Mage, Invent Thyself

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

~ Leonardo Da Vinci, Codex on the Flight of Birds

Mage Music 80

Once upon a time, years and years ago, a young musician worked at his craft and honed his skills, biding his time until at last his music had so far surpassed the bonds of his apprenticeship that his dreams could no longer be contained.  He stepped away from the safety of the conventional in order to invoke the Magick of his dreams.

He had envisioned something that had never existed before. It was a sound that had not yet been heard, a musical message that had not yet been shared. His dream was bigger than any but the boldest had ever dared. His dream was even greater than that.

We know today that this was no ordinary musician, of course. We know that this is no fable. This is the true story of a musician who became a Mage, of a man who understood that without imagination there can be no Magick, and that it was Magick that would carry his music into realms beyond the dreams of most mortals.

Unclipped wings

It's no accident that we use words associated with flying to talk about the dreams we have while we are awake.  Flights of imagination, soaring imagination, on wings of dreams - the words are about taking yourself far beyond where you ordinarily dwell.

Magick exists everywhere as potential - Magick is purposeful use of the energy of the universe, after all. But Magick stubbornly remains as only potential until the Mage activates it though desire, will and ritual. A Mage’s desire is more than just a vague wish, however – it is specific, it is powerful, and it is held in place by will so that it can be manifest through ritual.

Imagination is what turns a wish into a desire. A Mage must invent his new reality, and because the new reality has never existed before, a Mage must imagine it so strongly that on some level it already exists for him. Once the new reality already exists - even if only in a Mage's imagination - the heavy lifting is done.  All that remains is for the Mage to use the ritual of Magick to make it so.

A Mage’s will is the discipline to know with all the cells of his body that there is nothing more important than that he attains his desire.  His discipline allows him to ruthlessly remove all obstacles that may be in the way. The first and foremost of these obstacles is doubt.  Doubt is the wing-clipper, doubt is the imagination-blocker, doubt is the Magick-slayer.

Eyes turned skywards

To step outside the comfort zone and launch into the sky takes a rare kind of bravery. While the world enjoys the results of invention, it is human nature to be cautious, even fearful, of new things. A Mage stands alone, eyes turned skywards, dreaming the new reality into his soul until he spreads his wings and flies free. The rest of us may follow if we dare.

Interlude: Fiction

For something different today, here is a short story for your enjoyment.

Small Stuff

By Lif Strand (c) 2013

It had been raining all afternoon and evening, raining for so long that I didn't notice when the hammering on my metal roof finally stopped. Now all I could hear were the drops plinking from the broken gutter into a bucket just outside, a bit of a breeze soughing through the crack where the door sat crooked in its frame, and the snores of my dogs and cats.

It wasn't long after midnight. I wanted to call it a day, but couldn't, not yet. There was a nervous energy keeping me awake. I was way too restless to sit still much longer, way too jumpy to sleep.

I stared at the words on the page of the book in my hands. They didn't make any more sense now than they had an hour ago. I set it carefully on top of the precariously balanced stack of reading material that had already been rejected tonight.

I was seated at what was supposed to be my dinner table, but there wasn't enough room on the painted black surface for a soup bowl, much less a dinner plate.  I often ate just standing up at the kitchen counter.  I’m unrepentantly uncivilized that way.

Before me, instead of china and crystal and linen, were the tools of my trade and the debris of my life - maybe one and the same. An empty juice glass, safer for me to use for wine than stemware was. A crumpled foil wrapper with one piece of luscious dark chocolate left. A brass pipe-to-hose connector that I needed for a project, but that I couldn't remove from the 2” length of pipe it was attached to no matter how much I wrestled with it. An eBook reader. Three – no, four – crooked stacks of library and second-hand store books with bookmarks and post-its bristling from their pages. And my spiral-bound notebooks. With the words. The fiction I was compelled to write that was actually thinly disguised… well, let’s face it. Spells.

The notebooks were grimoires, okay? My spell-books. But hidden, like I was, by being right in the open.

You know why – don’t deny it. This is not a world where true magic is welcome any more, if it ever really has been. Ironic though, isn't it, since pretend magic is everywhere. Robed masters wield powerful forces on movie screens. Fae and demons and elementals splash the covers of new releases on the bookshelves. Vampires and zombies and werewolves populate video games. Rock bands with their painted faces and light shows out-flash Las Vegas magicians. Websites channel the wisdom of angels and disembodied spirits. The world is full of all that. But no one really thinks any of it is really real, right?

I’m all too aware, though, that these days are no different from the days when they burned witches at the stake – just not so messy. Magic stuff is okay as long as it is fantasy. Really real magic is not something to fool around with – not in the open, not now, not ever.

Inconveniently for my peace of mind, I have magic in me. I’m too afraid to ever let even a hint of it seep out where anyone else could figure out what I am doing. Not even my family knows. Consequently I don’t know a thing about it - which makes me wonder if I’m not just insane and delusional instead. Though they say if you think you might be crazy you probably aren't.

Can I trust that?

Here’s the problem: One day I found out that I could do magic. It freaked me out then and I’m still freaked out for all kinds of reasons. It’s not so much that I’m afraid of being stoned or burned at the stake like in the olden days – that doesn't happen where I live, though it’s never a good idea to discount the possibility. It’s more likely, though, that I’d be locked away somewhere with the other whackos. Or worse. I didn't really know what worse was, but I feared it.

♦

The lead-up to my discovery started out so innocently. I mean, come on – I was a good Catholic girl for years, and sure I fell off the wagon, but I’d passed through the drugs and sex and booze stages of rebellion and had settled down to more or less responsible adulthood. More or less because I was still not normal of course. Back then I still wanted to grow up to be a writer, and writers are never considered normal. But that’s another story.

Then after all I’d been through, when I finally thought I was settling down, there was this… thing, this albatross on my back. Demon? Nightmare horror? Devil?

Okay, she was my business partner. Pamela and I were – oh hell, I don’t even understand it. We were going to make lots of money through the junk business. That would be junk as in other people’s discarded treasures, not as in drugs.

I've been in business with partners before. Sometimes actually made money. Pamela wasn't even my first female partner. The last partnership hadn't gone well but I had higher expectations this time. I always did. The problem was that I hadn't learned from the last time. I was… oh… not the weak link, but the gullible one. The one who wanted to play it straight with a con-man (or woman) partner.

But unlike my other partners, good or bad, Pamela scared me – I don’t know how else to put it. Although she was physically bigger than me that wasn't the scary thing. I’m tallish for a woman with average build, but I do have a few muscles. Pamela was only a few inches taller. Well, and she was broader, too. And rougher.  Not that any of that mattered, since quite honestly I’m just not into violence, physical or otherwise.

