A world populated by Lights
I went for a walk this evening, as I’ve grown accustomed to doing. One of the few luxuries I’ll miss about Suburbia is the ability to go walking at any time of day or night without fear of interruptions like, say, being run down by speeders. I discovered something tonight. The world is full of ghosts. Every indistinct shape by day, every disconnected shadow by night is a living being, an astral husk, a sprite, an elf. Was it a ghost I saw lying in the street, or just a trick of chaos mathematics that made the rain water dry more quickly in the exact shape of a human? Does it actually matter enough to judge? I would say that it does matter, but my spirituality would not be threatened either way.
This is exactly the difference, in terms of essentials, between magicians and materialists. To magicians, the entire universe is alive, while to materialists it is dead. Regardless of tradition or system, every magician the world over sees the universe as a constant interaction, ever in motion yet ever still. That is the secret of the doctrine of the unchanging universe so often criticized by anthropologists, psychologists, and physicists alike. It isn’t a literal physical reality, but a metaphysical statement. Evolution is a constant throughout the universe, and it’s an upward spiral or perhaps an ever-expanding sphere with no center rather than a straight line through the singular dimension of Time.
Materialists smugly rest in their conviction of post-mortum dissolution, as if death itself were a vindication of their dogma. To the magician, even if our personalities do dissolve upon the cessation of physical functioning, it is only to return to the very Source of Life and become (hopefully better for having lived through us) the foundational Elements of a new life. This is the reality behind the kabbalistic concept of tikkun. We are responsible for this universe and for the lives which we lead in it, and we can truly improve it by simply improving ourselves, and we will keep coming back until we get it right! Some have gone so far as to say that God needs us at least as much as we need Him, for without us to manifest and observe His perfection, He could never be perfect in truth.
Of course, as a Hermetic I know that our personalities can continue after physical death (and physical death is not even true death, for the physical elements which make up our bodies will merely be recycled into yet new life), but even if they didn’t it would hardly invalidate one’s evolutionary efforts. All such knowledge is human knowledge and, no matter how direct, is still therefore only one angle on the Truth. Still, it is personally valuable and proves our progress.
Perhaps the best statement on the matter comes from Timothy Leary. Love him or hate him, the idea is worth paraphrasing: defining “intelligence” as one’s ability to process new information and apply it to one’s life, if you find yourself more and more depressed, hateful, and pessimistic, you can bet that your intelligence is getting lower, while if you find yourself becoming on average happier, more loving, and optimistic, you can bet that your intelligence is increasing. There is no reason to be afraid. The universe is conspiring in your favor; just quit telling it that you want bad luck, and open up.
