The Way and Fellow Travelers
“I was young,
I wandered much
and lost the Way;
I deemed myself rich,
having met a companion —
a friend — the joy of a friend.”
“No one should ever
judge another
for love;
often the wise
are entangled in love,
in a way the fool cannot understand.”
(Sayings of the High One)
Very often Power and love are regarded as concepts that, if not mutually exclusive, are at best hardly compatible. Even in Christianity, where “God is love,” Power is implicitly viewed as somewhat at odds with it.
Even more so in Magic, which puts its Way first, its uniqueness, at the top of its values. Indeed, love, as a limitation of one’s freedom, as the expansion of one’s selfishness beyond one person, can seem an obstacle on the way to gaining Power.
Perhaps this view owes much to Aristotle’s famous phrase (more precisely, to Cervantes’s paraphrase of it): “Plato is dear to me, but truth is dearer.” Aristotle himself phrased it more circuitously: “Let friends and truth be dear to me; yet duty commands that preference be given to truth.”
But is it truly the case that “duty commands us to prefer truth”?
Let us look around.
We see, in fact, almost no one follows ideas, but everyone follows people.
Understanding that the world is a description that does not exist independently of the perceiver, it becomes obvious that the ideas expressed by a person, broadly speaking, should not be separated from a person’s personality. If a person says one thing and does another, their words are of little value. If, however, his actions and words correspond, then, in fact, by following their words, we follow their Way as well.
It becomes clear why in traditional magical Lines a Disciple was never conceived apart from their Master and the line of succession. It is precisely the correspondence between Master and Disciple that enables them to follow common Ideas, a shared Way. In other words, not every Master suits every Disciple, nor can every Disciple be taught by every Master.
Correspondence is necessary. Moreover, the correspondence must be as complete as possible. And what is the most complete correspondence? Of course, love. One can hardly imagine that the modern debased mind, that treats ‘love’ and ‘sex’ as nearly synonymous, will read that meaning into the phrase. Nothing of the sort is meant, of course. Levels of love can vary, just as different names can be given to those levels (the ancient Greeks distinguished eros, brotherly, and playful love).
But the fact remains — Traditional Power is practically impossible to acquire by following bookish (that is, faceless, since, having learned much about an author and grasped the author’s personality, reading books can connect one to the author) ideas and prescriptions; Its path lies in the living communion of Master and Disciple walking the same Way.
It is well known how widespread unrequited love is. This is among people. But a Teacher can have more than one student. Especially in the Western tradition, where often there is not individual training but schools. And then unrequited love of a Student for the Teacher is also possible. After all, the Teacher has the right to choose both a more capable one and one to whom their heart leans. They too have their preferences, even if they are a magician. Then there will only be correspondence from one side. The student believes they correspond, but their intuition, their faith in their chosenness might let them down. Probably, only a few will be fortunate enough to possess a Teacher? What do you think about this, Enmerkar?
A Teacher must be able to love more than one person at the same time. This is incredibly difficult, but possible – so that one infinity, overlapping another infinity, does not interfere with it. So that no one takes anyone’s place, so that each is – unique and unrepeatable, rather than ‘first, second,’ and so on. Only in this case does a teacher have the right to lead more than one student. A school that has ‘favorites’ and ‘non-favorites’ is doomed to fail. One should not take in a student whom they cannot love. A similar story – one should not go to study with one whose path they cannot share.
If you have two or more children, then loving both at the same time is not a problem, it is easy and natural; each child receives full strength of love, not equal halves, and a teacher should be the same.
Your words ‘…so that no one takes anyone’s place…’ hit the nail on the head. This is exactly what I feel after leaving school N. I wanted to learn too much, but did not know how; I rejoiced too much, but probably had nothing to rejoice about, for in the end, I am outside this school N, while those first ones remained first, those favorites remained favorites, and the eternal repeats – ‘to whom has will be added, to whom does not – will be taken away’ (perhaps I confused the text). An unhealed wound remained – in the heart, soul, anahata, or consciousness – I do not know myself, probably everywhere. How to cope, Enmerkar? About the ‘place’ – it means it was not mine, but for some reason, this occupied place hurts in me like it was taken from me.
Enna, I understand you, I had a similar situation. It’s hard, but it’s a direct path to Power. It teaches independence from anyone and self-sufficiency in decisions. And if you need loving people for the Path, they will definitely meet.
Hope, thank you very much for your support. I really wanted understanding.