Magic and Sorcery: So Just What IS Magic Anyway?

This month's topic is Magic and Sorcery. So just what is this magic all about, then?

The Free Online Dictionary defines magic as:-

The art that purports to control or forecast

natural events, effects, or forces

by invoking the supernatural.

The practice of using charms, spells, or rituals

to attempt to produce supernatural effects

or control events in nature.

The charms, spells, and rituals so used.

A mysterious quality of enchantment.

Of, relating to, or invoking the supernatural.

Possessing distinctive qualities that produce

unaccountable or baffling effects.

W B Yeats, in 1901, wrote:-

"I believe in the practice and philosophy of what we have agreed to call magic, in what I must call the evocation of spirits, though I do not know what they are, in the power of creating magical illusions, in the visions of truth in the depths of the mind when the eyes are closed; and I believe in three doctrines, which have, as I think, been handed down from early times, and been the foundations of nearly all magical practices. These doctrines are:-

(1) That the borders of our mind are ever shifting, and that many minds can flow into one another, as it were, and create or reveal a single mind, a single energy.

(2) That the borders of our memories are as shifting, and that our memories are a part of one great memory, the memory of Nature herself.

(3) That this great mind and great memory can be evoked by symbols.

- W.B. Yeats, Magic (1901)

The Great Magician, The Beast 666, Little Sunshine, The Laird or Boleskine, Aleister Crowley, once described his Magick as:-

Magick is the Science and Art

of causing Change to occur

in Conformity with Will.

It has also been defined thus:-

sufficiently advanced technology

the practice of using various techniques

 as incantation to exert control over the supernatural

or the forces of nature

a result of such practice power or influence

exerted through this practice

 any extraordinary influence or power

That's all the blurb. But one thing that none of them, with the possible exception of Uncle Aleister above, can tell you is what it is and what it means.


Magic is ... a process.

Magic is a way of learning how to do things in an extraordinary way, using principles of the universe that you understand and can guide, to get the things you need to do, done.

And magic (at least in fiction) means ...

- You are always part of something bigger.
- All the roads you take are long and very, very lonely. Often, they go in directions the ordinary people have never even heard of.
- You know more than most people around you.
- Those who know as much as you do ... don't need to share it.
- In fiction, the forces you control might appear amazingly cool, but that's just the special effects budget being blown on ten minutes of CGI that could have gone into half an hour of plot and characterisation.
- You operate according to a whole different set of laws.

- The universe looks and feels so different to the mage, yet most of the time the audience never notices because they never see the world through the mage's eyes and senses.

- Nobody who is not a magician understands the magician.

- Everybody expects the magician to waste their precious life forces on tour de force displays of power such as having one's luggage dutifully marching along behind the mage in neat rank and file everywhere he goes, or bless people with love spells that work or tell them the lottery numbers for next week's draw, etc.

- You are expected to have no sense of humour whatsoever.

Magic is a maze of interconnecting facets of reality. Magic in fiction is a legacy, an inheritance, which allows the fictional mages to do a hell of a lot more than contemporary magicians ever could; self-levitate, teleport, walk through walls, turn into dragons and so on, all with the wave of a wand and an imperious command delivered in mock-Latin.

Once in a while, fiction has been inspired by real world magical practices: Lord Fanny, the shamanic transvestite character from The Invisibles, created a sigilised magical effect and powered it through some pretty vigorous masturbation, and King Mob sought Illumination through communing with the Godhead - which looked like John Lennon - the whole ritual being powered by King Mob's dropping a generous quantity of LSD.

And plenty of examples of powerful magic in various roleplaying games (Shadowrun, Legend, The World of Darkness, Mage: the Ascension, Mage: the Awakening) have featured magical effects powered by the spilling of blood - one's own, or the blood of another.

But down to its barest form, magic is always this:-

The Art and Science

of using Extraordinary Means

to achieve Ordinary Ends.

Club Business

The meeting takes place tomorrow, 2012 08 11, at 14:00. I do hope you'll have read whatever you can, and I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow at the venue. I do hope you've enjoyed this series of little expositions and inspirations, and I'd appreciate any feedback any of you might have.