‘Living Magic: Contemporary Insights and Experiences from Practicing Magicians’ by Frater U∴D∴ et al.
Review: Frater U∴D∴, Harry Eilenstein, Josef Knecht, Axel Büdenbender, Living Magic: Contemporary Insights and Experiences from Practicing Magicians, Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2021, 360 pages
by Frater Acher
Living Magic
Contemporary Insights and Experiences from Practicing Magicians. Buy a copy.
Living Magic is a most unusual book, and yet it should not be. As its subtitle says, it is a book entirely entrenched in and geared towards magical practice. Specifically, it breathes the kind of magic that does not walk cloaked in centuries of tradition, in garments of cryptic symbols and dead languages, peacock-like strutting out in leather-binding and emblazoned in claims of ancient lineages. Instead Living Magic is epitomising the kind of magic that nakedly stares you in the face and bluntly punches you in the stomach while you are trying to act as if you were in control. Its pages are filled by the type of magic that forever will be anchored in the present moment, the experience of the Here and Now.
Of course, such is the only kind of magic that there is; which is why in a slightly more authentic world, a world less dominated by consumer trends and marketing fads even within the realm of modern occulture, it should not be an extraordinary book at all. Unfortunately though, the bibliophile occultist of 2022 is surrounded by an ocean of new releases who all make the same claim. A claim of delivering ‘praxis’ as we often read in overblown terms. This in itself makes Living Magic such a much needed release. For its 24 chapters speak with diabolical understatement and assassinating precision about more than 120 years of combined practical experiences amongst its four authors. And in doing so, most uncompromisingly and unapologetically, it resets the bar for what a life filled with magical practice actually means and what it takes to live up to it.
Looking at the names of its four authors this comes as no surprise, at least to the German speaking practitioner. For it is precisely these four men, now all in their advanced age, who have come to quintessentially represent the pragmatic-turn of modern Western Magic. The most prominent figure amongst them, Frater U∴D∴, for more than thirty years now has been synonymous with the iconoclastic, yet deeply philosophical current of modern magic which builds upon founding fathers such Austin Osman Spare, yet continues to work in the spirit of radical systemic renovation known from e.g. Franz Bardon or the early Fraternitas Saturni. Thus the two magical paradigms founded by Frater U∴D∴ – Pragmatic Magic and Ice Magic – establish the current that consistently underlies the polychrome essays coming together in this release. The second author with a significant bibliography amongst the four is Harry Eilenstein. Differently to Frater U∴D∴however, the latter has remained almost unknown to an English speaking audience, despite his more than 130 published books. Living Magic therefore not only convinces as a radical reset of the practitioner’s bar in the year 2022; it also works as an introduction to a truly unique and innovative ecology of modern magic, as designed by Eilenstein over the course of more than forty years of active study.
Now as mentioned, an utterly unimposing approach and most modest everyday language are the two key tenets of the infiltration strategy of this book. But how do we best describe its overall plan of attack? To understand this, we need to travel back in time.
In the late 1970s Frater U∴D∴ owned a bookshop in what was then West Germany / Bonn. It was in this location, more than forty years ago that a diverse group of young people met whose gatherings would become known later on as the Bonn Workshop for Experimental Magic. For several years they set out on a radical journey of magical exploration, of crossing occult currents, paradigms, traditions and world views, all in the pursuit of expanding their first-hand knowledge of how magic was conducted objectively as well as experienced subjectively. Such take no prisoners approach to magic resulted not only in a riptide of new discoveries but also real-life changes amongst its members. Nevertheless, for some of them – amongst them our four authors – the years of the Bonn Workshop also became the launchpad into an entire life lead most magically.
Let’s listen to some of their voices so we can ground ourselves in their experience, before we will go on to explore some of the actual findings they share with us over the chapters of Living Magic.
Their ages ranged from the mid-twenties to the early thirties, and the ratio of men to women was almost balanced. At the time, the majority of them were university students, albeit spread across a wide variety of subjects: astronomy, Egyptology, English studies, ballet, biology, German studies, Indology, comparative literature, medicine, physics, sociology and comparative religious studies. There were also three participants from the nursing professions, including a Korean national and her German husband. One participant was currently working on his master’s thesis, while also acting as managing director of the bookstore mentioned above, which means that he could be reckoned as a bookseller, too, as could his two business partners who also co-founded the workshop discussed here.
The group consisted of two married couples (another couple married shortly after the group’s inception); of members who had been long-term friends already; of common-law partners; and of unattached singles. They all met for the first time as a group in this specific combination.
