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That almost always confuses them.
And that’s because their question carries unstated assumptions – assumptions I don’t share. They’re usually asking whether or not I affirm the Nicene Creed (even if most people who ask that question don’t know what the Nicene Creed is). At the least, they’re asking if I’m a monotheist. The idea that an educated 21st century American might believe there are many real Gods, each with their own sovereignty and agency, none of whom is a “supreme being” is unthinkable to them.
A similar thing happens when someone asks “do you believe in magic?” The answer is always colored by unstated and usually unexamined assumptions.
Alison Chicosky of Practical Occult had a Facebook post last week where she said:
As I write this, there have been almost 200 responses to Alison’s post. It’s public and some of the comments are quite good – you can check them out if you’re interested in a conversation on the definition of magic. In this post, I want to explore a somewhat different question.
Do you believe magic is real?
I think we can all agree on the third point. Psychological programming is completely naturalistic. We meditate on a goal, we visualize it, we surround ourselves with symbols of it. These images speak to our subconscious mind, which influences (“controls” might be a better word) our conscious mind, which causes us to act, which brings about the result we want.
It’s the first two points that some of us disagree with. Because some people who call themselves witches, who like to talk about magic, who promote themselves as magical teachers, don’t believe Gods, spirits, or unseen energies exist. Or, as Alison Chicosky complained, they attribute everything to magic even though much of it is clearly mundane, and in doing so discount or discredit actual magical workings. I’m sure you’ve heard someone say “magic isn’t something you do, magic is something you are.”
No.
But like those people whose worlds get upended when I don’t give a yes or no answer to “do you believe in God?” too many of us who call ourselves witches and Pagans have never thought deeply about what magic is and how it works. We’re not sure it’s really real. And that limits our effectiveness when we do work magic, whether for self improvement or for an urgent and tangible need or for anything in between.
So I encourage you to ask yourself: do you believe magic is real?
No equivocation. No resorting to psychological jargon. No fear that you might be rejecting the materialist assumptions of the mainstream world and opening yourself to charges that you believe in things some people call “woo.”
Do you believe that we can create change in accordance with will?
Because I do, and my magic and my life have been so much better since I decided to accept what my experience tells me is true.
Perhaps the first success is a coincidence. Perhaps the second success is confirmation bias. But after three or five or nineteen times, it’s easier to accept that there’s something magical going on than to keep twisting yourself into a logical pretzel trying to rationalize it all away.
The fact that you can’t explain the results using materialist assumptions doesn’t mean it’s not real. It means that either science isn’t advanced enough to explain it yet, or it exists beyond the limits of science as we understand it.
Believing in magic does help your odds. Dr. Dean Radin – one of the few people who have studied magic in a rigorous fashion – has demonstrated that people who believe in magic get better magical results.
I suspect this is because people who believe magic is real put more effort into doing spells and doing them well. They know the more they put into their work, the more they’ll get out. And also, people who believe magic is real are more likely to work magic in the first place, so they get more practice, so they build better skills, which yields better results.
If you have serious doubts that magic is real, start working magic and see what happens.
Of course we’re doing the mundane things we need to do to take care of ourselves, our families, and our communities. But will that be enough? We don’t know.
Divination – which, let’s remember, is form of magic – can help us see what’s coming so we can do a better job preparing. But divination is imperfect, and whether we have advance warning or not, sometimes we find ourselves in situations that are beyond our expertise and beyond our resources.
Magic means we always have agency. Even if there’s nothing we can do to tangibly impact a situation, we can impact it with magic. Because we have magic we know that as long as we’re alive we’re never finished.
And sometimes we find ourselves in situations that require an immediate response, with no opportunity to plan, prepare, or gather resources.
We tell ourselves that bad times will bring out the best in us, that with the motivation of life or death – sometimes literally – we will rise to the occasion. History says that’s unlikely. Instead, we will fall back on the lowest level of our training, of our practice, of our habits. When you need magic the most, you need to be confident in your methods. That only comes with months and years of practice.
And that rarely happens without a strong belief in the reality of magic.
At the same time, the people who were writing all those spells that ended up being collected into the PGM expected that they would produce results. People visited cunning women and men because they expected results. If they hadn’t gotten results they wouldn’t have kept coming back. And they did.
Our mainstream culture likes the idea of the witch, but they’ve turned the witch who lives in the cottage at the edge of the woods into a combination pharmacist / therapist who would never harm a soul… instead of an outcast who lives in rough places because “polite society” won’t allow her to live anywhere else, who works with deadly plants and animal parts and bodily fluids because that’s she what has, and who’s able to harm as easily as she can help.
And the good Christians who live in their warm houses in the middle of town tolerate her – most of the time – because they know there may come a time when they’re going to need her magic.
