Less Creation, more Integration!

Currently I am working on two articles. One of them is related to the history of the concept of the Holy Genius and the Evil Daimon; it seem's I opened a can of worms here and it will certainly take some time until it is ready to be published... Meanwhile I am also writing a new article on a model that I have come to use to consciously integrate the impact subsequent to any magical rites. An aspect of magic that strikes me as heavily underestimated...

So it's this latter paper that has received most of my time these days - and led me to the rant below. I am not quite sure where my strong opinion on the subject came from, but unfortunately I have to admit that this is how I see things... So let me share a few thoughts on why I think creativity is heavily overrated these days - especially in magic. And why what we really need is more integration.

(...) Compared to any previous age of magic our current period is radically different.  Information has become instantly accessible all over our planet. The secret keys are not so secret any longer and there are more grimoires out there on the internet than any magician can ever perform in a lifetime... For centuries our ancestors were starving from information shortage. All they wanted to know were the ‘What and How’ of magic. In stark contrast today we live in an abundance of information. For us the burning question has changed from ‘What do I have to do in order to...’ to ‘And what’s next?’ 

Once the doors are opened, once contact is established to the inner realms - where do you go from here? What’s next? Or in other words: now that I have evoked the spirits of the Arbatel or Almadel or Picatrix - why isn’t my life more complete? We are living in a time of consumption and we started to consume magic like most other things in our lives. Yet the aftertaste is flat and for some reason we don’t feel satisfaction kicking in?  

Any good answer is simple; so here are my 2 cents: We don’t get satisfied, we move from one project to the next, because we don’t allow ourselves to rest, to look back - and to connect the dots. We are so obsessed with individuality and creativity, with achievement and output that we forget how to integrate all the living pieces back together again. We are writing a book, a chapter a day, and wonder why all of our stories are so short? We are opening ten new circles a day and have almost lost the knowledge on how to close anyone of them again...  

The word Grimoire stems from the root of the old French word grammaire. I guess this really makes my point: We have arrived at a time where the grammar of magic is openly available to everyone. Now it is time to say something meaningful. 

It's time to say something meaningful in the language of magic - not to other people, but to ourselves first and foremost. It’s not good enough anymore to create a mess of our lives in the name of exploration, of recreation of ancient magical systems or occult science. It’s time to take responsibility - for ourselves and for the people around us that matter. It’s time to apply magic and to give back through our practice. 

It’s time that this place and we ourselves become a little better - because of magic.

::

Ah, but what am I saying? Let's not allow the state of business to get us down. There is help! And it has the wonderful golden shape of a sax.... listen to this!