This is a thoughtful and (I think) useful article on the implications of magickal practice and the myriad forms of life one may encounter physically and psychically while "on the path." Your comments and/or anecdotes are welcome in response.
Markus
Magick/Life: Reflections
by Louis Martinie
http://w3.iac.net/~moonweb/archives/LM/MagickLifeReflections.htm
The practice of magick brings the magician into contact with a tremendous variety of sentient life forms. The effect that these contacts have for me is to broaden appreciation and increase love for the integrity of all existent beings. In the vision given by the magicks it is as if I exist as a part of a vast web of interconnected. living forms. The web itself is composed. of pure sentience; pure being. To value any part of this living web ( i.e. species, etc.) above another is to ignore the mutual dependence of all parts of the web. The symmetry and tensile strength of the web depends upon the full participation of all the individual strands. This type of participation is only possible in the context of empathy. There must be an empathic knowing between the different forms of beings that constitute the web; each being exercising the full amount of understanding it is capable of bringing to bear.
Actions that violate the integrity of another living form silence the voice of empathy. A practical test that I have found to be of value in determining whether or not I am violating the in tegrity of another is as follows: I guage the separation necessary for me to complete the act. If I must harden or surround myself in a cocoon of reasons and explanations, then I am probably transgressing upon another living form. If I "act with" another in the spirit of empathy, transgression is less likely.
It is usual to base decisions as to the value of life forms on a same/different model. This model states that the closer the object of perception looks, acts, and. feels like the perceiver, the more apt the perceiver is to accord value to that which it perceives. If the perceiver is white, the other, to be given value, should also be white. If the perceiver is male, the valued recipient of perception is also male. If the perceiver walks upon two legs, then life which propels itself on four legs is somewhat less worthy of respect and concern. If the perceiver has language, that which does not is definitely less worthy.
The attribution of value basedupon this model becomes a ludicrous oversimplification when one is confronted with the myriad forms that consciousness wears. The magician, traveling within or without, finds life inhabiting forms so alien that any connection between expectations based upon appearance, etc. and the fulfillment of those expectations is purely coincidental. In my workings, entities which bore a resemblance to me were simply very adept at shape shifting.
Great magical harm can be invoked through callousness toward that which is the continuity of life. The horror that is perpetrated by those who heedlessly take life resonates from the corpse of the victim into the consciousness of the victimizer. The thread of interconnectedness is severed and the living body is subject to a coldness that reaches beyond the mere grave. It is only by ones own hand that one may be cast out from the presence of the fires of being. To violate the integrity of another is to engender a poisonous separation.
In terms of knowledge acrd understanding there are beings who stand in relationship to us as we stand to a dog. One can not hope for more than one is willing to give. Those who stand "above" us may be contacted and communicated with from a stand of dignity and. security if we accord the same dignity and security to those who stand "below" us. To prey upon others is to advertise oneself as prey. Magick and life may be seen as synonymous. Life is the quick mover, life is the transformer. The sacred realm of Hermes is life ... is magick. The web sings in unison or breaks under the strain of a cruel separation. Life is life, only forms change.
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