The Meaning Of Magic
by Israel Regardie
Copyright © , F.I. Regardie, 1964. Published by Helios, 1969
We live today in a world of great material
progress and mechanical ingenuity.
On every hand is flouted the
social advantages of the world-wide communication bequeathed to
us by such modern inventions as aviation, radio and space-craft.
Time seems to disappear in the face of such things, and space
dwindles almost to nothing. The peoples of the earth are drawn
far closer together than ever they have been before in recorded
history. By way of paradox, however, simultaneously with this
unique advance in scientific progress, a large proportion of mankind
is supremely miserable. It suffers the pangs of dire starvation
because scientific methods have yielded an over-production of
foods and manufactured articles without having solved the problem
of distribution. Yet modern science has become invested with a
nature which originally was not its own. Despite the chaos of
international affairs, and the fear of another catastrophic war
present in the minds of most people, it has become robed in a
mighty grandeur, almost of divinity. Perhaps it is because of
this feeling of insecurity and fear that this condition has come
about, for the human psyche is a cowardly thing at core. We cannot
bear to be honest with ourselves, accepting the idea that whilst
we are human we are bound to feel insecurity, anxiety and inferiority.
Instead, we project these fears outwards upon life, and invest
science or any body of knowledge with vast potential of affect
so as to bolster up our dwindling fund of courage. So science
has become, thanks to our projected affect, an authority that
hardly dares to be questioned. We cannot bear that it should be
questioned for we must feel that in this subject at least is authority,
unshakeable knowledge and the security we so dearly crave. The
phenomenon is hardly dissimilar to that of a few centuries ago
when religion, formal religion of the churches, was the recipient
of this obeissance and respect. For many people, science has now
become their intellectual keynote, by whose measuring rod--despite
their own personal neuroses and moral defects--all things soever
are ruled, accepted or rejected.
Pursuits no matter of what nature
which temporarily are not popularly favored, even though in them
lies the hope for the spiritiual advancement of the world, or
subjects which do not possess the sanction of those who are the
leading lights in the scientific world, are apt thus to receive
as their lot neglect and gross misunderstanding. When many folk
are introduced to Magic, for instance, the first reaction is either
one of stark fear and horror--or else we are greeted by a smile
of the utmost condescension. This is followed by the retort intended
to be devastating that Magic is synonymous with superstition,
that long ago were its tenets exploded, and that moreover it is
unscientific. This, I believe, is the experience of the majority
of people whose prime interest is Magic or what now passes as
Occultism. It seems that just as their hope for security and their
desire for unshakeable knowledge becomes projected upon science,
so their inner fears and unfaced terrors are projected upon this
maltreated body of traditional knowledge, Magic. Disconcerting
this reaction can most certainly be, unless criticism and the
call for definitions immediately is resorted to. By these means
alone may we who champion Magic obtain a begrudged hearing.
Science is a word meaning knowledge.
Hence any body of knowledge, regardless of its character--whether
ancient, mediaeval, or modern--is a science. Technically, however,
the word is reserved primarily to imply that kind of knowledge
reduced to systematic order. This order is encompassed by means
of accurate observation experimentally carried out over a period
of time, the classification of the behaviour of natural phenomena
alone, and the deduction of general laws to explain and to account
for that behaviour. If this be the case, then Magic must likewise
claim inclusion within the scope of the same term. For the content
of Magic has been observed, recorded and described in no uncertain
terms over a great period of time. And though its phenomena are
other than physical, being almost exclusively psychological in
their effect, they are of course natural. General laws, too, have
been evolved to account for and explain its phenomena.
A definition of Magic presents
a rather more difficult task. A short definition which will really
explain its nature and describe the field of its operation seems
practically impossible. One dictionary defines it as "the
art of applying natural causes to produce surprising effects."
Havelock Ellis has ventured the suggestion that a magical act
is a name which may well be given to cover every conceivable act
in the whole of life's span. It is Aleister Crowley's suggestion
that "Magic is the science and art of causing changes to
occur in conformity with will." Dion Fortune slightly modified
this by adding a couple of words-- "changes in consciousness."
