Magickal Theory in Practice - 1: Baby steps into the Unknown

"Make no mistake about it,Magick is an art form, and every true Magician is an artist." - Lon Milo DuQuette

As children we are drawn in by the thought of Magic, the mystery, the power of it; we are enamoured with tales of witchcraft and wizardry, such as the adventures of Harry Potter, or the deeds of Gandalf in Tolkien's works. But as we get older and start listening to what we are told by our teachers and on television and in reference books, we lose touch with that feeling of wonder in favour of more "realistic" pursuits such as wealth, popularity, sex, good food, alcohol, fast cars, games consoles, things that we can see, feel and experience in everyday life with little or no effort. After years of being distracted by these "grown up" interests we forget how magic used to make us feel, the images and emotions that hearing about magic used to stir in us; and through that loss of connection we look at magic through the lens of material ignorance, passing it off as children's stories, fairy tales, superstition, kid stuff, a quaint little dream for quaint little minds. But as children we never had the opportunity or the means to really explore what magic is or why we were drawn to it in the first  place. What if we were to take a step back and ask ourselves, 'what does it mean? was it really just silly bedtime stories?' If we put ourselves back in the minds of the wide-eyed youngsters we used to be but with all of the experience of the world that we accumulate in our years, we may see magic quite differently, and maybe even start to see it as something more real than the everyday world of work, shopping and popular culture.

Let us start by looking at the difference between Magic as we think we know it, and 'Magick' in its truest sense, so that we might understand what we have left behind as well as what we are heading towards. Magic is an invention of contemporary popular culture, first appearing in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, and is an umbrella term used to describe anything adhering to matters of the Occult Sciences. This includes the exaggerated portrayals of magicians throwing fire and ice spikes from their fingertips, as well as the laughable stage acts of cutting a woman in half or pulling a rabbit out of a top hat. Magic is the misguided, deliberately silly, ignorant, modern perception of the much greater and older 'Magick'.

Magick, with its old English spelling including the 'k', is a word meaning "The science and art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will." - Aleister Crowley. While Mr Crowley may have a bad reputation in history for being "one of the most evil men to have ever lived", he was one of the leading occultists of the early 20th century, even lending his services to Winston Churchill to help combat the Nazi regime with occult science. He hit the nail on the head with his apt description of Magick, for it is quite literally the art of manifesting change in the world by aligning one's personal Will and intention towards something. This can work on any and all levels, from drawing wealth or good luck to the individual or another person, healing the self or another from illness, inspiring clarity of thought in people or sometimes even influencing the thoughts, opinions or actions of others to achieve a desired outcome. As mentioned in my other articles, The Other 96% parts 1 and 2, I outlined how the universal mind , or mind of God acts like a force field of subtle energy, conscious energy. This energy expresses itself in an infinite number of different ways, by influencing the arrangement of atoms and other, lesser or denser forms of energy so that they behave in a particular way. In this manner, everyday energies such as light are governed by this conscious energy and are, by extension, a condensed form of it. This includes colours, sounds, smells, patterns etc. as mentioned in part 3 of The Other 96%. Through understanding this system of correspondences, the magician learns what colours, sounds and images to use in alignment with what it is they wish to achieve, so that each corresponding aspect of their work serves to focus their intention and strengthen their individual Will for a greater outcome.

