According to Aleister Crowley, one of the greatest mage of 20th century,
From Magick in Thoery and Practice (Liber ABA ; part III) by Aleister Crowley.
I. DEFINITION:
Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons," pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" --- these sentences --- in the "magi- cal language" i.e. that which is understood by people I wish to instruct. I call forth "spirits" such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution is thus an act of --- MAGICK --- by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.(i))
II. POSTULATE:
ANY required Change may be effected by application of the proper kind and degree of Force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper object.
(Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak or corrode, in such a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity of Gold, and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions.
In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by the above postulate.)
III. THEOREMS:
1. Every intentional act
is a Magical Act.(ii)
(Ilustration: See "Definition"
above.)
2. Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.
3. Every failure proves
that one or more requirements of the postu- late have not been fulfilled
(Illustrations: There may
be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis,
and his treatment injures his patient. There may be failure to apply the
right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light.
There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler
has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right
manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank.
There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da
Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable
object, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)
4. The first requisite for
causing any change is thorough qualita- tive and quantitative understanding
of the condition.
(Illustration: The most
common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one's own True Will, or
of the means by which to fulfill that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter,
and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter,
and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to
that career.)
5. The second requisite
of causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion the
necessary forces.
(Illustration: A banker
may have a perfect grasp of a given situa- tion, yet lack the quality of
decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.)
6. "Every man and every woman is a star." That is to say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion.
7. Every man and every woman
has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment
which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his
own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external
opposition, comes in- to conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers
accordingly.
(Illustration: A man may
think it his duty to act in a certain way, through having made a fancy
picture of himself, instead of investi- gating his actual nature. For example,
a woman may make herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers
love to social con- sideration, or vice versa. One woman may stay with
an unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic with
a lover, while another may fool herself into a romantic elopement when
her only true pleasures are those of presiding at fashionable functions.
Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go to sea, while his parents insist
on his becoming a doctor. In such a case, he will be both unsuccessful
and unhappy in medicine.
8. A man whose conscious
will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope
to influence his environment efficiently.
(Illustration: When Civil
War rages in a nation, it is in no condi- tion to undertake the invasion
of other countries. A man with cancer employs his nourishment alike to
his own use and to that of the enemy which is part of himself. He soon
fails to resist the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a man
who is doing what his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very
clumsily. At first!)
9. A man who is doing his
True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.
(Illustration: The first
principle of success in evolution is that the individual should be true
to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to his environment.)
10. Nature is a continuous
phenomenon, thought we do not know in all cases how things are connected.
(Illustration: Human consciousness
depends on the properties of protoplasm, the existence of which depends
on innumerable physical conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet
is determined by the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter.
We may then say that our consciousness is causally connected with the re-
motest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from --- or with
--- the molecular changes in the brain.)
11. Science enables us to
take advantage of the continuity of Nature by the empirical application
of certain principles whose interplay involves different orders of idea,
connected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension.
(Illustration: We are able
to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not know what consciousness
is, or how it is connected with muscular action; what electricity is or
how it is connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods
depend on calcula- tions involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondence
in the Universe as we know it.(iii))
12. Man is ignorant of the
nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations is
based on experience of the past. and every step in his progress extends
his empire. There is, there- fore, no reason to assign theoretical limits
(iv) to what he may be, or to what he may do.
(Illustration: Two generations
ago it was supposed theoretically impossible that man should ever know
the chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is known that our senses
are adapted to receive only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates
of vibration. Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these
supra- sensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar quali-
ties in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and Roentgen.
As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to per- ceive and utilize
vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The question of
Magick is a question of discovering and em- ploying hitherto unknown forces
in nature. We know that they exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility
of mental or physical instru- ments capable of bringing us in relation
with them.)
13. Every man is more or
less aware that his individuality comprises several orders of existence,
even when he maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic
of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be assumed to
extend throughout nature.
(Illustration: One does
not confuse the pain of toothache with the decay which causes it. Inanimate
objects are sensitive to certain physical forces, such as electrical and
thermal conductivity; but neither in us nor in them --- so far as we know
--- is there any direct conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible
influences are therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there
is no reason why we should not work upon matter through those subtle ener-
gies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic force
to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce images.)
14. Man is capable of being,
and using, anything which he perceives; for everything that he perceives
is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the whole
Universe of which he is con- scious to his individual Will.
