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January 20 through January 26, 2025

Even with the Sun now in Aquarius, known for its ability to generate the unexpected, this should be a fairly calm week. The key to mastering Aquarius energy is to be flexible, open-minded, and willing to think outside the box. Monday’s Libra Moon is all about balancing the subtle changes this sign will be introducing, as we balance our thoughts and actions internally as well as externally. The Moon will drift through Scorpio Tuesday through Thursday, evoking our spiritual sides and asking us to look a little deeper at what motivates us and what inspires us. Sorting through what is working and what isn’t allows us to get rid of the things in our lives that are holding us back, so take a look around, and whether it’s a friendship, clothing, or a deadened job, you’ll be searching for a way to clear a path for easier movement in the future. Fun is the name of the game as the Moon dances through Sagittarius on Friday and Saturday, so make sure your weekend plans are easy and full of laughter and joy. We can attend to chores on Sunday when the Capricorn Moon reminds us to restore order and take care of unfinished business before a new week begins.

The Power of Pathworking, by Simon Court

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

I always wanted to be a magician. From an early ag,e I knew that was the way for me. Not your rabbit from a hat prestidigitator nor vanishing cabinet illusionist. No. I wanted to be a real magician, a student of the magic arts. But where to start and what indeed made up those magic arts? I found The Magician, His (sic) Training and Work, by W.E.Butler.

Aha. "Magic is the art and science of making changes in consciousness according to will," I read. Here was a definition I could take on board. And from these first readings I was led to The Mystical Qabalah, written by Dion Fortune. In the back of this book was a brief discrete note that the Society of the Inner Light offered courses. So, this fortuitous chain of events led me to those who offered training in what I wanted to do.

The journey began, first with that Order and then with The Servants of the Light when the Society withdrew from teaching. What made this so wonderful for me was that back in those days, the middle of the last century, there was very, very little published on the topic that was from a reputable source.

But, no matter where my studies took me, that first definition of magic remained my touchstone. It guided my learning, both in the occult arts and in more usual skills, skills more closely related to making a living and developing my own life, needs, preferences.

In the course of this I found another aphorism that resonated: "What is above is like what is below, but after another fashion."

Studying above and below in terms of supposed "Planes of Existence," the finer ones stacked upon the most physical of everyday outer experience, led easily and logically to rephrasing the rule as, "What is without is like what is within." This is in terms of the one being derived from the other. I had learned that the outer world is a manifestation of some inner forces or principles, so I decided that the inner and outer nature of me, of people, was exactly the same, built upon the same dichotomy and relationship.

It followed that what we experienced in our meditations flowed out through our changing self into the changing world of effects. And so it was that I came to pathworkings.

My first pathworkings and fantasy journeys were specific individual journeys to experience principles, thoughts, feelings on the inner that would flow out as changes to the way I related to the outer.

When the "New Age" mind-and-manifestation people did their inner visualizations to obtain an item in the world it often worked. But, it did not work because their inner mind power had created or manifested that item in the outer. Nor was it because their inner work had attracted the item to them. It was because their inner work had led them to see details they might have missed, to sometimes choose between options with values changed by inner work, leading them down different paths to those that would otherwise have been taken. They achieved the objects of desire by the interaction of their changed inner nature with an unchanged outer world. Their work did not lead the item desired to them. Rather, it led them to the item. A new harmony between within and without had been created.

This is magic.

And this is why the great writers of the last century emphasized inner change, changes in consciousness in accordance with will.

It was not long before I fell in love with the Pathworking method and studied and worked towards building an integrated set of workings that would address different aspect of my inner nature, my imaginings, my thinking and the dynamics behind my decisions to action.

After some time, some experimentation, some testing, and some research, I had built a structured intertwined set of pathworkings to address how a person presents in the world of their experience and to give that person subtle control over their world of both action and thought. I assembled these into a book, The Magic of Pathworking.

I read somewhere that, "the beginner magician takes his (sic) armor off when the battle has just begun." I cannot find that reference now. It may have been Aleister Crowley. The magical task of restructuring the inner self to no-fuss archetypal principles is like putting the sports clothes on before the event, perhaps even before warming up.

If we want to see events in the world unfolding according to our inner nature, then the first task would be to synchronize that inner nature with reality, to bring inner and outer into accord. Once in accord an examination of where inner thoughts, feelings are heading may well give an indication as to where outer events are heading. Once inner and outer match, then reading the winds of change within may give clues to the winds of change without.

