I accepted Ahriman’s invitation and challenge to work through the Path of Smoke. And it is most certainly a challenge.
Everything I’ve experienced since I began this journey has forced me to see and confront a Limitation I’ve placed upon myself … or accepted a Limitation that others had placed upon me.
I haven’t spoken about it in public, but I recently experienced a magickal attack. It was a minor nuisance at best, but it started really pissing me off.
I allowed the attack to stay trapped in a certain part of my body until I decided how to handle the situation. And the more I felt it, the more angry I became.
And then the truly dark thoughts entered my mind, gifts from Ahriman.
A few months ago, those thoughts would have frightened me.
You see, my girlfriend has some very nasty and creative ideas for revenge. She hasn’t acted on any of them, but the ideas themselves truly frightened me and I could see the darkness dwelling within her.
But this night, my ideas frightened her. And I was perfectly fine with that.
I chose not to act upon them, but rather to discuss them with her. A King has his Council, after all.
And as I let me anger go, the Limitation I was placing upon myself, I began to see the dangers that Kurtis warned about within “The Black Magick of Ahriman”.
I can learn to harness these powers for the real battle … or I can embrace my own self-destruction.
The moment I realized this, Ahriman spoke these words in my mind … “Think like a God, not like a Man.”
So I did. I considered how the gods and goddesses have taught me lessons for my own evolution.
Sometimes the lessons were painful, but they were always designed to give me the option of evolving or not. It was my decision that determined my own fate.
As I began to ponder this, I focused on what I could do to these two black magickians to help them evolve. And several more, somewhat gentler and certainly far kinder, methods entered my mind.
In the end, I chose to store whatever energy they send my way and to turn it to my own purposes at a later date. Thank you for your thoughtful gift.
The next day, I received another very powerful gift from Ahriman … a very potent magickal technique I will only share with the two people I was told to share it with. When the time is right.
In the end, Ahriman doesn’t care what choice I make. He shows me the Limitations and challenges me to remove them.
So far, I’m up to the challenge. And one way or another, I will learn.