Magic [antikvár]

Magic: the Western Tradition Between the Worlds Today interest in the so-called occult is more widespread than ever before. Popular Sun-sign astrology is a subject for light conversation, self-appointed 'Perfect Masters' have attracted large followings, and in almost every large city of Europe and North America there are groups of cultists who claim that they are practising authentic witchcraft. These well-publicized, and perhaps rather fooHsh, aspects of the current occult revival sometimes serve to mask a more significant phenomenon: nothing less than the rebirth of magic, a body of theory and technique claimed by its devotees to be, on the one hand, the authentic 'Yoga of the West', and on the other the only system of spiritual development which can be appHed without an almost total withdrawl from everyday life. In spite of these claims it has to be admitted that both the intellectual outlook and the way of life adopted by most magicians are odd by the standards of the industrialized societies in which they live. The magician sees the universe as a living being, its visible appearance veiling the real nature of the powers which control it. He sees himself as partaking of the nature of Deity; ritually assuring himself that 'There is no part of me that is not of the gods'. Dream and vision, symbol and allegory, imagination and fancy, the unearthly landscapes of a Max Ernst and the nightmares of a Bosch, convey to him more about the inmost realities of existence than all the equations of the physicist. The physical techniques used by the magician are as curious as his beliefs. He distorts his body into unlikely postures, half chokes himself with stupefying incenses and perfumes, and whirls round like a humming top until, overcome by dizziness, he falls senseless to the ground. Often poor, he spends money on the jewels and