Astral Magic of Arabia

[Ci Celli Ddu]

A rather interesting definition of Astral Magic from an Arabic point of view:

Astral Magic (http://www.ii.uib.no/~georg/alt/rpg/ars/rules/ArsArabica/node50.html#SECTION00511000000000000000)

I dont want to change the topic but personally I found the following quote rather interesting:

While Hermetic magic is more broad and powerful in its own way, Astral magic has its own areas of great strength. In some ways it is greater than related Hermetic arts, much the way Druidic arts are much stronger in spontaneous magic and dealing with nature

All modesty aside, what I don't know about Druidic and Celtic magic you could fit into a matchbox and still have room to spare. The above is a very accurate description of a magical art that very few people know or have come into contact with, modern neo-druidism being basically a watered down Hermeticism with bagpipes thrown in, and "Celtic" neo-paganism being a messy mix of Native American Shamanism with Celtic gods thrown in. The reason for this is that key Celtic texts are -surprise surprise- written in Welsh or Irish, so the sources these people use are bad second hand translations of bad translations. They might as well stick a feather in their hair and call themselves Hopis. See how they make me rant? Anyway kudos to whoever wrote the above quote for being accurate, although "nature" includes supernature and the Otherworld in the Druidic arts.

[m1thr0s]

looks like the article was written by Hans Georg Schaathun...whoever he is.

I hope somebody finally gets around to translating some of these Celtic texts correctly. I am very interested in Astral Magic but I generally don't try to parrot things I really know nothing about. Instead I think I just try to incorporate things into my own eclectic practice, which is neither one thing or another to any great extent, more a blend of many things...

Many years ago, when I first started getting interested in magic(k), it was actually available informations on the Astral Planes that really drew me in. But aside from various astral projection guides there never really was all that much information available. I sort of took what I could get and went off to steal from other plates after that. I don't regret that approach or anything as it has served me well, but I always felt there were some pretty big holes left hanging in astral magic itself...

m1thr0s

[Ci Celli Ddu]

I hope somebody finally gets around to translating some of these Celtic texts correctly.


By now they have been. But most modern practicioners try to order it's contents into conventional cosmologies. The Celts were never into being orderly or conventional:

Celtic myths are a chaos of symbolism. It defies being put in an order. That's the whole point. Celtic magic is a fluid thing. It's sympathetic magic gone into overdrive as regards the symbolism that makes one object sympathetic with another.

[Ci Celli Ddu]

looks like the article was written by Hans Georg Schaathun...whoever he is.


Hans Georg Schaathun? Doesn't sound too Arabic to me. I know we're all indebted to the Arabs for so many things in science and occult sciences, but I've never heard of Astral magic as being of Arabic origin before.

lI am very interested in Astral Magic but I generally don't try to parrot things I really know nothing about. Instead I think I just try to incorporate things into my own eclectic practice, which is neither one thing or another to any great extent, more a blend of many things...

Many years ago, when I first started getting interested in magic(k), it was actually available informations on the Astral Planes that really drew me in. But aside from various astral projection guides there never really was all that much information available. I sort of took what I could get and went off to steal from other plates after that. I don't regret that approach or anything as it has served me well, but I always felt there were some pretty big holes left hanging in astral magic itself...



Astral Magic is part of the curriculum in Liber KKK, so Im surprised it has received so little attention here, assuming most people are familiar with the works of Carroll. Having said that, I know little about the subject myself. Ive always assumed it to be one and the same as visualisation. It is definately something I'll have to look into, as there's the strong possibility that I'll be blind in the future, which will leave me with Astral magic and to some extent High magic, as most other magic is very much the domain of the sighted.

[m1thr0s]

well that sucks. you alluded to that before someplace but it didn't register. I don't want this to sound like some new-agey gloss-over bs but there actually is a book I think I should recommend to you, called The Art of Seeing (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Seeing-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0916870480) by Aldous Huxley. Not many people know that he was legally blind and by a stroke of luck ran into someone who was pioneering an alternate optical science approach to vision and our misconceptions about the eyes etc...

I'm not sure if it can help you or not but his own vision problem was supposed to be untreatable and he wound up 98% cured, threw away his 1/2 inch thick glasses and the whole nine yards. This book is not available through Amazon though...you may have to track it down or special order it...

m1thr0s

[Anibis]

Well, I know this is a semantic stretch, but the Muslims did name most of our stars... that qualifies to a certain extent as 'astral magic'. I bet it goes further then that. Not to mention that they have a very definite stance of the existence of beings made of 'fire', ie Djinn. THis sounds alot like the positing of an astral plane. Beyond those two long shots, I'm afraid I have very little insight to offer on Arabic magic. As for the sight thing, I have heard of this too. Look up a guy named Bates. His book is on available for free online on an official site. I have it on PDF if you like. PM me and its yours.
-Ibisis

[Aodh]

This is part of a role-playing game guide. Looks like you guys should've dome more research into the art of seeing. ;)

Table of Contents (http://www.ii.uib.no/%7Egeorg/alt/rpg/ars/rules/ArsArabica/node48.html)

[Anibis]

Woah... Yes it is... very clearly too from looking at the article... Well. Hazards of skimming information.... Noted.
-Ibisis

On the other hand, there is actually interesting information here. For one thing, my hunch, without looking at the article was right. WHen they say 'Astral' they mean relating to the stars, and astrology. ALso, note that they seem on a rough glance to have the signs right. I don't know Arabic, but I know it is quite closely related to Hebrew. In Hebrew the sun is 'Shemesh' and here we have the Sun reffered to as 'Shams'. THere's something to it. Right off the cuff, I'm going to guess that this is done by Steve Jackson Games, who do alot of this sort of stuff. Just checked. Nope, but it's been published by Wizards of the Coast, who did 'Magic the Gathering', and later by 'White Wolf' that did Mage: the Ascension and Vampire:the Masquerade. These guys tend to do their research. Mind you, in the context of RPGing, I don't need to tell anyone that this stuff is heavily watered down and such. Still I've had a good laugh or two looking through gaming supplements. I do think that games themselves have a very important role in training the mind. They are simulations, which ultimately craft the space in which reality plays out, more or less. So, WTF, I'm sure there are some magi influencing these things. Sure of it. But, yeah... this is a gaming supplement. Ha ha, we've been fooled!

