A Mystical View of Magic

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I can’t remember a time in which I did not believe in magic. Even when I was quite young I knew that my mother was called ‘fey’ and ‘white witch’ in our small town and she was quite open to talk about her abilities to sense ghosts, douse for water and lost objects without any aids, and tell fortunes by use of a pendulum. And she could tell really good true ghost stories. My mother was a full-blood Highland Scot and she had inherited these ‘spooky’ abilities from her mother (not an uncommon trait, as I was to learn later as an adult). It was just a small part of who my mother was – and not a particularly important part at that.

Then I learned about the other ‘white witch’ - this one with capitals – courtesy of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But I was more interested in Uncle Andrew – the magician who didn’t really know what he was doing – and Queen Jadis (later to become the White Witch) who exterminated her entire world, except for herself, by uttering the Deplorable Word in Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew and the brainwashing Lady of the Green Kirtle in Lewis’s The Silver Chair. Even though I was fully aware that these were fictitious characters, I caught Lewis’s drift that those who wield extraordinary powers (which is what I thought magic to be) are often of questionable or evil character.

At about the same time, I ended up, through unforeseen circumstances, in the airport of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for a few hours – after just reading a lot about Voodoo (and seeing the James Bond film Live and Let Die a year earlier didn’t help!): I was absolutely creeped out and was happy when the wheels of the aircraft were free from what I believed to be an absolutely evil country.

Just a few years later, I was thrilled by two fictional magicians of a different nature: Obi Wan Kenobi in the newly released first Star Wars movie and Gandalf the Grey in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works of fantasy. This balanced the negative stereotypes that I had been exposed to earlier and better allayed with the untutored doings of my mother who would never do anything to either harm others or gain anything for herself.

Soon after that, I grew up, put such things behind me, and dove head-first into mysticism, hardly ever looking back. And so it was for several decades. I knew about folk magic through my study of anthropology and certainly believed that people performed genuine magic – though not at the levels of either Galdalf or Queen Jadis!

And then I stumbled across the writings of fringe intellectual and master occultist John Michael Greer. I encountered his writings online back in the days when he was still discussing peak oil and ‘green wizardry’ (that is, simple, time-tested skills for living comfortably in an energy-scarce future). When his writings ventured onto the occult side, he wrote with such clear-headed logic, and provided sound examples and well-defined terms, that I paid attention to what he said about magic. I have now read many of his works on a wide variety of topics.

What does this die-hard mystic (yours truly) think about magic now? After much contemplation upon what Greer has to say, I agree with most of what he has to say. Two things in particular I have appreciated. The first is the definition of magic that he borrowed from the 20^th century occult author Dion Fortune: magic is the art and science of causing change in consciousness in accordance with will. The second is that there is a spectrum on the topic of occultism, in which occultism is in the middle, magic is on one side, and mysticism is on the other. Both deserve a bit of unpacking and discussion.

When we thoroughly contemplate the broad definition of magic given by Dion Fortune (which does not identify whose consciousness is being changed, nor does it state whose will is being exerted), we ultimately come to the conclusion that virtually everything in the human world is touched by magic. It can be something as mundane as motivating myself to get out of bed in the black of pre-dawn morning when I’d really like to stay in bed a little bit longer; or it can be something as powerful as corporate advertising, a witch’s curse, or weapons-grade psychological operations. Anything that deliberately alters one’s own and/or another person’s mood can be termed as magic: music, visual arts, dancing, interior decorating, persuasive argument, affirmations to oneself, engaging in activity that one loves, spending time with people you love – the list is nearly endless. Everything that we say or do, or that others say and do, can (and usually does) contain magic as defined by Fortune (and echoed by Greer).

The main thing that separates the ‘amateurs’ (which is the vast majority of the population) from the ‘pros’ (those who able to effectively curse, summon spirits, or possess nearly Obi Wan Kenobi-like powers of persuasion – that is, real magicians, or ‘mages’ as they often prefer to call themselves) is the will: most people do not train their will – or do so only to the level that is needed to function in society and achieve at least some of their desires – while the ‘pros’ spend years in training their will through various means. I have also come to appreciate that not all magic ‘schools’ are alike: from what I have seen from a distance, there are plenty of what I’d call the ‘grubby type’ which seem content to enable people to get more of what they want in life regardless of motive or consequences; while others, which I would term ‘high magic’, seem to focus on magic as a means of inner discovery and have a very strong code of ethics (prohibiting its use for harming others). I am also saddened to learn that so many branches of magic in the West have abandoned this code of ethics, especially over the past decade or so, and are enthusiastically casting curses on whomever they disagree with. As this habit of cursing has spilled into the political scene, things are even more messed up in the world than they would otherwise be.

A key component of formal magic is ritual: certain things are said in particular ways, usually attended with specific actions, and often involving specific objects. The public is, of course, familiar with magic rituals via Hollywood: chalk circles, incantations, and various (usually disgust-inducing) objects to help make the magical working/spell more potent. Let’s assume that Hollywood is at least partially correct on this count. But what if one substitutes one set of incantations with another (say, with a set of prayers), ritual actions with another (say, the sign of the cross), and ritual objects with another (say, the chalice and the wafer)? Would this be true of Christianity and other religions? Such thoughts will get a lot of religious folks pretty defensive, if not outraged. But my understanding is that adepts in magic clearly see this to be true. I can also say from decades of direct personal experience that the Catholic mass, Hindu poojas, and many other religious ceremonies create a change in consciousness (small compared to changes such as hilarious laughter or abject horror, but discernable just the same) to large groups of people. I have also observed that the degree of change depends largely on the priest conducting the religious ritual: some are clearly better at facilitating the Divine powers/energies better than others.

