Low Magick and High Magick

by Dr. Kheti A. Sahure

“Magic is a faculty of wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries, containing the most
profound contemplation of most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance
and virtues thereof, as also the knowledge of whole Nature, and it doth instruct us concerning the
differing and agreement of things amongst themselves, whence it produceth its wonderful
effects, by uniting the virtues of things through the application of them one to the other”-
CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Low Magic

Low or Natural Magick evolved out of the lowlands where farmers grew crops. Many Solitary
Witches and Wiccans practice Low Magick as well as many ancient Pagan (i.e., from L. paganus
meaning "a countryman or country dweller") cultures. Low Magick utilizes natural objects such
as crystals, herbs, rocks, fire, air, earth, water, animal parts (i.e., not from sacrificial means but
from the use of feathers, pelts, skins, horns, entrails, or bones found by a practitioner in the
forest, fields, or grasslands), the weather, seasonal changes, or anything found within our
environment and nature. It can be looked at as taking care of your physical earthly wants, needs,
and desires such as love and relationships, money, health, personal protection and is generally
short term.

Sympathetic Magick: (a.k.a Primitive or Imitative Magick) is a centuries old form of Low
Magick based upon imitation and/or correspondence, practical experiences, and observations
within the natural world of the past, present, and future. Imitation and correspondence are two
key elements of this type of magick and represent a cause-and-effect relationship:

Imitation - refers to "like attracts or produces like" based upon the Law of Similarity where a
spiritualist, for example, is able to produce any effect that she or he desires just by imitating the
material object; i.e., the concept of an effect resembling its cause.

Correspondence - refers to objects having been in possession or contact with each other continue
to react upon one another no matter the distance; this concept is based upon the Law of
Contagion (Contact). A priestess, for instance, knows that whatever actions she performs upon
or directs energy toward any material object will equally affect the individual who was once in
contact with or possessed this object. This explains why practitioners of Applied Occult
Metaphysics often use the personal effects of whom they are performing spellwork for; some of
these personal items might include articles of clothing, hair, nail clippings, bodily fluids,
photographs, or even jewelry. These items assist in empowering the spell and its potential
outcome. Also note, Sympathetic Magick is the foundation for most divinatory systems and
practices where healing is concerned.

High Magick

High Magick seeks to enhance your spiritual growth and development transcendentally
and bring you closer to the deities; and has been claimed to have evolved from scholars and
higher societies of people.

This form of magick is highly used by practitioners of Kemeticism (Ancient Egyptian

religion), Qabalism (Kabbalism), Enochian Magick, Tenebrae Artes (Dark Arts, Black Magick,
or Infernal Sorcery), Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Thelema (founded and further
developed by Aleister Crowley) just to name a few. High Magick, in general, invokes great
spiritual energy and power and usually does not concern itself with Nature.

It uses complex rituals and symbolic invocations of deities, dramatic ceremonial

wardrobe, and complex concoctions such as those used within Alchemy. Ceremonial or Ritual
Magick is a good example of high magick and concerns itself with the conscious application of
willpower to achieve one's individual or a group's spiritual objectives.

Both forms of magic can be quite useful, effective, and almost "equal" in their strength and
purpose in order to achieve the intended results of the practitioner (e.g., a priest, priestess,
shaman, magickian / magician, or alternative spiritualist).

One isn’t “holy-er” or “better” than the other.