Learning Magic

 I remember where I was sitting when the decision was made for me.

It was the top floor of Duane Library, by one of the windows looking across and over Edward’s Parade.

The real question was not “if” but rather “how” one would go about doing that.

It’s not like I could have majored in it.

I met with my Jesuit advisor each week to go over the papers I was working on, and discuss any topics that might be current in class.

When I sat down in his office that week and he opened with what I wanted to talk about, I just asked.

No pause, no questions, my advisor didn’t miss a beat.

Alchemy.

I’d have to stat with alchemy and its place in the West, and from there work my way back to the ancient world, and eventually arrive at Egypt.

But for now, it was alchemy.

I left the meeting with an assignment for a 20 page paper, first draft due in two weeks.

The library in Keating Hall was where books went to die.

University books nobody needs or asks about anymore, and it was here that I was first aware of a possibility.

Rows and rows of books on alchemy.

I didn’t ask, but since it was apparent nobody ever came down here I set up a small table and chair next to the stacks, which became a sanctuary over the next three years.

My first draft went through a number of revisions that dragged out to the next semester and expanded to almost fifty pages. When it was done, my advisor made some recommendations and changes to my course load If I was going to pursue it.

Specific history, philosophy (naturally), mythology, and the ancient world, including Latin and Classical Greek. There would also be professors and fellow society members that I would want to talk to outside of class and he would arrange introductions.

When I graduated he gave me one last final piece of advice: it would not be enough to academically study the texts and practices, but to really learn them, one had to understand how they thought and what the world view was at that time, not our modern interpretation or values in it.

That would get me to the heart of the matter.