A brief History of Magic

MAGIC HAS A RICH AND COLORFUL HISTORY

The art of magic dates back well beyond recorded history.

There is evidence that 50 thousand years ago magic was practiced by cave dwellers, perhaps as part of a ritual. Magicians were the early scientists and researchers of their time. Many were quite interested in Alchemy and Astronomy, which furthered the development early science.

These were the shaman, healers and seers. They were a very clever bunch. By watching weather patterns and animals they could predict storms and even take credit for things like meteor showers and the occasional solar eclipse.

The earliest written evidence came from a document called the Westcar Papyrus that documented of an Egyptian magician in 3766 BC severing the head of ducks and restoring the head to bring them back to life. A trick now done in comedy clubs.

The magicians of Egypt were documented performing many wonders for the Pharaohs.

TURNING A STAFF INTO A SERPENT

Perhaps to best known is that of turning a freely examined staff into a serpent. So, how did Egyptian magicians do this?

There is a special serpent called the Egyptian Cobra that can be made motionless by pressure just below the head, temporarily paralyzing it. The magician had the Pharaoh examine a real staff, then substituted it out for the paralyzed snake, at a moment when everyone’s attention was diverted elsewhere. He would then throw the stiff snake on the ground and it would slither away. As you can see in the pictures; it helped that the regular staff conveniently resembled a snake as well.

Harnessing the power of nature has always been a core strategy used in magic.

THE ORACLE OF DELPHI

It is said that even the great Oracle of Delphi were using homing pigeons.

Sealed off in their high tower, it was impossible for them to know when armies were approaching or when plagues were sweeping the land. But a homing pigeon with a little note tied around its claw could easily supply this information.

THE END OF 'REAL' MAGIC?

What caused the craft of magic to be taken out of the realm of the ancient sacred mystery schools and lowered to the ranks of ‘trivial tricks’?

Long ago magic was connected with the sacred mystery schools, because it’s really is an inquiry into the nature of perception or consciousness.

As researchers and scholars magicians did a lot to further the understanding of what became the foundation of modern science.

So what was it that turned a sacred truth into a silly trick?

In the middle ages the witch burnings took an estimated 60 thousand lives in Europe alone. Imagine the effect on a child’s mind to watch either parent dragged away to be burned at the stake. This lasted over 500 years, so dramatic impact of this still lingers today. I’ve attended women in magic conferences and heard discourses pointing to this as the reason that there are so few women in magic.

In order to survive, magicians were forced to trivialize their work. So instead of using magic to point to the deepen awareness the surviving magicians, offered bawdy tricks and jokes.

Interestingly, this indirectly helped to protect the deeper secrets of magic because it was seen less as a threat and less under attack.

There are volumes to write about the history of magic leading up to modern times.

Robert Houdin is generally regarded as the Father of modern magic. He lived between 1805 and 1871. He was a watch maker who became a magician at 40 when a bookseller accidentally sent him some books on conjuring. His background allowed him to create an orange tree that blossomed and bore fruit, then he made butterflies flutter around the top of it.

But as early as 1737 there existed a self-operating automation called the mechanical duck which was capable of eating and digesting. This picture shows a little of the inner workings of one of the first robots.

Three years after Robert Houdin died, Harry Houdini was born Erich Weiss. At 12 he ran away from home and changed his name to Harry Houdini in homage to Robert Houdini.

There is so much more to say, but Modern magic continues to evolve as visionaries keep asking new questions and raising the bar in the many different genres of magic.

I challenge each of us to push the limits of our own magic and see where it takes us.

The evolution of magic is sure to continue, with each of us adding our own signature ingredients.

The nature of Consciousness in relation to "Magic"

"Magic" is a word that has been thrown around with almost the same amount of indiscretion as "God" and "Love".... "Experience the Magic of Liposuction! Call now!"

What does magic mean anymore?

The Webster Dictionary defines Magic as

1 a: the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces 2 a: an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source b: something that seems to cast a spell.

The origins of the word "Magic" date back to the 14th century, and in most cultures began as a term used to identify a 'sorcerer'.

These definitions essentially denote "Magic" as the "supernatural" (defined as that which goes beyond the laws of nature).

