Musings on Magic: Philosophy and Thaumatology

“Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality.
Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore.
The two are rarely compatible.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Books of Magic

This statement is better than fact. It is True. There's more to it of course.

Let's get into it.

“As I Will so mote it be.”

“Do as thou Wilt is the whole of the law.”

A common mistake people make here is thinking that “Will” means the same thing as want. There are connections. One must, indeed, want a thing quite strongly to Will it. But to Will a thing is to force the universe to make it true, to change the past, present, or future by sheer force of personality and stubborness. The mechanism can be realistic, practical, scientific. Or it can be Magical. But it all requires the Will to make it so.

There are, from this perspective, two components to magic. Or even applied science, really. Will, the strength of purpose, and of character, to mold the world around you to your desires. And Knowledge. Knowledge of how things are before you act. Knowledge of what changes to make to achieve your desires. Knowledge of the consequences of the change, and the methods used to effect that change, intended or not.

Will without knowledge can make changes, but it rarely achieves the intended aim. Things go wrong. The Monkey's Paw twists your wish. The unintended consequences snowball, and maybe the change you made doesn't even have the intended outcome at all. You pushed the wrong button, pulled the wrong lever, or used a tool not suited to the task. Will without knowledge, action without knowledge, that way lies chaos, danger, destruction.

Knowledge without Will changes nothing. You may know what needs to be done. You may know the best way for the world to be, the way to cure cancer, the way to surpass the limits of lightspeed., the way the dead may be returned to life, the way wounds may be healed, the way you can speak Fire into being. Without the Will to act upon it, to force the universe to make it so, whether by science and technology, faith and belief, or magic and power...simply Knowing does very little. Knowledge is power...but power left unused does nothing. To be fair, sometimes this is the wisest course, and someone worthy of being called either wizard or scientist knows when not to use their knowledge to change the world, because they know the other consequences. If you don't know, well, see above. A button gets pressed, a word gets said, and people die who otherwise would have lived.

Each paradigm might apply these principles differently, but I think they really apply regardless.

A particle physicist sees the universe very differently from a hermetic wizard, who sees it differently from a Mongolian shaman, who sees it differently than a Tsalagi adawehi. But all learn the knowledge and principles of cause and effect in their paradigm, what things are connected...what levers to pull, what buttons to push, what spirits to propitiate...and they use that knowledge, and their Will, to Change reality.

Some believe reality is resistant to change. That reality is held in its form by the consensus of belief of sapient creatures. That it reacts negatively to too big a change. Maybe that is the case. Maybe it isn't. But all acts of Will have consequences, and to use power responsibly, whether physical, social, scientific, or magical, one must have Knowledge of what was, how to change it, and what changing it will do.

Will and Knowledge.

Power and Responsibility.