The Magic of Writing: From Ancient Shamanism to Modern Craft

Q: Writing as a Transformative Force

- **Altering Reality:** Books change the reader’s perception, thereby reshaping the reader’s reality. - **Impact on Humanity:** By influencing individual minds, writing ultimately modifies the consciousness of the entire species, including the writer themselves. - **Historical Precedent:** Great works have redirected the course of human history; every writer participates in that tradition.

Q: The Writer’s Role and Self‑Development

- **Beyond Entertainment:** Writers should see themselves as agents of change, not merely hired entertainers. - **Self‑Instrument:** The most important tool a writer possesses is the writer themselves; personal growth is essential for artistic success. - **Moral/Political Platform:** A clear worldview, grounded in compassion and empathy, helps a writer understand diverse perspectives without judgment. - **Aesthetic Vision:** Developing a personal taste and the ability to critique one’s own work are crucial for continual improvement.

Q: Developing a Unique Way of Seeing the World

- **Experience‑Based Perspective:** One’s unique experiences shape a distinctive lens through which to view reality. - **Energy Source:** This personal vision fuels the writer’s creative energy throughout their career.

Q: The Four Tarot Weapons as Writing Advice

1. **Discs – Mastery of the Material World** - Attend to physical needs (e.g., food, shelter). - Acquire broad knowledge: history, science, everyday mechanics. 2. **Sword – Discriminatory Intellect** - Sharpen the mind to distinguish good ideas from bad ones. - Intellectual expansion enlarges the writer’s expressive capacity. 3. **Cup – Human Emotion & Compassion** - Cultivate empathy for all characters, even villains. - Understanding others’ motives enriches character depth. 4. **Wand – The Human Will** - The will directs intellect, emotion, and material circumstances. - Without will, ideas remain unfinished; disciplined will turns imagination into tangible work.

BBC Maestro

Summary Date: 2025-12-02 18:01:08

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2 min read

The Magic of Writing: From Ancient Shamanism to Modern Craft

Introduction

The speaker argues that to teach writing one must first define what writing is and trace its origins. He claims that writing evolved from Paleolithic shamanism and that, historically, writing and magic were essentially the same practice—both regarded as supernatural powers capable of altering human consciousness.

Writing as a Transformative Force

Altering Reality: Books change the reader’s perception, thereby reshaping the reader’s reality.
Impact on Humanity: By influencing individual minds, writing ultimately modifies the consciousness of the entire species, including the writer themselves.
Historical Precedent: Great works have redirected the course of human history; every writer participates in that tradition.

The Writer’s Role and Self‑Development

Beyond Entertainment: Writers should see themselves as agents of change, not merely hired entertainers.
Self‑Instrument: The most important tool a writer possesses is the writer themselves; personal growth is essential for artistic success.
Moral/Political Platform: A clear worldview, grounded in compassion and empathy, helps a writer understand diverse perspectives without judgment.
Aesthetic Vision: Developing a personal taste and the ability to critique one’s own work are crucial for continual improvement.

Developing a Unique Way of Seeing the World

Experience‑Based Perspective: One’s unique experiences shape a distinctive lens through which to view reality.
Energy Source: This personal vision fuels the writer’s creative energy throughout their career.

The Four Tarot Weapons as Writing Advice

Discs – Mastery of the Material World
Attend to physical needs (e.g., food, shelter).
Acquire broad knowledge: history, science, everyday mechanics.
Sword – Discriminatory Intellect
Sharpen the mind to distinguish good ideas from bad ones.
Intellectual expansion enlarges the writer’s expressive capacity.
Cup – Human Emotion & Compassion
Cultivate empathy for all characters, even villains.
Understanding others’ motives enriches character depth.
Wand – The Human Will
The will directs intellect, emotion, and material circumstances.
Without will, ideas remain unfinished; disciplined will turns imagination into tangible work.

Will, Discipline, and Completion

Will as the Central Force: It channels imagination into finished manuscripts.
Avoiding the “Stack of Unfinished Drafts” Syndrome: Consistent will prevents a career of abandoned projects.

Writing Is Open to Everyone

No Exclusive Calling: Anyone who can write in their native language is a writer.
Democratization of the Craft: The barrier to entry is simply the ability to use language, not a mystical selection.

Practical Takeaways

Treat writing as a magical practice that reshapes consciousness.
Invest in personal growth—intellect, empathy, physical well‑being, and willpower.
Use the tarot‑inspired framework to balance material knowledge, critical thinking, emotional depth, and disciplined will.
Remember that every writer contributes to a historic tradition of world‑changing literature.

Writing is a magical act that reshapes reality; by developing intellect, compassion, physical awareness, and, above all, a disciplined will, any person can become a writer who influences both themselves and the world.

