“It takes only the acceptance of a single belief to make someone a magician. It is the meta –belief that belief is a tool for achieving effects. This effect is often far easier to observe in others than in oneself. It is usually quite easy to see how other people, and indeed entire cultures, are both enabled and disabled by the beliefs they hold. Beliefs tend to lead to activities which tend to reconfirm belief in a circle they call virtuous rather than vicious, even if the results are not amusing. The first stage of seeing through the game can be a shocking enlightenment that leads to either a weary cynicism or Buddhism. The second stage of actually applying the insight to oneself can destroy the illusion of a soul and create a magician. The realization that belief is a tool rather than an end in itself has immense consequences if fully accepted. Within the limits set by physical possibility, and these limits are wider and more malleable than most people believe, one can make real any beliefs one chooses, including contradictory beliefs. The magician is not one striving for any particular identity goal, rather one who wants the meta-identity of being able to be anything.”
– Peter J. Carroll, Liber Kaos
If it is possible to effect changes in reality simply by changing one’s beliefs, then it logically follows that words must be powerful tools of magic.
Putting it another way…you can make things true simply by stating them as fact, provided that your statement is convincing.
It further follows, then, that the most basic foundational skill of magic is to speak and write convincingly and with authority. To develop this talent, one should study oratory, rhetoric, acting, art, poetry, hypnosis, psychology and propaganda. Practice telling stories, anecdotes and jokes as a means of making a point. In order to develop the glamour of authority, the magician requires a broad general knowledge. Study history, philosophy, mythology, religion and languages.
The ability to speak multiple languages carries with it the glamour of the world-traveller and renaissance-man. In the US, a facility with French will make one appear cultured. Spanish, streetwise. To speak and read in archaic and forgotten tongues is especially impressive as this taps simultaneously into the archetypes of priest, scholar and mystic.
It should be clear by now that it really doesn’t matter much which particular languages one chooses to study. Each has a slightly different, though equally positive effect. Much more important are the foundational skills and the conviction with which you speak. No-one’s going to think you streetwise as you stutter through your basic, overly formal high-school Spanish. Likewise, no-one’s going to mistake you for wise and powerful Magus if your command of the Elder Tongue extends no further than chanting the Futhark in your deepest D&D voice. On the other hand…maybe they will. There’s a sucker born every minute.
Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!
Excellent post, as always. Words work upon Wyrd. Sound is the building blocks of words. One does not have power if one timidly speaks words of power, or one does not understand what they’re saying. One of the best tools for an aspiring magician is the study of NLP, because sometimes the best magic of all is working it on your own head or other people’s.
Awesome! Many heathens claim that “we are our deeds”… well you know, speech is an act too…
In this vein I highly, highly recommend reading up on Milton Erickson (from whose work NLP was derived). The guy was so good with words that he could even cure _physical_ illnesses with them. If only psychiatry had followed his model and not that of the drug barons… err.. big pharma ;)
A good book start with Erickson would be _My Voice Will Go With You_, edited by Sidney Rosen, as its very accessible, profound, inspiring, etc, etc, etc. Its a collation of the teaching stories Erickson used with trainee psychiatrists.
How awesome to see Chaos Magic, Heathenism, and now my hero Milton Erickson on one site!
I’ll agree. The study of language, hypnosis, and NLP should be required.
Good work!
Great post, Clint! The quote above describes the essence of Anon in a way. But in my personal opinion Carrol creates a disequilibrium by placing ‘doing’ (process) over ‘being’ (essence). However, any philosopher / magician has his flaws, I guess.
I found an interesting statement by the famous chaos magician & Rune Master Dave Lee: “The Chaos Magic approach can be done naively – without any critical appreciation of the belief structures used. This leaves the practioner open to accusations of mall-shopping superficiality in their paradigm-hopping, and sometimes people accuse chaos magicians of just that.
That aside there is a real problem with the technology of belief. We have an uneasy compromise going on here – if we do magic to change and re-enchant the universe, then we are seeking a change of belief, but belief is itself devalued by demonstrating its relativity. When our magic uses belief as a technique, then belief cannot help orientate us in the world. It cannot provide a centre for the chaos magician. So what can?
The two features of the core technology that has come to be called chaos magic are belief and gnosis, or what I call ESCs – extraordinary states of consciousness. It is the very extraordinariness of gnosis that releases us from the trap of postmodernism, by being a privileged state.”
Well, and just another thing I’d like to ask you. I wanted to ask this in the context of your last article, but I was too busy to do so. My question is: Is there any martial art that you REALLY can recommend? I’ve been looking around for years, but haven’t sticked to any style for a longer period of time. I cannot decide between a traditional Japanese martial art or a modern ‘free-style’ one like Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do. What is your favourite martial art?
Wassail!
Matt
Matt,
I’ve studied various arts over the years, and been in more than enough encounters to vouch for what worked for me. Training the way you would actually fight provides the best option.
My list:
American Kenpo
Muat Thai
Kali / Escrima
Jeet Kune Do
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Classic Boxing
Combine a couple of those arts and you will be prepared for any encounter. It will also help to train with someone who has actually been in a fight or two. That helps avoid the macho movie multiple opponent crap.