Dance of Witches: Analysis of selected Aspects of Contemporary Magic

This thesis deals with research of magic in contemporary Czech society. Although magic in contemporary society is practiced across different religious currents, this research has shown that it is possible to analytically grasp it through its epistemological dimension. In this sense, magic is a set of specific ways of knowing that produce a particular knowledge of the world. These are the epistemic processes: clairvoyance, ritual visions, oracles and interpretation of physical sensations. These processes have a symbolic nature and they are structured through symbolic meanings, which are based on spiritual ground of adept's practising of magic. Acquired "magical" knowledge is then negotiated as real and rational through different narrative strategies: through science legitimization, legitimization effect and through psychological reductionism. This knowledge also affects the social world and identity in the lives of informants of my research. The magic in them becomes a commission that is accepted or rejected. However it creates a specific network of relationships with human and non-human actors around the informant which forms his identity