Alternative Realities

Thus, the superposition of an absolutely homogeneous, unified yet merely potential medium and an absolutely differentiated, formless and insubstantial mind gives rise to the whole ensemble of actual reality.

Let us try to unpack this conception.

We have already said that the Great Spirit, the Absolute, existing beyond being and non-being (hence named Ain-Soph — the unknowable), manifests as absolute fullness/emptiness — Choshekh. Choshekh is the extreme point to some degree accessible to awareness, even though it lies beyond dual categories. This primordial darkness manifests as “bohu” — “emptiness” — and “or” — “light”. The “emptiness” is perceived as an infinite field of potentials, the cosmic environment, while “light” is the principle of Awareness, the drive toward their realization. The impact of “light” upon “bohu” generates within that emptiness a set of “vessels” (kelim) — potentials ready for actualization. The subsequent “entry” of “light” into the “vessels” is understood as the cosmic process, which ultimately strives for the full meeting of “or” and “bohu” and their union in fullness — the pleroma (the “gmar tikun”), which in this sense is the same Choshekh. At the same time, it is clear that this entire process exists only from a relative, limited viewpoint, since the Absolute itself can be equally regarded as never having left a state of unity and unmanifestness, as having fully actualized itself, or as being in the process of actualization — for the Great Spirit each of these states is merely one of its possibilities. Accordingly, one can with equal plausibility speak of worlds and beings as an “illusion” that never existed, as pleroma, as emptiness, and as a process, a becoming. At the same time, because any description implies a describer, for each such relative mind — however conditioned it is, being inside the description and part of it — the world appears as continuity, becoming, and development.

In other words, understanding unity and seeing nonduality, the Magus nevertheless operates with categories of multiplicity and duality — not because he regards them as ultimately real, but because he acts within them.

From the standpoint of relative mind the world appears as an aggregate of energies — potentials of the medium filled by awareness that actualizes them. Different energies and their complexes enter into various interactions with one another, and the laws of these interactions are described in the most general sense as “logos”, or more specifically as “eidos”, “me”.

In other words, any individual mind (that is, any individual stream of “light”) more or less “picks out” from the universal fullness of the unmanifest (bohu, the Environment) certain probabilities, certain potentials, much as a flashlight’s beam “picks out” objects from the dark in a room, bringing them to life. It is precisely this “illuminated” portion of the environment that constitutes the reality in which that mind acts. Thus one can say that awareness itself creates its reality, including the form of its own manifestation.

It is clear, moreover, that each individual manifestation of mind can contact other manifestations, other streams of light, to the extent that those streams illuminate the same energies. Thus, although all is “light” and all is “darkness”, although the world is one and undivided, empty and full, it is perceived as differentiated, with varying degrees of emptiness and fullness, and this differentiation is likewise produced by streams of awareness focused on different energies.

Furthermore, depending on the number and stability of the streams of awareness permeating a given assemblage of energies (“illuminating a given region of darkness”), the resulting picture may be more or less stable — more or less “actual” or “virtual”. We have already said that “stable” pictures, sustained by a larger number of streams of awareness operating within them, Magic calls “worlds”, while the whole aggregate of labile, mutable, unstable pictures is called the “Interworld”. Obviously, both aggregates — the multitude of “actual” and “virtual” spaces — are formally infinite and superposed so that there is no “emptiness”, no “interspace” between them, and any energy, any potentiality, any probability is actualized by some stream of awareness or another.

What has been said has important practical consequences for Magic.

First, the Magi understand that we can interact only with those beings with whom we share the same worldview; therefore — by expanding our description we expand the range of possible interactions. This law works both ways — we can add interactions by expanding our worldview, and we can expand our picture by entering into new interactions. This is the key to Ceremonial Magic.

Second, the Magi see that the world is the result of contact between the environment and consciousness, and therefore mind can invoke from the environment any manifestations and probabilities. This is the key to Nominative Magic.

Third, the Magi realize that contact between objects is identical to contact between minds. This is the key to Contagious Magic.

Fourth, the Magi know that all worlds lie directly before them, there is nowhere they must “go” to reach them — they only need to enter. And here lies the key to the Magic of portals.

Perceiving the world as both source and product of awareness, Magic opens possibilities for revolutionary ways of developing awareness, for escaping limitation and conditioning and its identification with absolute awareness.