Magic is different from work because it works with imagined reality. Imagined reality can be anything ranging from a poetic metaphor to a full blown “supernatural” experience. The careful magician keeps a scientific mind, always looking to find the natural explanations, rather than making irrational, or “supernatural” claims. On the other hand, magic is like work because it operates from the will of the magician, just like work also operates from the will of the worker. Religion operates from faith. Science operates from truth. Faith is a subjective experience. Truth is an objective reality. Will is the place where the subjective experience tries to meet, and merge with objective reality. Magic creates a space outside of work where this meeting place can be explored. Magic is like art in this respect, but while art is often a performance, magic is more like participation. Participation is an important concept in thinking about magic today, and I will come back to it many times in my writings. And while art keeps an audience, magic is oftentimes private, sometimes even hidden, and secret.
These essays aim to shed light on the topic of magic without losing the general integrity needed to do magical work. Or, losing the general integrity needed to maintain an intellectual approach. At the end of this project I hope to have a few examples of practical magic. I hope they are all natural, rather than un-natural, or superstitious. I hope they are all real. Inner reality is reality on the verge of becoming outer reality. This is the nexus of all magic(k)al work. The core of which is, (at least for Thelemites) –
“Do what thou wilt.”
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Aleister Crowley defined Magick almost a century ago with this famous quote:
“Magick is the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will.”
He added a “k” to his spelling of Magick reportedly to distinguish it from stage magic, and tricks.
Today I think we can say that the distinction is better made with the contents of our words when we speak about magic. Or, for that matter, the contents of our actions when we do magic. Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic is not wrong, but it’s too broad to be a useful definition. Perhaps it was never meant to stand alone, taken out of context, the way it has been for a long time.
I say this because I could just as easily say “Work is the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will.” It would be equally true, but it would still not be a complete definition, even to define work. Work is in many ways at least as mysterious as magic, because it touches on the mysteries of life itself, but at least we know why we’re doing it. We do work to get food, and to survive. We don’t always know exactly why we’re doing magic, but we know that we are doing it.
If we begin by calling it Worck, maybe we shall also begin to see its true nature.
At least I hope we can inch a little bit closer to answering the first question above.
What is magic?
Because right now, I don’t know, not precisely. But maybe someday I will. These essays are an exploration aimed in that direction.
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Who am I?
From the perspective of my magical practice I am what I do. I’m not a scholar with a degree, and this is not a scientific publication. It’s just a blog. I do read books, and I try to be intellectually decent, and curious. I have loved writing since I was a child, and I have loved magic. I refer to my own magic as either magic, or witchcraft. Witchcraft because it explains a few of the things that I do, and magic in more general terms. When I say witchcraft I mean that I live by the moon, the stars, and the seasons. I care very much about nature. I think climate change is real, and caused by human activity. Doing magic, or doing witchcraft, still sounds a bit wishy-washy. There are actual mysteries in life, but they are real, and not the products of mystification. I hope to de-mystify my own magical practice. I hope writing about it is going to help. I hope the next time someone wants to know what it is that I’m actually doing, I can just say – hey, you could have a look at my blog.
I’m married. I have three kids. I have two cats. I live in the South of Sweden.
My name is Kajsa.
etherbird 