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Seems to me that one can differentiate magickal paradigms according to three major aspects.
One major aspect is Sophos – the wisdom of a paradigm, referenced via explicit teachings. This includes cosmological maps, correspondences, various models (eg. An elemental model), various hierarchies of entities, etc… – as well as explanations for how they connect together.
One major aspect is Mythos – stories that dramatize the dynamics of the Sophos. This includes stories for the past (cosmogenesis stories, incarnational stories, life establishment stories, cultural and societal development stories, etc…) – and stories for the future (ascension stories, prophetic stories, etc…).
One major aspect is Praxos – exercises that enable one who uses the paradigm to participate in the Mythos by practically applying the Sophos in their lives. This includes adorations, meditations, circle casting, banishings, invoking, evoking, seasonal celebrations, etc…Praxos can be individual (for solitary practitioners) and/or communal (with members of a community or Order).
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I have noticed that the more exhaustive (as well as clear, consistent, and coherent) a paradigm’s explanations are, with regard to covering all three of those major aspects – the more a magickal paradigm is respected. One or more is missing – and/or when the explanations for one of those major three aspects is thin – then a magickal paradigm often tends to seem lacking, and thus seems to be less “powerful” compared to others that comprehensibly and comprehensively cover those three bases.
Without Sophos – Mythos can seem like sweet fantasy fiction, written to titillate and entertain, but not to exemplify and educate. Sophos is the bones, the meat, the nourishment of a magickal paradigm. Witout Sophos – Praxos can seem “fluffy,” – “feel good” – air-headed – and otherwise trite and groundless.
Without Mythos – Sophos can seem like “dusty” and “dry” and “boring” pedantic preaching. Mythos is the skin and the clothing of a magickal paradigm. Mythos also can be considered as akin to the proverbial ‘spoon full of sugar that helps the medicine go down’. Mythos lubricates throat so that many people can more easily swallow Sophos. Without Mythos – Praxos tends comes across as drudgery, and/or as a rarefied method for mentally masturbating without story-loob.
Without Praxos – Sophos can seem like abstract daydreaming that has nothing to do with life. Praxos is what gets people to incorporate Sophos into their lives. To live it. Without Praxos – Mythos seems more disconnected and not as effective as it could be. Once again, Mythos more like entertainment -- yet this time, at best, it tends to be entertainment considered as fables, with a “moral of the story” to muse over in a relaxing way to kill some time, but still just tales to be put aside and basically forgotten about the moment its time to get up off one's butt and live “real life.”
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I also have noticed that all three of those major aspects tend to be intimately interconnected according to ways that makes attempting exclusively to write about any one of them difficult.
When explaining Sophos, one tends to incorporate aspects of Mythos.
When recounting Mythos, one tends to have characters discuss and/or express realizations of Sophos.
When teaching Praxos, one tends to employ both Sophos and Mythos for contextualizing, and for grounding, the purpose for the practices. Seems to me that this, in part, explains why many lessons that are most efficient for teaching a magickal paradigm tend to provide all three aspects related to one topic. i.e. a relevant story (Mythos), relevant exegesis (Sophos), and relevant exercises (Praxos).
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The challenge of a Chaote, a Paradigm Artisan, as I see it is to craft one's pathway incorporating all three of these major aspects as comprehensibly and as comprehensively as possible.
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Am I missing any other major aspect of a magickal pathway here that is as integral as these three?
Any other comments, observations, etc... welcome.
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Paradigm Design, Three Major Aspects
Mar 30 2006, 09:03 AM
