Positive Magic: A Toolkit for the Modern Witch
By Marion Weinstein and Judika Illes
4/5
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About this ebook
“A rare gem. One of the only magical self-help books that is beautiful, moral, and wise. Marion’s methods of working have greatly influenced my life.” —Margot Adler, author of Drawing Down the Moon
“Written by one of America’s Witch elders, this revised and expanded edition of this beloved classic can enrich the spiritual practice of longtime practitioners as well as those beginning their explorations of magical realms.” —Selena Fox, High Priestess, Circle Sanctuary, Psychotherapist & Shamanic Healer
“Well written and fascinating, Positive Magic is a book you must read and keep by your side. Weinstein explains what you need to know and does it in a way that keeps you all the way through. An intelligent approach to using magic in your life.” —Merlin Stone, author of When God Was a Woman and Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood
Here is a new edition of one of the best-loved introductions to magic that is still used in metaphysical classes around the world. The author makes ancient magic techniques accessible, offering them as practical tools for daily life. Addressing the needs of today’s readers—beginners and adepts alike—the author provides well-researched historical background on astrology, witchcraft, tarot, and the I Ching as well as channeling, spirit contact, and the connections between quantum physics and traditional magic.
Marion Weinstein
Marion Weinstein (1939–2009) was an author, teacher, media personality, and proud New York "city witch." Known as "The Ethics Witch," she is one of the founders of the modern witchcraft movement. She was the first to coin the phrase and define Positive Magic, and clearly delineate its use. Her radio show, Marion's Cauldron, was the first regularly scheduled Wiccan and psychic programming on record, and was a New York phenomenon for fourteen years.
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Reviews for Positive Magic
4 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Revised edition of the classic. Nicely expanded reworking makes for smooth reading. [Although the new cover may not be so easy on the eye!] Level headed, highly knowledgeable and witty introduction to various aspects of the occult, from seasoned Witch and author Marion Weinstein. As her bio states: 'Her emphasis has always been on carefully researching ancient wisdom and updating it for modern use. Known as "The Ethics Witch" she is one of the founders of modern Witchcraft movement. She was the first to coin the phrase and define Positive Magic, and clearly delineate its use' Positive Magic will get you up and working from the very beginning, highly accessible for beginners, yet rich enough to provide masses of practical information for the more adept. Quite easily one of the most powerful pieces of writing available concerning life as a Witch, in this modern world. Includes amongst other things, chapters on the history of the craft, karma and reincarnation, various types of divination, [especially useful was the very clear and non dogmatic explanation of Tarot and self reading] and a simple guide to establishing familiarity with 'Words of Power' technique. If you want to see just how different Marion's approach is, then check out the section entitled '10-Foot Pole Department' a clear guide on what to avoid, if you want to keep your magic positive! Much needed in this highly saturated 'New Age' market, that can often boarder on the manipulative side to say the least. Well laid out and referenced, this is a resource to expand upon, aided by its brilliant bibliography, recommended reading list and detailed index. Can also recommend Marion Weinstein's other book 'Earth Magic' the next step for the serious Witch! Check out her site for more information and some nice video guides with the author on spells and affirmations!
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Hilarious crack if you want to make fun of the most annoying kind of new age hippie freaks. Really annoying if you're trying to sift out historical lore from specious claims, especially since she doesn't say what bits she got out of any of the footnoted sources. It's like the footnotes are decorative. Primarily useful for its bibliography.
Book preview
Positive Magic - Marion Weinstein
PART I
BASIC INFORMATION
CHAPTER 1
MAGIC: A WORLD UNTO ITSELF
The roots of magic go back thousands of years, predating Christianity, Judaism, and recorded history. The Eleusynian Mysteries, the Egyptian Mystery schools, and the legendary culture of Atlantis have all grown out of these same roots. Magical traditions grew right along with monotheism: the Jewish Caballah, Christian Gnosticism, the Christian Caballah and ceremonial magic societies, alchemy, and astrology. In all of these magical studies, which are still with us today, one unifying theme emerges: the development of the self. This is both the initial goal and the starting point of all the work. The basic idea is: Get your life in order first. Get your entire life in harmony—mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and psychically. Only then will you be able to truly embark on the great work. And what is the ultimate purpose of the work? To fulfill the self on an even higher level. To transform, uplift, and so fully develop the self that the whole Universe may benefit thereby.
