A close friend and respected colleague asked me an important question today. He asked me why I organize the apprenticeship grades of training according to the four philosophical elements, earth, air, water and fire. I understand that it seems trite to do it that way because that’s the way almost every major magical tradition does it, but in answering his question I reviewed my reasoning and thought it was something that I should pass on to my readers.

Like all magicians, I based a good deal of my training curriculum on Liber 185 and Liber 13, by Aleister Crowley, both being short treatises on the gradations of training and expectations at each level thereof……well, okay maybe not *all* magicians. I found Crowley’s regimen to be reasonable and practical and, although I didn’t know why at the time, it just seemed right.

There were flaws with it, naturally. I thought that Crowley’s focus on Yoga seemed excessive, and lacking in perspective given the wide variety of world traditions that produce the same effects if done properly, not to mention the traditions that have only come to light since Crowley’s death. I also found it somewhat egotistical that Crowley insisted his students had to commit various libers of his own authorage to memory. I studied long and hard to discover the “engine” that fuelled his magical curriculum, so as to sidestep all the junk and discover the operative elements inside.

I began studying Crowley’s “Liber Collegii Sancti” curriculum with an eye to Game Theory and Metagame Theory (especially Mechanical Design), in the sense that the operations of practical magic, i.e. causing change in conformity with Will, functioned according to specific rules by which certain energies, forces or masses could be moved about with impunity as long as a balance was maintained therein. Study of the LCS material provided me with a deep insight into practical magic.

Magic is communication.

Pure and simple. The art and science of causing change entails forcing the universe to adopt a reality other than the status quo, with the magnitude of said change composing the resistance to it, and therefore the amount of work involved. This communication with the Universe is done via symbols. The more personal and involving any element of ritual is, the more power it adds to the magician’s attempt to communicate his will to the Universe. This is the reason for discovering one’s own set of symbols, as opposed to simply adopting the set of an established magical system. Yes, with an established magical system you’ll be able to work in concert with everyone else using that system, but it will never be *the best* system to use for your own personal work.

In human terms, the quotient of status quo functions as “belief”, the strength of the belief being the resistance to change. When a person is presented with factual and indisputable evidence which contradicts his previously adopted beliefs, he experiences a psychological phenomenon known as “Cognitive Dissonance”, in which two realities collide and he experiences great discomfort from the sudden realization that two conflicting ideologies cannot both be acceptable.

Quite often, a person can deal with the discomfort of Cognitive Dissonance by ignoring or dismissing the new information, or finding whatever excuse is necessary to avoid dealing with it. As they say, ignorance is bliss. Truth, however, will not be long contained and will tend to fester in the back of the person’s mind, poisoning his psychological comfort and making him bitter toward any expression or reminder of the discomforting knowledge.

Changing a person’s mind is a matter of persuasion, and a sufficiently persuasive argument can compel an otherwise rational human being to wholeheartedly believe something which is patently and obviously false. When hypnosis is involved (taking control of a person’s sensory input filters), the difficulty in so doing is greatly reduced. This is the human parallel to performing an act of magic.

In magic, the magician communicates his will to the universe, much in the same sense as delivering the opening statement of a debate. The magician says “Things are thus.” and the universe replies “No, things are THUS.”, and depending upon the effectiveness of his communication, the magician’s will is either accepted or rejected by the Universe. Quite often, there is a partial change, in which the universe overcomes a portion of its cognitive dissonance to arrive at a compromise between the status quo and the Will of the magician. This would constitute a partial success, and more often than not even sloppy magic will achieve some degree of manifestation.

So, how do we effectively communicate our will to the Universe? The same way as we communicate information to other humans, animals or objects. Remember, operating on any given thing is a form of communication. Pushing a human is the same message as pushing a rock, the only difference being that a human is able to obey on his own. Language is one of the most common forms of communication, but what do you do when the two persons communicating do not share a language? They use gestures and drawings. This is an example of crossing the planes of communication. For the purposes of simplicity, these are the planes I use:

Earth – Gestures, tokens and touch
Air – Words, ideograms and other direct visual or spoken representations
Water – Color, music, scent and other forms of impressionism and/or intuition
Fire – Telepathy, clairvoyance and other forms of “grok”

Each level of communication has an advantage and disadvantage when compared to the others. For example, telepathy can communicate vast amounts of complex information which can take seconds to communicate but hours to process and understand, but it’s extremely difficult for beginners to achieve accurate rapport in this form of communication. When one level of communication is insufficiently accurate to produce a genuine connection, the problem can be solved by dropping down to the next level and trying again. For example, when two people do not speak the same language (air), they resort to gestures and pictures (earth) which decreases the volume of communication at the same time it increases the accuracy of the information communicated, or at least increases the chances of communicatory rapport.

