Illustration of Clark Ashton Smith's "The Last Incantation", by Rowena Morrill.
Magic is the practice of feats that defy natural laws, supposedly achieved by supernatural forces or energies, and might involve spells, rituals, signs, potions, etc. As a widespread concept in speculative fiction (particularly but not exclusively in the fantasy genre), magic has been a part of the Cthulhu Mythos since its beginnings, although different authors and works have provided different views on it. Practitioners of magic, sometimes referred to as sorcerers, witches or wizards, often appear as characters in the Mythos.
In the real world, magic has been studied and allegedly practiced by occultists and other scholars, including such figures as John Dee and Éliphas Lévi, among many others. It is distinct from the stage magic performed by entertainers such as Harry Houdini, which is openly based on illusion and skill. Expanded Mythos author Alan Moore is also a practitioner of ceremonial magic.
In the Mythos[]
Magic can describe any otherworldly force or energy. It can be manipulated by humans but only with tremendous danger to the user. For some greater magics it even requires the sacrifice of the soul. It is known to be practiced in nearly every part of the human inhabited world. With advanced mathematics and theoretical physics some grasp can be gained over the these forces.
Magic is usually very difficult to wield and requires knowledge and preparation, whether it needs several hours of chants, intricate esoteric circles or sacrifices, it is a very dangerous discipline that no mundane human tends to come across. Many times, cults draw magic from their primal deities, as the practitioners summon their patrons to fuel incantations and spells.
A dark magic ritual, illustrated by Tony Patrick for The Dunwich Horror and Others.
There are numerous books dedicated to the study and practice of magic, the most infamous likely being the Necronomicon. Objects and even people may be infused with mystical energy. The extra-dimensional being Azathoth is known to supply his followers with magical energy. Most unearthly entities can only exist on our plane through the extensive use of magic. If not constantly charged with this magic they will be destroyed.
An example of an object with magical properties would be the Silver Key, which was forged in Hyperborea (HPL: "Through the Gates of the Silver Key"), where sorcerers and wizards seem to have been common (CIRCLE: Hyperborean Cycle). Even in the modern day, some humans have been known to master magic, such as Ephraim Waite (HPL: "The Thing on the Doorstep") or the Carnby brothers (CIRCLE: "The Return of the Sorcerer"). Beyond Earth, other civilisations had their own wizards, such as Zkauba, a Yaddithian who used magic spells to help prevent the Dholes from leaving their burrows (HPL: "Through the Gates of the Silver Key").
Magic seems to be a natural ability of some species, such as the Serpent People. (CIRCLE: "The Shadow Kingdom")
Characters' views[]
Professor Henry Armitage described the wizard Whateley's ability to summon otherworldly entities as being "mostly a kind of force that doesn't belong in our part of space; a kind of force that acts and grows and shapes itself by other laws than those of our sort of nature". He cautions that humans "have no business calling in such things from outside, and only very wicked people and very wicked cults ever try to". (HPL: "The Dunwich Horror")
Although skeptical of most instances of alleged magic, Prof. William Gregg concedes "that human flesh may now and then, once perhaps in ten million cases, be the veil of powers which seem magical to us; powers which, so far from proceeding from the heights and leading men thither, are in reality survivals from the depths of being". Gregg thus regards magic as a form of atavism. He argues that life forms such as an amoeba or a snail are capable of feats beyond human ability (such as altering their physical shape), and that humans might access these same abilities by "reversion". On the magic attributed to the folkloric fairies, which he identifies as the Little People, Gregg offers that "a race which had fallen out of the grand march of evolution might have retained, as a survival, certain powers which would be to us wholly miraculous". (ADJ: "The Novel of the Black Seal")
Dr. Makoto Yamada, on the other hand, has expressed the belief that people referred to as sorcerers or witches are simply those "who have acquired mastery over certain sciences which are not wholly subject to mundane physical laws". (CIRCLE: "The Black Kiss")
Occultist Titus Crow believes that what we call magic is actually the Elder Gods' science. (EXP: The Burrowers Beneath)
Behind the Mythos[]
Magic versus science[]
The definition and scope of magic in fiction is variable and sometimes related to the work's genre. For instance, a character's ability to move objects with their mind might be referred to as "magic" in a fantasy setting, or as "telekinesis" in a science fiction setting. As scientific and technological progress pushes the limits of the inexplicable and the unachievable, some concepts traditionally associated with magic might have counterparts in science fiction, to the point that sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke has coined the phrase: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". In the works of H. P. Lovecraft, who partook equally of supernatural literature and scientific discoveries as inspiration, the line might not be easily discernible.
Some Mythos stories, such as Henry Hasse's "The Guardian of the Book" and Frank Belknap Long's "The Hounds of Tindalos", depict the study of mathematics and physics as a key to accessing or navigating through higher dimensions, which might provide a link between the mundane and the otherworldly. As the character Frank says when looking at the books studied by Halpin Chalmers in preparation for the latter's astral travel: "Einstein and John Dee are strange bedfellows".