(Illustration: Man has
used the idea of God to dictate his personal conduct, to obtain power over
his fellows, to excuse his crimes, and for innumerable other purposes,
including that of realizing himself as God. He has used the irrational
and unreal conceptions of mathe- matics to help him in the construction
of mechanical devices. He has used his moral force to influence the actions
even of wild ani- mals. He has employed poetic genius for political purposes.)
15. Every force in the Universe
is capable of being transformed into any other kind of force by using suitable
means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any particular kind of
force that we may need.
(Illustration: Heat may
be transformed into light and power by using it to drive dynamos. The vibrations
of the air may be used to kill men by so ordering them in speech as to
inflame war-like passions. The hallucinations connected with the mysterious
energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.)
16. The application of any
given force affects all the orders of being which exist in the object to
which it is applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected.
(Illustration: If I strike
a man with a dagger, his consciousness, not his body only, is affected
by my act; although the dagger, as such, has no direct relation therewith.
Similarly, the power of my thought may so work on the mind of another person
as to produce far- reaching physical changes in him, or in others through
him.)
17. A man may learn to use
any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking advantage of the above
theorems.
(Illustration: A man may
use a razor to make himself vigilant over his speech, by using it to cut
himself whenever he unguardedly utters a chosen word. He may serve the
same purpose by resolving that every incident of his life shall remind
him of a particular thing, Making every impression the starting point of
a connected series of thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote
his whole energies to some particular object, by resolving to do nothing
at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage of that
object.)
18. He may attract to himself
any force of the Universe by making himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing
a connection with it, and arranging conditions so that its nature compels
it to flow to- ward him.
(Illustration: If I want
pure water to drink, I dig a well in a place where there is underground
water; I prevent it from leaking away; and I arrange to take advantage
of water's accordance with the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.)
19. Man's sense of himself
as separate from, and opposed to, the Universe is a bar to his conducting
its currents. It insulates him.
(Illustration: A popular
leader is most successful when he forgets himself, and remembers only "The
Cause." Self-seeking engenders jealousies and schism. When the organs of
the body assert their presence otherwise than by silent satisfaction, it
is a sign that they are diseased. The single exception is the organ of
reproduc- tion. Yet even in this case self-assertion bears witness to its.
dissatisfaction with itself, since in cannot fulfill its function until
completed by its counterpart in another organism.)
20. Man can only attract
and employ the forces for which he is really fitted.
(Illustration: You cannot
make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A true man of science learns from
every phenomenon. But Nature is dumb to the hypocrite; for in her there
is nothing false. (v))
21. There is no limit to
the extent of the relations of any man with the Universe in essence; for
as soon as man makes himself one with any idea, the means of measurement
cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is limited by his mental
power and capacity, and by the circumstances of his human environment.
(Illustration: When a man
falls in love, the whole world becomes, to him, nothing but love boundless
and immanent; but his mystical state is not contagious; his fellow-men
are either amused or an- noyed. He can only extend to others the effect
which his love has had upon himself by means of his mental and physical
qualities. Thus, Catullus, Dante, and Swinburne made their love a mighty
mover of mankind by virtue of their power to put their thoughts on the
subject in musical and eloquent language. Again, Cleopatra and other people
in authority moulded the fortunes of many other people by allowing love
to influence their political actions. The Magician, however well he succeeds
in making contact with the secret sources of energy in nature, can only
use them to the extent permitted by his intellectual and moral qualities.
Mohammed's intercourse with Gabriel was only effective because of his statesmanship,
soldier- ship, and the sublimity of his command of Arabic. Hertz'; discovery
of the rays which we now use for wireless telegraphy was sterile until
reflected through the minds and wills of the people who could take his
truth, and transmit it to the world of action by means of mechanical and
economic instruments.)
22. Every individual is
essentially sufficient to himself. But he is unsatisfactory to himself
until he has established himself in his right relation with the Universe.
(Illustration: A microscope,
however perfect, is useless in the hands of savages. A poet, however sublime,
must impose himself upon his generation if he is to enjoy (and even to
understand) himself, as theoretically should be the case.)
23. Magick is the Science
of understanding oneself and one's condi- tions. It is the Art of applying
that understanding in action.
(Illustration: A golf club
is intended to move a special ball in a special way in special circumstances.
