7. VII
CEREMONIAL MAGIC IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
THE word "magic," if one may be permitted to say
so, is itself almost magical—magical in its power to
conjure up visions in the human mind. For some
these are of bloody rites, pacts with the powers of
darkness, and the lascivious orgies of the Saturnalia
or Witches' Sabbath; in other minds it has pleasanter
associations, serving to transport them from the
world of fact to the fairyland of fancy, where the
purse of FORTUNATUS, the lamp and ring of ALADDIN,
fairies, gnomes, jinn, and innumerable other strange
beings flit across the scene in a marvellous kaleidoscope
of ever-changing wonders. To the study of
the magical beliefs of the past cannot be denied the
interest and fascination which the marvellous and
wonderful ever has for so many minds, many of
whom, perhaps, cannot resist the temptation of
thinking that there may be some element of truth in
these wonderful stories. But the study has a greater
claim to our attention; for, as I have intimated
already, magic represents a phase in the development
of human thought, and the magic of the past
was the womb from which sprang the science of the
present, unlike its parent though it be.
What then is magic? According to the dictionary
definition—and this will serve us for the present—it
is the (pretended) art of producing marvellous results
by the aid of spiritual beings or arcane spiritual forces.
Magic, therefore, is the practical complement of
animism. Wherever man has really believed in the
existence of a spiritual world, there do we find
attempts to enter into communication with that
world's inhabitants and to utilise its forces. Professor
LEUBA[81] and others distinguish between propitiative
behaviour towards the beings of the spiritual
world, as marking the religious attitude, and coercive
behaviour towards these beings as characteristic of
the magical attitude; but one form of behaviour
merges by insensible degrees into the other, and the
distinction (though a useful one) may, for our present
purpose, be neglected.
Animism, "the Conception of Spirit everywhere "
as Mr EDWARD CLODD[82] neatly calls it, and perhaps
man's earliest view of natural phenomena, persisted
in a modified form, as I have pointed out in "Some
Characteristics of Mediæval Thought," throughout
the Middle Ages. A belief in magic persisted likewise.
In the writings of the Greek philosophers of
the Neo-Platonic school, in that curious body of
esoteric Jewish lore known as the Kabala, and in the
works of later occult philosophers such as AGRIPPA
and PARACELSUS, we find magic, or rather the theory
upon which magic as an art was based, presented in
its most philosophical form. If there is anything
of value for modern thought in the theory of magic,
here is it to be found; and it is, I think, indeed to be
found, absurd and fantastic though the practices
based upon this philosophy, or which this philosophy
was thought to substantiate, most certainly are. I
shall here endeavour to give a sketch of certain of
the outstanding doctrines of magical philosophy,
some details concerning the art of magic, more especially
as practiced in the Middle Ages in Europe,
and, finally, an attempt to extract from the former
what I consider to be of real worth. We have already
wandered down many of the byways of magical belief,
and, indeed, the word "magic" may be made to
cover almost every superstition of the past: To
what we have already gained on previous excursions
the present, I hope, will add what we need in order
to take a synthetic view of the whole subject.
In the first place, something must be said concerning
what is called the Doctrine of Emanations, a theory
of prime importance in Neo-Platonic and Kabalistic
ontology. According to this theory, everything in
the universe owes its existence and virtue to an emanation
from God, which divine emanation is supposed
to descend, step by step (so to speak), through the
hierarchies of angels and the stars, down to the things
of earth, that which is nearer to the Source containing
more of the divine nature than that which is
relatively distant. As CORNELIUS AGRIPPA expresses
it: "For God, in the first place is the end and
beginning of all Virtues; he gives the seal of the
Ideas to his servants, the Intelligences; who as
faithful officers, sign all things intrusted to them
with an Ideal Virtue; the Heavens and Stars, as
instruments, disposing the matter in the mean while
for the receiving of those forms which reside in
Divine Majesty (as saith Plato in Timeus) and to
be conveyed by Stars; and the Giver of Forms
distributes them by the ministry of his Intelligences,
which he hath set as Rulers and Controllers over his
Works, to whom such a power is intrusted to things
committed to them that so all Virtues of Stones,
Herbs, Metals, and all other things may come from
the Intelligences, the Governors. The Form, therefore,
and Virtue of things comes first from the
Ideas,
then from the ruling and governing Intelligences,
then from the aspects of the Heavens disposing, and
lastly from the tempers of the Elements disposed,
answering the influences of the Heavens, by which
the Elements themselves are ordered, or disposed.
