I'm getting back into Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics (IIH), which is something I gave a half-serious attempt several months ago, but which I'm now ready to commit to because I know what I want to do with my time: work on my comic.
I don't know if it's a good idea to talk about it publicly, since it is said explicitly over and over again that magic is best done in secret - in fact the 'occult' in 'occultism' literally means 'hidden'. There is a way in which talking about your plans has a way of dispelling their power, and that's even true for more down-to-earth projects like trying to lose weight or working on a creative project. On the other hand, sharing about it has a way of making it very official. If I were to stop pursuing this path, I would share about it and it would create a bit of resistance in me, such that I'm more likely to continue.
My approach is to stick with a rhythm I'm comfortable with, such that I never quit. I have noticed many times in my life that even a half-assed meditation session is a lot better than nothing, so the decision to never stop is one I wish to stand with.
What are the practices about, more specifically? Before I knew about magic I frankly had no idea what it would consist of. Even though I knew that in fiction there would be all these strange circles drawn on the ground to summon various eldritch entities, I didn't know that those were based on something real. While there is a similar thing as performing a ritual to summon an entity in real magic, this isn't what IIH is about, at least in the beginning.
Many people quit the early practices in IIH because they're too boring: meditation exercises, doing your usual chores without any external distraction, introspection exercises to reveal all your major weaknesses and strengths, and breathing exercises. I am not too bothered by this because I have a clear goal that interests me, such that magic is a means to build the life I want. All of those exercises have a way of really honing your focus onto something specific, which is something I've lacked for essentially all my life. Even the simple act of committing time each day forces you to be clear about what you want, because you have less time to squander around.
This version of magic - focusing your attention into a laser-like force and removing all distractions - might sound really boring compared to the evokation/divination/spellcasting/potion-making type of magic, but I find it far more practical and grounded, which is why I'm fond of this path in particular. There are other traditions in magic more centered around rituals or divination, such as the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn that John Michael Greer represents from what I understand (he is also a druid and has studied other traditions, so it's hard to tell for me what exactly he focuses on). But I find that in an era dominated by the internet and thus rife of distraction, being able to direct one's attention and connecting back with the body to be really crucial skills, and it's nice to have a set of practices that one can commit to, as opposed to trying to come up with your own curriculum which has a way of being unstructured.
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2024-03-30