Xanth ( / ˈ z æ n θ / ZANTH ) is a series of novels by author Piers Anthony , also known as The Magic of Xanth . The novels are set in the fantasy world of Xanth, in which magic exists and every human has a magical "talent." The books have been noted for their extensive use of wordplay and puns .
161-561: Anthony has stated that he has kept the series going as long as he has (currently 47 books) because the Xanth novels are "just about all that publishers want" from him. Since the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, the series has been criticized by many scholars and reviewers for what they characterize as misogynist and pedophilic undertones; one reviewer has called it the "most divisive non-media publishing enterprise in all of fantasy." Anthony has downplayed these critiques. The series
322-540: A circumstellar disk , and then the planets grow out of that disk with the Sun. A nebula contains gas, ice grains, and dust (including primordial nuclides ). According to nebular theory , planetesimals formed by accretion , with the primordial Earth being estimated as likely taking anywhere from 70 to 100 million years to form. Estimates of the age of the Moon range from 4.5 Ga to significantly younger. A leading hypothesis
483-523: A 'k' to distinguish ceremonial or ritual magic from stage magic. In modern occultism and neopagan religions, many self-described magicians and witches regularly practice ritual magic. This view has been incorporated into chaos magic and the new religious movements of Thelema and Wicca . The English words magic , mage and magician come from the Latin term magus , through the Greek μάγος, which
644-490: A category did not exist in ancient Mesopotamia, and a person legitimately using magic to defend themselves against illegitimate magic would use exactly the same techniques. The only major difference was that curses were enacted in secret; whereas a defense against sorcery was conducted in the open, in front of an audience if possible. One ritual to punish a sorcerer was known as Maqlû , or "The Burning". The person viewed as being afflicted by witchcraft would create an effigy of
805-492: A common barycenter every 27.32 days relative to the background stars. When combined with the Earth–Moon system's common orbit around the Sun, the period of the synodic month , from new moon to new moon, is 29.53 days. Viewed from the celestial north pole , the motion of Earth, the Moon, and their axial rotations are all counterclockwise . Viewed from a vantage point above the Sun and Earth's north poles, Earth orbits in
966-548: A counterclockwise direction about the Sun. The orbital and axial planes are not precisely aligned: Earth's axis is tilted some 23.44 degrees from the perpendicular to the Earth–Sun plane (the ecliptic ), and the Earth-Moon plane is tilted up to ±5.1 degrees against the Earth–Sun plane. Without this tilt, there would be an eclipse every two weeks, alternating between lunar eclipses and solar eclipses . The Hill sphere , or
1127-514: A cure was not to be regarded superstitiously and there has been the widespread practice of medicinal amulets, and folk remedies ( segullot ) in Jewish societies across time and geography. Although magic was forbidden by Levitical law in the Hebrew Bible , it was widely practised in the late Second Temple period , and particularly well documented in the period following the destruction of
1288-467: A fixed location or time in the mundane world; and the timeline between Xanth and Mundania seems to jump backwards and forwards. For example, within the lifetime of a normal citizen of Xanth, an American Mundane from 2024 and an Egyptian Mundane from 3000 BC could both walk across the isthmus. However, Mundanes seem to have trouble finding Xanth on a consistent basis, making any travel to Xanth a somewhat rare occurrence. Despite these seeming difficulties, Xanth
1449-528: A form of early protective magic called incantation bowl or magic bowls. The bowls were produced in the Middle East, particularly in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria , what is now Iraq and Iran , and fairly popular during the sixth to eighth centuries. The bowls were buried face down and were meant to capture demons . They were commonly placed under the threshold, courtyards, in the corner of
1610-420: A full rotation about its axis so that the Sun returns to the meridian . The orbital speed of Earth averages about 29.78 km/s (107,200 km/h; 66,600 mph), which is fast enough to travel a distance equal to Earth's diameter, about 12,742 km (7,918 mi), in seven minutes, and the distance from Earth to the Moon, 384,400 km (238,900 mi), in about 3.5 hours. The Moon and Earth orbit
1771-421: A globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system. At Earth's polar regions , the ocean surface is covered by seasonally variable amounts of sea ice that often connects with polar land, permafrost and ice sheets , forming polar ice caps . Earth's land covers 29.2%, or 149 million km (58 million sq mi) of Earth's surface. The land surface includes many islands around the globe, but most of
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#17327804614051932-470: A little girl was born with the magic talent of immunity to the magical censorship of Adult Conspiracy, causing her family much distress. This was remedied with magician Sherlock's talent of reversal and a vial of lethe water which erased her memory . Magic (paranormal) Magic , sometimes spelled magick , is the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed in the belief that they can manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces. It
2093-422: A man with his patron deity or to reconcile a wife with a husband who had been neglecting her. The ancient Mesopotamians made no distinction between rational science and magic. When a person became ill, doctors would prescribe both magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments. Most magical rituals were intended to be performed by an āšipu , an expert in the magical arts. The profession
2254-409: A minor tradition in Jewish history. Its teachings include the use of Divine and angelic names for amulets and incantations . These magical practices of Judaic folk religion which became part of practical Kabbalah date from Talmudic times. The Talmud mentions the use of charms for healing, and a wide range of magical cures were sanctioned by rabbis. It was ruled that any practice actually producing
2415-460: A non-modern phenomenon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to marginalised groups of people. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), a British occultist , defined " magick " as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", adding
2576-401: A particular society, such as foreigners, women, or the lower classes. In contrast to these negative associations, many practitioners of activities that have been labelled magical have emphasised that their actions are benevolent and beneficial. This conflicted with the common Christian view that all activities categorised as being forms of magic were intrinsically bad regardless of the intent of
2737-520: A person's soul could only survive in the afterlife for as long as his or her physical body survived here on earth. The last ceremony before a person's body was sealed away inside the tomb was known as the Opening of the Mouth . In this ritual, the priests would touch various magical instruments to various parts of the deceased's body, thereby giving the deceased the ability to see, hear, taste, and smell in
2898-533: A soothsayer ( מְעוֹנֵ֥ן ) or a sorcerer ( וּמְכַשֵּֽׁף ) or one who conjures spells ( וְחֹבֵ֖ר חָ֑בֶר ) or one who calls up the dead ( וְדֹרֵ֖שׁ אֶל־הַמֵּתִֽים ) are specifically forbidden as abominations to the Lord. Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices. Practical Kabbalah in historical Judaism
3059-536: A substantial corpus of texts which are products of the Egyptian tradition. While the category magic has been contentious for modern Egyptology, there is clear support for its applicability from ancient terminology. The Coptic term hik is the descendant of the pharaonic term heka , which, unlike its Coptic counterpart, had no connotation of impiety or illegality, and is attested from the Old Kingdom through to
3220-531: Is a branch of the Jewish mystical tradition that concerns the use of magic. It was considered permitted white magic by its practitioners, reserved for the elite, who could separate its spiritual source from qlippothic realms of evil if performed under circumstances that were holy ( Q-D-Š ) and pure ( Biblical Hebrew : טומאה וטהרה , romanized: tvmh vthrh ). The concern of overstepping Judaism's strong prohibitions of impure magic ensured it remained
