To begin exploring this question, let's consider two approaches. Ceremonial magick and sigil magick.

The ceremonial approach generally involves props, lighting, incense, a mood. A scene is set.

The sigil approach, pioneered by A.O. Spare and developed further within the Chaos current is generally simpler and more to the point. One composes a statement of intent, creates a symbolic representation of this intent, focusses on this symbol whilst pushing oneself into a state of gnosis, a cathartic or trance state, inwhich the intention is supossedly cast out into the universe, in the hopes that it can manifest.

To me, it's always seemed that so called magick is all about tricking the subconscious mind into affecting the world in ways that the normal conscious mind can not directly comprehend...this is about using latent psychic powers. One might suggest that "magick" occurs all the time, spontaneously, accidentally perhaps. Things just fall into place...

One way of looking at magick is that all magickal practices can be filed unto either Enchantment or Divination. The world is a system of Dynamic Order, which can likewise be referred to as Chaos. Like a cloud. A swirling fractal proccess. To Divine, one makes their mind like unto one of these systems, like a cloud, like wind tossed leaves, turbulent waters, ect. Cast the stones, swirl the tea leaves, shuffle the tarot, split open the steaming entrails....study the random configurations these dynamic systems lay out for you and intuit the answer to your query.

Enchantment can be scene as being much similiar. One uses whatever tools/slight of mind/ritual, whatever, and sets out to affect a chaotic system, to nudge the chaos in a certain direction. Peter Caroll has suggested that one should enchant long and divine short. To divine a far away event, well, there's a lot of chaos between now and far away, theres so much that could change. For enchantment however, if one enchants long, there is plenty of chaos (opportunity) that one's intent can make usage of on the way.


I do not profess to "know" anything and I certainly do not claim that any of this is "true"...idk, every so often a new thread pops up, "hey what do you think of magick"? I thought I'd get a bit more specific with this thread, see what other think about this one proposed theory of the mechanism of magick. If there is actual interest, then maybe we can go further and explore other questions. (moral implications seems a big one, I hate to see anyone led astray in this dangerous territory) Entheogenic usage the world over is largely the province of Shamans. To me, it only makes sense that we explore these subjects. I thought I'd start very basic.

Any thoughts? Or ought I shush and keep it to myself?

Sigil magick is a newer thing..ceremonial magick is not so new but I think it is something that can make for more confusion to people new to all of this.

Folk magick is a sort of easier thing to get I think. Folk magick basically stems from the belief that the world is enchanted..things are connected and there is a deeper level to this world that is animated with spirit. Folk magick differes from ceremonial magick in that it is not so ritualized. Traditional witchcraft was a sort of folk magick in my opinion, but with shamanistic aspects as well..but the main point of relevance here is that in folk magick in general(including witchcraft) there is no concecration of space.

There is no need to cast a cirlce, smudge the space, call upon the directions or any other practice that seeks to concecrate the space or create sacred space..becasue nature is already sacred and spirit is found throughout everything. Folk magick is practical magick. Magick is worked when it is needed and there is no preperation really necessary. If the corn needs rain they call the rain..if someone needs to make more money they have spells for that etc..it is a very practical sort of magick that is more about making your way through an animate world than some highly ritualized and planned out sort of magick.

Ceremonial magick often has more to do with altered states of consciousness from what I gather(but this is not always true). There are hints of this in traditional witchcraft(actaully much more than hints as witchcraft had much to do with alteed states) as well..the witch is the "hedge rider" and crossing that hedge is a big part of that. Often the witch will "sit out" laying down underneath a blanket while others around her sing galdr(a magickal sort of runic chanting) and dance with stavs(staffs)..I guess that can be seen as a sort of ceremony..but I think it can happen on demand..not so much plannted out as much as they just know how to work that sort of magick..the witch who is "sitting out" then goes into a trance and enters into a shamanic sort of journey..often psychoactive plants are used as well. Another way to put this is that witchcraft was basically seid magic(which was basically a type of shamanism) while rune casting was a form of divining magic and was known as spae craft..

Many forms of magick and especially the mystery schools seem to be highly ceremonial and concerned with personal development and enlightenment etc..whereas folk magick seems to be concerned with making ones way through the world day to day..and then there are places where the 2 cross, which is what I see in traditional witchcraft(and many other old craft traditions).

