The Magical Path. Marc Allen

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      Not long after I began doing a bit of yoga and meditation (nothing regular, as I was and still am lazy and undisciplined), I wandered into a little bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin. I don’t remember the name of it now, but it had something to do with magic, and the entire bookstore was filled with books on magic, East and West. I had never read any of them, never seen any of them. When I entered that bookstore, I entered a new world.

      A man with dark hair and a dark beard sat off behind a desk in a far corner. The beard was full and concealed a lot of his face; he could have been in his twenties or his fifties, for all I knew. He read in silence while I wandered around the store. I had an odd feeling, a combination of awe, excitement, self-consciousness, fear, and shock. I had no idea what any of this was about, and no idea where to begin to study the obviously vast and detailed and arcane subject of magic.

      I went up to the man behind the desk and asked him where I could begin to learn about this stuff. He smiled, and invited me to sit in an old wooden armchair. Then he stretched back in his chair, relaxed, and began to give me what turned into an hour-long introduction to Western magic.

      I left with a load of books under my arm. The shortest one, the first one I read, was The Art of True Healing by Israel Regardie. Without consciously thinking about it, I put all the other books aside and just focused on that book. The others sat there for months, years, with barely a glance from me. Over the years, I lost most of them. In Israel Regardie’s little book, I found all I needed to work with for many years to come.

      The first sentence of the book grabbed and held my attention. It was written simply, with conviction and authority. I had never read any words like them:

THE FORCE OF LIFE

      Within every man and woman is a force

      that directs and controls the entire course of life.

      Properly used, it can heal every affliction

      and ailment we may have.

      And properly used, I soon discovered, it can also help us create fulfilling, successful, wonderful lives. The foundation of the work lies in an exercise of the imagination called the Middle Pillar Meditation. We’ll get into it in depth a bit later, but the simple version involves just relaxing and visualizing or imagining that there is a pillar of light that runs down through the center of your body, from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. That light, that energy, can be directed anywhere, within and without, to heal yourself and others, and also within that field of light are inner worlds of your imagination that can be dreamed, created, explored, and summoned into your life.

      The Middle Pillar Meditation is a simple key to magical creation. I started doing the meditation fairly regularly, perhaps a few times a week on average. It took years, because I was young and a complete idiot about many things, including how to make any money doing what I loved. Eventually, though, by doing the Middle Pillar Meditation, I began to clearly imagine the life I wanted to live, and then I started to see that the next steps to take toward creating that life were obvious, and doable, usually quite simple.

      One of the little exercises we’ll do in the first chapter tricked me into daring to dream of the life I wanted to live ideally. Once I got a clear picture of what my ideal life looked like, the next steps I needed to take toward it became obvious. I took one little step at a time, and eventually my dreams were fulfilled, in full-color three-dimensional reality. It all came to be in some mysterious way, in its own perfect time, all by itself.

      Over the years, I added a few more things to my magician’s toolkit. They were all quite simple, and I can teach them to a ten-year-old — to anyone who is old enough to dream, imagine, read, and write. You don’t have to believe me — just try a few of these things, and see what happens.

      We were all born with the tools of magical creation in abundance. There is nothing else we need that we don’t already have.

      The tools of magical creation are simply

      our dreams and our imagination.

      Dare to dream of the life you want to live ideally. Then ask your powerful subconscious mind to show you how to create that life in reality.

      Ask and you shall receive.

      Most of us simply don’t ask ourselves the right questions often enough — questions like this: How can I possibly create the life of my dreams? What steps can I take? What plans can I make? When you ask those questions, you start to get answers — and they’re the best answers, perfectly tailored to you, because they come from within you.

      Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find. Jesus wasn’t exaggerating when he said that. And he didn’t say, “Ask and you shall receive if you deserve it.” Or if you work hard enough, or have the right education, or if you’re lucky, or were born under the right stars. No — he said it simply and clearly, and it is a great key to manifestation: Ask and you shall receive.

      What are you asking for?

A Word about Repetition

      There is a lot of repetition in this course. It is intentional. Repetition is essential. Look at how many times we said and sang the alphabet before we got that down without mistakes — hundreds of times.

      Most of us need to read or hear the same material repeatedly before we remember it deeply — deeply enough that it comes to mind, uncalled, when it’s most necessary. Deeply enough that it affects our daily lives.

      Whenever something is repeated, take it in again and review it. See if it has any new meaning for you. Pay close attention to the physical experience you have while reading or hearing the words over again. Some of these words are meant to be absorbed deeply into your mind and body, reflected on and taken in so that your subconscious mind begins to accept these new instructions and begins to work magic.

      Some of the words are printed in bold type and given their own page. I recommend copying some of these and putting them up on your wall. Change any words you wish, and make them your own.

      One of the most powerful tools in this course is taking a phrase or prayer that has particular meaning for you and repeating it often, until you’ve memorized it. When it comes to mind unbidden at just the right moment, then you know that your subconscious is absorbing those words, and you’re creating new synaptic pathways, and life-changing miracles are beginning to happen.

      You are on your way to creating the life of your dreams.

      And miracles will follow miracles,

      and wonders will never cease,

      for all our expectations

      are for good.

The Essence of What I Know

      I try to get to the essence of what I know on every page of this book. Maybe, as you read or hear these words, all you’ll need is just one phrase, and that knowledge — that wisdom — will be enough to launch you into a new world, where you realize your vision, your highest dreams.

      Maybe some of you will have an experience like Hui Neng had. He was an uneducated woodcutter who became a СКАЧАТЬ