3381-508: Is a category into which have been placed various beliefs and practices sometimes considered separate from both religion and science. Connotations have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history. Within Western culture , magic has been linked to ideas of the Other , foreignness, and primitivism; indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference" and likewise,
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#17327804614053542-456: Is a chemically distinct silicate solid crust, which is underlain by a highly viscous solid mantle. The crust is separated from the mantle by the Mohorovičić discontinuity . The thickness of the crust varies from about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) under the oceans to 30–50 km (19–31 mi) for the continents. The crust and the cold, rigid, top of the upper mantle are collectively known as
3703-540: Is a major component and supporting contribution to the belief and practice of spiritual, and in many cases, physical healing throughout the Middle Ages. Emanating from many modern interpretations lies a trail of misconceptions about magic, one of the largest revolving around wickedness or the existence of nefarious beings who practice it. These misinterpretations stem from numerous acts or rituals that have been performed throughout antiquity, and due to their exoticism from
3864-535: Is approximately 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s ). Local differences in topography, geology, and deeper tectonic structure cause local and broad regional differences in Earth's gravitational field, known as gravity anomalies . The main part of Earth's magnetic field is generated in the core, the site of a dynamo process that converts the kinetic energy of thermally and compositionally driven convection into electrical and magnetic field energy. The field extends outwards from
4025-435: Is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation , while large sheets of ice at Earth's polar deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater , lakes, rivers and atmospheric water combined. Earth's crust consists of slowly moving tectonic plates , which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes , and earthquakes. Earth has a liquid outer core that generates a magnetosphere capable of deflecting most of
4186-529: Is contained in 3.45 billion-year-old Australian rocks showing fossils of microorganisms . During the Neoproterozoic , 1000 to 539 Ma , much of Earth might have been covered in ice. This hypothesis has been termed " Snowball Earth ", and it is of particular interest because it preceded the Cambrian explosion , when multicellular life forms significantly increased in complexity. Following
4347-457: Is farthest out from its center of mass at its equatorial bulge, the summit of the volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador (6,384.4 km or 3,967.1 mi) is its farthest point out. Parallel to the rigid land topography the ocean exhibits a more dynamic topography . To measure the local variation of Earth's topography, geodesy employs an idealized Earth producing a geoid shape. Such a shape
4508-802: Is from the Old Persian maguš . (𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁|𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁, magician). The Old Persian magu- is derived from the Proto-Indo-European megʰ- *magh (be able). The Persian term may have led to the Old Sinitic *M ag (mage or shaman ). The Old Persian form seems to have permeated ancient Semitic languages as the Talmudic Hebrew magosh , the Aramaic amgusha (magician), and the Chaldean maghdim (wisdom and philosophy); from
4669-516: Is gained if the ocean is idealized, covering Earth completely and without any perturbations such as tides and winds. The result is a smooth but irregular geoid surface, providing a mean sea level (MSL) as a reference level for topographic measurements. Earth's surface is the boundary between the atmosphere, and the solid Earth and oceans. Defined in this way, it has an area of about 510 million km (197 million sq mi). Earth can be divided into two hemispheres : by latitude into
4830-569: Is more complex, involving lengthy and detailed rituals as well as sophisticated, sometimes expensive, paraphernalia. Low magic and natural magic are associated with peasants and folklore with simpler rituals such as brief, spoken spells. Low magic is also closely associated with sorcery and witchcraft . Anthropologist Susan Greenwood writes that "Since the Renaissance, high magic has been concerned with drawing down forces and energies from heaven" and achieving unity with divinity. High magic
4991-424: Is no consensus as to what constitutes white, gray or black magic, as Phil Hine says, "like many other aspects of occultism, what is termed to be 'black magic' depends very much on who is doing the defining." Gray magic , also called "neutral magic", is magic that is not performed for specifically benevolent reasons, but is also not focused towards completely hostile practices. The historian Ronald Hutton notes
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5152-513: Is now slightly longer than it was during the 19th century due to tidal deceleration , each day varies between 0 and 2 ms longer than the mean solar day. Earth's rotation period relative to the fixed stars , called its stellar day by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), is 86,164.0989 seconds of mean solar time ( UT1 ), or 23 56 4.0989 . Earth's rotation period relative to
5313-622: Is rare, though the alternative spelling Gaia has become common due to the Gaia hypothesis , in which case its pronunciation is / ˈ ɡ aɪ . ə / rather than the more classical English / ˈ ɡ eɪ . ə / . There are a number of adjectives for the planet Earth. The word "earthly" is derived from "Earth". From the Latin Terra comes terran / ˈ t ɛr ə n / , terrestrial / t ə ˈ r ɛ s t r i ə l / , and (via French) terrene / t ə ˈ r iː n / , and from
5474-487: Is that it was formed by accretion from material loosed from Earth after a Mars -sized object with about 10% of Earth's mass, named Theia , collided with Earth. It hit Earth with a glancing blow and some of its mass merged with Earth. Between approximately 4.1 and 3.8 Ga , numerous asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the greater surface environment of
5635-453: Is the basis for the astronomical unit (AU) and is equal to roughly 8.3 light minutes or 380 times Earth's distance to the Moon . Earth orbits the Sun every 365.2564 mean solar days , or one sidereal year . With an apparent movement of the Sun in Earth's sky at a rate of about 1°/day eastward, which is one apparent Sun or Moon diameter every 12 hours. Due to this motion, on average it takes 24 hours—a solar day—for Earth to complete
5796-413: Is therefore a special gift from God , while the latter is achieved through help of Jinn and devils . Ibn al-Nadim held that exorcists gain their power by their obedience to God, while sorcerers please the devils by acts of disobedience and sacrifices and they in return do him a favor. According to Ibn Arabi , Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yusuf al-Shubarbuli was able to walk on water due to his piety. According to
5957-457: Is tied to that of the Sun. Over the next 1.1 billion years , solar luminosity will increase by 10%, and over the next 3.5 billion years by 40%. Earth's increasing surface temperature will accelerate the inorganic carbon cycle , possibly reducing CO 2 concentration to levels lethally low for current plants ( 10 ppm for C4 photosynthesis ) in approximately 100–900 million years . A lack of vegetation would result in
6118-400: Is usually performed indoors while witchcraft is often performed outdoors. Historian Owen Davies says the term "white witch" was rarely used before the 20th century. White magic is understood as the use of magic for selfless or helpful purposes, while black magic was used for selfish, harmful or evil purposes. Black magic is the malicious counterpart of the benevolent white magic. There
6279-603: The Middle Kingdom , commoners began inscribing similar writings on the sides of their own coffins, hoping that doing so would ensure their own survival in the afterlife. These writings are known as the Coffin Texts . After a person died, his or her corpse would be mummified and wrapped in linen bandages to ensure that the deceased's body would survive for as long as possible because the Egyptians believed that
6440-583: The Milky Way and orbits about 28,000 light-years from its center. It is about 20 light-years above the galactic plane in the Orion Arm . The axial tilt of Earth is approximately 23.439281° with the axis of its orbit plane, always pointing towards the Celestial Poles . Due to Earth's axial tilt, the amount of sunlight reaching any given point on the surface varies over the course of
