Part three

It seems to me that there is no need for spiritual refinement as such, for what is really being trained is the mind. To see clearly, and to do so on many levels. The highest level, enlightenment, is still the goal but there are many useful things one finds on the way though the many other levels. Many spiritual/occult systems holds that the levels of existence are many and varied, but for the purposes of gaining enlightenment though what is best described as Raga and Nada yoga they are not needed. Only four need be explored – but that is enough to last quite a while. The waking world (Jagrat) where we must learn to control the body. The dreaming world (Swapna) here we have a concept of “I” and “not I”, but things do not function as in Jagrat, and yet that realm has influence here. In Swapna we must learn that there are other senses which are not biological. Sushupti is the dreamless sleep. Then lastly Turiya where all other realms are visible. From this perspective magick has its greatest effect. It is also where few go. Indeed, the waking world is hard enough to understand and function within. The comparatively simple dreaming world is so alien that the waking mind has trouble even remembering never mind understanding what happened an hour after waking. Turiya, though it is the goal of gnosis, is nonetheless so alien that nothing we now no can help us live there.

We can, however, find in many traditions an odd sort of way to get around this quirk: morality. I have yet found a system of magick which holds some conception of enlightenment which does not also have a system of morality. Everyone has a different system but they all try to encourage the seeker to act and think in a way more conducive to Turiya. The point to remember her is that there is no morality external to the tradition on practices; it only trains the mind to think in ways wholly alien. Morality is another kind of shorthand used to discuss what is really important. Thinking and acting in ways and according to the particular logic of Turiya which has no use in the wakening world is what morality trains. As I know it that logic is what is important. Everything leading up to attaining Turiya should prepare you for acting according to its logic. If you get there but cannot understand how to make use of its logic on this realm you will not long stay.

In Turiya the world looks different. The world is illusion; magick is real, it is all in your head, this is no contradiction. If it is all smoke and mirrors, then magick is easy, just rearranging some mirrors and blowing a little smoke. Within Turiya, providing you can operate by its logic, the mage will find that magick becomes easier. I have only find my way there a small hand full of times, so I cannot at present speak at length about the functioning of magick view from Turiya, but I have felt how the act magick becomes much like writing. It is known to all of us how to write, and the mechanics of it are forgotten. We simply write. What we write and the composition itself is another matter, but the act of putting pen to paper and forming letters into words is simple. So to are the mechanics of magick in Turiya.

Enlightenment therefore I deem at least useful and to some point perhaps required. There are a few points that people often cite as to why they do not find enlightenment worth while. Above I have tried to elevate some points of tension between the two goals (enlightenment and practical results); below I hope to present a philosophy which will make clear a point I passed over earlier. Before I stated that subjugating the goal of power to a higher cause, now I express how I believe that might be done.

First, I would like to deal with non-dualism and how it prevents power-seekers from gaining enlightenment. One reason I dislike the non-dualistic approach to enlightenment is that it aims to leave to world of illusion and its methods similarly require abandoning the world. I find it very selfish to go off in to the woods to develop the spirit and attain buddahood while those who are trapped behind suffer in the world of illusion. True, the road is not closed to them, but that does not preclude those who have gained enlightenment from helping. I also do no think that evangelizing is proper simply because saying that the only way to end suffering is to leave this world is like saying the only way to fly is to leave the ground. It does not matter how much it sucks in this realm only a few can ever leave it. Therefore it is cruel to suggest that they do. More over it has been my conviction that problems should be solved by those that see them and by telling someone to become like the Buddha shifts responsibility from those who see to those who don’t. No, if they can be succored then it must be done in this world of illusion by those who understand it. So it is that the occult student seeing power can walk the path of enlightenment while achieving his own ends and suffering no incongruity between the paths. As I contrive it power must be used, served or strived against. If we achieve works of magick that are wholly for our own ease or piety ambition we must do so without the aid of spirit- provided that the spirit is not attuned to such things. I hold that the greatest works of magick are those where every aspect of ones being is aligned to a chosen end. These great works provide a way to gain and exercise occult powers for the benefit of the mage providing that others also benefit.

