To begin to understand SOMa, one must first understand NOMA. NOMA, or non-overlapping magisteria, is a concept of different areas of study and learning having limited and exclusive domains. Legendary paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, student of science Stephen Jay Gould wrote about NOMA in 1997 and this first essay was later included in his book "Rocks of Ages" in 1999.
In short, Gould argued that science and religion both have magisterium, or domain of teaching authority, over their own realms of knowledge and understanding. While science may have in its domain the observations of atoms or gravity or biology, it is the domain of religion that rules over the human soul or morality. Thus one could be both religious and scientist, the two selves locked away in their respective schools of thought.
This has met opposition and criticism since it first appeared. Herein is a different paradigm, that of:
Under a SOMa system, the domains of science and religion in a Venn diagram would be two overlapping circles. Depending on one's spatial and temporal location, the degree of overlap may differ. This is not limited to just the realms of science and religion, however, all models, schools, domains, and any other division of knowledge, experience, and so forth are bound up and mixed in SOMa. Knowledge, experience, intuition, these are ruled not by one model or domain alone but by all.
The fundamental assumption of this SOMa system is simple yet contains infinity: Reality is recursive.
The teachings and interlaced systems of SOMa are divided into various categories. The act of applying a taxonomy alters the structure of SOMa. Therefore SOMa must be understood in its parts at once and its all at once, all at once.
SOMa is a form of chaos magick: both the practice of magickal techniques and sets of instruction and teachings. It is a variation on Scientific Illuminism. The fundamental tenet of SOMa, like other schools of chaos magick, is that belief can be a tool. Objective truth is elusive and possibly unknowable.
SOMa treats magick not as a supernatural force but methods of applied psychology, ways to self program or reprogram one's own mind. SOMa does not explicitly deny the supernatural, but requires proof of existence. It is an evidence-based practice.
Infamous occultist Aleister Crowley favored spelling magick with a 'k' to distinguish it from the stage magic of an illusionist.
His definition, "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", has influenced many other and later writers and practitioners.
A mage Wills something and that something becomes a real thing. We are all magi in our way, and acts of what are sometimes referred to as lesser magick are commonplace. You see an object and seek to hold it, electric signals surge from your brain along nerves into your arm and hand flexing muscles anchored to bones - and thus the object is within your grasp. You now hold it. Lesser magick, although a complex and sometimes mind-bending phenomenon is common to us. We encounter it so frequently we lose the wonder due the machinations, systems, and functions of a world and universe teeming with particles, atoms, and strange attractors.
Greater magick, on the other hand, is an entirely different sort of beast.
Whether categorized as Lesser against Greater or any number of dualities or pluralities, magick as a concept is quite large.
SOMa is a system of Magick being developed under the influence of multiple other systems of magick. As well as under the influence of several intoxicants.