The Caretaker

UNTITLED MAGIC BOOK - v0.4

Added 2021-10-28 17:06:45 +0000 UTC

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WHAT IS MAGIC AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE

“Magic is an impossible thing to define. It is something felt, something done, and a quality something can have. It is the difference between the house and the home. It is the held hand. It is what we fear about the dark.”

In my time as an occultist, the question I am asked more than anything is “I want to learn, where do I start?” and I have been frustrated for lack of an acceptable answer. The Occult is a broad and diverse field. There are texts on alchemy, on witchcraft, on spiritualism, and ritual magic, but nothing that quite covers everything an interested mind could be looking for.

If you are interested in magic, welcome. My goal for this text is to give the burgeoning practitioner all of the tools they need to build a practice that feels like their own. ”

Further Reading: Claude Levi-Strauss, James Frazer The Golden Bough,

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN ABOUT THE OCCULT

If there is a first rule of magic, it is this: “Do your homework”

THE MANSE OF NIGHT: A PREMIER OF THE ESOTERIC

Herein lies the branch: Beyond Dacia, Beyond the Danube. Perpendicular to the world of light and thought and waking men.

Herein lies the now: A now before time and sky and the reign of men. A now after in turn, when the wheels have ceased their turning and the weavers have aged to dust.. An eternal now, cthonic-deep and endless.

Here upon the empty page did the acolyte fall, slipping through the cracks in the world to the darkened sea which was not a sea, cthonic-deep and endless. .

Said the acolyte “Who are you? My work remains undone, bid me return to my study.”

Said the god at his left: “I am Lord of the Lethe-Font, Foot of the Ebony Bed, Bearer of the Soporific Crown. I am sleep, dear guest.”

Said the god at his right: “I am the Fashioner, Lord-Keeper to the Gates of Horn and Ivory, Bearer of the Shifting Wings. I am dreams, dear guest.”

A SHORT HISTORY OF MAGIC

Prehistoric magic

Magic and anthropology

Magic in the ancient world

Mesopotamia and Egypt (Book of the dead)
The greco-roman world

Magic in the Middle ages

Simon Magus
Isidore of Seville
Magic and early pogroms
Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, etc
Hermetica
Agrippa

Magic in the renaissance

Ceremonial Magic
Alchemy
Neodruidism

Magic in the modern world

Blavatsky
Crowley
Gardner
The New Age

SECTION TWO: THE THEORY OF MAGIC

Magic comes in three overarching forms. These archetypes are defined on the overall goals of the practitioner; Transcendent magic, Transactional Magic, and Transformative magic.

Transcendent magic is used when interacting with forces that are beyond human control. The universe is bigger than us. The wheel of fortune is turned by the tide of fate and we humans are here to bear the consequences. Storms level our homes, mysterious relatives die and leave us fortunes, electronics catch spontaneous fire, every moment of every day we are subject to forces that we understand, but are beyond our ability to effect.

An astrologer checks the signs for the betrothed, determining the most auspicious day for marriage. A monk sits in silence, pondering the nature of god. A young woman chooses a green dress for her date, dates always seem to go better when she wears green.

We read the stars, we cast runes, we draw cards, all in an attempt to gain insight into the machinations of the world, to touch something untouchable. For are we not made of the same matter as storms and gold and fire? Are we not pulled by the same gravity? Are we not warmed by the same sun and cooled by the same night? For all its marvellous and ineffable complexity, we are not distinct from the world in any way that matters.

Transactional magic is used for forming, maintaining, and breaking contracts with the universe in its myriad forms. Payment made, bargain kept. A priest offers prayer to god in hopes that a sinner will be pardoned. A shaman bangs a drum as the people dance, offering the sound and frivolity to the spirits in hopes that they will bring rain. Students rub the head of a bronze dog statue for good luck on their finals.

There is often an element of personification to transactional magic, to make a bargain with something implies an intelligence with which a bargain can be made. However, this Other is not necessary for transactional magic. A campfire warms us at the cost of burning through its wooden fuel. The actual mechanitions of the bargain are often irrelevant.

The universe is an easy thing to personify. If there is beauty to be found in the human experience, it is found in our ability to see ourselves in the world. The sky may storm and rage and we ask it what is wrong. Is it upset? Is there anything we can do to help? Perhaps if we cooked some meat and wine over a fire, the smoke would drift up to the sky and it would stop raining.

Transformational magic Is used to turn one thing to another, and to imbue things with special properties. A priest stands over a basin of water, making it holy. A viking warrior kills a bear and brings its bones to the smith, who will burn them in the kiln to turn iron to steel. A mother stares over the counter to her children as she stirs a pot with love.

