What is Magic?

This biography for spiritual New Age internet readers includes books from many diverse religious traditions, since the principles of New Ageism have always been present in mysticism no matter what its trappings.  Some of the best Christian spiritual writing is contained in the collected sermons of Meister Eckhart, a fourteenth century German priest and spiritual genius who was tried for heresy (naturally).  Another valuable Christian source which appeals to metaphysical New Age readers is St. John of the Cross, a sixteenth century Spanish priest who produced a large body of spiritual literature and poetry.  His principle works are Ascent of Mount Carmel and Dark Night of the Soul.  Also highly recommendable is The Way of a Pilgrim by an anonymous nineteenth century Russian peasant, who journeyed around Russia meeting very interesting people and practicing a form of meditation which has become quite popular even with practitioners of New Age spirituality.

Buddhism is very close in spirit to the New Age, sharing many occult beliefs such as reincarnation and enlightenment.  Chogyam Trunpa’s books are highly recommended for people who want an introduction to Buddhist thought, with Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism containing the best explanation of Buddhist principles for beginning explorers of the spiritual realm.  Trungpa’s Shambhala is one of the best books of spiritual awareness in the Buddhist tradition.  Another highly recommended writer is Jack Kornfield, all of whose writings are excellent but whose Path with Heart is perhaps the best explanation of enlightenment.  Also worthy of attention are New Age online celebrity Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, which not precisely Buddhist is strongly influenced by Buddhism and presents a good picture of what enlightenment really means. 

Paganism in the north is a recent phenomenon and therefore there aren’t yet many books on pagan beliefs for intelligent readers.  Although there are some anthropological studies of pagan religion in other cultures, there are very few exegeses of native paganism by sympathetic authors for people who want to learn witchcraft.  One exception are the books by Martin Prechtel, an American who lived among the Tzutuhil Maya of Guatemala for many years and became a practitioner of Mayan shamanism.  His book Secrets of the Talking Jaguar is a good explanation of Mayan shamanic training; and his book Long Life, Honey in the Heart explains Mayan paganism from the point of view of a devotee.   Modern examples of intelligent paganism are represented by the books by members of the Findhorn community in Scotland, who were among the first practitioners of channeling nature spirits and devas.  The Findhorn Garden book, written by the founders of this community, is the classic in this field.   

            The very best book for the spiritual astrology beginner (and also one of the least expensive) is Ronald Davison’s Astrology.   This book starts from scratch and presents the multiple ramifications of astrology in very simple language, using an ingenious system of keywords to identify important concepts and keep the reader from becoming mired in complexities.  When the reader is ready to assimilate more detail, The Astrological Aspects by Charles Carter is the best book on the subject of planetary relationship (learning what the planets mean in combination).  A good cookbook-style guide to interpreting you personal horoscope for more advanced students is Alan Leo’s Key to Your Own Nativity, which gives interpretations for all the little bits and pieces which make up a horoscope; and also what factors should be taken into account when considering horoscopes and astrology in various areas of life such as marriage astrology, profession, children, and so forth.  The problem for tyros is to not become bogged down in detail; and Marc Edmund Jones’ The Essentials of Astrological Analysis gives several techniques for getting a handle on the meaning of a horoscope (or if you will, a life) as a whole; i.e., cutting through the welter of detail to get down to the person’s basic motivations and drives.

The Progressed Horoscope, by Alan Leo, is the very best explanation of this area of predictive astrology for doing horoscope readings.  Noel Tyl’s series of books on how to interpret transits are among the best explanations of this type of predictive technique and are well worth studying.  For information on relationships astrology, the best book is Ronald Davison’s Synastry, which discusses astrology relationships and the techniques used in deciding compatibility from the horoscopes of the people involved.   For more advanced students of astrology and horoscope, the most important theoretical books on astrology ever written are the Astrologia Gallica series by Jean Baptiste Morin de Villefranche, which were produced in the seventeenth century and are still extremely valuable today.  The most important books in this series are Books 18 and 21, which together explain an approach to recognizing the most important elements in a given horoscope, and how to interpret them for an astrology profile.  For a survey of the entire gamut of astrological knowledge as it appeared in the last century (at least up until 1976) Geoffrey Dean’s Recent Advances in Natal Astrology covers the territory exhaustively, and with critical commentary intended to separate the wheat from the chaff.  For psychological astrology, you cannot do better than Bob Makransky’s Thought Forms, which is written with a spiritual New Age readership (not merely astrologers) in mind. 

