Ars Arcana: Magic In The Roman World
Magic. The enunciation of this term can stir contrasting reactions in the minds of men: suspicion, fear, doubt, mockery... It is a controversial term, mostly because its definition leads to subjective interpretation and its connotation has varied across the centuries.
An interesting definition of magic was offered by French historian Jean Bottèro: “it’s a system of social facts, based upon the belief of immediate efficacy of a certain number of attitudes, procedures and elements, that was usually employed to create beneficial effects, yet whose relationship with its causes were, from our point of view, perfectly irrational.”
Yet ‘magic’ stems from the darkest recesses of the human psyche and is an undying element of our everyday lives; we feel the vibrations of the world surrounding us and the invisible threads that link the elements. The notion is that these elements can be mastered, which will lead to greater knowledge and, ultimately, to truth – this obsession has haunted mankind since ancient times. Full Story
Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells
An interesting definition of magic was offered by French historian Jean Bottèro: “it’s a system of social facts, based upon the belief of immediate efficacy of a certain number of attitudes, procedures and elements, that was usually employed to create beneficial effects, yet whose relationship with its causes were, from our point of view, perfectly irrational.”
Yet ‘magic’ stems from the darkest recesses of the human psyche and is an undying element of our everyday lives; we feel the vibrations of the world surrounding us and the invisible threads that link the elements. The notion is that these elements can be mastered, which will lead to greater knowledge and, ultimately, to truth – this obsession has haunted mankind since ancient times. Full Story
Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells
posted at 12:34 PM
1 Comments:
What is Magic?
One level one, it is a term associated with bullshit. The general sense (I am making a sweeping statement about the population in general) is that there is no such thing as magic. This means that it is generally believed that magic does not exist. Magic is roughly defined as the ability to influence any “thing” by means of a magician’s intent. Also associated with level one magical knowledge is that of the illusionist. The illusionist is a mere entertainer only with the ability to make audiences think they are witnessing something magical but truly knowing what they are witnessing is not real, but bullshit with the aim of entertainment. This is not associated with the field of magic and belongs in category one.
On another level, call in level two, the mind will admit to seeing “something” that may or may not have been produced magically. The belief in miracles might fall into this category. The belief in the unseen (although not bearing direct witness) such as angels, demons, ghosts, and spirits etc. Another belief may be in divination as a fun toy to see what it says. Level 2 is where I reside on a day to day basis and my bet is that most of the general population reside on level 1 or level 2. Either they don’t believe in it at all (for whatever reason) or they have some belief in it albeit relatively unproven. A lot of Christians fall into this category because they believe in a god they can’t see, touch or feel and a historical story of Jesus Christ whose words they worship on. This is the beginning of the magical path.
Short note. The problem with Crowley’s work is that it is too complicated. My personal experience coincides (or not) with Occam’s Razor. The simplest method is the best method. I think magic is simple and will attempt to provide my elementary insights to this comment.
The 3rd level to me (speculatively as I have not achieved) is the integration of what we thought we knew into something we actually know is real. We use in our day to day lives to make life more pleasant. To achieve the 3rd level requires a certain skill set that is polished enough to obtain results on a consistent basis.
Beyond the 3rd level is beyond my understanding. I don’t know that it is relevant to this life.
My own experiences with magic or magical intent stems from my youth. For some reason as you get older, and are bound by more rules, you find time to see your intent manifest less. Simple story, when I was very young, my mother died of a drug overdose. My father and stepmother were regular meth users and weed smokers. I inherited the culture by birthright. I began regular use of not only these two substances in various forms, but also acid, mushrooms, fume inhalation around the age of twelve and this commenced in various quantities and stages until the age of 18 when I joined the US Army. I am now a successful banker at the age of 27, with a multitude of achievements. The general populace appears to believe that those in my condition statistically do not amount to much. I have verified this with my own eyes having visited some of my drug using colleagues subsequent to my leaving the military. The ones that do amount to something are typically sensationalized as a rarity. I am one of those. This is the story of magic.
