In a previous post, Spell Correspondences: the Achilles Heel of Magic, we discussed the problem of presenting spell correspondences as facts. We considered the difference between a fact and a correspondence, and how a spell correspondence is a form of ‘personal gnosis’, a spiritual belief acquired through intuition and personal experience.
Spell correspondences are the meaningful associations you make between magical rituals and certain objects, such as herbs and crystals, also symbols, colours, timings, or elements that can enhance the effectiveness of your spell work. These associations often seem arbitrary on the surface, but are deeply rooted in symbolic and powerful archetypal meanings. So, where do these symbolic meanings come from? And how can we access and use them?
To find out, let’s do a thought experiment. We’ll begin with a premise, that spell correspondences are a form of conscientious magical thinking. It is an artform not unlike poetry, and when practised in the right context, can lead to powerful self-transcendence, wisdom and rich magical experiences.
You're a magician on a quest through realms
Imagine, in the wild west of human consciousness, we occupy myriad metaphysical realms all at once, and without even realising it. There’s the dream realm, where we dream; the creative realm where ideas are born, there’s the sciency realm, where facts are produced, and the ritual realm, where magic takes place! There are other realms, besides, of various dimensions and flavours. Each of us can inhabit all of these realms at different times, often simultaneously, and they continually intersect with each other. Each realm is a palace within a kingdom, with its own laws and rules. You are a magician on a quest; you become wiser and more powerful as you get better at navigating each realm.
In this post, we’ll be looking at two realms with very different rules: the sciency realm of facts and the ritual realm of magic. If we get the wrong space and wrong way of thinking, we won’t make any progress in our quest. If we get the right space and right thinking, we can make breakthroughs and great strides. Both realms are equally important to us. To live a whole and full life, we must learn to inhabit both of them. Spell correspondences are one of the arts of the ritual realm which help us to do just that.
Learning to weave connections, like a poet
Forming spell correspondences can be an art: poetic, proverbial and creative. You follow a method, develop skill and become more fluent over time. By thinking in correspondences, you weave connections between your knowledge of what a thing is, and your experience of its physical and emotional qualities, not unlike a poet. You learn to think metaphorically, arriving at novel representations and allegories which help you perceive hidden connections, and come to spiritual insights. Take rain, for example. How might you form a correspondence between rainwater and new beginnings in your spell work? On the surface, these two ideas don’t share a connection.
Summer rain is cleansing. You are the first to be touched by the fresh droplets falling from the sky. Rainfall washes away stagnant dirt and dust. The rain cools the air and makes the plants grow in the window pots. The magical energy of rain is nourishing, cleansing and cooling, corresponding with your intention for renewal and growth. Use the rain to symbolically wash away that which has become stagnant, which cloys and clogs, to encourage growth. The New Moon also corresponds with new beginnings, making it a powerful time to perform your spell.
This is an example of conscientious magical thinking, or magical consciousness. It is the key to forming effective spell correspondences, giving power and meaning to your spells and rituals. In the ritual space, magical consciousness allows us to form connections and associations between the mind and the external world of material reality. As you master the artform, you can achieve great advances in your personal and spiritual life.
The shadow side of magical consciousness
Like all good things, magical thinking has pitfalls that we need to be aware of, just as magic has a shadow side.
Magical thinking can become harmful when it manifests unconsciously, outside of the ritual space, seeping into public institutions and shaping cultural norms and attitudes. When we are tempted to supress our common sense about the way the world actually works to indulge our fantasies; to gain power over others, or distort the truth to feed our prejudices, we might consider ourselves on the wrong side of magical thinking.
The phrase ‘magical thinking’ is often used negatively in the news media to call out superstition. Public figures, such as politicians, are accused of it when they make decisions that aren’t based on evidence, or they espouse non-scientific beliefs linked to conspiracy theories. Because magical thinking follows personal experience and intuition to make connections and draw conclusions, it allows in bias and error, and distortions in objective reality. Of course, we don’t want decision makers to mistake their own idiosyncratic biases as being true for everyone else, when it’s not the case. This kind of ‘projection’ leads to deeply unfair circumstances, such as scapegoating and oppression.
Our modern world is biased towards the rational materialist worldview. The scientific method gives us the facts upon which our material world is built. Sciency thinking is considered superior to religious or magical thinking. But nearly all people, everywhere in the world, are not practising scientific rationality on a daily basis. Human consciousness is wild and wants to be free to indulge in its whims, delusions and fantasies. It enjoys learning and mastering new terrain, but it doesn’t like to be tamed and restricted by any one, narrow thought process, for too long.
Honouring the totality that stirs within us
All of us, every day, are deploying the full gamut of our cognitive gifts and senses, to make sense of our experiences, and gratify the totality of all that stirs within us.
Imagine a scientist who is a researcher in a medical institute focused on solving childhood diseases. Every day she goes to work, and enters the sciency realm. It is her job to discover evidence based facts and insights that will save children’s lives. But her training doesn’t make her immune to magical thinking. She is fundamentally an emotional creature, living out her dreams and fantasies, and experiencing envy, fear, desire, passion and love. To discover research findings, she uses frameworks and methodologies, but she has no way of solving problems of her own being. Why can’t she transcend her childhood fears, or attract the right romantic partner? Why does she yearn for things which seem out of her reach? What does her reccurring dream mean? Should she stay at this institute, or join another one? Or will she be bullied wherever she goes? It seems she is equipped to discover powerful scientific truths, but when it comes to understanding herself, she is adrift.
The culture of the sciency realm is sceptical of human emotion and feeling, seeing these impulses as irrational and even dangerous in the pursuit of objective truth, because the emotions obscure reason and judgement. There is no scientific framework to understand and process subjective reality. The only apparent solution is to suppress it, so it doesn’t get in the way. However, by entering the ritual space and engaging in magical consciousness, our scientist is able to use the frameworks of magic to manifest her desires, transcend her fears and limitations and gain self-knowledge, in order to live a whole and meaningful life.
The holy grail of magic and ritual
Conscientious magical thinking allows us to see the world as interconnected and imbued with meaning. It is a practice that thrives in the ritual space, but flounders in the sciency space. It creates an alternative world where we can restore the personal and emotional, and treat subjective reality as just as real and powerful as the external, material properties of things. In the pursuit of self-knowledge, it can lead to self-transformation, create meaning and purpose, and bring you to a place of fulfilment and wholeness. In order to fully access and enjoy this ability, we need to be aware of the shadow side of magical thinking and its manifestations, to avoid falling prey to self-deception, delusion and other trickery associated with this path.