Belief, in magical terminology, is a utility to be picked up and used as needed and then either filed away or discarded. The magician need not become attached to a particular belief but should learn to use any belief as a tool to focus the will and program magical energy.
Before Coming to Magic
Belief, in the everyday sense, is a compulsion that results from the understanding of evidence or the recognition of common knowledge. I suspect you probably believe the vast, blue, empty space above you that stretches out beyond the horizon in all directions is the sky. you may not give this idea much thought during a normal day, simply accepting the proposition as true. This acceptance on your part is compelled by what you were told when you were very young and have since considered to be self-evident and undisputed.
In similar fashion when you wake up each day and get out of bed you believe without a first thought on the matter that when you place your foot onto the floor that, surface is going to support you and allow you to traverse across it. I dare say you don’t find the need to wonder whether you might pass through the illusion of the floor and to your demise in the deep pit next to your bed.
It strikes me as also highly unlikely that you might prepare yourself for the possibility of floating upwards upon stepping out of bed. You expect to land or settle onto the floor and proceed to walk wherever it is you go straight out of bed, be it to shut the alarm clock off, use the bathroom, or feed the cat.
Such expectation is grounded in basic belief, which is in turn compelled by a lifetime of experience and the acceptance of common knowledge. Perhaps at an early age some experimentation was required in order for sufficient evidence to mount and produce the initial compulsion, or maybe you took the support of the floor for granted having seen many an adult walk across it with no problem.
Watered Down for Common Usage
Another commonly referenced type of belief that is not usually a belief at all is the faith-based belief that many religious people advocate. This notion runs parallel to the “fake it until you make it” maxim of 20th-century self-help literature and generally implies the choosing to believe something (or at least hod the desire to believe it) that you don’t actually accept as true.
It’s as if the contemporary, generic “God” of the western world lacks basic telepathy or maybe just overlooks unbelief in those who wish they believed and commit to a life of acting as if they did. To be fair this form of “believing” has seeped out into the secular world and is often propagated along with positive thinking or manifestation ideology.
Magical Belief
I said all that to say this, and finally get to the axiom at hand:
In magic we learn to feel and reproduce the calm conviction of a compelled belief. Taking a cue from the faith-based beliefism we may adopt any belief that suits the work to be done and, using our emotions and will, impregnate this chosen belief with the energy of the truth.
It is a simple matter of practice.
- Choose a belief.
- Charge the belief with emotion.
- Using your will, harden the belief like diamond or steel.
- Cultivate the ability to accept the truth of the belief, and to expect reality to accept it as truth.
- Cast your magic through the lens of this belief.
- Use the belief to focus your will during magical work.
You can choose, use, and discard any belief at any time. This need not change your worldview and the compelled beliefs therein, nor should you worry about somehow losing touch with reality. Rather believe that our experience of reality is defined by our beliefs and we can change these beliefs whenever and however we wish.
The power of the mind and will are such that all this can be done without blurring the lines between coherent and delusional.