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vrijdag 24 juli 2009

Magick, black versus white

If you go to Google or Yahoo and type in the word “magick,” you’ll get a lot of listings for black magick, white magick, chaos magick, sex magick and thousands of other kinds of magick. And if you type in the word “magic,” you’ll get something entirely different. So what is magic (or magick)? Is real magic black, white or something else altogether?

In the experience of most magicians with some level of training, magic is neither black nor white, good nor evil. Instead, magic an unchanging set of operating principles that are in effect whether the you know them or not. Magical laws are like physical laws – they are impersonal, fixed and completely immune to bargaining. One of our favorite authors, Paxton Robey, explains it so well in his book “No Time for Karma.” He says, “The Universe and its rules must be seen as impersonal principle if we are to become self empowered beings…Remember the law of gravity. When you jump out of the window, you will go down. On the way you, you might remember about gravity, but the earth will not care one way or the other. Gravity is impersonal so it will not say, ‘She is a pretty good person so maybe we should let her down easy.’” While the idea of impersonal magical forces can seem cold and unfeeling, the good thing about it is that it’s very, very reliable. You’ll never go to make use of magical principle and find that it’s no longer there.

What makes magic so-called “black” or “white” is our intent. Remember that magic is the study of intention. Our intention and attention are what direct the forces of magic in one direction or another. So what do you do when you stumble on a website offering black, white, chaos or sex magic? Use your own experience and observation to decide if whatever they are offering is really right for you. All types of magic are valid. What’s right for you depends on your goals as a magician.

In reality, all forms of magic are just specializations in the same field. Magic is such as vast area of study that every particular branch is just a focused shot in the dark, trying to find out more about this area or that. Voodoo magic is about using the law, “as above, so below” to create effects in the world. What you do to a voodoo doll (as above), you likewise do to the person the doll represents (so below). Chaos magic is about using extreme methods to create heightened states of awareness and consciousness. Love magic is often about making other people fall in love with you.

And that brings up another interesting point. Above, we said that all forms of magic are valid. They are. But some have “sidebands” or side effects that you might not want in your life. For instance, if you cast a love spell that’s supposed to make another person love you, you are binding that person. Binding is a magical problem that causes a backlash. You see, the Universe operates on the principle of reciprocal maintenance, which means that whatever you do to others will also happen to you. So if you bind another person with a love spell, you can be sure that you’ll find your own freedom bound in some way, against your will.

Why Magick works

Magic works because it follows the operating laws of the Universe. Things always work better when you follow the rules – especially rules that are really hard to bend or break. For instance, consider the law of gravity on this planet. Can you buck that law? Maybe, if you dedicate yourself to studying martial arts for several hundred lifetimes. But what would be the point? The law of gravity has supremacy on this planet – wouldn’t it be easier to just learn to make gravity work for you than try to change the law?

Magic works the same way. Here’s how: everything in this Universe is made up of some combination of the four elements air, fire, water and earth. If you want to create anything in this Universe, you have to know the right mix of elemental ingredients. How much air, fire, water and earth need to be mixed in? In what order does it need to be mixed? On a more practical level that translates into what kind of thoughts (air), actions (fire), emotions (water) and resources (earth) need to go into the mix? It’s a lot like baking a cake – you have to have a good recipe, then you have to follow directions.

The study of magic is all about learning the ingredients that make up everything in this Universe. For instance, if you often get angry and you would rather be happy, using therapy might help, but it might also take a very long time. It might be easier to understand that anger is the element fire in the color red-orange. Simply decrease your balance of red-orange on a regular basis and not only will you not get angry all the time but you won’t BE ABLE to get angry. That’s what I call a shortcut!

Continuing our analogy of baking a cake, the Universe is like a giant kitchen and you’re the cook. The kitchen has all the ingredients and recipe books – all you have to do is know where to find the recipe book and how to follow directions. You have to learn certain techniques for producing excellent results. There are certain guidelines for how to mix the different elements and how they react to each other. It’s much the same as learning the difference between broiling and baking.

