The Various Kinds, Types, and Forms of Magic Explained (Somewhat)
There are many different schools, forms, and types of magic, both from the pages of history and in contemporary usage. It can get pretty complicated for the newcomer, and even experienced users can become flustered with the multilayered descriptions often needed to properly discuss the magic at hand.
There is no formal system or sanctioned structure for how to categorize the various types, kinds, or branches of magic. I have produced my own tree of magical classification to make sense of what i am studying and to organize my writing as coherently as possible.
The Short Version
As I often try to do, I have created this short version for those who want the base model and then off you go. Fellow nerds, argumentatives, Sunday school teachers, and bored people continue past this heading for the longform breakdown.
Hierarchy of Magical Study and Practice
I preface the actual list of classifications and categories with the objective or imagined existence of magic as a phenomenon in the universe. The heading used for this is Grand Arcanum.
- Grand Arcanum
This paragraph represents the worldview and paradigm of an individual which produce a magical philosophy and the constructs and orderings of mind that take place before and during our approach to initiation. Here is one proposed hierarchy, in list form, of the various kinds, types, etc. of magic in practice.
Hierarchy of Categories, Headings, etc. Representing the Practice of Magic
- Magic (and not mysticism, law of attraction, et al, this hierarchy is for the magical purist in his or her endeavor to study the Art)
- Branch: Practical or Esoteric
- Class: High Magic or Low Magic
- Method: Ritual Magic, Natural Magic, Divination, Mysticism/Occult
- Application: Theurgy or Thaumaturgy
- Discipline: Mineral Magic, Sigil Magic, Candle Magic, and all other skillset fields.
I think this gives me a good foundation for writing coherently and for arranging things less chaotically in my own mind. Feel free to borrow, bash, ignore, or replicate as you wish.
NOTE: While these headings naturally flow down the tree to form subcategory relationships with the tiers below them you could have divergent subcategories or derivatives for every heading, and in fact some headings could appear at different levels of the tree or diagram. This is not a strict hierarchy, but a flexible tool.
As much as I hate the fact, some of the terms can even have multiple uses or definitions, as well as varying positions or tiers on the tree. For example in addition to being the tier above Application and beneath Class, a “Method” is also a technical term that refers to how you practice magic from a procedural and organizational perspective.
Below are some example subcategorizations using the different tiers/headings. Some examples follow the heading order of the hierarchy and in other cases you’ll see how subcategories can be referenced outside of the linear format. Remember this is not rigid and is only a suggestion aimed at helping not stressing you out.
Methods with Subheadings
Here you see a Method with Disciplines listed beneath it.
- Ritual Magic,
- Kabbalah
- Ceremonial Magic
- Natural Magic,
- Folk Magic
- Most generic “New Age” Magic
- Divination,
- Tarot
- Geomancy
- Mystical or Occult
- Pathworking
- Planetary Kamea
- Astral Travel
Applications with Subheadings
The two Applications of magic (Theurgy and Thaumaturgy) with derivatives, or forms of magic directly linked to one of the Applications, or with Methods or Disciplines they could be applied to.
- Theurgy
- Gnostic Magic
- Some Angelic Magic
- Thaumaturgy
- Folk Magic
- Sigil Magic
Disciplines with Subheadings
Finally, here are some Disciplines of magic presented with subheadings in the form of more focused or niched disciplines. Notice in the first example all subheadings are clear derivatives of mineral magic, while in the second example (Candle Magic) the subheadings are focused on the type of energy involved and could be placed under many other Disciplines, Methods, and Classes.
- Mineral Magic
- Crystal Healing
- Natural Magic w. Minerals
- Sorcery of Stones
- Candle Magic
- Elemental Magic
- Planetary Magic
- Love Magic
This list is not exhaustive nor does it represent any perfect ordering. It only serves as an example of how flexible and incomplete my little hierarchy project is, and hopefully gives you something useful to consider.
This is all Really just about Creating some Talking Points
If this page assists us or anyone else in the conversation about what kind of magic is taking place under specific circumstances, I would consider that mission accomplished. If it fails epically, I will take it down and toss it on the burn pile along with many other pages of gibberish and rambling that have gone before it.
Enter the long version…
Branches: Practical and Esoteric Magic
I begin with the two reasons people tend to practice or the two types of results we generally seek as magicians. I label these branches for their fundamental nature and the fact that they can determine whatever comes next in terms of the category tree.
The two branches of magic are practical magic and esoteric magic.
