Search the Community

Found this article on another site and thought it was interesting and worth sharing: "A while ago Jack had a great post about some of the reactions people have had about certain magical practices and how they might be dangerous, lead one into insanity, away from Holiness, etc.. I liked the post, because when I was younger, I got a lot of the same kinds of looks from some people. I went plunging into the Tunnels of Set with nothing but Falorioss images on photo paper and a beat up copy of Nightside of Eden. I held a Typhonian Portal open in my bedroom for a week straight until my neighbors could feel something terrible going on. I created Servitors with no expiration date that are still roaming the city of Philadelphia 17 years later. I took three types of psychedelics at once (LSD, Mishrooms, and Datura) and became a Buddhist. I formed a cabal of the CAOTO to have all night trip explorations on psychedelics most people have never even heard of. I summoned demons for frivolous reasons and paid the price. I played games with the weather, and other people paid the price. I did a public performance of the Mass of the Phoenix in front of 30 people at a Unitarian Church and yes I bled all over. I integrated BDSM into sex magic rituals just because. I nearly wound up hospitalized for a few days because of the effects of an un-grounded Chaos Sphere. I charged half cocked into an exorcism that I clearly could not handle. I charged half cocked into another one soon after, that I did handle but would not have been able to unless I failed the first time. In short I learned by getting my hands dirty and playing the game. I have only met Jack once, and we never did not come up together, but I think we have some similar experiences in this regard. We both survived, and we both have friends that did not. So what all this brings me around to is magical timing. We talk a lot of about time according to planetary days and hours. We plan according to eclipses and according to lunar phases. We sometimes even plan out according to season, but I wonder how many of you give thought to when in your life you are going to do something. A lot of the things I did then, I would NEVER do now in a house with my wife and kids. Honestly some magic I would never even do once I got a job I cared about. Some of this is the type of stuff I list above the gung ho excursions of a magical youth but others are not so simple. Take the HGA for instance. I had friends deeply worried about me when I was doing Samekh every day. There were times that I was absolutely close to coming unhinged. Some people treat it as this thing that is the pinnacle of magic and should only be undertaken once you have accomplished years of work I think it should be done very early on in ones career because the upheavals that can be brought up in the work can be enough to tear a family apart. Crossing the Abyss is another one. Unless you are doing it through meditation (which is more effecient and smoother than any more active magical method) it might be best accomplished before one is settled, or after one is retired. Than again, different people lead different lives. Lots of Tibetan Buddhists get asked to do Ngondro, which usually requires 100,000 full prostrations. Some Lamas brag (or get bragged about) that they did it two or three times! When they dont mention is that they did it when they were 12. Doing 100,000 prostrations is a great way to keep a 12 year old monk occupied. Its a challenging task for someone in their early 20′s. It can be downright harmful to overweight western suburbanites in their 30′s and 40′s, and every year at least a few people blow out their knees doing it. Good practice wrong stage of life Not that long ago a friend of mine that is my age was talking about engaging in a long series of Ayahuaska based magical experiments and wanted to know what I thought. I basically told him that ship has sailed. He has two kids at home a few years older than my kids. I asked him how would you feel if you got an emergency call that your child is in the hospital, and you still have 5 hours of tripping your balls off to get through? Everything from ritual equipment you keep out, to things you invoke in the house, to ways that you alter your mind state, have serious impact in real life. Doing something when you are in college may not be a good idea when you are raising toddlers. Than again revisiting that in later life, might be ideal. In fact, it is the last phase of life that many cultures consider the most spiritually productive. Many people who ask to become Sadhus get told to wait until they have a family and career first, than become a Sanyassi after they retire. I wonder if any of the people that were criticizing Jacks practices were simply at a place in life where the kind of psychic or circumstantial upheaval that could be caused was unthinkable to them, yet very easy for Jack to handle. I know that is how it was with me, and I need to remind myself when I talk to some people, that is how it is with them now. How has your stage of life effected your practice? Have to put anything away for the kiddies? Any good stories of youthful psychic shinanigans? Got anything planned for the empty nest?" by Jason Miller Link to original article: http://www.inominandum.com/blog/timing-of-magic-over-lifetime/ My 2 cents, Peace