Five Trials in the Path of the Magician

In a recent article where I talked about the differences between magick and mysticism, I said that the dark night of the soul wasn’t a crisis factor in the life and path of the magician. It is a real ordeal for the mystic, but not for the magician. Allow me to quote the pertinent sentence in that article, since it is going to be the topic for this article. (You can find that article here.)

“Magicians usually don’t experience the Dark Night of the Soul. They have plenty of other types of spiritual crises to deal with. I’ll talk about those in a future article.”

So, the time has come to talk about the fundamental spiritual crises in the career of the magician who is following the Western Mystery Tradition. I have determined that there are five major ones but there could others, although not quite as severe but no less difficult to resolve. These five trials are: fear, arrogance, indolence, grandiosity and hubris. These issues may seem innocent enough and certainly many people who are not magicians are afflicted by them. However, to the magician who is actively seeking to fully realize and unite his or her spirit with the absolute Godhead, these five trials are quite poisonous and deadly.

 Unlike the mystic’s terrible “Dark Night of the Soul” these trials are forever ongoing and represent a potential pitfall to all magicians following the western path. What that means is that you don’t overcome one and never have to experience it again. These are not singular events, but they are singular issues that plague most magicians throughout their lives. The severity of these issues is dependent on the personality of the magician. In some cases a magician may have a much more difficult time resolving one of these key trials than any of the others. In some cases one or more of these trials may never become a pivotal issue in the life of the magician. In my opinion, this is the norm for the typical practicing magician - most of the trials are minor affairs except one of them becomes a really “big deal” at some point.

You could also assume that the more psychologically flawed magician will experience a series of spiritual crises involving many more of these trials than what would be typically expected, and that those crises will be more severe and difficult to resolve, if they can be resolved at all. Sometimes at least one of these five spiritual crises will be so severe that it will force the magician to cease all magical activity and make a hasty exit from being a real magician, or it could just stop cold all of the spiritual and magical progress that a magician has made over the years of practice.

Maturity and discipline are important antidotes to most of these trials, as well as openness, integrity, positive intent and personal objectivity. Yet it often seems that many magicians lack these mitigating qualities, and some seem to be far more flawed than the average person. You could say that magicians are colorful and unusually eccentric individuals, amusing to know and to socialize with, at least until they hit one of these trials and it causes them to undergo a spiritual crisis. Then they aren’t so amusing or fun to be with.

Failure to resolve one of these trials completely and to keep it in check is a certain prognosis for overall magical failure. Sometimes a magician must retire from magick for a while in order to allow his or her personality to resolve internal struggles and issues before attempting to continue. Often such a failure will transform a viable practicing magician into nothing more than an armchair magician, where he or she will attempt to hide and obscure this shameful fact from other magicians. Ironically, such an armchair magician will then begin to display still other excesses as he or she begins the slow, slippery, painful descent into illusion and later, self-delusion.

Now that we have discussed the importance of resolving these five trials, let us now examine each one in turn, and also discuss the pertinent manner in which a magician might overcome such a pitfall. All of these trials can be overcome with some effort, objectivity and even a bit of humility. Self study and analysis is an important key, and so is peer review.

Fear - this is really broken into different trials yet both are related. There is the fear of failure and also the fear of success. Often this issue reveals itself to someone who is more apt to read about magick than actually performing it. Such a one will have succumbed to either one of these fear-based trials. However, once the magical practitioner has experienced a successful working or two, then the fear of failure soon passes. A good mentor can help the beginning student overcome his or her fear of failure, and instill in them personal confidence and belief in the magical process. However, the fear of failure can haunt even the most experienced magical practitioner, and it can become so strong that it will cause him or her to be incapable of working magick.

