No Sense Crying

When magick users look around, we often see a crisis in squandered potential. Should we complain? Or, should we get cracking at the cauldron arts? Friends are targets of campaigns that disable original volition. Societicians offer only patterns folks find manageable, convenient, and unthreatening. Though “will power” is what most say they want to kids to have, true will seems to be what ordinary people are afraid their offspring might harbor. When we act to utilize our energies by means of elective, effective mental infrastructures we must usually then face real occult method. It equips us to handle internal, vital resources via the data that supports them and to fend off remote degradation by those who routinely (naively or with malice) act to disrupt or disable young nervous systems. It would be smarter to join a competent group than to whine of mistreatment, if we could but know what we were getting into. This is why Crowley had such distaste for the “black lodges”. Seeing the need for evolution all around him, he had to confront the reality of pseudo mystics who adorn themselves with all the trappings of shamanism, yet perpetuate the same arrogant, vindictive control dramas from which they fled as abused children. He found snitch craft advertised as witchcraft, and he set out to educate people through his expressive and imaginative (but very cogent) methods.

Now, efficient education recognizes and stratifies intelligence and motives shown by students, as with the different houses in Harry Potter stories. Brought together with the right companions, it is easier to develop wisdom and ability. In mundane life, we encounter many who want to superficially appear correct to those at the lower levels of intellectual competence. A viable occultist working for better consciousness must understand how to deal with the technologies of bartering for validation, deceiving with glamour, and coercing with material support. Some think wizards to be cheats, but such people are usually those who practice a form of organized religious chicanery. Mistrust is however an unfortunate condition, not a forgone destiny. Awareness is a protection against exploitation. A despot understands how to pit the resentment of disaffected mobs against scholarly elites who could question his concepts, sources, or conduct. True occultism, then, must engage unusually perceptive and sincere individuals, and thus it naturally relies on supernatural means. In the practice of sorcery, cosmic energy, strength of resolve, and quality of perception must be guarded and conserved, as with access to more subtle levels of resource than ordinary human existence. Optimizing this endeavor is the work of the coven.

We can study countless books that purport to instruct us in the discipline of wizardry, but the truth is that most who have successfully engaged in it thus far have been blessed with enough support and respect from their earliest years. They have a stake of genetic credibility. Some of us come from homes where little was allowed to find rest, be it creature or issue. Thus, the task of self cultivation has had to precede involvement with the truly knowledgeable, so that the rhythms of instinct and intellect could recover from dissonant conditioning. One day, though, we know that cooperation must find a place in our magickal lives if we are not doomed. So, we eventually have to ask ourselves what we have to gain by compromising our authenticity for the temporary placation of those who intend for us no lasting benefit. Mages, like artists, simply cannot live without a certain standard of spiritual living. We have to come to clear terms with the value of modesty so that we won’t have to bow to mediocrity. We have to find a Protector who will sponsor us.

Do you find yourself confiding in those who have no good wishes or belief in you and afford you no encouragement? Are these, in a way, not simply the screams issuing from a personal purgatory? Do you find yourself but a screen upon which people project their past frustrations, or a substitute for the offenders whom they can never punish for past insults? Are you duped into playing a part in their unending control dramas? Do you set out the white towels of honesty only to find they have been sullied by the spite of the unkempt? Do we have to live out a role that involves little more freedom than that of a dog? Have you toyed with the idea of devoting or consecrating yourself to a path of liberation, but have fallen into the old patterns of misery, lulled by the strangely comforting familiarity of being emotionally tortured? Have your guardians heard your declarations of distress? Have you heeded their unobtrusive guidance?

Study, practice, and meditation are essential on the path of yoga and mysticism, the path of tantra and magick, or a blend of these. Yet, at some point, we must each confront the need for group work, and see if we can find the patience and courage to seek out those who may actually want to see us prosper, rather than being suicidally complacent when it comes to praying for what we really need and want, and having the timely reflexes to spring forth for it when it finally begins to present itself. And, if we lack sufficient strength or wisdom to do these things, it may just be because group work has been lacking. Yes, those lodge mates are often dull, dangerous, or difficult. But reflect on how your “own” have always treated you, and continue to do so whenever afforded the opportunity. Still reluctant, are you? Maybe you haven’t suffered enough, yet. There comes a time when we owe it to ourselves to become available to others of a comparable level of sincerity and insight, with compatible objectives. Perhaps there is no decision that needs to be made, today, regarding this: but, if not today, when?