What is Magic?

Magic is an effect produced by a person using sheer will and intent to achieve said effect. Magic is the ability to effect forces outside the direct influence of the producer or source of the magic. A magician uses his will and intent focused in such a way that it pierces the veil separating the magician from the rest of space.

Magic is all around us, it permeates every living and inanimate thing. It is whether or not an individual chooses to see these things as magic that makes the difference. When a person wakes up in the morning and decides what course of action they are going to take that day, plans it out, acquires the proper items to complete the task, and brings it to fruition, they have performed magic. By course of will and intent they have brought about change in accordance with their own wishes.

Where does magic exist? As we just mentioned, in all things, but the ability to recognize this and to utilize this in order to affect change is the true meaning of being a magician. The ability to quiet the noise that is associated with day to day life to a point where those distinctions can be made, between what is magic and what is required to use that magic is an art that requires diligent effort and the willingness to devote one’s time to that end.

A magicians’ body can be said to exist in the physical plane. Humans project energy in all directions outward from their body, heat, pheromones, odors, breath, and minute electrical energy. This can be seen when any human or animate object is photographed using infrared photography, or a variety of scientific imaging. There is the thermal signature that affects the air around us. There is something we call personal space, that comfort zone where we are able to interact with others. This zone varies depending upon our age, and the level of intimacy we have with the person or thing intruding into that zone. It has been shown that children have a much shorter area of personal space. Different cultures develop unique definitions of personal space. We in western culture tend to allow people we are familiar with to intrude much farther into our personal space.

For those who are students of Astral Projection, there is the Physical body, the Etheric body, and the Astral body. The goal of Astral Projection is to control the ability to leave the Physical body behind in order to explore the Astral plane. This is a direct form of sending the conscious mind outward into another plane other than the three dimensions of normal space.

The magician understands that there are the three dimensions of Height, Width and Depth. There is also the dimension of time, which for humans appears to flow in a linear fashion. We live in the present, knowing the past as we have experienced it, and posit the future as always one second in time away from the present. Time would seem to be the next logical dimension. There is also duration in time. Is something static and constant? Does it linger over time, or is it brief and fleeting? Duration in time may be expressed as another dimension. We as thinking human beings are capable of expressing concepts. These are not physical realm manifestations, but ideas that become fully formed and either persist because we accept them as valid constructs or cease to exist because they are given no credence. An idea that takes hold and is accepted as a valid construct becomes a Meme, a thought process or idea that multiple people have given credence to and persist over time. What dimension do these things exist in? We must accept that there is yet another dimension, that of the mind. You or I can express the idea of a point, one on a number line, a point in time, from point A to point B. But unlike a line, the point has no Height, Width or Depth, it merely exists somewhere in the physical plane as a point of reference. Much more abstract forms of thought exist and persist because we as humans lend them credence, but where do these thought forms exist? It would stand to reason again that there exists a dimension of Mind.

The work of the magician takes in all of these dimensions and attempts to use all of them to affect each other. The magicians’ body exists in the physical realm, as well as the accoutrements they may deem necessary to perform their work. The magician develops their skill with practice over time. The magician attempts to use thought to induce change in themselves and the world around them.