(This post originally appeared on my Patreon. It is the first lesson of my magical education course, Metamagic.)
The World in Energy
So, you’re looking for good magic- either to start with, or, to sharpen your already-honed skills on. You’ve made a good choice in the Metamagic course.
Why do I say that?
It’s simple- to quote Carlos Castaneda, “this world is a world of energy first, then of objects”. Einstein’s theory of relativity provided a mathematical basis for this, in which it was indicated that energy and mass are one and the same, and can be converted into one another. Magical texts ancient and modern talk about the energy in living things, or innate in the deities of their local cultures and landscapes.
Well, what is this “energy?”
Firstly, we can compare it to the types and scales of physical structures that we know about on earth, and beyond. From the tiniest measurement outward, we can detect a commonality in the way the universe is arranged: everything is in a pattern. Whether the pattern is the parts of an atom, the structure of a cell, the strands of DNA, the functions of an ecosystem- our world is many moving parts placed in rhythms and tides, ebbs and flows of logics and hidden practicalities.
As mass and energy are the same force, we can reconstruct this statement to mean that the energies of our world are structured in scales of moving patterns that are interwoven and interlocking within one another on a planetary (and beyond) scale. Energies possess interconnections at the same scale/measurement, and at larger ones- these relationships are partly functional in nature, such as the esoteric energy of death being another face of the esoteric energy of evolution, and are partly expectational in nature, such as the personal associations you make to the type of energy you are accessing (for example, if you associate death with phoenixes, or with oblivion, etc.).
It’s not like the forces of physics that we know of- heat, electricity, nuclear energy, etc. It isn’t something that we can measure like physical energies, or even reliably perceive as such. There is, however, a different physical science that shares commonalities in mechanisms with those of magical forces. I speak of quantum physics, in the broadest sense.
Why quantum physics?
There are many specific interrelations between quantum physics and magical work, but, most of them are the purview of another course. The reason I have specified this field of study has nothing to do with the new-age woo-woo attached to it, and has everything to do with a phenomenon dubbed “the observer effect”.
Put in the simplest scientific terms, light is both a wave and a particle, and it is in the act of observing/recording/quantifying that collapses the superimposed state of it being both, into a measurable outcome. There is a notable correlation between expectation, and the perceived result- which outcome collapses into reality, and which outcome decays completely.
In magic, this effect is even more pronounced and entangled with the minds of the observers. Expectation informs reality, and sets the boundaries of possibility. This means that, for something to truly break the bounds of your expectation in possibility, you must observe the possibility of being surprised. We are all the makers of our own reality tunnels, in which the volatile energetic conditions we set with our attention eventually gravitate and solidify to physical boundaries over time and with attention given to it. Some traditions, including branches of magical midwifery, incorporate an approach to this innate duality of outcome in the form of “blessing and binding”- working for the outcome you want, and against the outcome you do not. The result of such a technique is the overriding of the binary collapse of the outcome created by the magic; the magic opens the door or road to the possibility, but, the technique strains out the unwanted possibilities from the desirable ones that are otherwise linked together in a state of quantum superposition.
What, exactly, does this all mean?
Science has shown us that it is our brains which interpret the signals we receive from reality into a shared meaning of “the world”. Without the filters of interpretation created by our brains, we are adrift in a sea of signals, lost in atomic configurations interacting with forces.
Just like we create filters over our physical perceptions, the same is true of our energetic perceptions. This set, however, is far more fluid than the circuitry used by our bodies to decode images received by the eyes, for it can be influenced by conscious attention. Our minds govern the energetic possibilities accessible to us through magical work- a mind locked in doubts, skepticism, and a necessity to see to believe dilute the possible avenues for magic to manifest in an observable fashion to you. On the flip side of the entanglement coin, we have hope, desperation, anxiety, and pure, unadulterated want- by placing your attention on how much you need or want an outcome to manifest, you also place your attention in the state of not having the outcome, and unconsciously create expectations that pertain to such a frame of being (“a watched pot never boils”, and all). Looking for the “hard and fast” evidence, or depending entirely on magic as the savior from circumstances, is a trap.
The tint and hue of your observations directly impacts the invisible volatility of the world, whether you intend it to or not. These observations include the ones you make in your imagination, as, contrary to the modern opinion that the imagination was developed as a creative space, it was evolved for the purposes of understanding the reality of that which our normal senses cannot properly interpret on their own. Your expectations, or lack thereof, define the scope and style of your relationship to magically wrought outcomes. This is to say that: your expectations, your thoughts, your emotions, your imaginings, your very consciousness- is an energy type. The energy that is your particular consciousness relates to and interprets the whole of reality that it interacts with. If a score of human emotive responses are observational and energetic interference to magic’s manifestation, then, what isn’t?
The essence of it: be at peace with the possibilities, especially of never having the outcome you cast for.
In my experience, there are two modalities of mind to take for optimal relationship-to-outcome configurations. These approaches are mutually exclusive, and require adaptation and practice to determine which suits you more. Occasionally, you may benefit by switching between these modalities for different types of outcomes or severities of situation. These are easily separated:
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Nothing Matters. The core of this approach is to treat everything, not just magical work, like a game. It boils down to fun, novelty, and curiosity as a way of life, exploring unusual options and experimenting with things that entertain and interest you. By treating magical manifestations as a game you play against the flows of chance in reality, you disentangle yourself from the dependency of result our minds gravitate towards in matters of magic. Make it fun, and you will slowly begin to be drawn to the novelty and uniqueness of magic, which will draw your unconscious attention away from the entangling forces of desire, and into the accelerating fuels of chaos and entertainment. The takeaway from this approach is “So what?”
