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Magick: An Overview

© M. Williams

As dusk falls on the Canadian prairies, a child searches the darkening sky for the first star of the evening to wish upon. Thousands of miles away, in the Southern Hemisphere, a Voodoo priest consecrates an elaborate design drawn upon the ground in preparation for a ceremony to attract spirits. What do these seemingly unconnected individuals have in common? They are both practicing magick.

Magick is a difficult concept to define. Refusing to be confined within the tenants of any single belief system, it exists in many forms and encompasses many common practices ranging from simple superstition, through tradition, to highly organized ritual and self-analysis. And while many assume that magick is the sole dominion of witches and shamans, associating it with the casting of spells and conjuring of demons, magick can be viewed as a naturally-occurring phenomena that has its place in the course of our everyday lives. Indeed, we all occasionally rely on magick in one form or another. The businessman who wears a particular "power" shirt on the day of an important meeting is practicing magick, as is the ten-year-old child who makes a wish when blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. These small rituals are attempts to tap in to the positive forces active in the world around us--to influence the outcome of daily events by the manipulation of unseen energies.

Those who practice a more elaborate form of magick--the ceremonial magick of Voodoo or the ritual magick of Wicca, for example--are guided by the principle that everything in the universe is connected. The aim of the ritual magician is to become aware of that connection and to draw on the principle of cause and effect to achieve the desired results. This is known as high magick, and the often elaborate rituals associated with it are designed to aid concentration and kindle the necessary awareness in the participant.

The goal of high magick is the achievement of ultimate mastery over the oneself and one's environment, while low magick, such as that of the power shirt and the birthday wish, is a simpler method of addressing an immediate need. The latter aims to produce tangible results here and now, is more personal in nature and does not require the ceremony of high magick in order to be effectual.

From a historical perspective, the hunt for the roots of magick is inconclusive. Researchers can only guess at its origins, but they do concede its existence from early antiquity. Early cave paintings are thought to have been a form of sympathetic magick. Following the principle that like produces like, ancient cave dwellers sought to ensure a successful hunt or an abundance of food by depicting animals felled by spears and/or pregnant animals on the walls of their abodes.