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-
- MODELS OF MAGIC
- by
-
- Frater U.'.D.'. (Germany)
-
- In the course of exploring the possibilities of new, more
- efficient techniques of magic I was struck by the fact that a
- structuralist view of the history of magic to date might prove
- helpful. After all, magicians have always aspired to restate the
- theory and practice of magic in the language of their times i.e.
- in different models pertaining to current world views.
-
- There is, however, some risk involved in such an approach:
- models do not really explain anything, they are only
- illustrations of processes, albeit rather useful ones. What's
- more, over-systematization tends to obfuscate more than it
- clarifies and one should not mistake the map for the landscape
- anyway, a fallacy a great many kabbalists seem to be prone to.
-
- Thus, the following five (or rather: four plus one) models
- of magic should be seen as a means of understanding the practical
- possibilities of various magical systems rather than as
- definitive theories and/or explanations of the way magic works.
-
- It has proved effective in practice to view magic under the
- following categories:
-
- THE SPIRIT MODEL
- THE ENERGY MODEL
- THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
- THE INFORMATION MODEL
- THE META-MODEL
-
- ***
-
- THE SPIRIT MODEL
-
- This is purportedly the oldest model of magic though it may very
- well have come into existence after or simultaneously with the
- energy model. We can find it worldwide in shamanic cultures as
- well as in many religions. Its basic premise is the existence of
- an otherworld inhabited by more or less autonomous entities such
- as spirits, angels, demons, gods etc. The shaman or magician is
- someone who can enter this otherworld at will, who has travelled
- widely in it, knows its language and customs and has made
- friends, smitten enemies and/or acquired allies and servitors
- there. This is important as all magic is of these entities'
- making. The modern German word for witch, "Hexe" (f.) illustrates
- this rather neatly if we take a closer look at its etymology. It
- derives from Old High German "hagazussa" which translates as
- "fence rider". The hagazussa is riding the "fence between the
- worlds" i.e. she is at home in the world of everyday life as well
- as in the magical otherworld of spirits.
-
- In the spirit model magic is seen as being effected by these
- entities who are usually invisible, at least to the average
- punter, and it is the shaman's or magician's task to make them
- put his will into effect. This may be done by prayer, by barter,
- by cajoling or even - vide medieval demon magic - by the
- application of magical force, threats and pressure.
-
- The otherworld may have its own geography but it is usually
- considered to coexist with the world of everyday life. The key to
- entering it is an altered state of consciousness, controlled
- trance or ecstasy of which the shaman is an expert.
-
- The spirit model has prevailed in traditionalist or Dogmatic
- magic until today, some of its most noted exponents being Franz
- Bardon and, at least to a great extent, Aleister Crowley.
-
- THE ENERGY MODEL
-
- The rise of the energy model in the West is marked primarily by
- the appearance of Mesmerism towards the end of the 18th century.
- Anton Mesmer, who was not an occultist but who was on the other
- hand regarded by his contemporaries to be a "miracle worker" of
- sorts, rediscovered amongst other things the ancient healing
- disciplines of hypnosis and magnetism. He popularized his theory
- of "animal magnetism" which he saw as a subtle force inherent in
- organisms, but he also made heavy use of metal magnets for
- healing purposes.
-
- While the French Revolution put a temporary end to Mesmer's
- movement, his ideas were not lost. They were taken up by a number
- of others, primarily occultists, who drew on them while
- developing their own theories of magic. One of the first to do so
- was Bulwer Lytton of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA),
- who postulated the existence of a subtle energy which he termed
- Vril, possibly deriving from Latin virilitas or "force, power,
- strength". (This was actually the model for the naming of Bovril,
- from Latin "bovis" or "ox", and Vril or "life force".) We can
- observe interesting parallels to this concept in the vitalist
- theories of biology which emerged around the same time. Other
- exponents of the energy model of magic (not then so termed) were
- Reichenbach with his concept of Od, Eliphas Levi and his Astral
- Light and Mme. Blavatsky, who adopted the theories of Prana from
- Yoga physiology. This was also the time when anthropology and
- ethnology discovered the Polynesian concept of Mana and Asiatic
- scholars began to concern themselves with the Chinese principle
- of Ki or Ch'i (Chi). The latter two go to show, of course, that
- the idea of subtle energies utilized by magic is far older than
- the 18th century. In fact, we can observe it already in early
- shamanic cultures. Shamanic magic is very frequently a mixture
- between spirit and energy model, e.g. the shaman may call upon
- his spirits or gods to give him "power" or he may, vice versa,
- use his power to extort favours from them.
