"Magick, not magic that is considered a stage act." US Army Pamphlet 165-13 "I must urge you to have kindly thoughts on the objective possibility of thought-transference and also of telepathy as well." Sigmund Freud in Dreams and Occultism.
"Magick is a nobel art and is acceptable to the immortal Gods." Lucis Apuleius (c.150) in De Magia
"There is definite, validated evidence that unexplained phenomena are taking place in various occult practices." Hal Lindsey, AntiWitch and popular author of several books including 1001 Reasons Why Christ Will Return by 1988.
It is said that books on magick are just rewrites of past books on magick and mostly this is true. Pliney the Elder's Natural History is likely the standard from which most books on magick derive. In this chapter, I will include information that is generally not found in Wiccan books on magick.1 I also include scientific proofs of magick, so I hope this won't be much of a rewrite.
Yes, there is magick that science has not gotten around to proving or has not developed scientific technique to evaluate. Keep waiting, they'll get around to it!
The origin of magick, science, and religion: The ancient Priest/ess with the Gods on their side were the ones brave enough to study the unknown, fears, and phenomena encountered. What the Preist/ess learned evolved into religio-magick-science. Science has it's foundation in magick. The nation that created magick power was Britain. The Persians, Egyptians, and everyone else learned magick from the Britons.11
Herbalism: Mocked for centuries by doctors and the learned as "snake oil salesmen." The Christian religion even put folks to death because they used the herb to heal. Today doctors are discovering what we knew and recorded in books a millennia ago is the awesome healing power of herbs. Many thousands of medications are made from herbs. It is not surprising for medical researchers to be fingering through old Chinese, Indian, and European herbals that are found to be very effective. Many of these herbal medicines are so complex that doctors can't even synthesize them. To heal these doctors must use the herb!
Pet therapy: It is so exciting for the medical community to recognize the value of the familiar. Doctors and others have well established medical and psychological benefits of pets (familiars). Across the country and the world, pet therapy is used in prisons, youth detention centers, nursing homes, and other institutes. Even so-called normal folks benefit from a familiar. Wiccans knew this a long time ago.
Another value of pets is to teach children how to love and care; an element that seems missing in many children today. So please reconsider when your child asks for a pet? Say yes.
Bible magick: My father told me a story of my grandfather from the 1950s'. The family had many small children that needed milk and the family had fallen on very hard times in a remote area of the US. A cow (the families only source of milk) got sick and started bleeding. My grandfather had no money to pay for a vet and if the cow had died many of my aunts and uncles would not have lived. My grandfather resorted to reading a certain bible verse before the cow and miraculously it was cured. Before my grandfather died I asked him about bible magick, here's the list he gave me: Ps. 4:20-22, Isa. 53:5, Ps. 107:20, I Pet.2:24, Eze.16:6 for bleeding and diabetes, Isa. 32:2 to stop the winds, Isa. 32:3 to help sight & hearing, Isa. 43:2 for burns, Ps. 34:19-20 for broken bones, Ex. 23:25 for stomach and cancer, Ex. 23:26 to prevent miscarriage, Mark 16:18 helps snakebite and poison, Ps. 9:5-7 for soldiers in battle, Ps. 113:9 to help with childbearing, and Ps. 32:4 to cure stammering and stuttering.
Researchers have discovered an aura around living things. The aura is an energy field and this same energy passes through nerves. Researchers have now found this energy can be projected from the body into another living being such as a sick person. Some researchers have even diagnosed illness by analyzing the aura of a sick person. Healing by touch was practiced by many ancient Pagan civilizations. Even Christians in their bible adopted the "laying on of the hands." Christ called this healing power virtue in Mark 5:30, "And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?" Luke 6:19 "And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed [them] all." Luke 8:46 "And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." Being healthy may have more to do with energy (aura) than biology!
