Theodor von
Holst, The Wish, 1840.
However, ignoring for a moment the
scholarly arena of understanding and representation, and instead seeking a path
to dwell deeper into the esoteric dialectics of the
arcane matrimony of the macrocosm and microcosm, it becomes apparent, and not
always in a logical and pleasant fashion, that more is to be whispered,
unveiled, and conjured in regards to worldviews and conditions of experience
pertaining to the magic as a general designation. These can refer to
correspondences and phenomena that remain elusive to mundane states of
consciousness, an ignorance of the potential of the unseen forces of the cosmos,
and positivistic passivity. Hence, the designation of the ‘magic’ can be
employed as a fluid yet decisive category indicating both the theory and
practice of specific fields of discourse involving a particular human awareness
and performance within a worldview characterised by a resistance to the
dominance of either sterile logic or doctrinal faith. Despite magic referring to vast array of grammars, what establishes occult paradigms with a
unique character are the emic recognitions of degrees
of established or willed relationships between seen and unseen realities, and
the experience of them linked through a matrix of sympathetic and antipathetic
correspondences, which in itself is clearly echoed in the Hermetic axiom, “That
which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above,
corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One
Thing” (quoted in Scully, 2003, 321). These correspondences, charged and vibrating with the pure forces of the
cosmos, resonate and naturally manifest within nature as an ensouled state of
being reflecting the idea of psyche kosmou of Platonic thought and the anima
mundi within the awareness of magia
naturalis during the Renaissance period. In the following, these are
recognised and mediated through an active imagination corresponding to the mundis imaginalis, which is at times the
initial point of departure and fundamental impetus for all esoteric workings
collaborating with exoteric gestures. The final revelations can be experienced
as a metamorphosis of inner and outer
experiential dimensions. The experience of these
elements of magical theory and practice manifest when an embodied altered state
of consciousness, which can be understood as a shift in perception from a mundane state of consciousness, yet not ignoring the effects of unmediated occult participation within the mundane sphere of awareness and activity. is initiated, either temporarily or in a state of a fluctuating
continuum, and has
“an
intrinsically subjective and sensory quality that is embodied and intuitive
rather than purely reflective and intellectual, although the reflective and
intellectual may be engaged with the
intuitive and the embodied as there is no radical opposition” (Greenwood, 2005, 5). This can also be translated as gnosis, indicating ‘true knowledge of what is’
in contrast to mere sense perception, implying the act of knowing instead of
just acquiring knowledge. Hence, gnosis can be understood as a specific
modality of consciousness, a breaking down of the barriers of the rational mind. Through gnosis, the ‘knower’
therefore becomes immersed in the mundus
imaginalis, and in terms of magical theory and practice the individual or
individuals actively engaged become the focal point of the unification of the corresponding
relationship between the finite and the infinite.
The arena in which what is whispered, unveiled, and conjured in regards to
worldviews and conditions of experience pertaining to magic as a general
designation can be located within the sui
generis category of ‘magic’ as a participatory worldview manipulated
as an instrument by the active person through the execution of the art and
science of ritual as an extension grounded in the belief in magical powers
within the self and other. The purpose of this is to impose the human will on
the self and the other, activating the embodiment of an altered state of
consciousness in the endeavour to align the self with the corresponding ritual
intent of understanding, connecting, and influencing the other.
References:
Nicki Scully, Alchemical Healing: A Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational Medicine, 2003.
Susan Greenwood, The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness, 2005.
[1] Quoted in Nicki Scully,
Alchemical Healing: A Guide to Spiritual, Physical, and Transformational
Medicine, 2003, page 321.
[2] This can be understood as a
shift in perception from a mundane state of consciousness, yet not ignoring the
effects of unmediated occult participation within the mundane sphere of
awareness and activity.
[3] Susan Greenwood, The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of
Consciousness, 2005, page 5.
So it was interesting to read.
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