Well, I am the type of person who ponders life's questions, sometimes for years until I feel I have reached an acceptable answer for me at the time. I find I end up redefining things and shifting my beliefs fairly often lately, as I reason things out and come to new, more insightful conclusions. This post contains my thoughts on using the whole universe, and even what lies beyond, rather than the more limited approach to invocation- of calling on magical energy from local sources.
In this case, I have been pondering the limited view of magical practice. That is, the idea that the magic you do is based on energies from the earth or our solar system. Like the Moon, the Sun and Earth. Generally those are the things called to. That and the elements of the earth, like water, wind, and fire. Earth too, but of course that's redundant. You can also find lots of information about the magical uses of the planets, as far as what types of aspects they embody and what their placement around the earth means at that time. What I'm saying is, that I feel this is limiting yourself. The earth itself is so tiny and insignificant in comparison to the universe at large. Well, it seems to be anyway. There are so many forces that could destroy our tiny fragile existence. I think it's important to look at the big picture, and in this case some of the biggest questions of the universe that science has not been able to answer have to do with the way that galaxies interact, whether the universe is expanding or contracting, and of course what matter is.
I find that in looking at those questions, it's helpful to keep in mind the idea that there are so many different things out there in the universe that are undiscovered, which also means there are so many things that come into play, meaning the magical forces of the universe are much much bigger than just the one star, moons, and planets near us. The challenge then is to keep this open minded attitude about the energies you employ, rather than limiting them by calling to them by name in an invocation, I would rather think of the infinite and call to that.
To me, the mysteries of the universe and the energies I manipulate with my mind when I practice magic are one and the same. I don't need to connect with the defined attributes others have assigned to the cosmos, but rather I'd like to creatively open my options up and work magic that is bigger than just the wind from the earth or the points on the compass. When you look at modern magic, it should employ things that are based on mankind's current understandings of the universe, rather than looking back to the ancients. For one the information from the past is more difficult to verify, so it has less meaning than what you as a person believe, because it doesn't even connect to you personally. If you have to memorize something in order to use it in a spell, then it's just not the right thing to use.
For example, I have been employing the runes for some time now, and though some of the meaning of the runes I have to look up in books, for the most part the language of the runes (the shapes of the symbols themselves) is understandable to me and so they work as a medium for magic. One reason that they do is that I am able to see the shape of a rune and from that understand how the cosmic energy is manipulated. More specifically, uruz is a rune that shows energy from the earth rising and then returning, illustrating the life cycle, where a person born from the earth returns eventually. Uruz is a rune for health, and life and rebirth. It's easy to see how the energy that comes out and returns could be seen as being a cyclical connection to life, rebirth, and health and prosperity. Understanding what the symbols are illustrating is a way of saying something without having to invest the time in explaining it, which is useful in magic because it is easier to fix your intent when you have an emblem like that to focus on that means what you want. If I didn't understand that part about the runes, or if the runes didn't have that, I wouldn't find them as useful to me.
I find that when you break magic down into it's basic form, it's manipulating energy through thought. Well, does distance matter with thought? No. So there's no real need to focus on just the earth. It is however important to know that the earth is the most important life giving entity for all humans. Whether they believe it or not, every second of every day humans, and all life on this planet, depend on the earth to live.One thing about that is that when you employ energy from an unknown source (i.e. a galaxy specifically, you would have to find a way to invoke it) you would want to direct that energy and make strong parameters for it's effect. I have a feeling that calling on something unique like that may have unexpected results. While employing energies outside the earth is a neat idea, the earth is still extremely important, and I'm not saying that the earth should not be involved in magical practice, I'm simply saying it doesn't have to be the only one.
I can see how just throwing out all you know and going back to square one would be too daunting for most people. I am still contemplating how I am going to apply these ideas to my own practice. But if you are interested in taking your practice to the next level, or you feel like you are not finding the answers you seek with your current practice, this may be a way to open up your horizons and find some new answers!
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