Where we place our attention is key. Where we place (or focus) our attention, we 'animate'. Like a ray of sunlight focussed through a magnifying glass that stirs the ember and ignites to flame.
The intensity of our focus, our attention, is key, as well. When speaking of manifestation it is so often a case of: 'Oh I tried that, it doesn't work.' Well, in fact it does work - and powerfully. Every instant of our lives we are drawing to ourselves what we focus on. A lifetime - or at least decades - of thinking one is this or that - or the world is this or that - cannot be undone in a day's worth, or a week's worth, of 'attention'. The single most evident quality of those who can manifest consciously is their powerful will forces, coupled with a singularity of purpose/intent, sustained over time. A sanguine frivolity does not work where sangfroid is needed.
It's also not merely a marshaling of mental focus, but of emotional command, as well. All aspects go to sustain the attention. Paradoxically, none of this is in any way strained. Riding bareback is a good example - astride a powerful horse, naked and alive to every nuance - with the ability to command at the merest touch. So like the well-trained mind and emotions. With such command, the door opens - beyond which stands the teacher. Only then can the teacher dispense the higher work. All the preparatory work is now done outside the 'precincts of the temple'. In yonder days the first three initiations took place within the protections and guidance of an actual temple. No longer. We must traverse the conditions of the first three initiations 'on our own' in a manner of speaking. Further work beyond that requires particular guidance - and as the old adage says: 'When the student is ready, the teacher appears.'
EDIT: Be aware that the distinctions between the Left and Right Hand Paths are pertinent here. There are reasons that there are references to White and Black Magic, to a White and Black Brotherhood. The latter is not to be taken literally, but it does refer to a something that does exist in a manner of speaking. Literalism is a problem in this regard and why 'the less said the better' - because inevitably the words will be misunderstood.
If you understand the above you understand why 'phenomena' is a 'blind'. It is on the order of a test. The goal is far loftier - far more significant than a a handful of 'parlor tricks' to entertain the bored or boorish.
"The single most evident quality of those who can manifest consciously is their powerful will forces, coupled with a singularity of purpose/intent, sustained over time. A sanguine frivolity does not work where sangfroid is needed."
Agreed - but isn't the place, the role of will and ego what separates magic and religion? And I think science (which has a special place for the ego!)
In religion, the will and ego are surrendered (willingly) to something one reveres and in magic the attempt is to amplify personal power by somehow manipulating great forces - with lots of warnings about losing oneself in the process ...
But this is true of science (The Manhattan Project) and the pursuit of political power ... of every human ambition.
So the tragicomedy of ego, of wanting and willing can be answered by philosophy, in a stoic acceptance for example, by religion - Buddhism says suffering is in clinging, Christianity calls for an alignment of your will with God's, in mysticism which is the practice of dissolution and union that the will initiates with an unquenchable longing for the absolute ... or by science which so far has shown an essentially aggressive effect on knowledge and through technology ... or by magic in a process that seems to most directly inflame the will.
In the great chain of being, causation is from greater to lesser with man in the middle - less than angels and subject to great cosmic forces but bearing the burdens of free choice (and the necessity to act) and knowing everything he does matters. This gives man a measure of dignity and a heavy burden.
In science, causality flows from the other direction but man is still in the middle, between the atom and the stars in magnitude - but this time he is denied free will, being causally impinged on from both directions and assured by materialism that his absurd position of being the only thing awake in a dead universe is just an illusion.
Magic, then, is the only path available for the rebel, for the Luciferian impulse - but when one looks far down its path, it may be the most fraught of all.
Of course, one can always choose to be an artist! No one much seems to mind artists ...
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Not!
