History Main / ReligionIsMagic

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has the Old Religion, which appears to be a form of paganism, but not specifically Wicca. There's a lot of magic involved, and usually a female high priestess. (first Nimueh, then Morgause, now Morgana). There are plenty of Druids too.

**** The World of Warcraft tabletop rpg deals with it this way; priests, shamans, druids, and witch doctors(the rpg treats them as a separate class from shamans) all get their power not from gods, or even necessarily from faith, but from generally having a spiritual connection with the forces connected to their powers.

** 4th Edition also introduces the "primal" power source(created to thematically distinguish the Druid from the Cleric; in previous editions both were considered "divine"), which is kind of this trope applied to spiritualistic religions and crossed with GaiasVengeance. Primal characters pay respect to spirits born of and reflecting aspects of the world, from famous ancestors to the seasons to the World Tree, and their powers have a very "nature" feel to them. A Warden might call upon the spirit of the mountains to turn themselves into living stone, for example.
** Note that depending on the edition and campaign setting, it was sometimes ''faith'' that power clerical magic rather than a god doing anything -- not only aren't the existence of gods confirmed in ''Eberron'', but two of the more-or-less major religions doesn't even ''have'' powerful spiritual beings that could in theory could provide the magic.
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' had several religion-based mystical Traditions, including: the Zen mystic martial artists of The Akashic Brotherhood, the generally Abrahamic (with others thrown in for flavor) and oh-so-subtly named Celestial Chorus, the shamanic Dreamspeakers; and the Verbena, who practice "the Old Ways." Subverted in that the religion [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve isn't actually the ''source'' of the magic]], but rather a construct that allows them to shape their magic. As a mage gains more knowledge of their art, they begin to transcend their defining paradigm.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is really big on this, both in background terms and in-game; the most notable example is the Sisters of Battle, whose faith can have all sorts of physical effects on a game. It is probably worth noting that while Faith can (and will) stop a deamon or psyker in it's tracks, it won't stop that .45 round heading for your face... (unless you're a Sister, in which case there's a 1/6th chance that it will)

** [[CosmicHorror Chaos]] is the opposite, however, where sucking up to the gods is a sure recipe for getting new and cooler ways to horribly kill more people. Or they might turn you into a mindless EldritchAbomination. It depends on wether they want a laugh, or if they want something dead, of if they regard you as 'disposable' at the time.

** IndianaJones, of course, goes after the [[Film/TheLastCrusade Holy Grail]]--as well as the [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Ark of the Covenant]], a mystical/sacred artifact in the Judaic tradition and, thus, in the Christian tradition as well.

* The bread and butter of an Egyptian priest consisted of enchanting amulets for sale to customers. There was a certain tendency throughout much of Egyptian history to assume that even the gods could be coerced into obedience with the right ritual observances. "Thou shalt not take the Lord's Name in vain" was in fact a Commandment against attempting to coerce the Hebrew god that way. Despite the common notion that it means you aren't supposed to say "Oh my God." That idea is made doubly ridiculous by the fact that "God" is not YHWH's name. The commandment probably also has something to do with not swearing false oaths by God, or using God as an excuse to do evil things, like start wars (at least, wars he didn't tell you to start, which he was pretty big on in the Old Testament).
* Many Buddhist traditions include monks developing spiritual powers (flight, control of weather, etc) and gaining the ability to invoke and banish or bind spirits. As in the yogic traditions above, these powers are seen as a potential distraction from achieving enlightenment and so are to be used sparingly. Additionally, relics of the Buddha and other enlightened individuals are supposed to have particular power.

* The movie ''Film/TheCraft'' has four girls using pagan-derived magic to take over their school and inevitably go all ''iterature/{{Carrie}}''.

** Actually, they are all treated as slightly different things, or different kinds of msgic; for instance, at the start Egg Shen is asked if he believes in Magic- he says he believes in Chinese Black Magic. Shortly after he says he also believes in Monsters, Ghosts and Sorcery.

