magic circle

plural magic circles

1. A circle marked on the ground by a practitioner of magic, used as magical protection or to form a magical area.

   Witches are often accused of the same sort of Devil worship as the Black Magic followers. They claim that their only practice which probably would not meet with popular approval is dancing naked round a magic circle[.]

   1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 77

2. In traditional cultures, a circle drawn on the ground marking out a sacred, protected, or ritually charged space.

   On moonlit nights they stood within the Magic Circle and gazed on the glory of the moon, and trembled to the answers that came in the swish of wing as bat-like birds sped by.

   1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 165

3. mathematicsAn arrangement of natural numbers on circles such that the sum of the numbers on each circle and the sum of numbers on diameter are identical.
4. video gamesThe imagined space, separate from the real world, in which players in a virtual reality system experience immersion.

1. A British organization dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of stage magic.
2. UKinformallawCollectively, the five most prestigious London-headquartered multinational law firms: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May.