What is Magick?
Let’s work with the definition of Magick so we could be on the same page. According to the famous occultist Alestier Crowley, magick is “The Science and Art of Causing to Change to Occur in conformity with Will.” He was a member of the famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (Google it yourself). Another member of the Golden Dawn was Dion Fortune. Her definition of magick was the same as Crowley’s except that she considered the “change: to be a change in consciousness (Note: Fortune was lay psychologist with several book on psychology to her credit under her real name, Violet Firth).
But what exactly do these definitions mean? Let’s say that you do a magickal ritual to get fifty dollars. If, therefore, is your “Will” to get the money. You go out for a walk, and although when walking it is your habit to go right at a particular street corner, something makes you decide to turn left. A block down this street you meet an old friend who returns the fifty dollars you had loaned him several months ago.
What made you turn left? According to Crowley’s definition, your magickal ritual would have caused some change in the physical world which resulted in your turning in an unusual direction. Perhaps it was a smell, or a telepathic message form your friend or from higher entity telling you to “turn left!” If you ascribe Dion definition, than you would say that your ritual made a change in your consciousness which gave you the information to turn to the left instead of the right.
In either case, 3 things are apparent:
1. No matter which definition you use, the actual result is the same
2. The result functions as if there had been a change in the physical world or just a change in your consciousness
3. Magick works.
Unfortunately, either definition is still too broad. If you cause a change in conformity with Will and call it “magick,” then almost anything you do is a magickal act. If it is your will to open a door than you turn the knob and open the door, by the above definitions you done a magickal act. In fact, Crowley says that “every intentional act is a Magickal Act.” If you follow his line of reasoning there is a great deal of validity in what he says, although it is not what we are seeking at this time. We need to make the definition of magick a bit longer:
Magick is the science and art of causing change (in consciousness) to occur in conformity with will using means not currently understood by traditional Western science.
We have added the idea that the magick is accomplished by some means not known by modern science. A ritual which causes something to occur does not make sense to current Western scientific thought. Therefore, “scientists” are inclined to think that real magick, since it doesn’t fit into their world view, is nothing more than supernatural hokum. But magick is not supernatural.
If our entire universe came about either as the creation of an intelligent being or beings, or merely as the result of chance events, we still must come to the same conclusion: everything in the universe is natural! Some ancient culture considered the apparent rise and fall of the Sun to be a supernatural even, As rune passed, it was discovered that the seeming rise and gall of the Sun was, in fact, a natural event, caused by the rotation of earth.
The author is firmly convinced that one day magick will be understood in Western scientific terms. History proves this. Reading, writing, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, etc, etc. were all at one time deep occult secrets. Today, many of these things are taught to children before they begin school. The occultism of the past becomes the science of the future.