* Rather strangely averted in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels. Discworld priests do not gain any magical abilities from serving the gods (who are real and can and do interfere in human affairs), except for a measure of protection against spontaneous lightning bolts. (This is probably because the gods of the Disc just don't care: they are portrayed as the equivalent of absentee landlords - Om lost almost all his believers and power without realizing it, because he never paid any attention to the religion that worshipped him.) Also Pratchett's witches are entirely non-spiritual humanists with little interest in the gods, something very at odds with both witches from mythology (ie. Circe) and modern Wiccans. While presumably based on Pratchett's own secular humanism, it does make his satire of New Age trappings, that some of the younger witches practice unusually shallow by Literature/{{Discworld}} standards - compare the TakeThat at the stock 'New Age' type activities of the image conscious young witches in ''Lords and Ladies'' with the much deeper look at religion (and Judeo-Christian religion in particular) in ''Small Gods''.
** This may be because the gods demonstrably exist in the Discworld, so there's as much need to believe in their existence as for that of horses or elephants. The witches (or at least Granny Weatherwax) explicitly think that believing in the gods just encourages them.

*** In the same book we see the collected priests and wizards square off; while their leaders (the Brothers Ridcully) manage to call them off it's heavily implied this is considered an even fight.
**** Of course it's an even fight, wizards in Discworld rarely use the flashy magic powers like fire balls or lightning.

** In ''The Hour of the Dragon'', the priests of Asura can see through illusions. One of them can also wield the ArtifactOfDoom, blurring the lines a little. Both the Asuran and Mithran priests are mentioned as having magic, just not nearly as powerful as [[BigBad Xaltotun's]]

* Some powers are granted through the religions of Literature/CaptiveoftheOrcs. But whether these are living gods or an offshoot of more mundane magic is a question never answered.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has the Old Religion, which appears to be a form of paganism, but not specifically Wicca. There's a lot of magic involved, and usually a female high priestess. (first Nimueh, then Morgause, now Morgana). There are pleny of Druids too.

* Used a lot in ''{{Farscape}}''; almost every single priest encoutered had some kind of supernatural powers.

* [[Manga/Hellsing]] has a few mild examples. By smelting silver crosses into weapons and by dipping weapons into holy water, they are thereby enabled to kill vampires with. Also, [[BadassPreacher Alexander Andersen]] can use copious amounts of Bible pages to teleport somehow. He also stabs himself with a Helena's Nail, one of the nails that was nailed into Jesus Christ himself's hands during the crucification. The result is him turning into a mass of magic thorn vines that can set vampires and ghouls on fire. One character uses decks of [[FlechetteStorm razor-sharp magic flying playing cards]] and another uses a magic flying silver musket ball that, once shot, can home in on a target and sharply change trajectory to pepper the target repeatedly. However, whether or not the cards and musket balls were the result of religion was completely unspecified.

* Spiderman foe Kraven the Hunter's former lover, the now deceased Calypso was a rather memorable villain herself and a practitioner of ''voodoo'', who clearly could use black magic. Mostly she was able to charm and enchant victims (including the Lizard, who she used as an UnwittingPawn, and make his regeneration powers [[TookALevelInBadass far more potent]] in the process) and after her first apparent death, she possessed Gloria Grant, using her to perform some unholy ritual to restore her own body to life. [[spoiler:(Hasn't been able to do the same thing twice, apparently, as she was murdered by Kraven's son Alyosha.)]]

* The first three IndianaJones movies featured magic artifacts and powers from Judaism, a corrupted version of Hinduism, and Christianity. The fourth was more psychic powers / sci-fi, but as the film itself says "it depends who your god is".
* ''AllOfMe'', starring Steve Martin. It is entertaining but the bits about the "Hindu" character and his "powers" was insulting and had absolutely no connection whatsoever to Hinduism or any existing religion (not even Scientology).

* The dybbuk is a possessing spirit of a dead person from Jewish folklore. Somewhat like ''Franchise/TheCrow'', it has unfinished business in the living world and will leave its host once its work is complete.
** The old Yiddish film ''TheDybbuk'' naturally features a dybbuk who possesses the body of his lover.
** The horror movie ''TheUnborn'' uses the dybbuk as a completely malevolent spirit. A rabbi uses Jewish rituals to help banish it.
* Jewish mysticism is somewhat subverted in ''{{Pi}}'', where a Kabbalistic sect knows about the hero's magic number, but cannot discover it for themselves. Ultimately they are shown to be no closer to decoding the universe than a stockbroking firm.

* In ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' the "shadow man" proclaims his skills with voodoo, hoodoo, and things he ain't even tried. He appears to be a basic fortuneteller and minor peddler of spells, until his plans get under way.
* The movie ''TheCraft'' has four girls using pagan-derived magic to take over their school and inevitably go all ''Carrie''.
* ''BigTroubleInLittleChina'' has magic practically everywhere, at one point described as 'Taoist alchemy and sorcery.' Elsewhere it's just called 'Chinese black magic.'

