Theories of Magic: The Topography of Magic

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Topographical map Now that we have an idea of magical gravity, there is a pattern of high and low points. The high points are places of flexibility where you have more choices, but also require more physical and mental energy to maintain. The low points are places of rest, where fewer choices are available but allow for recovery from your previous efforts. We are now going to look at the possible formations of high and low points that meld together into a landscape we can traverse with the right tools.

The Formations of the Magical Landscape

The Basin

A basin is a low point surrounded completely by higher points. In our metaphorical landscape, these are conditions in which your life as you see it now is easier than any alternative you can see around you. When you are in a basin, you are in a place of stability, where very little will change easily. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends entirely on the nature of the basin you are in.

A good basin is one where you feel content, fulfilled, valued, loved, and comfortable. A fair number of people get to this point, usually late in their life, with signs of that contentment all around them: A nice home, a happy marriage and family life, a group of trusted friends, as good health as age permits, reaching a professional pinnacle, and so forth. One the one hand, people in this kind of basin need little support from others, and indeed are among those who reach out to provide support to others. But they also have a reluctance to accept change, because their lives are working completely for them, and thus react badly to anything that might upset that vision of their lives.

A bad basin is one where you feel uncomfortable, unfulfilled, devalued, ignored, and discontent. Many people find themselves here because they ended up travelling with the wrong companion, or made an error in judgement, and they find themselves in a position where they lack the energy to remove themselves from a bad situation. This is where support is often very valuable for giving people caught in this situation the energy they need to climb out of this basin. There are some rare few who, after a bit of rest in what they know is a bad situation, manage to pick themselves up and start changing their lives.

The Valley

A valley is another low point, but unlike a basin it has some low points and high points surrounding it. Those low points thus provide clear easy paths you might choose to follow if you are not happy with where you are in life. You can typically explore in a couple of directions with relatively little effort, and know that if you go exploring down the valley, you can go back the way you came.

Valleys aren't as stable as basins, because there are choices available. There are so many choices, indeed, that many live their entire lives in a single valley, moving ahead along a straight path without ever having a desire to leave that valley. That's not to say there are not choices in valleys, though: You can always choose to turn around, and you also will likely come across points where multiple paths meet and you are faced with a choice between several seemingly-viable options. People who live their lives in a valley are often down-to-earth and practical, with minimal idealism but much joy, because all their experience suggests that's a good way to leave a good and meaningful life. No magic necessary, just keep on keeping on.

The biggest challenge in a valley is that you may end up in a place where the only path you could take without climbing out of the valley is back the way you came. That leaves you with the option of trying to climb out of it (in other words, work some magic), retreat, or treat the end of the valley in the same way you do a basin.

The Peak

A peak is the opposite of a basin: A high point surrounded by lower points. And that means its effects are also the opposite. On a peak, you can see a wide variety of possibilities, but it is a place of great instability that you know you will not be able to maintain for long.

If you are standing on a peak, the most important thing to remember is that it is now decision time. You need to focus on surveying your options, picking one, and getting down off of that peak. It's hard to remember this, though, because seeing all those choices and all that potential is such an astounding feeling that more than a few try to remain on the peak for as long as possible. Getting to that peak for the first time is usually such a profound experience that when and how you achieved it will likely end up shaping your life dramatically once it has happened with the goal of repeating it.

This is a very transformative moment, but it's only useful if you take the chance to transform your mindset and by extension your universe. Accept the inevitability of having to leave, and fairly quickly, and you can accomplish much from a peak. A very effective idea at this kind of point is to take a quick look around, plan a route and direction towards a valley or basin that may be far away but is nonetheless now visible, and then come on down for a rest in a valley or basin.

The Ridge

The ridge is the higher-energy counterpart of the valley: There are a couple of possibilities, including at least one that you probably have not seen before. It is also possible to travel along the ridge for a brief period without greater expenditure of energy.

The big difference with valleys, though, is that instead of the possibility of staying where you are, or traversing easily, you need to get off of the ridge or you will eventually be exhausted. So typically, you will pick either a new valley or basin and keep going, or will decide you were better off where you came from and head back there. The only time it really makes much sense to try travelling along the top of a ridge is if you are coming into the work with a great deal of energy and wish to seek out a peak, because peaks can be found where ridges meet other ridges. For standard magical workings, just do what you needed to do, move down to the better-suited valley. Save the peak-bagging for the day you are thoroughly energized, maybe at a counterculture festival or towards the end of a vacation.

Most large transformations come from a series of smaller changes. Crossing ridges rather than crossing peaks allows you to make those smaller changes without having to expend anywhere near as much energy.

What Comes Next

So, if you have been following this topic for a while, you now have a general idea of how to transform the universe by transforming your own thought patterns, how to turn that basic concept into some sort of magical ritual, and what situations you will encounter when working through magical ritual or mundane action. This is sufficient to make many changes in your life, improving health, wealth, relationships, and so forth. The next steps will be ideas on how plan more thoroughly what transformations you wish to make and how you will get from where you are now to where you want to be when travelling across the magical landscape.



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