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Sorcery as Virtual Mechanics by Stephen Mace, published by Dagon Publishing Stephen Mace is well known for his articles that have appeared in Chaos International and the recent Widdershins magazines as well as his book "Stealing the Fire from Heaven." |
Attempting to write about a work that produces great enthusiasm come with a certain curse. The urge to restate and re-express the ideas found there becomes almost too much to hold back. Such has been my experience with Stephen Mace's Sorcery as Virtual Mechanics. I am typically not one for books that are about Magical Theory, as I have found most of what passed for it to be either subjective concepts poorly exported into the objective, or a pitifully researched hodge-podge of any and everything that came before the writer eyes. What Stephen Mace presents however, is by far and away outside of this myopic mesh. It is a treasure trove of areas for further exploration by those brave enough to push the boundaries of what they experience and are willing to seek after ways of increasing their understanding. Magic is essentially a method by which one interacts with Wonder. Experiencing Wonder is accompanied by a certain sense of strangeness. It come from out of nowhere and pulls you out of whatever state you are in, whatever well planned rational direction you have plotted, and places you in at a threshold. If you have filled your Psyche with right thoughts and right actions, this encounter with Wonder can set you off on dramatic new courses. The question that this always brings up though is "How?" The event clearly took place, a change clearly happened, and can be seen by others around, but the actual method as to how it happened remains a Mystery. Stephen Mace has done everyone who has ever considered this question of "How?" a considerable service. He has sought after this mystery, and revealed his findings through this book. The cover itself is graced with an illustration of what is called a "Feynman diagram" which portrays two electrons set on a collision course which, when come close enough are repelled. This redirection cannot be explained via standard mechanics. Richard Feynman, the physicist after whom this diagram was named, presented the possibility of a class of particles termed Virtual. In the case of our colliding electrons, a virtual proton appears, redirects the course of both electrons, and then vanishes. The electrons are effected, their course was transformed from the one that was previous predictable, and yet what caused this redirection does not actually exist. This quantum-derived metaphor lays the foundation for Mace's presentation on Sorcery. He takes the concept of virtuality and applies it on a Macro level. One of the sources he expands on is the work of Austin Osman Spare in relation to sigil sorcery. Here the magician conceals a desire; works himself into a fever pitched altered state and releases this accumulated energy into the Universe. Like our near colliding electrons a seemingly determinable outcome is effected. The tension is discharged in apparently mysterious ways and our magician is placed on a new course in his life and Initiation. If the energy is correct desires are achieved, though rarely in the fashion that would have been predicted. What Mace presents, as a way of understanding this sort of phenominalization, is similar to the quantum idea of how particles can come into being within a vacuum. And making it an even more intriguing possibility is his drawing on the Classical Philosophy of Plato, uniting the edges of Science with millennia old Wisdom. This act illustrates not the need of those pushing the envelope of human knowledge to abrogate all that came before them, but the need to remanifest it as new and better data appears. Not content to keep confined to any one mode of explanation, Mace ventures into some of the anomalies of evolutionary biology. This is a topic near and dear to me, and though I do not agree wholly with Mace's findings, I think he presents some of the major questions in a valid way. One of the greatest mysteries of human evolution is how it is that a rather unoteworthy African Ape developed into a creature capable of remarkable intelligence and an ability to explore and manipulate the very fabric of reality. How did an animal adapted for hunting and gathering contain within its six pack sized cranium the latent ability to create poetry, establish complex culture, do the differential calculus necessary to split the atom and expand its reach to the heavens themselves? Perhaps these questions can never fully be answered, yet Mace presents a possibility that anyone truly interested in both where we came from and where we may be going explore. One of the great strengths of this book comes from Mace's ability to weave together divergent sources and ideas to illustrate his own findings. Instead of limiting himself to poorly interpreted sources, Mace draws on good primary and secondary sources, and in an act that will forever win my respect, he provides a bibliography that contains more books on physics then "magick." He unflinchingly presents his reader with the Wonders that exist in the all too often overlooked material world around the magician. For those who, like Stephen Mace, venture into this Dangerous Land of the Here and Now, may you be transformed. |
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