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(Number 392)
HOW MAGICK WORKS
"Yet another concept"
Here we go again – but you never can get too much on this subject
though, as it is so very allusive and I'm hoping that with all the
differing concepts of the postings and discussions on magick that
we've had so far, they might just trigger something within the
members' and it will suddenly all be crystal clear, even if just for
a moment – for it will once again become allusive.
I've already introduced the concept of "models" before and even
quantum physics in a follow up posting just to give another
viewpoint, together with the importance of basic spell construction
and power building/releasing.
I personally belive there is much more to actually being able to
perform magick than we can verbalize though. I certainly believe a
certain frame of mind is required, that energy has to be raised, that
it also must be released properly, that perhaps the Ancient
Powers "out there" are with us in "otherworlds" and with all
this
together, in one way or another, it then works.
I believe the mind (in its various components as we understand it)
does play an important part, but not as a be all, end all, but
certainly has a deep relevance, and only then we can perhaps define
which model it is we're talking about or wish to pursue, mix or even
modify at later stages.
My main idea in all of these postings has been definitely to help a
person find an initial direction in which to experiment and see if,
and how it all works together, perhaps with various combinations for
various situations and/or times of the day/month/year and then for
you to keep trying as many methods as possible until one day, a
certain combination of techniques and frame of mind makes great
magick – and it is so.
It does not matter what particular school or path that you are
following, it all has relevance at this level, so all of you out
there can read this without preconception and bias towards any
particular path.
Today, I actually want to talk more about "frame of mind" and ways of
programming the real self (whatever that is) and/or the universe(s)
as we perceive it/them with us in/apart of it/them. Don't worry,
it's not really complicated, just take your time reading and you
might perhaps be able to read between the lines and that again is
what all these postings are about.
Let's start by asking how can programming the 'subconscious' affect
the world around us? What are the mechanisms involved? According to
the occult view, it works because that is the simply the `nature of
the universe'.
In the West, we mostly use the `mechanistic paradigm'. A paradigm is
a pattern or `model' as we've already learnt; in this case describing
the way the universe works. We use paradigms to function, usually
without even realizing it. The mechanistic paradigm is one of the
most basic that underlies our culture in fact and we'll now dig a
little deeper to understand this a little better.
This `model' states that there is an objective reality in which
objects interact solely through physical contact. Science has
updated this to include fields like gravity and magnetism, but I
think the principle is the same. The result is a universe in which
the individual is nearly powerless. You can only make real change
through physical action in other words. Magick on the other hand, is
usually the act of making such changes non-physically, so it might
not really fit in with the mechanistic paradigm.
Most westerners are unaware that the `magickal paradigm' represents a
majority view among the world's cultures. Basically, it is the
antithesis of the mechanistic view. It states that there is
no `objective universe', only `subjective universes'. These
universes are the perceptions of each and every individual. You
couldn't possibly do any experiment that would show your universe to
be either subjective or objective though. You must be an objective
observer in order to tell the difference. But....You are
automatically a subjective observer because you are in the universe.
That's life! lol
At this point, there is no practical difference between these views.
The universe looks the same either way. But the magickal paradigm
also states that the universe is an expression of your perceptions
and your perceptions are that part of yourself over which you have
control. When you change your own attitudes and preconceptions, the
universe will follow. This gives an individual as much power over
the universe as he has over himself then.
Metaphysics
We obviously don't exercise infinite power. There is definitely more
to magick than merely having a desire or belief. That is because we
have many conflicting desires and beliefs on many, many levels.
There is a level called, among other things that I've come across,
the `Little Self'. This roughly corresponds to the subconscious and
the super ego I'm told. The ego, the part of ourselves, which we
think of as "I," is called the `Middle Self'. The Little Self
however, is the gateway to the `High Self', our connection with
godhead and the universe.
Infinite power lies with the High Self, but our access is through the
Little Self, which has its own ideas and ideo-synchronicities. The
Little Self is aware of and accepts everything around it and
everything you think, even when you are not aware.