These kinds of operations, therefore, are performed
in these inferior things by express forms, and in the
Heavens by disposing virtues, in Intelligences by
mediating rules, in the Original Cause by
Ideas and
exemplary forms, all which must of necessity agree
in the execution of the effect and virtue of every
thing.
"There is, therefore, a wonderful virtue and operation
in every Herb and Stone, but greater in a Star,
beyond which, even from the governing Intelligences
everything receiveth and obtains many things for
itself, especially from the Supreme Cause, with whom
all things do mutually and exactly correspond, agreeing
in an harmonious consent, as it were in hymns
always praising the highest Maker of all things....
There is, therefore, no other cause of the necessity
of effects than the connection of all things with the
First Cause, and their correspondency with those
Divine patterns and eternal
Ideas whence every thing
hath its determinate and particular place in the
exemplary world, from whence it lives and receives
its original being: And every virtue of herbs, stones,
metals, animals, words and speeches, and all things
that are of God, is placed there."
[83] As compared
with the
ex nihilo creationism of orthodox theology,
this theory is as light is to darkness. Of course,
there is much in CORNELIUS AGRIPPA'S statement of
it which is inacceptable to modern thought; but
these are matters of form merely, and do not affect
the doctrine fundamentally. For instance, as a
nexus between spirit and matter AGRIPPA places the
stars: modern thought prefers the ether. The
theory of emanations may be, and was, as a matter
of fact, made the justification of superstitious practices
of the grossest absurdity, but on the other
hand it may be made the basis of a lofty system of
transcendental philosophy, as, for instance, that of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, whose ontology resembles
in some respects that of the Neo-Platonists. AGRIPPA
uses the theory to explain all the marvels which his
age accredited, marvels which we know had for the
most part no existence outside of man's imagination.
I suggest, on the contrary, that the theory is really
needed to explain the commonplace, since, in the
last analysis, every bit of experience, every pheno-
menon, be it ever so ordinary—indeed the very fact
of experience itself,—is most truly marvellous and
magical, explicable only in terms of spirit. As
ÉLIPHAS LÉVI well says in one of his flashes of insight:
"The supernatural is only the natural in an
extraordinary grade, or it is the exalted natural; a
miracle is a phenomenon which strikes the multitude
because it is unexpected; the astonishing is
that which astonishes; miracles are effects which
surprise those who are ignorant of their causes, or
assign them causes which are not in proportion to
such effects."
[84] But I am anticipating the sequel.
The doctrine of emanations makes the universe
one vast harmonious whole, between whose various
parts there is an exact analogy, correspondence, or
sympathetic relation. "Nature (the productive principle),
says IAMBLICHOS (3rd-4th century), the
Neo-Platonist, "in her peculiar way, makes a likeness
of invisible principles through symbols in
visible forms."[85] The belief that seemingly similar
things sympathetically affect one another, and that a
similar relation holds good between different things
which have been intimately connected with one
another as parts within a whole, is a very ancient
one. Most primitive peoples are very careful to
destroy all their nail-cuttings and hair-clippings,
since they believe that a witch gaining possession
of these might work them harm. For a similar
reason they refuse to reveal their real names,
which
they regard as part of themselves, and adopt nicknames
for common use. The belief that a witch
can torment an enemy by making an image of his
person in clay or wax, correctly naming it, and
mutilating it with pins, or, in the case of a waxen
image, melting it by fire, is a very ancient one, and
was held throughout and beyond the Middle Ages.
The Sympathetic Powder of Sir KENELM DIGBY we
have already noticed, as well as other instances of
the belief in "sympathy," and examples of similar
superstitions might be multiplied almost indefinitely.