If you get involved deeply enough in any valid magic or occult study, you will find a treasure trove of self-help techniques. Why doesn't everyone know about these techniques? Why hasn't everyone tried them?
Magic hasn't exactly been required reading in the education of most Westerners. It's a field that has been obscured by the biased history
of the medieval Inquisitors, who sought to stamp magic out of our culture. Their work has been all too effective—until recently. I found that I really had to work hard to uncover positive magic. I had to plow through a swamp of superstitions, misinformation, dangerous misuse (such as so-called black
magic), exploitation, and general nonsense in order to get to the good material. And I learned a lot along the way.
Magic vs. Fantasy
To many people, a magical experience means a trip to Disney World or perhaps an early Disney cartoon such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Pinocchio. But where did Walt Disney get his material? From fairy tales—fairy tales based on old folk legends. These stories depict a familiar theme: a fairy godmother, a good fairy, or a mysterious someone who can grant a wish. There are countless stories, which you may remember, involving magical helpers, benevolent elves, wizards, or perhaps a good Witch (my favorite). Sometimes the magical being was disguised as an ordinary person, often poor. Some deserving mortal is usually depicted as being in dire need, when into the mortal's life swoops the magical helper who grants a wish. Sometimes there are three wishes, since three is a traditional number in magic. Poof! The mortal's life is transformed. A frog turns into a prince, pebbles turn into jewels, and a week's work is performed overnight!
Sometimes the fortunate recipients of this magic don't know what to do with their bounty. In one funny story which has many variations, a man and his wife quarrel over their wishes:
MAN: I wish your nose would fall of your face!
WOMAN: I wish your nose would fall off your face!
(Exit noses)
WOMAN: Wait a minute, I wish our noses were both back on our faces! The noses were replaced. And the wishes, alas, were used up.
Sometimes, however, the wishes were used well, when the mortals wished for sensible things—things such as enough to eat, enough money to live comfortably, or love. When the wishes came true, the people lived happily ever after. I believe these legends were based on facts. Everybody thought all the Greek myths were just that until Schleimann discovered the ruins of Troy. In addition, many people who thought that ancient legends about angels and fiery chariots
were also myths, reconsidered their beliefs when Von Däniken popularized the theory of ancient astronauts.
Here is my theory about the wish-fulfillment legends: In the West as well as in the East, isolated groups have always followed ancient mystic traditions. Members of such communities usually kept quietly to themselves. Witches and Druids are good examples, but there are legends of other lost, hidden, insular groups possessing strange powers. It is entirely possible that such mystics ventured forth from time to time, took a liking to some simple person who was sincere or in need, and tried to help that person. Such adepts would have seemed like magical beings to the uninitiated, and the help would have seemed like some unearthly, impossible accomplishment. But to the adept—the person from the more advanced culture—it was all in a day's work.
In popular usage, adept means expert.
In metaphysical work, adept means magical worker
or mage.
Through the ages, legends have come down to us from the viewpoint of the simple person upon whom the magical favor has been bestowed. Of course, the stories consequently became distorted, embroidered, exaggerated—as any oral folk history changes when it is perpetuated by generations who do not understand what they are perpetuating. So by the time the legends get to us, they are fodder for Disney's mill—fanciful tales, fantasy. That is, if we continue to perceive them from the point of view of the non-adept.
But if we approach these legends from the point of view of learned mystic tradition, new realms of possibilities open. It is all a question of shifting the frame of reference. For example, there are cultures in the South Pacific that worship World War II U.S. Army shirts.¹ These are relics of magical beings who once came down from the skies in a blaze of light, riding strange large birds. The worshippers still construct radio antenna-like artifacts out of twigs and leaves. The artifacts are meant to look like the magical devices that the unearthly creatures used to get messages in a mysterious language; messages that came as voices crackling out of the very air! From the frame of reference of these Pacific cargo cults,
a couple of ordinary Army pilots in the 1940s seemed like wizards; indeed, the stuff that legends are made of. But from the frame of reference of modern aviation, a pilot is just a man doing his job—nothing to worship and nothing to carry on about. It's all in the point of view, the frame of reference.
