Magic

"Do you believe in magic?"

- Paige as she's about to tell her boyfriend Henry that she's a witch.



Magic is a supernatural energy that few are capable of manipulating and that can override the usual laws of nature. There are numerous magical beings which exist beyond the knowledge of most humans--such as witches, demons, and whitelighters.The three basic powers are to cast spells, create potions, and in the case of witches, to scry. Mortals, who have no magic at all cannot use it; they may brew a potion correctly but magic is need to empower the ingredients, and although one may cast a spell, it will not work.

Magic is passed by genes and may prove to skip one generation as in the case of Billie's parents who didn't posses any powers although her grandmother was a witch. Powers are present in their blood, and if a mortal comes into contact with it, s/he can gain magical powers, although this will drive them insane as their body is not equipped to deal with them.

Whilst the ability to perform magic almost always reveals itself by age early childhood, and in some special cases even from the womb, there are some individuals who remain mundane until quite late in life, usually late teen early twenties.

Using Magic
A good deal of studying and training is required to be able to preform magic usefully. While an active power is very desirable, talented witches with an affinity for creating unique and powerful spells and potions are often greatly feared and respected. As these traits will almost always guarantee victory in battle over someone who relies only on their active powers.

The ability to master all the aspects of magic is very rare, only extremely powerful or intelligent witches are able to accomplish this. Notable examples are Penny, Phoebe and Piper Halliwell, the latter two are said to be natural gifted.

Spellcasting


Witches can cast spells, that does what the user wishes it to do and other than an active power, spellcasting is the quickest way to utilize magic. However, the more powerful and creative the witch, the quicker they'll be able to conjure up a spell in combat to destroy their opponents or to change or create whatever they wish. They also tend to be the only one's able to cast non-verbal spells.

Magic often breaks the laws of science in the process.
 * For example, one of Piper's powers is to to slow down molecules until completely stopped, but doing so would cause the molecules to loose heat until reaching absolute zero, however this is not clearly the case here. Also, time travel into the past is deemed to be impossible by current physics, however, time travel forwards and backwards can be utilized although this only can be done by powerful beings.

Enchanting
Enchanting is a type of spell used to enchanting an object to behave in a way that isn't normal for that object or to bestows magical powers on an object or an individual.

Potions


Potions are a magical liquid that can produce a variety of effects, from vanquishing a specific demon to turning one thing into another.

Limits
Regardless of how powerful a witch is, they are by no means without limits. For example, protection spells are impossible to create. Another limitation is the witch themselves, some witches can not cast powerful spells or make powerful potions as they lack the vast amount of magic required for the spell or potion to take effect.

Active Power
Magic can also manifest it's the the form of an active power. These power are a biological part of the witch that predominately resides in the blood. An active power can manifest itself in several ways; in the onset of puberty, as a reflex when a being is in direst need, or just when the being is ready to receive the power.

Mortals can gain power and thus magic by injecting the blood from a magical being in their bodies or when power broker's used them to store powers. It is very dangerous for mortals to acquire powers, because they are not meant to have them. They will become confused, then frightened, paranoid, violent, and demonic, and will ultimately die unless the powers are withdrawn out of them.

Magic and Ghost


Any being that is magical in nature can see the ghost of mortals or magical beings that have died and can use magic to summon them from Up There back to earth in non-corporeal form. However, they can only visit for a short-while, before their spirit return to the afterlife.

Whilst some spirit may gain a corporeal body when they are summoned to earth, it doesn't mean they are alive again.

If the ghost is a witch or another magical being, he/she will retain his/her original active powers. Also, they usually develop other powers after their deaths.

Magic and Mortals


To prevent the outside world from learning about the existence of magic, beings called The Cleaners are there as safeguards, rewriting history, erasing minds and the like to prevent exposure. This is such a high importance issue that both Good and Evil has agreed on, to prevent magic from being exposed at any cost.

However, there have been many mortals who knew about the existence of magic, and who agreed to keep it a secret from the rest of the world.

History of Magic
This chronology indicates broad eras in the magical history and traces the development of the ever-widening gap between mortals and magicals.

Pre-Universe
Before the universe was born there was two opposite beings of great power: Shakti, the Goddess of Creation, and Shiva, the God of Destruction. By consumating their love they created the universe, possibly aided by other godly beings.