Fear of success is more troubling and difficult to resolve. I have known a few occultists who have shown a great deal of fascination with magick but who would never work a single spell for any reason. The idea that magick is real and can actually make things happen is just too much for their world views to integrate. These kind of people are just not cut out to be magicians, and happily they usually know it. When someone like this engages with a group magical working they often claim to have experienced nothing of import, or sometimes the opposite happens, where it actually scared the living daylights out of them. My advice is to leave such individuals out of any teaching group or group working since they will only frustrate and annoy even the most advanced teacher.

Perhaps one of the most mitigating aids for the practicing magician who is afflicted by a fear of failure is to understand that not all magical workings will succeed, and that there can be many reasons for failure. While it’s easy to blame the tool, technique, timing, intention, or the will of the magician or that of the associated Godhead, sometimes the probability of something happening is just too low to make any effort successful. Also, all magical actions need to have associated mundane actions in order to properly bend the laws of probability. You can’t just work a spell and sit on your butt expecting the results to miraculously drop into your lap. Another consideration, which is seldom discussed, is that a single magical action, such as a working, may actually require a battery of workings performed over a longer period of time. Trying something just once and then giving up when it fails to produce the desired result reveals a certain amount of ambiguity within one’s intent and a lack of passion and discipline to see it through.    

Arrogance - this is where power corrupts and intoxicates the practicing magician. Once magicians have demonstrated a certain competency in their art, and other magicians appear to admit that fact as well, then there is the possibility that they will start to think of themselves as superior to others. A magician who is succumbing to arrogance begins by assuming that non-practitioners are somehow inferior, and it later grows to include everyone else who is a practitioner. They will denigrate the practices and opinions of other magicians and elevate themselves above and beyond all other human beings. They will close themselves off from their peers and even their friends, lovers and family. I actually once knew a magician who referred to those who weren’t magicians as “mortals,” as if to say that he was somehow immortal. I didn’t try to put him to the test, but I did remark on his misplaced and extreme arrogance.

The experience of magical power can be quite intoxicating and personally gratifying, but all magicians must exercise a certain amount of restraint, and they must understand that the glory of magical power can actually be a distraction from more important things. The difference that magick makes in the material world is actually slightly better than average. While it is possible to produce a “black swan” moment, it is not very probable that such a thing will happen by itself, or even after a great deal of effort over a long period of time. The evolution of a magician causes him or her to realize that wisdom is more important in the long run than material gratification. Wisdom becomes in itself a powerful tool that helps the magician to deal with the burdens particular to his or her path. In time, power becomes far less important than spiritual realizations, insights and the accumulation of personal wisdom. The difference between a young magician and an old magician is that magical power is longer important or even a factor in magick to the mature practitioner. It often seems to be the proclivity of the young and immature magician, who fancies that power is the solution to all of life’s difficulties.

Indolence - this is a subtle issue that usually affects the undisciplined or the older and experienced magician. Fatigue, boredom, procrastination, excuses and idleness are the bane of anyone, but they can stop a magician’s progress dead in its tracks. While it is true that life can and often intervenes into the magician’s magical process, delaying and putting off important projects, it can also become something of a terrible barrier. After having worked magick over a long period of time, a magician can run into dry periods of inactivity, or an all-consuming activity in other areas of one’s life. This does happen, especially if the magician doesn’t have the privilege (or onerous burden) of being able to function as a magician all of the time.

However, like dealing with breaks in concentration during meditation (or ritual work), it is important to be able to pick things up again after the busy times are past. It is also important to maintain some kind of disciplined practice, even if it's just a few minutes a day, or some simple ritual celebrations briefly done over the weekend. Losing the groove of a magical discipline will require the magician to re-establish it, and that will not be easy to do. Inertia is always a force that magicians must reckon with when they seek to perform any kind of lengthy set of workings. It is pernicious and not so easy to overcome, but it is more often the trial of an older experienced magician than one who has just begun his or her magical journey.

