Alchemy of Faith: magic as a political force

“Spinoza’s philosophy [of immanence] makes magic the most rational of activities, precisely because it works by means of immanent forces that are directly linked to nature.”(Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy)

“What distinguishes magic is not the invocation of other worlds, but the creation of new forms of thought and new ways of acting.” (Deleuze & Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus)

thought and faith as creative forces

How might one wield thought as a force? Thought, in perhaps its lowest nature, altogether forgets its own role in manifesting Faith. Faith, in its highest nature, is a singular and creative force, a manifestation of pure immanence beyond dualisms, affirming itself through direct encounter with the play of Life, i.e., the divine dance, the cosmic drama, etc. Contrary to dogmatic thought, Faith is not a solemn obligation but an invitation to participate; it is the very development of Trust in the chaosmos of forces that shapes Thought into the whole of unfolding Nature. When we know Faith, we affirm our predicament as a name and form of Truth — it mobilizes Trust by the power of difference and becoming, the continual evolution of self and reality as inherently meaningful, essential, and creative.

A tragic predicament arises in the shadow of ignorance cast by the perspective that one ought to reject Faith as foreign to Thought, or that one must submit Thought to the foreign authority of Faith in some alien force or power. This is not the case at all. Divinity is revealed not by way of Thought but through the doorway of the senses as an awake encounter with the expansive and interconnected forces of Nature. Faith can appear only in these moments of vivid experience, not as some kind of submission to an external despot or deity but as a felt awareness of direct and immediate relationship with the multiplicity at play. 

In effect, Thought generates Faith by liberating itself from dogma and opening itself to the creative forces of life. Faith, in turn, upholds the freedom of Thought by grounding it in Nature, namely, the immanent power of being as becoming. As an affirmation of primordial creation, Faith welcomes virtual reality, especially new and yet unthinkable worlds, potentialities produced not as some cause of a predestined linearity, but as a dense and intensifying field of actual possibilities. By trusting emerging patterns (the most valuable of which are interesting, important, and remarkable), each repetition reveals itself as an experience of pure difference, rather than some identical and lifeless simulacra of ideas or pre-conceptions. In contrast with dogmatic images, Faith affords us direct engagement in the transformation of one’s relationship with Fate and Cosmos. Thought is not some representative cause, but instead it constitutes a creative performance that affects reality directly in alignment with its own immediate existence. 

magic as a political force

If Thought is truly a force we seek to wield wisely, we must learn to sense more acutely the subtle and subtler vibrations that destabilize dominant frameworks and despotic systems; we must attune to forces such as Faith, Trust, and Magic. Fate as such becomes malleable and dynamic only under these (apparently) “minor” or “lesser” expressions of Nature. Magic spells, sacred mantras, and mystical incantations, for example, function as “minoritarian” acts of thought, functioning to deterritorialize hierarchies, subvert the status quo, and undermine rational discourse. By grounding Thought in a univocal Nature, Faith allows for the transformation of “lesser” forces into not merely “greater” forces but the creation of an entirely queer becoming: beyond the horizon of duality and singularity at the same time as collapsing into both without exclusion.

Mantras and incantations are ritualized tools for actualizing events, uniting virtual reality and actuality in the act of bridging the gap between Faith and Thought. Together, Faith and Thought offer a mystical visionary experience of participatory practice whereby thought and sensation converge and conspire to regenerate Fate and restore Trust in immanence; here, at ground zero, Fate is not determined or superimposed but un-harnessed, co-created, and re-vitalized. 

“The magical thought does not divide into positive and negative, but connects multiplicities, allows for creation, and works with powers that exceed the common.” (Deleuze & Guattari, What is Philosophy?)

The act, I think, of an alchemy of faith, lies in the inherent ability of our thinking to understand the radical potentiality of élan vital, i.e., that which is unthinkable and unrepresentable. It is a process of responsive (not reactive) evocation, a creation that subverts and refuses tyranny, identification, and stasis — magic, as such, is a queer nomadology, a revolutionary and direct engagement in the undoing of being in the liberatory service of becoming.

“When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 44)

Om namah Shivaya. As It Is, here I remain.