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Astrology
by Hand Week 13
Magic!
Last
week, I presented the case that even natal astrology
has its magical aspect. But of course this statement doesn’t mean much
if we don’t have some kind of working definition of magic. This is a
subject area that could easily turn into a swamp if we are not careful,
given the loaded nature of the word.
Certainly,
in many circles, the idea of magic is only slightly removed from devil
worship, even being considered in these same circles as trafficking
in demons. (And lest this seem extreme to some of you, I would like
to remind our readers that there are those who consider even astrology
to involve trafficking with demons.) Even I, myself, not too many years
ago regarded any kind of magic (except stage magic, of course) to be
highly dubious and risky. I never thought of magic as intrinsically
evil, but I did believe that it required a high degree of spiritual
awareness to transcend the temptations that might be involved. So as
a matter of course, I steered clear of it, without, I might add, having
clearly defined it myself.
So
what is magic, assuming that there is one all-encompassing definition?
And let’s assume also for the moment that there is such a thing as magic,
because until we have given it definition, we can’t really talk about
whether it exists or not. Let’s also be clear that we are not talking
about stage magic, or legerdemain, also known as “sleight of hand.”
Stage magic is simply a form of deception for the purposes of entertainment.
Has
real magic, whatever it may be, ever involved sleight of hand? Almost
certainly! People who have attempted to master magic have also mastered
other technologies, and that has made various forms of “sleight of hand”
quite easily doable. But I am not talking about that. I am talking about
something else that may have existed besides that.
The
Supernatural
It
is often said that magic involves the supernatural, meaning that it
is some violation of natural law as it is understood. I have no problem
with the idea of a violation of natural law “as it is understood,” but
that is only because natural law as it is understood at any particular
time, and in any particular culture, has never been, and never will
be, a complete understanding of the truth. All systems of natural law
have been, and will continue to be, only approximations of the truth,
and there will always be phenomena that do not fit the current system.
Thus we may get an appearance of the supernatural, but the real thing
is unlikely.
There
is, however, a possible way in which there could be genuinely supernatural
phenomena, but it requires a view of things that is even more at variance
with the prevailing reality system than magic. This “view” is not unfamiliar
to people who study the so-called occult. It simply states that in addition
to this world of nature and physical phenomena, there are other worlds
that may lie within this one, outside of this one, all around this one
or whatever.
Is
There a Supernature?
One
often hears almost casual references to the “astral” or “etheric” planes,
alternate realms of being that have some particular relationship to
the physical world. The nature of the relationship varies from system
to system. In Kabbalah one speaks of Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah and
Assiah. In Neoplatonism there is the One, Nous, Soul and Cosmos. The
basic idea is simple. In addition to the realm of nature or cosmos in
which we live, there are other “natures” that are usually considered
to be “higher” than this one, supernatures, as it were. (The quotation
marks used in the previous sentences should be understood as my questioning
the validity of the words in quotation. The marks mean that I am using
the word without having a clear sense of exactly what it means.)
With
this kind of multiple-worlds view, the concept of the supernatural is
not self-contradictory. We can take the view that almost all phenomena
that we encounter can be accounted for by referring to the laws of nature
as we understand them, and insofar as they are complete. But occasionally,
we might encounter phenomena that are the result of things operating
in another one of these worlds that leads to a chain of events that
somehow impinge on this world, the world of nature, without having originated
within this world.
The
problem with this hypothesis is that modern science does not recognize
any sort of multiple-world theory of the nature of existence. For modern
scientists, the concept of supernatural is indeed self-contradictory
because there is nothing beyond nature, and therefore, anything “supernatural”
must either be a violation of natural law, or an indication that our
understanding of natural law is inadequate. Here we are right back to
the original problem of astrology as stated at the beginning of these
articles. Is astrology the result of some kind of comprehensible natural
law that simply has not been discovered yet, or is astrology an indication
that the universe is much different from what we have thought it to
be?
Next
week: More on this problem and magic.
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