Exercise Your Magick Muscle

"Everything you do in life, I don't care, good or bad - don't blame God, don't blame the devil, don't blame me, blame you. You control everything! The thoughts you think, the words you utter, the foods you eat, the exercise you do. Everything is controlled by you."
~ Jack Lalanne, "Godfather of Fitness" (1914-2011)

Mage Music 81

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If you've been reading this blog, you know what to do. Isn't it time you started doing it? With apologies to those who have been practicing what I preach, I want to have a firm talk with the rest of you who are thinking about Magick, toying with the idea of Magick, dabbling with the notion of Magick but who have never taken the first step by actually doing Magick.

It's hard to take first steps. It's hard for a baby to walk, too. But a baby crawls before walking. She learns to stand, she tries out a few steps  - and doesn't worry for one moment about falling down.

A baby builds up her walking muscles over time. It's no different for you and your Magick muscle.  You are the one who does the Magick, so you're the one responsible for building up that Magick muscle.  Get on your exercise outfit, and let's get going. Yes, yes, I know there's not a physical muscle involved, but truly, the same principles are involved.

One and two and bend and stretch...

The first thing to remember is that Magick is a process, and your life is a whole interrelated system, not a series of discrete incidents. No change in reality is going to work out the way you want if you think you're going to change one thing without understanding that everything else in your reality is changed, too. It's all connected.

It's all One.

Magick in your life means that everything you do is touched with Magick. If you are a musician, the world is all about sound and rhythm and silence. If you are a painter it's about color and space and form. So, too, with Magick: A new way of thinking about one aspect of your reality leads to breakthroughs in all areas of your reality. 

When you exercise the Magick muscle, it is more than just the abilities of a Mage that are strengthened. Magick isn't just about filling the holes in your life with things you want, it is about changing your whole life.

Three and four and breathe in deeply...

Once you have embraced the notion that changing one little aspect of reality changes everything, you can take advantage of the fact that exercising your Magick muscle to do a little Work has effects well beyond that Work. Your life is a complex weaving of threads - tug on one and the whole fabric of reality twitches. Or, if you like a different metaphor, your whole life resonates with the pure sound of one note.  It really helps to know which thread to twitch and which note to play, of course. Exercising the right Magick muscle means you don't waste time building up the strength of your left eyebrow if you aim to play guitar at Royal Albert Hall.

Only you can know which little Work to start with. I can't tell you which one, no one can. This blog and the best examples of the Masters should empower you to take control over your own life's choices - not choose for you. You can accept advice that helps you think about your approach, but your choices are influenced by your own values and goals and must reflect your own needs and desires. Thus everyone's first and subsequent Works necessarily will be as different as there are people performing them.

Just like with any beginnings, start with something simple and something small. Lift a one pound weight and build to the hundred pounder. Learn scales before plunging into Kashmir. And don't forget to breathe in deeply.

The science and the art 

There is science before art.  There is technique before creativity.  There there are rules to learn before going crazy with the Magick of it all. Masters break the rules all the time, but you can't consciously break rules if you haven't learned them. If you break them by accident and create a beautiful work of art - well, so can a million monkeys. Build your muscles as you learn how to fly, then break through the bonds and let your strength carry you on powerful wings to your heart's desire.

The first rule: Know yourself. Unflinchingly. Lovingly. Fully accepting it all - for to be human is to be flawed. You can't change what isn't there. You can't change that which you don't know - or refuse to know - exists.

It begins with this and this begins with you.  

Something simple and something small.  The first step, the beginning. Learn who you are. Become aware of the thoughts you think, the words you utter, the foods you eat, the exercise you do, every choice you make and why you make it. Everything is controlled by you, whether you are aware of it or not, but the first exercise of your Magick muscle is becoming awake to who you are.