Part One: The Middle Pillar - iPage

The Two Pillars of the Temple 7
As a practical system, magic is concerned not so much with
analysis as with bringing into operation the creative and intuitive
parts of man. A psychological techruque can never be a wholly integrative
one until it accepts ths spiritual side of man and assists the
analysand in the recognition of or acquaintance with its activity. At
ths moment, the treatment of these matters remains almost entirely
within the domain of magic alone. Fully does it recognize the necessity
for integration. Not only does it accept and recommend the
results of analysis, but it proceeds still further. If analysis aims at the
acceptance of the unconscious, and the validity of its co-existence
with consciousness, then magic may be said to be a technique for
realizing the deeper levels of the unconscious. These are levels of
power and realization whose value we can but dimly grasp through
contemplation of religious figures of the past. Buddha, Jesus, Krishna,
St. Francis, and a host of others are instances of such illuminated
men--of individuals who have striven, all in different ways, to know
themselves and attain to a realization of their true divine nature. If so
we wish, the techruques they employed we may call devotion, meditation,
and contemplation. Fundamentally however, they are identical
in spirit with what we now propose to discuss as magic. In the
latter, however, the entire process of attainment has been systematized
and developed almost into an exact science, having as its foundation
the discovery of godhead. W e there may be very few in life
who can attain to the full realization of their divine origin and nature,
yet for all of us there is some value to magic, some degree of fulfillment
or attainment available. There is none so small as cannot
employ it to some good and noble end. None so great as cannot better
himself morally and otherwise, thus rendering hmself more efficient
to cope with and understand life and the world both about and
within him. These are objectives whch, notwithstanding the magnitudes
of their vision, are w i h the reach of every man.
It is not yet the moment to enter into a disquisition on the intricacies
of magical ritual. But in order to expound fundamental psychological
and spiritual principles it is necessary to refer to what are known