entrance to thousands of churches throughout Mexico, one
can buy prayers and spells “To Most Holy Death.” The most
common of these tries to obtain the love of some indifferent
person and says: “Death, beloved of my heart, do not sepa-
rate me from your protection; do not leave him a quiet mo-
ment, bother him every instant, frighten him, worry him so
that he will always think of me.” This is repeated as often
as possible, with the interjection of Catholic prayers.
The new mythology is even felt in the kitchen. For ex-
ample, when there is some fear the the cooking will not turn
out well, the following spell is recited: “Saint Theresa, you
who found God in the stew, help my stew not to be [salty,
burned, overcooked, etc.].” It must be admitted, however,
that this and many other spells are usually said out of habit,
not from a certainty that the words, through their intrinsic
power, will bring the desired results. Nevertheless, a belief
in the power of spells can still be found among marginal
groups even today, as it has been found in the past.
SEE ALSO Incantation; Language; Magic; Names and Nam-
ing; Om:; Postures and Gestures.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Caro Baroja, Julio. The World of Witches. Translated by O. N. V.
Glendinning. Chicago, 1984.
Cassirer, Ernst. Language and Myth. Translated by Susanne K.
Langer. New York, 1948.
Cirlot, J. E. Simbolismo fonetico. Barcelona, 1973.
Garcia Font, Juan. El mundo de la magia. Madrid, 1963.
Hitschler, K. Pouvoirs secrets des mots et des symboles. Paris, 1968.
Hocart, A. M. Mito, ritual y costumbre. Barcelona, 1975.
Idries Shah, Sayed. Oriental Magic. New ed. London, 1968.
Jung, C. G. Symbols of Transformation, vol. 5 of Collected Works
of Carl G. Jung. 2d ed. Edited by Gerhard Adler and translat-
ed by R. F. Hull. Princeton, N. J., 1967.
Powells, L. La sociedad secreta y la iluminación interior. Buenos
Aires, 1982.
Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. New York, 1974.
Serna, Jacinto de la. Manual de Ministros de Indios para el conoci-
miento de sus idolatrías y extirpación de ellas (1656). Reprint,
Mexico City, 1953.
Suares, Carlo. The Sepher Yetsira: Including the Original Astrology
according to the Qabala and Its Zodiac. Translated by Vincent
Stuart. Boulder, Colo., 1976.
New Sources
Ancient Christian Magic. Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith, eds.
Princeton, 1999.
Betz, Hans Dieter. Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including
the Demotic Spells. Chicago, 1992.
Gager, John G. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from Antiquity
and the Ancient World. New York, 1992.
Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity.
Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, eds. Jerusalem, 1993.
Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion. Christopher A.
Obbink and Dirk Obbink, eds. New York, 1991.
Selected Studies on Ritual in the Indian Religions: Essays to D.J.
Hoens. Ria Kloppenborg, ed. Leiden, 1983.
Versnel, H. S. “Some Reflections on the Relationship Magic-
Religion.” Numen 38 (1991): 177–197.
BEATRIZ BARBA DE PIÑA CHÁN (1987)
Translated from Spanish by Erica Meltzer
Revised BibliographySPENCER, BALDWIN SEE GILLEN, FRANCIS
JAMES, AND BALDWIN SPENCERSPENCER, HERBERT (1820–1903), was an English
philosopher who became the most influential exponent of
social evolutionism. Born in Derby, England, and educated
largely in an atmosphere of religious dissent (and especially
influenced by Quakers and Unitarians of the Derby
Philosphical Society), Spencer combined a practical bent (for
railway engineering, inventions, etc.) with a constant search
for scientific principles. He became assistant editor at the
Economist in London in 1848. After an early essay (1852) on
the “development hypothesis” (concerning the laws of prog-
ress), he settled on evolution as the basic principle governing
all change in the universe and began propagating a theory
of evolution even before Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of
Species appeared in 1859.
The core of Spencer’s literary output was published in
several volumes under the general title A System of Synthetic
Philosophy; this huge endeavor was left unfinished at Spen-
cer’s death. Its bearing on religion was at least fourfold. First,
the prefatory volume, called First Principles (1862), contains
the earliest philosophic exposition of the position known as
agnosticism. Proceeding beyond the fideism of William
Hamilton and Henry Mansel, both of whom maintained
that the existence of God was a matter of faith rather than
certain knowledge, Spencer argued that the force behind the
cosmic process of evolution was unknown and unknowable.
Second, this work and his books The Principles of Biology
(1864–1867) and The Principles of Psychology (1855–1870)
defended evolution as a universal natural process of develop-
ment from simple and homogenous to more complex and
differentiated forms of life over millions of years. Thus Spen-
cer became embroiled with Darwin, T. H. Huxley, and oth-
ers in the debate with those who held to a literal interpreta-
tion of Genesis or who denied the simian ancestry of human
beings. Spencer also used the evolution debate as a forum to
attack the idea of established religion.
Social evolutionism was the third and most important
of his system’s implications for religious questions. In The
Principles of Sociology (1876–1896), he presented a barely
qualified unilineal account of religious evolution and also
fleshed out the first “sociology of religion” (at least in En-
glish). Spencer thought that the origins of religion lay in the
worship of ghosts or ancestors; he extrapolated this view8678 SPENCER, BALDWIN