Mysticism is the practice of attaining specific altered states of consciousness that have religious or spiritual significance.
Meditation and prayer are often used for mysticism.
Neoplatonic mysticism and Jewish mysticism are highly influential in Western occult tradition.
Neoplatonism influenced Gnosticism and Hermeticism.
Hermeticism influenced goetia, which includes Western ceremonial necromancy.
Neoplatonism also influenced Jewish Kabbalah, which inspired Christian Cabala, which in turn inspired Hermetic Qabalah.
Outside of esotericism, there is also Christian contemplation, such as theoria and hesychasm.
Due to the focus on achieving specific altered states of consciousness, mysticism is tied to suggestibility.
Highly suggestible individuals can achieve mystical states quickly.
People who lack suggestibility might never have any mystical experiences, regardless of effort.
Sympathetic magic is the idea that objects which resemble each other can affect each other.
It also includes the idea that you can take on the qualities of an object by coming into contact with it.
Hermetic symbolism and correspondences are closely tied to sympathetic magic.
Goetia began to take on Hermetic trappings over time, although it was originally a Hellenic mesopagan practice.
This heavily influenced the Western grimoiric tradition's approach to necromancy.
This form of magic is often thought of as a form of proto-science that lacks an internal corrective mechanism.
As such, it's commonly associated with mistaking correlation with causation.
Complex rituals might be developed through intergenerational "Skinner boxes," leading to folk magic and superstition.
Jung posited that sympathetic magic is not superstitious, but instead relies on the manifestation of meaningful coincidences.
This manifestation of meaningful coincidences through non-causal means is called "synchronicity."
Achieving synchronicity is the main goal in nearly all practical magick.
Divination is a wide umbrella term for a variety of practices aimed at obtaining knowledge.
Fortune telling is a form of divination that is used to predict the future.
Divination tends to have connotations of occult science, folk practice, spirituality, magic, or religion.
Nonetheless, some forms of divination have been found to have scientific basis, such as cloud watching.
Divination, like sympathetic magic, is concerned with the correlation of events.
However, rather than causing a correlated event, divination is used to reveal the correlation.
This is why divination is sometimes used for introducing magic to new practitioners.
Necromancy is a form of divination where information is gained from communicating with the spirits of the discarnate dead.
To this end, magick is sometimes used for invocation, evocation, and exorcism.
The spirit model proposes that magick and its effects are due to the intercession of spirits.
Divination can be explained as spirits imparting their own wisdom and predictions onto the mage.
Synchronicity can be explained by spirits intervening in the world on one's behalf.
Mysticism can be understood as revelations from or states of union with spirit beings.
Energy can be thought of as simply contagion from (or the presence of) spirits, rather than a thing in and of itself.
The spirit model is not only the major one in necromancy, but also the historically dominant one throughout Western occultism.
Angels, demons, names of God, jinn, elementals, celestials, and intelligences are all types of spirits common in Western magic.
People who specialize in communicating with spirits are often called shamans in anthropology, although this is a borrowed word.
In Spiritualism, these specialists are known as psychic mediums.
Rationalism often proposed mind-body dualism, including the survival of the discarnate mind after death.
Historically, many rationalists and scientists believed in spirits due to this.
This might be surprising given that modern rationalists tend to be skeptics of the supernatural.
The energy model proposes that magick and its effects are due to the manipulation of metaphysical forces.
"Energy" is a word that is used a lot in occultism, magick, and New Age spirituality.
It tends to mean something a little different to everyone.
The basic concept of "energy" is somewhat comparable to electromagnetism.
"Energy" can be channeled and stored like electricity.
Like magnetism, "energy" can be considered to be an invisible field or force that permeates all things.
A change in one place can cause a change in a seemingly disconnected one, through the invisible ripples of energy.
In Mesmerism, "animal magnetism" is said to be due to a "Mesmeric fluid," and this closely mirrors what we call "energy."
Energy can also be tied to vitalism, pneuma, qi, orgone energy, and many other similar ideas.
The energy model tends to treat spirits and gods as personified forces whose energy can be channeled by the mage.
Blessings and enchantments are often understood as imbuing a particular object with a certain energy.
Purification rituals can be understood as the removal of unwanted energy.
Under this model, divination is due to perceiving or observing the subtle fluxuations of energy that have not yet manifested.
The energy model is dominant in practices like astrology and feng shui.
It is also used in many visualization exercises, which are often included in more modern occult rituals like the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram.
The psychological model proposes that magick and its effects can be explained through psychological mechanisms.
This includes hypnosis, suggestion, Jungian archetypes, psychodrama, placebo, Baader-Meinhoff, magical thinking, confabulation, etc.
The psychological model can be understood purely through the lens of metaphysical naturalism, within accepted scientific consensus.
The psychological model can also include a Platonic or metaphysical approach to the Jungian collective unconscious.
Spirits and gods are all thoughtforms and Jungian archetypes under the psychological model.
The distinction between these two is mostly an intellectual argument about metaphysics.
Naturalistically, synchronicity has been argued to be a product of apophenia, Baader-Meinhoff, and the Near-Enough Fallacy.
Divination can be thought of as a way of bringing one's subconscious intuitions to light, without any supernatural mechanisms.
Energy work can be understood as projecting one's mood onto particular objects and places in order to build a specified psychological association with them.
Visualization and active imagination exercises are useful for suggestion and placebo. They are even used in some scientific contexts.
Platonically, Jungian archetypes can be considered ideal forms that causally affect the physical world through manifestation.
The realm of forms can be equated with the Jungian collective unconscious, allowing one to access the realm of forms through the subconscious.
The associations and thoughtforms created in energy work can enter the collective unconscious, becoming a part of shared, intersubjective reality.
Neoplatonism, as mentioned, has been highly influential in Western esotericism and mysticism, so it tends to be the common occult approach.
Notice that all three of the above models have had their place throughout occult history and at different times.
Even if you can use one model to explain the others, many practitioners comfortably jump between these three models.
Others might stick to only one model, sometimes moving from one to another as experience and study changes their perspective.
Nonetheless, each model has its own explanations for imitation, contagion, synchronicity, and divination.
This is why they can be considered to be three separate models of magick, and why someone can easily adhere to only one model.