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Everything Matters. The core of this approach is to treat everything, not just magical work, as a life-or-death situation. It boils down to taking every obstacle as a serious threat, and every opening as a weakness to be manipulated. This is the approach of giving your 100% effort to making the magic manifest- being fully disciplined in your thoughts/observations, casting for every vector of every stage of the outcome to be blessed or bound as your vision for reality holds it, and taking full responsibility for each of your failures and successes. In this frame of mind, defeats can be crushing, and successes all the more rewarding. The trick of this modality is to not entangle it in hope or need, but instead in acceptance of reality and the tenacity to change it at any cost. The takeaway from this approach is “I will change this reality”.
“But Chaos”, you may be asking, “If my individual consciousness is a type of energy, doesn’t that mean everyone’s is?”
That is correct.
You see, everyone sets the boundaries of their own reality tunnels, influencing the rate at which probabilities manifest and events occur in the various ways and types that they do. With so many reality tunnels overlapping, via the presence of conscious beings in not just the forms of humans, but of animals, plants, rocks, and in every facet and form of the universe, there is bound to be interference between these observers. The pattern of possibilities encoded in one’s consciousness can be edited, added upon, directed, or brutalized by the resistance posed by one or more observers’ relationship to the outcomes. This is the origin of “to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent”- to know the reality of what you face, to will to change it, to dare to overcome the resistance to the manifestation, and to keep silent, to not draw additional attention to your affairs.
In other words, magic is not a test of who’s will is stronger, but of which strategy and soul triumphs in the quantum combat to collapse outcomes into manifestation. We will speak more of this in the coming lessons.
Consciousness as an energy pattern is not something unique to beings with physical form, either. A way of describing spirits is “the consciousness patterns of forces of reality”, such as the exoteric scientific understandings of the universe, and the esoteric concepts which rule the mind, such as infinity, death, love, and so on. The difference between a spirit and a deity can thusly be described as “the consciousness patterns which predate and formulate the forces and mechanisms of reality”, being themselves conscious amalgamations of diverse spirit patterns which may, or may not, share similar traits or otherwise appear entangled with one another. Whereas a spirit would be “of the sky”, a deity would be “the sky”; deities are the source of the patterns that spirits are the consciousnesses of.
Where do we fit in this picture?
That will be covered in the next lesson.
AXIOMS
Meditate for at least 10 minutes on the meanings of each of these phrases:
“A watched pot never boils”.
“To know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent”.
SUGGESTED READING
The Quareia Course
Genevieve Davis’ books
PRACTICAL WORK
As we have discussed, the imagination is our very own evolutionary response to the spirit worlds, giving us a leg up in understanding the unseen reality around us through the ability to make sense of and interpret things and forces we cannot otherwise perceive.
There are two exercises to practice.
The first is called “The Spark”. It is very simple: command your finger to move, as you normally would, but do not allow it to move. As you focus on this sensation of keeping it still while the command to move it is active, you will come to notice a slight change in the feeling of the finger when it is being commanded by the brain, as opposed to when it is not. This feeling, which will become clear by mindful practice and sensing into the finger, is nerve-sense or nerve energy, which is the groundwork for the second exercise. Practice this as frequently as you can.
This exercise is called “The Reach”. It is written as a training method for the sense of touch, but, can be substituted for all different senses. Practice this as often as possible.
Step 1: Palm
- Use the pointer of one hand to draw a spiral on the palm of the other, starting from the edge and ending in the center. Take your finger off, and try to recreate the sensation of the spiral being made in your palm without the finger. It takes imagination and practice. When you’ve successfully recreated it, try manipulating it- reversing the direction of the spiral, the speed of the sensation, the texture and temperature, etc. Your goal here is to have the physical sensations of it without having used the physical means to create them.
Step 2: Replicability
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Perform Step 1 in different conditions, ie at night and at day, alone or with others around, in nature or city, and take notice of how your body feels during and after these tests, being mindful of variances in results. See what helps you out the most by trying it in every variation of condition you can manage.
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Then, try duplicating the sensation. Create the spiral on both of your palms, hold the feeling there, augment the textures, etc.
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When you can sustain two spirals evenly, without letting one fade or become out of control, move on to the next step.
Step 3: Movement
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Create and sustain the two spiral sensations while moving, and while your hands are preoccupied with something else. You will notice, when successful (and you will succeed, if you don’t give up- it took me years to perfect this by myself, just keep trying and it will eventually click), that the spiral sensations overlap with whatever you have in your hands; occasionally biological organisms will intuit something there, too. This quality means you’ve successfully moved it from imagination into nerve-sense space, which is integral.
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When you can get a biological organism to feel something when interacting with your spirals, begin moving them from your palms. Replicate the sensation all over your body and in as many places on and inside of yourself you can manage at once, alternating temperature/speed/texture to condition your body to vastly different energies. When you can successfully move them from your palms to anywhere on/in your body, then try originating them in a place that you can’t provide the foundational sensory input for, such as outside of your physical body.
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When you can completely control the spirals and everything about them sensationally, move on to the next step.
Step 4: Synthesis
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Touch something inanimate, and be mindfully aware of every trait of the feeling of touching it. Focus on the feeling of your hand connecting with the inanimate object. When you have that focus, detach from it, and keep concentrating on the feeling of interaction between your hand and the object. When the sensation dies down, use your imagination and practice to revitalize the sensation of touching it in that same hand, in the manner of how you created the spirals. Then, activate the feeling remotely and/or on a different part of your body, that had no contact with the original object.
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Repeat steps 1-3 with the touched object.
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When the object’s sensory data is as familiar to your practice as the spirals, repeat this process with as many other things as you can, holding as many distinct object patterns in your sensory grasp as you can manage.
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Only when you’re confident with the inanimate objects should you try the same with biological organisms, as they can have more pronounced effects on your mind through concentration on the sensation of touch.
Until next time,
Chaos