Okay, I just now lied - I can be plenty violent if pushed to it. The problem is that I can’t control it and then someone gets hurt. While it’s no biggie for me to be hurt, I feel bad when I calm down after I've done that to someone else. So my preference is to control myself – not the other person – in situations where I get pissed off. It’s just safer for everybody. Sometimes, though, I get pushed too far and then all I know how to do is strike out – and whatever I hit, I hurt bad. I don’t hit with my fists, you understand – I hit with my mind.

Not magic. I mean, I didn't think it was that then, or maybe I did but I didn't care because it worked. And that was dangerous – not because it bothered me so much to hurt others (come on, they deserved it) but because that let people see me. And that could bring a world of hurt on me, or so I’d believed ever since I could remember. I don’t really know why, I just have always known it was that way.

On the other hand, it was a fact that my business partner scared me, badly enough that I was getting even more scared of myself. And so I had to stop her.

I know - you want to know what she was doing. But I can’t really describe it. It wasn't the poor business practices (well, that was part of it but not an important or insurmountable obstacle). It wasn't that she didn't listen – unfortunately that seemed to be normal business practice for the partners I got involved with. It was something that she was doing to my head. It was a control thing. It was a weight on my soul, an unrelenting pressure that... heck I can only say it felt like I was constantly fighting being turned into not-me.

Talking it out was the mature thing to do, but it didn't achieve a thing. Pamela was offended and wounded, she said. I was mistaken, she said. I was a hurtful person, she said. Don't sweat the small stuff, she said.

Yelling at her didn't work either. The mature talking it out always devolved into horrible fights. Each time I’d win the arguments but somehow she won the battles. The atmosphere afterwards was oppressive – the miasma just got thicker and darker. She unrelentingly dragged at me when we fought, sucking my energy. I’d go home afterwards totally exhausted, feeling filthy and violated and confused - yet I was unable to stay away from her. She would call me up and demand I show up to work and even though I didn't want to go back there with all my heart, I did go.

I tried to avoid her each time, but that was hard – I mean, we were in the same small rooms, going through the same stuff, having to discuss what we’d do with each item. She kept a lot of it. I can’t explain how that worked – we were supposed to be selling it all, right? But somehow the good stuff wound up as her personal property. And me? I got to where I didn't want to touch any of it because it represented her and the foulness that was working into my flesh.

I got all defensive. I tried to block her out but I couldn't. And I was dreading what was coming – I could feel it, that being backed into a corner feeling, the one that I knew – I knew – would end up badly because this time there was the added element of her specifically, of Pamela and the thing she was doing to me – the thing she was. I didn't want to name it, but I knew. Deep inside something in me recognized it, all right. Laugh if you want, but she was dark and ugly, and whatever she was, she wanted something from me that I didn't want to give up.

I’m not calling what she was doing evil, because as scary as it was to experience, it still felt like the actions of any living thing that needs to eat. No one wants to be the thing being eaten, but that doesn't make the thing taking a bite out of you evil.

I didn't call what she wanted to take from me magic, either – I didn't admit to magic then. Heck, I can’t even call it magic now - I can barely talk about it at all. I mean, I am unable to tell you any more than what I have already of what Pamela was doing. I literally cannot describe to you what I did to stop her, either, and I did stop her. It’s really weird, but when I try to force it out – well, those words just will not come out of me. A bummer isn't it, given that I’m a writer these days.

Believe me, it isn't writer’s block.

I can talk around it, though. I can say what I came up with in a general way. I can say I just got pushed to the point of such desperation that I did a small magic.

It was like discovering fire, the wonder of it that the first humans must have felt. It was the first time I’d consciously done magic and the first magic I’d ever done that wasn't reflexive fear-biting. Imagine that. Just like those first people with fire, I found this thing all by myself and just like that, it changed my world.

It wasn't hard but it was the most frightening thing I've ever done – because irrefutably, absolutely, incontrovertibly I had used magic on purpose. And that’s the most I can tell you. All those grimoires I've written since? They don’t really tell how to do magic – they are words that dance all around the subject, just like I’m doing now. They’re like recipes from famous chefs that only contain the main ingredients and no real instructions, so that the dishes are still theirs alone.

But back then, when I did magic for the first time I couldn't have told you about it anyway. That’s because I didn't really know what the heck I was doing.

And then I did. And that freaked the hell out of me.

The on-purpose magic thing I did was not meant to hurt Pamela, amazingly enough. I wore out a lot of brain cells trying to figure out my situation while I was stupidly still involving myself in the ugliness every day. The drive to and from work took me an hour and a half each way, plenty of time for thinking – on the way there building myself up and quelling the sick feeling in my stomach, on the way home recovering and quelling the sick feeling in my stomach. But I did finally realize that I had to know what I wanted, as opposed to what I didn't want. That’s a lot harder than you’d imagine, especially when there are bad things happening that you want to stop right away.

You see, magic works on what you want - not what you don’t want. It’s obvious, really – but most people just don’t get it. Suppose someone asks me what I want for dessert, and I say, oh anything but fruitcake. Well, I’m a chocolate lover. I almost always want something chocolate for dessert, unless it’s a cinnamon roll. So if I say anything but fruitcake I might be spared from that nastiness but it doesn’t mean I’ll get chocolate. I mean, I might get mincemeat pie (oh yuck) or lime Jell-O with fruit cocktail mixed in. When it comes to magic, what you have to do is be specific about what you want. I say I want German chocolate cake, I get German chocolate cake. See how that works?

So I wanted Pamela to do… what? Go away? How would I go about making that happen even if I could do it? And besides, what about my investment in the business? How would that get dealt with? And did I really want to hurt her? Yes. No. Not at the expense of my own soul. Fear-biting was one thing, but on-purpose, premeditated harm was a bit much.

Too many questions, no resolutions. I kept coming back to a niggling idea that it wasn't about her, it was about me. It took days of driving back and forth before I had my duh moment.

Oh man, this is hard to write – you have no idea. It’s so… slippery. But here it is: I didn't really give a shit about Pamela. I didn't care what happened to her.  I didn't want to change the world, I didn't even want to change her.  All I wanted was personal peace of mind. What I wanted was mental silence and still waters where there had been roiling lava mud pits of icky emotion. Such a small thing, really, but wow.

I got it finally.  I had to do magic on myself, not on Pamela. And why not? It’s my own life I wanted to change – I didn't give two hoots about hers. I didn't need for her to just go away because that might not get me what I wanted. I needed me to be happy again, or as close as I could get to that elusive state.

So I found myself suddenly clear that doing an act of magic would fix things. Me, the one who had never dared think that way before. And then I did it.

