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Reading Aidan Wachter’s “Six Ways” Chapter 1-4

Reading Aidan Wachter’s “Six Ways” Chapter 1-4

Last updated on: October 5, 2018 at 3:55 am by Chaweon Koo

Reading Aidan Wachter’s “Six Ways” Chapter 1-4 2018-10-05T03:55:29-04:00 Chaweon Koo

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My “post-it of intent” for the book (as suggested in Chapter 2)

Back in August 2018, I started an informal book club. So, we’re reading occult books I consider important for all newbie witches. The current book we’re reading is Aidan Wachter’s “Six Ways” which is a damn fine book. These posts (plus other stuff) were first sent out to my mailing list; if you want to get them hot out the oven, then lemme email you sometime.

In case you want to know what my “post-it of intent” in the above picture says: “I read this book to get in touch with the spirits of The Field and to truly start living a really magical life that gives me great inner peace” (the pink smudges are lipgloss kisses)

And that truly is my intent, fam.

The first time I read the book, chapters 1-4 forced me to confront my rigid materialism. Up until then, I really struggled with magic in terms of “omg, I can’t believe I’m doing this, I’m a proper atheist and skeptic !”

And then, I read pg. 17:

I was not required to believe these things were objectively true, they were simply tools to let me see that what I “knew” to be true based upon my cultural training and education was quite possibly less than true, or perhaps just ‘not always true’ or “not exclusively true”

Girl. It’s a humbling moment when you realize that you’ve rejected binary thinking in almost every other area in your life, and yet you still persist in seeing magic as either “true” or “false.”

Thoughts
How can one prove the existence of love? Biology has broken love down into a series of chemical reactions that literally mimic mental illness. But we decide to call it love.

Magic is a “decision-based art” where you “set out in that direction, working to create changes that bring me closer to that thing” (pg. 19)

So, I decided that I was going to plunge into the pool of magic.

I decided I would adjust the water levels to as deep or shallow as needed, because magic is not binary. It’s a continuum.

I decided magic would be real simply because I chose so. I rule my own fucking life.

And The Field (or The Matrix, as I see it), responded.

Dirt Sorcery

I love the concept of “dirt sorcery.” It appeals to my punk roots, my pride in being “not fancy.” Words are meaningful, and as someone who grew up working-class, as first-generation immigrant in America, the concept of “dirt” is badass.

I remember reading about how Gene Kelly, old-school Hollywood star in musicals, would wear white socks while dancing to highlight his working-class background. He wasn’t trying to be fancy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ

I thought about how ancient creation myths claim that man is made from dirt.

Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.

Maybe our ancestors were a primitive, superstitious bunch. But when I read “I believe that religion is an offshoot of sorcery and that sorcery (and the animism that underlines it) is the probable root of all human culture” (pg. 14), my ears perked up.

If sorcery and magic are “arts of soul, spirit, and mind” like “folklore, song, poetry, and literature” (pg. 11)…

And is a decision-based art, a choice that one makes…

And is something that our ancestors have been doing instinctively, as birds know how to migrate South in the winter…

Then magic and sorcery is supremely natural. Flora, fauna, dirt.

Animism vs. Materialism

The footnote at the bottom of pg. 22:
“[an animist world view] not necessarily a true and accurate description of reality…all that is required initially is to accept it might possibly be true and act accordingly. In time it may be proven ‘true enough’ to be useful.”

Keyword: useful

I admit I have problems accepting an animist worldview. One time, this woman told me she enjoyed walking in the park because she saw “tree people” (spirits in the trees) and I did an “ooookkkkkkk, nice talking to you” while backing out of the room.

But, I can also accept that I have “perceptual limitations” (p. 13-14) where I only see those who resemble me as having spirit.

When I reject that my metal spoon has spirit…I still believe it is made up of matter, just like me. I can touch it, hold it, feel it, put it in my mouth. It can hold energy (i.e. heat), so is it that much of a stretch that it can also hold a type of sentience? After all, isn’t sentience also a type of energy, a type of animation?

What makes humans the sole recipient of sentience? For many years, humans measured intelligence solely through visual-spatial aptitude, ignoring all other types. But now we know better – there are diverse and equally valid types of intelligence.

Maybe there are diverse and equally valid types of sentience.

Magic as a natural ecosystem

The concept of symbiosis, of creating a healthy ecosystem, really stood out to me. In fact, lightbulb moment.

First, as context: how does one build a strong and healthy spiritual ecosystem? (p. 25)

devotion (FOCUS)
discretion (intelligent, critical analysis and decision-making)
integrity (actions match words)
consistency in action (’nuff said)

Here are the specific things one can do:

Offerings – gifts to those spirits around me, sort of like a tax you pay to keep thel roads in order, or flowers you give to those you’re dating
Protective structures – I’m assuming these are grounding and clearing rituals that act as antibiotics
Magic materia – such as talismans, sigils, mojo bags, etc., a way to re-affirm intentions

How many of us are doing ALL of the above three things (offerings, protective structures, magic materia) – WITH devotion, discretion, integrity, and consistency?

Thoughts
Maybe magic is not working well because your ecosystem is unhealthy and/or off-balanced.

I’m thinking of national parks where there are no wolves, and then the ecosystem gets fucked. But when just a handful of wolves are re-introduced, everything re-balances and nature flourishes.

Seriously, how is that sigil supposed to do its thing when the offerings and protective structures are weak?

Bring in the spirits

First, a review, because people are always confusing the two terms (pg. 16):

Invocation – calling a spirit into myself “so I can experience it and act from that changed perception/state.”

Evocation – bringing a spirit “into my presence so I may interact with it as if it were an external entity.”

If magic is falling in love with The Field/The Matrix, then what are spirits actually?

Thoughts
I was reading through an email from Dr. Hareesh Wallace (a Sanskrit scholar extraordinaire – sign up for his emails on his website, really) and his writings about deities really struck me:

But, people ask, are we to consider the deities as real?
To which I respond, real in which sense?

The deities are real as patterned forms of consciousness that exist both within you (as an aspect of your essence-nature) and as patterns of energy-flow in the wider universe (of which you are, of course, a microcosm).

If you experience a “visitation” from a deity, it feels ‘Other’ only because you have not yet realized your total Being…

A deity can be perceived or imagined as “other” for precisely the same reason you see anyone as “other.”

So, going back to that ultimate scene in “The Matrix” – when Neo is resurrected from the dead and sees everything as computer code (when he sees that we are all One)…that scene has haunted me for over 15 years now. It felt incredibly legit in a visceral way.

Perhaps spirits and deities are simply a denser collection of energy/code patterns. And if we’re all made of the same energy/code, then evocation vs. invocation are simply modes of waking up to the reality that we are One and thus can have Neo-like abilities to interact with The Field/The Matrix.

We are all made of the same thing, and we arise and go back to that One-ness.

Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.