Magic from the Calm Centre of Chaos
The basis of magic is a thing of Spirit. It permeates every cell of the magician's body, as well as all things outside of this personal Temple. Study of magic so easily becomes academic, using symbols and maps to try to understand that which can only be understood in a realm that transcends mere words and pictures.
The magician begins with these symbols to train the mind, yet must move beyond them to fully understand what makes the magic work. Many will never travel so far, yet much of their magic will work anyway because the symbols serve to direct that essence of spirit which is at the calm centre of chaos, the magic itself. Rather like a game of slop shot pool, enough tries will inevitably get results.
There are many theories and ideas regarding the direction of magic. For somebody, each of them works. For someone else, they may not. It is a matter of resonance with the symbols being used. Beneath it all is the magic, waiting to happen. No, not waiting, but erupting continually. It is only the directing of it which the magician seeks to master. It sounds so easy, and much of the time it can be for those who have experienced the flow of magic freely given and received with the multiverse. Like riding a bicycle, the ability seems elementary once the experience is imprinted, yet can be a daunting challenge to the untried seeker.
How does one experience magic that first time? Chances are, that anyone reading this already will have done so. Not just those remembering the occasion, but also the new seekers who have lived with magic unrecognised. Why do you think you are here? One seeks magic because one has touched it, although it may have felt natural at the time.
This is because it is indeed natural. Limiting it with religions and constricting it with disciplinary systems is anathema to the natural flow of magic, and yet it is through beliefs in various unusual things and self-training through these same disciplines that most people will reach their first real experience of magic that they will recognise as such.
A paradox? Of course! If it was so easy to follow everyone would be a magician. Whether that would be a good thing or not is another question, which I will not address at present. To live and breathe in a world of magic within one's own self is satisfying enough without concerning oneself with the will and abilities of the entire world. To change one's environment with a well formed thought/intent comes from flowing with the natural spiritual essence, and that is magic. It is taught in many Eastern religions, yet even then often set with parameters of morality or limitation.
To address the chaos of complete, unformed potential directly transcends all limitations. Ethics, morality, judgement, these are human constructs. Which doesn't mean that one who walks apart from these value measurement devices must be evil or uncontrolled and disordered. Chaos as a natural force in nature is self-regulating. Study of chaos science shows this clearly. Weather patterns, species populations and all other natural systems work within parameters, well, because they work. There need not be a better reason. Exceeding natural parameters causes disruption, but those too can be regulated back into a pattern of give and take, and magic works by the same principles.
The calm centre of chaos, where the magic dwells, can follow a path set for it by the magician. Yet the magic itself is a living force of pure Spirit. It need not be limited by systems and regulations or value judgements. It simply is, and it brings change in accordance with…direction. Who really knows their own will from one moment to another? Humans will make mistakes because they direct the magic to other ends than that which will satisfy their real needs. Wisdom is not a birthright, but an experience. Some are born with more of it than others perhaps, some gain it through making mistakes which teach lessons, some die without ever having known much of it. Any of them may direct magic.
Magic as a noun is the raw unformed power of infinite potential, the primal chaos. As a verb it is the practices which we learn in order to direct it. The path we use for this end is irrelevant apart from how a specific method works for each of us as individuals. The magic simply is, and it is directed by every thought, including the unformed thought that it will not act as one directs it to. Magic is limited only by self-limitation.