On a related point that most will not agree with me: not everyone can do magick at a great level. Most will never come close. It is like enlightenment. To quote confusions: some are born to knowledge, others earn it though perseverance, and some steal it from some unknown side door. If you have no talent or predilection towards magick, you must gain the skills and wisdom from hard won experience. Some are not able to accomplish that and so must use a side door. There are many though none will get you quite the same place the other ways will. Among the side doors I name serving others with power, serving a god, and avoiding power both in its expression and acquisition. Some make it not even this far. Keeping them in mind and aiming your works at their world will keep the power-seekers grounded as they are seeking enlightenment.

I was going to post this on my site blog but I decided against it. I already have too many essays sitting there; perhaps someone will find this worth reading. In any case this came about after I discussion in which the relative merits of strict adherence to a grimoire were debated. It got me thinking about lore and how much we have lost touch with that way of understanding magick. Everybody is a theorist who wants to find the most useful schema for approaching magick. This is part of a love letter to lore, but because it is very long letter, I will for now post only the critique of the theorist approach. If people find it worth reading the rest will follow.

Part 1

Lore, it is odd. Lore is knowledge and understanding. Lore is also acquired – not given – simply because understanding comes from effort expended in the pursuit of understanding. It is one thing to know that a stone has the power to stabilize emotions but another altogether to understand what that means. The limits and nature of its power are basic, uncomplicated, but the application of that power is requires more from us. To use a strained analogy: we all know fire is hot, but “hot” is limited description of its nature. Fire is not simply “hot”, it is a consumptive force which emits heat and light and which will transmit itself by heat- it expands and does so though what it touches. Understanding that it is not simply “hot” allows you to build steam engines. In the same way “hot” is inadequate and limiting description of fire, so too is it inadequate to say “it makes steam engines”, for it will also cook your food. If you say such and such ritual implement has such and such function you’re not adequately expressing its nature, only describing one fascist of its application. Assuming that something is as simple as it seems or that it falls into some generic category fails to do the object justice. It is also not lore.

Lore is active. Applying an understanding of what you see and know, but it is also the slow acquisition of understanding of the thing. Lore is gained, in my experience, by slow meditation on the observations of something; much time and effort to ferreting out each and every nuance of it. Metaphysically, there are very few things that are simply a thing.

An acquaintance with neo-plutonic thought and its rituals is helpful in acquiring lore. They spent much time and effort learning to navigate the High Plains of Thought where exist all such abstractions that people like to toss around without knowing exactly what they mean. We often use a kind of short hand to explain ourselves and the world and in that we do not err for it has its uses. But it also numbs us to seeing things in many ways. Those of us who use magick separate ourselves from others by virtue of our occult knowledge by which we discern the uses of stone and metal and plants. Is it therefore not so, that understanding of an object will gain us a further separation, this time from occultists who simply use pre-establish correspondence? I hold that it is so. A careful examination of the nature of an object will grant you much understanding. It is important to include people, also culture, in your meditations as people who make lore are as often as not affected by some confluence of their own philosophy and the role some object plays in it.

There is no need to “gather experimental data” as it were because you have the rich and long history of humanity which has done that for you. It is not as wise as it is often thought to mix and match parts of a ritual by random or some hypothesis. I do not like trial and error. It is an approach that eliminates possibilities rather than illuminating them. Try a talisman with this metal rather than the other and see what happens. If nothing happened – as is most often the case with that approach – you have only learned what it is not good for. Learning what it is good for requires you to think about the object. I do not hold that anything more is needed than the object itself and its history. No experiments or systems of classification other than your own. I do not suggest that you toss out your copy of Libber 777 or other such tables. I am merely suggesting that while saying that “gold is the metal of the sun” is convenient short hand, it is good to know what common properties lead people to associate the two. Meditation on gold is easy- get some gold examine its properties, read about how people viewed it, and the effect on those who hold it. Meditation on the sun though, is hard, so alien is it to us, but its effects are very observable and very well known. Pondering the effects and their meaning to those it affects is like pondering the effects of fire heating water.