And how did I do it? Good try – but I can’t tell you. It involved ordinary things found in any kitchen, just a few little things for a short and sweet ritual, and the clear intent and… hell. I just used magic to shut myself of her. I slammed a door, not on myself, but between us – a door she didn't even have to know about. And then I put the key – the thing I made from the kitchen stuff – away somewhere safe, a place I could forget about it even as I knew it was secure. And there was the magic, right there. The putting it away from me with a knowing: What I had done would do exactly what I wanted. It was extraordinary, it was real and powerful. It was mine, a thing that I had done. And I knew it was done.

From that day on Pamela was gone from my life. Oh, she lived in town still, but she and I didn't say a word to each other for several years after that moment of magic in my kitchen. I didn't avoid her, she just wasn't there. Where did she go, what did she think? I have no clue and I don’t care. What happened to the business? I don’t know. Maybe she’s still doing it. No one talks about her to me, and I don’t ask. Every so often we see each other at community functions and she nods her head pleasantly and her eyes slide right off of me.

♦

That was ten years ago. Since then, I've become a writer, though what I write about for money is a lot more boring than magic. Since then I've thought a lot about magic.  I write about magic a lot – notebook after notebook of what I have figured out, and not a bit of it useful to anyone else because none of it will ever see the light of day.

Since then, I've done it again. It's such a small thing, that magic.  A small thing - like an atom that you split apart and the world changes.   

The Journey is a Trip

“I am a traveler of both time and space”
~ Kashmir, Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti 1975

Mage Music 70

Magick is such a trip! No, not the kind you do with chemical assistance but the kind of trip that is a journey. Magick is a process like a journey in that it's not just about arriving at a new place, but about the whole experience of getting there.

When it comes to Magick, every aspect of the journey from initial desire to end result matters.  Beaming down to a planet's surface is not a journey.  No matter what the movies would like you to believe, time - and what happens within time - is as important an ingredient of Magick as any other factor. The right amount (not too much or too little) and quality of use (as opposed to just spending it) are part of the art of manifesting reality.  

Time is, in fact, the most overlooked and therefore the most likely reason for an unsuccessful attempt of transmutation of energy. Magick isn't simply about waving a wand and instantly arriving at Point B, it is about the whole process of Point A through Point B and the infinity between the two points that is known as space and time.

It is self-evident that in any journey, you won't get where you want to go if you screw up too much.  This means you need to know where you want to go before you start, you need to know why you want to take your journey so you can know how to plan the trip. Once on the road, you need to pay attention to the signs along the way and take the correct route.  And there is no getting around that in any journey, the change from Point A to Point B is going to take the time it needs to take, no matter what.

Rushing things and taking shortcuts so that you can get to the destination is not the point of a great journey. If you only want to reach your destination, ask Scotty to meet you in the transporter room.  If, however, the going is as important as the getting there then what happens between the time you decide you want to go and when you get there is what it's all about.

If you want to be successful at Magick then know before you begin that the going is as important as the getting there. Magick is a process of creation - of changing personal reality on purpose, as opposed to letting the currents and whims of life do the changing. Full engagement of mind, body and soul in the entirety of a journey through the time and space of the process is what it takes for success in Magick.  High levels of desire, will and performance must be maintained throughout the planning and preparation as well as during the ritual itself. This means there are many possible opportunities to screw up along the way.

Many who attempt Magick will fail.  These would primarily be people who sabotage themselves by not being clear about what they really want or what that would look like in the new reality (not knowing their destination) and by failing to stick with the program all the way through to the end or to pay attention to the signs that would guide them along the way (messing up the journey).

It's not the fault of the Universe when Magick fails.  On the other hand, if a journey is never attempted, the goal will never be reached.

What are you waiting for?

Walk in Beauty

With beauty, may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
~ Excerpt from the Navajo Night Way Ceremony


Mage Music 61  

While beauty truly is in the eye (and ear) of the beholder, one thing that most people would agree to is that too much sameness is pretty darned boring, and that rule applies to what can be found in nature or in human-created works of art.  It is contrast that makes the difference – but not in just any which way.

Balance is beautiful

Contrast is the difference in surroundings that makes the contrasting thing stand out and be noticed.

Humans are quick to notice differences in patterns of everything around them.  Things that have changed leap out and attract our attention, because evolutionary survival has taught us that changed circumstances are often immediately followed by things that leap out and make us dinner.  This ability to take note of changes in pattern is so important to survival that it is an involuntary response of the brain.  Our response to sudden change is hardwired into us.

No one could survive, however, if they spent all their time reacting to every change.  There would be no time for anything else in life. We tolerate lots of change in our daily lives just fine.  Our brains don’t automatically shove us into involuntary survival mode every time there’s a difference in what we perceive.  We need to take time to differentiate between bad things and good - after all, just because something changes doesn't mean we won't like it.    

Being able to appreciate the contrasts in our environment, not just involuntarily run from them, is a good thing, too, because artists rely on contrast to give life to their work.  

Light and shade

Normal humans are most comfortable in a middle-ground of contrast, but we seek entertainment outside of the comfort zone.  We look for the maximum difference that doesn't tip us over into the danger zone. We all flirt with discomfort and risk for fun and enjoyment to one degree or another.

Contrast is interesting. We are attracted to it.  Beauty happens when there is just the right amount of contrast, which means balance. Sameness may be pretty on the first go-round, but artfully balanced contrast will stand the test of time.

Jimmy Page refers to contrast as light and shade. These are terms for visual arts, but the terms obviously apply to music, too. The important thing for music and any form of art is to find the delicate point of balance between too much and too little, and when you are dealing with things that are not necessarily alike, it becomes a juggling act.

Balance is beautiful

We humans have an innate understanding of music. We know instinctively when various components satisfy intuitive benchmarks. We seek out pattern and completion, and we know when the contrasts are beautiful or boring.

It’s not so easy to satisfy us though. The light and shade – contrast – that provides interest doesn't come from simple juxtaposition of opposites, which would be too predictable and therefore boring. Musical contrast doesn't come from just going from loud to soft, from fast to slow, from plain vanilla to heavy effects – it comes from mixing all possible combinations of musical values in contrasting patterns. Juggling, if you will.

Balance in art is a tricky thing. Great beauty comes from balancing on the edge of chaos – after all, juggling one tennis ball is not nearly as interesting as juggling a couple of raw eggs along with a sharp dagger or two.

When it comes to Magick, it’s even trickier.


Beauty in the heart of contrast
Consider how a downhill skier handles the many changing conditions there are on a run: Speed, slope, snow quality, obstacles, wind, and more. The skier finds an internal place of balance in the heart of the onslaught of new and constantly changing conditions, letting her body move around that center, rather than trying to move her center in reaction to the conditions. Knees flex, skis bounce, poles poke and drag, the body sways – a flurry of movement centered on a core of balance.  

 
A Mage steps from what is now to what will be by dwelling in the quiet point of balance between the inner world of his own desire and will, and external reality. Walking in beauty is dwelling in the quiet heart of contrast.  

