The Futility of Want

"Seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it?”
~Jimmy Page, October 2012 interview response to a reunion question. Mr. Page pointed out that the reunion concert had been five years prior and that if there was a chance they were reuniting, people would have heard about it.

“..just look at the facts: The O2 was seven years ago… there hasn't been any movement so it’s unlikely. It is what it is.”
~Jimmy Page, April 2014 BBC Radio 4 interview response to a reunion question.

Mage Music 82 

We never seem to change, do we? We who love the music of Jimmy Page are a greedy bunch. We want more, more, more – no matter what the man himself has to say about it.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it - why can’t we just use Magick to get what we want?

Sad news, friends: Magick isn't going to work if it is used on someone else to control them. There are no love potions that will make someone love you if they don’t already want to. There are no spells that will force a person to submit to your will. Contrary to what every sword-and-sorcery fantasy will tell you, it is futile to use Magick to get what you want by attempting to change someone else. If you keep trying, you are doomed to failure.

The power you get from Magick is to change your own reality. This may make it seem like Magick is a small, pitiful thing but it isn't. New discoveries in quantum physics are finally catching up to what humans have always known: A sentient being shapes the Universe by paying attention to it.

That is, frankly, damn powerful.

But did you notice:  It's not attention to other people and what they are or aren't doing - it's attention to the Universe. That’s where the energy of Magick is.

Attempting to change someone else is just spending that energy to build an insurmountable obstacle for yourself. You're trying to control something you have no control over. It’s like flooring the gas pedal and just spinning wheels. You use up fuel but you don’t get anywhere and you may end up by trashing your car. You have to work with the reality you've got, not try to impose your wants over the reality of others who have their own desires and will.

Feeling frustrated lately? You’re spinning wheels, my friend. Stop trying to change people around you. Use Magick to change your own reality.


But you still want that reunion!

If sheer numbers alone were sufficient to make Magick happen, then you’d think that there would be another Led Zeppelin reunion tomorrow because there are millions of us out here wishing and hoping for something just like that. Sure, we've got remasters coming but does that mean we are satisfied? No way. We want more.

But hey, Jimmy Page himself says it is unlikely we’ll see anything like O2 again. That doesn't mean there will never be a reunion, but Mr. Page is a realist. A good Mage has to be. Jimmy Page would be the last person to underestimate the power of one, but he also knows that as powerful as he is, he can only change his own reality and not that of anyone else.

So what would a reunion take? Nothing less than the desire of all parties to change their individual realities in tandem, to hold the same desire with the same will. With that, a reunion concert or tour would then be the ritual that would allow the Magick to shine through. The music we all hunger for insatiably.

While “all parties” includes you and me, obviously the most important participants in such a Work would be the musicians. But... just because they are really, really good at what they do and are key to the ritual doesn't mean that they can change how Magick works. Even Jimmy Page can't do that.

 

Co-creation 

Anyone can change reality with Magick to some degree or another.  A powerful Mage can create a big change in his reality that affects a lot of people who are open to the Magick.  But ritual of a band the caliber of Led Zeppelin requires co-creation: choosing alignment of desire and will to a common goal -- not just being on stage at the same time.

I have previously posted in this blog about how emotions control automatic biological processes, which in turn close or open the Mage to the energy of the Universe and thus to Magick. When it comes to co-creation this means that if any one party to a co-creative Work has no joy in it, if all parties are not in alignment of desire and will, then the desired reality is not going to happen, no matter how much any one (or the millions of us) want it to.

For some things in this world it doesn't matter if a group of people want to drive the same car, or even take the same road when they desire to reach the same goal at the same time. But if the process is Magick, if the ritual is music, then there had better be agreement on the fundamentals of means and path, because it's everyone's foot on the same gas pedal, everyone's hands on the same steering wheel.

So the chance of a reunion is what it is: unlikely. You can figure out why without knowing anything more than what you've read here.  It's futile to want something you have no control over.