-
- In its pure form, however, the shaman or magician is not in
- need of spirits and other entities. The world is viewed as being
- "vitalized" by subtle forces or energies and his primary task
- consists in mastering the art of perceiving and manipulating
- them. As all phenomena are basically energetic in nature, the
- existence of an otherworld is not strictly required. Thus, the
- magician is more of an "energy dancer" than a "fence rider" or
- go-between. But even here the key to the perception, charging and
- general utilization of these forces is again the magical trance
- or, as Chaos Magic terms it, gnosis.
-
- Theories and practices pertaining to the energy model can be
- found with many magical authors but it has seen its real, large
- scale popularity only since the seventies of our century when the
- general influx of Eastern thinking (pace the Hippie movement)
- made concepts such as chakra and kundalini work a mainstay of
- most occult disciplines. Strong energy model elements can also be
- found in Franz Bardon's system of "electromagnetic fluids",
- "condensators" etc.
-
- THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
-
- Sigmund Freud's theory of the subconscious revolutionized Western
- thinking in general and psychology (which he did not, as some
- people are wont to believe, invent all by himself) in particular.
- Suddenly, man was seen as a being which was only partially
- conscious and in control of itself. While psychology is still
- fighting for its academical recognition as a science, it has
- stamped its mark on therapeutic disciplines - and on magic.
-
- The psychological model of magic does not purport to explain
- how magic works, its only premise is that the subconscious (or,
- as Carl Jung later retagged it, the unconscious) will do the job
- if it is properly addressed and/or conditioned. This again is
- achieved by magical trance, suggestion and the use of symbols
- (i.e. selective sensory input) as tools of association and as a
- means of communication between the magician's conscious will and
- his subconscious faculty responsible for putting it into effect.
-
- Aleister Crowley dabbled a great deal in the psychological
- model which comes as no surprise as he not only tried to keep up
- with all major academic disciplines of his time but thought
- himself to be the world's greatest psychologist into the bargain.
- But all considered he remained a traditionalist exponent of the
- spirit model: after all Aiwass was, in his belief, a
- praeternatural entity. Nevertheless he did have a knack of
- explaining magic in psychological terms to make it sound sensible
- to the sceptics of his time.
-
- A more radical approach was taken by Austin Osman Spare
- whose sigil magic rests on the basic tenets of the psychological
- model. Spare's brilliant system is in principle an inversion of
- Freud's theory of complexes: by actively suppressing his will in
- the form of a graphical sigil and forgetting it, the magician
- creates an artificial "complex" which then starts to work on
- similar lines just as suppressed, subconscious traumas will cause
- neurotic behaviour etc.
-
- The psychological magician is a programmer of symbols and
- different states of consciousness. He is not necessarily in need
- of a transcendent otherworld or even subtle energies, though in
- practice he will usually work on the assumption that one or the
- other (or both) do in fact exist and can be utilized by his
- subconscious.
-
- Authors such as Israel Regardie, Dion Fortune, William
- Butler, Francis King, William Gray and to some extent Pete
- Carroll subscribe to the psychological model which seems to be
- the primary domain of the English speaking world of magic and
- which has become the prevailing paradigm ever since the seventies
- of this century.
-
- THE INFORMATION MODEL
-
- The information model of magic is being developed since about
- 1987 and there is still considerable debate about the direction
- it shall ultimately take. Its basic premises to date are as
- follows:
-
- a) Energy as such is "dumb": it needs information on
- what to do; this can be so called laws of nature or
- direct commands.
