Your normal, day-to-day consciousness is optimized for a specific suite of mundane experiences. For many of us this means things like driving a vehicle, swiping a debit card, streaming videos, organizing a schedule, taking care of animal companions, cleaning the house, working, talking to tech support, and so forth.
There's a lot of autopilot in play. If we need to get serious or focus sharply we often require a linear, problem-solving kind of awareness. This is not the state of mind or body fit for magical undertaking.
It's obvious when you think about it: The frame of mind used in a magic ritual or while constructing a magical talisman probably isn't the ideal condition for having lunch with a friend or changing the string in your weed-eater.
Mundane Me and Magical Me
That might sound a bit like Sesame Street (to those old enough to know what that is), but its an easy way to get my point across. As a practicing magician I relate to myself in two specific mods, or expressions.
Mundane me is the guy who tips the pizza guy when he drops off dinner or takes the cat to the vet. No effort required; this is who I am by default.
Magical me is the man who draws a sigil to channel creativity or burns a candle to encourage rain during a dry month. I have an actual persona I cultivate and engage with for enacting magic.
Consciously shifting into "magical me" makes it easier to enter an altered state before magical work; shifting back to mundane me then makes it easier to let the work go and forget about the magic (a critical step!) after my work is finished.
Before Magical Work: Altered State of Consciousness
I strongly advocate that an altered state of consciousness - a change in mind and body - is necessary before attempting magical work. I call the baseline condition simply "the magical state". There are actually multiple altered states that will suffice and different sorts of work may call for specifications in the initial altered state. To simplify I point to the flow-state or in-the-zone consciousness most folks are aware of.
Often achieved by musicians and athletes but available to everyone, such a condition of mind and body amounts to alertness, great ease of movement and thought/speech, confidence, high creativity and just a sentiment of "rightness" about the moment. Think alpha-brain-waves and you'll be on the right track.
You have surely been there before, perhaps while working or driving or playing a video game or making art or doing something you love and can easily get lost in. If you play music, shoot basketball, ride a skateboard, work crossword puzzles, doodle, paint, garden, tell jokes, juggle, practice judo, cut and style hair, or anything else and find that you can lose track of time and be perfectly content in that moment of doing -- and doing well most likely -- you have been in the flow or "the zone".
Go there prior to magical work. Meditation, chanting, drumming -- there are endless ways to achieve this and I will write about some of them soon.
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