Seth, Witchcraft and a
New Definition of Magick
Thomas
Seth is the trance personality of Jane Roberts. `Trance personality' is a phrase I am not altogether comfortable with for the entity itself, Seth, calls him/herself an energy personality essence. It is without exaggeration that I can say that this system of philosophy, channeled material, occult school, New Age mysticism, call it what you will, changed my life.
In my pre-Craft days, an acquaintance I barely knew gave me a book during a turbulent period in my life. The book, Seth Speaks, opened a world of possibilities to me that I had always sensed on the edge of awareness but found difficult to explain, even to myself. At first the material was very esoteric and difficult for me to digest; however, with persistence and a much effort I began to not only intellectually understand much of the material, but began to experience episodes in my daily life which underscored the validity of that which I was becoming aware. To put it simply: I began to experience for myself what Seth was saying and it made sense.
Until Jane Robert's death in 1984, her husband, Robert F. Butts, recorded over a dozen volumes of the Seth Material while Jane was in the trance state. For sixteen years Jane and Rob held twice-weekly sessions and later began a series of `class' sessions that were open to the public. To attempt to encapsulate so much material into one article is obviously impossible; therefore I attempt to highlight much of the Seth Material and relate it to Wicca and magick. Later I hope to delve deeper into some of the more significant issues for they are of interest to metaphysical folk. If there is a specific area in which readers have particular interested, I invite you to send your comments to me. I will attempt to explain these issues in more detail. I have also included a suggested reading list at the end of this article.
The Seth Material2
1) We create our own reality—literally—through the beliefs we hold, and therefore we can change what we don't like.
2) We are multidimensional beings who inhabit many realms and who exist throughout eternity, developing continually into more creative and fulfilled individuals.
3) The universe is of good intent; evil and destruction do not exist. Evidence of the seeming evil in the world appears to our senses in order to let us know the consequences of beliefs we hold; but we will awaken from this sadness in the same way as we awaken from a bad dream, and become once more aware of the love and goodness that are All That Is.
4) We are in this life to enjoy ourselves—spirit, mind and body. If it isn't fun, stop doing it!"
5) By acknowledging and, when possible, following our impulses, we can discover the purpose of our lives and learn how to act in such a way as to benefit both the world and ourselves. Our difficulties arise from our mistrust and repression of these vital directives sent out by our inner selves.
6) Each person's conscious mind and their intuition are equally important to their well being.
7) It is natural to be bisexual. Heterosexuality and homosexuality are equally worthwhile and valid sexual orientations.
8) There is only one wrong act a person can perform: violation of either himself or herself or another being. Thou shalt not kill.
9) There is no authority superior to the guidance of a person's inner self. Seth's words are merely an attempt to present us with the knowledge that we ignore when it comes from our own psyches.
Simple, huh? But what does all this New Age nonsense mean to us? Well, let's take it one step at a time. First, I don't consider this New Age, it's more pre-New Age. Second, I don't think one can dismiss any knowledge, from whatever source, if it is sound, reasonable and makes damn good sense as well. Lastly, the material stands on its own merit—if you didn't know the source it could be Wiccan, Buddhist, or Jungian!
1) As Witches we believe that we can at least influence our reality via magick. Is it therefore inconceivable to believe that we create the reality, individually and en masse, that we are manipulating? Everybody's got his or her definition of magick, and here's mine:
Magick is the conscious and deliberate creation of reality.
If we all create our own reality, what makes Witches and magicians different? The difference is that rather than haphazardly and accidentally creating our reality unknowingly, magick allows us to deliberately create reality. But what about all the traditional magicks that we use—candles, colors, stones, herbs? All these work with us to make the changes for which we work the magick. Every particle of matter is conscious to some degree, although obviously not a consciousness like our own, but consciousness none the less. This is another of Seth's teachings; matter arises from consciousness/energy and not the other way around. We are beings of consciousness and energy before we are material beings. Therefore, colors, stones, herbs, all have their own distinct signature energies, hence their correspondences. In addition, they also have a historical association that strengthens the associations further. For example, in the same way that repeated invocations of a deity gives strength to the thought form, so too does the repeated use of certain herbs, stones, sigils, etc. [See the articles on morphic resonance in NMR 2:1 and 2:2. —SR] For this reason, items of personal significance are more powerful in magick than those which have a long but meaningless historical use. All the Latin tomes in the world can't match the power of a single power object, especially if the magician doesn't even know what the Latin means.
Rule Number One: Strive for personally meaningful correspondences in your magick. If they agree with what everyone else says, fine and dandy. But if they don't, use what you feel to be intuitively correct.
2) As multidimensional beings, we inhabit many planes—not just the physical. So don't get so caught up in what you are doing on the physical that you neglect the other spheres of being. Magick can be worked on the astral, in the dream state, etc. According to Seth, we inhabit only one of an infinite number of probable realities. If you can imagine anything, it already exists—to some degree, simply by virtue of your having created the thought, which has an energetic reality of its own. (Ever wonder what happened to thoughts after they `disappear?')
Rule Number Two: Do not neglect other dimensions of activity when performing magick. Remember that the physical plane is the final manifestation of your magickal intent.
3) This is the one that'll stick in your craw: Evil does not exist. Even after Desert Storm I can intellectually recognize the validity of this tenet, but it is hard to emotionally accept. Like the concept of maya (illusion), what we experience around us is what we ourselves have created individually and en masse. For instance in Kuwait, this is a drama in which all the world has to some degree participated. Westerners and Moslems; dictators, presidents, and kings; civilians and military personnel... all have their reasons for participating whether they are conscious of these reasons or not. Perhaps the reasons will become clear in hindsight.
