Science meets Magick

And what is magic, pray tell?
It is the after-echo of the Divine Word which created the world... And as it retains certain characteristics of its genesis, magic... can be used to alter the created world,
~ Mercedes Lackey, House of the Four Winds

Mage Music 89

If you follow science news releases, you'll be seeing a trend lately. Science keeps catching up to Magick.

Of course science calls it "discoveries", but what is happening is that scientists are merely using their self-imposed disciplines of thought and proof to verify the principles that Mages have acted on since, well, since there were Mages. Meaning since there were humans.

The "discoveries" of Ellen Langer, PhD, professor of psychology at Harvard University, can be read about in a recent New York Times article, What If Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set?. Dr. Langer studies what Wikipedia calls "the illusion of control, decision making, aging and mindfulness theory".

It's no illusion.

Magick may describe the source one way and Dr. Langer's studies another, but the differences are merely those of different trails that lead to the same mountain. Different journeys, same end. Dr. Langer calls it the Power of Possibility. We call it Magick. Same same.

Dr. Langer uses science to examine the very things we've been talking about here on Mage Music, using a different approach to explain how hidden decisions made by the subconscious and thoughts (and vocabulary) shape the world we create whether we realize it or not. Dr. Langer focuses on the powerful physical effects of the placebo in the real world and goes on to set up situations for others to change their own reality -- including the "magic" of reversing the effects of aging and disease.

How is this different than desire + will + ritual = Magick? There is no difference... it's a matter of choice.

You can pay mega-bucks to be treated by Dr. Langer or you can take your destiny in your own hands, but either way, you have the power of the possible. Either way or any way, you are the one who creates your reality.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. As the song goes, there's still time to change the road you're on.

Magick 102

"...the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
~Roald Dahl

Mage Music 76

Scientists and other logically-based thinkers like to put down Magick as nonsense because Magick can't be readily perceived. The reasoning is that if something can't be perceived (with the physical senses on their own or enhanced with technology), it can't be measured, quantified, and duplicated in a laboratory.  If it can't be identified by science then it isn't real.

Science, of course, would be that area of human knowledge that changes all the time. New technology enables things to be perceived that couldn't be perceived before, and surprise! Science changes its tune about the nature of reality and we all pretend scientists aren't contradicting what they just said.

No scientist should say that anything is impossible or can't exist. In an infinite universe, by definition all things are possible and do exist. That's why even "laws" of nature are still referred to as theories. In spite of what some would have us believe, in fact humans don't know everything that can be known about reality.

Working with the impossible

Mages and artists, however, know that just because something doesn't yet exists doesn't mean it isn't possible. In fact, that very point may be the most significant difference between Magick and the rest of everyday human reality.

That is, just because you can't perceive something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  It just might be hidden from human perception.

Creation is the act of changing reality, that is, manifesting something new in the world. It isn't duplication of something that has existed before. Creation is an act shared with the gods, and it is something that every human could do but few will. That means that for all intents and purposes, to the non-creative world the new thing that has been made manifest came from a secret place, and how it came to be manifest in the real world is a secret as well.

For truly, if the Work of a Mage or artist (a Mage musician for example!) was perceived and examined minutely, was measured, quantified, and duplicated over and over - where it came from and how it came to be manifest in this reality would still remain a complete mystery.

That's because Magick and art are hidden in the most hidden place of all - the duality of the infinite Universe manifest in the human soul ("as above, so below"), and of course that means Magick will never be found unless the seeker suspends the need for outside verification of the inner truth.

"Who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong? In another 50 years, it’ll all be topsy-turvy anyway. It’s just the way people view a collective consciousness at any given time.”
- Jimmy Page, Guitar World 2006 

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Message to my readers:  Mage Music posts for the month of November will be briefer than usual and probably have no images. That's because I'm focusing on fiction writing for the month. I won't forsake you, but I am going to neglect you.

Devolution Device

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est: And thus knowledge itself is power 

~ Sir Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacrae (1597)

Mage Music 42

Back in Merlin's day Magick was still an accepted scientia, that is, a form of knowledge.  Today scientia is understood to be a discipline with exclusionary rules rather than of direct and personal knowledge. Magick has been reduced to the sleight of hand of Las Vegas, which is no Magick at all.

Magick is scientia in the original meaning of the term.  Knowledge of the true nature of Magick persists, though modern science can't explain it.  These days if a thing isn't science then science says the thing is fiction, and that makes the scientia of Magick harder than it has to be.  Of course, Magick never has been easy, truth be told - not even for a Merlin. After all, Magick taps into the foundational energy of the Universe, and if that isn't a challenge then what is?

Ironically, humans have an intuitive knowledge of how the Universe and its parts work because not only do humans live in this Universe - they are a microcosm of it. How could humans not understand Magick, then? We only have to look within.

Do Not Enter

Science has made fiction of Magick in self-defense, even though Magick is an extraordinary and yet natural process of human manipulation of energy that works perfectly well. Magick has an impact on reality that can be directly known, if not exactly duplicated, measured and quantified. So what does it matter if science can't explain it? 

It matters because what Sir Francis said is absolute truth: Knowledge itself is power. How could anyone have control over anyone else if everyone could have knowledge... and thus power?  Ideas like that give entities that are in positions of control (governments, religions, science and other institutions) the willies - it's bad enough to them that there are artists loose out there.   

We have no Merlin these days because people with true knowledge threaten the social, scientific and political status quo, and wielders of true scientia can't afford to be blatant about it.  There isn't an Inquisition any more, but history warns us that there are plenty of ways of dealing with Mages that are darned effective besides inflicting physical pain, as traditional as that has been.

Still, there's no stopping scientia.   Discretion may be the name of the game in these modern, so-called "enlightened" times, but there still is Magick and there still are Mages. Some of them just don't use the same tools of the trade as Merlin did.