Lessons Learned From A Ceremonial Magician
I find the practice of high magick incredibly beautiful to watch. I’ve been fortunate to witness some very ornate rituals including a Rosicrucian wedding held in a temple normally only open to the highest members of the order. The fine robes, beautiful tools and precise movements executed are simply mesmerizing to watch. However, for my own personal practice I’ve always shied away from such rehearsed rituals much preferring a more spontaneous approach. I feel more authentically myself when quieting my mind, waiting for the signature wave of energy and vibration to latch on to me and then pour it along with my intention into a candle I’ve prepared specifically for what I want to come about. Sometimes I am able to simplify a magickal working even more into its purest form by simply waking up in the morning and “deciding” what I want to happen. My intuition has always been my best guide and the ornate rituals (as lovely as they are) seem to just slow down my success rate. That being the case, I consider myself an open minded individual who believes just because something might not be your style doesn’t mean that you can’t still gain something useful from it. In my path of expanding my horizons and exploring new things, I have had the benefit of stumbling across a ceremonial magician with a profound lesson everyone can benefit from – the law of polarity.
For those of you familiar with the seven hermetic laws of ancient Kemet, you will recognize the law of polarity as one of them. We could dive very deep into each of the seven laws, but right now I want to focus only on the law of polarity since it often is the cause of much unhappiness in the world. Simply paraphrased, the law of polarity states that everything is dual, everything has its pair of opposite poles which differ in degrees. Take the opposites of hot versus cold. One might define the sensation of heat as the absence of cold, and conversely define cold as the absence of heat. In a way, the two are one in the same (at different degrees) since they need their opposite counterpart to provide their own definition. Okay, I know what you are probably thinking right about now – so what the heck does that really mean and how does it apply to the world? The definition of polarity is best explained through the illustration of an example. The subject of politics provides ample fertile ground for the demonstration of polarized views, however in light of recent election events I’m choosing to avoid that topic and utilize the example put forth by my friend the ceremonial magician instead.
Several years back there was a controversy with Chick-Fil-A and their stance on the subject of gay marriage. People all across the country rose up in protest against the company due to the company’s lack of support for gay marriage rights. People all across the country also rose up in support for the company and its traditional Christian values. The company received an outpouring of media coverage over this issue which thereby resulted in record breaking sales. This demonstrates that each side of the extreme had its equal opposite – i.e. polarity. However, the point here is not whether you support or protest the company’s views but to show you just how easy it is to control people who are polarized. The company did not have to advertise their product more, increase the quality of their food or customer service. Chick-fil-A simply took a stance on a view which people were passionate about on each side of the spectrum to cause a stir and effortlessly boost their sales. Your reaction to this may be one of horror, (which also serves as a lesson in polarity) but if you honestly look at the way our current society operates you will see this is not an isolated form of modality. Main stream media chooses to repeatedly report on polarized issues knowing full well the commotion it will cause thereby controlling and influencing additional events. If you think I’ve just reduced myself to ravings of a conspiracy theorist I present you with the following question; why is it that the main stream media has failed to report on the events currently unfolding at Standing Rock? Certainly this issue has sparked the interest of many people across our nation, but I say one reason they choose not to report is because it is not a strongly polarized issue. In this day and age, I believe you would be hard pressed to find a rational individual who genuinely believes in denying another person access to an unpolluted clean water source regardless of their nationality. Additionally, most individuals in the United States feel obligation and compassion for the American Indians and do not support any additional atrocities to be inflicted on these people or their lands. Hence, our country more or less agrees the pipeline should not cross their land when other options are available and so there is little polarity on this topic, no way to ignite an equal spark on the other side.
To tie this back into magick, the truth is the adept magician is able to play both sides of polarity just like the media who seeks out to divide and polarize the people. There are a variety of benefits and reasons for this that I will not delve into, but it is important to note polarity is a naturally occurring force. Polarity in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does become a problem when we can be controlled by it. Know that you cannot remove yourself completely from polarity as total neutrality is stagnation which in turn leads to death. Polarity keeps the life force flowing so we will always have some polarity within us, but the key is to bring it into balance and to the point where you truly are not for or against anyone. Understanding the forces which push and pull a person to either side of extremes and remaining strongly grounded in a foundation of balance despite those forces, is infinite power. The magician who can see the forces of polarity in their true form from an unbiased perspective is able to let their practice flourish in any direction of their choosing. There are various ways to achieve a point of balance through grounding exercises and specifically The Middle Pillar Ritual. However, an even easier way to begin your road to a less polarized way of thinking immediately is with the following simple exercise: Throughout each day for the next three months, any time you have a negative thought, treat it as an offer to either accept or reject. This simple exercise will start to condition yourself on how to control the magick you are already creating. Have you ever noticed people who are overly negative seem to attract (usually against all odds) some of the most unbelievably horrendous circumstances? This is no accident, their thoughts are bringing in physical events to match what they are putting out into the world. I promise you, after three months of dedication to the accept/reject exercise you will definitely start to see how much your life begins to change. Now get to it and live your life abundantly!
added by Veronica West