Diana's Magick Thread

I've been very busy at work in my other life as a business executive, but I've been determined to find a way I can contribute more at AW. I have considerable knowledge on various mystical and magical systems earned from my lifelong researches into these areas. It seems to me that I can put that knowledge to use here. Many people who write fantasy (or occult based) novels may not have the extensive background that I have, and I offer my accumulated wisdom to assist them in telling their stories, or at least point them in the right direction. So basically, I'm offering to answer questions on magic and mysticism, or to suggest references to use for writers tackling these subjects. There are many different ways to make an omelet, and some folks are perfectly happy inventing their own magic systems, but if you want to base your magic on the magick of history, of various world traditions, ask me what you will. I'll try to help you.

I'll probably take a little time to get back to you, since my time is very limited, but if you ask, sooner or later, I will answer to the best of my ability. and, if I don't knoiw then I bet somebody else around here probably does...

In the meantime, I'm going to recommend that everyone interested in this thread go rent the movie, "What the (BLEEP) Do We Know?" which provides a scientific basis for the existance of magic and spirituality.

Diana Hignutt

Zornhau,

The Greek Magical Papyri? Are you referring to the Greek Gnostic scriptures, or is this something different? I have some knowledge of Greek Gnosticism.

Axbikergirl,

Okay, I'll be spending sometime on this, but a great resource for you would be the Don Jaun books by Carlos Castaneda, beginning with The Teachings of Don Jaun, then A Separate Reality, and then several more books. I'll go into more detail on this tomorrow...

Ixstanto, maybe we can do that with this thread...we'll see...

Thread Disclaimer:

This thread is for literary purposes only, and is meant solely as a resource of writers...

The very basic core of all magical beliefs...

At the heart of all magickal beliefs (of which for the sake of what we're doing here I am including all aspects of religion, metaphysics and mysticism) is the very basic assumption that we exist in a universe which we can change in fundementals ways. That is to say that there exists some mechanism of reality that through some means can be affected. Aleister Crowley, a major proponent of Western Occult revival, defines magick as "the science and art of causing change in conformity with the will." So, the essense of magick is simple, we exist in a universe that we have the power to change, either through our own direct efforts, entready to the powers that be, or through some combination.

In the movie I mentioned above, they do a wonderful job of explaining that we do, in fact live in a universe that is built on endless probability at its most fundemental levels--the level of quantum mechanics. Many people have believed many different things in different places and different times--it all boils down to the same thing. I want to do X, which may or may not be something that is generally considered possible, so I need to resort to magick. What then is magick? It is a system that allows the user to do something by working with the fundemental essense of reality, not merely the essense that we can see or touch. All systems of magick begin with the assumptions that the universe is more complex than it appears to be, that simple cause and effect are not so absolute in nature, and that through knowledge of the invisible laws of the universe changes can be wraught in the everyday world.

I probably wouln'd have begun with the Yaqui belief system, if Azbikergirl, hadn't brought up the use of herbs and drugs in magickal systems. But, it isn't a bad place to start. Carlos Castaneda wrote extensively about a Yaqui man of knowledge named Don Jaun. Castaneda was doing research on the Native American tradition of using peyote and other mind-altering susbstances. An acquaintance of Castaneda introduces him to a Yaqui sorcerer named Don Jaun. Don Jaun then goes about making Castaneda his apprentice. The first book, The Teachings of Don Jaun: A Yaqui Way of Knowldege, deals with how Don Jaun uses peyote and other drugs to introduce Carlos to the otherside of reality. In his other books, less pharmacological means are used to similar effect. I will say that I have used the magical system put forward in Castaneda's books as a large element in my druids' herb use in my two fantasy novels.

Darn the time...more on this next time...

But I like the "k"...

Wow, I guess some people just don't like the letter "k" where they aren't accustomed to it... I would recommend that people who don't like "k's" in their magic avoid my books. The letter "k" was introduced into the spelling of magick at the turn of the century (19th to 2oth) by many occultists to distinguish it from the tricks of conjurers and for Qabalahistic reasons (which we'll get to later). I like the spelling, even in my fiction, to let the reader know that when I write about magick, it's mysterious, authentic, and ancient. I use a few archaic spellings in my fantasy novels to set mood and imply different ways of looking at the words. Faerie is another spelling that annoys some, that I like. I hope my use of the spelling "magick" is not so troublesome to keep you from reading.

