Vector of Power

Taking up the Way means imparting to the development of the mind a systemic, ordered, directional nature. In other words, when the mind stops «flitting» from side to side, from game to game, from role to role, and begins to flow progressively from one less ordered, less synthetic state to another — more harmonious — one may say that it is on the Way of development.

For this Way to be more effective, the mind must be able to recognise precisely its degree of synthesis, its degree of harmony, its internal coherence and orderliness. To that end, the magical myth introduces the notion of the Power of awareness as a “measure” of the mind’s development, an obvious indicator of the degree of correspondence between the current state of awareness and its true nature. Accordingly, it is the level of Power that is the “measurable” parameter by which the Magus can (and must) correct his Way in order to achieve maximum effectiveness in self-realisation.

This means that speaking of the “development of the mind” is essentially speaking of the “accumulation of Power”, and conversely — accumulation of Power reflects the realised state of the mind. This is a convenient way to understand all magical talk about “Power”, the ways of acquiring it and contact with it. All of a Magus’s practice, ultimately aimed, of course, at expanding and liberating his mind from the bonds of duality and relativity, is therefore mapped onto gradients of Power, because the accumulation of the Power of awareness accurately reflects the degree of his freedom.

The Magus does not «chase» Power in the usual sense; the Magus attains awareness, and the more conscious and orderly the Magus’s existence, the more one can speak of the level of his Power.

That is why it is so important to distinguish the directions of the currents of Power, to determine the “power-result” of each action of the Magus. The «Sense of Power» proves to be a simple and convenient criterion of development, and cultivating this sense becomes an important aid on the Way.

When performing a Ritual (and we said that Ritual, in the broad sense of the word, is any structured, directed and conscious action), the Magus must determine what vector this action imparts to his mind — whether it is directed at harmonising his mind, at its realisation, or whether it draws him aside (or downward) from that state.

Thus, the criterion of success for the Magus’s action is not only, and indeed not so much, the achievement of the planned result as the accumulation of Power and the increase of awareness. From this point of view it is clear that if the Magus did not achieve the result, he is — on a formal level — suffered defeat, but learned the fullest lesson that allowed him to regroup his mind to act more effectively in the future — the final outcome of the action is positive: defeat turns into victory. And conversely, if the result was achieved — so that, it might seem the Magus had won — but that victory led to pride, or complacency, or otherwise reduced his future effectiveness, the overall result is negative: victory becomes defeat.

Moreover, the degree of harmony of the mind changes not only as a result of an action and cannot be judged solely by its ultimate effect; it also changes during the action itself, and determining the direction of that change can be very useful. For example, in the course of carving Runes, or creating Galdra-staves, Agis-hjelms and other amulets or talismans, monitoring one’s state can be a useful indicator of success: if, in the course of the work, the practitioner’s mind harmonises, then the amulet or talisman will be correct and successful; if destructive elements creep into consciousness during the ritual, then most likely an error has been made in the ritual itself and it needs to be revised. At the same time, it is important not to confuse temporary “destabilisation” of the mind, which often occurs at the culmination of a ritual, with a true breakdown, nor to mistake an outflow of Power for its arrival as a sign of its arrival.

Such monitoring of one’s ‘power level’, tracking the direction and character of the mind’s change during the action, and, of course, as a result of it, should become a routine test the Magus performs to determine the vector of his movement and his effectiveness. The Magus must constantly check what is happening to his mind and his Power during an action: whether he becomes more harmonious, freer, or — sinks deeper into the abyss of illusion. Such control will help detect errors and undermining influences at an early stage of their penetration into the mind and prevent them from taking root.