I just posted a new Magic Monday text to our Patreon, about the (possible) redundancy of all magical systems when it comes to getting to the core of magic. Paradoxical? Absolutely. As an appetite-whetter, I also publish this text here for free. There are over 250 similar Magic Monday texts at our Patreon, plus hundreds of other posts, clips, photos, music, etc by myself and my wife, Vanessa Sinclair. You should check it out:
https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl
Magic Monday: Merging with the Ideal
What if I claimed that all of the magical systems, structures, and shenanigans are completely redundant to magical success? Would you believe me?
Instead of claiming these things on wide, general levels, I’ll keep it on my own. I believe that all magical systems, structures, shenanigans etc are completely redundant to magical success.
This insight has been brewing for a while but just today it struck me: whatever we claim as being magical (or life) success, it’s essentially about merging with a perceived ideal that’s preferably our own to as large an extent as possible. This of course requires that we have an ideal. This ideal may not be a fixed point in time or space, but could be, and then mixed in with emotional and individuation-revealing aspects. But still, basically all work that’s not related to this process sounds pretty pointless, doesn’t it?
Isn’t fantasy, daydreaming, psychodrama (playing), psychoanalysis (formulation), and indulgence in models such as fictions more conducive to genuine self-knowledge than a thousand Liber Samekhs or Lesser Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram, etc? That self-knowledge that will eventually crystallize as an ideal? The ideal which becomes the yardstick of your very existence and all of what that entails?
I realize how radical this sounds (even to me), so I immediately put on my Devil’s Advocate hat and retaliate: ”Can’t all the magical rituals, banishings, meditations etc also be conducive to the process of self-knowledge and individuation?”
Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Being a ”lifer” in this weird sphere of contemporary occultism and its extension in ”occulture” I believe I have a wide perspective in which many branches are connected to the same sturdy trunk. The trunk has deep roots in the earth and reaches ambitiously towards the sky while photosynthesizing for the benefit of the overall biosphere. Although claiming genetic and cultural similarities and kinship, this tree is a unique individual.
Does the tree need to be involved in anything but its own growth? On a technical as well as moral level, can it even? Could it even?
As thoroughly documented in my book Meetings with Remarkable Magicians – Life in the Occult Underground I have been around the block in various constellations, and I don’t regret any of them/it. But in hindsight I feel that I’ve used a lot of general energy in unwise ways; meaning grasping for clever and attractive symbolic straws while reality itself was actually readily within reach. I’m sure we can all relate.
Then there’s the argument that the sum of your experiences is exactly what has led you to this realization. So… fair & fine, right? Absolutely, but it can definitely be a reminder for the future not to misdirect or leak energy in this way.
My greatest teachers in this regard have been my sources of inspiration in general – decidedly more having to do with my vocation/profession as an author rather than purveyors and disseminators of magical gimmicks. As an author I have my heroes, and the core of the inspiration from them have come alive in my own life and lifestyle. Surprisingly little of this has to do with occultism in itself (or other derivative ”isms”), and surprisingly much with a literally literary space-time continuum of which I am now an active custodian.
I can’t analyze and say to what extent ritual magic as opposed to a romanticized admiration has led to my feeling of daily bliss. Of course, everything has always mattered on some level. But… Focusing on the real essentials will probably be more to the point than hugging symbols and structures in pursuit of illusory acknowledgment from supposed authorities.
Which is your ideal dream-space? Dream-time? Dream-identity? Dream-work? (Etc) Do you need the Kabbalah-blah-blah to get a better overview? Invoke or evoke smelly demons according to some hysteric medieval grimoire? Be cynically chaotic/chaotically cynical online? When all is said and done, isn’t your own reflection in the mirror more revealing than a tarot spread?
Oh my, this is heretical stuff. But as I write this I am so supremely happy in my sun-kissed garden with the wife and the dog that it really must count for something. I have merged with my ideal(s), which have been crystallized by pilgrimages in both mind and body, to the point where I am now actively it/him/them/whatever.
Existential bliss is an arbiter I would trust more (and I do) than the knowledge that I have successfully penetrated this or that system according to plan, yet have come out on the other side exactly the same.
#occulture #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson
