In this section we’d like to offer some thoughts on what magic is and why we should do it. We don’t claim to have the Absolute Truth on this, but we want to provide some possible answers that will help you approach ritual and devotion constructively, without crippling reservations and mental distractions. In what follows, we draw on thinkers like Plato and the Neoplatonists, Qabalists, and others.
Ritual magic is a broad subject. It can range from high-level angelic evocations, to creating talismans for practical results, or consecrating objects as sacred mandalas or as ritual equipment, the disciplined attainment of visions, ritual meditations, initiations, different forms of personal healing, and more. This makes it difficult to define magic succinctly, and we won’t attempt that here. Instead, we’ll emphasize one aspect of ritual: healing.
What we mean by healing is a kind of conscious balancing of the soul as a whole, leading to practical benefit in one’s daily life, increased enlightenment and happiness, and generally recovering and enhancing our full human natures.

An astrological and magical cosmology


In many traditional ways of thought, humans have the potential to be happy and fulfilled, expressing our talents and realizing the Divine in our lives and the world around us—including, for many, building a connection with higher angelic beings which have a direct relationship to our embodied lives (sometimes called guardian angels, and the like). Now, the distinguishing feature of humans is that we are microcosms, which means that the various components of the human being each correlate to features of the cosmos. For example, corresponding to our own reason is a kind of cosmic Reason or Intelligence (including perhaps higher intelligent or intelligible beings), which we should be able to access via our higher faculties; corresponding to our soul (broadly conceived) is a kind of world-soul or broader principle of life throughout the universe; corresponding to our bodies is the entire material universe. There are other, more complicated ways to put this, but we think you get the idea: aspects of the human are miniature expressions of larger aspects of the cosmos.


So being a microcosm is distinctive, and suggests a kind of special fulfillment attainable by human beings. But this special nature is so complex that it provides reasons for things to go awry. For example, Plato teaches that simply being embodied presents problems, because it distracts us from higher realities not visible to the senses: so, the more we take the merely physical world to be real, and the less we follow our reason (as opposed to sensations and desires), the worse off we will be—both individually and socially. Then again, since our internal chemistry can be disrupted in various ways, we fall prone to illnesses, emotional imbalance and so on. Ancient teachings are full of these sorts of warnings. So although we have reason and higher faculties, we often don’t pay attention to them. Although we have bodies, they are often out of balance. These complications are what make happiness, fulfillment, and enlightenment, so precious, rare, and important.
Take a look at the following diagram, which is a very simplified ancient cosmology. The idea is that the universe has a tiered structure. At the “lower” end of the spectrum is where we spend most of our lives: the sensible, changeable world, composed of the elements, in which we live as material beings and express the lower aspects of our souls: the senses, desires and passions, everyday values of pride, and so on. We might even say that a lot of society is implicitly based on many of these things: the rough and tumble world in which people’s emotions and desires govern how we all get along. This aspect of the universe is one of relativity, change, time, and less stable unities.