Such are generally grouped under the term "sympathetic
magic"; but inasmuch as all magical practices
assume that by acting on part of a thing, or a symbolic
representation of it, one acts magically on the whole,
or on the thing symbolised, the expression may in
its broadest sense be said to involve the whole of
magic.
The names of the Divine Being, angels and devils,
the planets of the solar system (including sun and
moon) and the days of the week, birds and beasts,
colours, herbs, and precious stones—all, according
to old-time occult philosophy, are connected by the
sympathetic relation believed to run through all
creation, the knowledge of which was essential to
the magician; as well, also, the chief portions of the
human body, for man, as we have seen, was believed
to be a microcosm—a universe in miniature. I have
dealt with this matter and exhibited some of the supposed
correspondences in "The Belief in Talismans".
Some further particulars are shown in the annexed
table, for which I am mainly indebted to AGRIPPA.
But, as in the case of the zodiacal gems already dealt
with, the old authorities by no means agree as to the
majority of the planetary correspondences.
The names of the angels are from Mr Mather's translation of
Clavicula
Salomonis; the other correspondences are from the second book of
Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, chap. x.
In many cases these supposed correspondences are
based, as will be obvious to the reader, upon purely
trivial resemblances, and, in any case, whatever may
be said—and I think a great deal may be said—in
favour of the theory of symbology, there is little that
may be adduced to support the old occultists' application
of it.
So essential a part does the use of symbols play in
all magical operations that we may, I think, modify
the definition of "magic" adopted at the outset, and
define "magic" as "an attempt to employ the
powers of the spiritual world for the production of
marvellous results, by the aid of symbols." It
has,
on the other hand, been questioned whether the
appeal to the spirit-world is an essential element in
magic. But a close examination of magical practices
always reveals at the root a belief in spiritual powers
as the operating causes. The belief in talismans at
first sight seems to have little to do with that in a
supernatural realm; but, as we have seen, the talisman
was always a silent invocation of the powers of
some spiritual being with which it was symbolically
connected, and whose sign was engraved thereon.
And, as Dr T. WITTON DAVIES well remarks with
regard to "sympathetic magic": "Even this
could not, at the start, be anything other than
a symbolic prayer to the spirit or spirits having
authority in these matters. In so far as no spirit
is thought of, it is a mere survival, and not magic
at all...."
[86]
What I regard as the two essentials of magical
practices, namely, the use of symbols and the appeal
to the supernatural realm, are most obvious in what
is called "ceremonial magic". Mediæval ceremonial
magic was subdivided into three chief
branches—White Magic, Black Magic, and Necromancy.
White magic was concerned with the evocations
of angels, spiritual beings supposed to be essentially
superior to mankind, concerning which I shall
give some further details later—and the spirits of
the elements,—which were, as I have mentioned in
"Some Characteristics of Mediæval Thought,"
personifications of the primeval forces of Nature. As
there were supposed to be four elements, fire, air,
water, and earth, so there were supposed to be four
classes of elementals or spirits of the elements, namely,
Salamanders, Sylphs, Undines, and Gnomes, inhabiting
these elements respectively, and deriving their
characters therefrom. Concerning these curious
beings, the inquisitive reader may gain some information
from a quaint little book, by the Abbé de
MONTFAUCON DE VILLARS, entitled
The Count of
Gabalis, or Conferences about Secret Sciences (1670),
translated into English and published in 1680, which
has recently been reprinted. The elementals, we
learn therefrom, were, unlike other supernatural
beings, thought to be mortal. They could, however,
be rendered immortal by means of sexual
intercourse with men or women, as the case might
be; and it was, we are told, to the noble end of
endowing them with this great gift, that the sages
devoted themselves.
Goëty, or black magic, was concerned with the
evocation of demons and devils—spirits supposed
to be superior to man in certain powers, but utterly
depraved. Sorcery may be distinguished from
witchcraft, inasmuch as the sorcerer attempted to
command evil spirits by the aid of charms, etc.,
whereas the witch or wizard was supposed to have
made a pact with the Evil One; though both terms
have been rather loosely used, "sorcery" being
sometimes employed as a synonym for "necromancy".