Here's a wikipedia quote:

The 5th edition was released by Atlas in 2004, including extensive changes to the system, especially the combat system and character creation. Ars Magica 5th edition won the Origins Award for Best Role Playing Game of 2004.
Many characteristics of the later Storyteller system developed by White Wolf can be traced to Ars Magica (and the fact that both Ars Magica and the Storyteller system were both developed by the same person); White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension was envisioned as "Ars Magica in the Modern World," and many of the changes in Ars Magica's 3rd edition were introduced in order to make the game-worlds more compatible.[1].


THis stuff has indirectly influenced alot of young magician's I'd suspect. Every so often, somebody steps out of the basement...

[m1thr0s]

This is part of a role-playing game guide. Looks like you guys should've dome more research into the art of seeing. ;)rofl...thanks Aodh!

m1thr0s

[Ci Celli Ddu]

Cheers for that. I found Bate's work (http://www.iblindness.org/books/bates/). Not sure it will be of any use to me, as what I have is genetic. I'm hoping stem-cell research will have advanced sufficiently before I go blind, which isn't a certainty anyway.

[Ci Celli Ddu]

Aha! I thought Astral Magic and Visualisation were one and the same. Here's what Carroll says in Liber KKK:

ASTRAL MAGIC:

Is performed by visualisation and altered states of consciousness or gnosis,
alone. Physical paraphernalia is not used although the tools and instruments
from the previous levels can be used in the form of visualised images. At
first the magician will probably require seclusion, silence, darkness and
considerable effort at concentration and trance to succeed with such magic,
but practice will allow it to be performed anywhere.

[Kain]

Aha! I thought Astral Magic and Visualisation were one and the same. Here's what Carroll says in Liber KKK:...Well, I agree that visualization is heavily connected and could be said to mainly opperate in an astral environment, however there's more to it than simply visualization I think. The astral is a plane and thus has a life of it's own that extends beyond simple visual projection. It is customary to approach it through that however, at least initially.

Kain

[Ci Celli Ddu]

Well, I agree that visualization is heavily connected and could be said to mainly opperate in an astral environment, however there's more to it than simply visualization I think. The astral is a plane and thus has a life of it's own that extends beyond simple visual projection. It is customary to approach it through that however, at least initially.

Kain

Ive performed magic both through visualisation and in dreams. Is this astral? Id like to have a workable definition of what it is exactly. I have worked extensively within Annwn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annwn), but the Otherworld is both the manifest and the unmanifest world, so that isn't the Astral either (or is it?)

[Kain]

Ive performed magic both through visualisation and in dreams. Is this astral? Id like to have a workable definition of what it is exactly. I have worked extensively within Annwn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annwn), but the Otherworld is both the manifest and the unmanifest world, so that isn't the Astral eitherWell, most dreamwork definitely partakes in the astral.

As for actual definitions of the term, it was mainly brought to the foreground by Theosophists. It refers to the plane of existance that is just subtler and thus superimposed to the physical plane. This does not include the so-called "etheric" layer, which is the transitional ground between the physical and full-astral reality. The astral itself has also been termed as related to the Kamic plane of Indian lore. Due to these connotations, is also related with desire and emotion.

It has a very specific feel about it which justifies such intricate definitions. I would personally define it as the first space met (as we ascend) to be totally free of "3-dimensionality" and being able to function cleanly right through it. The "etheric" layer works semi-3dimensionally, being semi-particularized in space while working with it. I would say the astral begins at the altitude that subtlety eludes the 3 dimensions, which is also a characteristic of visualized space and dream space.

Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane)'s a wikipedia article on it. Also, for a more detailed and "precise" (so claimed) approach to depict the relative heights by Djwhal Khul and Alice Bailey, I guess this (http://laluni.helloyou.ws/netnews/bk/chart4.html) map would be interesting.

Is that more helpful regarding the term Ci Celli Ddu?

Kain

[Ci Celli Ddu]

Is that more helpful regarding the term Ci Celli Ddu?

Kain

Yes indeed, thanks Kain :D
The Astral would then include a lot of what Ive done. I think my confusion with this term spans from the fact that I used to play D&D, which has very clear definitions of Astral and other planes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)) that stick in the mind.

[Kain]

The Astral would then include a lot of what Ive done. So it sounds from previous descriptions of some of your workings. Also, the astral is in fact pretty much impossible not to be tampered with I think, whether we like to call it Astral or not, due to it's proximity and location.
I think my confusion with this term spans from the fact that I used to play D&D, which has very clear definitions of Astral and other planes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)) that stick in the mind.Ah, yes...the confusion is immense in such a case. Thankfully, I became acquainted with the D&D world after having spent some considerable time working with the Astral personally, so the effect on me was more akin to a huge confusion within the game terms themselves, and a big nuisance to my co-players...lol...

Kain