Few words carry as much confusion as magic. It names a branch of entertainment, a genre of fiction, a term of abuse and a tradition of practice at least two thousand years old. This page is concerned with the last. It sets out what practitioners of the Western tradition have meant by the word, how they have divided the subject, and how they have tried to explain it.
In brief
- Magick is the deliberate use of symbol, ritual and trained will to bring about change, first of all in the practitioner.
- The spelling with a k marks the spiritual discipline off from stage conjuring.
- The tradition divides magic by its means, as natural, celestial or ceremonial, and by its ends, as theurgy or practical work.
- There are several theories of how it works. You do not have to choose one in order to practice.
The word and its spelling
The word comes from the Greek mageia, the art of the magoi, who were the priests of ancient Persia. To the Greeks it meant foreign religious expertise, impressive and suspect in equal measure, and the word has kept that double edge ever since.
Magick with a final k is simply an older English spelling. It was revived in the early twentieth century by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, to distinguish the art from the performances of stage illusionists, and many writers since have followed the convention. This site uses magick for the discipline and magic in historical contexts and common phrases.
Three definitions
No single definition has satisfied everyone. Three are worth knowing because each brings out a different side of the subject.
- The art of using hidden natural powers
- For the Renaissance philosophers magic was the practical part of natural philosophy. Cornelius Agrippa called it the most perfect and chief science, which joins the lower things to the virtues of the higher. On this view the magician works with nature, not against it, as a gardener does.
- The science and art of causing change in conformity with will
- The best known modern definition, proposed by Crowley. It is deliberately broad: any intentional act is a magical act. Its value lies in the stress on will, meaning not a passing wish but the settled direction of the whole person.
- The art of changing consciousness at will
- A later refinement that locates the change in the mind of the operator. It is the most cautious of the three and the easiest to test, since whether your state of consciousness has changed is something you can observe.
On this site we take the three together. Magick is a disciplined art that uses symbol, ritual and concentrated attention to change consciousness, and through consciousness the conduct and circumstances of a life.
The kinds of magic
The classical division follows the three worlds of Renaissance cosmology. Each kind of magic works with the powers of one world.
| Kind | World | Works with | Typical practices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural magic | Elemental | The hidden virtues of herbs, stones, metals and scents | Gathering and combining materials according to their sympathies |
| Celestial magic | Celestial | The influences of planets and stars; number and proportion | Timing by days and hours; planetary images and talismans |
| Ceremonial magic | Intellectual | Divine names, intelligences and spirits | Prayer, invocation and formal ritual |
A second division is by purpose. Theurgy, literally divine work, is ritual aimed at purifying the soul and uniting it with the divine. The term comes from the later Platonists of antiquity, who held that reasoning alone could not lift the soul and that sacred action was needed. Its opposite pole is practical magic, sometimes called thaumaturgy or wonder working, which seeks particular results: health, protection, knowledge, livelihood. Popular usage calls the first high magic and the second low magic. The terms describe a difference of aim, not of worth, and most practitioners do both.
How is it supposed to work?
Practitioners have offered four broad kinds of explanation. They are best thought of as models: ways of picturing the process that are useful for some purposes and awkward for others.
The spirit model
The oldest account. The world is inhabited by non human intelligences: gods, angels, planetary spirits and others. The magician knows their names and natures and enters into relation with them. Ritual is diplomacy.
The energy model
The world is pervaded by a subtle force that can be raised, shaped and directed by breath, posture, imagination and will. The idea has ancient relatives in the world soul of the Platonists and became prominent in the nineteenth century.
The psychological model
The symbols and spirits of magic are images of the deeper layers of the mind, and ritual is a technique for speaking to those layers in their own pictorial language. The effects are real and are effects on the practitioner, who then acts differently in the world.
The information model
Mind and world are linked by meaning as well as by mechanical cause. A ritual is a pattern imposed with great intensity, and patterns tend to propagate. This is the principle of correspondence restated in modern terms.
Experienced practitioners tend to move between these as the work requires, and some hold that the choice of model is itself a matter of technique. A beginner need only notice that the practices are older than any of the theories.
Magic, religion and science
Magic has always lived on the borders of its neighbors. With religion it shares prayer, ritual and reverence, and in the temples of antiquity the two were not distinguished. It differs from most religion in its temper, which is experimental and individual: the magician wants to know by acquaintance. With science it shares curiosity, method and the keeping of records, and chemistry and astronomy grew in part out of alchemy and astrology. It differs in that its claims about the outer world have not been established by controlled test.
A sound practitioner respects both neighbors. Magick is not a substitute for medicine, engineering or evidence, and nothing on this site should be used in place of qualified advice.
What can be expected
What does sustained practice actually produce? The reports of practitioners across several centuries agree fairly well. Attention becomes steadier. The will grows more reliable. Dreams and imagination become more vivid and more meaningful. Life acquires a sense of pattern, and striking coincidences seem to gather around one's intentions. Character changes, usually slowly and sometimes painfully.
What should not be expected is control of other people, exemption from ordinary effort, or certainty. A working for employment that is not followed by applications is a daydream. The tradition's own safeguard against self deception is the written record, kept honestly and reviewed coldly.
The three requirements
Whatever the theory, every school agrees that effective magick depends on three things, and the rest of this section is about acquiring them.
- Trained attention. The ability to hold the mind on one thing. This is developed by meditation.
- Clear intention. Knowing exactly what you are doing and why. This is a matter of will and of self knowledge.
- A symbolic language. A system of correspondences through which intention can be expressed. This is supplied by the elements, the planets and the Tree of Life.