Necromancy was concerned with the
evocation of the spirits of the dead: etymologically,
the term stands for the art of foretelling events by
means of such evocations, though it is frequently
employed in the wider sense.
It would be unnecessary and tedious to give any
detailed account of the methods employed in these
magical arts beyond some general remarks. Mr
A. E. WAITE gives full particulars of the various
rituals in his
Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911), to
which the curious reader may be referred. The
following will, in brief terms, convey a general idea
of a magical evocation:—
Choosing a time when there is a favourable conjunction
of the planets, the magician, armed with
the implements of magical art, after much prayer
and fasting, betakes himself to a suitable spot, alone,
or perhaps accompanied by two trusty companions.
All the articles he intends to employ, the vestments,
the magic sword and lamp, the talismans, the book
of spirits, etc., have been specially prepared and
consecrated. If he is about to invoke a martial
spirit, the magician's vestment will be of a red colour,
the talismans in virtue of which he may have power
over the spirit will be of iron, the day chosen a Tuesday,
and the incense and perfumes employed of a
nature analogous to Mars. In a similar manner all
the articles employed and the rites performed must
in some way be symbolical of the spirit with which
converse is desired. Having arrived at the spot, the
magician first of all traces the magic circle within
which, we are told, no evil spirit can enter; he then
commences the magic rite, involving various prayers
and conjurations, a medley of meaningless words,
and, in the case of the black art, a sacrifice. The
spirit summoned then appears (at least, so we are
told), and, after granting the magician's request, is
licensed to depart—a matter, we are admonished, of
great importance.
The question naturally arises, What were the
results obtained by these magical arts? How far,
if at all, was the magician rewarded by the attainment
of his desires? We have asked a similar question
regarding the belief in talismans, and the reply which
we there gained undoubtedly applies in the present
case as well. Modern psychical research, as I have
already pointed out, is supplying us with further
evidence for the survival of human personality after
bodily death than the innate conviction humanity in
general seems to have in this belief, and the many
reasons which idealistic philosophy advances in
favour of it. The question of the reality of the
phenomenon of "materialisation," that is, the bodily
appearance of a discarnate spirit, such as is vouched
for by spiritists, and which is what, it appears,
was aimed at in necromancy (though why the discarnate
should be better informed as to the future
than the incarnate, I cannot suppose), must be regarded
as
sub judice.
[87] Many cases of fraud in connection
with the alleged production of this phenomenon
have been detected in recent times; but,
inasmuch as the last word has not yet been said on
the subject, we must allow the possibility that necromancy
in the past may have been sometimes successful.
But as to the existence of the angels and devils
of magical belief—as well, one might add, of those
of orthodox faith,—nothing can be adduced in evidence
of this either from the results of psychical
research or on
a priori grounds.
Pseudo-DIONYSIUS classified the angels into three
hierarchies, each subdivided into three orders,
as under:—
- First Hierarchy.—Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones;
- Second Hierarchy.—Dominions, Powers, and Authorities (or Virtues);
- Third Hierarchy.—Principalities, Archangels, and Angels,—
and this classification was adopted by AGRIPPA and
others. Pseudo-DIONYSIUS explains the names of
these orders as follows: " . . . the holy designation
of the Seraphim denotes either that they are kindling
or burning; and that of the Cherubim, a fulness of
knowledge or stream of wisdom.... The appellation
of the most exalted and pre-eminent Thrones
denotes their manifest exaltation above every grovelling
inferiority, and their super-mundane tendency
towards higher things; . . . and their invariable and
firmly-fixed settlement around the veritable Highest,
with the whole force of their powers.... The
explanatory name of the Holy Lordships [Dominions]
denotes a certain unslavish elevation . . . superior
to every kind of cringing slavery, indomitable to
every subserviency, and elevated above every dissimularity,
ever aspiring to the true Lordship and
source of Lordship.... The appellation of the
Holy Powers denotes a certain courageous and unflinching
virility . . . vigorously conducted to the
Divine imitation, not forsaking the Godlike movement
through its own unmanliness, but unflinchingly
looking to the super-essential and powerful-making
power, and becoming a powerlike image of this, as
far as is attainable.... The appellation of the
Holy Authorities . . . denotes the beautiful and unconfused
good order, with regard to Divine receptions,
and the discipline of the super-mundane and intellectual
authority . . . conducted indomitably, with
good order towards Divine things.... [And the
appellation] of the Heavenly Principalities manifests
their princely and leading function, after the Divine
example...."
