Magic

"Magic always comes with a price, I know."

- Henry to David Nolan

Magic is a metaphysical force featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It first appears in the first episode of the first season of Once Upon a Time.

Use of Magic
"Cora represents the darkness of magic and Emma represents the light."

Use of Magic is the ability to possess the potential to corrupt those who harness it. Powerful magical practitioners like Cora, Regina and Rumplestiltskin become corrupted by their powers and in turn, their magic turned tainted as well. Not all magical practitioners are corrupted, however, such as fairies, but they are exceptions because they cannot use magic in negative ways, instead of choosing to not do so.

Magic can be used to override the usual laws of nature, but it always comes with a price. It is inherently neutral and cannot itself be split into light or dark, but can be used for either purpose. Since magic use is powered by emotion, the strength of the spell depends on the feelings of the caster focuses into the output of magic.

Laws of Magic
The Laws of Magic define the limits of magical abilities. There are three restrictions not even the most powerful magic can achieve: bring back the dead, force someone into love and change the past.

Price of Magic
The Price of Magic is the inevitable expense for using or casting magic. Often stated as a warning that "magic always comes with a price", but sometimes, the price is not foreseeable. Rumplestiltskin's curse has the heaviest penalty for gaining his Dark One powers. While the magic allows him to accumulate masses of power, it corrupts him both physically and emotionally.

Other prices include the Evil Queen's sacrifice of her father to unleash the Dark Curse upon the Enchanted Forest. In doing so, she creates a void in her soul that can never be filled. At another time, Regina's attempt to outsmart and get rid of Emma by putting her under a Sleeping Curse backfires, as Mr. Gold predicted, when Henry is afflicted with the curse instead. Even Mr. Gold himself, who knows all too well there's always a price to pay, brought magic to Storybrooke, which returned his old powers, but the cost forces a barrier around town to form, preventing him from leaving to find his son.

Blood Magic
Blood Magic is native to the Enchanted Forest. Its magic is linked to a person's bloodline and can be used in spells for hiding items from those who aren't of the caster's bloodline. The same method can be used to seal areas or locations. Rumplestiltskin uses blood magic on his old walking cane with a cloaking spell to hide a cupboard in his castle with some of his belongings in it, which Neal is able to open because he is his son. Regina seals her palace with blood magic to preserve it from the Dark Curse, but it is broken by the Wicked Witch of the West, who is her half-sister through their shared parent, Cora.

Fairy Magic
Fairy Magic is native to the Enchanted Forest and works differently from other types of magic in that it requires a reagent. This reagent, called fairy dust, is obtained by enchanted creatures called dwarves, whose purpose is digging diamonds from a local mine, which they collect and smash into powdered fairy dust. Then, the dust is gathered in large amounts by fairies to practice their magical arts. In some cases of advanced magic, fairy dust must be used through a wand.

Good fairy dust, which is pink-purple in color, gives them the ability to accelerate natural processes such as a dwarf's birth, and to break an enchantment in which a person is cursed to stay in one form; such as in the case of Prince Phillip who was cursed by Maleficent into the form of a beast. Dark fairy dust is black-gray in color, is capable of transforming "deadly foes" into lesser and harmless beings. In Snow White's case, she uses it on a trio of trolls and turns them into cockroaches. Pixie dust, which is a more powerful type of fairy dust, gives the user the ability to fly and can also be used to find someone's soul mate.

Some abilities with fairy magic include the transformation of objects or beings, telekinesis and transformation of inanimate objects. One notable practitioner of this kind of magic is the Blue Fairy. Her counterpart, Mother Superior is also able to sense and detect witchcraft. The Fairy Godmother as well as Nova have the ability to hide their wings from view.

After the Dark Curse is lifted and Mr. Gold unleashes magic upon Storybrooke, the fairies were left powerless due to the absence of fairy dust. However, the seven dwarves are capable of finding diamonds in the mines, which Mother Superior plans to use to use on a magic hat in order to rescue Emma and Mary Margaret from another world. This plan fails when the hat is destroyed.

