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Magic should be alive. It should be a two-way process that takes over and works you more than you work it. It should be challenging and rewarding in equal measures. It will give and take away everything you ever wanted. It will turn you inside out and expose the inner workings of your soul under a cruel microscope. It will watch your back in the darkest hour and take care of business when the chips are down.
If you can pick up a textbook and point to a written source for every aspect of the magic that you do, then you are doing shit magic. You learn magic by doing it. There is no other way. Just as there is no other way to learn a musical instrument other than to play it; no other way to learn realistic self-defence than to get into fights. The best parable to base the development of your magic on is that of the shaman who goes off into the wilderness by himself and learns everything he needs to know directly from the Spirits. If you can do that, then you have no need for bloated overweight decadent magical orders to “initiate” you into their threpenny mystery schools. Direct connection to the source is the only thing worth having.
The term Gnostic denotes this solid connection. A Gnostic Christian is a person who has Christ in his or her head, riding them like an Orisha. Someone so enflamed by the Holy Spirit that they can cure the sick and work miracles, acting as a channel for their concept of the Divine. This is a better model than wanky old 20th century chaos magic. If someone tries to tell you that a “gnostic state” means the way you feel after spinning round in a circle till you get dizzy, set fire to them at the first opportunity.
Learning magic from the Spirits is not the same as making a load of cool sounding shit up and patting yourself on the back for it. These things have to be earned and won. You can go out and cut down a branch and call it a “magic stick” and ponce about with it, but that is not the same as being driven by strange forces, seemingly outside of yourself and with their own strange agenda, into a dark forest in another country far from home. Facing terrible fears, overcoming physical, mental and emotional ordeals. Having everything that you hold precious and dear to your heart taken away from you, and being awarded the right to carry the magic stick in return. You get your magic stick like that, and you’ll have a magic stick nobody will want to fuck with.
Don’t believe in anything that you haven’t personally experienced. Keep an open mind. Don’t assume that a conceptual framework is necessarily more sophisticated/superior just because it uses the language of post-modernism, psychology or popular science. People have been practising magic for a fuck of a long time and our ancestors were not idiots. “Dark matter accumulator rod” is just uptown talk for “Duppy Stick”.
Remember your ancestors. There’s a reason why virtually all spiritual, shamanic and magical systems the world over are heavy on the ancestor worship. They are there for you. They are in your corner. You are part of the same object as them. The same organism smeared through time, snaking back into your mother, and her back into her own mother, all the way back until things get squishy and primordial, and even further still. You’re a part of that. The latest product. The tips of the branches of the Great Tree of Being.
For whatever reasons, popular western magical practice from the Golden Dawn to Chaos Magic overlooks this, and that’s pretty tragic. We’ve lost that. Maybe we tip an embarrassed nod every Halloween, but as a culture we don’t have that resource on hand. We’re cut off from that immense source of wisdom, guidance, support and serious spiritual clout. Unconsciously or otherwise, neglecting your ancestors is a decision that you keep making every day. Sort that out. Heal the rift. Nourish the roots and branches of what you are and where you came from.
If you want to learn about magic, chances are you weren’t the first in your family line to have that calling. You are connected to a lot of lives, stretching back quite literally to the beginning of time. What they have to teach you is yours. Your magic. Not Crowley’s or Austin Spare’s or Tommy Coopers. Your own gear. Get that back on line. See what there is swimming in the collective ancestral pool of knowledge, and work out how you can use and apply it.
Get your magic out into the world. Walk the streets where you live. Get to know your City and its hidden mysteries. Read up on the history. Keep your eyes open. Learn where the power spots are, ancient and modern, and figure out how to use them in your magic. Take ownership of your turf. Build a relationship with the place where you live. Look after it. Find out what it wants. Every time you walk down the street to buy a newspaper has the potential to be a dialogue with the Spirits of your town. It doesn’t matter where you live. Magic is everywhere. Alan Moore is Magus of Northampton, of all places.
Work out why you are practising magic. You should know that as clearly as you know your own name, so that if someone asks you: why do you do this stuff? You will be able to answer lucidly and without hesitation.
Work out exactly what it is that you want to do with the finite time that you have on this Earth, and then try to do it. Accomplish things. What are you here for? What are you bringing to the table? Are you honestly using your natural aptitudes and the skills that you’ve developed to the best of your ability in order to make the world a better place in whatever way you feel is most appropriate? If the answer to that is “no”, then why the fuck not? Start tomorrow. That’s “The Great Work” right there. You’re a magician aren’t you? Pull something brilliant and unexpected out of the hat.
Magic, that is to say good and strong magic, will tend to seep into everything that you do. It’s not something you can take out of a box and put away again when you’re done. All of life is magical. If you’re looking for a hobby, take up stamp collecting or knitting. |
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), you've given me a lot of food for thought.