The anonymous mediaeval author of The Goetia, or Lesser Key of
King Solomon has written a proem to that book where occurs the
passage that "Magic is the highest, most absolute, and most
divine knowledge of Natural philosophy . . . True agents being
aplied to proper patients strange and admirable effects will thereby
be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers
into Nature."
Have these definitions taught
us anything of a precise nature about the subject? Personally
I doubt it very much; all are too general in their scope to tend
towards edification. Let us therefore cease seeking definitions
and consider first of all certain aspects or fundamental principles
of the subject, Afterwards, perhaps, we may have sufficient trust
worthy and evidential material at our disposal to formulate anew
a definition which may convey something intelligible and precise
to our minds.
Within the significance of the
one term Magic are comprehended several quite independent techniques,
as I shall mention on a later page, in another essay. It may be
advantageous to examine some of these techniques. Before doing
so, however, it might be well to consider a part of the underlying
theory. I know many will say by way of criticism of this discussion,
that it is nothing but primitive psychology--and only the psychology
of auto-suggestion at that. There will be a decided sneer, barely
concealed.
However, this objection does
not completely dispose of the subject by any means. A very great
deal more remains to be said. Not that I would deny that in Magic
the process of self-suggestion is absent. Most certainly it is
present. But what I must emphasise here is the fact that it is
present in a highly evolved and elaborate form. It almost makes
the technical approach of some of our modern experimenters look
puerile and undeveloped. We are not to suppose for one moment
that the innovators and developers of the magical processes in
days gone by were naive or fools, unaware of human psychology
and the structure of the mind itself. Nor that they refrained
from facing many of the psychic problems with which we nowadays
have had to deal. Many of the early magicians were wise and skilled
men, artists and sages, well-versed in the ways and means of influencing
and affecting people.
We know that they understood
a good deal about hypnotism and the Induction of hypnoidal states.
It is highly probable that they speculated, as have done innumerable
modern psychologists, upon technical methods of inducing hypnoidal
states without the aid and help of a second person. But they soon
became aware of all the obstacles and barriers that beset their
path. And these were many. I believe that in Magic they devised
a highly efficient technical procedure for overcoming these difficulties.
When Coue some years ago burst
upon our startled horizon with his spectacular formula of "day
by day in every way I am getting better and better" many
believed that here at last we were presented with the ideal method
of getting down to brass tacks, of finally being able to impinge
upon the Unconscious mind, so called. Hundreds of thousands of
people surely must have gone to bed at night, determined to induce
a relaxation that was as nearly perfect as they could obtain,
and attempted to enter the land of slumber while muttering sleepily
the magical formula over and over again. Others listened to music
in dimly lighted rooms until they experienced some sense of exaltation
and then mumbled the healing phrase until they felt that surely
some favourable result must occur.
Assuredly some lucky people got
results. They were, however, few and far between. Some of these
did overcome certain physical handicaps of illness, nervousness,
so-called defects in speech and other mannerisms, and thus were
able to better themselves and their positions in the world of
reality. Others were less fortunate--and these were by far the
greater number, the great majority.
What was the difficulty that
prevented these people, this large majority, from applying the
magical formula until success was theirs? Why were they not able
to penetrate that veil stretched between the various levels of
their minds.
Before we answer these questions--and
I believe that Magic does really answer them--let us analyze the
situation a little more closely.
The unconscious in these systems
of so called practical psychology, metaphysics, and auto-suggestion,
is considered a slumbering giant. These systems hold that it is
a veritable storehouse of power and energy. It controls every
function of the body every moment of every day, nor does it sleep
or tire. The heart beats seventytwo times per minute, and every
three or four seconds our lungs will breathe in oxygen and exhale
carbonic acid and other waste products. The intricate and complex
process of digestion and assimilation of food which becomes part
and parcel of our very being, the circulation of blood, the growth,
development and multiplication of cells, the organic resistance
to infection--all these processes are conceived of as immediately
under the control of this portion of our minds of which we are
not normally aware--the Unconscious.
