@ben - Have you also found yourself not able to attain intuitions of the form "What should I do?" - or "I want to know about X".
I think this is partly a safeguard against the tendency to try and seek intuition on demand, and in extreme detail; leading to a proliferation of error.
This happened (a lot, IMO) with such professional clairvoyants as Rudolf Steiner, Alice Bailey and Edgar Cayce; as well as the more recent New Age channelers.
31 August 2022 at 18:54
ben said...
The "What should I do?" question, yes I suppose I'm looking for an answer to that sort of question right now, in relation to something specific, to no avail.
The "I want to know about X", I've actually had a lot of success with. But in relation to something very personal - I can't remember asking such questions about the world generally. My understanding of the world has arrived through a less conscious seeking. More like an attraction, to this blog especially.
31 August 2022 at 19:20
ben said...
I remember asking two big yes-or-no personal questions at the same time, and half an hour to an hour later, receiving positive answers to both in one spectacular moment involving my physical environment and precise (unintentional) positioning of myself.
Another time, I received an answer to a matter I'd been thinking about for a long time + information about the matter generally, but can't remember if I consciously asked at all, or had at least asked recently.
But my autobiographical memory isn't top-notch.
31 August 2022 at 19:35
ben said...
but there are constant signs, things in my environment, synchronicities that seem to provide information
The way I understand it, to be given a clear vision/answer in response to “What should I do?” in general would promote passivity. For an active participation in the divine, we have to try, make guesses, make mistakes. Yes/no questions, or the playing a note and looking for resonance, is a collaboration rather than a one-way, passive “transaction.”
As a father, I do not want my children to always ask me “What should I do?,” but to try and get some of the way there. It’s much like someone asking for the answer when learning mathematics. Just reading the answer, or being given the answer, does not teach one how to solve problems.
31 August 2022 at 22:17
ben said...
Maybe the thing is to find out, pretty specifically, what God wants *you* to know. why are you here? what are you supposed to be doing? and to do that, it might be necessary(?) or helpful to have an understanding of God and I suppose the general situation. My thinking is very much in terms of ideas that I found here on this blog; I understand myself to have incarnated from a pre-mortal existence, I understand God's plan to be about the development of human beings, I understand Truth, Beauty, Virtue to be objectively real, I understand the dire situation in the world wherein most people now are pretty seriously evil and I assume this world will have to be wrapped up soon. It's hard to imagine asking God good questions without thinking within this proper context... but maybe that's wrong.
And I was consciously an atheist with little/no mystical belief or experience. I have no history of showing any talent of a mystical sort. But it's definitely working now.
And a valuable reminder how thinking about (ideal) *family* is so often the best way to understand God and destiny, i.e. the best 'metaphor' for understanding (when it is not simply literal truth).
@Wm - No, not consciously at least; but in the murky depths of the unconscious... Who knows?...
1 September 2022 at 17:59
The only good magic is Christian magic - i.e. rooted in Christianity and arising from it; but I have often said that traditional 'ritual' or 'ceremonial' magic is inappropriate and ineffective for these times; because it depended on a passive, immersive Original Participation type of consciousness, that has (all-but) disappeared (at least in The West, among adults). We are now in an era when Final Participation is the proper way for us to engage creatively with the world - and Final Participation is a consciously chosen, individual activity - done in the realm of 'primary thinking' (a.k.a. heart-thinking).Yet thinking may be aided by particular activities, and this is where the 'magic' (broadly conceived) comes-in. Ritual magic was done using formal ceremonies, words and artifacts; usually by groups; after training; and according to pre-arranged timetables. But now, magic ought to have a different form (I would say is destined to have a different form): a very different form, that I propose to call Intuitive Magic.Intuitive magic depends on intuition, which is individual (not groupish); and cannot be ordered nor elicited on-demand; therefore it must occur spontaneously, in response to the arrangements of divine providence. It is a matter of the individual being aware of possible situations emerging (such as synchronicities and unexpectedly striking stimuli), alert to such clues and implications; and being correctly orientated, from a basis in Christianity. To amplify; I personally am not able to attain intuitions of the form "What should I do?", but will only receive answers to questions of a dichotomous form, such as: "Is this right (or wrong)?" or "Should I do this (or not)?" or "Should I proceed with my plan (or not?)".Therefore, when an intuition arises, it must be cast into a Yes/No form; and the second test or check, is to seek guidance on the validity of this specific formulation. When a clear and self-validating answer comes, the process is complete; although it may be repeated as often as seems necessary to generate sureness. When an answer to this intuitive check is not clear despite genuine commitment to seeking it - or is not forthcoming at all - this is because the question has been incorrectly formulated; being insufficiently precise or rooted in false assumptions. More 'work' is needed. Thus, if intuitive Christian magic is regarded as things we might do - material things such as words, actions, meditation, or anything else - to attain goals compatible with the divine will; then a major pre-requisite is patience. Ritual magic is done to a timetable; but intuitive magic takes as long as it takes for the individual to be in the right frame of values and mind, awaiting correct intuition, and for providence to arrange circumstances to make it possible. Patience, in turn, requires trust; trust in God's personal loving concern for us our-selves, eternally; and trust in God's creative power - that in a world of beings with free agency and whatever the operations of evil: sooner or later the situation will be made to arise in which intuitive magic can be done. What then, is this 'intuitive magic'? Subjectively and temporarily, it is experienced as a positive change in consciousness. But objectively and eternally; it is the operation of our personal creativity in this mortal life, adding to God's creativity: it adds our own creative contribution to the ongoing divine: is an instance of co-creation.
