We recognize our spirit as great and unique, sacred and eldritch, fantastic and special. We should expect no less from something immortal. But yet, here we are trapped in this limited mortal existence, and we deserve to question why and how this came to be. Something does not fit in the explanations society has given us, so we explore our feelings, dreams, and visions for clues to the reasons we came to be that give our lives meaning and sometimes even purpose. These are our stories. They grant us a sense of how we fit into the greater workings of the universe. They validate our existence. Most importantly, for those of us certain of spiritual origins other than that of general humanity, they offer supporting evidence to this assertion. For even if we do not feel the need to prove ourselves to others, in the face of challenging paradigms it is important to reinforce our convictions and find proof for ourselves.
The purpose of mythology is to explain one’s origins and place in the world, and offer answers to questions of how the world functions around us. Often, this is done through the device of the supernatural to abstractly give answers that today might be offered more discretely through scientific observation. Its purpose however is the same: to provide answers. It might not go to the level of detail offered by modern science. However, the answers given are based on observations and are internally consistent. This is what gives the wisdom within the story validity, that it is providing a working answer to a question that remains consistent with observed phenomena.
Mythology takes the form of stories. Sometimes, the purpose of a story is to describe the nature of a character through their interaction with others. When characters are representative of natural forces, such as is often the case in mythic stories, the drama of these forces interacting describes the function of natural phenomena. Information is thus encoded within the allegorical dramas that help to define the workings of reality. Thus, questions such as, “Why does the sun move across the sky?” are given answers in the form of a story about how the sun god rides across the sky in a golden chariot. Other times, the sequence of events is more important, recording the history of persons, characters, or a place. Often, it is the history of a people or culture that is recorded.
The stories are colorful, and the characters take on familiar traits of personality we can relate to. This relation allows us to more easily remember the story, to pass it on and keep it alive, and also to interpret the keys of wisdom encoded within. When we hear the story we relate to it, and we experience it within ourselves. The story creates a reality. It defines that reality, and brings it to life through the interaction of storyteller and listener. It creates worlds within us.
One important story is that of the creation of the world. The question of origins is ever one of the most highly sought, for how can we understand our place in the present without the history of the past to give it context? Personally, we have memory of our own life experience. Culturally, we have the history of those that have come before. This history is recorded as well in story and in myth. But we ask further of what was before even our history, and create the answer in creation myths.
The story begins with the story of the world, and the great forces that moved it into being. No mythology is complete without a creation myth. It gives the setting in which the story of culture is set. It is the background. It defines the rules of reality. It answers the question of why reality exists in the first place. It lays the way by which we have come from the nothingness of origin to the present, and projects by which we shall continue into the future. It is also about a topic completely beyond our comprehension, and thus is a tale of abstract and fantastical supernatural elements nonexistent in the mundane reality of today.
As the world within is a mirror to the world above, so too do many of us create our own stories to define where we came from. We develop our own creation myths. We define stories of who and what we are, and where we came from to satisfy the unanswerable questions we all long to uncover. As culture creates mythology to describe its own origins and place, so too do we create personal mythologies to explain our own origins on the spiritual level.
A Personal Mythology is any story explaining one’s personal spiritual origins or identity. It may not even be a story, so much as an internal understanding. For as a story creates an internal reality, so too is an internal reality expressed as a story, even if it is never actually told. When one begins to work in magic, they are working against common reality and often have need for an internal reality to justify their work. This is all the more important when one comes to understand themselves as a sort of being other than human, further rejecting the common reality. The mythology of culture defines this common reality. When one rejects the cultural mythology around them, their personal mythology is necessary to replace it for themselves. So, one through necessity begins the process of justifying this existence and how it can occur in this reality. One begins to create a personal mythology through the process of discovering and defining their own nature. This is the basis of faith in the self, of identity, and ability. It is as empowering as it can be escapist or delusional when taken too far, as with any working of magic.
Thus for a magician, one’s personal mythology has an added importance as it justifies his power and his ability to violate the laws of reality, for any mere mortal surely can not do these things. So, he must be the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, an angel fallen from the city of heaven slumming it here on earth, one possessed of an extra soul, or a fantastical creature such as an elf or dragon. I have known many magicians of all different sorts, and one thing is very common among them: secret stories of their True Nature that set them apart from humanity. I think we all do it to some degree, especially when we are younger. But sometimes we keep with the story. We evolve it into something greater, something real. That is when fantasy becomes mythology, when we decide it is true and support it with faith. It is who and what we are. And because of this, we can do what we do.
Stories are themselves realities. We create a story and insert ourselves as characters. As the story touches the epic, so too do we. The strength of our story itself is empowering to magic, supporting it. We create a personal reality in which the laws are different. As this reality presses against “objectivity”, the force of our will imposes it upon the outside reality, allowing the rules within to take effect without, and thus magic to happen.
So this practice is more than escapist fantasy, more than delusion. It is the magic if Identity. It is the empowerment of personal magic. It is the mythology of our own reality, through which we interact with the worlds around us. It is a necessary part of each and every one of us, and we all possess it in some form. The only question is, to what degree do we make use of this tool to define our own path through life and beyond. |
