Israel Regardie The Art & Meaning of Magic

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

neglect and gross misunderstanding. When many folk are introduced to Magic, for instance, the first
reaction is either one of stark fear and horror--or else we are greeted by a smile of the utmost
condescension. This is followed by the retort intended to be devastating that Magic is synonymous
with superstition, that long ago were its tenets exploded, and that moreover it is unscientific. This, I
believe, is the experience of the majority of people whose prime interest is Magic or what now
passes as Occultism. It seems that just as their hope for security and their desire for unshakeable
knowledge becomes projected upon science, so their inner fears and unfaced terrors are projected
upon this maltreated body of traditional knowledge, Magic. Disconcerting this reaction can most
certainly be, unless criticism and the call for definitions immediately is resorted to. By these means
alone may we who champion Magic obtain a begrudged hearing.
Science is a word meaning knowledge. Hence any body of knowledge, regardless of its
character--whether ancient, mediaeval, or modern--is a science. Technically, however, the word is
reserved primarily to imply that kind of knowledge reduced to systematic order. This order is
encompassed by means of accurate observation experimentally carried out over a period of time, the
classification of the behaviour of natural phenomena alone, and the deduction of general laws to
explain and to account for that behaviour. If this be the case, then Magic must likewise claim
inclusion within the scope of the same term. For the content of Magic has been observed, recorded
and described in no uncertain terms over a great period of time. And though its phenomena are other
THE MEANING OF MAGIC 25
Israel Regardie: The Art Meaning of Magic
than physical, being almost exclusively psychological in their effect, they are of course natural.
General laws, too, have been evolved to account for and explain its phenomena.
A definition of Magic presents a rather more difficult task. A short definition which will really
explain its nature and describe the field of its operation seems practically impossible. One dictionary
defines it as "the art of applying natural causes to produce surprising effects." Havelock Ellis has
ventured the suggestion that a magical act is a name which may well be given to cover every
conceivable act in the whole of life's span. It is Aleister Crowley's suggestion that "Magic is the
science and art of causing changes to occur in conformity with will." Dion Fortune slightly modified
this by adding a couple of words-- "changes in consciousness." The anonymous mediaeval author of
The Goetia, or Lesser Key of King Solomon has written a proem to that book where occurs the
passage that "Magic is the highest, most absolute, and most divine knowledge of Natural philosophy
. . . True agents being aplied to proper patients strange and admirable effects will thereby be
produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature."
Have these definitions taught us anything of a precise nature about the subject? Personally I doubt it
very much; all are too general in their scope to tend towards edification. Let us therefore cease
seeking definitions and consider first of all certain aspects or fundamental principles of the subject,
Afterwards, perhaps, we may have sufficient trust worthy and evidential material at our disposal to
formulate anew a definition which may convey something intelligible and precise to our minds.
Within the significance of the one term Magic are comprehended several quite independent
techniques, as I shall mention on a later page, in another essay. It may be advantageous to examine
some of these techniques. Before doing so, however, it might be well to consider a part of the
underlying theory. I know many will say by way of criticism of this discussion, that it is nothing but
primitive psychology--and only the psychology of auto-suggestion at that. There will be a decided
sneer, barely concealed.
However, this objection does not completely dispose of the subject by any means. A very great deal
more remains to be said. Not that I would deny that in Magic the process of self-suggestion is
absent. Most certainly it is present. But what I must emphasise here is the fact that it is present in a
highly evolved and elaborate form. It almost makes the technical approach of some of our modern
experimenters look puerile and undeveloped. We are not to suppose for one moment that the
innovators and developers of the magical processes in days gone by were naive or fools, unaware of
human psychology and the structure of the mind itself. Nor that they refrained from facing many of
the psychic problems with which we nowadays have had to deal. Many of the early magicians were
wise and skilled men, artists and sages, well-versed in the ways and means of influencing and
affecting people.
We know that they understood a good deal about hypnotism and the Induction of hypnoidal states. It
is highly probable that they speculated, as have done innumerable modern psychologists, upon
technical methods of inducing hypnoidal states without the aid and help of a second person. But they
soon became aware of all the obstacles and barriers that beset their path. And these were many. I
believe that in Magic they devised a highly efficient technical procedure for overcoming these
difficulties.
When Coue some years ago burst upon our startled horizon with his spectacular formula of "day by
day in every way I am getting better and better" many believed that here at last we were presented
with the ideal method of getting down to brass tacks, of finally being able to impinge upon the
Unconscious mind, so called. Hundreds of thousands of people surely must have gone to bed at
THE MEANING OF MAGIC 26
Israel Regardie: The Art Meaning of Magic [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki