Magic
“Magic is the highest science existing on our planet, for it teaches the metaphysical as well as the metapsychic laws valid in all the planes. This science has been called magic since human records began, but it has so far been reserved to special circles, mainly comprising high-priests and high potentates. They alone knew the truth but kept it a secret. They not only were fully acquainted with the synthesis of their own but of all other religions, too. The people, on the other hand, were taught about religion in symbols only. It took many centuries until scarce fragments of this science were also made known to mankind in a veiled manner, as was understandable. Because the majority of people had not undergone any magic training by law, they could only understand these fragments from their individual point of view and, in consequence, pass on their knowledge incompletely and onesided. That is the reason why magic science has, without any exaggeration, remained a secret science up to this date. The true understanding of magic laws depends on the spiritual maturity of the individual.
To reach this maturity a certain pre-training is absolutely necessary. The reader will therefore find it natural that he must be fully conversant with the first tarot-card, at least up to Step 8, if he wants to have further positive success in his practice of higher magic.
There are no miracles as such, furthermore there is also nothing supernatural. The facts and effects remain obscure because people are not able to perceive them first hand.
Magic is a science teaching the practical application of the lowest laws of nature up to the highest laws of the spirit. The person intending to learn about magic must first learn to understand the functioning of the lowest laws of nature in order to conceive the laws building up on them and finally the highest laws. Depending on the stage the reader has reached or on the laws he is at the moment dealing with, he may, to get a better survey, separate magical science in three groups; that is, in lower magical science, which comprehends the laws of nature and their working, functioning and controlling and may, if you please, be called natural magical science. Furthermore, in the intermediate stage of magic comprehending the operating and functioning and controlling of the universal laws within man, that is the microcosm, the small world; and finally in the high magical science comprehending the operating, functioning and controlling of the laws of the macrocosm, i. e. of the whole universe. I already mentioned a few times in my first book the analogy by which lower, intermediate and high magical science are connected and I also gave a full description of the operation and functioning of these powers.
Magical science may be compared with the school-system: low magic is the subject of the elementary classes; intermediate magic, that is the magic of man, is taught in secondary or grammarschool; and high magic is lectured at the university. Since, according to the Hermetic Tablet, the universal axiom valid for magic is “as above - so below” and vice versa, it is strictly speaking, not correct to talk about a low, intermediate and high magic. There actually is only one unique magic, and the grade of maturity which the magician in question has arrived at is the measurement for his individual development. The universal laws, no matter whether applied with good or bad intentions, always remain the same. The application of a law depends on the character and the intentions of the individual. If the magician uses his powers for good purposes, he may choose, for himself, the expression “white magic”; if he uses his faculties for bad purposes he may talk about “black magic”; but no matter whether the actions of a magician are morally good or bad, they are brought about by exactly the same laws.
The sensible reader will undoubtedly be certain that there exists neither a white nor black magic. This differentiation has been brought into common use by mystical and religious sects, since they call a person they don’t like a black magician. To give you a striking comparison, just think of the fact that it would be equally insensible from the universal point of view to say, for instance, that night is evil and day is good. One cannot exist without the other and both poles had to come into existence when the macrocosm and the microcosm were created, in order to make the one differ from the other.
God, the creator of the universe, has not created anything unclean or evil. This is not to say that man should do the good and the evil. The difference between the two exist to enable man to tell the truth from the opposite and to master it. The true magician will therefore never underestimate the negative, but he will also not avoid it. He will always allow the negative to take the place due to it, and the negative must be as useful to him as the positive. That is to say, the magician never considers negative powers to be evil powers. He will look at good and evil not from a religious, but from the universal point of view.
Magic is usually mistaken for sorcery or witchcraft; I therefore want to explain briefly the difference between magic and sorcery. The true magician always adheres to the universal laws, he knows about their causes and effects and deliberately uses these powers, whereas a sorcerer uses powers the origin of which he does not know, although he is fully aware of the consequences caused by his using these powers; but he has no idea about their actual connections, because he has no knowledge of the universal laws. He might know one or two laws or have a partial knowledge of them, but he does not see the true connections between the operating, developing and functioning of these universal laws, as he has not reached the maturity necessary.
The true magician, on the other hand, unwilling to be graded as a sorcerer, will never do anything without having full knowledge about what he is doing. A sorcerer, too, may use this or that out of his knowledge of magic with good or bad intentions, no matter whether he uses positive or negative powers. But he has no right to call himself a magician.
A charlatan is a person trying to deceive other people. He is not a sorcerer, nor is he a magician. He actually is, to use common terms, a swindler. Charlatans like to boast about high magical faculties, which, in truth, they do not possess, and try to surround themselves with a veil of mystical secrecy in order to hide their ignorance.
It is this category of people who are responsible for the bad name true magical science has got. The characteristics of a true magician are not secrecy, nor external pomp quite the contrary. He is modest and always trying to help people and to explain to the mature persons the secrets of magic. Naturally, he will not give away his secrets to people not yet mature enough for them, in order to avoid degradation of the holy science. Never will the true magician demonstrate his knowledge of magic science by his external behaviour. A true magician is hardly any different from an average citizen, for he always tries to adapt himself to any other person, any situation or occasion. His magical authority is an internal one with no necessity for external splendour.
There is yet another inferior variation of magic to be mentioned, for it is often mistaken for true magic, but has nothing to do with the latter. I mean the so-called art of jugglery. The jugglers manual skill and his faculty to cause illusionary impressions in the people watching him enables him to copy some phenomena which the genuine magician brings about by the application of the universal laws. The fact that always jugglers use the word magic for their tricks bears again evidence of the inferior meaning to which it has sunk. It is not intended to give the reader any details of jugglers tricks or stage tricks. It is, however, a fact that the juggler is neither a sorcerer nor a magician, even though he may give himself the most promising names because of his great manual skill.
In this book a synthesis will be given of that field of magical science which up to our modern age has never been revealed: the magic of evocation, since it is this field of magic which is most difficult to understand. From the oldest age of antiquity up to our modern times hundreds of books have been puplished which contain instructions for the invocation of beings, for concluding pacts with the devil, and so on. But none of those books has been able to communicate to its readers genuine knowledge, nor to secure for them success in the practical application of the teaching, although it has sometimes happened that certain individuals, due to their inherited disposition and their maturity, have had success. The genuine magician who wants to get behind the problems of the magical evocation need not fear that he will only have a partial success, or no success at all. He will soon be convinced that with the synthesis of the magic of evocation given here he is able to carry out a successful evocation.
The other categories of magic as, for example, the magic of mummies, magic of sympathy, of spells by sympathetic means, will not be dealt with in this book, for these fields will be easily explored by the magician himself, should he be interested in them. Instructions in this respect are to be found in the usual books dealing with such matters.”
-The Practice of Magical Evocation (by Franz Bardon)
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