And this brings us to magical ritual.

Ah. The regalia. The accoutrements. The barbarous words and phrases of power. A wand, cut at the right time from the right tree, lovingly shaped and inscribed with mystic symbols. Barbarous words of power in a long dead language. An old magic mirror, bought at auction.

No.

You will find that all magic is performed on the inner. Outer regalia and tools serve only to help the mind set the scene. Outer movements and spoken words assist others of a group to synchronize their inner working, which is where the real magic takes place. My priestess and I make the three circumambulations to open the circle for our group. What we are really doing is ascending a spiral staircase together in the turret of a castle. Or sometimes we are walking a circular track up a conical hill in the centre of a plain. All our group participants are in the same inner reality.

One of my teachers said that a group of magicians could perform a rite while riding on the subway. Magicians can perform, and have performed, rites in the same inner space while physically scattered across the globe.

Magic takes place on the inner. And the technique used for this is exactly the same as pathworking. I have set this down in a new book that is just about ready for submission. Some might say that I am giving away secrets here. Well, the second book on magic I acquired was written by Dion Fortune, and she was wont to say: "The greatest secrets of magic can be shouted from the rooftops, but only those with ears to hear will hear."

But why do we do these things at all? To gain power and riches? To bend others to our will?

Perhaps some do.

I happen to think that the true worth is changing oneself in ways that let those positive changes within flow out into reality, lifting it. It is a "rubber sheet" theory. If you take a rubber sheet with the edges fixed in place and pinch and pull one point upward, other parts are also pulled upwards to varying degree. If the magician rises, they pull up others with them.

I say "rising," but only by means of illustration. A better fit is the idea of a journey, a quest, and the distribution of benefits or a return with the prize.

What is it all for? This brings us to mysticism.

My mysticism is always Quest-and-return. The Qabalistic magician might ascend the Tree of Life in their magic, the way of evolution, later to descend the way of involution, bringing back the Prize to make it real or available for others and themselves. The Quest is a fundamental theme in human tales going back into the mists of time. It appears in those modern science fiction tales where the hero, gender irrelevant, alone or in company, attains something that benefits all, or saves the Galaxy. And it occurs in the stories handed down among the First Australians, some going back well over 20,000 years. A quest or task, pitched against trial and adversity, to achieve a prize, not for self but for community, local or global. And often with this is told the price of failure. Or misuse.

Among many Europeans, and especially those of British origins, the Quest of Quests is that of the Grail. This is why I have prepared a work of pathworkings that take the practitioner in the steps and through the adventures of the knight Percival. The attaining of the Grail and the just as important return of the Grail's mystery to the kingdom of everyday life are foundation themes in European cultures.

And this takes us beyond.

For the Grail is but one expression of something fundamental embedded in human nature—the Quest. Be it the Grail, lost treasure, artifacts on a distant world, lost treasures in this world, the ancient Teacher in the Himalayas, the unattainable lover, the Beatrice, the Dulcinea, El Dorado, Shangri-La, and so many more, it is the attainment of the unattainable object or person of desire. It is the Impossible Dream made real.

The idea that this is fundamental to human nature is a subject of mysticism. All magical study and practice leads to this goal. And it all boils down to some quite simple principles: lost and found, separation and reconciliation, exile and homecoming, and more.

In the quests there is the start, the goal, and the journey between. This is followed by the return that is the resolution of the opposites. These are three parts, the two poles and the between. The between may be a path or a barrier.

There is here a core theme of human existence. My current work is not a set of pathworkings. It is a presentation of the many different forms of this foundation principle. Each chapter addresses an aspect of separation/reconciliation, such as exile/homecoming, personality dissociation/reintegration, separation of lovers and their reconciliation, the Fritz Perls empty chair/two-chair tool, and much more.

It is written in two styles to present the resolution of poetry and prose into a whole meaning. Then the resolution is wholeness, and resolution occurs at the boundary. The boundary that initially separates becomes the solution that unites.

The mid Twentieth Century jazz pianist Thelonius Monk, who had a Middle Eastern musical background, once said that he would play two adjacent notes to hint at the quarter note between them. So this work consists of chapters in two parts, a grail motif in a poetic story form together with a psychological exegesis on the theme, with references to supporting academic literature. This work is current, nearly complete in story, note and reference form. I hope this little essay has given some idea of what I am about and what I am attempting to say. But more than that, I hope it has been useful in its own right.

May your travels be rewarding.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2020. All rights reserved.

