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Šopyrighted by Crystal Pages (1997)
MAGIC!!
Dear friends,
If magic is 'natural', then the younger that one is, the closer one must be to being able to use it. As one grows and learns more and more (about things that are essential for living and performing well in the society we live in), the force known as 'instinct' that each of us comes blessed with in this world, gets pushed away to the background, even negated totally. As our true nature or natural attributes recede, so does the magic that we brought with us.
Innocence, purity and joy. Three attributes we see in most babies. Are these what give rise to magic? Or do they merely set the stage for magic to 'work'? Or, are they just there?? Coexisting conditions, attributes. Like a diamond with aroma!
Magic changes forms and contents of things, but it also creates things new! What is in a child that creates? Imagination, of course! What triggers imagination? Curiosity! Or perhaps the natural urge to create??
We are afraid of imagination. We are ambivalent about it. We are right! It is powerful stuff! It could create what would make life enjoyable. It could also make our life a living nightmare!
Now, reality we love! We are comfortable with reality. Its 'lions' are in zoos. Its 'knaves' are in the jail. It seems so constant. Always there, reassuring, almost like a mother, we are expected to believe. But, is it?
What was reality yesterday, last month, last century, is not necessarily so any more. No more do we carry water from the stream afar. We do not strike flint-stones with shivering hands anymore, we flip a switch. We do not succumb to commonplace but deadly infections anymore (we *do* to other causes!). Our reality has changed over the years. But think for a moment! The force that really brought these changes was i-m-a-g-i-n-a-t-i-o-n!!
The magical spark that arose, eons ago, in beady little eyes lurking from beneath bushy eyebrows on a narrow sloping forehead. It could not have been a gradual process. It had to be instilled, like magic, it did not evolve!
Words and 'terms' have so much emotions vested in them. Specially the negative emotions, that program us for failures. We avoid the love-hate feelings that we have for imagination. So we call it "visualization". We call it 'creating reality'. As long as it unleashes the very same force, the same magic, what does it matter?
But new words, even when more precise, are sterile. They need to kick around for awhile before they get vested with the color and smell of emotions; the real tools of 'power'. It is not the word that makes the mantra, it is the thoughtform that goes with the word, as they say. The aura of power generated by the souls of all those that touched and used the word.
So if we can, why not use a tried and tested word that has been kicking around. Let us divest from it the negative implications, the *fear* that it got clad, no chained-in, and release its true power. Recognize and accept it for what it truly is.
Do not think that this "reworking towards the core of the word" would be easy. Emotions are powerful things, and clingy. And extremely individual!!
Meditate and contemplate on what "imagination" means to you. Challenge yourself to speak up and reveal your true feelings about the word. Then and only then, determine if you are happy with those labels. Shed them off one by one, until you see that imagination is nothing other than the creative power that brings us closer to the image that we have of the 'divine' entity (subject to our religious beliefs).
Take this power seriously. What we create in the seemingly nonexistent ethereal plane of the mind might seem to blow away like a wandering cloud, but it *w-i-l-l* rain over someone, sometime, somewhere!
One of these days, we must talk about umbrellas or raincoats!
So imagination is the true force that drives magic. After it has been 'freed' and divested from its trappings. One wonders if these trappings were placed 'on purpose', as protection! After all, imagination is an intensely powerful faculty.
We know of people who have intensely vivid imaginations. We also speak of people with no imagination. But imagination as the raw, naked force is the same for all. How much one can tap into it varies. Even 'tapping into' has a ring of imprecision to it. One probably needs to become 'one' with the force in order to make it 'work'. This has its dangers! The danger is not because of imagination itself. It is a part of nature, like fire. How we use it would determine whether it would keep us alive on a winter night or roast us in a forest-fire!
The more we seek to understand its pure form, the less likely we would be to misuse it. Going in with a specific (and selfish) goal might give us some understanding, but we could be in the position similar to an eight-year old who can start a car and make it move. But can he 'drive' it? By the time one feels that one 'needs' magic, it might be too late already! Imagination is a force which does not like bounds and preconditions. We speak of "harnessing-one's- imagination". This is oxymoronic! The very act of trying to harness imagination would turn off the magic! Concretized and crystallized imagination gives us a 'product'. That is what inventors do, not magicians! Two different paths, altogether!
