What is magick? Forget all the stereotypical pre-conceptions and approach this question with an open mind. You will probably find it is not what you have been taught to think.
Magick has been defined as “The art and science of causing change to occur in conformity with will”; which could be put more simply as making desired change happen; a definition I use is “magick is conscious evolution through directing energy”. This does not really explain magick though.
An aim of magick is to train the mind by harnessing and making more consciously accessible such higher faculties as intuition, inspiration and the creative imagination, and by drawing on the power of the unconscious — to try and use more than the 10 per cent of our brain’s capacity that we do.
Magick assumes belief in, or rather experience of, subtle energies. We can only see about one seventieth of the light spectrum, yet what we cannot see still affects us — such as x-rays and ultraviolet light.
Similarly, magick is about focusing more subtle, non-physical energies, and directing them to create change. To go about this requires experience, and training to improve the power of the mind, and specifically, the will.
Acts such as meditation, breath control, voice work, body work, visualisation, drama, ritual, and others, are all designed to improve our body and mind, to better sharpen us and balance us, and to enable us to perceive and wield more subtle energies.
In the same way the more balanced a person is, the stronger their will (note, this is probably one of the main reasons why so many magicians have experience of counselling and/or psychology, recognising the help these processes can give, both through training and experiencing them.
This also acts as a removal of farcical social stigma often attached to these processes).
From Internet Book of Shadows
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