Written by a psychologist and psychotherapist with extensive magical training, The Magical Personality is the only book to advance a new model of personality based on the ancient system of the four elements. The following questionnaire will help you identify your strongest and weakest elements and discover your magical personality type. The descriptions given are brief overviews only; for a full description of this system and each personality type, order your copy of The Magical Personality.

The Magical Personality

The Magical Personality is a unique system of personality types utilizing the five elements of the ancients (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Quintessence) in describing the basic constituents of personality. Everyone is assumed to have a strong pair of elements that together comprise their primary type, and a relatively undeveloped pair of elements that comprise their shadow type. The primary type refers to personal strengths, the shadow type to probable limitations. Both types are found by completing the Magical Personality Questionnaire that yields scores for each of the four elements. A "Q" (Quintessence) score indicates the degree of harmony among the four elements.

The Psychology of Magic

The idea behind the Magical Personality is that magic is essentially a psychological event. For most would-be magicians, the aim of magic is to in some way influence the physical world. Successful magic depends on contacting and enlisting the relevant forces, or spirits. Your ability to do this depends very much on the degree of affinity between these spirits and yourself, as indicated by your personal psychological makeup.

Magic is also a process that typically begins with manipulation of physical tools and other paraphernalia that is designed to help the magician invoke and petition the relevant agents, connect with their power, and direct it via emotion to produce the desired outcome. The magical process therefore involves completing a circular elemental sequence that runs Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and back to Earth.

Here we can see the importance of personality in connection with magical practice as distinct from intention. While an “Earthy” person may have a greater facility for producing Earthy effects, the same person may be relatively weak with respect to Fire. This relatively poor affinity may incline this magician to falter and to inadvertently break the link at that point in the process that corresponds to Fire. The consequence of this is that the power may be successfully raised and then, just as quickly, lost.

The Magical Personality Types

The elements can be paired to produce twelve types. I describe these elemental pairings in terms of mythological beasts such that there is a similarity between my system and that of astrology. Indeed, there is a degree of correspondence between the two systems. The first step in finding your type is to complete the MPQ; your scores will automatically be totalled. Then look up the type that corresponds to your strongest pair (the primary type), and the type that corresponds to your weakest pair (the shadow type). Consider the Q score as an indicator of harmony among the four elements. The higher the Q score, the greater the interference from disharmonious elements.

Q Scores

Although everyone should be able to identify a primary type and an associated shadow, the MPQ allows for a much wider range of personal descriptions. This is because the elements that make up each type and its shadow are at different stages of development for any given individual.

The Q score ideally should be as small as possible, indicating maximum agreement among elements. However, even a tiny Q score may not mean optimal functioning, since all four elements may in fact be relatively undeveloped.

Q Score Ranges:

0 - Reflects no difference between the elements

12 - Reflects mild differences

18 - Reflects moderate differences

24 - Reflects strong differences

48 - Reflects maximum differences