Types of magic and witchcraft - magical traditions and the difference between black and white magic. Types of magic

Magic is all around us

Magic surrounds us from birth to death.

In our lives there is always a place for a miracle or the unknown, and every person sooner or later tries to learn magic and apply this knowledge in his life.

There are different types and directions of magic.

Sympathetic Magic- based on the existence of a direct connection between existing inanimate objects of the world and various forms behavior.

Sympathetic magic is divided into several subtypes:

1. Contact magic- this is a certain power that is transmitted or given to a person through direct interaction with the bearer of imaginary magical power, this includes wearing amulets and talismans, using prepared magical potions and infusions.

2. Initial magic- during magical manipulations, only the beginning of the action is reproduced, its ending is assigned to the power of magic. An example is the actions of an Australian sorcerer who, wanting to hit an enemy representing a neighboring tribe, performs the following procedure: he points a sharpened wand in the direction of the enemy and whispers curses, he expects that after this action the enemy will be struck down by a quick death, or will die for a long time from painful diseases.

3. Imitative magic- it is based on the principle of philosophy that like produces like. This type of magic is common among Voodoo priests, who, in order to cause as much harm as possible to their opponent, stab sharp objects into a drawn human figure or a manufactured doll. According to the principle of philosophical similarity, harm done to an image or doll should affect the offender.

4. Contagious magic- is based on the fact that things that once came into contact with a person maintain a long-term and inextricable connection at a distance. An example of the use of magic would be the use of teeth, blood, nails, hair for performing witchcraft rituals.

It is very difficult to distinguish types of magic, this is due to the use various principles simultaneously during witchcraft rituals.

Theurgy- associated with animistic beliefs in demons. When conducting magical rituals a magician, sorcerer, or shaman strives to receive help from a deity or even makes attempts to subjugate a spirit who must fulfill what he wants.

Psychurgy- implies magical influence on the soul of the person himself. This concept includes various techniques accepting divine imaginary forms: hypnotism, mediumship, magnetism, telepathy, astral projection.

Magic and religion

Official religions Christianity, Judaism, Islam recognize the existence of various types of magic, but at the same time consider witchcraft a prohibited and not acceptable practice for all believers, which is carried out with the help and mediation of Satan or his messengers. In Christianity, magical procedures are called Sacraments. Magical and supernatural powers According to legend, the son of God Jesus Christ himself possessed it.

Other types of magic

White magic- serves to protect people. Conspiracies and rituals of white magic help a person get rid of harmful vices. Treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction traditional medicine doesn't always bring positive result, but when performing a ritual of white magic, you can help a person get rid of a terrible illness. White magic conspiracies can help in cases where a curse has been sent to a person or damage has been imposed.

Black magic- the complete opposite of white magic and one of its manifestations is belief in Satan and submission to his power. Black magic carries an attack on the human soul with the aim of causing harm and damage. The worst thing about black magic, this is the return of negative energy to the magician who used it. Ceremonial magic refers to black magic. Its effect is based on a call for help from spirits, demons and other evil spirits. The Witches' Sabbath can also be classified as a ritual of ceremonial magic.

Love magic- with the help of rituals and love spells evokes a feeling of love.

There are various classifications of magical rites and ceremonies. One of the most complete typologies of witchcraft rituals is the classification developed by the prominent Soviet ethnographer and religious scholar S. A. Tokarev in his famous work “The Essence and Origin of Magic.” He proposed to distinguish between magical rituals

    by degree of difficulty

    according to the direction of the magical act

    by technique

    by area of ​​application

    according to the goals that this ritual pursues.

Depending on the general orientation of the magical action, S. A. Tokarev distinguishes two groups of magic:

    aggressive or protreptic

    protective, defensive, or preventative.

If the former have as their goal the transfer of magical power to an object in one way or another, then the latter have the opposite goal: to remove, drive away harmful magical influences, and protect themselves from their effects.

Within these two major magical directions, the scientist identifies types of magic that differ from each other in the technique of transmitting magical power or protecting against it.

Protreptic magic. Here, the simplest way to transfer magical power will be direct contact, contact between the source, the carrier of this supernatural power and the object at which the witchcraft is directed. In this case, the carrier of magical power can be different: it is an inanimate object (amulet, talisman), and a person (for example, the sorcerer himself), etc. The nature of the contact can also be different: wearing an amulet, taking a witchcraft drug inside or wiping the body with it, touch of the magician's hand, etc. This type of protreptic magic is called contact magic.

