The Magician's Dictionary. Edward E. Rehmus

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СКАЧАТЬ into it, slowly and inexorably. Objects at the edge of a black hole seem to be motionless and frozen. Since they are invisible, however, black holes are almost impossibly difficult to detect.

      BLACK KNIGHT — A mysterious satellite in 1960 which shadowed Sputnik, believed to have been of extraterrestrial origin that signalled back old radio waves from the 1920’s and 1930’s before it disappeared. In short wave patterns so analysed by astronomer, Duncan Lunan, it revealed its origin as Epsilon Boötes (or the star system as it was 13,000 years ago).

      BLACK MAGIC — Sorcery or Goetia. Eliphas Lévi said it was but the shadow of white magic and that, in greater wisdom, we can see that the light and the dark are the same thing. On the simplest level, White Magic is the work of the conscious mind, with Black Magic the work of the unconscious. Or, as Jung put it, white magic serves the self and black magic the ego. And for Alice Bailey, on more complicated levels, white magic deals with the soul, the positive electrical energies, transmutation through radiation and the “self-induced development” of the Central Self. Black magic deals with the outer form, negative electrical energy, reduction of the human sphere.

      But in popular belief black magic frankly isn’t just simply intended to harm others — more than that, it’s the worship and glorification of the negative. Said Crowley in a 1933 newspaper article quoted by Grant (The Magical Revival): “To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency and intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty object of your wretched and selfish desires ... I despise the thing to such an extent that I can hardly believe in the existence of people so debased and idiotic as to practise it.”

      Historians insist that the idea of “black” magic derives originally from a word in the Arabian version of Magic, from a confusion of fehm, “black” with fehm “understanding” or “wisdom.” And, in general, the idea of black or “forbidden” magic simply arose as a designation for the unofficial or unorthodox. In our predominantly masculine culture, black magic is that which relates to the feminine principle.

      HPB designates the symbols of black magic to be the Moon and the inverted pentagram as opposed to white magic’s sun symbol and point-uppermost star. Black magic, she tells us, is concerned with form and matter, whereas white magic seeks the life and spirit within the form. Black magic uses the “astral light” to deceive, to seduce and to serve the purposes of involution, whereas white magic uses the same light to instruct others and to aid evolution. For HPB, black magic, furthermore, sought to degrade sex, whereas white magic sought to transmute it to higher creative thought.

      Remember that Magic is a completely different path from religion or science. It’s sometimes called the “Middle Pillar.” And it matters little where you choose to begin. The vodounist, for instance, who thinks he’ll just drop in for a lesson in where to stick the pins into the doll, will soon discover that sorcery is clumsy and ineffective according to its distance from higher principles of responsibility and inter-relationship with all consciousness, both higher and lower. The person who is merely curious will soon discover that he has a genuine thirst for understanding and his curiosity will blossom into a consuming passion for enlightenment. Consider the life of Tibetan yogi, Milarepa, who started out as an evil black magician only to become, eventually, a great saint!

      Since the proper goal of magic is to deliver the world from its infernal condition, there is a tendency to view any magic but one’s own as “black” or evil. However, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as black magic. All paths are sacred. The initiate does not distinguish between self and other. Rather than calling “white” the magic of charity and “black” the magic of self, we would do better to think of all magic as that which seeks wisdom and designate as leading to evil, “sorcery,” only that which acts in ignorance. By that definition, most contemporary religion is “black magic.”

      The dark path, Vama Marg or left-hand path, is merely one side of the caduceus, in contrast to the other, and as light is brought into the darkness, it ceases to be dark. The phrase, “Lux in tenebris” can refer to the light being brought to the darkness, or to the darkness itself acting as light. Like the scientist, the true magician does not shrink from exploring all avenues of the manifest and the unmanifest. Some magicians say that we are actually unable to choose anything but “white” magic (or enlightenment), since in order for any magical operation to work, one has to refine one’s understanding and purify one’s vision. In practice, however, the followers of Satanism supposedly align themselves to the development of the individual ego for the sake of personal power. And, in order to strengthen the ego, detachment is learned through controversial rites. One of the preoccupations of magic is to enlist gods, spirits, elementals, etc to do one’s bidding and to release their power to the practitioner. But the black magician seeks unlimited power, not to borrow, but to appropriate for himself— not in order to better the world or himself, but to satisfy his personal greed and to establish his ambitious tyranny.

      Serious magicians consider true Satanism (mere Devil Worship, that is) to be shallow and ultimately self-defeating. Power and freedom accrue in direct proportion to the shedding of the ego, (not to its inflation). Initiates see Satanism as a pathetic rebellion that merely exalts the other side of the coin of Xtianity. In any case, Satanism is more in the nature of a religion than a magical system, since it is based upon belief and worship. Seeing that Xtianity tars all variance from itself with the same brush, it has become necessary to discourage the childish triflers by labeling “dark” that which is most holy.

      Finally, for the last word on the subject, here is a graffito copied from a San Francisco sidewalk, circa 1987: “White witchcraft which fools condemn. Turns to black and crushes them.”

      BLACK SUN — On the other side of Daäth, the “reverse of beauty,” the hideous God, Baphomet, the Black Sun (or Black Snake) is the opposite equivalent of Tiphareth, Osiris or Apollo. “The Black Sun” and “The Black Moon” may also be the names of secret societies known to very few.

      BODDHISATTVA — A saint who has forgone Nirvana and reincarnates in order to help mankind.

      BOMOS FOETUS IN FOETIBUS, AD INFINITUM — “God is bringing forth out of infinite bringings forth.”

      BÖN or BÖNPA —The aboriginal magicians of Tibet, prior to Buddhism, at first much opposed to the Lamas, but eventually joining them in their adoption of Tantric Buddhism. Like all major movements, Bsm. did not become popular until it learned how to take in and alter local beliefs. “Dhyana” (meditation) was used in Tibet before passing to Japan as “Zen,” though one can’t be sure whether it’s a non-stop link from Tibet to Japan. If it is, then why not Obon/Bon equivalence, as well? Bon was (is) very back-woodsy and little is known about it. Christmas Humphreys says it has roots in Asiatic (Mongol) Shamanism: nature worship, sex magic and psychic arts. Modern Bon are called “black hats” and are sorcerors of the Dug-pa sects of Bhutan and Ladak.

      BONEWITZ, PHILIP — First holder of B.A. degree in Magic from U.C., Berkeley, 1970. His goal is to “modernize” and scientize M/magic(k) of all kinds.

      BOOK OF THOTH — Crowley’s term for the Tarot. He didn’t necessarily, however, assume an Egyptian origin for the Tarot, as some believe. Thoth is interchangeable with Hermes and Tarot is part of the “Hermetic” tradition.

      BRUNO, GIORDANO — A Dominican monk, absolute pantheist and an early promoter of unbridled sexual freedom. Best known for his work on the art of memory, which was essential for scholars in the 16th Century. Briefly, it consisted in using architecture, classical literature, religious ritual, etc as vast mnemonic devices. But Bruno’s heady and bizarre occult ideas soon outdistanced his practical appeal and had him defrocked and on the run. Bruno was СКАЧАТЬ