The Magus’s Egoism

Unlike many pathways of mind development, Magic is not aimed at its depersonalization and dissolution in the universal ocean, but rather insists on the necessity of maximum individualization.

This seemingly paradoxical approach logically follows from the magical approach’s focus on actualizing the potentials of the individual Monad, which thereby moves toward its complete realization.

The Monad is precisely that ultimate reality for perceiving relative consciousness which it fundamentally cannot surpass; beyond it – it may either proclaim that “Atman is Brahman,” or deny the substantiality of Atman as such, or simply put an ellipsis there, understanding that the ultimate reality remains fundamentally incomprehensible.

The magician accepts the third option as a working hypothesis and starts from the premise that in their practical activity, any mystical illumination, any sense of unity and all-pervasive mind ends either in death – in which case its continuation goes beyond the discourse of magic, or – in the coagulation of consciousness back into the individualized form, and then this form becomes the foundation upon which the development of consciousness can be built.

In other words – for the Magus, it is fundamentally unimportant what the Monad turns out to be during its complete realization – an illusion, emptiness, an aspect of divinity or – the Great Spirit itself, the Absolute; it is only important to achieve that full realization, and “what to do with it afterwards – we will figure that out later.”

The Magus, being a maximally pragmatic person, understands that their current state is limited and unfree, thus they decide first and foremost to put an end to this limitation and unfreedom, and only then to dream of the higher.

Therefore, the Magus starts from the understanding that since the core of their mind is the individual spirit – it is precisely this that should be developed, precisely its potentials that should be realized.

The Magus assumes that since the Great spirit knows itself through an infinite number of ways, each of which is unique and individual – this individuality is valuable and important, regardless of what it ultimately turns out to be.

And although the illusoriness of personality and its fragility is obvious to the Magus, to consider it absolutely unnecessary at the level of embodied existence seems unreasonable. Just as the mind uses support on the body as a current instrument of knowledge, individuality can rely on personality, if that personality is maximally harmonious in itself and corresponds to this individuality. Therefore, the Magus aims not so much at rejecting personality, but rather at its harmonization and improvement, remembering that it is merely a temporary tool of the mind.

It is well known that “every warrior who has freed themselves from their personal history has a long story about how they freed themselves from their personal history,” while every warrior free from the “sense of self-importance” is simply overwhelmed by a sense of importance from the absence of their own importance. Therefore, the Magus does not seek to inflate pride from their “impersonality,” they simply try to be harmonious, meaning – not to experience internal frictions, barriers in movement, and to minimize these obstacles from the outside.

Yes, the Magus strives to realize his will; yes, the Magus is aimed at his development, and in this – lies his egoism. But the Magus does not think to claim that his will (if this is indeed his will) can contradict or differ from the will of the Great Spirit, or that his development does not mean the development of the universe as a whole. On the contrary, the Magus believes that the best he can do is to fulfill the will of the Great Spirit, knowing itself through the individuality of the magician, in their unique way, their unique Way. Without detaching himself in any way from the unity of existence, the Magus does not seek to deny the value of individuality, at least until the potentials of this individuality are fully realized.