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something, not as sophisticated as us westerners. But, perhaps, as you gradually learnt
more about shamanism you might have come to understand, as I have, that it is not
simply a matter of superstition but that it goes to the very roots of, in this case, what is
known as “sympathetic magic”.
I remember many years ago visiting the “Witchcraft Market” (Mercado de los Brujos)
in La Paz, Bolivia. A trail of American tourists were walking down this amazing street
of stalls casually taking flash photographs with those disposable cubic flashes, which
the tourists threw on the floor when used. But what none of them noticed was that the
storeholders were collecting up these disposed-of flashcubes and selling them on their
stalls for use in magical rites, along with other curious wares such as pretty pill-like
objects and dried llama fetuses. Now, I thought to myself, on witnessing this and as a
magician, what would I feel about having my disposed-of flashcube utilised in a Bolivian
act of sorcery, and is this similar to the natives’ belief that a camera can steal the soul?
This, in a roundabout way perhaps, is me saying it’s hard to explain to you the necessity
of secrecy in magick, and the importance of not speaking about magick you intend to
do, but that it’s more than a superstition that can be dispensed with lightly.
People simply shouldn’t know about what magick you intend to perform, because if
they do know your sacred act is leaking away into chattering profane triviality even
before it has been started. It is like trying to take a solemn oath in an atmosphere of
frivolity, it loses its significance, you feel like you’re pretending and you have one eye on
what you’re doing and the other on how it is perceived by outsiders to whom the
solemnity of your act is absurd, and you try to balance the two and lose sight of the
proper respect you should be according your oath and as a consequence it becomes an
empty oath and years later it will just be a habit one has forgotten the meaning and
purpose of and have doubtless broken anyway. Similarly, it is hard to perform successful
magick if you have announced your intentions to others, they don’t need to be physically
present to have their eyes on you every step of the way. Had you kept it completely
secret you wouldn’t encounter this problem.
JOEL
Joel—For a man who felt he couldn’t give a good answer, I feel you did a pretty good
job.
Anyone who has had a secret, one that they just couldn’t tell anyone, should at least
feel the need for secrecy. Having such a secret creates a nearly unbearable sense of tension,
and the self-possession required to keep such a secret is great.
The tension represents “energy”, or “power”, that must be channelled into the Work,
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