The word Magic comes from the Latin word Magi, Magic, who has not heard about magic? magic is the creation of illusions that make believe something impossible just happened. This trickery called magic was once taken very seriously. The world of men has been always surrounded by phenomena, weird events that he couldn´t explain, so naturally he thought these phenomena’s where magical (day and night, life and death, rain and drought). Nowadays   we can explain these with science, but the spirit of men towards the unknown, obscure, and magic is the same.  You can notice that magic rites vary from country to country, but that doesn´t mean that men from any nation cannot do a magic rite of another country or culture. This currently cosmopolitan way of life is why we live in a carousel of magical superstitions.

Magic had been a cause for fear too, in the past and even now. not so long ago any magic practitioner caught in the act of magic or any other spiritual gathering, would be put to death, they would use ridiculous evidence in the trails, sometimes this would only need an accusation or a witness to call the "victim" a witch and it would be all what the inquisitors need to put the witch to burn or to be drowned.

I want to set straight that religion is not magic, religion has a lot of influence on magic, this influence goes from rites to magic critters (golems, demons, chimeras, etc.). But before the major religions these beings where neutral (not evil or lawful) these “spiritual beings” where lesser forms of gods and they were worshiped too. As some examples of these entities are the followings:

1.       - Demons: these are pagan creations they are spirits that hold a neutral place between men and gods. That later where qualified by the Catholic Church as evil, depraved, sadistic beings under the command of the lord of darkness Satan.

2.       Genies:  (Jinn) these ethereal beings come from Arabian mythology, can take various animal forms, they can be either good and help mankind or bad to the bone; they can be tamed or confined into an object like Aladdin’s lamp by a powerful magician (you can call that some sort of demon summoning). They can posses people.

3.       Witch/Wizard: People who practice magic and witchcraft (white or black) mostly they were shamans, the names vary from culture (it can be really extensive looking for all the names). Religion found himself in a direct conflict whit these people and condemned  their acts, they couldn´t allow to practice their pagan  rituals no matter how much they were into the tradition. That’s why witches and wizards   are always related to demons and evil acts and one always imagine them like the typical cliché;  pointy hats, black cauldrons, flying brooms, or with long beards ( in the case of men).

These are only a few of thousands of more mythological creatures they vary from country to country and most of them have sub divisions. there are also magical creatures that cannot cast magic and are not directly related to it, such as werewolves.

Haven’t u been walking down the street and looked half curios and half freaked out a esoteric shop? All those weird statues, the weird aroma of incense,  all those sharp and pointy necklaces. they sure caught your attention, but is there anyone who actually buy that kind of stuff?  Actually yes, in fact, there are a lot of people into it. Voodoo and Santeria are known  by the general public but how did this came to our country. Besides the common superstition about magic  from Europe, the colonies brought  slaves from Africa (west Africa to be more accurate) they all had their own beliefs. After the purchase of Louisiana the voodoo practitioners settled in New Orleans, still holding into their beliefs, that's the reason why there's so much  legends of voodoo curses in the southern area of the US. the voodoo is a flexible belief, slaves learned to accept some of the rules imposed to them by the catholic church, but still, celebrating their own. They borrowed some customs of various beliefs  and cultures , from natives Americans and Catholics.  this last one started the Santeria (Voodoo +Catholicism).

Even with all these beliefs there's always been magic performers who uses nothing but tricks and illusions in order to entertain and, of course, make a profit out of it.

A magician is a person who casts the magic, spell or the one who makes an illusion or even read minds. we´ve all have heard from them at least once, and if not, we´ve seen a trick or two. At the very last you have heard the name of Harry Potter (admit it you've heard at least the name even if you did not like it), this being a novelty now taken to the big screen, this one of course being fiction it is still a magician, magic and the ones able to perform it have been of great delight to us all since ever, was it coming from witches, healers, warlocks and other many titles we have for them throughout time. This fascination for magic and the magician, has led people to make great stories, books, movies and even games filled with magic, and magic casters. Magic is all around us magic and science were one once upon a time and it was called Alchemy, a discipline formed from both: superstition and science, which later letting superstition aside would become what we know as chemistry . A great magician (More known as an occultist and erudite of metaphysics)he was even named in a song of Ozzy Osbourne “Mr. Crowley”. Aleister Crowley once said “The magicians of the future will use mathematical formulas” he was not at all wrong, chemistry for us is what was magic for people in the past.

Magicians, as a principle, will try to make people to follow motion this not being something too tricky, eyes follow motion and eyes follow eyes, have you ever seen someone looking at the sky and almost magically you turn your sight as well at the skies? We being prepared to look at how he will trick us, we follow the motion to see what the magician is hiding, failing to realize this is exactly what the magician wants. as now he can hide his real trickery.

If you ever feel the temptation to become a magician, add suspense to your show. instead of just presenting your magic give to the people a taste of your magical personality.

Here is a list of Magicians, illusionists, mentalists and escapologists.

How could I talk… better said how anyone could talk about magic without coming to mind the name of Harry Houdini. I know there are many few now that do what he did and may even, sometimes, surpass him but what he did in his times is what set the standards, more than performing card tricks and the such he was a great escapist.

Another Magicians, and a personal favorite, is James Randi which just as Houdini was, he is too a skeptical but he took this to another whole level. He still performing and doing magic tricks he would always say that what he did was either a trick or an illusion he even offers a million dollars to anyone who claims to have real magic, supernatural, paranormal or occult powers and prove it under test and conditions agreed from both parties. I am not saying no one beholds this power but still no one has claim the prize. This is his webpage http://www.randi.org/site/

Now David Blaine, according to the New York Times, he is the new Houdini. Blaine is a great illusionist and has done a lot of live performances and it seems all the critics love him you can check out his web page here http://www.davidblaine.com/

David Copperfield, another great illusionist. according to Forbes, he is the most commercial successful magician in history. he has done very outstanding illusions in front of many people such as the time he made the statue of liberty disappear in front of the audience eyes, a marvelous trick if you ask me. For more information about Copperfield check out his page http://www.davidcopperfield.com/

Siegfried and Roy, they are famous for their acts in Las Vegas, a show of magic and illusion. they were also known from having white tigers in their shows. you can check out more about them here http://www.siegfriedandroy.com/home/index.php even though their performances have ended by now.

Last but not least, the magician and illusionist that now has his own TV show “Mind Freak” there´s been a lot of controversy around this show, people constantly will say that the show has actors involved or people just… well putting up a show, nevertheless I believed he deserved a place on this hub about magicians. You can check out his official website here http://www.crissangel.com/