It's been a few years now since I ceased to be pissed off whenever I came across alleged occultists stating that lodge magick is psychological. It became obvious to me those people knew very little relating to the occult in general and it is possible that their innate ignorance prevented them from trying to understand magical systems other than then ones (mostly one!) they're using. The fact some of the people who made this stupid statement aspire to fame and glory as renowned occultists should cause people to question their overall knowledge and experience, but that's not the point of this article.
If you've read Asteria, even the first few pages, it's likely you've come across a phrase that says "a magical act is in itself an interaction between the magician’s consciousness and the outside world." This should be a no brainer for any practicing occultist yet what I forgot to write at that time was that it does not take place on a physical level, otherwise practically any mundane experience during a person's life time can be considered a magical act - my bad! I do speak about magicians elevating their consciousness in Magic Words and the benefits resulting from that. I think I also said in The Magick of Astrorelationships that you can't be in the same mindset when you're doing a magical ritual as when you're at a strip club, but that was a very short explanation in a book that targeted people who want to address relationship issues (and then some) using magical means more, than those who seek to pursue a lifelong magical path.
At any rate, the microcosm is more than just some mental patterns that can be dealt with using psychology although I think many are aware by now psychology and even psychiatry are struggling to understand mental patterns and to come up with more better ways to fix those that are faulty. At least in theory. "As above, so below" is or at least should be a widely known axiom in the occult universe, especially to those who can't stop bragging about how ever so Hermetic they are, even when their microcosm is a total mess.Regardless of those braggers, the axiom itself can practically be comprehended using astrology. If we accept that we come from the divine and are a reflection of it (or a mini-me, for those who fancy that term), then we can look at the microcosm as a reflection of the macrocosm. This bluntly translates into the following astrological details. Take any moment in time, say Monday, May 14, 1962 at 7:21am, NY City, USA:
While those energies continue to operate under the same patterns inside the person for the entire lifespan, the heavens did not cease to generate energetic patterns later on. On the contrary, they kept doing it on a constant basis just as they had been doing before and we can see them by generating any transit chart for any particular time and location, so long as the astro website or program we use allows us - they only allow you to go so far back in time or so far into the future.
But whereas the macrocosmic energy patterns are ever shifting, those of the newborn's microcosm do not. A distinction must be made between the native's energetic patterns and the way he or she develops as a human from birth in terms of gradually becoming more conscious of their surroundings, beginning to consume solid food and later on beginning to speak, walk, play, learn stuff, etc. The native's development is a consequence of those patterns and not independent of them.
But anyway, looking at the alleged natal chart I randomly selected we notice some of the planets are very strong while a few are not that strong. Quite a few are very strong actually. Moreover, there are certain tensions between some of them, while others get along prettily with each other. For those who don't gag whenever they hear about Qabalah it should be obvious that the elements are representative of the microcosm. By looking at the chart we see the four pairs of three signs (triplicities) of the same element and we can notice the planets (and the four angles) are spread somewhat evenly throughout them. A simplistic interpretation would be the native in question would benefit from similar amounts of energies from all four elements, meaning they could be active, emotional, thoughtful and practical to roughly the same degree.
But what does my blabbering so far has to do with woowoo? Well, getting back to the point of the article, some people believe lodge magick is psychological although whatever they really mean by that has so far remained unknown to me. Do they mean lodge magicians believe they solely work with mental constructs instead of actual real spirits and do just that? Because that would be even more stupid than simply saying lodge magick is psychological and period.
Truth is lodge magick works on training the student so they would become more proficient in woowoo and systems like that of the Golden Dawn or the A∴A∴ are structured just for that purpose. They even have the elemental grades one is to pass through before they are taught how to conjure spirits. While going through these elemental grades the person works on building a solid foundation for any future work and on strengthening their body of light. These are both microcosmic. To do that they perform different workings, meditations and exercises depending on curriculum. So does that mean lodge magick is psychological? Well yea, if people only think lodge magicians are meditating and whatnot.
But then again if you're to take on magix using grimoire methods and for some reason you want to scry because Trithemius's system is specifically called "drawing spirits into crystals" (so you'd be able to "see" them using such a scrying device), but you can't scry for some reason, guess what? That's microcosmic too. Is it psychological? Yes. So does that mean grimoirists who scry or train their scrying skills are doing psychological magix? Ask them and see what they have to say.
Now, when it comes to scrying, as with the other abilities to perceive spirits, I found somewhat of a correlation between that and the elemental nature of one's natal chart. I shared this with Scott, hoping he or people he knows might have more time experimenting with this than I do. You see, all ye who promote evocation "in physical" form, the sense of sight is attributed to the element Fire. So far I found that people who lack that element in their chart, meaning there's little to no significant placements in that triplicity, can have a harder time "seeing" spirits, either with the naked eye or in scrying devices. I'm one of them so let's take me as an example.
