Models Of Magic
by
Frater U.'.D.'. (Germany)
In the course of exploring the possibilities
of new, more efficient techniques of magic
I was struck by the fact that a structuralist view of the history of magic
to date might prove helpful. After all, magicians
have always aspired to restate the theory and practice of magic in the
language of their times i.e. in different models pertaining to
current world views.
There is, however, some risk involved in
such an approach: models do not really
explain anything, they are
only illustrations of processes, albeit rather useful
ones. What's more, over-systematization tends to
obfuscate more than it clarifies and one
should not mistake the map for the landscape anyway, a fallacy a great
many kabbalists seem to be prone to.
Thus, the following five (or rather: four plus
one) models of magic should be seen as a means of understanding the
practical possibilities of various
magical systems rather than as definitive theories
and/or explanations of the way magic works.
It has proved effective in practice to view magic
under the following categories:
THE SPIRIT MODEL
THE ENERGY MODEL
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
THE INFORMATION MODEL
THE META-MODEL
***
THE SPIRIT MODEL
This is purportedly the oldest model of magic though it may very
well have come into existence after or simultaneously with
the energy model. We can find it worldwide in shamanic
cultures as well as in many religions. Its basic premise is the
existence of an otherworld inhabited by more or less autonomous
entities such as spirits, angels, demons, gods etc. The shaman
or magician is someone who can enter this otherworld at will, who
has travelled widely in it, knows its language and
customs and has made friends, smitten
enemies and/or acquired allies and servitors there. This
is important as all magic is of these
entities' making. The modern German word for witch, "Hexe" (f.)
illustrates this rather neatly if we take a closer look at its etymology.
It derives from Old High German "hagazussa" which
translates as "fence rider". The hagazussa
is riding the "fence between the worlds" i.e. she is at home in the world
of everyday life as well as in the magical otherworld of spirits.
In the spirit model magic is seen as being effected by
these entities who are usually invisible, at least
to the average
punter, and it is the shaman's or magician's task to
make them put his will into effect. This may be done by prayer, by
barter, by cajoling or even - vide
medieval demon magic - by the application of magical
force, threats and pressure.
The otherworld may have its own geography but it is
usually considered to coexist with the world of everyday life. The key to
entering it is an altered state of consciousness,
controlled trance or ecstasy of which the shaman is an expert.
The spirit model has prevailed in traditionalist or
Dogmatic magic until today, some of its most noted exponents being
Franz Bardon and, at least to a great extent, Aleister Crowley.
THE ENERGY MODEL
The rise of the energy model in the West is marked primarily
by the appearance of Mesmerism towards the end of the 18th century.
Anton Mesmer, who was not an occultist but who was on the
other hand regarded by his contemporaries to be a "miracle worker"
of sorts, rediscovered amongst other things
the ancient healing disciplines of hypnosis and magnetism. He
popularized his theory of "animal magnetism" which he saw as a
subtle force inherent in organisms, but he also made heavy
use of metal magnets for healing purposes.
While the French Revolution put a temporary end
to Mesmer's movement, his ideas were not lost. They were taken up by a
number of others, primarily occultists,
who drew on them while developing their own
theories of magic. One of the first to do so was Bulwer Lytton of
the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA), who postulated the existence
of a subtle energy which he termed Vril, possibly
deriving from Latin virilitas or "force, power, strength". (This was
actually the model for the naming of Bovril, from Latin "bovis" or "ox",
and Vril or "life force".) We can observe
interesting parallels to this concept in the vitalist
theories of biology which emerged around the same time.
Other exponents of the energy model of magic (not then so termed)
were Reichenbach with his concept of Od, Eliphas Levi and his
Astral Light and Mme. Blavatsky, who adopted the theories of Prana
from Yoga physiology. This was also the time when
anthropology and ethnology discovered the Polynesian
concept of Mana and Asiatic scholars began to concern themselves with the
Chinese principle of Ki or Ch'i (Chi). The latter two go to
show, of course, that the idea of subtle energies utilized by magic
is far older than the 18th century. In fact,
we can observe it already in early shamanic cultures. Shamanic magic
is very frequently a mixture between spirit and energy
model, e.g. the shaman may call upon his spirits or gods to
give him "power" or he may, vice versa, use his power to
extort favours from them.
In its pure form, however, the shaman or magician
is not in need of spirits and other entities. The world is viewed as
being "vitalized" by subtle forces or energies and
his primary task consists in mastering the art of
perceiving and manipulating them. As all
phenomena are basically energetic in nature, the existence of an
otherworld is not strictly required. Thus, the magician
is more of an "energy dancer" than a "fence rider" or
go-between. But even here the key to the perception, charging and general
utilization of these forces is again the magical trance or, as
Chaos Magic terms it, gnosis.
