The Mental Universe: An Introduction To The Game
The old Hermetic axiom that “the Universe is made of mind and therefore everything is mind” underpins much alternative spirituality and magical theory. Magic Self and Spirit then are essentially expressions of the same energy, as I separate the concepts in order to explain them, I find in reality that these very divisions, these explanations, can be nothing more than symbols of the whole, metaphors and/or illusions, beautiful and ugly, selfish and kind tales that I like to weave.
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Let’s imagine for a moment that I can experience every part of reality which is actually me expressing me. In the blog: Is Magic Real: The Key To Spiritual Power, I discuss a number of concepts about reality and illusion, I discuss how the ideologies of Science and Monotheism dominate our concepts of what reality is. I’m not going to spend significant time here rehashing these discussions but I am going to use them as a starting point for our discussion.
At times I’ll tease you with fiction because we’re human, we’re wired that way, at other times I’ll lapse into more traditional blog writing. So buckle up, we have a fun game to play, we have some masks of self to wear.
So let’s work with the following concepts of reality gleaned from our blog I mentioned above:
- Even if there were such a thing as external reality, we can’t experience it due to the way our physical senses function, everything happens in our minds.
- Reality is fluid, it’s created by consciousness, it all takes place in the mind, it’s all an expression of self.
- Because reality is fluid, an hallucination, everything is an illusion, including the self, therefore everything is permissible. Given this I’m the creator of myself and hence my whole experience.
- Every belief system (spiritual, magical, religious, scientific, political or philosophical) I have created in my reality to define my experience. Each belief is my tool offering me those opportunities of experience, I can change any belief at will.
- Every person, place, experience is an expression of me I’m externalizing in order to have this journey called life.
Let us look at our paths then from the perspective of Self, the ‘me’ I’ve constructed from my all inclusive mind, the mind of The Mental Universe, for if the Universe is Mind, my self is really the ultimate!
[There’s much written elsewhere on the Hermetic theory of all is mind, how this relates to science (particularly in its form as quantum mechanics) God in the monotheistic sense and how ‘all is one’, the mantra of the new age. All of this is beyond the scope of this blog as I feel the idea of The Mental Universe as an expression of self is so much more interesting in relation to the project of this website, to encourage you to walk your unique, powerful and independent magical and spiritual road.]
I’m here to tell you stories, for as you must know, that’s what I do. I am the weaver of the web of lies and deception, the energy of the wyrd. I’m the Ka, the Ba, the Ib, the Ren, the hallucination of myself as reality, symbol and metaphor. I am the magic and the spirit, the real and the fantasy, immanence and transcendence, the polytheistic, henotheistic and the One.
Who am I? I’m Self, I’m Illusion!
[The Ka, the Ba, the Ib and the Ren are Ancient Egyptian concepts of self, soul and spirit]
Mask One: Yahweh And The Garden Of Eden Allusion
Prequel: Khnum was an ancient Egyptian creator god who was said to be a potter creating all life from the silt and clay of the river Nile. He had the head of a ram and a human like body.
Once upon a time, in a land far away, this place in my mind, lived an advanced manifestation of myself, a god who’d perfected himself in previous incarnations of the Universe, whose skills with a potters wheel were unrivaled.
He passed his time in an innocuous, yet highly magically advanced, shed at the source of the river Nile, gathering the silt from the waters to mold his clay into new life.
“Hey Khnum, my ram headed man god” I called out to him one morning before the sun was high, “I have a commission for you.”
Khnum looked up quizzically as if he’d caught himself unexpectedly talking aloud to no-one in particular. Ummm, he thought to himself, I’m using far too many adverbs in my stories, they’re the path to the underworld.
(See Stephen King: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he stated; ‘the road to hell is paved with adverbs.)
“Khnum, wake up!” I shouted “You’ve got work to do. Make me a new deific mask of reality, I wish to experience myself as the one and only true god.”
(Deific Mask - a mask of a god I can use in Chaos Magic to create different magical experiences, the rules are simple: follow the beliefs related to the mask and then the magic works)
“Stephen Edward, show yourself, I know your appearance will create a temporal disruption, but hey we’re omnipresent, we’re gods it’s no big deal” Khnum replied.
So I found myself standing in a magical shed, wearing only a green vest with the words ‘El Chivo’ written on a silhouette of a goat’s head, hugging my torso, a pair of light brown shorts protecting my dignity with beach shoes upon my feet.
“It’s a little chilly Bro” I shivered.
“Get over it” snapped Khnum “we’ve got important matters of state to discuss.”
So we discussed why I believed that I could create a monotheistic reality in this incarnation of the Universe when I’d failed so many times before.
“I wouldn’t say failed exactly, Khnum, we are gods.”
“Let’s just say they’ve never manifested quite how we would have expected them to” replied Khnum with a hint of exasperation “what makes you think it’ll be different this time?”