-
- b) Information does not have mass or energy. Thus, it is
- faster than light and not bound by the restrictions of
- the Einsteinian spacetime continuum. It can therefore be
- transmitted or tapped at all times and at all places. In
- analogy (but of course only as such!) it may be likened
- to quantum phenomena rather than relativistic
- mass-energy. It can, however, attach itself to a medium
- e.g. an organism or any other memory storage device.
-
- At the start of the theoretical debate it was still believed that
- the postulation of morphic (or, more precisely, morphogenetic)
- fields as hypothesized by Rupert Sheldrake had to be an essential
- factor by way of explaining the mode of actual information
- transmittance. This, however, while still being discussed, does
- not appear to be strictly prerogative though it cannot be not
- ruled out that an act of information magic may create such
- fields. It does seem more probable, though, that the concept of
- information matrices will prove to be the most promising theory
- in the long run.
-
- The application of the as yet evolving information model has
- led to the discipline I have termed Cybermagic (from
- "cybernetics" or the "science of control systems"). Contrary to
- the other models described above, Cybermagic does not rely on
- magical trance to achieve its effects. Rather, the Cybermagician
- activates either his own main memory banks, namely brain and
- spine (the Golf-club chakra, so-called because of its shape
- reminiscent of a golf-club) or those of the target person. The
- desired information is then called up and transmitted quite
- similarly to a copy command on an MS-DOS computer. The copy
- command analogy holds good insofar as the information (not having
- mass) is not actually "lost" in the process (as energy would be)
- but rather is duplicated. This is an important point as it allows
- for the magician to perform his magic even in a state of very low
- physical power, possibly even when almost completely intoxicated,
- as long as his basic "life support systems" are still functional
- and the command syntax is employed correctly.
-
- It is, however, obvious that this technique demands a fair
- control of what used to be termed kundalini effects and practice
- has shown ever and again that a good amount of Yoga and
- meditation experience is a great help in achieving to Cybermagic.
-
- Unfortunately, the full theory and practice of Cybermagic
- cannot be described here due to lack of space and will thus have
- to be the subject of a separate article to be published later. To
- date the main experimental research work is being done within the
- Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) and some
- quite astounding results have already been achieved, especially
- in the field of language and knowledge transfer as well as
- magical healing.
-
- In spite of its very modern, untraditionalist outlook the
- basic principles of Cybermagic may in truth well be the oldest
- form of magic extant. For we can, for example, find a number of
- reports in the East to the effect of a guru transferring all his
- knowledge to his successor before his death, which is usually
- achieved by an act of long, mutual meditation.
-
- This goes to show that magic as a whole has always existed
- in many, coexisting models. What has changed, however, is the
- stress laid on one model or the other in the course of time.
-
- THE META-MODEL
-
- The meta-model of magic is not a model as such but rather an
- instruction on the use of the others. For its only advice to the
- magician is: "Always use the model most adequate to your aims."
- This may sound a bit trite but we will see that it is not quite
- as selfevident amongst magicians as one might expect. It is
- rooted in Chaos magic's assertion "Nothing is true. Everything is
- permitted", which ultimately boils down to pragmatic
- utilitarianism. Before this aspect is enlarged upon, though, let
- us look at an example of the models presented here as applied in
- practice.
-
- We shall take the situation of magical healing to demonstrate how
- these models differ from each other.
-
- In the spirit model healing is regarded as an exorcism: illness
- is caused by "evil" or, at least, undesired entities which have
- to be neutralized and removed by the shaman or magician. In the
- case of a patient with a heart condition the shaman may, for
- example, "see" a green lizard in the vicinity of the heart which
- must be removed. To achieve this the shaman will usually call
- upon the help of his own spirits who will then handle the matter.
- Properly exorcised, the patient has been freed from the cause of
- his ailment and can recuperate.