My name is Christine. My husband (a Virgo) and I (a Libra) work together, and I have been feeling like he and one of our coworkers are getting closer than they should. When I ask him about it, he says he loves me and I am the only one. Do you think I could be imagining this? I also think that this coworker has a very negative energy or influence on me, based on her statements and the overall feeling that I get from her. Right before I began noticing this closeness between them, I had a dream about them. In the dream, he admitted to their closeness, but he didn't stay with her. He left her behind and followed me. Do you think that I am subconsciously looking for things since I had this dream, or do you think this dream was a warning to get my relationship back on track?

Christine

Dreamchaser:

Christine, you all work together. He can't pull a fast one with you in the same place. I agree that her energy towards you is negative in many ways, but I think that she is reacting to how you treat her. She did not come in treating you that way. You need to check YOUR actions and energies toward her. The more paranoid you get about her and your husband, the more negative your energy towards her becomes. If you come from a place of love and light, she will as well.

Not every dream we have at night is prophetic. I think the majority of our dreams are ways for us to work through our fears, doubts, issues, etc. You are afraid (and always have been) that you are going to lose your husband. You never did believe that this life you are leading is the life that you are really supposed to be living. You feel in many ways like you are an imposter to the throne, so to speak. That is because of your own issues, not only from your childhood in this lifetime, but from prior lifetimes as well.

As a result, you have in some ways started to manifest a way to make what you think really SHOULD be come to pass. This dream was simply trying to help you work through those fears.

Your husband and this woman ARE friends. They get along with each other very well. There is nothing wrong with your husband having friends, Christine. The reason you are not included in that group is because of the "bad energy" between you and this woman.

You also know that your marriage is not on the best ground right now. You two have some marital issues that need to be looked at and dealt with. Your husband is NOT happy. It doesn't take one of us to tell you that. He doesn't want to separate from you. He doesn't want to leave you. You are the only one for him. Nevertheless, he is not happy, and if a new life came along that looked better, he may just take a chance on it.

I strongly advise you to get marital counseling from someone reputable as soon as possible. I think you can work through your individual issues and then you can work on the relationship. All hope has not been lost - this marriage can absolutely be saved.

Your husband and this woman are not the problem. They really are just friends. She is what it took to shake you into action. Please address the issues in your marriage. You yourself said, "Do you think this dream was a warning to get my relationship back on track?" Christine, a relationship should never be OFF track. Of course I think it is a sign for you to work on things. So get to it, woman!

I wish you a happy love life!

*****

Astrea:

You are NOT imagining things. That coworker is as negative toward you as she can be. She doesn't like you, and she wants to break up your marriage. Without her birthday, I can't be sure if she is doing it because she really WANTS your husband or not. My psychic feeling is that she is the type of person who gets a kick out of tearing up other people's lives. There ARE some people whose sole purpose is to randomly attack the happiness of others.

Earth Signs, while easily flattered by people who flirt and pay attention to them, rarely cheat on their spouses. I believe that your husband is innocent, and probably doesn't realize how much he's playing into her aims by paying attention to her and harmlessly flirting BACK. I do NOT see him doing anything with that other girl! It would be SO BENEATH a Virgo to cheat on a spouse. It rarely happens, even in the easiest of situations.

Fortunately, you are right there at work with them to keep your eye on both of them. As long as you stay on top of this and point out to him that she would just be using him, he will see this woman for what she is, and steer clear! He doesn't want to mess up your marriage over some little fling. He's serious when he says that you can trust him. He means it.

Virgos DETEST being accused of things they aren't doing. Be careful not to back your husband into a corner where he feels he has to do something to prove you right or wrong. In all the years I've been reading, I've spoken to SO MANY PEOPLE who strayed in their marriages because they were already being accused of doing it, so they figured they might as well do it. Don't let this happen to YOU. Your best defense is to try to ignore this woman. Unless you two play along with her, she'll eventually get bored and quit.

Of course, since that dream upset you so much, you are now consciously looking for things to substantiate your suspicions about your husband and that other woman. I have no doubt that she is "after" your husband, but from his birth date and what he's said to you about this, I know he would NEVER be unfaithful to you. She would go for it, however. She doesn't like you, she feels threatened by you at work (she's probably not very good at her job), and she loves to make trouble for others.

Fortunately, people like her move on when they don't get what they want. She'll find another victim soon and begin to leave your husband alone. In the mean time, don't let your very active and creative Libra imagination get the best of you. This won't last too much longer, so ride it out!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.