Pre-Human Earth
Before the rise of humanity, repilian beings known as Dinossaurs lived and prospered in the land. However they were eventualy extinguished and lived had to star over. Eventualy mammals took over the land and humans would rise. It's unknown if other unhuman magical creatures (such as dragons) evolved alongside humans or were created by human magic.

Birth of Human Magic
In the early days of humanity a woman came upon the Nexus of the All, a spiritual energy that runs through everything. She told her mate what she had found but, at first, both were too afraid to get near it. But even in the distance they could feel it's power and they pushed past that fear and tapped into that power.

As result they were infused with far greater power than any human was intended to possess. Their conection with the All created a place beyond counciousness and the physical realm: the Higher Realm, and that begun to slowly kill the Earth. To save it the pair returned to the world and the woman gave birth to children that were concieved while she was in the Higher Realm. The two children had the same abilities that the woman, just weaker, but they seek diferent paths: from the first child came witches and from the second came the warlocks. The children that came later had no abilities to speak of but their descendents could tap into magic through practise.

However every new generation caused the All to grow too thin and, to regain some of it's magic, the Elders sent the woman's mate into the Higher Realm, leaving her alone.

The Hollow and the near obliteration of Magic
Roughly 3,500 years ago a powerful vapor known as the Hollow roamed the Earth nearly decimating all magic. To save magic from certain doom powerful representatives of both good and evil worked together to contain the Hollow by fashioning a magical box. Using a spell, the box was put under the care of the Guardians of Hollow in a Ancient Burial Ground.

The Titans and the Greek Gods
By the times of Ancient Greece a trio of incredebly powerful beings named Titans ruled the world. They were so powerful that the mortals of the age worshipped them as gods and the Elders saw them as a treath. In a attempt to destroy the Titans, the Elders infused a group of mortals with tremendous power hoping it to be enough to vanquish them.

However, once these mortals had entombed the Titans, the power went into their heads and declared themselves gods, forcing the world to worship them. These beings became the gods of Greek Mythology (Zeus, Gaia, Athena, Aphrodite and so forth). The Gods gave a box to a man called Prometheus, which contained all the sorrows in the world that under no circunstance should never be released. But his wife, Pandora, opened it unleashing the sorrows on unsuspecting people. At first she didn't believe she coud return the sorrows to the box but when she become more confident in herself and her powers, she managed to do it becoming the first Guardian of Pandora Box.

The goddess Gaia gave Hypollita a belt endowed with transcendent powers in a attempt to unite the sexes but Hercules butchered her and the belt was lost. Eventualy the Elders succedded in taking the gods powers back and swore to never allow it to happen again.

The Avatar's first Utopia
During this time powerful neutral beings known as Avatars appeared before the population of Ancient Egypt and promissed them Utopia, a world beyond good and evil, which the population accepted. However, after the transformation was complete, the wizard Anubis realized the catch (there was no free will) and created a potion capable of vanquish the Avatars. Anubis then forced the Avatars to return the world back to the way it was.

The Birth of Whitelighters
Roughly two thousand years ago the Elders asked a weapon mader named Glynnis to make a magical sword that should be used to fight against evil. As the sword was being made, the Elders begun to argue to decide that if Whitelighters should be guides or warriors of the magical community. In the end the Elders decided that Whitelighters should became guides and guarded the sword away.

Witch Trials and the Hidding of Magic
Fear of magic took over mortals and some people decided to hunt down witches. During this time the evil Enchantress attempted to take over a kingdom but her magic was binded by time travelling Charmed Ones. As time progressed witch trials became more and more violent and witches decided to flee into the New World seeking refuguee.

Witches became associated with demons, which took the opportunity to steal witches powers and have the depowered witches burn at the stake. In Salem, the magical witch Melinda Warren prophetized the arrival of the Charmed Ones as she was burned alive. The persecution was so great that both good and evil decided together to go into hidding and possibly created the Cleaners to erase any proof of the existance of magic.

