Meanings
- uncountableanthropologyA type of magic based on imitation or correspondence; magic in which items of the same form are connected over distance.
By what is called “sympathetic magic” by witchcraft historians, she is said to have been able to “kill her victims from a distance”.
1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 911 more example
The witch who carried out the baking technique used this form of sympathetic magic to arouse desire in correspondence with the flaming heat of the oven.
1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 53Synonyms: homeopathic magic, imitative magic
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA type of magic based on imitation or correspondence; magic in which items of the same form are connected over distance.
Cite this entry
sympathetic magic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sympathetic%20magic
“sympathetic magic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sympathetic%20magic. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sympathetic magic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sympathetic%20magic.
Source: sympathetic magic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.