[Opinion] Magical Formulae

[Asteriskos]

I like magical formulas, guess it's the engineer in me. I'll toss this one on the bar and see what you think.

M = I C V (d) <-- Most Important!

LEGEND:

M = Magic/k

I = Imagination
C = Concentration
V = Visualization
(d) = Desire!

What are the chances that this formula will produce results?

 

[HoldAll]

I like magical formulas, guess it's the engineer in me. I'll toss this one on the bar and see what you think.

Peter J. Carroll who is very big on maths (I think he's a trained chemical engineer) additionally factors in probability:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

There's even an online

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

that uses his formula.

As a chaos magician, his of course is a different philosophy, so for him desire would be problematical because much of chaos magic hinges on one's ability to forget one's original desire to avoid the dreaded 'lust for result', a major self-inflicted stumbling block in the system (Carroll has 'subliminalisation of intent' as part of his formulae) chaos magicians need to be more relaxed about, in my opinion.

I think that all such formulae raise the fundamental question of whether their variables can be reliably quantified and if the operation one plans to use is amenable to modification in line with their results.

 

[Asteriskos]

Peter J. Carroll who is very big on maths (I think he's a trained chemical engineer) additionally factors in probability:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

There's even an online

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

that uses his formula.

As a chaos magician, his of course is a different philosophy, so for him desire would be problematical because much of chaos magic hinges on one's ability to forget one's original desire to avoid the dreaded 'lust for result', a major self-inflicted stumbling block in the system (Carroll has 'subliminalisation of intent' as part of his formulae) chaos magicians need to be more relaxed about, in my opinion.

I think that all such formulae raise the fundamental question of whether their variables can be reliably quantified and if the operation one plans to use is amenable to modification in line with their results.

For myself I've learned that "desire" and "lust of/for results" aren't necessarily incompatible. For example, one can't even move discreet parts of the body, arms and legs without "wanting" to, or 'gods" forbid get up in the morning and go to work. Desiring to perform an "act" of magic/k is not the same thing as dwelling/lusting upon the result, there's a difference.

 

[HoldAll]

For myself I've learned that "desire" and "lust of/for results" aren't necessarily incompatible. For example, one can't even move discreet parts of the body, arms and legs without "wanting" to, or 'gods" forbid get up in the morning and go to work. Desiring to perform an "act" of magic/k is not the same thing as dwelling/lusting upon the result, there's a difference.

That's just Carroll's Spare-based model, you could also make a case for 'desire' being simply an expression of the magician's will and therefore a vital ingredient, or that properly focussed emotional energy arising from desire could act as a propellent for a spell.

The current consensus in chaos magic seems to be that it's ok to feel desire but that you shouldn't ponder about the specifiic ritual you've performed. It could even help you defeat all that turmoil and torment a given desire can make you go through, e.g. when you sort of dust off your hands and say; "Alright, that's been taken care off. It's in the works now, I don't need to worry anymore". You'll still feel desire but now you're confident that what go want is going to come to pass, so thinking about it shouldn't matter theoretically (and make your sleep much easier).