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Wicca, Magick and Transformation

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan,alt.religion.wicca,alt.pagan.magick.talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage,soc.religion.paganism
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (lorax666)
Subject: Wicca, Magick and Transformation
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 00:36:02 CST

49971223 aa2 Hail Satan!    KAos Day!

this is a review of a friend's Wicca class.  I have extracted 
the originals and retained snippets for discussion seed herein.

lorax666
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
---------------------------

re difficulty of visualization
different people think in different ways.  some are more verbal (auditory)
thinkers than graphic (visual).  this is the apparent problem which 
dislexics (people with reading problems) have in conventional academic
environments -- they think in a graphic dimension and are not sufficiently
skilled in verbal media.  because of the variety, and because traditional
education facilities don't generally instruct visualization (other social
institutions might, but not all of us have instruction from them), some
may have greater difficulties than others in picking up this technique.

supplementary activities to facilitate such visualization include group
storytelling, role-playing games and video games.  anything that gets
us to translate in a more protracted fashion verbal or visual sensation
into a visualized image or series of images.


re the process of visualizing and manifesting a desired reality
typically the results are not as fast as might at first be inferred when
reading this statement however.  there is a great deal of confusion on
this point, with people unfamiliar with magical practice who equate
a kind of psychic power (illustrated beautifully in movies and in
role-playing games) to manifest nonordinary effects with magick.  this
can lead to a profound sense of failure when their psychic abilities
don't pan out the way they'd intended and/or when they interpret the
instructions from witches and mages as implying that it should happen
immediately like in 'Bewitched'.


re awareness, ritual and visualization:
[awareness] can be DISRUPTED by such activities
as we begin to project what is within upon the sensation data that may
originate around us.  mages and mystics are in some cases some of the
most UNaware people I have ever known.  certain types of mystical 
disciplines (quietness, single-pointedness of attention) can facilitate
awareness and its increase, but I suspect ritual is less reliable.


some suggest that constraining details sullies the spell.  I think that
there is something to this suggestion as a kind of warning against
placing too much emphasis on control and direction.  where what I would
call 'astral' or imagined constructs are concerned, the skill with
direction of our imagination is certainly a benefit, however.


re focussing the mind and energy on the goal:
some do this, some will focus on the MEANS to achieve the goal.  that
is, some intentionally try to affect a trigger rather than allow the
trigger to remain unattended.  if we have mistaken what the trigger
will do, then of course we may be wasting our time.  Crowley talks a
bit about this process in _Book Four_ when he mentions 'the Magical
Link' and the dynamics of the manifestation of will.


re using creative visualization to come to know who we really are.
ideally [yes.] practically I don't think
this is provided sufficient focus to really occur....
'know thyself' is the first dictum of the initiate in my experience.


re details to prepare, like loose clothing, body position:
jewelry, lighting, sound, state of tiredness, how long ago one ate 
are other factors which affect both visualization and meditative states.


re starting with geometric shapes and visualizing them:
additional support can be obtained through having these images in actual
graphics in the room.  the student stares at them for a moment or two,
then closes hir eyes and tries to visualize it.  sometimes the afterimage
can catalyze visualization where strict willpower will not achieve it.
sometimes having a fresh image is easier to imagine also.


important note: not all Wiccans see the ritual space as "safe space".
some of us don't consider ritual in terms of protections at all, and
prefer to see the Circle (sphere) as a container which focusses and
coheres energies which are generated during the rite.  more like an
enclosed cauldron with a hatch at the top than a shield-ball.


note: some don't use pentagrams or find banishing earth to be beneficial.
this derives from the Golden Dawn, as I understand it, and study of their
rather 'atmospheric' (what I'd call 'nonterran') styles can help to
understand this and its results more.  I gather many mages and witches
like it, in any case.


re the construction of a 'sanctuary':
if you really want to instruct this way you might also mention what
you think the "danger" is.  why is a "sanctuary" needed?  typically
sanctuaries or 'priest-holes' or 'safe rooms' are used in times of
WAR.  who is at war with whom here?  what other dangers exist? 
leaving this kind of information unsaid can inspire unnecessary
fear in those new to the craft.


quoting my favorite Mockingbird:
# > >Fourth is release.  No working is complete until you can keep 
# > >your grimy little mental fingers off of it.

some suggest that this release portion facilitates self-transformative
relationships with the object of attempted change such that even if
there is no effect on the object of intention there will be a difference
in how *we* relate to its present state (more accepting, less anxious
about its continuing dissonance with our desires, etc.).


re planning the details as much as possible before a magical working:
this is a ceremonial bias.  the shamanic or intuitive mage doesn't plan
much of anything, works with the direction of hir allies, intuition or
second sight, and sometimes doesn't even know what the working will
include before it occurs.  I think in some circles this is considered
'advanced' work, but some (such as myself) start out this way and never
really find the value in the strict planning suggested by others.


re getting divinatory advice as regards the upcoming ritual and the Rede:
I can see the value of this occasionally, but as a standard I think it
is over-industrious.  if we have to resort to the gods, the agencies
of the divinatory objects, or whatever you may think lies beyond the
mechanism of the divinatory tool for an assessment of conformity to
the Rede, then I would suggest abandoning magical work until it can
be seen or felt directly with the heart (in perfect love and perfect
trust).  compassion is the mark of the successful Wiccan, and I don't
think this is developed through divination but through active work in
the world, doing things physically and seeing their repercussions,
talking with others about what ethics include and deciding for oneself
where the boundaries of the Rede truly lie.


