The Body of Light and the Body without Organs

Among the most problematic of the main concepts of Deleuze and Guattari's thinking is the Body without Organs (BwO.) This paper undertakes to examine the BwO in the light of another body from a radically different tradition, the Body of Light or Subtle Body that is the object of several forms of magical, mystical and alchemical practices, including Buddhism, Theosophy, and Hermeticism. Juxtaposing these two concepts will allow them mutually to explicate one another. I submit that the practices involved in the discipline of the construction of the subtle body may be appropriated as techniques for the construction of the BwO.

The formation of the body of light can be accomplished a number of ways, with an equally vast number of possibilities that emerge from its formation, including possibilities of death and madness. In this sense, the one body is much like the other. Underlying the juxtaposition is more than simply a similarity in terminology. Both "bodies" are predicated on the subordination of theoretical discourse to praxis, the empowering nature of the smooth rather than the stratified, and the consubstantiality of the spiritual and material. The realm of magical and alchemical work can be a fruitful place for further research into the dynamic and fluidic modes of thought that typify Deleuze and Guattari's work.

What then is the body of light, and how do I get one? Do I already have one, and if so, how do I develop it? We begin by exploring the qualities of the body of light in several traditions in order to clarify in what ways this body may be compared to the BwO, and how the magical and alchemical techniques associated with the subtle body may be deployed in order to open up fields of human practice that offer a profoundly different relationship to the world. The magical and esoteric tradition is often understood to be specifically individualistic, in contrast to the work of Deleuze and Guattari which is strongly oriented towards the political and social aspects of transformation. I suggest that a certain kind of cross-pollination is possible here: that both traditions can make use of the terminologies and technologies of the other in order to account for these limitations.

Many forms of magic make note of what is alternately called the body of light, the body of glory, or the subtle or astral body. In order to understand how this phenomenon and its associated practices may relate to the work of Deleuze and Guattari, we must consider some of the literature concerning magic and esoteric practices. At times the connections that I am seeking to make will be immediately obvious to those more familiar with Deleuze and Guattari's work, while at other times the tradition may seem too deeply bound up with individualistic and dualistic notions of the self and world. Much of the terminology used by writers on alchemy, initiation, and magic appears at first glance strongly dualistic, even Manichaean. However, I think it is perhaps more accurate to suggest that these writers understood such dualisms more in terms of difference in intensity, rather than as opposition.

While the terms used by various traditions vary wildly, there is a remarkable consistency of character and qualities among them, suggesting a singular phenomenon. For the magus, the body of light is the vehicle through which he practices his art. Without developing or creating for himself a body of light, there is no question of his being able to act upon the spiritual world in any but the most rudimentary way. Invocations, conjurations and prayers are worth nothing unless they are performed by the spiritual body of the operator. The material body is too closely tethered to the plane on which it operates to exercise magical power. Therefore, the magus must develop his astral or spiritual body in order to exercise power on that plane. Just as the musician must train and develop the material body in particular ways in order to practice his art, so too does the magus need to train and develop the body of light to practice his.

The body of...