Here is another magical legend, The Story of the Frog Prince:
Once there was a lonely young woman who wished most of all for a handsome prince to come into her life and marry her. One day, a tired and hungry old woman appeared at her door, and the girl was generous enough to share her humble meal. Thank you, my child,
said the old woman, for being so kind to me. Make any wish you like and it shall be granted.
The younger woman wished with all her might that her pet frog might turn into a handsome prince. She went into the yard and kissed her pet frog. Lo and behold, he turned into a handsome prince who proposed marriage forthwith.
That's from the point of view of the uninitiated. Switch the frame of reference. Here's the old woman's version:
The other day when I was gathering herbs to make some medieval antibiotics, I walked a little farther than I had planned, and found myself far from our village. I was tired and hungry, so I sent a telepathic message out into the area. The message stated: For a perfect exchange of services that will benefit everyone, I am seeking food and drink in a friendly, safe atmosphere.
My telepathic message was picked up subconsciously by a receptive young peasant girl nearby. I followed her vibrations and came to her house, where, with no questions asked, she shared her food with me most generously. To complete our exchange of services, I asked her what she wanted. She understood nothing about psychic phenomena, the most effective way I could explain how to concentrate her psychic energies was to suggest that she make a wish. She wished strongly for what she wanted and needed most—love. In her case, it was a reciprocal love relationship with a suitable young man. I immediately sent out a telepathic call for the appropriate young man, with similar needs and desires, to contact her. That is, the young girl's own energy actually sent out the call, and I simply helped her to direct that energy by our traditional telepathic methods. She insisted on performing some personal superstitious ceremony indigenous to her culture; she actually picked up a frog and kissed it! When the young man appeared (he was a local merchant's son, I believe, quite handsomely dressed), the frog jumped away in fear. After that, nothing could convince the girl that the frog hadn't actually been transformed into a prince.
This is a typical example of transcendence over the everyday world, by traditional magical methods. These methods have been used by adepts for centuries. You can use them, too. The only difference is that in the past, the helpful magicians performed their deeds for ordinary mortals, for the people doing the wishing. In our case, we, the people doing the wishing, can perform the deeds for ourselves.
There are traditions all over the world that are based on these methods. There always have been. People who practice these traditions are the mystic elite—shamans, Witch
doctors, sorcerers—call them what you will. Those who approach life in this way know, as part of their deeply rooted heritage, that wish-fulfillment is not fantasy, it is work. Such people are free to do this work because their belief systems have totally bypassed a certain limiting idea.
The Too-Good-to-Be-True Syndrome
Peculiarly symptomatic of the modern West, this idea can permeate our thinking so deeply that sometimes we may not even know it is operative. I think this syndrome is a primary reason for many people's staunch disbelief in magic or psychic phenomena, such as spirit contact with loved ones, life after death, telepathy and, yes, wish-fulfillment. Anything that suggests that an Unseen World is not only there, but that it can be helpful, seems literally too good to be true. The human spirit longs for this invisible beneficence, but dares not trust it. Because to many, this seems dangerously like putting one's trust, even one's deepest hopes, into thin air.
If one dares not trust in something, one dares not attempt to work with it. This is not limited to belief—and consequent exploration—in psychic phenomena. A familiar principle in psychology, manifest in the formation of self-defeat patterns, is that hope creates anxiety.²
These patterns are particularly common when embarking on any creative act. The rewards of creativity are potentially so great that the devastation of failure is equally as great. Many may refuse to expose the self to the possibility of such a failure. The assumption that it is safer
not to attempt something at all is a protective mechanism.
To embark upon the uncharted seas of selfhood, to reach out creatively to the potentials of life, and to select of these as our own reason permits requires that one be able to bear the anxieties intrinsic to a creative approach . . . we find that a creative approach to life, be it in the arts, sciences, or any other life context, can evolve only when there is sufficient esteem for the self.³
How does this statement apply to the work of magic? All magical work is the very essence of creativity; magic is the deepest expression of the self. To believe and to trust in the Invisible World, and in one's own potential mastery of Unseen forces, to trust in and use the as-yet-unknown parts of the self, this is what magical work is traditionally all about. The adept would be frozen, grounded, drawn to a halt, if the person did not dare
to embark on a path that promised so much. Fortunately, the magical tradition provides positive reinforcement in modern psychological terms.