Yet "Nature" is defined as "the universe, with all its phenomena"- meaning, if you can perceive it, it's natural. All of this said - just to point out how SUBJECTIVE anything "supernatural" or "magical" can be.

Magic is what ever you make it... a child's smile to a man on the moon. Or more specifically, what ever power / meaning you give to it.

How many English terms are so open ended, while eliciting a sense of open ended possibility?

If you believe that the unified field of energy, of which we are all made, is the same thing as consciousness (as the majority of quantum scientists assert), then it would follow that you believe that your mind can access infinite space (or at least big bang sized space). What could be more magical?

The trick is in quieting the chatter-mind and it's baggage-wielding-agendas that cling to outmoded concepts, to keep itself intact.

The great news is, the quieting is easy if you can expand your perspective to encompass the unified field, the ONE. This simply requires any technique that will bring you to a state of one-pointed focus and help you jockey back there after each thought polarity splashes in.

MAKING SPELLS

A magic spell is nothing more than a formula one can use to affect the quantum field or sort and order it.

A database, a process for tying your shoelace, and verbal command are all formulas or 'spells' you are already using as a "Sorcerer" in your own life.

My whole point is that you ARE already supernatural. You are incredibly magical and powerful.

Getting in the habit of leveraging perspective is the key.

When you remember that (on a scientific, real world earth-energy level) you are the unified field; the ONE, you can look back at the petty cravings and wounds and evaluate which ones still serve you.

So far the only way I have been able to turn this truth from a 'concept' to a visceral experience, is to surrender my 'striver' to complete faith in the ONE. This 'offering up' of what ever is in my moment, is my FORMULA or magic spell that creates a tiny crack in the incessant, sparing boxer and it's pummeling deluge of stark identifications and thought associations.

So step into your quantum magic by remembering you're already there. You're already a sorcerer casting spells all day long. Now you can expand the quality and bandwidth of your spells.

BREAKING SPELLS

You an make spells and break spells.

Ammachi, the Indian hugging saint says: "It is easy to wake someone who is sleeping, but it's almost impossible to wake someone who is pretending to be asleep."

We choose our petty spells of limitation to fend off our 'horrific' magnificence. But once we know this, the spell is broken and we have the leverage to see that it's not horrific at all. It's a gentle, even soft stance.

Your assignment:

For the next 3 days set a timer 10 minutes.

STOP, close your eyes and just breath into the unified field.

Let each breath resonate and harmonize with the ONE; like the way a harp string that is plucked makes the other strings vibrate in warm resonance.

You may be quite surprised with, not necessarily what the ONE has to say, but with what your 'resistance' has to teach you about YOUR next spell to break.

Baby steps are best for all sourcer-ers in training.

Time is short, but it's wide.

With blessings and gratitude,

Heather Rogers

http://www.heathermagic.com/

Economic and Ecological collapse got you down? No WORRIES!

A new paradigm is a commin. Are you ready to shed? Because it will feel great.

With 10 thousand species disappearing a year, there is no question the world is reaching a turning point.

The survivors will have made the shift into the new way of thinking.

This new way of thinking will encompass global conscious and will situate you totally in the moment with humility, gratitude and complete faith. With all attention gathered in the present, you will be guided in that moment and mighty forces will come to your aid.

Landing in THIS moment with total abandon and executing each gesture like a circus performer going into a hand stand atop 8 chairs stacked high will grant you access to what I've coined, "Your Quirky Genius".

Imagine having the entire collective unconscious to draw from while crafting your next thought!

In the 1920's Wallace Wattles called this unified field "The Formless Substance".

The hour is too late to attempt to appeal to your resisting critic.

The key is radical Faith...of which I am only a humble student. But in my 3 hours a day of spiritual practice, I've found that 'complete faith in the One', has fueled a revolution of serenity and 'right action'. (Or at least 'less disastrous action'.)

I am a Magician and Lifestyle Architect. I have shape shifted my life beyond recognition and am overwhelmed by the bed of miracles sparkling before me.

Musings on FAITH and my challenge to you:

Give yourself an 8-day challenge to do a certain thing you’ve wanted to do or needed to do, whether it is practicing your craft, or attending to a neglected area of your life.