Grandiosity - this trial is often much more obvious to others than one’s self. Because a magician is so engaged with his or her art, and with the extension of the self into Godhead, it becomes very easy to slip into a state of narcissistic ego-inflation. We are human after all, and we all suffer from human weaknesses and vices to a lesser and greater extent, but the petty ego can and does engage in magical phenomenon to the extent that it glorifies itself at the expense of anything and anyone else. We have all witnessed individuals who are elevated to higher classes or positions in life, and then observe as it all goes to their head. For those of us who have been in witchcraft covens, we have heard of or experienced first-hand spiritual leaders becoming egotistical and overbearing. Yet this also happens to the magician as well, and in fact, all too often! The intoxicating effect of personally and periodically experiencing spiritual phenomenon, and also directly engaging and assuming a Godhead, can and does completely go to one’s head.

Additionally, claiming great accolades and spiritual accomplishments can make you feel like a god amongst mortals, but the truth is that spiritual and magical accomplishments are relative and only make sense to the individual who has achieved them. Claiming to have crossed the Greater Abyss might impress your magician pals, but it’s something that can’t really be objectively evaluated, and often the one claiming it is possibly self-deluded. I have found that such high level accomplishments are usually so subjective and inexplicable that someone who has truly undergone them is seldom able to talk about them, let alone brag about them. Proof of such accomplishments is often subtle, and ironically they cause one to show a greater overall compassion, sensitivity and personal humility.

Grounding is very important in these situations where ego-inflation occurs, and also a bit of peer review helps, too. Other magicians can spot ego-inflation a mile away, but only if it’s someone else who is behaving so. Keeping oneself in an objective state is difficult, but certainly not impossible. Delusions of Godliness can be easily mitigated if one believes that everyone has within them an aspect of Deity, which the Hindus call the Atman. We are all equally a part and one with the absolute Godhead, so none is more gifted or entitled than another. If the spirits are bowing before you and telling you that you are indeed God Almighty, then you can sagely nod your head and reply “and so is everyone else.” Effectively dealing with this issue is perhaps one of the reasons why I believe that it is so important for each and every magician to have some kind of peer group to judge their work and objectify their experiences.    

Hubris - this is the illusion of wisdom, or what I call, the false-wisdom acquired by dint of age. Over a long period of time each and every magician faces this trial, and if they fail, then they succumb to over-confidence and a belief in their own infallibility. This issue is usually accompanied by the statement “I can do anything” or “I can do no wrong.” These might sound silly to the average magician (and even more silly to the non-magician), but it represents a long period where the magician has either wittingly or unwittingly avoided being challenged by something or someone. He or she has become something of a fossil, and while it might be true that anything could be accomplished, nothing ever really is accomplished ever again.

After many years of piling up magical pedigrees and the personal accolades of others, it seems only natural for such an esteemed magician to just rest on his or her laurels and assume that he or she is infallibly competent. Whether by indolence or a long period of arrogance, sometimes a magician just succumbs to his or her own fame and glory. There doesn’t seem to be any need to be challenged nor does there appear to be any kind of formidable challenge on the horizon. Of course, this is an illusion, since there are always challenges and new things to discover or try.

Yet sometimes magicians begin to believe in their own social propaganda, and it becomes for them something of a final monument to their own supposed greatness. They have retired to the magical monastery and because there is nothing left to learn or try, they ossify and dissolve into the legend they have become and also, I might add, the delusion of who they are. Their words are pompous, full of obvious and trite “truthiness” and their active spiritual and magical practice ceases to be relevant or even useful to others. In fact it just ceases to be altogether. Such individuals hide behind their published works and media personalities while their inner worlds crumble and fall to waste.

Eventually, the world catches up to them and shows them to be shallow, incapable of change and ineffective curiosities of a by-gone time. If they are greatly challenged by someone or something, they naturally fold up and attempt to escape to their place of retreat, although not without experiencing a fair amount of humiliation for themselves and their followers. I have seen this happen a number of times to famous people in witchcraft, paganism, magick and the occult. It is sad and poignant, but it isn’t necessarily a product of old age; it is just hubris, plain and simple.

