“In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.” ― Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice
About five or so years ago I got ordained in a Metaphysical Church. It’s a long story about my ex-wife contemplating being a wedding planner and thinking it’d be neat if I could marry people (given my..well, you get it). Anyway, I found a Church I liked. They were what I’d define as Pantheistic/Humanist and I liked their stated tenets. Plus, they had a course of study that resulted in a non-accredited degree. Always being eager to learn here and there, I liked that. Not to mention I currently possess a “Bachelor of Metaphysics” degree (suitable for framing) for my effort. On top of that, the Church was fairly new and I got a “scholarship” in exchange for giving some time helping out with some administrative type duties.
Things went fairly well until, while taking tests for what would have been my “Master of Metaphysics” degree (suitable for framing), there arose a question that included the statement that belief is the most powerful thing in the universe. This isn’t an uncommon thing in New Age Circles, and to be honest it didn’t really surprise me to see it. Maybe it was time for a paradigm shift, or maybe I’m just a dick, but my answer was a fairly long dissertation as to why belief wasn’t the most powerful thing in the universe and, in fact, essentially had no power at all. That’s about the time I got kicked out of the Church. By the way, action was my answer to the question. It’s what we do that makes the difference in my opinion, not what we think or feel. That’s just me.
Anyway…………….
In books about practical magic(k) it’s not uncommon to read an instruction to allow as many “avenues of manifestation” as possible after you’ve done your spell/sigil/ritual/human sacrifice, or what have you. In other words, if you do a love spell you’re going to have to go out and mingle, dress nice, not be a dick, etc. If you do a ritual to find a job, you’re going to have to fill out applications, go through the classifieds, and so on. This creates what scientists would call a confound. What I’m saying here is there’s no way you can ever be sure the Magic(k) you did had anything to do with you achieving your intent.
To further the Magic(k)al confound, a lot of books also basically tell you NOT to do a love spell on a particular person, or a specific anything depending on your goal. Some also go further by stating that it may take a long time because of things like lust for result and subconscious resistance. This essentially sets up a scenario that, generally, cannot fail.
Then there’s the rituals that don’t have a particular Statement of Intent, and a vague purpose, where anything, really, that happens to you afterward can be attributed to said ritual.
Let’s back up a little. In a recent post on my blog I said the following:
Occult-It means “hidden”. Stop trying so hard to figure out the “How’s”, “Why’s” and such. The fact is, when it comes to Magic(k), most of it can be entirely chalked up to subjective experience, confirmation bias, “bat shit crazy”, or way far into the realm of superstition. Just admit that you’re a weirdo and get comfortable with it. If you’re in one of the many occult “groups” out there, just admit that you enjoy doing “strange things with weird people”. It’s OK as long as you’re not killing babies or fucking goats or some such shit. Remembering that will carry you far.
I want to explain some of that a bit. First, given the “hidden” nature of things occult, there’s simply some stuff we don’t know. You don’t know how (or if, really) Magic(k) works. You’ve got theories, but they’re not solid, trust me. Luckily, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Adopt that line of thought and your life as an occultist will be much easier. I promise.
I mentioned subjective experience. I’m talking about anything dependent on or taking place in a person’s mind rather than the external world. Think honestly about how much occult experience this covers. Bear in mind that an experience being subjective doesn’t make it remotely meaningless. It doesn’t make it “TRUTH” either, and that’s important.
I also mentioned confirmation bias, the tendency to search for, interpret, or recall information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs.
I think we all understand what I mean by “bat shit crazy”
Then there’s superstition, the belief in supernatural causality—that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events that contradicts natural science. I’ll state for the record that I don’t think anything is supernatural, and I’ve had conversations with discarnate entities…many of them from works of fiction. That makes them imaginary, not supernatural, and it doesn’t negate the possible impact they can have on the objective world.
I personally have no problem with any of these, or even with incorporating them into how I live my life if I find it effective in some way, but we should call them what they are. We shouldn’t willingly fool ourselves.
My next post will be about “action”. In the meantime, here’s something to ponder. Of the people I know who are into occult stuff, I’d say a good 95% are familiar with sigil magic(k), one of the simplest operations in modern occultism most likely. Sigil Magic(k) claims to be capable of accomplishing anything any other sort of Magic(k) claims to, and most (if not all) of the 95% of the occultists I know who are familiar with it would label it effective. However, at least with the occultists I know, ritual magick is far more popular. Why, if the two forms of magic(k) are equal in their effectiveness, do you suppose that is?
