There are those who believe and attempt to preach that magic lives only in certain bloodlines, and that you must be born of such a line to be a magician. I reject this idea as categorically false and consider it little more than self-aggrandizing, self-serving rhetoric peddled by those with an elitist ideology and perhaps also promoted by members of the charlatan class.
Magic is in the Blood…
The human brain is unique among the animal kingdom, requiring substantial blood flow via complex vascular networks to maintain what we call consciousness. I’m not going to butcher this by trying to explain it in depth but a search on “relationship of consciousness and the blood” or similar would not be wasted time. Or just run the question by your favorite chatbot.
The brain’s sole source of nutrients is glucose, which is carried by the blood. It stands to reason – if you’re a weirdo like me who believes in this sort of thing – that our blood also carries some aspect of the Great Magical Agent.
In terms of accepted lore, why would I say this? For two key reasons.
- Both eastern and western doctrines hold that we are multidimensional creatures who consist – among other energy fields – of an etheric double or counterpart body made of the ether/spirit/void that is the medium for the vital energy or life force.
- Various components are said to facilitate and regulate the flow of this ether into our beings. Examples include the fifth, or throat chakra called Vishudda in the Hindu tradition and our blood which according to Hindu philosophy carries the prana or life energy. Also noteworthy are the Japanese and Chinese concepts of Ki and Chi, both relating to the animating energy of life and movement and also tied to the blood. Our Celtic ancestors also had a term Forsa Betha, referencing the life force in or of the blood. Doubtless we could find similar ideas in Native American, Pacific Islander, Egyptian, and Greek lore.
Great Arcanum Within
If the Astral Light is truly within all things, then surely the life force is a worthy carrier of this Great Magical Agent or Great Arcanum. From similar philosophical treatises (above et al) I extrapolate exactly that.
In this scenario magic, via the magical agent present in the vital force, is in all of us. Magic is inherent to the life force, blood, and brain/consciousness of every human being.
Basic Cognitive Capacity
Perhaps excluded are individuals damaged by calamity or illness or born without some key component of the structure. Some people are born without sight or cognitive function, or lose these via accident or illness. Maybe the same kind of misfortune can deprive one of innate magical capacity.
I think it is fair to say certain conditions of body and mind are required for magical work as we recognize it. For example we need cognitive ability sufficient to handle basic reasoning, like counting, reading, and comparing and contrasting things in the world around us. Also necessary is the ability to maintain a coherent stream of awareness wherein we process chronology (past, present, future), can consistently identify individuals, and understand cause and effect relationships. I don’t know that a person could consciously enact magic sans these essential faculties.
I also believe an affirmative relationship with objective reality is required. If one can’t tell fantasy from reality or suffers from disorders that cause delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia it would be extraordinarily difficult to study and practice the magical arts.
If you understand – for the most part – what you’ve read thus far from this post, you know what day of the week and month it is, know your own legal name, recognize your family day after day, and remember the highlights of the past month you probably have all the gear you need to get started.
Wellness and Illness
Magic can tax the body and mind, so it is probably best to rest and heal before undergoing training in the Art. Chronic illness is often incompatible with regular magical practice.
You will hear and read again and again the caution against practicing magic if you are mentally ill. The supporting ideas for this position are reasonable enough, but the depending on how strict we interpret conditions like depression and anxiety and substance abuse the “mentally ill” are representative of the majority of the population of the United States and a significant amount of the rest of the western world along with the Middle East and much of Southeast Asia.
Ultimately I will not be the guy who attempts to blacklist the mentally ill. For one thing I despise the term “mental illness”; it is a deceptive misnomer that has bred massive ignorance and misunderstanding. For another, if not magic, what can the outcast and forgotten, disparaged by their own families and asked to feel like lessers by society as a whole, turn to as an avenue of hope and a trajectory to power?
There are a ton of attributes that would make your involvement with magic a better or worse idea, but those belong to some future post. Suffice it here to say there are …
Degrees of Inclination
There are of course varying degrees of aptitude per individual and indeed per genetic line. Some folks – whether we mean clans or families, or entire regions or even races – may well be more magically inclined than others.
I won’t get into a deep assessment of this here due to the unfortunately sensitive nature of ideas about regions and races in this part of the world or from that particular tribe being different from regions and races elsewhere. Just consider the obvious please:
Some families are very musically inclined, wherein grandma plays the piano, all the aunts and uncles can sing or play an instrument, and it just seems like every child has a knack to make music or perhaps even dance. Melody and rhythm it seems can be carried by the genes.
Have you ever known a football family or family of wrestlers that has generations of athletes who compete at the highest levels of their respective game? It’s a thing I promise.
Mechanical inclination, mathematic acuity, even business management seem to run in the family. Or folks from a certain genetic descent, i.e. race or region, appear predisposed to excel in certain areas.
Magic is no different in this regard and this is likely behind the myth of “only special bloodlines are magical”.
Conclusion
All homo sapiens have access to magic if they are willing to learn. Diligent study and hard work may be necessary to succeed in the pursuit, and this of course disqualifies a large number of allegedly interested parties. For those unafraid of work and willing to concentrate for a few minutes at a time on a regular basis – the kryptonite of the post-modern supercitizen it would seem – the door to magical proficiency is open.
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