Cone 143: A Magical Working Toward a Better World

 Cone 143: a Magical Working for a Better World

What follows, put bluntly, is a magical working towards the betterment of the world. It is important that it be left precisely as vague as this. It was conceived using various methods over the period of a few months, and involved a great personal struggle on the part of its author. Perhaps this is fitting, as the working involves amplifying direct emotive personal experience and struggle. It is designed to be very simple, accessible to anyone who wishes to participate. If the prospective participant wishes to make it even simpler, that is just fine- conversely, if one has their own ritual practice and wishes to incorporate what follows into it, thereby complicating it, that is also good. The name of the game here is fellowship, and direct personal understanding. 

There are several parts to this, and again the reader / participant is free to decide which are necessary. Beyond this introduction, there will be an explanatory note, Part I; a parable, Part II; and finally, the working itself- Part III. In addition, the essay Communion With the Critters helps to illustrate how this type of magic can work, even with non-human entities. The reader is welcome to dig right into the meat of it by scrolling to Part III, or to read all of it, or none at all, or to jump around in the order they choose.

Gratitude is warmly extended to Professor Wham, Stephanie Quick, and the wonderful people in the discord for the Vayse podcast- all of whom in some way helped or inspired this project.

Part I: Explanatory Notes

It may be observed that in the introductory note, there was very little in the way of directives or strict rules. This is at the core of this working. The tendency for human beings to dominate, control, or manipulate others is at the core of what we call “evil”. In a magical sense then, fighting the fire of this egregore of dominion on earth with the flame of hexing, binding, or subtle manipulative magic only serves to stoke it into a planetary conflagration. Even removing any magical lens in looking at the problem, it is hard to disagree that culture has become more divided and combative.  A glance at trends in world events over the past decade may have convinced the reader that this has already happened, and that there is no way to stop it.

Progress, however, can appear apocalyptic when you are in the midst of it. Perhaps it is quite literally apocalyptic, and one could argue that’s not the worst thing in the world. To take the word “apocalypse” at face value, from its Greek roots, it simply means revelation, the “lifting of the veil”- laying bare the evils of the world for all to see. This leads to despair, confusion, and chaos. Chaos is a fundamental catalyst in the cosmos. The road gets rocky when such revelations make themselves known; the world changes. Gripping the illusory, phantasmic past which has already gone away from us is of no use. Standing one’s ground when that ground is ever shifting, or disappearing entirely, is risky. We must be fluid, adapt, and not only anticipate the aftermath; We must help shape it. Whether the future is utopian or a post-apocalyptic wasteland is for us to decide.  

In the past, subversion of the norms has been a classic method of upending power structures, allowing for a different perspective and promoting ingenuity in addressing its exposed failings. In an environment where little agreement can be found, and chaos is the reigning commonality, such subversion is neutralized. It only serves to contribute to a fractured and destabilized structure. As we find ourselves butting heads or tripping over one another in this worldwide Babel Tower scenario, we can secure the foundations through cooperation. The most radical and subversive act one can manifest at the present time is love, kindness, and compassion.

If this sounds corny to you, if it seems naive, that is because the cruelty of the world has conditioned you to reject basic principles of humanity. This working requires that you shed away, unabashedly and intentionally, all the cynical trappings you’ve accumulated over the years. Just because it hasn’t worked before doesn’t mean it won’t; that is to say, history only repeats because we insist on repeating it. Animosity, hopelessness, apathy, and misanthropy are cultivated by the dark forces of our collective psychology. The Black Lodge, as it were, wishes for nothing more than for you to feel helpless, angry, and lost. These energetic evils, however you wish to characterize or envision them, want you to give into fear. This must at all costs be resisted.

This is the magic of Mr. Rogers. There is no wish too small, and the Land of Make-Believe is real. We are, after all, working toward World Peace. A lofty goal, to be sure, and one that seems foolishly optimistic, but this very foolish optimism is necessary. There needs to be a reckoning, a balancing of the world’s humors; and for as much rational pessimism as seems to be all-pervading in the greater world, there needs to be some glimmer of quixotic hope as a counter-weight. Breaking down the seemingly impassable barriers to faith is important. This begins with you, with the Self, which mirrors the greater reality. It’s a lovely day in the neighborhood if you want it to be, and everyone can be your neighbor. The reader who is scoffing at my corniness here will be well advised to examine their own inner walls, which partition off empathy in order to maintain their gloomy worldview and perpetuate a gloomy world.

Much talk surrounds the idea of “desensitization”, that we have all hardened ourselves to violence, cruelty, and atrocity. We have normalized these things, as a matter of self-preservation. If one stopped to really consider the feelings of each person they meet, let alone anyone they read about in the news, they would never stop weeping. It’s impractical to be empathetic. In some cases, stubbornly clinging to ideals and beliefs necessitates ignoring the pain of others, or justifying it under one cause or another. A cocktail of biases, blind spots, and moral compromises fuels this need to carry on, to ignore the plight of those around us, and to give up on the idea of ever fixing it.

