What is Magick? Part 1

I never thought I would live to see a time when magick was cool (I thought studying magick would be as cool as comic book movies- now both are in fashion). In the era of magick popularized by pop culture and social media- we need to really explore what it is before wreally start delving into it.

First off, I am using “magick” instead of “magic” to mark the difference between a spiritual tool and stage illusions. I believe stage magic is a very amazing art form and discipline, but that is not what we are talking about. There are several definitions of magick- so let’s talk about some of the most popular, what they are actually talking about, and what they say about why we should study it at all.

Definition 1: “The Art of Changing Consciousness at Will”.

This is the definition by the occultist Dion Fortune. She was a ceremonial magician and was skilled at weaving together different schools of mystical thought into something practical. She was also known for getting together occultists to use magick to defend Great Britain from the Nazis in WWII.

One thing this defnition talks about is that to change the world, you must change yourself- which to me originally sounded like a cop out, but I realized that we are what we perceive. I can be grateful for having a roof over my head and food to eat and perceive abundance, or I can see what bills haven’t gotten paid and see only lack and ruin. Glass full versus glass empty thinking, but this goes much farther.

We have the ability to shape reality by our thoughts. In fact, advances in quantum physics have spoken about this. The occult order of the Rosicrucians, for their marketing taglines used to say “thought have wings”, and this is very true. Magick can be used to manipulate your personal psychic realm. It can be used to help you focus, accomplish tasks, be more confident, and even make yourself more desirable- but this is based upon changing your consciousness. A spiritual truth that we can assume to be true based upon observation is that “everything is connected”. In fact, this is one of the cornerstones of many mystical schools of the occult and witchcraft. If that is true, then by changing who we are- we change everything that is connected to us. We can use magick to understand where we are and

Dion Fortune’s specialty wa ceremonial magick, this deals mainly with learning occult correspondences (for example, the astrological signs of Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn correspond to the element of Earth) and putting those in action in ritual magick- we can tune our consciousness to specific things for the results we want.

Our consciousness is also influenced by the energy around us. I will talk more about energy in the next post, but everything is energy. Shaping and transforming that energy is a direct tool to changing consciousness. This can be as simple as walking in the woods, to taking a purifying bath with sacred herbs, or even doing rituals to align yourself with natural forces. Since much of being a modern witch is to align yourself with Nature, the relationship you have with it shapes how who you are.

Definition 2: “Magick Is the Science and Art of Causing Change to Occur in Conformity with Will.”

This definition comes to us by way of Aleister Crowley. Crowley was a student of ceremonial magick as well, but he was definitely more extreme than Dion Fortune. While Fortune was known for trying to have more purity of self (but not a prude), Crowley was the rock star of the occult world that would fuel his magick with sex and drugs. His book “Diary of Drug Fiend”, while it is technically fiction- it is very much a memoir of Crowley’s drug use and addiction. While he was extremely brilliant- he was also a misogynist and racist. He was known for his daring attitude to do magick no one else would dare, and for his grasp on magick. Crolwey called magick a science and an art This speaks to the fact that some principles and practice in magick should be as reliable as physical science. Magick is also an art, and deciding particulars of any magickal working are as specific as what colors an artist might use for a sunset and must be tailored to the situation. One could argue that magick has its own aesthetic like the physical arts and must be guided by intuition as much as knowledge. Magick is very much like cooking, and it is no wonder that kitchen witchery is a time honored tradition.

Here, a special attention must be made to the word “will”. Crowley was a proponent of the belief that to be successful in life and magick- one must connect to their higher self, their soul personified that is the closest to the Divine, and work with it and not against it. One could argue that only by working with your higher self and the Universe in general- can you achieve your highest potential. In more earth based magickal schools- we can talk about working with the will of Nature, the seasons, and even the stars in terms of the science of astrology. To work with magick is to know the Universe intimately, and to speak to the Universe in its own language. In this way, magick is an antidote to the ills of the modern world where we separate ourselves from Nature. Part of being a magickal practitioner is to listen and observe Nature, and act accordingly.

Please note, I am exploring some of the older and more established definitions of magick. The nextpart we I will explore some modern definitions that I use that are more results and practice based.

Blessings.

#magick #occult #witchcraft