6601-759: The Pacific , North American , Eurasian , African , Antarctic , Indo-Australian , and South American . Other notable plates include the Arabian Plate , the Caribbean Plate , the Nazca Plate off the west coast of South America and the Scotia Plate in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The Australian Plate fused with the Indian Plate between 50 and 55 Ma . The fastest-moving plates are
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6762-419: The asthenosphere , the solid but less-viscous part of the upper mantle that can flow and move along with the plates. As the tectonic plates migrate, oceanic crust is subducted under the leading edges of the plates at convergent boundaries. At the same time, the upwelling of mantle material at divergent boundaries creates mid-ocean ridges. The combination of these processes recycles the oceanic crust back into
6923-415: The celestial equator , this is equivalent to an apparent diameter of the Sun or the Moon every two minutes; from Earth's surface, the apparent sizes of the Sun and the Moon are approximately the same. Earth orbits the Sun, making Earth the third-closest planet to the Sun and part of the inner Solar System . Earth's average orbital distance is about 150 million km (93 million mi), which
7084-410: The equatorial region receiving more sunlight than the polar regions) drive atmospheric and ocean currents , producing a global climate system with different climate regions , and a range of weather phenomena such as precipitation , allowing components such as nitrogen to cycle . Earth is rounded into an ellipsoid with a circumference of about 40,000 km. It is the densest planet in
7245-676: The jinn —comparable entities in Islamic mythology —were perceived as more ambivalent figures by Muslims. The model of the magician in Christian thought was provided by Simon Magus , (Simon the Magician), a figure who opposed Saint Peter in both the Acts of the Apostles and the apocryphal yet influential Acts of Peter . The historian Michael D. Bailey stated that in medieval Europe, magic
7406-408: The ocean floor form the top of Earth's crust , which together with parts of the upper mantle form Earth's lithosphere . Earth's crust may be divided into oceanic and continental crust. Beneath the ocean-floor sediments, the oceanic crust is predominantly basaltic , while the continental crust may include lower density materials such as granite , sediments and metamorphic rocks. Nearly 75% of
7567-430: The precessing or moving mean March equinox (when the Sun is at 90° on the equator), is 86,164.0905 seconds of mean solar time (UT1) (23 56 4.0905 ) . Thus the sidereal day is shorter than the stellar day by about 8.4 ms. Apart from meteors within the atmosphere and low-orbiting satellites, the main apparent motion of celestial bodies in Earth's sky is to the west at a rate of 15°/h = 15'/min. For bodies near
7728-474: The sphere of gravitational influence , of Earth is about 1.5 million km (930,000 mi) in radius. This is the maximum distance at which Earth's gravitational influence is stronger than that of the more distant Sun and planets. Objects must orbit Earth within this radius, or they can become unbound by the gravitational perturbation of the Sun. Earth, along with the Solar System, is situated in
7889-408: The tangle trees ), making travel in Xanth risky. Xanth has a connection with the normal world, which is referred to as "Mundania"; its people are called "Mundanes". Although any citizen of Xanth can enter Mundania at any time through an isthmus in the northwest, Mundanes enter the isthmus in Xanth from random geographic locations and time periods throughout history. In other words, Xanth does not have
8050-553: The "Adult conspiracy to keep interesting things from children" as a literary device "parodying current societal conventions". Nearly all subsequent books contain references to the Conspiracy and its effects, particularly those novels in which the main characters are children. At its core, the Adult Conspiracy seeks to protect children from knowledge that could bring them to great harm. The precise age for entering into
8211-464: The "last ice age", covered large parts of the continents, to the middle latitudes, in ice and ended about 11,700 years ago. Chemical reactions led to the first self-replicating molecules about four billion years ago. A half billion years later, the last common ancestor of all current life arose. The evolution of photosynthesis allowed the Sun's energy to be harvested directly by life forms. The resultant molecular oxygen ( O 2 ) accumulated in
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#17327804614058372-449: The "spot-on-a-wall" variety), the series focuses mainly on individuals with "Magician" caliber abilities (one of the criteria for serving as King of Xanth). In addition to the human characters, Xanth is populated by elves , centaurs , demons , dragons , fauns , gargoyles , goblins , golems , harpies , merfolk , naga , nymphs , ogres , zombies , curse fiends, and other fictional beasts. Though initially introduced as obstacles to
8533-449: The Adult Conspiracy include: It is important to note that there have been occasions when children gained access to the Adult Conspiracy prematurely. Jenny Elf, Che Centaur, and Gwenny Goblin had to be given access to the Adult Conspiracy when Gwenny received a pair of contact lenses that corrected her poor eyesight while giving her the ability to see others' dreams (some of which could contain Conspiracy material). In one rare instance,
8694-484: The Cambrian explosion, 535 Ma , there have been at least five major mass extinctions and many minor ones. Apart from the proposed current Holocene extinction event, the most recent was 66 Ma , when an asteroid impact triggered the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and other large reptiles, but largely spared small animals such as insects, mammals , lizards and birds. Mammalian life has diversified over
8855-654: The Earth. Terra is also the name of the planet in some Romance languages , languages that evolved from Latin , like Italian and Portuguese , while in other Romance languages the word gave rise to names with slightly altered spellings, like the Spanish Tierra and the French Terre . The Latinate form Gæa or Gaea ( English: / ˈ dʒ iː . ə / ) of the Greek poetic name Gaia ( Γαῖα ; Ancient Greek : [ɡâi̯.a] or [ɡâj.ja] )
9016-630: The Hellenistic period, when Hellenistic authors categorised a diverse range of practices—such as enchantment, witchcraft , incantations , divination , necromancy , and astrology —under the label "magic". The Latin language adopted this meaning of the term in the first century BCE. Via Latin, the concept became incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. Early Christians associated magic with demons , and thus regarded it as against Christian religion. In early modern Europe , Protestants often claimed that Roman Catholicism
9177-596: The Isle of View ("I love you"), Mount Ever-Rest (Mount Everest) and the Centaur Isle (center aisle) created by a magician from the Centaur Isle. The moon is close enough that flying creatures may land there; the back side is sweet and honeyish , the visible side has turned sour and become curdled cheese , due to observing what has happened on Earth and Xanth. Plants may bear fruit of all descriptions (pie trees and shoe trees are common) or they may be carnivorous (such as
9338-593: The Latin Tellus comes tellurian / t ɛ ˈ l ʊər i ə n / and telluric . The oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4.5682 +0.0002 −0.0004 Ga (billion years) ago. By 4.54 ± 0.04 Ga the primordial Earth had formed. The bodies in the Solar System formed and evolved with the Sun. In theory, a solar nebula partitions a volume out of a molecular cloud by gravitational collapse, which begins to spin and flatten into
9499-563: The Middle Ages more powerful than the singular commoner, the Christian Church, rejected magic as a whole because it was viewed as a means of tampering with the natural world in a supernatural manner associated with the biblical verses of Deuteronomy 18:9–12. Despite the many negative connotations which surround the term magic, there exist many elements that are seen in a divine or holy light. The divine right of kings in England
9660-426: The Moon and, by inference, to that of Earth. Earth's atmosphere and oceans were formed by volcanic activity and outgassing . Water vapor from these sources condensed into the oceans, augmented by water and ice from asteroids, protoplanets , and comets . Sufficient water to fill the oceans may have been on Earth since it formed. In this model, atmospheric greenhouse gases kept the oceans from freezing when
9821-535: The New Testament as well. Some commentators say that in the first century CE, early Christian authors absorbed the Greco-Roman concept of magic and incorporated it into their developing Christian theology , and that these Christians retained the already implied Greco-Roman negative stereotypes of the term and extended them by incorporating conceptual patterns borrowed from Jewish thought, in particular
