The Subversion of Spirituality

What “Spiritual” Actually Means and is Magic it?

Most magical authors and teachers, along with metaphysical shop owners, casual practitioners, and New Age mystics will tell you in knee-jerk, no-hesitation certainty that magic is about spiritual development or something close to this. Perhaps some would say the goal of magic is spiritual refinement.

What the hell am I talking about? I’m glad you asked, and here’s my explanation:

Magic is connected to spirituality when we understand that “spirit” is a fundamental state or force begetting our reality. The technical, thaumaturgical, hermetic, esoteric implications of this axiom constitute the underpinning of the duality or mystical reality, wherein we are multi-dimensional beings clothed in the form of material creatures interacting with metaphysical phenomenon and subtle forces.

“Spiritual” is not a Synonym for Righteousness

Too often, in fact almost always if we’re just gonna be real about it, when someone uses the word spiritual or claims something is a spiritual pursuit, they are peddling the idea of goodness and piety, usually their own. They may also be packaging other attributes into the deal, such as “woke” merit badges, an aversion to meat, certain political affiliations, arbitrary prejudice against traditional religious beliefs, an allergy to gainful employment, and the requirement of hemp fanny packs, medicine bags, and rasta beanies in order to leave the house.

This, as I shall explain, has nothing to do with spirituality. Obvious pejoratives and jokes aside, I am stating here for the record and adamantly that spirituality and goodness are not synonyms, derivatives, siblings, or even cousins.

This isn’t some crazy pitch for evil-doing or another dipshit promo for Satanism or so-called Luciferian ideologies. I’m just aiming for truth in terminology.

Magic, Mysticism, Duality, and Spirit (short form)

The magician and the mystic represent two distinct approaches to engaging the Unseen and Unknowable worlds with the aim of esoteric or occult understanding. You could even say they are two poles on the pillar of duality, or the path of spirit.

Like Frog and Toad are Mystic and Magician

One obvious way to understand the base material of reality and the carrier of consciousness (assuming the Great Spirit and the ALL that is Mind are either the same or closely linked) is to practice the arts that purport to handle this material.

The mystic pursues liberation, or esoteric escapism. She intends to elevate herself to a higher resonance and experience the higher worlds, along with the beings and intelligences who dwell therein.

The magician doesn’t want to escape this world, he seeks instead to alter it, imposing his will upon it to create, transform, and preserve as he sees fit by pulling higher energies and entities onto this plane where he puts them to work.

Both approaches understand the duality and work within its unknown substance, just as the Japanese Aiki and Kiai are the same state from variant perspectives. In the present day it is commonplace, and likely has been for many centuries, to find practitioners of the Art who are mystic and magician or magician and mystic, depending on their point of view.

Duality You Say?

I do say.

Spirit is the breath of the One, from which all else flows and spirituality is the study of or quest to understand the phenomenon of spirit. When we create a tree leading from the ineffable thing that has variously been called God, the Tao, causation, the prime cause, source, the One, et al to ourselves or the representative human being, it looks like this:

• SOURCE
• Infinity/The ALL
  • Spirit
    • The All Mind
    • The One Thing/Great Spirit
      • DUALITY God and Goddess, up and down, dark and light, etc.
      • Spirit and Nature
        • Heavenly or Cosmic Principles (Zodiac)
          • Divine Powers (Planets)
            • Cosmic Forces (Elements, macro)
              • Natural Forces (terrestrial)
                • Energetic Qualities (Elements, micro)
                  • You, Me, etc.

This is little more than a hierarchy for (hopefully) coherent philosophical discussion like the one-sided convo we’re having now. The “tree” lets us conceptualize from the source of all things, through the infinite “is-ness” from which comes the Tao, Great Spirit, or what have you.

It is at that point, after ineffable spirit, things become recognizable as ideas or talking points. The All Mind and Great Spirit are the abodes of God and Tao and so on, with everything above that really beyond sound comprehension.

Pretty quicky after we enter the realm of “ok we can talk about this shit from here on in and make some sense of it” we find ourselves at the heading of Duality. This is the division point or great differentiation that our reality is built upon.

It is from this duality, or the existence of distinction, where everything is no longer One, that phenomenon we candidly refer to as the universe or reality can emerge. Everything after the point of Duality is only possible because of the duality or dual nature.

The list item that reads “Spirit and Nature” is pivotal and represents Yin-Yang or the masculine-feminine dichotomy of the Western Mystery Tradition. Thereafter forces and energy trickles down from cosmic principles (represented by the Zodiac) all the way to you and I, wherein all things above in the macrocosm are represented through the microcosm of us.

Dude WTF???

I get it. Hang on.

Let’s look at you, or an example you represented by a nameless fictional character. This human being can be assessed and classified magically or mystically by such things as their astrology, correct?

In fact it would look somewhat like the tree above in reverse and truncated.

EXAMPLE PERSON IS OR HAS THESE TRAITS:

• Libra
  • Venus
    • Air
      • Masculine
        • Caucasoid
          • Homo sapiens
          • Soul
            • Group Soul
              • Spirit
                • One

See what I did there, right? A sun sign, the ruling planet thereof, dominant element, and whether the person is masculine or feminine. Thereafter we get into the existential stuff.