The wonders of the physical world are endless. Today we understand every chemical reaction that facilitates the fermentation of grape juice into wine, every step has been recorded, catalogued, and fine-tuned with the sharpest tools available to science. None of this has made the transformation any less magical.

Understand that hard distinctions are antithetical to a proper understanding of magic. These three archetypes are not hard categories. They are a triple intersection that mix and blend and overlap. Consider a place where a mountain range, a forest, and a grassland meet. There are no hard borders between the biomes, forest fades into grassland, the woods climb the slopes of the mountain, as do the grasses and flowers.

MAGIC AND RELIGION

Magic and religion do not have a fixed relationship. Every culture has a unique balance of the two. Godsen lays out five major relationships: Magic as dominant force, magic with an emphasis on lineage, magic and religion as equals, religion dominant and magic ambiguous, and a dominance of science religion and magic in that order.

Where does current western society fall? It is difficult to say. Attempting to define the interplay between science, religion, and magic in the modern world would be a tall order for any anthropologist, and I am not an anthropologist, I am an occultist.

That said, there are practitioners of magic from every religious background on earth. Each religious doctrine and culture will create a different relationship with magic, and ultimately it falls to the practitioner to determine what they want that relationship to be. A practitioner can be Christian, Musilm, Atheist, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, or anything else under the sun. There is no gate.

In fact, dear reader, if your religious beliefs are an important part of your life, I would encourage you to look at your religious history. Every religion on earth has its esoterica.

THE SEVEN LAWS OF MAGIC

Magic is a narrative force. Where religion has doctrine, magic has rules. I have attempted to define the rules here.

The Law of Contagion - The part of the thing is the whole of the thing. Once together, always together. Magic performed on a strand of hair will affect the entire body. Magic performed on a shard of a building will affect the entire building. Not all connections are made equal, magic performed on a cup with your lipstick on it will have less of an effect than magic performed on a phial of your blood. Magic using this law is known as Thaumaturgy.

The Law of Sympathy: The image is the thing. Like attracts like. A drawing or representation of something can gain its properties. A photo or drawing of you will have a similar thaumaturgical connection to you. Combining sympathy and contagion is the basis for poppet magic.

The Law of Correspondence: As Above, So Below. The gods are like us and we are like them. When viewed closely, atoms resemble solar systems. The big effects the small. The idea that there is a sort of harmony between similar patterns no matter their size. This is the basis behind astrological magic.

The Law of Resistance: Some things are more magically conductive than other things. Everything exists on a spectrum of “magical“ to “mundane“ and the less magic something is, the harder it is to effect with magic. The same extends to people who, for whatever the reason, simply have a harder time interacting with magic.

The Law of Balance: Magic seeks equilibrium, and therefore, every magical action has a cost. No magical act takes place without some sort of power behind it. Energy will not move unless something is moving it, be it a practitioner or the natural energy of the moon. A body in motion will stay in motion, a body at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.

The Law of Reciprocity: If you don’t know where its pointed, its pointed at you. If it doesn’t have enough energy, it will get energy from you. The process of getting hit with your own improperly constructed spell is known as Recoil. Safe practice often involves setting up wards to act as a barrier between you and any mistakes.

The Law of Reversal: That which is done by magic can be undone by magic. For every spell there is a counterspell, for every ritual a counterritual. Every ward can be hexed, every curse can be dispelled. This does not mean countermeasure will be easy or efficient.

THE FIVE QUALITIES OF A MAGE

Elphias Levi, in his 1896 book Transcendental Magic, outlined four essential qualities of a mage. They are as follows: Scire, Velle, Audere, and Tacere.

Noscere - To Know - Associated with the element of air, intelligence, and discernment. A practitioner must know themselves and their practice. They must know the lore of herbs, stones, symbols, or whatever they may be working with. They must understand the hard facts of their craft, and be able to discern reality from illusion. One cannot manipulate an image if one does not understand its bounds. Additionally, one must understand that magic is not free from the mechanics of the world. If an idea does harm, the mage must leave it behind.

Velle - To Will - Associated with the element of fire, with belief, discipline, and willpower. A practitioner must apply their knowledge! To do magic is to make art, to make art is to be known. This is terrifying! A practitioner must have the willpower to be known, to put themself into their craft, to allow themselves to fail and practice. We are steel from the kiln, and we must hammer ourselves into better shapes if we wish to grow. Pain is not necessary for growth, but hammers a heavy; to wield the tools of growth requires effort and careful focus. Magic is a constant effort of refinement and re-analysis. It is called a practice for a reason.

Audere - To Dare - Associated with the element of water, with challenge, tenacity, and ambition. A practitioner must be able to do things with their whole heart. Far too many practitioners are embarrassed by their practice, this will not do. It is human instinct to second guess ourselves, to response to criticism and mockery with indignance. When a practitioner is called cringe, two paths open before them. To take the path of the reed is to simply not respond, to allow others to think you are silly, and continue on your merry way. To take the path of the oak is to hold strong, to recognize that magic is, at the end of the day, a bit silly, and to respond with a resounding “yeah its cringe lol.”