I believe if you listen to the music of Jimmy Page, you will hear exactly what I'm talking about.

Review

“Will is another word for animate energy.”
~ William Burroughs, Crawdaddy Magazine, June 1975

Mage Music 60

There are quite a few new readers of Mage Music now, so this week I’m presenting a review of what this blog is all about. The review will not only serve as introduction to those who haven’t read the posts from the beginning (shame on you), but for those who've been here all along but maybe have forgotten some of the basic concepts.

Forgetting, of course, would only happen if you aren't practicing what you’re reading. But that’s a lecture for another time.

About Mage Music
I began this weekly blog because I was personally interested in exploring the music/Magick connection, specifically as demonstrated by the work of Jimmy Page. Mr. Page himself has stated that his music reveals who he is, and I found this to be a fascinating concept that felt intuitively correct as well as significant - a clue not simply to the mystery of that very private man, but about where his music comes from and what it is.

Mage Music, it must be emphasized, is not about Jimmy Page. It is about exploring the concepts involved with manifestation of new states of being in this reality through use of creative acts, such as music. I use Mr. Page’s music because it is so clearly full of Magick.

It is my intention to present an understanding of what Magick is and how it works in the real world in a way that is free of the constraints of traditional customs or beliefs of Magick and religion. To do this I explore the basic concepts that underlie all traditions.

Sometimes music helps explain or fleshes out things I’m discussing, in which case I offer a playlist. But not always.

About Magick and Music
The spelling, “Magick” has been in use since the mid 1600s. I spell the word that way, and I capitalize both “Magick” and “Mage” in this blog to not only to emphasize their use as metaphysical terms and to differentiate them from descriptors of the acts of illusion such as performed on stage, but also as a form of respect.

Magick is a process of desire+will that brings about change in reality, and desire+will are focused through ritual. According to the culturally influential and innovative artist and novelist William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), it is self-evident that the assertion of will is the primary moving force in this universe. All discussion of Magick in this blog derives from that assumption.

This means that any “rules” of Magick are the same as for all living beings that are capable of choice in this Universe (choice is a result of desire+will). Thus Magick works the same for Mages as for anyone who uses the process, and further, the laws of Magick are laws of deliberate creation. They are different from the laws of other physical objects, even other living objects, because they are laws of conscious and on purpose behavior. As Mr. Burroughs has said, there are no accidents in the world of Magick.

Music and all creative acts are very similar to Magick in how they work. Music, in particular, is worth looking at because it involves the same parts of the brain as Magick - and the effects are, in many ways parallel. Music is so natural and such an integral part of human consciousness that it amounts to another non-verbal language, one that expresses concepts that words cannot express.

Music used as a ritual of Magick is powerful stuff.

About Mages, You and Magick
Anyone can perform Magick. With sufficient desire and will, and focused through a correctly designed ritual, Magick is available to all as a way to purposefully manipulate the energy of the Universe, that is, change the stuff of which reality is made. As used in this blog, the difference between a Mage and anyone else who creates change through Magick is the level of proficiency. A master is a person who has complete knowledge or skill in an accomplishment, technique, or art - a Mage is a master of Magick.

To master music to the point of someone such as Jimmy Page is a matter of powerful desire and will, and a tremendous amount of time and effort. The music is the ritual that focuses that specific desire and will. Mr. Page has reached a level of proficiency that allows him to manipulate the music as he desires and wills without having to consciously think about it. This is not something that comes about accidentally or overnight, and it is the mark of a master.

Whether or not Mr. Page is a Mage is his own business, as whether or not you or I practice Magick is ours. What is important is to know that the concepts presented in Mage Music can be applied successfully to life itself, because Magick is a process of life itself.


About the Author
A professional non-fiction writer of government documents for the last ten years, I have decided to branch out into areas that are more speculative and closer to my heart. To that end I write weekly posts here on Mage Music and occasional posts on another blog, Spiritual Horsemanship. For a person with an open mind, the two blogs may be synergistic.

I also have completed my first novel, which touches on music and Magick. More on that another time.

It is no accident that I have chosen to live in New Mexico, a.k.a. the “Land of Enchantment”.

About the Artwork
All artwork on Mage Music is created by the author unless otherwise noted. Sampling has been purposefully limited to small portions of pre-existing images and, in using the samples for non-commercial educational purposes only, seeks to avoid infringement of photographer’s copyright.  You are welcome to share Mage Music images.

Mage Music generally also avoids using full face images of living persons due to the subject matter of this blog. Therefore, any resemblance to a living person found in a Mage Music image is in the eyes and mind of the beholder.

Disclaimer
You will see this at the bottom of the Mage Music blog:

Magick is a matter of personal responsibility for beliefs, choices and actions. No one is required to believe, choose or act in any way other than he or she wills. No one else is responsible for the beliefs, choices or actions any human takes but that human alone.

That said, understand that what is expressed on this blog is a matter of the author's personal opinion, and these expressions of personal opinion are not recommendations for the readers' beliefs, choices or actions but merely food for thought.

I don't know everything
And I don't know the only thing
But what I do know...
I KNOW.

In Closing

Your comments are welcome - I know what I know but I don't know everything.  Please keep comments on-topic.  I reserve the right to remove any comments that I have decided are are too stupid or ugly or boring to sully our minds.

Walk in Beauty.

Let The Games Begin

You have thirteen hours in which to solve the labyrinth
~ Jareth, the Goblin King (Labyrinth 1986)

Mage Music 58

Rituals of Magick can take many forms – theoretically, an infinite number of them. Each ritual is specific for a time and space in which it occurs - including the state of the soul of the individual performing it - so there is no one recipe for Magick that will do the job.  And of course, Magick isn't truly about changing the world. What it really is about is the Mage’s becoming a different person in a preferred world.

What all this means is that no one can ever know the true workings of Magick in any ritual that is not their own.  Magick is a thing of the Mage’s mind and soul. No one can know the true symbolic meanings of the objects or the actions of someone else’s desire and will, particularly since each instance of Magick is its own thing, blossoming into the world once to never exist again. Oh, anyone can see how things are placed in a ritual, they can hear the sounds, they can follow the progression - but they can never know the true symbolic relationships that the Mage has set for that specific instance in time and space.  Not unless they are truly psychic and living in the Mage's brain... which no doubt the Mage would have something to say about.

Thank goodness this doesn't mean that others can’t bask in the glow of a Mage's work.  In fact, the radiance of Magick that can be seen or heard or felt can be borrowed, in a way.  

It’s true - you don’t have to be a Mage to use Magick. In fact, those who are changed by the music of, say, Jimmy Page, are actually doing Magick themselves - even without being a Mage. With sufficient will and desire, a person can use the Magick of a Mage's ritual to prime the Magickal pump, so to speak.  

