Strength in Unity

Western myth is born and lives on the border between monadic and duadic representations. On the one hand, the importance of binarity for creating the driving force of any manifestation is affirmed; on the other hand, the importance of wholeness of the impulse in the attainment of realizations is asserted.

As we have discussed many times, it is precisely the balance between them that creates the Way of the Magus.

Indeed, a Magus deprived of imbalance ceases to move, while a Magus deprived of harmony loses the capacity for realization.

Despite the obviousness of this fact, it is often misunderstood, which leads to the ineffectiveness of the Way. Therefore I will once more summarize what we have already discussed on this matter.

In truth, it is very important to be aware that the Way is born as a movement from actual differentiation toward potential unity, and these two states continuously flow into one another. At every moment a biner must be identified to enable movement, but identification should be accompanied by the possibility of its neutralization – that is, in potential it is already realized.

From this point of view the Way is a sequence of steps to neutralize the biners that arise in the mind as it develops.

The most important biner, which every Wayfarer must neutralize, is the duality of his selfhood and sociality — the duality of “I” and “We”. The mind, like every factor of the cosmos, has being in two aspects: first, in its own essence, and second, as part of the Universal Whole. This biner is born at the boundary between part and whole, as a part of the whole and a part in itself.

By asserting one’s ‘I’ by opposing oneself to the external world — i.e., striving to demonstrate the independence of one’s individual being — a person thereby only further strengthens and deepens the mind’s awareness of its connection with all that lies outside their individual essence.

This is the deepest opposition contained in the Universe: each monad is a mirror of the world; it is at once whole and distinct from all others. The whole exists because it lives in the singular; the singular exists because it carries within itself the power of the whole.

On the Magus’s Way, this biner is expressed in two impulses, which we have already discussed — the impulse toward independence and the impulse toward union.

It is important to understand that the Way is effective only when both impulses are realized — when selfhood does not degenerate into isolation and when union does not become mere fusion.

There are many ways to achieve such realization. It is well known that religions actively promote the unification of energies — both by creating egregores and by the direct merging of conductors — as, for example, occurs in the Christian sacrament of marriage.

The Magi have discovered that the most effective way to realize such unification is through Magical Families that not only “unite without mixing“, but also provide a Loan of Power necessary for the beginning of movement.

Moreover, we have also said that traditional teaching of magic works in precisely this way: the energies of Master and disciple unite, which creates the precondition for development. Note that development then occurs jointly: when energies are united the difference in power levels between Master and disciple is leveled; the Master retains only their authority, and it is this system of “Master-disciple” that proceeds to further development, in which the difference between Master and disciple is only that the Master already knows the Way, and the disciple does not yet.

In addition, it is important to understand that the destruction of such systems leads to very serious consequences. This applies to the dissolution of a “sacramental” marriage, leaving the family, and leaving the Master (or the expulsion of the student).

In each such case “unclosed” structures arise when the ties that supported the unity of the system are released.

A Master who has expelled a student does not regain former strength as he was before the student’s arrival — this fact is carefully ignored by most Masters — and to restore his strength he must once again undertake a long journey on the Way. A student who has fled from the Master does not become freer — he merely loses the “map” of the Way that the Master possessed. Ultimately, for the same reason, the divorce of a “church” marriage is so problematic — for it requires “to sever” a being that is, in the energetic sense, one.

From this follows a very important practical conclusion: the unification of energies is a highly productive way to increase the effectiveness of the movement. But before deciding on such a unification one must think carefully and assess the risks, and once entering such a bond — do not break it without a weighty reason. In any case, unification is one of the Points of No Return, after which nothing will be the same, regardless of how successful the unification itself may be.