Now, back to the Yaqui way of knowledge. The more I think about it this is a really good place to start because their system, like all the systems we will eventually talk about begins and ends with the belief that the world we know is only part of the universe. That at its most fundemental level the universe is an entirely different place than it appears to out normal senses, than we believe it to be. When Don Jaun begins to teach Castaneda, the first step is to shake his awareness out of the ordinary world. The Yaqui use hallucengenic drugs like peyote or mushrooms as one way to acheive this.

(As an aside, there is a story (which they talk about in "What the Bleep") about how when Columbus first arrived in the New World the Native Americans were unable to see his ships in the ocean because they had nothing like them in their experience. The Medicine Man (or whatever you want to call him) noticed that the ocean water was doing strange things. He studied the area until he was able to see the ships. He then explained what he saw to the others and they were then able to see the ships for themselves.)

The Yaqui use of drugs in their magick is one way they perceive the fundemental nature of reality...or as Castaneda calls it "the Separate Reality." There are other techinques (lots and lots of them) which can be empoyed to shake one out of the ordinary state of perception, but sometimes the use of drugs was found to be expedient, or if the level of "Second Attention" which a task required was too great to achieve without the use of drugs. Don Jaun claimed that Castaneda was too stupid to "SEE" at first without the use of drugs. The very Yaqui idea of "SEEING" is to see the separate reality with the second attention. What the Yaqui believe, and what Castaneda experienced, is a universe made of waves of energy where people appear as luminous egg-shaped energy fields interconnected with everything, emerging from and returning to one source, which they call the Eagle. The first part of a Yaqui sorcerer's training is to learn how to "see."

I would at this point recommend a book called the Tao of Physics, which does talk of interesting parallels between the views of modern physics and of the Yaqui beliefs presented by Castaneda's books.

Next time...INTENTION, or how the Yaqui sorcerer uses the power of seeing to manipulate reality.

Pickman's Question

Pickman,

First, though I do love Crowley's wit and literary style in non-fiction, his fiction is just not as good. I would think that readers without a basis in metaphysics probably don't understand his fiction. Moonchild is readable, but it does bog down, because of both esoteric reasons and because he uses the novel as a device to lampoon some of his former colleagues in the Golden Dawn. Oh, I can hardly wait until we get to the Golden Dawn. Many, many members of the Golden Dawn (a semi-secret mystical society that flourished in Victorian England) were writers, many wrote fiction with much occult material. Poet W. B. Yeats was a high ranking member, Charles Williams, novelist, was another, Bram Stoker was rumored to have been a member, Oscar Wilde's wife (whose name escapes me at the moment) was a member, Dion Fortune was a later memeber and her occult novels are as unreadable as Crowleys. Even fantasy greats Tolkien and Lewis were close friends with Charles Lewis and A. E. Waite (famous for his contribution to the Tarot deck) and much valid occult material can be found in their works, despite their strong Christian backgrounds.

From a literary standpoint any forced device will be awkward, be it occult content or whatever. Everything in a story should flow from the needs of the story, or it will feel forced. Novelists or short story authors write stories about people. All stories are about people (even books about rabbits are about people--as in Watership Down-- because the rabbits are people in the books). The occult content or the fantasy content, for that matter, are always secondary. Only inferior stories will start with the idea of stuffing the tale full of fantasy or occult content. Such devices must flow out of the story naturally.

Let me think of stories that, in my own humble opinion (and that's all it is) make good use of the occult. Hmmm?

The first book that comes to mind (and maybe it is because I was on a Native American kick) is Frank Herbert's Soul Catcher--which I just loved. The book is full of Native American mysticism, but it's just a great book about a reluctant kidnapper and the young innocent boy he must sacrifice.

