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One thing that comes to mind in relation to this thread is an aspect of my practice that perhaps falls somewhere between the kind of "I did this and this happened" results anecdotes and the sort of thing Illmatic is talking about.
I do a lot of work with Gods. Some of this might fall squarely into the category of going to a deity with a specific problem and asking them for help, in which case the results are quite apparent from how the problem pans out. But that kind of work is pretty tangential to the ongoing relationship with the deity. It's not all about fulfilling a shopping list of results, but more about exploring the mysteries of a deity or group of deities.
By "exploring the mysteries" I mean attempting to gain a deep and emotionally meaningful understanding of the complexity and nature of that God, the specific territory they are concerned with, and how that territory impacts on your life and daily activities.
At it's simplest level, it involves making space for them in your life. Recognising them. Letting them in. This can mean actually building a physical space for them in your life, by creating an altar for them in your home decorated with images that recall them, making service to them on their day of the week, lighting candles in their colours, serving them food and drink that they like, throwing elaborate parties for them on their feast days, and so on. Listening to them. Opening up a dialogue. Trying to get a strong sense of their mysteries and trying to align yourself with them and express those mysteries creatively in your life, through art, music, or simply your attitude and outlook on things. Not in the sense of finite "exercises" but as a continual emergent ongoing process that you're engaged in every day.
Practices that may, on the surface of things and to an uninformed observer, appear to be empty "superstition" are - at least the way I do it - mechanisms for accessing something beyond the recognised parameters of myself, bringing that "other" fully into my life, celebrating it, rejoicing in it, making an ally of it, learning from it, discovering how to be more like it, widening those self-defined parameters so that the "new other thing" finds expression in my home, my personality, my life, my world.
Developing a living relationship with a deity is a bit like developing a relationship with a living human being. It generally involves trying to find a bit of common ground. You tend to recognise a part of yourself that is a bit like them and then cultivate it when you are in their presence. In the same way that certain groups of friends might bring qualities out of you that others don't, relationships with deities can end up developing hidden or stilted facets of you that you may not have given much room to otherwise.
For instance, if you were to hang out with a bunch of gangsters for an extended period, you would probably find yourself soaking up certain attitudes and outlooks on the world as a result of emersion in that environment. By having a relationship with a deity, you step into their territory in a similar way, moreso, you are actively seeking to be shaped and influenced by the specific mysteries they embody.
I've found this sort of process a tremendously positive and empowering influence in my life. It has opened immense vistas of my personality that I hadn't really given much thought or attention to in quite the same way, and these internal changes have led quite solidly to very tangible real world changes in my life, for which I'm more grateful and awed by than I can really say. But it's more than a psychological conditioning exercise, again, that can be seen as a tangential benefit. More than anything, it's about exploring the mysteries of existence and trying to understand what moves us, what drives us, what we're all about. I've learned a lot from this practice, it's taught me some really valuable stuff, and I don't mean unquantifiable "teh darq secrets" but plain insights into the nature and powers of my own being, the world I exist within, and the fundamentally "magical" overlaps between the two. And the more that unfolds, the more I realise how little I actually know in the light of what is revealed.
That's my results. The long-term ones. The one's that really matter. It's useful to be able to nudge an outcome through sorcery, but magic is a wider, deeper and longer game than what you might see on the surface. |
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