Lady Eva,
I have a question for you.
What are Cause-Effect Chains? What do they consist of, spiritually, physically or metaphysically? [/quote]
This is a concept I have seen that fits with, and (for me – UPG disclaimer as ever) this fits with the concept that there isn’t so much a “reality” or “physical world” which is more “real” than spiritual realms.
Rather, there’s a mass-observed spacetime perception (MOSP), mass-observed because many individuals, regardless of belief and spiritual awareness can see the same thing and agree upon its existence, and events can be recorded using phsyical devices and be observed to remain the same. (In most cases, let’s stick with the normal everyday for the sake of defining the baseline state of the MOSP/”reality”.)
This MOSP trundles along the lines of probabilities, including the known laws of physics and of human psychology (though the current knowledge of these things is incomplete and/or flawed) and, specifically, the 7 Principles named in the Kybalion, of which Cause & Effect is one.
What it means is that certain events (changes in state of an object within the MOSP) will be the effect of a cause of some kind, and that such changes in state never occur without a cause.
And that change, that effect, will in itself become the cause of another subsequent effect.
For example, you have a teaspoon of sugar sitting in a glass beaker which, left to itself and not exposed to chemicals, pollution, or ants, will mostly remain as it is.
You come along with some hot water and pour it over the sugar, becoming the Cause of an Effect, which is that the sugar loses its granular form and dissolves into the water, dispersing more evenly and throughout the water.
That effect is then the cause of further effects, which include sweetening the water, making the water a source of calories for a living being, or maybe making it suitable to preserve some material (like fruit preserved in syrup), etc.
This is a sequence of Cause > Effect and the art of magick is to create a change of some kind through influence and probable but (usually) UNLIKELY events being inserted.
So a Cause-Effect Chain is anything where there is a sequence of changes being made towards an outcome, and magick plays upon these to insert a change, for example someone accidentally prepared the beaker with a teaspoon of salt that had been mislabelled weeks before, by someone who had a hangover or PMS, and the whole downstream sequence changes as a result.
Instead of preserving fruit, it renders it inedible, instead of being a source of calories, it makes the drinker feel queasy, and so on.
They CAN – literally anything at all is a chain of this kind (my reply is the Effect of the Cause of your question, and look how far the roots of that go back, to you finding this forum and then all the causes for THAT!) so yes – as with all the principles on the Kybalion, they can be found everywhere in the causal MOSP/”reality.”
I’ve read a lot of their stuff but I’m not enough of an expert to dive into that, but the causal realm runs under the principles in the Kyb. Which include Cause & Effect, and the acausal doesn’t.
[quote] Can we view our own cause-effect chains, or is it beyond our scope of senses?
I could win the money and buy one, or inherit one from an unknown rich aunt, or be given one by a friend, or find one mislabelled and underpriced in a junk shop - or, save, or take out a small loan, and purchase one from a West End jeweller.
)