A Niblick should rarely be used on the tee, or a Brassie under the bank
of a bunker. But, also, the use of any club demands skill and experience.).
24. Every man has an indefeasible
right to be what he is.
(Illustration: To insist
that anyone else shall comply with one's own standards is to outrage, not
only him, but oneself, since both parties are equally born of necessity.)
25. Every man must do Magick
each time that he acts or even thinks, since a thought is an internal act
whose influence ultimately affects action, thought it may not do so at
the time.
(Illustration: The least
gesture causes a change in a man's own body and in the air around him:
it disturbs the balance of the entire universe and its effects continue
eternally throughout all space. Every thought, however swiftly suppressed,
has its effect on the mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent
thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer may lose
a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and third, he may
lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole; but the net result
of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a whole stroke, and so probably
between having and losing the hole.)
26. Every man has a right,
the right of self-preservation, to ful- fill himself to the utmost. (vi)
(Illustration: A function
imperfectly performed injures, not only itself, but everything associated
with it. If the heart is afraid to beat for fear of disturbing the liver,
the liver is starved for blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting
digestion, which disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.)
27. Every man should make
Magick the keynote of his life. He should learn its laws and live by them.
(Illustration: The Banker
should discover the real meaning of his existence, the real motive which
led him to choose that profession. He should understand banking as a necessary
factor in the economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business
whose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should learn to
distin- guish false values from real, and to act not on accidental fluctua-
tions but on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker will
prove himself superior to others; because he will not be an individual
limited by transitory things, but a force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial
and eternal as gravitation, as patient and irresistible as the tides. His
system will not be subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares
is disturbed by Elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs because
they will not be his; and for that reason he will be able to direct them
with the calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker, with intelligence
un- clouded by self-interest and power unimpaired by passion.)
28. Every man has a right
to fulfill his own will without being afraid that it may interfere with
that of others; for if he is in his proper path, it is the fault of others
if they interfere with him.
(Illustration: If a man
like Napoleon were actually appointed by destiny to control Europe, he
should not be blamed for exercising his rights. To oppose him would be
an error. Anyone so doing would have made a mistake as to his own destiny,
except in so far as it might be necessary for him to learn the lessons
of defeat. The sun moves in space without interference. The order of Nature
provides a orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the other has
strayed from its course. But as to each man that keeps his true course,
the more firmly he acts, the less likely are others to get in his way.
His example will help them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every
man that becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly
and surely men move, and the more such action is accepted as the standard
of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper humanity.)
Well, here endeth the First Lesson.
That seems to me to cover the ground fairly well; at least, that is what I have to say when serious analysis is on the agenda.
But there is a restricted and conventional sense in which the word may be used without straying too far from the above philosophical position. One might say: -
"Magick is the study and use of those forms of energy which are (a) subtler than the ordinary physical-mechanical types, (b) accessible only to those who are (in one sense or another) 'Initiates'." I fear that this may sound rather obscurum per obscurius; but this is one of these cases --- we are likely to encounter many such in the course of our researches --- in which we understand, quite well enough for all practical purposes, what we mean, but which elude us more and more successfully the more accurately we struggle to define their import.
We might fare even worse if we tried to clear things up by making lists of events in history, tradition, or experience and classifying this as being, and that as not being, true Magick. The borderland cases would confuse and mislead us.
(i) By "intentional" I mean "willed". But even unintentional acts so seeming are not truly so. Thus, breathing is an act of the Will-to-live.(ii) In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.
(iii) For instance, "irrational," "unreal," and "infinite" expressions.
(iv) i.e. except --- possibly --- in the case of logically absurd questions, such as the schoolmen discussed in connection with "God."
(v) It is no objection that the hypocrite is himself part of Nature. He is an "endothermic" product, divided against himself, with a tendency to break up. He will see his own qualities everywhere, and thus obtain a radical misconception of phenomena. Most religions of the past have failed by expecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper conduct.
(vi) Men of "criminal nature" are simply at issue with their true Wills. The murderer has the Will-to-live; and his will to murder is a false will at variance with his true Will, since he risks death at the hands of Society by obeying his criminal impulse.
From my own understanding, Magick is the process which one use the wholeness of nature, with the concept of "Mind over matters", in order to connect one's will with the wholeness and in effect, caused changes in nature.
Sunit Shrestha.
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