tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post2800766976716078068..comments2024-03-25T14:09:59.347-05:00Comments on Augoeides: Thoughts on Rob's Laws of MagickScott Stenwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-52880053680318306872011-06-22T15:34:34.434-05:002011-06-22T15:34:34.434-05:00Hermetic Law: I like "The Pattern corresponds...Hermetic Law: I like "The Pattern corresponds to the Manifestation, and the Manifestation corresponds to the Pattern."<br /><br />Law of Reversals: You can't un-use something for the first time. Once you have done X, you can no longer be someone who has never done X. Most of the odd exceptions seem to be in the realm of knowledge and identity.<br /><br />Adept's Law: I like the self-selection built into it.Undercrypthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04376689171134293445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-55505835848687246452011-06-22T14:44:01.295-05:002011-06-22T14:44:01.295-05:00@Rob: Thanks for the additional explanation. That ...@Rob: Thanks for the additional explanation. That makes a lot more sense - a hedge to prevent social conventions and/or pressure from trumping direct spiritual realization.<br /><br />I still think it should be obvious - once you've established your own reliable source of spiritual insight you shouldn't let anyone else's opinion prevent you from exercising it - but given how common appeals to authority and so forth are in the occult community it nonetheless bears repeating.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-25817765880052591682011-06-22T13:53:05.480-05:002011-06-22T13:53:05.480-05:00I probably didn't express the Adept's Law ...I probably didn't express the Adept's Law very well. I often find myself using it a lot though. It's meant to render appeals to authority, or the idea that someone is not allowed to do something or shouldn't do something mute.<br /><br />Most commonly I find it useful as a counter to, "You can't do that because my/our high priestess says you can't," or "because [insert favorite author here] says you shouldn't." <br /><br />It also works as a counter to purely invented moral arguments against certain magical practices. Balthazar's recent argument against eclectic practice because it rapes cultural heritage is a perfect example of one of these arguments which is nullified by the adept's law. <br /><br />The law also counters the idea that in the mentor-student relationship the mentor is in control and the student has to follow them, even after the student has reached adepthood. And it counters the idea that leadership in a spiritual or religious hierarchy has any real power over membership at the adept level. <br /><br />Of course anyone can do whatever they want to do, and I covered that specifically in the same article a little later on. However the realization of this, along with the realization that appeals to authority are meaningless, at least in regards to oneself, are essential to becoming an adept, and as such the behavior is always exhibited by adepts (where as we don't see the same behavior in non-adepts, i.e. many neophytes will always follow the orders of their high priest/ess, and often won't even think about the alternative).<br /><br />I posit it as a law because of the fact that if a person doesn't subscribe the ideology that they can do whatever they want by virtue of being an adept and exhibit behavior in accordance with that belief, then they aren't yet an adept.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15339922041233122021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-24476423020868716652011-06-22T10:36:30.984-05:002011-06-22T10:36:30.984-05:00Maybe that's the point, then. It just seems to...Maybe that's the point, then. It just seems to me that when stated as a "law" it creates something of a tautology - stating that you can do whatever you have the power to do, when whatever you have the power to do is defined as what you can do. An Adept may have no reason to limit him or herself, but when you get right down to it neither does anybody else.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7294505416127496842.post-73745938090130884702011-06-22T09:31:56.549-05:002011-06-22T09:31:56.549-05:00I don't disagree on any particular point, thou...I don't disagree on any particular point, though I get the feeling the "Adept's Law" was referring more to getting in your own way than anything external. We might have all the power and opportunity in the world to make a particular thing happen, but if we can't get over our own self-limiting patterning/neuroses/bullshit, we can still fail spectacularly.<br /><br />With any luck, an Adept will have cut through a lot of this, get in their own way far less often, and be able to bring about the results they want more often.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15009778570667265968noreply@blogger.com