Genie's Magic
"You awakened the Genie of Agrabah. You’re entitled to three wishes – no more, no less. But you must know, that magic has its limits. You cannot wish for life nor death, you cannot wish for love, you cannot wish for more wishes. And once spoken, a wish cannot be undone – no matter what the consequences. So, tell me your first wish."

- The Genie of Agrabah to King Leopold

Genie Magic is native to Agrabah where servants of magic, genies, have the ability to grant three wishes to any human that picks up their residing lamp or bottle. There are, however, some wish restrictions. One cannot wish for another person's demise by death, make someone fall in love, change the past or use one wish to ask for many more wishes.

One such genie is the Genie of Agrabah, whose lamp is washed away to the kingdom of King Leopold. The king accidentally rubs the lamp and brings out the Genie. Despite being offered three wishes, King Leopold uses one of the wishes to free the Genie from servitude. Even after this, the Genie is able to use magic to influence an Agrabahn Viper to turn away from himself and attack King Leopold. The Genie becomes a Magic Mirror after being granted his own wish to stay forever with a woman he loves, the Queen, and gains the ability to spy on people through mirrors for her.

Another known genie is Cyrus. He, too, like the Genie of Agrabah, always longed for freedom. Unlike King Leopold, Alice, who opens Cyrus' bottle, is heeded against using a wish to free him. In his own words, Cyrus states freeing a genie doesn't have a good outcome for either parties involved. After Alice and Cyrus fall deeply in love, she decides against using up the three wishes.

Golden Touch
The Golden Touch is native to the Enchanted Forest and thus far, only King Midas is a known user of this magic. With a simple touch of his right hand, everything and anything will turn into pure gold. Since all magic comes with a price, the consequence is the added risk of accidentally turning something or someone into gold without the intention to do so. Objects and living beings are transformed into gold when touched by his hand, but do not die. From King Midas' experience of unintentionally altering his daughter Abigail's true love Frederick into a golden statue, he wears gloves constantly in order to avoid the same situation from arising.

Magic Mushrooms
Magic Mushrooms are native to Wonderland and is type of magic used to alter a being's size. There are two specific kinds, one to make the consumer larger and another to make the consumer smaller, and is potent enough to work if and when a person or creature ingests only a small bite of the mushroom.

Science
Science is native to the Land Without Color. Some practitioners of science have the ability to bring someone back from the dead with a process that involves putting an enchanted heart into the body's chest. Other practitioners are able to save someone by using magic through the injection of advanced technological metals and machines. ("The Doctor", "The Evil Queen")

Seer's Magic
"The future is a puzzle, with many pieces to be solved. In time you will learn to separate what can be from what will be"

- Seer to Rumplestiltskin

Seer's Magic is native to the Enchanted Forest. A mystical seer, in the form of a young child, is able to see future, but she only predicts the outcome or incomplete portions of her visions. She considers the power an unwanted curse, and later rids herself of it by passing the power to Rumplestiltskin.

Siren's Magic
Siren's Magic is native to the Enchanted Forest. The Siren, guardian of Lake Nostos, uses the power of persuasion and seduction in taking on the form of the person the beholder desires the most. Many have been tricked by her magic, and ultimately hypnotized by seeing the person of their desire is what leads to their downfall. The Siren has drowned many in her lake after she charms and seduces them. However, if one can discern who their true love actually is instead of being fooled by the facade the Siren takes on, her magic is rendered ineffective.

True Love
"True Love is the only magic powerful enough to break any curse."

