Hello, Ryan. Could you elaborate some more on how are you outside yourself as a magician ... sounds interesting. Thanks
Hello, querent k. I can. In magic, as in mundane life, it is my practice that it's important to be aware of the dangers of an over-inflated ego, especially from praise* - 'Pride cometh before a fall'.
Whilst inflated, or super-inflated, one can access some extraordinary levels of psychic content or perform extraordinary feats the conscious mind would perhaps consider too risky to attempt at its normal state. Yet, the recurring warning throughout human stories is that this over-inflation rapidly leads to a fall.
Take the illustrative example of Icarus, attempting to fly to the Sun by wings made by the craftsman Daedulus, and who constantly warns Icarus of being over-ambitious. Icarus wants to fly to the sun and believe Daedulus's wings can get him there; he is, however, so focused on his ambition that he ignores Daedulus's warnings that the wings are joined to Icarus by wax, and should he fly too close, the wax will warm and he will fall.
Icarus, beyond care, flies too close the Sun, and as a consequence, the wax melts and Icarus plunges to his death in the sea.
One can view this as a psychological equivalent of being overly ambitious, ignoring warnings or safety precautions from others, only to find out the hard way that their ambition has led them to dire consequences. The same, roughly can be said of the story of the character of Satan, whose archetypal arrogance and pride leads to his downfall following his failed ambition to dominate Heaven.
Throughout human stories there is a motif of warning about being 'too big for one's boots' - or attaining
hubris - and this is a very real danger to human beings as with over-confidence they do indeed, often plunge to their doom - or cause great destruction in their wake with their carelessness to others or themselves. An additional concept of 'King for a Day' also applies here. How often do we treat someone as a hero, raise them up high in our esteem, only to be let down later by something they did. Thus, the phrase, King for a Day, means that these kinds of artificial ballooning from adulation by others do not last, and if one begins to believe the praise heaped, can grow arrogant and incapable of seeing the danger of such an incoming mistake through their behaviour, as the inflated ego loses its humility and the inflatee acts reckless.
For such a reason, I employ a wide range of pseudonyms as a writer and occultist so that I am one step removed from myself and my personal identity by which others know me outside of my occult work as 'Ryan Anschauung' et al. Thus, when someone praises a work written by THEM, such praise goes to the collective of THEM (distributed) or to the persona of Ryan (isolated), that adulation does not go directly to 'me' - but to my avatar(s). The same applies with scorn, of which I have at least an equal share of experience with. This separation of identity prevents me 'getting too big for my boots' and allows me to retain humility, self-awareness of my responsibilities and limits -
which I deem necessary in finding myself in a position of being capable of influencing others. For I have learned the cost of being reckless with words and the immense danger of hubris enough times to develop a form of insulation that protects me and others. Thus, there is in my magical practice, theoretically less danger of my ego being over-inflated leading to a fall - and less danger of becoming a total dickhead
This separation also helps avoid a personality cult as my work navigates (even pioneers) the difficult road of building something without the usual convenient struts that can lead to the establishment of a new religion or worse, guruism; and in doing so, risks just repeating what I am trying to break. Although pseudonyms are useful for anonymity, they can also assist in maintaining a reality check. It can be very easy to get lost in the occult labyrinth and fall prey to one's own magic. Essentially, I use these avatars as a means to stay humble - which one should always be.
*In some cases, praise can even be weaponised against someone as a form of magic to induce this kind of fall. The concept of peer pressure is common to see, where someone is egged on to do something risky by their peers, such as jump off a great height - and as that person grows bold on the adulation of the crowd their ego is bolstered enough to make the jump. Which may end in broken legs.
