What I mean by 'wider implications' is the expectation that it's possible use magick to detonate someone's skull from the other side of the globe. Or set them on fire, their mother's hair on fire, or win the lottery, fuck a beauty princess with power madness, get reeeevenge!!!! and ... etc. All these noob expectations are based on one thing: that magick somehow allows you to transcend the 'law of cause and effect' (or just 'causality' to it's friends). The way it's ordinarily droned is thusly or similar:
"Magick allows you to accomplish what would be impossible using ordinary means." [1]
The definition of magick I gave above is about as near to near-total horseshit as causality. Everything you do already involves some aspect of magick and you do it in a universe which already magickal. So, no need to get all 'extraordinary' wid it. Even farting can be a magickal act. [2]
Here's one of my current definitions of magick:
"Acting intentionally to accomplish a specific goal with the understanding that causality is near-total horseshit in the first place." [3]
The magician primarily concerns himself with one thing: that cause and effect (their efforts and the results they get) are connected. We don't care too much about how they're connected. It's a matter as precisely simple as turning the key to start your car. Yes, that's right, you're doin' the voodoo every time you boot your car.
"Surely you must be smoking crack!" I imagine that you protest. "Not this time!" Is my accurate reply.
Turning the key is cause. The car roaring to life (mine sputters) is the effect. It's impractical to have to know about everything between turning the key and the car starting to make it work. [4] You just turn the key and vroom.
Astute readers will have noticed that I have both said that causality is near-total horseshit and demonstrated that it's useful. Nope, still not smoking crack (this time), but I have left something out -- that we mistake attribution for causality. What's attribution, you ask? I'll get back to that. First, a bit about causality...
Causality is the idea that an effect must be caused. And that all causes are in themselves effects of some other cause, and on and on until you get to the infinity-singularity of causality -- the uncaused cause! Here, at this place of mindfuck some people put some god, something named using quantum as an adjective, or something else which stands in as a flashy placeholder for "I dunno.' Personally, I named it Bob. But I digress...
Causality is actually an anal-retentive over-misuse of the process of attribution and the 'unholy of holy shit bang' known as the uncaused cause is an artifact of it. The real problem of causality isn't infinite regress of causes -- it's that the idea of causality exists in the first place. It's the kind of idea that requires a lack of self-awareness to completely miss what's going on.
Nope. Still not smoking crack. Wait for it...
The process of attribution is a psychological process. It comes built in factory standard as a feature of the wetware in our skulls. What it does is link together one thing and another in a cause and effect relationship: If A, then B. In other words, while the idea of causality states that every effect must have a cause, the process of attribution allows us to deduce simple conclusions that save on brain power but are oversimplified generalizations.
It's primary use is to help us map cause and effect relationships so we can understand how to manipulate our environment to our advantage. The idea behind modeling the world is that if you want something (effect) then you can't get it without knowing how to get it (what causes it). It's really useful for getting coconuts out of trees and medicine man shit and stuff like that. (Y'know, crap cavemen do.)
It normally does it's job undetected, but even so, that doesn't mean it isn't noticeable. In fact, it's quite salient. The first time you saw someone turn a car key and the car start, there was an aha! moment -- the moment that you "got" that turning the key and the car starting were connected.
There's one thing that I want to stress before ending this ramble: that there are no causes and effects outside our own heads. There's a key, and an engine that can start. Not a cause and effect. Don't believe me? What if it's the wrong key? Or there's a snake or some small forest animal clogging the air intake? Then car no start, and thus the purported cause doesn't lead to the purported effect. The cause and effect relationship created by attribution only creates a map by which we can attempt to do something. It's not what causes the cause to make the effect happen.
Stay frosty.
Bonus: Fans of my 'work' (of which there are none, add me :) ) will notice that cause and effect bears a striking resemblance to the input-output structure of my favorite box -- ye ol' black box. I'm glad I mentioned it so you'd notice. Indeed, it does.
Bonus: See me get cursed by Merk here -- https://www.modernchurchofsatan.com/grotto/viewtopic.php?t=3448&f=11
[1] BTW, this is the John 3:16 of the magick universe. It's repeated near-verbatim in about the same situations and for the same reasons.
[2] Fortunately, that's not often but usually fairly entertaining when it is.
[3] Anyone who understands this does, indeed, have an exceptional understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe, and that's why I said the first definition was *near*-total horseshit.
[4] Unless, of course, something breaks or isn't working right and then it comes in handy. Even if you're illiterate to the mad science powering cars, a specialized wizard known as mechanic will fix it for you if you give him some paper imprinted with the proper glyphs and symbols.
-- Shawn & Padowan
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