Of all the areas I have studied, probably the furthest removed from the consensual reality (i.e. “normal culture”) of North America is that of Magic. Were many of my colleagues studied Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, in order to get a handle on how cultures conceptualized and formalized technologies of the mind, I was more interested in looking at Western forms and their integration into our modern society. Inevitably, the study of Western Magic leads one to the study of Western music which, for me at least, was fortuitous since I had been singing it since I was nine years old. This led to the somewhat surreal situation where, when I was doing fieldwork studying modern Witchcraft, I was recognizing cord sequences and emotional progressions that I had first learned singing in Anglican choirs and from folk songs.

“Western Magic”, when you just read the phrase typed out, sounds like a scary subject and, in some ways, it is. It is probably the most frustrating, confusing, garbled and often self-contradictory collection of magical traditions in existence in the world. There are, however, certain unifying factors or principles that underlie it.

First, it’s probably best to start off with a definition of Magic. My own favorite is that of Dion Fortune who defined Magic as “the Art and Science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with Will”; a definition adopted my many modern practitioners. There are some very interesting points in this definition. First, the focus of magic is on “changing consciousness” in either the practitioner or a target group. Second, these changes are “in accordance with Will” (note the capitalization). This refers to the actual application of Will Power, a focusing of the practitioners intent on achieving the desired changes. Third, it is referred to as “the Art and Science”, which is a clear indication that Magic is seen as a technology that operates in the Natural world using Natural Laws, even if those laws are not generally accepted or comprehended.

Second, Western Magic is inextricably entwined with Western mysticism and not established “religion”. Many of the practitioners I talked with during my fieldwork told me that they viewed most established religions (actually the various Cristian denominations with the notable exception of the Celtic Church) as professional associations who attempted to exercise a monopoly on the practice of Magic. The practice of Magic, in their view, is both an act of resistance against an established ideological hegemony and, at the same time, a re-affirmation of Evelyn Underhill’s observation (in Mysticism) that in the East, mystics climb up to the top of the mountain and stay there, while in the West, they come back down to change the world.

Let me give an example of what many practitioners would consider to be an act of Magic - a “spell” to use the proper term - that is still in use today; it’s a hymn called Saint Patrick’s Breastplate.

As a note, the version of the words appearing on Wikipedia differs (”I arise” instead of “I bind”, etc.); the video above has the words that used to be in the Canadian Anglican Hymnal (and are now gone) and one arrangement of the score (by Stanford)is available here.

Now Saint Patrick’s Breastplate is a pretty overt convergence of magic and religion. If you are a singer, try singing it and you will see what I mean - it has a very peculiar, and powerful, effect! But it is personal, where the target of the change in consciousness is the individual who is singing it. Other hymns, built using the same “technology”, are more group focused. Consider, for example, Ein Feste Berg…

This hymn, written by Martin Luther (score here), became a battle hymn, the “Marseillaise of the Reformation” (see Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion, page 50).  Now, if you listen to it, or sing it, you will notice that it has certain interesting qualities, qualities that it shares with certain types of folk songs.  In particular, it is an analog of the classic “work songs” where the rhythm of the song matches the rhythmic actions of particular, repetitive actions taken during a type of work. If you are at all familiar with the weaponry of the Reformation, you will note that it exactly matches the marching beat of pikemen.

Songs of this type, i.e. the “work song”, act as a method of reinforcing patterned behaviour in a group of people.  In part, this is done by matching the rhythm of the song with the rhythm of the work.  But another part comes in as a result of freeing the mind from having to concentrate on work actions and focusing the consciousness on a realm outside of “mundane reality”.  Now, in some cases, that “outside realm” may be some view of a “greater reality” or “fantasy world” that acts to make people if not contented the at least accepting of their lives.

In many cases, however, this “greater reality” is a context which transforms the consciousness of the singer against the established cosmology by making them less content with their lives.  This was certainly the case with Ein Feste Berg, and it is also the case with a number of folk songs.  Consider, by way of example, this American classic.

or this British one

These songs act, in and of themselves, as “ritual specialists” contextualizing and interpreting everyday life even as they shift and focus a person’s consciousness into a new direction.

The link with social movements should, by this time, be fairly clear, but let me spell it out a bit more.  Social movements, according to Joel Best, utilize a form of rhetoric that makes claims about a section of “reality” that are based on grounds and authorized by warrants.  In effect, what the rhetoric of social movements do is to construct symbols that are composed of signs that point towards certain grounds (what should be perceived as important) and emotional responses (i.e. what one should feel).  These symbols are then constructed into a semantic network - a series of relationships between symbols - that provides “meaning” (actually and interpretive context) for that slice of reality.

Music, and songs, serve to reinforce the emotional “reality” of the symbols, the semantic network and, in effect, the entire validity of the interpretive structure by providing an experientially based “proof” (the Greek Gnosis or experiential knowledge).  Music is one of the technologies used by social movements to “cause changes in consciousness in accordance with Will” or, in other words, it is a “magic” practiced by social movement members.  Maybe it should not have been surprising to find out that singer Rita McNeil was being investigated by the RCMP back in the early 1970’s!