Magicians flow with it. They observe and study it, passively. They are not hunters out to trap a wild beast, to tame it, to possess and control it. They are naturalists, lying patiently out there, observing the beauty of nature, as it prances about, oblivious of its secret admirers. This is how the indoctrination starts, anyway. Sometimes, along the path, some observers turn into hunters. That raises the importance of "working on oneself" prior to and during the "apprenticeship". When "trekking" through a wild forest, on cannot be oblivious of dangers that are real, very much there and which one is certain to come across during the exploration. So, it is little wonder that many follow "paths". Trails that show where others have gone before. Paths that have been explored, perhaps are relatively safer, or certainly feel so. The huge jungle has so many paths. So much to choose from. So many road maps, so many perspectives. There are limitations too in following beaten paths! What a beautifully perplexing thing freedom of choice is!
But some of the above might strike a discord, might face resistance. On the one hand "magic" is imagination, and enjoys the spontaneity, freedom and limitlessness that we know imagination possesses (regardless of how much we use it, individually), yet onthe other hand, there is the contrasting association of most forms of magic with rituals, many of a very concrete, unwavering nature, seeped in finicky details and specifics.
Conscious thinking processes, that get us through the day, and even operate during sleep, in most of us can operate best only when they are assured of full control. Essential perhaps at some levels of functioning, this is counterproductive, obviously, when we wish to deal with the non-structured, boundless,creative force of imagination. Are rituals 'pegs' that are used for anchoring these conscious, decision-making, interfering, controlling facets of mind; giving those some "serious" adult things to do, while the *child* within is free to explore the _clay_ of imagination and make magic! Contemplate on this. Dwell on this thought. Decide for yourself what rituals mean and represent, to y-o-u! A very delicate balance between the 'adult' and the "child" seems to suggest to many as the best compromise. And that is what they do. The problems is that in doing so, the "clay" becomes 'things'. Objects that are colorful, beautiful, baked and fixed. The clay is there no more! The process is admirable, even useful. But not magic!
Maybe, in *this* current pursuit of ours, the adult and child must not meet! They do not belong together. So, perhaps, rituals a-r-e important, for most, for that very reason. Some practitioners use herbal and other intoxicants, as part of the rituals. To knock the 'adult' senseless. Drastic measures! Double-edged swords cut well! Too much, as a rule!!
We must talk about umbrellas and raincoats, soon!
So you have decided to enter the forest. For all the right reasons! Primarily to create "m-a-g-i-c. That is what these messages are about!!! You have the sense of direction. You mean no harm. You are fascinated by imagination, the primal force that creates magic! You see it for what it is, without any labels or pseudo-intellectual values. Noble as your purpose and intent might be, you-are- entering-a-wild-forest. Real hurt can result from an accident as well as being an innocent victim of someone else's *exploration* (kind of like more hunters rather than prey getting killed during the hunting season!). The cloud I was talking about earlier could rain over *y-o-u*!!
The more one moves ahead in exploring and accepting the real power of imagination, the finer one's senses and sensitivity get to be. the more real that *imagination* begins to feel, the more real, the jungle becomes (note, 'becomes', not appears!). Courage and unwavering intent, which is tied in with faith in oneself and one's purpose for taking this journey, are what remain necessary then. One does not get to this point, through natural means, overnight or without necessary preparation. That is a good thing!
As one's vulnerability grows on this path, one requires protection. From accidental or intentional dangers. Since the danger arises from one's own or someone else's misdirected imagination, the most effective shield is counter-imagination. However, this is not easy or practical. And takes a lot of 'energy' away from the primary pursuit, for running such a psychic surveillance.
The other option is to erect a constant shield by using the power of faith, belief or conviction (in one's safety). For those who find this too 'simple' and "questionably-effective", obviously, it would not work for them!!
This fence of belief, then, surrounds and protects the growing sapling of imagination (magic!). The primary attribute of imagination is dynamism. It is growing, changing, constantly unfolding. Belief, on the other hand, needs to be firm, static, unchanging for it to work as it is supposed to! Like a brick-wall, it can grow, become bigger, stronger, but must not move from the foundation in order to stay the same and be effective. Its constancy is its strength. That is what makes it functional. That is also why, one must choose beliefs, very carefully! We want those as protection for our growing magical sapling of imagination. We do not want the protective fence to turn into a prison. It can and often does!
It is for you, dear friends, to carry out the magic, and transform the fence into an umbrella. Or a raincoat!!
For it would rain for sure, in this rain-forest, whether we like it or not!!
Šopyrighted by Crystal Pages (1997)
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