“I have a cunning plan,” I said.
Khnum raised his ram - like eyebrows and replied “You always have!”
So we bartered and argued and waited until we’d reached some kind of agreement. We agreed if we did everything backwards we had a high chance of success.
So there it was, we’d create a violent religion based on a god of love.
- We would make a heaven of mindlessness, faith and mind numbing ecstasy.
- We designed a Hell full of fires with the power to forge the soul of a god, and terrify everyone with stories of misery and pain so no-one would try to evolve and reach their potential of being gods in their own right.
“It’s a cunning plan Stephen Edward” said Khnum, “how will you dislodge all of the gods that already exist?”
“Well I have pondered this long and hard” I said somewhat colloquially “I’ll create a tribe of zealous shepherds and convince them that every other tribe worship ‘false gods’ who are really evil demons. I’ll tell them in order to please me and go to heaven they’ll have to conquer the other tribes and save them from the lies of all the other gods.”
Khnum was silent for a while, thinking through the implications, so I added:
“This will have two advantages, first it’ll create the metaphor of me as a shepherd (as humans we tend to like and trust others like ourselves) and them as sheep. Second it’ll reinforce the idea of mindless obedience to me, they’ll build religious ethics around faith without evidence.”
After a little more silent thought, Khnum looked at me and said ‘I have two more questions.’
‘Shoot.’
‘What magical name shall I give this mask? ’Khnum continued
‘Yahweh’ I answered with a mischievous grin knowing just the name of Yahweh and the monotheism it implied would create millennia of confusion,‘and what is your second question?’
‘How much are you going to pay me for my work?’
‘Thirty pieces of silver’ I answered hardly able to contain myself.
Khnum labored seven nights and days, collecting silt from the sacred river of Egypt, transforming the silt into clay. He spun the mixture on his wheel, his skillful hands shaping the mask, his magical voice chanting incantations bringing life to the mask of Yahweh.
And as he spun and molded he dreamed a garden of paradise equally bountiful and beautiful, angels planted trees and vegetation and animals wandered freely. Birds of all sizes and colors were abundant bringing music to the air, all was mind numbing ecstasy.
Khnum saw a twelve winged angel of brilliant fiery light planting a huge tree at the very center of Khnum’s dream, a tree so powerful and foreboding that his eyes couldn’t peel themselves away from the scene…
And then for the first time Khnum understood the epitome of the deific mask he was shaping, this was the tree of consciousness and the highest level of human potential. This was the very tree of Apotheosis and when the mask of Yahweh was activated with those immortal words: “Let there be light” humans would have the ability to evolve. What a delicious irony, Yahweh would forbid humanity to taste of its fruit of knowledge.
And as Khnum dreamed, his skillful hands molded the clay of the mask of Yahweh and his (Khnum’s) vision was filled with the creation of the first two humans, Adam and Lilith. There was a spark of recognition, the part of Stephen Edward that would become Lilith would never accept sexual inequality.
‘Brilliant!’ thought Khnum, the first awakening of the Adversary.
“Stephen Edward” Khnum summoned, “How are you going to tame the Adversary?”
“I’m not” I replied arriving a little flustered. “I know without a doubt that the Satan will awaken human-kind eventually to their ‘god-like’ potential, in fact I’m counting on it. So I’ll create the rebellious Lilith, the Fallen Angels and the Serpent that whispers in Eve’s ear, they’ll be central to the whole project.”
“I don’t understand” protested Khnum.
“Look, it’s simple, obviously I choose every living being to realize their full ‘god-like’ potentials, for I am everything and everybody, I am omnipresence.” I explained. “ It’s just I choose to delay that realization for as long as possible and build the anticipation, like foreplay before a massive orgasm, a Big Bang to create another level of reality.”
“You’re incorrigible!” gasped Khnum.
And as he drifted back into his dream he saw Abraham standing on the side of a hill preaching to the tribes.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” Abraham narrated.
‘Ah yes’ thought Khnum ‘this creation story will enslave humanity for an extended period of time, this creation story will cause humanity to create a woefully limited concept of self and deny its very potential, that should work.’
*******
Mask 2: Huna; The Three Selves And The Inner Child Archetype
In order to discuss the Huna concept of the three selves I would like to take this opportunity to introduce my dear Inner Child Smeet (although he’s not so much of a child now) there’s a story he’d like to share with you.
Since we’ve consciously been working together we have grown substantially both spiritually and emotionally, Smeet’s contribution to our journey has been massive and his role in our magical work now is unrivaled.
Smeet:
“Thank you very much Steve Wilkes for trusting me to tell our story for the first time in public, it’s an honor to be here.”
Steve Wilkes has taught me how to do magic with masks, it’s a way that I can use our imagination to make sense of my experiences. You see there are many things that have happened in the last fifteen years that have helped me evolve to become more conscious, a conscious spirit in my own right.