There is probably more baloney written about real witchcraft than any other topic on earth.  Most books on the subjects of mysticism and magick, particularly those from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are mostly empty talk.  Many of the wiccan magick books you find on the New Age shelf at bookstores are lists of the trappings of magic without any of the core.  They list spells for this and spells for that, but give no information on how to make a magick spell work.  Fortunately, just in the past forty years, some very valuable books on magick have been published, largely from shamanic sources.  The alpha and omega of modern witchcraft theory and practice are the oeuvres of Carlos Castaneda.  Castaneda was a Peruvian anthropologist who, while working on his doctoral dissertation for UCLA in 1961, stumbled upon a Yaqui Indian magician named Don Juan Matus.  Don Juan took Carlos as his apprentice and introduced him to ancient Toltec magick which has far-reaching implications for the future of the human race.  This white witchcraft consists of training in an alternate form of cognition than that which we learn from our society, which is the first step in trying to learn witchcraft.           

Castaneda’s work has sparked a firestorm of controversy.  It has been thoroughly rejected by the academic community, which is not surprising considering the bigotry, intellectual persecution and rejection of real magick which characterize present-day academia.  However, Castaneda has also split the New Age community into pro- and anti- factions.  The things he says are so off-the-wall, and so alien to most people’s everyday experience of the world, that unless you yourself subscribe to white witchcraft and have had similar experiences (as I have had) it’s difficult to understand – much less accept – the premises of Castaneda’s teachings.   Moreover, there are internal inconsistencies in the books which critics point out in the effort to discredit him, even though Castaneda himself said that part of what is witchcraft is erasing one’s personal history and covering one’s tracks.   Also the fact that Castaneda was a womanizer is cited by his critics to deflect attention away from his message, although Castaneda himself certainly took no pains to hide that facet of his personality.           

Everyone has to decide for themselves what they will believe and take as truth.   Like many white witches, I pretty much take Castaneda at face value because everything in his books which I have been able to verify from my own experience has proven correct.  My own spiritual path came out of discoveries I made while tripping on psychedelic drugs and plants.  These experiences – together with my own personal discovery of witchcraft and spells - affected me profoundly and left me with lots of questions which I needed to resolve, and the only place I’ve found useful information on this subject is in Castaneda’s books.  Moreover, my one meeting with Castaneda in person did more than impress me.  It utterly floored me.  I know for a fact, from my own experience with him, that this man was, at the very least, a most powerful magician; whereas all I’ve seen amongst his detractors and critics are phonies and liars.  Wholly apart from the wicca magick, Castaneda’s books contain the most cogent analysis and critique of everyday life that I’ve ever seen.  Most of the information about the nature of the self, reality, time and space, and the body given in my writing originates in Castaneda.  The corpus of Castaneda’s works actually constitute a map – an indispensable map of magick for the spiritual traveler.  This map describes the way stations (in Castaneda’s nomenclature, positions of the assemblage point) along the spiritual path.  These are all places – or better said, peak moments in the life of anyone who wants to learn magick – when large parts of the lower self are shed and new facets of the higher self are revealed.  At these moments the seeker permanently reaches new levels of wisdom and power.  Some of these places, such as Stopping the World and Seeing the Human Mold, are well-known and are described elsewhere in spiritual literature under different names.  For example, Stopping the World is known elsewhere as samadhi, satori, or kensho.  However other places, such as the Place of No Pity, Losing the Human Form, and Silent Knowledge, are described nowhere else except in Castaneda’s books.  I can aver the existence of some of these places from my own personal experience; others I am still shooting for.  If you are going on a journey, it is helpful to have a clear map devised by those who have passed that way before.  Castaneda’s books are the best map I have found.  I trust the spiritual information they contain unreservedly.   You would do well to do the same.   My contacting spirit guides  use Castaneda’s system as the basis for the training they have given me.  They employ his concepts and nomenclature, but with their own slant on the subject and their own techniques.  Castaneda’s training depended heavily upon the nagual teacher Don Juan’s presence.  What my spirits are trying to do is to present a heuristic system which will enable people to work on their own, under the direction of spirit guides and nature spirits rather than a nagual teacher.   Somebody, somewhere, some time, somehow has to stand up for the truth, no matter how unfashionable that is or how unpopular it makes the person.  Castaneda was smeared and vilified for the precise same reason that Freud was smeared and vilified:  what he says cuts too close to the truth.   Freud and Castaneda pointed out certain vistas that society doesn’t want you to see.  They realized certain facts which society doesn’t want you to realize.  If the human race is to survive, it had better get to work fast on finding some new intent, because the intent it’s following now is the intent of self-destruction.  What Castaneda has brought us is the most important new information which our civilization has received in the past several millennia.  It will take the human race several centuries more to reconstruct the edifice of white magick which Don Juan described to Castaneda.  It’s about time we stopped the endless, mindless babbling and posturing, and rolled up our sleeves and got to work; and Castaneda is the obvious place to begin.             

