Tarot Magic Mini-Course: Lesson 4: Definitions of Magic

Welcome to Tarot Magic — a revolutionary new way to use the archetypes of the tarot for powerful personal transformation, practical enchantment, and spiritual growth.

In this mini-course, I’m providing free access to selected material in the full Tarot Magic course. If you enjoy this material, please consider signing up for the complete course here.

1. Tarot Magic Mini-Course Main Page
2. Goals of the course
3. Creating sacred space
4. Definitions of magic (you are here)
5. How Tarot Magic is different
6. The aces and the classical elements
7. The Fourfold Rite meditation
8. Breathing the Elements meditation
9. Four weeks with the aces and elements
10. Tarot altars
11. Tarot Magic at the Crossroads

What is magic?

First, let’s define what we mean by magic in this course.

Religion seeks to lift us from everyday matter towards spirit, while magic seeks rather to bring spirit down into everyday matter.

While religion often reflects a “quest for meaning”, magic is more about “sowing seeds of meaning.”
— Ramsey Dukes (Lionel Snell)

The goal of magic is to bring about transformation of the Self and the world, through interaction with, and manipulation of, spiritual energies.

Aleister Crowley defined magic as “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will.” Occultist Dion Fortune said magic was “the art of changing consciousness at will.”

I find a combination of both definitions to be helpful: Magic is the art of causing change in consciousness and in the outer world — and often it is the internal work that seem to change our external circumstances. Magic utilizes meditation, visualizing, and rituals (which incorporate movements of the body, concentration, visualization, verbalization, and manipulation of physical objects) to create alternate states of consciousness to achieve its goals.

I like this definition from Ivo Dominguez, Jr.

“Effective magick uses symbols, placeholders, frameworks, resonant links, and the flexibility of the human psyche to engage with powers that are vaster than humanity and with those that lie hidden within.”

— Ivo Dominguez Jr. Four Elements of the Wise, Red Wheel Weiser

One of my favorite metaphors is that of the magician as a surfer, and reality as the ocean’s waves. The surfer studies the ocean, and finds the perfect wave to ride, constantly shifting position to optimally ride the perfect wave of energy. Another useful metaphor is a sailor. After determining where she wants to go, the sailor adjusts the sails to the wind, constantly monitoring the wind and the waves, guiding the vessel until the goal is reached.

The surfboard or sailboat for the magician are metaphors for the tools and practices of magic — divination, rituals, meditations, visualizations, etc.

There are a number of lenses through which to view magic and how it works. The most popular viewpoints among magic practitioners are:

• Magic as channeling of personal energy and power
• Magic as interactions with spirits and divinities
• Natural magic (using plants, herbs, stones, etc.)
• Animism or panentheism, in which all matter is conscious

For this course, I suggest you avoid adopting any one of these frameworks as “the” way magic works. Instead, we will work with several models, all of which are effective. I suggest you remain open-minded and flexible, because magic may work as a combination of all of the above possibilities.

Although I am not a huge fan of Aleister Crowley or his magical system, I have always found this quote very helpful:

“In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.”

Magic is also experimental and personal, which is the reason it is necessary to keep a magical diary.

The primary goal of magic should be, as the words inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi advised, “Know thyself.” Ceremonial magic traditions call this knowledge and conversation with one’s holy guardian angel, new age traditions call it getting in touch with your higher (or highest) self, and the ancient Greeks called it theurgy.

What is the spiritual reality that we interact with to create magic? It is called it Spirit, the source, or the field. Those who use a psychological model call it the unconscious. Whatever name you call it, it is understood as being immanent, an energetic reality underlying the material world, that can be accessed, manipulated, and channeled.

Ultimately, we are concerned with what works, not how it works. I have worked hard to make this system practical and useful, and I hope you enjoy doing Tarot Magic as much as I have.

And if you are interested in magical theory, please see the list of book recommendations for those I have found the most valuable.

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
— George E. P. Box

> Next lesson: Lesson 5: How Tarot Magic is different

Michael M. Hughes is a writer, speaker, game designer, and magical thinker. He is the author of Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change(coming soon in a revised and updated edition), the Blackwater Lights Trilogy,as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction, and he speaks and teaches classes on magic, tarot, pop culture, psychedelics, and more.

His comprehensive tarot course, The Art and Magic of the Tarot: Foundations, is available here, as well as his most recent course on Tarot Magic.

Michael’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, CNN, The L.A. Times, Rolling Stone, Comedy Central, Wired, Elle,Vox, Cosmopolitan, The Tamron Hall Show, and even the ultraconservative The American Spectator, which wrote: “He may play footsie with the devil, but at least the man has a sense of humor.”

You can sign up for his newsletter and follow him on YouTube, Twitter (I still can’t call it X), Bluesy, Facebook, and (occasionally) Instagram.