Building a Magical Method

A method is more than a technique but less than a system. It’s actually a combination of techniques and in turn also one of the building blocks for a system.

Sometimes a method just means the way you approach magic or the way you personally perform the techniques involved. Apologies in advance for the confusion but it’s not easy describing a thing that isn’t supposed to be real while seeking to avoid the more fantastical terminology and stick with terms that convey technical and quantitative values.

Two Approaches for Two Purposes

Magic can be as complicated and overwhelming as you and I would care to make it. There are so many categories one could laden the study with and then do the same with the practice.

See there, what I just did? I divided participation in magic into two phases or processes right off the rip; one process being study and the other practice.

Learning and Development

Study is of course the learning phase where we read, listen, take notes, review our notes, contemplate, discuss, daydream, and whatever else you might do to drive your learning process. This is how we learn the framework and fundamental ideas and find our starting point. It’s also an ongoing process that we use to expand our knowledge and define our skills.

It’s worth reiterating the two keywords of the above paragraph. These are knowledge and skill and the relate of course to study and practice respectively.

Magic is, among other things, a set of skills built upon numerous smaller, prerequisite skills. These skills are both improvable and perishable, meaning it takes time to build them and more time to maintain and improve them, and with a lack of practice they can deteriorate.

Study, Learning, Knowledge

Knowledge is the prime driver of the whole affair, perhaps equaled only by the creativity of the involved artist for those who, like me, believe magic is first an art form and only then whatever else we may call or define it as. Arcane, occult, or esoteric knowledge can be slow to develop at first, but in time it expands exponentially, and this is due to the unity revealed by its understanding. Often to grasp a concept in one context is to open new doors of enlightenment in another area as well.

Practice, Development, Skill

The active phase of magical endeavor, the practice, consists of learning and executing techniques, doing daily conditioning exercises, and finally learning and casting spells or enacting other operations. Some of this work will be like rehearsal, wherein we are just trying to get the movements right and be sure we can enact the spell, ritual, etc. correctly.

Practice doesn’t always infer run throughs and preparation. The term practice also means to actively engage or regularly perform the activity at hand, to put our skills to work.

The Correct Way to Advance in the Study and Practice of Magic

For your first year you ought to absorb and grab hold of any and all information you can find. Soak up as much as your mind can hold and contemplate often, play the part of the philosopher with thought experiments and deep discussions. If no others are present to converse with hold these conferences with yourself.

Likewise in the skill department learn as many techniques as you can learn well. Key to this suggestion is take on no more work than you can convert to good, solid technique and well-honed abilities. Practice often, meaning exercise your skills by practicing technique, and cast spells or perform rituals on a regular basis.

Carry all the knowledge and skill you can hold for the first two or three years, and then begin shifting towards your aptitudes and preferences. Once a baseline of knowledge and skill is achieved you can start spending time and energy selectively on those areas of the pursuit you are most drawn to. In this manner we are able to specialize in the aspects and forms of magic that are most suited to our fulfillment and success.

Study and practice are our developmental processes. From there we decide how to approach our ongoing magical work, and as we carry out this work we will decide, perhaps on a case-by-case basis, what purpose our magic will fulfill.

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