Natural Magic

Natural magic (magia naturalis) is the Renaissance art — set out by Ficino and systematized by Agrippa — of drawing down and channelling the hidden powers, the 'occult virtues', that pervade a living nature through sympathy and correspondence. By the right use of plants, gems, scents, images, music, and timing by the stars, the magus aligns himself with these natural forces.

Its practitioners insisted it was lawful and natural — a knowledge of nature's hidden bonds — as opposed to the forbidden magic that traffics with demons. As such it stood as the natural-philosophical sibling of Neoplatonic theurgy, which sought by sacred ritual to draw the soul upward to the gods rather than merely to harness the powers of the world.