Just to be clear, the magic I am discussing here is not the slight of hand type of magic but the magic taught in witchcraft and other occult paths. The spelling of magick with a “k” was first used by Aleister Crowley as an attempt to be clear as to what kind of magic he was talking about.
The general understanding of the magician is to use magic to create change according to the will of the magician. Crowley explains in his book, Book Four, “It is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature.” Crowley is explaining that magick cannot be used to work against the laws of nature so if it can’t happen naturally then magick cannot make it happen.
There are many who believe magicians, sorcerers, wizards and witches are only involved in conjuring and controlling spirits to their bidding and create change. Here’s a definition of necromancy from http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=necromancy,
“necromancy (the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world).” Many believe this is what magicians, sorcerers, wizards and witches practice in order to control their world and to control and manipulate others. They believe the magician coerces spirits to work for him involuntarily.
If you study the history of the Middle Ages you’ll find a lot of stories about necromancy and all the horrible, evil things these “devil worshippers” practiced. But if you look at the origin of the stories you’ll find many came from inquisitors, monks and Christian zealots seeking to create fear in an effort to coerce people to turn individuals in who may be practicing some sort of black magic, which really is any spiritual practice not in line with Christian doctrine.
Thousands of innocent people were tortured and murdered because of irrational and unfounded fear. It’s unfortunate that so much of the truth was twisted and so many suffered as a result and all for the political agenda of a religious few.
I have to add a side note that I do believe there are those who practice black magic but this is not the magician’s path. In Western Occultism this kind of person is called a sorcerer. However, according to Don Juan of Castaneda’s work a sorcerer is a shaman so we have to be careful not to get lost in definitions. When the European sorcerer works with these dark spirits, the will of the sorcerer eventually will be forfeited to these spirits. Following this path tends to accelerate the aging of the practitioner as his life force energy is slowly siphoned off.
There are many, many good spirits and entities that are more than willing to become an ally for the magician that it really isn’t necessary to call upon demons or evil spirits to do your bidding. The ego so wants to dominate that it is tempting to use these evil spirits but why when there are those of a higher vibration that are waiting for us to work with them and they are safe and loving beings.
The magician’s path is one that seeks spiritual enlightenment in a way that is empowering to his self. All religions seek to disempower their followers by telling them they must not seek out their psychic gifts because either those gifts are evil or they only feed the ego. The magician learns the dangers of developing his psychic abilities and learns to do shadow work to keep his ego from getting him to use those powers to control others. Once the magician does his work with his shadow he knows his ego and therefore is the master of his ego.
The magician also knows that to empower himself he must internalize and emotionalize his life’s lessons. The way this is done is by embracing the pain and trauma surrounding the beliefs behind the lessons he is learning. This is what I am calling shadow work because these beliefs are hidden in the subconscious or shadow part of the mind. Bringing these beliefs to the surface, or the light, and embracing the truth about them, the magician heals his soul.
In the book Paenitere by William Blystone, William defines the initiation in to the occult as, “the calculated, conscious effort undertaken by the Neophyte to realize the spiritual powers latent within him. These attainments steadily lead to the conscious realization of his immortal spirit, which is that gift the true Creator (God) gave him to nurture and develop when he was formed in the depths of eternity.” William is saying that to realize one’s immortal spirit is to attain a level of illumination or enlightenment.
There is a fundamental occult truth that magic is an extension of will. Aleister Crowley once said, “Magick is the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will.” This concept is diametrically opposed to the Christian teaching that the individual will must be brought into submission under Christ.
But what does Christ mean? Christ is a level of consciousness and when a person “submits” his will to Christ consciousness the ego is brought under submission because the individual has raised his consciousness to the level of Christ.
Another way of describing the path of learning and practicing magic is by looking at martial arts. Martial arts can be learned by an individual and used to hurt other people or it can be learned and used to help others. Martial arts is a mental and physical discipline in much the same way magic is a mental and physical discipline.
In the book Self-Initiation of the Golden Dawn Tradition, Sandra Tabatha Cicero explains that all rituals from the initiate to portal grade must be carried out only under the authority of the student’s Higher Self and not under the ego of the student. In many occult paths the student is taught how to develop a relationship with the Higher Self for the purpose of getting one’s own direction from one’s own Higher Self rather than from outside sources.
There really is a lot of confusion over what the occult actually is and what it involves due to the sensationalizing effects of Hollywood and the media. The popular opinion is that the occult is connected with Satanism, black magic and dark ritual practices. Occult studies refer to studying secret knowledge and for those who have inside knowledge of the occult understand its deeper spiritual connotations that go beyond the material world.
Bottom line is that most occult paths will lead the student to Self-realization and the actualizing of your potential in all your dimensions. It is understood that your own Spirit must ultimately be your Guide and Master. A true Magi or Master can show you the path but you must learn to follow it
© 2003- 2008 — Aurora Dawn, LLC –
Tags: Magician, Magick, Occult, spiritual evolution
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Hi Dawn,
Happy New Year! I tried to send an email but your mailbox is full.