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#17327804614059982-506: The Persian Empire. In this context, the term makes appearances in such surviving text as Sophocles ' Oedipus Rex , Hippocrates ' De morbo sacro , and Gorgias ' Encomium of Helen . In Sophocles' play, for example, the character Oedipus derogatorily refers to the seer Tiresius as a magos —in this context meaning something akin to quack or charlatan—reflecting how this epithet was no longer reserved only for Persians. In
10143-558: The Quran 2:102, magic was also taught to humans by devils and the angels Harut and Marut . The influence of Arab Islamic magic in medieval and Renaissance Europe was very notable. Some magic books such as Picatrix and Al Kindi 's De Radiis were the basis for much of medieval magic in Europe and for subsequent developments in the Renaissance. Another Arab Muslim author fundamental to the developments of medieval and Renaissance European magic
10304-460: The Roman era. heka was considered morally neutral and was applied to the practices and beliefs of both foreigners and Egyptians alike. The Instructions for Merikare informs us that heka was a beneficence gifted by the creator to humanity "in order to be weapons to ward off the blow of events". Magic was practiced by both the literate priestly hierarchy and by illiterate farmers and herdsmen, and
10465-416: The Solar System . Of the four rocky planets , it is the largest and most massive. Earth is about eight light-minutes away from the Sun and orbits it , taking a year (about 365.25 days) to complete one revolution. Earth rotates around its own axis in slightly less than a day (in about 23 hours and 56 minutes). Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to the perpendicular to its orbital plane around
10626-458: The Solar System's planetary-sized objects, Earth is the object with the highest density . Earth's mass is approximately 5.97 × 10 kg ( 5.970 Yg ). It is composed mostly of iron (32.1% by mass ), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%), with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due to gravitational separation ,
10787-676: The Solar System, formed 4.5 billion years ago from gas and dust in the early Solar System . During the first billion years of Earth's history , the ocean formed and then life developed within it. Life spread globally and has been altering Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the Great Oxidation Event two billion years ago. Humans emerged 300,000 years ago in Africa and have spread across every continent on Earth. Humans depend on Earth's biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but have increasingly impacted
10948-403: The Sun when the star reaches its maximum radius, otherwise, with tidal effects, it may enter the Sun's atmosphere and be vaporized. Earth has a rounded shape , through hydrostatic equilibrium , with an average diameter of 12,742 kilometres (7,918 mi), making it the fifth largest planetary sized and largest terrestrial object of the Solar System . Due to Earth's rotation it has
11109-465: The Sun, producing seasons . Earth is orbited by one permanent natural satellite , the Moon , which orbits Earth at 384,400 km (1.28 light seconds) and is roughly a quarter as wide as Earth. The Moon's gravity helps stabilize Earth's axis, causes tides and gradually slows Earth's rotation . Tidal locking has made the Moon always face Earth with the same side. Earth, like most other bodies in
11270-475: The afterlife. The use of amulets ( meket ) was widespread among both living and dead ancient Egyptians. They were used for protection and as a means of "reaffirming the fundamental fairness of the universe". The oldest amulets found are from the predynastic Badarian Period, and they persisted through to Roman times. In the Mosaic Law, practices such as witchcraft ( Biblical Hebrew : קְסָמִ֔ים ), being
11431-451: The air to fly off to the stork. This is a play on the joke that all the "adult" things happen after a paragraph ends in an ellipsis. Most inductees actually discover the specifics of the act "by accident" after marriage, or under the influence of a love spring (a magical spring which causes two drinkers, not necessarily human, or even of the same species, to fall madly, and lustfully, in love with one another at first sight). Other faculties of
11592-425: The ancient Greeks—and subsequently for the ancient Romans—"magic was not distinct from religion but rather an unwelcome, improper expression of it—the religion of the other". The historian Richard Gordon suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of practicing magic was "a form of insult". This change in meaning was influenced by the military conflicts that the Greek city-states were then engaged in against
11753-425: The atmosphere and due to interaction with ultraviolet solar radiation, formed a protective ozone layer ( O 3 ) in the upper atmosphere. The incorporation of smaller cells within larger ones resulted in the development of complex cells called eukaryotes . True multicellular organisms formed as cells within colonies became increasingly specialized. Aided by the absorption of harmful ultraviolet radiation by
11914-426: The atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), creates the conditions for both liquid surface water and water vapor to persist via the capturing of energy from the Sun's light . This process maintains the current average surface temperature of 14.76 °C (58.57 °F), at which water is liquid under normal atmospheric pressure. Differences in the amount of captured energy between geographic regions (as with
12075-410: The broader category of superstitio ( superstition ), another term borrowed from pre-Christian Roman culture. This Christian emphasis on the inherent immorality and wrongness of magic as something conflicting with good religion was far starker than the approach in the other large monotheistic religions of the period, Judaism and Islam. For instance, while Christians regarded demons as inherently evil,
12236-450: The center, the temperature may be up to 6,000 °C (10,830 °F), and the pressure could reach 360 GPa (52 million psi ). Because much of the heat is provided by radioactive decay, scientists postulate that early in Earth's history, before isotopes with short half-lives were depleted, Earth's heat production was much higher. At approximately 3 Gyr , twice the present-day heat would have been produced, increasing
12397-491: The chasm, is generally forgotten except for those who stumble upon it. The Gap is guarded by a resident dragon, known as Stanley Steamer, and is crossed by means of treacherous bridges. Many of Xanth's other geographical features are puns on those of Florida (for example, Lake Ogre-Chobee and the Kiss-Mee River ). The Florida Keys also exist, though they are, in Xanth, actual keys . Other punning feature names include
12558-413: The choices which lay outside the range of cults did not just add additional options to the civic menu, but ... sometimes incorporated critiques of the civic cults and Panhellenic myths or were genuine alternatives to them. Katadesmoi ( Latin : defixiones ), curses inscribed on wax or lead tablets and buried underground, were frequently executed by all strata of Greek society, sometimes to protect
12719-499: The commoner's perspective, the rituals invoked uneasiness and an even stronger sense of dismissal. In the Medieval Jewish view, the separation of the mystical and magical elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah ( Kabbalah Iyyunit ) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic practical Kabbalah ( Kabbalah Ma'asit ), had occurred by the beginning of the 14th century. One societal force in
12880-454: The continental crust , particularly during the early stages of Earth's history. New continental crust forms as a result of plate tectonics , a process ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior. Over the period of hundreds of millions of years, tectonic forces have caused areas of continental crust to group together to form supercontinents that have subsequently broken apart. At approximately 750 Ma , one of
13041-616: The continental surfaces are covered by sedimentary rocks, although they form about 5% of the mass of the crust. Earth's surface topography comprises both the topography of the ocean surface , and the shape of Earth's land surface. The submarine terrain of the ocean floor has an average bathymetric depth of 4 km, and is as varied as the terrain above sea level. Earth's surface is continually being shaped by internal plate tectonic processes including earthquakes and volcanism ; by weathering and erosion driven by ice, water, wind and temperature; and by biological processes including