Translating human communication to magic isn’t very difficult. Once you accept the model of “practical magic” as communicating one’s desires to the universe in the form of a compelling argument, the only hurdle left is to open lines of communication by which to present that argument. Magical technique begins properly with Earth, the use of physical amulets or materials which in and of themselves convey certain types of energy and therefore act as filters to transform the magician’s energy into whatever “flavour” best suits the purpose of his communication to the universe. For example, if he wishes to increase his physical fortitude, the magician could put his energy into a chunk of bloodstone. Much as a coloured gel transforms white light shined through it, magical elements transform whatever energy is directed through them to radiate a specific magical energy determined by the virtues of the physical element itself. The bloodstone absorbs his undifferentiated energy and radiates it back out, filtered through its own virtues to be a source of energy which fortifies the body, increases physical strength and causes wounds to heal quickly.

This level of communication also includes gestures, which I tend to break down into great and small. Great gestures are whole-body stances or movements for use in ritual. Using the entire body, the magician puts a great deal of meaning into these gestures, and therefore a lot of juice. Small gestures are nothing more than one-or two-hand versions of the great gestures, to be used in situations where it may not be possible or advisable to use the great gestures, for example on a crowded subway or in church.

Tokens are an easily misunderstood part of Earth magic. A token is something which is a direct tactile representation of the thing to be worked with. A toy car, tiny wooden house, a “voodoo doll”, or Monopoly money, are all items which qualify as “tokens”, and are easily used in Earth magic. For example, a magician might have a doll or photograph representing himself, and as part of a money drawing ritual he might perform a daily routine in which he counts out and stacks up a large amount of money on top of the photograph. This collection of items would be left out on his altar, dresser top or anywhere prominent where he would see it every day and therefore reinforce the message “I HAVE THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY!”, and if the message gets sent strongly enough, the Universe will accept his argument and the money will arrive. Side note: I would actually *not* use Monopoly money, but print out small hundred dollar bills on a copier or computer printer, because the message is that it should represent real money.

For Air, the use of words and ideograms steps up the volume of communication available, as long as the words and symbols used dovetail with those of the magician. Most traffic signs are perfect examples of ideograms, as is the Chinese language. They are somewhat abstract drawings illustrating the message, which can be quite detailed even with a simple ideogram.

These ideograms can be as crude or artistic and detailed as you like. The more eye-catching it is, the better. Note that I didn’t say “attractive”, because there are uses for ideograms which are utterly repellent in certain situations. The best part of using ideograms is that you can paint them directly ON the object of your magic. I.E. painting wards on your door lintel, or embroidering them into your clothing. I highly recommend using Chinese calligraphy sets for this, since the ink must be made fresh each time, allowing the magician to really get concentrating on the outcome of his work.

Water magic is all about how you use emotion and intuition to cause change. Colors, scents, music all have incredible power to “set the stage” and “create a feel” which tends to put most people in the area into a specific mindset. The drawback is that it doesn’t tend to communicate detailed information well, but rather overwhelms the senses with compelling input to create the desired mindset. This is why hospitals are painted in cool, neutral tones while nightclubs tend to be black or dark colors with brightly colored lights and loud music.

While water magic *can* be used as a stand-alone set of techniques, it is often employed as an enhancement to other ritual methods. A ritual setup is much more compelling and powerful when the room is draped in red fabric, with spicy cinnamon incense burning and drummers pounding away. Face it – it’s pretty difficult NOT to get directly into the desired headspace in that situation, but it often isn’t enough to “turn the trick” by itself – there needs to be a specific set of symbolic actions taken to direct this energy toward the desired end. This is why water magic tends to dovetail nicely with earth magic.

Fire magic is without a doubt the perfect epitome of practical magic, and as such it is both the simplest form of magic *and* at the same time the most subtle and difficult to master. Fire magic is the act of directly willing something to come into being, and having it happen. Yes, it sounds very easy to simply decide that things are going to be a certain way, but it’s not so easy to convince your unconscious mind to play along.

For starters, the magician has his own Cognitive Dissonance to conquer, which can be overcome through the use of lesser forms of magic or through supreme force of will. I’m not going to get into detail concerning the development of fire magic or the specific practices therein, as such would be beyond the scope of this compact rant.

Once the magician has mastered fire magic, he will have essentially mastered all the skills he will ever need to practice any form of magic or achieve any goal he should desire. While there is never any guarantee of “success” in practical magic, having acquired the necessary skills (and most importantly, the mindset and understanding of mechanics) of magic, he will stand head and shoulders above other magicians, and heavens above the common man.