A specter approached the young man sitting in the clearing. “You have questions,” it stated. “I will answer them.”

They young man had been thinking of magic. And wondering: what is this thing we call magic? How does it fit into this world of rational thought?

“Magic is what you think it is,” the specter explained. “It is what you need it to be. Some people need me to be a hallucination, so to them I am. You need guidance, so to you I am a spirit of knowledge. A specter of something otherworldly.

“Magic is all around us. It is not a simple spell, a spark and some miraculous transformation. Magic is the unexplainable, the life force that binds us, the energies that shape who we are, and what we are to become.”

“Why,” asks the young man earnestly, “can I not see the magic?”

The specter understands the man’s question, and answers thus:

“You see the magic every day. Your real question is this: why can magic not be measured? Why can’t it be tested, prodded, experimented with? The reason for this is simple: magic is for the individual. It is for those who wish to believe. We tempt and tease with magic, draw people in, but never reveal the truth. It is only for those who truly believe and truly seek enlightenment that the magic becomes clear and open to manipulation.

“Magic is energy, it is in your spirit and the spirits of all things. It cannot be measured because it is not of this dimension, it is not physical, it is not quantifiable. Magic is life.”

The young man sits back and looks up into the sparkling night sky. He contemplates the stars. “I think I understand,” he states. “Other religions speak of an all powerful God, a supreme being, whose presence will never be revealed but who must be believed in through faith alone. This is no different.”

“You are partly right,” replies the specter. “The mainstream religions of today require the embracing of a set of values and traditions that many people find irrelevant to or out of touch with modern society.

“Magic is the belief that one can find one’s own path, one’s own way to enlightenment. And magic is different in that it is real. For a man who wants to believe, the energy of magic can be felt all around him, inside of all things.

“The question is not, ‘do you believe in that crazy magic stuff?’ but rather, ‘why wouldn’t you want to?'”

The young man closes his eyes in thought. He wonders why magic and mainstream religion must be in conflict. He wonders why the mainstream is so quick to judge those who are different, who have beliefs that stray outside of the realm of modern thought. A thought hits the young man like a shot and he jumps up. The specter is nowhere to be found. The young man calls out plaintively to the cool night air, but his words echo off of the mountains. Then, faintly, he hears a voice.

“Do as you will shall be the whole of the law…”

He turns and follows the voice, but it leads only to the strong current of a brook. The man jumps into the frigid water and his skin glows with energy. What did the vision mean? What is this new law? And how does it apply to the young man’s life?

He leaves the brook and travels back to his urban dwelling under the light of a full moon. Tomorrow he will have to go to work. He doesn’t mind, for he can barely wait to experience tomorrow night.