women and lovemaking administered to the accompaniment of proper incantations. Of course, after consultation with a magician or witch, however, scholars believe that in many regions young men were the main clientele of witches).
In Greece there were two types of love magic, eros for men and philia for women. Both words mean “love,” but philia is more about the spiritual dimension of this feeling, as well as brotherly, sisterly love). Today it is thought that philia, whose function was more to keep a man with her than to win him. It performed similar functions to psychotherapy – a woman, after performing love spells, was calmer about a man’s fidelity. She was not afraid of competing for his heart. She felt more confident in the relationship, especially since love spells were also supposed to guarantee youth and beautiful appearance.
Love magic was very widespread in the ancient world. In Rome, it was even banned because of fears for the cohesiveness of families. However, such a ban did not bring tangible results, and among the victims of love spells are mentioned, for example, Lucullus and the poet Lucretius. And one can literally speak of victims here. For Lucullus, a leader who became famous for perhaps the most sumptuous feasts in the history of mankind. He fell, according to ancient accounts, after drinking a magic potion into madness and soon died. The specific was not given to him by a woman, but by the liberator Kallisthenes. And Lucretius, at the request of his wife Lucilia, committed suicide in a sudden attack of rage after consumption.
Love magic was also common in ancient Egypt (nowadays Egyptian love rituals are definitely in vogue and many consider them the most potent of their kind) and among Semitic peoples (it was from their rituals, by the way, that the ancient Greeks drew most often), as well as among the Celts and Germanic peoples.
In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, love magic underwent some changes. This is because marriages, concluded for life, became very important; divorce could be counted on by individuals. Hence, a good choice often meant the attainment of higher status, a permanent improvement in life. So, on the one hand, love magic – as a means to gain position – began to be a source of income its
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