Do we, as pagans ( I use the term loosely here), actually do anything about the state of our environment? I don’t mean shallow gestures like recycling (which have their own value in other ways) but in a deeper, more authentic, fashion?

When was the last time you engaged with your landscape? Not the last time you visited a stone circle (well maybe for a lucky few!) but, the trees nearest to where you live, the watercourse at the back of your street, the highest viewpoint within walking distance of your home? Or, casting our net slightly wider, the last time you went out into Nature (suitably equipped of course) for a few hours?

Before

What did you do there? Did you go with others, or for a solitary experience? Did you pay active attention to the sensations of heat and cold, of smells and sights, textures of ground and tree? How many species of plant/bird/small furry creatures did you see and put an accurate name to?

Drifting off on a drumbeat led vision quest is all very well, I enjoy it as much as the next shaman, but unless you have spent time in a real landscape, your inner landscapes will fail to have a certain ring of solidity to them. Trees and plants in an abstract screen of green leaves way are ok, but putting shapes you have seen recently, smelled touched and tasted, makes it all come alive and the magick flows from that.

Feeling a genuine direct love for one’s world in its physical manifestation, cannot be bettered as a means of worship/spirituality/sound psychological practice. Our actions and behaviours may be modified by intellectual bits of knowledge, but it is upon the foundation of what we Want, that we choose to Do.

Fear likewise motivates us, often to not do, but conjuring further fear into oneself does not strike me as a terribly sensible move for many people; a bit of Omg did you know…? type awareness goes a long way, and rapidly tips over into paralysis and stagnation. Magicians aim for self determination, self engineering, to some level; instead of leaving all this to others outside us, or to processes that lurk beneath the verbal awareness of our narrative, we decide whether to add fear or love to our worlds.

on the surface of a planet in space

What criteria do we use to choose? Results, or personal functionality? Would the world in fact be better off, objectively, without me using the internet, consuming more than the bare minimum of subsistence food, and generally using things up? Subjectively from my own point of view, that sounds like a terrible idea. Which do I choose? Which do you feel drawn to?

What have you done today; have you fulfilled your species specific function of communicating with your fellow creatures, moved bits of the world around to form interesting patterns? Have you relished the presence of your physical body in the universe, the amazing jolt of life hitting you at a moment of intense immersion in the Now? Or, have you needed to rest and recuperate, in a state of fatigue having engaged with a part of life a little too much recently? Some of this Being Alive can take its toll upon the organism, for sure.

signs of life

Whatever your particular state on this day, as a person interested in your own perception of the world, your own place in it, your role in constructing what it looks like tomorrow and for ever afterwards, I have another question for you. Can you do more? Can you look deeper into the life choices you make, from which brand of cornflakes you buy, to determining for yourself how to spend your waking hours each day. What shapes those choices; do you have, individually or collectively, any influence upon how those limitations get framed?

Asking questions is a rather under-rated pastime. I ask questions a lot when I go out, I ask whatever is within earshot about all sorts of things. Mostly, I get no answers save from the echoes inside my own skull. Then, on occasion, once I have stopped ranting, and sit with the facts of the real world all around me, I might hear the sound of answers.

So in case you don’t yet go out to your own landscape, may I encourage you to do so this week; that scruffy patch of wasteland has a genius loci just as much as Westminster Abbey, although of course the two spirits of place might have distinct differences of qualities between them. Learn how the moods shift with the seasons, do you know where the sun rises and sets on the horizon at the summer and winter solstices? If you have lived there for a year, you should have an idea of the change in northsouth direction of these times of year.

Baphomet rocks

Whatever happens to our environment next, and forever afterwards, our best chances of noticing the reality and our own possible choices towards engaging and choosing the ways, can only start to reveal themselves from direct gnosis of our locale.

Oh, and perhaps, include the other humans of your area in your wildlife observations too 😉

NW

A friend recently claimed surprise when during an exchange concerning magickal experimentation, I cried off a certain technique due to its lack of basis in “tradition”. “You’re a Chaos Magician, you’re supposed to be endlessly syncretistic and innovative!” Well, yes and no.

Those of you familiar with this blog will have read “When Chaos Magick gets deep..” and its questioning of whether buying into the postmodern spirit uncritically is sustainable for those of us seeking to develop spiritual depth (or Soul as Hillman would put it). The type of hyper-accelerated paradigm shifting that many associate with CM may have a role in loosening  our  reliance on outdated certainties and dogma, but I wonder if it’s time to slow down.

The realisation that certain aspects of western culture may be moving too quickly for their own good is not a new one. In response to fast food, quickie sex, the never-ending pursuit of a faster internet connection the Slow movement was born. Rather than increased mindfulness being limited to a set of internal practices, the Slow movement challenges us to wonder what would happen if such a mindful perspective was brought to bear on the whole of our lives. What would our eating habits look like, our transport arrangements, our approach to child-care?