13202-419: The core are chaotic; the magnetic poles drift and periodically change alignment. This causes secular variation of the main field and field reversals at irregular intervals averaging a few times every million years. The most recent reversal occurred approximately 700,000 years ago. The extent of Earth's magnetic field in space defines the magnetosphere . Ions and electrons of the solar wind are deflected by
13363-527: The core is primarily composed of the denser elements: iron (88.8%), with smaller amounts of nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements. The most common rock constituents of the crust are oxides . Over 99% of the crust is composed of various oxides of eleven elements, principally oxides containing silicon (the silicate minerals ), aluminium, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, or sodium. The major heat-producing isotopes within Earth are potassium-40 , uranium-238 , and thorium-232 . At
13524-463: The core, through the mantle, and up to Earth's surface, where it is, approximately, a dipole . The poles of the dipole are located close to Earth's geographic poles. At the equator of the magnetic field, the magnetic-field strength at the surface is 3.05 × 10 T , with a magnetic dipole moment of 7.79 × 10 Am at epoch 2000, decreasing nearly 6% per century (although it still remains stronger than its long time average). The convection movements in
13685-539: The days shorter. Above the Arctic Circle and below the Antarctic Circle there is no daylight at all for part of the year, causing a polar night , and this night extends for several months at the poles themselves. These same latitudes also experience a midnight sun , where the sun remains visible all day. By astronomical convention, the four seasons can be determined by the solstices—the points in
13846-441: The destructive solar winds and cosmic radiation . Earth has a dynamic atmosphere , which sustains Earth's surface conditions and protects it from most meteoroids and UV-light at entry . It has a composition of primarily nitrogen and oxygen . Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere, forming clouds that cover most of the planet. The water vapor acts as a greenhouse gas and, together with other greenhouse gases in
14007-611: The earliest known supercontinents, Rodinia , began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia at 600–540 Ma , then finally Pangaea , which also began to break apart at 180 Ma . The most recent pattern of ice ages began about 40 Ma , and then intensified during the Pleistocene about 3 Ma . High- and middle-latitude regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw, repeating about every 21,000, 41,000 and 100,000 years. The Last Glacial Period , colloquially called
14168-407: The entire polis . Communal curses carried out in public declined after the Greek classical period, but private curses remained common throughout antiquity. They were distinguished as magical by their individualistic, instrumental and sinister qualities. These qualities, and their perceived deviation from inherently mutable cultural constructs of normality, most clearly delineate ancient magic from
14329-544: The equally large area of land under permafrost ) or deserts (33%). The pedosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's land surface and is composed of soil and subject to soil formation processes. Soil is crucial for land to be arable. Earth's total arable land is 10.7% of the land surface, with 1.3% being permanent cropland. Earth has an estimated 16.7 million km (6.4 million sq mi) of cropland and 33.5 million km (12.9 million sq mi) of pastureland. The land surface and
14490-528: The first century BCE onwards, Syrian magusai gained notoriety as magicians and soothsayers. During the late-sixth and early-fifth centuries BCE, the term goetia found its way into ancient Greek , where it was used with negative connotations to apply to rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional, and dangerous; in particular they dedicate themselves to the evocation and invocation of daimons (lesser divinities or spirits) to control and acquire powers. This concept remained pervasive throughout
14651-497: The first century BCE, the Greek concept of the magos was adopted into Latin and used by a number of ancient Roman writers as magus and magia . The earliest known Latin use of the term was in Virgil 's Eclogue , written around 40 BCE, which makes reference to magicis ... sacris (magic rites). The Romans already had other terms for the negative use of supernatural powers, such as veneficus and saga . The Roman use of
14812-554: The flight of birds and astrology. He also mentioned enchantment and ligatures (the medical use of magical objects bound to the patient) as being magical. Medieval Europe also saw magic come to be associated with the Old Testament figure of Solomon ; various grimoires , or books outlining magical practices, were written that claimed to have been written by Solomon, most notably the Key of Solomon . In early medieval Europe, magia
14973-418: The following centuries. Since the nineteenth century, academics in various disciplines have employed the term magic but have defined it in different ways and used it in reference to different things. One approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor (1832–1917) and James G. Frazer (1854–1941), uses the term to describe beliefs in hidden sympathies between objects that allow one to influence
15134-553: The gods, snnw ntr (images of the god), the same power to use words creatively that the gods have is shared by humans. The interior walls of the pyramid of Unas, the final pharaoh of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty, are covered in hundreds of magical spells and inscriptions, running from floor to ceiling in vertical columns. These inscriptions are known as the Pyramid Texts and they contain spells needed by
15295-638: The growth and decomposition of biomass into soil . Earth's mechanically rigid outer layer of Earth's crust and upper mantle , the lithosphere , is divided into tectonic plates . These plates are rigid segments that move relative to each other at one of three boundaries types: at convergent boundaries , two plates come together; at divergent boundaries , two plates are pulled apart; and at transform boundaries , two plates slide past one another laterally. Along these plate boundaries, earthquakes, volcanic activity , mountain-building , and oceanic trench formation can occur. The tectonic plates ride on top of
15456-524: The guilt for all their misdeeds onto various objects such as a strip of dates, an onion, and a tuft of wool. The person would then burn the objects and thereby purify themself of all sins that they might have unknowingly committed. A whole genre of love spells existed. Such spells were believed to cause a person to fall in love with another person, restore love which had faded, or cause a male sexual partner to be able to sustain an erection when he had previously been unable. Other spells were used to reconcile
15617-404: The heat in Earth is lost through plate tectonics, by mantle upwelling associated with mid-ocean ridges . The final major mode of heat loss is through conduction through the lithosphere, the majority of which occurs under the oceans. The gravity of Earth is the acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the distribution of mass within Earth. Near Earth's surface, gravitational acceleration
15778-405: The homes of the recently deceased and in cemeteries . A subcategory of incantation bowls are those used in Jewish magical practice. Aramaic incantation bowls are an important source of knowledge about Jewish magical practices. In ancient Egypt ( Kemet in the Egyptian language), Magic (personified as the god heka ) was an integral part of religion and culture which is known to us through
15939-530: The human characters, some individuals from those groups become main characters in later books of the series. As the series progresses, some of the half-human species are discovered to have the potential to possess magical talents. The centaurs of the primary centaur community, Centaur Isle, exile any centaurs who demonstrate a magical talent (although some centaur communities are more lenient about possession of talent); however, they tolerate talents in "lesser" races such as humans. Goblins and harpies are shown to have
16100-511: The label drew arbitrary lines between similar beliefs and practices that were alternatively considered religious, and that it constituted ethnocentric to apply the connotations of magic—rooted in Western and Christian history—to other cultures. Historians and anthropologists have distinguished between practitioners who engage in high magic, and those who engage in low magic . High magic, also known as theurgy and ceremonial or ritual magic,