Theories and practices pertaining to the energy model
can be found with many magical authors but it has seen its real,
large scale popularity only since the seventies of our century when the
general influx of Eastern thinking (pace the Hippie
movement) made concepts such as chakra and
kundalini work a mainstay of most occult disciplines. Strong energy model
elements can also be found in Franz Bardon's system
of "electromagnetic fluids", "condensators" etc.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
Sigmund Freud's theory of the subconscious revolutionized Western thinking
in general and psychology (which he did not, as some
people are wont to believe, invent all by himself) in particular.
Suddenly, man was seen as a being which was
only partially conscious and in control of itself.
While psychology is still fighting for its academical recognition as
a science, it has stamped its mark on therapeutic
disciplines - and on magic.
The psychological model of magic does not purport to
explain how magic works, its only premise is that the
subconscious (or, as Carl Jung later retagged it, the unconscious)
will do the job if it is properly addressed and/or
conditioned. This again is achieved by magical trance,
suggestion and the use of symbols (i.e. selective
sensory input) as tools of association and as a means of communication
between the magician's conscious will and his subconscious faculty
responsible for putting it into effect.
Aleister Crowley dabbled a great deal in
the psychological model which comes as no surprise as he not only tried to
keep up with all major academic disciplines
of his time but thought himself to be the world's greatest
psychologist into the bargain. But all considered he remained a
traditionalist exponent of the spirit model:
after all Aiwass was, in his
belief, a praeternatural entity. Nevertheless he
did have a knack of explaining magic in
psychological terms to make it sound sensible to the sceptics of his time.
A more radical approach was
taken by Austin Osman Spare whose sigil magic rests on the basic tenets of
the psychological model. Spare's brilliant system is in
principle an inversion of Freud's theory of complexes: by actively
suppressing his will in the form of a graphical
sigil and forgetting it, the magician creates an artificial
"complex" which then starts to work on
similar lines just as suppressed, subconscious traumas will cause neurotic
behaviour etc.
The psychological magician is a
programmer of symbols and different states of consciousness. He is
not necessarily in need of a transcendent otherworld or even subtle
energies, though in practice he will usually work on the assumption
that one or the other (or both) do in
fact exist and can be utilized by his subconscious.
Authors such as Israel Regardie,
Dion Fortune, William Butler, Francis King,
William Gray and to some extent Pete Carroll
subscribe to the psychological model which seems to be
the primary domain of the English speaking world
of magic and which has become the prevailing paradigm ever since the
seventies of this century.
THE INFORMATION MODEL
The information model of magic is being developed since
about 1987 and there is still considerable debate about the
direction it shall ultimately take. Its basic premises
to date are as follows:
a) Energy as such is "dumb": it
needs information on
what to do; this can be so called laws
of nature or
direct commands.
b) Information does not have mass or energy. Thus, it
is
faster than light and not bound by the
restrictions of
the Einsteinian spacetime continuum. It can therefore
be
transmitted or tapped at all times and at all places.
In
analogy (but of course only as such!) it may be
likened
to quantum phenomena
rather than relativistic
mass-energy. It can, however, attach itself to a
medium
e.g. an organism or any other memory storage device.
At the start of the theoretical debate it was still believed that the
postulation of morphic (or, more precisely, morphogenetic)
fields as hypothesized by Rupert Sheldrake had to be an essential factor
by way of explaining the mode of
actual information transmittance. This, however, while
still being discussed, does not appear to be strictly prerogative though
it cannot be not ruled out that an
act of information magic may create such fields. It does
seem more probable, though, that the concept of information
matrices will prove to be the most promising theory in the long run.
The application of the as yet evolving information
model has led to the discipline I
have termed Cybermagic (from
"cybernetics" or the "science of control systems"). Contrary
to the other models described above, Cybermagic does not
rely on magical trance to achieve its effects. Rather, the
Cybermagician activates either his own main memory banks,
namely brain and spine (the Golf-club
chakra, so-called because of its shape reminiscent of a
golf-club) or those of the target person. The desired
information is then called up and
transmitted quite similarly to a copy command on an
MS-DOS computer. The copy command analogy holds good
insofar as the information (not having mass) is not actually "lost"
in the process (as energy would be) but rather is duplicated. This is an
important point as it allows for the magician to perform his magic even in
a state of very low physical power, possibly even when almost completely
intoxicated, as long as his basic "life support systems" are still
functional and the command syntax is employed correctly.
It is, however, obvious that this technique
demands a fair control of what used to be termed kundalini effects
and practice has shown ever and again that a
good amount of Yoga and meditation experience is a
great help in achieving to Cybermagic.
Unfortunately, the full theory and
practice of Cybermagic cannot be described here due to lack of space and
will thus have to be the subject of a separate article to be
published later. To date the main experimental research work is being done
within the Magical Pact of the Illuminates
of Thanateros (IOT) and some quite astounding results have already been
achieved, especially in the field of
language and knowledge transfer as well as magical
healing.
In spite of its very modern, untraditionalist
outlook the basic principles of Cybermagic may in
truth well be the oldest form of magic extant. For we can, for
example, find a number of reports in the East to the effect of
a guru transferring all his knowledge to his successor before his
death, which is usually achieved by an act of long,
mutual meditation.
