Wands and Orbs, Dumbledore and Damodred

Today it's time for another post about magic (just a note - when I use the word 'magic,' I don't mean legerdemain).  This time I'll be discussing the implements that many magicians use in their practice.

Most of you reading this probably don't know any practicing magicians as such.  For various reasons beyond the scope of this article it is unwise to advertise one's practice of magic (both due to societal concerns and because a certain degree of secrecy heightens magic's functioning).  However, you may know someone who practices without your knowledge, or you may yourself be a practitioner.  It's likely though that you do not have much familiarity with the practice of magic, except through a variety of media outlets.  To provide a nice contrast and tie in fictional worlds you may be more familiar with than the practice as it exists in ours, we'll look at the how implements work in the worlds of the Harry Potter series and the Wheel of Time series.

In the alternate modern world of Harry Potter, a tremendous amount of power is vested in wands.  The statement that "the wand chooses the wizard" is no aesthetic sentimentalization; it is simply how things work in that world.  A wizard without their wand is like a space marine without magnetic 'gravity' boots, an author without implements of writing, or a news anchor without a camera.  Nearly all of the magic used in this series depends on the use of one's wand, besides things like potion-making.  Wizards deemed unfit to practice magic simply have their wands broken and the power to control it is stripped nearly entirely away.

This is far from an accurate depiction of magicians, but it does fit the way J.K. Rowling chose to write her tale.  The characters come from the modern world with all of its banality, so their capability to move beyond that into a world of glamor must be explained by an object, especially given the materialistic rules of the Muggle consensus reality.  This approach does reflect on a certain aspect of real modern magicians - implements have a well-placed role in designating certain moments as liminal ones where the situation involves magic, and their absence in other moments can help remind that it's time to deal with the mundane side of the world.

In the Wheel of Time series, however, (at least as far as I am into it, which is not very at this point) there are no magical artifacts that would resemble the power of a wand at Hogwarts.  Magic, in this series, truly comes from within, and in the first book Moiraine repeatedly reminds characters who are less knowledgeable about magic that their function is chiefly to direct the attention of the mage.  Of course, Moiraine can do some incredible things when she directs her attention with an implement that has a long and legendary history, but the magic always comes from within.

It's probably fairly reasonable to make the assertion that a fantasy author's attitude towards magical implements and how necessary they are reflects certain attitudes toward technology.  These days many people get a great deal of stress simply when their internet service goes down, much less when they suffer a power outage.  They are certainly living in a reality-tunnel where the wand chooses the wizard.  Others simply go outside.  However, I don't want to confine our interpretation of magical implements in fantasy stories to a symbolic one, so let's discuss how they are actually used in the real world.

Banishing: A basic but effective approach

Today I'm going to discuss banishing.  Though it may not be the most interesting practice in magic, it's one of the more important ones.  It's also quite misunderstood to people not versed in magic.  While it may be of some assistance if you encounter a bona fide haunting, it is useful in a great many more situations than in the presence of paranormal activity.  An important part of the magical perspective is that in complement to the commonly realized fact that entities and spirits can be understood as facets of the mind, facets of the mind can be dealt with as if they were spirits.  If you find that someone has evoked a demon for you, for instance by going on a tirade against a particular religion whose evils come to obsess you, a banishing is appropriate.  If you have built for yourself a cage of coherency, a set of ideas which seem inescapable wherever you look, and you think you have found the secret to understanding the universe, I recommend banishing.  Daily banishing is used by some to maintain clarity of mind, but it's important not to let banishing itself obsess you or there is no point to such an activity.

You can use banishing any time you wish to return to a more neutral state of mind.  Certainly it can be abused for excessive suppression of certain thoughts, but that risk is less than the dangers of equating reality with your ideas about it.  Like any technology it is best when used wisely.

Dreams: awaken a sleeping facet of your life

Sorry about the horrible pun.  Today's post is about dreams - keeping track of them and directing them.  I'll mention lucid dreaming a bit, but mostly to emphasize that you can do a lot of neat things without it.

Dreaming is cool.  It lets you become far more immersed in adventures you wouldn't want to have in your waking life than any material technology (such as a video game) does, it gives you insight into yourself and your relationships, and it takes place during time that you can't use for anything else.  Personally I think that every parent should encourage children to keep track of their dreams from an early age, but it may be awhile before we get anywhere close to that in this society, because the importance of having an inner life is very downplayed.  As a consequence of the outward emphasis of society, some of us don't even realize that an amazing world awaits them between their ears.  Some people even think that they don't dream most nights.

This is not true unless you are a very bizarre mutant.  You dream or go into some form of inner activity that we might as well call dreaming at least once during every sleep cycle.  If you believe that you don't dream, consider that, since dreaming does not have consequences outside of your mind, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between not dreaming and forgetting that you have dreamt.  So the first step is to get those dreams into your consciousness.