* ''Manga/Hellsing'' has a few mild examples. By smelting silver crosses into weapons and by dipping weapons into holy water, they are thereby enabled to kill vampires with. Also, [[BadassPreacher Alexander Andersen]] can use copious amounts of Bible pages to teleport somehow. One character uses decks of [[FlechetteStorm razor-sharp magic flying playing cards]] and another uses a magic flying silver musket ball that, once shot, can home in on a target and sharply change trajectory to pepper the target repeatedly. However, whether or not the cards and musket balls were the result of religion was completely unspecified.

* The bread and butter of an Egyptian priest consisted of enchanting amulets for sale to customers. There was a certain tendency throughout much of Egyptian history to assume that even the gods could be coerced into obedience with the right ritual observances. "Thou shalt not take the Lord's Name in vain" was in fact a Commandment against attempting to coerce the Hebrew god that way.
** The above is correct, despite the common notion that it means you aren't supposed to say "Oh my God." That idea is made doubly ridiculous by the fact that "God" is not YHWH's name. The commandment probably also has something to do with not swearing false oaths by God, or using God as an excuse to do evil things, like start wars (at least, wars he didn't tell you to start, which he was pretty big on in the Old Testament).

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' largely plays this straight (like most fantasy MMORPG settings), but subtly subverts it too; there are resistance stats for all schools of magic, but no way of resisting 'Holy' damage. Well, it actually ''does'' have a resistance stat for it, and there are many StandardStatusEffects which would affect it the same as any other magic types, but methods and equipment to specifically resist holy magic are in very short supply.

* The Catholic/Orthodox doctrine of transubstantiation states that, when a priest blesses the the wine and wafers at Communion, these are changed in substance (which, contrary to popular belief, is not thought to affect their physical nature) into the blood and flesh of Christ.

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* [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] wrestler Papa Shango was a [[WrestlingDoesntPay wrestling voodoo priest]] who used magic to set his opponents' boots on fire, make them throw up, and make black goo ooze from their hairline.

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* Many {{Roguelike}} games ({{Nethack}}, {{ADOM}}, etc) let the players build up goodwill with a patron deity, allowing them to pray for useful effects when in distress.

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* University of Wisconsin - Green Bay professor, Steven Dutch, wrote the essay ''[[http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/21CMagic.HTM 21st Century Magic]]'', outlining the differences between explicit magic, religious magic, nominal religion, and ''serious'' religion. He also demonstrates that magic is ''not'' inexorably linked to religion by providing modern examples of "secular magic."

* As mentioned in the beginning of this article, the magi were originally the zoroastrian priests of Persia. More accurately, it is a Greek word that refers not necessarily to the actual priests, but to the Greeks' perception of them.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' as its resident {{God}} is called "the Truth"!
** Jews and a number of other people also call God "Truth" (Sikhs might have got it from Sufis), and [=FMA=]'s main philosophical underpinnings are actually watered-down
*** In the beginning was logos... and logos became flesh and dwelt among men. Probably taken further by the Gnostics, as usual.
* [[HermeticMagic Hermeticism]].
** There is a ''lot'' of Christian subtext in Manga/FullmetalAlchemist, some Kabbalic elements, and pretty much no Islam. Also, 'Truth guy' is a sadistic grinning silhouette who you only encounter if you break a taboo and trade away part of yourself for knowledge. Ed wants to beat him up. He never actually gets to, nor [[spoiler: his older brother]] the wannabe god, but it'd be nice to see.

** In ''The Hour of the Dragon'', the priests of Asura can see through illusions. One of them can also wield the ArtifactOfDoom, blurring the lines a little. Both the Asuran and Mithran priests are mentioned as having magic, just not nearly as powerful as [[BiigBad Xaltotun's]]

--->'''Mightily Oats:''' [''crestfallen'']] Oh. [''Smiles brightly.''] Let's make it so. [''[[NonSoundEffect Slice]]''.]

* In "Literature/MonsterHunterInternational" all teams have at least one person of devout faith for dealing with those monsters, such as vampires, affected by faith. So far they've had a Mormon, a Baptist and an orc shamaness who is also a powerful healer.