- Joined
- Jul 3, 2023
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I teach my niece magick in the way I was taught it, through stories in the kitchen while helping with the dishes, over a game of Black Peter in the library, out on a walk in the woods, late at night over wine; impromptu, apropos nothing at all, rarely about magick as we tend to think of it but always with intent and with occasional spells and incantations along the way to keep it entertaining. Now if someone were to ask me to give them something to read on the subject, as an overview and/or as a way of orienting themselves, for example, I would give them virtually anything by the Alan’s Chapman and Moore, who were not around way back when. In a way though, that is a bit duplicitous of me because personally I think there is something to be said for throwing yourself off the deep end by losing yourself in someone like Crowley (like I did). And why ever not? I mean, everyone that ever swung from the branches of the axis mundi with their angels, devils, and bananas will take the fool's journey so many times anyway that if they survive long enough to laugh at themselves they will end up just where they were all along.
In other words (what I would never say to someone just starting out) -- “just do it”. I would never tell them: just follow what makes you burn and what makes you fall in love with your life, and with that feral, ecstatic, blissful, uncontrollable, untamable Mystery that weaves like a golden thread throughout it all. Or why even bother? I would never say "just let that wild, beautiful, unpredictable magick that approaches you unannounced and that blows your life open in sheer wonder at a time when you have no idea what you are doing let alone why, to speak nothing of how...just let it touch you, precisely because you won’t be ready. And I would not care to promise, "you will never have your shit together and you will never do magick for all of the right reasons, or for all of the wrong ones either, and your reasons for doing anything at all will change over time of their own accord. So just do it, because, at the end of the day, the magick isn't in the books anyway and the spirits don't give a toss about how you pronounce their names or how many titles and degrees you have or how many times you killed your ego or crossed or uncrossed one abyss or another or how many initiations you had". And I won't tell you that power will hunt you and that the spirits that serve it might just ask you as to what you would be willing to risk for the chance of gaining something that can't be known?
And I would not add "Ask yourself that, and not with your mind. And then give it. That one needful thing. They (the gods of your being) will never ask anything more of you, and never anything less. Just that one thing. You can always say no and go back to the world you left behind, to dream of might have been. Of course, you can. No guarantees either way though. The part of you that set forth will never come back. Those that survive will rest in power, and it is the world and its certitudes that will name them when they return."
What I would say though is that if power ever approaches you then pray that you have the strength and the humility to hold it. After all, there isn't a damn thing wrong with common sense. I'm still learning that. Still going after visions too. Still learning to trust. Still learning to walk with my day job and my ancestors. Still coming to terms with knowing that what I won't say to someone just starting out is what loves tells me is true. Still bowing to the mess. And maybe I will never make that final step because it was never there to take.
In other words (what I would never say to someone just starting out) -- “just do it”. I would never tell them: just follow what makes you burn and what makes you fall in love with your life, and with that feral, ecstatic, blissful, uncontrollable, untamable Mystery that weaves like a golden thread throughout it all. Or why even bother? I would never say "just let that wild, beautiful, unpredictable magick that approaches you unannounced and that blows your life open in sheer wonder at a time when you have no idea what you are doing let alone why, to speak nothing of how...just let it touch you, precisely because you won’t be ready. And I would not care to promise, "you will never have your shit together and you will never do magick for all of the right reasons, or for all of the wrong ones either, and your reasons for doing anything at all will change over time of their own accord. So just do it, because, at the end of the day, the magick isn't in the books anyway and the spirits don't give a toss about how you pronounce their names or how many titles and degrees you have or how many times you killed your ego or crossed or uncrossed one abyss or another or how many initiations you had". And I won't tell you that power will hunt you and that the spirits that serve it might just ask you as to what you would be willing to risk for the chance of gaining something that can't be known?
And I would not add "Ask yourself that, and not with your mind. And then give it. That one needful thing. They (the gods of your being) will never ask anything more of you, and never anything less. Just that one thing. You can always say no and go back to the world you left behind, to dream of might have been. Of course, you can. No guarantees either way though. The part of you that set forth will never come back. Those that survive will rest in power, and it is the world and its certitudes that will name them when they return."
What I would say though is that if power ever approaches you then pray that you have the strength and the humility to hold it. After all, there isn't a damn thing wrong with common sense. I'm still learning that. Still going after visions too. Still learning to trust. Still learning to walk with my day job and my ancestors. Still coming to terms with knowing that what I won't say to someone just starting out is what loves tells me is true. Still bowing to the mess. And maybe I will never make that final step because it was never there to take.