These perceptions build up very strong ideas in the Little Self.
When these ideas are different from yours (those of the Middle Self),
your own ideas loose the battle. To succeed, you must `unify' your
will.
Of course, people rightfully complain that even if we do create our
universe, it's still tough to make changes. Well, that is because
there is quite a bit of inertia to ideas that have been strongly
supported since childhood, (or before, if you accept past-lives).
In an extreme example, (and I mean extreme), the original "Peter Pan"
had to be changed to keep from harming children!! In the original
version, the characters flew because "they believed." Many children
then attempted to fly and discovered the hard way that their Little
Self did not agree. Things like a belief in gravity "may" be
possible to overcome, but no one will argue that it's commonly done
I'm sad to say.
This example sounds silly because our experience of gravity is so
compelling that it seems ridiculous to consider it to be "merely a
thought construct." But another belief that is nearly as widespread
is that of poverty. This is a significantly less daunting belief,
which many have overcome though. As long as you believe you are
poor, you will be! This is often a very strong belief.
Many people cannot even genuinely imagine themselves as being
wealthy. But, because it is not beyond reasonable comprehension, it
is possible to reprogram your Little Self - much as it's possible for
left-handers to learn to be right-handed. Magick is an effective way
to do this.
If you are unconvinced, consider how many little messages you heard
when growing up, which you now believe on some level or another?
Frequent messages, especially with children, usually become true. If
you have heard all your life that you are poor or dumb or
unsuccessful, eventually you believe it and eventually it's true.
You probably know many people with an unjustifiably poor self-image.
This is an image, which their Little Selves accepted, probably during
childhood when they couldn't protect themselves.
That is how messages to the Little Self work against you. And to
make it worse, or more complicated, the Little Self is aware of
everything, even when you are asleep. It also believes everything it
hears.
So the next time that you hear that you're not good or that you need
to buy a product that you don't really want, consciously give your
Little Self a different message. Talk to it and tell it what you
want to believe.
This is what makes your universe; so make it the way you want it.
When you have a particularly powerful belief to overcome, then you
must send a powerful message. That is the role of magick at its very
basics.
Religion
We have to go this route I'm afraid, but hear me out for a little
while. The popular religious rendition of magick is prayer and many
today make that assumption. Although, in my belief they are totally
different things, the principles may be similar, but they are
definitely different. Techniques that are effective for one though
will work very well in the other. In fact, they use many common
symbols. One could say that magick is a sort of secular prayer in
its basic format.
Prayer only works when "God answers it" though. This is entirely in
line with the metaphysical explanation. You can say for a moment
that the Higher Self is God, (or a God/dess), or perhaps your
connection to God (God/dess). This is simply a different way of
expressing the same ineffable principles. You can adapt anything
here to fit into your views. Don't let the way these concepts are
phrased put you off though and of course, feel free to interpret this
as much as you like in order to make it acceptable and more usable
to `you'.
Psychology
Of course I want to go here, albeit briefly, being a psychologist, as
it definitely has great bearing on the subject. The explanations
I've given so far require a new way of thinking about the universe,
but those still entrenched in the mechanistic paradigm need not miss
out.
Psychology I hope has enough respect as a science to offer some
hope. If you replace Little Self with subconscious, the principle is
the same. Although there is no longer a source of infinite power or
non-physical change. But influencing the subconscious is the next
best thing in a mechanistic world.
In general psychologists would say that magick directs all your
unconscious efforts toward your goal. It also eliminates those
unconscious efforts keeping you from your goal. This may not sound
like much, but it is primarily these efforts that determine success
or failure. It is easy to overlook because, for the most part, the
conscious will is the same, as the unconscious `will'.
