Work and the Magickal Link

“Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death!” (Liber Al Vel Legis)

I had a conversation with someone once who said that if he had a trust fund he would “Do Magic all the time.” The person also said that he would keep himself from reading sex magical secrets if they could be found online because he “Wasn’t the right degree.”

This contradictory perspective betrays a fundamental misconception of Magick in my opinion.

1.) That Magick is somehow separate or above life. The assumption seems to be that if you didn’t have to work, you could do “Magick all the time.”

Magick is about change in this life.

It’s not some rarified Neoplatonic world “Above or better than” the living, breathing seething realm of visceral reality.

My life is my talisman and the actions (Esoteric or Exoteric) I take daily in the realms of work, finances, health, relationships, ect. are the efforts that shape that life in accord with my Will.

Work is the Karmic link you have with life.

The magical link is only as strong as your vital connection to life and that is channeled through your work.

Trust fund babies disconnected from tangible consequences and constraints of work living in some fantasy land of “Magic” are more mystics than magicians. Even worse they are posers.

2.) That Magick is more about obedience and protocol rather than the Will to Power.

If you are holding yourself back from gaining knowledge, power, and ability because someone “Above you” tells you are “Not of the Right Degree” your obedience to someone else is hobbling your Will.

I don’t remember the classical Hermetic Axioms being:

To Dare, To Will, To Know, To Keep Silent including “To be a rule-following obedient slave.”

Attaining knowledge voraciously and applying it through your own experiments is the key to honing your craft as a magician.

Ordeals and constraints in real life are the Grist for the Mill that hones you into a Radiant Star of your Unique Will and its successful expression.

You need to get your hands dirty in both life and magick.