A Modern Approach to Magic

Obviously, magic is a vast topic. 

Magical theory, practice, and tradition vary from place to place, people to people. To quote Derek Collins from his Magic in The Ancient Greek World: “Simply put, there is no one way to understand all magic across all instances, even for one culture at one historical moment.”

Shoutouts, Professor Collins.

So, for this post, I offer some original commentary on magic and its application.

I hope it’s clear, but just so we’re on the same page here—I’m not talking about performative (stage) magic, with rabbits, top hats, sawing blonde women in half, or any type of terrestrial illusion you’d see on TV. I’m talking about magic so old and potent, its mysterious roots wind themselves through the earliest human civilizations!

Furthermore, there are those that prefer Aleister Crowley’s spelling (magick), so as to differentiate it from performative magic, but Crowley was a master manipulator, charlatan, and died a broke, lonely heroin addict. In short, he’s not the kinda guy you should be taking very seriously (unless you’re asking him where to find good drugs); most of what that man did should be ridiculed for the self-indulgent degeneracy that it was.

We can start by asking what is magic? Paraphrasing Professor Derek Collins’s apt description, magic is a system of verbal and non-verbal ritual aimed at influencing behavior. This takes on numerous shapes and various forms, with cultures across the globe practicing, or articulating, magic systems in unique ways.

Here, I’ll outline the three most common, modern perceptions of magic, as far as I’ve encountered them in my studies.

The first, and arguably one of the most pervasive conceptions of magic, is magic as “failed science”. Magic, through this lens, is an un- or pre-scientific culture’s misattribution of causality. Many of the early anthropologists on the topic of magic, such as Sir James George Frazer (The Golden Bough), are main contributors to this approach. This conception presupposes that magic isn’t actually real and is used by “primitive” cultures to explain the fundamental laws of cause and effect. Under this conception of magic, the magician is delusional, primitive, or at the very least, seriously misinformed about scientific causality.

The second common conception of magic is as a psychological phenomenon. I can’t put it any better than Professor Collins, so I won’t try. To directly quote Magic in the Ancient Greek World:

“Illness presents a good example [of magic as a psychological phenomenon]. A family member has been struck with a debilitating illness for some inexplicable reason… A magical operation performed on behalf of the ailing family member may not be thought directly to resolve the problem, but it allows those involved to feel as if some action has been taken. Magical action is practical action, and however misguided it may be, it nonetheless gives concrete expression to the concern of the family members involved in caring for their ailing relative….”

This is an interesting idea. Again, this presupposes that magic isn’t real, but rather, acts as a spiritual buffer against chaos. The concept of prayer in monotheistic religions has the same effect.

Lastly, there’s the conceptualization of magic as the evil, profane art of the Devil. I would argue this notion influences modern attitudes toward magic more than the other two combined. Obviously, the main supporters of this notion are Christians, but their ideas shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. These Christian notions accept that magic is real, but that it’s allowed to exist because God has relegated magic to the realm of the Devil.

With these three conceptual approaches in mind, I would like to point out that my own conceptual approach lies somewhere in-between. Magic, in my experience, is partly pseudo-science, partly psychological, and partly divine/demonic in nature.

But enough about me. Let’s talk briefly about the history of magic, and how it went from a ubiquitous and democratic form of self-expression to a taboo art for the Devil.

Ancient Magic

The word magic, and its earliest forms, comes to us from Ancient Iran, with Zarathustra believed to be the originator of dedicated magical practice. The Old Persian word, magus, gives us the modern English word magic. In ancient times, magic was considered an integral part of reality. There was no distinction between reality-as-such and the magical realm. There were only conduits that either strengthened or lessened the magical realm’s superimposition onto reality. Equinoctial rites, for example, are pervasive throughout ancient, magic-practicing cultures, and almost all of them are based around the notion that the spirit realm was made accessible on certain days of the year.

Ancient Persian magi traveled far and wide, and their brand of astronomy and magic were known from India to Egypt. Even the Greeks, most noticeably Herodotus, wrote about the Persian magi, and described their function as an advisory role to leaders of the Achaemenid Empire. This suggests, at least for the Ancient Persians, some magicians were considered intelligent enough to serve in critical functions of the state.

