By Cheryl (Lady Tashi) Costa
Consider for a moment the idea that reality is pliable and bendable. Also, consider that real life mystics have been massaging reality’s pliable points using metaphysical techniques for millennia.
Magic is a topic that fascinates us! Stage magic dazzles and entertains us. Stage magic, as you know, is cleverness and the art of illusion.
Of course, there is the high-tech Computer-Generated Images (CGI) that we see in modern motion pictures, the proverbial movie magic.
Then there is the magic that we read about in fairytales. It's powerful magic usually wielded by sorcerers and the ever-present stereotype witch. Magic in storybooks is theater-of-the-mind, made real by the powerful prose and most certainly our own imaginations.
Then there is a real-life Magick. Please note the variant spelling that magickal adepts use to denote the art of the reality-bending practice.
Of course, most people will tell you that magick is simply make-believe. They will assure you that such things do not exist. There are a few people who believe in the power of magick. Usually, these are not people who practice magick, nor do they really understand a thing about it. They are happy to bend your ear and tell you that magick is dangerous and not to be fooled around with. They also frequently say those who practice magick are evil. There are also many people who believe that only a divine being can manifest natural magick.
Still, others are skeptical, but they leave the door open for real magick. Unfortunately, they frequently expect real-world practitioners to perform abundant and mighty feats. They almost always want over-the-top and overt demonstrations. Yet many of these people are less than impressed when a genuine practitioner demonstrates some small feat that defies the laws of physics. “It's not good enough,” they say. In fact, it's never good enough for them. They almost always label it a parlor trick.
The truth of the matter is that Reality is a construct; therefore, it is bendable and malleable. I once read a passage in a book by Buddhist Scholar, Robert Thurman where he described that experienced lamas are literally immersed in the art of manipulating the “machine code” of reality. Magickal adepts have been doing this sort of thing to one degree or another for millennia.
Buddhist and Magickal practitioners alike understand that there is a Great Common Consciousness, which we magickal adepts call the Higher Self. We also both understand the idea of the dualist view. An adept refers to our personal aspect of the great consciousness as the Younger Self and our day-to-day human perspective as the Talking Self.
The basic technique of magick is simple enough in theory. It only requires communicating our intention from our Talking Self to the Younger Self to the Great Consciousness (Higher Self) for manifestation. That sounds like a “prayer” doesn’t it? In effect, it is a prayer of sorts.
Bottom line, all efforts to manifest something through supernatural means works through this mechanism. Some might call the Great Consciousness by a God or Goddess name or by perhaps a Buddhist Bodhisattva name, folks grounded in Star Wars Mythos might call it The Force.
By whatever name you call it, the principle is still the same; ultimately we are merely trying to get our intention communicated to the Higher Self or Great Consciousness.
This metaphysical communication also works in another way, the gathering of information. As a Buddhist lama once told me, meditate on it and be open to the knowledge. So instead of experiencing something to know it, you contemplate it and come to know it without experiencing
.
A student asked a Zen teacher how he should learn a particular thing. The teacher simply told the student to “know it.” This is the gaining of knowledge without experiencing it; this too can be accomplished by touching the great consciousness. This is the technique that military Remote Viewers used to gather intelligent information through psychic means.
In the movies, we are shown that great sorcerers read aloud powerful spells from venerable ancient books of magic. Such a scene makes for high drama but falls short in terms of actual magickal technique.
As a mystic, I will take three old ladies focused on saying a rosary, verses a great sorcerer reading a long-winded, verbose spell, any time. Why?
Communication to the younger self is on a more primeval level. Verbose higher language doesn’t cut it! To communicate with the younger self, you need to use, art like symbols, play acting, music, and dancing. Think of magickal practice as a non-verbal game of charades.
For example, you want to have a new bicycle manifest in your life. An excellent simple technique is to cut out a lot of photos of the bike you want and stick them up on your mirror, your doors, and even the wall across from your toilet seat. Put the pictures up any place where you can observe the photo in a relaxed state of mind. The other approach would be to engage those three old ladies with the rosary beads. Why?
The reciting of prayers is known as a mantra. Repetition of mantra is a time-honored technique for quieting-the-mind. So now we reach the heart of the matter, quieting-the-mind.
Whether we are trying to divine or remote view information from the Great Consciousness-Higher Self or trying to impress a magickal request for the manifestation of something, in reality, the key to both scenarios is quieting-the-mind.
Other time-honored methods for quieting-the-mind are chanting, drumming and ceremonial dancing. Meditation is an excellent way to do what all the different techniques eventually achieve, mental quieting.
The process of quieting the “monkey chatter” in your mind makes it possible to non-verbally communicate an intention from the younger self to the higher self.
If you decide to learn meditation and perhaps the arts of magick, I caution you that to start any of it requires that you shut your phone off during your efforts.
Quieting the mind is the primary requirement for working magick. The quieter the mind, the crisper the non-verbal imagery required for first-rate manifestation. Experienced magickal adepts understand that quieting the monkey mind chatter is what it is all about!
About Cheryl/Lady Tashi: Cheryl {Lady Tashi} Costa was raised Roman Catholic, became a witch in 1978. She was initiated in the Alexsanderian tradition and cross initiated in a handful of small eclectic traditions. She has taught basic craft to several hundred students over the years. From 1991 to 1992, she produced 70 episodes of the first publicly televised cable series by witches about witches. The program was called Kestryl and Company and was on cable systems in the Washington, DC area for several years. In addition, she lived seven years in a Buddhist monastery and holds several ordinations. Mundanely, she is retired from the aerospace industry and in retirement she is a freelance journalist.
Those who wish to ask questions or correspond with Lady Tashi can email her at: LadyTashi@CherylCosta.com
