Conformity to Criteria

The process of cognition is arranged so that the mind creates energy blocks and compares them with the “models” already known to it — Me — in order to determine the degree of harmony of the resulting picture.

This arrangement, on the one hand, provides a basis for awareness, but on the other hand significantly restricts it to the available Me.

A mind at the early stages of its development needs such criteria of “truth,” of fidelity to its Way.

However, very quickly Me lose their authority and are fit only for comparison in an “advisory” sense, never for governance.

The problem of human society is that instead of “solving” problems — that is, finding a genuinely optimal combination of certain elements — people are trained to “find solutions,” that is, to try known solutions, choose the most “suitable” among them, and force the new system into a pattern that grants it relative stability but may not be optimal to the system’s optimal state. It is well known that most fundamental equations of modern physics have many solutions, and it is not always precisely known which of them is truly optimal. The same problem applies to life in general — the selection of a truly optimal solution (that is, one that promises the maximum possible result for the minimal possible expenditure) for any problem receives far less attention than is effective.

As a result, a person rarely reflects on whether they are truly developing by following a given Way; he is usually more concerned with how much the “results” he achieves correspond to the described qualities expected of the Way. And it does not matter whether those qualities are needed, whether they are useful to him personally, whether they expand his mind, or, conversely, lead to degradation — the main thing is that the “expected result” is obtained.

Needless to say, most people know nothing about themselves and their Way, their potential, and merely assume roles, wearing masks that hide emptiness beneath which there is only chaos. People simply copy feelings, thoughts, and actions, endlessly repeating the same models, uttering the same phrases and clichés.

But this is not only true of “ordinary” life. It recurs on the Ways of development.

Why is the Eastern Way so wildly popular at present? Is it more effective than the Western? — No: on both Ways there are similarly few genuine adepts. The whole point is that the Eastern Way is simply easier to imitate. Why bother with all sorts of attributes, learn spells, sew odd garments, build Circles, if you can simply sit and smile mysteriously, and everyone will admire your enlightenment?!

One might ask — what is wrong with people simply imitating development? What is wrong with people merely playing at (not Play, but precisely playing at) spirituality or Magic, while remaining mere fodder in the global consumer system?

The problem is that, firstly, correcting is harder than building, and turning playthings into the Game can be insurmountably difficult; in practice such an action slows development far more than the complete absence of any “spirituality.” Secondly, relying on energy-significant points of support (names and images of gods, angels, demons, mantras, spells, prayers, etc.), the mind handles large amounts of energy and, being unable to manage them, leads to an outflow into the Qliphoth. It follows that a profaned Way harms both the “traveler” himself and the flow of Power as a whole.

The Magus must above all understand that the only real authority for them is their own heart. Studying another’s experience, the Magus should regard them only as historical accounts and not as descriptions of what must happen to them personally. The exception is only the experience of their Master; even then it is only worthy of closer study, not of copying. The personal experience of each traveler may be identical, may be analogous, may differ in details, or may be entirely unlike the experiences of other travelers, and that does not change its value. It does not matter who reached their goals earlier and how. What matters is how this particular Traveler realizes themselves.

The question the Magus must ask himself is not how much their Way conforms to descriptions or expectations, nor how much of a trend it is, but how much it actually advances them in development, in the realization of their potential, and in the expansion of their mind.

That is why each Magus builds their own unique Way, strings individual beads of Power onto their necklace, and, with honest, attentive care, attains their own realization, and becomes what they ought to be from time immemorial — Infinity among Infinities.