[88] There is a certain grandeur in
these views, and if we may be permitted to understand
by the orders of the hierarchy, "discrete "
degrees (to use SWEDENBORG'S term) of spiritual
reality—stages in spiritual involution,—we may
see in them a certain truth as well. As I said, all
virtue, power, and knowledge which man has from
God was believed to descend to him by way of these
angelical hierarchies, step by step; and thus it was
thought that those of the lowest hierarchy alone were
sent from heaven to man. It was such beings that
white magic pretended to evoke. But the practical
occultists, when they did not make them altogether
fatuous, attributed to these angels characters not
distinguishable from those of the devils. The
description of the angels in the
Heptemeron, or
Magical Elements,
[89] falsely attributed to PETER DE
ABANO (1250-1316), may be taken as fairly characteristic.
Of MICHAEL and the other spirits of Sunday
he writes: "Their nature is to procure Gold,
Gemmes, Carbuncles, Riches; to cause one to
obtain favour and benevolence; to dissolve the
enmities of men; to raise men to honors; to carry
or take away infirmities." Of GABRIEL and the
other spirits of Monday, he says: "Their nature is
to give silver; to convey things from place to place;
to make horses swift, and to disclose the secrets of
persons both present and future." Of SAMAEL and
the other spirits of Tuesday he says: "Their nature
is to cause wars, mortality, death and combustions;
and to give two thousand Souldiers at a time; to
bring death, infirmities or health," and so on for
RAPHAEL, SACHIEL, ANAEL, CASSIEL, and their
colleagues.
[90]
Concerning the evil planetary spirits, the spurious
Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, attributed to
CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, informs us that the spirits of
Saturn "appear for the most part with a tall, lean,
and slender body, with an angry countenance, having
four faces; one in the hinder part of the head, one
on the former part of the head, and on each side
nosed or beaked: there likewise appeareth a face
on each knee, of a black shining colour: their motion
is the moving of the wince, with a kinde of earthquake:
their signe is white earth, whiter than any
Snow." The writer adds that their "particular
forms are,—
- A King having a beard, riding on a Dragon.
- An Old man with a beard.
- An Old woman leaning on a staffe.
- A Hog.
- A Dragon.
- An Owl.
- A black Garment.
- A Hooke or Sickle.
- A Juniper-tree."
Concerning the spirits of Jupiter, he says that they
"appear with a body sanguine and cholerick, of a
middle stature, with a horrible fearful motion; but
with a milde countenance, a gentle speech, and of the
colour of Iron. The motion of them is flashings of
Lightning and Thunder; their signe is, there will
appear men about the circle, who shall seem to be
devoured of Lions," their particular forms being—
- "A King with a Sword drawn, riding on a Stag.
- A Man wearing a Mitre in long rayment.
- A Maid with a Laurel-Crown adorned with
Flowers.
- A Bull.
- A Stag.
- A Peacock.
- An azure Garment.
- A Sword.
- A Box-tree."
As to the Martian spirits, we learn that "they appear
in a tall body, cholerick, a filthy countenance, of
colour brown, swarthy or red, having horns like
Harts horns, and Griphins claws, bellowing like
wilde Bulls. Their Motion is like fire burning;
their signe Thunder and Lightning about the Circle.
Their particular shapes are,—
- A King armed riding upon a Wolf.
- A Man armed.
- A Woman holding a buckler on her thigh.
- A Hee-goat.
- A Horse.
- A Stag.
- A red Garment.
- Wool.
- A Cheeslip."[91]
The rest are described in equally fantastic terms.
I do not think I shall be accused of being unduly
sceptical if I say that such beings as these could not
have been evoked by any magical rites, because such
beings do not and did not exist, save in the magician's
own imagination. The proviso, however, is important,
for, inasmuch as these fantastic beings did
exist in the imagination of the credulous, therein
they may, indeed, have been evoked. The whole
of magic ritual was well devised to produce hallucination.
