Magick is a well to dig into. A stream flowing strong underground. Press your ear to the ground and hear that distant rumble of powerful waters.
Magick is a fantasy, a dream half forgotten, a tale that you can't remember who told you or where it came from, it dwells in the realms of imagination. Magick lives in your memories, alive in your childhood. Magick is colourful life, intelligent beauty, the life giving waters.
Magick is elusive, and illusive. It hides and plays and dances. It can't be pinned down and won't be defined. Magick is dark and mysterious and comes from the earth.
Magick is ancient it lives in the past. Magick was here before we were and will remain after we are gone. Magick longs to be free but fears to be used and kept as a slave and made to do dark deeds. Magick is where the monsters hide and dreams come true. Magick speaks the language of symbols, magick speaks the forgotten tongues. Magick knows the names of the old gods. Magick is power and power corrupts. Magick can heal and bind, it can move through the walls of the mind, magick draws and calls and you can feel it in the echoes in your soul.
Magick moves in the deeps. Magick is in the power of the unseen. Magick bleeds from history. Magick yearns and aches and stirs to your yearning and aching. Magick is creative and won't be denied. Magick is on the move.
Magick is a rising tide. Magick is a powerful current. Magick is dangerous. Magick can change you. Magick creates worlds, magick simplifies. Magick finds a way, magick makes a difference. Magick whispers promises and lies. Magick tells the deep truths and magick will win.
Magick is all around.
Addressing the spiritual requires addressing the whole person. This is what it means to be spiritual. This includes dealing with the past with honour, dealing with the sexual, addressing vocation and finances, addressing emotions and trauma, dealing with the physical. Whatever it takes to be whole and released in your life, your body and your situation. As much as you are able, and one step at a time.
The social and psychological systems of the world will try to ensnare you and hold you down. This is just the way of the world. Real freedom means upsetting the norms, saying the things that everyone conspires not to say to not upset the apple cart, it means standing on your principles so that you know you are a real person even when you're the only one. Freedom requires determination and persistence and courage and intelligence. The most important of these is courage, with courage all the other human capacities and qualities may grow. It only takes a little courage as courage itself grows as you exercise it.
- Krav Maga or Ju Jitsu to master and control aggression and to build self confidence and challenge fear.
- Yoga or Tai Chi, for the spirituality of the physical. For Yoga I recommend Hatha, for Tai Chi Yang style. Qi Qong is a useful companion to either.
RTL offers a choice of practises for several of the foundational planks. Here for the self-defence plank the suggested choices are Ju Jitsu or Krav Mage. For the spiritual in the physical the suggested choices are Yoga or Tai Chi.
There are three reasons for offering a choice in this way:
- Availability of good teachers. Finding the right teacher for practical skills is massively important to how able to learn we are. Learning bad Yoga or Tai Chi will do you very little good. Having a choice makes this easier.
- The goal of RTL is the release of the individual, using all their capacities and skills and knowledge, to become a whole individual. Individuation is the task of a lifetime and the more of your existing skills and knowledge you can bring to bear on this the faster you will go.
- Different practises, and the philosophy and world view that comes with them, appeal to different personality types. With a choice you have greater freedom to work with practises that suit your preferences and personality.
RTL is "plug and play", able to encompass a range of spiritual practises and belief systems. In this way RTL is a kind of meta-religion, a set of ways of thinking about and approaching life and spirituality that can work with many different configurations of beliefs and experiences. This is explicitly true for working with the deities, with RTL you pick your own gods! Across a range of different pantheons!
Each of the gods exemplify, personify, represent, embody as discarnate intelligence, different aspects of the divine. Each of us are called and drawn in different ways to different aspects of the divine just as we ourselves embody and personify different aspects of the divine. Every Pantheon comes from and with a world view and ways of seeing and understanding life. Often self-contradictory and definitely contradictory with other belief systems. But with an approach to understanding the spiritual reality of a belief system we can find correspondences between them and relate them to each other, understanding that ultimate truth is in and woven through all of them as is deception and delusion, for they are all imperfect visions of the divine filtered through human understanding and guile.