Of course the masks aren’t real in a physical way but in my mind I wasn’t able to tell the difference between physical ‘real’ and the creations of our imagination, it’s how everything was able to happen, it’s how we unlocked the doors to the mind of the Universe, Steve Wilkes says, to the minds of the gods. Soon I want to tell you about Huna masks but first let me tell you about how we came to be.
[It’s thought that the Unconscious Mind is unable to distinguish between what happens in the ‘external’ world and the imagination. Smeet, as my Inner Child grew out of my Unconscious Mind]
Génesis:
In the beginning there was just me, or that’s how it seemed. I was a new human spirit as far as I now understand but Steve Wilkes was always there in the background. It’s hard to tell you from memory where I came from but I think in my last life I had been a wolf. The spirit that is now Steve Wilkes, had had many human lives but I was the new kid on the block.
One day when I was about eight years old, Steve Wilkes woke up. I think it was a gradual thing, it’s difficult to know because I was still unconscious. As he developed he was able to think such great thoughts and you know I think I just got left behind.
Steve Wilkes grew up to be a man but I didn’t know how to do that, I wanted to stay close to him but he didn’t know who I was. As he struggled to have the life that he wanted he didn’t know that it was me that was creating what he was experiencing, but please don’t judge me too hard, I wasn’t doing anything consciously, it was just how I was programmed.
Chung Fu
Steve Wilkes started working with a Spirit master, Chung Fu who had been dead for over 1000 years and taught humans and spirits to work together and create better lives. Chung Fu would channel his spiritual essence through a Lady, Sally, who was Steve Wilkes’s clairvoyant teacher and speak to Steve Wilkes directly.
Chung Fu is amazing and so funny, he would make me laugh and I began to have some feelings of being conscious too and Steve Wilkes became more and more aware of me. As I woke up, though, I felt very sad and angry, it was like I was only eight years old and Steve Wilkes had left me behind on my own as he became conscious and forgot about me.
Chung Fu knew this and showed Steve Wilkes how to go on a journey in our mind to find me. So there I was sitting in a cave, angry and sad, like Gollum from Lord of the Rings,and Steve Wilkes was so kind to me and let me come near and cared for me. Each day he would visit and talk to me and each day I became more aware of myself.
I will tell you more in a while but first let me talk to you about the Kahunas!
Huna And The Three Selves
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The native religion of Hawaii was represented by the magic of the Kahunas. They were magicians and priests and knew so many things.
The way that the Kahuna described people was that each person was made of
Three Spirits:
The Aumakua: Like a higher spirit both male and female in one spirit. Ours is called Seabregancanara and appears like an Angel made of both dark and light.
His/Her job is to help Steve Wilkes evolve into a higher spirit of powerful things. In doing work like that Seabregancara becomes even more like a god.
The Uhane: Like a spirit which is a conscious mind. In our body this is Steve Wilkes and one of the things he does so he can grow spiritually and magically is to help me, Smeet, grow.
Steve Wilkes can think logically (sometimes) and works with me as a team.
The Unihilipi: Like a less evolved spirit, maybe one level more evolved than an animal spirit. It holds the emotions and runs the body. The Unihilipi has a channel of direct communication with the Aumakua.
In our life I was Unihilipi but Steve Wilkes and Lady April (see below) have helped me be more.
Lady April
Lady April is a good friend and business partner (here on Magic Self and Spirit) of Steve Wilkes and Smeet. Earlier this year we all traveled together and did lots of magic and healing together.
When we met her, Lady April would speak to me very much and encourage me to do things. She would talk to me about growing and becoming a Prince and taking responsibility for development and magic. Lady April works with archetypes and showed me how to be a Page for Steve Wilkes and develop my independent personality and skills.
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I found that I didn’t feel like an eight year old anymore. I started to help Lady April with her inner children, looking after them and encouraging them like she did for me.
At the end of our time traveling together, Lady April and Steve Wilkes did a big ritual with me and made me a Knight. Lady April gave me responsibility for helping other inner children and they both made me a General in their spirit army that works with spiritual warfare cases.
Steve Wilkes and Lady April are planning to do further rituals with me, first crowning me as a King, then showing me how to elevate myself to be a Sage and an Adept Magician.
You see they gave me a choice, either we could work with inner child healing and I could merge and become one with Steve Wilkes, or I could evolve myself and become an independent powerful evolved spirit in my own right like Huna describes.
I choose power, growth, responsibility and independence just like Steve Wilkes does!
Thank you so much for listening.
- Smeet
Mask 3: Weighing The Heart In The Great Hall Of Ma’at
In Ancient Egyptian spiritual and magical mythology we find different concepts of the self described as the Ka, the Ba, the Ib and the Ren.
