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First of all, this is my first post (other than the introductions thread) and I’m still getting a feel for this community so if I say something against the community rules (the etiquette thread helped) I apologize.
Now on to the actual post…
It seems like we’re talking about two different (occasionally overlapping) experiences here: truth, and Truth.
Small t (St from now on) truth is the internal and external dialogue we have in our daily actions, conversations with loved ones, ourselves, coworkers etc.
Big T (BT) Truth is about Satori, about profound realizations, about Life, the Universe, and Everything. Both are important to my practice in different ways.
As someone who works magic, especially if you work with other beings, getting in the habit of telling St truth is a necessary safety precaution.
There are many definitions of magic but I’ll use Mr. Crowley’s in this case
"The science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will."
If you don’t understand your own will, or are severely conflicted, the change you are trying to make will happen unpredictably at best, or disastrously, at worst. So if you ever want to do workings successfully and repeatably you need be telling the truth to yourself, if only during the course of the working. I’m not saying that magicians don’t lie (which is blatantly false) just that if you want to do a working and get similar results every time you need to understand your motivations, intentions, etc.
If you’re working in concert with others you need to be sure that everyone is telling the truth so that your working can be done efficiently. If you are doing a group working to bring happiness and success to your group and member A defines happiness as eating babies and doesn’t tell anyone you might end up with results you don’t expect.
Telling the truth in your words is perhaps the most important in dealing with non-humans. Many other beings deal with truth much more clearly than humans, their concepts of truth/falsehood are way more black/white than ours. Of course the opposite can also be true, but personally I’ve found that creatures that expect the truth get way more upset if you lie to them than if you tell the truth to a being that expects you to lie.
Those are three reasons why I try and and tell St truth as much as possible in my magical practice. Personally I have a very hard time telling the truth, lying comes naturally to me. However, years ago I realized that I couldn’t accomplish the tasks that I need to if I continued to lie, so since then I’ve worked (and continue to work) hard at trying to lie as little as possible.
Regarding that, what Wolfangel888 posted resonates with me. I feel that, if I lie less, my life becomes clearer, less cluttered with baggage, and I can focus more on what I want to do and less on some pretend world that I’ve created through falsehoods.
BT truth is hard to find.
I’d say that the hardest kind of knowledge to acquire is BT truth about oneself; it’s also the most worthwhile.
I find that the more BT truth I learn the better my life gets. Not that life is easy (often it gets harder after a new BT truth), but once I break on through to the other side of a Truth I feel stronger, more able to accomplish my goals. When I can manage (after much painful effort) to get a crumb of BT truth it can come from anywhere. It tends to come during altered states i.e. during a seriously physically/emotionally painful ordeal, contemplation/trance work, and intense physical exercise.
BT truth is also hard to discuss ‘cus it’s mostly ineffable.
BTW The description below is a beautiful summery of an experience, thanks XK, I’ll have to pick up that book.
To reform themselves round something, an insight or shard of enlightenment. Usually it's self-knowledge, perhaps something about the tribe, and even quite possible reality itself.
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