Thus, we succeed at endeavors such as waking up, getting to work on
time and fixing dinner. This may seem silly I know; bear with me,
but when your `subconscious doesn't share a goal', even simple tasks
are exceptionally difficult. The power of the subconscious can
either fight you or help you. Wherever you succeed, it's almost
certainly helping. Wherever you fail, it's almost certainly fighting.
The (so-called) subconscious represents everything the mind does that
we do not think about. This involves most of what we do though.
When you are driving on a familiar freeway in good conditions, you
are usually listening to the music on the radio and thinking about
some other salient problems or another.
At such times it is your subconscious driving. If you notice
something strange in the road, it was your subconscious that brought
it to your attention. This is very helpful, but that isn't
necessarily the case.
The subconscious can throw up all kinds of barriers, preventing even
the simplest tasks. It can make you late for work when it doesn't
feel like going - you can wake up late, feel ill, misplace car keys
or even have an accident.
This influence sometimes goes to the extremes. People can even be
paralyzed by hysteria, a condition that lies entirely within the
mind. Pathological fears are another example. An agoraphobic, for
instance, can have such an extreme reaction to being outdoors that he
cannot leave his house no matter how badly he wants to!
The subtle action of the subconscious can be almost as profound.
Even when the influence of the subconscious is indistinguishable from
chance happenings, on a larger scale the effect is indeed dramatic.
Psychologists try to ensure therefore, that experiments are "double
blind" for this reason. They must set up an experimental group and a
control group. In the latter, there is only the single element, the
target of the experiment that is different.
In drug testing, experimenters use placebos on a control group. The
act of administering a substance can have a profound mental effect,
even when that substance is inert, a placebo. When they expect
effective drugs, people can have great results with a placebo. But
the "placebo effect" is purely psychological.
If either the experimenter or the subject thinks that they know which
is being administered, that is enough to throw off the results. The
subconscious of the subject reacts to what the subject expects.
If the experimenter knows what he is administering, then the
subject's subconscious reacts to cues from the experimenter's
subconscious. This is sometimes called the "Clever Hans effect"
after a horse, which seemed to be able to do math. In reality
though, clever Hans was but reacting to cues from the people around
him.
When someone near him knew the answer, the horse could sense that
person's expectation in more than one way, (that's what body language
and reading someone's `eyes' is). It was sometime before researchers
even considered these nearly invisible clues. Although such
subconscious actions are mostly extremely subtle, they can in fact,
dramatically change the results of an experiment.
The subconscious similarly affects results in your life as well.
Magick (if done properly) therefore, programs the subconscious to
work `for' you. This is not as potent as the metaphysical concept of
course, but it will make you as effective as you can possibly be in a
mechanistic world.
A unified `will' directs all your efforts, conscious and otherwise,
toward your chosen goal. Since the subconscious can present
insurmountable barriers, working out these barriers is all it takes
to be on the road to success.
Some may be disturbed to think that magick may be misrepresenting how
it works, but that should not be a problem.
In one experiment, scientists gave placebos to a group of subjects.
After the placebos "took effect," the scientists explained what they
were. Even when the scientists made it clear to the subjects that
the placebos had no biochemical action, many subjects still wanted a
prescription for them - duh. (It would be interesting to see how
much more effective prescription placebos are versus over the counter
placebos.) Were these people stupid? Or were they actually `wise'
to stick with something that worked?!
New Science
Those that cannot extricate themselves from the old mechanistic views
need an excuse to allow the placebo effect to bring them success.
Ironically, the same discipline, which made magick so difficult, can
now provide this excuse. Scientists are exploring some new ideas,
which depart from the founding mechanistic paradigm.
Ideas consonant with the magickal paradigm definitely show up in
Jung's synchronicity (`meaningful' coincidences) for instance and
more importantly nowadays in quantum physics, (which we've just
dicussed not so long ago), besides of course, the Gaia hypothesis and
the morphogenetic field hypothesis. (If you want more info on this I
suggest you read Rupert Sheldrake's "A New Science of Life").