But at a mundane level, it can be seen that we are engaging in a type of ritual via body language – especially if we perform it deliberately (like parents/caretakers will do to children, or a person will do in order to influence or control another person). We also do it unconsciously via facial expression, use of our hands, putting our fists on our hips when trying to exert authority or express displeasure. If we look at it this way, it can be truthfully said that humans are ‘magical beings’.

As for the occult ‘spectrum’ described by Greer, this makes great sense. In particular, he states that a person who is attracted to the occult may side more on the side of magic, or more on the side of mysticism, but not both. So far, I have found this to be true among people whom I have encountered. There may be exceptions, but I have not encountered any. It is certainly true in my case. I grew up in a household that was very tolerant of, and comfortable with, stuff that was weird or inexplicable: so, I have always been curious about the occult, though for much of my life I did not indulge much in it (unless one counts ghosts, UFOs and bigfoot as ‘occult’). And, excepting one moment when I was fifteen, in which I thought it would be ‘cool’ to get involved in magic, I have never had an interest in taking up magical training. Perhaps it is because throughout my life I have taken to heart a saying: “to reach God, two paths are possible: one is to expand oneself to the point of attaining Godhood; the other is to reduce oneself to the point that you dissolve into God”. I see the first path as belonging more to the practice of magic and the latter more to the practice of mysticism. And it is the latter practice that naturally appeals to me: I am happy to be the river that merges utterly and completely in the ocean of the Divine.

But is it accurate to associate mysticism with the occult? Should it not be associated with religion? Well, not everything in life is ‘either/or’; an argument can be made that it is both. I would argue that there is an inherent connection between the occult and mysticism in the following way: in the course of their experience with the Divine, mystics almost inevitably experience other ‘beings’ (which may be described as intelligences / entities / angels / demons / gods – depending on the culture and orientation of the mystic). Those who are familiar with the biographies, stories and legends of Christian saints, for example, will recall numerous examples of the mystical saints having repeated encounters or struggles with demonic entities. Few are the mystics who only experience ‘the one and only God’, so through direct experience they are affirming the occult in that there is an ‘unseen world’ that is not part of the common human experience.

In my mind, the path of magic carries with it the assumption that one is competent in identifying a change that will benefit the world more than harm it and competent in causing such a change. Through Greer’s writings, I have learned that a responsible mage will not initiate a magical working without first determining whether it is a good thing to do, via divination. But it is possible for a mage to skip over the divination if either they are not well trained or just don’t give a damn. I keep in mind that magic is a tool that can be used for good or ill, depending upon the character of the person wielding that ‘tool’. Also, it has been observed that magic is resorted to by people who feel oppressed and powerless in their lives – and in most of the West, this is a rapidly growing demographic. This in no way is my way of making a blanket condemnation of magic; in a way, it is the opposite! If there are people of good character who feel drawn to a ‘straight and narrow path’ within magic, I wish them all the best! It’s just that I have seen how absolutely horrible things can become in countries where life in general is miserable and then get stuck in a nasty rut because of so much black magic being thrown about by a lot of people at each other. Ugly!

On my mystical path, I do not trust myself with being able to competently identify changes that need to be made to my life or others’ lives (other than the very mundane basics). I do not place much trust in my rational power; rather, I trust my intuition, which I truly believe to be the inner voice of the Divine.

Again, this does not mean that I reject or abhor magic. In fact, there are several aspects of magic that I not only respect but also integrate into my life. One is natural magic: that is, the use of plants and other things to change the mood and mental health of myself and those who are close to me or cleansing a place of negative energies. Another is what is often called ‘folk magic’: extremely simple actions that can be done by anybody to good effect (such as removing the evil eye). Lastly, there are simple protective magical rituals that can keep magical nastiness at bay (which has been constantly on overdrive in our society throughout the 2020s). While I firmly believe in the efficacy of prayers for protection, they seem to be most effective at levels of ‘the Invisible realm’ that are different from the levels where magical protective rituals are most effective. Kinda like having more than one weapon on your person when in battle. If we separate the human into three parts – body, mind, and soul (I prefer a five-fold division that includes the life force and intellect, but we’ll not go there right now) – it is obvious to most that prayers for protection connect to the soul, while physical self-defence connects to the body, but what about the mind? That’s where magical protection comes into play. Just like it does not make sense to have an army pray for protection when an opposing arming is lobbing bombs at them – though members may be praying while engaging the enemy, they are relying a great deal on the physical realm of the weapons, strategies and logistics that are very much at the level of the body – similarly, protective magical rituals help to protect ourselves from what may be accurately termed ‘psychic attack’. Dion Fortune, who was a psychiatrist, a master occultist as well as a practicing Anglican, wrote a very good book entitled Psychic Self-Defense, which is in reality, a manual on protective ritual magic.

So, as a mystic, the full-blown ritual magic discipline is not my thing; but I wish well for those who are intent on doing so in an ethical way and I have no qualms in using simple magic for the sake of protecting and healing oneself. Other mystics may see magic differently – but at present this is my stand.