Ethnic cultures from Japan to North America all practiced, or believed in, magic on some level or another. The Persians offer us some of the earliest evidence of dedicated magic schools, where magicians were taught astronomy, medicine, the available tools of science at the time, and even statecraft, on top of esoteric concepts. Magic, for thousands of years and for millions of people, was the prevailing “religion”. Until monotheism, that is.

Medieval Magic

Let’s jump to medieval Europe, where magic becomes taboo. The Christian Church had all but replaced democratic forms of magic, effectively monopolizing spirituality. We see increased persecution of magic practitioners because of the idea that practicing magic is morally wrong.

Of course, there are small pockets of magical thought here and there, most noticeably Rosicrucianism, The Freemasons, Hermeticism/alchemy, and Teutonic Rites that were desperately trying to preserve the art of runecraft, but all of these vivid traditions were relegated to secret cabals or wispy groups of shadow men with evil intentions.

Once the idea of a dedicated class of spiritual leaders, aka the clergy, comes into play, magic — the most democratic form of spiritualism — is chained and shackled. Where once there was a slight tolerance for lesser forms of magic in Europe (mostly folk magic), there is only disdain, confusion, and hatred. Hundreds of innocent men, women, and children where burned at the stake due to Christian religious zealotry. Relegating all magic to the realm of the Devil is easily one of the worst tragedies in history.

Modern/Post-Modern Magic

Lastly, we come to modern times. The 19th and 20th century saw a ton of magical thought, mostly thanks to the Theosophical Society and people like Aleistar Crowley. It’s important to note that magic was still very much associated with evil, which is why only fringe groups were practicing magic in any meaningful way.

I’ve already written about the increase of New Age beliefs across the West in the post-modern age, despite the pervasive dogma of scientific rationality. While some may interpret this as a regression to the Dark Ages, I view it a little differently.

A lot of the post-modern applications of magic are superficial. Tarot cards, crystals, sage bundles, bastardized astronomy – these are the tools of the post-modern magician, minus the nuanced understanding of where the power of these objects really comes from. I personally know of very few people today that practice magic and can tell you even the slightest bit about its history or development over the centuries. Most post-modern magicians just want to be viewed as edgy.

To some, all you need to do is get the right crystal under the right star, pray to something unknown, and bam! Some use magic imagery to boost engagement numbers online. Some use magic to escape accountability for personal flaws....

So why are so many people either ironically, or unironically, practicing magic in the 21st century? Well, I think it has to do with the fact that magical thought is intrinsic to the human experience, but because of Christian ideology and morality, we’ve repressed the magical side of our consciousness into a state of acting out, which you see now with all the superficial magic being thrown around online. The repressed, magical side of our beings have been in moral jail for so long, it’s desperate for a way out.

This leads us nicely into how I approach magic. Yes, I do believe in the power of magic. No, I do not believe magic is “real”. You cannot conjure something up, make something appear from thin air, or change the physical structure of reality. Not without tools of science. Magic, in a sense, isn’t real but its effects can be.

Magic isn’t meant for the physical realm, anyway. It’s meant for the spiritual realm, the realm of the unconscious. 

If you don’t like an aspect of your personality, or environment, no amount of chanting, praying, crystal-fucking, or summoning demons will help you. There is no magical formula to make you skinny, or make someone love you, or make you less shitty. All that stuff requires physical changes of behavior and lifestyle, which are easily achieved through hard work and dedication—not magic. There are magical formulas that will trick you into states of complacency, though, or into states of placebo. The magical path is rife with dead ends and potholes, after all.

Magic should be used as a wellspring of unconscious insight into your everyday life. That’s the most practical application I can come up with, anyway. So, how did I get into magic?

Well, it all started when I first heard about magic, through Augustus Invictus. During college, I had the privilege of being asked to read one of my political essays at an event Augustus was throwing for his senatorial campaign. I was able to speak with Augustus in person after the reading, and somewhere in our conversations, he mentioned that he was a Thelemite and practiced ceremonial magic.

