Thinking of Magick in New Ways, Some bad science, please forgive Options

Philosophy

Long before I began to serious study and practice the Occult arts and sciences, I had an idea that magick was something that you do. It's an act that one engages in. You pray, you curse, you bless, you [insert appropriate verb here]. This is a fairly common view of magick.

I've expressed to a friend recently that I'm finding this to be a waste of time. Magick is such a dynamic and integral part of everyday life (whether people know it or not) that it seems wasteful to consciously think about and "do" it. What continues to come to mind are the words of Ghandi: "We must become the change we want to see."

This, when applied to the realm of the Occult arts and sciences becomes something captured by Taoism's concept of Wu-Wei; action through inaction.

Wu-wei refers to behavior that arises from a sense of oneself as connected to others and to one's environment. It is not motivated by a sense of separateness. It is action that is spontaneous and effortless. At the same time it is not to be considered inertia, laziness, or mere passivity. Rather, it is the experience of going with the grain or swimming with the current.

http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/june98/tao.html

When I think about how I can cast spells simply by reading or writing them, or how I can charge and fire a sigil just by creating it, I'm reminded of this concept and the words of Ghandi.

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Science

Quantum physics has confirmed that our thoughts have a direct impact upon reality itself. What we think and the very act of observing affects matter and energy at its most fundamental level. Experiments involving water, conducted by Dr. Masaru Emoto, has shown us that this is, in fact, "true."

Dr. Masaru Emoto discovered that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them. He found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors.

http://www.whatthebleep.com/crystals/ 

Back in the 1960s, Dr. Bernard Grad, a biologist at McGill University in Montreal, carried out a fascinating series of experiments. He had a healer lay his hands on one of two containers of salt water. After this treatment, he soaked seeds in both containers, a process guaranteed to slow the growth of the plants when they sprouted.

The plants from seeds soaked in the water treated by the healer grew taller and faster than the plants from the other seeds. Somehow, energy from the healer's hands was entering the salt water and changing things, somehow preventing the salt from injuring the seeds.

Our thoughts and intentions can literally change the way the world works on certain levels. Now, when we tie together the idea of becoming the change we want to see, the idea of action through inaction, and the concepts explored by magick, what do we come up with?

We come up with something that seems pretty lazy, but let's look at that concept of Wu-Wei again:

It is not motivated by a sense of separateness. It is action that is spontaneous and effortless. At the same time it is not to be considered inertia, laziness, or mere passivity.

We come up with the possibility for people to cast spells by just reading or crafting them; for people to charge and fire sigils simply by creating them - we begin to see a more integrated method of magick which involves less "doing" and more "being."

Magick becomes less about creating change in the world "out there," and more about internal alchemy. About becoming the change, about dissolving the boundary between "you" and "everything else."

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Magick

Before the New Year, I set out to attempt something in conjunction with my Chaos Magick Paradigm. I wanted to encourage my city to become a convergeance of Solar Energy. I'm a rather big fan of Spring and Summer; living in Canada, it's easy to understand why - we're locked in winter for nearly nine months of the year.

Everyday, as I set out to University or to work, I would look out the window and instead of seeing ice-and-snow-covered civilization, I overlaid a vision of the city in full-spring. Clear blue skies with fluffy white clouds. Visible streets and side-walks. I felt the warm temperature, I saw people wearing loose garments rather than parkas. I smelled impending rain, or humidity. I heard the sounds of the festivals downtown.

In my first week of doing this, we experienced above-average temperatures for that time of year. In december, the snow was melting! I continued this through January, February, and March. There were days when I faltered in my visualization, and blizzard-conditions would set in. Typical winter-weather for this region. Sometimes it would take days for my visualizations to set in; sometimes it would take hours.

The last time I ever did any active visualization was before I did a ritual that I called the "Descent of the Sun." After that, I let nature take it's course, and we've enjoyed an attempted Spring ever since. This ritual was the only active magick that I tried throughout the entire experiment. Every other working of magick was full-on sensory overlay. There was no active magick - not a single candle lit, no chanting, no herbs, stones, incense, invocations, evocations, sigils - only my experience.

One of the individuals in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know is quoted as saying:

The brain doesn't know the difference between what it sees and what it remembers.

When you look an object, and when you close your eyes and visualize that object, the same synapses in the brain fire. In your brain, there is literally little-to-no difference between sensory input and memory. The implications of this for the Occult arts and sciences is far-reaching.

Magick through inaction. This goes beyond "why" and "how" magick works - this shows a new way of practicing altogether.

Hi Rin Daemoko, this subject is fairly complex and your post fairly short. Suffice to say I'm not sure what the point was. One of the main differences between eastern and western philsophies is the advocation of ritual. East against, west for. A book you might be interested in reading is Alice Baileys a treatise on white magic or if you're feeling sporty a treatise on cosmic fire. I've read the former but never not the latter. The latter being the former plus five hundred pages. The book itself is somewhat controversial in my mind, but most of what I remember of the read was that it gave an excellent description of synthesizing western and eastern thought.

