This is the introduction to the journal I created, Studio Magicae: A Journal of Practical and Theoretical Magic. You can read this article and the other articles in the journal here.
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Studio Magicae: A Journal of Practical and Theoretical Magic. I take it you have some interest in the topic or else you wouldn’t be here. First, a bit about the journal. This is an open access journal. All articles can be read online for free at studiomagicae.com. It is also interdisciplinary and is meant to promote dialogue between practitioners and scholars and include the perspective of both. I’ve met many scholars who are quite knowledgeable regarding indigenous magical practices or occult phenomena but who have never actually practiced the subject matter and thus have a one-sided perspective. I’ve also met many practitioners who don’t understand why what they are doing has the results that follow which could be understood if they understood the broader framework. It’s my hope that journal will be of benefit to both.
Why this form? I’ve always loved academic journals. To me, they feel like a small library. I get a sampling of a dozen people’s styles of thinking and ideas—often from people I would not otherwise have stumbled across. Some of my favorite thinkers have been discovered by browsing issues of various journals and coming across an author’s work in a compilation. My hope is that this occurs for you as well.
Similarly, I hope to pull from many different magical traditions as the journal continues to grow. I think there is something useful in encountering unfamiliar ways of thinking and experiencing the world.
A final tenet, at least for me, is that this is playful in nature. Scholarly and seriousness are not mutually exclusive to being playful. I play with ideas in a scholastic way all the time. For many people, some sort of playful energy is key to seeing results from magic. We are fundamentally playful creatures and to me this is a form of play. Many of my magical beliefs are playfully held. Reading the articles in this issue kicked both my practical playfulness and my idea playfulness into full gear.
Why the name Studio Magicae? It’s Latin for study of magic and here we will study and practice magic.
Why use the term magic?
Despite the claims of a number of anthropologists disavowing the word as meaningless, I find it useful for the very reasons they would argue it is meaningless. It covers a very broad range of phenomena that spans every tradition. Spells? Magic. Astrology? Magic. Spirit veneration? Magic. Art? Magic. Science? Magic.[1]
Dean Radin proposes three categories of real magic:
- Force of will: associated with spell-casting and other techniques meant to intentionally influence events or actions
- Divination: associated with practices such as Tarot and mirror-gazing
- Theurgy: involves methods for evoking and communicating with spirits.
This is far from an exhaustive list or categorization of what magic is. All of that, and anything else labeled magic, is what I am interested in. And magic is a thread that runs through everything. A more fundamental level might be that magical consciousness is a theme in all types. There’s a certain way of being in the world that exists that I will return to.
What is the Meaning of “Magic”?
What do we mean when we talk about magic? Ariel Glucklich gives a concise history of the meaning of magic through four answers. First, early anthropologists such as Edward Tylor and James Frazer argued that magic does, or at least tries to do, what science does but not as well.[2] Second, later social scientists decided to ask instead of “what does magic do?” “what is the function of magic in social and psychological contexts?” Third, and more recently he says, the question has been rephrased to “what does magic mean?” by those interested in the symbolic interpretation of magic and its elements. Fourth, there is the “naive insider’s view” that magic does what it claims to do. It starts or stops the rain, heals people, etc. by controlling powers that are predictable and useful which are not accessible to most.[3] All of these questions are valid approaches to magic. But they do not individually encompass even a portion of the experience that is out there.
Some scholars, such as Glucklich and Susan Greenwood, do approach the idea of magical consciousness. Magical consciousness is a certain way of being with the world, approaching the world, living with the world, and participating in reality. It is exploring the nature of reality and playing with it in acts of co-creation and co-participation, a topic which Becca Tarnas will pick up in her article.
The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre undertook the task of making sense of magic. He suggested that “magic” described a particular way in which someone is able to be conscious of something (i.e. magical consciousness). Magic isn’t something that we impose onto the world, it is something out there that we encounter. It reveals structural features of consciousness and its mode of existence in this world. For Sartre the elements that are key to understanding magic—emotions, imagination, and language—are also fundamentally a part of the existential matrix from which our own essence arises.[4] In other words, magic arises from the same place as our very essence.
Sartre also thinks that the term magic “is the one that best expresses a situation in which both mind and world are gripped and transformed by a power that is wholly other to either of them.”[5] When confronted with “the magical aspect of . . . human situations” we can either deny it and return to hide behind the ephemeral ‘rational’ or deterministic superstructures or “the consciousness seizes upon the magic as magic, and lives it vividly as such” and embrace the co-creation of reality that we are afforded.[6]
Whatever tradition it might come from, one of magic’s fundamental projects is the same: making sense of experience and reality and exploring relationships between things as they exist in our and other realities. Magical consciousness is a particular way of interacting with the world and, by most definitions, changing the world around us.
A fundamental problem when talking about magic is that someone’s understanding of it is shaped by the culture they grew up in and their life experiences. For some magic is equivalent to the fantasy world of Harry Potter with all its spells and correct wand waving,[7] video game characters shooting fireballs from their hands, or forcing people to do what you want. For others magic is something not to be touched or acknowledged and is relegated to those souls who have been led astray. And still others experience magic as an every day part of their life.