At the “upper” end of the spectrum are higher realities which have permanent being, more stable unities, and are non-sensible. It is an intelligible realm of reason, the Divine, other intelligent beings without sensible bodies (such as angels), and other kinds of structures which provide stability and function for the things at the lower end, in material nature: mathematical objects, values like Beauty, and, in the Qabalistic approach, the Sephiroth themselves. This realm corresponds to our reason and higher faculties, and when our reason is working at its best, we are able to understand the deeper principles of the universe, be in
communion with higher beings, and channel the Divine more purely. Unfortunately,although in truth we yearn for this connection, life in the material world often leads us to concentrate instead on our lower functions and daily tasks.
In the middle are what we might call the “astrologicals”: the planets and signs. In the type of cosmos we are constructing here, they occupy a special place and serve special functions. As for their place, on the one hand they exhibit mathematical relationships, intelligible regularity and periods, beauty—in other words, the kinds of structure which are associated with the higher realities in the realm of Being, Reason, the Divine. On the other, they exhibit motion and have sensible qualities which we find in the material world of becoming. So the astrologicals occupy an intermediate position between the realms of Being and Becoming.
But they also serve certain special functions, especially in Plato’s cosmos, and we can think of this in terms of a double movement in the cosmos as a whole: one downwards, one upwards.As for the movement downwards, the higher realities introduce organization, intelligibility, beauty, and goodness into what would otherwise be a disorderly material world. For the astrologicals, this means that they reveal, through time and other categories, the content of the Divine world. As for the movement upwards, this revelation of higher reality stimulates and inspires us to go beyond our normal way of life, engage with those eternal beings, and use the higher functions of our soul or mind. When both of these movements are coordinated in the right way, our insights and enrichment (upwards) can be used consciously to organize, enhance, and balance our values, behavior, and lives (downwards).
Now, it’s important not to get confused by the fact it’s a diagram. That is, since any diagram is spatial, it may seem that the Divine realm is simply “up there,” separated from everything else. But that is a limitation of images and diagrams. For although things in the “higher” Divine realm have their own integrity and existence, they are in a sense all around us, working in and through us: they are here, now. For example, Mars is a visible planet, but “above” or “behind” Mars is a Divine principle which Mars reveals through his behavior and appearance, and this same principle is actively present in Martial things and activities in our sensible, material world. So these higher beings actively provide structure and organization throughout these levels, but our everyday inability to be conscious of, integrate, and apply these levels in life, is an important factor in our unhappiness and confusion, and can make them seem distinct and foreign. Astrological magic can be a vehicle for changing this situation, so let’s turn to that now.

Astrological magic: a form of healing and development


On this view, what astrology reveals is the Divine project of bestowing order and goodness and intelligibility on the world, and it reveals this sensibly through the planets, signs, stars, and so on. It is not the only way to be led to higher realities, but it’s an important one. And in particular, the birth chart can be seen as being a time-slice of planetary movement which describes how our own particular beings (which we live out in time) are present in the Divine Mind’s own timeless comprehension and plan.


So astrology provides an inspiration and opportunity for us to recover a full sense of our humanity, our microcosmic dignity, and a happy life, if we can organize properly all of our internal parts and aspects of our lives. Ritualized actions and meditations may be seen as a practical technology for consciously doing this—not just at the time of ritual, but ideally throughout life (see below).
In order to understand this, let’s look at how astrological categories can reveal different aspects of life, using the diagram above. (1) At the lower level, each of us has a certain physiology, exhibiting different temperaments related to the Elements; certain types of diet and exercise are appropriate to all of us as
humans, but especially based on the particular bodies and temperaments and physiologies we each have. Traditionally, some of this is seen through the lord of the Ascendant, the rising sign, and other types of chart calculations. (2) In the strictly astrological realm, the planets and signs suggest different, valuedriven types of behavior and activities. We’re sure that most of you are already familiar with these features of the signs, but you can consult Appendices 1 and 2 for traditional versions pertaining to the signs and planets. In the Hermetic work The Divine Pymander, the cosmic Nous or Reason tells the author that as our souls (or perhaps, only enlightened souls) rise up through the planetary spheres, they shed the vices associated with them: thus we shed the changeability of increase and decrease when passing beyond the Moon, evil schemes when passing beyond Mercury, and so on. (3) In the higher realms, we might first of all identify angelic beings which are associated with the signs and planets. For example, Plato believes that each of us has a special planetary or zodiacal spirit associated with us in this incarnation, and in some traditions this might be called a Holy Guardian Angel, or at least an angel intermediate between us and our personal Angel. We will not be dealing with that topic here, nor the various astrological methods of identifying this planet and being.
But we must assume that astrological categories also describe how eternal beings and realities are in concrete things and activities, and not just as mental associations. This is especially important in ritual: when we use rose incense or oil in a Venus ritual, or utter a certain holy word, it is because we really are dealing with Venus and its eternal reality, through the incense, oil, and the formula of the word; and when we drink wine and eat bread and salt, it is because the Elemental qualities are really in and part of those things: they are not simply “in the mind.”