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by Christopher Penczak, edited by Tina Whittle
Two key teachings for a student of the occult are not often explicitly taught, but are inherent in the techniques and traditions. The first is the principle “as if.” Behave “as if” something is true to make it a reality. It is particularly powerful in spellcasting and manifestation to act unworried about the outcome and act “as if” the outcome is happening all along or has already happened on some level.
To embody this teaching, one simply behaves “as if” the conditions are objective and real, even if they are really subjective and we are doubting. The “as if” principle requires, at least in ritual, to suspend disbelief. “As if” activates one of our most important magickal skills, our imagination.
Behave “as if” the deity inhabits the statue when you address the deity in circle, even if you are uncertain that it does. Embracing animist tendencies, behave “as if” all things are animated and conscious, even if you have no solid evidence of such a thing… yet. Speak to things “as if” they are alive and will know your intention and might answer you at some point. Behave “as if” the correct astrological moment will really strengthen your ritual, even if haven’t had a lot of experience yet with astrology.
There is a power to acting in ritual “as if” you are an experienced and powerful Witch, rather than wondering in ritual if it will really work and worrying if the spell will fail. Assume the role of a competent Witch, and soon you will be. The true power of “as if” is that it opens you to possibilities you would otherwise not be able to envision, and therefore reach, without a suspension of disbelief in the current circumstances.
It’s a quite powerful technique, particularly in ritual setting, but it can come crashing against the next principle, “as is.” You must be able to see the world “as is” if you ever seek to change it, otherwise how will you know it is changing? You must see people as they are, not as you wish or hope them to be, or you quite possibly would be harmed by them, or at the very least disappointed. The world and all in it is holy, just as it is. Everything is unfolding perfectly just as it is.
They embody the dual states of magick, action and non-action, or change and acceptance. A key teaching for any magician is knowing the proper balance of doing and not doing, and in what moment to act, and in what moment to be still.
It helps us with another magickal axiom well known to the occult student, whether formally or in experience alone: Make haste slowly. How can one make haste slowly? Haste is moving fast. Slowly is not moving fast. One embraces the dichotomy of the evolutionary drive to move forward, while the disciplined practitioner must be thorough and precise. The experience of our path can be both lightning fast and excruciating slow to change, in turns and simultaneously.
“As if” requires us to still maintain a healthy open mind outside of a ritual setting, and to not fall into mystical delusion in our day-to-day life and engage in unhealthy behavior. It works best in ritual, and in the background of our day-to-day, aspiring us to the highest ideals and intentions we have.
“As is” requires us to perceive and accept, but not lose hope for the chance to change, for change is life, and change is magick. Things can be perfect as they are in the moment, and ever changing, and you, by virtue of being alive and participating in life, are both part of the process of changing, and a part of that which is being changed.
In these struggling times of profound change and chaos, of harm and of simple joys, our desire for a vision of a more just and equitable world can be hard to hold, and it can be hard to behave as if that is the world we live in. If we can’t live by those principles, we can’t convince others to create this world with us. I think it is the essence of what my other metaphysical friends mean when they say—using different language often with a more naive world view, in my opinion—we must “hold the vibration of the New Earth” or “I live in the Fifth Dimension, 5D.” We must behave in the world we wish to see.
On a personal level, Raven Grimassi often talked to me about some of the magickal pretenders in his youth who would either end in self-destruction, or as if casting a spell upon themselves, become the very thing they pretended to be, eventually growing in both magickal power and wisdom. This is akin to that, but on a national and global scale.
When we stare into the face of “what is” it can be easy to lose that hope and then exist in the world that is. Higher ideals are often failing us, but in the embracing of the world as it is, and behaving as such, we can lose the possibility, close ourselves off to the imagination. Imagination is the key to our current life circumstances. Creativity is key. Imagination is the bridge between the worlds, and an essence of magick. The alchemical healer Paracelsus wrote:
“Imagination and faith can cause and remove diseases. Confidence in the virtue of amulets is the whole secret of their efficacy. It is from faith that imagination draws its power. Anyone who believes in the secret resources of Nature receives from Nature according to his own faith; let the object of your faith be real or imaginary, you will in an equal degree obtain the same results.”
Imagination lets us see the world as it is, and ourselves as we are, but also opens a gateway to what else we, and the world, can be. While I’m not a big believer the traditional definitions of faith in a religious context—often describing myself as a faithless priest as I believe in what I experience—to experience what I now believe I had to suspend disbelief for a time, and embrace imagination and the secret resource of nature to obtain my own results. So perhaps I have some faith, along with my will and imagination.
I find the paradox of the two manifesting in a curious way for me these days. The world of 2025 is in far worse shape than it was in 2017+, yet I find myself holding greater joy and happiness day-to-day than I did. I’m reading the news, writing my reps, and attending protests. I’m focusing intent on all levels towards minimizing harm and creating good. The reality would have been of anger and sadness and with good cause. And I certainly am at times. Yet without denying the state of the world “as is” I’m choosing, at least for now, to interact “as if” another way is possible and even probable with our individual and collective action. Could that be for generations after me, a metaphorical sunrise I’ll never see? Maybe. But being miserable in the meantime doesn’t serve a greater good. If my circumstances have room for some joy I should embrace it. That joy allows the use of imagination, of vision, and of putting energy into that vision. That is the act of magick with all the rituals and meditations and journeys. That is my magickal living, when there are no rituals or visions, but simply being present.
It is in the intersection of two things that seemingly cannot be true at the same time—acting “as if” and accepting “as is”—that we find paradox, and the mystery. In this paradox is the true magick, and while embracing if and is, we can make haste slowly together in this world.