If you go into any New Age bookstore, there will be a section on Magick. And it will be filled with big fat books, filled with incantations and rituals that would take you years to master. Some are even written as textbooks, with sample questions at the end of each chapter. This view of Magick is that it is the exact duplication of the correct incantations and rituals that makes it work. This is just ancient superstition. I take the exact opposite view. Anything sacred, symbolic and wHoly, will become dead and lifeless once it has been reduced to mere incantation and ritual. If it isn't spontaneous, if it isn't filled with surprise, done with feeling and intuition, then it isn't sacred, magickal or wHoly and won't work. Remember, all one is doing in Magick is the reverse of divination. Instead of receiving a message from the depths of Self, we are sending one. Symbolism must be alive and numinous, and symbolism is the language of the deeps, the language of the gods if you wish. At the same time, it is a specifically human language. The symbolism of an alien UFO species would be entirely different. I sometimes think the crop circles left by UFO aliens are an attempt by one alien UFO race to introduce us to their symbolism, and see if we can figure it out. Magick is best done in a group, best done out of doors on a new moon or a full moon, best done in a circle with a bonfire in the middle, where all those in the circle are drumming, chanting, clapping or dancing. This should be one-beat drumming, as done by Native Americans at their get-togethers. Food, drink, marijuana, and entheogens could all be used in moderation and preparation. The actual magick would consist in each person, one by one, as the mood strikes them, stepping up to the bonfire, saying a few words, and casting into the fire a symbolic object to be burned up, with the smoke and the wind taking the message away to the gods, even if we think of the gods as no more than symbols of certain kinds of expressions of ONE. What sort of symbolic object should you prepare in advance? There are no rules. Create whatever you want. If it is something of beauty, have a qualified artist make a larger and more beautiful copy, but not an exact copy. I will give you simply one example of a symbolic object, and that is a mandala created in about an hour with kindergarten art supplies on an ordinary piece of typing paper. I think it is fun to use pretty stones, bells, incense and candles when making a mandala. It is not required, though. Stones and candles have a certain mythology connected to them, but this is not to be taken literally. Just pick the ones that speak to you. I have a collection of ordinary stones, some semi-precious, such as petrified wood, or agate, but no precious stones. I have found them over the years when I traveled around the country, and the world, and they come from all over. Some I ordered from the PyramidCollection.com catalog. Some of the best were a gift from a fellow member of a Web group called the Sharing-Place. We are all seekers, many are poets, artists or musicians, some are philosophers and metaphysicians. We just enjoy our company and comments, though it is a virtual circle, not a literal one. If you have a definite purpose in mind, a definite wish, first state this in a tarot layout. The first step in doing this is to view the new tarot and print it out, assuming you have a color inkjet printer with at least 600 DPI. This will take 20 sheets of inkjet paper and about half a color ink cartridge. Instead of cutting and shuffling, go through the cards and pick the ones that express your intention and put them into one of the layouts you commonly use. Then set up the candles and incense, get out the bells and stones, and draw a protective circle around yourself. Bow to the 4 winds and make appropriate comments. Beat on a drum for awhile or play an instrument, but don't play a composition. It must be spontaneous, even if it sounds like noise to the neighbors. Then begin the Mandala. Remember to have an artist make a copy of it, because the original is going to be destroyed in the fire. |