Ordering the Power

Of course, the Magus’s primary goal is the acquisition of Power — expansion and deepening of his awareness.

Nevertheless, as we have said more than once, achieving control over that Power is no less important than its mere accumulation.

In fact, the mere increase in Power is quite common: as soon as a person turns inward and gains access to his own desires, weakening the Parasite of mind’s hold, the mind expands, and the level of Power rises. Any sane person who discovers that authority in his Psychocosmos rests with a foreign power makes efforts to overthrow that external rule or at least force it to retreat.

Many mystics, shamans and sorcerers have achieved enormous Power simply by removing the Parasite of mind’s dominance and thereby increasing the efficiency of their functioning.

However, Magi do not stop there. From the standpoint of Magic, a simple increase in the quantity of Power merely shifts the form of dependence — a person who has been a slave to the Parasite of mind becomes enslaved by Power.

At the same time, the Magus strives for freedom, and not only for freedom of realization but also for freedom of choice. Therefore, mastery of Power is more important for him than its accumulation. When Power is great but unordered, its effects, though they may lead to the realization of a person’s desires, operate chaotically, with numerous unexpected consequences.

For the Magus, the will is primary, and vital energy — the power of realization — is secondary; he must strengthen the will, thereby ordering his life force, because when the will is concentrated it directs life-energy, just as when the life-force is concentrated, the life-force directs the will.

To a large extent, the efforts of the Magus’s entire discipline are directed at ordering the Power.

But, more than that, the very ideology of Magic, its ritual organization, reflects the necessity of ordering the flow of Power in the Psychocosmos, and by analogy — in the Macrocosm.

In other words, the Magus is one who seeks not only to accumulate Power, not only to increase its accessibility, but to ensure its ordered flow, its strict direction.

Incidentally, this is why Magi practicing vectorial forms of Magic usually have fewer problems controlling Power than those who work with vortices.

The clearer the Magus understands what he is doing and why, how that action will affect the world-process, the more successful his control of Power will be.

Moreover, the more precise his Ritual, the less arbitrary confusion it entails, the more ordered his Power.

Ordered Power is not only more effective, its effects are not only more predictable; above all, it is far more governable, and therefore the Magus is freer — his actions more independent — than those who are in thrall to their Power.