[Damn it. I was trying to take a vacation from all this and merely post to the tarot threads, but now...]
The issue here connects with several threads that have been spun out over the last few weeks, and I seem to share a similar view with you, runt.
Not to offend you further, Ierne, but I think you are missing what runt here is saying when he says, "Too many people here seem as though they don't know about this..." (although I don't know if I would say "too many...") S/he seems to be getting at the idea that there are those on the board (and not necessarily you, Ierne) who have this idea that magick is like this great force that delivers gifts to you simply by casting spells, charging sigils, and creating servitors. To quote the magician E.E. Rehmus:
quote:Magic..., we've all secretly fantasized, is a search for 'powers.' We tend to imagine that it's just the child-like fairytale belief in the ability to work miracles--as though ordinary reality isn't miracle enough. Or, even worse, we act as though magic were just another toy that we confidently expect some giant cosmic Santa Claus to deliver, once we have achieved celibate purity on some pinnacle of self-hypnosis. This is all rather like a dog complacently assuming that you will give him the entire turkey if he merely sits on his hind legs and limps his forepaws.
The spellcasting, sigilization, and servitor creation are but a facet of what magick is about. It appears that runt is trying to go beyond this narrow characterization of magick, and hook it into the so-called "spiritual"--and I do not think s/he is being elitist (but then, perhaps you will merely hurl this label at me as well...), but rather, s/he is concerned that some of the would-be magicians around here are going to end up crucified on a cross of their own self-centred desire; that is, through maintaining the idea that magick operates as this Santa Claus, there are those who are going to miss out on the experience of the unification of opposites (especially the self-other unity)--they'll be able to nod their heads in a zombiesque fashion, "Yes, low and high are the same," but they will have ZERO understanding of what this means. Much like a child might tell you that four times four is sixteen, but s/he is merely repeating this by rote, and does not have an understanding of what it is to put four groups of four into a singular grouping. If only it were as simple as synth's "Upshot: They're the same.-next" For once one has arrived in (to put it in a frame) Tipareth, than one can actually feel that they're the same, but you don't get to Tipareth by maintaining a feeding frenzied marathon run between Malkuth and Yesod.
Indeed, runt, you have a good point in endorsing the meeting of high and low in Tipareth. This is the highest station on the Tree (again, to use a frame) that a human can move to, and yet, still remain involved in the world. The remaining stations take the practitioner across the abyss, and into the pre-material realm; which is to say, functioning from the Supernal Triangle means that you do not work with this reality here (btw: one can work within Geburah and Chesed as these are still post-abyss, but clearly the unity and balance of the Tree as a whole is found in the beauty and love of Tipareth).
I'm beginning to think that a sigil for the packet of crisps is a good way to get one's toes wet, and to experience first hand the current of magick in one's life; however, to become absorbed in sigiling for the next bag of crisps (love how this has become a paradigmatic example for material goods, btw) leads to an endless regress that mirrors the sickness of our consumer culture where the individual is in a constant state of desire because the fulfillment of desire is unattainable: we are conditioned to remain unsatisfied, and always in pursuit of the crisps at the end of the rainbow. Little do we realize that the crisps and the rainbow are already extensions of our self, and as such, the desire for them was unnecessary and illusory from the start.
To close I will quote Rehmus twice more (for the third time's the charm, no?):
quote:M/magic(k) should not be confused with "sorcery," which is the practice of using formulas and rituals by the ordinary mind to affect reality in self-seeking ways. "Magic," on the other hand, is active participation of the higher consciousness in creative experiences and mystical understanding.
and
quote:The otherness of ego enwraps each of us like a prison, but the magus takes all of earth as his body. Magic itself is but a symbol of the greater Magic, which is Unity. The Oneness frees us from the dungeon of darkness and the self and resembles the teaching of Buddhism.
In other words, "real magic" is the realization that this Universe is you, and it then becomes the task of the individual to transform this material realm from the Hell that it currently is into the Heaven that it has plenty of potential to be.
The secret to overcoming Choronzon is contained in its number, which is 333. Transposing this sequence into the English alphabet we have LLL:
Live, learn, and love. |
"Low" magick.
