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To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (mordred)
Subject: Re: fundamentals of magick
Date: 17 Mar 1995 09:09:43 -0800

Kali Yuga 49950317

Christeos.Pir@f235.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Christeos Pir) quotes the
conversation between Li Ehr and I and writes:

[tyagi]
|<>

[Christeos]
|...While it may be that each of us has particular predilections, and 
|that by breaking the so-called rules one may discover a personal method 
|that works better, this doesn't mean that all methods are equally 
|efficacious. 

Of course.  My point was that there are no fixed 'correct formulae',
not that one couldn't discover an appropriate configuration of mage
and formulae.  Various Magi from the past have exemplified your point.


|...My recommendation is to try the recipe first before attempting to
|modify it. 

I suggest that this may lead to disaster.  It is like monoculture.  It
may easily to lead to a condition in which the entirety of the field of
magick is relegated and controlled by 'Experts' within the Orthodoxy.
I suggest that diversity wrt the relationship with tradition is likely
for the best, some trying the recipe, some dropping it completely, some
doing a little of both.


|If nothing else, we then have a yardstick, a "control," against which to 
|compare the results of later experiments. (As always, one of the greatest 
|weapons of the magician is their diary.)

There is no control in the realm of subjective science.  Working on different
processes, we apply technology to an entirely new event-identity.  If the
technology stays the same this does nothing to coordinate the event-
identities.  The Magical Record is best seen as a mirror for the individual
who makes it.  It is only partially useful as a picture for the use of
others (since in order to benefit from it one need be involved within the
life that it reflects in order to have it become transformative, potent.


[illustration implying to me the efficacy of belief, omitted]

|<>

|Surely you mean "...ability to accept and learn from failure..."? Find
|me someone lacking the _ability_ to fail, and I'll show you an arhat! 

I agree with you and yet would add that some people do not have the *ability*
to fail in that we never purposefully set out to do so.  I think it 
valuable to do more than avoid failure at all costs, accept it when it
comes and learn from it in order to avoid it in the future.  It seems to me
that working toward a resolution of the 'failure/success' dichotomy is quite
important and that we are so conditioned to 'strive for success' that an 
ability to carry on Lost Causes is on the decline.  The problem of course
is that the outcome is not known and all we wind up with is a distinct lack
of perserverence, discipline and resolve.  *WILLINGNESS* to fail is, in this
sense, a valuable and perhaps essential component of learning the craft.


|<>
|<>

|While I might be in agreement with these, I'd like to know your definitions
|of "knowledge" and "wisdom."

I meant by 'knowledge' comprehension of information - book learning.  I meant
by 'wisdom' an attunement with the rhythms of Nature.  I agree that the former
can be an invaluable tool and that the latter is often seen as (one of) the
goal(s) of the mage, but I don't think that they are 'fundamental requirements
for the beginner'.  The former can indeed be bypassed by some and the latter
develops as a byproduct of the process/path.
 

[li ehr]
|>|...one needs the ablity to act, and one needs to hone this ablity such
|>|that what one attempts will occur.

|<>

|Mind clarifying this point? Surely one can learn from one's successes
|as well as one's failures.

There is much more to learning than 'getting the right behavior/action'.
A true and complete comprehension will include experience of the side-
tracks, the traps and problems of the path magical.  Who better to serve
as a Guide than one who has fallen into the holes along the way, who has
gone off on wild goose chases, in fact one who has INTENTIONALLY TAKEN
THE WRONG PATHS (and survived) to see where they lead?


|<>

|Agreed. But I'd like to know how you see the Great Work. (Especially in light
|of my impression of your Crowleyan "Black Brother" stance.)

I have no stances, but I will respond to your inquiry as you intend it.
I like to see the Great Work as a personal and cosmologic phenomenon-event
with extreme and symbolic depth and intensity.  It is as much fact as
fancy, as much derived of the Mage's imagination as of the configuration
of Universe.  The Great Work is the unification of that which had been
torn asunder and the diversification of those which had been combined.

Like a pebble dropped into a pool of water which sends ripples through it
that transmogrifies the whole into a new substance (e.g. wine), so are we 
and our surroundings forever transformed.

I think the Black Brothers are, personally, the fulcrum of change within
their localized consciousness -- i.e. the ego is a very important part
of the Great Work in their case.  Social reaction to these Brothers (and
I do not intend to imply an exclusion of women here, I'm only using
Crowley's biased terms) is likely to be negative, since the Messenger of
Bad News, the Midwife of the Shadow, the Social Psychiatrist is typically
seen as the originator of the Problem (at least at first and by those with
limited vision).  Thus is Hitler considered the Great Evil.  Yet even such
as he inspired massive change in oscillating polar frequencies (witness
the instruction *against Nazism* within Germany of late and the natural
response to this: rebirthing of that which is repressed).


|"Wake your reasons' hollow vote
| Wear your blizzard season coat
| Burn a bridge and burn a boat
| Stake a Lizard by the throat."

Very interesting.  I was just reading how spiking the head of a serpent
symbolizes the ordering of the cosmos, the vanquishing of chaos, to the
Hindus.  Apparently the spiked serpent head is placed within the
foundation of (some) Hindu temples.

tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
tyagi nagasiva
---------------------------
"Reduction of self does not refer to the visible ego, but rather to 
dissolving the bindings that cause the self to be separable.  It is not 
an emotional question - it is a technical one, having to do with occult 
structures and karmic momentum.  The visible ego is a manifestation of 
these structures - trying to attain higher awareness by reducing the 
visible ego is like trying to correct bad vision by pulling out your eyes.

"'No more touchy-feely Zen!'"

kerrym@world.std.com (Kerry M Miller) (Usenet:alt.zen)