After a number of months of contemplation and discussion, it has come tom one’s attention that there seems to be a bit of a raging debate in the pagan community at large. The central issue appears to be the validity and possible uses of magick through cyberspace.

However, first one must lay out the concepts behind magick and what makes the magick work. While it is realized that this is indeed a very loaded question, with as many answers as there are individual pagans, the one fact that all may agree upon is one little thing: Will.

It is the human will, above most everything else (i.e. ritual, prayer, Gods and correspondences) that gives magical formulae the impetus to work.

But, one might be inclined to ask, does the energy come from? Again, there are a multitude of answers, each as equally valid as the next. Again, there is overwhelming agreement that the power comes form within and from without. By “from without�?I mean simply that there is magical/spiritual energy that surrounds us. This energy is emanated from ourselves each and every day. It is also generated by places and things that most people do not see, either by their own choice or the faith foisted upon them by others.

Be that as it may, we come to the crux of the debate…energy. Is the energy that exists in cyberspace legitimate for use in magical practice? Some would say no. They would point out that cyberspace is, in fact (and quite correctly so), a man-made construction. This construction was formed by the multitude of individuals who use it each and every day. To this point I would be inclined to answer: does then the reality perceived my one’s physical senses cease to exist simply because it too is a man-made construction?

It is so. Mankind creates his/her own reality with each breath, each thought that they form. It is a well known fact that thought creates. We each are taught this fundamental principle early on in our learning. But how far can this perception be taken?

This perception, as many will tell you, is limited only by those limits placed upon the practitioner by they themselves.

There is the further question, does then cyberspace count as its own plane? I would posit the answer to be thus: if not its own plane, then certainly a sub-plane or merging of several planes at once (these planes being Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit, representing invention, emotion, intuition, and the Divine respectively). I do not state these things as known fact, yet only as an early hypothesis.

As a singular plane, sub- or semi-plane, cyberspace has forged for itself a place in the very fiber of reality. What then does one do with it?

Therein lays the truest question. The possibilities are indeed vast, if not endless. I have, personally found the Net useful as a means of travel (much as anyone else might astral project), to be able to read someone whom I have known for a matter of only days, as well as a bridge of distance (which, as we all know is truly meaningless) to form strong and very lasting bonds; creating covens that in the “mundane�?physical world could hardly have been possible.

One may be tempted to ask: how does one access this vast landscape of cyberspace if there is no computer involved? My answer can be only thus: I do not know. Much as the ritualist may rely or require his/her athame or sword, so too may the techno-pagan require their PC. Can such a “handicap�?be overcome? Again, I do not know…yet. It is an avenue that, at least to myself, has (until recently) remained unexplored in any depth. Indeed, this matter had not deemed itself important enough for me to enter even a single line into my BoS about it, yet has become quite a topic over time.

I would quite enjoy the ability to explain these concepts in sound, scientific (metaphysic?) terms, if only to validate the mere possibility of the Cyber-Realm’s existence and it’s uses. Unfortunately, I am not so scholarly and would certainly appreciate any input one might have to further this study.

I pose these ideas and questions to the pagan community at large, not to enforce a vision of reality on everyone, but simply to help expand the worldviews of others. If nothing else, it may let other fellow techno-mages out there that they are not alone, and that there are others out there with these same skills. We are different, true. Not better, only different.