Shaking the Vessel
One of the important strategies employed by Predators and Parasites to disrupt the Psychocosmos consists in the substitution of concepts: what is truly important and valuable in the current incarnation is pushed to the periphery of the mind, while secondary or unnecessary elements are brought into its focus.
The result is what is called the “consumer society” — a person spends a lifetime frantically chasing what he does not need, and ignores what is genuinely valuable.
Accordingly, to increase the efficiency of the mind’s functioning, its focus must shift to important things. Many approaches to this simply recommend “shifting the gaze”, taking a moment to reflect and identify those values.
However, a mistake is possible here. Important elements can be brought into the mind’s focus in two ways: by shifting the focus to where those elements are, or by shifting the elements into the mind’s focus.
In the first case, attention must be moved into a state usually located at the periphery of the mind. This is typically achieved in so-called “altered states of mind”, when the light of the mind penetrates previously shadowed areas. By manipulating the mind through breathing, unusual bodily postures, or even chemical means, one can cause attention (“the personality”) to travel into distant regions of the Psychocosmos and encounter those components of that universe which have been pushed to its periphery.
The problem is that as soon as the mind returns to its “original position”, the same secondary elements that the parasite uses to distract attention reoccupy its focus. Accordingly, for all who walk the Way of “psychonautics”, the problem of retaining the effect — of anchoring those discoveries and illuminations that were so obvious in the Altered state but fade and grow dim in “everyday” reality — becomes acute.
The Magi long ago understood the relative inefficiency of that approach, and therefore in Traditional systems little attention is given to Altered states of mind.
The Magi chose the second strategy: instead of searching the Psychocosmos for scattered bits of genuine value, they undertake a quest to gather those grains and move them to the center of awareness. If this maneuver succeeds, the mind, willy-nilly, constantly notices what is truly important to it, and thus re-hierarchizes itself, restructuring its value system into a new, stable hierarchy.
This is precisely why Magic is the art of effective living. A Magus need not chase after effects and manifestations of power: Power is always with him and in him. Accordingly, one cannot “do” Magic — because Power is always in the Magus’s focus, his whole life is Magic, and nothing but Magic.
In this light, the importance of such a global reordering is hard to overestimate.
For this purpose, a number of approaches, Mysteries, have been developed that allow one to locate and move important elements into the center of awareness.
Kolo Velesa, and especially Kolo Semargla, are examples of such Mysteries.
In the course of such Rituals, the vessel is “shaken”, the elements within it are set in motion, and then they “settle” according to their “mass”. In other words, a kind of natural hierarchization of the mind occurs: the small and insignificant cluster together, while the large and significant group with similar components.
The whole point lies, first, in sufficient intensity of the “shaking”, which at the same time must not break the main structuring bonds of the Psychocosmos, and second, in ensuring that the collection of significant elements lands in the center of attention. This is precisely what the actions of such Rituals are aimed at.
However, a Magus can undergo the “small Kolo” without much ceremony: by simply devising a scheme for “shaking” the vessel of his mind and carrying it out, the Magus reforges his soul into a new, more harmonious system. In any case, only after such a transmutation does he enter the Tree of Life and begin his long way to perfection.
This is a complete surprise for me. I understand that everyone has their own Path; I just wanted to hear your opinion because I am in confusion. One author, let’s not name him, describes Rituals as “pathology” and prefers Altered states of consciousness. Here’s an excerpt, if you allow:
“Pathology is the complete opposite of the wave of energy
of consciousness, which is necessary for gaining freedom. Pathology
causes magicians to lose their path and to delve into convoluted, dark backroads of the unknown.”
Can a faster path become another distractor for a magician? If with Altered states of consciousness everything is extremely simple, but difficult to implement, then in Rituals, as it seems to me, it is overly convoluted and plunged deep into the thickets, without which one could have managed, they are mystified beyond measure. Thank you.
First of all, I am very far from considering any paths and approaches as “pathology”. Secondly, this disagreement arises simply from a misunderstanding of the nature of Ritual. As I have already mentioned, Tradition regards any structured action aimed at realizing a certain desire as a Ritual. That is, a Ritual is not necessarily dressing in a long robe, cooking cats, and muttering something as incomprehensible as possible. A Ritual is knowing what you want, knowing how to achieve it – which forces and in what order to attract to fulfill the intention. I’ll repeat again, I call a Ritual any highly ordered action taking place according to a pre-thought-out scenario and aimed at achieving a planned goal as effectively as possible.
Thank you. Although for my understanding this is still difficult, one thing I saw for sure – the variety of Paths is truly limitless, and what is fair for one is incomprehensible for another. And it’s difficult to describe an action with words; only by trying will one understand whether they have gone wrong or not; inaction is probably more destructive.