More complex from a psychological point of view is the so-called initial (beginning, transmission, inception) magic. The essence remains, as in the previous type, the same: the magical action is aimed at the object of witchcraft itself. However, due to the inaccessibility of this object, for example due to the distance, only the beginning of the desired action is performed, and its very completion and the appearance of the expected result is assigned to magical power. Thus, Australian sorcerers had a special magical projectile with which they practiced this type of witchcraft. It was a bone stick with a pointed end. A cord was tied to it, the end of which was buried in the ground. The sharpened bone itself was directed towards the enemy while simultaneously pronouncing a spell, believing that the tip of the bone would suck the blood from the victim’s body and it would go through the cord into the ground.

Unlike these two types of magic, in which magical power acts directly on the object of witchcraft (even if located at a distance), the next two types of protreptic magic are characterized by the fact that in them the action of supernatural power is directed not directly at the object, but at its substitute , and only through it - to the object of magic itself. The substitute can be any part of the object of witchcraft (cut off hair, nail clippings, feces, saliva, etc.) or simply an object that has been in contact with it (leftover food, part of clothing, footprint, etc. .). This type of magic is called partial (contagious) magic, based on the belief that a part replaces the whole. In another case, the likeness or image of this object acts as a substitute through which the supernatural force will act on the object. Among many peoples, sorcerers made small wooden, clay, wax, etc. figurines depicting enemies, and pierced them in the heart, head with an arrow, believing that the same thing would befall the enemies themselves. Often the figurine was replaced by an image of an enemy on the sand or ground, over which the same operation was performed - arrows were stuck into it in the hope of hitting the enemy. These rituals belong to imitative (homeopathic, sympathetic, similitude) magic, based on the belief that like begets like. This includes magical actions consisting of imitation of the action that needs to be caused: for example, military and hunting dances, a number of rituals for making rain, etc.

In defensive (preventive) magic, S. A. Tokarev distinguishes two types.

Repelling (apotrepeic) magic. Its essence comes down to the desire to ward off, scare away hostile forces and influences. For this purpose they wear amulets, talismans, amulets; use various gestures, sounds (ringing of metal, shooting, fire, smoke, magic circles and lines, spitting, blowing), etc. This also includes actions aimed at avoiding contact with hostile forces, hiding from them (ritual closing heads, faces, avoidance of unclean places, etc.).

Another type of preventative magic are rites and rituals of cleansing from imaginary evil influences that have penetrated the human body, his home, livestock, etc. Cleansing is achieved in various ways and techniques: through ritual ablution, fumigation, fasting, the use of potions, bloodletting, etc. d. This magic is called cathartic.

Regardless of the classification according to the technique of action of magical rituals (according to which six main types of magic are established), the latter can be distinguished by the positive or negative nature of their recipes. Here we distinguish positive magic, which prescribes what must be done to get the desired result, and negative magic (taboo), which indicates what should not be done so as not to get undesirable consequences and results.

An example of the latter, in particular, is the prohibition among the Eskimos for boys to play games with a string for fear that when they become adult hunters, their hands might become entangled in the harpoon string.

As for verbal (verbal) magic - spells, incantations, etc., then, according to S. A. Tokarev, it essentially does not represent an independent type of magic, but is only a verbal accompaniment of the ritual being performed. However, often, especially in the later stages of the development of magic, the conspiracy begins to act as an independent Magic force, and in this regard it constitutes a separate type of magic.

In accordance with the scope of magic and the goals it pursues, a number of its types are distinguished.

The main object of attention primitive people there was always the provision of livelihood. Naturally, a significant part of witchcraft rituals and ceremonies was connected precisely with this sphere of human activity. Moreover, it can be considered that economic, commercial magic is also historically the primary type of witchcraft, for magic arises as an illusory means of overcoming the practical weakness of primitive man. We have already described some witchcraft rituals that existed among Stone Age people, which were intended to ensure a successful outcome of the hunt. Ethnographers found similar rituals among many peoples who, back in the 19th century, led a primitive way of life. One of these rituals among the Itelmens (Kamchadals) was described by the Russian traveler S.P. Krasheninnikov. This ritual was part of the autumn fishing festival of the Itelmens and consisted of making a figure of a whale from edible grass and fish, which, to the sound of tambourines and drums, was torn to pieces and eaten by all participants in the ceremony. Then the same was done with a figure of a wolf made from sweet grass, which one of the hunters shot with a bow, and the others tore to pieces and ate.

One can also recall the “buffalo dance” of the North American Mandans: its participants, dressed in buffalo skins and with weapons in their hands, playing the role of hunters and game, believed that the dance would attract herds of buffaloes to the blows of their spears and arrows. The dance lasted for many hours, often for days.

