His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Matthew 25:23
OFFERINGS TO SPIRITS ARE BUNK. Maybe I’ve been spending too much time on the internet, or more accurately, too much time in the wrong places on the internet, but I have come to the conclusion that the way people try to “pay” for the good offices of a spirit, as if such a magical operation could ever be commodified, by making some token gesture not only grossly undervalues the Spirit in question, but stunts the Magician’s own further development.
Instead, I wish to propose a new paradigm, based on the following principles:
Magick is a gift;
The Magician is a Steward of the Gift of Magick.
The principle of Stewardship may be stated as “leaving a thing in a better state than when you found it,” or in a more Theological sense, if one is given something one should both use it and leave it in an improved condition. Cf the parable of the three Stewards from Matthew 25. In contemporary religion this principle in invoked to justify environmental activism within a spiritual context. However, I say that it applies to living one’s life generally, i.e. humanity is not just the Steward of Nature, but individual humans are the Stewards of all the good things they have received in their particular lives, i.e. they have an ethical obligation to leave them in a better state than when they received them. Hence, for the Magician, this means that he or she is a Steward of the Magical gifts which they have received.
Hence further, for example, if a spirit does one a good turn by granting one’s spell-request, the proper way to thank the spirit is take the boon granted and make full use of it even to the extent of exceeding the scope of one’s original intention. Or if God / one’s Higher Self / one’s unconscious mind happens to grant you Magical Power or Powers, then one ought to leave that Magical Power in a better state for all succeeding generations. E.g. a Clairvoyant would, following the principle of Stewardship, be under an ethical obligation to advance the science of Clairvoyance during their lifetime so that future students of the art will find their own experience of it improved because of the Clairvoyant’s own practice.
Not by simply posting a thank you message on social media and hoping for the best!
Call it UPG if you like but I do not believe that such platitudes a valuable offering do make, but instead lead a diminishing of returns. Expanding and constantly improving on the other hand keep the Spirit-Relationship alive.
One final point: there will come a time when we will be called to Give Account of our Stewardship, i.e. by when we ought to have improved on our gifts. But the wisest of us know not when that will occur, so by default one should assume that it is NOW.
Olim, libri qui magicum contenuit in Latina scriptebantur, illa enim lingua scholasticorum trans Europam erat. Sic, multa ritualia antiqua in Latina ut historicum artificium sunt.
Abramelin thoughts
From Reddit:
I wouldn’t know – I completed the whole thing, KCHGA, demons, and all.
Besides which, I rather think that the Bravery required to stand up to all the demons of Hell and command their obedience is the final test. KCHGA gives you that bravery, but you still have to go through with it otherwise you can’t actually use the Abramelin system thereafter.
In any event, just about every system of spiritual development I know – Abramelin, the Golden Dawn itself, Elus Cohens, and even the Individuation process in Jung’s analytical psychology – involving facing up to the “dark forces” and not banishing them but integrating them to play nicely with “higher authority” – whether that be the HGA, the Higher Self, the Repairer, or “the Self.” You can’t get away from it.
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