Magic and Science

Some of you may have heard the phrase 'magical thinking' before.  According to many people trained to think causally, magical thinking often involves treating a link of correlation (that is, a tendency to be associated) as a causal link: for instance, if we did a study that found that people with a greater body fat percentage tended to have more heart attacks than those who did not, and so we gave them a drug that had been administered in a study where it was found that the people who received the drug tended to have fewer heart attacks, we would have done purely magical thinking under this definition.  After all, it's very likely that rather than having high body fat itself causing heart attacks, something that also contributes to body fat raises heart attack rates.  And similarly, it may be somewhat likely that the people who received the drug in the second study were already less susceptible to heart attacks than those who did not.  I'm not trying to fling verbal feces at the medical establishment; I'm just trying to show that, even if ritual and dance and ecstasy aren't involved like they are in some practices of magic, there's still a strong current of magical thinking manifest in our society.

I don't think this is a problem.  As Ramsey Dukes points out, the technologies we create using science change society at a rate faster than science itself can keep up with.  It's not necessarily a bad idea to avoid using prescription drugs or food additives that correlate with nasty side effects or poor health in order to avoid those maladies, particularly if more extensive research has yet to be performed.

In fact, this type of thinking can help avoid some of the pitfalls which science is subject to.  For a long time, people were advised to avoid exposure to the sun due to harmful ultraviolet rays that can cause cancer.  These rays are basically high-energy light that very occasionally will hit one of your at least 230 trillion chromosomes and may cause a genetic mutation, a small subset of which will cause cancer rather than simply the death of that cell or no impairment in function.  Much more recently there has been a lot of news on the web about how important exposure to the sun is to health, with studies linking Vitamin D (which our body produces from sun exposure) to lower cancer rates, fewer allergies, and a variety of other health benefits.

Imagination exercises, part two - heightening the senses

To balance out some of the abstract theological matters discussed in the last post, this evening I'll be introducing another practical exercise for use in cultivating the imagination.  This is an old trick, but there are lots of ways it can be used.

The basic trick is that when you imagine things with more of your senses involved in the image, the experience becomes more intense and immersive.  Here's a simple example: imagine the smell of buttered popcorn.  It seems kinda vague if you try to do it with just that.  But now add in the sound of it popping.  The smell becomes a little easier to recall, right?  Now recall how it looks, how it feels to lift a small handful out of the bowl and into your mouth, and take a bite.  The imaginary smell becomes a lot more vivid as you do this.

This works for all of your senses.  Try imagining the sound of raindrops.  For some people this comes more easily than for others.  But if you add to that image the feel of dampness in the air and the smell of rain, the sound gets stronger.  Bring in the feel of raindrops falling on your head, and the image of them splashing on the ground, and perhaps the taste you remember from catching them in your mouth when you were a kid, and you can definitely hear the sound of rain in your mind.

So as you can see, the imaginary senses (that is, the faculties for perceiving imagined things) work in synergy with each other, just like the real senses do.  And just like you can train your visual acuity, refine your palate, or develop an ear for music, you can improve the depth, richness, and fluidity of your imaginary senses.  And fortunately, it's actually easier to do this than it is to fine-tune your senses for the physical, since you don't have to travel around to seek out diverse stimuli.

What follows is a simple exercise for the imaginary senses.  First I'll present the skeleton of it, then I'll suggest possible elaborations.  If you come up with some neat ways to enrich it in your own practice, I'm eager to hear them in the comments!

Some basic exercises to stretch the muscles of your imagination

This is taken directly from the current draft of the book I'm writing.  The book is an introduction to the basics of astrology, but it includes some imaginative exercises to help personalize the symbols of the astrological language. It also includes some basic new thought stuff.  That last part is what I've posted here.  While I do not claim that the methods are my intellectual property, the way they are presented here in the quoted content is.  Please do not copy and distribute it; rather, link to this post.  [begin quoted section:]

"If you think you don't know how to get into a meditative state, you're probably wrong.  Just in case, though, here's the skeleton of a method used to teach autogenic training:

Inducing Relaxation

Sit or lie somewhere comfortable where your spine is straight and your breathing flows easily.  If your head is supported and your neck can take a break, you can relax more easily, but you are also more likely to fall asleep.  Try this with several different positions and see what works for you.  Rest your hands on your lap. 

If you're right-handed like most people, say to yourself, "My right arm is feeling heavier."  If you're left-handed, tell youreslf your left arm is feeling heavier.  Repeat this to yourself at least six times, then say, "I'm calm and relaxed" to yourself.