Editing Ceremonial magic (section)

=== Renaissance magic ===
{{main|Renaissance magic}}
[[File:Historia Mundi Naturalis, Plinii Secundi.jpg|thumb|Woodcut illustration from an edition of [[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''[[Naturalis Historia]]'' (1582)]]

The term originates in 16th-century [[Renaissance magic]], referring to practices described in various Medieval and Renaissance [[grimoire]]s and in collections such as that of [[Johannes Hartlieb]]. [[Georg Pictor]] uses the term synonymously with ''[[goetia]]''.

[[James Sanford (translator)|James Sanford]] in his 1569 translation of [[Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa]]'s 1526 ''De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum'' has "The partes of ceremoniall Magicke be Geocie, and Theurgie". For Agrippa, ceremonial magic was in opposition to [[natural magic]]. While he had his misgivings about natural magic, which included [[astrology]], [[alchemy]], and also what we would today consider fields of [[natural science]], such as [[botany]], he was nevertheless prepared to accept it as "the highest peak of natural philosophy". Ceremonial magic, on the other hand, which included all sorts of communication with spirits, including [[necromancy]] and [[witchcraft]], he denounced in its entirety as impious disobedience towards God.{{sfnp|Nauert|1957|p=176}}

[[File:Francis barrett portrait.jpg|upright|thumb|left|Portrait of Francis Barrett, author of the book ''The Magus'' (1801)]]