accomplish this, the magician envisions a god or dæmon with the power to achieve the goal, then
concentrates his will into an appeal. The god or dæmon then carries out the appeal, more or less
effectively - depending upon the strength of the magician’s conviction of its power as a
functioning entity. 98
From a Setian perspective, all conventional religious, and nonSetian “occult” ritualism falls
under the heading of WM. Intrinsically it is inauthentic and impotent. Its power derives rather
from what it gets people to believe and do when it is used as a psychological individual- or mass-
control device. Thus, for instance, any sort of advertising or propaganda is an application of WM,
though neither users nor targets may [and probably wouldn’t] employ that term.
B. Black Magic
Black Magic (BM) involves no autohypnosis or conditioning of the mind to make it
receptive to induced imagery. Thus, unlike White Magic, it is not an exercise in self-deception.
Rather it is a deliberate and conscious effort to force the mind outward - to utilize and/or either
perceptively or actually alter the “laws” of the Objective Universe (OU).
Thus it is an action to “commit the same crime against God (= OU consistency)” as did the
Prince of Darkness: to place one’s self deliberately apart and distinct from the OU.
98 Crowley, Aleister, Magick, pages #151-284. LaVey, Anton, The Satanic Bible, pages #110-152; The Satanic Rituals, pages #15-27.
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Black Magic has two principal subcategories: Lesser (LBM) and Greater (GBM). These are
detailed in the next two chapters. Following these is a third chapter dealing with their blending,
Medial (MBM).
Ideally the magician should never use GBM when MBM will suffice, MBM when LBM will
suffice, nor LBM when intelligent, conventional actions will suffice. Much of the effectiveness of
magic is due to its exclusiveness, its esoteric glamor. To overuse it, or to use it for vulgar
purposes, is to cheapen it. One does not use fine china to serve hot dogs for lunch. Keep magic
something special in your life; consider it a sacrament and a testament to the eternal majesty of
your soul. Then you will find that it will dignify and sanctify your being, and will raise you above
profane humanity. To echo Pythagoras: “Thou shalt be an immortal god, divine, no longer
mortal.”
C. The Call of the Fire; The Warning of Noot
Magic is the operative aspect of initiation. It is an entirely new way of comprehending and
defining yourself and entities/things not-yourself. As a magician you are no longer the slave of
an imposed, inescapable reality; you exist in multiple realities, some of which you use your
wisdom and skills to expertly navigate, others of which you create and control yourself. Such
experiences and ventures can be simple or complex, permanent or temporary. You will be able to
change some of them in whole or part; some of them will also be able to change you in whole or
part.
“You have just taken your first step,” Obi-wan Kenobi said to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars,
“into a larger universe.” By seeking out the Temple of Set, you have taken a similar first step.
That first step is to become aware that initiation exists and that you can pursue it if you wish.
But before you take that second step, you need to reflect upon its consequences. Like eating
of the fruit of the forbidden tree in the fabled Garden of Eden, it is a step which cannot be
undone. Once you decide to be an initiate and a magician, you will have forever evolved beyond
natural-animal existence.
This realization and choice have been the subject of many legends and illustrations
throughout humanity’s many eras and cultures. One of the most poignant was the story of
Ayesha, Priestess of Isis, as related by herself in H. Rider Haggard’s Wisdom’s Daughter. Guided
throughout her life by the sage Noot to accept her human discipleship of that neter of the natural
order, Ayesha was finally entrusted with the guardianship of a Flame which possessed the power
to transform anyone who stepped within it to personal divinity. What was not evident was the
inescapability of creative definition, and the absolute loneliness in exercising it, which authentic
godhood entails. Warned Noot:
Yonder fire will not destroy the mortal who finds the courage to stand in its raging path;
it will give him life, and with it such strength, such beauty, and such wisdom as have never
unending woes as hitherto no mortal heart has known.
There is the truth. Ask me not how it comes into my keeping and what that voice may be
which is speaking it through my lips. A minute gone this truth was mine alone. Now it is yours
also, and being yours, I pray to that Divine from which we come and whither we return again,
that it may give you strength and the true wisdom, knowing all, to reject all, and turning aside
from this glittering guerdon of enduring life, patiently to walk your human path to the end
appointed to our human feet.
Ultimately Ayesha heeded the call of the Fire and in its embrace was transformed into She-
Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, immortal and omnipotent, with a beauty such that none could look upon
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her without succumbing to madness. Veiled, she endured countless centuries among those
whose human dullness enabled them to find the simple natural pleasures and contentments that
were now intolerable to her.