16261-406: The land surface is taken by the four continental landmasses , which are (in descending order): Africa-Eurasia , America (landmass) , Antarctica , and Australia (landmass) . These landmasses are further broken down and grouped into the continents . The terrain of the land surface varies greatly and consists of mountains, deserts , plains , plateaus , and other landforms . The elevation of
16422-513: The land surface varies from a low point of −418 m (−1,371 ft) at the Dead Sea , to a maximum altitude of 8,848 m (29,029 ft) at the top of Mount Everest . The mean height of land above sea level is about 797 m (2,615 ft). Land can be covered by surface water , snow, ice, artificial structures or vegetation. Most of Earth's land hosts vegetation, but considerable amounts of land are ice sheets (10%, not including
16583-477: The last decade of the century, however, recognising the ubiquity and respectability of acts such as katadesmoi ( binding spells ), described as magic by modern and ancient observers alike, scholars have been compelled to abandon this viewpoint. The Greek word mageuo (practice magic) itself derives from the word Magos , originally simply the Greek name for a Persian tribe known for practicing religion. Non-civic mystery cults have been similarly re-evaluated:
16744-399: The lithosphere, which is divided into independently moving tectonic plates. Beneath the lithosphere is the asthenosphere , a relatively low-viscosity layer on which the lithosphere rides. Important changes in crystal structure within the mantle occur at 410 and 660 km (250 and 410 mi) below the surface, spanning a transition zone that separates the upper and lower mantle. Beneath
16905-410: The loss of oxygen in the atmosphere, making current animal life impossible. Due to the increased luminosity, Earth's mean temperature may reach 100 °C (212 °F) in 1.5 billion years, and all ocean water will evaporate and be lost to space, which may trigger a runaway greenhouse effect , within an estimated 1.6 to 3 billion years. Even if the Sun were stable, a fraction of the water in
17066-456: The lowercase when it is preceded by "the", such as "the atmosphere of the earth". It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as "what on earth are you doing?" The name Terra / ˈ t ɛr ə / occasionally is used in scientific writing and especially in science fiction to distinguish humanity's inhabited planet from others, while in poetry Tellus / ˈ t ɛ l ə s / has been used to denote personification of
17227-556: The magician Osthanes , who accompanied the military campaigns of the Persian King Xerxes . Ancient Greek scholarship of the 20th century, almost certainly influenced by Christianising preconceptions of the meanings of magic and religion , and the wish to establish Greek culture as the foundation of Western rationality, developed a theory of ancient Greek magic as primitive and insignificant, and thereby essentially separate from Homeric , communal ( polis ) religion. Since
17388-550: The magician, because all magical actions relied on the aid of demons. There could be conflicting attitudes regarding the practices of a magician; in European history, authorities often believed that cunning folk and traditional healers were harmful because their practices were regarded as magical and thus stemming from contact with demons, whereas a local community might value and respect these individuals because their skills and services were deemed beneficial. In Western societies,
17549-497: The magnetosphere. During magnetic storms and substorms , charged particles can be deflected from the outer magnetosphere and especially the magnetotail, directed along field lines into Earth's ionosphere , where atmospheric atoms can be excited and ionized, causing an aurora . Earth's rotation period relative to the Sun—its mean solar day—is 86,400 seconds of mean solar time ( 86,400.0025 SI seconds ). Because Earth's solar day
17710-409: The magnetosphere; solar wind pressure compresses the day-side of the magnetosphere, to about 10 Earth radii, and extends the night-side magnetosphere into a long tail. Because the velocity of the solar wind is greater than the speed at which waves propagate through the solar wind, a supersonic bow shock precedes the day-side magnetosphere within the solar wind. Charged particles are contained within
17871-483: The magnetosphere; the plasmasphere is defined by low-energy particles that essentially follow magnetic field lines as Earth rotates. The ring current is defined by medium-energy particles that drift relative to the geomagnetic field, but with paths that are still dominated by the magnetic field, and the Van Allen radiation belts are formed by high-energy particles whose motion is essentially random, but contained in
18032-417: The mantle, an extremely low viscosity liquid outer core lies above a solid inner core . Earth's inner core may be rotating at a slightly higher angular velocity than the remainder of the planet, advancing by 0.1–0.5° per year, although both somewhat higher and much lower rates have also been proposed. The radius of the inner core is about one-fifth of that of Earth. The density increases with depth. Among
18193-612: The mantle. Due to this recycling, most of the ocean floor is less than 100 Ma old. The oldest oceanic crust is located in the Western Pacific and is estimated to be 200 Ma old. By comparison, the oldest dated continental crust is 4,030 Ma , although zircons have been found preserved as clasts within Eoarchean sedimentary rocks that give ages up to 4,400 Ma , indicating that at least some continental crust existed at that time. The seven major plates are
18354-499: The modern Pagan religion of Wicca ; or as a symbol of women resisting male authority and asserting an independent female authority. Belief in witchcraft is often present within societies and groups whose cultural framework includes a magical world view . Those regarded as being magicians have often faced suspicion from other members of their society. This is particularly the case if these perceived magicians have been associated with social groups already considered morally suspect in
18515-548: The modern oceans will descend to the mantle , due to reduced steam venting from mid-ocean ridges. The Sun will evolve to become a red giant in about 5 billion years . Models predict that the Sun will expand to roughly 1 AU (150 million km; 93 million mi), about 250 times its present radius. Earth's fate is less clear. As a red giant, the Sun will lose roughly 30% of its mass, so, without tidal effects, Earth will move to an orbit 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) from
18676-399: The mother of Thor . Historically, "Earth" has been written in lowercase. Beginning with the use of Early Middle English , its definite sense as "the globe" was expressed as "the earth". By the era of Early Modern English , capitalization of nouns began to prevail , and the earth was also written the Earth , particularly when referenced along with other heavenly bodies. More recently,
18837-424: The name is sometimes simply given as Earth , by analogy with the names of the other planets , though "earth" and forms with "the earth" remain common. House styles now vary: Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the more common, with the capitalized form an acceptable variant. Another convention capitalizes "Earth" when appearing as a name, such as a description of the "Earth's atmosphere", but employs
18998-425: The newly forming Sun had only 70% of its current luminosity . By 3.5 Ga , Earth's magnetic field was established, which helped prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind . As the molten outer layer of Earth cooled it formed the first solid crust , which is thought to have been mafic in composition. The first continental crust , which was more felsic in composition, formed by
19159-593: The ocean may have covered Earth completely. The world ocean is commonly divided into the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Antarctic or Southern Ocean , and Arctic Ocean, from largest to smallest. The ocean covers Earth's oceanic crust , with the shelf seas covering the shelves of the continental crust to a lesser extent. The oceanic crust forms large oceanic basins with features like abyssal plains , seamounts , submarine volcanoes , oceanic trenches , submarine canyons , oceanic plateaus , and
19320-670: The oceanic plates, with the Cocos Plate advancing at a rate of 75 mm/a (3.0 in/year) and the Pacific Plate moving 52–69 mm/a (2.0–2.7 in/year). At the other extreme, the slowest-moving plate is the South American Plate, progressing at a typical rate of 10.6 mm/a (0.42 in/year). Earth's interior, like that of the other terrestrial planets, is divided into layers by their chemical or physical ( rheological ) properties. The outer layer
19481-440: The only astronomical object known to harbor life . This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world , the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water . Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its global ocean, covering 70.8% of Earth's crust . The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere . Most of Earth's land
