Magic rests on a few basic certainties. Every magical technique works from the inside out, and magic has nothing to do with miracles.
Our ideas about magic come from fairy tales and folklore. You expect a magician to wave a magic wand and conjure up a million in gold.
One of the problems researchers and scholars come up against is the difficulty of defining magic.
For some, it is the art of bringing about change through the power of your own will.
Another definition says that magic is the science and art of causing change in consciousness in accordance with will.
It is a set of techniques dating back at least 70,000 years, aimed at manipulating the human imagination to obtain physical, psychological or spiritual results. (J. H. Brennan)
For a magician, mind and matter form a continuum. It doesn’t matter how a person practising magic arrives at this conclusion – what matters is that they do, because that is when they become a true magician. You may consider it false, and magic may work for other reasons, but a magician will not worry about that; they will simply get on with what they enjoy and what, over time, brings them results.
Magicians believe that astral energy and emotions are more or less the same thing. So if you kindle a feeling of desire within yourself, you kindle astral energy at the same time. It is desire that fuels your magical acts. (J. H. Brennan)
The most important thing in witchcraft and magic is believing that anything is possible. Without that belief, a person will never become a magician.
Today, the elements of magic are drawn from Kabbalah and from Egyptian, Celtic and Asian beliefs.
A magician who wants to achieve anything must spend weeks, months or even years meditating daily on the spheres of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Magic is not a power; it is merely a set of techniques used by people who believe in their power.