I’m reading a book by a brilliant first generation student of Jung in Zurich, Barbara Hannah, “Striving Towards Wholeness”. She mentions Jung once said that if the matchbox he had in his hand suddenly floated into the air, the women in the group would be delighted, and the men would try to find the guide wires.
Jung was very much a shaman himself, his cousin Helene Presiwerk was a medium. Jung experienced many psycho-kinetic, extra sensory events, including pre-cogntion, dead people coming to him for advice, etc. He wrote a book about “Synchronicity” or acausal events that were related on the level of the psyche, but not physically. The Chinese and the Taoists never discussed “cause and effect” in the mechanical sense. They would say not that A causes B, but A and B like to appear together at the same time. The master acausal work is the I Ching, or the Book of Changes. Try it sometime. Its answers are always a great surprise. http://www.ichingonline.net/
I wouldn’t soft pedal or overly explain what you know to exist through your own experience to the “men looking for the guide wires”. If this is something that tunes you into to the energy of the center, than use it.
Jung said when we experienced the non-temporal world in the temporal world, we experience the expectation of the beginning, the surprise of what’s happening now, and the fulfillment of the result all in the same time fragment.
The waking day world, with its constraints of time and space, set up a baseline for the mechanically banal world. When the timeless world penetrates into it, as it does especially when you’re gifted, this is called magic, because it doesn’t follow the rules of waking day world.
The one caveat I would add is that when we use words like occult, witchcraft, etc. they have additional connotations that are drug into the consideration of the phenomena that are often unwelcome. There is an attraction to these words, because they have an energy of their own. But, on the other hand, they may cloud what we actually experience, and more neutral words might be more instructive to the furthering of the concept.
This world is a moonlit world, where separation, delineation, definition are not as meaningful. Forms, figures merge together in moonlight, the faraway is near, the high is low, and the unknown lurks potentially in every shadow.
I’m going to a 2 day seminar February in San Francisco with probably the nations foremost expert on shamanism, Michael Harmer. I would also like to enroll in their 3 year training program on shamanism. Their current class is in it’s 2nd year, so I would have to wait at least a year. My aims in experiencing shamanism is to open up the wisdom of the DNA and to incorporate it in my waking day life, with the ultimate goal being wholeness.
THANK you for your blogs and posts Dawn. Always fascinating.
Craig Nelson
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
p.s. I’d like to add one thought about the connotation of words.. Some might think the words occult, magic, witchcraft carry baggage.
I would say they do because 1) of the dualistic nature of Christianity, good vs. evil, and the implied connection with the latter, Satanism and so on. Would this be an issue in Japan, China or India? Not at all. The only baggage they would carry there would be 2) conflict with the mechanistic, cause and effect, rational waking day world. This is the world the ego operates in. And the ego, also known as “the Clown I” thinks it is the master. But in a world lit only by the moon, the ego is not so sure.
I think the words occult, magic, witchcraft, and others also have a power in themselves, and this energy attracts people of a certain bent. Who are seeking the energy of the moonlight. This attraction is even before knowledge of the contents, evoking a response in them. Thus the words, the contents, and most importantly the phenomena experienced make “neutral words” without connotations weak and not a nutrient to the energy evoked, as the actual words are.
In the final sense though, what purpose does magic serve? If it awakens the heart, the limbs, the DNA to the individual destiny, then it is life itself.
On the other hand, if it becomes a cult, and by that I mean “possessing” the individual in a collective way, it’s much more problematic. Possession, or the trance state brought on my a collective energy are NOT leading to the fulfillment that life asks of us.
Craig
January 7th, 2009 at 10:37 am
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January 10th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Craig, you are definitely a deep thinker and I appreciate your thoughts on this subject.
The reason I use the words occult, magic, witchcraft is because their true definitions hold strong meaning for me. Yes people have twisted the meanings but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t use these words. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is if someone still believes a witch worships the devil and is not willing to see anything else then I am not the teacher for them. I don’t judge them because they are experiencing life the way they want to experience it.
Another lesson is that I am only responsible for myself and my truth. If I have to change things to suit other people’s sensibilities then I will lose my focus on what I need for myself. I definitely don’t flaunt these names nor do I shove them in peoples’ faces and tell them to like it or lump it but I feel that it’s a good thing to reclaim these words so people understand what they really mean.
This is only how I see this situation. I know many others who do use different words so people are not freaked out but I choose not to.
February 7th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Excellent! I wish there were more pages like yours! Really excellent material, thanks!
March 5th, 2009 at 3:10 am
I’m really glad you appreciate the blog. I hope to continue with valuable information that people can use to improve their spiritual growth.