*hack!* *cough* cough* -points down...-

http://home.ripway.com/2005-2/265334/UnificationTheorem.doc
http://home.ripway.com/2005-2/265334/Uni-Force.doc

(Read these two... especially the second... A lot of what you already said has been proven... and the effects of what you mention are more potient than you think...)

Hello! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif) Rin!
It has been my experience that this happens as we progress along our path when we aren't rolling in dogma. You seem to have been able to experience this faster....for a variety of reasons, one of which is an Eastern philosophy of Taoism. I've noticed that when I'm not following a prescribed formulae for the first time, that I'm able to 'shift gears' as it were, and work in accord with the universal flow. Magic flows best when you aren't bucking the natural stream. We are part of our environment. Try bringing about rain in the desert...it can happen with alot of effort or it can happen if we help along the natural order of utilizing the 'rainy' season. I guess what I'm trying to say is that by going with the natural flow your results will be more often and smoother...whilst bucking the flow you are setting yourself up for disappointment or massive stress. "Magic is all around us if we learn to perceive..."- Moody Blues (slightly paraphrased...*sigh*)

Added note! I disagree Bb3 about no ritual with Eastern Philosophy! It is LOADED with ritual. Just not all Eastern philosophies are minimalists. The Way of the Tao is quite eye-opening! (though they have their 'rituals' also!)

This post has been edited by bym: Jun 20 2005, 09:34 AM

The only good eastern philosophy book I have is called "The essence of Ta'i Chi". It describes a lot of what has to do with the natural flow of things in conjuntion with the "self"-mind, body and spirit. Now this book was given to me by an exchange student whom I befriended and was tought Ta'i Chi. I soon reaized, after reading this book, that Ta'i Chi was in fact a way to harmonize the body's enternal energy (Chi) with the natural flow of the universe. I did learn the philosophy while studying with my Asian friend but I didn't really expereince it until I had the movements down.

Applying this principle of circulating energy through body movements to my occult practices my "ability" was magnified 10 fold, quite litterally. Before I learned about energy flow I simply believed the elements were the energy flow and they naturally ran through all things, rather arbitrarily. But now I have expanded upon this idea with the theory that most people are like enlisted men in the army. They have the potential to become great warriors. They start off as being untrained in the body, mind and soul. The body hasn't strength to be a soldier. The mind is too weak to survive psychic break down. The soul hasn't the conviction to make it past basic. However if one uses their potential they can become the best of the best. And some do make it to special forces. So as an occultist before I learned Ta'i Chi I was an untrained person. Metaphorically speaking I could shoot a gun and run but I couldn't hit the target while running. My self was not trained to truely manipulate the currents of the elements to manifest change, either by being or acting. My results were limited and unreliable. And like a drain being unclogged after I learned to "harmonize" my Chi with the flow of my self I was suddenly able to accomish things I hadn't even thought of befor hand. See my visualization skills became vivid and I could manifest doorways to accomplish path working rituals . My mind's influence over my dreams expanded into higher lucidity. Meditation became second nature. Astral projection become so much more fullfilling and so on. Of course I still had to practice its just the practiced seemed so much more productive.

The main point I'm aiming at is that magicians are like enlisted men in the army. They start off being able to do most of the things a regular soldier could do. But with rigorous training they become so much better at it, like soldiers. As a beginner in the occult I wasn't trained and eventually would have gotten fed up and left it alone. Yet a chance occurance, perhaps even brought on by my own desires, tought me energy flow. And how to channel it through one's self so that it is not arbitrary, but structured. By building myself up in this manner I learned the key factor I had not grasped until that time.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif)
Very nicely put!

Added note! I disagree Bb3 about no ritual with Eastern Philosophy! It is LOADED with ritual. Just not all Eastern philosophies are minimalists. The Way of the Tao is quite eye-opening! (though they have their 'rituals' also!)

Hmmm, well I guess ritual is something of the wrong word to use here. Since I know that eastern thought does have many ritualistic activity and ritual is a very loosely defined word. Perhaps I should have said use of ritual which is the main difference. Also Bym I would love to hear some of the things rituals you're talking about from the eastern side as I thought they mostly did things through meditation and contemplation (which could be called ritual).

I really enjoyed the intial post of the column. I can't agree that there is no ritual in eastern ways. There are differences, more focus on meditation, etc. and perhaps the difference is that it includes these things. Tai Chi and hindu practices including tantric sex fit perfectly into the definition of ritual.

UniOne, I would consider reading your web links but they are always displayed as .doc type files. These will not display in most web browsers and require them to be downloaded. Have you thought of converting them to .html. Word Documents are a pain for mac or linux users too. I'm not a real fan of downloaded word documents because they can contain maliscious macros, whether intended to or not.