-
- In the energy model ailments are seen to be caused by energetic
- imbalance. Thus, our heart patient may have too much (or too
- little) "fire energy" in his heart chakra, and the magician's
- task consists of restoring that balance of energies commonly
- defined as "health". This he may do by laying on hands, by using
- crystals and precious stones, by magnetism or chakra massage etc.
- The balance having been restored, the patient is regarded as
- having been healed.
-
- In the psychological model illness is considered to be basically
- psychosomatic in nature. The magician will, therefore, either do
- a ritual work with the patient which enhances his stamina and
- resolves his troubles (e.g. a Saturn ritual to cope with
- "Saturnian challenges" the patient is seen to have avoided by
- becoming ill) or he will charge a sigil for the patient's health.
- Preferably he will instruct the patient to construct and charge
- his own sigil.
-
- In the information model the Cybermagician will transmit an
- informational "healing matrix" into the patient's system (or
- somehow create a "morphic field" of health and self-healing) and
- let the patient's energies take it from there to do the job of
- their own accord i.e. automatically. This rests on the assumption
- that the energies are still powerful enough to get the work done,
- otherwise he will either jump back into the energy model to
- provide the patient with the additional energies required or
- install another information matrix to create an influx of the
- power desired.
-
- Following the meta-model the magician will decide beforehand in
- which paradigm he will begin his operation. This must not
- necessarily exclude the possibility of shifting the paradigms in
- midwork or of blending them, of course. Usually, the decision is
- taken on the lines of expediency, efficiency and personal
- preference. Thus, I personally find healing work with patients
- easier within the spirit or energy model, while I do seem to get
- better results with selfhealing employing either the
- psychological or the information model. Then again, cybermagical
- work tends to take up to two days to show noticeable effects so
- that it may be more expedient to go for laying on hands when pain
- is very acute.
-
- Another important point is the time factor. While traditionalist
- rituals in the spirit model may take from half a day to weeks and
- even months, operations in the energy model seldomly take much
- longer than a few hours at the most. If we take Spare's sigil
- magic as an example for a very fast technique within the
- psychological model, the operation can be over and done with
- within five to ten minutes. Information magical operations on the
- other hand only take up about three quarters of a second, a time
- span which can be cut even shorter by an experienced
- Cybermagician.
-
-
- Self evident as the meta-model may seem, in practice many people
- seem to feel somewhat uncomfortable with its inherent relativism.
- This is very much the case with beginners in magic. A typical
- dialogue on the subject might run on the following lines:
-
- "Are there spirits?"
- "In the spirit model, yes."
- "And in the energy model?"
- "In the energy model there are subtle energy forms."
- "And what about the psychological model?"
- "Well, in the psychological model we are dealing with
- projections of the subconscious."
- "What happens in the information model, then?"
- "In the information model there are information
- clusters."
- "Yes, but are there spirits now or not?"
- "In the spirit model, yes."
-
- This logical loop is, of course, usually experienced as a pretty
- frustrating exercise; but while the asker claims that the
- magician is trying to avoid the issue he is at the same time
- overlooking the fact that he himself is basically only restating
- the old yen for absolute, "objective" truths - not really a
- quantum magical approach, to say the least. However, the aspiring
- cyberpunk magician of today cannot expect to be spared the pains
- of coming to terms with the notion that freedom and dogma are
- mutually exclusive.
-
- UBIQUE DAEMON .'. UBIQUE DEUS .'.
-
- (c) copyright 1991 by Frater U.'.D.'. All rights reserved.
- ==================================================================
- Frater U.'.D.'., one of Germany's leading exponents of contemporary
- magic, is the author of "PRACTICAL SIGIL MAGIC" and
- "SECRETS OF THE GERMAN SEX MAGICIANS" (forthcoming). The essay
- above will be part of his next book, "DANCE OF THE PARADIGMS.
- A CHAOS MAGICK PRIMER."
- (All books: LLEWELLYN's PUBLICATIONS, St. Paul, Minn.)
- =================================================================
-
- * Origin: ChaosBox: Nichts ist wahr, Alles ist erlaubt. (2:243/2)
-
-