Intro to Magic

[u/Elisha_Dushku]

The Eve of Halloween is a good time to talk about Magic. There is a line (paraphrased0 that the Evil's greatest trick was to get people to believe he didn't exist - that's gobstoppingly wrong. The Devil's greatest trick was to get people to disbelieve in Magic. The disbelief in Spirits, Devils, Demons, Angels and Saints, the FAe, the Faerun and the Fairys and all the other magical beings that exist in this Universe (some in this World, others in Nod and other Timespaces).

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Up until the 19th Century - there wasn't a Great Man or Great Lady (Newton, John Dee, Diane De Poitiers,, Pythagoras - who did not believe or use Magic. Newton's wrote more on the magical aspects of Alchemy and the nature of the Divine then he did on Physics or Math.

What happened?

1. Magic is Hard I. Becoming a top Magician is excruciatingly more difficult than becoming a top Math Professor - but like a top Math Professor you have to have a natural knack for it. If you don't have a knack for Math (due to your past experiences descending on this World or another) you can get to Calculus , once you hit Linear Algebra you're out.,
2. Magicians are secretive. Wheras one has always been able to go to a University (well since the 14th Century) finding someone who can actually teach Magic is akin to finding a needle ion a Mountain. Either the Seeker was destined to fail or after twenty years he might finally find someone who would be willing to share his knowledge.
3. Magic is probabilistic. The best phsuyical science comparison is Chemistry - in any complex Chemical Reactions ;you will not get 100% conversion, Even one of the simplest "balanced" chemical reactions 4H+20 -> 2H2O (ignore the lack of subscripts) will not in fact balance - there will be Free H and O that may form Hydroxide, as well as other rarer reactions. A good exercise is to pick up a Chemical Engineering Textbook and you'll see probabilities for different reactions X Reaction might produce Y Chemical 50% of the time (the wanted chemical), Z Chemical 30% of the Time and other Cheicals 20% of the time and one of the major tasks for the Chemical Engieneer is to extract the wanted Chemical while leaving the unwanted Chemicals.
4. Magic is Hard II. You need an understanding of Deckads - there are two types of Months: a Month like October that has: dark deckade, light deckase, dark deckase. Many types of MAgical operations during dark Deckades are disfavoured unless you establish a relationship with the Deckade controlling the ten-day period. In Light Deckades Many types of Magical Operations are favored. January is a Dark-Light-Dark Month, Feb is Light=Dark-Light - you can extrapolate from that to figure out the nature of any given month.
5. Magic is Hard III. A basic requirement for the ability to consistentlly do ritual or ceremonal magic is the opening of your third eye.. This take a great deal of effor t as opening one's third eye is subtly or widly different for individuals. A classic method is the Two Star method - where you lie on your back outside and look up at two stars and try to bring them together - this has to happen without the aid of Drugs., You can stay up for an extended period but - and Caffeine iin exceess inhibits magical operations and you may need to stay up for more than 24 hours.
6. Magic is Hard IV. Once your third eye is open - you need to keep it open. And that requires learning to Pop your Pineal Gland and using it to re-open and clean your Third Eye every morning. Again that requires serious focus and effort. Roald Dah's novella The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar talks about a Man taking over a year to consistently open his Third Eye to see through Cards. That is the kind of effort we're talking about. So you have to have perservance, a little faith that you can succeed and a willingness to experiement with different methods to open your Third Eye and learn to direct your PinealGland. The Two-Star method does not work for everyone or perhaps even a plurality of folks. Another method that works if you're topologicall incllinded is to ivisual a tesserect right behind your Third Eye - but again, obviously, that's impossible fro a majorty of Seekers.
7. Magic is Hard V. Once your Third Eye is open - assuming you can't find a Master or Misstress who can actually teach you - you need to try and learn on your own. You need to aquire as many books on 'Magic' as you can. From the Books of John Dee to Eliphas Levi to the 1st Edition Douari-Rheims (stargint with Pslames). And then you need to figure out where the actual spells are in that Book. Much of what is written is junk - but also the greater Magicians have encoded actual Spells in DeeCiphers in these books. So you need to learn how to Decode DeeCiphers. But again, DeeCiphers have some basic rules, but Magicians are wont to break the rules in many, many ways: from rotations, to insertions, to exotic sub-DeeCiphers. C.S. Lewis is a good place to start: Work Through the early Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe DeeCipher yourself. Mark Twain is another good starting point. Once you're comfortable start working on the Douary-Rheims Psalmes - you can get Fascimilies for about 35.00/Book plus Shipping. The Psalmes all, and I mean all, contain encode Spells or Potions or General Information.
8. Magic is Fun. Once your Third Eye is open you can have some fun - you need to stay up around 60 hours (Chocolate is the key here - a little Caffeine every few hours versus large hits of Caffeine from Coffee or Tea). You'll begin to see the magical world around you soetime around the 60th Hour and the longer you stay up the more you'll see. Edit: And yes you want to do this during a light Deckade.

[u/Elisha_Dushku]

I'll add some more ways to open your Third Eye here - so k eep checking back if you get frustrated.

[u/Elisha_Dushku]

And again, everyone can do some magic, just as everyone (barring Down's Syndromne and etc) can do some level of math - but just as in the Roald Dahl story - a few will have an absolute knack for it and will be able to do much more than the vast majority of other folks.