The principles of magic is that is all natural. Magic in its self is the very same energy that we live off of. In fact it’s the same energy with us all, if you wish to perceive it, its like the Force. As sad as an analogy as that is, it’s the best way to describe magic.
There are many who use the life energy of every day in magical workings, such as rituals, prayers, and hymms. Each of these gives strength and helps bring about a subtle effect that, without doing, would not have come about.
I feel, back in the day, before the perceived reality became so dead set, the influence of magic itself was strong, perhaps strong enough to actually effect the physical form in a small manner. Yet, as time went on, as the influence of the world changed and the ideals of the mind became more prevalent in everyday workings, the simple ideals of magic became legend and our minds ruled out that such ideals never existed.
Now in this time magic only effects things on a most subtle form. Which doesn’t always take effect right off the finishing of the ritual or the completion of a four hour hymm. Now the principles of magic is that its all natural, which means its neither good or bad. Now with that said, the means on what we complete the ritual for is what changes the aspect of the natural balance of magic.
Magic, since its life energy, has the abilities to heal, cleanse, to calm, ect. So with that, its not drastically hard to redirect the meanings of these energies to do exactly what you want. Not to mention communication to those of higher beings and even perhaps the invoke the strength of the Angels above, if one is ever lucky enough to actually be granted such a gift.
Yet, those who perform the diverse means of Black magic must drastically change the direction of the energy, perverting it, corrupting it into something that becomes harmful. Since magic must always have a conduit, a place to flow through, this often times is the caster, or the ritual leader. In which case, performing black magic, means that the energy being pushed through the body is also corrupted in the body, causing injury to the soul and to the body. Not to mention, black magic has a tendency to be a bit chaotic, causing wild out lashes among those who practice the arts themselves.
Because of this, one becomes marked spiritually, this spiritual mark might go away after some time, or through rites of cleansing. Yet, those who extensively practice the dark magic well forever be scared, even if they step out of the dark and into the natural balance. Now the definition of black magic is anything that deals in the harm to others, such as curses, or physical harm, this also comes down to summoning the spiritual essences of dark entities or Demon. These are only a few simple examples, but the idea of what is considered black magic can easily be defined by “That which causes spiritual, physical or mental harm to ones self or others for the gratification of ones self.”
Now with that said, what if someone practices and gives tribute to a dark god? Well, either way, the usage of such spells in such a manner still gratifies the ritualist in a sense of power and strength, giving the illusion or the temporary strength to do things one shouldn’t have been able to do in the first place.
I do not know if this is how everyone else has seen the ideals of magic in itself, but with what I have read, studied and learned through my time in the Golden Dawn, this seems to be the basic measure of magic and the ideals of the rituals and hymms so made for spiritual transcendence and growth.
- Sin
