NON PARADIGMAL MAGICK This Manuscript Lays out an Exercise in Non-Paradigmal Pantheon Creation
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NON PARADIGMAL MAGICK This manuscript lays out an exercise in non-paradigmal pantheon creation. We see this as an especially useful way of introducing magick to those who wish to practice without the use of specific deities. By creating this experiment, we ultimately want to test the efficacy of non-paradigmal magick. To begin, we have created eight egregores that each represent a color of magick as outlined by Peter Carroll in Liber Kaos. These egregores will serve participating magicians by acting as a point of contemplation in the creation of an individual servitor for each person, in each color of magick. In other words, the magician will draw from the egregore to receive or create a liaison to work with, rather than working with the egregore directly. The reason for this extra step is to allow the magician to work within a given color of magick without their work being clouded by outside influence. By creating and interacting with your servitor, you will be indirectly interacting with the egregore. Therefore, there is no need to directly feed the egregore once you’ve begun work with your servitor. As your practice continues with each egregore through the creation of individual servitors, you will begin to collect a self-created “pantheon” through which you will explore, gain insight, and enact your magick. This is an exercise not based on serving some god, but on creating entities to serve you, however you see fit. Should you choose to do so, you may share information regarding your servitor with our community as a means by which others may benefit from its creation. Through this group exercise, it is our hope to create a “pantheon" in which the servitors of multiple individuals will come together to serve a greater whole. One way of looking at this would be as though individual magicians, drawing on the energy of each egregore, were to collaboratively create a "council" for each color under the supervision of its respective egregore. For instance, with the color red representative of war magick, an individual could create a servitor that would embody bravery, while another magician created a servitor with the qualities of tactics. Together, these servitors would become the facets of color, and thus the egregore itself. However, you are absolutely free to create a servitor that you do not wish to share, that exists purely for your benefit alone. Non Paradigmal Magick 2 The Magickal Journal The subject of keeping a record of one’s magickal experiences, ideas, and progress has been covered ad nauseum in almost every book written on the subject of practicing magick. And yet it bears repeating: a magician’s journal is the single most powerful tool in their arsenal. How can we track our progress without one? Athames, wands, chalices; these things are little more than props to stimulate our imaginations. Even the physical creation of a sigil serves merely as a task for our ego to focus on while our mind does the work of magick. But the journal stands alone as the essential tool for any serious magician. At the minimum, a journal entry should include the following: ● Date, time, and duration of any work performed ● Location ● Any exterior circumstances(temperature, weather, sensory input) ● Observations, thoughts, and feelings ● Results(if any) The purpose for including these details is to ensure that an in-depth record is kept. Often, our mind does not remember small details. We will remember that we did a ritual, but we may not remember which song we used for sound concentration, or whether there was a chill in the air. We may not remember the small chill we had in our spine during the invocation. These details matter; we are able to point to them and make connections to what “works” for us. Most importantly, keeping a thorough record of all details involved in any and all magickal working allows the magician to observe and compare all possible variables. In order to understand the mechanism behind one's effective practice, it is paramount to understand precisely what elements coalesce to form a successful ritual. The chef understands and records all ingredients that form a recipe; so, too, does the magician recognize every component that creates a successful spell, from the phase of the moon to the ambient temperature of the ritual room. Additionally, it is important to record any thoughts or feelings we have when related to magick. These can be used for inspiration in later workings. They can also give us clues as to why a given ritual may not have been as effective as we had hoped for. Magick is most effective when treated as a scientific endeavor. To that end, detailed contemporaneous notes are the scalpel we use to cut away the adipose tissue of our delusions. Non Paradigmal Magick 3 Example Journal Entry We will now present an example journal entry. This is by no means the “right” way of recording one’s magickal experiences. It is meant to provide a basis for those who are new to keeping a magickal journal: 02/16/20 - 1900 Hours Bedroom Thunderstorm outside, Ceiling fan on Work: Object Concentration Sound Concentration: Rain hitting my window Object Concentration: Sigil created for Increased Wealth Duration: 30 Minutes Observations - I noticed my forehead tingling during the object concentration, which intensified as my gaze remained fixed upon my sigil. The claps of thunder startled me at first, but I was able to maintain concentration after the first two claps pulled me out of gnosis. After about 15 minutes, the lines of the sigil seemed to glow intensely. I felt a tingling sensation in my feet, which was likely due to decreased circulation from sitting cross-legged for 30 minutes. Results - I successfully achieved gnosis and charged my sigil. After the ritual was complete, I burned the sigil in order to banish it. Non Paradigmal Magick 4 The Colors of Magick We will now present a brief overview of the colors of magick, as described by Peter Carroll in Liber Kaos. These are the traditionally accepted meanings and interpretations of each individual color of magick. By no means is this an exclusive list, nor is it intended to be the only interpretation of these archetypes. We encourage all magicians to explore each color and discover what each archetype means to them. Black - Death Magick Death is, for all intents and purposes, absolute; every living thing dies. Therefore, death itself defines what it means to be alive. To live without the expectation of death is simply to exist. Through the harnessing of death magick, a magician calls forth that perceived finality, and exercises that power over their own reality. Death, however, is an agent of change. This is to say that the perceived finality of death is a veil fitted over the eyes of mortals to hide that which cannot be understood by our finite life cycle. The life cycle is contained within the death cycle; death marks the end of one lifecycle while making way for a new life cycle to begin. By working death magick, a magician facilitates those changes. This manifests in a myriad of ways: we kill off those undesirable aspects of our personalities in order to create space for growth. We invoke the entropic properties of death to disperse negative feelings. We seek guidance from death in connection to the mysteries beyond our mortal lives. Red - War Magick War as a concept has shaped human civilization as we know it. To suggest that humankind is inherently peaceful is an absurd farce. As our species has grown, so has its capacity for warfare. And so has the definition of warfare itself changed and expanded. Where great armies once stood across from one another in vast formations, small numbers of specialized operators now work with extreme precision. Automation, in the form of unmanned aerial vehicles, has replaced the behemoth B-52 bombers of old. The rise of information warfare-as seen in Olympic Games(or the STUXnet attack)-has even challenged the dated ideology that a nation state must have “boots on the ground” in order to conduct warfare. So, too, must a magician’s idea of magickal warfare evolve. Students of history will know that while the use of the atomic bombs was an impressive display of force during World War II, it ultimately held little sway over Japan’s surrender. Likewise, a Non Paradigmal Magick 5 grand magickal show of power pales in comparison to the magician with a true understanding of the many facets of magickal warfare. A war is not simply a collection of battles spread out over a period of time. Rather, a war employs planning, subterfuge, propaganda, strategic thinking, and a host of other individual components. The prudent application of these techniques at their proper times manifests as a battle plan. A good magician is a prepared magician. The adage, “ the best defense is a good offense” rings hollow in the realm of warfare. Likewise, to enter into the theater of magickal war without plans for attack, defense, and egress is folly. Blue - Wealth Magick On its face, the practical application of wealth magick seems simple enough: maintain one’s wealth and expand wherever possible. The inexperienced practitioner will view this purely in a tangible sense, conflating wealth with money. The deeper power of wealth magick lies in an understanding of what wealth really is. Many workers toil endlessly with the goal of an ideal lifestyle, usually centered around amassing material goods. “One day, I'll have my dream house,” they say. “If only I had that luxury car.” What good is a dream house if you never spend your time there? What good is a luxury car if you only use it to drive to and from your job in order to make enough money to pay down your mortgage and your car note each month? The trappings of materialism are both alluring and all too easy to fall prey to.