With the transition to agriculture, magical rites are performed to influence the forces of nature and achieve a good harvest from the land. The Melanesians of the Trobriand Islands, for example, to ensure that the tubers of the agricultural crops taro and yam they grew were large and strong, buried stones in their gardens that resembled the shape of these tubers, having previously spoken to them. Even in the last century, Russian peasant women, when planting cabbage seedlings, tied a scarf tightly around their heads so that the heads of cabbage would be tight and elastic. Rituals often had as their goal the transfer of the power of human fertility to the earth: among many nations, men and women were naked during field work, performed erotic dances, and had sexual intercourse in the field. Sometimes the main content of agricultural magic was the ritual killing of people. So, the Pawnee Indian tribe had the following ritual: a young naked woman was placed on a pedestal, around which were warriors armed with bows. At a certain moment, they all shot their arrows at the girl. After this, her body was chopped into pieces and buried in the field, and the blood was watered on the crops. One of the West African tribes had a similar ritual: every year before field work, a man and a woman were ritually killed, after which their bodies were buried in the field. The ritual was performed in the hope that male and female strength would be transferred to the earth and ensure its fertility.

Drought, flood and other natural disasters were a terrible disaster for farmers. That is why numerous magical rituals appeared that aimed to influence the weather and constituted a separate type of magic: meteorological, or weather magic. The most common rituals here were rainmaking rituals. This is how the sorcerers of the Central Australian Wonkonguru tribe “caused” rain. Two “rain charmers” took turns scooping up enchanted water into a wooden trough and splashing it in different directions, while making noise and rustling with bunches of feathers, thereby imitating the sound of falling raindrops.

Some meteorological magic rituals are designed to evoke sunlight. The sorcerers from the island of Florida who performed this ritual tied the leaves and twigs of a certain type of tree to the end of a bamboo pole and held it over the fire, fanning it and at the same time casting a magic spell that transferred to the fire, and from it to the leaves. Then the pole was strengthened on the top of the tree, the wind was supposed to blow the spell away from it and carry it into the distance, it was expected that after this the sun would shine. Due to the underdevelopment of primitive practice and ideology, witchcraft rituals accompanied literally every production process of people of that time, while magical beliefs were closely intertwined with correct observations of nature. From here, however, it does not follow that magical beliefs and rituals were identical to knowledge and served as a condenser of rational methods of production, treatment, etc., as some researchers claim. A similar point of view is defended, for example, by the English cultural historian Lord Raglan in his work “How did civilization arise?”, where he tries to explain the origin of literally all cultural objects by the needs of a religious-magical cult. According to him, the invention of the plow was the result of people’s worship of the phallus, and the transition of people to cattle breeding was caused by the fact that people who worshiped the Moon discovered its resemblance to the horns of aurochs and cows. Such views of Raglan and other scientists on the origin of agriculture and cattle breeding, war and the state, money and exchange, art and science from religious cults, in fact, are no different from the myths according to which Diana taught people hunting, and Poseidon taught horse breeding.

The subject of any magical action is a sorcerer - professional or amateur. At the earliest stages of the development of primitive society, there were no professional sorcerers. Magical rites and rituals were performed by any member of the tribe, often by old people who had experience in performing the necessary ceremonies. Subsequently, people appeared who were considered endowed with special abilities, and, above all, the ability to communicate with the supernatural world and its inhabitants. U different nations they were called differently - sorcerer, sorcerer, exorcist, shaman, etc. But in pre-class society they had one social function: magical practice, the purpose of which was to provide the primitive community with the protection of supernatural forces and protect them from witchcraft on the part of unfriendly tribes and evil spirits.

as Art - Achievement of the Intended

There is a certain number of varieties or types of Magic, the main ones of which the beginning Aspirant must know in order to subsequently become able to distinguish between their hierarchical gradation.

Special attention should also be paid to the fact that in real life Many types of Magic are often combined with each other, uniting into a single whole, which is why it is often difficult to distinguish between them.

The information presented below is intended to provide only short description for the purpose of initial familiarization, since more complete guide for each type of Magic is offered to adepts at the moment when they come close to mastering one type or several of the types of Magic at the corresponding levels of Initiation.

Natural Magic - This type of Art is also called Natural Magic (or Natural), that is Natural Magic.

She studies and deals with the lowest Forces of Nature, found in her three Kingdoms: Mineral, Vegetable and Animal.

The main representatives of this class of Forces are elementals - imperfect spirits of Nature and the four elements, better known under the names of gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines.

It is well spoken of in Agrippa's Occult Philosophy. It includes such branches of the Occult, like: Botanomancy- herbal divination,

Phytotherapy herbal treatment, Dowsing - determining the presence of waters, minerals, treasures, etc. with the help of a forked branch of a vine, Lithomancy, divination by stones, most of the Druidic Magic-Runes, almost all known fortune-telling - Tarot, and many other areas that we will not list here now.

Manipulative Magic.

This type of Art is called Small, Village Magic, and also Witchcraft.

It consists of all kinds of manipulations, tricks and tricks achieved through various devices and set-up situations, which, if properly executed, can lead to changes in accordance with the will of a person.

