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

Okay, bym – I think that we are on the same page with regard to agreeing that the magickal personality is not a servitor.

Taking a step from that congruence: although all servitors are artificial entities, all artifical entities are not servitors.

Now, consider the Initiation Rite. I have noticed that many times Noobs often approach that rite as if it is just a formalized way for dramatically heralding “And now, I beginneth my magickal study! Ta daaa!”

In part, what I suggest here is an approach that lends that rite more weight than a mere announcement and marking for the advent of studying one of the various magickal pathways. I suggest that the Initiation Rite is the outer method according to which a Mage creates an artificial entity. Not a servitor. And not any other kind of menial fetch that independently operates in comparison to a Mage. But, instead, a very, very special kind of artifical entity. An entity that originates, that comes from, a Mage – an entity that remains intimately connected to a Mage – an entity that a Mage progressively develops, grows – an entity through which a Mage magickally operates with increasing mastery.

An Avatar.

I do not think that I can stress enough that Avatars, the magickal personalities of Mages, are not separate from a Mage. Different? Yes. Separate? No. And I also am not suggesting that an Avatar is any kind of physical vehicle (like a human body) that can be put in on a shelf, or in a box, until it is time to take it out, dust it off, and use it in a ritual. A Mage can make such a physical vehicle (of some sort, be it a figurine, etc…) for a servitor – but as noted already, Avatars and servitors are not the same.

An Avatar is something far greater.
An Avatar has a far more noble purpose.

In part, the purpose of an Avatar would be to help the Mage deal with the switing of realities (to paraphrase you here.) Any token item (like a ring as used by the Aurum Solis, or robes, etc…) are not that within which an Avatar resides – but rather keys that enable a Mage to “put on”, to enter into, to operate through from within, etc… one’s Avatar. What could be said, at most, is that which a Mage’s Avatar dwells within is the physical body of that Mage.

So what I suggest here is considering the Avatar (magickal personality) are more than just a psychological trick that partitions the mind. I suggest considering the Avatar as an uniquely and purposefully created and named artifical entity – through which a Mage can attain the specific destiny of connsumation with the “Divine Genius,” where such is the result from theurgical magick work.

If you can comprehend that point, then you might be able to discern questions that arise regarding this kind of consideration (of which the ones I asked at the end of my last post are a part).

Instead of repeating them here, I will outline a scenarios that might provide a context from which such questions could be more clear.


THE SCENARIO


Rouster of participants

Human. Mage. And, Divine Genius.

Dynamic

One successfully progresses through the proverbial “dark night of the soul,” at the end of which one Awakens to being more than a human. One Awakens to being aware that one is that which incarnates the human vehicle that one previously thought one was while Slumbering before experiencing that dark night. One Awakens to being a Mage. The newly Awakened Mage receives urgings from the Divine Genius to initiate something special, something new, something important with purpose, something that grants the Mage the opportunity to cultivate magickal growth that can culminate with a glorious destiny. The Divine Genius urges the Mage to initiate an Avatar, and then, subsequently urges the Mage magickally to develop that Avatar - until arriving at the point of readiness for cosmic consummation with the Divine Genius. All theurgical magick work leads to such growth, such cultivation, and ends at the destination, fulfilling the destiny, of such consummation. The Great Work.

Commentary and Questions:

Okay, what, by the hairy balls of Thor (to quote my little bro), is a Mage in this scenario? Notice here that the Mage is not the equivalent of a human. After the “dark night of the soul” the Mage Awakens to not being the human (either body or mind). Then the Mage then gets busy (with urgings from the Divine Genius) to initiate an Avatar. So what exactly is the Mage? And what happens to the Mage upon consummation with the Divine Genius? Is it the Mage that fuses with the Divine Genius, via the Avatar? Is the Avatar grown a meta-vehicle in, and through, which the (Mage and Divine Genius fusion) then function? Or, at completion of the maturation of an Avatar, does the Divine Genius kick the Mage (whatever the Mage is) to the curb, and take over? Or what? Never mind the question: what is the Divine Genius? Where did all these Divine Geniuses come from? Are there more than one (one per Mage)? Or is it just one Divine Genius working with a bunch of Mages?

Perhaps the Avatar does not come from the Mage at all.
Perhaps the situation is different in a subtle (but significant) way.

Perhaps the Avatar is an emanation from the Divine Genius that is granted to a Mage when said Mage formally requests it (via the Initiation Rite). Perhaps theurgical magick work is the process of a Mage progressively learning to “bring through”, or fully incarnate, the Divine Genius, bit by bit? i.e. an Avatar is just the term for the basic, initial bit brought forth. In which case, up to, and after, the consummation, the Mage remains that which operates through the full Divine Genius?

Yet even with this take on the issue – the questions remain: what the hell is the Mage, where did the Mage come from, and what the hell is the Divine Genius and where did it comes from?

Although I am very intrigued by the possibilities for this scenario – lots of it has a grand kind of epic ring to me that resonates with my experience - I honestly do not know how clearly and definitively to answer these questions for this scenario. I admit it – considering this boggles my mind a bit, never mind making the ol’ traditional scenario and explanations seem so much more simple.

I mean: just chalking up the Divine Genius and as the Mage’s so-called “Higher Self”, tossing away the term Avatar, and leaving the magickal personality as just a psychological partitioning trick seems like a refreshing game of patty cake compared to what I have outlined here.

Yet I suspect that might be on to something here that has the stimulating ability to intrigue and engage consideration from an explanation that sweeps all of this under the convenient rug of psychological partitioning and subsequent reconciliation techniques - to an explanation that establishes an epic context with cosmic importance.

In other words: it is simple to say that a Mage is one who partitions one’s mind into “higher” and “lower” self, and then – using yet another partition (the magickal personality) – magickally strives for progressively reconciling the two. And that this is the Great Work.

It is quite another thing to say that a Mage is one who has Awakened from the deep Sleep of forgetting that which one is – and has then received the alluring urging from a Divine Genius to embark upon the adventurous journey for originating and raising an Avatar, to attain the supernal destiny of cosmic consummation.

Now, I am mindful that rhetoric spins atmosphere. Yet I sincerely cannot shake the intuition that what I have been belabouring here is more than just a prettier way for explaining the same ol’ same ol’ – with no significant difference of meaning referenced.

Ye, Gods - I am ending this long ass post here and throwing all this out again to anyone who wants to leap in and play around with these considerations, as well as maybe chew on those questions that I have raised (as well as other questions I might have missed regarding all this).