The way to escape this plight is to never give up growing or seeking out new challenges. When you have mastered a particular path or tradition, then move on to another tradition where you know very little. Never be afraid of being humbled or experiencing what it’s like to be a beginner all over again, because you will profit greatly by periodically having this experience. Additionally, having a real peer group (or a group of equals) is far better than having a group of sycophantic followers. While a peer group will tell you when your ideas are stale or that you are a presumptuous old windbag, followers will never engage in such a discourse simply because they want something and have to be ingratiating in order to get it. A peer group has nothing to lose if they tell you that are suffering from hubris, and that you, so to speak, need a good swift kick in the ass to get moving again.

So, for that reason, I prefer a peer group. If I take on students, I quickly let them know that I am just a student like them. I also tell them that it is likely that they will out do me and acquire greater knowledge than I have ever done if they at least start at the point where I am right now. They can stand on my shoulders and push the envelope of occult knowledge to even greater heights than I ever did, standing on the shoulders of other great men and women who I learned from in my past.

Another important thing to realize is that you are never really done with your studies or practices. There’s always something new to learn, experience or realize, and nothing stays the same - everything is always changing. Because of this, we, too, must change, always and continuously until our last days. I hope to be still working magick, reading, studying and writing to the very last day of my life. I hope someday in the future, while taking my last breath of life, to be saying to myself, “but there is so much more to learn and master, if only I could live a little bit longer.” Thus to quote the infamous starship captain on Galaxy Quest, “never give up and never surrender!”

Frater Barrabbas

Thoughts About Epistemic Closure

Now that the November election is over and most of the results have been tabulated, a new phrase has become vogue in some of the left-leaning political blogs, and that phrase is epistemic closure. It’s a fancy word that describes the fantasy-level wishful thinking that many on the political right had in regards to the predictions that President Obama would be re-elected by a sizable margin of voters and win a landslide of electoral votes.

It would seem that right-wing political pundits and various prognosticators were absolutely shocked that Obama cruised to an election victory on the night of November 6. I recall watching TV and the presidential election was called a little after 11 pm CST, when it became pretty clear that Obama had won the state of Ohio, much to the amazement of the Romney campaign. Mitt Romney had been so convinced that he was going to win the election that he had not bothered to write up a concession speech. Even Karl Rove tried to get FOX news to recant its projection that Obama had won the election while on TV before millions of viewers, and spent a terribly embarrassing twenty minutes or so disputing the projection for Ohio with the FOX news number crunchers. Those who had passionately backed the Republican ticket went through a period of utter denial and disbelief, saying that somehow the election had been erroneously called and that the news outlets were all in on some kind of national conspiracy.

Anyone who had been perusing the internet just a few days before the election would have found that the consensus of poling aggregators (like Nate Silver) had pretty much predicted an Obama victory, and that the national pols weren't as trustworthy as the individual battle ground state pols, which has become something of a pattern in the last several presidential elections. Yet the right-wing bloggers and pundits predicted a Romney landslide, which only made his defeat more astonishing, shocking and bitter to them. It was a situation where reality harshly intruded on the wishful thinking and collective denial of many Republicans who ardently believed and passionately desired the incumbent president to be decisively defeated. They had thought that the election was theirs to win, but the truth was that the Obama campaign was probably one of the best political organizations to be assembled in quite a number of years. They had little chance of winning once the Republican primaries were finished.

Now, nearly a month later, many of the right-wing pundits and commentators have proposed various nefarious scenarios where the election was somehow stolen by voter fraud or a series of underhanded manipulations. They have responded to their shock and disbelief by engaging in greater leaps of fantasy and self-serving rhetoric, saying the nation was now doomed and headed to a complete moral and financial collapse. All of these foolish beliefs and misinformation represent the fact that many on the right are living within their own “bubble,” and their apparent disconnect with reality has been correctly labeled by left-wing pundits as a form of epistemic closure. It’s a neat term that describes in philosophic terms the fact that some people are living in their own reality and refuse to acknowledge that the real reality is much more complex, nuanced and subtle than they realize. 