Folk magick I think is also often land based..hoodoo for example has roots in the deep south..it arose in that place and has absorbed a number of traditions from that area and fused them into a syncretic form of magick..vodou lives on IMO in the south through hoodoo, but it differes in some ways becasue it is indigenous to the deep south..the land is alive and without that connection that magick would not operate as it does..most animistic traditions are land based and this is IMO why they do not always take so well to imported religiong like christiantiy and end up simply using christian symbols as metaphores for their origional beliefs..the land is what is relevant to the country folk...everything else is just abstraction and this is what modern religion lacks in part and the missionaries never understood.

Ceremonial magick is often imported from region to region because it aspires to achieve something else. There may be a connection to nature appreciation etc but it is on a more universal level etc..

A good example here is Wicca as opposed to true witchcraft.

Wiccans worship nature. There was none of this in traditional witchcraft. Real witches were a part of nature..they saw no divide so they did not worship nature as a god they lived along side the spirits of the natural elements around them as equals. Nature was neither good nor bad, it just was..and just as humans can have desirable and undesirable traits so did/does nature.

Wiccan on other other hand worship nature as a diety, and there is much emphasis on the "tripple goddess". Wiccan practices are highly ritualized ceremonies often incorperating much more dogma like the rede etc..

These are just a few examples of certain types of magick that to many look so familiar on the surface but in reality are worlds apart.

I have 'The Key of It All'

book II.

In relation to the question "how does magic work..I think you can get 100 different answers to that one question from 100 different people.

yea.

it's originally rooted in ritual, shrouded by mystery, and superstitious belief, on account of the outside observer. modern society sees it as "sleight of hand" trickery; the basis of the latter is to engage the observer into believing what they are perceiving.

I saw something on the discovery channel about illusions, particularly when one of the program's actors was staring up at a tree in an NYC park, then other actors joined him.
nobody stopped to look when it was the one actor, but after a group gathered, others stopped to look at what he was looking at. he claimed to see a snake in a tree, then others were convinced there was a snake in the tree too, and tried to justify seeing one. there was no snake in the tree.

the moral of the story: sometimes groupthink takes over, and shapes your beliefs/perceptions.

Thank you both for replying. I've got more thoughts on the subject, but my mind is far way right now...

I think that magick works based on the practitioners beliefs.

As you can attribute the results you get to any belief...

[quote=jamie]it is a very practical sort of magick that is more about making your way through an animate world than some highly ritualized and planned out sort of magick.

Folk magick I think is also often land based..hoodoo for example has roots in the deep south..it arose in that place and has absorbed a number of traditions from that area and fused them into a syncretic form of magick..vodou lives on IMO in the south through hoodoo, but it differes in some ways becasue it is indigenous to the deep south..the land is alive and without that connection that magick would not operate as it does..most animistic traditions are land based and this is IMO why they do not always take so well to imported religiong like christiantiy and end up simply using christian symbols as metaphores for their origional beliefs..the land is what is relevant to the country folk...everything else is just abstraction and this is what modern religion lacks in part and the missionaries never understood.
[/quote]

I found that a very lucid description, jamie, thanks for typing it up.

Magic is focused intention. Directed emotion for a specific intent. Magic is a largely undiscovered science hiding behind an esoteric term.

[quote=tetra]Magic is a largely undiscovered science hiding behind an esoteric term. [/quote]
care to expound on that a bit?

[quote=Parshvik Chintan]
care to expound on that a bit?[/quote]

"This planet was once covered by a gigantic instrument of communication and ascension. Tones were important to inducing a correct flow of energy in the bodies of creatures. The ringing of the Egyptian obelisks set the correct frequency. Using this instrument, human beings could project themselves into higher worlds--what you call interstellar space, but also higher space. All of the ruins you see and consider as entirely separate from one another were actually part of the single great machine. This was a subtle machine. It did things far more sublime than any of your current machines. It was a machinery of God, this machine. It was very intelligent, infused with many souls. It could be addressed--programmed, if you will--with carefully patterned groups of words. These formulae became ritualized among the ignorant as prayers and magical formulae, for they assumed that the machine must be the god of those who addressed it, and they tried to do the same, in hope that it would grant them some benefit. However, the language of the machine was the language of nature, for the machine was not separate from nature.

. . .

What was here before you was very great. it uncovered the secret to which you are blind, the secret of communion with the dead. It began to use intelligent energy in its technology. To use souls as tools. Look at the carvings at Dendera in Egypt. Those strange objects in the containers are not electrical filaments or religious symbols. Those are souls. The walls of the containers bear an electrical charge of a type that imprisons them. Because of the use of such technology, elemental bodies extended their perception outside of the time stream, with the result that the school of the earth ceased to work as a place of change. Who knows the truth, cannot find their weakness, and that is your aim on earth. What was worse, the knowledge of this power was kept from the common, ordinary people who have little self-will to begin with, and so are the only ones really capable of making good use of such abilities. The old world was destroyed because of its own greed and secretiveness. Those least evolved rose to the top, as happens here. Your leaders, as you call them, are all people with damaged senses of self-worth. The damaged goods run the civilization. That's why it cannot last."