What’s more, the magical background of the participants could not have been more varied. From the total greenhorn to the experienced Bardonian, from the expert in magical herbal knowledge and mythology to the academic researcher of tantrism, from the Wicca scholar to the sigil magician, from the rune vitki to the kundalini yoga adept, the group’s accumulated wealth of experience and knowledge, each related to one or more of its members, was spread over such diverse areas as rune magic; the neo-hermetic Golden Dawn tradition; astrology; radiesthesia; natural magic; ancient Egyptian Heka; talismantics; Kabbalistic magic; Freemasonic symbolism; telepathy and parascience; medieval alchemy; Sufism; Afro-Caribbean cults of obsession; Eastern wisdom teachings from the Vedas or the religion commonly described as Hinduism; Buddhism; yoga philosophy; mantra techniques; Western magical fraternities and orders; sex magic; the tradition of German interwar period occultism; and numerous other subjects.
Undoubtedly, much of this was at first little more than reading-based half-knowledge, but that was exactly the point of the venture: to take up these manifold impulses and translate them into practical experience. All in all, the degree of magical erudition was significantly above average. Furthermore, there was a treasure trove of practical, diverse experiences of individual members, which should not be underestimated and from which everyone was to benefit together. In addition, the upcoming magical work and practical training of most participants would not be limited to the group meetings alone. At home, for example, many participants would often continue to work on their own initiative, either alone or with select partners, sharing during pursuant group meetings their personal experiences, the insights they had gained, and the questions that had cropped up. (p. 1-3)
[…]
Thus we gradually created our own experiential ecotope of magic without necessarily downright pursuing it. The result was not so much some canon of earth-shattering, unique insights, but rather the perception that the paths of magic are characterized by an almost inexhaustible diversity, which is why every fatuitous dogma that inadmissibly simplifies everything far removed from actual practice is bound to fail miserably.
Another essential aspect of the whole undertaking that cannot be overstated was the fact that each participant was always able to verify—simply by taking a single glance about—that there were indeed other magicians around, that you were not alone in the world in your struggle for the High Art. And finally, the sheer delight in experiencing the adventure of magic played a prominent role for everyone as well. (p. 4-5)
Without the claim to completeness, let’s take a closer look at some of the essays and the contemporary magicians behind them...
Frater U∴D∴
Following on the heels of the Introduction, Frater U∴D∴ offers an eagle’s eye summary of several essential traits of the Western Magical Tradition since the 12th century: Tangentially we hear of high and low magic, Western shamanism and folklore, magic vs. religion, Medieval book culture, as well as the complicated question of magical talent. And as so often with this book, the reader will only realise half-way through the text how brilliant it is conceived; such is the impact of the deceptive simplicity of its presentation.
For what Frater U∴D∴ accomplishes on less than twenty pages many academic researchers of Western Magic haven’t accomplished in entire volumes: To condense a vast period of time down to their most essential characteristics and questions. Questions that is, which matter to the serious, yet pragmatic practitioner. We find ourselves on this vicious ride through centuries, only to take a sharp turn and suddenly be introduced to the Magical Special Forces, i.e. the relatively modern trend of using magical principles and practices for elite combat training. This is exemplified by the Systema technique and its prominent Russian representative, Vladimir Vasiliev. What might seem like a time warp or simply a case of random writing, to leapfrog from Medieval Scholastics to Paracelsus, to Library Magic and suddenly to Russian Systema combat training, in reality has profound method.
Daring to invert the personal contribution of the reader is the bold underlying premise of this book: Instead of mainly being busy trying to follow and decipher the highly complex academic or crooked path language of the book, here the written word could not present itself more simple. However, while plain in grammar and presentation, this book demands the strongest presence of mind and swift deductions to see the newly emerging patterns. Because the practitioner of Pragmatic Magic perceives any kind of orthodoxy as a trap. Thus it is with somnambulant assurance that the authors lead us through vast traditional terrains, precisely not to linger and pause, but to uproot us into seemingly unfamiliar environments in the next moment. The shock of contrasts is meant to jolt us into alertness. The silver bullet of this path is forged by the playfully exploitative attitude of both author and readers – to take what works, and to dismiss what doesn’t.
Make no mistake, Living Magic is written for the magical beginner. Or maybe for the nostalgic practitioner fond of the vivid freshness of seeing things for the first time. I wish I would have had this book on my shelf twenty years ago; my path would have been straighter, my stance would have been tougher and yet my confession of mistakes swifter.
