Tuesday, October 23, 2012

What is magick?

What is Magick?
Magick is the science and art of using the subconscious mind to make powerful changes in the material world.   In more specific terms, magick is using conscious stimulation (i.e. rituals, symbols, gestures, chanting, lighting, incense, orgasms, etc.) to harness latent powers within the subconscious mind (i.e. gods, genii, intelligences, angels, daemons, etc.) to make changes in our bodies, our minds, and the world around us.

 Magick is the science and art of transforming one energy into another in a way that increases the quality and enjoyment of our lives.

In addition to teaching us how to get what we want, magick also teaches us to understand what it is we want.

In magick there are four traditional elements.  Fire, Water, and Air, and Earth. The wand symbolizes fire.  It is our desire, our Will, our energy.  The wand allows us to get what we want, while the Cup allows us to understand what we want.  The other elements, Air and Earth, are their children.  Air, represented by a sword, symbolizes our mind and intellect, and Earth is where all our dreams are manifested.

The Caduceus

Mercury (Hermes), god of magick and writing,  carries a staff called the caduceus, which is a pictorial representation of all he stands for, including his job as protector to merchants, thieves, and liars.
It is interesting that the medical association has erroneously taken the caduceus as their own, which has nothing to do with medicine.  The symbol that should be associated with medicine is actually the Staff of Asclepius which has only a single snake and no wings.

Wand of Hermes
Staff of Asclepius, God of Healing
Along with his caduceus, Mercury also carries a money-bag.  As master of magick and the spiritual world, he still firmly understands the concerns of the material plane, and is quick to exploit its laws for his own advantage.

I find it funny and ironic the medical association is now firmly associated not with the wand of the great healer, but that of the great trickster, prankster, and thief.



What is better? High Magick or Wicca?

This, of course, is a trick question.  High magick is not better than Wicca, nor is Wicca better than high magick. I’ve always found the categorization of magick into “low” and “high” to be counter-intuitive in practice.  Low magick, witchcraft, Paganism, etc. is supposed to be more in touch with nature, using more natural items in the rituals, and tends to work with large groups.  Often high magick is thought to be expensive, sometimes solitary, but ultimately very erudite.  Supposedly it’s the magick of the learned upper class instead of the “common folk.”
In the modern practical world of magick, all this breaks down. The overlap between magickal systems is vast and great.  Some high magicians choose to go skyclad and perform magick outside like a “Pagan” and some Wiccans are better with the complexities of Enochian than a sterotypical “high magician” trained in Golden Dawn.   Both Wiccans and high magicians have been known to dabble in the Goetia, though traditionally it is a high magick grimoire through and through.  And as far as the expense of items? Most accomplished magicians I know buy some things, find others, and basically just use what works.
Even the history of Wicca and high magick blend.  Both high magick and Wicca can be traced to Crowley, but in the case of Wicca, there is the influence of Gerald Gardner’s legacy which helped shape it into something quite different than Thelema. So while differences abound, their common history, and even many of their underlying principles are closely related–even down to the similarities between “casting a circle” and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
In modern magickal circles, I feel there is a push towards not only mixing and matching magickal systems in an effort to find what works best, but also at looking at the nuts and bolts of magick, and not just the superficial trappings of various styles.  Whether using high magick, shamanism, chaos magick, voudou, or medieval grimoires, an astute magician learns to take what works from any source and leave the rest behind.  A true magician is never pedantic and always evolving, taking, learning and growing from all magickal and spiritual systems of the world.

Middle Pillar Ritual

 

The goal of the Middle Pillar Ritual is to open up your major energy centers (chakras), and then raising and circulating as much of that energy as possible.

The chakras run up and down the middle pillar of the Tree of Life, and relate to specific points on the body.
I downplay the visualization of the traditional colors.  This is not to say visualizing each sphere as a specific color isn’t useful, but only that it can be distracting to sensing the actual energy.

Not everyone visualizes, feels, or senses the chakras in exactly the same way.  Some people will see and feel the chakras, while others will get only the vaguest sense of their presence.  For success, just assume the chakras are there while you repeat the chants.  Your experience of each energy center will grow with time.

         Please note that there are many types of yoga and many ways of working with the chakras.  The Golden Dawn skipped two common chakras for example (Ajna and Manipura), and there are other chakras used in Tantra that we aren’t specifically using here (such as the Bindu chakra on the back of the head.)  You may add or remove chakras as you actually feel or sense them, but all you need for practical magick are five given in the following ritual at my Magick & Hermeticism forums:
 The chakras are energy centers running up and down the center of our bodies.  The word itself comes from the Sanskrit “wheel” or “turning.”

The chakras can be “worked.”  This means through breath-control and visualization they can become more enlivened with magickal energy.

Chakkra Location on Body Location on Tree of Life Color Name to Chant
Sahasrâra Top of head Kether Violet or Bright White Eh-heh-yeh
Ajna “Third eye” Daleth/Gimel Indigo None[1]
Vishuddha Throat Daath Blue YHVH El-Oh-Heem
Anahata Chest Tiphareth Green, Yellow or Gold YHVH El-oh-ah V’Dah’Aht
Manipûra Gut (navel) Peh/Samech Yellow or Red Mah-nee-pur-uh
Svadisthâna Groin Yesod Orange or Red None
Mûlâdhara Base of Spine/ Feet[2] Malkuth Red or Black Adonai Ha-Aretz


 http://whatismagick.com/

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