19642-564: The opposition of magic and miracle . Some early Christian authors followed the Greek-Roman thinking by ascribing the origin of magic to the human realm, mainly to Zoroaster and Osthanes . The Christian view was that magic was a product of the Babylonians, Persians, or Egyptians. The Christians shared with earlier classical culture the idea that magic was something distinct from proper religion, although drew their distinction between
19803-599: The orbit of maximum axial tilt toward or away from the Sun—and the equinoxes , when Earth's rotational axis is aligned with its orbital axis. In the Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice currently occurs around 21 December; summer solstice is near 21 June, spring equinox is around 20 March and autumnal equinox is about 22 or 23 September. In the Southern Hemisphere, the situation is reversed, with
19964-448: The other. Defined in this way, magic is portrayed as the opposite to science. An alternative approach, associated with the sociologist Marcel Mauss (1872–1950) and his uncle Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), employs the term to describe private rites and ceremonies and contrasts it with religion, which it defines as a communal and organised activity. By the 1990s many scholars were rejecting the term's utility for scholarship. They argued that
20125-649: The ozone layer, life colonized Earth's surface. Among the earliest fossil evidence for life is microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia , biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in Western Greenland , and remains of biotic material found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. The earliest direct evidence of life on Earth
20286-474: The partial melting of this mafic crust. The presence of grains of the mineral zircon of Hadean age in Eoarchean sedimentary rocks suggests that at least some felsic crust existed as early as 4.4 Ga , only 140 Ma after Earth's formation. There are two main models of how this initial small volume of continental crust evolved to reach its current abundance: (1) a relatively steady growth up to
20447-501: The past 66 Mys , and several million years ago, an African ape species gained the ability to stand upright. This facilitated tool use and encouraged communication that provided the nutrition and stimulation needed for a larger brain, which led to the evolution of humans . The development of agriculture , and then civilization , led to humans having an influence on Earth and the nature and quantity of other life forms that continues to this day. Earth's expected long-term future
20608-511: The people a magician ... should be apprehended in my retinue, or in that of the Caesar, he shall not escape punishment and torture by the protection of his rank. Magic practices such as divination, interpretation of omens, sorcery, and use of charms had been specifically forbidden in Mosaic Law and condemned in Biblical histories of the kings. Many of these practices were spoken against in
20769-477: The pharaoh in order to survive in the afterlife . The Pyramid Texts were strictly for royalty only; the spells were kept secret from commoners and were written only inside royal tombs. During the chaos and unrest of the First Intermediate Period , however, tomb robbers broke into the pyramids and saw the magical inscriptions. Commoners began learning the spells and, by the beginning of
20930-478: The planet's environment . Humanity's current impact on Earth's climate and biosphere is unsustainable , threatening the livelihood of humans and many other forms of life, and causing widespread extinctions . The Modern English word Earth developed, via Middle English , from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe . It has cognates in every Germanic language , and their ancestral root has been reconstructed as * erþō . In its earliest attestation,
21091-421: The polar Northern and Southern hemispheres; or by longitude into the continental Eastern and Western hemispheres. Most of Earth's surface is ocean water: 70.8% or 361 million km (139 million sq mi). This vast pool of salty water is often called the world ocean , and makes Earth with its dynamic hydrosphere a water world or ocean world . Indeed, in Earth's early history
21252-564: The potential to possess half-talents, the complementary half existing in a member of the other species, (i.e., a goblin must team with a harpy for them to utilize their talent); the hostility between goblins and harpies proved a major obstacle to any serious effort by them to work together to develop these potential talents. Other non-human species are also known to possess talents, for example: Sesame Serpent and Claire Voyant. Visitors from other dimensions with talents retain their talents after arriving in Xanth. Geographically, modern Xanth resembles
21413-450: The practice of magic, especially when harmful, was usually associated with women. For instance, during the witch trials of the early modern period, around three quarters of those executed as witches were female, to only a quarter who were men. That women were more likely to be accused and convicted of witchcraft in this period might have been because their position was more legally vulnerable, with women having little or no legal standing that
21574-536: The presence of four distinct meanings of the term witchcraft in the English language. Historically, the term primarily referred to the practice of causing harm to others through supernatural or magical means. This remains, according to Hutton, "the most widespread and frequent" understanding of the term. Moreover, Hutton also notes three other definitions in current usage; to refer to anyone who conducts magical acts, for benevolent or malevolent intent; for practitioners of
21735-495: The present day, which is supported by the radiometric dating of continental crust globally and (2) an initial rapid growth in the volume of continental crust during the Archean , forming the bulk of the continental crust that now exists, which is supported by isotopic evidence from hafnium in zircons and neodymium in sedimentary rocks. The two models and the data that support them can be reconciled by large-scale recycling of
21896-413: The principle of heka underlay all ritual activity, both in the temples and in private settings. The main principle of heka is centered on the power of words to bring things into being. Karenga explains the pivotal power of words and their vital ontological role as the primary tool used by the creator to bring the manifest world into being. Because humans were understood to share a divine nature with
22057-493: The rates of mantle convection and plate tectonics, and allowing the production of uncommon igneous rocks such as komatiites that are rarely formed today. The mean heat loss from Earth is 87 mW m , for a global heat loss of 4.42 × 10 W . A portion of the core's thermal energy is transported toward the crust by mantle plumes , a form of convection consisting of upwellings of higher-temperature rock. These plumes can produce hotspots and flood basalts . More of
22218-468: The religious rituals of which they form a part. A large number of magical papyri , in Greek , Coptic , and Demotic , have been recovered and translated. They contain early instances of: The practice of magic was banned in the late Roman world, and the Codex Theodosianus (438 AD) states: If any wizard therefore or person imbued with magical contamination who is called by custom of
22379-522: The shape of an ellipsoid , bulging at its Equator ; its diameter is 43 kilometres (27 mi) longer there than at its poles . Earth's shape also has local topographic variations; the largest local variations, like the Mariana Trench (10,925 metres or 35,843 feet below local sea level), shortens Earth's average radius by 0.17% and Mount Everest (8,848 metres or 29,029 feet above local sea level) lengthens it by 0.14%. Since Earth's surface
22540-412: The sorcerer and put it on trial at night. Then, once the nature of the sorcerer's crimes had been determined, the person would burn the effigy and thereby break the sorcerer's power over them. The ancient Mesopotamians also performed magical rituals to purify themselves of sins committed unknowingly. One such ritual was known as the Šurpu , or "Burning", in which the caster of the spell would transfer
22701-460: The spirits of those they had wronged, they would leave offerings known as kispu in the person's tomb in hope of appeasing them. If that failed, they also sometimes took a figurine of the deceased and buried it in the ground, demanding for the gods to eradicate the spirit, or force it to leave the person alone. The ancient Mesopotamians also used magic intending to protect themselves from evil sorcerers who might place curses on them. Black magic as