Axel Büdenbender
Things take a turn for the wonderful and weird once Axel Büdenbender is introduced to us in interview form. Well, some of you might actually remember Jackie Chan in the Drunken Master (1994), presenting us with a unique way of moving which looked foolish, drunken, always on the brink of falling unconscious – only to suddenly strike hard and swift at his opponents in ways we hadn’t seen before. Such is the language and self-deprecating tone Axel uses to describe his magical biography. And yes, after reading what he has to share we are all on first-name basis with Axel.
We read of decades of magical practice, consistently performed with the attitude of the adrenaline addicted teenager just as much as the acephalous middle-aged drug addict, only to hope someone might give this man a more demanding day-job so he finally would stay out of trouble. In fact, we keep our fingers crossed, Axel is okay right now.
And yet, we look back over the assessment he passes on his own life – and we begin to see the outlines of a radical commitment, carried by an ease and airiness to always walk on the sharp edge of death and life. And at once we can nothing but admire the man.
Here are a few clippings of the biographical interview, to give you a better impression:
Axel: […] And because he was my friend, I also felt obliged. I did a bit of psychodrama there—he immediately forgot about all that afterwards. That was up on his beautiful flat’s roof, it was like a balcony, you had a direct view of the Seven Mountains. So I waited there until it was full moon. Then we did some ritual with parts taken from Unicorn magazine: Isis, some things I’d memorized a bit, the lyrics were by Gabi Kramer—I don’t really remember it all that precisely … and I thought I’d put on a little show and then he’d have his peace and I’d be able to finish my beer—because at home I wasn’t allowed to drink anymore. And then I noticed, when I was wearing the robe—the one you sewed for me back then—that I was getting a different feeling somehow, kind of like a priest in church. Are you familiar with that?
Harry: Yes, I know that feeling quite well.
Axel: The feeling was there somehow, and I knew it would work. I just knew it! And the whole ritual came from my soul—really magical. And then I took off the robe again and put the staff aside—it was over and done with. So I polished off my bottle of beer and went home. (p. 52-53)
Axel: […] It was on a Sunday, I got bored, which actually happens very rarely, when my nephew gave me some grass. So I opened a bottle of beer and thought by myself: drink a couple bottles of beer, smoke a pipe of grass, maybe it’ll rock my day a bit. So I smoked the grass and there I was, sitting on my couch in a doozy, feeling like an idiot. I thought: is that all? People go to jail for that shit! Me, I was just feeling smattered … But suddenly I noticed a blow hitting the bottom of the crapper. At first I thought I was sitting wrong … So I just sat down once more, but then it hit me in the coccyx and I thought: “What the hell is that?” So then it crawled higher and I thought, “Shit, now you’re gonna have a heart attack, a stroke!” And it kept creeping up and then it popped out of me and I didn’t even know what to do. I had absolutely no control over it anymore. So I sat down cross-legged in front of my bed—that wasn’t me, that wasn’t what I wanted and did—and I pressed my tongue against my palate and straightened my head … and next the energy shoots right into my head—and before, exactly before that, I abruptly had to close my eyes—it felt like there was a hand shutting my eyes for me, and I just couldn’t bear it anymore. Next, I saw the energy that had jetted above my head and that had then collected somewhere in space or in the cosmos or whatever you want to call it, I just don’t know—it then shot through my feet and again back up. This went on for about half an hour … Then I bent forward, made a hump, with my head on the floor, and it continued to buzz through me incessantly: ssst. That’s what I heard, and after about half an hour, maybe three quarters of an hour, it stopped again. First, I was really scared, then I thought: “Man, this is madness!” (p. 56-57)
[…]
Axel: But these visualization exercises—they do have a lasting effect. It’s not suitable for everyone and I for one won’t touch them. I really have to say that I’m not tough enough to follow through with this … because you really have to pursue it to the end—you can’t simply stop midway, you have to follow through with it … and I just can’t keep that up—and it really can happen that your psyche will collapse. It’s like an initiation: either you can cope and go along with it or you can’t, in which case it’s over. As for me, I just can’t hazard it. I simply have my limits. (p. 58-59)
[…]
Harry: You’ve always stayed yourself, like you said. And you were always looking for the kick. So what would you advise magicians today?
Axel: Try it out. Just try it out. You have to try what you think suits you. And if you think you need the kick, hell, just go for the kick. Sure there are approaches where you should be careful—but you’ll have to decide that for yourself. That’s what I would advise today’s magicians to do. And they should try things that work. By that I mean mirror magic, for example, for astral travel. Could be it works, could be it doesn’t, but hey, what ever actually works a hundred percent? Everyone has to try it out for themselves. (p. 59-60)
Josef Knecht
If there is an echo of Mephistopheles in Frater U∴D∴’s voice and a shadow of the Drunken Master over Axel’s, then Josef Knecht’s literary voice can only be compared to the palette-cleansing, down-to-earth tone of a battle-tested paramedic.
