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Magick: Whether & If So How It Works

There are some techniques you can try for fun, but I'd be wary about doing the fall-down thing on people (in person or otherwise) :sherlock:
One thing I used to try and do, and you can try this yourself, probably, is ask a person to sit in front of a dark or gray background and have them visualize either a pyramid, a sphere, a square or diamond(?) above their head clearly with eyes closed and you would have to look and see the shape appear above their heads in their etheric / astral field. I did this quite a bit at summer camp when I was a kid --I'd taken some Kundalini yoga classes and began to notice what appeared to be shapes and currents around meditators in class --a girl was seated in lotus pose and I noticed a tornado-shaped flow of what I can only describe as astral / etheric to use the common term for it. I noticed that when she broke her concentration it dissipated into her aura like a plasma type effect. That gave me the idea for the visualization trick for camp. Another thing I got outa that class was from a Sikh who came in and showed us muscle testing, etc. I figured if you could manipulate the aura with passes that youj could eventually make someone very weak --not just make downward passes over an arm, but over the whole standing person, about 2 inches away from them, working on limbs and legs. Soon there was a line of kids being made to fall down to ground! :) They would start to sag and then they couldn't straighten their knees and they would inevitably fall on the ground. Sometimes it would take them a long time to get up and their limbs would hurt and I felt I was damaging them so I stopped, I'm sure anyone could do it. Call it what you will --Mesmerism, hypnosis, etc. or whatever energy name you'd like. I have wondered what it would be like to try and do these things after so many years again --I half worry they wouldn't work anymore! But I can't see what psychological or spiritual benefit would come from it. At some point one moves beyond trying to manipulate people with magic or seek strange powers for something better --simply love and helping other beings as best you can.
One "trick" that Crowleyy used to demonstrate his powers was suddenly walking in sync with a person walking ahead of him on the street; once Crowley had mimicked the gait of the person and perhaps made a link, he ditched on the ground and the person walking ahead of him did same.
Many would have theories about how that worked. An occultist would say that this apparent siddhi was accomplished by creating an astral /etheric magical link between that persons mapped somatic consciousness and the magician's. Also that voodoo dolls would work same way (image magic), and that the sense of being stared at or making people scratch their heads or uncomfortable would also be associated with such phenomena. Others would have very mundane ideas about how such things work. I don't have an opinion, just thought some would enjoy all of this.
 
I just remembered another trick I used to do with effect, and if you are an occultist, you could see that the possibilities are many. Again, I make no claim as to how (psychological, etc.) this stuff works, but you can "charge" a glass of water by treating it like a talisman charging --even tracing sigils over it and attempting to charge it with your vital energy as you would a talisman. You can give the water to people for effect etc. consume water yourself, etc. I tried it one time for two friends --went into other room for about minute with water and came back and they drank it, and have forever claimed I must have put drugs in it! :p They were kind of psychologically prepped for it because II told them I was going to "charge it up" iirc. --It was just water.
 
I have to do what my ancestors did - Carefully observe and listen to the world around me. This is the key - it's a matter of intuition.

Whatever the case, working in that in-between state of belief/non-belief is vital. (For me at least.)

I totally agree with you @Ulalume. That's how I "do magick" It's entirely personal to me.

I have had experiences that made me powerfully aware that I am just a mote in the cosmos, an almost nothing, but as I am part of the cosmos I too have an ability to influence; on the quantum level, if you like. It's that big/little thing that's been discussed on this forum.

I think it's important to recognise that when there is flow one is giving as much as receiving.

Finding yourself in the in-between state can be deeply unnerving and confusing but I believe it's the place of greatest potential.

At present I am in an uncomfortable situation at work where a manager has got it in for me (he's done it to others, he has form) I am looking into practical ways of handling this but I shall also be casting spells, while all the time being aware that to get a desired outcome I will have to lose (perhaps not the right word) something.
 
I believe that sometimes it is simply just a matter of will. A strong enough will.
Around 8 or 9 years ago I was having a very general discussion on magick with and interesting chap who'd read my wife's palm outside of a cafe and he suddenly said to me ''Left or right?'' and I replied ''Right.''
He then said to me to look at three people (one female and two males) standing around 20 meters from us. He told me he would will the woman to take off her right shoe.
He then looked at her intensely without her being aware of it and within a few minutes she reached down and removed her right shoe (a sandal) and shook it out as though there was a stone in it.
It may have been a coincidence, but then he would have looked foolish if his demonstration had have failed.
 
