How does magick work?

New topic!

What is your thoughts on how does magick work? Come on.....any takers?

Ok, for this, I have to start out with a few of my personal influences, due to the fact that they have shaped the way that I currently think about this subject. That, and they hold some of the best arguments for their reply's.

1) Will: This is the guiding mecanisam for the creation of the chance (magick) that one wishes. And by this, I meen both the human will, and one's True Will (the will of one's higher self/Bornless self/Headless self/ HGL. With will, you guide the energies where you wish.

2) Manipulation of the Astral Light: This is the energy that is raised/gathered/drawn and subsequently reliesed. This energy is sent to the astral plane and THAT is the first place that change is found. From there, said change will echo down to the ethreal plane, and from there, to our plane.

3) Use of correspondences: As much as this is thought to either empower a working, or provide focus for it, the main use of it is neither. It deals more with the way that the microcosm and macrocosm work. If you change one thing, in one, you create a equivlent change in the other. This applies to both intearior and extierior changes. I would rather not go into any more detail on this. It's true power and use is best aquired if one meditates on this idea.

These 3 things are from the works of Eliphas Levi.

The Golden Dawn (who were greatly inspired by Levi's works) added a fourth part to this......

4) Human imagination: This is more important then most people realize. The imagination is key to being able to direct one's will towards creating the desired change. Think of Magick as thus, you are shooting a bow and arrow. There is the will (you), the bow (the microcosm), and the arrow (the astral light). A spell COULD conceavably work like this, but you are missing one improtant thing.....the target (imagination). One's imagionation defines WHERE you aim at. Without it, yes, you might still end up hitting something.....but more then likely, you'll either just end up loseing your arrow, or hitting something compleatly unexpected (yourself or a innocent bystanderd).

You want something to happen and it happens. You want to meet someone who will complete your life and you meet them. You want to own a thing and it comes your way. You want to see someone healthy and they are healed.

Does it really matter whether you understand the process if the mechanism works? In order to eat with a spoon, do you have to study mining, design, metallurgy, machining and plating processes? No, you learn to eat with it and just do it.

Then there are those of us who need to understand not only that something works, but why it works. The function of the witches pyramid are well remembered for those who have done the study... to dare, to will and to remain silent.

You forgot one part of it.

To Know.

The reason that I broched this subject is that just knowing that if you do something, and you get a result is not enough. You have to know why it works. If you don't, then using magick in that fasion becomes nothing more then superstition.

Also. Witchcraft is more then just causality in action. It is a craft. A artform. In order to understand any craft or art, one has to know the baisics. The principals involved. Both to make it work, but also to make it grow.

Using your analogy, One could say that to paint the Mona Lisa, all one needs to do is take a blank canvas, some paint, and a brush. Use the brush to apply the paint to the canvas, and you will end up with a cherished work of art.

A person with talent, natural or learned, with those tools, can create a masterpiece. Many will never conquer even the basics of the art, so they will never be able ot do more than create stick figures.