We don’t live in a world where obvious factions of good are combating against the obvious factions of evil. The good guys don’t wear white hats and the bad guys, black, since at times it’s hard to determine who is really good or bad. In fact, such a simple judgment of good and evil just doesn't make any sense at all. We really live in a grey secular world, and trying to project upon that world one’s overly simplistic religious mythology is likely the first step to becoming a certified nutcase (or at least talking like one).

Examples of the kind of lunacy that lurks within our supposed free thinking society are often found in the emails sent by anonymous trolls to the Daily KOS web page, and they are displayed in all their pathetic glory for all to see every Saturday morning. The spelling and grammar is atrocious, but the ideas espoused are completely over the top. It’s hard to imagine someone cogently thinking these thoughts, writing them and sending them to a liberal blog web page. I don’t believe that these emails are faked or in anyway edited or changed. They represent the true mental health of a small minority of right-wing individuals. Here a couple of samples that you can examine for yourself, and every Saturday there are several more presented in a blog article called the "Saturday hate-mail-a-palooza."

“Obama will execute his evil plan through a mind-control technique called the Delphi protocol. This was developed by the NWO-connected Rand corporation during the cold war, and the stolen election was the first large-scale attempt to deploy the Delphi protocol.”    

“Do you know what God looks like?  You aren't even fit to get on your knees before his likeness! You should be ashamed. Your plan to pull the plug on my grandma will not work, if I have to stand watch over her bedside for the Obamaloons come to smother her with a pillow every damn day of my life!!”  

I have already made some of these points in a previous article that I posted the day after the election, and if you missed it, you can read it here. However, I am more than a little bit concerned by the continued presence of epistemic closure that seems to be haunting the right-wing political machine in this country. It can be a pernicious malady resistant to change and oblivious to facts, but if it isn’t overcome, it could set the stage for an epic failure.

As occultists and magicians we should be looking at this social phenomenon as an example of what might happen to anyone who ends up believing too much in their own personal hype and who, therefore, refuse to allow objectivity to mitigate their emotional and mental excesses. Objectivity is the one palliative that can truly correct one’s erroneous beliefs and assumptions. Working magic alone for many years and being socially isolated and without any objective engagement with a peer group of fellow magicians will likely produce a state of epistemic closure. This is something that we collectively need to avoid at all costs.

So how does one fall prey to this terrible state of affairs? How do occultists or practicing magicians end up living in their own bubble, divorced from objective reality or scientific fact? I can say from experience that it sneaks up on you completely unaware, and it evolves over a period of time. It is subtle, at first, and after a period of time, it can ultimately lead one from conjecture and inference to complete distortion and delusion. Entering this state happens gradually, often without a troubled thought, warning or even an intuition of impending doom. By the time close associates, friends or family become aware of it, the bubble has completely closed and only reflects back one’s absolute sense of certainty and even destiny. Nothing can seem to penetrate that insular enclosure, just short of personal disaster. The trick is to either insure that it never happens or at least leave the door of possible dialogue always open to friends and family. Still, reality has a way of intruding sooner or later, since most pipe dreams are unsustainable.

I have personally experienced this kind of phenomenon when I was a member of Bill Schoebelen’s “Coven From Hell” many years ago. I was not alone, since all of the members of that small group ended up living in a bubble of misinformation, projected myth and outright delusion. When any of us were kicked out of that coven (and that eventually happened to everyone except Bill and Sharon), we found ourselves trying to cope with the cold and cruel objective world that had suddenly appeared before us. Our dreams and fantasies about living forever in an idyllic Wiccan Camelot were simultaneously and completely annihilated. I went through that terrible awakening and realization, and I know all too well why some would be very reluctant to do so. Yet in order to grow and evolve, it was an important and necessary thing to experience, since otherwise I would have become quite incapable of functioning in the real world.

