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Differences Between the Practice of Magic and Spiritual Action · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  It is an obvious fact that as one grows and develops in the
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  spiritual path, the concentration of conscious force
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  to Pussia will definitely increase not only the spiritual
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  development but also the powers that the individual has
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  available to accomplish action in his life in the world.
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  In the past, when spirituality was bifurcated from the outer
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  life, seekers were advised not to utilize the various powers
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  that arose. There was a fear, not without
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  some basis, that seekers would become distracted and chase
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  after the fruits of the worldly life and thereby lose the needed
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  focus and attention on the spiritual path they were
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  following. For similar reasons, seekers
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  were asked to take vows of poverty, chastity, and humble
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  subservience so as to keep them tied to a fixed path without
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  deviation due to the action of desire.
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  Of course, this disregarded the idea of transforming the outer
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  life into something that expressed the spirit fully and
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  completely, inwardly and outwardly.
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  For those seekers who recognize that this is an artificial
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  separation, a form of duality that treated matter and spirit
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  as opposites and antagonists to one another, such a solution of
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  abandonment of the outer life turned out to be unsatisfactory.
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  Transformation of the outer life, however, necessarily
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  involves deploying powers of action that develop along the
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  way as part of a natural evolutionary process, albeit
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  through an inward dedication and discipline that did not fall
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  prey to the promptings or enticements of desire or the
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  motives of gaining power, wealth or sexual satisfaction, fame, or
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  any kind of self aggrandizement. We come then to the question of
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  distinguishing the development and exercise of power that stems
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  from the spiritual growth, from the practice of the forms of
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  magic that represent an attempt to gain results in the world
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  through mental and vital means, with a self seeking motive in
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  the background. Magic based in the use of
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  specific words, forms, gestures and strict adherence to a set
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  methodology of invoking the forces or entities that manifest
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  the forces, always carries with it both desire on the one side
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  and fear on the other. Goethe in Faust explores the
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  experience of a man who developed skills in all manner
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  of Arts and Sciences and at one point explored the field of
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  magic. He was able to invoke a being
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  that was greater than he could control and he re reacted with
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  both awe and fear to the invoked presence.
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  He later was taken by the hand through a life that tried to
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  satisfy his every whim and desire, which took advantage of
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  his developed powers to 1st and find enjoyment.
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  He is said in the writing to be guided by the devil who had made
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  a wager with God that hit this striving soul could be
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  corrupted. Eventually, however, he
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  recognizes the limits of that life and refuses to be satisfied
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  with the fruits of a life of fulfilled desire, and he was
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  saved and protected. The story illustrates to a great
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  degree the difference between the sterile and limited
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  practices of magic and the unlimited and spontaneous action
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  of spiritual force in shaping a life and a soul's destiny.
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  Magic feeds on the vital impulses of desire and fear and
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  creates a type of magnetism that attracts the forces that support
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  and then feed upon the individual's vital expression.
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  The mother observes quote to act in order to accomplish a work
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  with the spontaneous powers of spiritual realization.
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  That is well understood, but one may say that everybody does that
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  because just the fact of thinking means that you are
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  acting invisibly and according to the power of your thought,
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  your action is more or less widespread.
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  But to use small magical formulas to obtain a result is
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  something that has no true relation with the spiritual
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  life. From the spiritual point of
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  view, it appears even surprising that these things can always
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  prove effective, because for each case the need is different
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  and how putting together certain words and making certain signs
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  can always have an effect seems surprising.
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  When one wants to act spiritually and for some reason
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  or other it is necessary, for example, to formulate words.
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  The words come spontaneously and are exactly the words needed for
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  the particular occasion, but things written beforehand, which
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  one repeats mechanically most of the time, without even knowing
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  what one is saying and why one is saying it.
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  It is difficult to see how this can always work.
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  There is bound to be a great imprecision in the action, and
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  one thing is certain, that this same formula cannot have exactly
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  the same effect, and that one factor is indispensable for it
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  to take effect. Fear.
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  The first thing is a kind of fear, a fright created in the
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  person against whom the magic is done for.
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  If he has No Fear, I am quite sure that I cannot have any
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  effect, or has so ridiculously small an effect that it's not
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  worth speaking about it. What opens the door to the
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  action of these forces is fear, a kind of apprehension, the
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  feeling that something is going to happen.
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  And it is these vibrations of fear which put out certain
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  forces from you, forces which give these entities the power to
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  act. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of
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  Life, Chapter 5. Occult Forces pages one O 5 to
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  one O 6.