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In the course of exploring the possibilities
of new, more
efficient
techniques of magic I was struck by
the fact that a
structuralist
view of the history of magic to date
might prove
helpful.
After all, magicians have always aspired to restate
the
theory and practice
of magic in the language of their times i.e. in
different models
pertaining to current world views.
There is, however, some risk involved in such an approach:
models
do not really explain anything,
they are only
illustrations
of processes, albeit rather useful ones. What's
more,
over-systematization tends to obfuscate more
than it
clarifies
and one should not mistake the map for the landscape
anyway, a fallacy
a great many kabbalists seem to be prone to.
Thus, the following five (or rather: four plus one) models
of magic should
be seen as a means of understanding the practical
possibilities
of various magical systems rather
than as
definitive theories
and/or explanations of the way magic works.
It has proved
effective in practice to view magic under
the
following categories:
THE
SPIRIT MODEL
THE
ENERGY MODEL
THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
THE
INFORMATION MODEL
THE
META-MODEL
***
THE SPIRIT MODEL
This is
purportedly the oldest model of magic though it may very
well have come
into existence after or simultaneously with the
energy
model. We can find it worldwide in shamanic cultures as
well as in many
religions. Its basic premise is the existence of
an otherworld
inhabited by more or less autonomous entities such
as spirits,
angels, demons, gods etc. The shaman or magician is
someone who
can enter this otherworld at will, who has travelled
widely in it,
knows its language and customs and
has made
friends,
smitten enemies and/or acquired allies and servitors
there.
This is important as all magic is of these
entities'
making. The
modern German word for witch, "Hexe" (f.) illustrates
this rather
neatly if we take a closer look at its etymology. It
derives from
Old High German "hagazussa" which translates
as
"fence
rider". The hagazussa is riding the "fence between the
worlds" i.e.
she is at home in the world of everyday life as well
as in the magical
otherworld of spirits.
In the spirit model magic is seen as being effected by these
entities who
are usually invisible, at least to the
average
punter,
and it is the shaman's or magician's task to make them
put his will
into effect. This may be done by prayer, by barter,
by cajoling
or even - vide medieval demon magic
- by the
application
of magical force, threats and pressure.
The otherworld may have its own geography but it is usually
considered to
coexist with the world of everyday life. The key to
entering
it is an altered state of consciousness, controlled
trance or ecstasy
of which the shaman is an expert.
The spirit model has prevailed in traditionalist or Dogmatic
magic until
today, some of its most noted exponents being Franz
Bardon and,
at least to a great extent, Aleister Crowley.
THE ENERGY MODEL
The rise
of the energy model in the West is marked primarily by
the appearance
of Mesmerism towards the end of the 18th century.
Anton
Mesmer, who was not an occultist but who was on the other
hand regarded
by his contemporaries to be a "miracle worker" of
sorts,
rediscovered amongst other things the ancient healing
disciplines
of hypnosis and magnetism. He popularized his theory
of "animal
magnetism" which he saw as a subtle force inherent in
organisms,
but he also made heavy use of metal magnets
for
healing purposes.
While the French Revolution put a temporary end to Mesmer's
movement, his
ideas were not lost. They were taken up by a number
of others,
primarily occultists, who drew on them
while
developing their
own theories of magic. One of the first to do so
was Bulwer
Lytton of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA),
who postulated
the existence of a subtle energy which he termed
Vril,
possibly deriving from Latin virilitas or "force, power,
strength". (This
was actually the model for the naming of Bovril,
from Latin "bovis"
or "ox", and Vril or "life force".) We can
observe
interesting parallels to this concept in the vitalist
theories of
biology which emerged around the same time. Other
exponents
of the energy model of magic (not then so termed) were
Reichenbach
with his concept of Od, Eliphas Levi and his Astral
Light and Mme.
Blavatsky, who adopted the theories of Prana from
Yoga physiology.
This was also the time when anthropology and
ethnology
discovered the Polynesian concept of Mana and Asiatic
scholars began
to concern themselves with the Chinese principle
of Ki or Ch'i
(Chi). The latter two go to show, of course, that
the idea of
subtle energies utilized by magic is far older than
the 18th
century. In fact, we can observe it already in early
shamanic cultures.
Shamanic magic is very frequently a mixture
between
spirit and energy model, e.g. the shaman may call upon
his spirits
or gods to give him "power" or he may, vice versa,
use his power
to extort favors from them.
In its pure form, however, the shaman or magician is not in
need of spirits
and other entities. The world is viewed as being
"vitalized"
by subtle forces or energies and his primary task
consists in
mastering the art of perceiving and manipulating
them.
As all phenomena are basically energetic in nature, the
existence of
an otherworld is not strictly required. Thus, the
magician
is more of an "energy dancer" than a "fence rider" or
go-between.
But even here the key to the perception, charging and
general utilization
of these forces is again the magical trance
or, as Chaos
Magic terms it, gnosis.
Theories and practices pertaining to the energy model can be
found
with many magical authors but it has seen its real, large
scale popularity
only since the seventies of our century when the
general influx
of Eastern thinking (pace the Hippie movement)
made concepts
such as chakra and kundalini work a mainstay of
most occult
disciplines. Strong energy model elements can also be
found in
Franz Bardon's system of "electromagnetic
fluids",
"condensators"
etc.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
Sigmund Freud's
theory of the subconscious revolutionized Western
thinking
in general and psychology (which he did not, as some
people are wont
to believe, invent all by himself) in particular.
Suddenly,
man was seen as a being which was only
partially
conscious
and in control of itself. While psychology is still
fighting for
its academical recognition as a science, it
has
stamped its
mark on therapeutic disciplines - and on magic.
