I’ve been thinking about this a lot today as I begin my next writing project. I know I passed through those dangerous straits myself as I was studying but I was lucky: I had good teachers to guide me and the sense, such as it was, to submit to the guidance. I also had a teacher who insisted I engage in ongoing devotional and prayer practice, who didn’t allow me to neglect my spiritual life as I studied magic. Maybe that made all the difference?
I don’t know what it is about magic, particularly ceremonial magic, which lends itself to self-delusion, hubris, even madness. Maybe in attempting to assume “God-forms,” we forget all too often that we are not Gods. Perhaps in our evocations of other planar beings (goetic, daemonic, angelic, et al) we forget to properly ground ourselves in the here and now. Perhaps we simply get caught up in the flash and the sweet and subtle lure of the power magic offers. The threat is always there however and it is a constant struggle, an ongoing tension between the conflicting poles of one’s own nature. The middle way of balance is often very, very difficult to find and even more tenuous to hold. I don’t think the power magic offers corrupts so much as reveals the inherent flaws in the unexplored, unexamined psyches of those that seek it. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with power. Desire for personal power is at the heart of magical study, whether we magicians admit it or not. The danger comes, I think, when desire for power is unbalanced by anything else. Too many magicians think of themselves as Gods and are unwilling to bow their heads before the Gods. This, I personally believe, is a major obstacle toward remaining in control of our own arrogance. What is left, after all, to counter it? Unwarranted arrogance will turn the most skilled magician into a poppet of the very forces he or she seeks to control. It will lead not to mastery but to self-delusion and self-destruction.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot today as I begin my next writing project. I know I passed through those dangerous straits myself as I was studying but I was lucky: I had good teachers to guide me and the sense, such as it was, to submit to the guidance. I also had a teacher who insisted I engage in ongoing devotional and prayer practice, who didn’t allow me to neglect my spiritual life as I studied magic. Maybe that made all the difference?
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Today is the nine year anniversary of 9/11. My heart goes out to all those who lost friends and family members in these attacks. Remembrance is a powerful thing and I encourage anyone reading this to spend a few moments in prayer both for those who died, but also for those heroes of the hour: those men and women who were on site doing what they could on September 11th and for weeks after, to help. I will be praying for those who chose to make these attacks, who saw in their faith something that condones such devastating and senseless violence. I will be praying that they realize how misguided and frankly how flat out wrong that particular way is, how misguided, how senselessly and needlessly wasteful and cruel. I will be praying for fundamentalists of every stripe, be they Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Pagan or anything else that their hearts may be changed because fundamentalism is never, ever the answer.
In the meantime, there are some excellent articles at http://www.patheos.com. I've only read the Pagan and Muslim pages but I've been impressed with what I've read so far. Vale. |