In the 1984 the Wizard of
Christchurch taught me a very important esoteric lesson.
People from outside New Zealand
might not have heard of the Wizard of Christchurch. He is a triple doctorate who made it his life’s work to become a “living work of art.” Practically this meant dressing up as a
Wizard and coming out with very funny speeches in Christchurch’s square.
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| Wizard of Christchurch |
He was
never an occultist. He once told me that
he hated occultism because “occult meant secret” and if something was secret
there must be something wrong with it.”
But because
he called himself a Wizard, that made him the target for born again Christians who
did not quite get the joke and thought he was practising black magic.
In 1984
the Wizard turned up at Wellington’s long since demolished Urinal Park (Lambton Quay) and was
holding forth in his normal manner when the local born again Christian decided
he would make the fatal step of trying to take the Wizard’s audience from him.
The
born-again in question was a former heroin addict whose normal patch was
Manners Mall, which was some distance away.
It is fairly clear that the drugs had finished what was left of his
intelligence and he had turned to Jesus to save what was left. Needless to say he was no match for the
Wizard.
Within
minutes the poor born again was reduced to a quivering wreck. On his knees, he was muttering to himself “the
Blood of Jesus protects me from all sin” like a mantra. Meanwhile the Wizard was standing over him
saying “You are a Looney aren't you?”
The
Wizard was about to ignore the quivering wreck, when some large American in a
white cuddly jumper decided to act as born-again back-up.
“Look,”
he drawled at the crowd and pointing to the still muttering born-again drug
addict. “This man is offering you eternal life, while this one,” pointing to
the Wizard, “is offering you eternal death.”
The
Wizard looked at him and said: “But what if you are wrong?”
The
chunky jumpered American looked confused. It was as if that question had never
been asked before.
The
Wizard continued. “I am quite happy to
admit that everything I say is bullshit, but have you ever thought what might
happen if you turn out to be completely wrong?”
The
audience had moved against chunky jumpered Americans and drug addled loonies
and the Wizard continued his lecture.
But
the point is extremely valid and it is the question that every magician has to
face constantly. WHAT IF YOU ARE WRONG?
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| Sorry Dali Lama you might be a nice chap but the Christians were right. |
In the
field of religion it is easy to see.
There are simply too many religions holding conflicting views for them
all to be right. Humanity is also too
diverse for many of the religious imperatives in each religion to be
right. How is it fair for any God to
send someone to hell when for thousands of years that God could not be bothered
making an appearance in that country.
The Golden Dawn said that all of them hold a spark of the divine and so
we should hold all religions in reverence.
This is because at heart religion is a fudge for a truly unknowable truth.
But
while that is fair enough, you still find people creating system after system
of occult wisdom and claiming that it is truth.
Despite
what many people will tell you, while magical techniques are incredibly old,
the modern version of magic, is recent.
It is a mongrel child made out of many different bits. Yet you will find an insistence amongst
teachers, and students, that these systems must be completely right.
Like
me, my first significant teacher was a Leo ascendant. He tended to give out magical information as
if it were completely true. Unlike me,
he believed it and rarely changed his views.
The answer to the question “what if you are wrong?” would be met with “I
can’t be wrong”. This is absolutely re-assuring, but fails to understand what
magic really is.
It
results in doctrine being thrown up as truth, when it is really just the cloak
truth wears. In the case of Magic,
technique too often becomes doctrine and is seen in absolutes. The more magic is forced into religious codes
the more absolute it becomes and the magician is forced to act in certain ways,
and accept ideas which are unnecessary.
For example, if I use Solomonic ritual I am forced to adopt a world view
where I am very small and sinful and God will help me out if I ask him nicely
and say enough psalms. Kabbalistic
angels are similar, you can reach a point in studying Cabbalah where you end up
starting to think the Torah is a good idea.
Contacts
and re-incarnation bring up other strait-jackets for truth that require you to
think in particular ways. Even the
Golden Dawn itself has those who believe that the system must be followed
exactly and in a particular way.
