What is magic: The answer

I tried to call this post 'The answer to magic, the Universe and everything', but it was too long.

We've all seen this question asked many times by people, and had many arguments with those who are experienced that had differing beliefs. Ultimately, I think there is no right or wrong explanation. Since everyone who does magic has a different experience, a different set of mental filters that process information and different world views, there will always be different definitions of what magic is. With this article, I hope to offer my explanation.

To understand what magic is, we must understand some things about the creation and its makeup. Everything is made up of energy. As scientists continue to find smaller and smaller subatomic particles, they find that these particles are in fact electrical charges that have a certain vibrational rate. This vibration is the energy of creation. Energy that vibrates at one frequency will have a different outcome than energy vibrating at a different frequency. This vibration is not random. It has a purpose, a direction if you will, and it is always moving toward that purpose. Einstein proved this with his calculation E=mc2, which shows the relationship between matter and energy.

But it is not just matter. Everything, words, thoughts, light (which is a particle that acts like a wave, and has unique characteristics in and of itself), and emotions are all energy operating at different vibrational frequencies. This electrical charge is what makes up everything.

As mentioned earlier this energy moves with a definite purpose, much like the circuits on an electronic device. This structure is imposed on her energy to produce specific effects, which could vary from the structure of an element to the structure of your cat, spouse and you.

In quantum physics, there is a variable called the observer effect. This effect states that once we observe something it changes what was observed from a discontinuous change into a non-quantum state. Basically we know its current state and that stops it from being in one of its other states. This is the basis of Schrodinger’s Cat. There is also a growing belief that the expectations and the world view of the observer have a direct effect on what is observed, especially when dealing with subatomic particles. In fact, some state that matter can not exist without awareness. This is very important to answering the question of ‘What is Magic’.

So, there is all this energy floating around, and it forms atoms, stars, produces new atoms, creates planets and ‘poof’, there is the universe, along with all the life in it. But, if we hold that energy does not solidify into a continual form until it is observed, then there must be a consciousness that directed this energy to take the shape it did. Now, this is the beginning of a great religious debate of ‘My god can beat the snot out of your god’. Within the context of this article, I am recanting religion and any and all gods. We aren’t to that point yet. For the moment we will say that a Universal Consciousness was the observer. As the universe continued to develop, it created points within itself that were focused into masses of energy in the form of various atoms. This became galaxies, systems, stars and planets. At each level, there is an ‘observer intelligence’. This may have been part of the Universal Consciousness, or it may have been a different level of awareness that developed for that specific point. Whichever, the action of the observer, knowing or unknowingly, directed the direction of the flow of energy to specific effects.

The process of creation continued, and eventually we have life. Plants, animals, cats (because they would throw a fit if I lumped them with animals in general) and people. All beings with the ability to be an observer. All with the ability to change their reality. Thus, we have magic. Now, you may say ‘Wait a minute. I can change my reality just by picking up my glass, which is on the left side of my keyboard, and moving it to the right side. This is a change in reality.’ To which I would reply ‘Exactly!’ Magic, in its broadest sense is any change in reality. By definition, that makes every action, conscious or unconscious, magic. This would also include every thought (which can change your idea of reality and thereby change reality itself, even if the change is just for you), emotion and word. As I sit here and type this sentence on the keyboard, the act of moving my fingers by my will is a magical act.

Not the definition you were looking for, is it? Don’t worry, there is more. We have some limits to what we can do. I can not will the words to appear in this document. I must invoke energies to do so. As I type, I am invoking the energies of my body to move properly, the energies of the food I have eaten to power the body, and so on. Most of this is processed unconsciously. But this energy is already set up for me to use in a specific way, just like the circuit boards in your computer are made in a certain way, the energies of the Earth move in patterns, weather conditions and volcanic activity are in patterns, and even the ages of the Earth are patterns. Now, if we truly know and understand the patterns in the energy, we can use it to change our reality to the maximum effect within those guidelines. This is the first real step towards magic that fits what everyone is looking for.

So, let’s say that I want to change something beyond what I can do with my pattern. What can I do? Well, I have to have someone else do it for me. I have to contact the observer intelligence (I will use the abbreviation OI in place of ‘observer intelligence’ for the rest of this work.) for whatever I am looking to change. By contacting this OI, it can make the change for me within its guidelines. Of course, the change I am trying to make must not be counterproductive to the goal of the OI. If that OI can not make the change, it can contact the OI above it, and so on. Now, we are another step closer to that idea of magic. I will look at the idea of how to contact the OI in future works.

