Lesson 1; Introduction to High Magick

Greetings and welcome to the First Class of High Magick! I'm Daven, and I'm going to be your teacher for this class.

I guess we should get started by coming to an understanding of what this class will be and won't be about.

This class is about Magick, not spells. As such, we will be exploring many different schools of magick, from the classical Kaballah to the new age Night Magick. We will be looking at these each and I will be giving you the basics of information on that school of magick, to better allow you to decide if that path is for you.

There are some other topics that we will cover as well. The use of Ritual, the magickal mindset, references, how to make spells for your own use and so on. There will be tables of correspondences, suggestions on how to construct your own magick for your personal use, anecdotes from my own practice and other's stories.

This class will not teach you spells. I may use a spell as an example of how to construct one properly or as evidence of one style of magick or so on. But the focus will not be spells. If you are in this class to expand your spellbooks, I suggest you unsubscribe now.

There will be assignments in this class, and many of those assignments will require you to work. If you are unwilling to do the work, then you will be banned from this class. I will expect assignments to be turned in on time, or you will need to send in a reason you can't turn it in for one reason or another. I'm not an ogre, I understand if family members are sick or dying, and if you are ill, that is a good excuse. Just let me know.

There will be materials that you will need to get or download. In all cases, I will give you enough advance warning that you can get the material before the class starts that requires that material. I will make sure that the material you are required to get is not the kind that will require you spend your money. It makes no sense to me to give the class for free and require that you purchase books to take the class. So, required materials will be available online, but I will try to give references on that particular school of magick when it is covered. It's up to you to either purchase those references or not, but in no case will those references be required for you to pass this class.

Speaking of passing and failing, let's see....

In order to pass this class, you will have to get a 70% or greater on the final exam at the end of the class, and you will have to have turned in 80% of the assignments I ask you to do. Failure to do so will make sure you don't pass and are banned from the class. For this, you will get a nice color certificate to put in a frame in your home saying that you passed this class, and you will get a PDF version of this class presented to each of you when you finish. That PDF file will have the entire class lessons as well as all the discussions that took place during the class.

A few things I have to stress. This class is not designed to be the authoritative work on magick and the practice of spells and spellcrafting. I am well aware that there are thousands of references out there that I could be using, many of them mutually exclusive and contradictory. I am also aware that this will not be able to touch the fullness of any one particular practice. What this class is designed to do is to start you on the path.

It is supposed to give you enough information that you will be able to make an informed decision on which school or schools of magick are correct for you and your personality. It is supposed to be the beginning point for further research. I can't tell you in one post everything there is to know about the Kaballah, or even the Tree of Life, because truthfully I don't know that much about it myself. I have been doing research and I will be citing references I'm using if I cite a fact, but there will be so much more that is skipped over in the interest of brevity.

I also can't do this without your cooperation. There is a lot that will be expected from you as a practitioner and student of magick. I will expect any exercises to be done and practiced rigorously, any material I assign to be read and any assignments to be turned in. There is a reason for all of this, and I may not always explain those reasons when I give the assignment. However, if I have assigned something there is a reason.

Eventually toward the end of the class, I will be sharing the whys of the exercises, but by that time I'm hoping that many of you will have been able to divine it for yourself.

There will usually be several different sections of the lessons. The first part will be specific to the lesson, such as theory or a thumbnail description of a magickal school or so on. The second will be a practical chore, either an exercise in writing a spell, correspondences or so on, designed to get you more of a grounding in magick as a whole. The last section is going to be the assignment for you to do.

This schedule is set up on a two week cycle. That should give you enough time to read the lesson, get any references you may need to get, take a look at any materials that I assigned, do the exercises and get some sort of results back, and then write the responses that are needed and post them. As far as I know, the lessons and the assignments will be going into an approval que, to be sent out the day the next lesson is posted, so if it is a "quiz" style set of answers you can't cheat off each other by looking at what someone else wrote.

One warning: This class will NOT be covering many of the basics of magickal practice. I am assuming that everyone here has a couple years of practice in SOME form of magick or religo-magick to default to, and will be writing my lessons accordingly. I can show you how to strip elements of myth and religion from your current practice so that you are ONLY left with magick, or I can show you how to incorporate magick into your current religion, but I won't be teaching magick from the beginning. I am also making the assumption that most of the people in this class are of Pagan origin and temperament, or sympathetic to Paganism as a whole, if this is not the case please let me know.

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Okay, let me tell you about myself for a bit, so you know why I was picked to teach this class.

I am Daven. I am an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, a High Priest in the Seax-Wican tradition (self-dedicated), a Druid and Ollamh Cainte (Professor of Magick and Ritual) in an online Druidic Society that has since closed down called Ancient Sites, as well as being a Pagan of some years standing.