I had never in my life met anyone who so openly claimed they practiced magic. It got my mind working, first from a place of complete disbelief. “No way,” I thought. “No way are there people out in the world still practicing magic.”

So, I did what any kids does, I hit Google. I wanted to find a ritual I could emulate that would help me see what this magic business is all about. I found almost nothing of value. The only rituals laid out in a practical fashion that I found were the rituals in The Satanic Bible, and since I wasn’t born in 1987, Satanism didn’t realty catch my interest.

I wanted practical rituals, something I could integrate into my daily life and see where that took me. Preferably nothing that involved naked women on a table or summoning Babylonian demons. To my dismay, 99 percent of the “magic” groups online are mostly an excuse to escape personal accountability under the thinly veiled guise of “healings”, or “group workings”.

For years, I couldn’t find anything. So much of the magic online and in these pseudo-groups revolves around a bunch of New Age horseshit, like believing crystals are anything more than symbolic nodes of energy.

I spent a long time searching for something practical to sink my teeth into. Then I stumbled on Edred Thorsson’s work on the runes, and everything changed. Here was a practical system of magic, complete with layered mythology and esoteric concepts as well as actionable rituals that could be easily integrated and reproduced in my life. Runework hit the two benchmarks I was looking for, esoteric concepts that I can spend years unpacking, and a practical framework for developing my own, hyper-personalized form of ritual magic.

For me, it was imperative to strip away all the bullshit and get to the heart of magical practice. To accomplish this, I spent a very long time reading about historical examples of magic and immersing myself in the historical evidence left behind by pre-scientific people to help better inform my practice today. I did my best to stick to academic resources, or well-researched sources, and was mostly concerned with traditions that have rich historical precedence. I wanted to stay far away from anyone who claimed to be a guru or sage of any kind, because I realized any magical journey isn’t supposed to fit into a pre-existing model.

Magic is supposed to be generative, and to me, it feels disingenuous to mimic the rituals of my dead ancestors. I wasn’t interesting in reviving long-dead traditions, but rather, in innovating magical practice with the tools of modernity, thereby creating a new way to interact with magic and the realm of the unconscious.

Magic, to my mind’s eye, is the combination of symbol, ritual, reverence, imagination, and willpower that allows the practitioner interaction with the unconscious mind. Magic provides a special place where your body, spirit, and imagination (mind) combine.

My workings take the shape of intense meditation, often with a specific focal point and accompanied by yoga. Ritual visualization and runework are the core of my personal magic practice. The combination of physical exertion and mental focus helps me gain subconscious insights that inform my daily behavior and helps me align my physical actions with my nonphysical goals. Yoga helps me focus on visualization as the breathing and postures clear my head and lull my mind into a trance (which is the best state to receive input from my subconscious). I generally use incense and candles to set a ritual atmosphere, and from there, my workings begin.

Establishing a sense of reverence is key. By engaging the physical senses (establishing a ritual space complete with darkness, candles, and incense) in a way that is outside normal routine, I jump-start my subconscious mind. From there, visualizing goals or pulling wisdom from the runes is as easy as staying focused. I’m not into crystals, robes, wands, chants, or whatever. I don’t believe in “praying” to gods that I’m unfamiliar with, either. I prefer practicality over aesthetics, and my magical practice reflects that.

In closing, I want you to seriously reconsider the practical value of magic in modernity. In a time where everyone feels hopeless, magic offers a way out. We can redeem the world through magic, if only we can remove the monotheistic moralism and obsession with edgy optics from the equation.

To avoid informing your own magical journey with my opinions, I offer some resources that you should investigate if you found any of this interesting. They are books. If you hate reading, you probably shouldn’t be looking into magic in the first place. If you want a great place to look for information (you can find cheap/free versions online for all of these) start with:

Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa (buy my version of Book One if you want to avoid outdated language!)

Magic in The Ancient Greek World by Derek B. Collins

Northern Magic by Edred Thorsson

On Magic by Paul Waggener

Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Francis Yates

The Nine Doors of Midgard by Edred Thorsson (for info on rune magic)

I hope this scatter-brained post is somewhat useful to you. Good luck out there, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. It would be nice to discuss magical theory with someone who’s still alive….