I believe that sometimes it is simply just a matter of will. A strong enough will.
Around 8 or 9 years ago I was having a very general discussion on magick with and interesting chap who'd read my wife's palm outside of a cafe...
It may have been a coincidence, but then he would have looked foolish if his demonstration had have failed.

Street "magician" with one eye on everything that's happening around him. Notices a woman walking slightly lopsidedly, maybe shaking her foot a little as you sometimes do if you think you have a piece of grit in it. It's a good bet that she will give in and take the shoe off to shake the grit out. He points her out before you notice.

Point is, there was a reason why she took the shoe off (she had a stone or some grit in it) and that reason would lead to her giving off body language/behavioural signals. A person whose mystique (act) relies on such things could notice and use that.

Left or right? Magician's choice. You say "left" he says she'll stand on her left foot, or tells you to watch the person to the left of the group (which could be your left or their left) or whatever formula fits the occasion. You say "right" he says she'll take off her right shoe. Either way, he's called it right.

He could have lost, but he had good odds of winning.
 
I believe that sometimes it is simply just a matter of will. A strong enough will.
Around 8 or 9 years ago I was having a very general discussion on magick with and interesting chap who'd read my wife's palm outside of a cafe and he suddenly said to me ''Left or right?'' and I replied ''Right.''
He then said to me to look at three people (one female and two males) standing around 20 meters from us. He told me he would will the woman to take off her right shoe.
He then looked at her intensely without her being aware of it and within a few minutes she reached down and removed her right shoe (a sandal) and shook it out as though there was a stone in it.
It may have been a coincidence, but then he would have looked foolish if his demonstration had have failed.
I like the idea of will as power. When I hear neighbors' bass I stare at them and concentrate hard. I will that their bass bumps correspond with sharp gastric pain, and the only relief will be to shit down their pants (or stop their stupid noise).
 
I was a teenager, socially isolated and Angsty. I had a question and desperately needed an answer (why yes, there was a girl involved). A normal person would have just asked the girl but I was shy and awkward, she wasn't in the country. I'd run out of time and I suspected she didn't know the answer anyway. The obvious course of action was to read a book on Candle Magic (mail order from Sorcerer's Apprentice in Leeds), described as the simplest form of ritual magic and ask for an answer from my Guardian Angel.
I didn't know who that was, this was before personal PC's and I only had a few books - I had a choice of four and Azariel seemed the likeliest.
I did have a candle making kit though, an unused present, and I ordered some frankincense from S.A. My motive were pure, well not mercenary or manipulative, I just honestly wanted an answer to a question.

I fasted for 3 days, had a bath, sneaked down to the kitchen when my parents were asleep and started making candles - one for me, one for her and one for my Guardian Angel. I boiled the wax and poured it into the moulds and by midnight all I needed to do was trim the wicks and annoint the candles with the incense, working my petition into the process.
Opened the kitchen drawers, all the scissors had gone. None in the sitting room bureau, none anywhere. Not taking a hint, I quietly went up to my room and dug out my old dissection kit, no dressing scissors but did find a scalpel handle and fresh blade. I had difficulty trimming 2 inches of thick wet wick with a scalpel but eventually succeeded and started the annointment.
There was a sharp burning pain. At some stage I had sliced my thumb open with the scalpel and smeared the candles with my blood - that wasn't in the script, if I'd known blood would be involved I would never have started the ritual. The pain wasn't from the blood coming out of the cut but from the frankincense seeping in. There was an awkward pause and then I carried on.
The three candles were arranged on the table and lit, the wicks were still damp and started spluttering so I quickly took the piece of paper with my written question and burnt it in the candle flame of my Guardian Angel. At the precise moment the paper had finished burning the candle went out, leaving me in a darkened kitchen silently pondering on the wisdom of my actions.
Two days later I grabbed a rucksack and hit the road heading West: a letter from the girl now back in the country arrived after I'd left but my parents forwarded it to me to a Post Office on the Cornish Coast. Damn that was a weird time in Cornwall.
I got my answer, not necessarily what I wanted to hear but it was an answer.
Coincidence ? - yeah sure, whatever - the ritual worked for me.

Postscript: thirty years later and again ten years after that I had cause to think back on those events, this is a very personal subject and I've told no-one before but I've often suspected more was read into my petition than a simple question and the cost and consequences still have yet to be addressed.
 