Color Therapy: The ancient Greek Wiccan Pythagoras used color to treat his patients. Witches have used color in our rites, rituals, and for healing like colored magick stones. Dr. Oscar Brunler, a Scandinavian physicist said, "color is more powerful than medicine when applied to the body." Researchers have discovered that colors have certain effects on people. Red is a stimulant, blue is relaxing, yellow imparts happiness, green - healing, violet sooths over excitement, and brown for security.
Cursing: I do not teach curses! Yes, Wiccans in the past have cursed and even were paid money for the performances of magick spells. Then and for those traditions of Asian Wicca this was acceptable. But this tradition and for British originated Witchcraft cursing is not developed and is considered violation of the Wiccan Rede. We don't charge money for magick either!
Dreams, Visions, and Scientific Discovery: German chemist August Kekule discovered the structure of the benzene molecule through a dream. So was the sewing machine needle. Of special importance to Wiccans, Ley Lines were discovered by Alfred Watkins through a vision. Ley lines are powerful bans or lines of energy that connect many of the ancient stone circles, holy wells, and even churches built over Pagan temple sites. Lay lines don't extend from Christian structures, only Pagan edifices.
Out of body experiences (OBE's): The Apostle Paul talks about out of body experiences in his 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 and 1 Corinthians 5:3. Witches and Wizards have long known of OBE's and many a folk tale speaks of a Wizard being in more than one place at a time. Witches call this astral projection today. In fact, Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 gives a very advanced description of astral projection. Many in the mental health community use OBE's in therapy.
Past Life Regression: therapists have learned that many fears and phobias patients have are from events in their past lives and use regression as a treatment.
It is also a good therapy for persons who are dieing, the overly fearful of death, and the person seeking a religious experience.
Prayer and Religious Services: A 1988 study found that people prayed for need less medication and recover from illness more rapidly than others. Studies in the past show if plants are prayed for they do better than other plants. Recently the National Institute for Heathcare Research found that people who regularly attend religious services have lower blood pressure and lower levels of interleukin-6. Interleukin-6 is a protein suspected in age related diseases. Maybe there is something to the promise of long life for worshipers, see Proverbs 9:11 (the God/dess have made this promise in ancient Pagan texts too!).
Diviners or Prophets: "In nature's infinite book of secrecy - a little I can read." The Soothsayer in Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespear. Diviners or prophets are called psychic advisors today. The Witches and Wizards of the past were the very first psychic advisors. Our folklore often has a king calling for his royal magician. We are advisors to kings (Henry the VIII and Elizabeth I), presidents (like Ronald Reagan), and great military leaders (like Julius Caesar) in many nations and throughout time. We not only advise rulers, but also the normal folks who are really extraordinary. Nostradamus was one such man. He used scraying to predict the rise of Hitler, the explosion of the space shuttle, and many others with events still to come.
In 1983, while I was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, a psychic came to the B-52 bomber alert area to "check things out." Many governments of the world (like the former Soviet Union9) and even the US government use them. According to declassified documents the US spent 20 million dollars investigating ESP and other forms of magick for use by espionage experts.12 Police departments often call upon psychics to help them solve difficult cases. Even the science of Archaeology is using psychics to locate ancient items.3
Today there has been a resurgence of people who realize they have psychic ability. We see telephone psychics advertised on TV and in the newspaper. Many psychics have set up offices to work from and often join with other psychics to attend "Psychic Fairs." This growth in the number of psychic shouldn't be a surprise! Joel 2:28 says, "And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; (Pagans, Christians, and everyone else) and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (tell of future events), your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." This bible prophecy is being fulfilled right under the noses of the Church and all they can do is condemn them.
Further, the church is supposed to have psychic advisors too. For God has set prophets in the church according to I Cor. 12:28 and Eph. 4:11.
Divination devices used by psychics are many and anything can be used as a divination device. It is important to first pray to the Gods to reveal answers before the divination method is used. Divination requires no great skill or special gift and anyone can use divination devices accurately. Today many Wizards and Witches apprentice others and teach this ancient art.
