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(i'm posting this here since it pertains mostly to magick, but it has research-y elements to it. If it needs to be moved, so be it).

This topic has to be one of the most oft-recurring ones in the occult community, but every time it's asked, you get some new (and potentially useful!) ideas out of it, so, here we present, something to excite everyone.

There're a number of bands, songs (and albums) that cry out to me to be used in magick in some fashion -- Boards of Canada write songs that're a mix of electronica and (dark?) ambient that are pretty much made to be set to astral experience/meditation/etc. A good example of this is this YTMND that uses Boards of Canada's song "Everything You Do Is A Balloon". It's pretty trippy.

Likewise, another band I always take the time to shamelessly promote is Broken Notes, who made a number of albums inspired by Akira Yamaoka, the soundsmeister behind Silent Hill's music. Their music's pretty damn spooky, and if ever you had to listen to something while doing some odd curse or hex, or you were summoning Cthulhu, that'd be an awesome choice to make.

When I'm listening to music by those two bands, I always wonder if there's some way to use the songs in magick, perhaps even in an active fashion -- background music is all well and good, but what if you used the songs themselves as a component of a ritual? I'm not talking about having music help your meditation through tribal drumming or peaceful ambience, I'm talking about the music helping you curse someone, or summon a demon, or invoke a deity - those sorts of things. So far the only thing I've thought to use music in magick for was as a sort of "astral blockade" to stop yourself from being astrally detected/spied on/watched or whatever -- I thought listening to intrusive music like the recordings of the conet project would suffice.

In any event, discuss the following, and add in your own two cents on things I haven't mentioned.

i have discovered that musick in and of itself is a powerfull magick medium. i composed a song that, when i play it along with pushing energy into the sounds, causes a semi hypnotic state in which the truth is answered to questions you put into the song, *by adding small peices of song to the music, you create a question.*

its really amazing how powerfull music is. in fact, i use classical music by piano when casting ritualistic magicks, and i have found that it increases energy flow and allows for a higher output on your spell.

What do you think of using music in magick or psionics?

In Ceremonial Magick you have everything attributed to planets. Days, hours, foods, smells, colours, numbers etc. When doing a ritual involving a planetary energy, you try to include as many of those aspects as you can. Anyways, I've found that Holst who wrote the magnificent composition of "The Planets" works well there, and I've often had the Planetary themes in the background for doing Magick.

I think music is a great tool for magick. Actually several years ago I attended a workshop called The Magick in the Music. Music effects us, in real ways, and all of it can be used my our advantage. Loud music, with a rhythmic beat actually will synch your heart beat (or rather your heart will synch to it). It's hard to find but if you have songs with the beats getting progressively faster, or slower, you can use that to effect your heart rate, which can help with trance.

I'll skip over drums in Shamanism, cause that's a given.

Magick effects our emotions, and as such becomes a tool in it's own right, if we use it.

Not totally related, but I've found if I'm relaxed enough a playlist, a random/shuffle function, and a question, makes a fine oracle.

Have you done anything magickally noteworthy pertaining to music?

I make audio sigils, which are basically mantras set to familiar music. Other than using it as support though, I haven't done that much.

What songs or bands do you think have potential for being used magickally?

VNV Nation and Covenant, more for their philosophy and lyrics, and the headspace that invokes.

There is also a CD I adore, called Songs for the Children of Baphomet: A Musickal Tribute to the Life and Works of Aleister Crowley. It's a great CD, the artist is an OTO member, and it includes putting some of Crowley's poems and rituals to music, and even having Uncle Al's recitation of something (I forget what) over music. A cool album indeed.

What do you think of using music in magick or psionics? It makes sense to me. A lot of supernatural shenanigans require altered states of consciousness, which music is known to provide.
Have you done anything magickally noteworthy pertaining to music? I always have Loreena McKennitt on when I do my energy healing for students at the end of a Qi Gong class. Lately I've achieved some rather awesome results (see the main forum's "Energy Work" thread if you need details). It actually all started when my daughter scratched up the cd I normally use (a different McKennitt album and song), and when I finally settled on another one that felt right, that's when the "holy crap" moments started occurring. I'm almost afraid *not* to have that track on now when I do healing. I'm 4 for 4 on three different people.
What songs or bands do you think have potential for being used magickally? Have I mentioned Loreena McKennitt? Yeah, maybe once or twice. Combines the wailing of traditional Celtic keening songs with the mystic trance-like chanting of the Middle East. My personal favorite is the aptly named "Mystic's Dream", from her album The Mask and the Mirror.

You realise, of course, that the 'k' at the end of 'musick' was a throwback to using the 'k' at the end of 'magick', a simple play-on-words I was using to get across the message of "Music used in magick"? It seems pretty childish that you'd attempt to anatomise and debunk a system using the spelling of the title of the thread it was posted in, of all things. Don't be petty.

Ah, okay. My apologies, then.

@ ArynChris: Well said! What do you do with dancing?

@ mitsh: I saw what you did there. I giggled.