If any of their parents in the 1980s would have known the young people were going out again to meet in the circle of the ‘Bonn Workshop’, they all would have slept somewhat better knowing that Josef Knecht sat at that table as well. His style not only impresses with razor-sharp logic, but even more importantly, with the sure-footedness of the experienced shaman. A trait that allows Knecht to easily traverse from the magical realm into the adjoining fields of biology, psychology or politics; each of which he seemed to have studied well. And yet his path never seems random and neither his conclusions artificial. Of the five essays provided by Knecht, his take on the Political Dimensions of Magichave especially left a mark on us.
Why is this important, and why should it be considered at all in the context of this collection of essays? What relevance does it have for spiritual practice?
On the one hand it is, of course, decisive for immediate political reasons, because even magically or otherwise, spiritually active people usually do not live alone in some wilderness but within social communities, hence they are influenced by their developments and are subjected to certain framework conditions. When spiritual freedom is restricted and life is more and more supervised down into the private sphere, the application of any spiritual practice becomes more laborious and, in the worst case, also hazardous at some point. We therefore have a fundamental interest in participating in the preservation of the most open and livable political conditions possible.
This can—depending on specific interests and individual character makeup—demand eminently variable forms, but every activity aiming at the social realm will profit immensely from a well-trained consciousness, clarity of goals, and an adequately coordinated inner power structure, all of which constitute essential components of personal magical development. (p. 228)
[…]
Magic is always about self-empowerment. It does not turn against anyone in particular and only wants to be able to pursue its own goals in peace. But it seems that magical individualism is always being perceived as turning against a centrally controlled world. Recourse to one’s own forces and one’s own thinking gives freedom; and from a certain political perspective freedom is always regarded with apprehension and rejection and, in case of doubt, suppressed.
Among the accusations against magic, the ethical or moral dimension always played a major role. Magic has invariably been considered morally reprehensible, even evil. The magical and witchcraft-based tradition owes most of its mortal casualties to it. The last stakes may have cooled down by now, but the campaigns against alternative medicine in recent years indicate that the fundamental attitude of some of our contemporaries has hardly changed at all.
Indeed the ethics of an independent spirituality or magic rests on a fundamentally different groundwork than the predominant conventional one: their guiding principle of ethical action is not defined by obeying authorities or principles, but by integrity, the inner conformity of action with one’s own convictions. This may sound abstract at first, but it has essential practical consequences, since all actions are based on an entirely different motivation than the conventional one. (p. 230-231)
Sounds rather relevant in light of the world’s political situation in 2022? Well, that is because relevance and impact are the aforementioned core tenets of the kind of magic that unites all four of our authors over their many decades long friendship and individual journeys.
Harry Eilenstein
And finally there is Harry Eilenstein. A man of 130 published books, who seems to single-handedly pull himself out the magician’s hat.
Reading his fast paced essays indeed makes us feel somewhat like Alice rushing after the white rabbit through a wonderland: Eilenstein is deeply familiar with the vast territory he criss-crosses and his writing embodies many characteristics of a powerful spirit-guide i.e. breaking the complex down to the simple, sequencing the journey, knocking you off centre when needed. And yet he is moving at a pace that might leave the beginner breathless, and the more experienced magician wondering if the hastily outlined conclusions are always accurate or even fully considered. But we’ll come to that in a moment.
In terms of pure chapter-headings Frater U∴D∴ and Eilenstein almost have an equal share in the material of the book, both providing double digit entries and thus shaping much of its narrative and content. Another trait they share is the ability to take the most opaque magical subjects and surgically slice them into clean, practical steps. The notion of Pragmatic Magic really comes to life when Eilenstein introduces us to an everyday practice curriculum stretching from telepathy, German letter magic, astrology, modes of consciousness switching all the way to his unique form of Da’ath Magic. His essays in particular fill this book to the brim not only with real-life examples of magical (thought) experiments, but with a rough outline of new territories for the practitioner’s own exploration.
Much of Eilenstein’s reasoning stems from a radical comparative approach between the natural sciences and the magical art. However, rather than attempting to fold them into one meta-paradigm, the author teaches us the subtle skill of holding two opposing thoughts in our mind, only to see a third and new door open right in front of his. He summaries his essential tenet in his essay fittingly titled Magic and Natural Sciences.
