Magick can permeate every aspect of our
lives. What begins as an isolated activity, in a small protected circle,
can have its influence on, and reflections in, everything that we do. I am
talking about a process of growth, of personal evolution. The more that we
can learn about ourselves, and particularly about our True Will, the more
able we can become to order our lives on that basis.
A magickian who has thoroughly practiced
hir banishings and consecrations eventually can enter that clear, banished
state at will, quickly and easily. A magickian who has accessed the congruence
and natural strength that come with knowledge of True Will can apply magickal
intent to almost every action or decision. This can come, like most skills,
with time, whether it requires a lifetime, a matter of years, of months, or
of days.
Learning about True Will always remains,
I believe, an ongoing process. The general road markers can become mapped
out, or sometimes detailed knowledge of a work may come in one great flash.
But in any event, there is always the constant vigilance necessary to maintain
congruence at every turn, every decision. Whether that work (sometimes it
is more like play) involves remembering that great flash, or if it requires
constantly renewed invocation and meditation, it is always magick and it
is always True Will that can be the guiding force.
Everyone, I believe, has had a flash of
this congruence, even if only in dreams. Those who have had the fortune and/or
perseverance to be able to learn and work close to their True Will are probably
more familiar with this state. Athletes call it being "in the zone",
cyberneticists call it being "uptime", practitioners of Zen call it "satori",
some call it the "tao"; whatever, the experience is unmistakable. It may come
to you while you are doing ritual, or it may come while you are working on
something that resulted from doing ritual (you'll know...).
As your practice continues, it can become
more personalized. When you have gone through a system of rituals like those
presented here, you will have a better idea of what kinds of things work
for you, what skills you need to develop, what success at invocation is like.
Then you can begin to design your own system. You may find that your own
rituals, which may be more or less complex than those I have described, are
much more effective. People who have experimented with making audio tapes
for self hypnosis often report something very similar; tapes utilizing their
own voice, however crude the technique, seem to be much more effective than
hearing someone else's hypnotic instructions.
As a result of this process of
meta-programming, we can reach a level where our art (our Will) becomes
indistinguishable from our life. That is, we may find that our first
consideration for any given project, job or whatever, is to make ourselves
into instruments fit for the task. The way that we think of ideas to work
on, the tools and abilities that we use for those tasks, the techniques
that we use, can become a matter of choice for us. They become inseparable
from the work, it becomes difficult to tell "the dancer from the dance."
And as this kind of work brings us into even further knowledge of True Will,
we can turn more and more of the details of our lives towards our particular
purposes. Eating becomes merely a way of gaining strength to continue our Will,
sleeping becomes a means of repairing ourselves that we might continue, our
clothes are chosen to be suitable to our purpose, the place that we might
choose to live can be one that encourages our work, and the way that we find
recreation becomes a means of resting our minds and bodies just so that we
may return to our True Will. As this kind of congruence increases, it eventually
can become One Big Ritual. We are creating our lives as personal mythology.
The ramifications of this, on every level,
are astounding. An extraordinary number of social considerations are resolved
by this thought. People can become, in general, less concerned with interfering
with the lives of others and more concerned with the creative work that they
are capable of doing. It provides a single and absolute standard by which every
decision, on a personal or global scale, can be made. In my experience, people
who have gained some success in this kind of work become happier, more relaxed,
more efficient, creative and successful in their endeavors. To achieve the full
potential of our species, I believe it is necessary for each individual to realize
their own potential.
"Evolution is infinity...", the process never
ends, and we can continue through time to greater and greater things. The process
feeds itself; each time we learn something new, gain a new mode to add to our
behavior, it increases our effectiveness in continuing the process. It is my Will,
for instance, to experiment with and design new rituals to learn about my Will.
As I learn more about my Will, the better able I become to design more rituals.
As I practice the new rituals, the more I learn about my Will...
Thus, the future holds many wonderful surprises
for us. In our lifetimes we have seen the development of new technology in space travel,
computers, communications and brainwave research. What are the evolutionary
potentials when we begin to develop ritual technology that makes use of and
adapts to the elements of this new and changing world? I don't know about
you, but I'm excited.
