Contact, Resonance and Induction

Despite its extreme pragmatism and rationality, magical practice has always paid considerable attention to trappings and mise-en-scène. The Magi have always surrounded themselves with numerous anchor points, various images, symbols and objects that serve as a kind of repository and accumulator of magical energies. Yet a clear understanding of the meaning and structure of this “external field” of the Magus’s activity is, unfortunately, often lacking.

Indeed, on the one hand, magical practice is the art of shaping reality, of creating and directing certain streams of probabilities, and therefore an “objective” activity. At the same time, however, the aim of this activity is above all the self-perfection of the Magus’s mind, its harmonization and actualization of its potentials. It is precisely in this duality of magical practice that the meaning of Magic as an art lies: an art that perfects creation in both of its aspects — the macrocosmic and the psychocosmic.

From this standpoint, the Magi construct their Way step by step so that each successive accomplishment, whether in the macrocosm or in the mind, becomes a springboard for subsequent actions.

Since, from the viewpoint of Magic, development is the accumulation of Power, and the growth of Power occurs as a result of its induction, a significant portion of the Magus’s effort is devoted to seeking situations that induce Power and making the most of them by working with them.

From this perspective the Magus is, on the one hand, constantly engaged in seeking — a “hunt for Power”, i.e., tracking and discovering currents whose interaction can induce in him the growth and actualization of his mind — and on the other hand he is constantly working on the mind itself, enabling it to interact actively and fruitfully with the “external” currents.

Thus the Magus is at once hunter and alchemist, cultivating both the skills of observation and tracking, and the ability to transform and transmute himself and his surroundings.

From the foregoing it becomes clear that for the Magus the trappings and outward manifestations of his activity are not only inspiring elements, not only activators of particular currents in his mind, but also direct inducers of his Power.

Therefore every magical act should be considered as an interaction, and it is equally important to consider both the “direct” realization current flowing from the mind into the environment and the “reverse” inducing current that answers the realizational impact and provides the impetus for subsequent change.

Accordingly, when, for example, carving Runes the Magus, on the one hand, transforms reality by directing currents of energy along certain vectors, and on the other hand he transforms the mind because the psychocosmic currents, coming into contact with the Runic vectors, “tune themselves” to them, and are redirected and brought into resonance. Therefore any Runic amulet performs two functions — the “direct” one: it attracts and transforms certain currents of energy in the environment, provoking its rearrangement, and the “internal” one: an object whose contact and resonance transform the mind of both the eril who created it and any other mind capable of that interaction.

In a similar way, the alchemical act, the recasting and transmutation of matter, takes place simultaneously in the athanor and in the alchemist: on the one hand, the alchemist’s knowledge, Power and authority, directing certain interactions in matter, “reveal” the pure essence of that matter, its quintessence, and coagulate it into the philosopher’s stone; on the other hand, the interaction of the mind with matter transformed in this way produces analogous changes in the mind itself: it becomes ordered and “ennobled.”

Accordingly, all objects and actions that surround the Magus perform both functions mentioned — they order the environment by attracting certain energies into it, and they induce specific states in the Magus’s mind.

Therefore, in forming his environment the Magus must understand that he is thereby actively influencing the structure of his mind, and so every object in that environment must be considered and analyzed from this perspective. In addition, the Magus needs to understand that the greater the correspondence, the greater the resonance between the currents of the mind and the currents of “external” energy, the more one can harness the inducing influence of those currents, bringing psychocosmos and macrocosm into mutual correspondence.

In order for that resonance to be maximal, the Magus must work in both directions — carefully and purposefully shaping the environment of his activity, and also transforming the currents of his mind toward alignment with those “anchor” currents from which the desired induction can be obtained. This means that to gain Power it is not enough merely to hang an amulet, talisman or symbol in one’s room — this is only half the task, only a transformation of space; one must also work on one’s mind so that it can establish the necessary degree of correspondence with that object, on the one hand accepting its constructive properties and on the other avoiding conflicts and “strikes of light.”

Thus magical practice can be viewed as the art of increasing Power, comprising three components: 1) ensuring the contact of currents — drawing certain influences and energies into the mind’s environment; 2) establishing the resonance between the inner currents of the mind and the external agents it requires; 3) the “opening of the vessel” and ensuring mutual tuning of the currents, the induction of the Power of awareness, and its growth and expansion.