Now there is always the danger that new insights become dogma, but the general principles of greater awareness to regional context, levels of consumption and quality over quantity are certainly a necessary challenge to my lifestyle. Do I seek endless piles of “stuff” to fill the sense of internal ache, or can I pause and truly take stock of what’s going on around me? As someone with a fairly intense work ethic, how do I step-back and become less hyperactive and more intentional?

When I seek to apply a Slow perspective to the types of activity associated with Chaos Magick where does it get me? Because of CM’s connection to the Postmodern zeitgeist, it can be easy to assume that the approach is unavoidably accelerated via its quick and dirty punk rock approach! CM will always be pragmatic in its sorcerous focus on getting things done, but as someone who still really likes the approach, I believe that it can grow up and move beyond scatter-gun spiritual consumerism.

The genius of Chaos Magick  for me lies in its understanding of belief as a tool and in its emphasis on the contemporary. CM like all magickal systems relies on romanticism to a certain degree, but it doesn’t long for some passed golden age-it demands that we Work with what’s in front of us. In placing it emphasis on the present however, it also faces the danger of mirroring societies’ excesses and losing touch with its context. Personally I need more, and as I grow older and my magick works its wyrd, so my engagement with this tradition needs to evolve. Therefore my Chaos Magick needs to slow down.

Marti the Mindful Mollusk – totem of Slow Chaos

What this means for each of us seeking new depth will of course be unique. Like my use of fossil fuels or hours spent “working for the Man” few of us appreciate having our choices prescribed. What’s probably most helpful at this point is to outline some of the ways that this Slow Chaos might be shaping up my own spiritual/magickal practice:

1. Working with each paradigm to a  greater depth.

CM as an approach is renowned for its technique of shifting belief systems and world views. Its desire to stand back and comprehend the technology and mechanisms of magick  outside of a faith position often allows it to see the parallels and potential connections between differing paradigms. Critics of this approach may rightly wonder whether jumping between paradigms actually allows the magician to experience the challenges and depths that prolonged work with one system can produce.

As someone who is fairly syncretistic by nature I am usually quick to cross-fertilize systems and seek creative means for cross-breeding to strengthen my already mongrel magick. Whilst recognising this I also realise that I have to slow down and let a tradition speak to me on its own terms. I need to internalise the hard lessons so that I am not simply flitting between systems, creating the illusion of progress in the midst of my frenzied busyness.

2. Seeking both Acceptance and Change:

 In many forms of psychotherapy (my day job) one of the primary dialectics that needs to be held in tension, is that which exists between acceptance and change. If all therapy does is accept, it will never be truly healing, and if all it does is ask for change without truly listening to reality as it is for the client, then it is both an imposition and a misuse of power. How, in my spiritual life, can I access this place of acceptance rather than bleeding myself psychically dry through endless sorcerous “doing”?

In the magickal  group in which I work, this need to seek means for cultivating greater acceptance has lead to an on-going engagement with mindfulness practice and states of receptive magick. Whether working with acceptance of the Self or a situation we hope eventually to change, taking our time to listen more closely is likely to make our gnosis all the more potent.

3. Sensitivity to Context and the Movement of Time.

Julian in his “Chaos Magick and the Turning of the Year” has already started mapping how the multi-faceted glyph of the Chaos star might relate to the 8 fire festivals and the natural movement of life perceived in time and space. The slow movement asks us to consider the idea of “place” and how our bodies and lives are interwoven with our context and natural environment.

Personally I find myself interested in how we can harmonize this adventurous, experimental form of magick with a sensitivity to the land and the phase of the year we are working within. Rather than the shape of our collective sorcery or ritual being determined by whim or fortune, could our work flow into the channel of yellow mid-summer ego-magick or the lusty purple hues of Beltane?

4. The importance of the armchair:

Philip Carr-Gomm in his excellent “The English Book of Magic” speaks of the importance of the armchair in the development of the magician. While people may dismiss those who spend time reflecting, reading, thinking and musing, Philip in his druidsom wisdom sees such critics as embodying “an undignified utilitarianism.” We need time to dream, to let our ideas percolate, to let parts of our psyche lie fallow for a season.

Phil Hine has noted the creeping work ethic that seems to be part of western occultism-more to learn, more to do, more, more ,more. Most magickal orders  stress that they are only interested in “highly motivated individuals”, and while not dismissing this, sometimes we need to praise Bob and embrace the Slack! My guess is that most of us got involved in Magick because we dreamt and wondered; perhaps we need to dream once more-get thee to an armchair!

So there you have it, some wonderings about Slow and how it might shape and challenge our postmodern forms of Magickal practice. One of the great things for me about Current 23 is the way it seeks to allow diversity and freedom -I offer these musings in the same spirit-not a new set of prescriptions, rather some sketches that I hope will invite friendly conversation and wondering.

SD