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102
The magician
<p>"As he walks, the way appears."</p><p>I’ve always liked that line. It feels true in ways that are hard to explain.</p><p>For a long time I thought magic meant spectacle. The dramatic kind, spells, levitation, the kind of things movies make look convincing.</p><p>But that’s not it. Real magic is quieter, its alchemy, Equivalent exchange. </p><p>The old texts talk about turning lead into gold. Most people assume that meant chemistry. Furnaces, metals, secret formulas.</p><p>But my journey so far in the esoteric made me realise the metaphor was pointing somewhere else. You can't have this knowledge because esoteric means knowledge specific to a particular group of people. </p><p><br/></p><p>Lead is the mind in its heavy state, fear, anger, confusion, impulse.</p><p>Clarity is gold.</p><p>And the strange thing is that the furnace that performs this transformation isn’t outside of us. It’s attention.</p><p>Because there is always a moment, a very small moment, before a thought becomes an action. Most people never see it.</p><p>A feeling appears and the body moves. Anger appears and words follow. Fear appears and the mind retreats.</p><p><br/></p><p>But somewhere along the way I noticed something unsettling.</p><p><br/></p><p>There is a voice behind the noise.</p><p><br/></p><p>A listener.</p><p><br/></p><p>When anger appears, something notices the anger.</p><p>When fear appears, something notices the fear.</p><p><br/></p><p>And that listener… is <strong>You. </strong>Because if something or someone makes a sound, or communicates with you, who listens. You! So would you say that voice analysing and judging everything in your mind is you? Or is it the person who is aware someone or something is judging and analysing.</p><p><br/></p><p>Once you see that, the mechanism of reaction changes.</p><p><br/></p><p>The emotion is still there, but it no longer runs the entire show. You can question it before it turns into reality. </p><p>You can question it before it becomes action.</p><p>You can observe it before it becomes reality.</p><p>And in that small space, between the feeling and the response, something interesting appears.</p><p>Choice.</p><p>You now respond to life, not react. That is alchemy. </p><p>A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to. - Gandalf</p>
7
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