Ioan
Culianu emphasizes that Bruno's manipulator is part of the state, and I would
add, even beyond the state. This manipulator, as a principle of power, is the
cornerstone of the entire global order established since the Renaissance. The
manipulator, according to Culianu, gains insight into the unconscious (or
subconscious) of citizens through extensive surveillance, extracting shameful
weaknesses that can be used to bind, manipulate, hypnotize, and control the
subject. Similar methods were used by prophets, priests, and religious leaders.
Culianu states that the founder of a religion is, in a way, like a transcendent
instrument, because his goals are not selfish. The condition for his success is
creating an environment where the collective subject becomes susceptible and
willing to make personal sacrifices. Culianu concludes that religion can only
be maintained through active control over the education of individuals, a
control that must also be repressive to prevent individuals from emerging from
a depersonalized state and becoming capable of reprogramming. The same
criterion applies to an individual's advancement within the religious
hierarchy.
In the language of occultism, it is said that the
astral body of a human being, stimulated by obsessions under the influence of
appropriate phantasms, becomes "magnetized," leading to a fundamental
and systematic weakening of its overall energetic potential. This is akin to
mass mutilation. For this state of affairs, the blame does not lie with
occultists, whether past or present, but always and only with the rulers who
have always been interested in magical knowledge and methods for less than
noble reasons. Magic, in itself, is much older than the corrupt masters of this
world and the herders of human cattle. Marsilio Ficino, in some ways, equated
Eros with magic. The power of magic is based on Eros, which generally creates
duality to provoke tension that strives for re-unification. The goal of magic,
according to Ficino, is the unification of things through their inherent
similarity. According to him, all parts of the universe, like the limbs of a
living organism, depend on Eros. All of them are in mutual relationship
according to their common nature. Eros is, therefore, the force that ensures
the cooperation of the parts of the universe functions.
Love is magic and magic is love. Four centuries
later, Aleister Crowley declared: “Love is the law, love under will.” Thus, our
will is the law, but only when it is love. I would add, our will is the law but
only when it is truly will. In his commentaries on the verses of the Book of
the Law, Crowley states that magic, or magick, as he called his magical
current, is the art of living, or the art of causing changes in accordance with
will. Therefore, the law of magick is love under will, and every act of it is
an act of love. We see the similarity between the fundamental magical
principles of Ficino and Crowley. We also recognize the significance of the
symbolism of the major tarot arcana The Lovers for this topic, as well as its
connection to The Magician card. The Lovers and The Magician perform similar
functions. Love is magic because magical processes are similar to love
processes. The Lovers use their talents to gain control over the
“pneumatic mechanism” of the beloved person. On the other hand, The Magician
can influence objects, individuals, society, or invoke invisible entities,
spirits, gods, and demons.
Culianu abstracts the understanding of magic from
Marsilio Ficino and Giordano Bruno as a phantasmic process relying on the
continuity of individual and universal pneuma, or spirit. Without faith, there
is no magic, and without Eros, there is no will, since, according to Giordano
Bruno, the only connection of will is Eros. Bruno emphasizes that conviction in
the effectiveness of a magical endeavor is essential for its success. Faith is
one of the magical links. Jesus did not insist on the faith of his followers
without reason. The connection between magic and Eros is Mercury, and in the
tarot, the nature of Mercury is most purely represented by The Magician card.
He is the master of the game, the great manipulator and enchanter, the one
Giordano Bruno described in his treatise De vinculis in genere.
According to Culianu, the magician from De vinculis is a prototype of
impersonal mass media systems, indirect censorship, global manipulation, and
think tanks that exercise occult surveillance over the masses. Bruno’s
manipulation requires a thorough knowledge of the subject and their desires,
without which there can be no connection. The aim of Bruno’s erotic magic,
according to Culianu’s interpretation, is to enable the manipulator to oversee
individuals and the masses. The fundamental assumption for this is the
existence of Eros as the most powerful tool of manipulation, which encompasses
everything we love, from bodily pleasures to wealth and power. Sex scandals,
pornography, pedophile networks, and media exploitation of the sexual—these are
all parts of an extensive mechanism of manipulation, or what we might call
programming today. For this purpose, colossal magical chains (or networks) are
created that encompass the entire world. Eliphas Levi defines a magical chain
as a current of ideas that shapes destiny and attracts a large number of wills
into a given circle of active manifestations. The establishment of a magical
chain falls under basic magical operations, which, as Culianu paraphrases
Bruno, occurs indirectly through signs and images that assert their power over
the senses of sight and hearing.
The previous century gave rise to the global dream factory of Hollywood, the film industry, and mass television production aimed at directing fantastical images towards creating specific associative patterns in human consciousness. Giordano Bruno says that the main entry point of all magical processes is fantasy, and there is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses, nor is there anything coming from the senses that can reach the mind without the mediation of fantasy. There is a mass influence on fantasy that has never existed before. Magical chains and spread-out networks traverse the fantasy of the recipients, reducing individuals to mere audiences. The mechanism is the same for both love magic and its darker counterpart, both aimed at manipulating individuals and the masses. This is not difficult at all since people lack self-control or control over the process of their own imagination. Individuals fantasize driven by desires, and these imaginings are unchecked and powerful. Thus, they easily become prey to manipulators of any kind. Prophets and founders of religions are also, in a certain sense, manipulators because they manipulate fantastical processes, stirring people's imaginations with their influence. Imagination is mostly stirred by external causes, whether by the actions of other people, non-human entities, or purely magical beings. These non-human entities can be completely independent or created by human imagination, or brought into imaginary existence. Keep in mind that if something imaginary exists, it does not mean it is not real. For something to be real, it does not necessarily have to be tangible. However, if something is already real in an intangible way, it is not necessarily so in every case and forever.
The magician, as a master manipulator, is primarily capable of creating fantastical images and directing their flow, with faith in the effectiveness of what he does, love in the sense of strong passion for what he does, and the will to create his own law in the realm of the fantastical. He is therefore free from external influences on his own fantasy, just as he is immune to the influence of the fantastical flow he himself has initiated. He participates, feels strongly, but does not surrender; he governs the energy. In terms of magical manipulation, according to Giordano Bruno, all chains are reduced to the erotic. He who desires something, who loves something, is thereby bound, for the strongest chain is that of Venus. And this chain, according to Bruno, is beauty in the broadest sense. In imagination, it is the property of the image that fascinates and binds the energy of passion. Thus, fantasy is real because its influence is real, and if the influence of fantasy is real, then the influence of magic is also real. In this sense, the tarot, even if it was not originally intended to be, has become over time a very important magical tool.
