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.

Secrets

"I prefer to be weighed up purely by the communicative aspect of the music.”
    ~Jimmy Page, 2010 interview by Tony Barrell, The Sunday Times

Mage Music 39

Mages have a reputation for being secretive and private.  Is this a behavior that is put on like black robes and a pointy hat, is it a requirement for becoming a Mage, or is it something that Magick does to a person?

Over the years of interviews, Jimmy Page has directed people to his music when they ask personal questions.  It is clear that what he feels anyone needs to know about him is to be found there, in his work. This has garnered Mr. Page a reputation for being a private, reclusive, even evasive person, implying somehow that this is a behavior he has purposefully adopted.

Perhaps, instead, the secretiveness of the Mage is not so much a matter of choice as of necessity.

Some things are not meant for words
Generally, for any artist the method of creation chosen is the only way of relieving the pressure of the Muse.  If what needs to be expressed could be expressed in any other way, it would be. The medium is the message (Marshall McLuhan), or at least an integral part of it. Thus the art created is all the communication there needs to be - or perhaps even can be - because what you see (or hear or experience) is everything that the artist has to say in the exact way it can be most perfectly (or even possibly) said.

Hide or seek
Not only is the medium the message:  The messenger is also the message.  What is being said is an exposure.  It may be called music, fiction, dance, or art, but all art is a baring of emotional guts and raw nerve endings, of desire and need, of the innermost person that would otherwise never be made public.

Magick is a creative process.  It is an art that mirrors a Mage's soul.  In manifesting the Mage's inner reality as change in the Mage's outer reality, a bit of  the Mage's soul is brought forth along with it, visible and apparent for anyone who cares to see it.

Why would anyone wish to explain something vital and crucial with less than optimal use of communication? Why would anyone have anything more to say with words after Magick has been put forth containing as true and complete and perfect a communication as can be created by a mortal human being?

Magick is not about secrecy, it is about understanding.  Let the music be your master and you will know all there is to know about the Mage, for if you can perceive the Magick you have perceived the Mage.