This doesn't mean that you can just wish for something and it will happen, but wishing or praying does play an important role in practical Magick. As Frederick Buechner said, "The Magick of words is that they have the power to do more than convey meaning; not only do they have the power to make things clear, they make things happen." In almost every creation story from around the world, words of power were the igniting spark for the Universe to come into being. The Buddhists have the primordial 'Om', or more accurately 'Aum', which they still use in their meditative practices to this day; some Native American tales mention the great bird that laid the Universal Egg which cracked from the force of the Thunderbird's screech allowing the Universe to  hatch and grow; in the ancient Mesopotamian myths, Anu has his children sing the world into being, an idea which is echoed in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarilion; and of course there is the book of Genesis which states that "In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." - (Gen, 1:1) As mentioned in my other articles, all existence is made up of varying levels of vibration, so sound is extremely important with regards to affecting the physical universe. Furthermore, our conscious thoughts are in themselves a form of vibratory energy and are amplified by the words which we ascribe to them. This is why so much thought and energy was put into formulating the Hebrew alphabet, or Aleph-Beth from which was derived the Greek Alpha-Beta; in the example of the Hebrew letters, each letter has a number of interpretations or values, namely a phonetic value, a word value, a numerical value, and an entirely abstract symbolic value which changes depending on the other symbols it is paired with. In order to encompass all of the different values associated with a single letter, the early Hebrews took great care when assigning the pronunciation of each letter so as to embody or condense the true meaning or meanings in their entirety within a sound. For example, the first letter, 'Aleph', pronounced 'a' as in 'apple', represents the first building block of creation, the source of all things, illustrates the balance between heaven and earth in its formation, has a numerical value of 1, 11 and 111, formula comprising the letter is that of itself, 'Lamed' and 'Pey/Fey' and thus encompasses the various values of each of the other two contributing letters. Such a degree of complexity of meaning can be found in only one other language, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Throughout history, as languages change and fragment, large portions of power and meaning are lost from the words we use, until eventually we are left with languages that encompass only one of three levels of value; but regardless of the dilution and degradation of language over the millenia, one thing remains the same... the intent behind the words. no matter what word you use from whatever language, they all relate to the same thing, so if you are asking the Universe for good fortune, any word in any language will work, for the meaning and intention embodied in the words still align with the Will with which they were created.

So, we've ascertained that words are powerful and have multiple layers of meaning, but how does that help us in Magick? The simple fact is that you don't get anything in life unless you ask for it. By praying, we are focusing our Will and intention into words which we can understand and communicate outwardly, which condenses and amplifies that Will and intention and directs it outwards into the wider Universe. At this point some of you may have already been thinking either "I don't believe in God so what's the point in asking if there's no one there to hear it?" or "okay, so we are asking God/the Gods and Goddesses to help us, but which is/are real?" The truth is that it doesn't matter at this point, as all Gods and Goddesses are real, and there is no distinction between Monotheism and Polytheism in the grand scheme of things. More on this subject in later posts. Suffice to say that if God is the force flowing through the entire Universe and within all things, then that means that when we pray, our Will is being directed outwards and thus eventually carried back to us via the Toroidal flow of God. I may not have gone into Toroidal fields in earlier posts so I will do a detailed explanation of what this is and what it means  later on. Other than Prayer, there are many other things to consider when engaging in practical Magick, one of the chief among these is colour.

When casting a spell or performing a ritual or ceremony, colour is one of the most prominent aspects of the whole proceeding that you will notice. Each colour, even down to individual shades, has a profound impact on the human consciousness and through their association to different emotional states, alter the intention directed during the ceremony. Witches are usually depicted wearing Black for two reasons; the first is that they had to blend into the darkness to avoid detection during the witch trials, and the second is because Black is peculiar in the sense that it absorbs all other colours in the light spectrum and reflects none, so by wearing Black, witches would soak up more of the Universal energy with which they were working via the amount of light absorbed by their clothing. These same principles can be applied in reverse with White clothing, which reflects all colours of the light spectrum while absorbing none and thus directs Universal energy outwards from the practitioner; white robes are usually worn by hierophants or high priests as a sign of their spiritual purity, particularly in Christian ceremonies. While Black is associated with night time, darkness, the unknown, it is often used to focus the consciousness on what is commonly referred to as 'Shadow Work' or internal/subconscious workings. It is also used in candles and crystals to harness energy prevalent in shadow or darkness to protect the practitioner from harm while white is associated with sunlight and is used to evoke positive energy on a high vibratory level and is therefore used for invoking deities or spirits. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that Black denoting darkness is equivalent to evil; it is not. In all things in the world there is light and darkness, male and female, seen and unseen; the darkness simply denotes that which is unseen to us and is therefore extremely useful in protection Magick and banishing evil, hence why Black cats crossing one's path is a mark of GOOD luck, for they are clearing the path ahead of you so that no evil may befall you on your travels. I will write more on different colours, their meanings and their uses in later posts, but for now let us continue with symbols.

"Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries. By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of language." - Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. If you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend reading the cited text, for it serves as a comprehensive, encyclopedic exploration of the mysteries, philosophies and sacred practices of ancient cultures and secret societies from which all Magickal understanding is derived. Symbols are a means by which abstract concepts are conveyed with their true meanings and values intact, just like the letters of the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. In Magick, symbols are crucial in honing the intention of the practitioner towards a desired outcome. For example, in ancient Greece, if a soldier was preparing for battle, and wanted the protection of Aries, the God of War, he might draw one of his associated symbols in the dirt, paint it on his body, etch it into the skin so that it scarred on him for life, paint it in blood (another association with the specific deity) or wear it as an amulet on his person. Associated symbols included the upward pointing triangle (tetrahedron, associated with fire and masculinity, Aries alchemical element), the spear (typical phallic symbol), the rams horns (attributed to the zodiacal constellation where the God was said to dwell), a nine-pointed star (indicative of the nine-fold nature of the deity which I will discuss in detail in a later post), or even just the letter 'Alpha' in honour of the Primary solar force which gives and preserves life. However, if the intention is more complex or multi-layered, then combinations of symbols would be necessary to consolidate the Will in the right direction so that the Will manifests the desired change in the correct way. As a perennialist, I tend to use symbols from a variety of cultures to represent different things, for a Greek symbol may not have the same meaning in the correct context as a Norse Rune for example, so I will mix and match accordingly to fine tune the message that I am conveying through my ceremony. This may raise questions relating to 'cultural appropriation' and other such misguided, pedantic nonsense, but I disregard this as a divisive means to limit pagan practitioners to one area of study or worship, thus keeping them from accessing the full potential of their rituals. Either way, the idea behind the symbols is to meditate/focus on them and their meanings while you are preparing and performing your ceremony so that your goal or intention is clear and fixed firmly in your frontal conscious mind as this strengthens the Will and yields better results.

Beyond colours, symbols and words, practical Magick incorporates the five primary senses into conducting sacred ceremonies, for depending on the ritual being performed, the senses need to be stimulated in a specific order to either relax or focus the mind into a required state. Brainwaves play a huge role in Magick, and it is important to know which state the brain need to be in before attempting to engage in Magickal practice, specifically meditative or visionary experiences. a full article is require to explain this in detail, but rest assured it Will be published. Also, working with the Elements is one of the primary focus points of many magicians, for each Element has their associated directions, minerals, plants, animals, deities and Zodiac signs, all of which should be carefully considered when setting up a spell or ceremony. The Five Elements in Western Witchcraft are Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Ether or Spirit. Air is attributed to the East, Fire to the South, Water to the West, and Earth to the North, with Ether or Spirit being the Centre, residing within the soul of the practitioner and therefore the primary source of all of the power being directed. Finally, we come to the matter of Deities. As I said earlier, ALL deities are true and valid, and any one of them can be employed by the magician to further enhance their Magickal practice. The various and seemingly disparate pantheons of different cultures are all parallels of one another, and every subsequent god or goddess has its equivalent in any one of the other pantheons, just like Aries in Greece being the same as Mars in Rome and Horus in Egyptian mythology, and all of them relate to the Seraphim, Shamael in the Judeo-Christian host of Heaven. The relationship between the deities from around the world is much more widespread and infinitely more complex in nature, so all I will say here is that every single one of them is the result of emanationism, the continuous fragmentation of the one creating universal mind into lesser aspects of itself to experience its own being in numerous different contexts. Therefore, no one deity is superior or inferior to another, for they are all God in different guises and serve different roles and purposes in the world. knowing which ones to commune with and how best to implement their energies will be of huge benefit to anyone looking into practical Magick. It is of paramount importance to note that the powers that one is working with do not originate from outside of the self, they originate from within, for the source of these powers is the Universal mind which flows through us all; it is simply a case of being able to attune one's self to these forces and learn how to amplify them out into the world with one's wishes. This, when combined with all of the other principles mentioned above, can and Will have a noticeable effect on your life, finances, relationships, job prospects and general fortunes. Trust me, I write from personal experience.

That's all for now. I hope that this has been an interesting and helpful introduction to the basic principles of Practical Magick. I also hope that this has aided in dispelling some of the common misconceptions and presumptuous illusions surrounding Magick, Witchcraft and Paganism. I will be publishing more articles in the near future relating to this topic in much greater and minute detail so please keep an eye out. Until then, peace and love to you all. Namaste.

Enki Endymion. O(