Moreover, the results of such actions will arise naturally; and to maintain them, replenishment is necessary, which the magician must do from time to time. The period of fulfillment of desires through the use of Non-Ritual Magic is usually long, regardless of the will of the magician, for the Forces that are activated in it belong to the category of astral, and even even hierostral spirits.

A magician who practices the methods of Manipulative Magic is usually equipped with an innumerable number of different things and objects that he needs in his activities, from which it is clear that his inventory quantitatively exceeds the set of magical devices used in Ritual Magic. In addition, this type of Magic involves the use of special calendars that help to find out the time and nature of the Forces that are most effective on specified days of the year. All this and much more seems possible to learn, for example, from Grimoires, the contents of which must be correctly understood.

Sympathetic Magic. From the very first words, we will especially stipulate this type of Art: the fact is that it includes under its auspices the following two varieties, which, although they are part of Sympathetic Magic, are, at the same time, independent links of a single Magical Science. The types of Magic we have named generally tend to overlap with each other, which must be constantly remembered.

Here is what George Frazer said about this: “Both varieties of magic - Homeopathic and Contagious - can be designated by a single term - Sympathetic magic, since in both cases it is assumed that, thanks to secret sympathy, things act on each other at a distance and the impulse is transmitted from one to another through the astral light, called the still invisible ether ("Od" of the Martinists, "amniatic fluid" of the Kabbalists; not to be confused with the etheric plane of existence, located above the mental - author's note). This ether is not so different from the ether, the existence of which is modern science postulates for a similar purpose, namely to explain how things can interact with each other in seemingly empty space." N. Belsky, based on the words of Frazer, writes:

"Sympathetic Magic operates on the basis of the principle of sympathy. According to this principle, the world is considered as a living organism, permeated with thousands of threads connecting things, objects, people and all of nature with each other. Such connections are mutually directed and continuous in time, which makes it possible to exist as magic (impact on nature and people), and various fortune-telling."

Let us only add that at high levels of initiation, adepts comprehend fairly simplified methods of Sympathetic and Contagious Magic, based on the presence in all people of a sub-element - the light body and the universal interconnection of the entire set of things, manifested creatures, which owe this state of affairs to Ouroboros-God OA - the “Priceless Axis” Universe.

Homeopathic Magic. Let us listen to the remarks of George Fraser: “This type of magic is best designated by the term Homeopathic, because the alternative term is Magic Imitative- does not exclude or even imply a consciously imitating agent, which excessively narrows the scope of Magic.

Homeopathic or Imitative Magic can be called techniques based on the law of similarity, the lengthy formulation of which reads: like produces like or the effect is similar to its cause. From the law of similarity, the magician concludes that he can produce any desired action by simply imitating it, for example, inflicting injury on a person by influencing his image - a wax figurine, any personal item, a photograph, a portrait... Homeopathic Magic is based on the connection of ideas by similarity ".

Contagious Magic.George Frazer gives the following data regarding this type of Magic: “Contagious magic can be called techniques based on the law of contact, the full formulation of which is as follows: things that have once come into contact with each other continue to interact at a distance after the cessation of direct contact. happened to one of them, the same must happen to the other. Based on this law, the magician concludes that everything that he does with an object will also have an impact on the person who was once in contact with this object (as part of his body or otherwise).

Contagious magic is based on the connection of ideas by contiguity, because there is a connection between a person and his hair, nails, clothes, traces left by him, and the like.

According to the same principle, magical power is transferred from the source to the object of influence (wearing amulets and talismans). It should be noted, however, that human energy, like any other energy (for example, static electricity), transferred or imprinted on any object, with over time, it loses its initial charge and dissipates, which is why experts in Manipulative Magic recommend renewing magical ingredients once a year on certain days, and this is why in Ritual Magic you must not forget to “recharge” talismans.

Operational Magic. The names synonymous with this type of Art are: Ceremonial or Ritual Magic, Greater or Higher, Theurgy, Akleosta - the Adlanian word for “Magic”, as well as Transcendental Magic according to Eliphas Levi. Among the Jews it corresponds to Kabbalistic Magic, or practical Kabbalah.

According to Crowley, " Magic Operational uses two methods of establishing communication with Beings: invocation and evocation" . There are others, but they belong to more exalted varieties, such as: Divine Magic, Death Magic and Point Magic. LaVey describes it this way:

“Ritual magic consists of the performance of a formal ceremony or a scenario composed by the magician himself, balanced in all respects, the implementation of which requires entering certain states and feelings - author’s note. main function- isolate otherwise dissipated adrenaline or other emotionally evoked energy and transform it into dynamically transmitted force. This is a purely emotional, rather than intellectual, act. Any and all intellectual activity must take place in the ceremony, not during the ceremony."

