The Principle of Intelligence and the Magus’s Explanations

Although, in the Magus’s worldview, he does not regard concepts as the “ultimate truth” but merely as working hypotheses, these hypotheses must always form a continuous, gapless picture. In other words, understanding the full relativity of his worldview, the Magus must strive to explain all phenomena based on his system.

This requirement is prompted by several considerations.

One such consideration is a purely practical test of the system’s robustness: if the Magus sees that some phenomenon, effect, or experience he observes does not fit within his system, then he must carefully verify — what is the nature of this discrepancy: either his observation is an illusion or a deception, or his system is failing in some respect. In any case, this discrepancy requires analysis of experience and worldview — either the experience must be rejected as false, or the descriptive system must be revised or discarded.

Another, even more important point is the necessity of the “closure” of the worldview to ensure its stability.

We said that, from the Magical Myth’s perspective, this picture arises in the mind as the result of attempts to give continuity to fragmented energies. Accordingly, the closure of a description implies the closure of the world in which the mind operates, thus protecting it from uncontrolled influences.

Put differently, the effectiveness of the mind’s functioning directly depends on the degree of order in the world it engages with: the mind cannot draw energy from chaos, and the higher the degree of order, the greater the controllability of events.

This ordering capacity, as noted, is a manifestation of the world’s Principle of Intelligence — the principle of differentiation and classification. The protective action of intelligence is obvious: whatever mental activity one engages in, the aim is the same: to understand the world better in order to protect oneself from its dangers and secure a stable life.

Normally, intelligence and mind are inseparable; everything the mind encompasses is perceived through intelligence. Intelligence dissects two primary forms of mind: pure self-awareness in its potential unity, and differential self-awareness as an aggregate of distinct potentials — attributes that appear illusorily independent within minds.

However, the magical worldview is distinctive in that the Magus discards descriptions when no longer needed. The Magus cannot simply discard an unusable explanation; he must replace it.