How Many Types
Question is how to divide magic into sections (related groups). Here I attempt to divide magic into 12 schools or types. I've seen different divisions, some have 7 or 8 types, or you can have 4 divisions by basic elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Air magics). While I like the elemental division quite a bit (being an elemental magician myself), I prefer 12 for several reasons. 12 nicely goes along with the calendar, which is helpful for magical practice. So one can have different types of magic be more prominent in certain months. 12 also divides into 4 and 3, which lets each type belong to a group of 4 and a group of 3. For example in Astrology (which is based on the calendar), all 12 signs belong to one of 4 elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Fire) and one of 3 modalities (Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable). Check out this nice page on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_sign If you scroll down, there are some cool tables showing astrological signs with their corresponding symbols, elements, modalities, celestial bodies.
A little bit of Alchemy
In alchemical texts you can find correspondence of celestial bodies with pure elements. Saturn – Lead, Jupiter – Tumc?? Mars – Iron, Sol – Gold, Venus – Copper, Luna – Silver. [1671] (what that second one is I don't know, but the rest are normal). The elements themselves appear in Ancient Egypt: Gold, Electrum, Silver, Copper, Iron, Lead. [Lepsius]. Some interesting symbols on both of these.
Calendar
Time-keeping system. One important thing to note is that a calendar can be solar or lunar. In the lunar calendar, a month is exactly one lunar phase cycle (or lunation). Unfortunately, there is not an exact amount of lunations in a seasonal year cycle, which will cause the calendar to shift slightly over time compared to the seasons (solar calendar). Islamic calendar, which is a lunar calendar, has exactly 12 months. The solar calendar follows the position of the Earth in its revolution around the Sun. It is marked by solstices and equinoxes. Solar calendar has more or less the same amount of days (365) per year. In the Gregorian calendar there are 12 months. Iranian calendar also has 12. Julian and Coptic calendars have 13 months, which is close to the other two. Baha'i calendar, also a solar calendar, has 19 (or 20 with an extra unnumbered one from Feb. 26 to March 1) months/divisions.
12 Schools of Magic:
So, here's the division into 12 different types and some notes on what each includes.
- Dream Magic – dreams, lucid dreaming, astral
- Ritual Magic – rituals, occult (group magic), high ceremonial magic
- Illusion Magic – illusions, tricks
- Elemental Magic – alchemy, elementalism
- Healing Magic – health, medicine, herbalism, shamanism
- Psi Magic – mind, psychonautics, psyonics
- Crystal Magic – crystals, structure, geometry, sacred geometry
- Natural Magic – nature, herbalism, animals/familiars, etc.
- Craft Magic – craft, witchcraft, folk magic
- Spirit Magic – spirit, necromancy, spiritism, cycles of life, religion
- Symbol Magic – symbolism, spellcasting, divination, numbers, numerology, writing
- Chaos Magic – arbitrary use of magic systems, chaos
How exactly magic is divided is really a matter of personal preference. But having some cohesive system can be helpful. A magician can study any magic in any desired order. As one goes forward in magical practice, some areas will become more prominent than others. Also in this system some practices can fall into more than one category, but each category has something unique about it and each is powerful.
As far as types of magicians such as Shaman, Alchemist, Wizard or Witch, Warlock, Mystic, etc., any and all of them can be used. Some of the different traditions fall into several categories above, in fact most of them is a combination of the different schools. Even some specific practices (like creating a magic circle) can fall into several categories. Magic circle is Ritual Magic (casting a ritual), but can have elements of all other schools.