If you’re only going to read one of the Castaneda books, or if you just want to dabble in learning witchcraft, I suggest reading the third book of the 10 book series, Journey to Ixtlan.  This book presents the most important concepts for the general spiritual seeker.   Otherwise, if you are serious about becoming a magician, you should read all the books in order, starting from The Teachings of Don Juan through The Active Side of Infinity.            Additionally, Castaneda left behind an organization devoted to promulgating one aspect of Don Juan’s teachings which he calls Tensegrity.  This is a set of physical exercises used to conserve and enhance one’s personal energy.  I would describe them as similar to Tai Chi but more intense and angular.   He wrote a book on this subject, Magical Passes, and sponsored some videos which illustrate how these exercises should be carried out. 

The only other how-to books on white magick which I would recommend are those of Franz Bardon, particularly his first book Initiation into Hermetics, which is available as a New Age download from the Magical Almanac ezine files.   This book is very much in the occidental tradition of magic and is more what the reader might expect of a book on magic – wands and pentacles and magic robes and circles and incantations and past life regressions and so forth.  However, unlike most such books this one imparts a good grasp of the core concepts of magic – namely self-analysis and self-hypnosis.  I would say that Bardon’s books are better for dreamers and my books are better for stalkers.  Magic is such a personal issue, however, that it’s good to read different takes on the subject to create a praxis of one’s own. 

The recent guerrilla war in Guatemala, combined with the very depressed Guatemalan economy due to the collapse of the international coffee market, has driven hundreds of thousands of Mayan Indian refugees to the United States.   There they are often ruthlessly exploited and held in conditions of near-slavery by agribusinesses.   Even where they can obtain fair employment they live in constant fear of denunciation and deportation, especially since the recent immigration law enacted by the present administration.   However it is now possible for illegal immigrants to ask a legal question online.  People who heretofore had nowhere to turn can now consult with an internet lawyer from any library or public internet facility.
There are now websites that enable even the poor to consult with an online immigration lawyer no matter where they live or work.  This promises to bring great benefit to people who heretofore were helpless and apprehensive about revealing their plight to persons in authority.  The anonymity of the internet serves as a protection for people who, because of their history of oppression by the system, have become suspicious of authority in any form.   People who need help can receive an answer to an email legal question  or obtain other online legal services without identifying themselves personally.   This enables those who have been persecuted and victimized to seek aid without fear of reprisal or deportation.  Necessary legal forms are also available online for those who need them.
Unlike the closed-door policy and repression which characterizes present-day governmental policy, online immigration law fulfills the dream of freedom for all which brings helpless refugees to America’s shores.