This goes to show that magic as a whole has
always existed in many, coexisting models. What has changed,
however, is the stress laid on one model or the other in the course
of time.
THE META-MODEL
The meta-model of magic is not a model as
such but rather an instruction on the use of the others. For its
only advice to the magician is: "Always use the model most
adequate to your aims." This may sound a bit trite but we will see that it
is not quite as selfevident amongst
magicians as one might expect. It is rooted in Chaos
magic's assertion "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted",
which ultimately boils down
to pragmatic utilitarianism. Before this aspect is
enlarged upon, though, let us look at an example of the models presented
here as applied in practice.
We shall take the situation of magical healing to demonstrate how these
models differ from each other.
In the spirit model healing is regarded as an exorcism:
illness is caused by "evil" or, at least, undesired entities
which have to be neutralized and removed by the shaman or magician.
In the case of a patient with a heart condition the
shaman may, for example, "see" a green lizard in the
vicinity of the heart which must be removed. To achieve this the
shaman will usually call upon the help of his own
spirits who will then handle the matter. Properly exorcised, the
patient has been freed from the cause of his ailment and can recuperate.
In the energy model ailments are seen to be caused by
energetic imbalance. Thus, our heart patient
may have too much (or too little) "fire energy" in his heart chakra,
and the magician's task consists of
restoring that balance of energies commonly defined as
"health". This he may do by laying on hands, by using crystals and
precious stones, by magnetism or chakra massage etc. The balance
having been restored, the patient is regarded as having
been healed.
In the psychological model illness is considered to be basically
psychosomatic in nature. The magician will, therefore, either do a
ritual work with the patient which enhances his stamina
and resolves his troubles (e.g. a Saturn
ritual to cope with "Saturnian challenges" the patient
is seen to have avoided by becoming ill) or he
will charge a sigil for the patient's health. Preferably he
will instruct the patient to construct and charge his own sigil.
In the information model the Cybermagician will
transmit an informational "healing matrix" into
the patient's system (or somehow create a "morphic field" of health
and self-healing) and let the patient's energies
take it from there to do the job of their own accord i.e. automatically.
This rests on the assumption that the energies are still powerful enough
to get the work done, otherwise he will either jump back into
the energy model to provide the patient
with the additional energies required or install another
information matrix to create an influx of the
power desired.
Following the meta-model the magician will decide beforehand
in which paradigm he will begin his
operation. This must not necessarily exclude the
possibility of shifting the paradigms in midwork or of blending them, of
course. Usually, the decision is taken on the
lines of expediency, efficiency and personal
preference. Thus, I personally find healing work with
patients easier within the spirit or energy model, while I do seem
to get better results with selfhealing
employing either the psychological or the
information model. Then again, cybermagical work tends to take up to
two days to show noticeable effects so that it may be more
expedient to go for laying on hands when pain is very acute.
Another important point is the time factor. While traditionalist
rituals in the spirit model may take from half a day to weeks and even
months, operations in the energy model seldomly take
much longer than a few hours at the most. If we
take Spare's sigil magic as an example for a
very fast technique within the psychological
model, the operation can be over and done with
within five to ten minutes. Information magical operations on the other
hand only take up about three quarters of a second, a time span
which can be cut even
shorter by an experienced Cybermagician.
Self evident as the meta-model may seem, in practice many people
seem to feel somewhat uncomfortable with its inherent relativism. This
is very much the case with beginners in magic. A typical
dialogue on the subject might run on the following lines:
"Are there spirits?"
"In the spirit model, yes."
"And in the energy model?"
"In the energy model there are subtle energy forms."
"And what about the psychological model?"
"Well, in the psychological model we are dealing with
projections of the subconscious."
"What happens in the information model, then?"
"In the information model there are information
clusters."
"Yes, but are there spirits now or not?"
"In the spirit model, yes."
This logical loop is, of course, usually experienced as a pretty
frustrating exercise; but while the asker
claims that the magician is trying to avoid the issue he
is at the same time overlooking the fact
that he himself is basically only restating the old yen for absolute,
"objective" truths - not really a quantum
magical approach, to say the least. However, the aspiring cyberpunk
magician of today cannot expect to be spared the pains of coming to terms
with the notion that freedom and dogma are
mutually exclusive.
UBIQUE DAEMON .'. UBIQUE DEUS .'.
(c) copyright 1991 by Frater U.'.D.'. All rights reserved.
==================================================================
Frater U.'.D.'., one of Germany's leading exponents of contemporary
magic, is the author of "PRACTICAL SIGIL MAGIC" and
"SECRETS OF THE GERMAN SEX MAGICIANS" (forthcoming). The essay
above will be part of his next book, "DANCE OF THE PARADIGMS.
A CHAOS MAGICK PRIMER."
(All books: LLEWELLYN's PUBLICATIONS, St. Paul, Minn.)
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* Origin: ChaosBox: Nichts ist wahr, Alles ist erlaubt. (2:243/2)
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