The following has puzzled me for a while. The thought re-occured to me, so I felt I'd mention it... though it likely won't make a whole lot of sense to you if you haven't at least briefly tangled with the tar baby known as Western Occultism.
I've seen quite a few would be magickians in the past years who either aspire to or claim to be in the process of 'crossing the Abyss.'
I wonder to myself-- how can someone do that, and still believe in something like magick? The framework, the underlying beliefs, the Path itself-- all illusions like anything else. Illusions which need to be discarded when they hinder more than help you.
A magus doesn't believe in magick any more than he believes in the flying spaghetti monster. Which begs the question. Why talk about magick at all?
Any of us who have been pitched into that paradigm know what it's like when you start. You're like a kid in a candy store. (Except all the candy is covered in liquid acid and filled with razor blades.) It's okay to feel that enthusiasm. But just because the spectre in the shadows talks to you doesn't mean he's real.
This is one of the many reasons I ceased external interest in the subject.
An upshot of that, and this is interesting- take the faith which props the whole belief system up away... and watch all the portents, omens, transcendental dreams, visions quests, and grandiose cosmologies crumble into the dust they have always been. This is equally true with any belief.
The inverse is also true. But sorry Mr. Carroll, you can't fake yourself into truly believing something, except through a process of baby steps.
I think I can genuine say I don't believe in anything outside of specific contexts, anymore.
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