Many people find meaning and comfort in the archetype of the witch, but they embody that archetype in a way that’s safe and comfortable. They’re not afraid of the witch – or of being the witch – because deep down they don’t believe magic is real.
I have no desire to take away their meaning and comfort.
I have every desire to encourage them to look beneath the aesthetics and find out what’s real.
Ultimately, what you believe is far less important than what you do: in magic, in religion, and in everything else. But when you believe magic is real, you’re far more likely to do the kinds of things that will get the results you want.
Do you believe magic is real? Do you believe that we can cause change – real, tangible change – in accordance with our will? Do you believe we can impact situations and events through means unexplainable by contemporary science?
Then I encourage you to ignore those who reduce magic to pop psychology. You don’t have to attack them – we have better things to do – just ignore them.
Concentrate on the magical techniques and practices you know… and those you want to learn. Choose your goals mindfully, plan your workings carefully, do them diligently, and take care how you share the results. To know, to will, to dare, and to keep silence.
But pay attention to the results. When they bring you want you want, celebrate your successes – and remember to use the same techniques and practices next time. When they don’t bring what you want, figure out where you went wrong and how you can do better next time.
And when someone asks “do you believe magic is real?” give them the answer your experience tells you is true.
Do You Believe Magic Is Real?
When someone asks “do you believe in God?” my standard answer is “I believe in all the Gods.”That almost always confuses them.
And that’s because their question carries unstated assumptions – assumptions I don’t share. They’re usually asking whether or not I affirm the Nicene Creed (even if most people who ask that question don’t know what the Nicene Creed is). At the least, they’re asking if I’m a monotheist. The idea that an educated 21st century American might believe there are many real Gods, each with their own sovereignty and agency, none of whom is a “supreme being” is unthinkable to them.
A similar thing happens when someone asks “do you believe in magic?” The answer is always colored by unstated and usually unexamined assumptions.
Alison Chicosky of Practical Occult had a Facebook post last week where she said:
She went on to say:Unpopular opinion: Crowley’s definition of magic hurt the practice of magic.
I’m no fan of Crowley, but I like his definition because it emphasizes that magic is both a science and an art, that it’s about creating change, and it’s something we do. On the other hand, I’m in complete agreement with Alison that Crowley’s definition is often interpreted so broadly as to include things that are ordinary and not magical, by people who don’t believe magic is real.“Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will.”
This is so broad as to include everything. Turn on a light switch? MAGIC! I am tired of hearing people argue that everything is magic and they always fall back on this quote.
As I write this, there have been almost 200 responses to Alison’s post. It’s public and some of the comments are quite good – you can check them out if you’re interested in a conversation on the definition of magic. In this post, I want to explore a somewhat different question.
Do you believe magic is real?
A three-fold theory of magic
While I usually rely on Crowley’s definition of magic, I have my own theory for how magic works.- Magic works by the intercession of Gods and spirits.
- Magic works by the manipulation of unseen energies.
- Magic works by psychological programming.
I think we can all agree on the third point. Psychological programming is completely naturalistic. We meditate on a goal, we visualize it, we surround ourselves with symbols of it. These images speak to our subconscious mind, which influences (“controls” might be a better word) our conscious mind, which causes us to act, which brings about the result we want.
It’s the first two points that some of us disagree with. Because some people who call themselves witches, who like to talk about magic, who promote themselves as magical teachers, don’t believe Gods, spirits, or unseen energies exist. Or, as Alison Chicosky complained, they attribute everything to magic even though much of it is clearly mundane, and in doing so discount or discredit actual magical workings. I’m sure you’ve heard someone say “magic isn’t something you do, magic is something you are.”
No.
Magic is more than psychology
It’s not my goal to convince you that Gods and spirits are real and will intercede for us if they choose, or that there are unseen, unexplained energies that can be manipulated through magical workings. If you’ve examined the evidence and reasoning and have concluded that such things don’t exist – or if you’re unsure but have decided to put your efforts elsewhere – that’s fine.But like those people whose worlds get upended when I don’t give a yes or no answer to “do you believe in God?” too many of us who call ourselves witches and Pagans have never thought deeply about what magic is and how it works. We’re not sure it’s really real. And that limits our effectiveness when we do work magic, whether for self improvement or for an urgent and tangible need or for anything in between.
So I encourage you to ask yourself: do you believe magic is real?
No equivocation. No resorting to psychological jargon. No fear that you might be rejecting the materialist assumptions of the mainstream world and opening yourself to charges that you believe in things some people call “woo.”
Do you believe that we can create change in accordance with will?
Because I do, and my magic and my life have been so much better since I decided to accept what my experience tells me is true.
