#paulfostercase

(via Tarot Encyclopedia - The Knight of Cups)

by Paul Foster Case⁣

Alchemy ... medieval forerunner of chemistry, the transmutation of matter, convert base metals into gold, find a universal elixir.🗡🗝⚔️⚖️ #musesofmystery #musings #magick #pagan #witch #witchshop #wicca #witchcraft #nicholasbuilding #nicholasbuilding2ndfloor #alchemy#books #bookstagram #gifts #paulfostercase #esoteric (at Muses Of Mystery)

Note: Since I’m on the road, these kinds of posts will have to be rough and lacking the kind of exactitude and referencing I might ideally like. George Carlin did a great bit a while back about the “divine plan” and “god’s will”, talking about the absurdity of prayer in the context of certain cosmological assumptions, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2kZ0lRW9Ls I’ve been thinking about it and related issues lately because, well, I seem to be exploring the experience of related phenomena. The funny thing about his bit from a modern magickal perspective is that basically he touches on the issue of “tension” between the lower and higher wills. I’ve found in some of my work that this can cause legitimate issues, and the formula is pretty straightforward: The conscious mind wants one thing, but the greater intelligence of the whole being seems to think it’s not actually the best course of action. A couple of solutions to this issue seem viable, and they roughly correspond to some common definitions of “right hand” vs. “left hand” paths (or “white” vs. “black” magick as described in the intro to Liber LUX/Liber NOX). On the one hand, you can rely on the conscious mind and continue to polish it until its perceptions and instincts are so keen that they incorporate and actively contribute to the higher intelligence of the whole being (”black”/LHP), and on the other you can establish a working and trusted link to this higher intelligence and work toward aligning yourself with it completely (”white”/RHP). One is “bottom-up” from the perspective of everyday consciousness, and the other is “top-down”. Both approaches have truly gigantic traps which seem to ensnare a lot of people. It’s also doubtful that there are many people who are suited to dedicate life 100% to one of these approaches without deviation. There’s a funny quirk to this, though, and it’s one that I first became aware of through the early works of Paul Foster Case. The thing is that Case suggests early on that the learning magickian should at some point make a solemn determination that any magickal working done should have a kind of implied “if it be thy will” clause, which in essence states that whatever the lower will proposes, the higher will must give a stamp of approval for the proposal to go forward. In other words, this amounts to a blending of the two approaches in a sense: one does not take the “pure” version of either path outlined above, instead saying, “take what self-consciousness(=rajas) (in Case’s terminology) says seriously, but ensure that super-consciousness(=sattva) (again, in Case’s sense) has a hand in the matter also”. This approach may help prevent the idiotic strains of sub-consciousness(=tamas) (Case’s sense) from effectively running the show (as is one of the great dangers of a purely “black”/LHP approach, which can basically exalt any form of insanity at its most extreme level of dysfunction), and it also may help prevent issues of misidentification in which the practitioner’s personal psychological dysfunctions are taken to be identical to or at least justified by a link to super-consciousness which has not yet been actually forged (as is one of the great dangers of a purely “white”/RHP approach; a series of “pre/trans” fallacies could probably be mapped out for the common pitfalls here). Another issue here, which I want to bring up, is that from my current vista at least, the input of self-consciousness is 100% necessary for super-consciousness to have accurate understandings of what is best. This might seem odd for anyone who wants to enter into an “omniscient being” sort of frame of mind when thinking of super-consciousness, but I have a simple model which seems to fit my experience. In my opinion, this also has some bearing on the old arguments about the nature of the HGA, especially in traditions influenced by Thelema. Here’s my working reality construct (slash ”reality tunnel”) right now: one’s chosen deity/HGA/ishta deva/object-of-obsession has access to all knowledge and is thus omniscient in a sense, BUT! it does have finite attention. It’s like how as an internet user, you have access to a great deal more knowledge and information than you will ever process, and much of it is not necessarily relevant to you. Some things come to your attention, some things you seek out, but it’s not all come to your direct attention, because that would be impossible. So also with the [whatever term you like for supreme personification of personally relevant higher intelligence]. Your attention and its are not always focused on the same things. So, by prayer or magick work, you may offer specific information to the attention of super-consciousness. By retaining the “if it be thy will” clause, you effectively make it so that information is passed between these levels of consciousness, and action on the matter is predicated on their agreement. Blah blah dharma and karma, divination, shut up I have to go eat breakfast now.