by Tabitha Hergest

Created on: March 06, 2010

Magic - or magick, or indeed majick (they are different things or, at least, different perspectives) is not fashionable.

There are organisations which actively proselytise against beliefs in majick, saying it is the work of the Devil, and that we should all roast over an open fire in Satan's kitchen should we even think of such a thing.  Given this belief, it is easy to see how a great propganda machine has been built so as to disabuse people of having any power save that which is given to them by these organisations.

Part of this propaganda machine is the whole fairytale business.  People, from the brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney, have sought to take little bits of folklore and, with a little God-fearing hokum and a bushel of slander, turned them into stories to frighten impressionable young minds onto the straight-and-narrow path of the jealous god.  Thus, as children grow into teenagers and from thence into adulthood, the bogeyman of majick can be safely locked away in the forbidden box marked "childish"

Another part of the propaganda machine is the cudgel of insecurity.  Belief in majick, say the controllers of this machine, means that you're either insane, ignorant or simple minded.  They say that majick hasn't been scientifically proven, and therefore it doesn't exist.  In the rational world, this so-called "enlightened" world, any such talk attracts accusations of superstition, because the Old Ones, with their Wise Women and Cunning Men, didn't have the level of scientific advancement that we have, and so to think as they thought is bound to result in such a thinker being humoured and patronised as a mentally deranged person.

But... the point of the Old Ones not having so much scientific understanding is something of a moot one.  There is evidence enough, recently gained through quantum physics, no less, that it is possible for one particle to influence another, 'though they be far apart - which supports such things as telepathy and astrology.  There are studies by the late Lyall Watson on the nature of astrology - and he says that, given that we are upwards of 70% water, it is conceivable that such huge planets as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn et al could have an effect on us relative to their position at the time of our birth.  That said, telepathy and astrology are to majick what Staines and Egham are to London.

However, even if we have been talked out of believing in majick, we still practice it - every one of us, every day of our lives.  After all, what is reading this article, but an act of majick?  What is breathing, what is walking?  What is eating, singing, making love?  You see, we are all majickal beings, despite what the anti-majickal societies tell us.  It would be impossible, therefore, not to practice majick, although it is up to us whether we will practice deliberately or by default.

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