There are a great many magickal traditions practiced today and they all share several common elements. The primary element of a magickal tradition is the importance of spiritual growth and development. From that point all else follows and nothing can be achieved without it. Magick is a process whereby we may direct the world with our will to manifest whatever we wish for. Research in quantum physics shows that we may directly influence the world we live in through our thoughts and beliefs. Magick embodies this principle and helps us to realize it so that we may use our will to re-create the world around us.
Magick is predicated upon the belief that the universe will respond to our wishes if we know how to express those wishes clearly and direct them consciously so that they may be made manifest unhindered by inner conflict. Inner conflict, poor understanding and negative ways of thinking inhibit us from successfully attaining whatever we may want in life. So magickal traditions are disciplines designed to help us resolve our inner conflicts, to better understand the nature of reality and to train our minds to think in positive terms free of any negative thoughts.
Sages throughout the ages have understood the power of our will when guided by spiritual principles and have taught that the world we experience is one of our own making. Now quantum physics is leading us in the same direction.
Quantum physics holds forth the promise of a convergence between science and mysticism. Quantum physics provides a rational foundation to explain how magick works. One result of our exploration of quantum physics has been to suggest that there may be concrete evidence for the existence of parallel universes or multi-dimensional worlds. I myself have no doubt regarding the existence of parallel universes or multi-dimensional worlds; they are a fundamental part of what makes magick practical or functional.
Regardless of a belief or a disbelief in a creator or primary deity, I believe our worlds and our universes are living beings with the properties of awareness, consciousness, intellect, feeling, compassion, etc… On another level our worlds and universes also appear to be created artifacts which we have made for the purpose of fulfilling all of our needs and desires.
Quantum physicists have discovered that the quantum foam responds to our thoughts and beliefs and can be channeled to produce results that reflect our expectations. In this manner the worlds we create may be changed from moment to moment by our will which would be the mechanical explanation for how all magick works.
Our invocations, rituals, tools and so forth are just different ways of recognizing the complexity of the mechanics of creation and reducing that complexity to something more personal and manageable. For instance, we may have a thought form which we call a psychic shield which is the result of our having understood the principle of interference. We take our understanding and make it into a thought form so that we do not have to retrace the entire path that leads to the understanding every time we wish to employ the concept. The thought form embodies the concept in our intellect and makes it more accessible to our heart.
To create a magickal tool we may then charge an object such as a crystal or pyramid or talisman with the thought form of a psychic shield so that the presence and usefulness of our psychic shield are always there even when we may turn our attention aside and forget to maintain the thought form of a psychic shield in our consciousness.
The tool works because we given it our power; we have imbued it with our energy in the form of a psychic shield. We may externalize the source of the power and say it comes from one deity or another or some elemental or spiritual being, but why bother to employ a power other than our own?
I believe these supernatural beings exist because they embody very large complex patterns that are fundamental to the way the universe is organized; they must be living beings because it takes a conscious will to keep the processes which contribute to the creation of our worlds working smoothly and consistently. But I also believe that we may come to understand these complex patterns for ourselves and we will then no longer require the assistance of any power or force which might be regarded as external to ourselves to work our magick.
Our magickal traditions provide a path to achieve our spiritual development so that we may clear ourselves of conflicting beliefs, ideas and desires all of which make it harder for our world to understand what we want and deliver it. Our magickal traditions incorporate concepts of morality or justice because the only way our universes will work to provide what we want is if everyone has an equal opportunity to receive what they need. We have parallel universes and multi-dimensional worlds because in this manner everyone can experience whatever they uniquely require even if those requirements are in conflict with someone else’s. Wherever two persons’ requirements exist which exclude one another a universe is created for each person to fulfill each person’s need in which the other person’s need has been excluded. This allows each person’s need to be fulfilled and neither person is entirely denied.
The magick practitioner must have a thought form that embodies this principle to be successful. A typical symbol of this thought form is a scale where the measure of each need may be made equally. The magick practitioner knows that they must sacrifice a dimension of themselves to the party with whom they are in conflict, such that in the fulfillment of the need of the other person the magick practitioner must exist in that world unfulfilled, knowing that in their own world the fulfillment of the magick practitioner’s will is then made manifest.
The magick practitioner must have a means of disengaging from the state of their sacrificed self so that any complaint that part of them may make in regard to this bargain is cut off. This is the purpose of an athame, a magick practitioner’s spiritual blade, to sever from oneself that part which is sacrificed so that no attachment remains to an unfulfilled state. Such an attachment would create inner conflict that would sabotage the magick practitioner’s will.
One basic principle of magickal traditions is that we must give in order to receive. That which we must give is always something of ourselves. We may externalize the sacrifices we make and choose to ritualize our sacrifices but ultimately anything we give comes from us and we must give of ourselves feely and completely so deeply that we sacrifice entire lives which were once ours in the process. This only becomes possible when we understand we are each infinite beings and we have as many lives at our disposal as we may need so that we may sacrifice them as required to pursue our spiritual growth and develop the clarity of our will.
Each of the lives we sacrifice is given to another person to do with as they will. These shadows of ourselves which are freely given to everyone free us from conflicts with anyone we may meet. Our sacrificed shadows obey the will of the persons to whom they are given in the context of those persons’ worlds. We are then free to pursue our own will in our own world.
It is important for the magick practitioner to remain clearly focused in regard to their identity as a light being in their own world. If they accidentally identify with one of their shadow beings they must then free themselves from subjugation to some other person’s will leaving a shadow of themselves in their place and return to their own world in which they are the light from which all other parts of themselves shine forth. The symbol of the sun represents the consciousness required to achieve this focused self awareness.
In this manner many symbols and tools may be used to objectify arcane principles and personal properties so that the magick practitioner will have at their disposal whatever they may need to accomplish their will. As the magick practitioner progresses upon their spiritual path the symbols and tools employed become internalized and function smoothly without further need to rely on anything external to the magick practitioner. The world of the magick practitioner is then re-created as a place of abundance in which the will of the magick practitioner is consistently made manifest.
BIO: Fledgling author Greg Gourdian has worked with the general public as a psychic reader for a little over four years from 1981 to 1986. Much of his written work is channeled, although he will admit that he has no idea who many of the sources for his channeled work may be. He has many strange tales to tell regarding his spiritual journey and he attempts to tell his tales in a humorous or entertaining manner. While not an accredited teacher, Greg has taught classes in psychology, sociology, metaphysics and parapsychology.
Visit Greg’s blog at http://tangledintime.blogspot.com/
Tags: abundance, arcane, gnostic, magic, magick, mystic, psychic, reality, spirit, transformation, wicca, wisdom