Setting up a blueberry processing plant represents a major outlay of capital which can be quite difficult for small producers to finance.  One solution is to purchase used processing equipment rather than by purchasing such equipment new whenever this is possible.   For example, used packaging machinery can be obtained for a mere fraction of the price of such machinery purchased first-hand.   A refrigeration unit, a grading belt, a weighing machine, and a used coder machine are other examples of required equipment which a wise producer will consider purchasing second-hand rather than new.  Besides obtaining the benefits of lower initial costs, second-hand equipment is proven and doesn’t require a breaking-in period, with the bugs and engineering headaches and which new machinery often brings.
Strict quality control is a problem faced by all blueberry producers.     For example, an x-ray metal detector to scan outgoing boxes of fruit for metallic trash can be obtained much more cheaply used than new.  Similarly, it is much more economical to obtain used laboratory equipment for quality control than to invest substantial sums to equip a laboratory new, or to rely upon outside consultants.
It is necessary for commercial blueberry growers to have some market for broken and underripe fruit.   If sufficient manpower and time are available, the grower can more profitably process this fruit himself.  For example, a gas kettle is necessary for producing jellies and juices.  A pressure canner and sealing machine can also be purchased much more cheaply second-hand.
The problem with buying used equipment, of course, is to ensure that the machinery is in good repair and that the supplier is responsible and will stand behind the equipment he sells.   It is recommended that the grower avail himself of a reputable company, such as the Frain Group, before investing in used machinery.

Huna, meaning “secret”, is the word coined by Max Freedom Long to describe the ancient tradition of Hawaiian shamanism which he obtained from the Kahunas, or keepers of the secret.  Vacation rentals in Hawaii can be wonderful opportunities to learn some of the techniques of huna in the very place that they originated.  Huna is a set of shamanic practices based upon viewing humans as consisting of three akas, or bodies – a lower, middle, and higher self – which are energized by mana, or vital force.  The purpose of huna practice is to integrate the three selves to make them work harmoniously together.  This is accomplished largely through visualization.
For example, mana, or life force, is symbolized in huna by water.  Thus when kahunas wished to accumulate vital energy they visualized mana rising like water rises in a fountain, higher and higher, until it overflowed.  Thus when people take Hawaii vacations it is best to obtain Hawaii beach accommodations where it is easy to visualize the water (mana) or vital energy.   Tenants of Hawaii beachfront cottages can stand on tiptoes facing the ocean with feet close together, and rake the air with widespread fingers reaching as high as possible.  The raking movement should form a circle bringing the mana energy into the body, while visualizing life force being gathered and stored in the body.
Once sufficient mana has been gathered and the three vital bodies joined, this energy is used to animate prayers (visualizations) for whatever is desired.  First amends should be made for hurts done to other people.  Then one visualizes oneself in the midst of whatever new conditions one is praying for.  This is best done standing before one’s Hawaii beach rental facing the ocean (symbolizing the infinite source of mana).  The kahunas voiced their prayer three times while visualizing it mentally, and imagined sending mana to “water” their prayer.   A Hawaii rental house can thus become a temple dedicated to the practice of huna; and Hawaii vacation rentals can become pilgrimages for spiritual renewal and enlightenment.

Sarah Winchester – the heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune – felt such remorse for all the victims of gun violence that she embarked on a never-ending remodeling of her California mansion – adding room after room after room until her death.   This is an extreme, but one’s home is a symbol for one’s body, one’s place in the world, and by remodeling our homes we can feel like we are renewing and revitalizing our lives.  Thus home improvement can be symbolic of spiritual improvement - of leaving the old behind and beginning anew.
For example, room additions make us feel like we are expanding, moving forward in life, growing emotionally and spiritually.  They can make us feel freer to express our inner vision and needs.  Similarly, because (as Freud pointed out) the bathroom is the place where we perform functions for which we feel shame, bathroom remodels can symbolize a release from the toxic shame which has held us back from expressing our true feelings.
The kitchen is the place of work – it is the no-nonsense room in our house – so kitchen remodeling symbolizes bringing a new, creative impulse into our working lives and reality.   Kitchen renovations can make us feel as though our daily work is more purposeful and meaningful.
Similarly, windows are our eyes on life; thus window replacement symbolizes looking out at life with a fresh perspective or point of view – releasing our obsessions and looking our lives in a new way.   It is important that we make these sorts of symbolic gestures – irrevocable acts of renovation which symbolize breaking with our past and beginning anew – in order to pull ourselves out of our psychological ruts and the mired-down feeling of drudgery.   Remodeling our homes can make us feel that we are remodeling our reality – giving ourselves a new lease on life, with fresh hope for the future.

