An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Magic

Many people, and perhaps especially educated people, have an entirely wrong conception of what magic is. They think of it as something which miraculously violates the laws of Nature. Therefore, they say, it is absurd and impossible. But magic does not work like this at all.

Aleister Crowley defined magic as: “The Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will”.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers, who was one of the founders of that famous magical order, The Golden Dawn, gave his definition of magic as: “The Science of the Control of the Secret Forces of Nature.”

It will be seen that both these definitions differ radically from the popular idea of magic. These definitions apply as much to witches’ magic as they do to other forms of magic.

A third definition of magic is found in the famous grimoire called The Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of King Solomon, which states: “Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.”

Again, there is no suggestion that magic acts by anything other than the forces of Nature, being understood and used by one whose knowledge penetrates to the hidden side of Nature, and to the workings of those powers commonly called occult.

Magic is generally regarded as being of two kinds, designated as white or black; though much confusion reigns as to how these categories may be defined.

I remember once discussing this matter with a lawyer in connection with a certain case into which allegations about various occult matters entered. He had not had much contact with such things before; and after considering a good deal of information about magical practices and practitioners, he said to me, “Well, I’ve come to one conclusion—black magic can be defined as what the other fellow does!”

In the world of present-day occultism, this remark certainly very often applies. However, it should not be assumed that the distinction between black and white magic has no validity. If people misuse occult powers, sooner or later they will pay the penalty; no matter how high-sounding their pretensions may be. Black magic is the wrongful use of occult powers; and it is generally coupled with the use of repulsive means, such as blood sacrifice, to attain one’s ends.

The word ’magic’ is from the Greek Magikē technē, meaning the art of the Magi, or priests of Ancient Persia, from whence the Greeks believed magic to have originated. (However, the magic arts were being practised in Ancient Egypt, long before the days of the Persian Magi.)

It seems that the Magi belonged to the oldest stock of Persia, rather than to the orthodox followers of the religion of Zoroaster, some of whom regarded the doctrines of the Magi with suspicion, as being heretical. They seem to have borne some resemblance to the Druids, as they are said to have worn white robes and favoured a simple mode of life and a vegetarian diet. They worshipped no idols, choosing rather as their symbol the Divine and Sacred Fire, which burned in their sanctuaries and was never allowed to go out.

There were also Magi in Chaldea and Babylon; and, again like the Druids, they studied astronomy. In Chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, we find one “Nergal-sharezer, Rab-Mag” as one of the princes who attended upon the King of Babylon when he captured Jerusalem. The words “Rab-Mag” are a title and mean ’Great Magus’.

The town of Hamadan, in Persia (nowadays called Iran), was known to the Greeks in ancient times as ’Ecbatana of the Magi’. The Three Wise Men of the East, who brought gifts to the infant Jesus, are generally regarded as having been of the Magi. This mysterious caste of initiated priest-magicians, who have given their name to the magic art itself, is one of the enigmas of history.

But how does one become a magician? What is the secret that separates a magician from the rest of mankind? According to many of the old magical texts, a person has to be born a magician; though his powers can be developed by study and practice. One of the first requisites, of course, is psychic sensitivity; but this must be coupled with strength of character and self-control. One sees in the accounts of the rites of the primitive tribes, how many of these ceremonies are evidently designed to discover and develop these qualities. The methods may be crude; but they work.

In our own society, such rituals are paralleled by those of occult groups, more or less secret, which confer degrees of initiation. The most famous one of these in modern times is the Order of the Golden Dawn, which was formed in London in 1887 from sources which claimed descent from the even more famous Rosicrucians of the Middle Ages. A number of well-known people belonged to this order, which included W. B. Yeats, Wynn Westcott, Allen Bennett, Arthur Machen, Florence Farr, Brodie Innes, Algernon Blackwood, A. E. Waite, MacGregor Mathers and his wife (who was a sister of Henri Bergson the philosopher) and Aleister Crowley.

The rites and teachings of the Order of the Golden Dawn, which have been published in our own day by Dr. Francis Israel Regardie (The Golden Dawn, Two vols., Hazel Hills Corporation, Wisconsin, 1969), are of a most elaborate and elevated character; yet their basic principles are simple, and rest upon the same age-old philosophy from Nature which has characterised genuine magical thinking throughout the ages.

One sees this process at work, both in the ceremonial magic of our own and previous times, and in the practices of witchcraft. The rites of the ceremonial magician may be much more complicated than those of the witch; but the principles involved are very similar, if not identical.

Witchcraft, however, is the Old Religion of the common people. So the witch uses in her magical arts the things of everyday life, unlike the elaborate armoury of the ceremonial magician. Such things, for instance, as the broomstick, the knotted cord, the cauldron, and the black-hilted knife, which were simply the household articles of any woman’s home; together with the herbs which she grew in her cottage garden, or culled from the woods and hedgerows. Her pentacle was of wax or wood, instead of the metal, or even gold or silver, of the wealthy occultist; and the waxen or wooden pentacles had the advantage that they could be quickly destroyed in the kitchen fire at any alarm of danger.

In the present-day ceremonies of Freemasonry, we can see a reflection of this process, whereby the simple tools of an ancient and highly skilled craft are taken and made to symbolise the highest concepts and ideals. The Operative Mason of the medieval craftsmen’s guild has become the Speculative Mason of the Lodge. And, like the witch, he has been abused and vilified by those who just cannot believe, or do not want to believe, that there is no sinister ’devil worship’ or mystery of iniquity in his brotherhood.

What, however, is the true object of magic? Is it to foretell the future, to gain power over others, to make talismans to work one’s will for various ends, to communicate with spirits, and so on?

No; to the true magician, these things are incidentals. They can be done; but to pursue them as ends in themselves is to fall into the trap of black magic. They should be regarded rather as means to an end. By developing their powers, the magician or witch develop themselves. They aid their own evolution, their growth as a human being; and in so far as they truly do this, they aid the evolution of the human race.

The human race, after all, consists of individuals; and evolution, like charity, begins at home. Before people set out to reform the world, they need to take a good look at their own defects. Magic, if they take up the study of it seriously, will force them to do this. Perhaps the most famous injunction of the old temples of the Mysteries was “Know thyself”.