This is only one theoretical
approach to the Unconscious. There are other definitions of its
nature and function which altogether preclude the practical possibility
of resorting to suggestion or auto-suggestion for coping with
our ills. For example, there is the definition provided by Jung
with which in many ways I am in sympathy, and it might be worlh
our while to quote it at some length.
He wrote in Modern Man in Search
of a Soul that "man's unconscious likewise contains all the
patterns of life and behaviour inherited from his ancestors, so
that every human child, prior to consciousness, is possessed of
a potential system of adapting psychic functioning . . . While
consciousness is intensive and concentrated, it is transient and
is directed upon the immediate present and the immediate field
of attention; moreover, it has access only to material that represents
one indivdual's experience stretching over a few decades.... But
matters stand very differently with the unconscious. It is not
concentrated and intensive, but shades off into obscurity, it
is highly extensive and can juxtapose the most heterogeneous elements
in the most paradoxical way. More than this, it contains, besides
an indeterminable number of subliminal percepions, an immense
fund of accumulated inheritance-factors left by one generation
of men after another, whose mere existence marks a step in the
differentiation of the species. If it were permissible to personify
the unconscious, we might call it a collective human being combining
the characteristics of both sexes, transcending youth and age,
birth and death, and, from having at his command a human experience
of one or two million years, almost immortal. If such a being
existed, he would be exalted above all temporal change; the present
would mean neither more nor less to him than any year in the one
hundredth century before Christ; he would be a dreamer of age-old
dreams and, owing to his immeasurable experience, he would be
an incomparable prognosticator. He would have lived countless
times over the life of the individual, of the family, tribe and
people, and he would possess the living sense of the rhythm of
growth, flowering and decay."
Granted this kind of definition,
the whole idea of suggesting ideas to this "dreamer of age-old
dreams" sounds utterly presumptuous. Only a simpleton, living
a superficial intellectual and spiritual life, would have the
audacity to dare give this "being" suggestions relative
to business, marriage, or health. Such a concept then immediately
rules out the use of suggestion, demanding more sophisticated
approaches.
For the time being, and only
for the purpose of this disscussion, let us grant validity to
the first concept of the unconscious as being a titan who will
respond to suggestions if the latter can be gotten through to
him. The theory goes, therefore, that if, in the face of some
bodily ill or disfunction, we could literally tell the Unconscious
what we want done, these results could occur in answer to our
concentrated wish. Theoretically, the theory sounds all right.
Unfortunately, for one thing, it does not take into consideration
the fact that early in life an impenetrable barrier is erected
within the psyche itself. A barrier of inhibition is built up
between the unconscious and the conscious thinking self--a barrier
of prejudices, false moral concepts, infantile notions, pride
and egotism. So profound is this armoured barrier that our best
attempts to get past it, around it, or through it are utterly
impotent. We become cut off from our roots, and have no power,
no ability, to contact the deeper, the instinctual, the more potent
side of our natures.
The various schools of auto-suggestion
and metaphysics all have different theories and techniques with
regard to overcoming this barrier. That some people do succeed
is unquestionable. One meets almost every day an individual here
and there who is able to "demonstrate"--to use the ghastly
word they so glibly employ. These few are able to impress their
Unconscious minds with certain ideas which fall as though upon
fertile soil, fructify and bring salutary results. These we cannot
deny--much as sometimes we would like to, so offensive is their
smugness, their dogmatic attitude, their unthinkingness.
But by far the great majority
of their devotees fail lamentably. They have not obviously been
able to overcome this difficulty by the employment of the usual
routines
I am sure the ancient sages and
magi knew of these problems--knew them very well. I am also quite
sure that they realized that the technique they used was, amongst
other things, a process of suggesting a series of creative ideas
to themselves. But what I am equally certain of is this. They
had perfected an almost ideal method which proved itself able
to penetrate this hitherto impenetrable endopsychic barrier. They
were able to reach this imprisoned titan locked up in the hearts
of every one of us, and set it free so that it could work with
them and for them. Thus they became almost lyrical in their descriptions
of what could not be accomplished by the individual who employed
their techniques with courage and perseverance.
