Hello everyone, I have read the past few posts on 'The Anthropology of Magic' with some interest, although this post is going to digress a little from the original topic, for which I apologise. As a practitioner (I am not a qualified academic in the field of magical research), I agree that magic is not an aspect of consciousness, and concur that it is a process.
However, although a magician ought to become skilled in crafting magic and we may also refer to the result of the process as 'magic', the skill of the magician is not 'the magic' itself. To me that would be like equating the skill of an artist with the subjective beauty of a painting, although similarly, we use the same word, 'painting' to describe both the action and the result. The artist posseses the skill which enables them to paint. The end result - a painting - has a seperate existence to the artist that created it - something happens in between, and that something implicates consciousness, because if a robot were to dip a brush in some paint and apply it to a canvas, something of the essence or meaning of the action would be lost (not the symbolic meaning you understand, of course the robot's painting could still be seen as symbolic).
I think it is true that magic has to be crafted, but there is a gulf of separation between the impulse and result, or the act of crafting magic, and the essence of magic itself. Characteristically, the descriptions of magical operation given by practitioners that I have known or read about are usually facilitated by the use of constructs such as 'the void', or 'the abyss', to explain this aspect of the operator's state of consciousness interacting with the crafting of the magical process. In acts of magic where the will of the operator is brought to bear through ecstatic states, some practitioners would argue that an abyss seperates the consciousness required to achieve magical ends from the everyday consciousness of the mundane. In crafting 'low magic' this abyss must also be bridged, often by the careful use of systems of correspondences and ritualised actions.
What I am suggesting is that there is usually a transpersonal component to the process of crafting magic, and that one must often 'let go of the magic' that is crafted, before it can return effectually. In turn, the result may manifest in unsuspected ways, quite unlike the hammer blows of a wheelright, or a carpenter, for example, but much more like the genesis of a child, that develops its own life and its own way within the world, though influenced by its parents.
To summarise, I agree that magic should be considered a process, and find the concept of magic as an aspect of consciousness difficult to grasp objectively from a practitioner's point of view, but from a materialist psychological perspective the 'aspect of consciousness' portrayal might have some validity. I will suggest that Freud's 'Totem and Taboo', written from the perspective of one who saw the manifestation of magical behaviour as a recessive psychological phenomenon, illustrates this point. I have cited this example purely because it seems obvious and well known, and not because I agree or disagree with Freud's perspective, but there must surely be countless others? I would suggest, therefore, that many rational people do not consider magic to have any objective reality whatsoever, and that if such a person were to write about the phenomenon of magical behaviour from an academic perspective, they would be left with no option but to
consider it 'an aspect of consciousness'.
I am sure many of you will disagree with me but I am only writing this to stimulate healthy debate (and I probably wont have the time to participate in discussion over the next few days anyway). So have fun with it. I throw my perspective to the wolves!
Bob
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From: Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, 29 January, 2010 21:53:39
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] The Anthropology of Magic (2009), reviewed
I agree with Francis on this:
“Magic is not ‘an aspect’ of anything. Magic is a process, a skill which can be exercised. And while it may be true that this skill is exercised in a state of alternative consciousness, that does not mean that the skill and the consciousness are one and the same.”
~Caroline Tully.
