East vs. West, Mystic vs. Magick, and other illusory Dualities...
There is a prevailing misconception in many magickal circles that there is some sort of fundamental difference betwixt the Eastern and the Western spiritual Traditions. The Eastern paths are said to be more inclined toward mysticism, whereas the Western way is thought to be more magickal in emphasis. It is my intention to show why this dichotomy
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But ultimately, it's all discourse, it's all illusion, and each path has its strong and weak points. In my mind, it's better to have a bigger tool chest and know how to use both sets of techniques.
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I think the fascination and Glamourization that most Westerners view Other practices shows more about an individual's particular biases more than any honest representation of the religion and practices in question. For example, take any given thousand Westerners who rebel against the Judeao-Chris+ian religions, ethics, philosophy, etc. Out of those thousand, you'll find a wide assortment of spiritual pursuits. Whether an individual becomes a damned liberal chris+ian, a satanist, an agnostic, a neopagan, an atheist, a fundamentalist muslim, a UFO worshipper, a buddhist monk, or anything else you can imagine, is largely dependent upon their own personal predilection and temperaments. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and can actually be quite good. Finding your own personal and individual Meaning in this crazy universe seems to be what most of this is all about, anyway ( ... )
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the Fortuine stuff is complex, and she was not the only protagonist, but her and Dennis Wheatley gave over such a negative and satanised view of anything that wasn't pure white xian mystic that the occult world took up on it- i think there is something on Phil Hine's site (an article about the LHP and black magic) that covers this angle quite well- i don't have a link to it right now, sorry
indigenous angle is true, there is a huge element of 'grass is greener' and suchlike, and pretty endemic = 'romanticising the heathen' (defineing heathen at its broadest scope) as being something far superior to us, spiritually, over her in the uk there is a big move towards celticism, even though a lot of those promoting it can't actually define what a Celt is, let alone why they were moe spiritual than anyone else....
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As stated before, the best thign is to know and use both sides of the coin. With only half the knowledge, you can go less than a third of the journey. Knowing that balance is only achieved in knwoing BOTH things in a dichotomy and using both of them.
OH, and HOORAY for lj cuts!
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This is certainly the common party line, but is this really True(TM), or is this jsut another Western Fantasy and Glamourization?!?
I don't know the answer myself, although from the accounts I've gathered by those from the Other side, I think they are--in most ways--just as __________ as we are.
The grass is always greener...
As stated before, the best thign is to know and use both sides of the coin. With only half the ( ... )
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Yes, exactly. And I was once on the other side of this argument before I had my own realizations. You just have to walk the path far enough to see where it goes, then enjoy the view from the top ("Hey, look at that, all the paths do lead up here!")
Incidentally/BTW, what you call Mount Change is what I've referred to in my own writings as "The Mountain Made of Light."
I tend to view Magick and Mysticism as two opposing and balanced practices that do the same thing but in different directions. Given the three realms, I see magick and mysticism as both being practices well-founded in the Subtle realm. They draw on the same substrate, and reach out either direction when needed to touch on the Physical and the Causal. However, Magick as a practice focuses on the involutionary current that manifests in the Physical; it concerns itself with how to use subtle force to alter the physical world. Mysticism ( ... )
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Yeah, we've talked about these various "converging paths" theories before. I thought the Mountain metaphor might get your attention ;-)
I tend to view Magick and Mysticism as two opposing and balanced practices that do the same thing but in different directions.
Precisely what I was getting at. That's how I use those memes, also.
When you look at folks who have studied magick and mysticism for decades, it's far more common to see magicians who have become mystics rather than vice versa. So while the two are parallel practices in foundation, I think that ultimately mysticism provides a clearer path to the mountaintop. Magick gets there by taking a long detour through the wonders of the manifest world.I've noticed that, as well, and a thought that just occurred to me was: the Game of Life can get old. I'm not sure I can explain it much better, but you prolly know what I mean ( ... )
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Makes perfect sense. I've watched many mages I respect burn out on the magick game and start asking, "Is this all there is?" I usually point them the direction of magickal practices that edge up against mysticism; a few catch on to it, the others drop out of both scenes entirely.
Incidentally, where would you place HGA work? Magick, or Mysticism? Or what blend of the two? Or something else entirely?
I think I'm going to go ask that one in my journal. It's relevant to stuff I'm working on at the moment.
>>> I think that the key to following a spiritual life-path-thingy is by working with and using as many levels as possible. Use the mystical paths, as you work on the levels that frequenly get called "higher", working on ascension. Use the magickal techniques to gain competency on the denser levels of the fleshly desires. <<< To that, I'd add use science to understand the world -- psychology, physics, the whole kitten kaboodle. But then I'm big on the whole Science, Magick, Mysticism ( ... )
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