---
title: "Natural magic"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_magic"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:39:55.929681+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

During the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century, the way science was viewed started to drastically change. The role of natural magic began to shift, but it did not disappear. Specifically, the idea of “occult properties” had an important role in the developing scientific worldview. The invisible forces in nature, which were previously thought of as magical concepts, came to be known as more rational and mathematical ones. For example, phenomena such as gravity and light were once thought to be mysterious, unknown forces, but during the Scientific Revolution, scientists began to explain them as rays or forces acting across a space. 
This transformation of thought is shown through figures like Isaac Newton, whose theory of gravity relied on a force at a distance, similar to earlier beliefs related to natural magic. While Newton and other scientists moved away from magical explanations, theories of natural magic helped to inspire their work. Despite beliefs and reasonings changing, “occult qualities” helped to establish ideas such as force interactions, which remain a central part of modern physics today.

== See also ==
Kitāb al-nawāmīs – Arabic book of magic
Giambattista della Porta – Italian polymath (1535–1615)
Magia Naturalis – Book by Giambattista della Porta
Protoscience – Research field that may become a science
Thomas Vaughan – Welsh philosopher (1621–1666)
White magic – Magic used for selfless purposes

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Nauert, Charles G. (1957). "Magic and Skepticism in Agrippa's Thought". Journal of the History of Ideas: 176.
Stark, Ryan J. (2009). Rhetoric, Science, and Magic in Seventeenth-Century England. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.

== External links ==
 The dictionary definition of natural magic at Wiktionary.