22862-767: The state of Florida in the United States in shape, but has landmarks that mimic well-known geographical features from around the world. One major example of this is the Gap Chasm, an enormous canyon a mile wide which completely bisects the country, paralleling the DMZ of the Korean Peninsula . The position of the Chasm could also correspond with the Cross Florida Barge Canal , which, similar to
23023-492: The temple into the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries CE. During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Persian maguš was Graecicized and introduced into the ancient Greek language as μάγος and μαγεία . In doing so it transformed meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the magos being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were fraudulent, strange, unconventional, and dangerous. As noted by Davies, for
23184-663: The term maleficium applied to forms of magic that were conducted with the intention of causing harm. The later Middle Ages saw words for these practitioners of harmful magical acts appear in various European languages: sorcière in French, Hexe in German, strega in Italian, and bruja in Spanish. The English term for malevolent practitioners of magic, witch, derived from the earlier Old English term wicce . Ars Magica or magic
23345-700: The term was similar to that of the Greeks, but placed greater emphasis on the judicial application of it. Within the Roman Empire , laws would be introduced criminalising things regarded as magic. In ancient Roman society, magic was associated with societies to the east of the empire; the first century CE writer Pliny the Elder for instance claimed that magic had been created by the Iranian philosopher Zoroaster , and that it had then been brought west into Greece by
23506-433: The two in different ways. For early Christian writers like Augustine of Hippo , magic did not merely constitute fraudulent and unsanctioned ritual practices, but was the very opposite of religion because it relied upon cooperation from demons , the henchmen of Satan . In this, Christian ideas of magic were closely linked to the Christian category of paganism , and both magic and paganism were regarded as belonging under
23667-461: The word eorðe was used to translate the many senses of Latin terra and Greek γῆ gē : the ground, its soil , dry land, the human world, the surface of the world (including the sea), and the globe itself. As with Roman Terra /Tellūs and Greek Gaia , Earth may have been a personified goddess in Germanic paganism : late Norse mythology included Jörð ("Earth"), a giantess often given as
23828-448: The world of adults is age 18, corresponding to the age of majority in most places. The primary principle that inducts children into the Conspiracy is the understanding of the secret of " summoning the stork ". In Xanthian terms, "summoning the stork" literally means to put out a call to summon a stork which will deliver to the couple a child. In Isle of View , it is revealed that summoning the stork will release an " ellipsis " (...) into
23989-620: The year. This causes the seasonal change in climate, with summer in the Northern Hemisphere occurring when the Tropic of Cancer is facing the Sun, and in the Southern Hemisphere when the Tropic of Capricorn faces the Sun. In each instance, winter occurs simultaneously in the opposite hemisphere. During the summer, the day lasts longer, and the Sun climbs higher in the sky. In winter, the climate becomes cooler and
24150-668: Was Ahmad al-Buni , with his books such as the Shams al-Ma'arif which deal above all with the evocation and invocation of spirits or jinn to control them, obtain powers and make wishes come true. These books are still important to the Islamic world specifically in Simiyya , a doctrine found commonly within Sufi - occult traditions. Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and
24311-435: Was a "relatively broad and encompassing category". Christian theologians believed that there were multiple different forms of magic, the majority of which were types of divination , for instance, Isidore of Seville produced a catalogue of things he regarded as magic in which he listed divination by the four elements i.e. geomancy , hydromancy , aeromancy , and pyromancy , as well as by observation of natural phenomena e.g.
24472-601: Was a term of condemnation. In medieval Europe, Christians often suspected Muslims and Jews of engaging in magical practices; in certain cases, these perceived magical rites—including the alleged Jewish sacrifice of Christian children —resulted in Christians massacring these religious minorities. Christian groups often also accused other, rival Christian groups such as the Hussites —which they regarded as heretical —of engaging in magical activities. Medieval Europe also saw
24633-507: Was colonized in several waves by groups of invaders and nomads from Mundania over the course of several centuries. The series ties these colonization events to actual historical events on Earth , most notably the Punic wars . First mentioned in Crewel Lye , the Adult Conspiracy is one of the prominent features of the Xanth world. In an interview with Moira Allen, Piers Anthony referred to
24794-678: Was devised, taught, and worked by demons would have seemed reasonable to anyone who read the Greek magical papyri or the Sefer-ha-Razim and found that healing magic appeared alongside rituals for killing people, gaining wealth, or personal advantage, and coercing women into sexual submission. Archaeology is contributing to a fuller understanding of ritual practices performed in the home, on the body and in monastic and church settings. The Islamic reaction towards magic did not condemn magic in general and distinguished between magic which can heal sickness and possession , and sorcery. The former
24955-463: Was generally passed down from generation to generation and was held in extremely high regard and often served as advisors to kings and great leaders. An āšipu probably served not only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a scholar. The Sumerian god Enki , who was later syncretized with the East Semitic god Ea, was closely associated with magic and incantations; he
25116-436: Was independent of their male relatives. The conceptual link between women and magic in Western culture may be because many of the activities regarded as magical—from rites to encourage fertility to potions to induce abortions —were associated with the female sphere. It might also be connected to the fact that many cultures portrayed women as being inferior to men on an intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical level. Magic
25277-535: Was invoked in many kinds of rituals and medical formulae, and to counteract evil omens. Defensive or legitimate magic in Mesopotamia ( asiputu or masmassutu in the Akkadian language) were incantations and ritual practices intended to alter specific realities. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that magic was the only viable defense against demons , ghosts , and evil sorcerers. To defend themselves against
25438-408: Was magic rather than religion, and as Christian Europeans began colonizing other parts of the world in the sixteenth century, they labelled the non-Christian beliefs they encountered as magical. In that same period, Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to express the idea of natural magic . Both negative and positive understandings of the term recurred in Western culture over
25599-509: Was optioned in 2017 for a film and TV series. As of 2023, there are 47 published novels. Each human character in Xanth is born with a unique magical ability, called a talent. With the exception of the curse fiends, the winged centaurs, and the child Surprise Golem (Daughter of Rapunzel and Grundy Golem), these abilities never repeat exactly in individuals throughout the entire history of Xanth (although nearly identical talents show up on occasion). Though many talents are limited in scope (called
25760-402: Was the patron god of the bārȗ and the ašipū and was widely regarded as the ultimate source of all arcane knowledge. The ancient Mesopotamians also believed in omens , which could come when solicited or unsolicited. Regardless of how they came, omens were always taken with the utmost seriousness. A common set of shared assumptions about the causes of evil and how to avert it are found in
25921-421: Was thought to be able to give them " sacred magic" power to heal thousands of their subjects from sicknesses. Diversified instruments or rituals used in medieval magic include, but are not limited to: various amulets, talismans, potions, as well as specific chants, dances, and prayers . Along with these rituals are the adversely imbued notions of demonic participation which influence of them. The idea that magic
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