“Magic is a doorway through which we step into mystery, wildness, and
immanence” -APPLIED PARADIGM SHIFTING
Definition of the day:
Paradigm - a set of basic ideological or technological assumptions or
beliefs; therefore a model of explanation.
Since magic is always a ''reality dance;' it would be logical to experiment
with various paradigms.
Psychology vs. Spiritualism
The question as to whether magical phenomena are actually projections of
our own internal abilities and powers, or might be caused by the influence of nonhuman beings (spirits, demons, astral beings, or the like) has interested parascience for decades. The principle that supports a more psychological explanation and believes that everything magical arises from deep inside the magician's soul itself. This is called anin1ism (from the Latin word anima, soul,); the other principle that's based on the existence of real non human living beings (and those made up of subtle energies) is called spiritualism (from the Latin word spiritus "spirit"). It's important to remember this difference since it appears in literature over and over again.
But in reality, these two models of explanation are not all as different as their supporters like to think. We can illustrate this by using the example of the wave-particle dualism of light, which has puzzled physics for quite some time. Light sometimes behaves like a wave and sometimes like a particle regardless of the conditions of the experiment! It would therefore be wrong to unilaterally refer to light waves while simply ignoring the physical reality of the light particles, and reverse. In the end, the physicists themselves decide which way the light should behave in their experiment or in their concept of the world. The same holds true for the practitioner. The concept that our reality is always the reality of the description should be confronted at an early stage; our reality merely reflects that which we are able to express and perceive in one way or another. You'll be running into this important principle of modern magic again and again throughout the course of this book. In practice, we need to choose the approach that's most likely to work, and whatever that might be depends on a number of various factors, such as one's own spiritual composition and ideological preferences, but also on practical aspects as well. As antirationalistic as it may seem, experience has shown that it's wise to not worry about the apparent contradiction between animistic and spiritualistic models of explanation; the easiest way to do this is by simply ((ignoring, the temptation to ponder their degree of truth.
During a ritual, it's the experience or perception of energy that counts.
Intellectual or even academic concepts such as animism or spiritualism have no business here. If you prefer the spiritualistic approach and want to believe that you're dealing with real spiritual beings, that's just fine. If, on the other hand, you prefer the psychological approach and view your ritual work as the external (((projecting,') confrontation with your own soul, you get good results as well.
Paradigm Shifting
The practitioner should become familiar with various philosophies of
life not only in theory, but more importantly in practice as well. Only then can one control every aspect of his or her own reality production (and magic is nothing more than that!) to fit one's individual needs, regardless of whether these concern everyday practical magic or are of a more mystical nature. After all, there's a little bit of truth in every philosophy of life in the sense of ''probability," just like there's a good deal of falsehood in the sense of improbability. Nothing is absolute; at best, it just may seem that it is .
Traditional churches, theologians, and cultural historians have often
accused occultism of being a “pseudo-religion" with syncretic influence, and therefore dubious. The dictionary defines "syncretism" as "a fusion of different religions, denominations or philosophical doctrines, generally without any form of inner unity. Surely occultism and magic in general can rightfully be described as such a mixture if you disregard the fact that this much-abused "bastard philosophy" was born out of the attempt to recognize at least a minimum amount of inner unity in all religious, mystical, and magical systems and institutions (which in turn fed this philosophy with energy and convincingness), and that occultism is now widely tolerated due to its respect of all other paradigms, a fact which some of the more homogeneous systems of thought and belief could learn a lesson from. In any case, regardless of all this, the great strength of occultism and magic lies in their variety and diversity.
Example of Paradigm Shifting
We can illustrate this with an example that was, in turn, borrowed
from Hermetic occultism. We’re familiar with the Roman god and astrological planet Mercury that represents the principle of the intellect; however, it's also equated with the Greek god Hermes and ancient Egyptian god Thot (also called Tahuti, pronounced (Djahuti, or Dahaut). One quick look at Crowley's list of correspondences and analogies in Liber 777 shows that these three gods also share similarities on a practical level for example, the number 8, the color orange, and the metal mercury. But analogy is not the same as equality: Mercury is not Hermes or Thot, even if all three aspects are one and the same basic principle. Mercury is far more playful than Thot, and even though he cannot deny his relationship to Hermes considering their shared cultural history, he's nevertheless quite different from him in many ways. Ibis-headed Thot, on the other hand, is much stricter than both other deities and he was originally a moon god who was considered the master of time ·· a function that was assigned to Chronos or Saturn in the Hellenic and Roman pantheon. But they at least reflect the value of this magical skill of being able to comfortably work with several systems at the same time, or, to put it in more modern, colloquial terms, changing paradigms like the shirt on your back.
This results in the following mnemonic phrase that should definitely
not just remain theoretical, but should also be applied in daily practice as well: The magician chooses one's beliefs like the surgeon chooses his or her instruments
Let’s give this piece of information the finishing touch by adding
another guiding principle that stems from modern-day Chaos Magic, making it particularly effective through its fairly clear-cut wording: Belief is just a technique.
