Energy of Mastery

The Way of Magic develops awareness, aimed at fully actualizing available potencies .

This actualization, as we have said before before, goes through a number of stages and amounts to extracting from the undifferentiated world certain groups of primordial energies and forming relevant connections between them — in other words, turning them from potential into active form, integrating them into the world’s picture and Psychocosmos.

So far, however, in our discussions we have hardly touched on a very important question — the question of diversity of actualized energies. Let us recall that the Myth we are considering calls the active component of Power an “energy.” We have spoken only of one important variety of energy — Hamingja.

Indeed, it is clear that the results of “awakening” an energy — that is, the emergence of the “red” Light — will depend significantly on which particular energy block is animated and activated by consciousness. And we are talking not only about quantitative, but also about qualitative differences.

In fact, we have a situation in which each serious realization gives rise to a new kind of energy, which, of course, flows into the general stream of awareness but does not dissolve in it, losing its distinctive qualities.

It is precisely the differences in energies that explain the individual features of Ways, their geises and benedictums.

Among such important energies that accumulate and manifest during the Magus Way, two have special significance — the “inertia” of development, dignitas, and the ability to harmonize one’s surroundings — tzedakah.

We have said repeatedly that Power is induced, that is, the active presence of an energy of a certain kind in one source activates a similar energy in any object connected with it. This fact underlies the familiar maxim: “save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved.” The most effective way to awaken an energy of a certain kind in another is to develop that energy within yourself.

The key energy a Magus cultivates in himself is his impulse to develop. Accordingly, he inspires those around him to develop. This energy, the further along the Way, the more active, is called the “energy of mastery,” in the Christian tradition by the heavily moralized word “holiness,” Heb. — “tzedakah”, or, as it is called in the Sufi tradition, baraka.

Baraka manifests in a Magus as he develops; the more harmonious and unwavering the development, the greater the baraka.

Accumulation of this energy begins after overcoming the First Abyss and entering the Tree of Life, and it continues throughout the Way. Baraka becomes especially great after overcoming the Great Abyss.

As we have already understood, the main manifestation of baraka is the ability of a Magus (and of any other highly realized being) to induce in people and objects around him the striving and the capacity for harmonious development of awareness.

Note that any energy can leave an active imprint, a reshimo, on objects the bearer has interacted with. Of course, this applies to the energy of baraka as well. In fact, any cult of relics is based precisely on this fact. All accounts of the Traditions about the importance of co-presence with highly realized wayfarers boil down to using the wayfarers’ baraka, and magical instruction adds to baraka the impulses of Power that emanate from the Master.

A Magus must realize he is an energetically significant being.

Crossing the First Abyss, he immediately becomes a subject in the world process and begins to actively transform it simply by moving in the Flow of Power. All his actions, rituals, realizations lead to a serious change in the energetic situation in the Psychocosmos and in the Macrocosm.

By understanding how he affects his surroundings, the Magus can increase his vigilance and responsibility, since he will be prepared for the reactions of the environment that will follow from that influence.

And the accumulation of baraka is one of the most important effects on his Way. A properly developing Magus not only increases his own effectiveness; he helps increase the effectiveness of the people and processes connected with him even without special effort.