Since the natural sciences look at the temporal course of events, and magic looks at the context of meaning between simultaneous events, quite different worldviews result from these two ways of looking at things. It follows from this that magic cannot be explained by the natural sciences, nor can the natural sciences be explained by magic.
It does not follow, however, that magic and the natural sciences must contradict each other; instead, we should be able to use the two different perspectives in order to design a more comprehensive view of the world. After all, the natural sciences and magic are both describing the same world.
If both describe the world from different points of view and have accordingly developed different descriptions and vocabularies, the question arises what could actually be compared with these two worldviews. In the magical worldview, the scientific causal connections do not occur, and in the scientific worldview, the analogies of magic do not occur either.
What both worldviews have in common, though, are the structures they observe and the angles between different things as the smallest structural element. Finally, there are also the laws of conservation, which should constitute a formative element in both systems.
The beginning of all things is the same in both systems: “In the beginning was singularity” and “In the beginning was God.” (p. 165)
Following these introductory remarks to his methodology, Eilenstein throws us into the middle of a puzzle of correlating correspondences between the scientific and the magical world view which he must have spent decades on developing. What unfolds like some kind of mesmerising back-of-the-napkin explanation of the world, quickly becomes pure gold in terms of the cognitive dissonance it creates in the reader’s mind.
For the goal in these essays, at least in this reviewer‘s opinion, is not at all to convince the reader. Rather by leading them so deep into the maze of the wonderland Eilenstein thoroughly explored himself, the goal is for the reader to give up some of their long held personal beliefs and paradigms. Eilenstein’s essays work wonderfully in knocking one’s brain off centre and in inducing a degree of fluidity and connectivity in one’s mind that many readers will have missed since their school-days – or possibly they will hate it, depending on how loose they can let the mind’s reins while exploring the magical realm.
Such mental stretching exercises are critical in order not to get stuck in false orthodoxy, or the truth of a single paradigm. They are, however, in particular invaluable for the neophyte; as it is during the time when we set out into the entirely unknown that we most crave reliable anchor points, dependable truths and clear orientation. Learning to navigate one’s environment and oneself in the absence of these, is the mark of adept. And Eilenstein draws heavily from the treasure trove of his broad bibliography to equip newcomers and adepts with flavoursome food for thought.
Eilenstein’s take on what he comes to label Da’ath Magic deserves final and specific mentioning. Defining it as the broad category of magic which “temporarily overrides the laws of nature” (p. 110), he opens a vista into a fascinating convergence of magic and mysticism; a sphere where the impossible temporarily becomes possible. According to his observations and studies it takes four broad prerequisites for such accounts of magic to occur: (1) a facile approach, (2) genuine faith in whatever divinity the practitioner works with, (3) a relaxed one-directionality (p. 111), and (4) a fading of the practitioner’s own ego. Consequentially, once the magician manages to access the sphere of Da’ath Magic they are confrontedconfronted with a paradox well known in the Western Tradition of Magic: They suddenly are faced with a loss of mundane magical ambition. Thus, the very moment Divinity opens its gates to bending the laws of Malkuth, the mage learns to stand with empty palms, an open heart, entirely desireless, listless maybe even to conduct any change in the material realm.
A striking peculiarity of Da’ath magic is that once you have learned it, you will no longer have a particularly pronounced need to actually make use of it: at this point you will have stopped striving for power etc., instead flowing with life. (p. 116)
What Eilenstein does not mention, is that it is precisely such notion of standing silently in the open stream of Divinity which facilitates the most drastic changes, both within the mage and in the world they participate in. For the Divine forces are no longer constrained by ego, by human will and wanting, and finally Divinity can flow through human flesh and bone and spirit unconditionally. As the mage passes through the gate of Da’ath, they become one with the gate.
We have described the voices brought together in this book as echos of Mephistopheles, the Drunken Master, a weather-worn paramedic and Wonderland’s white rabbit. None of this is true of course. What they really are, are the honest memories, profound reflections and nostalgic anecdotes of four people who have spent their lives exploring the magical realm. It seems what united these men on their distinct journeys, first and foremost, was the youthful, iconoclastic spirit to forge one’s path outside of any sort of approved orthodoxy, as well as the joint understanding of magic as an ongoing battle against the powerlessness of man when faced with a world that has lost its balance.
Living Magic is precisely what the title says. A book that brings magic back to the present tense. And with that, it has everything to be an instant classic. For it is a humorous and facile and yet deeply human and thought-provoking book.
Or as Don Webb puts it in his wonderful foreword:
The dragon will show up. I’ve done my due diligence in warning you. THIS is the most powerful book on magic. Best to throw it away now. I know some places that wouldn’t sell it. (xxi)
