Doing this conjuration cycle of mine keeps me busy, but it also keeps me constantly refreshed with the forces I interact with constantly. While the major focus of the cycle is to keep me progressing through the spheres of the planets, which is one of my major focuses these days, I don’t often talk about the elements anymore like how I did in the past. It’s not because I’m not working with them anymore, because I surely am, and it’s not because I’ve mastered them, because I surely haven’t. But…well, they’re elements. They’re the basic building blocks of our sphere down here, the things I was first introduced to in magic. Simply put, they’re elementary. As a result, my conjurations and chats with the four archangelic kings of the elements have gotten shorter and shorter; there’s less and less to talk about, since these forces are pretty reliably integrated into my own sphere, as far as I can tell.
That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn from them still, though.
Recently, I was talking with the angel Michael of Fire. Taking a look at my own sphere, it was heartily and healthily ablaze with Fire, that wonderful hot and dry element that creates light and inspires one to go higher. My own self within my sphere, though, was much darker and moister, but even within that there was still a small flame glowing brightly on its own. I realized that this was suboptimal—what goes on within my own self should be reflected in my entire sphere, and an imbalance of without versus within indicates a lack of connection—so Michael and I worked together to forge a link between the Fire outside myself and the Fire within myself. It was just the beginning, and much more will likely need doing, but this was still an improvement over before, when there was little Fire to speak of in my sphere at all, much less my own self within my sphere.
Michael and I discussed what we did, both elementally and symbolically (really the same thing here). That tiny flame represents the beginning of my gnosis, my self-knowledge, the knowledge and awareness of my Will, the flame that really powers me and drives me to go on. It’s small, but it’s beginning to grow; so long as I “keep myself hot”, quoth Michael, I’ll continue to keep that flame alive and burning more and more. It’s going to be a long process, but the fact that I’ve gotten to this point after only this long is impressive to me. Coming to know our Will, the thing we really need to do according to our set, setting, context, and destiny, is kinda big in a lot of occult systems nowadays, probably like how it’s always been. And according to the progress reports and checkups I’m getting from the forces I work with, I’m on the right track.
Sure, I’m no master of fire, no more than I’ve completed the Great Work itself. But I’ve certainly gotten the force of Fire, the force of my own Will, integrated into my own sphere, and starting to learn and know more about it. By this process, I’ve been able to work with my Will more and more, which is a result of doing my Will, my True Will, as I should be. By carrying out our True Wills, we follow a path that’s effectively been laid out for us, whether by accident or design; this path can be arduous at times, painful at others, and easy at yet others, but it’s this path that allows us to grow, grow stronger, grow up, and grow into ourselves. By this process, things tend to go more and more our way, as if the path becomes straighter or more known no matter how crooked or errant it may get.
When we follow and carry out our True Wills, things generally go easier for us, since they’re increasingly tied into the things we’re doing. We encounter fewer and fewer difficulties, since we’re effectively carrying out our roles to play in the cosmos, and “if God is for us, who can be against us”? Sure, we might still attract haters (who will, after all, continue to hate on ‘choo), but when we work our Will on the cosmos, people who would interfere with us are either brought over to our side and begin helping us instead, or are drowned out, burned up, or otherwise silenced and made powerless to counteract or contradict us. Plus, the more we work our True Will, the more we begin to find and associate with those who are also carrying out their Will, and since they’re doing what they must for the cosmos, it’ll naturally fall in line and correlate with what we must do for the cosmos, as two players on opposite sides of an orchestra play harmoniously in the whole.
It’s only when someone else messes up their part and trashes their Will so badly that it ends up careening into yours that can cause problems, like a planet that suddenly shifts out of orbit and collides into other planets, or a player in an orchestra that decides to start playing a march when everyone else is playing a waltz just to confuse others. Sometimes this is out of earnest confusion and spiritual flailing, sometimes this is out of deliberate spite and (mis- or ab-)use of their power and Will. This can certainly cause issues, and can even put a cold damper or shut down the flame of one who’s actually working their Will as they should. All it needs is a bit of correction on both our part and the parts of others to get everything singing harmoniously again, and then we’ll all be aweseome again as we should.
In a way, the idea of True Will is starting to sound a lot like Grace to me: just as Grace is not a reward, neither is True Will, but they’re both the state and result of being doing the highest Good, of becoming properly Godly, and coming to truly know yourself, your origins, and your duty.
