To determine our role in society, it helps to examine the
roles magi have taken through history and how they have changed. Keep in mind
these changes have not always been for the “better.” Once again, it would be
impossible to form a complete picture of the magus in every era and culture in
the scope of the book. As with the previous chapter on the history of magick,
we endeavor only to present the EMK perspective, with the focus on Western
magick.
Archaeological evidence and observation of contemporary
hunter-gather societies show that the magus in pre-history had a rich and
varied role that changes from culture to culture in these groups. However,
certain aspects cut across cultures and these elements in differing
combinations can be found in most.
These societies often turned to the magus for their ability
to heal. The ability to treat illness and injury made the magus central to
tribal life. In some cultures, all magick was viewed as a healing act. This
goes beyond the scope of physical illness, and can include healing non-humans—animals,
spirits, and the land itself. It was most often the duty of the magus to keep
the herb lore. The identification, preparation, and uses of plants and
sometimes animal components required years of training, practice, and
experimentation. We tend to downplay the importance of this knowledge in the
light of modern medicine, and we would not argue that traditional practice
should take the place of modern medicine in its entirety, but one only has to
take a cursory look at the multitude of cures that have been found by
scientifically testing ancient medicine to know it should not be dismissed.
Tribal people turned to the magus for healing because many times their cures
worked, or at least alleviated symptoms. We have direct evidence that the
practitioners in these societies knew of plants with analgesic, disinfectant, stimulant,
and psychedelic properties. Not only could they identify the plants, but could
prepare them and combine them in ways that released and enhanced these
properties. This healing included psychological illness as well. The magus
commonly counseled those whose behavior had become a detriment to the tribe. By
helping those individuals find narrative and thus meaning to their lives, and
cultivate empathy for their fellows, many could be turned from violent and
self-destructive patterns.
How did a society without microscopes, limited knowledge of
biology, and before the invention of the scientific method learn to do this?
Perhaps, if we take off our lenses of racial and cultural superiority, and took
these societies at their word, we would know. For the magi plainly state that
the spirits imparted this knowledge. For almost all of the cures and miracles a
magus performed contained a spiritual element, most often the contact of spirit
entities. Another role of the magus in hunter-gatherer societies was to
contact, converse with, and keep a catalog of the spirits. It included spirits
both helpful and malevolent. The spirits advised the tribe through the magus on
when and where to hunt, when to move the camp, who should perform certain
tasks, and when to go to war. Through the spirits the magi learned of the wider
universe. This included the movement of the stars, the changing of the seasons,
and predictions of what was to come.
The magus was also responsible for contact with a certain
class of spirits—the spirits of the dead. In this respect, the magus kept the
history of the tribe, and taught others their shared heritage. In essence, the
magi created culture. The keeping of knowledge and the practice of ritual to
appease the spirits coalesced into the practices of drawing, music, and poetry.
The most basic celebrations that mark a human’s life, the seasons, the hunt, the
harvest, birth, adulthood, and death, were handed down to the tribe from the
spirits through the magus.
Into antiquity, the magi solidified these roles by becoming
the priesthood. They handed down the names of the gods and goddess, their
purpose, and created mythology. The magus became responsible for organization
and construction on a massive scale. As we have learned now, the first
large-scale constructions of many societies, even before towns and cities, were
centers of religious observance. The ability to inspire human beings through
the use of narrative and common cause cannot be over stated. In fact, it has
been one of the central reasons why a species of talking apes has been able to
spread to and transform nearly all of our planet.
One should note, however, that the magi have never been
strictly within the social order. Even as they rose to prominence in places
like Egypt, and coalesced into a monolithic Catholic Church in Europe, the
place of the magi was often outside the ranks of the majority of the society.
The Catholic Church being a prime example. While it certainly made it much
easier to reach a position of influence if one came from a wealthy or noble
background, even the lowest peasant could join a monastery and perhaps one day
become an abbot or a bishop. The prohibition against marriage for priests does
not stem from a moral directive. The nobility, in order to keep a check on the
power of the Church, insisted that their wealth and power could not be inherited.
In fact, the original prohibition was against marriage specifically, and did
not include celibacy. It’s not that priests weren’t expected to have sex, they
just could not produce legitimate heirs. Though they could rule vast lands and
be the advisors to kings, any attempt to create a political force was
eventually put down. The original ideas of separation of church and state comes
much more from the state insisting they keep a monopoly on force than some notion
of tolerance.
The very identity of the magi includes the idea that they
have always been the outsider. The other. Even in tribal societies the magi
were considered dangerous to the social order, and were often relegated to
living at the edge of the encampment, lest their practice disturb or inspire others.
As the power of the church in the West (and in many Eastern societies as well) waned,
the magi found themselves pushed even further into the outskirts. Into the
Renaissance and Enlightenment, the wealthy could still afford their eccentricities,
which included astrology and alchemy. The poor suffered accusations of witchcraft,
and at best were sought out only when needed, at worst, burned alive or hung
from the neck until dead.
The ultimate attack against the magi came from the
scientific revolution as those methods were applied to propaganda. Anyone
advocating drugs, sex, and the freeing of social bonds, anyone who would dare
to provide culture outside of what could be sold, were simply made
non-existent. No doubt science produces its own miracles, but to transform
other forms of magick into meaningless stories was a cultural choice, and
perhaps it was how materialism took over the creation culture is how it was so
successful. Persecution of the magi continued, more often taking the form of
social ostracism. To even believe in magick became a liability, and those
practicing it outside of more palatable, lukewarm, archaic institutions became
charlatans and crack-pots.
The only reason that magick persists at all comes from an
innate sense among certain individuals that the universe holds more than can be
observed. That we have some purpose to fulfill other than buying a new house,
new phone, or new car. This assault can only be turned back if the magi
re-discover one of their primary purposes, and return to being those who create
culture instead of consume it.