If you look at all the Occult Arts in the World, you'll see a pattern. That pattern being that from Chaos comes Order. And thus Order itself is part of Chaos. They are like the Ouroboros. Each devours the other in order to create balance. A third force known only as the Will, A Will that both reflects the will of every living and dead thing, but also transcends it. Till if you go down to the basic you will see something that you see every day. That in order to get something you need to give something else in return.
Blood arts -More known as blood magic. It's the belief that you can trade life (energy) in order to obtain a specific result. This is the most basic of all arts. The easiest to practice and the easiest to ruin it's user. In its tainted form you take the life of other lifeforms to trade for what you want. In its purest form you use the very blood in your veins to channel life and the potential of life, in order to supply the energy, you need to change events in the way you want to change them. Basically, it's like supplying the materials to build something. Seeing only nothing comes from nothing.
Shamanic Arts -Or simply Shaman.
It requires you to awaken your conscious beyond your physical body. Reaching into the difference “astral” planes in order to obtain the energy you need in order to set things in motion. Again, in its tainted form you imprison the spirits/souls of dead things in order to supply you with the energy you can't obtain on your own. In its purest form you can simply access the collective energy of a small forest and work with that collective to gain the energy you require. Or you can earn the respect and favors of those things not of the physical world in order to gain the energy you require.
Thaumaturgy -This is the art of faith.
Where relinquish almost all of your own will and turn it into desire or hope. Creating as much desire or hope as one possible can, in order to turn them into reality. When you pray that is thaumaturgy that you're doing. Whether you realize it or not. That is why I kept writing desire or hope. Because to some faith comes from desire and to others faith comes from hope. Desire and hope aren't that much different. In the end it's you trying to call forth the power to change things. You're reaching into reality itself and trying to sway its course.
Still desire or hope are energy. So again, we come down to the same thing. Gaining enough energy to set something into motion. Or change what is into what you want it to be. Obviously, things don't simply come from nothing. You can't simply desire money to simply appear in your hand. But you can try to influence reality so your instinct becomes sharper and more accurate. Which in turn will lead you to make the right decisions that make you gain that money you want to.
Same goes for healing. You can't simply make a disease go away and disappear into nothingness. Instead, you can help the body learn to better defend itself and thus naturally fight off the disease.
Voodoo - An offshoot art with roots in shamanic practices.
The main difference is that you are actually trying to connect to those forces that are and have always been at play. Governing certain aspects of reality. It's like trying to connect to the embodiment of luck. Luck is nothing more than the decisions we make every day favoring us. Being out of luck is basically the opposite.
It's like trying to get hold of a cat that represents Luck, as in the mathematical probabilities of the world, even the universe itself, but focusing solely on your life and thus everything directly and indirectly connected to it. And then you're asking that cat to favor your numbers. To basically move the numbers around to suit your desire.
Most call that by another name altogether. They call her Oshun. And why that name?! Because of the importance of the story. When Bram Stoker created the vampiric Dracula, He created an idea. That idea in turn was shared with others that resonated with Stoker’s vision. And this like a living idea, like a living organism of the mind, it spread and grew until Dracula couldn't be anything else but Dracula. Had Stoker chosen another name and that name caught on as well as Dracula, then that name would be have been the one most known and not Dracula.
Same goes for the names people give to those forces. Look at the Greek and Norse. To the Greek, Zeus was the god of lightning, the storms, and the heavens. To the Norse, Thor was the god of lightning, the storms, and the heavens. Different names, different stories, but ultimately the force they are supposed to embody is the same.
That is why in Voodoo the Loa have those names, and people don't mess around with those names. Because it was so deeply rooted into them that they associate the name to the force it represents. Which isn't as true as people make it seem to be.
Still in the end what is the goal…
The goal is to look for that which represents something. And you are trying through favors that implies giving it energy in one form or another, so that specific forces tied to the specific aspect you wish to change, changes in accordance to what you wish.
It's at heart, mental quantum mechanics. Where through your actions you're trying to change the World just enough, so that it favors you in some specific way. Those that study these things to their core they eventually arrive at the simplest of truths.
“Magic” is not easy and it's not for free. The ability to change anything from the smallest scale to the largest, demands that something else is given in return. Thus, you have action and reaction. Energy that changes from one state to another.
You have what is most commonly known as metaphysics, or meta-science.
Where you're using a different approach to work on changing whatever you want to change. “Magic” isn't like in most fictional mediums where you wave a wand or staff around, say some words, and reality simply bends the knee.
The real Occult Arts is about learning to first increase your awareness and consciousness, to the point you can understand more of reality. And then in turn learn to work with it. Same as a metal worker works with the metal and doesn't just order the metal to do what he wants it to do.
Thus, the Occult Arts are science. They are simply a different kind of science. Still there are rules you must follow. Things you'll never be able to do or change. And funny enough in these times when one would expect to see these practices be rare or almost extinguished, they are actually getting stronger than ever before.
With those groups of people that take it to its full seriousness, now being more closed off than ever, where you don't ask to be allowed in, they'll know if you have it in you to be accepted or not.
They'll seek you out and not the other way around.
Em Hotep - Patrick Gaffiero
Comments