ESP and Ceremonial Magic

Magical rituals are an intrinsic part of shamanism, divination, yoga, Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism, and Christianity. One of the four classic vedas, or earliest scriptures, of the Hindu religion, the Atharva Veda, is a collection of recipes for various rituals believed to have supernatural efficacy. The term "magic" is derived from the Magi or ancient Chaldean, Persian, and Zoroastrian astrologers and sages, whose religious ceremonies were regulated according to the movements of the stars and planets, and were thought to have supernatural effects. These practices continued in Arab countries long after the culture of the Magi. In the ninth century, the great Arab scholar Ya'kub ibn Sabbah al Kindi wrote that frequent experiments have proven the potency, in terms of effect upon external objects, of rituals in which words are uttered and figures inscribed with intention and due solemnity of time and place and other circumstances. However, the details of these "experiments" have been lost to history.

Philosophical thought during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was steeped in the lore of astrology and its attendant magical influences. For example, Albertus Magnus, the leading figure of 13th century learning who was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1931, was an advocate of "natural magic."

Thorndike (1938) provides us with some sketchy notions of the techniques he advocated. Albertus was clearly interested in the use of psychic abilities to find metals within the earth. Toward this end he recommended employing potions to clog and stupefy the senses, thereby producing visions. He further advocated dream interpretation, the use of herbs and magical stones, animal potions and images engraved on gems. All of these activities were conducted during hours considered astologically auspicious. When these practices did not work, Albertus maintained that the defects were not to be found in the science of natural magic but in the souls who abused it.

One grimoire, The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage pretends to be of Jewish, kabbalistic origin. However scholars have attributed it to an unknown Christian author undoubtedly influenced by the kabbalistic thread of ceremonial magic (Scholem 1974). A wide variety of psi abilities are promised to the individual who is willing to invoke his "Holy Guardian Angel" as well as all the demons of hell. This invocation cannot be accomplished without six months of preparatory purification and prayer, conducted in solitude in a specially prepared sanctum in a formal ritualistic manner.

A more explicit book on ceremonial magic, The Magus: A Complete System of Occult Philosophy, was written by Francis Barrett in 1801, over five hundred years after Albertus but clearly in the same tradition of natural magic. Barrett taught this art to a select circle of students in London. The various chapters of the book delve into the details of hermetic philosophy and alchemy, amulets, charms, hierarchies of spirits, numerology, astrology, conjuring, and dream interpretation. Only a small percentage of this material deals with what we would recognize as measurable psi. For example: "Therefore he who is desirous of receiving true oracles by dreams, let him abstain from supper, from drink, and be otherwise well disposed, so his brain will be free from turbulent vapors; let him also have his bed chamber fair and clean, exorcized and consecrated if he will; then let him perfume the same with some convenient fumigation, and let him anoint his temples with some unguent efficacious hereunto, and put a ring of dreams upon his finger; then let him take one of the images we have spoken of [astrological], or some holy table, or paper, and place the same under his head; then, having made a devout prayer, let him address himself to sleep, meditating upon that thing which he desires to know; so shall he receive a most certain and undoubted oracle by a dream, when the moon goes through that sign which was in the ninth house of his nativity, and also when she goes through the sign of the ninth of the revolution of his nativity, and when she is in the ninth sign from the sign of perfection." The astrological data in this description are derived from the occult compendium of Cornelius Agrippa who, although widely regarded as a Magician, wrote a later book recanting such "vanities" (Nauert 1965).

One of Barrett's students, Alphonse Louis Constant, tinder the pseudonym Eliphas Levi, wrote a book amplifying these teachings. Originally written in French in 1856, the book was translated into English by A. E. Waite in 1896 with the title, Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual. Constant specifies that the real purpose of ceremonial magic is "the emancipation of the will from servitude and its instruction in the art of domination." He further adds that there are dangers involved in the practice of his "science," and that it should be avoided by "nervous persons, and those who are naturally disposed to exaltation, women, young people and all who are not habituated in perfect self-control and command of fear." In the following passage, Constant elaborates on the proper lifestyle for one who wishes to practice the art of ceremonial magic:

The Magus should live in retirement and be approached with difficulty.... This notwithstanding, such retirement must not be one of isolation; attachments and friendships are necessary; but they must be chosen with care and preserved at all price. The Magus must have also another avocation than that of magician. Magic is not a trade.

In order to devote ourselves to Ceremonial Magic, we must be free from anxious preoccupations; we must be in a position to procure all instruments of the science and be able to make them when needed; we must possess, moreover, an inaccessible laboratory, in which there will be no danger of ever being surprised or disturbed. Then, and this is an indispensable condition, we must know how to equilibrate forces and restrain the zeal of our own initiative.

The man who dedicates himself to works of science must take moderate daily exercise, abstain from prolonged vigils, and follow a wholesome and regular rule of life. He must avoid the effluvia of putrefaction, the neighborhood of stagnant water and indigestible or impure food. Above all, he must seek daily relaxation from magical preoccupations, amongst material cares, or in ordinary work, whether artistic, industrial or commercial. The way to see well is not to be always looking; and he who spends his whole life upon one object will end without attaining it. Another precaution must be observed equally, and that is never to experiment when ill.

The crucial insight Constant makes in his book is that all of the ceremonies with their artifacts, symbolism and philosophy are "artificial methods for creating a habit of will." Once the will has become developed, the rituals become unnecessary. "But procedure must be simplified progressively before it is dispensed with altogether, in proportion to the experience we obtain in acquiring powers."

Barrett, F. The magus: A complete system of occult philosophy. New York: University Books, 1967. (Originally published, 1801.)

Levi, E. Transcendental magic: Its doctrine and ritual (A.E. Waite, trans.). New York: Samuel Weiser, 1970. (Originally published, 1896.)

Nauert, C.G. Agrippa and the crises of Renaissance thought. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965.

Scholem, G. Kabbalah. New York: Quadrangle, 1974.

Thorndike, L. The place of magic in the intellectual history of Europe. New York: Columbia University Press, 1905.

Thorndike, L. The history of magic and experimental science, Vol. 5. New York: Columbia University Press, 1938.