The Magick of the Mundane

There is a tendency amongst some practitioners (if often subconscious) to routinely separate the magickal from the mundane, and to see the magickal elements of their lives as being in some way superior to the more mundane aspects. This tendency is usually based on a simple misunderstanding of what magick is, and it also robs the individual of one of the greatest joys available in life, which is being able to experience everything from a magickal perspective.

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If we go back to Aleister Crowley’s famous definition, it reminds us that Magick is ‘the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.’ In this respect, wearing your best suit to a job interview, and smiling warmly at the people you meet there, could both be viewed as acts of magick, because they are things that you do to try and cause reality to conform to your Will, which is to get the job being applied for.

Viewing your life in this light, even the most mundane activities can be understood as acts of magick. You wash the dishes after a meal so that your kitchen can be changed to conform to your Will of it being clean and tidy. You work hard at the office so that your career can be changed to conform to your Will of being on an upward trajectory. You work out at the gym so that your body can be changed to conform to your Will of it being healthy and strong.

Now, would most people view these mundane activities as being in any way magickal? Probably not. But they become magickal activities when you become conscious of the role that your Will plays when you participate in them. Even better, this conscious recognition of the Will in mundane activities often makes it easier to muster the desire to do them in the first place.

Would you rather wash the dishes for its own sake, or cause the kitchen to conform to your Will? Would you rather work hard for its own sake, or cause your career to conform to your Will? For most magickians, the desire to do what needs to be done increases quite dramatically when ‘what needs to be done’ is viewed as a magickal activity in its own right.

In many cases, taking mundane actions can be the quickest way to creating the success you desire. After all, if you want a clean kitchen, which would be the most effective route to getting it: spending an hour washing the dishes and doing things the mundane way, or spending several hours invoking a spirit who ends up telling you that you really need to wash the dishes and do things the mundane way?

The modern magickian is not someone who uses magick to sidestep the mundane, but to help him transform the mundane into something magickal. Yes, the working of magick can also bring results which might not have been possible using other methods, but those tend to occur only when mundane means have already been exhausted. For that reason, it makes sense to embrace the mundane from the outset, and thereby hasten the change that you want to bring about.