II. CULTIVATION OF THE MAGICAL PERSONALITY
A. Magic is the Craft of Witchcraft
1. The power of magic should not be under-estimated.
a. It works, often in ways that are unexpected and difficult to control.
(1) But neither should the power of magic be over- estimated.
(a) It does not work simply, or effortlessly and it does not confer omnipotence.
B. Learning to work magic is a process of neurological repatterning, of changing the way we use our brains.
1. In order to manifest anything on the physical plane, it must be formulated and given life on the mental plane.
2. Unless a person can concentrate his thoughts and desires down into a tightly controlled set of symbols, the mental plane has insufficient information to create what is desired.
a. The Archtype of the Magician in the Major Arcanum of the Tarot deck teaches some valuable lessons in concentration.
(1) The traditional picture of the Magician shows a man dressed in a white robe, encircled by a belt in the shape of a snake holding its tail in its mouth, and he is wearing a cloak of vermilion.
(a) He stands in a garden with four white lilies and five red roses, behind a table where he has laid out his magical tools.
(2) With his right hand, the Magician lifts a wand upward toward the sky. His left hand makes the universal gesture of attention, pointing with extended forefinger toward the fertile earth at his feet.
(a) The message inherent in this gesture is that the Force of the higher levels flows through the Magician to whatever he gives his full measure of attention.
(3) The garden in which the Magician works represents the subconscious field.
(a) It is from this subconscious field that the hidden powers come that the Magician directs in his quest for increased freedom.
(b) These powers are symbolized by the lilies which stand for various aspects of truth and the roses which are symbols of human desire.
(4) The Magician is a transformer and transmuter of experience.
(a) He cultivates the flowers in his garden, improving them and by force of his control of their development, takes them far beyond the conditions spontaneously provided by nature.
(b) Taking things as he finds them, he watches until he perceives the underlying principle at work in what he observes. Then he applies that principle in novel ways so as to produce a different situation.
C. The Language of the Old Belief, the Language of Magic, is expressed in Symbols and Images.
1. Poetry, which is itself a form of magic, is magic speech.
a. Spells and charms worked by witches in rhyme are truly concrete poetry.
b. The American Indians would call them Songs of Power.
2. Images bridge the gap between the verbal and non-verbal modes of awareness.
a. They allow the two sides of the brain to communicate, arousing the emotions as well as the intellect.
b. The vast storehouse of symbols, which embody all the possible realities of this universe is the subconscious mind.
c. The Archtype representing the subconscious mind is the High Priestess.
(1) The High Priestess is depicted as a solitary woman, seated on a cube placed between two pillars of opposite colors. There is a veil hung between the pillars with pomegranites and hearts of palms woven into it.
(a) She is dressed in a white garment adorned with an equilateral cross on her breast and surrounded by a blue robe that flows down and out of the picture.
(c) She wears a silver crown, made of two crescents and an orb and holds a scroll in her lap.
(2) The message conveyed by the High Priestess is two-fold.
(a) First she represents memory. Everything that comes to the attention of the mind of her counterpart, the Magician, is recorded on her scroll.
(b) Like all languages, the records she keeps are symbols for the reality they represent and it is the second function that she represents that makes the knowledge available to the Magician.
(c) The imagery of water flowing through this tarot card is reinforced by the blue color of her robe, and the way it pools down at the bottom right side of the card and seems to flow off the card. Water is the universal symbol of the astral essence of the higher
planes and just as waterways on earth served as highways of communication and commerce in the old ways, it is the astral essence that serves as a bridge between the different planes.
(d) In order to recall things stored in memory as written down on the High Priestess's scroll it is necessary to still the waters so that they become a mirror and reflect the images you are seeking.
(3) The ability to concentrate to the point where a still calmness in the mind is achieved, coupled with the images that surface from the subconsciousness leads to the point where new realities can be visualized.
D. All manifestations on the physical world are rooted in the mental and astral planes.
1. In order to change your physical reality, you need to be able to use creative visualization to plant the seeds of your new reality in the higher planes.
a. The Archtype of the Creative Imagination is the Empress of the Tarot deck.
(1) In direct contrast to the virginal High Priestess, the Empress is a pregnant matron. She is Venus, goddess of Love, Beauty, Growth and Fruitfulness.
(a) She is seated in a garden backed by trees, with a river cascading down a waterfall and forming a pool at her feet.
(b) Wheat grows at her feet and her gown is the color of Spring. She holds a copper shield with a dove on it and a sceptre of an orb divided on two and topped by a cross.
(c) A crescent moon is at her feet and a crown of 12 stars over her head. She wears a necklace of 7 pearls.
(2) When the Magician is joined with the Empress, the cold virginity of the High Priestess is transformed into the rich fertility of Venus.
(a) The Empress is imagination, the mind's power to make new combinations from remembered experiences.
(b) What you make the object of your attention is what you become, sooner or later. Fix your attention on images of misery, poverty, and weakness, and their actual physical embodiments will become part of your surroundings.
(c) Change the patterns by attending to their opposites, and presently creative imagination, symbolized by the Empress, will begin to build you a new life and will impress even the conditions of your environment with new ideas.