The tradition heightens self-esteem, encouraging belief and trust, and the tradition works when it is followed from the point of view of the adept. The tradition does not work from the point of view of the frightened, awed, or childlike disbeliever who dares not risk the anxiety of potential disappointment.
The Adept's Point of View
In cultures other than our own, in traditions where magical work was respected, the atmosphere of the society at large provided encouragement for the adept before one even began on the path of magic. From earliest childhood, people who were born into such cultures have had certain advantages over many of us. We must take the leap and seek our reinforcement within the work itself. But as I said, magical work provides this nourishment for us. By the very nature of the work itself, a beneficial personal cycle is set in motion.
How do you begin?
The adept knows that magic is work. And it is a specific kind of work. It is not work in the Horatio Alger sense; it is not like putting your nose to the grindstone. The work of magic is natural.
I can give you some analogies: Working magic is like using a natural talent, in this case, a talent that we all have. If you can sing, dance, play an instrument, play ball, paint, write, build model airplanes, cook, you know that you have to practice. Well, you practice magic, too. Like in the old joke, you practice it until you get it right.⁴ For us to shift over to the adept's attitude, we have to plow through our own psyches to find a niche that allows that anything is possible, and nothing is too good to be true. For some of us, these ideas may require quite a leap of credulity. But we are fortunate today to find that modern psychology has helped to pave the way.
The Two Sides of the Brain
There is a most helpful idea in The Psychology of Consciousness⁵ by Robert Ornstein, which applies to magical work. According to Ornstein, the brain has two sides, the rational
and the relational.
Both have distinctly different modes of perception. Some activities and ideas are better dealt with by the rational side of the brain. Our culture has reinforced the use of this side of the brain. In fact, up until quite recently, the rational was practically the only side of the brain that a person needed to use in order to survive in our culture. So much has the rational been emphasized, that it has been a revolutionary idea to consider that the relational
exists at all! As you've probably guessed, magical work is definitely relational. And Ornstein has effectively built a bridge between both sides of the brain. By explaining the very concept of the two sides of the brain, and by describing the relational side in rational terms, he has built a bridge. So even a person who is used to dealing mainly—let's even say only—with the rational side of the brain need not be limited. Such a person can now walk over that bridge into the relational. This is where the work of magic is done.
The Work of Magic
The work of magic involves transformation, and the first transformation is the shift of perception. And once we establish that anything is possible, then the world as we know it can be flexible. Witches say that the World of Form (that which we perceive with our five senses) is not a limitation, and we are not in bondage to it.⁶ The sorcerer Don Juan puts it this way: The world we look at every day is only a description.
⁷ And I say, The World of Form is more flexible than we may think. And for self-help applications, the World of Form may include relationships, jobs, health, personal finances, etc. With the applied use of magic, these forms are no longer limitations because they become flexible. You will see, step by step, how the techniques of positive magic use this idea of flexibility to change our lives for the better.
You may then employ the rational side of your brain, as well as the intuitive, or relational side, to deal with the techniques of magic. It is necessary to understand fully how and why everything works before you attempt any of the actual work itself. So you may find that the two sides of your brain take turns. At first, you may need the relational even to accept the idea of working magic and to comprehend its validity. But once you actually begin to do the work, you may need to employ the rational side of your brain to study each technique, because if you don't understand what you are doing, the work could be ineffectual or even dangerous. But this is true when dealing with any potential power source—from electricity, to nuclear power, to steam. Magic is a source of enormous power. But you don't have to worry, as there are sufficient specific warnings against the dangers in magic (Chapter 3). For now, just remember that it is necessary to understand everything before you try it.
For centuries, many people have feared magic—and rightly so—because they didn't understand how it worked. To the uninitiated, magic may seem frightening because it involves the use of Unseen forces. Once these factors become known quantities, they are no more frightening than seen
forces. In fact, the work of magic involves many ways of seeing Unseen forces and knowing them. The uninitiated fears the unknown, and superstition is a primitive response to the unknown. It's a way of placating and dealing with that which is sensed but not understood. However, here the motivation is fear. Magic is also a response to the unknown, but is not a primitive response; it is informed and information-seeking. The motivation for working magic—unlike superstition—is not fear; it is the desire to understand.
