A Different Take Options

Almost every magickal paradigm shares one basic practice with regard to a complete Noob: they require the Noob to take on a new name as a symbol for referencing a new “magickal personality”.

Considering this has caused me to start wondering and contemplating this common practice.

Seems to me that this “magickal personality” is an Artifical Entity. By “artifical” I do not mean what fake, which how that term is popularly used. Instead, I mean created. Specifically: a “magickal personality” is that which a Noobie Mage names and creates – and then subsequently gradually grows through various stages through working the Art.

Yet that Artifical Entity is not a servitor.

That which basically differentiates a servitor and a “magickal personality” compared to each other is: a servitor is created for operating independent to a Mage – while a “magickal personality” is not created for operating independent to a Mage. Indeed, a "magickal personality" is that which a Mage puts on, enters into, operates from within... etc...

Another difference is that servitors can be grown to become egregores – while a “magickal personality” are grow to become something else. But before I get into what “magickal personalities” grow to become, I am going to associate a single, and ancient, term here for simply referencing “magickal personalities” and for providing an intuitive ledge from which you might be able to leap ahead and grasp what I am getting at here before I spell this out a bit more.

Instead of being a servitor, a “magickal personality” is an Avatar.

Yeah – I know that specific term has been hurled around according to all kinds of ways over the years. And I know where the word originally is from – and how it is most often popularly used these days to reference either picture icons, or video game personae. Yet I hope that, given the flexibility of the term over time, you will be able to allow me to use it here as I have (and will) - and that you playfully will be able to try it on, and “run with it” a bit as I am using it here - without mistakenly thinking that I am talking about Hinduism, picture icons, video games, or however else anyone else has used the word avatar.

So – to move on – in a nutshell, here is what I discern:

A Noobie Mage creates and names an Avatar. The Avatar is a vehicle through which a Mage then successively cultivates during magickal work. To use the differentiation of magickal work as I have been elsewhere in these forums: such methods can generally be considered as either thaumaturgical or theurgical.

Theurgical magick work results with growing the Avatar for eventual consummation with the so-called “Higher Self” or “Holy Guardian Angel” or “Divine Genuis” (or whatever a specific pathway prefers to call it).

Okay – what do you folks think about this assessment and explanation?

I can already have some questions of my own further along this line that I am considering, such as:

1. Is said consummation a communion with the “Divine Genuis”? Or is it a different scenario? i.e. Does the matured Avatar become the vehicle through which the “Divine Genuis” can fully, and optimally, incarnate through the Avatar – which in turn interacts with events in this world via the physical vechile (the body)?

Note on #1: those questions rest upon discerning a difference between communion and incarnation. In the case of the former, the result is a fusion of Avatar and “Divine Genius” – such that the two become one with no further distinctions between them being possible. A new entity is created. This differs compared to incarnation, because - in the incarnation scenario - although the “Divine Genius” operates through a matured Avatar, a difference would continue to exist between Avatar and “Divine Genius,” in the same way that a difference exists between a spirit incarnating through a human body. This however leads to other questions connected with those that follow in #2.

2. What exactly is a Mage, such that one can create an Avatar for such consummation? Is a Mage merely a human fooling around with various personas? Or is a Mage really some other kind of entity, in relation to the “Divine Genuis”, with the penultimate purpose of creating and growing an Avatar for the purposes (whether fusion or incarnation) of said “Divine Genius”?

Note on #2: the rub with these questions is – if a Mage creates and grows an Avatar for full incarnation by the Mage’s “Divine Genius”, then what happens to the Mage? Is the Mage just pushed out, annihilated, something else entirely… when the “Divine Genius” fully incarnates? Or what? A similar issue exists with regard to considering the outcome as being communion, instead of incarnation: once Avatar and “Divine Genius” fuse, what then happens to the Mage who created and cultivated the Avatar component of the newly created “Divine Genuius+Avatar”?


Insights, questions, and comments most welcome.

I am trying to wrap my head around the scenario's that you have provided for discussion sake. Again, bear with me as I frequently 'miss the point'. The creation of a magical persona is to help the magician in dealing with the switching of realities. The 'magical' reality versus the 'mundane' reality. I've seen this concept used with the use of a token item, such as a ring or a robe or a talisman to differentiate between the two states of mind. Quite often it is necessary to form distinct delineations between the alternate realities for the sake of keeping perspective. Shamans use the inception of laughing, and or eating to help solidify the mundane world. Staying too long in the other realms being viewed as problematic as, quite often, these realms differ dramatically from each other which can lead to physical injury to say nothing about psychosis.... It has been well established that by eating a meal will temporarily 'close down' the solar plexis chakra and thereby cause the cessation of the subtle vibrations perceived in the alternate realities. This induced state of schizophrenic outlook is very useful for some. The 'Holy Guardian Angel' has been suggested as, in actuality, ones 'higher self' and that the integration of this piece of our whole is necessary in order to progress spiritually. We are, in essence, GOD. The debate rages on. First you must subscribe to the idea that we are made up of multiple layers, each layer providing its own unique insights and abilities. Interestingly enough this idea finds itself appearing in any number of different cultures throughout the globe. Some view these layers as being separate beings, others view them as facets of a whole. I leave it to your own viewpoint. The magical personality is not, IMHO, a servitor. The use of this personality is a psychological 'trick' which lulls the mind into accepting the existance of the alternate 'magical' universe and allows us to turn its perceptionds on or off, at convenience. The state of being 'stuck' in the magical reality is evidenced by hauntings and the possible incarceration in a mental ward of your local nuthouse...
LOL! All of this has been grossly simplified for brevities sake. There are any number of other explanations out there... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tn_dizzy002.gif)

This post has been edited by bym: Mar 23 2006, 06:45 PM