Many of us New Agers are trying to find ways of bringing the Law of Abundance into reality in our lives.  The problem is that we tend to be troglodytes when it comes to using the latest technologies – as if the Law of Abundance works without a bit of flexibility and willingness to adapt to business realities on our parts.   One cannot be successful without being realistic and keeping up with modern technology.  For example, point of sale displays should be enticing to prospective customers of such items as aromatherapy fragrances, music CD’s, Tarot decks, crystals, flower remedies, pentacles, and magickal tools such as wands, amulets, and chalices.  Studies by major business schools have shown that prospective customers linger at attractive pos displays, which can increase sales by up to 50% in many cases above those of standard checkouts.
Complete point of sale systems include handsome display racks with a variety of different products; and also the modern equipment such as a barcode reader, credit card reader, and cash register systems which make your company appear businesslike instead of New Age flakey.  Orderliness and professionalism give customers a sense of comfort, and lead them to trust in your acumen.
Successful New Age businesses also expand their customer base by enabling prospective customers to buy point of sale online.  The internet is a tool that takes a local business national or international.   Really, if your business isn’t marketing online, then you are thinking small, thoughts – not visions of Abundance.
The Law of Abundance isn’t a matter of keeping your fingers crossed and wishing for the best; it’s a matter of taking charge, using what tools are available, and exuding an air of competence and assurance.   Modern pos systems are a sine qua non for making the Law of Abundance a reality.

When you were little, did you ever pretend you were acting in a movie?  Well, you are.   That’s what the theory of reincarnation tells us.  Because our viewpoint is necessarily couched in linear time it is inconceivable to us that everyone we have met in our lives – even strangers passing on the street who we don’t even nod to – get together on some level and agree to people each other’s lives.   It’s very much like actors in a movie getting together, rehearsing, having a performance, and disbanding at the end.   In our different lifetimes we star in different movies:  sometimes we’re in action movies; sometimes we’re in romances; sometimes we’re in comedy movies; and sometimes we’re in tragedies.
That is to say, sometimes it is just people’s life purpose to suffer unspeakable pain, or boredom and “meaninglessness”.   When we run past life regressions we see that most of our own lives have been like that.  We can call our karmic debt a type of pay per view – the lessons we have to learn are the cost we bear of reincarnating.   It is only when we have burnt out our karma, exhausted the striving which turns the wheel of reincarnation , that we obtain new movie release – that is to say, release from the revolving wheel of life, death, and rebirth.
Past life regressions can be considered movie trailers – glimpses of our karma in other lifetimes and realities.  Running past life regressions are like free movie downloads in which we can obtain an overview of our karma in all our lifetimes without having to actually pay (suffer).  We only burn to DVD – i.e. make a permanent impression in the Akashic Records – when are suffering.  When striving ends, so too does suffering; and when suffering ends, the revolving wheel of reincarnation comes to a halt.

The practice of magic requires going out to nature – particularly to tree spirits – every single day for at least half an hour.  This is the easiest way to release the obsessive fixation of everyday life and get back to experiencing the “suchness” or “thusness” of the world which we knew as infants.   However, many of us work in offices most of the day.  How can we feel ease while imprisoned in a little cubicle for 8 hours at a stretch?  The answer is through ergonomic seating and chairs and other office furniture designed specifically to help us relax and tune out stress.
As Aldo Leopold put it in A Sand County Almanac, “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.”  It is comforting and soothing to be surrounded by plants growing in pots, which are as important a part of contemporary office furniture as computer desks.   A pot of flowers on our desk; a trailing vine grown in a pot hanging from the cubicle wall; a bonsai grown on a stand; can help us to feel the presence of nature even in a cubicle.  When we need a moment’s rest and peace, the sight of these wild things reminds us of our connection to a higher reality – that we are part of a natural process.
It’s also important that our corner computer desk, wherein we spend so much of our lives, is comforting rather than stressful.  This is why leather office chairs are so much more conducive to contemplation and relaxation than the plastic-and-steel variety.
When we work at home we have more options in selecting home office furniture which will be conducive to relaxation and ease.  Home office desks and chairs can be selected for comfort rather than looks; and of course we can plant a veritable garden under fluorescent lights in a corner of our home office.
It is important in the practice of magic that we don not permit our daily lives to become a grind – that we find ways to maintain a light, positive mindset and mood no matter what it is that we are doing.  Wise selection of office furniture is one thing we can do to practice magic even in the most unmagical circumstances.