It is also appropriate to mention that High Magic deals with Powers that are an order of magnitude greater than the elementals, and therefore the timing of the fulfillment of the wishes of the magician dealing with her is usually quick and swift, although it depends solely on his skillful leadership. Elemental spirits, however, are highly specialized specialists, experts in their fields, with whom it is much easier to contact than with demons, with the possible exception of the lower ones.

Sexual Magic, the same as the Magic of Love. She uses the loving spiritual energy of arousal of a magician - a man at the moment of his highest controlled attraction to a woman, brought through special techniques to exaltation, and natural sexual desire, directing it through ritual actions. It also uses auric forces that are awakened in intimate contacts among a couple who performs the ritual in known bodily positions and according to a predetermined pattern. Sexual Magic uses majestic Black Masses, but has nothing to do with orgies in which the unbridled inferior human nature plunges its riders into various excesses and perversions!

Divine Magic - One of the highest types of Magic for the Aspirants clothed in flesh, as Art, which we symbolically called Perfect Magic or Universal Magic.

Apart from the Atlanteans, few of the authors say anything about it, because its methods of achievement are incredibly simple, although they require a fairly strong development of the spiritual tools of the adept and sometimes bring lightning-fast results to those who are able to master them.

Divine Magic brings into use a powerful creation in dreams, in projection through the manipulation of auric vortices and pillars of light, as well as thought, which makes the initiate prepared, for example, for a psychic attack at any time and in any place. The connection with your true Self is established here through automatic writing according to Crowley - through “Achieving Knowledge and Conversation with your Holy Guardian Angel”, with the innermost Self through the acceptance of insights in the mental field.

Death Magic. It can well be called the Magic of Silence and Power, echoes of which can be seen in the Enochian language if you look at its substrate; by the way, the Enochian form of speech, based on the relationship of letters in their correct arrangement, in principle does not contain words as such; its so-called “lexical units” are misinterpreted by all interpreters, since each letter of this language reflects a certain idea and is textually expressed in several sentences, or even a whole paragraph. The “words” of androgynous language are composed and parsed in a similar way. The magic of Death makes the adept who uses it, focused on being in the present moment, equal to the inhabitants of the Threshold, for the very desire for such is often enough an instant result. An applicant who has mastered these techniques cannot be taken by surprise - he can always be engaged in magical activities, as long as he needs it; and moreover, he is constantly ready to deliver an early astral strike, preventing any attacks from enemies, since he has mastered the Magic of Death and is in contact with the Ancients - creatures, the world of the dead, who warn him of any unfavorable changes due to their gift of foreseeing future events. The main difficulty in comprehending this type of Magic is that a person, a creature with a huge set of moods and states, must become fixated on just one of them, which will become possible only after overcoming his element and forcing it to obey by passing through the galaxy powerful curses that could negatively affect his psyche. The most difficult type of Magic to master.

Point Magic. Point Magic, which can also be called - Symbolic Magic, is a method and means of influencing oneself, people and Nature entirely borrowed from the Adlan magical tradition through working with astral maps and mystery tablets, based on the Forces of the Universe, enclosed in a hieroglyphic system. It is directly related to the androgynous Tree of Sephiroth, which is why its effects are corresponding. The principle of its operation is such that when a certain combination of previously charged symbols is sequentially set with a consecrated magical Pointer, a contamination vibration arises, directed towards achieving the necessary change. This type of Magic is also valued because of the dynamism with which any such operation is carried out. Its development is impossible without open feelings.

For people who are interested in the theory of magic, I will give a certain classification of types of magic and types of magical protections, which I tried to compile.

What is magic? Magic, in my opinion, is a way of interacting with the outside world, with the goal of changing the surrounding reality in accordance with one’s will and desires through the use of esoteric knowledge and energies of living and inanimate nature. In short, to achieve what you want, knowing how it’s done and being able to do it.

If we talk about the types of magic in the order of their development, then the first one here will be natural magic.

Natural magic traces its history back to animism - the practice of empowering nature, natural phenomena and objects with supernatural, magical characteristics. The belief that nature and everything it contains is living, thinking energy is widely represented here. The spirits of the elements, the evil and good spirits of forests, rivers, deserts, mountains, fields, swamps, and dungeons, originate here. It also presents work with the energy of the Earth, with egregors of places, with geopathogenic zones. Sacrifices to all the above-described spirits and elements are also presented here. It seems that this is partly where shamanism originates.

Natural magic has emerged from itself homeopathic magic. This is the use of stones, minerals, plants, mushrooms, trees - their healing and poisonous properties, as well as the energy of these elements. This is where healing, homeopathy, herbal medicine and other types of medicine originate. practical work with the world of minerals and plants. This is close to druids, alchemists and shamans.

Sympathetic Magic built on the principle of “like begets like” or “like is transferred to like.”