A firm faith in the ritual employed, and a
strong effort of will to bring about the desired result,
were usually insisted upon as essential to the success
of the operation.[92] A period of fasting prior to the
experiment was also frequently prescribed as necessary.
which, by weakening the body, must have been
conducive to hallucination. Furthermore, abstention
from the gratification of the sexual appetite was
stipulated in certain cases, and this, no doubt, had
a similar effect, especially as concerns magical evocations
directed to the satisfaction of the sexual impulse.
Add to these factors the details of the ritual itself,
the nocturnal conditions under which it was carried
out, and particularly the suffumigations employed,
which, most frequently, were of a narcotic nature,
and it is not difficult to believe that almost any type
of hallucination may have occurred. Such, as we
have seen, was ÉLIPHAS LÉVI'S view of ceremonial
magic; and whatever may be said as concerns his
own experiment therein (for one would have thought
that the essential element of faith was lacking in this
case), it is undoubtedly the true view as concerns
the ceremonial magic of the past. As this author
well says: "Witchcraft, properly so-called, that is
ceremonial operation with intent to bewitch, acts
only on the operator, and serves to fix and confirm
his will, by formulating it with persistence and labour,
the two conditions which make volition efficacious."
[93]
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG in one place writes:
"Magic is nothing but the perversion of order; it is
especially the abuse of correspondences."[94] A study
of the ceremonial magic of the Middle Ages and the
following century or two certainly justifies SWEDENBORG
in writing of magic as something evil. The
distinction, rigid enough in theory, between white
and black, legitimate and illegitimate, magic, was,
as I have indicated, extremely indefinite in practice.
As Mr A. E. WAITE justly remarks: "Much that
passed current in the west as White (
i.e. permissible)
Magic was only a disguised goeticism, and many of
the resplendent angels invoked with divine rites
reveal their cloven hoofs. It is not too much to say
that a large majority of past psychological experiments
were conducted to establish communication
with demons, and that for unlawful purposes. The
popular conceptions concerning the diabolical spheres,
which have been all accredited by magic, may have
been gross exaggerations of fact concerning rudimentary
and perverse intelligences, but the wilful
viciousness of the communicants is substantially untouched
thereby."
[95]
These "psychological experiments" were not,
save, perhaps, in rare cases, carried out in the spirit
of modern psychical research, with the high aim of
the man of science. It was, indeed, far otherwise;
selfish motives were at the root of most of them;
and, apart from what may be termed "medicinal
magic," it was for the satisfaction of greed, lust,
revenge, that men and women had recourse to magical
arts. The history of goeticism and witchcraft is
one of the most horrible of all histories. The
"Grimoires," witnesses to the superstitious folly of
the past, are full of disgusting, absurd, and even
criminal rites for the satisfaction of unlawful desires
and passions. The Church was certainly justified in
attempting to put down the practice of magic, but
the means adopted in this design and the results to
which they led were even more abominable than
witchcraft itself. The methods of detecting witches
and the tortures to which suspected persons were
subjected to force them to confess to imaginary
crimes, employed in so-called civilised England and
Scotland and also in America, to say nothing of
countries in which the "Holy" Inquisition held
undisputed sway, are almost too horrible to describe.
For details the reader may be referred to Sir WALTER
SCOTT'S
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (1830),
and (as concerns America) COTTON MATHER'S The
Wonders of the Invisible World (1692). The credulous
Church and the credulous people were terribly
afraid of the power of witchcraft, and, as always, fear
destroyed their mental balance and made them totally
disregard the demands of justice. The result may
be well illustrated by what almost inevitably happens
when a country goes to war; for war, as the Hon.
BERTRAND RUSSELL has well shown, is fear's offspring.
