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Subject: Introduction to Magick [from http://pw1.netcom.com/~iopan/magick/intro.html ] INTRODUCTION Before we can answer questions like "is magick 'real'?" "does it 'work' and if so, how?" we must first ask, "What is magick?" As you read and progress, the nature of reality as we tend to conceive of it and the language that we use to describe it becomes questionable; it will become apparent why I put the words "real" and "work" in quotations. These are the primary questions that the sum of these essays seek to answer. This is no easy task. Although it seems to address very broad and abstract matters, it must be answered in very specific and concrete ways, even (especially) if you have already accepted the idea that magic is real, unicorns and fairies exist, and Satan himself lives in a duplex just down the road. By constantly questioning the nature of existence, we open ourselves to higher states of consciousness, broader ranges of perception, and deeper modes of reality. The goal of mysticism is to transcend the noise of mundane consciousness in order be released into higher states of existence and deeper modes of reality. The goal of magick is to be functional in deep enough modes of reality to allow actions taken in those states to unfold through all levels of existence. Most magick and occult systems reflect some variation of this dynamic, although often in different terms with emphasis on different aspects of the process. There is a seemingly endless amount of books already written on these and other related topics. The reading list(s) in this text should be a good starting point. One could and should pursue this line of research endlessly. If you run out of references or sources of information, chances are that you are looking in the wrong places and/or have given yourself too much credit for the little knowledge that you do possess, ignoring the subtle yet integral layers of symbolically encoded meaning which are characteristic of occult works. Go back and read it again! If so much has already been written on the subject, why write more? I claim no special knowledge beyond that which is already available and easily accessed. Individual authors interpret and write about concepts in accord with their favorite metaphors and biases. Ten authors on the same subject can give you ten different stories, all of them valuable in their own right for their own reasons. But one can search endlessly for a good reference and come up with nothing that they find to be accessible, emotionally or intellectually. This is what gives value to works such as Israel Regardie's interpretations of Aleister Crowley, Robert Anton Wilson's extrapolations on Timothy Leary's ideas, and Allan Watts' interpretation of Zen for Westerners. However, I would not hasten to rank myself in with such figures as mentioned above, as I often find that they usually overstate the obvious much more eloquently than I! I strongly suggest that the serious student research as many of the aforementioned topics and authors' works as possible. Bearing all this in mind, read on with an open mind, a light heart, and as Robert Wilson so delicately states, "A cast iron, shock proof bullshit detector!" Author,1995 _________________________________________________________________ Acknowledgements I would like to thank and acknowledge several people and entities, including the following: Michael Pfieffer, The Ordo Templi Orientis in general, especially the Masters and some of the Brothers of 93 Lodge, Heru-Ra-Ha Lodge, Quinta Essentia Camp and recently LVX Oasis, and all independent researchers and practitioners of the Western Mystery Traditions who have chosen to carry on their work with or without the auspices of accepted authority. I would like to pay particular homage to the late Aleister Crowley for obvious reasons. All who still do not acknowledge his contributions to western magick and culture simply have not done their homework. _________________________________________________________________ (C) 1995 ANDREW P. SPITZER. NO PART OF THIS TEXT MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. [email the author: iopan@ix.netcom.com (Andrew Spitzer)] Page created by: iopan@ix.netcom.com Changes last made on: Tue Jul 16 01:00:52 1996 [EOF; reproduction to WWW archive approved by APS]
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