There was a guy who used to hassle me from late Jr. high into high school; he'd steal and hide my books and would refuse to give them back --I'd tell teachers, and they would ignore it forcing me to slam him into lockers --and then I would get in trouble! He was kind of a friend, so I wasn't doing it out of anger, but frustration --he later turned out to be gay and had a crush on me. He had done something that really pissed me off --forgot what. At this point I was pretty involved in magic --loved Crowley and all of that, had a lot of magic books, etc. So I put on the robe and invoked the forces from the quarters evolving into an ecstatic dance / raising cone of power, stopping myself from visualizing or thinking of him while dong this and then at the last moment of hysterical anger and power focused all of that energy on one spot on his throat.. Next day, he came in to school and couldn't really talk, fine the day before. When I asked him what was wrong, he hissed these words: "I feel like I have knives in my throat". I don't do things like that anymore, wrong and not good for anyone. I've also seen a "voodoo doll" work pretty instantly, but I won't go into details. Earlier when I was about eleven --I cast a love spell --"Light the flame bright eh fire, red is the color of desire" Valerie Worth spell --OMG.. The girl asked me at a swing set to "put something of yours into something of mine" "like a pencil sharpener" :oops:
I didn't know how to HAVE sex then --just cast those spells :evillaugh:
 
There was a guy ...--he later turned out to be gay and had a crush on me. ... stopping myself from visualizing or thinking of him while dong this and then at the last moment of hysterical anger and power focused all of that energy on one spot on his throat..
Paging Dr Freud!
 
While I am well aware of confirmation bias, I am also amused that when I have performed magical rites that they have worked for me on each occasion. Suffice to say I don't make a habit of it. As an example, once I used a ritual to do weather working because my car radiator had blown a hole in Arizona, and I was 100 miles from anywhere I could reliably get repairs. I mean, I didn't want to be stuck in some drug deal motel for a week waiting on a radiator. I worked magic for rain, and got it, and the drop in temperature meant my car didn't overheat and die before I reached Phoenix and got my car into a shop that replaced the radiator by the next morning.
 
That's a big explosion. You made that big hole? Kudos.
:)
Before:
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After:
1595453196650.jpeg
 
I am looking for some good suggestions for beginner level magick, books and/or websites please.
 
I am looking for some good suggestions for beginner level magick, books and/or websites please.
A lot of it would depend on which path you want to take.. It would be worthwhile to pick up some reference books of correspondences, etc. Hulse's Eastern and Western mysteries are a good bargain in paperback. Regardie was good, Fortune, and others.. Might as well pick up Magick in Theory and Practice or look at it online too, for starters. Wanna go natural magic and witchcraft or Hermetic or Qabbalistic magic? Or other, spiritual path with benefits? Or do your own thing?
 
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I am looking for some good suggestions for beginner level magick, books and/or websites please.
I highly recommend Gordon White's The Chaos Protocols, particularly the second half.
519lrpW4fDL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

https://www.amazon.com.au/Chaos-Protocols-Gordon-White/dp/0738744719


Gordo's Rune Soup podcast was my entry to the pure stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAZ2TAN3ILCRpnls2_W6D_Q



Also pay very close attention to Jason Louv's Introduction to Magic podcast video. The audio is crap but the content is about the best primer I've heard. Do the podcast before reading White.
 
Why not? I'm open to be convinced that there is an effect at work here. I consider myself a sceptic, rather than a 'skeptic'.

I'll test before I decide something is real or not.

I'll wait for you to provide us with something I can be surprised and intrigued by.
I know Coal doesn't post here any more but I've been thinking about this pretty generic attitude towards magic and it seems most non-experiencing people don't really know that the idea of magic in their minds doesn't exist. FrKadash and CJ tried to make this apparent on page 1. The problem is that the word MAGIC is so socially loaded that trying to explain why those people have gotten the wrong end of the stick is by now pretty futile, but I'll try.


Magic is a real working system. It requires dedication and persistence, flexibility and endurance. It isn't the purpose of a ' real' (as opposed to the modified for tv ' magician' ) magical practitioner to provide momentary signs and wonders to anybody else. Those wonders can certainly be manifested, but what would be the point? Everybody has seen Dynamo levitate, yet who benefits beyond the entertainment factor? Almost everyone who wants to SEE magic work is merely waiting to look behind some imagined Wiz of Oz curtain and go awwwww, is that all it is?!. I hesitate to state outright that it's childish wishfulness to think of magic that way, but unless you want to know how magical practice really truly transforms lives, don't waste your time looking in this direction. If you want to know more, read on.

