Intelligence And The Strength Of One's Will, Are they related? Options

What do you think?

Personally, I'm not sure. But in my experience there isn't any reason to suspect that a more intelligent person is more capable of doing Magick. I'd say Magick comes from the spiritual essence of a person, and that intelligence and Will are not related.

What do you think?

Personally, I'm not sure. But in my experience there isn't any reason to suspect that a more intelligent person is more capable of doing Magick. I'd say Magick comes from the spiritual essence of a person, and that intelligence and Will are not related.

I would need a working definition of what is considered intelligent before I could consider a reply.
Are we speaking of academic intelligence?
Physicists on the whole make a terrible mage.
On the other hand the genius of the infant who learns more in 6 months of its life than we do in 8 years of academia makes the finest mage of all.

I would need a working definition of what is considered intelligent before I could consider a reply.
Are we speaking of academic intelligence?
Physicists on the whole make a terrible mage.
On the other hand the genius of the infant who learns more in 6 months of its life than we do in 8 years of academia makes the finest mage of all.

Although I do not believe that intelligence is the deciding factor in magical development, I do not think that it necessarily hinders it, though maybe this is just my own case (pardon the sound of me blowing my own horn, as it were!)

I see intelligence as applying really only to certain approaches to magic. Although there is certainly the pure creative/abstract approach and it bears results in its own merit, there is an intellectual approach to magic as well. The study of symbols, formulae, patterns and correlations, associations between symbols, between cultures, etc., these things require I believe some intelligence to grasp efficiently, though and ounce of diligence is worth a pound of intelligence. Their application can be calculated or approached intuitively.

My own approach to magic is largely intellectualized because I look for symmetries, geometries, correlations, and internal consistencies that justify the magic I do as well as grant it (to my own eyes at least) a sort of 'fit' into the universe that I want to affect in some way.

Those aspects of my own practice which are more raw and creative than intellectually creative are just as effective but are often less calculated in their results. If I take one approach or the other to some magical goal, then the 'creative' approach will often bring about results that at first don't seem entirely related to the goal, until everything has had time to run its course, and I find myself standing where I originally intended to be standing when I executed the operation. If I take the intellectual approach, often the results are more defined, but can be at times not as 'natural' and require greater flexibility and change on my part to adjust to the new circumstances brought about.

As an intellectually focused individual, I can at least say that it can be hard to let go at times and allow the intuition and raw creative side of the brain to work autonomously - it tends to be the side more concerned with 'going with the flow' whereas the intellectual side wants to plan and calculate and make a single focused action rather than continuously adjusting. The creative is a gentle curve of change, whereas the intellectual is a sudden angular diversion, if that makes sense.

I think the key in either case, whether one is particular creative or intellectual, it to simply find the appropriate approach to magic. Both creativity and intelligence have a place in consciousness, they both are ways of processing and applying information, and they aren't really, in my opinion, entirely separate. Often times we simply associate art, music, creative expression, as the realm of creativity whereas math, science, facts and figures seem to be placed in the 'intelligence' category. Really though it seems to me that intelliegence is just the ability to collect and correlate information, and creativity is the ability to apply that information in novel ways - not necessarily novel on the grand scale, but novel for the individual. There are different kinds of intelligence and different kinds of creativity.

A physicist who is very intelligent still has to think creatively to solve problems and develop new approaches to discover the answers he/she is looking for. An artist must still understand the nature of different mediums and their relationship to the kinds of expression s/he wants to create.

So I don't think this is any kind of black and white question that could be answered so easily, and we certainly cannot lay blanket statements like Physicists on the whole making terrible mages.

Your intelligence or creativity will only hinder you in any regard whatsoever, if you do not understand through experience and open mindedness the different ways they can be applied - and that is neither a matter of intelligence or creativity, but of simple experience.

peace