The psychological model of magic does not purport to explain
how magic
works, its only premise is that the subconscious (or,
as Carl Jung
later retagged it, the unconscious) will do the job
if it
is properly addressed and/or conditioned. This again is
achieved by
magical trance, suggestion and the use of symbols
(i.e.
selective sensory input) as tools of association and as a
means of communication
between the magician's conscious will and
his subconscious
faculty responsible for putting it into effect.
Aleister Crowley dabbled a great deal in the psychological
model which
comes as no surprise as he not only tried to keep up
with all
major academic disciplines of his time but thought
himself to be
the world's greatest psychologist into the bargain.
But all considered
he remained a traditionalist exponent of the
spirit
model: after all Aiwass was,
in his belief, a
preternatural
entity. Nevertheless he did have a
knack of
explaining magic
in psychological terms to make it sound sensible
to the skeptics
of his time.
A more radical approach was taken by Austin
Osman Spare
whose sigil
magic rests on the basic tenets of the psychological
model.
Spare's brilliant system is in principle an inversion of
Freud's theory
of complexes: by actively suppressing his will in
the form
of a graphical sigil and forgetting it, the magician
creates an artificial
"complex" which then starts to work on
similar lines
just as suppressed, subconscious traumas will cause
neurotic behavior
etc.
The psychological magician is a programmer of symbols
and
different states
of consciousness. He is not necessarily in need
of a transcendent
otherworld or even subtle energies, though in
practice he
will usually work on the assumption that one or the
other
(or both) do in fact exist and can be utilized
by his
subconscious.
Authors such as Israel Regardie, Dion Fortune,
William
Butler,
Francis King, William Gray and to some
extent Pete
Carroll subscribe
to the psychological model which seems to be
the primary
domain of the English speaking world of magic and
which has become
the prevailing paradigm ever since the seventies
of this century.
THE INFORMATION MODEL
The information
model of magic is being developed since about
1987 and
there is still considerable debate about the direction
it shall ultimately
take. Its basic premises to date are
as
follows:
a) Energy as such is "dumb": it needs information
on
what to do; this can be so called laws of nature
or
direct commands.
b) Information does not have mass or energy. Thus, it is
faster than light and not bound by the restrictions of
the Einsteinian spacetime continuum. It can therefore be
transmitted or tapped at all times and at all places. In
analogy (but of course only as such!) it may be likened
to quantum phenomena rather
than relativistic
mass-energy. It can, however, attach itself to a medium
e.g. an organism or any other memory storage device.
At the start
of the theoretical debate it was still believed that
the postulation
of morphic (or, more precisely, morphogenetic)
fields as hypothesized
by Rupert Sheldrake had to be an essential
factor by way
of explaining the mode of actual information
transmittance.
This, however, while still being discussed, does
not appear to
be strictly prerogative though it cannot be not
ruled
out that an act of information magic
may create such
fields. It does
seem more probable, though, that the concept of
information
matrices will prove to be the most promising theory
in the long
run.
The application of the as yet evolving information model has
led to
the discipline I have termed
Cybermagic (from
"cybernetics"
or the "science of control systems"). Contrary to
the other models
described above, Cybermagic does not rely on
magical trance
to achieve its effects. Rather, the Cybermagician
activates either
his own main memory banks, namely brain and
spine
(the Golf-club chakra, so-called because
of its shape
reminiscent
of a golf-club) or those of the target person. The
desired
information is then called up and transmitted
quite
similarly to
a copy command on an MS-DOS computer. The
copy
command analogy
holds good insofar as the information (not having
mass)
is not actually "lost" in the process (as energy would be)
but rather is
duplicated. This is an important point as it allows
for the magician
to perform his magic even in a state of very low
physical power,
possibly even when almost completely intoxicated,
as long as his
basic "life support systems" are still functional
and the command
syntax is employed correctly.
It is, however, obvious that this technique demands a fair
control
of what used to be termed kundalini effects and practice
has shown
ever and again that a good amount
of Yoga and
meditation experience
is a great help in achieving to Cybermagic.
Unfortunately, the full theory and practice of Cybermagic
cannot be described
here due to lack of space and will thus have
to be the subject
of a separate article to be published later. To
date the main
experimental research work is being done within the
Magical
Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) and
some
quite astounding
results have already been achieved, especially
in the
field of language and knowledge transfer
as well as
magical healing.
In spite of its very modern, untraditionalist outlook
the
basic
principles of Cybermagic may in truth well be the oldest
form of magic
extant. For we can, for example, find a number of
reports
in the East to the effect of a guru transferring all his
knowledge to
his successor before his death, which is usually
achieved by
an act of long, mutual meditation.
This goes to show that magic as a whole has always existed
in many,
coexisting models. What has changed, however, is the
stress laid
on one model or the other in the course of time.
THE META-MODEL
The meta-model
of magic is not a model as such but rather an
instruction
on the use of the others. For its only advice to the
magician
is: "Always use the model most adequate to your aims."
This may sound
a bit trite but we will see that it is not quite
as self
evident amongst magicians as one might expect.
It is
rooted in Chaos
magic's assertion "Nothing is true. Everything is
permitted",
which ultimately boils down
to pragmatic
utilitarianism.
Before this aspect is enlarged upon, though, let
us look at an
example of the models presented here as applied in
practice.
We shall take
the situation of magical healing to demonstrate how
these models
differ from each other.
In the
spirit model healing is regarded as an exorcism: illness
is caused by
"evil" or, at least, undesired entities which have
to be
negated.
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