Practical Magic
This is the work of getting things done in the world where we live. this magic encompasses work to meet personal goals, and operations for helping others, all based on palpable or tangible results.
Money magic, love magic, clearing a hoe of spirits, healing, you name it, if it pertains to an aspect of daily life or the larger cycles of the human journey it is likely practical magic. Arguments can be made for gray areas, which will be clarified in the next heading.
Esoteric Magic
This is the magic that runs alongside mysticism and involves spiritual development and magical advancement. it is often called magic for the sake of magic and can include such awesome exploits as astral projection or spirit communication.
The gray areas I mentioned emerge when one undertakes a normally esoteric operation like astral travel in order to meet a practical goal, like gaining information for worldly use/. I cave an call this sort of thing practical-esoteric magic which is probably a misnomer of the highest order, but that’s nonetheless how I roll.
Classes of Magic
Under the branches of practical and esoteric we have classes of magic. There are two primary classes with derivatives and possible subclasses; within this schema there is also potential for crossovers.
NOTE ON SUBCLASSES/DERIVATIVES: The next category down the tree of magical classification, according to me, is Method, as you will soon read. A derivative of a class (high or low magic) is usually going to be a method but it may instead be a subclass of either high or low, depending upon how closely it fits either descriptive slot. Note this system is far from perfect and is aimed at being helpful and not rigid. Roll with it and you shall catch the drift.
The main two classes are high magic and low magic. Both classes can exist or be practiced within either the practical or esoteric branches. The qualifiers of high and low speak not to the value or even exclusively to the power of the magic but to the complexity involved and honestly to the monetary expense of getting started, plus a few other factors.
High Magic
Historically high magic was a practice of nobles and merchants, due in part to the costs of materials and the requirement of having a room set aside solely for magical practice. The latter especially was an absurd idea to peasant families.
Other tenants of high magic include a focus on intellect and education. High magicians strive to build a strong base of occult knowledge and magical understanding of the technical sort.
Typically high magic involves ritual and especially ceremonial magic. Neither of these methods are exclusive to high magic but they do appear more in this class than in low magic. High magic rituals tend to involve greater complexity and the subclass ceremonial high magic can reach ludicrous heights of pomp and performance.
High magic is also very comfortable or laden (depending on your perspective) with angelic magic and demonology. This stands to reason when you understand that both approaches to sorcery, or the magic of working with spirits, involve both considerable ritual/ceremony and a great deal of specialized knowledge.
As you might have guessed, high magic is the home of most religious or divine magic (two slippery sides of the same slope). Christian Theurgy and Kabbalah, popular forms of religious and divine magic respectively are derivatives of high magic, for examples, that can actually be called subclasses as well.
Finally high magic is predisposed to lineages, organizations, and formal instruction. In the aberration of this aspect of itself high magic is also more likely to foment the delusion of magical exclusivity through initiation or bloodlines.
Low Magic
Low magic historically was the practice of the common people. Anyone could engage with low magic regardless of money. Mythology sometimes existed, and sadly still does, as to whether or not a person had or needed magical blood to practice. but the misconception on this point is more prominent among high magicians.
Low magic can be deployed with common, everyday items and often incurs minimal expenses. Many low magical operations can also be performed anywhere and spontaneously, certainly not requiring exclusive space within the home or anywhere else.
Low magic still requires knowledge and learning, maybe to a lesser degree than most high magic. The teacher student relationship also exists within low magic, as does the concept of initiation, though to a more intimate and perhaps less formal degree. All the distinctions in this paragraph are general and not applicable to 100% of low magic traditions, for some require extensive knowledge etc.
A subclass of low magic is natural magic, which may also be considered a method-derivative in its own right with a subclass of folk magic. In the subclass of low magic context, natural magic refers to the use of readily available items in nature and the understanding of their application in magical work.
The aforementioned natural items may be animal, vegetable, mineral, or energetic in nature. Areas of study and practice within this natural magic are cosmology, ecology, and autology, or knowledge of the heavens, the terrestrial landscape, and the self.
Methods of Magic
After branch and class we have method, or the technical and procedural manner of approaching and enacting magic. In other words, method is how you organize techniques to build acts, how you connect operations to handle certain problems or scopes of work, and even when and why you might engage particular magical activities along with how you will do so. In this regard we can say a method is the active arm of your magical ethos. Broadly speaking methods usually fall into a natural magic, ritual magic, divination, or mystical/occult formula.
