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Mar. 6th, 2011
"Why Magic?"
Mar. 6th, 2011 12:30 pmPeople often ask me why I continue to use the term magic to describe the process and the work I'm doing and advocating, as the term magic is so laden with preconceptions and connotations as to be a minefield of syntax, reparsing, and contextualisation. Well, the answer i usually give is "Because I Like minefields of syntax, reparsing, and contextualisation, and I think they can be useful," but I understand that that's not satifactory for many people. I have said, in the past, that I think that using the connotations inherent in the term "Magic" allow us a particular perspective on and set of tools to use in the world, a way of perceiving things which we would not otherwise have, without the advent of these connotations and associations. But the question can still be asked, "So What?" As in, what does that perspective actually do for us? What does the engagement of multiple perspective actually allow us to do, other than see these things, for their own sake?
So, in the interest of answering this question to the satifaction of those who ask it, I present the following tale:
In 1941, during the Blitz, Artist, Occultist, Magician Austin Osman Spare was rendered partially paralysed. When he regained the partial use of his limbs, it was his non-dominant hand which had the most dexterity. In the service of his life and livelihood, he began teaching himself to paint and draw with his non-dominant hand and, when he could draw as well with that hand as he had done with his previously dominant hand, his previously useless hand was found to be healed, and fully useful, again. Austin Osman Spare healed himself with magic.
Now, you're saying to yourself, you're saying to me, "Damien, that's not magic. That's just a coincidence." Sure, fine, but it was an engineered coincidence. It was a coincidence which Spare himself sought to bring about by ceonceiving of the project before him in such a way as to think, "When I Am Mentally Flexible, I Will Be Physically Healed." An investigation into Spare's philosophy and processes will provide for a more meaningful understanding as to how he did this, but the fact of the matter is, he conceived of his project-- something which could otherwise be easily seen as "Making Do" (which is a weird phrase, isn't it?)-- as a Magical Work, with intention and an end-goal, and a process of self-initiation, and, in the end, he got his desired result.
Calling it "Magic" allows us to think about things in ways that come with non-standard causal connections. The idea that ideas and thoughts and intentions can directly shape and change the world, when we arrange them in the proper order, and speak the right words, or simply conceive of them in the right way. No other term, no other connotation- and association-laden conceptual schema allows us quite this same freedom and ability to directly impact our world, via thought, intention, and action. Nothing else allows us this same level of responsibility for our desires and our actions.
And that's why it has to be magic.
So, in the interest of answering this question to the satifaction of those who ask it, I present the following tale:
In 1941, during the Blitz, Artist, Occultist, Magician Austin Osman Spare was rendered partially paralysed. When he regained the partial use of his limbs, it was his non-dominant hand which had the most dexterity. In the service of his life and livelihood, he began teaching himself to paint and draw with his non-dominant hand and, when he could draw as well with that hand as he had done with his previously dominant hand, his previously useless hand was found to be healed, and fully useful, again. Austin Osman Spare healed himself with magic.
Now, you're saying to yourself, you're saying to me, "Damien, that's not magic. That's just a coincidence." Sure, fine, but it was an engineered coincidence. It was a coincidence which Spare himself sought to bring about by ceonceiving of the project before him in such a way as to think, "When I Am Mentally Flexible, I Will Be Physically Healed." An investigation into Spare's philosophy and processes will provide for a more meaningful understanding as to how he did this, but the fact of the matter is, he conceived of his project-- something which could otherwise be easily seen as "Making Do" (which is a weird phrase, isn't it?)-- as a Magical Work, with intention and an end-goal, and a process of self-initiation, and, in the end, he got his desired result.
Calling it "Magic" allows us to think about things in ways that come with non-standard causal connections. The idea that ideas and thoughts and intentions can directly shape and change the world, when we arrange them in the proper order, and speak the right words, or simply conceive of them in the right way. No other term, no other connotation- and association-laden conceptual schema allows us quite this same freedom and ability to directly impact our world, via thought, intention, and action. Nothing else allows us this same level of responsibility for our desires and our actions.
And that's why it has to be magic.