I started this quest when I was 4 years old, back in 1972. My grandmother was a new-age Christian who had a fascination for the metaphysical. She undertook to teach me about some aspects of metaphysics, from auras, to dreams to AP. Mostly through theory and stories, rather than practical applications of the information she was trying to convey.

This continued on into my teenage life. At that time, I got started with AD&D and began to wonder about the validity of all that my Grandma told me. I began reading everything on metaphysics and the psychic that I could find. One of those books was "Journey out of the Body" by Robert Monroe. I began to practice meditation and astral projection. For me, at that time, it didn't work. I thought that it was simply a matter of not enough practice, so I practiced and read everything that I could get my hands on about the subject of Astral Projection. At the same time, since they were related, I was studying more traditional texts on metaphysics, from Psychometry, to Ghosts, to Psychokenesis to Telepathy and UFO's.

It was now that I started learning about magick as well. I understood what kinds of cons were out there to counterfeit actual magickal or psychic acts, and I'm a skeptic to this day.

Time passed, and I became an adult. I spent some time in the Army, learned that I didn't care for the Army at all, had a crisis of conscience with the Mormon Church, and left them. I began studying about the Pagan religions out there, and discovered Wicca. I had heard about the witches in the woods for some time, but I never had the guts to start reading about them before. Luckily, there was a Wiccan in the gaming group I was a member of. My best friend and another close friend (Native American Shaman-in-training) helped me define what I wanted out of a religion, and when I discovered Buckland's Big Blue Book, I was hooked.

This was back in 1991 when I dedicated myself into Seax-Wica. From there, it was only a matter of reading and investigating more in my areas of interest, learning all that I could about Wicca and the Wiccan traditions out there, and starting to participate in the community.

About this time I met my wife, who had been on a spiritual quest about 8 years longer than mine (she got a late start and didn't start questioning her Catholic upbringing until she was 12 and Vatican II hit). She helped me even more to define my perceptions, helped me to clean out the drek that everyone collects in a lifetime, and to focus myself. She was also a self-dedicated Wiccan, of no tradition. Together we started a voyage of discovery that continues to this day, almost 10 years later.

I have a daughter, whom I am teaching the ways of Wicca to with my wife's help. You can tell that we are Wiccan since we named our daughter after a Goddess (even though everyone thinks we named her after the song). My wife and I are both out of the broom closet, and make no bones about it.

Recently, I have been teaching the basics of Paganism to that group of Druids who don't have the background to fit some of the more esoteric information on the Druids into a world view because of a lack of knowledge in paganism and metaphysics as a background. Also as part of that, I have an advanced class in a lot of theory of different metaphysical phenomenon (in which I have given a brief class in meditation and Astral Projection). I was voted by my peers as the administrator of the group (called Iona on Ancient Sites) when internal pressures became too much. I have started a website that has been up for about 2 years now, which has gotten good critical reviews. I do volunteer work with The Witches' Voice. Llewellyn books also allow me to do some reviews of their books for them.

Other than that, I am a MIS Specialist for an insurance company in my hometown (which means I fix the broken computers), I am continuing to learn, and hope to start taking a course of study with the Henge of Keltria in the near future. I have been participating in debates and discussions for about the past two years online, along with doing my classes, and running around with my normal life.

Oh, I need to add to this, that I have been projecting for quite some time now. I have had multiple discussions about the nature of reality with Herne and Rhiannon and my spirit guides, I have talked to other spirits in various worlds, and I have a "pen-pal" agreement with some of my alternate me's in other universes where we swap news and keep current on what is happening with each of us (me). I have been on the Astral Plane multiple times, either in my dreams or during remote viewing and a few times without my body during meditation. I know a lot about this, but I will leave you to judge this for yourself.

I also have been practicing magick for about the same amount of time, although I would not have called it that if you asked me what I was doing. I came to understand that both skills, magick and AP are interlinked and dependant on each other to a point. I have had several major spells go off correctly, and have worked with other Magickally aware people in local communities that have had nothing but good things to say. I wish I had email addresses to let you check with them, but there you go. I completely recast the Wards for a store in Fort Worth Texas called "The Candle Shop" at the request of the owners.

This is the second year I will be teaching for the Online Mystical School, since I gave the AP class online last year as well. Those students can vouch for my teaching style and I will contact them on your behalf if you wish me to.

I've also been going crazy in the last few months reading books trying to find decent references for you in this class. Finding references is not the problem, but finding good ones is.

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Definitions

Okay, here is where we get somewhat technical. I am going to give you some terms that will be being used in this class, and these terms are how *I* am going to define them. This is not the only definition of these terms, nor are they the most accurate. This is how I define them so that you will know what I am talking about.

Magick: "The Art and Science of causing Change according to Will". The actual process of manifesting your wish in this reality. The real deal, not stage magic.