Our understanding of magic has been warped and shaped by the media we consume, the people we interact with, and other contextual features of our lives. Whether or not someone “believes” in magic largely comes down to how they conceptualize it. For the Abrahamic religions, healing someone with God’s power is not magic, yet the act is theurgical—invoking God and his angels to heal the individual. That is not magic because, since the inception of the Greek form of the word—referring to the other Zorastrians with their secret knowledge—magic has been used as the scapegoat. What the Abrahamic religions are doing is the will of God, what they are doing is of the devil. If we remove the insinuated other from magic, what is it?
Magic as an Art and Science of Change
On a broad view, magic is an art of change. I happen to like Aidan Wachter’s version: “The change or changes it involves can be many and various, complex or simple—a change of state, from one thing to another, a change of meaning, a change of mind, identity, heart, soul, or spirit. Often it is the art of changing outcomes.” He characterizes it as “wading into the Field” and “altering its flows”.[8]
Perhaps the most famous and touted in the Western occult works today is Crowley’s “Magic is the science and art of causing changes to occur in conformity with Will.”[9] Others, such as Israel Regardie and Francis King, have expanded on Crowley’s definition: “Magic is the science and art of using states of altered consciousness for causing changes to occur in conformity with will.”[10] Or perhaps you have seen Dion Fortune’s “Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with the Will.” Or even Donald Michael Kraig’s “Magic is the art and practice of causing change in accordance with will, using methods not currently accepted by science.”[11] Frater U.D. added that “Magic is the Science and Art of causing Change, on a material as well as a spiritual level, to occur in conformity with Will by altered states of consciousness.”[12]
At the core of it, it would seem, is change: whether enacting physical changes, spiritual changes, mindset changes, etc. Even if one’s goal is simply to figure out what is out there (or to figure learn everything, as my impossible goal is) it involves a change in one’s base knowledge and likely in their interactions with the world. As such it is a process and any magical act could be perceived as a theory of change or a theory of that process.[13]
This quest for figuring out how things connect, for making sense of things is fundamental to human existence. Christopher Bache astutely explains that the journey is not new to us. We are all explorers, but we are not the first. We are part of a cooperative enterprise with other seekers who have come before us. Each generation begins again, building on their ancestors’ shoulders. We each get introduced to the journey at different stages in life and with different sets of skills, and in some respects, we are all beginners in some area or another.[14]
As such, this journal will include articles from people in all stages of their journey—people with decades of experience in their subject, people with a few years of experience, or perhaps decades in another field of magic and are just dipping their toes into another. Each can provide a unique insight into the practices and theories of magic, both historical and contemporary.
A purely intellectual approach to magic would produce only limited results. Experiences of magic expand our worldview. Critical reflection then clarifies and evaluates the experience. It allows us to approach our experiences and understand why they occurred the way that they did. It finds patterns and creates narratives for us to explain and understand our experiences.
Historically (and presently), theories of the world were fragmentary in nature, confined to the area in which they originated. Yet, for some reason, these fragments are sometimes still vehemently defended as the whole. In my mind, unless everything and every possible experience is included in the worldview, that view is fragmentary at best, and cannot be defended as the whole of experience. And, as such, we will include any and all descriptions of, explanations for, and experiences of magic here. There are significantly more magical practices and traditions out there that we don’t know about individually than we do.
Some people might mistake magic as a “comforting delusion” as an escape from facing the so-called truths of materialism. Magic isn’t just an escape. It’s not a desire to escape physical reality into some assumed make-believe world with fairies, goblins, and demons. Instead, it is taking a hold of reality, recognizing that we are co-creators of our reality to an extent, and awakening more deeply to our embodied experience—playing a more active role in our emergence from it.
All of our experiences are shaped in some way by where we are at the time of the experience: our physical, emotional, and spiritual status among other things. Magic enables us to alter all three to some degree. And as such is inherently participatory and co-creative.
Articles in this Issue:
As Becca Tarnas explains in her article, if we approach astrology as a co-creative practice we can shape the archetypes’ expressions in our lives and potentially even the archetypes themselves. It becomes a dance between you and the cosmos and you get a say in whether it is a waltz, a tango, a ballet, or a belly dance.
If you are unsure of where to begin in understanding astrology and its practical applications, Sadalsuud’s article is the place to start. It is, perhaps, the best introduction to astrology that I have come across in its ease of use and insight. Let him be your guide into the foray of the planets’ role in magic.
The way we understand magic in the past, which shoulders of ancestors we are building on, and how our concepts have developed through time is of paramount importance to understanding where we are today and how to act moving forward.
Hereward Tilton elucidates early modern theurgical techniques in the context of Christian anti-magic polemics and looks at an under-appreciated aspect of the Rosicrucian tradition: The Gold and Rosy Cross’s invoking planetary spirits using animated statues and bells.
The oft-overlooked intent behind astrological practices in Rosicrucianism is found in the Gold and Rosy Cross’s gnosticism. He also discusses how inspirationist tendencies in Rosicrucianism are reactions to the mechanistic science of the Enlightenment which had discarded divine inspiration as a path to scientific knowledge.
