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You may want to ritually consecrate your magical tools and space once you have obtained them. If you decide to consecrate one of your tools, I recommend that you consecrate them all. A very simple consecration ritual can be found in Appendix B of this book. However, using your objects lovingly for the one purpose of expanding your awareness is a consecration in and of itself. A ceremony is just an outer seal on this inner process.
With or without any of these things, you are now ready to proceed into the furthest reaches of infinity. But first, dear reader, I ask you to indulge me in a brief description of a useful metaphysics and a few new consciousness models. They will help you tremendously on your path, and provide the foundation for your work. There will be several practical exercises along the way, which I hope that you explore thoroughly before moving on to the deeper work.
CHAPTER ONE
A Brief Theory
of Mind and Magick
“The Mind, O Tat, is of God's very essence…”
-Hermes Trismegistos[1]
Latent within the constitutions of all human beings are wonders the likes of which we are totally unaware in everyday existence. Our minds are infinitely more than the tiny waking consciousness we traditionally consider the entirety of our being. Beneath this consciousness we are connected to a vast unconscious. What's more, this unconscious seems to extend beyond our personal mind, connecting us with all things. And when we learn to access this greater part of our minds, all manner of fascinating phenomena occur.
In the Ancient Mystery Schools, the aspirant was given the central and simple instruction “Know Thyself.” As you begin your journey toward real inner knowledge your job is to truly start to learn yourself. You will discover hidden abilities, limitations, desires and dislikes. Take a few minutes now, and perform the following exercises. They are extremely simple, but gateways to true power.
Exercise 1 - Awareness of Yourself
Time Required: 5 to 20 minutes
This first exercise is really just a first stepping-stone toward your growing personal awareness. This is a process that takes a lifetime. You are, in the larger scheme, a microcosm of the greater universe as a macrocosm. So, learning to know yourself may eventually allow you to know the whole of the universe.
By exploring this short, simple exercise, you will begin to notice how your consciousness exists in its natural state. Later, we will focus on modifying your consciousness, and getting deep within, but for now please take a moment and simply observe what's going on right now.
1. Find a comfortable place where you can relax for ten minutes or more without interruption.
2. You may sit in a chair, or lie down. It really doesn't matter. Simply choose a place that feels comfortable to you, in which you will not be likely to fall asleep. During the rest of the exercise, you must not move around much, so take a moment to find a position that is really comfortable.
3. Now, simply observe yourself. Are you tense? Relaxed? There is more going on than you think. What exactly do you feel? Do you have itches? Are there many thoughts running through your mind? What sorts of thoughts are running through your mind? Are you experiencing images? If you get distracted, observe what distracted you and go back into the exercise.
4. When you are finished, write down your observations in your journal.
Exercise 2 - Body Awareness
Time Required: 5 to 10 minutes
This exercise follows the last, and offers you another glimpse at exactly who and what you are at the present moment, focusing on what you think of yourself, and how you process your self-image. It will also help you to begin empowering your visualization skills, and your ability to think in a transformative way.
1. Stand completely naked in front of a full-length mirror.
2. Examine your body from top to bottom and back again. Notice the unique characteristics that make your body yours. Note any thoughts or associations or feelings you perceive right now. What do you think of yourself? Are there things you really like about yourself? Are there things you really dislike? This is the self that you and the universe have created as it exists right now.
3. Now close your eyes, as you draw in a breath, try to vividly remember your appearance in the mirror through closed eyes.
4. Hold onto this image of yourself as you hold your breath in for a moment. Are there parts of you that are harder to visualize? Let out your breath and open your eyes.
5. Repeat this several times, breathing in and closing your eyes remembering your appearance, then exhaling and looking at your reflection. Note the difference between your inward reflective, subjective reality, and your outward objective reality.
6. Now, close your eyes on an in breath, and focus on the parts of yourself that you like as you hold your breath a moment and visualize your body with closed eyes. Repeat a few times.
7. Now, close your eyes on an in breath, and focus on the parts of yourself that you do not like as you hold your breath a moment and visualize your body with closed eyes. Repeat a few times.
8. Finally, close your eyes again as you are breathing in, and imagine what you would be like if those parts you didn't like were different, or if you liked them better. Try to imagine yourself as lovingly as possible.
9. When you are finished, write down your observations in your journal.
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There is one animating principle in the universe. Throughout the ages it has been called many things, most commonly, “God,” or some specific name of God. There is nothing that exists outside of this singular animating principle. At the most fundamental and essential level, every man, woman, dog, rock and tree is God. But the term, “god” is problematic, especially in these times. As soon as one starts talking about God, everyone wants to make sure that this god is their god, or decides that it definitely isn’t their god, and conflicts arise as theologies abound and it all ends in madness and death. Many recent tragedies have played this out on the world stage. Many educated people also insist that there certainly couldn’t be anything as silly as “God” at all, feeling that this concept is just a superstitious throwback to a primitive age of darkness and foolishness. So, many modern sages do not use the term “God” to describe this one animating principle that lies at the core of everything, preferring to simply call it, “the All,” “The One,” “Unity,” “The Good,” “The Totality,” or some such ambiguity.
