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When people talk about “magical intent” and write it off as unimportant, it is evidence of the “semantic” problem we have in occultism.

If I say I intend to do something, it means I really MEAN to do something, like it’s planned, I will TOTALLY do it, but just I haven’t yet is all.

If that’s all people think about when they think of “intention,” then of course they’re right, that kind of “intention” is the paving stones that are used to pave the path to hell.

But that’s not the same thing as the “intention” of a magician that Agrippa talks about in Book 3 of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

In chapter 26, he says:

“and these names being thus distributed according to the proportioned numbers to the Starry account, compacted or joyned, and changed letters, although unknown in sound, and significative, we must of necessity confess may do more by the secret of the chiefest Philosophy in a magick work, then significative names, whilest the mind being astonished at the obscurity of them, and deeply intent, firmly believing that something Divine is under it, doth reverently pronounce these words, and names, although not understood”

Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, chapter 26

And in chapter 27, he says:

“Lastly, the very ardent intension [intention] of the invocator, by which our intellect is joyned to the separated intelligencies, causeth that we have sometimes one spirit, sometimes another, although called upon under the same name, made obsequious to us.”

Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, chapter 26

Note that with every mention, it’s not just thinking thoughts that makes it a magical intent, Mind being astonished. Deeply intent. Firmly believing. Very ardent intention.

it is the thinking of thoughts with strong emotion, firm conviction, and faith, BELIEF in the accomplishment of the desired outcome.

BUT WAIT. It’s not just belief though, oh chaos magicians: hold thy horse. 😀

It’s belief in WHAT?

“… firmly believing that SOMETHING DIVINE IS UNDER IT.”

“It is not I, but Christ compels you!” screams The Exorcist.

It’s not just believing in the words, or thinking the thoughts, it’s KNOWING there’s a GOD behind the scenes DICTATING THIS MUST BE SO.

The Intent of the Magician is not just thoughts thought about things in passing, plans made about cool ideas that would be neat if they happened, oh no, it’s not that.

The Intent of the Magician is the Will of a God.

from a comment thread related to cursing, someone suggested moral superiority is to be found in acknowledging karma makes all cursing wrong, because, i presume, we are all connected and karma is the receipt of evil from another. my response follows:

i understand what you’re talking about, but i don’t think you have processed it enough. Run it through to its logical end, think it through as if what you believed about karma were true, compare it to the evidence of your eyes, and consider whether you see it’s hocus pocus bogus bogus.

True because you imagine it so, but in real life bad shit happens to good people anyway, and bad people have good times.

There is no justice. There is only favor, this is the lesson of ares and helios and hermes and zeus. Everyone is innocent and just in their own eyes, even liars think they should get away with it.

Humans are the creations of monsters, the children of gaia, with the spark of eternity in our cells. We are the hands of fate. Through our choices the “will of zeus” is made to manifest, in harmony with itself. No part inflicts pain without suffering.

But not all manifestations of life get to live, and it is other forms of life that decide, banding together, or with brute force oppression.

That is the law of the earth.

Karma keeps people relying on false hope. You cut out cancer, you remove evil incarnations of the All-thing as you see fit.

Evidence based choices are the best we got. We don’t have to eat each other, but people are going to eat people metaphorically regardless.

Which frees us to be the best we can be if we want, for our own sake. To build our own garden, as it were.

And weeding the garden to make it look how we like it, without wolves and jackals.

is that they aren’t enlightened.

further, their whole way of life relies on you seeking enlightenment.

not attaining enlightenment.

I don’t think they know what they are talking about.

Last night, Nicole treated me to a sound therapy session as part of her certification requirements. She’s working on her Level II Practitioner’s diploma to become a certified Sound Therapist through the Sound Healing Academy; as part of that, she has to practice with diagnosis techniques and then come up with the right sound therapy treatment.

I laid on the massage table, and she used her “grail,” a heart chakra-tuned quartz bowl with a handle that looks like, well, a grail. When she gets it ringing, it will hold the tone for minutes at a time. When she’s using it to diagnose, it changes tone when it passes over an area of the body that needs help.

I couldn’t hear it change tone, but she could. I was under a blanket, it was a little chilly in the room, but when she got to my heart chakra, I got so hot I had to take the blanket off. It stayed hot until she moved to the next, and then I got cold again almost immediately. It seemed weird, so I mentioned it, and we went on.

I was pretty tired from work, so I kind of fell a little asleep while she finished practicing diagnosing me, first with the grail, then a pendulum, and then she woke me up for muscle testing.

All the woo-tech agreed, my sacral chakra was tight, my solar chakra was over-energized, and my heart chakra was deficient. I certainly wasn’t going to argue, it’s srs woo bsns.

She had me lay down on a therapeutic warmed mat, and started playing the tones that were supposed to heal me. I slipped in and out of consciousness, but through the whole time I was laying there while she rang the bowls, there was a story unfolding about something important that I can’t remember now, about finding at last something I had lost, and letting something else go.

When she was done, I felt waaaaaaaay out of it. I sat up on the couch and just looked around, thinking nothing, feeling warm, heavy, relaxed, and still drifting in and out of consciousness. She walked me to bed and I laid down, and woke up this morning in the exact position I was in when I closed my eyes.

But something was different.

My brain is always spinning. I was born like this, but it got worse my whole life. I drank a lot trying to mute it, but then my liver broke. Now I deal with it without booze.

With meds and therapy, regular occult practices, the grace of the gods, and stubborn fucking pride, I make it work.

But my brain … it never really stops. If I take more meds than I take now, I get fat and disincarnational; I take just barely enough to stay productive without spinning out of control, and not so much that I slow down to the point of wanting to quit altogether.

But this morning I woke up to peace.

I just laid there, not thinking anything. I waited for a couple of minutes, for the hypomania to start. I wasn’t even scared or even tense waiting for it to come back, just at ease, watching my brain. Waiting. But the spins didn’t come back.

And it wasn’t even a big deal. I just went about the day, with smooches, and coffee, and work.

There’s something different today. My mind goes where I want. I can be interrupted while I’m thinking, and still remember where I was at in my head. Even now, I’m just sitting here reading what I wrote. I’m just doing what I’m doing, and I’m thinking about what I want to think about.

I’m not about to go off my meds, stop therapy, or anything radical. I don’t think sounds cured my mental illness. But the treatment had a palpable, lasting effect.

I haven’t felt like this since I was a child.