In the western esoteric tradition, as I understand it, the working of one's true will is the purpose of a magical approach, and that is a very individual thing. It isn't necessarily designed to be shared with any other person. It can dovetail quite nicely into a mundane suburban life with no bells and whistles to announce itself. Watch Jason Louv's intro video above and you'll get that in a very easy to understand way. The idea of forcing one's will onto others as related by other members here is also not the point. Yes, you can manipulate the behaviour of others if that is your desire, but most practitioners give no attention to that. The point is to assert your own will onto your own path through life - to master circumstance. That's what magic is for me. I'm only just embarking on magic. I don't have any experience of The Orders or much of ritual working either. I'm not pursuing magic for that. My approach is solely to find a way through what remains of my time in a way that benefits me and mine. That is what works. It's a discipline and a life work in constant process, not a trick. It's hard yacka, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise, well ... you be the judge.
 
That's a big explosion. You made that big hole? Kudos.
The hole was due to rust from what I could tell, as the car was second hand. I say "blown a hole", but it was more "developed a hole". It drained the radiator, and I had to do a patch job. Explosion would be an overstatement, but you know how dramatic a radiator looks when you take the cap off it. As I was travelling in Arizona I had taken 3x4L containers of water, just in case. It turns out I sort of needed them up until the point where I did the ritual and called the rain.. After that the temperature dropped and the radiator didn't have to work as hard.
 
I will try to make this sound as scientific as possible. For this, I will use arguments made by a certain John Michael Greer; these are spread out all over his work, and it would be difficult to find them all in a single source.

Asking how magic works is a lot like asking how science works. Both are models of reality; you do certain things, and certain results will follow. There are many different approaches and practices in magic, just like in science:

Source: https://xkcd.com/435/
purity.png


There are three basic elements in magical practice: divination, ritual, and meditation. I will not comment on meditation and how it works; the other two will be easier for Forteans to swallow.

In divination, you get an input source--it could be dice, coin flips, runes, whatever--to generate patterns that will work as replies to your questions. You apply the patterns to your question, and you get your answer. One way this can work is that trying to interpret your question through the lens of the patterns in the practice (for example, I Ching hexagrams), will make you think out of the box, and finding answers you normally would not think about. The second is what Carl Jung called synchronicity: by thinking about a problem and getting a "reading," you will "synchronize" to an answer. The third is, of course, that woowoo is real. Note that all these are not mutually exclusive, and that they can be at work alone or combined. The results matter, not how they work.

Ritual can be described as a way to access the subconscious mind. All the silly garments and gestures are intended to access directly the subconscious. They are not rational; they never were meant to be. Where it starts getting spooky is the so-called action at a distance, outside of the practitioner's mind. Like before, what makes it tick doesn't matter; it works.

The most accessible magical effect (disclaimer: I tried it, and got no results), that will not require months of training, is something called psy balls; use your favorite search engine to look for instructions.
 
As I've practiced the occult for so many years there's been thousands. And it's just normal to my practice to get results. But just a simple example would be when I was in need of a very precise amount of money that at the time I just couldn't spare, it was around 2011/2012 I think. I performed a ritual and the next day despite not being a gambler I felt compelled to go in to a local bookies, and place a bet, I won the exact amount I needed, 380 quid. Whilst I was in the bookies I noticed I was trembling a lot, despite not feeling nervous or overly anxious.
Awesome :D
 
My ex was a brother of the O.T.O and said he "saw things" that he couldn't explain whilst at the headquarters of the Lodge in London.

I'm very much a solitary practioner and have my own and unique ways for doing things as I don't like following any kind of crowd and prefer to do my own thing.

But I love the idea of quantum magick being most effective when you are in a transient state of believing and not believing.
 
I always thought that black magic was essentially the magic that messed up the practitioner. You know, like the classic necromancy trope like the ouija board that ends up with a schizoid person with a religious background going all Linda Blair because they think they have it coming. Magic is an art of the mind, and not the rational mind, consequently there are plenty of people who aren't right in the head or happy in their own shoes who tend to find their neuroses chewing them a new one when they become practitioners. In many ways you can read Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West as an allegory for dealing with one's personal demons, and that is a theme in Buddhism that most people miss.
 
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