Channels and Flows

At the heart of the Myth’s account of the process by which reality comes into being lies the awareness of a distinction within the original unity of the Great Spirit: the primal duality subject/object, spirit/matter, mind/being. The essence and content of manifested being, the world-process, are understood as the interpenetration of the poles of this polarity, their mutual actualization and realization.

At the heart of this process is the “entry” of consciousness into being, properly the “creation of the world“, which consists in singling out from the infinite field of possibilities, probabilities, potential states — those that can, in the present moment (that is, in the current state of mind), be described, brought to awareness, and thus — actualized.

Because this process, if considered from within itself, has neither beginning nor end, the various actualizations of being produced by mind are regarded as “flows“, the sources of which are seen as the original aware impulses (traditionally called Monads), elemental subjects.

To describe these flows the notion of “matrices” of mind is used — sets of key states that a flow passes through.

It is clear that the direction of each flow can be relatively stable, and the flow itself accordingly relatively steady, depending on which matrices shape the intensity and vectors of its course.

In reality, most individual flows of mind are neither highly stable nor particularly effective, often changing their direction and failing to penetrate the fabric of being deeply. Consequently, the degree to which such a flow is realized remains limited, its connection to overall reality weak, and the subjective dissatisfaction considerable.

For a flow of consciousness to be effective, it must be stable, intense, and deep.

To achieve this aim various systems of awareness training have been devised — turning it from a stagnant pool into a mighty, deep river rooted in the heavenly depths of potentiality and pouring into the boundless ocean of the pleroma.

Although the natural condition of mind is pure and infinite light, the actualization of this nature demands considerable effort. Over endless cycles, flows of mind accumulate destructive inertia which, although not corrupting their nature, constrains their manifestations.

Any “spiritual Way”, any magical practice is, in effect, the “carving out” in the inert fabric of the Medium of deep channels through which flows of mind can move freely and steadily, and realize themselves.

Two key tasks are accomplished in the process — the flow itself is transformed and purified, draining destructive impulses and disruptive fluctuations; and, simultaneously, its motion is stabilized and ordered, so that the flow’s energy ceases to disperse and is directed toward self-development, self-expansion, and deepening itself, which ultimately turns it from a “river” into an “ocean”.

In practice, as we have said, this process comprises two components — the “purification” of the flow, the reduction of its “blurriness” and distractions into destructive currents, and the actual “cutting” of its stable channel, accustoming it to, in essence, the natural, if unfamiliar, condition of constructive, unidirectional motion. Accordingly, discipline and practice, as the two constituents of the Way, are aimed at the “return” of the mind to its original purpose and meaning.

From the standpoint of the Myth under consideration, this attainment requires great effort, persistence, and energy, summed up in the familiar maxim: “to find what one never lost — one must search long and persistently“.

At the same time, most easy and effortless “achievements” prove to be disguised capitulations and unrecognized defeats, however subjectively “pleasant” they may be.

Magic is a way of long, unyielding effort, by which the mind first “returns home“, then sets out again on its endless Way to itself.