This is where the practice of “rebirth into a beast” comes from, which was used by ancient hunters; ritual cannibalism, when a killed enemy was eaten to gain his strength. Its use can be traced in modern world in the form of so-called “village magic” and Voodoo magic.

In village magic sympathetic magic manifests itself in the form of love spells, when the customer’s biological objects - blood, sweat, secretions, saliva - are used to enter the victim’s body.

The same methods of sympathetic magic cause damage when bad manipulations are carried out on the biological objects of the victim - blood, hair, nails, sperm.

The same magic is used to remove damage, diseases and other negativity from a person by transferring it to another living organic object - an egg, an apple, wax, an animal, a plant.

Voodoo magic has manifested itself in sympathetic magic with its famous dolls, where, by the way, biological objects of the victim are also added. And these dolls themselves are called by the names of the victim and then bad manipulations are carried out on the doll.

Ritual magic. Ritual magic includes magical actions built according to a clearly thought-out program - a ritual. The purpose of the ritual as such is to expand the capabilities of a specialist magician through the use of magical attributes - artifacts, magical symbols, and appeals to otherworldly forces. Solomon's magic (goetia), Enochian magic will also belong to this section. This can also include (however, this is my opinion) church magic. Ritual magic also includes rituals of Satanism with their evocation of demons and spirits, as well as necromagic - working with dead energy.

Magicians and researchers who followed the path of working with space, and who excluded the use of any rituals and intermediary objects, relying only on their strength and ability to control the energy of space and man, came to mental-energy magic.

Qigong, yoga (especially raja yoga), bioenergy - all these areas allow you to change events, influence the surrounding space and people - their health and consciousness, through mental concentration and control various types energies.

When connecting modern science and esoteric knowledge, viewed through the prism of science, appeared information magic. This is the use of digital series, vibration techniques, psycho-energetic techniques, methods remote control human consciousness. These include DEIR, transurfing, NLP, hypnosis. And NLP as such has already received a separate name - social magic.

What about so-called black and white magic? Any of the above types of magic already carries both a light and a dark side. With a knife you can cut bread and stab your neighbor. Hypnosis can cure a person or turn him into a zombie. It all depends on the morality of the “magician”.

Perhaps this classification is “damp”; perhaps you have your own approach to the classification of magic. I do not claim maximum accuracy and completeness of this classification; I described what I encountered in practice.

If we briefly talk about the types of magical protections, I believe that they can be reduced to three types.

The first is egregoric protection. An egregor is an energy-information structure artificially created by adherents of a certain idea, religion, order, group. The most powerful egregors are the egregors of religions. Psalm 90 contains the words, “He who dwells under the shelter of the Most High, shall rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” The egregor of religion “takes under the protection” of its adherents, subject to faith in help and this protection. This includes prayer protection. Also - the protection that sacred and sacred symbols and attributes provide - crucifixes, pentagrams, the Star of David, runescripts, relics of saints and objects from sacred “places of power”.

This type of protection includes protective talismans and amulets, which are made by specialists for the customer, and which perform specific functions.

Protection is structured very interestingly in magical orders, where unique rituals of protection are used.

The second type is mental protection. This includes psychological techniques and NLP techniques. These techniques protect the psyche from mental and psychological attacks, as well as from attempts to manipulate consciousness. Also – the use of visualization methods to set up defenses. This is the mental installation of mirrors, walls, and other types of protective obstacles around oneself. These techniques protect the energetics from energetic attacks.

The third type is energy protection. This is the installation of energy blocks and shields, energy cocoons, the creation of energy doubles, the use of phantoms. Here, both the personal energy of a person and the energy of the surrounding space are used.

According to the vector (direction) of protection, protection methods can be divided as follows:

Active protection. In this case, a person’s protective structures reflect the energy attack and return destructive energy to the aggressor. Also, such defenses may have the peculiarity of delivering preemptive strikes - a person thought badly about someone else, only managed to wish something bad, and he himself already felt bad. The defense worked according to the algorithm “identifying the threat of attack - concentrating energy - delivering a counter-preemptive strike.”

Passive protection (absorbing). This type of protection can absorb negative energy, which will be absorbed and concentrated in protective talismans. Do you remember how many people noticed that silver jewelry darkens? Silver is an active metal that is often used to create magical protections. And he himself can arbitrarily collect negativity from a person.

Diversion protection. This type of defense allows you to divert attack energy to so-called “traps” - energy phantoms. Or divert an attack on animals, elements or other objects.

There is a type of people who can do without artificially installed protections. Their type of energy, either from birth or due to long-term practices, is built in such a way that the negative energy coming to them is absorbed and transformed into pure creative energy and benefits them.

This is my view on magic and magical protections. If you have anything to add, write, we will make this article more extensive.

Variety and types of Magic,as Art - Achievement of the Intended

There is a certain number of varieties or types of Magic, the main ones of which the beginning Aspirant must know in order to subsequently become able to distinguish between their hierarchical gradation.