Magic: Stage Magic, sleight of hand, illusion. What people like Penn and Teller, David Copperfield, Sigfreid and Roy, and other notable "magicians" do to make a living.

OTO: Ordo Templi Orientis, the organization that Alister Crowley set up from his first work, the Book of Law. Subsequent works further defined this school of magick. Not to be confused with the Golden Dawn which was influenced by Crowley.

Kaballah: The path of Jewish Mysticism, to be complimented by the Torah (the books of scripture) and the Talmud (Jewish Law). Much of Western Mysticism is based on teachings that have migrated from the Kaballah over the centuries.

Cabalistic: Anything that has to do with the Kaballah or any teachings that have migrated from that practice. So the "Tree of Life" is Cabalistic in origin, as is the Keys of Solomon, but the worship of the Moon is not.

Gnosis: Intuitive apprehension of spiritual truths, an esoteric form of knowledge sought by the Gnostics. I use it as a state of being in which one is connected with everything, and a state of being which is the goal of most magickians.

Hermetic: Of or relating to Hermes Trismegistus or the works ascribed to him. Having to do with the occult sciences, especially alchemy; magical. These principals were found in the tomb of Hermes Trismegistus and the Emerald Tablet is the most famous of his works. It includes the saying "As above, so below" which has been interpreted many different times in many different ways.

Enochian: The system of Angelic magick received by Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley between March 10, 1582 and April 20, 1587; and the associated writings built upon the foundation established by Dee and Kelley. (taken from http://eclecticmagick.com/enochian/ ) Denoted by usually working with angelic forces and using Latin or older Mediterranean languages.

Spell: Any process where you are trying to impose your will on this reality. This can be a hope, wishful thinking, creative visualization, a prayer to a godform, or a ceremonial ritual complete with black candles and the slaughtered chicken.

Visualization: A process where one sees, in the mind's eye, the goal of a spell already completed. Seeing yourself enjoying the products of your labors and daydreaming about winning the lottery is a form of this. The better your imagination is the easier it will be to visualize things. One of the critical skills of Magick.

Chaos Magick: A free-form style of magick in which whatever works is used. While the term I will be using is NOT the actual definition, it's close enough for me and my experiences.

Witch: A mage who works with natural flows of the world. Notably a Kitchen Witch or a practitioner of Low Magick. Noted for potions, charms, folk magick. A Pennsylvania Dutch "Hexmeister" is a Witch, along with a practitioner of Strega, a brujo/bruja and also a practitioner of Voodoo. One can be a witch without being a member of a specific religion. Sometimes called a "Hedge Witch" referring to the connection with the Earth.

Wiccan: A practitioner of the religion of Wicca. This should NOT be confused with a Witch.

Religo-magick: Magick that is used in a religious framework. Catholics, Wiccans, Voodouns, Buddhists all practice a Religo-magick if they do magick at all. Normally the god-forms of the religion are called upon to cause the change to occur in the lives of the practitioner. Thus, the prayer of the Christian and the Spell of the Wiccan are both religo-magick.

High Magick: An extremely formalized form of Magick. Usually distinctive by great amounts of ceremony and ritual, as well as ritual implements. The process laid out in the Keys of Solomon are High Magick, so too is the Kaballah and Rosicrucian practice. This is what many people think of when they think of magick or "sorcerer".

Low Magick: A form of magick which works with the natural flows of the world, the moon, the seasons of the world, the growth of plants and the energy all around us in life. One who uses the "force" or other life energies to perform their magick, including the forces inside them.

"The Force": Life Energy. Best described in Star Wars; "It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the Galaxy together." Many people use this term to talk about the life energies and fertility of the Earth, the life-force put off by living beings. It is usually the energy source tapped into by the witch and the Low Magic practitioner. Psychic powers would use this energy.

Shamanistic magick: It's usually notable because of the reliance on otherworld spirits and an emphasis on Astral Projection to accomplish their goals. Not only the purview of the Native American. Normally, there is a reliance on Totems or Spirit Animals or just Spirits to act as intermediaries for the Shaman with the Higher Powers. The Shaman does not necessarily interact with those higher powers on their own.

Magickian: Any person who after practicing different magickal paths is able to transform their life by application of one or more principals. Normally this transformation is for the improvement of the magickian as a person, or to help those less fortunate, but this can also be for personal gain or finances.

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Whew, I'm glad that's over. So, here's your first assignment:

Write an intro about yourself. The specific information I'm looking for is this:

1) Your magickal experiences
2) Your estimated experience level
3) Time studying magick
4) Any references you have read dealing with Magick
5) What kind of magickian you would class yourself
6) Any further pertinent information about you.

You can include things like your sex, your location in the world, what you hope to get out of this class, your age, assumptions you are making about magick from the get go, and other information of the same type.

It would probably be best to use my introduction as to who I am as a template for yours.

This assignment is due in two weeks.

Daven

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