Picking gods from a range of pantheons, with any depth and substance, requires us to go through this process. To integrate ancient wisdom and understanding in a modern expression of joy at the search and the battle. That joy of the battle is what draws me to the Norse pantheon, for example, and within it particularly I find that Loki resonates. Loki the trickster, the madman who is not mad. From the Hindu pantheon a member of the trinity which is the supreme godhead, Shiva the joyful destroyer who is bliss and friend of the poor. And from within the Abrahamic Pantheon I find myself drawn to Michael, who is war and leader of the armies of heaven. From the Egyptian Pantheon I revere Isis, divine and terrible beauty, who is all women and who is my idealised form of the goddess.
Then of course there is Lucifer, light bearer and bright morning star. Son of the morning and daughter of the evening. Lucifer is the Roman name for a deity from the Christian Pantheon. Venus, known to the Greeks as Eosphorous and worshipped in her evening aspect as the goddess Ishtar, also known as Inanna, Ashtoreth, and Asherah to different peoples at different times. To the Hindus Venus was Shukra who led a rebellion against God (Vishnu).
Being drawn to these different lights and living principles requires a unified understanding of spirituality, a spiritual cosmology, and some rational approach to finding meaning in the role of the deities in both consciousness and life. We want to access whatever spiritual reality is found from disparate understandings of what spiritual reality means. This is a challenge, and also the work of a lifetime, and the topic for further writing. At all times the emphasis is on practise and practical utility within our life and minds, we put the gods to work.
Plug and play spirituality like this, bringing to life and using everything you are and all your experiences, is integral to RTL. In a metaphor that will only be understood by computer programmers who use Python, if the religion of Thelema is the web application programming framework Django then RTL is Flask+WSGI. My apologies to everyone else as that will make no sense whatsoever.
Crowley achieves some of this kind of thinking by forging new gods, who he called literary devices on at least one occasion, from the Egyptian and Christian Pantheons; Heru-ra-ha, Nuit and Hadit and Babalon. To work with these deities you work with ancient mythology in a new way, with new understanding, and through them and in them we may apprehend the divine nature. In Hadit and Nuit I see the duality of fundamental reality just as in the supreme godhead of the Hindus we find a trinity. This follows in the tradition of the god Hermes Trismegistus of the Hermetic Corpus which is the foundation of Hermeticism. Hermes Trismegistus is a syncretism of the Greek god Hermes (the Herald) and the Egyptian god Thoth (wisdom and magick). This is found within Egyptian mythology too. On the Stele of Revealing, dated 680-70BC, is a depiction of the falcon-headed god Re-Harakhty ("Re-Horus of the Two Horizons"), a syncretic form of the gods Ra and Horus. That the gods may appear like this, and that the same god may have many names and many forms and be shared between cultures and that new gods arise and old gods are forgotten, forces a spiritual cosmology that must be continuous with an understanding of human psychology.
The Marvel universe has to do something similar too, kinda, in the crossover and Avengers Assemble movies.
But why self defence in this list, and why the choices of Krav Maga and Ju Jitsu? Self defence is an inherently physical activity, it's useful for exercise and for being in touch with the body, being present in the body, and body confidence and awareness. There's discipline in learning and practising, which is useful for the mind. But this is true of any exercise and could be met by Tai Chi or Yoga which are the next foundational practise.
We are addressing the spiritual, and in particular two areas that need developing in most people (not all people). Self confidence and being able to handle anger and aggression.
One of the hardest things to deal with as an adult is strong emotions, we spend our life avoiding them in general. Conflict is horrible, trauma is horrible, anger is socially frowned on and can be horrible. If we want to live a life worth living then many of the best experiences are found in intensity, passion and joy and enjoyment.
All of us have been brutalised and traumatised by life, marked by life, in some way. Everyone hurts. The sacred duty is to resolve your own trauma lest you inflict it on those around you. Childhood trauma is laid down in strong emotions, and experiences we don't want to revisit. The mental fortitude to face and overcome this, your challenges and the treasures of the darkness, requires determination and the capacity to face those strong emotions. The capacity to face yourself.
