I will not go so far as to suggest an absolute NO to this question.

It depends on the type of magic being performed.

If the magic is operating within a spiritual Framework then, for it to be effective you must have a oneness, identification and belief in that framework.

If the magic calls upon or seeks to manipulate higher powers then one would presume a belief in both the existence and efficacy of those powers. Of course the presumption that higher powers are subject to manipulation by we lower powers is moot. If we are of such power that we can manipulate so called higher powers ourselves we really have no need to do so.

However IF magic is a projection of the will, and a drawing upon and directing the generic universal forces, then it is not necessary to believe in identifiable "higher powers". Of course that does not preclude such belief nor the seeking of assistance in such matters, from such forces. I am merely uncomfortable with the presumption that such powers MUST cooperate with our
often puny efforts to somehow bend them to our will.

From a shamanic perspective I see the entire universe as energy. Every thing in it has energy. In some parts of it, the energy is strong enough to form "nodes of energy" Everything living or dead has a smaller or greater "node of energy". When something or someone dies, its node of energy tends to largely dissipate into the whole or join with other nodes. These nodes are of different strengths, which may increase or decrease as energy is gathered to them or lost from them. The largest nodes we have come to know as "Gods and Goddesses" and have achieved a high degree of self-awareness and independence but are still tied in with the rest of the energy.

Lesser nodes may be other spiritual beings or indeed highly developed examples of humans. All humans have some level of energy node. Animals, Rocks, trees, plants, the planet, all have nodes of energy, which are stronger than the general background energy. Some of these nodes are very weak and barely distinguishable as individual nodes of energy.

The energy comes in 2 forms that of "Order" and that of "Chaos" and there is a constant battle between these two types of energy. A bit like Matter and Anti-matter.

Chaos is destructive but creative, Order is constructive but may be stagnant. It is desirable that a constant balance is maintained between the two.

Magic lies in the ability to understand the balance of forces and to tweak the forces to maintain the balance. The problems occur when things are tweaked too far in either direction.

Of course most of our interactions with the Forces surrounding us are unconscious and we are constantly interacting and tweaking them at this unconscious level. Magic and shamanism is "tweaking them at a conscious level".

Often we use instruments and tools to assist us in focussing our energy. While these are not strictly necessary, and the practitioner will need them less and less as they become more accomplished, they are useful.

They are useful in particular in focussing the attention of others. HOWEVER a word of caution - those that I have met that are able to dispense with tools in their entirety are extremely accomplished and have strong nodes of personal energy.

Tools may act as either a "lens" for seeing and visualising or as a "director" of energy and or force. The tool only has its own intrinsic energy and is only efficacious as a tool to transmit the energy of the user.

(c) Leif