On the point of Libber 777 and other charts, I would like to speak on how they are constructed because it illuminates my earlier points on philosophy and culture. Systems of herbal correspondence can be one of three general classification systems. The first is an astrological/elemental system where in the physical properties of the plant, part used, locations grown, time to seed, sent, and taste are all considered in classification. The second system is based on each plants effects on the body- most western apothecaries used this system to make medicine up until the mid 20 century. The last system classifies herbs according to long standing tradition. For example, some flowers where associated with temples of Greek and Roman gods seemingly for no other reason than they smelled good and the gods seemed to like them, thus did a god take a flower under their domain.

In the west the astrological element system is most used, but the east also has one. Instead of element they use yin and yang, with expressions in wood, metal, water, air, earth. That system is called Heavenly stems and earthly branches. It looks at parts of an herb or any object and based on many, many criteria places it in a Heavenly stem and earthly branch. What separates the Chinese system from others is that is subjects use metaphysical as well as physical properties to make a set of associations.

These are the classification systems people are most familiar with. Though they all look different and use different words, they all have one thing in common. That one thing is interpretation. A block of wood is just a block of wood, the metaphysics, energy composition, it’s all the same. The interpretation is all that changes. People will interpret by their worldview. I use worldview in a slightly technical way to mean a cohesive set of values, beliefs, and traditions (also the justifications) belonging to a culture by which members order their experience to give meaning. Slightly technical, it is also an accurate description of what people do naturally. They take what they have and use it to find meaning in what they experience. When the person has a sense of what lies below the skin, their experiences are more profound, and will require something extra than the every world view to make since of it. For that reason they establish systems for classifying the new experience – tables of correspondence. Though they are not the same as the old mundane worldview it is also not wholly different from it. After all the people who made the new system also lives the worldview of their culture. They will make assumptions and references which they will never notice because everyone – they are aware of – knows what they mean. For that reason the two are never completely separable.

Because people are not independent of their culture or worldviews it is also good to ponder about people, culture and life. They are both simple and complex, as is everything else. A person is a person, and life just is. But that person on the level of ideas, energetically, and spiritually, each is particular, useful in their own way. Life has many facets to it and it is much fun to ponder. It is also useful because an object, even one with great occult power, which is not used, is very hard to understand. People have been around a while now and been using things in every fashion conceivable and within every sort of world view for a very long time. What they have accumulated is lore. They do not call it “lore” but none the less it is an understanding of hard won knowledge.

Again I must stress that they are bound to their worldview and so will only describe an interpretation of the fundamental truth of the object. If you asked a mountain how to cleanse a crystal it would likely say you must bury it in the earth for ten days. We all know that there are other ways, but the mountain is limited by its view. Ask an enlightened being how to do it and it would likely give some gibberish about the nature of taint and its causes. No doubt it is true, but less useful than sticking it in the ground. Limitations are useful and so it is not a bad thing that culture decides the use of an object, but we should acknowledge that it is at least so. Adopt whatever system you like but understand where it came from.
You can of course make your own lore; or rather you can discover it. To say that you can “make” lore implies that you are responsible for the properties you seek to describe. This in turn suggests a psychological approach to magick which is counter to my experience. When some new facet of reality is discovered embodied in an object this is new lore. Lore that is interpreted according to some deep understanding is also new lore. Indeed, lore exists – or can exist – for any object, experience or phenomena. Even things that are very boring have a use.