As I say, they knew of the existence
of this psychic armoring, and knew it only too well. All their
methods were directed to mobilizing all the forces of the individual,
reinforcing his will and imagination, to the end that he could
overcome himself to realize his kinship, his identity and unity
with the unconscious self.
What these methods were, I hope
to describe in some small detail in these pages. Some of them
may appear irrational to us. They certainly are irrational. But
that is no argument for rejecting them summarily. A great part
of life itself is irrational. But it is incumbent upon us to accept
life in all its aspects, rational and irrational as well. One
of the very earliest things a psycho-analytic patient learns is
this one fact--that he has at least two sides to his nature, a
rational and an irrational side. Together they comprise a single
discrete self, his personality. If he denies the validity or existence
of either one of them, he does violence to himself and must suffer
accordingly. Both of these two factors must be permitted to exist
side by side, the one affecting the other. In this way, the individual
grows, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, and all his
ways will prosper. With denial, nothing but trouble, neurosis
and disease can follow.
These irrational processes that
were instituted of old as the technique of Magic comprise the
use of invocation or prayer, of the use of the imagination in
formulating images and symbols, of employing the religious sense
to awaken ecstasy and an intensity of feeling, of rates of breathing
that would alter the accustomed neuro-physiological patterns and
so render more permeable the barrier within the mind itself. Everything
that would conduce to a heightening of feeling and imagination,
that would lead to the instigation of an overpowering ecstasy,
would be encouraged, for it would be in this psychological state
that the normal barriers and confines of the conscious personality
could be over-ridden in a tempestuous storm of emotional concentration.
It was the ancient theory that
the unconscious or the deeper levels of the psyche could be reached
principally by two methods. These were intense concentration,
and intensity of emotion. The former is extremely difficult of
achievement. Certainly there are methods whereby the mind itself
may be trained so to concentrate that eventually a funnel, as
it were, is created by the mind, through which suggestions could
be poured into the unconscious to work their way out in the various
ways desired. But such methods are for the very few. There is
only an individual here and there who has the patience and the
indomitable will to sit by himself for a certain period during
the day, and each day, and subject himself to an iron mental discipline.
The emotional intensity, while
not easy to cultivate, at least is more within the bounds and
possibilities of achievement than is the other. It was this method
that the ancient magicians cultivated to a very fine art. They
devised innumerable means whereby the normal physiological habits
could be changed and altered, so as to permit of this impingement
upon the underlying basis of the self.
To summarise, there is Divination,
the art of obtaining at a moment's notice any required type of
information regarding the outcome of certain actions or events.
Fortune telling so-called is an abuse. The sole purpose of the
art is to develop the intuitive faculties of the student to such
an extent that eventually all technical methods of divination
may be discarded. When that stage of development has been reached,
mere reflection upon any problem will automatically evoke from
the intuitive mechanism within the information required, with
a degree of certainty and assurance involved that could never
be acquired save from an inner psychic source.
Another phase--perhaps that which
has been stressed more than all others--is Ceremonial Magic in
its widest sense. Comprised within this expression, are at least
three distinct types of ceremonial endeavour, all, however, subject
to one general set of rules or governed by one major formula.
The word "ceremonial" includes rituals for initiation,
for the invocation of Gods so-called, and the evocation of elemental
and planetary spirits. There is also the enormous sphere of talismans,
and their consecration and charging. Ceremonial is probably the
most ideal of all methods for spiritual development since it entails
the analysis and subsequent stimulation of every individual faculty
and power. Its results are genius and spiritual illumination.
But personal aptitude is so potent a factor in this matter, as
well as in divination, that although the word "Art"
may be applied to cover their operation it would be unjust to
Magic to denominate it a Science.
