The purpose of a magickal record or journal is to record the day to day experiences of the Magickian in order to expand their perspective on their own growth and development. The Magical Record is a journal of the Magickian's activities and experiences and is a tool for them to use in personal development. While the keeping of the Magickal Record requires a certain degree of discipline, it's chief benefit lies in giving the Magickian a greater scope of perspective in which to view their own efforts in pursuit of the Great Work regardless of what path they are working. Thus the Magickal Record can be one of the most powerful tools of self-transformation in the Magickians arsenal. As a service to the Magickal Community, Bate Cabal/Black Moon is presenting examples of the on-going magickal records of several working Magickians from different traditions/paths.Fra. Geh Mad
Samhain, 1996
The Magickal Record
Stillness and Occurrence or the Marassa Come Home to PapaThe MR or Magickal Record is a diary of a souls travel into Will. Time is the instrument of navigation. As the mariners of old used the sextant, the magickian uses the calendar to chart his or her movements through the currents that encircle and direct t he evolution of this planet.
The Magickal Record can trace the development of a single Working, of a life of Workings, or any state in-between.
There are a multitude of ways to tread the path of Will, and there are a multitude of ways to keep a MR. As the days rise and fall, a pattern of action becomes discernible. The path of a Star across the body of night becomes visible. This path or pattern may be more of a surprise to the keeper of the MR than to anyone else. The experience is similar to hearing one's voice on tape for the fist time. Change or appreciation can result.
In the introduction to the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot I wrote, "We are actors in a play so large we know not its name." The MR is an attempt to sound the syllables of that Name. This Name partakes of eternity in that it has neither beginning, middle, or e nd. The magickal record has a beginning, a middle, and an end thus it is a thing of limits. It must fail in its attempt to gather the sounds of eternity but in this failure there is the sweetness of amrita. It is a failure that points the way to success much in the same way that the whirling spokes of a wheel can be followed to the "center that moveth not."
The MR is a joining of metaphysics and mysticism. Metaphysics holds that the experience of spirit can be captured in a net of words. Mysticism disagrees. To the mystic, such a net falls squarely over the seeker and all that is beheld is one's own face mul tiplied into a claustrophobic infinity. The mystics hold that the experience of spirit is beyond any combination of words. to mystics drag the experience of spirit into a network of interrelationships that obscure the experiences direct clarity. The MR ge ometrically circumscribes a metaphysics of mysticism. It is the ground on which a describable path winds to an indescrible completion.
We are of the infinite and the finite. We are composed of stillness and occurrence. Of stillness, nothing of importance can be said. Stillness lies at the core of occurrence. As the seeds of occurrence lie within the heart of stillness. Through following the path of occurrence, one surely finds the way to the stillness at its heart. This stillness is pure existence; thus joy. Pure existence has no beginning middle or end. It always was and always will be. We are the living equation of love and will divid ed by a line with no width. The MR is what this line describes. The MR is where occurrence (which can be called Will), and the stillness (which can be called Love) move into relationship one to another. The MR is not about "why." "Why" lives in the tell ing, and passes away into the sweetness of silence. The MR is not about knowledge, its domain is understanding. In the pristine sense of the word, understanding means "to stand under" and thus to partake of experience much like a flower partakes of the li ving presence of the rain.
The Magickal Record is as the passage of a labyrinth in which there are no dead ends. Every passage leads out. The only sure way to lose ones way in this labyrinth is to entertain a self indulgence that leads to action born of despair, cowardness of lack of care. And even this degraded state will by and by find itself broken by the winds of change that continually blow through the labyrinth.
The metaphysician seeks to chart the walls of this maze while the mystic moves freely in the open spaces of its passages.
To the mystic, the labyrinth is not composed of walls but of the empty space of the passages and space can not be charted. Only the walls of the labyrinth can be charted. No space is more empty than any other therefore no passage is more suitable than an other. They all lead out.
The Magickal Record is a hand print upon the wall of a cave.
All things, all actions, all occurrences come and go. They are like a Name written in sand, bravely in the presence of the inexorably rising and falling of the tides of samsara. To will to act in the face of oblivion creates meaning. Creates the space in which transcendence can occur. "Even the shards of shattered dreams shine brightly still." All that is linear must one day fall prey to the rising of the tide. Nuit will one day say "NO" and al(l) will come to aught and the cipher of aught will circle inw ard in great spiral once again toward the dot of beginning.
In and out again the MR traces the heartbeat of a Holy Duality. It is the way in which leads out. It is the way out which leads in.
"If you take but one step on this path we will carry you the rest of the way."
Mr. Crowley"Gate, Gate, Para Gate, Para Sam Gate, Bodi Svaha."
(Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Beyond Beyond. Hail The Goer.)
Mr. BuddhaLouis Martinie'
Total Lunar Eclipse; 1996