#paradigm

As I mentioned in my original post on the topic, many irl magical heroes share their concepts as a way to describe the intention of their work and in some cases to ‘script’ out their desired path (especially when utilizing techniques like reality shifting and Law of Attraction/Law of Assumption to manifest an outcome). However, and this may be because of the emphasis on New Age manifestation techniques in this and related communities, I see a lot of folks devote a lot of time to concept creation from the jump and feel like they need to curate their magical journey around their concepts even before getting comfortable with doing magia in the first place. This is not to say there aren’t times where this could work out for the magician but more often than not it feels like putting the cart before the horse. Because of this, it’s not uncommon to see magicians in this space changing up their concepts (sometimes pretty dramatically) as a way to reframe or start fresh before eventually abandoning the blog/project/journey entirely. This need to have everything laid out ahead of the actual magical work almost always has practioners run into what has been colloquially dubbed ‘concept crisis’.

I think the root of ‘concept crisis’ is multifold: not only can it come from a place of general magical inexperience, but it can come from a fear of stagnation or feeling like you have to block out other avenues of inspiration and intrigue. In many ways, a concept can act as blinders for the magician—by laying out tools, techniques, worldbuilding, and rules for engagement before delving into the magical work, a magician could potentially streamline their practice to arrive at a desired outcome—but I think this would generally only be successful for magicians who already have a great deal of magical experience. By looking at concepts this way, it’s not a stretch to say that concepts are spells intended to enchant the magician with their own Volition.

Concepts, and the idea of irl magical heroes as a whole, are further complicated by the blurring of roleplay and magia in this space. I think roleplay can absolutely be a potent tool in deepening the relationship between the magician and their work but it can also lead to a sort of magical burnout; when the play or inspiration has run its course, or the magician gets bored or distracted by other ideas, the ‘spell’ of the concept breaks and the subsequent guilt and/or confusion can cause that ‘concept crisis’.