Hi there Morgan,
Thanks for making yourself present; and thus have an avenue for interaction with you.
I appreciate the transparency of your thoughts, plus the clarity of the communications that you've offered up. By it's nature, the Ra Material is a highly undistorted text, and despite the inspiration that it brings to many people, it equally requires an undistorted mind to grasp it's Understandings, without turning it into a 'justification platorm' for one's own current predilections. That is: can one actually
see what is being conveyed, rather than seeing what wants to see. That is the nature of study, and, I think, we all desire to move closer to the original intentions; myself included.
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I was waiting outside my apartment building when I checked my email, and saw that your thread had been posted. I have an rss feed that alerts me of new threads; part of that is to stay in touch with what's happening; the other portion, of course, is to do with my moderation duties on the forums, and stomping out spam as swiftly as possible. I saw your thread, and clicked through to the Magic Article that you had offered up as a draft. My brother was running about ten minutes late, and I was downstairs early anyway, and so I got a fair way through your text; stopping at stages, to process my own thoughts that had arisen in response to your digested understandings.
I'll just share a few things here, that struck me quite strongly. It's only offerd up as a potential reflection for your own thoughts, and may or may not be relevant and/or useful. It just represents my current state of interacting with this particular domain/field.
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'Exoteric' and 'Esoteric'
early on in your essay, you made a distinction here between 'exoteric' and 'esoteric'. This is the passage:
Quote:In general, magic may divided roughly into the subfields of exoteric magic, and esoteric magic. Exoteric magic is publicly observable magic which is part of "consensus reality:" e.g., religion, science, and politics are exoteric magic. Esoteric magic specifically encompasses forms of magic belonging to the hidden realms of the unspeakable and unobservable, and more generally it encompasses forms of magic which are hidden from general observation. Examples of esoteric magic include meditation, channeling, potent ritual magic, and manipulation of the thought matrix (see the section The Thought Matrix). Some areas of pursuit, such as psychology, can be said to lie at a sort of intersection between exoteric and esoteric magic, having significant features and elements of each.
It should also be borne in mind that "exoteric" and "esoteric" are relative terms. What is esoteric today can be exoteric in the future, if truth is exposed to the public. What is exoteric today can be esoteric tomorrow, if awareness of truth is lost from the public.
I understand that this is an outwardly observable distinction, and serves as an analysis point for what the current culture either tolerates or doesn't tolerate. Or what it is 'open to', or not open to.
I think it has it's place in trying to see through an anthropological lens, as what activities can be supported, and what (others) are carried on in relative isolation.
I think you've made a solid, and unmistakable, distinction there.
For the purposes of technical understanding - which may be beyond the scope of your introductory essay - I would also draw a line between the kind of magic that is inherently
inherent, and that which is inherently
exherent (external).
By that, I would point to this passage here:
58.23 Wrote:Contact with indigo ray need not necessarily show itself in any certain gift or guidepost, as you have said. There are some whose indigo energy is that of pure being and never is manifested, yet all are aware of such an entity’s progress. Others may teach or share in many ways contact with intelligent energy. Others continue in unmanifested form, seeking intelligent infinity.
Thus the manifestation is a lesser signpost than that which is sensed or intuited about a mind/body/spirit complex. This violet-ray beingness is far more indicative of true self.
You point to magic as being an encounter with the 'heart of self', and in the above passage, Ra indicates that some of these encounters are not manifested in any kind of 'external result'. So this kind of 'encounter' would be inherently inherent, no matter if the sociological conditions are exoteric/esoteric.
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'Levels of Magic'.
Another point of distinction was triggered when I read your thoughts concerning the 'levels of magic'.
This was your opening passage, although you continued to elaborate on this theme for a few more paragraphs.
Quote:Some potencies and activities are more magical than others. There are degrees or levels of magic. Any potency can be thought of as magical to some level, and classified according to its level/degree of magic.
The levels of magic are, in other words, the levels of energy/material/experience existing in the universe. Everything in existence can be thought of as energy or as material, as taught by physics. As taught by the Law of One, conscious experience is energy/material. All conscious experience is existent material, and all material is conscious experience of the one infinite creator by itself. Thus energy, material, and experience provide three ways of conceptualizing the one substance constituting existence, which is the self, or the one infinite creator.
The idea that magic is organized into levels is founded on the idea that energy/substance is organized into levels. You can see an example of this idea by reflecting on your experience, if you have noticed that you are at different levels of consciousness at different times.
Again, I think you are making a valid (and valuable) distinction here. My own thoughts went into a different avenue, and may or may not be supportive of your original intentions.
When speaking about 'different levels', my mind immediately was drawn to the distinction between
mediated and
unmediated magic.
Now, what do I mean by that?
By mediated magic, I mean a magical experience/occurence that is mediated by another consciously individuated entity.
