The Essentials of Magick

by Nathaniel

  This is how you deal with talismans and amulets, from creation to destruction. Some schools of thought don't support the use of such items while other magical paths embrace the use of these magick tools. If you do not walk any specific path of magick or spirituality, then I suggest using the amulets no matter what – amulets are very useful objects.

  Drums, Gongs and Wind Chimes, or the Power of Sound

  Another category of magical tools is those that make noise – drums, gongs or wind chimes. These objects are often used for the purpose of reaching altered states of consciousness. Almost any magical tradition includes the use of instruments of a different sort.

  It is said, "In the beginning there was the Word" - a sacred sound. Some believe that the world is made of sounds, or at least that there is a basic set of sounds that have magical power – some sounds create, some destroy. One of my teachers, Arkadiusz Lisiecki, used to say that it all begun when humans became sentient – they started to make sounds, and they have noticed that some sounds made them feel good. From this, chanting evolved, and then, the use of instruments. My teacher used to simplify things when it wasn't necessary to get into all the details, but he has the point – people noticed that some sounds make them feel good, and some types of chanting have an effect – a magical effect – upon their life and the environment.

  We may say that each sound has its own, specific frequency, vibrations – which is a scientific fact. These vibrations are said to influence our physical and spiritual bodies, causing the results on the spiritual plane. Thus, they help us reach altered states of consciousness, remove blockages that cause illness and such.

  Since the prehistoric times, shamans often use drums and other musical instruments to enter altered states of consciousness so they can work with spirits. They play on these instruments with specific rhythm to achieve specific results. Some loud noises are said to scare away lesser negative spirits so they can be used as tools of magical protection. Wind Chimes work quite nicely when it comes to this – in different traditions of the world we can notice the use of sound as a repellent for evil spirits.

  Different instruments are often used in spiritual healing – the way they sound sometimes cause the problems, fears and emotions to re-emerge from the subconscious mind in order to be healed. Tibetian bowls are often used for this purpose, but also different types of rattles can be utilized for healing. When some magical seals were removed from my spiritual body, the shaman performing the ritual used rattles that made a lot of noise to release the magical "mud" that left within me after seals removal. It was a part of shamanic healing upon me.

  Tibetian bowls are used for healing, as well. A friend told me a story as she tried such bowl once only to feel dizzy right after making the first noise. A more experienced practitioner told her to keep on playing the sound as the emotional pain was released through dizziness and stomach sickness. After few minutes, the physical effects disappeared, and the emotional pain was released, causing healing in my friend.

  Songs and sacred mantras – the use of the most natural instrument that we have, our own voice – are present in every corner of the World. There are songs that summon spirits, and there are songs that are used to heal. There are mantras that help in spiritual growth, and there are mantras used to magical protection. Even a spoken spell, which is a formula created to achieve specific magical results, is a use of our voice – our natural instrument – for magical purposes.

  Wiccans speak the spells; Native Americans sing healing songs; Buddhists chant their mantras; shamans use drums and rattles – although I simplify things here, I want you to know that sound is used in wide degree in all magical traditions and although there is no need to learn how to use the sound for magical doing from this book, you should be aware that your magical path or tradition may utilize the use of the human voice or instrument.

  Some may say that an instrument is a symbol – there is an intention attached to it, attached on the deep, spiritual level. Because of this intention recorded within the realm of spirits, everyone who uses the specific symbol, in this case the instrument, connects his mind to the intention. This idea is often used to explain why healing songs or mantras of Buddhism work for whoever use these tools.

  One could wonder – is it the sound of the instrument that affects our mind, or is it the power of the practitioner, who considers the sound and the instrument as a symbol that allows him to focus and generate specific energies, and influence others – heal them, help them reach altered states of consciousness and such. There is no definite answer to this question, but since I mentioned the word "symbol", I believe it's worth discussing further.

  The Power of Symbols

  Symbols are present in our culture since the very beginning of consciousness as it seems. We see them all the time – they're on the street, in a coffee shop, on a TV show, and, of course, in religion, spirituality and on the path of magick. It seems that symbols shape another approach to magick. While, in this book, I discuss magick as an art of working with energies, some people consider magick as an art of working with symbols, which form intentions and there is no energy present. Yet no matter what kind of magick we approach, symbols have strong applications in both ways of thinking – while some theories says that symbols are the stand-alone reason that magick works, the energy theory, given in this book, prefers to say that symbols can be used to manipulate energies – through thoughts, as always.

  Carl Gustav Jung, whose research about symbols are well known, said that a symbol is meant to help us conceptualize something that is otherwise too difficult to put in words. Imagine it – you learn a symbol, and they you recall it when needed, and the very fact that you do recognize the symbol is enough to use your subconscious thoughts to control and manipulate energies for magical doing.

  Before we move further, we need to discuss the meaning of terms. What is a symbol? A symbol, according to Wikipedia, is an object, character, or other representation of ideas, concepts, objects or abstractions. With this term, symbolism is interconnected. Symbolism is a use of symbols to represent ideas and emotions.

