Low-Tech: Magic?

[NorphTehDwarf]

I hate to say it, but I'm not sure there's enough crunch in real-world magic to tie together a GURPS book, and maybe not even enough for a PDF.

I find the subject fascinating myself, though.

Most religious/magical tasks could be described by a number of GURPS skills. Aside from the obvious like Theology and Religious Ritual, I'd say that a practitioner of witchcraft or religion may have any one of the following skills:
Esoteric Medicine, Pharmacy (especially herbal), Psychology, Fortune-Telling, Body Language, Brainwashing, Acting, Artist, Astronomy, Autohypnosis, Meditation, Dreaming (the non-supernatural parts of the skill), Fast-Talk, Hypnotism, Performance, Group Performance, Musical Instrument, Singing, Leadership, Law, Literature (Possibly with an oral tradition specialization in preliterate cultures), Makeup and/or Disguise (for traditions in which practitioners dress up in elaborate costumes), Merchant (for cultures in which the practitioner is just another professional doing a job, albeit an esoteric one), Mimicry, Naturalist, Navigation (for seafaring cultures, probably), Occultism, Panhandling, Physician, Poetry, Poisons, Public Speaking, Teaching, Propaganda, Savoir-Faire, Stage Combat, Ventriloquism, and Writing.



And more, of course. It's important to note that the practitioner probably won't think of a lot of these skills by their GURPS names. An abbot likely won't think of the endless repetitions of chanting and fasting and suchlike as Brainwashing, but the monastic life certainly inspires a certain mindset, and men such as Francis of Assisi and whoever founded the Jesuits were using it when they organized their orders were certainly using that skill, although perhaps at default. Similarly the azande oracle board was influenced by the user's understanding of a situation, and its use was influenced by the answers of the person commissioning the divination; this falls under either Psychology, Body Language, or Fortune-Telling or possibly a mix of the three, but the oracle board practitioner and client are both convinced that they are consulting with a spirit.

Another thing to remember is the mindset of a magic practitioner. If a given working didn't work, then the practitioner did it wrong, or the spirits weren't willing, or someone else opposed the work strongly enough that nothing happened. The basic idea is that barring any interfering conditions, magic will always work.

This is all based on an anthropology course I took like two years ago, though.