Understanding Magicians as a Mechanism that Naturalises the Supernatural
As Denizens of Hyperreality
Intro:
This post will attempt to use the idea of magic to understand what is means to be a magician. tl;dr: a magician is someone who assumes their hyperreality over a default assumption of “reality” and knows/intuits their location in the hyperobject of humanity/magicians, which is an object that is primarily subject to the force of magic and carried the belief that said force of magic might one day distill a Reality. If that didn’t make any sense, hopefully the this post will be that magic that explains it.
Definitions:
Magic [interchangeably used with sorcery]: is a methodology that acts as a force to understand the supernatural, thus rendering it as natural, and then is capable of wielding that which was formerly supernatural
Spell: a distillation of the supernatural. Examples:
- languages are spells
- methods and rituals are spells
- instructions are spells
Incantation: language and material required to cast a spell. Examples:
- speaking is an incantation
- painting is an incantation
- writing is an incantation
Cast: the boundary between a when a spell has been incanted or not. Examples:
- a spell is cast when a teacher shares information
- a spell is cast when a construction company builds something
- a spell is cast when a poem is recited
Magician: a person*
My Credentials:
I have believed in the supernatural my entire life. My parents are Christian missionaries with a strong belief in the reality of a supernatural war that surrounds us always and forever. My whole life, I have been warned against becoming desensitised against the supernatural and what is truly real, that I should exercise caution when there are pentagrams and angels and devils in the media I consume, and that many tribulations and hardships can be understood as demonic or satanic influence [bad thing btw]. I have very little, bordering on zero, experience with what other peoples and communities call magic, witchcraft, supernatural, and superstition outside of that which is present in the type of Christianity I grew up with, so I will disclaim that I do not intend for my words to persuade away anyone’s personal experience with anything categorically supernatural; however, I will share with you my personal musings on the topic of magic as informed by all the parents, poets, and prophets who’ve held my ear over the years.
I might begin with an explanation of what my current beliefs are before I share with you the implications I draw — even in the case that our physical universe has been brought about via some cosmic impossibility, I like to believe that there is a Real Force behind that inception. My present conviction on the Shape and Nature of that Force are loose by all standards; that said, my belief does imply something Divine, Something that operates outside of what is in the possibility space of what we could ever learn and record in any certain terms (this is paradoxical with what I propose in the rest of this post I know — it is part of my hyperreality). If anything, my belief is in a profound uncertainty that accompanies life. I have not personally experienced much use in understanding the inexplicable through the lens of only the supernatural; my life has been enriched as I’ve begun to see the physical, tangible, tactile reality around me as magical — here is where my day-delusions begin.
Examples and Observed Magics
Two people happening upon each other and communicating, magical to me; digitally teleporting into the minds and thoughts of our greatest artists and philosophers, magical to me; large scale organisation and protest against the profound inequality present in our world, magical to me. Auntie Ethel can’t comprehend why her queer child ran away from home; “What demonic forces are at play here?” None; the magic isn’t there — perhaps it had something to do with her sending them to summer camps to “straighten them out”. The explanation is magical. Mr. Gortash got fired from his job; “Those liberals are walking satan right into our workplaces, when will it ever stop?” Never; not magical… Checking in with HR and learning about Mr. Gortash’s relentless “jokes” about form fitting clothes… The magic begins to reveal itself.
A Grand Unifying Theory of Magic:
The following section will examine the following:
To be human is to be a magician.
It might be the degree to which we are magical that sets us apart from other living beings. Dolphins and dogs do not cast spells at the scale of magicians. While they certainly might cast spells, the act of spell casting does not make one a magician. Life itself is magical, but not all things magical are magicians.
Magicians as Denizens of Hyperreality
To develop an understanding of the magician, one must be familiar with the concept of a hyperobject and the concept of hyperreality.
A hyperobject, as understood by Timothy Morton, is a concept that is too large to grasp in its entirety as one magician. A hyperobject is vast and expansive enough to have a shape, in some cases a personality, and can be influenced by the contents of said hyperobject or other hyperobjects. Some examples of a hyperobject: global warming, the internet, humanity. The hyperobject of humanity has a deep history with the supernatural and spiritual, and magicians [humans] inhabit and compose the hyperobject of humanity. Magic is the force wielded by this hyperobject — it is the force that moves that which is supernatural into the realm of the natural. Some common examples of this force can be categorised broadly as internal and external magics.
Internal Magics:
Magic to affect worlds inside of magicians: poets, physicians, priests.
External Magics:
Magic to affect the worlds outside of magicians: physicists, politicians, pilots.
Hyperreality:
The current standard suggestion of a definition and coloquial understanding of hyperreality, outlined by wikipedia, is:
This definition is flawed. This commonly used understanding of hyperreality fails to take into account the base abstraction of the “reality” that is presumed through the ability to fundamentaly be perceiving, suggests that a fundamental “reality” exists, and that this “reality” can be understood without signs and symbols. In my work on an Art Games Thesis project I’m pursuing with two close compatriots, we present:
“Accepting a hyper reality is accepting that reality is not known, that life is mediated by abstractions, not source; we are expected to vie for, kill for, love for our unknowable abstractions.” (date accessed February 2, 2024)
In other words: being a person requires fundamental abstraction, communication, and/or action to collaborate and consume [to survive]. Requiring a post-structuralist world/framework for an understanding of hyperreality ignores an innate necessity for the signs and symbols we use to interact with “reality”. In simple terms, everything is, and always has been, hyperreal — enter the magician.
Being a Magician
A magician is earlier simply defined as “a person*”. It is implied that a person is naturally capable of magic and is dispositionally a magician. This capability can come from a purposefully, developed understanding of the nature of a hyperreality, an instinct that understands and communes with hyperreality, or a situation that places a person in a location where spells are cast and are overlapping, that results in an accidental engagement with magic, without understanding or instinct for hyperreality.
Intentional magicians:
- A studied magician might engage with magic via reading and scholarly learning
- An instinctual magician might engage with magic via folkloric and spiritual methods
Accidental magicians:
- An accidental magician is where everyone begins and where some remain for their lives
There is a notable difference between the intentional and accidental magician.
Whether your understanding of hyperreality and magic comes from a learned or an instinctual place, there is an acute sense that the hyperobject of magicians’ [the hyperobject of humanity’s] ultimate goal might be to find the incantation that will distil our hyperrealities into a Reality. The accidental magician still believes in “reality”, when in fact that “reality” is their hyperreality. This difference in belief/understanding unfortunately does divert the forces of magic. *Now for the asterisk that defines a magician as a person:
The accidental magician does not necessarily pursue the supernatural for its magic, to turn it into the natural. The accidental magician does not necessarily work towards the distillation of a Reality, as their efforts tend to be pointed at their own “reality”[ hyperreality]. The accidental magician does not believe in magic.
The intentional magician crafts the spells that turn the supernatural into the natural. The intentional magician is aware of their hyperreality and the possibility of a Reality. The intentional magician believes in magic.
Works Cited:
Art Games Thesis. Austen van der Byl, https://artgamesthesis.com/2024/01/12/the-tower-12-6-23/ (date accessed February 2, 2024).
Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, Timothy Morton, September 23, 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality (date accessed January 30th, 2024).
