A Word On Magickal Ritual

A difficulty in trying to understand traditional ritual is that it is framed within the world view of a time and culture. An example of this was the belief throughout medieval times that magic operated through the agency of an evil power.

There were other explanations, such as the "natural magic" of the cultured Renaissance mage, or going back to the late Roman Empire, the highly sophisticated theurgist model of the Platonist philosopher Iamblichus. Each culture has interpreted magical ritual according a deeper theory about how it works, and it happens that many modern magicians have modern "deep theories". These have been strongly influenced by an eclectic mixture of philosophy and psychology, and this is one such deep theory about how ritual works, and hence a basis for understanding what works well, and what doesn't work so well.

An outline of ceremonial magical ritual (in the basic form in which it has been handed down in Europe over the centuries) is that the magician works within a circle and uses consecrated tools and the magical names of various entities to evoke or invoke Powers. It seems to work. Or at least it works for some people some of the time.

How well does it work? That's a fair question, and not an easy one to answer, as there is often too much ego at stake in admitting that one's rituals don't always work out. Many rituals don't always work - sometimes nothing appears to happen, sometimes there are unexpected side effects. Even at the mundane level, if you've ever tried to recreate a "magical moment" in a relationship, you will know that it is hard to stand in the same river twice - there is an elusive and wandering spark which all too often just wanders.

In summary, some rituals appear to work better than others, and some others, even when that elusive spark is present, go sour and call up all the wrong things. Traditional models of angels, spirits, gods and goddesses, ancestral spirits and so on are useful up to a point, but these are not the end of the story, and in penetrating beyond these "intermediaries" the magician is forced to confront the nature of consciousness itself and become something of a mystic.

The idea that the physical universe is the end product of a "process of consciousness" is virtually a first principle of Eastern esoteric philosophy, it is at the root of the Kabbalistic doctrine of emanation and the sephiroth, and it has been adopted by many twentieth century magicians as a useful complement to whatever traditional model of magic they were weaned on.

Once one has accepted that it is possible to create "thought-forms" and "artificial elementals" and "totemic images", it is a small step to admit that the gods, goddesses, angels, and spirits of traditional magic may have no reality outside of the consciousness which creates and sustains them. There is a belief among some magicians that while gods, goddesses etc may be the creations of consciousness, on a par with money and the Bill of Rights, such things take on a life of their own and can be treated as if they were real.

The principle function of magical ritual is to cause well-defined changes in consciousness. There are other (non-magical) kinds of ritual and ceremony - social, superstitious, celebratory, religious - carried out for a variety of reasons, but magical ritual can be distinguished by its emphasis on causing shifts in consciousness to states not normally attainable, with a consequence of causing effects which would be considered impossible or improbable by most people in this day and age.

The realisation that the content of magical ritual is a means to an end, the end being the deliberate manipulation of consciousness, is an watershed in magical technique. Many people, particularly the non-practicing general public, believe there is something inherently magical about ritual, that it can be done, like cooking, from a recipe book; that prayers, names of powers, fancy candles, crystals, five-pointed stars and the like have an intrinsic power which works by itself, and it is only necessary to be initiated into all the details and hey presto! - you can do it.

Symbols do have power, but not in the crude sense implied above; magical power comes from the conjunction of a symbol and a person who can bring that symbol to life, by directing and limiting their consciousness through the symbol, in the manner of icing through an icing gun. Magical power comes from the person (or people), not from the superficial trappings of ritual. The key to ritual is the manipulation and shifting of consciousness, and without that shift it is empty posturing.