Astrology: the bible in Genesis 1:14 says the stars were created for signs! Signs in the ancient Hebrew (the language the bible was originally written in) means divination. The Christian church accepted astrology in medieval times. Why not today?
The Bible on Magick: The bible itself validates that magick power is real! The bible is filled with magick and contrary to many claims, the bible both condemns and authorizes magick. Magick is a pure contradiction for the bible.
"There shall not be found among you any one that... useth divination, or an observer of times (astrologer), or an enchanter, or a Witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits (ob or a ventriloquist), or a Wizard (who, me?), or a necromancer (a person who talks with the dead)," Deuteronomy 18: 10-11.
AntiWitches don't like magick and use the above verse to condemn it. However, the bibles greatest hero's used magick.
Genesis chapter 40, Joseph performs dream divination and Genesis chapter 44, he uses a silver cup for divination - clearly violating the prohibition on divination. Wiccans call using a silver cup for divination, scrying.
Genesis chapter 30: 14-17, Leah, Jacob's wife uses mandrakes to have children and the bible's God gives her children because of the mandrakes. Mandrakes are a fertility enchantment!
Genesis 30: 37-41, Jacob uses magick wands made of popular, hazel, and chestnut wood to change the color of flocks and to make cattle healthy. His use of a magick wand is enchanting the flocks.
Palm reading in Job 37:7, ESP, and psychokinesis in II Kings chapter 6.
The priests of the Israelites (even the High Priest) used divination devices called urim and thummim (tarot cards) in Numbers 27:21. Even Israelite kings used the tarot in I Samuel 28:6. A tarot system was even found amoung the Dead Sea Scolls and used by early Christians, the Essenes.
Priests even used divination to learn if a wife had been unfaithful to her husband in Numbers 5:27-28.
Daniel, (a Jewish prophet and Wiccan) the Master of Magicians could have obeyed Deut. 18:10 and refused to accept this official position in the Babylonian government, but he didn't (Daniel 4:8-9)!
The source of Daniel's magick powers were from "the spirit of the holy gods" that indwelled him (Dan. 4:18), not the devil. The "spirits of the holy gods" are familiars. Jeremiah, the Jewish prophet had familiars also (Jeremiah 20:10) and Job describes his familiars as brothers and companions (Job 30:29).
The familiar spirit is another example of how the bible has been modified from it's original Hebrew texts! Contrary to what Christians and translators of the King James Version (KJV) Bible have written - there is no prohibition on having a familiar. In fact, the familiar spirit appears several times in the KJV bible, but there is no word in the Hebrew language that corresponds with familiar spirit.10 They have deceitfully translated the Hebrew word ob meaning a ventriloquist into a familiar spirit. Ob in Isaiah 8:19 and 29:4 is described as whispering and muttering, nothing like a familiar spirit.
The familiar spirit appears in the New Testament in Acts 16:16. However, the translators again lied - this woman was an Oracle of Delphi (a Wiccan) and didn't have a familiar spirit.
Many AntiWitches claim magick power comes from demons, but the bible says (Jude 6) that demons are chained up with no power (if they even exist)!
Some in the new religions claim that our magick can't affect them.4 Claims that magick can't affect Christians is a very recent revision of their unchanging doctrine. In the past, Witches were blamed for everything from crop failures to plagues. Many a so-called Witch was executed for cursing Christians. Magick does affect Christians for even Christ warned against the evil eye in Mark 7:22.2 If magick has no affect why did God send an angel to stop the Druid Balaam7 from cursing Israel?5 If magick is ineffective why wouldn't God just let Balaam cast his spells?6 In fact, the God had Balaam bless Israel. A blessing is a beneficial spell! The God's action in Balaam's case prove that magick affects even his own people.