This is the danger of magic: that it will make you what you envision yourself to become, and
empower you to see through and beyond all human illusions. Also that, as Ayesha also
discovered, once attained, it is not reversible. Give careful thought to Noot’s warning, therefore,
before you too enter the Flame. Because if you do, there is no turning back: not just for the span
of a human life, but forever.
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19: Lesser Black Magic
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
- Obi-wan Kenobi, Star Wars
Lesser Black Magic (LBM) is the influencing of beings, processes, or objects in
the Objective Universe (OU) by the application of obscure physical or behavioral
laws.
LBM can function either by compelling something to happen (the selection and activation
of enforcing OU laws either established, obscure, or still-experimental) or by impelling it to
happen (using a mixture of non-enforcing laws to maximize the desired result’s probability).
A. Stage Magic
LBM operations may target either OU components and events per se, or more usually and
easily human perception and interpretation of them. At the level of entertainment, such control
of perceptions is commonly known as “stage magic”, and an overview of its principles is a good
way to comprehend the mechanism of LBM generally.
Stage magic, as studied and employed by professional magicians, consists not only of stage
props and physical dexterity, but also of misdirection, deception, and sensory preemption. The
effect is to make the seemingly-impossible happen, right before the eyes of an astonished
audience.
Less ethically and benignly, these same techniques have been used by confidence men to
sting their marks, by generals to overcome their enemies
, by religious leaders to sway the
credulous, and by politicians to get elected to office. In their usual sequence of application, they
are:
1. Either control of the environment or adaptation of the magic to it. Only the
simplest “table tricks” of magic can be done without regard to their surroundings. For
most illusions to be effective, the complete environment in which they are activated
must be controlled: lighting, absence or presence of external noise, intentional
distractions from close attention, audience alertness and receptiveness. While an
illusion is intended to appear spontaneous, it frequently requires careful advance
preparation out of view of the eventual audience.
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2. Establishment of the magician’s dominant relationship. The magician displays
a persona - dress, assertive speech, body language, pressured pace, eye contact -
designed to seize and hold the attention of the audience, as well as to gradually but
inexorably replace their wills and judgment of reality with his own. [This is particularly
essential to hypnotism.]
3. Dictation of the applicable elements. The magician identifies to the audience what
objects, locations, and/or procedures are important and essential, restricting the
problem to their interaction exclusively. The consequence of this is that an object’s
behavior which might seem unremarkable or contrived against ordinary backgrounds or
points of reference becomes surprising and inexplicable in this artificial environment.
4. Definition of the variables. An object or procedure may be used in any number of
ways, but the magician defines them so as to limit these ways to only those which make
possible and reinforce the illusion.
5. Instruction of behavior. Audience participation is desirable, since going through
motions to supposedly produce the illusion suggests to the audience that it is somewhat
responsible for it, thus encouraging belief in it.
6. Limitation of possibilities. As he controls all of the object(s) and procedure(s)
variables, the magician can force the outcome of the illusion into one which the equally-
predetermined alternatives appear to highlight as miraculous.
7. Channeling of expectations. Once in control of both the elements of the illusion and
the audience’s perceptions and willpower, the magician instructs the audience in what
the possible outcomes of the illusion can be. It is now “impossible” for the objects or
procedures to function in any other way, nor for the audience to devise or consider one.
8. Interpretation of the result. Once the illusion is produced, the magician makes it
clear to the audience what it “obviously” signifies. As in his initial establishment of
control over the audience, he now implants - though announcement, emotional
surprise/satisfaction, and body language - their presumedly “spontaneous” reaction.
9. Reinforcement of controlled perceptions. As necessary to establish the
performed illusion firmly in “reality”, the magician follows it up with as many
supporting devices and created impressions as are necessary.
Beyond these basics LBM is most specifically concerned with the stage magical discipline of
mentalism. This involves diversion of target audience perceptions and interpretations towards
a different interpretation of their own thought processes than the one which they would
naturally experience.
This is accomplished both through the above-listed techniques of magic and, where
possible, appropriate activation and blending of external psychological control mechanisms in
order to not only reconfigure the subject’s thought-processes, but to leave undisturbed his belief
that absolutely no such external influence is occurring. 99
99 Cf. my 2013/16 book MindWar for a detailed description of several such mechanisms, or “PSYCONs”.
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B. Individual and Group Analysis
In addition to their basic personalities and logical thought processes, all persons have likes,
dislikes, fetishes, strengths, weaknesses, and emotional emphases. These are broadcast through
direct communication, habits, dress, style of life, career patterns, choice of friends, and the like.
