The Ethics of Real Magic: Against Illusion, Toward Activation

Friday, April 11, 2025

For those who still see without spectacle.

Magic did not begin in the theater.
It began in the breath of the forest, the rhythm of bleeding, the way stones remember.
Before it became a tool of distraction, magic was a knowledge — fractal, dangerous, healing. It was a way of listening to the world, of moving with it instead of above it.

It was never about tricks. It was about truths too complex to be named.

I. From Language of Forces to Language of Lies

The original magicians were not illusionists.
They were intermediaries, guardians, listeners of the unseen.
They did not aim to deceive, but to balance. They touched fire not for show, but for purification. They bled for the land, not for applause. Their power came from humility, not spectacle.

Then came the death of magic: rationalism, capitalism, optics.
The world no longer wanted presence — it wanted performance.
The magician was removed from the wild and put on stage.
The ritual became a number.
And what once connected the body to the cosmos became a diversion.

This is not progress. This is dismemberment.

II. Magic as Capitalist Weapon: The Machinery of Misdirection

Today’s “magic” is not a relic — it is a weapon.
It is the art of misdirection, the science of perception control.
Every magic trick operates on one rule: make them look away from the real thing.
This is the very principle of modern governance.
Governments, brands, algorithms — all deploy magical logic:

• Misdirection = endless content.
• Sleight of hand = infinite scroll.
• Controlled surprise = simulated awe.

We are not witnessing miracles.
We are being hypnotized into forgetting what truth even feels like.

III. Now You See Me and the Illusion of Justice

The Now You See Me films pretend to be about magicians.
But they’re about revenge — against systems that steal without being seen.
They use illusion against the illusionists.
They turn the capitalist trick back on itself.

These films whisper a dangerous possibility:
That perception, once mastered, can be subverted — not for entertainment, but for sabotage.

This is what frightens the system.
Not magic.
But magic used ethically.
Not for show. For rupture.

IV. The Silenced Witches: Feminine Magic and Its Erasure

The magic of men became “illusion”.
The magic of women became “witchcraft”.
And so they burned the women.

Not because they were hysterical, but because they knew.

They knew about the moon’s pull on the womb.
They knew how to heal without patent.
They knew how to cross between worlds without permission.

Modern magic shows still burn these women — just in another form.
By turning sacred gestures into hollow tricks.
By pretending that the real has no place on a stage.

But not all the witches died.

V. Black Magic Today: The Algorithms of Possession

The real black magic is not in ancient symbols.
It is in the codes that know what you want before you do.
It is in the apps that simulate synchronicity.
It is in predictive AI that sells your future before you’ve lived it.

This is not technology.
It is a ritual.
It captures, names, projects, controls.
It operates through enchantment — not of mystery, but of dependency.

This is the new sorcery:
The illusion of choice.
The theft of desire.
The disappearance of silence.

VI. Who Still Practices Real Magic?

Not the magicians in tuxedos.
Not the mystics with brands.
But those who still work in the dark, with no audience.
Those who listen, link, repair, risk.

Some are artists:

• Etel Adnan, who paints with presence instead of ego.
• Gloria Anzaldúa, who writes in tongues that cross borders like spells.
• Bracha Ettinger, who weaves trauma into co-emergence.
• Ariella Azoulay, who restores memory without spectacle.
• Mariam Ghani, who builds invisible architectures of truth.

Some are anonymous:

• Women in exile who speak to plants before eating.
• Diasporic bodies who carry rituals inside their silence.
• Neurodivergent seers who translate what others overlook.

Some are makers:

• Artisans who build objects that hold vibration.
• Forgers, sculptors, relieurs of the real.
• Hands that shape without market logic.

Some are lovers.
Those who hold without claiming.
Those who speak through co-presence.
Those who touch not to consume, but to activate.

VII. Real Magic Is Ethical, Relational, Alive

It does not seek applause.
It does not aim to deceive.
It does not scale. It does not brand. It does not sell.

Real magic is what happens when two frequencies align in full presence.
When a touch does not invade.
When a word undoes a wound.
When a gaze returns the other to themselves.

That is the only magic worth keeping.
And no stage will ever hold it.