this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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Magic circles are all started in 13th century with Kabbalah, and then every kind of text on demon summoning featured esoteric letters arranged into a circle. What's interesting is that the historical alchemy did not use magic circles, but invented a crap-ton of new symbols, subsequentlly adopted in texts on demon summoning.
Surprisingly, DnD does not mention magic circles at all, and in the old fantasy literature (Tolkien, Zelazny, Le Guin etc) the magic is more like voice commands to your Google Assistant, or instinctive abilities like breathing fire - no circles are necessary.
And I guess anime draws magic circles because they look good on screen. Overlord even stacks several circles for an impactful magical sphere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_of_Solomon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lesser_Key_of_Solomon
Indeed, they look good and are easy to make with computer graphics; I hadn't thought about that!
Yeah circles and other 2D patterns – or simply plain writing – do have very ancient origins. I think all cultures in their early stage attributed a magic character to drawing and writing, which are inherently 2D activities. This is also reflected in other anime/fantasy common themes, like the item that comes to life because something has been written on it (golem), or the creature that gets increased powers because someone gives it a name...
Ok google, cast fireball.