And the better you understand magic, the better it works. This is part of the personal reinforcement process. The better it works, the deeper your belief and trust, which encourages you to understand magic better and to use it more effectively. Magic for self-help is an accelerating process.
The work of magic also requires a strong sense of responsibility toward the self, toward the work, and toward others—in magic, these are all one and the same. The commitment strengthens the self. Now, here is where magic departs from many other self-help philosophies: you cannot use magic to help yourself if it harms another. The adept understands that we are all cosmically linked and that causing harm to another comes back and harms the self. This understanding requires a transcendence, a letting go of certain cultural limitations. One of these is the old winners/losers
philosophy: in order for one person to become happy, another must suffer. To work magic, we must let go of this idea. In any self-help philosophy, it is often necessary to let go of old and limiting ideas. In this regard, magic is no different from contemporary self-help techniques: we must let go of that which has limited our fulfillment in the past. However, in other self-help philosophies, we may then simply allow ourselves to be guided by a new outer set of rules. In magic, we must seek the rules within ourselves.
In magic, we let go of old limiting ideas, and are then faced with infinite new possibilities. Anything is possible! And all the material in this book is merely a beginning, a suggested compendium of possibilities that are open to you. When you come right down to it, nobody can tell you what is right
for you. So how will you know?
In other words, how will you know what to wish for?
This may be more difficult than it sounds because we often wish for things out of a limited past state. Once we get into the adept's working place, and we see how unlimited our lives can become, we may have difficulty at first in knowing what it is we really do want. Remember the couple in the story who wished for each other's noses to fall off their faces? They were making their wishes out of old, limited feelings, so they made extremely limited wishes. The couple did not know what the goal of magic, of wish-fulfillment, was.
This goal is different for everyone, so no one can tell you what is right for you. And yet it is the same for everyone, in this regard: Anything that truly fulfills the self is the goal of magic. And remember, it is also the starting point. What fulfills the self? Only you will know for yourself. But because self-fulfillment is so integrally built into the work, magic provides many clues for you to find your own deepest fulfillment. These clues already exist deep inside you, according to magical belief. They are present as your Inner Bell.
You do not have to be involved in magic in order to know your Inner Bell, but magic can help you find it.
The Inner Bell
This is my term for the inner sense of truth, the inner reality, the inner knowing that exists deep within all of us. We may not be aware of it, but some people have a very strong awareness of the Inner Bell. And in those people who followed their deepest beliefs—no matter what anyone else said—we may find some dramatic precedents.
I think that when Christopher Columbus set out across the uncharted ocean, he was listening to the sound of his Inner Bell. He simply knew something was out there. True, he was in for a few surprises about exactly what continent it happened to be, but unlike everybody else, he was sure that the world was not flat. And this inner conviction was stronger for him than the entire scientific-philosophic-geographic belief of his day. Among the more enlightened people, the world was considered merely flat; for the many less informed, it was believed to be resting on the back of a giant turtle.
Once the Inner Bell is located, it must be heard, and truth is perceived from within—no matter how anyone else may be defining reality at the time. Most great inventors, explorers (inner and outer), scientists, innovators of every sort, have heard, respected, and listened to their own Inner Bells. For example, Maria Mayer, the American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1963, discovered that the atomic nucleus consists of concentric shells. She discovered this in an intuitive flash of insight . . .
sparked by a colleague's chance remark. Furthermore, she unabashedly labeled the arrangement of protons and neutrons, which came to her in that flash, Magic Numbers!
⁸ The French mathematician Poincáre and the 19th century German chemist Kékule, owed important scientific discoveries
(as they themselves admit) to sudden pictorial ‘revelations’ from the unconscious.
And Descartes had a similar flash of intuition that revealed to him the order of all sciences.
⁹
The Inner Bell sounds, and new truth is revealed about the Universe. Often, particularly in science and in technological inventions, the new truth seems to contradict older known
truths existing in the culture. But then the new truth turns out to be more valid than the older truths, and civilization shifts.
And, of course, the Inner Bell is also that flash of inspiration behind great art, poetry, painting, prose, and religious or philosophical thought. Not all of us may aspire to great works, but all of us could benefit from locating our own Inner Bell, from being able to hear its seemingly elusive ring above the din of daily reality.