  Exploring through my personal library, I found an old book, a small dictionary of Polish language, published by PWN publishing company, which focuses on high quality, scientific publications. The book, nearly 50 years old, defines the symbol as follows:

  Symbol, an equivalent of an idea, that can be perceived through physical senses; a person, an animal representing an idea; an activity, an event that is a personalization of some attributes.64

  In short, a symbol is a representant of an idea, attribute, intention, emotion, person, animal or some abstract idea. Symbols, which are personal, have a meaning to you and you only. Other symbols are more general, and they carry a meaning for a greater number of people. From the point of view of magick, a symbol is something that has a meaning that results in magical effect. For example, an image may be a symbol of a specific deity, and when you look at the symbol, you immediately associate the image with a deity, and with a bit of focus on the image, you may be able to attract the deity itself.

  Or, as an example close to my heart – Reiki – when using Reiki symbols, which are Chinese, and Buddhist characters, you associate them wish specific set of intentions and spiritual effects – instead of defining the entire collection of intentions and programs, you just draw and activate the symbol, and subconsciously, you cast the symbol, achieving a spiritual effect. In some way, symbols are a time saver.

  Some objects might act as symbols of correspondence - in different magical traditions, correspondences exists. One thing corresponds to a specific technique or a spirit. A herb may correspond to a deity; a particular crystal may correspond to a specific practice; a phase of the moon may correspond to a specific type of ritual work. All these are symbols in some way.

  In some ways, spells are also symbols – they carry a set of intentions, using these symbols (spells) is meant to achieve a specific result. So, we can generalize, that:

 
Symbols can help you focus – for example, instead of thinking about specific deity and its attributes, personality, image and so, you simple focus on a symbol that is associated with the spirit in question. This helps you focus. An image may represent a spirit on its own, or a set of symbols – as correspondences – collection of herbs, stones and such – may help you focus on the task ahead.

  Symbols have their own energy – programmed within the global unconsciousness, mankind may recognize the symbol for its meaning, effects and such. In this way, a lot of modern magical symbols work. As explained earlier, there is a theory that symbols are written down within the realm of spirits, and whether we like it or not, they are directly connected to intentions and magical effects, and even to spirits themselves – all of this because thousands of people believe in the symbol. Thus, this symbol emanate with specific energies and cause specific energies. According to this theory, amulets and talismans made of popular symbols work in an effective way.

  Symbols can carry a subconscious meaning – like in case of Reiki signs, the meaning, sets of intentions and programs, are programmed within the practitioner's mind, and the simple use of the symbol with basic intention starts an entire complex spiritual process within the person's mind, that results in specific spiritual effect. Like this, symbols are used in spells, rituals nad magical work in general. They represent spells, programs, intentions, and entire effects.

  You can create your own symbols that will have a meaning only to you – by doing so you create your personal collection of symbols: anchors that once used, can support the process of doing magick. To help you understand it further, let's imagine a possible story. Let us imagine that you create a spell – a set of intentions meant to achieve a specific result, for example, to attract a 10 thousand dollars. You create this spell, and then you close it within a symbol that you create. This symbol you create out of few lines, circles and such, creating a seal, like the one below, posted as examples.

  Examples of Magick Seals (Source: personal collection of the author)

  You focus on the seal – because you've programmed it as a representation of the entire spell, your subconscious recognize the symbol, and on the subconscious level, you cast the spell, leading to its manifestation. And then, whenever you wish to attract another 10 thousand dollars, all you have to do will be to focus on the symbol again. This way, you create your personal symbol. But the story goes further.

  Imagine that you teach this symbol and its meaning to 10 people, and they teach it to another 10 people per each of your students. Quickly, we may have thousands of people that recognize your personal seal a symbol that attracts 10 thousand dollars. Now, the meaning of the symbol is being written on the level of global unconsciousness. No one has to understand what the symbol represents, but by focusing on this symbol, the magical effect will take place. This is how a global symbol is born.

  Of course, this is a great simplification of things, but as a model, the story is perfect as it explains the nature of a large group of symbols – someone created them, and people recognize them, so the symbols work. Especially in magick. Because symbols work, magick is far easier to be used by people, but also, it creates some problems. Problems, which need to be explained.

  Safety Rules Regarding the Use of Symbols

  There are some important aspects of safety regarding the use of magical symbols – it's another essential element of learning magick. Because symbols work, they need to be used with great caution. The first aspect is simple – be careful what you wish for.

  There is a modern practice of creating sigils – it's a process of creating symbols made of letters that represent an idea. The practice itself is associated with Chaos Magick these days, but it is far older than that. In any case, it's a great example of the danger of using symbols. Chaos Magick is popular among young practitioners, who, unexperienced, often use it for strange purposes. To make a controversial example, some teenage kids create sigils that look like this:

  I want to have sex with that girl, Amy, who lives next door.

