Definitions are not “right” or "“wrong”. They are “useful” or “not useful”. The word “magick”, used in common parlance, seems to include the notion that mainstream science cannot explain it. The hard sciences categorically deny all magic as far as I’ve seen. The soft sciences (psychology, sociology, etc) are no friend of magic either; although they do recognize that keeping a positive outlook, being socially skilled, keeping in good physical heath, eating right, etc will all lead to positive outcomes. But if you were to call that stuff “magic”, you’d be lucky to be taken seriously as an author even in the most liberal peer reviewed article.
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Mate,
Very well put. I was like you once. Then Aeonics altered my understanding and I really appreciated what Crowley was trying to express. I’m sure his material on ‘Magick’ is on-line.
Can science really explain how you blow your nose? If evolution is correct how come you appreciate classical music when that’s not an essential survival development? (By the way, the theory of evolution really sucks.)
The apple never falls far from the tree and psychology has its root in the same soil as Magick. So do something Magickal for me and for yourself. For the next week immerse yourself in the good and bad flat earth Youtube material. Learn the arguments, see these with your own eyes and become a Flat-Earther, just for a week. Seriously. After that, whatever your politics immerse yourself in the opposite politics. If you have no politics study National Socialism then communism, each for a week. Take on and act the persona, of those political philosophies, then we’ll talk Magick and psychology. Think of this exercise as Insight Roles or paradigm manipulation. Strive to see and experience reality through these paradigms - each for a week.
After that, if you can handle him, get into Baron Julius Evola - the mighty lhp Magician and philosopher of the black hole. Very negative. Very difficult.
Al.
It does if they set out to obtain external, apparent success.
Al.
You need results yes. I am just saying some people keep their results secret.
Sure. Agreed. Understood and appreciated.
Al.
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I’m not fundamentally opposed to folks using Crowley’s definition of magick. I just think its very unhelpful because it’s too broad to be useful in referring to what most people understand as being magick. It would be much more useful if it also said “using methods that are currently rejected by mainstream science.” Modern atheist magicians try to make people believe that their views can be found in modern mainstream , hard science (or even soft science) textbooks. That’s crazy. The only way that would be true is if one were to use Crowley’s broad definition which doesn’t line up with how that term is normally used in common parlance. Even then, it would have to exclude almost everything that even those atheist magicians view as “remarkable” accomplishments. Let’s face it, mainstream science views us us nut-jobs even more than Christians.
Well yeah, but that is ultimately cognitive dissonance of a sort, and extremely unhelpful to the magician.
On a lighter note, I saw this and got a chuckle. I have no idea whether or not this is an actual quote but it does sum up a good amount of Mr. Robbins’ teaching points in a jollicle context:
This is true but it can’t be helped and works to our advantage. It’s about recognising, manipulating and using paradigms. In the western world the police won’t arrest you for killing someone by Magick - because Magick is bullshit.
Al.
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Yes, and this state of affairs is not at all by accident. The masses have been herded into an age of reason and disbelief. All the while the people in power are still performing powerful magick. One could almost say they are hoarding it.
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If magic were “just merely undiscovered science”, I could easily wrap my mind around that concept. But for me to intellectually believe, at the same time, that “nothing is real” (regarding specific magical systems)and for me to, yet, try use those “made up” concepts as if they were real? If that’s what black magic is, it’s definitely beyond what I am capable. For now, the law of attraction is good enough for me.