In 'The Secular Occultist's Handbook of Physicalist Magick,' Jangled Jester approaches magick as a physical connection between form and transformation. Magick is commonly depicted as some power of transformation or existence's ability to change, morph, take shape, express itself, and reflect. In Aleister Crowley's definition of magick, he describes it as "True Will," but Jangled Jester slightly revises magick to be inclusive to inanimate and unconscious forms. Likewise, based on an educated guess, magick is physical.
If there is a physical world, what is the non-physical?
A lack of reasonable solutions to this problem skewed JJ's interest towards physicalist magick. It's not possible to verify one way or the other if phenomena do or don't feature physical properties when they're unobservable, that's when agnosticism is beneficial. Physicalism makes an educated guess that, based on patterns of systems and processing in all observable phenomena, then unobservable phenomena is likely to also be made of series and sequences of steps.
In physicalism, it makes no different whether existence is a divine, Heavenly realm with angels and immortal gods or a carnal, mortal world full of people and cemeteries. If it's made of steps, it's physical. If it has a story, think physical. Step process, movement, force, shape, change. There's definitely more to physics, but this is a good place to start.
Concerning the best definition of "non-physical," it's common that people use it as a synonym for "immeasurable, unobservable, transcendental." The problem with this is: if something is beyond observation, there's no confidence to claim it's missing physical properties. An error people might make when thinking about non-physical existences (ghosts, gods, etc.) is starting with the subject then working down. In physicalism, you need to start with your most basic principles and work your way up.
Existence, the fact of being, correlates with essence, the nature of being. The two aren't retractable, or so it seems, because spirit in this context depends on the interaction of bodies. If there was only 1 form of existence, then it's nature or spirit would be a single, true form. As we experience in reality, there are many forms. The interaction of all our organs build the spirit of our anatomical system, and the interplay of humans in a big city build the spirit of metropolis. As Walt Whitman says, "body is soul."
How is something physical?
Many places you search will tell you being physical means being made of physical principles or properties, but what does that mean? Currently, there's a fixed list of physical traits and properties, but are those the only physical properties? Is it possible to introduce new physical realizations? It's important to factor in the possibility that unobservable phenomena may not be non-physical just because they're unobserved. They could be physical in a way we don't yet understand.
Physics principles explain movement, activity, and motion using concepts such as Newton's laws, kinematics, and dynamics. These principles include force, energy, and thermodynamics. It's critical to ask if 'non-physical' phenomena have any of these qualities, as this could indicate that they are physical in ways we don't yet comprehend, thus reclassifying them as physical phenomena.
How is something non-physical?
It's a mystery! It's unobservable. It could mean, "This doesn't quite fit our definitions and theories in physics." This is problematic because, something being unobservable doesn't necessarily mean lacks properties such as force, motion, and energy. If you sit and think long enough on this, what do people usually infer when they say "non-physical?" Are they claiming something is without embodiment, no distinction, void of motion, lacking a potential for change, missing transformative properties? Because if they claim any of those traits, then their subject or topic is in the realm of physics.
Even phenomena like consciousness, love, and emotions are evidentially made of transition states if you zoom in closely enough. Zoom in even closer, meditate some more, and you'll reveal how even ghosts, gods, and goblins are also likely physical phenomena (if they're real). This is because of clues like their transition states, activity, and effects.
| State | Description | Example of Physicality |
| Consciousness | A dynamic, ever-changing state of awareness | Shifting from being fully alert to being drowsy |
| Love | A series of emotional transitions |
Moving from attraction to attachment
|
| Emotions | Constantly in motion, transitioning from one to another | Shifting from joy to surprise to excitement |
Another fun exercise to apply this strategy to is phenomena like ghosts, gods, and souls:
| State | Description | Example of Physicality |
| Ghost | The spirit of a deceased person living on in another form after biological death | Ghost walking down a hallway (motion), apparitions (form), a ghost remembers its life indicating memory (storage) and (space) |
| God | A supreme entity |
Classic traits of God are power, knowledge, goodness, and morals, all measurable |
| Soul | The essence or quality of an entity | Quality is a measurement of distinction, like a comparison and contrast |
What is physicalist magick?
Let's connect the two pillars of body and system. Now, you see magick. If you learn to assess existence for its structure and step formulae, you may obtain what the Jangled Jester regards as mundane, physicalist magick.
What's neat about Jangled Jester's magick is it can be applied secularly to both religious and nonreligious frameworks. The design of a process can be applied to religious and spiritual practices. It can also be applied agnostically in art and science. JJ maintains a nonreligious framework for the blog, but both physicalism and physicalist magick can easily be integrated with beliefs in God, heaven, and any mystic or paranormal phenomena. All you need to align with is that the phenomena is embodied by steps.
There can be no ritual initiation into this type of magick because you are born with it. We all are. There is no initiation. It is law. There is no discrimination. We are each magick of its own kind, in time and bodies of our own with their own limits, potential, and responsibilities. Moreover, there appears to be inanimate and unconscious forms of magick. Aleister Crowley's hyper-fixation on magick only as a process of Conscious or True Will is limited and short-sighted. Capturing the power of everyday, mundane transformation is a remarkable thing that might give us hope, courage, and determination to see we can change ourselves even as the living dead.
Physicalist Magick in Practice
Let's assess a common, mundane practice of magick via the design and system of a mundane rose.
A ROSE
If you've ever visited JJ's merch store, you've seen the Geometric Rose logo. It is based on this exercise here applied to a simple, red rose.
STEP ONE: Discover The Design
What are the parts?
The design of the rose is in its framework. The pieces are: flower, stem, thorns, leaves.
These make the body of the rose.
Alternative terms: structure, form, body, existence, architecture, pattern
STEP TWO: Study the System
The system of the rose is the way its pieces and parts come together as a working, transformative process or system.
How does the system change, connect, function?
The system of the body mixes an essence or 'spirit' based on the sum of its parts. Here, the spirit of the rose is fragrance, cultural meaning, and beauty.
Alternative terms: process, recipe, essence, quality, nature, spirit
STEP THREE: Mapping Magick