The third, and in some ways the
most important branch for my particular purpose at the moment,
is Vision, or the Body of Light technique. It is with this latter
that I shall deal exclusively in this essay, as it contains elements
which I feel answer more definitely to the requirements of a Science
than any other.
In discussing Magic, the reader's
pardon must be sought if reference is continually made to a technical
philosophical system named the Qabalah. They are so interlaced
that it is well-nigh impossible to separate them. Qabalah is theory
and philosophy. On the other hand, Magic is the practical application
of that theory. In the Qabalah is a geometrical glyph named the
Tree of Life, which is really a symbolic map both of the universe
in its major aspects, and of its microcosm, man. Upon this map
are depicted ten principal continents, so to say, or ten fields
of activity where the forces constituting or underlying the Universe
function in their respective ways. In man these are analysable
into ten facets of consciousness, ten modes of spiritual activity.
These are called the Sephiros. I cannot enter more fully into
an outline of this map here though I have repeatedly referred
to it here and in other essays; but the reader will find it adequately
described in various books or articles on the subject.
Now consider with me that especial
Sephirah or subtle aspect of the universe called by the Qabalists
Yesod. Translated as the sphere of the Foundation, it is part
of the Astral Light--an omniform plane of magnetic, electric,
and ubiquitous substance, interpenetrating and underlying the
whole of the visible perceptible world. It acts as a more or less
permanent mould whereupon the physical world is constructed, its
own activity and constant change ensuring the stability of this
world as a compensating factor. In this world function the dynamics
of feeling, desire and emotion, and just as the activities of
this physical world are engineered through the modalities of heat
and cold, compression and diffusion, etc., so in the astral are
operative attraction and repulsion, love and hate. Another of
its functions is to exist as the memory of nature, wherein are
automatically and instantaneously recorded every act of man and
every phenomenon of the universe from time immemorial to the present
day. The nineteenth century Magus, Eliphas Levi, has written of
this astral Light that: "There exists an agent which is natural
and divine, material and spiritual, a universal plastic mediator,
a common receptacle of the vibrations of motion and the images
of forms, a fluid and a force, which may be called in some way
the Imagination of Nature...." And again he registers the
conviction that it is "the mysterious force whose equilibrium
is social life, progress, civilization, and whose disturbance
is anarchy, revolution, barbarism, from whose chaos a new equilibrium
at length evolves, the cosmos of a new order, when another dove
has brooded over the blackened and disturbed waters."
It is interesting to glance from
this theurgic concept to a psychological one which is not very
unlike it. The following paragraph is more or less of a paraphrase
of Jung's ideas concerning it, culled from an essay of his entitled
Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung. It is an extension of
the ideas previously quoted. He defines it first of all as the
all-controlling deposit of ancestral experience from untold millions
of years, the echo of prehistoric world-events to which each century
adds an infinitesimally small amount of variation and differentiation.
Because it is in the last analysis a deposit of world-events finding
expression in brain and sympathetic nerve structure, it means
in its totality a sort of timeless world-image, with a certain
aspect of eternity opposed to our momentary, conscious image of
the world. It has an energy peculiar to itself, independent of
consciousness, by means of which effects are produced in the psyche
that influence us all the more powerfully from the dark regions
within. These influences remain invisible to everyone who has
failed to subject the transient world-image to adequate criticism,
and who is therefore still hidden from himself. That the world
has not only an outer, but an inner aspect. That it is not only
outwardly visible, but also acts powerfully upon us in a timeless
present, from the deepest and most subjective hinterland of the
psyche---this Jung holds to be a form of knowledge which, regardless
of the fact that it is ancient wisdom, deserves to be evaluated
as a new factor in forming a philosophic world-view. I suggest,
then, that what the Magicians imply by the Astral Light is identical
in the last resort with the Collective Unconscious of modern psychology.