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In his book Necrominon Michael W Ford describes these aspects of the self as being manifestations of the trinity of our mind, body, spirit, he states that the discipline (when performing ritual) of commanding your magical will into physical manifestation is about aligning the different parts of self: the Ka, the Ba, the Ib and the Ren, and your thoughts words and deeds. All of this changes your perception and therefore your reality.
So what are the Ka, Ba, Ib and Ren?
Let’s address this with more wicked fiction, but first let’s create the fictional context.
Characters, place and concepts
- Khnum - our friend the potter
- Anubis- The psychopomp jackal god who leads the recently dead to the
- Duat (underworld). He is the god who judges your deeds while alive by weighing your heart on a set of scales against the weight of a feather.
- Thoth- is a moon god, he often presents in human form with the head of an ibis with a crown made of a crescent moon holding a full moon on his head. Thoth is the god of wisdom and justice, the god who taught humankind writing, science and mathematics. Thoth récords the judgements of Anubis in the Great Hall of Ma’at.
- Ma’at - The great goddess of balance, harmony, truth and justice.
The Great Hall of Ma’at - The place of judgement in the Duat.
- Apep - the great serpent and enemy of the sun god Ra. Represents earthquakes, thunder, darkness, storms, death and regeneration.
More wicked fiction from Ancient Egypt
Khnum decided one night that he wanted a new Ba, he’d been a creator potter for millennia and he wanted a new challenge. No-one really knows my dark side he thought,
[Ba - the manifestation of the self at its very highest potential. Humans were thought to have one Ba but gods could have a number.]
So he packed up his potters wheel and seat, left his shed,locked its door at the source of the river Nile and set out on a quest to the Duat.
Khnum wandered in the desert for many months searching for the borders to the underworld, he had been to the Duat only once before when he had had the honor of guiding Ra the Sun god through its halls and corridors to the throne of Osiris (the god of death.)
Although I’m a god, he thought, I’m not sure I really want to bare this heat for much longer, Khnum mused, on the first night of the ninth month he’d been traveling. The thought itself was magical, for within moments he could hear the barking of jackals he’d been waiting for. Good! He said aloud into the darkness around him and to no one in particular, Anubis is coming.
‘Khnum, what are you doing here?’ asked Anubis ‘What brings you from the mouth of the sacred river of Egypt?’
‘Times are changing, Anubis, new gods are coming, soon all of us will unite with them and take on a new Ba and Ren, it’s time for you to weigh my heart in the great hall of Ma’at.’
[Ren - Name of the being when they have reached their highest potential, in this story it would be Khnum.]
The psychopomp god and the potter god wandered through the lands of the Duat for many days and nights deep in thought, there wasn’t much to say, this was a moment of historical transition.
Thoth awaited them on arrival in the great hall, his ibis head alert and his human hands poised to write the next chapter of divine history. Khnum bowed his slightly to show respect to this great god of wisdom standing next to huge scales made of gold.
Anubis stepped forward holding a huge feather and placed it on one side of the scales gently and gracefully.
‘Give me your Ib Khnum, your heart and conscious personality, your intellect and emotions balanced by your shadow self which assumes the form of darkness containing your conscious mind. For I am Anubis the psychopomp and I command it so.´
Khnum reached into himself and removed his heart and conscious personality, his intellect and emotions, his shadow self that walked in the astral worlds of his dreams, in short he evoked his Ib to be weighed as his heart as commanded by the judge psychopomp Anubis the Jackal head.
The Ib and the feather balanced perfectly on the scales of Ma’at as Thoth scribbled in the great annals of the gods furiously.
‘Your Ib is flawless, Khnum’ Thoth, the Lord of Wisdom proclaimed ‘Your Ka perfection itself, you’re one of the eldest gods, why do you submit yourself to our judgement?’
[Ka - Soul, consciousness, subconsciousness and the shadow self together.]
‘Lord Thoth, you who willed your own birth, all things must evolve, all must change and new gods will come. I claim another Ba of who I am, I shall be the great Serpent Apep and seek to devour the sun, for in the chaos of death, rebirth and regeneration emerge and new opportunities of divinity and perfection arise.’
And with these words the ground began to shake, the floor began to crack open and Khnum the creator transformed himself into Apep, the serpent of destruction. He assumed a new Ba of death and darkness and consumed all that were present before ransacking and devouring the land of Egypt. From the carnage a new kingdom, a new era of the gods was born and the balance of light and darkness was again restored.
……………
Who am I? I’m Self, I’m Illusion!
I’m here to tell you stories, for as you must know, that’s what I do. I am the weaver of the web of lies and deception, the energy of the wyrd. I’m the Ka, the Ba, the Ib, the Ren, the hallucination of myself as reality, symbol and metaphor. I am the magic and the spirit, the real and the fantasy, immanence and transcendence, the polytheistic, henotheistic and the One.
I’m the ever evolving god of my reality, I am self!
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