Mysticism with/without magick
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I'm posting this here because I wonder how to conceptualize magick's relation to mysticism, because it seems to me that you can have one without the other. Obviously Crowley incorporated mysticism but it seems to do fine on its own - I've been reading some yogi authors recently and its refreshing to me to meet systems that essentially streamline everything down to "meditate."
I'm admittedly biased because I'm a bit discouraged at the moment in my own personal work, but, I am curious about the relationship between the two. Also - how they correspond to the three pillars - is there a third "option" I'm leaving out?
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Yes, as you say, the two obviously can stand alone. They did that for most of the history of humanity before the 20th Century.
One of Crowley's distinctive contributions was their wedding - letting each support the other. Probably the best example of this in practice is John St. John.
My preferred definitions of magick and yoga are intentionally picked to show the fundamental relationship between the two. As given in the Glossary of Visions & Voices (and taking my starting point from Patanjali):
YOGA. n. Lit. “union.” The restraining of the mind-substance (chitta) from assuming various forms or modifications (vrittis).
MAGICK. n. The practice of causing the mind-stuff (chitta) to assume particular forms or modifications (vrittis).
Your question about the three pillars is interesting. It's easy enough to relate the two to the outside pillars - Binah as the apex of mysticism, Chokmah as the apex of magick. As for the third idea... after thinking about it about... I actually think that it would be their union, i.e., the collaboration of the two.
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Thanks Jim.
My 3 pillars question was prompted by some reading I did a few years back, maybe even coming from Dion Fortune, but I'm not sure. It had to do with "Ophic" intellectual magick being related to Hod, mysticism (I think?) related to Tiphereth, and some sort of "Dionysian" artsy rites related to Netzach. Or maybe I'm flipping Dionysian and Orphic rites. I get the impression whatever I read was based on some outdated theory of ancient cults.