Metagame Magick - Recipe for Ritual

You still have to follow the rules of Magick, though.  Magick isn't random - it is the purposeful bringing about of change in reality.  One result is that while you can follow all sorts of recipes for a ritual, and you can even borrow the Magick of a ritual, the symbols must still be yours, they must have true and personal meaning for you. You still have to have the desire and the will, and even though the ritual is borrowed, you still have to understand it and own it yourself.

The recipe for ritual can be as simple as playing a game.

Metagaming is game strategy that transcends the regular playing rules.  The term refers to the game universe outside of the game itself - just like how Magick refers to the planes of reality outside of itself. Metagaming is using knowledge beyond the characters (in role-playing) or the assigned meanings of the game pieces to change the way the game works within itself. It is a layer over the game that is a game-changer.

Just like Magick.

Here’s a down and dirty example of metagame Magick using Solitaire (2 colors) as ritual.

• First you just play, hoping to win.
• Then you play hoping to see the patterns.
• Then you use the patterns while playing to tell you something about how the world beyond the game works.
• This starts to influence how the cards come out, as you infuse the process with desire and will.
• And then you can manipulate the game to influence the world.

This metagame description is a metaphor, of course.

You have to play a lot of solitaire to get to the level of skill that lets you put your attention to other levels of reality at the same time you are moving cards. I believe that you may have heard examples of that level of skill in music before.

♫

*  Background of the top image is neutrino sub-atomic particle tracings.  They look like arcane alchemist calculations, don't they.

♫

Added 06/24/13:
Q:
"If there is no one recipe for Magick, and no one can know the workings of Magick in a ritual not their own, how does this fit with teaching the young magician -- eg, Hogwarts?"

A:
If magic exists in the real world, it both is and isn't like Hogwarts.

It is like Hogwarts in its similarity to how schools teach a kid to play a musical instrument - fingerings, the proper way to hold the instrument, how to read music. However,in the end the kid isn't being taught music but rather the craft of playing an instrument.

A kid can get 12 years of musical instruction and still be a lousy musician because the music isn't something that is taught, it's something that a person finds in herself and feels compelled to bring out.

The craft of making music is a skill but it isn't the music itself. So too with Magick. The Hogwarts image of teaching young magicians could easily lead to a misunderstanding as to what is really going on.

Set the Stage

Know Thyself
~ inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi

Mage Music 57

Art reflects the real world, they say – and so as with any other creative process within this plane of existence, setting needs to be included when designing ritual. Be it music, painting, dance or a novel, details don’t just fill themselves in. They need to be supplied by the artist in order for the work to be manifest.

Sensory details and emotions fill in the “who, what, where, when, why and how”, and bring reality to the work that allows the audience to receive what the artist had in mind. The best of the creations can draw the audience in so deeply that they are shocked when they finish the last word and close the book’s cover, or see the credits rolling down the screen, suddenly thrust back in the here and now instead of in Westeros or Essos at the end of the decade-long summer.

For musicians there are different kinds of details, but they still need to be filled in. One riff does not a song make. The composer has the song inside his head, but the audience can’t hear it unless every note is brought forth in the order, tempo, pitch, timbre, rhythm, tone and dynamic that the musician is personally hearing, using instruments that best express what the composer has in mind.  Each sequence of notes - connected to a musical style with its own history, musicians, riffs, instruments - is connected to the next sequence, bringing in yet more connections to emotions and meaning in time and space.

Haphazard or incorrect choice of details can ruin the ritual so something quite unwanted is manifested - or nothing happens at all. It’s hard to know which would be worse, but this much is true: It would be a waste of energy no matter what.

Details are everything
Ritual objects of Magick are symbols meant to evoke meaning beyond the physical details. As with the elements of any kind of artwork, every detail of the symbol is important if the ritual is to be successful. Ritual symbols, however, have meanings that matter on more levels than merely on this plane of existence. This means there are a lot more details for one simple ritual object than there are for other human-created works. And you can’t have just one - every object exists in time and space and thus time and space for each object are part of the ritual, and that engenders yet more detail.

“He reached in to a pocket and pulled out a river stone, smooth and dark. ‘Describe the precise shape of this. Tell me of the weight and pressure that forged it from sand and sediment. Tell me how the light reflects from it. Tell me how the world pulls at the mass of it, how the wind cups it as it moves through the air. Tell me how the traces of its iron will feel the calling of a [magnet]. All of these things and a hundred thousand more make up the name of this stone.’” ~ Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear.

Only a hundred thousand more details to consider? In fact, any one ritual symbol has an infinite spider web of meaning, with strands of meaning reaching in infinite dimensions. There are layers upon layers of elements of meaning, details of symbolism that make the difference between a ritual that has a chance of succeeding and one that doesn't.

The fat black candle or the thin white one... or the blue oil lantern? The eagle feather or the drum, or both? The asp or the cobra… or maybe a unicorn? Repeat the chorus or change it a bit? Lift one hand and spin or leap into the air? Perform this song before or after that one? Each symbol has a relationship with the other symbols in the ritual, which means the elements combine exponentially.

It is pretty mind boggling to even think it could be possible to work with symbolism at all, but yet Mages do it. Is that because they're smarter, more gifted, better looking or luckier than anyone else? 

No. It's because they know a shorthand - they know themselves.

As above so below

The theory of fractal cosmology states that the distribution of matter in the Universe, or the structure of the universe itself, is a fractal across a wide range of scales. Fractals are self-similar patterns, meaning they are "the same from near as from far". Fern leaves are an example of fractals in nature, as are trees, lungs, veins, and so on. In the fractal Universe, planets orbit around the sun, sun is in orbit in a galaxy, galaxy moving in a Universe and on up, and you can go the other way down, from molecules, to atoms, particles, etc. 

What this means is that you can know something about suns by knowing molecules: fractals across different scales. And what this also means is that a Mage can use symbolic objects in ritual when knows himself and his relationship to that object. 

First the Mage must know self. Then a Mage can know surroundings. Through this knowledge the Mage can know the Universe and can manifest in his reality.  

As above, so below. But first, know thyself, because the Self is the true stage wherein the ritual takes place.

SymbolicallyYours

“…knowing the notes isn't enough. You have to know how to play them.”
~ Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

Mage Music 55

Designing ritual is like building a skyscraper, as I discussed in the last post.  Both require solving one finite component of a complex issue at a time.  Both ideally begin with a strong foundation upon which a sturdy framework and solid layers are constructed, and only at the end is the ornamentation added.  Of course, neither ritual nor a skyscraper must absolutely be constructed that way, but if they're going to support any real weight at all for any length of time, it's best to start from the bottom up and do it right.

A structural engineer or architect works from specifications that can be generally known in advance. The specs for location, materials and the construction methods can be codified, and there will thus be similarity in basic construction from one skyscraper to the next if they are constructed within the same time period.