Natural Magic
Natural magic as a method is not, as many believe, strictly about stones and toads and herbs and other articles of nature, although it may rely frequently on such things. Natural magic at this level refers to a specific method, wherein rather than using ritual formats the practitioner begins with a plan and intention and forms an operation around the “natural” accumulation and application of items of correspondence, or that emit an energy consistent with the result the practitioner seeks to create.
When sufficient energy is compiled and put to work in whatever way, say the creation of an amulet or charm bag to be carried on the person or used in a simple procedure/spell, ideally the intended result is soon forthcoming. A great benefit, among many, of this type of magic is the fact that it can be initiated or begun right away by a person with no experience or learned skills.
Obviously experience and developed skills are important in natural magic. I simply mean one can start without the need to study a ton of material beforehand, essentially jumping right in.
Ritual Magic
Ritual magic involves repetitive processes and regular acts or operations that consist of sequential parts. This term is often but inaccurately interchanged with “ceremonial magic”. the two forms of magic have much in common but ultimately represent two distinct methods.
A ritual is, as mentioned, an act or set of acts performed in an organized, usually sequential manner and very often (not always) repeated in some kind of cyclic formulae over time. Ceremonial magic take this a step further and uses ceremonies of special significance that are in turn built upon rituals. So, while all ceremonial magic is also ritual magic, it is possible to engage in ritual magic and not be a ceremonial magician at all.
For example a ritual with the dagger may be used to cut away inhibitions and regrets during and after the main acts of a ritual operation. This could be two distinct ritual acts (during and after). The dagger ritual could be used on its own, or in any number of other rituals.
Alternatively it may become part of a ceremony dedicated to a particular deity, perhaps of warfare, vengeance, or even hunting or politics or sex, areas where great resolve and maturity or courage are needed and there exists the possibility of timidity or anxiety or guilt readily interfering with the plan. In the latter case, the specific ceremony intended for a particular divinity, this cutting away ritual is part of ceremonial magic.
Divination
This is the magic of seeing far or seeing clearly or seeing what is not yet but will be. It is the work of knowing the unknown or unknowable and finding the path or the lost.
Divination is closely related to psychism and in some schools and circle is considered as such rather than being viewed as a magical form. Many people believe psychic ability and magic are the same thing when in fact they are different phenomenon with some crossover.
Psychic abilities and senses are inherent to the huma mind and body and we all have them to some degree. I suppose exceptions are possible, just as people may be born without sight or hearing so perhaps one can be born without psychic senses.
Magic is based on skills that can be learned and talents that can be improved with training. A good magician is not required to have any special psychic abilities at all (though it usually helps if she does). Indeed old grimoires and texts sometimes called for a magician to hire a seer to aid in magical operations, for instance watching for the summoned spirit and telling the magician when it arrived outside the circle.
Magical divination is the use of techniques and acts, formula and tools & concoctions that allow or cause one to experience sensory input or knowledge much like what is gained through psychic means. The manner of such workings can resemble a natural approach or a ritual formula or a bit of both.
Mystical or Mysticism (also Occult)
Note I include the option of calling this bracket of method “occult” so if I interchange here or elsewhere don’t let me throw you.
It’s odd to refer to a method of magic as “mysticism”, especially when I am the one doing so. This is because I was once, not that long ago, a bit of a nutjob when it came to distinguishing between magic and mysticism.
They are not the same thing, you know?
Two of the three big “M words”, i.e. “metaphysics” (as a New Age ideology or theme), then “magic” and “mysticism”. The smarty-pants breakdown of these two M words has, for centuries been something like …
- magic is the harnessing of higher frequency energies and bringing them into this reality to ground in the material, thus manifesting magical results.
- mysticism is the elevation of one’s consciousness to higher planes or realms of existence in the effort to directly experience God (Goddess, Spirit, as you wish but you get the point I trust)
For whatever reason I used to go to great pains and lengths to rip away any perceived magical disguise I caught mysticism wearing, whatever the circumstances might have been. I guess I just got hyper-focused on the often ignored or simply unrecognized line between things mystical and stuff magical.
Anyway, this discussion has evolved in recent decades or years (not sure which I just looked up one day and noticed) to include the experiencing of spiritual, subtle, or metaphysical energies and forces in this realm too, or wherever we might find our awareness (through astral projection for example). So no longer is it mandatorily about finding the divine nor is it required to be a matter of entering the upper worlds via soul travel or astral projection or similar technique.