The Inner Bell can also reveal truths about ourselves. It is akin to intuition, but it is a heightened sense of inner truth that goes beyond intuition.
The Inner Bell is what told
certain people to cancel their reservations aboard the Titanic. The same process gave Levi Strauss the idea for pants made of denim—blue canvas left over from the covered wagons. Rodgers and Hammerstein had an idea for a new type of musical, called Oklahoma! which nobody wanted to produce. A daring record producer named John Hammond experienced a hunch
to record a series of unknown singers over the years: Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Bob Dylan, to name just a few. James Cagney saw a street-corner character in New York who walked and talked in a certain style; it suddenly occurred to him to impersonate that particular character in his films.
Many of these flashes are life-saving, in effect. The mother who has a sudden feeling
to peek in on a sleeping child, finds the child suddenly ill or in danger. Many popular examples exist of people who followed sudden hunches and were able to save others just in the nick of time. Most of us have had some specific experience—or know someone who has had such an experience—of following some compelling inner prompting with dramatic results.
Every technique in the work of magic for self-help is designed to develop the Inner Bell. This will be particularly graphic in the work of divination. These techniques are ancient, tried, and true, used by adepts for centuries. Such techniques have lurked beneath the surface of our rational culture for centuries and have always been available to those on a spiritual quest. The sound of one's Inner Bell need not be an isolated, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The work of positive magic helps to develop the Inner Bell as a consistent aid to daily living.
Magic and Society
It may be difficult for us to envision a society in which the intuitive, relational aspects of the brain were emphasized as a matter of course. A mere few thousand years ago, there was a time on this planet when religion, theater, art, philosophy, and science were all considered to be part of one thing: magic. In primitive,
premonotheistic times, magic permeated all of life. Later, in the West, each field of endeavor branched off and developed by itself. This compartmentalization is a function of rational thought. With specialization, vast strides were made in each field, but some valuable aspects of each field were also left behind. These positive aspects are worth reviewing. For example, astrology developed into astronomy, whereby great advances were made with improved telescopes and complex mathematics. The ignorance and superstition of medieval astrology were left behind. But also left behind was any acknowledgment of the causal relationship between life on this planet and energy forces from other bodies in our solar system.
When Western monotheistic religions replaced Paganism, several positive ideas were discarded: the relationship between the human race and the rest of nature; the acknowledgment of personal use of the Universal Power; much information about the Unseen World—including spirit contact, the validity and value of reincarnation and of personal karma. The idea of the importance of women was also discarded. And by importance,
I am not referring to a state of matriarchy; I am referring to the cosmic validity of the female aspect of Deity, the balance of female and male. Specifically, this inequality has manifested in centuries of unbalanced (patriarchal) spiritual leadership. Whatever happened to the priestesses?
In theater, when the functional aspect of ritual was replaced by pure entertainment, the proscenium went up and audience participation went down. A vast area of dynamic and effective group ritual was consequently left behind. Theater used to be an area of participation for both performers and audience.
Notice that in each of these highly developed and specialized fields a curious reversal is currently taking place. Audience participation and aspects of ritual are returning to the theater. Astronomers are acknowledging the moon's influence on mental health and exploring the possibility of other planetary influences on human life. In traditional religions, women are making their voices heard and are beginning to take positions of leadership. So, what was once discarded is now being reclaimed.
Scientific investigators in laboratories all over this planet are pursuing ideas that used to be considered within the domain of magic. They call their studies parapsychology
and psychic phenomena.
For many people, most spiritual feelings of reverence and awe have been transferred from God over to science. When scientists say that aspects of the paranormal (magic) are valid, then people believe it. This is a most positive trend, but I would like to point out a catch in such reasoning: We really don't need anyone to say that magic is valid. The validity of magic is ultimately not measurable by the authority-oriented (rational) parts of our minds. This work is more appropriately understood by the relational. Only our own Inner Bells can ultimately decide this for us, each of us for ourselves. But this is important to remember: if you say that magic is valid as long as it remains a part of something else (such as science), this is basically a denial of its validity.
