Thursday, February 10, 2011

My Start in Magic

Austin Osman Spare, a talented artist and a pioneer in magic



Magic is the use of a certain ritual action to bring about the intervention of a supernatural force, either in human affairs or in the natural environment, for a specific purpose. At least that's according to Geddes and Grosset's Dictionary of The Occult. Depending on the tradition and approach, magic (or magick as spelled by the Master Therion Aleister Crowley) have many definitions but hey whatever floats your boat. Magic has existed since ancient times. It varies in form from the primeval rites of the shamans to the elaborate ceremonies of high mages. However, this article is not about the general infortmation of magic. If you want to know more about magic, just Google or Wiki it. In the mean time, I'll tell you how I became a practitioner.



When I was a pre-adolescent lad, I've always been a paranormal geek. My main interests at that time were UFOs and psychism. The first thing that came to my mind when it comes to magic is cartoonish hags brewing weird concoctions in cauldrons.








In fact, I concluded that magic is for weirdos so I avoided it. Fast forward to college, I was studying in a Catholic university (I'll keep the name classified) and I still possessed huge interest in the paranormal. I checked out the school's library and to my surprise (remember, it was a Catholic school), I found a copy of Franz Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics. I read the book and I was surprised to find that most of the techniques in that Bardon book were ones I was already practicing at that time. A few hours of research later, I realized that there are different kinds of magical traditions and some of them don't call for bizarre eye of newt wing of bat recipes. In Bardon's Hermetics, most of the techniques are energy work. Ever since that time, I've become a weirdo uh I mean adept.





A magic triangle, a wand and a pocket-sized scrying mirror which I affectionately call a "scry-pod"


Years later, I've come across chaos magic but that's another story for another time.

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