Special attention should also be paid to the fact that in real life, many types of Magic are often combined with each other, uniting into a single whole, which is why it is often difficult to distinguish between them.

The data presented below is intended to give only a brief description for the purpose of initial familiarization, since a more complete guide to each type of Magic is offered to adepts at the moment when they come close to mastering one type or several of the types of Magic at the corresponding levels of Initiation.

Natural Magic - This type of Art is also called Natural Magic (or Natural), that is Natural Magic. She studies and deals with the lowest Forces of Nature, found in her three Kingdoms: Mineral, Vegetable and Animal.

The main representatives of this class of Forces are elementals - imperfect spirits of Nature and the four elements, better known under the names of gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines.

It is well spoken of in Agrippa's Occult Philosophy. It includes such branches of the Occult, like: Botanomancy- herbal divination,

Phytotherapy herbal treatment, Dowsing - determining the presence of waters, minerals, treasures, etc. with the help of a forked branch of a vine, Lithomancy, divination by stones, most of the Druidic Magic-Runes, almost all known fortune-telling - Tarot, and many other areas that we will not list here now.

Manipulative Magic - This type of Art is called Small, Village Magic, and also Witchcraft.

It consists of all kinds of manipulations, tricks and tricks achieved through various devices and set-up situations, which, if properly executed, can lead to changes in accordance with the will of a person.

Moreover, the results of such actions will arise naturally; and to maintain them, replenishment is necessary, which the magician must do from time to time. The period of fulfillment of desires through the use of Non-Ritual Magic is usually long, regardless of the will of the magician, for the Forces that are activated in it belong to the category of astral, and even even hierostral spirits.

A magician who practices the methods of Manipulative Magic is usually equipped with an innumerable number of different things and objects that he needs in his activities, from which it is clear that his inventory quantitatively exceeds the set of magical devices used in Ritual Magic. In addition, this type of Magic involves the use of special calendars that help to find out the time and nature of the Forces that are most effective on specified days of the year. All this and much more seems possible to learn, for example, from Grimoires, the contents of which must be correctly understood.

Sympathetic Magic. From the very first words, we will especially stipulate this type of Art: the fact is that it includes under its auspices the following two varieties, which, although they are part of Sympathetic Magic, are, at the same time, independent links of a single Magical Science. The types of Magic we have named generally tend to overlap with each other, which must be constantly remembered.

Here is what George Frazer said about this: “Both varieties of magic - Homeopathic and Contagious - can be designated by a single term - Sympathetic magic, since in both cases it is assumed that, thanks to secret sympathy, things act on each other at a distance and the impulse is transmitted from one to another through the astral light, called the still invisible ether ("Od" of the Martinists, "amniatic fluid" of the Kabbalists; not to be confused with the etheric plane of existence, located above the mental - author's note). This ether is not so different from the ether, the existence of which is modern science postulates for a similar purpose, namely to explain how things can interact with each other in seemingly empty space." N. Belsky, based on the words of Frazer, writes: " Sympathetic Magic operates on the principle of sympathy. According to this principle, the world is viewed as a living organism, permeated with thousands of threads connecting things, objects, people and all nature with each other. Such connections are mutually directed and continuous in time, which makes it possible for the existence of both magic (impact on nature and people) and various fortune-telling."

Let us only add that at high levels of initiation, adepts comprehend fairly simplified methods of Sympathetic and Contagious Magic, based on the presence in all people of a sub-element - the light body and the universal interconnection of the entire set of things, manifested creatures, which owe this state of affairs to Ouroboros-God OA - the “Priceless Axis” Universe.

Homeopathic Magic. Let us listen to the remarks of George Fraser: “This type of magic is best designated by the term Homeopathic, because the alternative term is Magic Imitative– does not exclude or even imply a consciously imitating agent, which excessively narrows the scope of Magic.

Homeopathic or Imitative Magic can be called techniques based on the law of similarity, the lengthy formulation of which reads: like produces like or the effect is similar to its cause. From the law of similarity, the magician concludes that he can produce any desired action by simply imitating it, for example, inflicting injury on a person by influencing his image - a wax figurine, any personal item, a photograph, a portrait... Homeopathic Magic is based on the connection of ideas by similarity ".

Contagious Magic.George Frazer gives the following data regarding this type of Magic: “Contagious magic can be called techniques based on the law of contact, the full formulation of which is as follows: things that have once come into contact with each other continue to interact at a distance after the cessation of direct contact. happened to one of them, the same must happen to the other. Based on this law, the magician concludes that everything that he does with an object will also have an impact on the person who was once in contact with this object (as part of his body or otherwise). Contagious magic is based on the connection of ideas by contiguity."N. Belsky develops his words: “So, there is a connection between a person and his hair, nails, clothes, traces left by him, etc. According to the same principle, magical power is transferred from the source to the object of influence (wearing amulets and talismans).” It follows, However, note that human energy, like any other energy (for example, static electricity), transferred or imprinted on any object, over time loses its original charge and dissipates, which is why experts in Manipulative Magic recommend renewing magical ingredients once a year famous days and that is why in Ritual Magic one must not forget to “recharge” talismans.

