“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” –A. Einstein
—
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”
W. Shakespeare, Hamlet

-Is it true that if the heart line in your palm ends on Saturn’s mount, you’ll have an unstable love life?

-And that if, in your astrological chart, Mars is retrograde in Sagittarius in the fourth house, you’ll have conflicts with coworkers? And if it’s also in a square with Mercury, does your aggressiveness clash with your intelligence?

-What should you do if you draw the 9 of Swords, the 5 of Pentacles reversed, The Tower, and The Hanged Man in a Tarot reading? An urgent protection ritual against accidents?

-And to ward off spells and the evil eye, is a simple incantation enough, or is it safer to offer a prayer to the church for nine weeks in a row?

-If your personality number is 5 and your destiny number is 8, do you stand a chance of getting along with a partner whose numbers are 3 and 7? And does the fact that you met on 10/03/08 at 5:22 p.m. change anything, considering that “Bucharest”—numerologically speaking—is worth one?

Astrology, Tarot, and The New Age: Why Do We Still Believe?

We’ve all heard statements like this, and reactions vary widely: some blindly believe in all sorts of superstitions and rituals, others dismiss it all as “folk nonsense and medieval relics,” while most take a “I know it’s not true, but I’ll still take a peek at the horoscope” approach.
The truth is that interest in magic and the esoteric, far from being on the verge of extinction, is growing ever stronger and—far from being limited to the less educated segments of the population—encompasses people of every social and cultural background.

The only difference, perhaps, is that those with a higher level of education look down on local folk beliefs, yet then get swept up in all sorts of esoteric rituals—for which, of course, there is no shortage of options—from Siberian shamanism to tantra, from transcendental meditation to any of the strange practices in vogue in the New Age movement.

The Trap of “The Secret” and Magical Thinking

And those who want to reconcile magic with rationality get caught up in models like “The Secret” and the Law of Attraction, to the point where they feel they’re at the cutting edge of science and repeat mysterious concepts from quantum physics heard in the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know?”…

So do we really have no chance of escaping these superstitions? Is magical thinking—just like religion—a deep human need, something we need to believe in, despite what science tells us? Or is science simply a bit too quick to lump everything it can’t explain into the category of “bad folk beliefs,” but—as has often happened—is then forced to admit that “superstition” actually had a more solid basis?

The truth is that we encounter a great deal of confusion and misinformation, with the result that people either believe or do not believe, but in both cases they do not understand what is actually behind these beliefs.

Looking at the Moon, Not the Finger

To use an expression I like, while the finger points at the moon, we look at the finger.
I certainly don’t claim to have the final word in such a field, but I’ve been studying it for as long as I can remember, and I’ve personally verified a number of things, so I invite you on a journey into this magical and mystical realm.

For now, a brief introduction about myself: my name is Bruno Medicina, I’m almost 50 years old, I’m Italian, and I usually work in training, coaching, and personal development, but throughout my life I’ve read and practiced, in a somewhat haphazard way, whatever I could.

In fact, I like to think of myself as a wanderer of knowledge, and—while I am very aware that tackling too many different fields inevitably leads to superficiality and confusion—it seems to me, on the other hand, to be the only way to produce original and creative ideas, and for me there is no greater pleasure than discovering connections between distant things that seemingly have not the slightest connection.

In fact, beyond the apparent chaos, everything I have done so far has had a single goal: to discover what my potential is and how I can harness it, what my limits are and how I can overcome them. And what I have discovered in my search is very simple: we have absolutely fantastic potential, and limits often exist only in our minds.

Likewise, I’ve discovered that, while we certainly have technology far more advanced than that of our ancestors, when it comes to fundamental truths—to the things that truly matter—despite our arrogance, we still know nothing: about life, death, the universe, God, love—we have the same anxieties and doubts that have tormented humanity since it first walked the earth.

I have also realized that some seemingly irrational responses to these topics are actually much more valid than they appear at first glance, once we manage to move beyond the metaphorical level and get to the “essence”—once we manage to look at the moon and not the finger.

The Real Definition of Magic

Thus, we will discover that “magic” is nothing more than a method for achieving results, and the fact that we call it “magic” means nothing more than observing a cause-and-effect connection between two events, without understanding the link.

Consequently, we will discover that “magic” does not exist, or—better said—“magic” is nothing more than the name behind which we hide our ignorance.

We will discover, therefore, that understanding “magic” simply means understanding “knowledge,” and that rituals are nothing more than methods for attaining knowledge.

We will discover that magic means the ability to manipulate symbols to achieve results on different planes of reality.

Changing Your Mind to Change the Universe

We will discover that the only thing we can truly change is our mind and consciousness, and, once we succeed, that—and only that—will bring about a change in the universe.

So, I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity a little, and I promise you an article soon about what magic really is, what its true principles are, and—most importantly—how and if we can use it in our daily lives.

Best regards,

Bruno