Okay, I'm having trouble this morning thinking of more. I would like to think that my own writings make good use of occult content to further the story.
Here's an excerpt from my novel, Empress of Clouds (Behler). Here the druid priestess, Brythia needs to traverse a great distance immediately and has to resort to the druids' Flying Smoke, which is largely influenced by Castaneda's writing and so helps us get back to our Yaqui friends:

She exhaled deeply and brought the lit pipe to her lips. She inhaled vigorously, drawing the flying smoke into her lungs. She continued inhaling until her lungs burned. She held her breath, holding the smoke tightly inside her. She removed the pipe from her face and blew out a sizeable cloud of smoke, coughing as she did so.

Immediately she repeated this procedure, holding the hot and bitter smoke in even longer each time she did so. The entire time she held a vision of the palace of Lorm in her mind. She visualized the outer fortress walls, the great towers, the gates. She held the image firmly in her imagination as she began to feel light-headed. Shapes seemed to move vaguely in the surrounding darkness of the wooded circle. The air seemed comprised of tiny particles which fluttered and flickered about, and then everything began to move in waves. The blackness of the night sky blended into the tops of the trees which seemed to melt into the grass. A dizziness and vague feeling of nausea took hold of her. Still she did not allow herself to be distracted by the effects of the flying smoke; she kept the picture of the palace there vividly as possible before her mind’s eye.

A strange humming noise came slowly in the background of her attention, growing louder and louder with each passing moment. Now everything was swirling around her, jumbled waves of energy which were once the trees and the sky seemed to lap like water at her feet. Was she standing now? Or no, had she fallen down? Was that the cold earth she felt all about her now? She was having difficulty breathing. The air that poured into her lungs stung and tasted foul. Was she still smoking? She could not be sure. She hung on to the image of the palace; it was her only anchor to sanity. Her regular vision was lost in blurs and a crashing hum of deafening ferocity raged so that all other sound was drowned out. Now there came a sensation of movement and something raced just below her, rapidly, but nebulous.

Then there seemed to be a figure moving towards her in the blurred landscape that surrounded. It stuck her as an entity of some sort, but one which possessed no measurable characteristics which she could hold in her affected mind. It possessed color and movement, but nothing even approaching shape. It flashed brilliantly across her awareness.

"Who are you?" popped up in her mind. Did she ask it or did the entity ask her? She could not be sure. She attempted, at first, to ignore the presence and return her concentration wholly to the palace, but again the question moved across her mind. "Who are you?"

And then another question followed instantly. "Why do you wish to go to this place, this palace?"

She attempted to move her lips to answer, but she found that she could not. If she was making coherent sounds they could not be heard over the din of the incessant humming.

The palace. Ignore the voice in your head and think only of the palace.

"Why? Why? Why?"

The strange voice in her head almost devoured her in its questioning. The humming became the question repeated at an incredible roar. Brythia formed an answer in her mind, and it was shouted with everything she had, "For Tolian."

Her answer now echoed in the humming. She remembered to bring her attention back to the palace. "The palace, the palace, the palace, the palace, the palace" she screamed over and over again.

And then that was all there was. The words ringing throughout eternity. There was nothing else.

The palace. The palace. The palace. The palace. The palace. Her mantra rang over and over again.

A barrage of quick images danced across her consciousness. A rolling sea of clouds stretched out in the darkness below her. A carpet of trees. A flash of light.

Suddenly she felt tears on her check. She felt her foot on solid ground. The screamed mental mantra faded with the sound of a twig snapping under her. The crackle of leaves beneath her feet. The blur of her vision shifted into uncertain shapes before condensing into trees all around her. It was still night. She became aware of the cold wind rushing down on her. She stepped, from the midst of the tall barren oak trees which surrounded her, onto a paved road. She turned right on to the path and continued walking. Her head still spun and a violent wave of nausea took hold of her. She had to stop and vomit.

******

My novel Moonspell, which will be released by Behler in 2006 has my very favorite use of ritual magick in my work. It's too long to excerpt here, maybe some other time.

I'll try and think of other works of fiction with good use of the occult in them, but I certainly welcome anyone else's suggestions.

Okay, next time, we'll return to our Yaqui friends and learn about allies and intention, unless anyone has any other questions, which we will happily address.