By means of the traditional Theurgic
technique it is possible to contact consciously this plane, to
experience its life and influence, converse with its elemental
and angelic inhabitants so-called, and return here to normal consciousness
with complete awareness and memory of that experience. This, naturally
requires training. But so does every department of science. Intensive
preparation is demanded to fit one for criticial observation,
to provide one with the particular scientific alphabet required
for its study, and to acquaint one with the researches of one's
predecessors in that realm. No less should be expected of Magic--though
all too often miracles are expected without due preparation. Anyone
with even the slightest visual imagination may be so trained as
to handle in but a short while the elementary magical technique,
by which one is enabled to explore the subtler aspects of life
and the universe. To transcend this "many-coloured world."
To gain admittance to loftier realms of soul and spirit is quite
another matter. One calling for other faculties and other powers,
particularly a fiery devotion and an intense aspiration to the
highest.
But with the latter, I am not
just now concerned, even though it is the pulsing heart and more
important aspect of Theurgy. It is with the scientific aspect
of Magic, its more readily verifiable aspect, that I shall deal
now. Elsewhere I have given as traditional attributions or associations
to the sphere in question the following symbols. Its planet is
said to be the Moon, its element Air, its number Nine, its colour
purple--and also silver in another scale. The Pearl and Moonstone
are its jewels, aloes its perfume, and its so-called divine name
is Shaddai El Chai. The Archangel attributed to it is Gabriel,
its choir of Angels are the four Kerubs ruling the elements, and
its geomantic symbols are Populus and Via. The Tarot symbols appertaining
to this sphere are those cards in each of the four suits numbered
IX, and closely associated with it also is the twenty-first trump
card entitled "The World." Here we find depicted a female
form surrounded by a green garland. Actually this trump card is
attributed to the thirty-second path of Saturn which connects
the material plain to Yesod. How, now, arises the question, how
were these symbols and names obtained? What is their origin? And
why are they so called attributions or correspondences of that
Sephirah called the Foundation?
First of all, meditation will
disclose the fact that all have a natural harmony and affinity
one with the other--though not perhaps readily seen at the first
glance. For example, the Moon is, to us, the fastest moving planet.
It travels through all the twelve signs of the zodiac in about
twenty-eight days. The idea of rapid change is there implicit,
revealing the concept that the astral, while almost a timeless
eternal deposit of world events, is nevertheless the origin of
mutations and alterations which later influence the physical world--in
the same way that impulse and thought must precede any action.
Its element is air, a subtle all pervading medium--comparable
to the astral light itself--a medium without which life is quite
impossible. Nine is the end of all numbers, containing the preceding
numbers within its own sum. It always remains itself when added
to itself or multiplied, or subtracted, suggesting the fundamental
all-inclusive self-sustaining nature of lhe realm.
What is still more important,
however, from the scientific viewpoint is that they are things,
names, and symbols actually perceived in that sphere by the skryer
in the spirit-vision. As a matter of solid proof, one could quote
numerous visions and astral journeys obtained by different people
in different places at different times, in which all the traditional
symbols appear in dynamic and in curiously dramatic and vital
form.
Magic, as already remarked, is
a practical system, and every part has been devised for experiment.
Each part is capable of verification using appropriate methods.
Each student may check it for himself, and thus discover the realities
of his own divine nature as well as of the universe both within
and without him, independently of what any other man may have
written in books. We ask for experiment; demand it even, for the
sake of mankind. We invite the earnest and sincere student to
experiment for himself with that technique described in Chapter
Ten of my book The Tree of life, and then compare his results,
the journey to any one Path or Sephirah, with the correspondences
briefly delineated in my other work A Garden of Pomegranates or
in Dion Fortune's book The Mystical Qabalah. It is with the utmost
confidence that I say one hundred astral journeys obtained in
that way will correspond in every instance with the major symbols,
names, numbers, and ideas recorded in the several books of the
Qabalah.
