For those who are learning the path of magick and the old ways, this course will try to describe what I think of as important to the learning the craft. Many of witches and Wiccans learn about the craft from books and articles, but it helps to know why a teacher or really anyone you talk to, thinks the way they do and where their perspective comes from. While my lessons may have started in books, I know most of my lessons now are from life and love now. I cannot begin to claim I know it all or that I am some master, but as am I am able and called to I grow and change, because that is the way of my path.
So, what is magick?
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As Alister Crowely wrote, magick is “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.” While infamously hedonistic, dangerously charismatic, and more than a little power hungry (to say the least about him) Alister did seem to have touched upon some profound inspirations in his work. As Alister believed, so do I, that in addition to this statement, your personal will should begin to come into alignment with the Will of the Divine (his Divine wisdom came in the form of one’s personal guardian angel, who served as one’s higher wisdom). Experience has shown me that, the Divine extends much further than one’s guardian angel, and while the guardian angel, spirit guide, totems, etc.. may know a lot about you and your path (and how to stay on your path), there is order, law, and some sort of plan beyond your personal sphere in this here and now. To sum this up, there is no magick without you application of your will, but your will should be aligned with something greater than yourself.
Since change happens everyday, whether or not we actively make choices and changes, what then is magick in our everyday lives? Any act of magick happens when our body, mind/emotions, and soul are aligned and ready to make conscious choices and changes in our lives. We rarely need that sort of strong conscious alignment to make ourselves a cup of coffee to wake ourselves up, so the scale of the choice and change does have something to do with this. But if one day, we feel, know, and utterly, gloriously long to to wake up in the morning and begin to live in a certain way, and we feel we are ready to do what it takes (even if in baby steps) to get certain results in our lives and create certain changes, we are beginning to live a magical life.
Magick is almost as old as humanity and is as diverse as each person who has and will live. How it calls to us is the thing we really need worry about. While the object of magick is change, the kinds of change we should be working toward is what is described in hermetics as the Great Work. Wikipedia define this ideas thusly, “The Great Work is, before all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will(Wikipedia).” Hermetics is the discipline which founded much of our modern ideas about magick. It emerged in the 2nd century BC and has held a hidden and misunderstood place in history since. The occult, hermetics, witchcraft, and voodoo (among many other ways) are simply ways to talk about how to apply magick to life. They are all about how to systematically create change in our life for our own greater good, our own spiritual evolution and maybe even ability to ascend to a greater spiritual existence.
How does magick work without running into issues of karma and being punished for personal gain?
It doesn’t really, unless we are tempted to compromise our own ethics and the meaning behind our path. If your ethics and path have little against being able to get rich for teaching others, doing readings, creating a plan and magick for others, that, simply is your path. There is no reason why we cannot have abundance in our lives for doing our work, as long as we are doing our Great Work. While daily worries do not evaporate, and the business minded world does keep ticking by while we are on our path, when we align ourselves with a higher will, our perspective on what we want from life changes. But still there is no logical or spiritual reason, why any given person should suffer in poverty or suffering, with the caveat that it could be part of a greater life lesson. Some life lesson demand of us to get ourselves out of sticky situations, so we can learn to embrace our own power, not just magick. It is essential to learn our own will and power to make any kind of changes in our lives to better ourselves and provide the room for growth and balance.
Don’t ever believe you are too weak or too afraid to love yourself enough to build yourself up in order to create your own change and magick in the world. As Rumi reminds us, “Your body is woven from the light of Heaven. Are you aware that it’s purity and swiftness is the envy of Angels and it’s courage keeps even the devils away?”
Assignment: What is your personal thoughts about what magick is and isn’t? Please submit at least a one paragraph essay on what you believe magick is as you begin this course!
[easy_contact_forms fid=4]
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[level-current-students]
As Alister Crowely wrote, magick is “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.” While infamously hedonistic, dangerously charismatic, and more than a little power hungry (to say the least about him) Alister did seem to have touched upon some profound inspirations in his work. As Alister believed, so do I, that in addition to this statement, your personal will should begin to come into alignment with the Will of the Divine (his Divine wisdom came in the form of one’s personal guardian angel, who served as one’s higher wisdom). Experience has shown me that, the Divine extends much further than one’s guardian angel, and while the guardian angel, spirit guide, totems, etc.. may know a lot about you and your path (and how to stay on your path), there is order, law, and some sort of plan beyond your personal sphere in this here and now. To sum this up, there is no magick without you application of your will, but your will should be aligned with something greater than yourself.
Since change happens everyday, whether or not we actively make choices and changes, what then is magick in our everyday lives? Any act of magick happens when our body, mind/emotions, and soul are aligned and ready to make conscious choices and changes in our lives. We rarely need that sort of strong conscious alignment to make ourselves a cup of coffee to wake ourselves up, so the scale of the choice and change does have something to do with this. But if one day, we feel, know, and utterly, gloriously long to to wake up in the morning and begin to live in a certain way, and we feel we are ready to do what it takes (even if in baby steps) to get certain results in our lives and create certain changes, we are beginning to live a magical life.
Magick is almost as old as humanity and is as diverse as each person who has and will live. How it calls to us is the thing we really need worry about. While the object of magick is change, the kinds of change we should be working toward is what is described in hermetics as the Great Work. Wikipedia define this ideas thusly, “The Great Work is, before all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will(Wikipedia).” Hermetics is the discipline which founded much of our modern ideas about magick. It emerged in the 2nd century BC and has held a hidden and misunderstood place in history since. The occult, hermetics, witchcraft, and voodoo (among many other ways) are simply ways to talk about how to apply magick to life. They are all about how to systematically create change in our life for our own greater good, our own spiritual evolution and maybe even ability to ascend to a greater spiritual existence.
How does magick work without running into issues of karma and being punished for personal gain?
It doesn’t really, unless we are tempted to compromise our own ethics and the meaning behind our path. If your ethics and path have little against being able to get rich for teaching others, doing readings, creating a plan and magick for others, that, simply is your path. There is no reason why we cannot have abundance in our lives for doing our work, as long as we are doing our Great Work. While daily worries do not evaporate, and the business minded world does keep ticking by while we are on our path, when we align ourselves with a higher will, our perspective on what we want from life changes. But still there is no logical or spiritual reason, why any given person should suffer in poverty or suffering, with the caveat that it could be part of a greater life lesson. Some life lesson demand of us to get ourselves out of sticky situations, so we can learn to embrace our own power, not just magick. It is essential to learn our own will and power to make any kind of changes in our lives to better ourselves and provide the room for growth and balance.
Don’t ever believe you are too weak or too afraid to love yourself enough to build yourself up in order to create your own change and magick in the world. As Rumi reminds us, “Your body is woven from the light of Heaven. Are you aware that it’s purity and swiftness is the envy of Angels and it’s courage keeps even the devils away?”
Assignment: What is your personal thoughts about what magick is and isn’t? Please submit at least a one paragraph essay on what you believe magick is as you begin this course!
[easy_contact_forms fid=4]
[/level-current-students]