Isis unveiled

Magic was considered a divine science which led to a participation in the attributes of Divinity itself. It unveils the operations of nature, says Philo Judaeus, and leads to the contemplation of celestial powers. In later periods its abuse and degeneration into sorcery made it an object of general abhorrence. We must therefore deal with it only as it was in the remote past, during those ages when every true religion was based on a knowledge of the occult powers of nature. It was not the sacerdotal class in ancient Persia that established magic, as it is commonly thought, but the Magi, who derive their name from it. The Mobeds, priests of the Parsis--the ancient Ghebers--are named, even at the present day, Magoi, in the dialect of the Pehlvi. Magic appeared in the world with the earlier races of men. Cassien mentions a treatise, well-known in the fourth and fifth centuries, which was accredited to Ham, the son of Noah, who in his turn was reputed to have received it from Jared, the fourth generation from Seth, the son of Adam