re how the images we focus on and how they effect our experience:
this is a huge issue which is seldom addressed within magical communities.
seldom are the facets of ritual, visualization, language and ritual given
sufficient attention themselves to really begin assessing their effects
upon the participants and how this will conform to Rede standards.  I have
had the greatest difficulties in this area when engaging group rite with
others.  biases, illnesses of culture, person and the human condition serve
to support massive and nefarious presumptions about the world, our place
in it, our relation to what we might call 'Nature' , 'the Goddess', and
any other elements of magical rite.  in designing ritual a deep study of
psychology, ecology, and oneself are necessary precursors to effect real
and lasting positive change instead of just adding to the problems.
 

re thinking and feeling as though the desired result is now real:
note: there is a danger with this type of rhetoric.  I'd agree that the
unconscious mind accepts whole-cloth and at times uncomprehendingly the
symbols and words provided to it.  it is this reason that I suggested 
above that the specific words, symbols and behaviors are best seen in
the light of a broad understanding before rotely perpetuating them.

yet I don't agree that visualizing a thing as really happening now
necessarily just changes unconscious acceptance.  it can lead, without
corresponding attention to AWARENESS a self-delusion whereby we begin
to imagine that we are what we are not and that the world has become
something it is not.  we can delude ourselves through a process quite
similar to self-hypnosis.  this is not magick as I would practice it,
and I warn that those who don't supplement such visualization with
attention-practices like meditation or some occupation whereby a very
real connection to the waking, ordinary world is maintained, may be
setting themselves up for a fall.


some even construct 'sigils' (per Spare, others) whereby the originally
intended event or condition is obscured through a process of removal or
corruption of a clear communication.  an example of this would be writing
the intent in a simple sentence and then removing ever fifth letter or
all the vowels, or drawing a picture with the letters.  the original
intent remains but we create a glyph which speaks to a different part 
of us.  (Cf. Spare's 'Alphabet of Desire' for more on this or one of
his many admirers like Grant or Carroll).


re 'feeding our minds with depressive thoughts resulting in a depressed lens':
there is a LOT of controvery surrounding this issue.  psychiatrists are keen
to point to biophysical triggers (thus the popularity of chemical treatments
like Prozac), psychotherapists sometimes suggest that childhood trauma and
repressed emotions inspire depressive states.  there is a great deal of
antagonism against this 'wish-it-away-by-focussing-on-something-better'
method of self-help.  I'm not saying it has no effect.  I have intentionally
applied it myself with music and even in ritual, but I recommend against
describing it as the Answer and as any sort of panacea.  different problems
may require different methodologies of response.


re working with depressive thoughts to get to a more wholesome viewpoint:
thank you for including this perspective.  often the focus on 'getting
over' our feelings 'to achieve a more wholesome viewpoint' is a severe
obstruction to coming to accept the feelings and attendant problems 
that may be harrying us.  as a direction, "working with" the depression
and sadness is usually best not done "to change and overcome them" in
my experience.  too often we merely repress them further in our desire
to be 'well'.  instead I would recommend the perspective that sadness
and anger and other 'negative emotions' are part of NORMAL HUMAN
EXPERIENCE and are too often rejected and avoided as the beautiful
and important emotional events they are.  if we cannot assimilate
them into our lives generally and see that they ARE part of what you
have indicated as "a more wholesome viewpoint" then we may be condemned
to dwell within them for the rest of our lives or disempower ourselves
by running from them.


re (always) getting what we create on the astral plane:
this is the emotionally-empowering aspect of magical practices, yes, though
I don't know that this is a best description of the process.  it seems to
me that potency of will, activities performed which are DIRECTLY supportive
of this vision (of bringing it into being, of continuing to support it)
are also a factor.  if we imagine ourselves as a writer, for example, then
we may need to take some steps along that path to becoming it, and this
doesn't even *touch* on the more difficult and ambiguous visualizations
like 'healing the world' or 'creating world peace' or something.

that said, I agree that, given the proper alignment of energies, ANYTHING
can be accomplished.  the trick is to perfect the formula of the will.


while I agree that this is valuable in the context of a magical rite
wherein our *intent* is to manifest our imagined ends, I think it is
a supreme error to suggest that thought-control and self-restriction
to beneficent imagery will really help our lives any.  the mystics I
have spoken with and the sources of esoteric information I have 
referenced have a variety of things to say about this.

yet those who integrate wrathful iconography and scripture into their
religious rites with whom I have spoken online and off often agree
with me that these images are not intended to be manifested in our
lives but to process the real horrors of the world to which we are
exposed; that it functions less like dream-wishing and more like
dream-processing.  different people need different things of course.


I would also recommend focus on the language, symbols and ritual 
structures we use with an eye toward that to which they may lead and
revising them to achieve what we think we may want more.

blessed beast!
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (lorax666)
-- 
(emailed replies may be posted); http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi; 408/2-666-SLUG
  join the esoteric syncretism in alt.magick.tyagi; http://www.abyss.com/tokus 


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