The basic components for a magical working are emotional in nature and come from within. When I say magical working, I mean for your intentions to become manifest in “reality.” I only practiced magic as a young person and have had little need for it since then. The first component worth mentioning is intent. It might be helpful to explain what this word means. To me, intent is a desire for a thing. I want this or I want that. Most intents do not manifest into reality. That was Crowley’s problem. The reason is there is little or no emotional connection to the intent. We only see things manifest if there is some strong vibrations attached to it. For example, in my own life, as a young person, probably about 14 years of age, my everyday thoughts revolved around attainment and mastery of life- primarily money and success. This consumed me to the point of exploring the literary magical offerings. This wasn’t enough and I discovered through personal exploration that the only place truth can be found is inside yourself. You are the only one who can decide what is true or not, what to believe in, and with how much strength will you contribute to an intent. I would work myself up into a frenzy through drug induced and non-drug induced states of desire that consumed my very nature- it went beyond me into a life of its own that I tapped into for information, and vitality to see me through tough times. At that point we are dealing with an intent that is growing without you maintaining it. You make it grow faster and stronger by feeding it by placing reminders around your daily path that can add to the charge. You spend time with it, be with it, love it, hate it, and understand that it is a part of you and will work under its own timing. That is magical intent. For analytical minds like my own, look at your present circumstances and look back to your dreams as a young person. They should be identical or moving in that general direction. If they are not, you do not have the fundamental rule or emotion mastered yet.
The fundamental rule is part of what makes a magical intent a success. It only pertains to an individual and cannot be “obtained.” Either you have it or you don’t. Either you believe it or you don’t. I have spent some time with others trying to open this faculty, including a best friend who witnessed my magical workings first hand but could not apply to himself. As a result, he is one of the masses whose mind is rotten through drug addiction, and repeats criminal offenses and is now in prison. Clearly, he has failed in this regard. The fundamental rule is a core belief in the system of magic or manifestation. Any manifestation that is created is the result of the fundamental rule- believing it can be real. Unfortunately, the word believe is a word tossed around so much, reading it does not create the essence of what we are trying to convey here. Imagine for a moment that the Christian representations of God and Jesus are real, whether that is your personal belief or not. The description of God is often one which defies human intelligence. You could not see him because he would blind and shatter your seeing faculties. You could not hear his words with your ears as your ear canals would explode. To feel him emotionally would smash every cell in your body into oblivion. Imagine the greatest power possibly conceived by the human mind and multiplying it by infinity and just scratching the surface. Absolutely immeasurable and all powerful. Pure Love. Then you take this as a belief and imagine this person works for you, but secretly. Even if you told someone, it wouldn’t matter because they wouldn’t believe you anyway. This person can manifest anything you want and awaits your command. He is everything and everywhere and those tuned in to the appropriate frequency understand they have an unbeatable ally. To describe belief simply, “imagine you have a secret tucked away in you mind that makes you smile out of the side of your mouth, a devious smile, that says I know something you don’t know.” It resides inside you like a physical being. It is an incontrovertible fact. It will stay with you always. This is the fundamental rule. Once you have this, you can achieve anything. One last comment- it is what created you. Everybody has it, some understand and others don’t. Do you?
Beyond the fundamental rule and magical intention, the rest are details or unknown to me. I have created what I wanted. A recent I-Ching divination done for fun yielded Sheng or Ascending for card 1 and then its opposite yielded Ta Yu or Abundance for card 2. The question I asked was about my original magical working back as a youngster. My dreams are coming true everyday, how about yours?
One more story. It doesn’t matter what “god” you believe it or disbelieve in or whatever. What matters is what you bring to the table of life. Do you bring massive energy like a brightly burning sun, or are you a dying star hoping your wishes are answered. I nearly killed a man while serving in the Army. No reason really, just drunk and stupid. I went to prison for several months during which time my life seemed uncertain. There was talk of prison sentences of up to 40 years. I was very scared. All my instincts of guilt and self-preservation were overwhelming we to the point of tears and mental paralysis each night before bed. Finally, I turned to the bible for help. I began absorbing the material at a rapid rate and practicing the fundamental rule to help me in the bind I was in. I would create the magical intent every night before bed, tears flowing, screaming inside for help. Knowing what a fool I was for my deed. I spent less than 90 days in prison and was released with one year of parole and the offer of expungement of all records after 5 years. I met the obligation easily and had my records expunged. I have never been in trouble since.
Good luck,
There is more than this at the well of life, but is up to each of us to find it.
Anonymous
Post a Comment
<< Home