This list is from the ground up so to speak but tip it over and you have a mirror of the first tree. What I am getting at is DUALITY is the doorway or gate to the realm of the unknowable, it is the highest practical concern before we get into the serious woo and utterly mysterious aspects of what we call reality.

I therefore humbly submit to you that duality is the gateway to spirit and the understanding of our dual nature, of spirit and matter is the proverbial bottom line to spirituality.

Extra Most Spiritualistist

True spirituality has little to do with moral codes or ethics, or goodness as opposed to wickedness from a preferential perspective. It’s not about how pious one can be and a vegan diet has nothing to do with spirit in most cases.

OR… these things are part of the spirit quest because spirit encompasses all. Also we can say aspects of a “good” life, kindness to others, and a low-pollutant diet that seeks to limit harm to animals are all things that could elevate a person’s vibratory field.

This admission brings us back into the technical arena, where we belong. It’s not the perceived, inherent goodness that makes kindness a spiritual trait. There are, after all, some pretty damn nasty spiritual creatures to be encountered. The fact that aligns kindness with spirituality is the potential impact it has on the substance of spirit, void, ether, et al relative to the living things who give and receive that specific current.

Various martial arts systems that represent periods of Asian culture, immersed in a culture of violence and revolving around sometimes brutal techniques and ideologies, can also elevate one’s energetic signature or “raise the vibration” as the saying goes. We could find some overlap between kung-fu and kindness, but then we of the animist, multidimensional, esoteric persuasion can find overlap between any two things.

Nah Man. Still WTF???

Right. I really should stop snorting the Prosac before I write these articles (and do it afterwards).

Let me slooow it down a tad and speak louder while maintaining eye contact:

I am simply exposing the hijacking of a term and therefore the subversion of an occupation, discipline or practice by those who would signal their own virtue to the world or use guilt and a worthy-unworthy dichotomy to manipulate and subjugate others.

Or, on a less dramatic scale I am bitching about the trend of regurgitating virtuous claptrap across the decades out of ignorance. Folks doing this have no ill agenda, but they are perpetuating a problem that needs to end and thereby make way for the progress of spiritual evolution.

Spirit – ual or Spirit – ual – ity

Seriously. The truth is right there in front of us in the word itself. Spirit – ual or uality.

Spirit is the Essence

Spirit is the essence of or essential quality, right?

When we say things like “school spirit” or “in the spirit of thankfulness” we aren’t talking about the spirit of a deceased principal roaming the halls of a school, nor do we imply there’s a conscious critter of some sort that represents thankfulness, has underlings to serve it, and so on. In these examples we mean to indicate the deep nature or values of the school or the shared, transcendent experience of gratitude, both of which can be distilled further and called the essence of the matter.

The school’s spirit is the legacy of perseverance and standards of excellence, for example. This is what staff and alumni might hold up as the defining characteristics of their alma mater; it is the essence of what the place is all about.

Relating to the Essence

The suffix “ual” applies to adjectives and means relating to or characterized by. In this case, spiritual means related to or aligned with the fundamental essence of being. Another way to say this is related to or part of the foundational nature of reality. Both phrasings mean the same thing and neither pertains to holiness or being woke or wearing harem pants.

The State or Quality of the Essence

The ending “uality” turns adjectives into nouns and means the same quality as or the state of being the root adjective. So spirituality means, literally having the quality of the fundamental stuff underlying reality. Or you could say the state of being like the substance from which all others flow.

What qualities are being referenced here, from a technical-magical perspective? Formlessness, omnipresence, unrestricted, creator and destroyer of reality, unknowable to the fullest extent, that which all else relies on, and so forth. Those are some of the characteristics attributed to this thing sages and philosophers called spirit millennia ago. Kind of a tall order for a little ol’ me or little ol’ you to live up to, so we are travelling the route of the metaphor here.

We can say spirituality is the striving to be attuned to the fundamental stuff, of the most refined and elevated frequency or vibration possible, and a conscious creator, preserver, destroyer of reality. That well encapsulates the magical quest but has nothing to do with being a better vegetarian than the guy next to you nor is it related in any way to pacifism, hippy culture, white guilt, or renouncing your family, culture, and way of life to take on a half-assed version of Hinduism that focuses on marijuana intake and huge government bureaucracies aimed at destroying the working class and propping up the willfully unemployed.

Just saying yo. 🙂

Summary Time Bitches

To wrap this pile of jaded whining served with a word salad on up I’ll first remind you what the hell I was even talking about when I got started. Is magic a spiritual pursuit or isn’t it?

If you mean spiritual like the word in common and ignorant usage, as in “let’s all be weakling fairy puffs in a contest of virtue-signaling while we pretend away any struggle or detriment life offers” then no, definitely not.

On the other hand if, by spiritual, you mean pertaining to the great mystery and the ocean of being with its currents of proto-tangible substance that is the mover and shaker of all else, to which we may find an attunement and by which we can somewhat understand and shamelessly play with reality, then yeah it is.

Favorite