Part One

I write this in hopes that someone might find some use in it. I hear a lot about how some spell did not work or how people are interested in practical results, and then other who say how the practical results are not as important as the spiritual refinement. Here are my comments concerning such things. There are a lot of things that need to go right for a spell to work, and a great deal more needs to happen for the student to again many of the famed occult powers. A difference is called for because people often confuse the two. Clairvoyance is not divination, and charisma (the sort of that draws people to you and sways them to your will) is an occult power- they arrive by developing the spirit, body, and mind; they are part of you. A spell is made by you in accordance with some tradition and given power then released to accomplish a particular goal. Most people can do magick at some level but the occult powers are more reclusive, harder to attain, and less obviously useful. I write with the intent to show how magick without some level of occult powers is less effective, and also to dispel some of the misconceptions that prevent people from taking up this most useful endeavor.

Yet, first I will talk about spells: they need intent, will, power, direction and to work with rather than in opposition to events and people. A spell needs power, and a lot of it. The closer to the physical plane the intent is the more power results take. It does not matter where it comes from –gods, thought forms, auspicious arrangements of magickaly latent objects – but it is required that the power be of the right sort. Mostly this is done by correspondence and associations, though other more direct ways exist. Unfortunately, correspondence charts are not all the same and differ even within a single magickal tradition; wildly so between culturally different traditions. Some of this is no doubt refinement and differential usage, each tradition uses the correspondence it creates within a larger context of its founding culture, to work with a system of magick that it finds useful. They are classification schemes intended to link the user to the subtle aspects of reality by association. This is, as well, done by mediation on the aspect as by mixing parts of this and that. I find that there are relatively few objects that have a magickal nature apart form the associations attributed to then; mostly substances and plants that have an observable affect on the body- e.g. some medical herbs. To use magickal associations with out knowledge of their cultural significance lessons the chances of success. Further, and I know is will be unpopular, a magickal system of any kind will have its own philosophy in addition to whatever philosophy is present in its originating culture. That philosophic approach is every bit as important to the system as its copper daggers and magick ink. If you are not aware of, and understand the philosophy, you will lesson the chances of success. Just in the same way that using a computer will give you results some of the time if all you know about it is “to push some buttons and it works”; it will work most or all of the time if you know the workings, purpose, and limitations of each part and how they interact. Magickal associations are energy, but it is a particular energy which may not even come from the object itself but rather the conception of the object within the system. This does not imply a psychosocial explanation for magick, although that is a valid exploration. Instead, the conception may allow you to draw upon the correct type of energy from wherever you may- be within yourself, in the ether or some other pain. Fail to understand the systems view of something in a deep way and it will make you’re life difficult.

Because the associations are links to the subtle aspects of reality, they are important. They must represent as closely as possible the spells intent, otherwise it may work but not how you want. There is also something to be said about making it yourself. A lot of places will sell you this and that premix, but setting aside the skepticism that they even know what they are doing, the more time you put into something the more energy gets absorbed and the clearer your intent become. Soon the paraphernalia you’re making becomes the spell. Metaphysically the props no longer simply represent an aspect of the spell, rather having been imbued with the makers intent each prop is the spell and all together they become a grand working of your will where each element focuses your intent while also enhancing it with its own unique energy. Such a confluence melds separate energies in their chosen aspects with the strong intent on the mage one the tools whose purpose is manifest in their design.
Intent is therefore important to consider; it is all well and good to intend money to show up, but then you might find a penny. More power is not a guarantee either as you could just find that penny faster. Intent is where you want to define as precisely and simply as possible the outcome of the spell. Precise to insure you get what you want and simplicity to avoid confusion, ask of yourself “what do I mean by (wealth/power/luck/love)”. Power is vague and asking for “love” is like asking for “freedom”. Instead, focus on what sort of power you want, the sort of love you need, and freedom from what, and how they will manifest.

When your intent is clear the direction is obvious. A spell must work in some way, and depending on the intent you are attempting to manifest, your cause is best served in a way proper to the outcome. Bearing in mind you can cast a spell to rattle the rafters, but money, love, power, and everything else still is not simply going to fall out sky in to your lap. Magick is an active force and the mage actively shapes his world- armchair magick works less often. If you want money use magick to make money easier to get, to make people more agreeable to you, to find such and such a position of power or gain a reputation that influences. Still less effective is casting a spell and not seeing its effects. It amazes me to no end that someone will cast a spell and the next day someone offers them the solution to their problem as it where and they can’t comprehend that what they will has manifested.