Fear of the enemy causes the military party to persecute
in an insensate manner, without the least regard
to justice, all those of their fellow-men whom they
consider are not heart and soul with them in their
cause; similarly the Church relentlessly persecuted
its supposed enemies, of whom it was so afraid. No
doubt some of the poor wretches that were tortured
and killed on the charge of witchcraft really believed
themselves to have made a pact with the devil, and
were thus morally depraved, though, generally speaking,
they were no more responsible for their actions
than any other madmen. But the majority of the
persons persecuted as witches and wizards were
innocent even of this.
However, it would, I think, be unwise to disregard
the existence of another side to the question of the
validity and ethical value of magic, and to use the
word only to stand for something essentially evil.
SWEDENBORG, we may note, in the course of a long
passage from the work from which I have already
quoted, says that by "magic" is signified "the
science of spiritual things"[96] His position appears
to be that there is a genuine magic, or science of
spiritual things, and a false magic, that science
perverted: a view of the matter which I propose here
to adopt. The word "magic" itself is derived from
the Greek "μαγος," the wise man of the East, and
hence the strict etymological meaning of the term
is "the wisdom or science of the magi"; and it is, I
think, significant that we are told (and I see no reason
to doubt the truth of it) that the magi were among
the first to worship the new-born CHRIST.[97]
If there be an abuse of correspondences, or symbols,
there surely must also be a use, to which the word
"magic" is not inapplicable. As such, religious
ritual, and especially the sacraments of the Christian
Church, will, no doubt, occur to the minds of those
who regard these symbols as efficacious, though they
would probably hesitate to apply the term "magical"
to them. But in using this term as applying thereto,
I do not wish to suggest that any such rites or ceremonies
possess, or can possess, any causal efficacy in
the moral evolution of the soul. The will alone, in
virtue of the power vouchsafed to it by the Source
of all power, can achieve this; but I do think that
the soul may be assisted by ritual, harmoniously
related to the states of mind which it is desired to
induce. No doubt there is a danger of religious
ritual, especially when its meaning is lost, being
engaged in for its own sake. It is then mere superstition;
[98]
and, in view of the danger of this degeneracy,
many robust minds, such as the members
of the Society of Friends, prefer to dispense with
its aid altogether. When ritual is associated with
erroneous doctrines, the results are even more
disastrous, as I have indicated in "The Belief in
Talismans". But when ritual is allied with, and
based upon, as adequately symbolising, the high
teaching of genuine religion, it may be, and, in fact,
is, found very helpful by many people. As such its
efficacy seems to me to be altogether magical, in the
best sense of that word.
But, indeed, I think a still wider application of
the word "magic" is possible. "All experience is
magic," says NOVALIS (1772-1801), "and only magically
explicable";[99] and again: "It is only because of
the feebleness of our perceptions and activity that
we do not perceive ourselves to be in a fairy world."
No doubt it will be objected that the common experiences
of daily life are "natural," whereas magic
postulates the "supernatural". If, as is frequently
done, we use the term "natural," as relating exclus-
ively to the physical realm, then, indeed, we may well
speak of magic as "supernatural," because its aims are
psychical. On the other hand, the term "natural"
is sometimes employed as referring to the whole
realm of order, and in this sense one can use the word
"magic" as descriptive of Nature herself when viewed
in the light of an idealistic philosophy, such as that
of SWEDENBORG, in which all causation is seen to be
essentially spiritual, the things of this world being
envisaged as symbols of ideas or spiritual verities,
and thus physical causation regarded as an appearance
produced in virtue of the magical, non-causal
efficacy of symbols.
[100] Says CORNELIUS AGRIPPA:
". . . every day some natural thing is drawn by art
and some divine thing is drawn by Nature which,
the Egyptians, seeing, called Nature a Magicianess
(
i.e.) the very Magical power itself, in the attracting
of like by like, and of suitable things by suitable."
