Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Regardie Israel
Title : The art of magic
Year : 1964

Link download : Regardie_Israel_-_The_art_of_magic.zip

Of all the subjects which comprise what nowadays is called Occultism, the most misunderstood of all is Magic. Even Alchemy, which to some of us is annoyingly dark and obscure, evokes far more sympathy and understanding as a rule than does Magic. For example, the psychologist Jung has observed of alchemy in his essay The Ego and The Unconscious that "it would be an unpardonable depreciation of value if we were to accept the current view, and reduce the spiritual striving of the alchemists to the level of the retort and the smelting furnace. Certainly this aspect belonged to it; it represented the tentative beginnings of exact chemistry. But it also had a spiritual side which has never yet been given its true value, and which from the psychological standpoint must not be underestimated." Yet Magic, strange to say, receives no such evaluation−−except insofar as the term Magic is allied to the unconscious, and is said to represent a primitive attempt to cognise the Unconscious. There is, hence, hardly more than the barest minimum attempt to arrive at an understanding of its processes. For the moment, I do not wish to analyse the possible reasons for this amazing phenomenon. What is more to the point, however, is to provide some more or less intelligible approach to the subject so that given an initial glimpse of the bright light flooding the world of magic, more people may feel disposed to devote just a liltle of their energies and time to its study. The advantages and benefits are such as to make this effort extremely worth while. Putting it simply and briefly, let me say at the outset that Magic concerns itself in the main with that self−same world as does modern psychology. That is to say, it deals with that sphere of the psyche of which normally we are not conscious but which exerts an enormous influence upon our lives. Magic is a series of psychological techniques so devised as to enable us to probe more deeply into ourselves. To what end? First, that we shall understand ourselves more completely. Apart from the fact that such self−knowledge in itself is desirable, an understanding of the inner nature releases us from unconscious compulsions and motivations and confers a mastery over life. Second, that we may the more fully express that inner self in every−day activities. It is only when mankind as a whole has reached, or perhaps when the more advanced men and women in the world have evolved, some degree of inner realisation that we may ever hope for that ideal utopian condition of things - a wide tolerance, peace, and universal brotherhood. It is to ends such as these that Magic owes its raison d'etre. ...