The Price of Life
Despite the fact that embodied existence is the only way to develop awareness both on a monadic and on a universal scale, the reality is that most embodied beings fulfill this purpose only to a vanishingly small degree.
Magi have always understood this complex ambivalence of life, which, on the one hand, is the only true value in the world, and on the other hand, in practice, squanders opportunities.
Although a person is born solely to develop and expand their awareness, over the course of a lifetime they usually do this so ineffectively that the destruction they create in the world around them and the suffering they inflict on others far outweigh the evolutionary effect of the development of their consciousness.
However strong the demons, predators and parasites may be, one must admit that the principal destructive force in our world is precisely the human being who, although inspired by those predators and parasites, is in essence free in their choice, and thus destroys themselves and the world around them by their own will.
By and large, the first and main question anyone who intends to undertake efforts to expand their awareness should ask is how to reduce their own destructive influence on themselves, on the people around them, and on the world at large.
Before fighting demons and predators, one must first stop being a demon and a predator toward the surrounding world.
In fact, it is precisely this initiatory practice, which develops at the early stages of a being’s development as a Magus, ultimately leads first to the balancing of destruction and evolution, and then to the gradual transmutation of the whole being from destructive to creative.
Essentially, Magic begins — and only then — when a person, at some point, realizes clearly that their life, by and large, is not worth living.
If at that moment the person is weak or unfocused, they may take their own life; but if the Power has touched them, then on that day they will cease to be merely a person and will become a Magus — even if they have never heard of Magic.
At the same time, the bulk of the efforts of the mind’s Parasite are aimed precisely at preventing this awareness. The mind is clouded by frenzied activity, religion, “spirituality” and countless other things, until the thought of the meaninglessness of life as it is does not arise. As long as a person is satisfied with themselves and their life, they have virtually no chance of moving from destruction to creation — they will remain a consumer and a victim, food for others.
And only when the choice — to live differently or not to live at all — reveals itself to them in all its inevitability does a person finally get the chance to restore their life’s original purpose — to know, to become aware, to create.
Only when there is no possibility of slipping back into the comfortable little world is the mind forced to admit its ineffectiveness, its role as consumer or victim, and thus to change the situation and set out on the path of transformation into a free creative microcosm.
My thanks to you, a very relevant topic for me! One thing is unclear: when a person questions whether ‘the life they lead is, in general, not worth living,’ the old system recognizes itself as unworthy and begins to break down. But what comes next? Either suicide or a leap towards building a new system? Please explain.
Absolutely right, if a person has nothing left to lose, if they no longer cling to their habitual way of life and mindset, they have a chance to put in all their efforts to create a new system of values, hence a new way of life and a new world for themselves. Both the destruction of the old system and the creation of a new one are extremely energy-intensive actions requiring maximum effort, and until the energy is diverted to maintain old attachments, there simply isn’t enough of it for such changes.
‘…then on that day he will cease to be a man and become a magician.’ Those who could not end their life in suicide the first time are touched by the force, relevantly. At a minimum, on that day he will cease to be a man. And ‘will become a magician – even if he has never heard of Magic’ sounds somewhat doomed like a curse. Is it really that fatal?
‘And the world in his eyes collapsed, turning into a non-existent nightmare, into a picture washed away by a heavy downpour…’
This moment of awareness is also called psychic death… only with each time this fire burns less and less… it needs the burning of volcanic lava…
Don’t you think you are somewhat contradicting yourself? Earlier, you described mages as essentially violators of the laws of the universe, exceptions to the rules. This means that the vast majority of humanity cannot and should not walk this Path – such a situation would be catastrophic. In this article, you present the Mage’s Path as the only way out of the deadlock of so-called ‘normal existence’. There has been no small number of enlightened beings throughout history who, nevertheless, were not mages – according to the terminology you typically use.
Magic is the only Path for those who are born to be mages, and by no means for ‘everyone’. This post precisely speaks about this category – about those for whom the Path to freedom and Power lies through Magic. In a broad sense, every person who acts consciously and effectively is a mage. As for the ‘enlightened ones’, they remain just ‘enlightened’ as long as they sit motionless with their eyes closed in a cave or cell; an ‘active’ Enlightened one usually acts both consciously and effectively, thereby becoming a mage – in the broad sense of the word. The same applies to Arhats and Prophets – as long as they merely perceive and broadcast Higher inspirations, they are Prophets, but when they act, they usually act highly effectively, and therefore – they are also mages.
Let’s pose the question differently. Are Awareness and Power identical, from your perspective?
Yes, they are identical, and I have spoken about this more than once.
Thank you for the excellent article. It’s a pity I didn’t read it two years ago.
I discovered for myself and will share with you a tip on how to determine the correctness or wrongness of one’s actions. The main criterion for evaluation is the Effectiveness of the action. Thus, before making a decision “to do or not to do”, one must answer for themselves the CONSCIOUS QUESTION of whether the action will be effective, meaning whether it will bring a result in its real manifestation (even if this result appears at this stage to be inconsistent with the forces that need to be expended to achieve it). If the answer to this question is affirmative – there will be a result, then the action is based on the desire to move forward (development, evolution, progress); otherwise, it is the influence of established distractors of consciousness that strive for degradation, regression, and tranquility in its extreme manifestations.
If we do not move forward, then we are sliding backward: there is no other option.
The most difficult thing is to be oneself. The most important thing is to always be ahead. The most valuable thing is priceless. The best thing is in constant perfection. The most crucial thing is every second. The most necessary is the refusal of the necessary. The essence is in the new understanding.
To the very heart, how interesting your articles are, thank you for sharing your developments.