[101]
I would suggest, in conclusion, that there is nothing
really opposed to the spirit of modern science in the
thesis that "all experience is magic, and only magically
explicable." Science does not pretend to reveal
the fundamental or underlying cause of phenomena,
does not pretend to answer the final Why? This is
rather the business of philosophy, though, in thus
distinguishing between science and philosophy, I am
far from insinuating that philosophy should be otherwise
than scientific. We often hear religious but
non-scientific men complain because scientific and
perhaps equally as religious men do not in their
books ascribe the production of natural phenomena
to the Divine Power. But if they were so to
do they would be transcending their business as
scientists. In every science certain simple facts
of experience are taken for granted: it is the
business of the scientist to reduce other and more
complex facts of experience to terms of these data,
not to explain these data themselves. Thus the
physicist attempts to reduce other related phenomena
of greater complexity to terms of simple force and
motion; but, What are force and motion? Why
does force produce or result in motion? are questions
which lie beyond the scope of physics. In order to
answer these questions, if, indeed, this be possible,
we must first inquire, How and why do these ideas
of force and motion arise in our minds? These
problems land us in the psychical or spiritual world,
and the term "magic" at once becomes significant.
"If, says THOMAS CARLYLE, . . . we . . . have
led thee into the true Land of Dreams; and . . .
thou lookest, even for moments, into the region of
the Wonderful, and seest and feelest that thy daily
life is girt with Wonder, and based on Wonder, and
thy very blankets and breeches are Miracles,—then
art thou profited beyond money's worth...."[102]
[[81]]
JAMES H. LEUBA: The Psychological Origin and the
Nature of Religion (1909), chap. ii.
[[82]]
EDWARD CLODD: Animism the Seed of Religion (1905),
p. 26.
[[83]]
H. C. AGRIPPA: Occult Philosophy, bk. i., chap. xiii.
(WHITEHEAD'S edition, pp. 67-68).
[[84]]
ÉLIPHAS LÉVI: Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and
Ritual (trans. by A. E. WAITE, 1896), p. 192.
[[85]]
IAMBLICHOS: Theurgia, or the Egyptian Mysteries (trans.
by Dr ALEX. WILDER, New York, 1911), p. 239.
[[86]]
Dr T. WITTON DAVIES: Magic, Divination, and Demonology
among the Hebrews and their Neighbours (1898), p. 17.
[[87]]
The late Sir WILLIAM CROOKES' Experimental Researches
in the Phenomena of Spiritualism contains evidence in favour
of the reality of this phenomenon very difficult to gainsay.
[[88]]
On the Heavenly Hierarchy. See the Rev. JOHN PARKER'S
translation of The Works of DIONYSIUS the Areopagite, vol. ii.
(1889), pp. 24, 25, 31, 32, and 36.
[[89]]
The book, which first saw the light three centuries after
its alleged author's death, was translated into English by
ROBERT TURNER, and published in 1655 in a volume containing
the spurious Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, attributed to
CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, and other magical works. It is from
this edition that I quote.
[[90]]
Op. cit., pp. 90, 92, and 94.
[[91]]
Op. cit., pp. 43-45.
[[92]]
"MAGICAL AXIOM. In the circle of its action, every word
creates that which it affirms.
DIRECT CONSEQUENCE. He who affirms the devil, creates
or makes the devil.
"Conditions of Success in Infernal Evocations. 1, Invincible
obstinacy; 2, a conscience at once hardened to crime and
most subject to remorse and fear; 3, affected or natural
ignorance; 4, blind faith in all that is incredible, 5, a completely
false idea of God. (ÉLIPHAS LÉVI: Op. cit., pp. 297
and 298.)
[[93]]
ÉLIPHAS LÉVI: Op. cit., pp. 130 and 131.
[[94]]
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG: Arcana Cælestia, § 6692.
[[95]]
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE: The Occult Sciences (1891),
p. 51.
[[97]]
See The Gospel according to MATTHEW, chap. ii., verses
1 to 12.
[[98]]
As "ÉLIPHAS LÉVI" well says: "Superstition . . . is the
sign surviving the thought; it is the dead body of a religious
rite." (Op cit., p. 150.)
[[99]]
NOVALIS: Schriften (ed. by LUDWIG TIECK and FR.
SCHLEGEL, 1805), vol. ii. p. 195.
[[100]]
For a discussion of the essentially magical character of inductive
reasoning, see my The Magic of Experience (1915).
[[101]]
Op. cit., bk. i. chap. xxxvii. p. 119.
[[102]]
THOMAS CARLYLE: Sartor Resartus, bk. iii. chap. ix.