Let me quote from the record
of a colleague an illuminating passage or two illustrating what
I mean. The following is a "vision" or waking dream--fantasy
of the so-called thirty-second path. "We marched down the
wide indigo road. There was a cloudy night-sky--no stars. The
road was raised above the general level of the ground. There was
a canal each side beyond which we could see the lights of what
appeared to be a large city. We went on like this for a long way,
but then I noticed in the distance a tiny figure of a woman, like
a miniature--she seemed to be naked, but as she drew near, I saw
a scarf floating round her. She had a crown of stars on her head
and in her hands were two wands. She came towards us very quickly,
and I gazed fascinatedly at a string of pearls reaching from her
neck to her knees--and gazing, found that we had passed through
the circle of her pearls, and she had disappeared!"
The student of the Qabalah who
has only a passing acquaintance with Tarot symbolism, will recognize
here the twenty-first Atu of "The World," the path attributed
to Saturn, linking the physical to the astral worlds. He will
probably be very surprised to learn that the symbols on these
cards represent dynamic and exceedingly vital realities. But I
must pass on to a brief description of the entrance to Yesod.
"Now the sky is clear and
full of stars... The Moon, a great yellow harvest moon, rises
slowly up the sky to a full arch . . . and we saw the moonbeams
shining on the high purple walls of a city. We did not delay to
look about, but marched quickly to the centre of the city, to
an open space, in the midst of which was a round temple like a
ball of silver. It was approached by nine steps, and rested on
a silver platform. It had four doors. Before each was a large
angel with silver wings... Inside, we were in a very airy place.
Light breezes lifted our clothes and our hair--the interior was
very white and clear silvery--no colours. Suspended in the centre
was a great globe, like the moon itself.... While we looked we
saw that the globe was not suspended in the air; it rested on
immense cupped hands. We followed the arms up and saw, far up
near the roof, deep dark eyes looking down, dark like the night
sky. And a voice said . . ."
Little point would be gained
to continue with the rest of the quotation. This passage is given
here solely that the reader may refer to the description of the
astral plane in the textbooks, and then to the recurrence in this
vision of the major symbols, and the dynamic form of dramatization.
Let the student take good notice of the presence of the correct
numbers, colours, planetary attributions, and above all the hint
as to how much valuable knowledge may be acquired. Note the four
doors to the Temple--representing the four major elements of fire,
water, air and earth. For this astral world is also referred to
the Ether (of which the element Air is a surrogate), the fifth
element, quintessentialising the lower elements, the Temple to
which the other elements are but doors. Suspended in the centre
of the temple was a globe, symbolic possibly of the element Air
itself which, in the Hindu Tattwa system, is represented by a
blue sphere. Before each of the doors stands an angel. These are
the four Kerubic Angels, the vice-regents of the four cardinal
quarters and elements ruling over a particular elemental world
under the dominance of one of the letters of the Tetragrammaton.
Possibly they are representations of the interior psychic delimitation
of the soul's spatial area, so to speak, the absence of which
would indicate an unhealthy diffusion or de-centralization of
consciousness. Also the four cardinal points of space would be
represented by these four angelic figures--concretizations, too,
of the double play of the moral opposites. East is opposite to
west, and north oposite to south, whilst each of these quarters
has attributed to it some particular moral quality or psychic
function. The sense of being in an airy place with light breezes
bears out the formal attribution of air--a curious confirmation
of the duality of meaning implied in pneuma, wind and spirit,
a duality which occurs not only in the Greek, but in Hebrew, Arabic,
and a host of primitive languages.
Individual after individual has
been trained independently to visit this and other Sephiros. While
each vision is somewhat different in its detail and form to that
here quoted, nevertheless there is a startling unanimity so far
as concerns the essential symbolic features. This constitues definite
scientific proof of the surpreme reality of the world of Magic,
and demonstrates the possibility of personal experiment and research.
Scientific research is possible in this world of astral or Unconscious
realities, because they are effective things, that is, objective
influences that work and influence mankind. This sphere is the
deposit of the world experience of all times, and it is therefore
an image of the world that has been forming for aeons, an image
in which certain features, the so-called dominants, have been
elaborated through the course of time. These dominants are the
ruling powers, the gods and archangels and angels--that is representations
of dominating laws and principles functioning in the cosmos. And
since it is a world functioning in the brain structure and sympathetic
nervous system of every individual it is a world which is open
to every one who wishes to overcome the fear which centuries of
mal-education have projected upon it, and discover for himself
anew the reality of its dynamic urges and influences.