Or perhaps it would be easier to point to the rare third-density instances of Unmediated Magic.
Ra spoke about
direct contact with the essentialities of Creation. Most notably, in how the pyramids were 'created':
3.8 Wrote:This energy is intelligent. It is hierarchical. Much as your mind/body/spirit complex dwells within an hierarchy of vehicles and retains, therefore, the shell, or shape, or field, and the intelligence of each ascendingly intelligent or balanced body, so does each atom of such a material as rock. When one can speak to that intelligence, the finite energy of the physical, or chemical, rock/body is put into contact with that infinite power which is resident in the more well-tuned bodies, be they human or rock.
With this connection made, a request may be given. The intelligence of infinite rock-ness communicates to its physical vehicle and that splitting and moving which is desired is then carried out through the displacement of the energy field of rock-ness from finity to a dimension which we may conveniently call, simply, infinity.
In this way, that which is required is accomplished due to the cooperation of the infinite understanding of the Creator indwelling in the living rock.
This is 'unmediated magic', in that it involves direct contact.
Another example of unmediated magic would be the abilities of dual-activated individuals to bend spoons with mental thought:
Quote:58.19 Questioner: There are many people who are now bending metal, doing other things like that by mentally requesting this happen. What is happening in that case? What are they— Can you explain what’s happening there?
Ra: I am Ra. That which occurs in this instance may be likened to the influence of the second spiral of light in a pyramid being used by an entity. As this second spiral ends at the apex, the light may be likened unto a laser beam in the metaphysical sense and when intelligently directed may cause bending not only in the pyramid, but this is the type of energy which is tapped into by those capable of this focusing of the upward spiraling light. This is made possible through contact in indigo ray with intelligent energy.
58.20 Questioner: Why are these people able to do this? They seem to have no training; they just are able to do it.
Ra: I am Ra. They remember the disciplines necessary for this activity which is merely useful upon other true-color vibratory experiential nexi.
Now, this is also unmediated, because it does not involve another consciously individuated entity acting as a go-between.
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as for the other category of magical events, Meditated Magic, as I said, this would be far and away the bulk of how native third-density beings experience what is classified as magical experiences.
At least in the cases where it is consciously invoked and directed.
Ra speaks here about the 'light strength' and bringing it into beingness:
Quote:Ra: I am Ra. This is incorrect but subtly so. In invocation and evocation of what may be termed negative entities or qualities, the expression alerts the positively oriented equivalent. However, those upon the service-to-others path wait to be called and can only send love.
73.4 Questioner: What I was trying to get at was that this alerting of light strength is, as I see it, a process that must be totally a function of free will, as you say, and as the desire and will and purity of desire of the adept or operator increases, the alerting of light strength increases. Is this part of it the same for both positive and negative potentials and am I correct with this statement?
Ra: I am Ra. To avoid confusion we shall simply restate for clarity your correct assumption.
Those who are upon the service-to-others path may call upon the light strength in direct proportion to the strength and purity of their will to serve. Those upon the service-to-self path may call upon the dark strength in direct proportion to the strength and purity of their will to serve.
This 'light strength' is invoked through various rituals and practices, which tune and purify the will to serve and seek.
Ra talks about using a 'scalpel' in such cases, to be able to bring greater efficacy in establishing a communion with such positive forces:
Quote:74.16 Questioner: I will make an analogy to the loudness of ringing of the telephone in using the ritual as the efficiency of the practitioners using the ritual. Now, I see several things affecting the efficiency of the ritual: first, the desire of the practitioners to serve, their ability to invoke the magical personality, their ability to visualize while performing the ritual, and let me ask you as to the relative importance of those items and how each may be intensified?
Ra: I am Ra. This query borders upon over-specificity. It is most important for the adept to feel its own growth as teach/learner.
We may only say that you correctly surmise the paramount import of the magical personality. This is a study in itself. With the appropriate emotional will, polarity, and purity, work may be done with or without proper sound vibration complexes. However, there is no need for the blunt instrument when the scalpel is available.
So both these passages speak to a Mediated Experience of Magic; which takes place via another entity which is willing to serve as an intermediary in place of faculties/abilities that are not native to the density of calling. So a third density entity can invoke magic from beings from higher densities, a 4th density entity would seek from 5th and 6th.
I would liken this to asking your friend to google something on his phone. You may be in a density (like ours), where say 'mobiles' had not been invented yet. But your friend has a phone, and a mobile plan. You ask him to google something, and he can relay information for you. And so you can tap into things, but in a
mediated way.
In this example, the mobile phone would correspond to the indigo gateway that is native to a 4d or higher body.
Given enough development, the 3d indigo gateway can also be developed to a very high degree; but that is not the situation for our current Earth planet. Our society is not aligned to these kinds of goals and ideals.
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So that's just some thoughts that I had.
Much Love,
Garry