Witchcraft Today

Welcome to the second installment of the Quantum Witchcraft series. In the first part, we talked about the many kinds of parallel universes that exist. In looking at this knowledge from the perspective of witches, we see that there is indeed reason to believe in the existence of other worlds, which could be interpreted as proof of the existence of the Astral Plane, the Faery Realm, and any other mythological place (Atlantis is out there… somewhere!).

But what does quantum physics have to say about other aspects of witchcraft? One of the famous hallmarks of witchcraft (many would say, its very essence) is the casting of spells. Witches, magicians, shamans and others throughout the world have been renowned for their ability to influence the real world, through seemingly incongruous actions involving ritual implements, chants and incantations, and often the help of another world. Whatever the name, in every culture throughout the world, there have been those few who seem able to bend reality to achieve a desired outcome. Quantum physics, as well as some other contemporary neurological and psychological research, corroborate the ability of the human mind to affect reality by force of will.

Random number generators are computer programs that produce a sequence of 0s and 1s. It’s like a virtual coin toss. If the computer where to generate a thousand numbers, the law of probability states that approximately half will be 0s and half will be 1s (within a certain margin of error). Experiments have been conducted in which participants would watch the random numbers being generated, and project the intent of producing more of one number than another. Consistently, it was shown that people had a statistically significant impact on what numbers were generated. In other words, if they wanted more 0s, they tended to get more 0s. The change was minor, but was observed consistently. This same principle applies if you were to sit down and toss a coin- if you project the intent of it coming up heads, it will come up heads more often.

Here’s a fun game: next time you have a small group of people around, have one of them bring out a coin. Then tell everyone to watch the coin, and to picture it landing on heads- always coming up heads. Then have your friend toss the coin ten times, and see how many times it comes up heads for you. You’ll be surprised by the results. It works just as well if you try to make the coin come up tails, too. Remember, the Law of Probability states that your results should be five heads to five tails, with a slight chance of six to four one way or the other.

Let’s now return to the Quantum Many Worlds theory, which was Level Three in the Tegmark’s Hierarchy of Universes. We know that each time we toss the coin, what in reality happens is that there is a split into two parallel universes, where in one universe the coin is heads and in the other it’s tails. But we only perceive one- which becomes reality to us. If the human mind can affect probabilities, and therefore which side of the coin comes up, then in actuality what we are doing is guiding ourselves to the universes in which the desired outcome is real. By visualizing and projecting the intent for the coin to be heads,we guide ourselves into those quantum parallel universes in which the coin is heads.

This idea is extended to anything that we put our intention to manifesting. You can manifest jobs, love, success, good luck, good health, and all manner of things. This is the essence of spell casting. The witch who does magick is putting intent into achieving a desired result. The exact methods used to cast the spell will depend on the intent, and will vary from witch to witch, put it is the same force of will that bends reality and gets the results.

At this point, some are probably saying , “Wait a minute, if this is true, then why haven’t I won the lottery yet?” That answer comes in two parts. First, the mind can affect probability, but the scientific experiments to date have not seen a drastic change in probability due to projected intent. The Law of Magick is a natural law that must coexist with the other natural laws, like gravity and probability. If the will can only slightly affect the outcome of a coin toss, which is a fifty-fifty shot, then how can the outcome of a lottery be affected significantly, which has odds more like being struck by lightning? Second, maybe you haven’t won the lottery because your real problem isn’t a lack of money ( I know, I know, it sounds far fetched to me, too).

But if the mind can only bend reality a little, then how can witches and other magickal practitioners achieve significant results with spells? Witches use tools to accentuate their power when working magick. There are the great classics, the athame, the cauldron, the pentacle; but unconventional tools are okay, as long as they are significant to the one using them. The subconscious mind is a much more active and powerful creator of reality than the conscious mind, and when the two act in conjunction, their synergy is greater than the sum of their parts. In order to achieve this, witches will use tools that are rich in symbolism, or will use incantations and rhymes to communicate the desire with the unconscious. The premise is to build a bridge between the conscious mind and the subconscious by communicating the desire through symbols.

So, imagine that a witch realizes she needs money to cover her rent. She does a quick divination, which reveals to her that magick is a safe solution to her problem. She proceeds to gather her implements prepare herself and her space, and casts her spell. She then forgets all about it, and a short time later her money problem is resolved. Maybe she found extra work, perhaps she finally sold something that she’d had in the garage for awhile. How it manifests itself isn’t the point, it’s that it did manifest.

The quantum explanation of this phenomenon might go something like this- at the start of the situation we had a set of conditions, namely a witch in need of rent money. Now, the future isn’t set in stone, it is in a state of superposition, in which all the possible outcomes exist side by side- a whole set of ways that the witch made her rent, and another whole set of possible ways in which she failed. Her intent is to guide herself to a reality in which her rent is paid. There are numerous ways that this could happen, which means that the chances it could happen are greater. By not placing a specific label (such as , “I want to win the lottery tomorrow!”) on the desire, the doorway was open to many other possible realities. The important thing to her is that the rent was paid.

From the quantum many worlds interpretation, witchcraft and other magickal practices can be viewed as a way of actively guiding oneself through the quantum multiverse, by manifesting the reality which contains the desired outcome. Remember, that if you cast a spell, there are some universes where you get your desire, and then there are others in which you don’t.

Which reality do you want to be in?

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