Zoso

A lot of people mistook it for a word…
~Robert Godwin, as quoted in George Case’s Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography (2007, p114)

Mage Music 74  

Symbols are remarkable.  Without them, you couldn't read this post.  Without them, you couldn't communicate on more than the most basic of levels.  

Without symbols, there would be very little Magick.

Symbols can convey meaning above and beyond “what you see is what you get” (that is, the denotation or literal, dictionary meaning of a word or term).  The capacity of symbols to carry richness and depth of additional meaning (connotation, or overlaid meanings that convey emotions, values, associations and nuances beyond the literal) makes symbols possibly the most valuable of all the treasures that a human might possess.  For a Mage, symbols are the secret heart of ritual.

In Magick, symbols are most potent when they are maximally realized and intensely embody the desire that fuels the ritual. At their most potent, symbols are so rich that their power carries over to others.  Thus a Mage whose ritual is meant to be shared with an audience - a painter or a musician, for example - can use personal symbols within that ritual that have such extremely powerful meaning that the symbols pack a punch for the audience too.  

The most potent symbols must remain personal to the Mage, though.  To reveal the meaning – if a Mage could even bring himself to do so – would bleed off the pressure of that power, reduce its intensity and thereby weaken the ritual.  

The Eagle and the Horse

Let's use the example of the eagle and the horse to talk about denotation and connotation:  An eagle is a bird, but its deeper meaning is that of wild power used as weapon.  Long a symbol of power, the eagle was the Egyptian symbol for the god Horus, it was the standard of a Roman legion, and today eagle is the US emblem.  Although there are much larger birds in the world, the eagle has long been held as the King of the Birds in mythology by many cultures.  A predator, eagle carries a depth of meaning that includes the danger of a focused and yet unlimited power.  

A horse is a mammal, but its deeper meaning is that of power shaped by human will.  Horses symbolize grace, beauty, nobility, strength, speed and freedom.  These meanings can transcend the normal world when the horse has wings or horns as Pegasus or unicorn.  As a powerful and dangerous animal that is not a predator, horse’s power is broader focused and symbolically horse is a helper.  There is great power with both horse and eagle, but horse carries a feeling of less danger in its symbolism. 

Or not.

Maybe you come from a place like Alaska where there are so many eagles that they’re like pigeons and you have little respect for them.  Maybe you come from a culture that eats horses, or maybe from a culture that has never even heard of either.  Maybe you're scared to death of both of them.

The power of a symbol isn't in the object itself and certainly not in its name or its history, but rather what it means personally to the one who uses it. 

In the right hands, a symbol can carry meaning so powerful, so potent, so filled with possibility that the symbol is the fissionable material of Magick. Such things have no names that you or I could - or should - know.

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)