- Mr. Gold to Emma Swan

True Love is native to the Enchanted Forest as well as countless other worlds. It is the most powerful and simple form of magic with capabilities of breaking curses through the act of true love's kiss as demonstrated when Belle attempted to lift Rumplestiltskin's Dark One powers and restore him to being a regular human. True love's kiss is also able to reverse effects of any negative witchcraft, such as Snow White's ingestion of a forgetfulness potion, which turned her into a cold and heartless person, but was brought out of it when kissed by Prince Charming. However, true love's kiss has its limits. In the case of Belle's amnesia as a result of crossing over Storybrooke's town border, Mr. Gold tried to restore her memories with true love's kiss, which had no effect.

Numerous times, true love's kiss has been used to bring someone out of a Sleeping Curse, including Prince Charming to Snow White, Emma to Henry, Prince Phillip to Aurora and Mary Margaret to David. ("Pilot", "A Land Without Magic", "Broken", "Queen of Hearts")

In his endeavor to capture the elusive and rare physical form of true love, Rumplestiltskin sought out to make deals with both Snow White and Prince Charming. On both occasions, he took a strand of each person's hair as payment. Combining both hairs in a bottle, he successfully created a true love potion. At a later time, Rumplestiltskin seeks out Prince Charming again to hide the potion in a dragon's belly for protection. Twenty-eight years later, after the breaking of the Dark Curse, after Emma defeats a dragon and retrieves the potion, Mr. Gold steals it for his own use. He throws the potion into a wishing well and unleashes magic upon town. ("Heart of Darkness", "A Land Without Magic")

As some practitioners of witchcraft can rip out another person's heart, those born as a product of true love have the power to resist such magic.

Witchcraft
Witchcraft is native to the Enchanted Forest as well as countless other worlds. It is a form of magic that requires the user to be adept in using spell books and incantations. When used, witchcraft often gives away a pink or violet glow and at times will manifest as a puff of smoke.

Witchcraft includes magical abilities such as telekinesis, which enables lifting and throwing people and objects, teleportation of oneself or others, making objects appear out of thin air and turning things invisible. Significantly, they can create and cast curses, such as Dark Curse and the Sleeping Curse. Witchcraft practitioners can also perform acts of transformation over themselves or someone else and create protective shields.

They can also perform acts negative to another being such as causing physical pain, immobilization or combustion. Further abilities include changing the basic nature of something, such as spinning straw into gold, or willfully conjuring an item out of thin air. Witchcraft practitioners are learned in making potions with various effects and enchanting objects to have special functions. Their magic allows them to cause physiologically impossible situations, such as cutting off someone's head without the occurrence of death or using healing powers to instantly restore someone to full health. In addition, they can also summon creatures such as a Wraith and erase memories at will. ("Skin Deep", "Hat Trick", "Broken", "We Are Both", "In the Name of the Brother")

Practitioners

 * Blood Magic
 * Evil Queen
 * Rumplestiltskin


 * ​Fairy Magic
 * Belle/Belle
 * Blue Fairy/Mother Superior
 * Fairy Godmother †
 * Henry Mills
 * Nova
 * Peter Pan
 * Robin Hood
 * Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold
 * Silvermist
 * Snow White
 * Tinker Bell
 * Genie's Magic
 * Cyrus
 * The Genie of Agrabah
 * Knave of Hearts
 * Golden Touch
 * King Midas
 * Magic Mushrooms
 * Alice
 * Anton
 * Cheshire Cat
 * Valet †
 * Science
 * Dr. Frankenstein/Dr. Whale


 * Seer's magic
 * Rumplestiltskin
 * Seer †
 * Siren's Magic
 * Siren †
 * True Love
 * Belle
 * ​Emma Swan
 * Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Prince Charming
 * Prince Phillip
 * Witchcraft
 * Amara
 * Anton
 * Belle
 * Blind Witch †
 * Cora †
 * The Dragon †
 * Emma Swan
 * Evil Queen/Regina Mills
 * Jafar
 * Maleficent
 * Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Peter Pan
 * Red Queen
 * Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold
 * Trish †
 * Wicked Witch of the West/Zelena
 * Zoso †

True Love
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.