Fragment 23

A strange thing has happened to me, since I started writing the "Fragments" that being people are asking me for advice on magic. Most of the questions boil down to two questions: "Why is my Magic not working?" and "How can I feel closer to my God or Goddess?". There is an answer, probably not the answer that a lot of people are going to like, because it involves work. An analogy with chess should prove illustrative here. Most coffee house players , and club players want to get good enough to challenge Masters and Grandmasters. The problem being they are looking for an easy fix. So they read books on openings, and middle game tactics (Stock sacrifices and such). This will help some, but is not the answer, if one wants to become an elite player. To be in the upper echelons of chess, one must be able to calculate many moves in advance. This of course, involves hard work, much like doing math homework. This is why the great chess teacher. S.Tarrasch and the Russian school of chess start with the endgame. For most people there least favorite part of the game. The endgame is all calculation. Back to magic. The aspirant in magic has to change or develop a way of thinking. This is what J. Bohme calls magical thinking. So what is magical thinking? Humans use predominantly two types of thinking. I will call these types: logical thinking and magical thinking. (In my philosophical writings I refer to "magical thinking" as "mythological thinking". So what is the difference? The short answer is that Logical thinking depends on the Law of noncontradiction (Aten), it connects events, objects, etc. by origin and function. The second type of thinking (Magical thinking) which is also the older way of thinking connects events, objects, etc. by chains of correspondence. We of course use a mixture of the two types of thinking throughout our days. When we are involved in standardized activities such as: driving, working, taking tests, etc. we are using logical thinking. We follow rules that are universalized, and have clarity. Driving is a good example. The rules of the road are the same for everyone, and the connections are made by function. The function of driving is to get safely from one place to another. This is what determines the rules of driving, everything is objective. Biology would be another example, and also shows the contradiction in logical thinking. Animals can be grouped either by function or origin (genetic closeness); producing different sets of categories using the same animals or species depending on whether one used function or origin. So how does one decide which category to use? Well it all comes down to which one works for the goal one wants to achieve. It should be easy to see that Logical thinking depends on pragmatic thinking. The trouble is the pragmatic theory of truth is not logical. Objective thinking is supposed to lead to one absolute Truth. Not a contingent truth based on the goal of an individual. In simpler terms there is no one absolute Truth. Only truths based on the goals of an agent. This is not to say logical thinking is not useful, it is incredibly useful, but does not lead to Truth. The only reliable judge of theories and actions is whether they work.Both types of thinking are subject to the Pragmatic theory of truth. To reiterate the point one more time logical thinking is incredibly useful, but does not have any monopoly on truth. So let us move to Magical thinking. Magical thinking is connecting objects, people, places, events, etc. in chains of correspondences. Instead of using origin, and function to connect things, things are connected by emotional, and physical resemblances. This was the purpose of all those elaborate memory systems from the Renaissance, the Quabblah, Tarot, and Astrology, the system of wheels in Raymond Lull. As I said before in magical thinking things are classified and combined by physical and emotional resemblances. A quote from Aleister Crowley should make this clear:(from Letter F in "Magick without Tears": As I walked about, I made a point of attributing everything I saw to its appropriate idea. I would walk out of the door of my house and reflect that the door is Daleth, and the house Beth; now the word "dob" is Hebrew for "bear", and has the number 6, which refers to the Sun. Then you come to the fence of your property and that is Ceth-number 8, number of Tarot trumps 7, which is the Chariot, so you begin to look about for your car. Then you come to the street and the first house you see is number 86 and that Elohim, and is built of red brick which reminds you of Mars and the Blasted Tower, and so on. As soon as this sort of work which can be done in a quite light hearted spirit, becomes habitual, you will find your mind running naturally in this direction, and will be surprised at your progress. Never let your mind wander from the fact that your Quabalah is not my Quabalah: a good many things which I have noted may be useful to you, but you must construct your own system so that it is a living weapon in your hand." The above quote should clear up what it is to think Magically. I know the next question is "Why does it work?" To be successful one must have both content and visualization. Magical thinking develops these talents. like calculation improves one's chess. I must explain what I mean by content. F. H. Bradley, one of the most subtle thinkers in history, drew a distinction between content and clarity. Logical thinking has clarity; to achieve clarity one must get rid of content. In other words when ideas have strong borderline qualities they keep the thing thought about discrete.(Strong separation of ideas) For Logical thinking knowledge is a series of discrete data. Mathematics is a perfect example. Numbers have almost no content. This is why they can be applied to almost anything.,making math so useful. On the other hand, content is identified with emotion; remember physical and emotional resemblences. These physical and emotional resemblences shoul come together in long chains of correspondences. There should have been no problem in observing this in the above quote from Crowley. Logecal thinking is a search for clearly defined discreet ideas. One should have no problem recognizing this in Descartes' and Spinoza's search for adequate ideas. (For those interested Descartes makes this very clear in "The Objections and Replys") Relation and identification of ideas with emotions is Magical thinking. One sacrifices clarity for content. This type of thinking gives one the feeling and emotional commitment that is needed to practice Magic. In Magic one must feel an object or event, not just know it. This is why women have an initial advantage in Magic; , probably explains why there are so many witches. As Novalis said: "Women demand the intellectual be sensualized, Men demand the sensual be intellectualized." I will offer some advice that can safely be disregarded; start with one system and build on it before adding more. Build on it as you feel ready, don't overwhelm yourself. And you will find like the chess player that learns to calculate your Magic shall get better. To use the chess analogy one more time learn how to calculate 3 moves ahead before trying 10. Next "Fragment I shall continue to examine the two types of thinking.