Full Transcript

If I am going to tell you how to be a
writer, that will probably entail
telling you what writing is. And that
means telling you where writing comes
from. And as far as I understand it,
writing evolved from Paleolithic
shamanism.
And when we look at the
development of writing and magic, we
begin to see that they're actually the
same thing. That all of the artistic
effects from painting, but especially to
writing, these all of these effects are
things that were regarded as magical
powers in the ancient world, as
supernatural powers.
Books and writing are capable of
changing the entire world of modifying
human
consciousness. You are modifying the
consciousness of the reader and
therefore you are modifying the reality
of the reader.
Writing will modify the reality and the
consciousness of the entire
species and also
inevitably will mean modifying the
consciousness of the writer themselves.
You should never think of yourself as
purely an entertainer for hire who is
lucky to have the work. You should try
to remember the tradition that you are
becoming part of. You should try to
remember that a writer can change the
world with their writing. Think of the
books that have completely changed human
history and see yourself in that light.
Because if you are a writer, then the
substances that you are handling, the
things that you are juggling, you are
having an effect upon human history and
the entirety of the human future. The
most important tool for any writer to
possess is going to be the writer
herself. You are your own most important
instrument. And so you will have to tune
that instrument if you want to be um a
successful or a satisfying writer. If
you wish to develop as a
writer, you will have to also develop as
a person. The important thing is the
understanding that you should have a
platform, a moral or political platform
from which you can look at the world and
hopefully to understand it which will
need a certain amount of compassion and
empathy whereby you can look at someone
who has ideas that are completely
foreign to your own and yet perhaps
understand why they have them, what the
factors were in their background that
caused them to have those ideas perhaps
to understand that you yourself brought
up in slightly different circumstances
may have had exactly those ideas. So
that is the basis from which you can
look at the world without necessarily
being judgmental but simply trying to
understand it. When you are writing
about the world, you will need to have a
way of seeing these things. You will
also need to develop an aesthetic point
of view. What is it that you personally
enjoy about say somebody's writing? You
will need to analyze that and also to
analyze your own writing to see whether
you've done the job that you wanted to
do or whether you've fallen short. and
it needs improving. So essentially what
you really need above anything whatever
kind of artist you wish to be
uh you need to develop a way of seeing
the world that is unique to you that can
only come from your experience and your
perceptions. And that is the basis that
you can then turn into an energy that
will fuel the rest of your writing
career. But the first thing is to
develop that self. The writer as a
person, the writer that is you yourself.
I think that writing and magic are
pretty much synonymous. What I am trying
to say is that there are certain things
which are given as advice to magicians
which I would also think would be useful
advice for somebody who is aspiring to
be a writer. These are the four suits of
the tarot deck. Starting from the lowest
um that would be discs. They
represent your ability to deal with the
material world, the hard physical world
that we all exist in. So for a writer
that means yes, pay attention to your
physical circumstances. You don't want
to starve in a garrett. Also try and
obtain a knowledge of the physical
world. try and find out how situations
work, how people work, how all of these
things that make up the material world
about us, how they all fit together.
Find out about history, find out about
physical science, find out about all of
these things until you understand the
physical world. Now, the next weapon in
ascending order is the sword.
Specifically, the sword is the
discriminatory intellect. It's the
intellect that has got a sharp cutting
edge that enables you to discriminate
between a good idea and a bad idea. To
discriminate between one thing and
another. This will be very very useful
to you in your career as a writer and
also the pursuit of intellect itself.
But to expand your intellect will be to
expand your capacity to write about
things. Moving on to the next most
important of the four magical weapons
that would be the cup and thus represent
human emotion and particularly human
compassion.
Now, in creating
characters, you need to feel
compassionate towards them. Even if they
are the most hateful villain possible,
you need to understand them. If you're
going to write about them, if you're
maybe going to put words in their mouth,
you need to understand them as a human
being. So, the key to that is
compassion. to be able to think yourself
into somebody else's shoes. The most
important of the four weapons is the
wand. It represents the human spirit,
which is to say the human
will. Now, this is the most important of
the four weapons because it is the
weapon that should be directing the
other three. It is the center of the
human self that has an intellect that
has an emotion that has physical
circumstances and is directing all of
those things. Now to a writer will is
the single most important element
because if you do not have will then you
might have the best ideas in the world.
You might have a wonderful idea for a
novel and you will get perhaps two
chapters in before you have an even
better idea for another story. So you
abandon the novel. Perhaps you'll get
back to it, perhaps you won't, but you
move on to your next great idea. You
perhaps get a chapter into that. You can
very easily without the application of
will you can end up after 30 years as a
writer having nothing but a stack of
uncompleted manuscripts that you never
finished. The important thing about will
is if you focus that upon your
imagination, you can actually bring
things into
materialization where they exist in the
real world where the rest of us exist
and where the rest of us can read them.
I think it's important to stress that
anybody can write. Anybody is allowed to
write. That this is not some divine
calling that only settles upon a few
special individuals. If you can actually
write in the language of that you've
grown up with, then you are a writer.

Summary

The Magic of Writing: From Ancient Shamanism to Modern Craft

Introduction

Writing as a Transformative Force

The Writer’s Role and Self‑Development

Developing a Unique Way of Seeing the World

The Four Tarot Weapons as Writing Advice

Will, Discipline, and Completion

Writing Is Open to Everyone

Practical Takeaways

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