Turns out just sensing or experiencing mystical energy, also called subtle energy, spiritual currents, woo, and so forth is enough to classify an event as a mystical experience. All the stuff about finding god, mingling with spiritual forces, and travelling to higher realms of existence is still valued and desirable so nothing is lost we just gained some flexibility.
Made Me a “Mysticism” Moniker for My Magical Method Mission
I felt work along these lines and in these grooves, while potentially utilizing movement and material much the same as the other three methods certainly represented an experientially unique sort of work and growth opportunity, hence a heading of its own. Tools and techniques native to this method can be used for esoteric and practical work.
Magical operations using the method of mysticism look a lot like applying psychic abilities to the working of magic.
- When using the magic wand, you might project yourself through the wand as a vivid conscious experience at certain points in the operation.
- During the evocation of a planetary spirit, you astral project to “meet it halfway” so to speak.
- You might integrate Reiki or other energetic approach to a healing ritual.
- Instead of pacing the circle and erecting pentagrams manually you sit in a meditation position and project your awareness out-of-body to enact a circle casting or pentagram ritual or similar.
- You perform any operation or act entirely on the astral plane.
- In manifestation work you project onto the astral and engage the astral light with astral hands, molding the thing you desire as a sculptor shapes and forms clay.
We may sometimes engage in purely mystical work as skill building exercises, or as precursor or postcursor to magical operations to either gain mystical perspective or some other benefit thereabouts in order to enhance our magic. What if we engage in purely mystical work without the integration of magical techniques?
Is this “just mysticism” or does it somehow fit into my method category of mystical or mysticism? If our hypothetical magician undertakes his mystical endeavor as its own reward, then he is a mystic in that moment. Nothing wrong with it, just ain’t magical, that’s all. Unless we declare it esoteric magic, pointing out that, after all, this work was done in a magical setting like the magician’s temple!
I’m kidding. As it happens many of us magicians are also mystics and a few of those mystics actually have the fortitude to become magicians as well. Any mystical work enacted by a magician would of course be part of the method category, because inescapably the same work will aid in the enhancement of magical skills and senses and any insights etc. earned from the labor will certainly be of value to subsequent magical workings.
I guess I already said that when I suggested we call it esoteric magic and move on. Here’s my issue: I really want four methods and not just three, so I’m going to leave the mystical heading as is for now.
Application of Magic
We have the two main branches of practical and esoteric magic representing the two primary purposes for enacting a working, then two main classes of high and low with a few subclasses to denote the complexity, cost, and structural foundation of a magic.
After these we find the four base methods under which most if not all magical operations may be filed. These are natural magic, ritual magic, divination, and mystical work.
We no come to the mode of application. This is a straightforward tier that deals with how the magician interacts with magical forces, or how she takes hold of magical currents and directs them and to an extent what she is taking hold of to begin with.
Of course we all take up or harness magical powers, forces, and energies so it may be more accurate of application to say this is how the magician interacts with magic and in what manner plus via what nature of access point the magician connects with and commands or channels this magic. I build this classificatory section upon the dichotomy of theurgy and thaumaturgy.
In simplest terms these are two distinct manners of connecting with the forces that drive magical work and indeed represent two variant grades or types of magical power and forces that can be interacted with. Twofold caveat: in the paradigm of a unified whole reality, wherein all things are part of the One and All and thus interconnected, the opposite access points to the Grand Arcanum are naturally individual manifestations of the same thing, also it is impossible to summarize how we might access and control magic with only two possibilities.
Theurgy
Theurgy is known as divine magic. As the name implies the magician taps into the divine realm and channels the forces of the Monad, either by that name or perhaps called Godhead, seen as numerous Gods and goddesses, Divine Providence, or simply Fundamental Forces of the Universe, et al.
In my paradigmatic vernacular I would say the Absolute gives the Source from which flows the All and then emerges the One, the Duality, and so on, with the Duality marking the origin, birth, what have you of aspect-deities. In this scheme Monad is the beginning and everything after that up to and including One is the same essential phenomenon in a different state, whereas beginning with the Duality and subsequently the Gods and Goddesses, Sprit and Nature, Above and Below etc. our conceptually accessible model of reality and the multiverse appear.
Whether this, or an Abrahamic faith, any Pagan tradition, Shinto, a Jedi, or a Deist magician from the 1700s the idea is the same. Divine power provides divine forces which are movers and shakers of divine energy. A Theurgist seeks, and this is blunt language, to appease and connect with the power, channel the forces, and unite with the energies for purposes of illumination (esoteric magic) and all other works (including practical magic).