Dr. Masaru Emoto's book on crystal emotions and his experiment with them is one i recommend you read (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/book.gif)

Hello everyone ...

First of all, I am sorry for resurrecting an old thread but I find it rather pointless to make a new one just yet ...

I have been meaning to post a thread a while ago about some psychology and the working of rituals, spells and so forth, but hesitated for some time wanting to read more about it. I was merely looking to read more about psychology, how we perceive things in general, and how our mind works, even considered studying a bit psychology, which later I found to be a waste of time .

A brief history about me . To start off, let me just say, when I was growing up, I got into Wicca, after getting rid of some principles, that was my way for quite a long time, more then a few years . At the same time, I was reading Solomon's Goetia, and other Ceremonial Magick texts . I had results in Wicca, not to the extent I would have liked, but still was in love with the way things worked, also had the time to try out different ways .

In the past months, maybe an year I have changed from that perspective and been into Chaos Magick, sometimes with EXACT results ( no more, no less ) which when that first happened I was literally stunned . Now I guess, more and more I am practicing Chaos Magick, sometimes implementing sigils into my old Witchcraft rituals, and so on, also tried out The Necronomicon Spell Book, with ... results, but not as much as I have expected .

Back to the topic of this thread, while searching about consciousness I ran across different movies, and ended up watching : What the bleep : Do we know, also Down the rabbit hole, and messages from water . These movies, shocked me to the core, literally . Part of me, I guess, wanted a rather rational answer and needed to pump up my belief in how I do things, for I have been needing a result at a spell, and took more and more then I wanted .

More of my "questions" would be for those who have read more about this, and saw the movie, if we are the reflections of the universe, and what we see is what we actually created, as they say, we are then capable of creating what we want, with such hard work, that we dissolve our patterns hidden deep within our minds and magick is "our tool" that we use to do this ... right !? ... because we believe there is something that enables us to use energy flow, and alter reality, we have success in Magick in our own ways, but to get to the core of this, each and everyone of us is merely using their thoughts in different ways to get results, with different systems .

My rational mind, kept hating science, for what it does, but I am proud of them for this movie at least, and because of our prejudices , and how we were raised and have been able to perceive life, there always exited that fear of success in what we do, but is it safe to say that ... we are now just merely tearing apart our patterns, and working anew with what are minds were already capable up ? and we are just "waking up" from what we were raised to belief is true !? and I don't mean one magical system, I am talking in general .

My head still hurts, after saturday night, when I saw this movie, I just can't seem to get my thoughts together, I guess what I want to say is, how much of this movie any of you who saw, think of it as true ? or just ways of telling the truth for science lovers who just couldn't explain things, and found about just what they were looking for !? ... could it be true ? could we have been able to create our reality, all of us collectively, and we are already capable of altering "reality" as we wish, and just need the tools to get there, be it one magical system, or another !? are we really the reflections of the "supreme consciousness" !?

If it is so, then what about The Observer, who nobody seems to know what it is !? if we are just manifestations of the this consciousness, when we have a pre-defined destiny within us !?

My thoughts about all this is.... That Observer ( which is talked about in the movie ) is our own soul, and when we die, that part of us, will keep retaining consciousness... and that's the one and only addition to the definition that we are reflections of the supreme consciousness ( the unified field etc ) . We here and now are able to do amazing things, if we find our way of breaking free from the patterns that hare within our brain, and with the tremendous fear of what may happen .

Starting Sunday, I started to try and break some of the ties, within my life, be it love, fear, hatred so forth, and just took a long walk, alone, which I don't usually do, and tried to grasp at this subject, and I now find myself in a strange place, which I am afraid to go forward with, but I am afraid to leave and go back to where I were, and my ambition keeps getting me ahead, the simple thought of : Yes it is my own brain that keeps me from accomplishing something, my own brain who produces the fears I hate within me, my own brain who produces the love I feel, and all other emotions . And while debating on this, I started to see, more and more, that this may be true, 2 of my friends, started having different "problems" and while I don't talk to them about my beliefs, I couldn't help but see that their fear, accommodated their brain's desire, and now they are troubled as to what happened .

Now more things start to get familiar, why we need gnosis in Chaos Magick !? because if we have our rational mind at work, it won't help at all, rather keep us from succeeding, why not all spells work, because deep within us there is a shred a doubt. Why is it better to forget a spell !? because reality is forming when we are NOT looking, and a thought send forth, an intention, we need to let it manifest for if we keep looking ... it will not, or not to the extent we desire ( there is on youtube a small 4 parts about what the bleep, one of them with the atoms and how they react to an observer, and how they do without ) .

Ok I am rambling now, and this post is not me as usual, I am aware of this, so very sorry, always loved this place, treating it with respect, and keep coming back, even if I don't usually post, I would love to hear your thoughts about this, while I am aware that there never is a "one answer" . Thank you again for reading, and any response is appreciated.