In normal social or business contact, one usually sees only the “tip of the iceberg” of this
character makeup. This is because individuals in modern society are accustomed to project and
display only those parts of their characters which they feel are advantageous in a given situation.
The magician, like Sherlock Holmes, must habitually look for clues to the rest of the iceberg
- if possible without the subject’s being aware of this. If the subject realizes that what Wilhelm
Reich called his “character armor” is being probed and penetrated, he will react with distrust,
annoyance, and antagonism.
The purpose of such an analysis is not necessarily to deceive or exploit the subject. Most
often it is simply to gain a better picture of him or her, so that subsequent dialogue and
encounters can be more fruitful and comfortable for both parties. It is often remarked that the
company of a magician is stimulating and pleasing. Much of this is due to the magician’s
automatic, almost subconscious tailoring of his mannerisms to a style most effective in a
particular situation.
The philosophers Gurdjieff and Ouspensky were fond of saying that most people spend
their lives “asleep” - meaning that they are content to allow their behavior to be governed by
instinctive or habitual reactions to external stimuli. As you look beyond surface impressions of
individuals, you will probably be surprised - and even dismayed - at how applicable this reproach
has been to your own life-style.
Similar considerations apply to larger numbers of people, resulting in “groupthink” among
a few and “crowd consciousness” among a more impersonal many. Business, political, and
religious leaders are successful to the extent that they correctly assess and exploit such
tendencies.
As you attempt to form more perfect pictures of people and events around you, and as you
begin to resist a life of merely reacting to stimuli yourself, you will find that you “wake up”. To be
“awake” in this sense is to be in a condition of stress, since you will be making deliberate
decisions about many things which you previously dealt with semiconsciously [hence semi-
intelligently]. You will be able to sustain this level of mental activity and concentration for only
brief periods of time. It is not necessary for you to irritate and exhaust yourself by trying to
extend those periods. Rather keep the ability to “awake” close at hand, ready to summon when
appropriate. 100
In addition to self-determined personality traits, human beings are influenced by a variety
of physical factors of which they are generally unaware. If the magician is aware of them, he is in
a position to take them into account when assessing a subject’s present or probable future
behavior. 101
This process of investigating the conscious and subconscious factors governing a subject’s
behavior is neither quick nor easy. To be done correctly, it requires careful research (which may
prove difficult and be regarded as an invasion of privacy) as well as an acquired expertise on the
part of the magician t
o interpret the results carefully and objectively. Because of time and
resource limitations, the magician must usually settle for something less than a complete
100 Physiologically human thinking is only about 5% conscious, with the other 95% subconscious stimulus/response
according to assimilated “patterns of reality”. Cf. Leonard Mlodinow, Ph.D., Subliminal: How Your Unconscious
Mind Rules Your Behavior (New York: Pantheon, 2012).
101 Cf. again the discussion of PSYCONs in MindWar.
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picture. The more incomplete the picture, of course, the more margin for error in the emergent
picture.
The distinction between LBM and merely being a good amateur psychologist is that the
magician is specifically interested in behavior determinants which are obscure and consciously
unknown to the subject. The magician’s object is to assess the individual without it being
apparent that he is “practicing psychology” on him. The result is frequently that the deductions
and consequent actions of the magician appear mysterious and even supernatural.
C. Ethics
As you become adept in LBM, you will be tempted to use it for all manner of personal
gratification. The more skilled you are, the more you will be inclined to think that you can get
away with almost anything. The governing factor is not whether you can or can’t, but rather
whether your consciously-determined ethics allow you to.
As you begin to direct your life independently of morals, codes, and customs imposed upon
you by the politics and propaganda of society, you will have to assume the responsibility for your
own ethics. Only if you are known to be a strictly ethical individual will your freedom
from social norms be tolerated. Otherwise you will be ostracized and probably persecuted
by society. If it cannot be sure of controlling you, it will tend not to trust you to control yourself
intelligently unless you make it very clear that you can do precisely that. In that case society will
tend not only to tolerate you, but even to respect and admire you for the unique, creative being
that you are. The following section discusses ethics in greater detail.
Before one can consider the proper place of ethics in Setian behavior, “ethics” as a term
must be raised from a vague sentiment to something more concrete. It is, unfortunately, one of