But don't mistake this ambiguity for confusion. The principle is perfectly clear; the universe has as its source a conscious animating principle. Naming it is wholly unnecessary. Applying a name to anything results in a limitation. Once you have named something, it is defined, and the essential animating force in the universe cannot be defined, described, or limited in any way. It is everything. And, at the secret core of your being you are intimately connected with this singular source of everything, in fact you are this source, and your potential power is unlimited.
Infinite power is at your fingertips, right now. There is nothing that you are incapable of doing, because, in truth, veritably, and without doubt, you are the animating force of the entire universe. Every power of the firmament and of the ether, of the earth and under the earth, on dry land and in the water, of whirling air and of rushing fire, and every spell and scourge of God is obedient unto you. Of course you do not believe that, or there would be no need for me to tell you. Most likely, you feel that you have very little control over any aspect of your life. You have sacrificed your infinite power for opposition, misery, and decay, by shrinking yourself down into the space of a little body, and the span of a tiny life. And then you’ve set yourself at odds with anything outside your body, trying to control, manipulate or get the approval of a world that is ultimately not separate from yourself.
“I have done no such thing!” you may be saying to yourself, but in fact you have. How often have you crossed paths with a beautiful man or woman on the street and thought, “I wish I knew that person,” and then passed by without a wor
d, thinking that you were unworthy? How many times have you thought to yourself that your life would be perfect if you just had a better job, a nicer house, whiter teeth, and then done nothing about it? How often have you felt alone, misunderstood, angry or scared? Endless possibility presents itself, and endlessly you ignore possibilities to remain in a state of helplessness. You are the creator of your own reality, and you can be taught specifically the secrets of taking advantage of this fact.
However, in practical terms there are some limits on what we can accomplish, as long as we exist as separate bodies. Some people take to one thing more than others. Some of us are gifted at music, others at mathematics, and others still at sports or martial arts. The same holds true for magick. Some people's mere presence causes physical phenomena to occur, such as objects floating or falling, the appearance of apparitions or ghosts. For some, these things never occur, and their mere presence seems to stop them from occurring. But they may find that they can communicate telepathically almost as easily as talking on the phone. Some people find clairvoyance as simple as riding a bicycle, for others, they can only see the vaguest images, but their precognitive skills are nearly perfect. In this book you will find some things work easily for you, some take much practice, and some things seem impossible. I suggest that you work toward your strengths, and as you develop, you will find other abilities manifesting out of nowhere. I was not a born psychic. Far from it, I used to be quite lead-headed. So, I know that these things can be learned.
The methodology of this book is quite simple. By learning to observe and control the contents of your mind and the sensations of your body you will make contact with the subtler aspects of reality and learn to use these to your advantage. You will even eventually contact those pure and sublime portions of consciousness that have been called Gods, your Higher Self, The Augoeides, The Genius, Daimon, Holy Guardian Angel and many other names.
The practice of magick consists of the knowledge and application of psychic or invisible forces upon the world for the purposes of changing yourself and your environment. Practical magick consists of an array of techniques both mental and physical, to contact and direct invisible forces and beings. Most magicians use some magical techniques, but many fail to fully explore their own psychic potential.
Psychic phenomena have been separated off from magick as a whole for some time now, mostly co-opted by both the New Age movement and parapsychology. This is unfortunate because many magicians have nearly forgotten that these phenomena were once their central concern and exclusive purview. On the other hand, the studies of parapsychologists have given us many experiments that support the true validity of psychic phenomena, as well as many useful and simple approaches for developing abilities such as clairvoyance, out of body experiences and telepathy.
This book does not propose that any of these things take place outside of your own mind. On the contrary, as a wise magician once put it, “The universe is a projection of ourselves; an image as unreal as that of our faces in a mirror,” and further, “We cannot affirm any quality in an object as being independent of our sensorium, or as being in itself that which it seems to us.”[1] The whole of the universe, as we see it, is but a product of our own minds, colored by our own minds, and assuredly distorted by our own minds. This does not mean that what we see is real, or unreal. In truth, it is both and neither.
Many people ask me if there is really anything to all this psychic power and magick stuff, and sadly I am incapable of giving a real answer. When you have a dialogue with a God or some other disembodied spirit, is it simply a complex imaginary scenario, or something truly metaphysical? I cannot answer that question, or any other definitively. There is a subjective reality to these experiences, and they very often coincide with experiences in consensus reality. If you really explore the exercises in this book, you will continually be amazed, and sometimes disappointed. There is no way of knowing “for sure,” what exactly is going on in any experience, whether magical or mundane. If you do a money spell, then receive an unexpected check, did you manifest that check, or would it have come either way? There is no way of knowing, nor is it something to really waste a lot of time on. Creatively participating in the unfolding universal process is your birthright, and a true gift. Checking to see if its teeth are rotten is an insult to the giver. Even if our experiences just seem imaginary, there is still power and meaning in them.
