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

Click HERE to view video

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.

Smile When You Say That

"People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion".

~ Albert Einstein

Mage Music 79

It’s not just people who believe in physics who get what it's all about. People who live the tenets of Magick and apply them in life also understand that the only moment when change is possible is the now.

Now is when/where life happens.
Now is where the power is.

But how do you stay in the now when there are so many pressures of the past and future distracting you?

The fallacy of the string of beads

There's too much to overcome. 
I can’t make any changes until I fix this other thing first. 
I can’t create a new reality because my past makes things have to be the way they are.

These are the kinds of things people tell themselves to explain why they are where they are and why their lives aren't changing.  We all do it.  But unfortunately, these are the thoughts that block Magick and the possibility of change. 

These thoughts are fallacies based on the idea that time is like a string of beads, that one moment in existence follows the next in an order that cannot be changed.  But time is not a string of beads. Time is not one moment after the next in an inevitable sequence. Time is a dimension, a physical property of the Universe like length, width and height are. And like these other dimensions, time just is - all at once.

The illusion of past, present and future is a product of human perception, which is finite and cannot ordinarily embrace the fullness of all that is. The default human perception is to sample reality in finite and discrete units - a sequence of events, a string of beads - but the Mage understands that this limited perception is not the way it has to be.

Because all dimensions exist all the time within time, anything can move or be moved from one condition in reality to another by choice and through the rituals (actions) of one who has the desire and will to do so. It is a matter of not letting the weight of perceived past or future influence the moment that is now.

Breaking free of the weight and influence of past and future is key. You need a reliable method to interrupt who you have been being in order to transition to the new reality you choose to manifest. How do you do that?

The confounded bridge

In music the bridge is often used to contrast with and prepare for moving from one musical passage to another. It is not intrusive – it fits with the whole – but it is different enough that it is a clear message that what was is done and something different is coming. It can be a note, a pause, a key change or a combination of several musical elements, but its function is to enable connection with a different place.

A Mage must have a reliable bridge to the now, the only moment of power - a bridge that is strong enough to clear the perception of an inevitable past-future sequence and allow for a new direction. It might surprise you to know that the simplest tool to accomplish this is the lowly smile.

Smile when you think that thing

Human (and some other animal’s) facial expressions reflect the output of the part of the brain called the limbic system (a.k.a. the paleomammalian brain or the reptile brain).  The limbic system is the oldest part of the brain (in terms of evolution) and is the most primitive. This part of the brain works on automatic responses, not intellectual decisions. It’s where emotions and immediate reaction to danger is handled and where memory is processed. It’s where “social processing”, including the evaluation of faces, occurs.  It's why you smile or frown without even being aware you're doing it.

When you’re feeling sad or mad or happy the emotions are reflected on your face automatically by the limbic system. The emotions don’t even have to be current – the memory of past sadness, anger or happiness and the anticipation of them in the future can elicit the facial expressions just as well. But what’s more important for Magick is that this is a two-way street. 

" The moment you change your perception is the moment you rewrite the chemistry of your body. "
~ Dr Bruce H. Lipton.

Beliefs are the lenses through which perceptions of the world are filtered. As with any good lens, beliefs are transparent, that is, they seem invisible and you are mostly unaware of them. Emotions are shaped by the lenses of beliefs. Unchecked, emotions rule a person and take the place of conscious choice.

No Magick for you when you live unconsciously because then you can make no choices.

Here's the usual string of beads of unconscious living:  Memory (limbic system) leads to emotion leads to physical results - one of which is the expression on your face. It's simple chemistry. Positive emotions cause the body to produce certain chemicals (e.g. dopamine and serotonin) and these in turn provide energy and growth and give people a feeling of connection with the world. Negative emotions cause the body to produce totally different chemicals (e.g. cortisol and epinephrine). These chemicals shut down your body, protectively disconnect you from the world to prepare you for fight or flight. Enough of these chemicals and you no longer have conscious control, meaning you can no longer make choices.  No Magick for you.

The simple smile - a tool you  have with you at all times if you only choose to use it - is the bridge that interrupts the flow and influence of memory and connects with the now. It is the reverse string of beads. The smile tells the body that a positive emotion is in play and the limbic system - which is so primitive it can be fooled this way - says okay, things must be good. The limbic system backs off and suddenly you are in the now.

The simple smile - it puts you in the NOW.  Try one on and see.

Ain't No Emo Here

"I don't deal in technique, I deal in emotions."
   ~ Jimmy Page 1977 Guitar Player interview.

Mage Music 44

Magick is a process of desire + will + ritual. Yes, I know I keep telling you that, but only because it's so important. Each of the parts is necessary, and the whole is fueled by emotion. It's possible that powerful enough desire and will could drive the Magickal process without emotion fueling it, but it's hard to believe any Mage with that much will and desire could be emotionless about it. After all, emotion fuels just about everything we humans do.  Emotion is connected with the most primitive parts of our brain - and not coincidentally, so is music.

It is because of the close inner connection of music and emotion that hearing music can make us feel emotion. In a sense, music (or the right kind of music) is emotion made manifest in the world.

The right kind of music - Mage Music - draws emotion out of our hearts and souls, mixes it with Magick and returns it to us so we are uplifted and purified.  Emotion:  It's what we live for. The rest is just experience that gives context for the emotion.  That's why we listen to Mage Music - it may not be the most beautiful, technically brilliant stuff, but it delivers what we crave.


Ain't Emo  

Not to pick on Emo, but it really is a poor excuse for what Wikipedia says is supposed to be "emotional hardcore" music.  I don't think so.  Emotion expressed as music isn't from "melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics" but is from Magick.  A Mage digs deep into his own emotion and puts it forth through the ritual of music. No wonder Jimmy Page, having become arguably the most technically accomplished guitarist in the world, left technique behind in favor of the messy business of emotion.  If a musician can't deliver emotion, then all he's delivering is sound.  It might be entertaining but it won't be Magick.

♪ ♪ ♪ 

Playlist

You might want to go back to listen to last week's playlist just for the pleasure of hearing how Jimmy Page pushes the envelope, exploring new ways to bring forth emotion in his music.  I love listening to the music I chose for this week's playlist because Domino (which is on both week's lists) and both the Embryos are such gutsy, meaty pieces.  No emo there - they are luscious and dripping with emotion and not a confessional lyric to be heard.  That's why I prefer Mr. Page's instrumentals - no matter how brilliant a vocalist he might perform with, it is Jimmy Page who brings the Magick to the music and it is his work I want to hear.

Domino evolved to become Embryo No. 2.  There are echos of the past and hints of the future in these two works, and that's worth listening for as well.

I threw in the bit of Ramble On that Jimmy Page did for It Might Get Loud because of his overdubbed commentary.  And last but not least, I find Jimmy Page's words at the end of Domino to be particularly lovely:  "That's the first time I've played that number for anybody, so thank you very much indeed."

No, thank YOU, Mr. Page.