It is also worth noting that abstractions like power and love belong to other realms, so if you want them to show up on this one, you had better think of its logical equivalent in this realm. The plain of existence you cast your spell on and what plain it was meant to work on also make a difference as events in one place will affect events in another. Generally, I find that the best practical results (money, love, power, ect.) come about by working in this plain. That being said, the causal sphere, the space of Wuji, and the sepherath of the Tree of Life are all useful as they are places where some particular energy presides and some things are made easier by its nature.
Knowing the nature of the person, event, or place you intend to affect is also important, as it will take more power to get someone to do something not in their nature, or make an event change the course of its development to suit your needs. It is also easier to change with events, and in relation to other people, than it is to change them. That is not to say I suggest a new age-y “all live in harmony” approach to magick, but if an event is already developing in a useful way, don’t go looking for something else. Discover how you can benefit from events already happening and use magick to help them along. Find the person best able to bring about your intent and use magick on that person. The more focused the spell the more efficient it is and the more likely you get what you want.

For each spell you must do all that, and do so affirmatively because if your mind gets jumbled with worry or discontent, your mind which directs your energy via will, becomes unable to perform. Ever have a complex issue to deal with that just sucked to work with to the point where you did not want to touch it? How well did that turn out? Occult powers on the other hand do not work that way. They are for the most part passive, a part of you that needs no more coxing to work than your fingers. The future will come to you in one form or the other, we call it clairvoyance; inner thoughts become like spoken words, we call it telepathy; people follow you, we call it charisma.

There is the view that all this and more will come to those that patiently cultivate the spirit and seek enlightenment, and as the student becomes enlightened the want for these lesser things dies. This is true to an existent, though I have never been one to ascribe to the Seek Perfection in the One approach. You can do every fun things going that way, but some of us need to live in the lesser world and not go wandering in the wilderness for thirty years and stare at the sky seeking perfection. Some of us need to make rent. I’ve always been partial to the understanding that enlightenment is the elevator of a very tall building, and one gets the most useful results by going up and down as you please. Though the same analogy as was conveyed to me also spoke of how most people never get off the ground floor, and others only make it so far while some make it to the top and cannot come down.

The advocates of spiritual refinement do have a point though. A student will find that the occult powers desired are available in the course of things so long as they do not think about them and diligently apply the prescribed method. Yet they presume a non-duality and while right or wrong makes it makes it hard to use by people who want to live in this illusionary world- it being not completely without its fun bits. To work practical results you must assume that there is in fact a separation of the object desired, the mage and the bar of gold he might desire. Systems that advocate spiritual refinement see no separation and so their systems weaken the intent of the spell. People who are spiritually powerful do not want material things and so there is no intent to manifest them. Some have taken advantage of this non-dual relationship in one form or another to gain practical results (Taoism, Mako, and Shamanism are the better known ones I have found) but on the whole they are rare.

On the other hand, systems that are designed to produce practical results require one to “really want something”, that is focus on intent, over power, direction, and sometimes disregard completely any environmental factors. This leads to magick that is imprecise, and often underpowered. Wanting is not enough; you need do something to manifest that intent. I all too often feel that magick is conceived of, or at least presented as a really strong intent that forces reality to change to fit it. That view was never satisfying to me being that intent is only a desire with a Will to give it shape, and there are a lot of people with that; magick should be more if it stands a chance of asserting itself amongst all those other Will backed desires. Often enough acting like something is, and doing so in such a way that forces people, spirits, and everything else to respond in kind will produce results. I will quibble however, and say this is magick in its very lowest form; only able accomplish small things. To do greater acts of magick and accomplish more you need a level of understanding about reality and what it is made of, how it functions, and how to apply that understanding. Unfortunately, understandings of reality come first from understanding yourself.