"Intuitive Magic: the 'magic' of Final Participation (post 'ritual magic')"
11 Comments -
can confirm
who knew the world could be real again? at least a little
31 August 2022 at 18:35
@ben - Have you also found yourself not able to attain intuitions of the form "What should I do?" - or "I want to know about X".
I think this is partly a safeguard against the tendency to try and seek intuition on demand, and in extreme detail; leading to a proliferation of error.
This happened (a lot, IMO) with such professional clairvoyants as Rudolf Steiner, Alice Bailey and Edgar Cayce; as well as the more recent New Age channelers.
31 August 2022 at 18:54
The "What should I do?" question, yes I suppose I'm looking for an answer to that sort of question right now, in relation to something specific, to no avail.
The "I want to know about X", I've actually had a lot of success with. But in relation to something very personal - I can't remember asking such questions about the world generally. My understanding of the world has arrived through a less conscious seeking. More like an attraction, to this blog especially.
31 August 2022 at 19:20
I remember asking two big yes-or-no personal questions at the same time, and half an hour to an hour later, receiving positive answers to both in one spectacular moment involving my physical environment and precise (unintentional) positioning of myself.
Another time, I received an answer to a matter I'd been thinking about for a long time + information about the matter generally, but can't remember if I consciously asked at all, or had at least asked recently.
But my autobiographical memory isn't top-notch.
31 August 2022 at 19:35
but there are constant signs, things in my environment, synchronicities that seem to provide information
sorry about the disjointed, multiple comments
31 August 2022 at 19:44
The way I understand it, to be given a clear vision/answer in response to “What should I do?” in general would promote passivity. For an active participation in the divine, we have to try, make guesses, make mistakes. Yes/no questions, or the playing a note and looking for resonance, is a collaboration rather than a one-way, passive “transaction.”
As a father, I do not want my children to always ask me “What should I do?,” but to try and get some of the way there. It’s much like someone asking for the answer when learning mathematics. Just reading the answer, or being given the answer, does not teach one how to solve problems.
31 August 2022 at 22:17
Maybe the thing is to find out, pretty specifically, what God wants *you* to know. why are you here? what are you supposed to be doing? and to do that, it might be necessary(?) or helpful to have an understanding of God and I suppose the general situation. My thinking is very much in terms of ideas that I found here on this blog; I understand myself to have incarnated from a pre-mortal existence, I understand God's plan to be about the development of human beings, I understand Truth, Beauty, Virtue to be objectively real, I understand the dire situation in the world wherein most people now are pretty seriously evil and I assume this world will have to be wrapped up soon. It's hard to imagine asking God good questions without thinking within this proper context... but maybe that's wrong.
And I was consciously an atheist with little/no mystical belief or experience. I have no history of showing any talent of a mystical sort. But it's definitely working now.
1 September 2022 at 01:34
@b - "I was consciously an atheist ..."
S'funny - I vaguely guessed you were a cradle Mormon who was becoming more 'mystical' and less church-orientated!
1 September 2022 at 06:19
@John G - @JG - That's it!
Obviously true... once you pointed it out!
And a valuable reminder how thinking about (ideal) *family* is so often the best way to understand God and destiny, i.e. the best 'metaphor' for understanding (when it is not simply literal truth).
1 September 2022 at 06:22
@Bruce
You may be confusing lowercase "ben" with capitalized "Ben Pratt"; I thought they were the same person at first, too.
1 September 2022 at 17:47
@Wm - No, not consciously at least; but in the murky depths of the unconscious... Who knows?...
1 September 2022 at 17:59