Arrival of the Charmed Ones
By the late 20th century mortals no longer believed in the possibility of magic and supernatural beings and witch practioneers have relative freedom to do their magic. In this time the Halliweel sisters, Piper, Prue and Phoebe became aware of their witching heritage and recieved their powers. At first fighting a few warlocks and demons, the sisters came to fight against big guns of the Underworld, including the Triad and the Source.

Exposition of Magic to modern world
In a attempt to save a doctor from Shax, the Source executeer, the Charmed Ones expose themselves to the world. Reporters and crazy people gathers around the Halliwell House while Phoebe, Cole and Leo Wyatt, the witches' whitelighter, goes to the Underworld to ask Tempus to rewind time.

As they negociate a psychologicaly unstable witch practioneer- Alice Hicks - tries to enter their coven but Prue telekineticaly throws her out of the house. Unstable, the witch practioneer took a rifle and murdered Piper Halliwell. This action changed forever the lives of the Charmed Ones as it forced Phoebe Halliwell to remain in the Underworld while Shax went to attack the Charmed Ones in the new timeline which resulted in Prue's death.

The Source vanquished
The Power of Three was once again restored thanks to the fourth sister Paige Matthews, who is a whitelighter witch. The various attempts of the source to reshatter the Power of Three resulted in his vanquish, however the Source's essence entered the then-mortal Cole Turner and possessed him. After get pregnant, Phoebe becames Cole new queen in the Underworld but she joins her sisters and vanquish him as well. However the Seer steals Phoebe baby and attempts to be crowned as Source but is vanquished as well.

Temporary loss of magic
When a planetary aligment, along with a Aurora Borealis and a Wiccan Sabbath cause a temporary loss of magic, the sorcerer Cronyn and the demoness Doris work together to made the Twice-Blessed Child, the first child of Charmed One Piper Halliwell. After a shocking battle in the manor, the demons are vanquished by using dust from Unicorn horn (whose magic isn't affected by whatever happens to Earth). Piper's son Wyatt birth restores back magic.

Return of the Titans
A demon realeses the Titans from their prison and attempts to force them to work for him just to be vanquished. Free once more, the Titans decide to destroy the Elders as revenge for emtomb them. Stealing whitelighter orbing power, the Titans made it into the Heavens, where they massacrate the Elders, with the survivors hidding on Earth.

In the midst of the chaos, a whitelighter from the future named Chris (who proves to be Leo and Piper's future son) helps Leo to turn the Charmed Ones into goddesses, granting them the power to vanquish the Titans. However Leo's actions turn him into a Elder and he's forced to leave Piper.

Unbalance between the good and evil parallel worlds
The Elder Gideon becomes obessed with Wyatt's powers and fears that he will become a force for evil. In his plan to destroy him, Gideon creates an unbalance between the good and evil parallel worlds. Gideon allies himself with the demon of fear in the Underworld to distract Leo and the Charmed Ones.

Tracking Gideon on the Underworld, Leo is forced to murder him to restore back the balance between the two worlds.

Return of the Avatars
Obessed with revenge, Leo becomes more a puppet for the Avatars plan to recreate Utopia. Turning Leo into an Avatar enables them to convince the Charmed Ones that create the Utopia is the best course of action. The Avatars succed in their actions but Zankous actions allowed Leo and the Charmed Ones (once they realized the catch) to return the world back to the way it was.

Battle for the Nexus
With the Avatars defeated the aliance between Zankou and the Charmed Ones collapse and Zankou proves to be the Halliwells' most cunning enemy. Desiring to have the power of the Nexus for himself, Zankou and a horde of demons invade the Manor, expelling the Halliwells from it.

Meanwhile, Inspector Sheridan gets help from the FBI to invade the Manor. This results in Sheridan's death and in the Manor being sieged by the FBI. Seeing no other action, the Charmed Ones vanquish Zankou and fake their deaths. The Charmed Ones use a spell to past as their own cousins but they're eventualy forced to reveal themselves.

The Ultimate Battle
Billie, the young rebel witch aprentice of the Halliwell Witches, and her evil (thought they didn't knew at the time) sister Christy, are the Ultimate Power which the Triad attempts to manipulate. Turning both Billie and the magical community against the Charmed Ones, Christy success in bringing Billie into her side (thought not to turn evil).