When these views obviously challenge the traditional mechanistic
paradigm, they are a source of hostility and/or amusement to others
I'm afraid and perhaps some of you out there have come across this
sort of thing. When the challenge is subtler, people always tend to
ignore it.
Never the less, the west, thank goodness, is gradually turning toward
a view more in tune with magick finally. With greater frequency,
people are willing to actually consider the idea that we can/might/do
affect our universe on more than just a physical level.
Scientific evidence now supports the idea of non-physically affecting
your environment.
Quantum physics, as we saw earlier, suggests that an experimenter's
goals seem to create whatever particle he's looking for. That's
right and scientifically proven. The other idea I just mentioned was
morphogenetic field hypothesis, which suggests that actions affect
all other actions to the degree that the circumstances are similar.
Science is continually finding support for things that Pagans and
metaphysicians have said for millennia.
If your respect for science is such that you cannot take magick
seriously, I suggest that you do some research into these areas? If
you can find an acceptable explanation, then you can respect magick.
This respect is essential for success of course. But don't look
for "proofs", because the concept of magick is nebulous of course
and not designed to explain the way things are. "Contrary evidence"
only shows that you misunderstand. Therefore, change your definition
to include the new `evidence'.
Magick can never be proven wrong, simply because it can't be pinned
down. Since it explains a subjective reality, it can never be proven
right, either. The magickal paradigm will confirm any
preconceptions, so the mechanistic paradigm will look "true" if that
is what you expect. Since it also postulates so many unknowns in the
mind, this paradigm states that what you get is what you expected –
simple as that.
As with so many things, you will `believe' if you `want to' and
you `won't' if you don't want to' – quite cut and dry eh? But when
you're on the fence though, perhaps like many of you/us out there at
the moment, the right explanation can help you accept
the `possibility'. Only then can you honestly try magick.
If you experiment with a negative attitude, it is the nature of
magick to confirm this negativity, (remember this well people!)
Magick works best for those practical enough to be somewhat
skeptical, but `open minded' enough to give it an honest
try!! 'Belief' is akin to having all the legs to a table and until
you put on all of those legs the table won't stand upright.
If a part of you is genuinely interested in magick, work to become
comfortable with it first. Start with simple and harmless work.
Leave the more complicated spells and embarrassing stuff for later,
after you've first `seen it work' and you don't care so much. Having
once seen it work though, there's literally no turning back – you are
then a confirmed believer and that's the `real key' to being a
successful magickian.
My advice to all those newcomers is to try and avoid getting too
involved in the "explanations"! If you need one, pick whichever you
like. It doesn't have to be any of those here of course. Each has
to build his or her own models and/or a collection of more than a few
and that, as I said, is the reason for these various postings on
magick.
In any case, as I keep saying, `reality' transcends the understanding
of waking-consciousness, so any expressible explanation I, or anyone
else can offer is therefore, "wrong" in the traditional sense,
anyway. For a good illustration, try to "understand" wave-particle
duality in any but a mathematical sense. It's as impossible to
picture as a four dimensional cube. Back to square one – with more
understanding though!?
However and whatever the universe "actually is"; always act in a
manner that is responsible in an objective universe. If this were
not essential, people would have abandoned the objective universe
long ago. Objective or subjective, there are many empirical rules of
behavior that we all know; basically reality as we know it.
Magick doesn't change these rules. Don't drive crazily because
you've done a protection spell. Don't spend unwisely because you've
done a prosperity spell. Don't jump off a building because you've
done a flight spell.
Remain within these rules and you loose nothing by acting as though
the universe is subjective. You should not be doing anything you
don't want to do in the first place, because such acts are pointless
in either universe(s).
If the universe is objective, then you have had some harmless fun.
If the universe is subjective, then you have the chance to get
anything you want. If you approach it properly, you can't lose!
Good luck with your own journeys and in the next posting we'll
continue on with this a little more and help you walk those paths.
B*B
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