The challenge for a Mage, however, is that the components of ritual will not be known well enough for specifications to exist, and rituals with similar goals may not be similar in appearance at all. This is because rituals are generated from and are an extension of the Mage and the components have meaning of personal rather than external significance.

Ritual objects

Ritual should not be confused with ceremony, which is a series of acts performed according to a traditional form. Ritual of Magick must be new in essence every time it is performed because all facets of the world in which the manifestation is to occur are constantly changing. Owning the ritual - generating the symbolism personally - is key to successful Magick. This means that simply adopting the use of symbolic objects and acts from other rituals that have no personal meaning for the Mage most likely will not generate the intended result.

When it comes to ritual - and Magick in general - one Mage's truth does not have to be truth for the next. Furthermore, what the rest of the world believes to be true doesn't have to be truth for a Mage's either. Good thing, since much of the world won't even admit that Magick exists other than as stage tricks.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell defined a symbol as an energy evoking and directing agent. He said that symbols have three aspects: that of the thinking mind, of the unconscious mind, and of the "ineffable of the absolutely unknowable". The first aspect can be consciously known by the Mage, the second can be felt through emotion, and the third is known only indirectly as a Mage's connection with the energy of the universe.

As a symbol, the physical specifications of a ritual object are not as important as how pure, personally meaningful and emotionally loaded the object is for the Mage. While anything will do, obviously some objects will not work in a ritual - either because they don't have physical form or because the physical form is inconvenient or perhaps doesn't even exist. No matter, because it's the meaning of the symbol to the Mage that is the important thing.  Unfortunately, not only does meaning have many layers, it is a squirrely thing that can't exist nakedly on its own in the human universe. With the meaning changing as the Mage changes and the reality of the world changing as it will, it's obvious why the old adage of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) applies. The successful Mage has to develop symbols that he is attracted to and that he can manipulate without losing the meaning of as the ritual progresses.

This is why a Mage who works through music needs to own the music - ownership not in terms of the law of man but in terms of the law of Magick.  It's not enough to simply know the notes and to play them well.  A Mage musician has to know the notes as he knows his own soul, and to perform them each in a place made sacred by intent, without error of desire or will, and freely offered to the Universe.

♫

Here are links to two versions of the same song, When The Levee Breaks, yet with so different a sound they could be different songs. Of course, part of the explanation for the difference is that the kind of music Led Zeppelin was doing wasn't invented yet - but what's more important is how Led Zeppelin made this song their own. This is how the Magick comes.

YouTube Playlist

When the Levee Breaks, Memphis Minnie (1929)

When the Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin  (1971)

Form Follows Function

"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law." 

~  Louis H. Sullivan

Mage Music 54

Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) wasn't an occultist, though you might think so from the above quote. He wasn't a theologian or philosopher, either. Mr. Sullivan was an architect. 

Mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and called "father of the skyscraper", Mr. Sullivan was a visionary who coined the phrase "form ever follows function". The shortened version we are more familiar with, "form follows function", is fully stated as the aesthetic credo quoted above. Things are known by how they manifest in the world.  

When Louis Sullivan put forth his ideas in his article "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered"(Lippincott's Magazine, March 1896: 403-409), he was discussing a new approach to architecture that addressed the engineering problems associated with buildings that went up, way up. He understood that the old ways of doing things could literally not support the new needs.

Form follows function means that to bring about the true manifestation of a thing, the shape should express what its purpose is, but Louis Sullivan was also talking about much more than skyscrapers. New function goes hand in hand with new aesthetic freedom as well. 

More or Less

Obviously the forms of things don't have to be shaped by their functions. We love all the embellishments - the different colors and looks and sizes - knowing they're all just icing on the cake and that none of it has anything to do with the function of the objects that have been so decorated. If we didn't love the flash and the bling, the meaningless difference, we wouldn't crave - much less put up with - all the options for cars, computers, clothes or covers for iPhones.   

In the world of true manifestation, though, even the ornamentation needs to be in alignment with function. Sometimes even a little more is just too much. This is true with music as well as Magick.

I remember thinking, back in the late 1960s, how amazing it was that Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience could put out such a rich and complete sound with just three musicians each. I also remember being very disappointed with bands whose music was full and deep on their albums, but that on stage came across like skim milk compared to the recordings. For them, what was created using multiple tracks and engineering in a studio was not duplicable live. Needless to say, Led Zeppelin wasn't like that - there was just as much live as there was on the albums, if not more.

That's because every component of Led Zeppelin's music, whether on stage or recorded, was an expression of the function of the ritual of the music.  Every beat, every riff was an expression of the song's purpose. Every component of each performance was essential.  And every musician's input was crucial to the construction of the ritual.   

In his comment on the Page/Plant tour of 1998 on jimmypage.com (On This Day, May 18), Jimmy Page said: "With a stripped-down line-up ... it gave us more freedom to explore and re-work the songs, without the orchestra and supplementary musicians ..."

Not only can more be too much, more can't always make up for a missing essential.  The Magick of Led Zeppelin was in the alchemy of those four musicians, and adding more musicians down the line could not recreate the true manifestations of the missing members of the band. Life is recognizable in its expression. It can't be simulated; it must be a true manifestation of the purpose.

Designing Ritual

While objects and actions of ritual - Magick or music - that come from elsewhere can be used as inspiration, in fact true manifestation comes from expression of the Mage's own desire and will. That means that using ritual from some other source, no matter how successful it is for the other source, is not necessarily going to manifest anything for the Mage that he intends until all the objects and actions become his own.

Thus, creating a ritual starting from scratch is in a way easier - or at least less risky - than starting with a pre-existing design. When all component parts have to have meaning and form within the function of the intended purpose, using enough of the wrong ones leads to failure.  The notes, pitch and all components of the melodies, riffs and rhythms of music and the ceremonial objects and actions of Magick have to be the right ones in the right quantities and they have to express the function of the performing musician's or Mage's intended purpose - not some other band's or Aleister Crowley's.   

No substitutions!  Original work only!  No grading on a curve!  According to Louis Sullivan, it's the law. 

♫

Note:  As always, use of the masculine gender is not meant to exclude the feminine.

  

Construction Zone

If the Universe doesn't listen, chances are it doesn't know what you're saying.

Mage Music 53

This post begins my second year of Mage Music. Those of you who have been following it probably realize by now that what I've been writing about is not just the music of Jimmy Page, nor even just the Magick of the music of Jimmy Page. I've been mostly writing about Magick itself - how it works, why it works. How it's not an exclusive, mysterious thing but rather a force of the Universe that can be mastered with sufficient desire, will and skill.

I’m using music because it’s such a perfect vehicle for Magick, and Jimmy Page’s music because it is so lushly Magickal. Plus it’s just great music to listen to.