Both sisterhoods summon up the Hollow from its resting place at the same time, resulting in it to split. The two sisterhoods fight each other, resulting in the death of three of them (Christy, Phoebe and Paige ). Heartbroken, Piper use's Coop, a cupid and Phoebe, cupid ring to time travel to before the battle. After getting lost in the timeways, Piper and Leo (who was stripped of his powers) made it into moments before the Manor exploded and used a spell to send the Hollow back.

Billie from the alternative reality uses her Projection power to time travel and tries to warn her sister about the Triad's true plan to no vial. She goes to the Halliwells for help and aids them in vanquish the Triad for good, thought at the expense of her sister's life.

War on Heaven
Roughly a year after the Ultimate Battle, the first witch, Neena, and the help of a warlock named Hogan revives the Source. The Source uses Hogan's Discord power to turn every single mortal in San Francisco against the Charmed Ones and later attacks them at the Manor. The good witches are forced to retreat to Magic School which is soon enough under the Source's attack.

The Three Essentials of Magic


On the night the sisters discovered the Book of Shadows, Phoebe mentioned that she read in the book something about there being Three Essentials of Magic. They are timing, feeling, and the phases of the moon.

That means that midnight on a full moon is the most powerful time for witches, especially to perform great works of magic (for example, invoking their powers). It is the best time to perform great works of magic. Witches who gather together with their powers united, are at their strongest.

The Charmed Ones powers are linked to the essentials as that was the night Phoebe casted the spell that granted each sister their individual powers and magic.

Natural Magic
When used in certain ways with the correct intent, certain herbs and objects can be used to harness and direct energy and hence use magic, even without innate magic. This type of magic was used more prominently during the 1600's and fell into decline since modern day.

Prue, Piper and Phoebe took this knowledge back with them to the present after saving their family line and it's believed passed this knowledge down to the next generations. It's believed that Piper and Phoebe taught this knowledge to Paige as well, since when demons attempted to abduct Wyatt, Piper told Paige to align the manor with apples and sage for protection.


 * The Besom: Also known as a common sweeping broom. When one sweeps from east to west (the path the sun travels) one can "charge" the besom. If sweeping is continued the evil and anything associated with it will be swept from one's path, as if by a gust if wind. A charged besom can even be used to fly with, hence the modern day stereotype of witches riding on broomsticks.
 * The Poppet: A poppet doll is one of the few natural magical objects that has survived into the modern era. If made from leaves it can represent the power of women, helping to focus the female witches magic. If made of Wax it can be a useful assistance in various spells such as the "Awakening" spell and the "To Lose A Love Forever" spell, again, focusing magic.
 * The Conical Hat: This simply serves to keep the witch focused and centered. Nevertheless, it is a powerful focusing tool.
 * Days of Power: Some days, such as Halloween, increase magical potency like a witch's powers and natural magic.

The Protective Circle
The Protective Circle replicates the effects of a force field and seems to be the olden day equivalent of the crystal cage, however this seems to be weaker. Instead of being composed of only pyrite Crystals, the circle has many, natural requisites, these are:


 * Apples and Laurel Leaves
 * Cut an apple in half and you reveal the pentagram that they hold at their core made of their pips, this can be a symbol for good or evil and magic in general. If you press a laurel leaf into its center, you block the path of evil. Minimum amount is four to complete the circle, placed at four roughly equidistant corners.


 * Lavendar & Rosemary
 * Both are good protection herbs, scatter these around the space in a ring to strengthen the force field.


 * Carved Pumpkins
 * Although it is unknown whether or not these were used in the circle in "All Halliwell's Eve", it is known that Pumpkins with the shape of a five pointed star cut out will turn away evil spirits and sometimes even demons. Which is why it would be a good idea to include them in one.

All together these ingredients would create a powerful circular force field of blue energy around the creators. The field repelled the riders and the horses but was powerless against bullets.

Enchanted Doorway
When Eva brought the Charmed One's to her coven she told them that the doorway they had within the room would have told her if they were evil or not. The doorway was aligned with several unknown flowers and possibly magical herbs. However, it later revealed that it was in fact The Elders who opened the gateway that sent the sisters to the past, and they were the ones that opened it again to return them to the present. Eva could not have opened it, because time traveling can only be accomplish be extremely powerful being.