(d) Remember, even your physical body is part of your environment.
E. The generation of mental images at the level of self- consciousness is a necessary forerunner of changing your circumstances, but it does not do any good if you do not prepare the ground for the seed to grow.
1. Creating prosperity thought forms and then doing nothing to allow them to come through on the physical plane is as senseless as buying a high performance car without any tires.
a. Getting control over your own environment is a necessary first step in preparing for the changes you are working for.
(1) Working with the resources at hand, you need to gain control over your environment.
(a) Physical and spiritual cleansing of your environment clears away the clutter of old worn-out thought- forms.
(b) Actively seeking out knowledge of how to effectively manage the conditions you are trying to bring about sends messages to your subconscious that you are serious in you work and ar not going to waste any gifts that come your way.
2. Regulation and supervision are implied by every- thing in the Archtype of the Emperor.
a. Supervision is overseeing. Thus the function of sight is chief among our senses.
(1) The Emperor is seated on a cube on the edge of a cliff overlooking a river which has worn a channel through the mountains turning them into the soil that serves as the base for the garden of the Emperor.
(a) He is dressed in armour, symbolizing his willingness to impress his will on his surroundings but he sits in a passive stance content to observe the conditions that exist before he acts.
(2) The quality of our vision or observations of how things are determines the course of our progress towards liberation.
(a) Unless we imagine, we do not really see.
(b) The mind is the true seer. Unless we learn to supplement what our eyes report with imagination based on other senses no true vision of the world can be made.
b. Regulation is dependent on the ability to reason which is the second aspect represented by the Emperor.
(1) The basic function of reason is to oversee and control.
(a) Through the development of our ability to reason we learn to supervise and control our daily activities.
F. After we have learned to concentrate and visualize what we want to do using symbols from the unconscious and prepared for the work to manifest on the physical plane through observation and regulation of our daily lives we are ready to manifest our new reality through our Personality.
1. Our Personality is not what we truly are, but how we express our Inner Self. It is important that we work in accordance with the guidance of our true 'Essence'.
a. The Archtype of the Hierophant represents the Self.
(1) The Hierophant sits between two pillars in a temple like the High Priestess.
(a) He is the Inner Self who is also the Emperor. Only the spheres of operation are different.
(b) The ministers kneeling before the True Teacher wear garments which are embroidered with the same flowers that appear in the garden of the Magician.
(2) The general meaning of the Hierophant is summed up in the word Intuition.
(a) Intuition is the Voice of the True Self.
(b) Genuine intuition is not a substitute for reason. It is a logical consequence of good reasoning.
(c) The inner Teacher wastes no time in fruitless endeavors to instruct the incompetent who will not take the trouble to observe, to remember, to imagine, or to reason.
(3) The Voice never speaks loudly and many fail to hear it over the clamor of their own thoughts.
(a) Practicing the listening attitude of mind leads to eventually hearing it.
(b) The fundamental practice is to be still when you wish the counsel of the Voice.
(c) Stop racking your brains when a seemingly insoluble problem confronts you. The harder you try the less likely you are to hear the answer.
G. Patterns appear when we have contrasting elements in what we are examining.
1. The Tables of Correspondence (Spiral Dance) are based on the recognition that everything exists in relation to other things, and we use the process of discrimination to find the correspondences.
a. The Archtype of the Lovers represents the process of discrimination.
(1) The tarot card of the Lovers shows an angel bestowing blessings upon a naked man and woman.
(a) The message here is that the self- consciousness and subconsciousness are equal and receive the blessings of the True Self.
(b) When there are no secrets between the two (nudity) they work in harmony under the guidance of the Self and can see the connections between seemingly unrelated facts.
H. The final ingredient needed in the development of the magical personality is the development of the magical will.
1. Development of the Magical Will comes about as the result of synthesizing all the aspects we have been talking about so far.
a. The Chariot is the Archtype of the Will
(1) The Chariot depicts a person standing in a chariot pulled by two sphinxes of opposite polarity, before a city surrounded by a wall. At the foot of the wall runs a river.
(a) The Charioteer is the Inner Self.
(b) The sphinxes represent the senses and the reins (which are invisible) by which he guides them represent the mind.
(c) The chariot itself is the physical body and it is drawn by the sphinxes.
(2) The starry canopy represents the celestial forces whose descent into matter is the cause of all manifestation.
(a) On the shield is the Hindu Lingam-Yoni symbolizing the union of opposites.
(3) The charioteer is a victor.
(a) This card represents the conquest of illusion which comes about when the Self guides the personality.
2. The Magical Will is very much akin to what Victorian schoolmasters called character: honesty, self-discipline, commitment and conviction.
a. Anyone who wishes to practice magic must be scrupulously honest in their personal lives.
(1) A bag of herbs acquires the power to heal because I say it does. For my word to take on such force, I must be deeply and completely convinced that it is identified with truth as I know it.
(a) In this sense, magic works on the principle that "It is so because I say it is so."
b. Unless I have enough personal power to keep my commitments in daily life, I will be unable to wield magical power.
(1) To a person who practices honesty and keeps commitments, "As I will, so mote it be." is not just a pretty phrase; it is a statement of fact.
