a thought about wizardry

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

There have always been wizards as long as the battle has been taking place between the One and the Lone Power.

As readers in the 21st century, we think nothing of Nita and Kit travelling vast distances, or attaching air supplies to themselves when they go into space.

But what about wizards 100 years ago? 500? 1000? Before the kind of science we had is available? In the absence of the understanding we have today about the human body, it's capabilities, it's limitations - about the universe and where we fit - how would the wizards of hundreds of years ago have done their work?

We're told that the power of wizardry is in the description - that wizardries don't work if the parameters are incorrectly defined. Fine and good. In A Wizard's Dilemma, one of Nita's wizardries won't work because her attitude has changed and she's not the same person she was when she wrote her name.

But what if the description you have of the world is flat, and the sun and planets travel around the Earth? What if your people believe that spirits make a person sick, or that different 'humours' of blood are what causes ailments and mood swings in humans and people need to be bled in order to rid them of the bad humours. How do you deal with the idea of aliens?

While the battle would remain the same, I'm trying to work my mind around the concept of doing wizardry when one's view of the universe is a lot simpler than our scientific-based one. I'm reluctant to believe that there were no wizards until our language got complex enough to describe the universe - and even our perception of the universe may not be 'true'.

So how do you think wizardry worked in 'olden times'? In Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Enlightened Europe? In Imperial China, Civil War America, or colonial Australia?

Thoughts? Discussions? Debates? I'm curious.