Most people secretly believe in magick, and use it all the time. How often have you thrown a crumpled piece of paper toward a garbage can, and then, seeing it going off to the side, willed that it manage to get in anyway? Hasn't this sometimes seemed to work? Whenever we play the lottery, throw a basketball, or wish for a new lover or a new job, we are hoping that somehow our minds and wills can influence these random circumstances outside our direct physical control toward our desired end. This is the essence of magick, and we are all magicians.
As a magician you must recognize that the world “out there” is ultimately an insoluble riddle. For every answer that you may gain from the great secret fountain of truth, a myriad of greater mysteries twirl forth in the boundless infinity. A magician, recognizing that the quest for infinite knowledge is futile, nonetheless knows that it is the destiny of our species to unravel what little we can in the span of a life. A magician is a wild, mysterious, wonderful creature in a wilder world of infinite wonder. Nothing in the world of magick is real, and yet nothing is unreal. Endless possibility awaits you.
The exact natures of psychic and magical forces are completely unknown, and will probably always remain so. In the past both were attributed to gods, spirits and angels and other worlds. Today parapsychologists attribute them to mysteries of the human mind. The Adepts of all times have always held both to be true.
We are all very lucky. We live in a mysterious and magical universe, whose mysteries still await our discovery. Even our most prestigious scientists and sages know almost nothing about anything! Most people ignore this fact, contenting themselves with a dull life of television and 9 to 5 jobs. It takes the mildly crazy people like myself to point this “magicalness” out to everyone, and we are usually ignored, scorned and mocked, nailed to a cross or obliterated in some other gruesome way. I am going to risk any of these options to joyously share with you my wonder at this world of ours.
THE UNIVERSE IS AN ENERGY PHENOMENON
“It is prana that is manifesting as motion; it is prana that is manifesting as gravitation, as magnetism. It is prana that is manifesting as the actions of the body, as the nerve currents, as thought-force.”[1] The wonder-filled world that surrounds us is truly a great mystery. It is not really a world of solid objects at all, but a world of energy. Any physicist or yogi will tell you that this is so.
All of our most basic human conceptions, religious, scientific, and mystic, about reality can be summed up in the phrase, “the universe is an energy phenomenon.” The ancient magi and wise people of all early civilizations recognized that the universe was made up of energy thousands of years ago, and they began to map it out from it's subtlest to it's most gross aspects. Modern scientists are in fact the heirs of these ancient explorers, but the descendents have lopped off the heads of their own antecedents, and made every effort to remove any religious or magical implications from their work. Unfortunately, it took until late in the last millenium for science to even begin catching up with the ancients on the subject of energy.
This never ceasing flow of energy bombards us at every moment of our lives, and we perceive it as the world of objects that surrounds us. This energy is not only in everything; it is everything. We are patterns of energy that exist in a world of energy.
According to most theories of modern physics, what we perceive as matter is just a series of waves (or particles) that vibrate at specialized frequencies. In fact, the entire universe is basically just empty space. Huge gaps separate the meaningful particles (or waves) of the universe, yet somehow they are connected to one another, vibrating together, a gi
ant sea of energy. But you do not perceive the world in this way. You see only solid, separate objects.
What physics fails to describe is the way in which we transform this flow of energy into the solidity of the world we perceive. This is a difficult task that begins at birth. Our parents and every person that we come in contact with instructs us until we perceive correctly what they perceive, the material world full of objects, basically in the same way that they perceive it. There are of course exceptions. Some people never fully learn to distinguish between certain colors. Some people can't ever learn to see the way others do. Some people experience breaks in the continuity of consensus reality throughout their lives. We pathologize some of them, and call others creative geniuses.
But it is always our thoughts that create the world that we see. When we touch a wall, we react to it in the way that we've been trained. We see a wall, and feel hardness. When we are small children, there are many breaks in the continuity, and strange and wonderful things occasionally occur. Perhaps you dimly remember a few of these, and that is why you've picked up this book. By the time we are adults, everything rigidly coheres to the intensive instruction we've received.
The important thing to remember is that it is all just a pattern of energy! We perceive only a small fraction of this energy. Layer upon layer of energy exists in the universe, just waiting to be witnessed.
But even if we accept all this, we continue to see only walls and objects. The reason is that we do not allow ourselves to really see reality. We see models. The only things we allow ourselves to witness are our ideas and descriptions about things. This is the way that you have been taught by all your experiences in life to perceive your surroundings. This mode of perception has served you well. It has protected you from walking into walls, and has given you a method of categorizing your different experiences in life.
The Book of Magick Power Page 3