Combating an occult version of epistemic closure requires first and foremost the ability to doubt oneself and one’s beliefs. If you are absolutely certain that you are right about your spiritual and occult beliefs, then it is likely that some form of closure is already occurring. In fact, it is healthy to doubt and question yourself about nearly everything at some point. Never be completely satisfied with any explanation or supposed irrefutable fact when it comes to occultism and mystical spirituality. You can accept proven scientific theories, but it becomes important to be a little bit skeptical about anything that is based on subjective experience, particularly experiences with paranormal or occult phenomenon.

It’s also important to be open minded about alternative possible perspectives or opinions concerning these phenomena, in fact I would say that it’s important to be open minded, period. It is prudent to avoid unproven dogma as well as urban myths and popular misconceptions. Gullibility and credulity are serious flaws in judgment that an occultist or magician should avoid wherever possible. A quick perusal of such web sites dedicated to debunking urban myths and misinformation can really assist one in staying above the cultural baloney factor, like the site Snopes dot com located here.

What keeps all of us magicians and occultists on the objective path is to get input and criticism from one’s peers. In fact, it is the peer group that acknowledges personal claims and accolades as either facts or fallacies. A magician can make all sorts of claims and brag about what he or she has accomplished to others, but a peer group of magicians is most qualified to make a judgement or determination about such claims and accomplishments. Likewise, a peer group can question the misinformation or even delusions that a magician might be operating under and save them the trouble of embarrassment or even disastrous consequences by pitting objective rationality against subjective illusions or delusions.

The reason why a peer group of magicians is so important is that they won’t judge a fellow practitioner’s claims as obviously false, but instead they will at the very least compare it to their own experiences, and at the most, they can test it for truth by taking the time to perform the same rites under analogous conditions. Also, there is no greater objective test of any magical working than doing it with a group of fellow magicians. While each participant will certainly experience something different and unique, the points that they will experience in common will undoubtedly reinforce and objectify the overall experience of magick. 

This is one reason why I believe it’s important for the beginner to have a group of individuals with whom he or she can perform group workings. Other magicians will certainly understand what a ritual magician has undergone while performing a working, and if they happen to have been there with him or her, they can certify that what was experienced was real and not fantasy based. Yet those who have no experience or knowledge of magick could never adequately judge whether a magician was experiencing something credible or not.

Therefore, cultivating a peer group and expanding beyond the typical impersonal social network of Face Book friends, Twitter feeds, blogs, email and other internet exchanges will ensure that the magician has a more healthy relationship with reality than otherwise. Looking for help and guidance from strangers on the internet is not very helpful or productive. Most towns have some kind of occult social collective, or at least, one can travel to the nearest metropolitan area to acquire that kind of social connection if it is lacking in the area close by. Finding other like-minded individuals who are not only sympathetic to magick but who are actual practitioners in their own right is just as important to a magician’s development as collecting the latest cutting edge occult lore or even finding a teacher. (Having recourse to a second opinion is important to curb the excesses of badly written books and teachers who are either incompetent or untrustworthy.)

As you can see, we can do a lot to make certain that regularly working magick and studying the occult doesn't put us into a socially isolated life situation. I have stated my opinion numerous times in this blog about the hazards of working forms of heavy or intense magick alone and without any input from other practitioners. We now have a name for the malady that can develop if magicians pursue their magical avocation without recourse to any degree of objective criticism or a rational examination of their work. 

Avoiding the pitfalls of epistemic closure is an important behavior and practice for the practicing ritual magician to adopt. While it might not drive someone insane to unwittingly undergo this malady, it can certainly make his or her occult path more difficult and could even force occult seekers to end their search prematurely. A key point is that a closed mind is a terrible curse to have to experience, particularly when reality harshly and decisively intervenes.

Frater Barrabbas