So, at the moment we have an understanding that magic is causing a change in reality by means of observing with the proper intention to affect a change in reality. Now, is this a change in actual reality, or is it just perceived in the mind? For example, I was just sitting here thinking of typing ‘If I think I want my cat to come over here, and it does, does that make it a change in reality caused by my mind, or is it all just in my mind.’As I was thinking about typing those words into the computer, my cat who was nice and comfortably sunning himself in the window where the warm sunlight is shining in got up, ran over, stood on his back legs, pawed at my arm and demanded to be petted. He has since returned to his window. I guess the spell wore off. But, was that a change that I caused, or was it just a change in my mental state that occurred at that time? Does it matter? According to quantum theory, a change in my reality is a change none the less. It might not change someone else’s reality.

Now our explanation of magic at the moment is ‘to cause a change in reality, be it in the perceived reality or the actual reality, by observing with proper intention to affect the change.’ Going back to observing with proper intention, we are operating on the assumption that you help in creating your reality. When you change what you are observing for, things change in your reality. You notice, or ‘create’ new things. Actually, those things have been there all along. You just had not observed them and thereby coalesced them into reality. A simpler way of describing that would be ‘with using proper mental focus’. Let’s take a look at what happens when we use that proper mental focus.

We know that everything is energy, flowing and vibrating in the proper way. When we change the observation of what we do, we change the way the energy flows. What’s more, there are ways to make that change stronger. Most people go through their life with no idea of the resources that are available to them. The more we can change our own energy and make it vibrate with the effect that we wish to produce, the stronger that change in intention, and therefore observation and effect, will be. Basically, the stronger we make our focus, the more energy we put into our desired outcome. And, the more energy we put into our desired outcome, the stronger our focus becomes. We can also use the energy of other things and other systems that are harmonious with the change we want to make, to increase the amount of energy directed to our desired outcome. This increases our desired intention thereby, according to the observer effect, changes the state of what we are observing.

Now, our definition of magic is ‘to cause a change in reality, be it in the perceived reality or the actual reality, using proper mental focus and direction of energy.’ This provides us with a workable definition which we can now start to apply to training and exercising to become competent users of this elusive thing called magic.

LVX,

Shawn.

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I was not on the magic band wagon, but recent events are changing my mind. I, on the challenge of a friend, found a spell on the internet. It was down right silly sounding with lots of ryhming. It was ment to call a snow storm. I did the spell and the next day it snowed and kept snowing. Its actually still snowing (this has been going on for 3 days). I live in tennessee where if it snows a little its different so this is definitly odd. Ive always been able to feel (energy?) Of storms, like when they are gathering and such, and i definatly felt something when I did the spell. Can someone tell me if this is natural (to find a random spell and just be able to do it) or if I'm just making things up?

First off, I would like to apologize to everyone about all the question marks in the post. Most of those, namely the ones before and after a word or phrase, are supposed to be quotations. Apperantly the SoM godforms do not like quotes. Lol!

I think the question should be not did it work, but did you work it correctly? Did you do it with the mental focus, clarity and seriousness that a magical work requires? Did you empower it with energy, or make contact with those beings who control such things to cause the change? Were you trying to do something that is beyond you, be that in power, ability, authority or believability? Most of all I would ask were you doing it for the right purpose? Did you take into account how it may effect others as well? There's more to magic than just lighting a candle, saying some words and wanting something. Read my original post on this thread again. I think it will answer some of your questions.

LVX,

Shawn.

I think you hit the nail on the head, focus as well as energy manipulation through knowledge of quantum physics and its effects on our reality is the correct place to start . The post highlights the fact that everything comes from within us, we are the magick and we create our own reality, this is often over looked, but an important point - it is about taking accountability for our lives and our practice.

Thanks Shoshana! I'm glad you liked it.

I also think that accountability is much too often overlooked. Accountability for what you create, the thoughts you send out, the actions you take and the consequences that you gain. Everyone wants to play the blame game. What is sad is that when we give away our accountability we loose the ability to make changes to the result. If I am in an argument, and I feel it is your fault, then I have given away the ability to correct the fault. It's not mine, it's yours. However, if I accept the fault entirely, then I now own 100% of the fault, and can change 100% of it. It's amazing how many limiting beliefs we actually have in our lives.

LVX,

Shawn.

i believe that magic is vibrations will and energy thats why we can feel storms coming and how thunder storms can heighten your power while its there we feel at home in storms because of the energy and vibrations

I agree, and that is implied here but will be addressed fully in a later post. No spoilers! Lol!

LVX,

Shawn.

Once again Gags you impress me in all aspects. I agree that you hit the nail right on the head. I also love the point of how magick taps into the natural evolution and inner workings of nature and the world around us. So that we work with it and not aginst it and in so doing we come out with results. Results that can actually be believed and seen which is a big influence on all fronts. Magick can be explained by science and science can to an extent explain magick and in that I think many eyes are opened that were blinded before.

Wow, thank you, brother! Such high praise. I just think it is so simple. Magic doesn't have to be hard. If you just look at nature and creation, and take the time to understand how the mind works and process things, it all becomes easy. Then you have to be responsible for everything, and you change your reality. Thanks again for the comment. I'm glad that you found it interesting.

LVX,

Shawn.