Operational Magic. The names synonymous with this type of Art are: Ceremonial or Ritual Magic, Greater or Higher, Theurgy, Akleosta - the Adlanian word for “Magic”, as well as Transcendental Magic according to Eliphas Levi. Among the Jews it corresponds to Kabbalistic Magic, or practical Kabbalah.

According to Crowley, "Operative Magic uses two methods of establishing communication with Beings: invocation and evocation." There are others, but they belong to more elevated varieties, such as: Divine Magic, Death Magic and Point Magic. La Vey describes it as follows: “Ritual magic consists of the performance of a formal ceremony or a script compiled by the magician himself, balanced in all respects, the implementation of which requires entering into certain states and feelings - author's note. Its main function is to isolate the otherwise dissipated adrenaline or other emotionally evoked energy and transform it into a dynamically transmitted force. It is a purely emotional rather than an intellectual act. Any and all intellectual activity must take place in the ceremony, not during the ceremony."

It is also appropriate to mention that High Magic deals with Forces that are an order of magnitude greater than the elementals, and therefore the timing of the fulfillment of the wishes of the magician dealing with her is usually quick and swift, although it depends solely on his skillful leadership. Elemental spirits, however, are highly specialized specialists, experts in their fields, with whom it is much easier to contact than with demons, with the possible exception of the lower ones.

Sexual Magic. The same as the Magic of Love. She uses the loving spiritual energy of arousal of a magician - a man at the moment of his highest controlled attraction to a woman, brought through special techniques to exaltation, and natural sexual desire, directing it through ritual actions. It also uses auric forces that are awakened in intimate contacts among a couple who performs the ritual in known bodily positions and according to a predetermined pattern. Sexual Magic uses majestic Black Masses, but has nothing to do with orgies in which unbridled lower human nature plunges its riders into various excesses and perversions! Divine Magic.

One of the highest types of Magic for flesh-clad Aspirants, as an Art, which we symbolically named Perfect or Universal magic.

Apart from the Atlanteans, few of the authors say anything about it, because its methods of achievement are incredibly simple, although they require a fairly strong development of the spiritual tools of the adept and sometimes bring lightning-fast results to those who are able to master them.

Divine Magic brings into use a powerful creation in dreams, in projection through the manipulation of auric vortices and pillars of light, as well as thought, which makes the initiate prepared, for example, for a psychic attack at any time and in any place. The connection with your true Self is established here through automatic writing according to Crowley - through “Achieving Knowledge and Conversation with your Holy Guardian Angel”, with the innermost Self through the acceptance of insights in the mental field.

Death Magic. It can well be called the Magic of Silence and Power, echoes of which can be seen in the Enochian language if you look at its substrate; by the way, the Enochian form of speech, based on the relationship of letters in their correct arrangement, in principle does not contain words as such; its so-called “lexical units” are misinterpreted by all interpreters, since each letter of this language reflects a certain idea and is textually expressed in several sentences, or even a whole paragraph. The “words” of androgynous language are composed and parsed in a similar way. The magic of Death makes the adept who uses it, focused on being in the present moment, equal to the inhabitants of the Threshold, for the very desire for such is often enough an instant result. An applicant who has mastered these techniques cannot be taken by surprise - he can always be engaged in magical activities, as long as he needs it; and moreover, he is constantly ready to deliver an early astral strike, preventing any attacks from enemies, since he has mastered the Magic of Death and is in contact with the Ancients - creatures, the world of the dead, who notify him of any unfavorable changes due to their gift of foresight of future events. The main difficulty in comprehending this type of Magic is that a person, a creature with a huge set of moods and states, must become fixated on just one of them, which will become possible only after overcoming his element and forcing it to obey by passing through the galaxy powerful curses that could negatively affect his psyche. The most difficult type of Magic to master.

Point Magic. Point Magic, which can also be called - Symbolic Magic, is a method and means of influencing oneself, people and Nature entirely borrowed from the Adlan magical tradition through working with astral maps and mystery tablets, based on the Forces of the Universe, enclosed in a hieroglyphic system. It is directly related to the androgynous Tree of Sephiroth, which is why its effects are corresponding. The principle of its operation is such that when a certain combination of previously charged symbols is sequentially set with a consecrated magical Pointer, a contamination vibration arises, directed towards achieving the necessary change. This type of Magic is also valued because of the dynamism with which any such operation is carried out. Its development is impossible without open feelings.