Yet if
you prick this attitude with a question like “But, what if you are wrong,” the
result is usually an ego eruption. I
created a stir on Facebook by daring to suggest that the doctrine of re-incarnation
did not work and after many years of accepting at a working theory, I could not
see the point. Nor could I see that the
need for revenge, which is all the idea of karma is based on, was necessary either. I put forward this case study. A completely innocent child is raped by their
step father. Since they are young, they cannot have accrued any karma which
could justify that act of evil being committed to them. The answer must be that they committed a
crime in a past life which had to be atoned in this one. One person suggested that the victim should
get some past-life counselling to see what they did.
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| In otherwords do nice things and one day you will have something nice happen to you |
However
what if they were wrong? What if there
were no karma and no re-incarnation.
Wouldn’t the rapist have to come to terms with their acts in this
life? Wouldn’t the victim be allowed to
be a victim, rather than have an atrocity forced on them because of a past
crime?
And
let’s extend this to esoteric teaching.
Over the years I have not found a complete magical system which is
right. In some cases I have experimented
and mixed and matched bits from one system to cover the holes. The Golden Dawn does a lot better than some
others, but there are points where it is shot to hell.
If you are placing unquestioning loyalty to a person, or a system, or a religion, or a perception of a teaching, then the universe will eventually kick that to death.
What
if I am wrong? Has to be the question that you ask daily. Certainty is a demon which will hold you back
from understanding what is really going on.
As a corollary to this, increasingly I am having to admit: "I don't know."
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot. I went to seminary, and there was a lot of emphasis on the truth of the gospel — truth that was relative in the modern world, to be sure, but still truth. Yet if magic has taught me anything, it's that I should be deeply skeptical of whatever truth is presented to me through spirits, divine revelation, or claim from authority. Yet, in a world of propaganda and advertising, it's very difficult to remember this on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reminder.
Are we not, as Hermetic magicians, supposed to treat magick itself as a science, rather than a faith? meaning test your hypotheses by doing the (ritual) experiment and see how your consciousness changes, how you feel, how your external life has changed for the better because of your magical practice. You may not like Crowley but I think there was great wisdom in his idea that magick should have the AIM of Religion, but use the METHOD of Science. That said, I have seen the Power of faith when correctly applied - not blind faith, but faith based on understanding. This is where mainstream religion differs so much from hermetic Magick - one is asking for faith alone, the other makes room for, but faith balanced against strict scientific enquiry.
ReplyDeleteAs for reincarnation, many people say "you only live once". My question to them is:"how can you be so sure? Do you really know that for sure?" My main reason for believing that reincarnation is highly likely is mainly based on what I feel is simple logic - if there is infinite time, aeons and aeons of endless time, how likely is it that we will only ever have a physical existence once and once only?
From a philosophical point of view it makes sense to me also - I mean what happens if someone fails to complete the Great Work in one lifetime and is not yet ready for planes of higher consciousness but not "bad" enough to be damned in a hell? Do they just float forever on some astral plane somewhere (like a Catholic limbo) not ever get another bite at the (physical) apple? seems kind of unfair if that is the case. Perhaps the Universe is just so unfair, but as Hermetic Magicians are we not supposed to take the hypothesis that there is something in the Universe called the Law of Maat, cosmic Justice, and test that through our Work? In my experience, this Law is real and exacting. I take my lead from Nature - in the Universe everything obeys law - planets do not suddenly go off their orbit and stars do not suddenly shoot off in the opposite direction. Everything is governed by Law. Quantum physicists who thought they were looking at chaos and randomness discovered when they looked closer there was an underlying Implicate Order behind apparent chaos. For me karma is nothing other than Cosmic Law.
http://doingmagick.blogspot.com/2012/12/teachers-karma-and-perfection.html
ReplyDeleteFascinating post and great blog.
ReplyDeleteOn 'feeling small and sinful' it really is true though is it not - we are so small that we ascend into the astral and have miniscule dogs try to frighten us.
More importantly -- it's not that we are small, it's more so about reaching an equilibrium between humility and strength, as a magician, as a religionist, as a doctor, lawyer, police officer, etc.
But true humility only comes with true strength. Solomon failed in this. Hence, " That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these not even Solomon is as decked out as one of these liliies."
Isn't this one of the prime teachings of both the Qabalah and Kabbalah. Keter humbled itslef, Adam Kadmon humbled itself, in turn the small partuf humbled himself symbolically or literally on the cross of creation.