  Then, they turn it into a sigil and program it within their mind. Controversial? Maybe, but often real. The teenager programs it, and may not achieve the results he wants. But he may live for many years and one day he may find a wonderful woman. Then, he may fall in love, get married and have kids. But the sigil will remain with the man's mind – and it will try to achieve the goal he was created to achieve. And let's say that our kid, now an adult man, moves with his family into a new neighbourhood. And there is another Amy living next door. One way or another, the sigil will force the guy to have sex with that Amy – at any cost because this was the Will of the kid in the past. It may destroy his life and the life of his family.

  Thus, be careful – writing down a symbol within your mind is easy. But getting it out of your mind may be tricky. If you do not know what you're doing, do not pursuit it. It's a rule that applies to magick in general, because the example I describe above is not that rare, unfortunately.

  Another issue is turning magical symbols into tattoos. I've done it once, so I am aware of the consequences. At some point of my life, I've made myself a magical tattoo – it was an Aegishjalmur from Norse magical tradition. It was a quite big mistake which I've made – later on the tattoo was removed. But this experience – along with teachings of others – taught me that making a magical tattoo is not a wise thing. On the contrary – it's quite childish in most cases.

  People don't learn what the symbols really means, or they don't really wish to walk the specific tradition – they just want to have something that looks cool on their skin. But magical tattoos can be dangerous – as magical symbols they project energies, and they influence the person who owns them. They're no different than normal talismans or amulets - the difference is that you can't take them off.

  This doesn't mean that you shouldn't make yourself a magical tattoo related to your tradition – you can. What I want to tell you is that you should think hard before doing so. Don't make rush decisions. Learn your tradition, learn your path, and spend years following this path – if you are sure that you really know what the symbol, which you wish to make into a tattoo, means, and you are sure that you will continue to walk your current tradition to the end of your life, only then you should make a magical tattoo. Otherwise, at some point of your life, you may learn that:

  The symbol has a different meaning, one which make you fear the symbol.

  Or you may learn that you no longer wish to walk the tradition which you have chosen in the past and that your tattoo is no longer serving you as it should be.

  Tattoos will remain parts of you until your body turns into dust. Keep this in mind. This leads us to another issue: the lack of understanding of specific symbols.

  Quite often, young people use the symbol of Aegishyalmur, closely related with Germanic deities, and Asatru movement. But they use this symbol thinking it's a symbol of protection as modern books about runes mention. Without reading Sagas65 and learning about old ways of Germanic tribes, people are mislead by New Age books. In the old days, the Aegishyalmur was being placed on the warriors forehead, not for protection, but for the purpose of making the enemy fall into an abyss of panic and fear so the enemy could be easily slain. This symbol works for this day in a similar way, harming people, and even attracting negative entities, who perceive this symbol as a form of a challenge, so these entities can face the carrier of the symbol and see if he or she is really that powerful.

  Learn what a symbol that you want to use truly means – in all its aspects. With this knowledge, you can prepare yourself for any eventuality. And without this knowledge, you may find yourself face to face with a huge problem, for which to deal with you are not prepared.

  New Age Problems As Seen in Runes

  In New Age movement, there is a popular system of divination, called "runes". It is based on the Elder Futhark, a Germanic alphabet made of 24 runic symbols. It is an interesting and quite effective divination system, althou
gh, in reality, there is no proof that it was ever used for divination from a traditional and historical point of view. It doesn't matter, though as thousands of people use runes and cast them for the purpose of fortune telling. Little do they know that runes work as anchors, to which strings are attached. Strings that connect these symbols with Germanic gods, spirits and entities. As you use runes, you attract the attention of One Eyed God66 and he might not be happy that you use the runic symbols.

  On the other hand, you might attract other entities who are somehow connected to runes, entities who might not have friendly feelings towards you. But beyond that, there is far greater danger to the runes. A lot of guidebooks discuss the matter of runic magick, when you use the symbols of the Elder Futhark for the purpose of creating talismans and amulets – so called bindrunes or runic scripts, or runic formulas. But one who cannot read the runes truly, shall not use them for magick. It's because runes are not, as New Age would like you to believe, safe and always positive. When used improperly, they can fire back at you, and at the person you wanted to help. Rarely anyone can read runes these days, because in most cases, in order to do so one should be initiated by spirits into the art of runic work, so called Seidr magick. Without it, rarely anyone can read runes in a proper way; thus causing harm to himself and people around him.

  Runes are real magical tools, and what seems to be a simple runic formula, can be in reality a powerful, yet very dangerous curse. As such, runes are a perfect example of what New Age has done to the ancient teachings – the wider and more popular the knowledge is the more dangerous practices are performed each and every day.

  Still, while it's obvious to some degree that the misuse of a symbol is dangerous, runes are also an example of how complex the matter of symbols is. Because runes are, as mentioned, used for mantic purposes and to foretell the future, and as such – as a tool to connect with your intuition – they are quite effective. What I can say here is that one needs a great experience and great skills to be able to use runes as symbols for mantic purposes, and not as magical tools. Which also proves that there is much to learn for everyone who wish to explore magick.