mysto-magic

Noun

mysto-magic (uncountable)

1. (dated, informal, rare) Something involving superstition, magical thinking, or clevery trickery; voodoo, hocus-pocus.
   • Or, put differently: the deeper art goes, the more meaningless it should become. For superficial matters, sense is valid, but for the most profound levels of human life, nonsense, mysto-magic, and something approaching mumbo-jumbo are the valid mediums of expression.1932, William Harlan Hale, Challenge to Defeat: Modern Man in Goethe's World and Spengler's Century, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, page 125
   • That there is such a revelation; that it is not mysto-magic or mechanical mental telepathy, but that it has a history; and that this history moves progressively towards a great climax, has been the understanding and the experience of literally millions of Christians for over two thousand years.1952, A[lbert] T[heodore] Mollegen, “A Christian View of Psychoanalysis”, in Christianity and Psychoanalysis: Four Lectures and Panel Discussion, The Organizing Committee, Christianity and Modern...