Chris Bennett then explores the role of cannabis in ancient Jewish magical practices making the case for it and other psychoactive substances’ widespread usage in Jewish magic and alchemy.
Christian Swenson then does an incredible analysis of the architecture of one of Mormonism’s most important buildings and its significance for understanding Mormonism’s forgotten relationship to astrology. There exist many parallels between early Mormon leaders’ cosmological beliefs and the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner.
Jack Chanek puzzles out the role of the ritual of the Fires of Azrael in Dion Fortune’s novel The Sea Priestess. He makes a solid case for the importance of the ritual and of it’s connection to Solomon’s temple and the sea temple featured in the novel.
Antero Alli presents his paratheatre manifesto, “Undoing the World”. At first glance, one might wonder why this is a part of a journal on magic. It fits perfectly. Culture is a form of magic. Magic is a ritual, sometimes performed with other people, an audience and other times performed alone. Or in groups. The way Alli describes paratheatre and its influences is a form of performative magic. He also guides us on the integration of ritual into daily life.
Saul Mondriaan offers an incredible insight into the relationship between magic and hypnosis. He guides the reader on a journey through his own experience, techniques of hypnosis, practices for the magician to utilize and offers insights into how to integrate it.
Finally, Ina Auderieth graciously allowed me to use her artwork on the cover of this issue and offers her thoughts on the role of art in rituals and practice, tarot, and the inspiration for her piece “The Magus”.
Each of these articles has been written by individuals who are people who have shaped my thinking and the way I interact with the world. I hope these articles provide as much pleasure and food for thought as they did for myself.
Let’s explore the world and play with magic together.
Footnotes
[1] Dean Radin has taken a scientific approach to magic in his fascinating book Real Magic.
Frater U.D. makes a useful distinction between the science of magic and the art of magic that I find worth quoting here:
“First of all, the terms ‘art, and “science’, are important here. Often the term ‘occult science’ is used, but the occultist (or occult scientist) generally defines ‘’science, quite differently than the ‘exact’ or ‘natural scientist’, does. ln the attempt to earn the recognition of orthodox schoolbook science, many occultists (and even magicians) have tried to use the word ‘scientific’ to describe their discipline. This is only true as long as magic uses scientific methods. In technical jargon, it’s ‘empirical’ or ‘empirically scientific,’ which applies to everyday practical magic at least. This means that magic first aims at what is visibly successful. On the other hand, the term ‘art’ refers to the more intuitive area of magic that includes ‘fine instincts’ and feelings in general, as well as the sensitivity for subtle energies (such as those involved in the various types of clairvoyance). Dreams and visions also fall under the “art” aspect of magic, but thought and the knowledge of correlations, on the other hand, belong to the ‘science’ aspect.” See Frater U.D. High Magic: Theory and Practice (Llewelyn, 2005), 10.
[2] See James G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough and Edward Burnett Tylor’s The Origins of Culture.
[3] Ariel Glucklich, The End of Magic (Oxford University Press, 1997), 9-10.
[4] Jean-Paul Sartre, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions trans. Philip Mairet (Routledge, 2015 [1962]), 56-58.
[5] Hannu Poutiainen, “Tractatus Logico-Magicus: A Definition of Magic in Three Throws of the Die.” Correspondences 7, no. 2 (2019): 305–337, 326.
[6] Jean-Paul Sartre, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions, 56-58.
[7] I, like many other people, am still waiting for my acceptance to Hogwarts.
[8] Aidan Wachter, Weaving Fate: Hypersigils, Changing the Past, and Telling True Lies (Red Temple Press, 2020), 17.
[9] Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice (Dover Publications Inc., 1976 [1929]), XII.
[10] See Frater U.D. High Magic, 9.
[11] Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (Llewellyn, 1988).
[12] Frater U.D., Secrets of the German Sex Magicians (Llewellyn, 1995).
[13] See Arthur M. Young’s The Reflexive Universe for a theory of process or change that is quite interesting.
[14] Christopher Bache, LSD And The Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven (Park Street Press, 2019), 50.
Works Cited
Bache, Christopher. LSD And The Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven (Park Street Press, 2019).
Frater U.D. High Magic: Theory and Practice (Llewelyn, 2005).
Frater U.D. Secrets of the German Sex Magicians (Llewellyn, 1995).
Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Macmillan, 1935).
Glucklich, Ariel. The End of Magic (Oxford University Press, 1997).
Greenwood, Susan. The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness (Berg, 2005).
Kraig, Donald Michael. Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (Llewellyn, 1988).
Poutiainen, Hannu. “Tractatus Logico-Magicus: A Definition of Magic in Three Throws of the Die.” Correspondences 7, no. 2 (2019): 305–337.
Radin, Dean. Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe (Harmony Books, 2018).
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions trans. Philip Mairet (Routledge, 2015 [1962]).
Tylor, Edward Burnett. The Origins of Culture (Harper Torchbooks, 1958).
Wachter, Aidan. Weaving Fate: Hypersigils, Changing the Past, and Telling True Lies (Red Temple Press, 2020).
Young, Arthur M. The Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness (Doubleday, 1976).