Polished a little, this might look like the following.
- Prayer, devotional acts, chants, contemplation, hymns etc. to connect with favor, grace, etc.
- Prayer, invocations, specific acts of a tradition, religion, or deity to align with divine will.
- Processes of reception (of divine energy) include active, i.e, meditation and channeling or passive, opening up in faith to recieve.
- Integration, processing, even storing divine energy.
- Spiritual development and refinement, revelation, etc. results from ongoing prayer, devotion, meditation esoteric magic, etc.
- Divine energy directed into magical operations in a variety of wys or using chosen methods.
Each item above could be subdivided into specific acts and techniques and applied to particular classes or methods of magic. A possible derivative or adjacent application to theurgy might be spiritual mediumship or spirit channeling.
Thaumaturgy
A thaumaturgist uses his or her own will and personal attributes from psychic abilities to intelligence and creativity to harness and direct magical forces to the completion of magical work. Whether natural forces, subtle energies, spiritual energy, innate subtle charges like those found in crystals and plants, or any range of occult forces and frequencies, the thaumaturgist penetrates the energetic source of choice through knowledge and deep understanding, and then harnesses and directs or even commands those energies with a combination of technical understanding and personal power.
Ingredients, materials, and components may be gathered for forthcoming magical work. Here again knowledge plays a key role in choosing the optimal correspondences, locales, and timing for magic.
Often this simple procedure is followed, which of course is related to many magical methods and disciplines:
- Preparation and planning, to include study of involved forces and accumulatio of materials.
- Ongoing visualization of desired outcome during prep and leading up to operation.
- Creating sacred space, i.e. clearing, banishig, charging, etc. an area for work.
- Grounding and centering etc.
- Raise energy to work with.
- Programming or binding enrgy to a task.
- Directing this energy.
- Release of energy and close of operation.
This formula could be satisfied and realized through a wide range of specific magical acts and individual techniques, and could of course b applied through the operator’s choice of methods. We could probably say mentalism and psychism are offshoots of Thaumaturgy.
Disciplines of Magic
Finally we come to the nuts and bolts of it all, or essential components from which the big picture arises. Consider: fundamental movements and intentions are the nuts and bolts of techniques, which are the building blocks of magical acts, which of course make up the structure and framework of magical operations, and these operations are the magic we learn and practice. After this very fashion but existing on the next vertical tier of our structuring of magical study and practice, magical disciplines are the skills and skillsets use to form traditions and methods, also systems and methodologies, which grow and merge with other categorical headings to form a complete picture of an individual, collective, regional, or historical magical practice.
Magical disciplines abound, from crystal magic (broadly) to crystal healing or divination niched). Other examples of specific disciplines include but are not limited to herbalism, Tarot, Runes, wand craft, sigil magic, candle magic, ad infinitum.
It is worth pointing out that discipline is a heading that can displace and reappear in another category or on another tier seamlessly and sensibly.
Discipline under method is only one manifestation of this versatile heading. You could easily have Tarot as a discipline of the Occult Method or Angelic Magic as a High Magic discipline.
You could of course move any of these mere words around a you see fit. Remember this setup is just to help you follow along with my reasoning as you read my content should you see fit to do so.
To clarify some of the terms or phrases I abuse…
A method refers to the heading discussed on this page, meaning overall technical and procedural approach to magic. This is intended as a broad stroke term, for a method can be engaged by any practitioners in either branch or class of magic. However methodology refers to the way an individual magician organizes his techniques to form acts, connects his operations to handle specific tasks or problems, and so on, within or outside of the bounds existing for the broad method the magician subscribes to.
A tradition is a usually long-standing and normally broadly adopted schema including a magical paradigm, philosophy, ethos, and all the branches, classes, methods, applications, disciplines, and even techniques the adherents to the tradition may employ. Ideas of long-standing and broadly adopted are of course relative in nature, suffice it to say a tradition must consist of more than one guy with a few books or even one magician and several students.
As a rule that I just made up right now while I type this, an organization (lodge, order, etc.) consisting of more than two offices, having no less than 60 active members and in operation for at least two generations prior to the current one is required to claim a tradition. Alternatively and ambiguously, a tradition is said to be emerging after seven generations of students who follow a single teacher or set of teachings. Endeavors falling short of these marks may be called systems or schools of thought.