Thread Disclaimer: The information provided in this thread is for literary purposes only. It in no way endorses the use of drugs or occult practices.

don Juan tells us: "For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking breathlessly."

The proper term for the Yaqui sorcerer is Nagual. He (or she) is a warrior. When a nagual is ripe for an apprentice, the Spirit brings him (or her) a likely canditate. Usually, some form of trickery is utilized to bring this apprentice under the nagual's fold.

Once the apprentice learns to "SEE," it is then that he learns of the world of spirits. Spirits in the Yaqui tradition are beings who live in the world just as we do, but they live in another part of it. They can on occasion interact with our normal world. Spirits that are willing to help the nagual are called allies.

The nagual must master the art of INTENTION. The idea of intention is identical to the idea of WILL that will be so important when we get to the Western Occult tradition. It is through INTENTION that sorcerers make changes to reality. It is a technique of sharping the will, focusing the will upon one idea or activity and bringing about the desired effect.

I really only wanted to present the very basic outline of Yaqui knowledge, so it will be there as a backdrop for our future discussion. One thing you will quickly see, is that almost all magickal traditions have the same basic aspects. We will see the same themes emerging through many cultures.

At this point, I should recommend Sir James Frazer's classic work, The Golden Bough, as required reading on comparative studies of magick and religion.

Okay, next time we'll start at the beginning...the creation of the universe and the Qabalah...

There are several stories of how the Qabalah came to man. It is said by some that an angel taught Moses shortly after he got the Ten Commandments, others say that Moses had learned it in Egypt. What we do know is that the Qabalah (Kabbalah, Cabalah, Cabala) was the essential mystical theory behind Judaism, and later Christianity and Islam. What I shall give the basics of here, as a benefit for writers who want to little authenticity in their fantasy, is the Qabalah as understood in the Western occult tradition, which is a bit different (especially spellingwise) from the Jewish tradition from which it derives. Once again, widespread interest in the Qabalah can be traced to the efforts of members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The order's founder S.L. Macgregor Mathers' The Kabbalah Unveiled is among the first books to delve into the mystical science in modern times. Another memeber, Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah is the best book out of the bunch to come out of the Golden Dawn. Israel Regardie's, Garden of Pomegranates is probably my favorite. Understand that Qabalahistic theory is the basis of Western Occult Philosophy and that it is tied to every aspect of it, in one way or another. I don't know if this is the version that Madonna studies or not, but it is very close.

The Qabalah is a theory of creation, of how how the universe works, and a map of everything. The basic glyph is the Tree of Life. At it's most basic the Tree of Life is made up of ten sephira (plural of sephiroth) or spheres. But before we get to that point, we have to start at the very beginning. Or before that really. The Veils of Negative Existence.

Ain Soph Aur = 000 = Limitless Light
Ain Soph = 00 = Limitless
Ain = o = Nothing

The concepts behind the veils of negative existence are very advanced. Just know, for now, that there are levels behind Nothingness.

Next time, we'll talk about Nothingness and how everything emerged very naturally and logically out of it.

Kether, the First Spehiroth, Part 1

I see that people are reading this thread, so I'm going to assume that there is an interest in this material here (despite being a mostly silent interest recently). I do want to reiterate that questions are welcome, though, it is entirely possible that I won't have a good answer. Maybe someone else will...

Yeah, I know I said we'd talk about nothingness next, but you can't talk about nothingness without invoking existence. Fans of mathematics will understand this in terms of set theory, fans of philosophy and logic will understand this in a similar way. In order to talk about something, we require a separate dimension from that thing. To examine a thing, we must step away from it, separate ourselves from it. To examine a set in mathematics, we must step outside that set, and thereby create another set from which to view it. As soon as we talk of this set, we create another set. Get it?

It is in this way that the number one emerges naturally from zero. The concept of nothing is something in and of itself. Get it, yet?

The first spehira on the Tree of Life is Kether (Kesser, Keser). The concept is one of Absolute Unity. Imagine a point that contains within itself all possiblity of everything. White Brilliance.

Gotta dash, more on Kether, next time.