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?

My bad

"Got a monkey on my back, gonna change my ways tonight.  Nobody's fault but mine."
~Led Zeppelin, Nobody's Fault But Mine, Presence 1976

Mage Music 69

I could have scheduled a day off, I could have asked someone to be a guest blogger, but I didn't.  I could have figured out even a short post for today but I didn't - instead I made sauerkraut (yes I did).  And so all I've got to say is that there's no post this week and it's nobody's fault but mine.

If you really, really need to get your fix, you can check out a new blog I've got going, (Mostly) Daily Mage, which is sort of, more or less, tips for aspiring mages.  Or not.

Mage Music Lite: The Master's Call

"Let the music be your master. Will you heed the master's call..."
~ "Houses of the Holy" by Led Zeppelin, "Physical Graffiti" (1975)

Mage Music 68

This graphics stuff has been fun but I'll probably go back to my usual writing next time.  Just letting you know.

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Mage Music Lite: Muahahaha

The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities...
~ Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Mage Music 67

Put yourself in the mood with this great sound effect a couple times*.  Prepare to travel down the path of no return, to the dark night of the soul....

Now get real - if you've been reading Mage Music all along, you know I'm just kidding - sort of. It's true the path of knowledge is one of no return. But evil? Read on.

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* Muahahaha sound effect by Ondra Krist, 2008-01-14 

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Going Over to the Lite Side

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Not a Communication Breakdown, hopefully, or even that I'm Dazed and Confused (or at least more than usual). That's The Way it is right now, is all. If you don't like it, I guess That's Nobody's Fault But Mine. 

You know, maybe one of these days I'll do a blog post that's entirely song titles - but not this time.


Mage Music 66

(Best viewed if you click on the image below to enlarge it a bit).

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No guarantees I'll do this comic strip thing again, but you never know.

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BONUS full-size image "Ritual Object" (1000 x 441)

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Dreamtime

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I have dreamed of that song. In those dreams ... I had dominion over the nature of all that was real. 
~ Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Mage Music 65

This is the Mage's true art: Like a novelist or a movie producer who creates such fine work that the audience is totally comfortable and willing to suspend disbelief  and dive into a secondary and parallel reality of a fictional world, the Mage creates a work so perfectly free of stray and undermining thoughts that he can suspend his own disbelief and enter into a new state of reality. This is the path to the manifestation of Magick.

The disciplined mind of the Mage - the mind with powerful desire and will that stays On Purpose through ritual - doesn't actually repress or block thoughts that would undermine the Magick. Those thoughts just do not even occur, because they have no place in the mental setting the Mage creates. And yet, we all know what it is like to have unwanted thoughts slip in when we least want them.  They're bad enough for us, but for a Mage those unwanted stray thoughts can ruin an otherwise perfectly good Magickal ritual.

Not thinking of pink elephants.  Easier said than done? Not really. We all dream, don’t we.


I had a dream. Crazy dream. Anything I wanted to know, any place I needed to go...
~ Lyrics from The Song Remains the Same

Dreams are the alternate reality of the sleeping mind, and they are also the imaginings of the waking mind in the form of daydreams. A lucid dream is dreaming with awareness. While traditionally lucid dreaming refers to dreams that occur while asleep, dreaming while awake – if a person is aware of and directing the dream – could be considered lucid dreaming, too.

Dreams are experienced as reality while they’re happening.  A Mage must experience the desired changes he wishes to manifest as reality before they can happen.  A Mage does this using a process very similar to dreaming.  He becomes so fully invested in a secondary and parallel reality that it exists for him in personal experience which then allows him to shift from what has been to what will be.  

A Mage's desire and will, focused through ritual, channel the energy of the Universe to manifest a new reality.  A lucid dreamer uses desire and will to create a new dream reality without the expectation of carry-over to the waking state. 

Understanding lucid dreaming gives the non-Mage a taste of what Magick feels like when it is being worked because lucid dreaming is of the same coin as Magick, only with different expectations and outcomes.  

Add a little music into lucid daydreams and the state is as close to what a Mage does to change reality as makes no difference. Try it, you might like it.

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Playlist

These two pieces just popped out at me today.  They aren't particularly dreamy - in fact, they're hard-edged and a little scary... but dreams can go that way, too.

Baby Who’s Driving Your Car   Jimmy Page & John Williams, 1970
Guitar solo   Jimmy Page, Landover May 30 1977

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Burning Up

The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

~Alexander Graham Bell.

Mage Music 64

Magick requires that the Mage maintain a deep-set knowing that a desire will manifest in reality.  This knowing is beyond belief and beyond thought. It is a surrender, a giving of self to the idea that the process of Magick absolutely will result in the desire made manifest.  

Not so easy when the Magick involves something the Mage has never done before, or perhaps something that has never existed before. Or even something the Mage has tried before and failed at.

 
It’s no sweat to manifest when the path is well-worn. In fact, it is so easy that Magick doesn't need to be involved at all. Almost anyone can make a meal out of raw ingredients using a tried and proven process – why bother with Magick to cook those ribs when the BBQ will work?

Dedication of time and energy and fully giving of self to an end that has never existed before is a whole other kettle of fish, particularly when the events out there in the world seem so out of control. 

 
Yet the biggest Works are those that seem the most impossible, the ones that manifest in the midst of apparent chaos. These are the Works of a Mage that exude such an excess of energy that the rest of us can bask in the glow of the Magick.

Boldly going where…

Imagine being blindfolded, earplugs cutting off all sound, wearing boxing gloves so you can’t feel anything - and then stepping off a platform trusting that the guy on the trapeze will grab your hands before you plunge to the hard ground below. Imagine believing so powerfully that you are able to walk across a bed of hot coals without burning your feet. A Mage uses the energy of the Universe itself to change reality, which is a kind of miracle, actually, since manifesting the smallest atom of anything that did not exist in this time/space before makes messing with trapezes and hot coals easy in comparison - although they do have a lot in common. Trapeze artist, fire walker and Mage all must hold an unwavering belief and trust, a steady desire and will that admit to no hint of failure, no moment of doubt of the outcome.  

Imagine, however, that you have tried and failed before. How much harder, then, to hold the necessary state of pure and intense trust that will result in manifestation, to know success in spite of the past? 

 
The past can't, of course, be unknown. A Mage must rather dwell in a state where the past has never existed.

No foolin’

A Mage can’t fake the level of belief and trust needed for Magick. It isn't a matter of logic or words - it is a matter of creating a change at the seat of emotion in the brain, such that the body and guts and mind already know the new state of reality.  A Mage creates within himself a new state that exists in the Universe already - so that which will be manifested in the outer world is already manifest in the Mage.

Impeccable preparation, the patience that allows time to stand still, and performance of the perfect ritual provide a means for the Mage to focus on the desired manifestation and keeps pressure, doubt and memory of failure out of the process. The Mage steps outside of the current state of reality into a transitional space where the new conditions can replace the old.  Magick then burns a new path in this world.

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Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Albert Lee Burn Up 1967
Page/Plant Burning Up  1998