Two words best describe magick's most popular use: self improvement.

You will find - as many practices attest - that positive energy and socially productive activities are the key to a good life. Be it through meditation, visualisation, or any host of introspective exercises, one finds the means to that end in magick.

There are serious implications where the use of magick is concerned, and proper use of magick takes ethics into consideration. What is and isn't considered acceptible ethically is taken to heart, not out of social implications or guilt, but because of the consequences which may occur if one does not respect the nature of the cosmos. The best nutshell of this is the Wiccan Rede. It is not just a guide for Wiccan custom, but also warns that when magick is directed to adversely affect others - it will come back to you threefold. Pagan practitioners - and benevolent magicians at large - respect this universal philosophy and abide by the Rede regardless of their own trad or faith. In fact, a further step is taken: directing magick on others without their consent - even though one's intentions are good - may have an adverse effect as well, and is discouraged.

Cause and effect. It is an existential staple, not only for the sciences but for our lives. How cause and effect work with regard to destiny, time, and bioelectricity can only be explained once these elements themselves are sufficiently explained.

We measure time - or attempt to do so in an effort to bring order to society and anticipate events both natural and deliberate. But how reliable is that truly, when time appears to stand still for many people in close proximity of eachother? Have you ever known time to drag, while it appeared to fly for someone right next to you? No, me neither.

Our timepieces plod along with regularity, but how regular is time that they can be considered reliable? Time seemingly bends in places. Is the sensation truly a byproduct of our own metabolisms, influencing our perceptions? Or is it due to something else? If we understood the actual nature of time, then we'd be more certain of the answer.

I ran into something very fascinating on a local public station once: videotaped sessions of Seth (For those who are not familiar with Seth: this is a spirit, whose consciousness is channeled through the body of a woman by the name of Jane. She suddenly changes in personality from this mousy, gawky American woman into an assertive, confident man with a British accent when Seth comes "online."). Seth stated that we humans got the perception of karma all wrong. He stated in all certainty that time is not linear; we live all our lives at once. Anything we do in one lifetime immediately impacts one or more other lifetimes.

I found this concept fascinating, and it brought to mind Einstein's revelations and their close resemblance to Seth's lecture. A variation of this also figures into Piers Anthony's first science fiction novel Macroscope. It involves travel through time and space by way of being sucked into black holes (on the theory that time and space are not linear, but convoluted, running in tracks alongside eachother as space itself is raveled. The characters were instantly millions of years beyond their previous position in time).

A revolutionary notion Seth brings up, isn't it? And it disrupts many belief systems (including mine to a degree), but certainly worth a good ponder. After all, what do we know truly? How much do we believe in which is tangible or proven other than someone's word? That's why religions are called "faiths." We have faith in what we have been taught, and choose to believe accordingly. At the same time, Dead Men have been known to be the teller of many a tale...