The Root of Animism

A concise statement of magikal faith.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night.  When this happens, instead of fighting my way back to sleep, I will just lay in bed enjoying the dark, thinking, praying and listening for the voices of my guides.  Last night I was tasked with making a “concise statement of faith”.  I share it here both as a “theoretical” way to think about magik and because statements make things real.  We create as we speak and all that.

1.)    I believe that if a thing has a name, it has a soul.

It is an ancient and widely held belief that knowing the “true name” of a thing gives one control of that thing.  While I might take exception to with the use of the word “control”, I acknowledge that knowing the name of a thing allows us to address, and thereby, influence that thing.  The name is the key to the soul of things.

2.)    If you can establish a relationship of trust and/or mutual benefit, it is possible to make “contracts” with anything that has a soul.

All things are subject to flattery and insult, threat and propitiation and all the normal tactics of influence.  Whether we are dealing with other people, Gods, ancestors, plants, animals or “forces of nature”, it is possible to influence them in our favor if we bring the appropriate offerings.  It should be noted that in some forms of ceremonial magik where angels and demons are pressed into service by force, there is still an “offer” being made and some collateral offered, even if this is the simple acknowledgement of the angel’s or demon’s power to do what is demanded.  Whether we see such magik as morally suspect (which, full disclosure, I do) or not, we must understand it as a form of relationship in which both parties are bound in some way.  Which is why:

3.)    All magik is the result of such contracts.

A contract is a device for combining and focusing the will and intention of two or more entities toward a shared goal.  Prayer establishes such a contract just as certainly as any act of ritual magik.  Whenever we promise fidelity to some entity or group of entities, we are braiding our power into theirs.  Fidelity involves our agreement to forfeit something as a sign of our belief in the power of the contract and exchange for the benefits we expect to receive from it.  Without such a sacrifice there can be no contract and therefore no magik.

4.)    It is possible to break such contracts but, if we do, there will be consequences.

If we have benefited from some alliance but have withheld or withdrawn the sacrificial offering that sealed the contract, we can expect the entity with whom the contract was forged to be hurt, angry and possibly vengeful.  Even when we seek an orderly withdrawal from a contract, there is usually some price exacted.  If we have benefited richly from the contract, we can expect the price to be dear.  This is why we should consider what sort of contracts we enter before signing OUR name.  For as having the name of the other gives us influence over them, so having our name gives the other influence over us. 

As above, so below.

Sometimes it is best to say less.

For those who have ears to hear.