Anger and sexuality are both strong emotions that out of control can do a great deal of harm. Both are emotions that are repressed and disapproved of by society. We spend our life, most of us, trying to avoid conflict and find ways of dealing with things without anger.
The psychological system of the patriarchy is in the pecking order, its name is authoritarianism and it is evil. The pecking order rules by fear and the implicit threat of aggression. Know your place and respect those above you! Those who are more aggressive and more ready to put others in their place. The rule of force; hidden aggression manipulating fear.
The only way to learn to handle anger, and to deal with anger and to not be afraid of anger and not to be afraid of yourself, is to practise. Being a whole person requires that you feel anger when it is right to feel anger, that you express anger when it is right to express anger, and that you do that without transgressing our commitment to the truth. When you're angry do you only say things you mean or do you say whatever you can to hurt? Arguments and anger can be an opportunity to say things that you would say at no other time, to deal with things and bring things out into the light. Or they're an opportunity to tear down and create new things that have to be dealt with.
I was bullied as a child, genuine terror and fear for my life and such shame at my own cowardice that I didn't tell anyone about it, and it was a shadow over my life for many years. I'm a decent size, but I'd always tried to live in peace and hated fighting so I'd never learned to do it and was in fear of those willing to fight or be aggressive to get their own way.
I recommend Krav Maga and Ju Jitsu because they're genuine self defence, real skills useful on the streets and not for performance. Within them you can develop practical skills and have confidence in any confidence they bring you.
I chose Krav Maga, corresponding with my Jewish heritage. I'm naturally a physical klutz and find learning physical skills hard, over the time I practised Krav Maga the most substantial take away I learned was that I can punch hard and fast, repeatedly for a long time. I can now go into fairly dicey situations and not be afraid, look people in the eye. That alone means that I'm unlikely to get into any fights. I now walk with a self confidence I didn't have before.
We learned Krav Maga by practising the moves sparring with a partner or partners and pulling the punches, not actually hitting or hurting the person but putting the same amount of aggression into the move as we would in real life. The philosophy of Krav Maga is interesting and appropriate to street fighting:
- The best way to win a fight is not to fight at all. Avoid or deescalate conflict if possible.
- If you have to fight the best way to defend yourself is to put the other person down as quickly as possible and in such a way that they're not getting up in a hurry.
The controlled release of explosive aggression. Except when everyone starts they can't do it. We're conditioned to contain aggression, to repress it. Trusting ourselves to deliberately release aggression without hurting someone is a learned and practised skill. But it comes quickly, and the forbidden emotion is quite a heady drug. I did find it making me more aggressive, more on that shortly. But what I learned over the time I was practising Krav Maga was how to release a great deal of aggression in a controlled way, and then stop. This was transformative. I no longer felt the subconscious impulse to repress anger and aggression, until it burst out in an uncontrolled way. I was no longer afraid of my own capacity for anger and aggression, so I didn't hold onto it or push it down and so it ruled me a lot less. I was also more confident in expressing anger, and then letting go of it and no longer being angry. Practising handling the powerful emotion of aggression made me less afraid of it and more skilful at using it.
Not being afraid of anger and aggression meant I closed my eyes to it in others less readily, recognising the manipulation and coercion of aggression hidden behind a smile and a judgement more readily.
I did find that regular Krav Maga made me more aggressive after a while as my confidence grew and my aggression was less repressed, as I walked around town I would almost hope someone would start something with me so I could try out my new skills. I don't want to hurt people physically, that's not what my life is about. I felt the Krav Maga had served its purpose and I switched to Tai Chi, which is the moving meditation, silent worship, and the ultimate self defence.
I acknowledge the privilege in these practises. I'm male identifying and presenting and physically healthy with a large frame. Despite my adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) causing me to live below my capacity for most of my life, the path for me finding freedom in this way was easier for me than it will be for many people. All we can do is what we're able to do and we all start from where we actually are and not where we wish we were. There are many ways to address fears and every fear faced and overcome does a positive work in the psyche. Cultivate a habit of facing your fears, of doing things you're afraid of.
