What Do Magi Do?

Viewing reality as a self-arising, self-propelled process of self-reflection and self-knowledge, the Magical myth indicates its role as an instrument in that process.

In other words, since, as we have already said, the process of the Great Spirit’s self-knowledge, the One, manifests as an infinite number of sentient beings, each of which discloses in reality by the being itself certain properties and aspects, the world process depends on precisely the actions of awareness, i.e., the life of beings.

From this point of view it is clear that by “simply living” each being already fulfills its purpose, and the familiar saying that “the meaning of life is life itself” takes on a new depth.

Nevertheless, a being’s capacity to accomplish this primary task, and thus to develop, is substantially constrained by its own perceptual field. Indeed, the impulse to “simply live” can, from a profound task, become destructive, flattening existence and reducing it to contact with a very limited range of energies.

Put differently, although all a being truly needs is “simply to live,” in practice most beings do not fulfill this task, replacing genuine life with a wretched existence.

There are no “high” and “low” Ways, no “spiritual” and “worldly” lives, no “righteous” and “sinful” conduct. There is only the correspondence of one’s way of life to one’s inner nature — or the lack of it. When a way of life corresponds to inner nature, life is harmonious and prosperous. That is all we need: harmony. If everything in us is harmonious, the world responds in kind. But if there is no correspondence between essence and existence, life is full of suffering. It is ridiculous to grumble about the “injustice” of the world while living a life that does not accord with our nature, trying instead to meet invented or imposed standards. It is odd to expect a “reward” from the world while projecting conflict onto it. Of course, for some living a harmonious life means doing business or farming, for others it means expressing themselves through art, and for some it requires Magic.

This is precisely why the need for special “Ways of development” emerges. It seems recovering a meaningful existence, reclaiming your original purpose, is not so simple.

If a being wishes to break free from binding habits and limitations, one must perform special actions that are not required for mere survival or ordinary existence, but are absolutely necessary for purifying perception.

There are, of course, many such Ways, and Magic is one of them.

What, then, is distinctive about Magic as a Way of development?

As we have said repeatedly, Magic is a worldview arising from a sense of deep interconnection among all manifested phenomena and beings, and therefore Magic is also a mode of action based on that insight — from the vision that any single being’s actions are, in fact, the actions of the entire universe, precisely because of the close coupling of all things.

Accordingly, the fulfillment of the Magus’s will is the realization of the universe’s will, and therefore all the Magus’s activity is devoted, first, to revealing his “true will,” and second, to seeking the most effective means of its realization.

Thus the Magical Way consists of two components — purification and realization. A Magus is successful to the extent that he, first, accomplishes each of these elements of his Way, and second, harmoniously combines them in his development. Both insufficient effectiveness and the imbalance of “solve” and “coagula” distort the Way and can make it destructive.

Accordingly, the practice of the Magus is the union of Myth and Law — the harmonizing of the principle of mind with the two other constituents of the psychocosm — feeling and will.

In order to purify effectively, one must find and reveal the wanting part within oneself, so Magic uses approaches related to the principle of desire: exploratory and contestatory Rituals.

These approaches are based on two key concepts of the Magical myth — the notion of “logoi” — the “pure,” “absolute” nature, the “meaning” of reality; and the notion of a matrix structure of mind. Accordingly, the aim and content of purification are to bring the matrices into conformity with the logoi.

In order to realize effectively, the Myth relies on the notion of will and also introduces two key concepts — the vortices and vectors of Power: when the Magus’s will rests on mind it creates a vector of realization; when it rests on feeling it generates a vortex. Accordingly, the aim and content of realizations are the creation of vortices and vectors that correspond to the original impulses of awareness.

A Magus becomes a Magus when he not only understands, but learns in practice to find himself and to realize himself. In that case his mind shifts from contact with the narrow circle of energies into which “ordinary” mind locks itself, to new horizons of self-knowledge and self-realization, and so on until the full potential of his mind has been completely realized, and it itself fully freed.