WHY SORCERY?
I got this e-mail the other day:
“I have been hearing about your course for over a year now but have avoided it because I was turned off by your use of the word Sorcery. To me this word brings to mind “spell kits” and hokey oils to win the lottery, not the royal road of magic. I seek spiritual transformation and union with the divine, not spells. Nevertheless, friends that have taken your course rave about the spiritual changes they have made. I see the difference in them. My question is this: if this is genuine spiritual teaching here, why call it Sorcery?”
Why Sorcery?
First and foremost when one thinks of a Sorcerer, one doesn’t think of someone who is defined by what he worships or believes but rather by what he does. There are people who call themselves Witches and mean it in an entirely religious sense, eschewing magic entirely. There are those who call themselves magicians who think a lot about Khabbalah, talk a lot on the net, do lots of Gematria and analysis, but also do very little in the way of practical work. To call oneself a sorcerer implies, to me at least, a level of action.
Sorcery is also a low term, and I like that. People get really caught up in being a High Priest, Gnostic Bishop, Master of the Temple, Ngakpa, Archmage, etc. Sorcery doesn’t carry these implications. I remember once asking about someone in the OTO and their magical competency. The person I was asking replied “Frater Y is 8th degree, so I wouldn’t question their magical competency“. The thing is that one could rise to 8th degree through spending the time, money, and developing the social contacts to do it – the title had very little to do with their magical potency. One may very well rightly hold any of the above, but to keep on calling yourself a Sorcerer and keep all those high titles secondary to the work helps me to, if you pardon the expression, keep it real.
The Sorcerer is concerned with pure practicality. Unburdened by tradition the Sorcerer can choose and adapt methods as he or she wills. Traditions get can get burdensome and baroque very quickly. The sorcerer is not concerned with being a proficient Buddhist, a proficient Golden Dawn Initiate, a proficient Wiccan, or a proficient anything else. The Sorcerer is just concerned with being proficient. People can get very touchy about applying the principals of streamlining to ancient or sacred traditions. Look at the resistance Bruce Lee faced when he developed Jeet Kun Do. But look at what he accomplished! Sorcerers too can use the 80/20 rule and Parkinsons Law to spiritual practice. Some things DO produce better results than others. The spiritual results of Strategic Sorcery.
In that same spirit of practicality the Sorcerer is concerned with success in the material as well as spiritual worlds. He respects the paths of the Monk, Nun, or homeless wandering mystic, but that is not his or her path. If a Sorcerer is living in a hovel and frittering away all his or her time slaving at a job they hate, is never going to claim to be a Maestro, no matter how deep their spiritual acumen. They are going to apply their Sorcery to change their life! One need not be rich, nor an entrepreneur, nor impervious to calamity. In fact the Sorcerer knows that harmonic stasis is a lie and that no one is impervious to changes in fortune. One simply as happy with their outer life as they are with their inner, or be working to make that happen.
Lastly, the Sorcerer is not chained to magical methods in his work. The sorcerer knows that the word Occult means hidden, and there is a lot more hidden from the masses than just the secrets of magic. The secrets of good health are effectively hidden from the populace by an ever present drone of media preaching the gospel of extra Bacon and Cheese. The secrets of simple home and auto repairs have been hidden by a society that wants you to replace crap with more crap constantly. The secrets of how money works should be taught to every child that makes it past the 8th grade, but they aren’t, they are hidden and revealed only to those that seek them out. The Sorcerer is an Arcanist. He or she seeks to learn the hidden methods of accomplishing whatever the task is, be it mundane or magical.
That is why I use the term Sorcerer. That is why I and my students are often making the spiritual strides that other supposedly high and spiritual people are missing.
I mention all this not only for the benefit of those who wonder why I use the term, but also to remind myself of the same. Phase 1 of Strategic Sorcery plan has ripened, and it is now time to move to phase 2… but more on that in the days to come…