Buy a digital kitchen timer and do it for 15 minutes each day. At the end of 8 days reward yourself and contact me and I’ll send you a free magic trick.

My kitchen timer has opened up my life in a quantum way because I can always find a simple 15-minute block of time. (Along with regular magic practice, I now spend 15 minutes each day practicing contact juggling with a large crystal ball, and 15 minutes practicing 'Split Fans' which is producing multiple card fans out of mid air. This has transformed my relationship with my craft.)

The timer has a 10-minute warning beep and a 5-minute warning beep which also keeps me in the moment, and 1) helps me make the most of my time, 2) makes me aware of how valuable my time is, 3) what it’s costing me to not value my time.

Freedom. What’s it worth to you? What do you truly want? A warm feeling of well-being? Money? To lose weight, a relationship, a house, to get out from under the specter of dread that seems to loom over everything?

Freedom is possible. But it requires more than doing the right things in the right order (ie highest income generating activities), it requires radical trust. This is where people get tripped up. Trust is such an intangible and illogical thing? Trust what? How?

The truth is; you life with total trust anyway. You trust that the person diving toward you will stay in their lane. You trust the food you’ll eat today isn’t poisoned. If you were to become deathly ill, you’d find yourself praying.

So any antagonism against the concept of trust is really just the narrow mind resisting expansion (which is just Saber-toothed tiger and caveman thing). I think this is just a protection mechanism gone wild. A hard-wired ancient fear of venturing too far out.

The science of trust can actually be very simple. Every person here has something they can trust, whether it is that the sun will come around again tomorrow, music, a partner, death and taxes, or a spiritual modality.

You’ve got to find that thing that you can trust most and hold to it for dear life, because the rational mind will put all of it’s weight into pulling you away from it.

The funny part, is it doesn’t matter if you trust or not, life will take you on your journey and life will take your life. The question is, how do you want to live it? Do you want to be dragged along in misery, doubting, resenting, fearful, in terror? It’s a choice and frankly preferred by 4 out of 5 people. The survivors of the new paradigm don’t live this way.

CHOOSE an approach that creates freedom and possibility.

If you were to let yourself be in free fall in each moment, you’d realize that you were flying.

You’re always caught. No matter what. You might be caught by a fluffy pillow at the end of the day. Or you might be caught by a Mac truck running a red light. If your next moment involves a Mac truck, trust becomes irrelevant anyway. There was no point in spending your life trying to protect yourself from that moment. We all have a Mac truck moment approaching, for some us, fairly quickly. How do you want to spend these last few months, days or moments? May as well trust, and get on with the business of uncovering the layers of your genius and special spice to add to this planetary stew.

When I am completely hijacked by my fears, (as Ekart Tolle calls the pain body), and nothing can make me feel safe or trusting, I just keep walking. Invariably, the moment shifts and I’m caught by another moment.

I’m caught by powerful life-maintenance habits and tools. This is my net.

For the pain body; which has been pumping out ‘get me off the planet’ chemicals; it seems like the pain will last forever. We're talking about this to remind ourselves that this too shall pass. If you have the courage or willingness to breath into the pain it will pass sooner. And if you can’t trust, go get a bag of chips, or do something to buy time and leverage.

If you find a spiritual teacher or mahatma who can actually enter your energy field and help you release layers of resistance so that you can feel the palpable vibration of your gentle essence coming through, all the better.

Create an affirmation or mantra to represent what you want.

Then it’s a process of oscillating between stark thoughts created by the fatal critic and the thing you can trust.

You’ll be in the battle of life and in a lucid moment you’ll remember to say your affirmation. It may hold no meaning in those moments, but you keep at it. This is the polishing process that gives you an objective view of your mental process.

If, in the heat of battle, you are able to go into free fall a startling thing will happen...

You will be carried by a gentle force that is your essential self, hidden underneath the layers of facade.

You’ll need to listen for it to keep it flowing, but the nice thing is that it never leaves. We leave it by shifting or mental leverage back to the rugged trivial.

So get a timer, do 15 minutes of your bliss for 8 days and I’ll send you a great trick. Good luck!