A new cultural phenomenon has emerged since the 1960s. Sincere students of magic, neo-Pagans, and various revival versions of the Celtic Witchcraft religion are coming forward. These groups are exploring the possibilities of magic on both personal and social levels. But unfortunately, some of them are still trying to pass.
In explaining their work, they often say, Our work is just like . . .
(science, organized religion, prayer, or anything else). But I think the whole point is that magic is not just like anything else. And we don't have to say that it is. There are political implications here. Every minority group has learned that when anyone tries to pass
as something or somebody else, then the energy and the significance of that minority is siphoned off into tokenism. Lack of credibility is a subtle form of repression. Such repression can be insidiously effective because you hardly notice it, especially when it applies to you.
I am not really criticizing these new Pagans, Witches, spiritual seekers, shamans, wizards, and magicians of all kinds. They have bravely begun an important cultural movement, and before such people came along, the work of the magician or Witch was a lonely business.
Of course, magic is also just like myriad other things and cannot be disassociated from them. In fact, it's part of our language: the magic of music, painting, theater, or poetry. But this is true only up to a point. And after that point is where the work begins.
CHAPTER 2
LOCATION IN TIME AND SPACE
Time: The Cusp
Space: The Earth Plane
Our first shift of perception on the road to positive magic led us to the idea that anything is possible. Our next shift of perception will lead us to redefining our ideas of time and space—and our location in both.
Let us now investigate the metaphysical definitions of time and space, concentrating specifically on those concepts that apply to the individual and that are most practical for the use of magic as self-help.
From the adept's point of view, time and space are linked. In fact, in occult terms, time and space are considered to be virtually identical. One might say that all time and all space coexist inextricably.
The work we are about to do can move through time and space, and transcend it. For example, we may use magic to see into the future—so time is no longer a barrier. Or we may use magic to retrieve a lost object—so space is not a barrier, either. This book cannot show you how to transcend time and space literally, but it will show you how to transcend any limited perceptions of time and space. Time and space are not limited; our perceptions of these concepts are limited because of our limited experience in human form. How do we transcend our perceptions? We may use the analogy of a nearsighted person. If a nearsighted person were to remove his glasses, that person would not be able to see something that was really there but far away. With the glasses back on, what had seemed invisible just a moment before would become visible. Does this mean that nothing was there when the person was not wearing glasses? No, the distant view was there, just waiting to be seen. So it is with the occult concept of time and space. The future and other realities are already there, just waiting to be seen. Some magicians have a natural gift, a kind of extended vision, from the very start. Others must find ways of putting on their new glasses. But all adepts know that what they may seem unable to see—in time and in space—is actually already there. All time and space is already there, all at once—there for the seeing, there for the using.
All time is now,
All space is here.¹
So goes the traditional occult statement, which is the essence of this chapter in a nutshell. The modern disciples of Einstein recognize nothing but an eternal present, which is also what the ancient mystics believed.²
Time: The Cusp
All Time Is Now
Future, present, and past are all together, but usually we do not experience time in this way. Instead, we have chosen to experience time as a sequence of minutes, hours, days, months, and years. This is a direct result of our life choices: to live in these bodies, on this planet, and in this galaxy. Our subconscious minds, our souls, have made these choices—to live within certain distinct measurements.³ This planet has days and nights, seasons and years. It revolves in a certain way, a certain number of revolutions, on a certain tilt in space. The point is that these measurements—minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and centuries—are not the only measurements for time. There are cultures on other parts of our planet that calculate their months differently than we do. The Chinese demarcate different months and years than Westerners. Jews number the months and years differently than Christians. Some areas on our planet have longer days and some have longer nights. All over the Earth, specific measurements vary.
But let's not dispense with these measurements! We need them because we are in our physical bodies, living on a certain part of this planet, and our time measurements serve obvious practical functions. Now let's add an important occult measurement system: astrological demarcations.
Astrological Ages
When I first began talking about magic on the radio, I was amazed because so few people actually knew that the year is divided into the 12 signs of the zodiac and that everybody living on Earth is born under a certain Sun sign. Now everybody seems to know this; it's cocktail party talk. The familiar What sign are you?
is no longer a question heard only from astrologers. I predict that another important system, once known only to astrologers, will also be popular knowledge soon: Astrological Ages. Quite