Isn’t it much easier to take a little time to learn how this Universe works through magic? You might not solve all your life problems in a week or two, but you will be able to start addressing them in just a day or two. Compared to winning the lottery tomorrow magic isn’t a quick fix. But when you compare a few months of study against, say, 10 or 20 lifetimes of struggle and repetition, magic becomes an incredible shortcut ;-)!

Your Motivation

If you start learning Magick you should ask yourself what is mu motivation for practicing magick? Is it to better myself? To improve your life situation? To get even with someone who has done you harm? To improve your control over yourself and your life?

Whatever your motivation, it’s good to state it clearly to yourself. If you’re looking for a quick fix in your life using magick, chances are that it won’t work. The ways of magick is a lifelong path of study and endeavor, not quick fixes. Having said that, let us also say that there are many easy-to-learn techniques that WILL have an immediate, positive impact on your life. It’s just that these techniques won’t solve your problems for very long because the level of your being attracts the level of your life. You might improve your finances with a spell, for instance, but if you don’t change the level of your being or the focus of your attention, that money won’t stick around for very long, and you’ll soon find yourself in the same sticky situation of not having enough money.

If you want to learn techniques to get revenge on someone who has harmed you, you might want to review the Rules of the Road, the universal laws that govern magickal. You can find on the first blog of this site. They cover the conditions under which it is and isn’t appropriate to use your powers and abilities.

The best motivation for learning magick is to improve the quality and span of your attention and intention. Remember that Crowley said, “Every intentional act is a magickal act!” If you want to learn magick, work on your attention. You’ll find that if you develop your attention so that you can focus it in one place and have it stay there, all the other motivations for magick will be answered. You will develop control and power in your life. You will know when to use your powers and abilities in self-defense. You will know how to defuse situations so you won’t need to defend yourself. You will know how to change the level of your being so you never have to worry about money. You will intuitively understand how to meet the needs of others and get your own needs met. You will understand how to manifest all the things you want in life. You will understand what wants are real and what wants are not. All this and more you will gain if you simply work on developing your attention. All the techniques in magick are simply about honing your skills in using your attention.

Why learn Magick?

In our modern society, with our fast-paced lives, trying to keep up financially and at the same time trying to go for our dreams, still trying to circumvent and juggle living in a society that is riddled with judgment, fear and control, we have lost our most basic birthright - our personal power. The power to have our own sacred space and live the lives we have always dreamed. With this new age of self help books and seminars, there is an awakening of the need to take back our power and our freedom to live - to have a choice and be able to live that choice. We have existed so long without our true personal power that many of us have deeply set beliefs that we never chose, can't seem to understand why we are unable to create what we want in our relationships and jobs, can't seem to reach our goals - or even be clear on what they are - no matter how many repeated efforts we make, and ultimately let negative thoughts, doubts and worry control us, preventing us from living in our true state. But what does this have to do with magick?

Magick is very powerful - as old as time, the flow and use of the very essence of energy in all things. It is pure. It is there. It is working, regardless whether you believe in it or not. Those of old knew about this beautiful power that flows through all things, and incorporated the use of magick as a way of life. But over the centuries, as social fear and control grew, magick became virtually obsolete in mainstream society (thereby becoming unavailable), being ridiculed and denounced by ones in power. In this day and age with so much confusion and disappointment, the taking of pills seeming to be the norm to give one the impression of making life better, incorporating magick into your life can make a very powerful difference - and in doing so, a difference in the lives that you touch as well.

Magick is a precise science - it is the art of connecting with and manipulation of the energy that flows in all things. Magick can help you to attract the things you want in your life; can help you deliberately create; can help you change health and thought conditions on all levels of mind, body and spirit; will heighten your awareness on both mystical and worldly planes; can provide you with personal power in concert with Universal Laws. There really is no limit once you learn the use of magick to what you can create or change, in yourself, your life, or in the world. It is my sincere hope that, through teaching the beauty and power of connecting with and using this ancient knowledge, each of you will become proficient magickal practioners and live your life deliberately in the manner of your dreams.