Mean-spirited discourse makes itself apparent on social media, and is encouraged and rewarded by the algorithms. The point here is to recognize that part of the reason we fall into a trap, a downward cycle of negativity and animosity, has less to do with impassioned argument and more to do with the inverse- dispassionate removal. Each of us has barriers and walls in place to protect ourselves which paradoxically support the cruelty on the surface; the self-defeating cycle in each of us ripples out to a world of pain and retribution. We can short the circuit, and we must.

There are commonalities which are central to the experience of being a living human on earth. There is a direct emotive expression that cannot be conveyed through language, but which anyone can understand if only they allow themselves the compassionate eye to read it. The working, then, seeks to identify and psychically amplify these experiences within the deep self of the participant. Without coercion, or the need for convincing prose or manipulation, these waves of direct personal gnosis can wash over the unsuspecting populace like a cool breeze or mild spray of light rain. In the most subtle fashion, it is hoped that the heart-strings will sympathetically resonate; that the recipients of such broadcasts will be moved to appeal to their better angels. 

Part II: The Sage at the Shoreline

Two soldiers from opposing armies brought the Sage at spearpoint across the beach. He was to be sacrificed to the serpents of the sea. Recalling Laocoön, the prophet from Virgil’s Aeneid, the enemy soldiers had decided to appease the dragons beneath the waves with an offering. Would it end the war? Would it prolong it? Omens had directed the wise men of both opposing armies, and led to the decision the soldiers found themselves carrying out. The Sage would be fed to the snakes, what happens beyond that is in the hands of the gods.

At the water’s edge, the serpents appeared, eager for their offering- except, these were not serpents after all. An eldritch horror arose from below the waves, its flailing tendrils approximating the necks and bodies of sea snakes. It levitated above the surf, growing larger and steadfastly hesitant to assume a definitive shape. It was black, the all encompassing blackness of the unknown, as though it were made up of materialized fear. A shockwave from the amorphous monstrosity laid the soldiers to waste, but the Sage stood firm, raising his staff. Sound refused to travel; there was no language, no communication in words. In a moment outside of our concept of time, the Sage thrust forward his staff and banished the tentacled horror.

As calm returned, the atmosphere on the beach was restored to its natural state. The surf, the cool breeze, and the chirping of birds could be heard. In the distance away from the shore, a curious golden cone shaped object hovered above the trees, framed by distant mountains…

Part III: The Working

To begin, the participant must have some time and space to relax. As previously mentioned, this should be easy for someone with no magical experience or practice to try out, and just as easily could be incorporated into an existing ritual or meditation.

Each participant must envision a point above their head, which expands into a ring as it rises. The participant may envision this ring in whatever form they wish. If it's funny or makes them happy, all the better.

Once formed they must envision it rising and getting proportionally bigger in the way sonar or radar is depicted. Each time a new higher concentric circle is envisioned, the participant must recall emotional moments from their past experiences. They don't have to be the most powerful or formative moments, but they should fit this pattern:

Gratitude. Recall a time when compassion was bestowed on you.

Duty. Recall a time you were compassionate and made a difference for
someone else, and how it felt to know that you had helped.

Guilt. Recall a time you had been cruel, and the shame you felt or still feel.
Now is a good time to release it. Let it float out with its respective ring.

Victimhood. Recall a time you were wronged. Forgive that person or
entity, release the grudge with this ring. The pain and anger of the initial event,
it is hoped, can be sublimated.

Wonder. Recall a time you were overwhelmed by beauty. This ring of
peace, hope and wonder should be last in line as a soft landing back to the mundane, should you choose to change the order or skip some.

These rings should be spreading out quite a bit. During these recollections, remembering the feeling is more important than the details. Remember how it felt. As you go keep picturing the rings spreading out, spreading over and pinging off of other participants. Picture an aerial view or a map with the rings emanating from your location.

As more people get involved, the hope is that these emotional ripples in the numinal atmosphere will overlap and intensify. The heart strings, as it were, of the unsuspecting populace will get tugged on. The hope is to make the infectious negativity, cruelty, or apathy sublimate into conversation with the better angels of the average person. To break down barriers. To wash away obstacles and awaken compassion, and to reduce suffering for sentient beings everywhere.

Sentimentalism, nostalgia, and kindness find a home here. Large waves begin as ripples in the tide; this subtle, non-coercive practice just might restore a bit of sanity and decency to the world. Perhaps it won’t, but if a glimmer of quixotic faith in humanity is too much to hope for then we surely are all doomed. I strongly doubt that we are. I think we have much more sway with the Wyrd than we are led to believe, and that petitioning fate itself with subtle acts of compassion- literally, direct empathic broadcasts of emotive experiences we all have in common- we can steer our way through Apocalypse itself.