AntiWitches call visions, dreams, and trances evil. They have completely ignored Job 33:14-15, "For God does speak now one way, now another, (in many ways) however man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds." Since when did God stop speaking to us like this? There is no passage anywhere in any bible that say God has stopped talking in this manner! They further ignore Joel 2:28, "And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; (everyone) and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." The Apostle Paul had visions in Acts chapter 18 and fell into a trance in Acts 22. In fact, the Old Testament is filled with Seers, prophets that have visions in Amos 7:12, II Chron. 9:29, I Sam. 9:9, Micah 3:7. There was even a book of the bible written by a Seer that's now missing from the bible, I Chron.29:29. Early Christians even heavly studyed the prophicies of the Pagan Sibyl for the Sibylline Oracles were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The bible confirms that Witches can communicate with the dead (necromancy) in I Samuel 28:7-13. Christ conversed with the dead Moses and Elijah in Mathew 17:1-8 and he spoke to the dead Lazarus when Jesus said "come forth" in John 11:43. If Christ did it - it can't be evil!
There are many proofs of communication with the dead. Mrs. Eileen Garrett (1892-1970) received very accurate information from the dead pilot of a mysterious airship crash. Houdini, the escape artist and magician arranged a secret code with his wife in the event one of them died as to prove the communication real. Six years after Houdini's death, his wife received the secret code.
Christ performed more magick than any other bible character! Christ is very likely to be an Asian Wiccan (or Essene which is realy the same thing). He established his own coven of 13, the 12 apostles and himself as the head. He rejected the Old Testament (OT) prohibitions on magick and rejected the OT itself. "It is written in your (not my) law." John 8:17 and 10:34. Further, Christ says, "Oh fools and slow of heart (unintelligent) to believe all that the prophets (the OT) have spoken." Luke 24:25. His disapproval of the OT resulted in the establishment of the Golden rule (rede) that replaced the law. Yes, Christian say it is the whole of the law, but Christ's rede contradicts completely large amounts of OT doctrine. The OT numerous times commands to kill every man, woman, and child in defeated nations! Even commands human sacrifice. How does Christ's Rede support this? It doesn't, period! Christ intended his Rede to replace the barbaric OT. In fact, Christ didn't feel bound by the restrictions of the OT (as do I) so he violated the Law several times by healing on a Sabbath and committing necromancy just to name a few.
In fact, the Christian hostility to magick is a recent invention. Josephus (c.1st century) reports that the Essenes (the earliest form of Christianity) performed magick. From the writings of the early Church Fathers, we find boasts of Christian magick defeating Pagan magick. The book of Exodus is filled with Moses using magick to defeat Egyptian magicians.
Since the priests, kings of Israel, prophets, and even Christ himself didn't take Deut. 18:10 seriously... why should we?
1. I consider the following books the best Wiccan books on magick; Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, Earth Power, & Earth, Air, Fire, and Water by Scot Cunningham, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN, 55164-0383.
2. Mark:7:22 "an evil eye" is mistranslated, it really means magick.
3. Goodman, Jeffrey, Psychic Archaeology - Time Machine to the Past, New York: Berkley Books, 1980.
4. The New Compact Bible Dictionary, editor T. Alton Bryant, 1967, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Mich., see magic
5. Numbers 22:22.
6. Ibid., 22:12.
7. Ibid., 23:20 Balaam spoke directly to God and God through him. He sought God on high hills. Spoke to animals. Triads exist; 3 blessings, curses, and 3 communications with God. Unquestionably a Druid/Wiccan.
8. McConnell, James V., Understanding Human Behavior, forth edition, 1983, CBS College Publishing, pp. 432-449.
9. Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain,1970, Prentice Hall.
10. Andre' Kole and Terry Holley, Astrology & Psychic Phenomena,1998, (an AntiWitch Publication), Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
11. Pliny the Elder, Natural History,30.
12. Jeffrey Kluger, CIA ESP, Discover, Apr 96, pp.34.