I plan to continue writing about the how and why of it all this year, too. Note that the past posts here on Mage Music are the foundation for what’s next, so if you don’t understand what you are reading, please go back through the archive. Of course, if you don’t understand, it could just be that I’m not explaining well, in which case just ask for clarification!

Constructing ritual

Ritual is the skill part of Magick. It is the "what you see" part (or "what you hear" in the case of music). Driven by desire and will, ritual opens the channel to the energy of the Universe - the Magick. Even though the desire and will are no more and no less important, because ritual is that part that can be most readily perceived, it is what most people consider Magick to be all about. That is a mistake, of course, and one that a Mage can't afford to make. 

That's why Mages aren't a dime a dozen, because with Magick everything counts. And there's a lot of everything to be counted.

Be specific

The biggest cause for Magickal failure is when a Mage is not specific or comprehensive. This means that not only do desire and will have to be powerful and steady, but the ritual has to be perfect.

In nature all component parts of a system work together. Evolution is harsh and anything that doesn't contribute to successful survival won't continue to exist. Anything that is successful - meaning anything that thrives rather than merely survives - is a thing that is comprised of the components most suited for the environmental slot it is in.

So too with Magick. There is not much point in a Mage working with a ritual to create a change in reality that can't survive. The Universe doesn't second-guess what a Mage wants, so not only every aspect of ritual has to be perfect but the change that the Mage wants to manifest must be realistic within the environment it is meant for. A Mage can't manifest a fish without manifesting water and a container for the water - unless the fish is meant for sushi. 

Part of the job of perfect desire is envisioning a specific goal. Even Captain Picard couldn't just say "make it so" without there having been perfect preparation already in place. Thus a Mage must be extraordinarily clear about what he wishes to manifest. The desired change that is the Mage's goal cannot be what isn't or only approximately what is - it must be exactly and fully what is to be.

That's hard enough, but there's more.

Be complete

Magick is tapping into the energy of the Universe, channeling power to create change in the world, shaping a new reality. Specificity of desire and will together are like the starter motor for the engine of Magick, which is ritual. And if ritual is what makes Magick go, then the ritual had better be put together right or it won't get the Mage where he wants to be.

Kirk: Spock, where the hell’s the power you promised?
Spock: One damn minute, Admiral.
   -Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Like an engine out of timing, a tire out of balance or a gear shaft that wobbles, if any one component of Magick is out of whack, the whole thing will eventually fall apart and leave the Mage no closer to manifesting change than if he had done nothing at all. The real world isn't like the Enterprise, that can nearly shake itself to destruction yet still achieve warp speed.  Desire and will plus the physical objects and actions used in a ritual all have to be in tune with each other and be in tune with the end result.

This means that every object and action of ritual must be not only be present but meaningful. There is no extra credit for extra, useless parts because they'll just clog up the works. In fact, the more stuff of a ritual, the more likely the Mage is not going to manifest anything but a mundane mess. In Magick, less is definitely more.

Clarity of purpose, completeness and...

Neatness counts

Just kidding.

♫

YouTube Playlist:  Since I've Been Loving You 
Ten videos, 1970 through 2007.

♫

Next time (or the near future):  Designing a ritual

The Rite Stuff

"The need to use specific tools of magic is indirectly proportionate to the skill of the Mage"

~ Mage Music 5, June 10 2012



Mage Music 49

Before you read this post, you might want to read some previous posts about ritual here on Mage Music so we're all working from the same concepts..

• Mage Music 5: Ritual is not Magick, June 10, 2012
• Mage Music 11: No Shortcuts No Substitutions, July 22, 2012
• Mage Music 15: Fetching the Magick, September 1, 2012

In fiction it’s all about doing the ritual correctly.  Harry Potter and friends have to go to a special school to get the rituals down, and they’re tested for correctness before advancing to higher levels.  Vulcans experiencing pon-farr who choose not to take a mate may engage in ritual battle that is witnessed in ceremony by other Vulcans.  Harry Dresden has to invoke his powers with ritualistically correct words and gestures.  

We all accept that ritual is a core part of Magick, but the irony is that the ritual itself doesn't really matter.

Humans have a tendency to think that there is a cost for everything.  This is unsurprising given that everything that lives expends – and therefore must obtain – energy in order to survive as well as grow and thrive.  This kind of thinking about using energy, however, tends to confuse the thinker about the whole point of living, which is not about gaining energy but rather the experience of making choices that satisfy desire. The gathering of energy is a process, not a goal.

Magick is the on-purpose use of energy to make the choices that satisfy a desire to change reality.  Ritual in Magick is simply the tool used to hold all the components of desire and will in place while maintaining a connection to the Universe long enough for the Universe to respond to the Mage's desire.  

No Wrong Rite

In Star Wars, the Force is about using energy directly to change reality – no ritual needed. Yoda didn't tell Luke how to raise the X-wing out of the swamp - the Jedi master simply observed that Luke’s own mental preconceptions were the true limitations to using the Force. All Luke had to do was get all the other crud out of his mind and then just…. do it.

In real life the ultimate failure of Magick is likely to come about because of the inability of the Mage to sustain pure desire and will long enough and powerfully enough to allow the process of Magick to manifest the desired change in reality.  Crud just keeps getting in the way.

Form Follows Function

A good ritual is simply one that provides the structure for Magickal success. Period. More is less.  The specific words, gestures or objects used don’t matter as long as they are meaningful for the Mage, since they are all merely symbols for aspects of the desired reality that the Mage wishes to remain aware of without actually thinking about as the rites are performed. The structure of a ritual should be based on its purpose and the purpose in Magick is to change reality. Thus the guiding principle for a Mage's ritual is to do whatever works and provides satisfaction in doing so, because satisfaction is an integral part of Magick.

After all, the whole business of Magick starts with desire. There’s no point in doing what thou wilt if it doesn't satisfy the desire.

A Mage can, of course, use a pre-existing ritual if it will get him where he wants to go – if it satisfies his desire. If it feels wrong, it is wrong.  If a Mage prefers to create his own ritual, then choosing what feels right and good will determine its form, and correctness of ritual will be measured as much by the level of satisfaction in performance of the ritual as by the resulting change in reality. The two must match, for as above, so below.

♪ ♪ ♪

Note:  All week long my sound system's been down and I haven't been able to listen to music.  All week long I've been hearing Writes of Winter in my head.  Just thought I'd let you know.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Evolution is an ascent toward consciousness
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (May 1, 1881- April 10,1955)

Mage Music 47

The anniversary of the death of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is coming up in a few days. One of the world's greatest thinkers and philosophers, few people aside from theologians and students of religion have heard of him, although his work has had a vast influence on science and the arts.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest. The Catholic church denounced almost all his work during his lifetime and long afterwards, declaring it offensive to doctrine.  This included the theologian's teaching that original sin was not something brought about by an Adam and Eve, but that rather was part of the state of all finite matter from the beginning of time, well before any Adam and Eve showed up on this planet.

