Magick

So what really is Magick?

You'll find as many interpretations of magick as you will specific practices and precise disciplines — from Hermetic magick to Abramelin magick, to Enochian magick, Faustian magick, Voodoo, simple sympathetic magick (which is not so simple); many more — and here the word magick is spelled in the manner that separates it from stage or common magic.

Stage magic is illusion; magick is not.

Magick, quite simply, is the art of controlling natural forces to produce the supernatural.

Also known as Sorcery.

And also known as the Art or Arts (slanderized into "black arts" at some point in history), but "the Art" since at least the time of Paracelsus and his Hermetic writings. The Art differs from the Craft (as in witchcraft) for the Art's level of magick was sole property of the priest class, in association with the reigning monarch and later in association with high-level universities, monasteries, and the Roman Catholic Church. While the village witch with his or her lack of connections was easy prey to political games of the times, she or he rarely practiced the level of magick known as Sorcery, for Sorcery is "hard magick", as in hard science and here magick and science are not only bedfellows, they are passionate lovers.

The true sorcerer, Magi, Wizard, whatever title you prefer, was a master of physical science and the beneficiary of an expensive and extensive education that included chemistry, astronomy, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, metaphysics, alchemy, the Kabbalah and the Hermetic writings while today's master would include physics, psychology and comparative religion — and all was done under the guise of the study of nature.

Take for instance this quote from Paracelsus, reasonably acknowledged as one of the forefathers of biochemistry, and his description of nature:

It is not visible, though it operates visibly, for it is simply a volatile spirit fulfilling its office in bodies, and animated by the universal spirit — the divine breath, the central and universal fire, which vivifies all things that exist.

Now to the words of a present-day physicist:

Relativity theory tells us that mass is nothing but a form of energy. Energy can not only take the various forms known in classical physics, but can also be locked up in the mass of an object...once it is seen to be a form of energy, mass is no longer required to be indestructible, but can be transformed into other forms of energy.(Capra,1982)

Does that last quote sound like magick to you? It is magick — it is also a scientific fact — and the keyword in that statement by Capra is energy:

Energy is the force of magick.

Now you can start thinking of energy in the abstract as Universal energy, ether, akasha, or the fifth element but if you would understand Magick and how control is achieved then you must understand energy as bioenergy. This energy has, throughout the ages, been described as:

Kundalini: the divine creative force within you.
Prana: the energy that streams through the universe and is concentrated in each living being.
Elán Vital: Pasteur's term for life force.
Orgone energy: Reich's universal energy.
Od Force: Reichenbach's theory of universal life energy.
Auras: the human bioenergetic field as an electromagnetic field visible in Kirlian photography.
Chi: the Chinese term for bioenergy.
Vital Force: the Huna term for life force.

Of all the the terms listed above my personal favorite is the Kahuna description Vital Force. The understanding of energy was so integral to Huna Magick that they defined three levels of energy within the human body: low voltage, middle voltage, and high voltage. High voltage Vital Force is contained both within and without the individual and is said to have "the atom smashing voltage of electrical energy."

This Huna concept of such power may sound as no more than primitive religious belief unless you glance again at modern physics:

Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smaller units...this means the classical ideal of an objective description of nature is no longer valid. The Cartesian partition between the I and the world, between the observer and the observed, cannot be made when dealing with atomic matter. In atomic physics, we can never speak about nature without, at the same time, speaking about ourselves. (Capra,1982)

Or in other words:

"Tis true, without falsehood, and most real: that which is above is like that which is below, to perpetrate the miracles of one thing..."

From The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus
approximately 300 B.C.E.

One might also consider the words of Aleister Crowley:
"Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will."
Source

--Sakara Ani

Recommended links:
Secrets of Power
Vibration

Recommended reading:
The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, Volumes I and II, edited by Arthur Edward Waite. Shambhala Publications Inc., Boulder, Colorado USA.

The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra. Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1920 13th Street, Boulder, Colorado, 80302.

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