The Benefits of Magic (according to Phil Hine)

[HoldAll]

The good thing about that irreverent (and therefore now seemingly antiquated) chaos magic mindset was that it completely derailed conventional post-theosophy and post-Victorian spirituality that was so heavily indebted to religion and according to which the 'true magician's Path' was seen as infinetely long and arduous, with lofty, almost unattainable goals (ascensension, finding one's True Will, K&C with one's HGA, etc.). So what do we actually hope to gain from magic in the present day? In his 1995 "Condensed Chaos", Phil Hine offers the following answers:

• A means to disentangle yourself from the attitudes and restrictions you were brought up with and which define the limits of what you may become.
• Ways to examine your life to look for, understand and modify behaviours, emotional and thought patterns which hinder learning and growth.
• Increase of confidence and personal charisma.
• A widening of your perception of just what is possible, once you set your heart and mind on it.
• To develop personal abilities, skills and perceptions – the more we see the world, the more we appreciate that it is alive.
• To have fun. Magick should be enjoyed.
• To bring about change in accordance with will.

It hit me yesterday after my daily practice - I'm not dutifully doing my 'groundwork' to prepare me for the day in the distant future when I will be hopefully capable of doing real magic, I'm already in the thick of it! The LBRP is a full-fledged magical ritual, not the 'training wheels' I usually consider it to be. If my big goal is Self-Transformation, then it's happening already, right under my nose, not once I've diligently completed all those basic exercises like meditation, breathwork, visualisation, etc. In one word, are we actually benefitting from magic right now?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

As one Zen master admonished: "You should keep your Zen with you every minute" and this is what I endeavour to do. The most obvious is when I catch myself going down an unprofitable line of thought. The amount of time I've spent on magic allows me to take a mental step back.

 

[HoldAll]

With every mastery over the moment, with every gentling of an anxious energy and with every luminous thought piercing through the miasmic clouds of ignorance, Majik has connected the God Force to our localized consciousness thereby demonstrating the power of the path of knowledge.

Who's Majik when he's at home??

 

[HoldAll]

Who's on first.

I can look up Abbott and Costello but Google has just too many options for "Majik". Ah, the mysteries of the Path...

 

[HoldAll]

And besides, this isn't a standup comedy forum, joker.

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2024

“O man, heed ye my warning: Seek not to break open the gate to beyond. Few there are who have succeeded in passing the Barrier to the greater Light that shines beyond. For know ye, ever the dwellers [Shetu-Kingdom of Shadow] seek such souls to hold in their thrall.” [Emerald Tablets of Thoth, Tablet 8]

Positively Lovecraftian but what does that have to do with anything?

 

[Vandheer]

There are no emerald tablets, this guy is bullshitting. The only Emerald Tablet is a poem-ish summary that comes from "The Book of the Secrets of Creation". Its just a page in an Arabic book.

And there he goes with the aliens, you a disciple of Roma or what?

 

[KjEno186]

@Aumbonda , please stick to the topic. Consider this your friendly warning.

 

[HoldAll]

There are no emerald tablets, this guy is bullshitting. The only Emerald Tablet is a poem-ish summary that comes from "The Book of the Secrets of Creation". Its just a page in an Arabic book.

And there he goes with the aliens, you a disciple of Roma or what?

"The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean is a 1930 pseudohistorical book written by cult leader Maurice Doreal", says wiki. Exactly the kind of theosophical-inspired bullshit that needed to get consigned to the dustbin of history long ago. People still read such garbage? Get out of here!

 

[HoldAll]

I wanted people's thoughts and opinions to my post, not idle banter and guess-the-author crap from some half-baked Roma spawn troll.

 

[KjEno186]

I actually own Phil Hine's Condensed Chaos. He makes a lot of good points in his book. The difficult thing about Hine is the way he changes over the years. Perhaps this is not really a fault, but in fact it is growth. The benefit of Chaos Magic is its accessibility. The downside is that perhaps to some it encourages a lackadaisical attitude from armchair would-be mages.

 

[KjEno186]

are we actually benefitting from magic right now?

This is why everyone is told to keep a journal. I mean, every book on magic geared to beginners says that writing in a journal every day is important because the changes most often happen gradually. And it also keeps us honest. That sigil I made for a box of a dozen Dunkin' Donuts never did work, btw...

Daily rituals are an exercise of willpower at their most basic level. There is nothing more difficult, in my opinion, than doing a 'simple' ritual when I'd rather be doing something else. I get into other hobbies and interests, and I have to admit that there are days when I don't want to set aside that twenty minutes for a ritual and a meditation. But I do it anyway, and I write it down in my journal, because it is my will to do so.

 

[pixel_fortune]

I have to say the "training your willpower muscle" doesn't seem to have worked for me. That is, I was always pretty good about daily ritual practice one I decided to commit to it, and haven't missed a day since I began Helios Unbound, but that does not seem to have bled over into any increased willpower in other areas of my life. It's just as hard as it ever was to get my arse to the gym when I'd rather stay on the couch

That said, I have ADHD so it's possibly that's a wiring/neurotransmitter problem that doesn't extend to other people

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I have to say the "training your willpower muscle" doesn't seem to have worked for me. That is, I was always pretty good about daily ritual practice one I decided to commit to it, and haven't missed a day since I began Helios Unbound, but that does not seem to have bled over into any increased willpower in other areas of my life. It's just as hard as it ever was to get my arse to the gym when I'd rather stay on the couch

That said, I have ADHD so it's possibly that's a wiring/neurotransmitter problem that doesn't extend to other people

Can't remember who said it, but "The work begins when the fear of doing it badly is exceeded by the fear of not doing it at all"

I will say that one source of the willpower that made me finish my book is that I have a good friend, very clever, who is always going on about the books he's going to write, the podcasts he's going to make, etc. etc.

I realised that if, by a miracle, he managed to finish something - anything - before I did, that would make me a very sad human being indeed

I read Hine quite a while after I started my research, and his straightforward style was a breath of fresh air after a lot of other, less modern, occult tracts. I'm not sure I was actually practicing magic at that point though...

 

[pixel_fortune]

Can't remember who said it, but "The work begins when the fear of doing it badly is exceeded by the fear of not doing it at all"

It's a good quote but I don't think relevant to why I struggle to go the gym as regularly as I'd like! I'm not nervous about doing it badly

(It makes sense in the context of your writing. I STFU when I have ideas about books and stuff I'd like to write because I don't want to be That Guy. I might not have written a book, but at least I'm not always talking about how I'm going to write a book and never doing it)

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

I know what you mean about the writing a bunch of stuff deal, although I have had stories, articles and poems published in a homeless newspaper in a large university town. Many more to be published.
Magic is crucial to self development with an artistic flair to it.
Even when I don't want to do it, I do do it.
Essential for this this procrastinator.
Self discipline, yes.

Post automatically merged: Apr 18, 2024

Also, breathwork. Whether by fourfold breath technique, yoga breathing, chi gung, etc

Post automatically merged: Apr 18, 2024

Plus, it helps if one has a structure of ritual work to go by if you lack self discipline like myself, such as a book like Modern Magick or Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation.
And yes, promising everything under the sun without delivering is a result of a lack of knowledge, structure, self confidence and self discipline.

Post automatically merged: Apr 18, 2024

Also, regular LRH Saturn Banishing is said to slow aging.