Art and Meaning of Magick

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has successfully severed them.
Freedom obtained through the acquisition of integrity in its truest and divinest sense, then the
next magical step in evolution is possible of recognition and achievement--the conscious return
of man to the divine Light from which he came.
THE MEANING OF MAGIC
by Israel Regardie
Copyright � 1964, F.I. Regardie
Helios
Published by , 1969
The Publication of This Book was made possible through the co-operation of:
THE SANGREAL FOUNDATION INC.
P.O. Box 2580
Dallas, Texas, 75221
We live today in a world of great material progress and mechanical ingenuity. On every hand is
flouted the social advantages of the world-wide communication bequeathed to us by such
modern inventions as aviation, radio and space-craft. Time seems to disappear in the face of
such things, and space dwindles almost to nothing. The peoples of the earth are drawn far
closer together than ever they have been before in recorded history. By way of paradox,
however, simultaneously with this unique advance in scientific progress, a large proportion of
mankind is supremely miserable. It suffers the pangs of dire starvation because scientific
methods have yielded an over-production of foods and manufactured articles without having
solved the problem of distribution. Yet modern science has become invested with a nature
which originally was not its own. Despite the chaos of international affairs, and the fear of
another catastrophic war present in the minds of most people, it has become robed in a mighty
grandeur, almost of divinity. Perhaps it is because of this feeling of insecurity and fear that this
condition has come about, for the human psyche is a cowardly thing at core. We cannot bear to
be honest with ourselves, accepting the idea that whilst we are human we are bound to feel
insecurity, anxiety and inferiority. Instead, we project these fears outwards upon life, and invest
science or any body of knowledge with vast potential of affect so as to bolster up our dwindling
fund of courage. So science has become, thanks to our projected affect, an authority that hardly
dares to be questioned. We cannot bear that it should be questioned for we must feel that in
this subject at least is authority, unshakeable knowledge and the security we so dearly crave.
The phenomenon is hardly dissimilar to that of a few centuries ago when religion, formal
religion of the churches, was the recipient of this obeissance and respect. For many people,
science has now become their intellectual keynote, by whose measuring rod--despite their own
personal neuroses and moral defects--all things soever are ruled, accepted or rejected.
Pursuits no matter of what nature which temporarily are not popularly favored, even though in
them lies the hope for the spiritiual advancement of the world, or subjects which do not possess
the sanction of those who are the leading lights in the scientific world, are apt thus to receive as
their lot neglect and gross misunderstanding. When many folk are introduced to Magic, for
instance, the first reaction is either one of stark fear and horror--or else we are greeted by a
smile of the utmost condescension. This is followed by the retort intended to be devastating
that Magic is synonymous with superstition, that long ago were its tenets exploded, and that
moreover it is unscientific. This, I believe, is the experience of the majority of people whose
prime interest is Magic or what now passes as Occultism. It seems that just as their hope for
security and their desire for unshakeable knowledge becomes projected upon science, so their
inner fears and unfaced terrors are projected upon this maltreated body of traditional
knowledge, Magic. Disconcerting this reaction can most certainly be, unless criticism and the
call for definitions immediately is resorted to. By these means alone may we who champion
Magic obtain a begrudged hearing.
Science is a word meaning knowledge. Hence any body of knowledge, regardless of its
character--whether ancient, mediaeval, or modern--is a science. Technically, however, the word
is reserved primarily to imply that kind of knowledge reduced to systematic order. This order is
encompassed by means of accurate observation experimentally carried out over a period of
time, the classification of the behaviour of natural phenomena alone, and the deduction of
general laws to explain and to account for that behaviour. If this be the case, then Magic must
likewise claim inclusion within the scope of the same term. For the content of Magic has been
observed, recorded and described in no uncertain terms over a great period of time. And though
its phenomena are other than physical, being almost exclusively psychological in their effect,
they are of course natural. General laws, too, have been evolved to account for and explain its
phenomena.
A definition of Magic presents a rather more difficult task. A short definition which will really
explain its nature and describe the field of its operation seems practically impossible. One
dictionary defines it as "the art of applying natural causes to produce surprising effects."
Havelock Ellis has ventured the suggestion that a magical act is a name which may well be
given to cover every conceivable act in the whole of life's span. It is Aleister Crowley's
suggestion that "Magic is the science and art of causing changes to occur in conformity with
will." Dion Fortune slightly modified this by adding a couple of words-- "changes in
consciousness." The anonymous mediaeval author of The Goetia, or Lesser Key of King
Solomon has written a proem to that book where occurs the passage that "Magic is the highest,
most absolute, and most divine knowledge of Natural philosophy . . . True agents being aplied
to proper patients strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians
are profound and diligent searchers into Nature."
Have these definitions taught us anything of a precise nature about the subject? Personally I
doubt it very much; all are too general in their scope to tend towards edification. Let us [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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