With but little ingenuity, specific
tests may be undertaken with the object of testing the relationship
between geometrical symbols, the vision obtained therefrom by
means of the body of light technique, and the correspondences
of these figures recorded in the proper books. It has been written
that various elements--Fire, Water, Spirit, Air and Earth---are
attributed to the five points of the Pentagram. Depending entirely
on the direction in which the lines are traced, so will the figure
invoke or banish the beings pertaining to that element. For example,
if the student traces the invoking Pentagram of Fire in each of
the four cardinal quarters, and then employs the sensitive sight
of the Body of Light which previously he has cultivated, he will
see appear almost immediately the fire elementals or Salamanders,
the personalized fiery constituents of his own psyche. The tracing
of the banishing fire pentagram will see them literally scuttle
away without hesitation, subsiding into the Unconscious realm
to which they belong, and from which they were called. Or let
the student do this experiment in the presence of a reliable clairvoyant,
not mentioning what figure is being traced. The results will be
highly illuminating. I know some objection may be raised by immediately
responding "telepathy." But so far as I can see, the
response arouses far more obscure problems than the rationale
to which objection is made, for telepathy certainly requires explanation
along scientific and dependable lines, quite difficult at this
stage of the game. These and a host of other rigorous tests constitute
definite and precise scientific experiment of a significant and
highly authoritative nature.
In the sense that several people
may travel to certain paths and there undergo experiences wherein
the essential features are identical or in which the psychic dominants
coincide, Magic may be assumed to be a definite, coherent science.
It is precise and accurate. Magic is the accumulated record of
psychic and spiritual experience which we have inherited from
the past, from former generations of mankind.
On the other hand, it is clear
that each of these visions would differ materially as to context,
that is in the dramatic sense. The context, act and scene so to
speak, depend entirely upon personal idiosyncrasy, intellectual
integrity, and the spiritual capacity to discover and absorb the
truth, whether it is painful to the ego or not. Where the personal
element enters so powerfully as it does here, the adventure must
be labelled an Art. Creative imagination in one person will be
used to formulate with an established conventional set of symbols
a whole string of incidents and experiences--illuminating and
tending to the expansion of his consciousness--which to the vision
of a simple unimaginative person would occur in far simpler and
matter-of-fact form.
Sophisticated people, with a
smattering of modern psychology, are likely to assume that Magic
discloses nothing but the hidden depths of the Unconscious. They
will say that these journeys are comparable to dream experiences
which are referred to the working and dramatizing power of the
subconscious mind. What difference does it make if the Qabalists
named this sphere or type of consciousness the Foundation or Astral
World and the moderns the Unconscious? The terms are cognate,
and the symbols interchangeable; both mean the same thing, when
all things are considered. If Magic possesses weapons that are
more penetrating and incisive than scientific ones, shall we reject
them because Magic is the discredited house where they are stored?
If magical methods reveal our secret selves more directly, and
unlock the vast store of wisdom and power within our souls, showing
us how to control them in ways that neither psycho-analysis nor
any modern science has succeeded to do, should we not be foolish
to reject its benefits?
Magic is a scientific method.
It is a valid technique. Its approach to the universe and the
secret of life's meaning is a legitimate one. If it assists us
to become more familiar with what we really are, it is a Science--and
a most important one. And to the scientist, whether he be psychologist
or physicist, it will open up an entirely new universe of tremendous
extent. If it succeeds in making us better men and women, a little
more kind and generous, a little more aware of the spiritual heights
to which we are capable of climbing with but a little exertion,
then it is the religion of religions. And should it spur us to
greater efforts in order to render life and living more beautiful
and intelligible, should it make us more anxious to eliminate
ugliness, suffering, and ignoble misery, surely it is an Art before
which all other Muses must bow the head and bend the knee in reverential
and perennial praise!
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