Tag: emergent magick

Emergent Magick is not anti-science, it is anti-scientism. Scientific materialism will never find a universal theory. It will never explain human experience. We have been studying the placebo effect since the 19th century. While researchers can identify changes in brain chemistry caused by placebos, we have yet to identify the mechanism that causes them in the first place. The obvious answer is consciousness, which is always discarded by laboratory scientists as it is unmeasurable and unqualifiable. Even scientists have admitted that reproducible experiments are getting harder to come by as we continue to find increasing complexities. It just may be that some things will never be explained without acknowledging magick’s role in the universe.  

Emergent Magick – Chapter 9: Creation

Many magi spend their
entire careers experimenting with different forms of magick and attempting to
find their true purpose. Such explorations are laudable and even inevitable, as
magick, like religion and art, tries to answer questions so large and complex
that they are impossible to put into words. Even finding an individual true
purpose holds so many implications it can take a life time to discover. Many
magi refer to this as an individual’s true Will, sometimes simply referred to
as Will. The word is intentionally capitalized to differentiate it from
something a person simply wants to do, a matter of ego, from something that
defines their purpose for being. From the simple starting point of discovering
one’s Will a host of questions follow. Does my Will fulfill a greater purpose?
How does my Will interact with others? What do I do when in conflicts? Is there
a greater Will than my own? Is my own Will truly a separate thing, or simply a
limited perception of a greater consciousness?

While we begin this
chapter with such high concepts, it’s only to provide a destination for the map
you will devise to help guide your Emergent practice. So, far we have described
many of the tools used by Emergent magi. Many of the details are left
intentionally blank so as not to lead a potential magus into believing there
exists one true way of doing magick. Unlike so many other books we won’t
provide you with lists of symbols, or mythology, or spells. The secret is not
in here. The only true revelation comes in the process of learning and doing
for yourself.

With that being said, it
is impossible to teach the EMK process without providing examples. The majority
of the examples in this chapter come from the Gutter Bible and the subsequent paradigm created from it by the
Order of Emergent Magi (OEM). A few other examples are included as well to show
how more traditional paradigms can be used in EMK. The key word is examples. We
in no way imply that these paradigms must be used or are suited for any
individual. However, getting on to the business of actually doing magick is
paramount in EMK, and if a magus finds these paradigms interesting, they should
feel free to experiment within them.

In creating your own
Emergent practice it may be helpful to see it as using a map. With a map you
start with where you are and plot your way to a final destination. Your
starting point influences your path, but there may be many routes to the same
destination. There absolutely will be stops and detours along the way. Your
starting point is your temple. That paradigm you have chosen or discovered that
gives you a base set of beliefs to start with.

Second, you choose your
destination. We encourage all magi to be fanciful and to set their sights high.
Why do something as impossible as magick if you don’t use it to achieve
impossible things? Questions like: Is there a universal consciousness? What is
the universe made of? Is everything random or by design? Are the gods real or
just our imagination? Sometimes these questions can be so big they transcend
logic and are difficult to put into words, like the Zen koan, “What is the
sound of one hand clapping?” In the OEM we ask, “What is the purpose of
consciousness?”

Spend some time musing
about your questions, but do not try to answer them. You may have theories, but
the purpose of doing magick is to find the answers. From these questions, drill
down, your next set of questions may also be large and only slightly less
specific. These questions may also be influenced by your choice of paradigm. A
magus that has chosen to follow Thelema, the magical practice based on Kabbalah
and Aleister Crowley’s revelation called The
Book of the Law, may ask themselves, “What is my true Will?” “What is the
nature of love?” When exploring the Gutter
Bible, we asked ourselves, “What is humanities place in the universe?”
“Does alien consciousness exist and how can we possibly understand it?”  

Keep asking questions
until you find one that can possibly be answered or at least guide you in the
right direction, the first stop on your map. The question and how it can be
answered will eventually fit within the beliefs and practices of your paradigm.
This requires an artistic sensibility. Through examination of the Gutter Bible, the OEM discovered the
question, “Can insanity offer a clue to understanding alien consciousness?” The
writings in the Gutter Bible seemed
at times to be profound examinations of the human condition, perhaps from
outside normal human understanding. From that the OEM reasoned that contacting
alien consciousness requires a state of temporary insanity. From there we had
some basis for how to develop the gnosis required.