Teilhard de Chardin wrote that evolution is directional, with all matter constantly increasing in complexity as it leads to higher forms of consciousness, with human consciousness evolving in complexity as well. He postulated that a sphere of thinking ("noosphere") would develop when humans have evolved to global human consciousness and self-awareness, this being part of the evolution towards an Omega Point or the sphere of God.

Even though Teilhard de Chardin was forbidden by the church to publish his writings, documents were secretly passed around and discussed until after his death, when his incredible (but challenging to read) book The Phenomenon of Man was published.

Teilhard de Chardin has been described as a truth-sayer and even a prophet. I would say, bringer of light.


The Power of Magick

What does a Jesuit priest and theologian have to do with Magick? Teilhard de Chardin wrote that human spiritual development is founded on the same universal laws as material development. He described matter as evolving towards consciousness, and consciousness evolving towards a god-state. He understood that the all-that-is is one continuum, that the difference between the infinite and finite is a matter of degree of contrast rather than an exclusionary opposition.

In other words, as above, so below - a basic tenet of Magick.

Magick is not a religion, and it is not in conflict with religion because they both are about connecting with the energy that forms all of reality - the Universe, God, Great Spirit, Source or whatever you choose to name it. The stuff reality is made of is the energy that Magick uses to change a Mage's reality. It is what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin believed all the finite universe was naturally evolving towards.

Let the Magick - or anything that works for you - connect with that energy. Use any tool that feels right help to evolve your own consciousness.  Let any ritual that speaks to your heart take you there.

Passion Play

Redlining the passion gauge

“…years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air.”
  ~ Ramble On

Mage Music 45

Back in the day when hot cars were as all-consuming as the new music brought to us courtesy of such guitar marvels as Jimmy Page, we talked about redlining.  It had nothing to do with smarmy financial practices and everything to do with living on the edge.

The term redline comes from the red bars that are displayed at the high end of a car’s tachometer.  If you were drag racing, street racing or just getting off the stoplight fast because you felt like it, you wanted those RPMs to be high to deliver the most power.  Winding the engine up to the red line got you the maximum possible from the engine at the risk of blowing it up.  It was dangerous, it could be costly.

It was worth it.  We couldn't help ourselves - we were passionate about the cars and the music and pushing the envelope.

Passion

On the emotional tachometer, passion is the human redline.  It’s not something that can ever be truly satisfied because it’s not like a desire for ice cream that goes away after you've had a banana split.  Passion is enduring and powerful - and when you mess with passion, you are in a handle-with-care state of being.

If you're a Mage, though, you can't avoid passion - it is actually two-thirds of the process of Magick.  

Desire can range from mild thoughts to an all-consuming lust for something.  Will - the drive to do something about that desire – can range from barely there to an unrelenting force.  When combined desire and will are at the high end of the emotional range, they earn the label of passion. 

You don't have to be a Mage to intuitively understand that any ritual of Magick needs to have some oomph behind it.  No one would expect a ritual to amount to much if the Mage only kinda-sorta wanted to, and only more-or-less felt like doing it.  With a car, high octane fuel provides more compression before detonating. Passion is high octane fuel for Magick.

But like with a car engine, redlining passion is risky.  Powerful surges of emotion are like powerful surges of adrenaline or high octane car fuel – they have to be burned off before they blow up the engine.  With adrenaline you have to take physical action.  With powerful emotion at the level of passion you have to feel it, surrender to it and let it take you where it will because if you try to control it you risk blowing up. 

Here's the tricky part:  The powerful surges of passion are barely controllable, and yet a Mage must channel passion through the ritual, the controlled component of Magick.  The Mage must have the technical ability to do justice to the music, and that ability must live in muscle memory so it doesn't constrict the flow of passion.  The skill (technique) must be such that the Mage doesn't think about the musical instrument as much as let it be played directly by the passion.

It's simple but...
If Magick was easy, everyone would be a Mage.  If channeling passion through a musical instrument was easy, everyone would be a Mage Musician. Magick is simple but it is not easy.

"That's my lifetime achievement - that people would be inspired by the music."

~ Jimmy Page, Echo music award 2013

Mage Music and music lovers everywhere congratulate Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin on receiving the Echo music award.  Believe me, we're inspired.

All In Good Time

The Mage musician's first notes begin to weave the spell.  It becomes harder and harder for the listener to focus on the guitar’s individual sound as the ritual builds.  The music becomes ripe with meaning above and beyond lyrics or melody…  and then suddenly Magick bursts into the world. 

Mage Music 41

Mage Music 41 - All In Good Time

Oh please.

In the movies and sword & sorcery books – and in wishful thinking - people believe that all it takes is waving wands or casting spells and then some Magick happens.  Sorry – that is just fiction, not reality. Even the greatest ritual, fueled by the most powerful desire and will, doesn't get Magickal results just like that <snap of fingers>.

Yes, the description at the beginning of this post is real enough – as far as it goes.  The thing is, Magick is not just the song you hear or the ritual you see, and Magick doesn't happen the moment the Mage says so mote it be.  

When you’re taken up by the Magick of the music - or the movie or novel - it's easy to overlook the fact that the real-life back story would have to include how long it took the hero Mage (or the bad-guy sorcerer) to reach the level of proficiency needed to get to that point.  Even if some of the months or even years of struggle to master the skills is depicted on screen or in print, having to actually sit through a the truth of all that hard work (work that is likely liberally sauced with failure) would be boring enough that you'd demand your money back.

Fiction can skip all the slow parts, but reality can't.  The reality is that little Jimmy put in hour after hour learning to master his guitar, taking days and weeks and months and years to prepare for stepping onto the stage and "effortlessly" creating Magick.

Time is of the essence

One of the defining aspects of ritual is time.

Dealing with time is an art in itself.  The infinite is timeless and all things that can happen in reality are happening at the same time.  Magick is, among other things, an interface between the finite and the infinite, and thus Magick partakes of the timelessness of the infinite to a degree.  It is the sequentiality of time on the human plane that keeps things from happening all at once, including in Magickal ritual.

Humans, even Mages, can’t help being stuck in sequential time, but that is a good thing.  Without sequential time we would not have music.  Inherent in movement is stopping, inherent in sound is silence. Thus, part of the art of dealing with time is knowing when to pause and when to stop – to know when enough is about to become too much.

The Mage begins the Work long before the first note of the guitar resonates in the world.  The requirements of the ritual have shaped the preparation; the preparation provides the momentum that builds over time until the point of change is imminent.  Only then is the first note of ritual sounded.  The ritual must take only the time needed to tip the momentum into change. More than that is too much, for Magick happens in its own good time. Amen.