I noticed that after I increased the amount of my microcosmic Fire I was able to perceive shadowy figures in a bowl of water upon conjuring the spirits. I've noticed a few people telling me over time they were seeing all sorts of flashes or orbs of light and so on and when I looked up their charts they had more Fire than me. My chart has more Water, to which the sense of taste is attributed. But no, so far I've only tasted the other kind of spirits. But that large amount of Water allowed me to sense the emotional nature of what the spirits were telling me. I also have more Earth than Fire so I also feel the spirits' presence easier, since the sense of touch is attributed to Earth. Smell is attributed to Air and I have quite a lot of that too. So far I can't say I've felt significant differences in odor whenever a spirit arrived, but truth be told I did feel the air much fresher around me more than a few times upon calling on spirits. Hearing is attributed to Spirit and I guess the more exposure to spirits in general, the more you'd be able to hear them in time... because that was my case, among several others I'm aware of.
Another lodge magick thing is people drawing imaginary figures in the air and whatnot. Is that microcosmic? Yes. Is that psychological? Nnn... ot really. To break it down for all them super advanced exclusively-spirit-workers who are ever so specialized in working with spirits exclusively without pentagrams and hexagrams (probably because they don't understand them), whenever you trace such figures you're using your own microcosmic energy that you consciously focus in such a way as to trace universal symbols in certain patterns to create astral structures suited to attract spirits. It does more than that actually, but nvm. Kinda makes ye olde canvas circles obsolete, huh?! And kinda out of this world to some, huh?! And yet this shit's been used for about 150 years now so it passed the point in which it was some futuristic whatnot.
Remember my article about energy work? Yes, that one. But then again I guess LBRPing and MPing is not for everyone, especially those who dunno wtf that's all about and instead prefer simpler... ahem! MORE ADVANCED techniques, such as copying a certain drawing in olive oil and speaking some exotic words over it. Is that psychological? FUCK NO! Because you're actively working with spirits although the actual process is anyone's guess and none of the aforementioned experts care to enlighten us profanes. Same goes for those who advocate for crafting Trithemius' requirements to the letter, as so far I have yet to receive an explanation from the alleged experts in that grimoire as to why spirits wouldn't allow themselves to be drawn into the damn crystal if its support isn't made of gold...
But who dafuq cares anyway?
Thing is, boys and girls of the highly colorful occult universe: I taught my grandma how to conjure spirits and she used it to help my aunt get a better deal for a car because she was starting to get annoyed of my aunt's constantly bitching and all that. So what you do is no different because dear ol' grandma didn't LBRP when she did that ritual either. She lit a candle, said (what she thought of as being) a prayer, asked "an angel" for XYZ and then said another prayer. And boom! Way to go grandma!
And do you guys and gals think lodge magicians believe spirits are parts of the mind? They do work with godforms after wall, and do it using their God-given imagination to assume them by, loosely putting it, accommodating the godform within their microcosm and all that. So they're using the microcosm to work with the macrocosm, which is what you're also doing in your highly advanced spirit-only stuff. Although that psychological imagination and visualization stuff shouldn't concern you, especially godforms and all that, since you don't know shit about them so why should you bother?
You don't have to answer this question, but I do believe you know next to nothing about magical models as well, just like you know next to nothing about... pretty much anything woowoo related except speaking in tongues like them Christian sects who's mumbo jumbo gibberish is worshiped as a sign that God has touched them (where?). Go here and read Scott's magical models articles, try to comprehend them and then think twice before you start making statements over things you do not understand.
My point in all this is that imo people who go about saying lodge magick is psychological do it to mask their lack of knowledge of that system. In general, they only label it in certain ways to mask their overall little occult knowledge. Otherwise, why would they keep stating you don't need this, that and the other? No one said you need them. Heck, grandma didn't need them and she still knocked it outta the park. But one ought to at least try to understand those things and discern whether they'd benefit from at least trying them out. This is how progress is made at a microcosmic level.
As an example, here's a kid who started doing Lego Star Wars stop-motion animation. Within a few years he went from this to this and more. While his videos can't compare to Lego movies made using CGI and all that, he's done this in his own home and without having to benefit from a multi-million dollar budget and a large crew of specialists to help and support him. Naturally, his work could be improved yet so far he's shown a lot of progress and imo he managed to create storylines and new characters that far surpass whatever disney put into their garbage sequels. Imo if this kid and others like him were to benefit with a small amount of what alleged blockbusters have allocated, they'd be making some great movies that would entertain many.
The same thing happens in the occult. People can do their spells and rituals their own way without working on improving themselves as a magician - see grandma. Those spells and rituals can very well be genuine and involve as many spirits as possible for that matter, but the occultists themselves will remain the same and the quality of their work will usually be at a level around that of the first video I've shared in the paragraph above. Those spells can very well work and they can very well produce results, but it's doubtful those results could compare to outcomes generated by magical workings done by the same occultists that had previously leveled-up along the way. Which makes me think whatever successes are being promoted out there are being highly exaggerated and/or the magician has to thank their microcosm for whatever mundane success they have instead of their magical skills.
Oh, and there's one more thing about the microcosm which although spiritual, it's also psychological: theurgy.
Hate on, dum-dums!
The Great Gazoo
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