If Krav Maga is the controlled use of aggression and violence then Tai Chi is violence without aggression, moving without intent and responding in the moment. Tai Chi is much harder to master than Krav Maga, but it is a beautiful practise that is often paired with Qi Gong. Qi Gong is a powerful Eastern practise for cultivating Qi energy whilst Tai Chi is working with and flowing with Qi.
For connecting the physical and the spiritual I have found great joy in Yang style Tai Chi. I've also worked with Iyengar Yoga and have great respect for the spirituality of this practise. Hatha is truer to the mystic origins of Yoga. Both are effective ways to practise thinking with the body and flowing with the body and listening to the body. You are a body and you are a mind and your mind is one with your body.
Both Yoga and Tai Chi, in their various expressions, have spiritual teachings and associations. Yoga brings with it Pranayama as a meditation technique. The contemplative style of Tai Chi pairs naturally with mindfulness meditation. Tai Chi is in the current of Taoism, whilst various religions and philosophies incorporate Yoga. Both have teachings about the relationship of the body to spirituality and associations and correspondences with the mythological and other spiritual systems. One or other may resonate more, may have easier and deeper personal correspondences and significance, may enflame your mind and passions more readily, and be more easily integrated into your journey and search. One may be a more natural expression of you, although sometimes it is good to choose the harder and less familiar path. Integration into one whole person of integrity, mind, body and spirit, is another way of expressing the goal of the spiritual journey. To become one living flame.
Average Yoga is better than average Tai Chi, but there is nothing in the world so fine as good Tai Chi. In my experience it is easier to find a good Yoga teacher than it is to find a good Tai Chi instructor, especially with the massive popularity of Yoga in the West. Partly the work of Crowley and evidence of genuine spirituality eking into culture.
Inside every person resides a great beast. Repress it and forever live in fear of yourself, or master it and rule.
"For the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.
The spirit is the spirit of love, both the essence and the substance of love."
Let us look at the last in that list, self-control. Spiritual mastery is control of the mind. The master thinks what she wants to think and does not think what she does not want to think.
It is the mind that moves the body and it is the mind that feels and acts and speaks, out of the overflow of the heart the mind speaks. Control of the mind is self control, control of your behaviour and tongue.
But constantly controlling yourself is exhausting. What if you could trust yourself and be really free, let your passions rage, and still be you and be at peace with yourself. This is what it is to be reconciled to yourself, no longer in conflict with yourself. The shadow is integrated.
Behaviour comes out of character and in turns influences the kind of person we become. A character is made up of habits. The old trusim is true.
Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Almost all our behaviour comes from unconscious habits. This is why we're only aware of a tiny fraction of who we are. Anything we do repeatedly we become so good at that the mind is able to continue without conscious. Anything we do habitually becomes effortless.
We can see this at work in a child learning to walk. The conscious effort of balancing and moving is extraordinary. Only a few months later all that precarious balancing becomes habit and merits barely a second thought. Learning any new skill, like learning to drive, is the same. Once the skill is in your muscle memory you can leave it to your autopilot. Better hope your habits include continuous watching of the road and defensive driving or your autopilot might just kill you. Train your autopilot well by making constant awareness your habit.
This is karma, how what we do shapes who we become, which shapes our attitude to the world and how we perceive and respond to everything that happens to us. Destiny calls everyone, but only the ready even notice.
To learn something deeply, to get it right inside, do it rigorously. Do it religiously. Apply it to your life with
fervent dedication.
How easy is it for you to change? How easy can you drop something you no longer want to do, or acquire a new habit like using different pronouns for a friend who is non-binary or a new name for a trans friend? This is the test of your self control, how easily can you change?
Vital to being able to change, to being able to craft a character by cultivating good habits like the habit of doing things now, is ruthlessly facing the truth about yourself. If your habit is to deceive yourself and let yourself off the hook then how can you even notice whether or not you are growing and changing. We must all make sober and honest assessments of ourself.
The only constant is change and everything changes, even the past. As you grow in wisdom and understanding reevaluate yourself as part of your ongoing journey of self knowledge and exploration.If you want to know the mind of the gods and to steal fire from the gods you need a mind and a soul that can bear it. That means change and change is just a habit.