Thanks for the “cats”, I laughed for a long time)
The key word is Important (important elements of consciousness). What is the criterion of importance? And what helps to determine the importance of the elements of consciousness? Is it true that shaking the vessel, by means of a ritual, will immediately put all elements in the right places?… I conducted an experiment. I formulated an effective technique for materializing the desired for me. I spent some time, the thought came true, and then, having achieved it – I was disappointed. What seems so “important” when you look up from below, before reaching, turns out to be completely unimportant and unnecessary upon achievement.
The criterion of importance is the ability of this element to open new possibilities upon its actualization. In other words, if achieving this goal expands consciousness and opens new paths for further development – it is an important goal. Consciousness can always (with an honest look inside oneself) distinguish such important, essential elements from those whose actualization is just a whim or caprice and leads nowhere.
One step may seem insignificant and unnecessary, but when thousands of steps accumulate, the very possibility of walking so far starts to feel joyful.
When adding an important element, new possibilities are not always visible. Sometimes it requires adding a few more additional elements, and then building them in the right sequence.
… In general, all life is a ritual, and therefore every action is performed flawlessly…
About the “consumer society” – again an experiment. I deliberately switched from the perception of reality through 5 senses to the perception of the entire surface of the energy cocoon in everyday life (walking from work, for instance). In this mode, the information (not mediated by words) comes into consciousness orders of magnitude more. The use of evaluative judgments disappears on its own. There is no need to evaluate the situation of what is happening (for example, behind you), when at the same time you “see” larvae wriggling in the ground, juices flowing through the branches of a tree, the innards of a passing person, their thoughts and feelings. This does not make me any better or worse, or higher or lower than other people, I simply become – different – not resonating with people perceiving through 5 senses. “Seeing” the world more intensely and broadly, I simultaneously realize the meaninglessness and absurdity of many actions (including mine). It’s just funny – we go to work, invest energy and time in several colorful pieces of paper, and subsequently exchange them for “plastic” food, which makes us weak and sick, and “toys”, that distract our attention and precious time by feeding us “interesting” (ostensibly for us, but in reality for those behind the scenes of the world) impressions. I understand that I want to live in another reality, where Mastery and Knowledge matter, while status and wealth are just illusions that distract attention. But alone, one cannot pull a radically different version of reality. I think a working group that is capable and willing to focus attention on “other rules” – really important and valuable elements of consciousness for the manifestation of the designated version of reality, more harmonious, is needed. What do you think?
An interesting suggestion, but surely the manifestations of the “protective” properties of the established system will begin… It’s bad that one can’t back out from Geb to Gaya… Be sure to write about your idea)
The levers of manipulation of the “established system” are embedded from birth. The common worldview is being recorded on a “clean disk” by various “teachers”. The manifestation of the “protective” properties of the established system can only originate from within you. 🙂 Members of the “consumer society” take this reality at face value, as they don’t even suspect the existence of another. Here, it isn’t just a substitutive concept, but an almost complete destructuring of true values, coupled with an amplified advertisement of the illusory – it’s a sugar-coated deceit 🙂 When you come to the realization of illusion and thus to its loss, it becomes somehow “offensive” 🙂 You lose interest in much that was once “interesting” – this way the system loses its power over you. It’s similar to stopping the “wheel of reality”, resting, and then starting to turn the “wheel” the other way, providing resistance and overcoming the inertia of the old direction. From this moment, you can no longer become what you were, “the blue pill of Morpheus will never be sweet again” :)…… The direction and the goal of the interesting reality I see as a flawless striving for the transition to a new level of conscious existence, where the death of the physical body ceases to be a limitation to development. This cannot simply be desired, but it is possible to intend with a cleansed intention where the wavelength of inner intention corresponds to the wavelength of outer intention, thus it tangles with it, and the wheel of reality turns, the flawless intention manifests.
…. I understand that I want to live in a different reality, where Mastery and Knowledge are important, and status and wealth are just illusions that distract attention. But alone, you can’t attract a drastically different reality… As an option. We discard the word ‘Want’ and start living. The main thing is not to break down into subpersonalities; to be integral, constant. The reaction of those around will be different: aggression, mockery, distrust, sidelong glances. However, after a certain period of time, provided your integrity, people who resonate with your Path will start to be attracted. Thus, one can and should alone change reality to fit themselves.
I share your position – lately I’ve been in a similar state. I don’t want to live by the old ways, but the new ones aren’t working yet. Indeed, the matrix programs are uninspiring.