Magic

Magic is a form of energy. It can be used by magical beings, wizards, and under certain conditions or with help even by non-magical mortals.

Description
Magic in its simplest form is the energy produced by life. Practitioners are able to use this energy to modify reality. One of the main atributes about magic is that its rules are always slightly changing and an example of this is how it currently effects technology.

A Wizard or Sorcerer using magic can tap into the fundamental energies of creation and life itself. To do something with magic, it must come from inside a wizard. They have to focus, visualize it and beleive in it to make it work. They can't make it happen if it isn't part of them, inside.

According to Harry, Magic is tool made from life's essence, its energy. It is is more that just an energy source. Besides power, was all that was deepest and most powerful in nature, in the human heart and soul. There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than a fire that a wizard can call up. It comes from inside the wizard a part of him/her.

Emotions are a kind of channel for magic, a path to carry the magic to the magic user.

"You can't weave together a spell that you don't believe in." ~ Harry Dresden.

Magic come from the heart, from your feelings. Black Magic comes from lust, fear and anger—things that are easy to feed and make grow. Harry's magic was harder because it comes from a deeper truer and purer source—harder to tap, harder to keep but more elegant and more powerful.

Magic interferes with technology and causes it to randomly break down; the more magic in the area, the greater the chance of something wrong happening. This does not effect minor practioners as much as full wizards because of the different energy levels they control.

To make magic work, you have got to believe in it, want it. Or else it just fizzles.

Practitioners
Practitioner is a generic term for an individual who can use magic. The word signifies only the presence of magical talent; it has no connotations regarding the individual's power or skill. There are a number of other terms, however, which do have such connotations.

A Wizard is a practitioner who is a member of the White Council. The Council only grants membership to the strongest of practioners; in terms of raw magical strength, Council wizards rank in the top two percent. And yet, the power of even the strongest wizards is insignificant in comparison to a supernatural heavyweight like a Faerie Queen.

A Sorcerer is a practitioner with a wide spectrum of magical abilities and a good deal of power, who either does not meet the criteria for Council membership, or does but is not a member. Many of those in the latter category have the necessary power and talent to be a wizard, but are often self-taught, lacking the resources and knowledge base of the White Council. The term is sometimes used in a derisive manner by White Council members.

A minor talent is a practitioner with a small degree of magical aptitude.

A warlock is a practitioner who has violated one of the laws of magic.

Wizards have two unusual physical characteristics. The first is great longevity: the lifespan of a White Council wizard is measured in centuries. The second is an extraordinary ability to recover from injury. Wizards don't just heal faster than ordinary people, they heal better. A practitioner's body can recover from injuries that an ordinary mortal's body never could. Furthermore, the recovery is so complete that there sometimes is no evidence that the injury ever occured.

Variation of abilities
In much the same way that people have varying talents for art, science, or music, practitioners have varying aptitudes for different aspects of magic. What is easy for one may be difficult for another. Harry Dresden, for instance, is very adept at Thaumaturgy (particularly at finding things), but less so at Evocation. His apprentice Molly Carpenter, on the other hand, has a knack for veils and phsycomancy.

Tools of Magic

 * Circle of Power: create boundaries that isolate an area inside from the magical energies of the world outside. It helps a Wizard refine his magic, focus and direct it more clearly.
 * Name: by associating himself with a Name of a spirit, creature or person a Wizard can create a magical link like you can call up someone on the phone with a number. But it must be spoke with the right tone and pronouciation. Works jsut like Hair, Nail-Clippings or Blood.
 * Emotions:  are a kind of channel for magic, a path to carry the magic to the magic user.
 * Hair, Nail-Clippings, Blood: something to connect the spell-caster to the target person or entitiy.
 * Mirrors: many things can use mirrors as windows and doors. Harry doesn't keep any mirros in his home.
 * Pentacle
 * Pentagram

Types of magic
There are many ways to use magic, some of them are interweaved with each other.
 * Thaumaturgy: The art of creating magical links between an object and a target. It is used in locating spells, voodoo dolls etc. It needs a part of the target to be successful, eg. blood, hair, etc.
 * Evocation: Magic mainly used in direct combat situations—Blasts of fire or force, etc., lighting multiple candles, opening cabinet doors, summononing items, etc.
 * Kinetomancy: Magic of energy and movement
 * Necromancy: Magic concerned with death and the dead. Necromancers could animate corpses, summon spectres, take information from the brain of a corpse, switch bodies, etc. The White Council forbids the use of necromancy with the Fifth Law of Magic.
 * Psychomancy: Magic concerned with the mind (mind control).
 * Neuromancy: The magical art of mind reading.
 * Verisimilomancy: The art of illusion magic
 * Ectomancy: Magic concerned with ghosts.
 * Ferromancy: Magnetics/electrics — also a generic term "technology"
 * Anthropomancy: The magical art of attempting to divine the future or gain information by reading human entrails.
 * Vulcanomancy: A type of Earth magic, specifically dealing with magma.
 * Phonoturgy: Cloak of silence—quiets any sound the user makes, also keeps user from hearing sounds.
 * Holomancy: The art of Invisibility magic
 * Aeromancy: The magical art of Flight.
 * Hydromancy: The magic that controlles Water.

In the Series Notes
In Storm Front, Harry is angry and nauseated that someone would use a thing of beauty like magic and use it to hurt, kill and destroy when magic taps into the energies of creation.

In Blood Rites, Murphy ask Harry why he can't do the sunshine magic thing like he did on Bianca few year back. Harry says the he tried it again after The War and found out that he needed to be genuinely happy to be able to fold sunshine into a hankie or it does not work.

In Turn Coat, Anastasia Luccio told Harry how his mother, Margaret LeFay, loved pointing out the ares of "grey" magic, as she called it and questione their legitimacy. As a consequence, the Senior Council tasked the Wardens with keeping an eye on her.

Word of Jim
According to Jim Butcher, "Magic wasn’t always screwing up post WW2 tech. Before WW2 magic had other effects. It sorta changes slowly over time, and about every 3 centuries it rolls over into something else. At one time, instead of magic making machines flip out it made cream go bad. Before that magic made weird molls on your skin and fire would burn slightly different colors when you were around it."