Belief in Emergent Magick

One of the core differences
between its predecessor, Chaos Magick, and Emergent Magick lies in how they
approach belief. Classic Chaos Magick uses belief as a tool. In that philosophy,
beliefs can be added and discarded as desired. While some chaos magicians hold
core beliefs throughout their magical practice, most change their paradigm
frequently, oftentimes on a whim. Chaos Magick advocates switching beliefs in
order to find the right tool for the job. While this can work if all a magician
is interested in is operative magick, it becomes a detriment to spiritual
growth. A belief can better be seen as a muscle. Use it frequently and it
becomes stronger and more useful. Use it seldom and it fails to perform when
needed.

Another analogy would be
that Emergent Magick sees belief as a temple. The temple can be redecorated. It
can renovated and added to, but remains the same at its core. As a magus learns
more about the nature of the universe through magick, their temple reflects
this. Look at the temples of any religion or magical organization and you will
find that they reflect the beliefs of their followers. In many cases they form
a symbolic microcosm of that organization’s paradigm. A prime example would be
the temples created by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The black and
white checkered floors and black and white pillars represent a belief system
based on a struggle between and union of opposites. It shows a literal
interpretation of the hermetic belief, “As above, so below.” As the magicians
of that order see the universe they try to recreate in their temple. Many
gothic cathedrals were designed in the shape of a cross. The ultimate symbol of
the faith. Even modern Catholic churches have, in their stained glass windows
or by carvings or pictures, the Stations of the Cross, symbolic representations
of the story of the crucifixion.

The strength of a temple
comes from its foundation. While the core philosophy of EMK is magick informed
by magick, a magus needs to start somewhere. Magick is the art of altering
consciousness. But the “art” in that statement contains all of the traditional and
nontraditional symbols and beliefs used by the magus to alter that consciousness.
It can be as simple as believing that the world contains spirits that can be
contacted and invoked. From there the magus develops methods to contact those
spirits and learns from them the other ways of manipulating consciousness and
the nature of the universal consciousness itself.

Building a temple of
belief takes time and careful consideration. There can be many false starts. A
magus may find that their core belief takes them nowhere. In the above example,
perhaps the magus spends a few years summoning spirits but never develops
meaningful communication with them. Perhaps the spirits only teach the magus a
few useful magical tricks but they have no better knowledge of the nature of
the universe than the magus themselves. In that case, a magus may choose to
tear down the foundation of their temple of belief and start over. This should
never be undertaken lightly, less the magus becomes a simple chaos magician,
and never explores a paradigm unto fruition.

Finding the right place to
build your temple of belief takes time and serious exploration. A magus may
take years learning about magical paradigms until they find one suitable to
build upon. There’s nothing wrong with taking an existing and proven magical
paradigm and building off of that. The Order of Emergent Magi finds ancestor
veneration, the oldest magical paradigm, a good place to start. A good
foundation may ultimately contain parts of several belief systems. Received
wisdom, which comes to a magus through visions, dreams, or other random
transmissions also make good starting points. The OEM uses the Gutter Bible, a found artifact, as a
cipher for magical ritual.

A good foundation must
contain mystery. All should not be plain from the beginning. The belief system
should contain elements that are indecipherable unless approached in an altered
state of consciousness. Beware of closed systems, like Kabbalah, which purports
to contain every aspect of the universe in a convenient package of ten
sephiroth. This can limit a magus, as they will undoubtedly find aspects of the
universe that don’t fit within the system.

Remember, however, you are
only choosing a foundation. The most important part of EMK is what you learn
while doing the magick itself. Those become the treasures of your temple. A
magus considers carefully before ever discarding one.

Magick is not a game.
Beliefs are not theories that a magus bandies about and justifies through
intellectual exercise. A magus must hold their beliefs in the core of their
being. For a magus, the world is truly a magical place. When a hoodoo
practitioner throws salt into the corner of a room to banish evil spirits, they
know, not simply think, that evil spirits exist and that they flee from salt.
They never question it. They accept that wisdom passed down through generations
of root doctors. One of the hardest tasks a magus faces is truly internalizing received
wisdom in a society that does not accept magick.