The best way to believe in magic is to do magic
Magic doesn’t work based on belief or faith or anything of the sort. Magic works based on action. If you do the spells – and you do them right – you’ll get results. Not 100% of the time. We live in a probabilistic universe – magic improves the oddsthat things will happen.Perhaps the first success is a coincidence. Perhaps the second success is confirmation bias. But after three or five or nineteen times, it’s easier to accept that there’s something magical going on than to keep twisting yourself into a logical pretzel trying to rationalize it all away.
The fact that you can’t explain the results using materialist assumptions doesn’t mean it’s not real. It means that either science isn’t advanced enough to explain it yet, or it exists beyond the limits of science as we understand it.
Believing in magic does help your odds. Dr. Dean Radin – one of the few people who have studied magic in a rigorous fashion – has demonstrated that people who believe in magic get better magical results.
I suspect this is because people who believe magic is real put more effort into doing spells and doing them well. They know the more they put into their work, the more they’ll get out. And also, people who believe magic is real are more likely to work magic in the first place, so they get more practice, so they build better skills, which yields better results.
If you have serious doubts that magic is real, start working magic and see what happens.
If magic is real there is always hope
You don’t need be an oracle to know that things are stressful right now. The era of near-continuous progress those of us of a certain age have experienced throughout our lives is over. Some of us are struggling with the ordinary problems of health, finances, and relationships. All of us are struggling to deal with the major socio-political changes going on.Of course we’re doing the mundane things we need to do to take care of ourselves, our families, and our communities. But will that be enough? We don’t know.
Divination – which, let’s remember, is form of magic – can help us see what’s coming so we can do a better job preparing. But divination is imperfect, and whether we have advance warning or not, sometimes we find ourselves in situations that are beyond our expertise and beyond our resources.
Magic means we always have agency. Even if there’s nothing we can do to tangibly impact a situation, we can impact it with magic. Because we have magic we know that as long as we’re alive we’re never finished.
And sometimes we find ourselves in situations that require an immediate response, with no opportunity to plan, prepare, or gather resources.
We tell ourselves that bad times will bring out the best in us, that with the motivation of life or death – sometimes literally – we will rise to the occasion. History says that’s unlikely. Instead, we will fall back on the lowest level of our training, of our practice, of our habits. When you need magic the most, you need to be confident in your methods. That only comes with months and years of practice.
And that rarely happens without a strong belief in the reality of magic.
Witchcraft has always been more than aesthetics
Our ancestors who practiced magic believed it was real. Yes, there have always been people who performed magical workings for spiritual growth and development. The purpose of alchemy is not to turn lead into gold, but to refine the human soul.At the same time, the people who were writing all those spells that ended up being collected into the PGM expected that they would produce results. People visited cunning women and men because they expected results. If they hadn’t gotten results they wouldn’t have kept coming back. And they did.
Our mainstream culture likes the idea of the witch, but they’ve turned the witch who lives in the cottage at the edge of the woods into a combination pharmacist / therapist who would never harm a soul… instead of an outcast who lives in rough places because “polite society” won’t allow her to live anywhere else, who works with deadly plants and animal parts and bodily fluids because that’s she what has, and who’s able to harm as easily as she can help.
And the good Christians who live in their warm houses in the middle of town tolerate her – most of the time – because they know there may come a time when they’re going to need her magic.
Many people find meaning and comfort in the archetype of the witch, but they embody that archetype in a way that’s safe and comfortable. They’re not afraid of the witch – or of being the witch – because deep down they don’t believe magic is real.
I have no desire to take away their meaning and comfort.
I have every desire to encourage them to look beneath the aesthetics and find out what’s real.
Ultimately, what you believe is far less important than what you do: in magic, in religion, and in everything else. But when you believe magic is real, you’re far more likely to do the kinds of things that will get the results you want.
Believe what your experience tells you is true
Do you believe in magic? Of course you do – why else would you spend your time reading a blog that focuses on Paganism, polytheism, and witchcraft.Do you believe magic is real? Do you believe that we can cause change – real, tangible change – in accordance with our will? Do you believe we can impact situations and events through means unexplainable by contemporary science?
Then I encourage you to ignore those who reduce magic to pop psychology. You don’t have to attack them – we have better things to do – just ignore them.
Concentrate on the magical techniques and practices you know… and those you want to learn. Choose your goals mindfully, plan your workings carefully, do them diligently, and take care how you share the results. To know, to will, to dare, and to keep silence.
But pay attention to the results. When they bring you want you want, celebrate your successes – and remember to use the same techniques and practices next time. When they don’t bring what you want, figure out where you went wrong and how you can do better next time.
And when someone asks “do you believe magic is real?” give them the answer your experience tells you is true.