Tacere - To Keep Silent - Associated with the element of earth, with calm, with understanding and humility. A practitioner must understand that the world is always stranger than it seems, that there are ideas beyond what words can convey, and experiences beyond what the mind can comprehend. There are things that cannot be explained, only learned firsthand. This is the Esoteric. Most of all, a practitioner must remain humble. True understanding of the Occult --real Esoteric Knowledge-- can feel powerful, and the practitioner must not allow this to make them arrogant. Remember, no matter how many books by historical weirdos we read, we still have to use the toilet.

Each of these qualities is a corner of a pyramid, when combined, they form the foundation for:

Ire - To Go - Associated with the spirit. A practitioner must remain balanced, and a practitioner must practice.

TYPES OF SPELLS

Warding is magic that seeks to protect. It is the magical defense of people, the scaring away of evil spirits, the consecration of places or objects. Warding is proactive, it is the construction of magical defenses.

Synmancy is a broad and common form of magic. As people move through their lives, they form relationships with their environment. Bonds are formed with people, places, animals, plants, things, ideas, anything that can be important to a person. Synmancy is magic that forms, strengthens, breaks, changes, or manipulates those bonds.

Divination is any magic that deals with foretelling the future. This can take many forms and many scopes, from a single person drawing tarot cards in preparation for a date, to an oracle foretelling the fate of a nation.

Augury is the complement to divination, where divination seeks to understand the future, augury attempts to understand the past. Roman settlers often kept an augur with them when a city was in need of construction. The augur would disembowel birds to examine their entrails. Was the bird hydrated? Well fed? Did it show signs of disease? A well-fed, well-hydrated, healthy bird, meant a place rich in natural resources, and ideal for settling.

Necromancy is any magic that deals with dying, death, and the dead. It deals with ideas of how to die, what happens after, and how to stay dead with elegance and poise. Common practice involves speaking to the dead, ensuring they are comfortable, and ensuring that they do not bother the rest of us.

Zoimancy is magic that deals with the body; medicine, sickness, health, healing, and possession. Where wards are proactive, dealing with the defense of something, zoimancy deals with management and repair. Wards are the walls around the castle and the guards who patrol them, but zoimancy are the masons who maintain the walls, and the soldiers who come to repel invaders. Before there was germ theory, there were spirits.

Alchemy is magic that deals with understanding and effecting transformation. This also covers Artifice, the construction of magical objects.

Amoramancy is magic that deals with the manipulation of desire. The magic of love, sex, wanting, and yearning.

ON CURSES

A curse is essentially any spell done with harmful intent. A hex is any form of spell meant to unravel or dispel other workings. If wards are walls, a curse can be a battering ram, a stealthy assassin, or an invading army who lays siege to the castle. In this same fashion, a hex could be the pots of tar used to burn down the ram, the patrols who catch the assassin, or the legion of riders who break the siege into disarray.

Magic is culturally defined, and it is rare to see forms of magic that are either inherently good or inherently evil. The common dichotomy of White Magic versus Black Magic is, in my opinion, limiting. A scalpel is a tool of medicine, but can just as easily be used to gouge out an eye. Magic is much the same.

For a more occult analysis of this concept, let us look to the idea of the Left and Right Hand Paths. The right hand path is often associated with adherence to a sort of moral code, where the right hand path is associated with resistance to the current social and religious paradigm, the incorporation of sex into magic, and general rejection of social conventions.

Within this conception of magic, those who define the normal, the orthodox, also define the abnormal, the heterodox. Those seeking to reject the dominant order of the world are themselves slaves to it. It is my belief that participation in the occult should be one of curiosity, an exploration of the wondrous and strange things that humans can do, any notion of arcane power or higher wisdom must come after.

BUILDING YOUR CRAFT

Learn to meditate
Learn the rules of magic
If you plan to venerate something, learn about it
Learn the rules of YOUR magic, not all spell structures are created alike
Setting up a workspace
Practice building spells
Research research research

Common sorts of spells

Intro to summoning
Intro to Sigilcraft
Intro to herblore

Building your craft

Customizing your practice

HOW TO LEARN ABOUT THE OCCULT

If there is an unofficial rule of magic, it is this: “Do your homework.” But this is easier said than done. Before one can really learn about the occult, one must learn how to learn about the occult. Doing research into ordinary topics can be difficult, and doing research into the occult can be a minefield of racism, pseudoscience, and predatory ideologies. In this section, I will cover how to do research, as well as cover some red flags to look out for.