Figure it out. Until you do, these will just be words from some crazy dude on a web forum.

[quote=tetra]Magic is focused intention. Directed emotion for a specific intent. Magic is a largely undiscovered science hiding behind an esoteric term. [/quote]


I second that. I believe its all focusing your mind and intent. It is the symbols, acts, deification put forth to focus ones intentions and subtle energy. I believe there is no one right or wrong way to do magic. (unless its for "evil" whatever works best for you.

I have a friends who practices in the arts, he agrees to a point. He also believes as i that mind altering substances are a very powerful way to focus.

So many good points....

Firstly I love being one with nature (I have grown up in a very old mountain range, it is magnificent )

I'm not gonna try quote, just know most of you have touched on, in one way or another IMO, some part of this.

I had recently been considering a very similar sort of thread (glad I didn't, sorry if this is thread jacking, but its been pretty quiet).

I have been exposed to the "Andean Tradition" (name I know it by. It is from Peru. They use Ayahuasca as one of their ceremonies for many things, guided by shamans - I have yet too be able to experience it, though I hope to early next year . They also work with the elements as a way of managing ones internal self).

They teach, for example, water is your emotion. If there is a emotion troubling you, simply run your hands under water (preferably a river) with the intention of releasing that emotion through the use of the water element.

As many have pointed out already (possibly modified to my subjective experience and understanding):
This could simply be "programming" the subconscious
Everything could be attributed to belief - either by power of believing, or simply attributing anything good to belief

Maybe a few others.

My thought to create a thread, was to discuss the possibility that believing the water is removing the emotion is simply a "tool" (read: belief) to access the power of our own mind/consciousness. (Much similar has been pointed out)

My personal, temporary, understanding is that, it is simply a tool to access the power we hold as the beings we are.

In other words, "magick" is permanently happening. It is what creates our existence. some are just more conscious of the power they hold over "reality". As such, they have a much greater power than most realise. In truth (subjective), we all have this power, we need simply strip away the bull.... (a moment of pontification - bull.... we are constantly conditioned with by a variety of sources, seemingly innocent, normal (=danger)...)

But hey, maybe I am completely illusional, the great thing is I don't have to stay that way

PS I love spell-check

EDIT: Some points I missed (IMO):
Mind altering substances work towards consciousness (cause you are at that point in your journey - much more likely IMO if you are a member here)
There is no right or wrong, so long as you follow "Universal laws" (Think along the lines of karma, unconditional love, expansion of consciousness)
Intention definitely manifests - no matter how or subjective vs. objective
Everyone is unique
Every moment is unique

Intent

How does magick work?


I can offer my opinion and observation but cannot say I know how it works.

Will, intent, focus, these aspects of mind play key roles in most if not all forms of magick, as has been pointed out.

Structure also plays a role, in terms of the physical world, magick is not removed from this. Affecting the structure of both self and environment can influence magick, so to speak. It has to do with transmission of energy, sort of like electricity, there are different conductors, insulators etc that can affect the flow.

Mind is part of structure, it is not separate from the universe, it is physical in a manner, as well as energetic (energy is definitively physical according to the definition of the word physical)

Magick seems to require mind...


I'll note that there is the entity approach that is curious, it seems that appealing to specific entities has specific results. Prayer is a form of ritual magick, but in my own experience my prayers work only if they address the right entity. Although I can use the same technique as prayer to communicate with others who know my energy, (tune in like a radio) This communication is not language based.

I agree that magick is a science, according to the definition of the word science.

As stated here
https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=34674

Also, the human race developed over time through simple cause and effect experiments meant to provide certainty and survival ever since we where in caves, I believe Magick to be a simple continuation of this cause and effect way of understanding and gaining further control.

Smashing Stones produce sparks.

And now we begin to realize how we can influence reality mentally.Or we are finding new ways.

If you are interested in Magick then I suggest going through this site... hermetic.com
And also maybe reading from the master, and one of the only men who dedicated his whole life to
discovering and investigating Magick around the world. Aleister Crowley.

This link will tell you everything you could possibly need to know:
http://hermetic.com/crowley/book-4/