Beginnings Mean Endings

"The world shifts, when you suddenly realize you have power. Your responsibilities shift. You might not like it, but you have to assess your life with a wholly different set of measurements."
  ~ Sharon Shinn, Royal Airs

Mage Music 77

The hardest thing for many would-be Mages is the problem of letting go of the past. It's like trying to fill a glass with wine when it's already full of water. You need to get rid of the old thing in order for there to be a place in reality for the new thing to manifest.

Letting go turns out to be a hard thing to do. The past is what we know. It is what we compare everything to and it is what we use to assess our expectations and hopes for the future.

The past is also the worst measurement possible for Magick.

Power shift

Imagine what it would be like if a master musician - say someone like Jimmy Page - only repeated the music of the past and never pushed the musical envelope of innovation. Imagine if we only judged his music by the measurements of the past. We'd still be listening to Lawrence Welk. Only kidding of course - because we'd still be listening to the sounds that were the precursors to music made by our most ancient ancestors.  There would be no place for Jimmy Page or any musician who dared seize the power that shifts the world of music.

When you've got the power to create a change in reality, you've got to let go of where you were and move on to the new state of being. You must boldly go where you have never gone before. You must shed the past and move on to the future - the future you choose for yourself.

You have to become a different person, with a different way of looking at life and a different set of measurements for assessing your life.  The power shifts from who you were to who you are - that is, if you don't sabotage your own Magick by holding on desperately to the past.

Different measurements

It can be made no clearer than this:  You cannot change if you refuse to change.  This means letting go of the things that do not work in your life, that do not support who you want to be.  This means learning what the measurements of the desired reality are and assessing your life against the new paradigms rather than those of the past.

Transformation is your responsibility if you would do Magick, because Magick won't do it for you.

♫   Begin your new year by truly ending the old.  Best wishes to you for 2014  ♫ 

It's over!

OK, the Mage Music contest is over and the winner will be notified and mailing address verified, and then will be announced.

Thank you all for participating - this has been fun!


PS - The normal Mage Music posts will start up again soon, but I think not on a weekly basis as I've done for nearly two years.

Contest deadline coming up!

Find out more about the contest submission at the last post here, in which I not only announced a second chance to win, but simplified questions (that should generate the same answers as the first round).

So don't delay - go ahead and enter - you've got nothing to lose and a chance for a great TBL prize to win! The new deadline is no later than 11:59:59 PM MST (Denver time) Saturday December 21 (Winter Solstice).  You can do it!

PS - when you submit your answers via email, you should receive a confirmation email in reply.  If you don't get one within half a day, resubmit!

And the winner is....

...no one!

I found one entry submission in my spam folder - oops!  I have no idea how many others might have been in it and got deleted forever.  Unfortunately that one entry was amusing but incorrect.

So you all have a second chance!  I'm extending the contest for one week and to make it easier I'm putting all the questions here and I'm rewording some of them so they are more clear.

REVISED & EXTENDED MAGE MUSIC CONTEST QUESTIONS

Question 1:
Who of the following did Jimmy Page meet with and discuss Magick?

• Aleister Crowley 
• Jareth, the Goblin King 
• Louis H. Sullivan 
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 
• Thomas Carlyle 
• William Burroughs 

Question 2:
What are the names of the following:

1. The black avatar of arts - that creator and trickster - is an omen of omens (clue: his animal form)
2. He reminds us of another rising into a red sky with the burden of humanity (clue: the light bearer)
3. We hear the music and Magick of what Master? (clue: look in the URL)

Question 3:

• Embryo No. 1 and Embryo No. 2 were both presented in what video?
• What was No. 2's original name?

Submit your answers to fasterhorses@gmail.com no later than 11:59:59 PM MST (Denver time) Saturday December 21 (Winter Solstice).  

Put the word CONTEST in the subject line.

Good luck!

PS - You should receive a confirmation email stating that your entry was received. If you don't receive that email, please leave a comment below!

Reminder: Contest submission deadline Saturday!

Find out more about the contest submission at last Saturday's post.

Go ahead and enter - you've got nothing to lose and a chance for a great TBL prize to win!

Mage Music Contest - THIS IS IT

Here are the final instructions for the Mage Music Contest

• Contest questions have been posted in the blog over the past few weeks.  The subjects clearly say Contest Question.  There are three of them.  Some have more than one part.  Answer completely!
• Reread the rules before submitting your answers.  
• Email the answers to this address (you will have to remove the spaces):  fasterhorses @ gmail.com and be sure to put Mage Music Contest in the subject line
• DO NOT include anything in the body of the emails except for the answers to the questions.
• All entries with 100% correct answers will have a chance to win.
• The winning entry will be picked from the pot of all correct entries using a random number generator. 

ENTRY DEADLINE is 11:59:59 PM Mountain Standard Time on Saturday, December 14, 2013.  Winner will be announced once he/she has responded to my email and verified a shipping address for the prize.

Good luck!

Contest update

I'll be out of town Friday & Saturday and though I scrambled to get the last question plus the whole contest form done before leaving, I didn't get it done.  So I'm sorry, but there'll be a delay till Sunday.