101: What is Magic??

What Is Magick

David Rankine

© copyright 1999, 2000, 2001 David Rankine

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What is magick? Forget all the fallacies and stereotypical pre-conceptions

taught to you out of fear and ignorance and approach this question with an

open mind. You will probably find it is not what you have been taught to

think. Magick has been defined as "The art and science of causing change to

occur in conformity with will *1" which could be put more simply as making

desired change happen; or as "energy tending to change"; a definition I use

is "magick is conscious evolution through directing energy". This does not

really explain magick though, so I will try to elaborate on these phrases

without jargon.

An aim of magick is to train the mind by harnessing and making more

consciously accessible such higher faculties as intuition, inspiration and

the creative imagination, and by drawing on the power of the unconscious -

to try and use more than the 10% of our brain's capacity that we do.

Magick assumes belief in, or rather experience of, subtle energies. We can

only see about one seventieth of the light spectrum, yet what we cannot see

still affects us - such as x-rays and ultraviolet light. Similarly, magick

is about focusing more subtle, non-physical energies, and directing them to

create change. To go about this requires experience, and training to improve

the power of the mind, and specifically, the will.

Acts such as meditation, breath control, voice work, body work,

visualization, drama, ritual, and others, are all designed to improve our

body and mind, to better sharpen us and balance us, and to enable us to

perceive and wield more subtle energies.

In the same way, an individual is as strong as their will, and the more

balanced and integrated a person is, the stronger their will (note, this is

probably one of the main reasons why so many magicians have experience of

counselling and/or psychology, recognising the help these processes can

give, both through training and experiencing them. This also acts as a

removal of farcical social stigma often attached to these processes).

Practising magick tends to act as a deconditioning mechanism and can be a

subtle process, the longer you practice, the more you change and the

unnecessary inhibitions, stigmas, guilts and sin complexes that society

builds in are removed. This has the effect of releasing their energy into

the psyche, where it can strengthen the individual.

The more physical side, such as yoga, bodywork, dance and massage, also

removes the tension held in the body as body armour, and releases this and

removes energy blockages which impair full efficiency and may result in

illness.

Possibly the major difference between magick and many of the religious paths

to spiritual growth is that magick is more dynamic, and places the emphasis

on you to work for change - there are no gurus in magick, rather there are

fellow students with different perspectives and experiences - we learn from

each other, as in other areas of life.

Magick tends to work a lot with symbols, as these are the language of the

unconscious, and this is an area of tremendous power to tap. Symbols have

many functions, and one of these, released through magick, can be the

ability to confound the ego and the censor mechanisms, and enabling us to

perceive more subtle truths, or experience direct revelations. Although we

may not be able to fully explain how symbols work, we know from experience

that certain symbols seem harmonious with certain types of energy.

For example a magician may tell you that if you want to attract love you

should wear green, and rose perfume, perhaps wear copper, like a bracelet or

necklace, etc. These are all things attributed with Venus, who is associated

with love, and so the principal is one of contagion - sympathetic magick, or

making something happen by working with items linked to it. This is one of

the oldest and most commonly practised forms of magick. Working with the

symbols of a type of energy does seem to attract that energy.

A cautionary word here, magick is often seen as a way to hidden powers, and

entered for the wrong reason, the "I want sex, power and lots of money"

syndrome. Now there is nothing wrong with these things in themselves, but

when you do magick you will discover that you tend to get what you need

rather than necessarily what you want.

When you do magick you generally use techniques to alter your state of

consciousness and raise energy, and then direct that energy to create a

desired result. The channel that energy takes as directed by your altered

state of consciousness is not necessarily the path you might expect in your

normal everyday state. Magick does bring you power, yes, but it is power

over yourself, not other people. It is the power that is important, to grow

and to create positive change.

This does not mean there is anything wrong with using magick to gain more

physical things, there is nothing wrong with doing a ritual or spell to get

a job, whereas trying to make a specific individual go to bed with you would

be wrong. Magick is very much about intent, and if your intent is to get

work, you are not imposing on people, whereas if you were trying to make

somebody do something that they would not naturally do, you are imposing on

their will.

If you did a ritual to attract love without specifying a person, but opening

yourself to the opportunity to meet someone where love may arise, and to

feel more attractive and better about yourself, you are not imposing, you

are trying to create positive change.

Magick is a commitment to yourself, and it requires determination,

perseverance, strength, openness to change and absence of rigidity, a love

of life (including yourself), and a desire to grow and fulfil your

potential. It may be that you already have all these qualities and do this

already without calling it magick - magick is not about labels, and those

who think and talk as if it is unfortunately put some people off. Magick is

learning about the natural flows of energy in the universe, and working in

harmony with them to effect positive change, both in yourself and in your

environment.

Some people ask why magick is spelt with a 'k' on the end. This is to

distinguish it from magic, associated in the popular mind with illusionism

and prestidigitation, stage magic. Magick is not about illusion, it is about

creating real change, and the 'k' signifies this. K is the eleventh letter

of the alphabet, i.e. the one beyond ten. Symbolically this is very

powerful, as we work in base ten, and eleven represents the unseen, or

hidden energies - the subtle energies of magick, eleven is considered to be

the number of magick.

Magickal training and experience bring forth the energies of the

unconscious, and so it is no surprise to see that symbols become more

important as you develop, providing not only the language of dream and the

unconscious, but also helping create a more flexible perception grid of the

universe. To grow spiritually, it is vital that you remain flexible and do

not become dogmatic, rather that you are open to experience and willing to

question your ideas and beliefs as a result of those experiences.

Magick can be a painful process. It is not easy to maintain the discipline

and honest self-critical approach all the time. It can also be hard work

dealing with the energy released without being knocked off balance

sometimes. The important thing in these cases is to remain honest and keep

at it. Nobody said magick was easy! It takes a lot of practice and hard work

and pain, but the rewards are spiritual and mental growth, the joy of life

and the beauty of unconditional love. Beyond the limits there are no limits!