Here the question of karma arises. If one defines karma as a system of rewards and punishments then I do not subscribe to this belief. However, individuals and groups create realities for particular reasons, whether we are aware of this or not. This is not blaming the victim! If my neighbor is starving he has created the reality of his own existence. But, this does not mean that I cannot help him. If I share his reality, I may have something to learn as well. Helping others, empathizing, and compassion—one cannot acquire these traits without someone less fortunate in the picture. How do I learn to help if there is no one in need of helping? Or, to cite another example, if someone I love creates illness for herself, it could be for any number of reasons: to give the body a rest, to demonstrate that others do care in bad times, to allow others to take more responsibility for themselves, etc. Once this occurs, it may not be necessary for the individual to continue to use the illness in this way.
Rule Number Three: It is better to obtain permission in attempting to alter the reality of another, especially through magick, but one must follow one's conscience. If my sister is in a coma, do I wait for her permission before working healing magick? This is not an excuse for interfering with the will of another—besides, if their need for a negative situation is that strong, magick will probably be minimally effective in any case. Follow the Wiccan rede of threefold return and remember what goes around comes around.
The nonexistence of evil also reinforces a belief in the neutrality of the magickal energies. A Witch that can cure is a Witch that can curse, but I'd rather have a threefold cure come back to me than a threefold whammy! This should sit well with Witches and other Pagans, but Fundies may have some trouble with a world in which evil does not exist. After all, the only source of evil in the world must be the devil.
4) In life, it's all too easy to lose sight of what's important. Too often we simply forget to have fun. This is one of the joys of Paganism and the Craft. We wouldn't be here if it weren’t fun! As Seth said once, The gods themselves play, and I think this is good advice to keep in mind. Joseph Campbell called this following one's bliss." Only by following your bliss will you ever truly be happy and fulfilled. It might be fun not to go to work, but would it be fun to be out on the streets at the end of the month when the mortgage goes unpaid? If you were following your bliss, your impulses, if you were doing what you enjoyed doing in the first place, the conflict wouldn't have arisen.
Rule Number Four: If you aren't happy, stop and ask yourself why. Are we having fun yet?
5) This brings me to following your impulses. The first question anyone asks is, Suppose I have an impulse to kill? Should I follow it? Again, if you were following your impulses in the first place you wouldn't have an impulse to kill. If someone angers you, your first impulse is probably something like telling him or her or showing in some small way they've hurt you. By repressing or sublimating our impulses we gradually let the emotion build to a breaking point. Then the abnormal or exaggerated impulses arise which we eventually find ourselves unable to control.
Rule Number Five: If we follow our impulses on small matters, we virtually guarantee that we will not have negative or uncontrollable impulses. Besides, it has been the author's experience that by following our impulses on small matters, we may find ourselves pleasantly surprised by the reactions of others.
6) We cannot make the intuitive elements of the personality cannot subservient to the rational elements. There is no better than or worse than, only different. The Yin-Yang symbol graphically manifests this. My Wiccan tradition emphasizes the equality of the opposing poles with the understanding that it is the tension between opposites which generates energy, and balance is achieved only when the opposing forces have both been acknowledged. This position is perhaps easier for magical folks to endorse, but even some traditions of Wicca do not readily accepted it. Please understand that I do not mean to criticize anyone, but only to give an accessible example. Here goes: If only one aspect of a deity is acknowledged (as has been the case in patriarchal religions) the missing female element leads to a biased and unbalanced approach to our relationship with the creative forces of the universe. And as we all know, the results can be undesirable.
Rule Number Six: The rational and intuitive are aspects of the same thing, neither is more desirable in the absence of the other.
7) In our many incarnations we experience lives as both men and women. Our ideas of sexual propriety are often culturally determined and even animals sometimes exhibit sexual behaviors that are other than an attraction for members of the opposite sex. There is a school of thought which holds that homosexuals cannot raise and channel psychic energy because in order to manifest, the energy requires the bipolarity of male/female pairing within the Circle (you know: six boys, six girls, and someone to keep an eye on them). Remember that within each of us are both male and female qualities. Jung believed that there is a female component within the male personality (anima), and a male component within the female personality (animus). If this were not the case, men could not relate to women and vice versa. To any latent `homophobes' out there (unfortunately I have run into one or two): much of the prejudice against homosexuals has been fostered by monotheist/patriarchal social conditioning. These practices vary widely by both temporal and geographical location and often such persons are held in respect as having a special relationship with the gods. The Native Americans reasoned that if the gods went to such trouble to make someone so different, then there must be something special about them to command such attention. Many other examples can be cited throughout history such as priests who castrated themselves as a symbol of devotion, priests who practiced cross-dressing, etc. Consider also the possibility—which I have heard put forth by some Faeries—that, because they are free of many of the fears of the feminine qualities which some straight men have, that they can be more effective in their magickal work.
Rule Number Seven: Nothing exists in a vacuum, separate from its opposite. Do not fear that which is in opposition to what you have grown to consider normal. I am not advocating anyone run out and engage in a homosexual relationship if this is contrary to your normal sexual orientation. I advocate acknowledging the aspects of our lives that we might otherwise ignore or deny. Silence implies the absence of sound, but even in the silent expanse of interstellar space there are sounds that we simply cannot hear. I have often found (through my own experiences and those of others) that if magick sometimes fails, it is due to something that the magician has overlooked. Performing a healing ritual for someone who, if you are completely honest, you would rather see sick is unlikely to succeed no matter how much effort you put forth.
8) An' it harm none, do what ye will. I wonder if maybe Seth got this from us? `Violation' is a tricky term. The ultimate violation would be the right of physical existence, but certainly rape would be a violation. Forcing someone to do something against his or her will would be considered a violation. Interfering in one's free will would, I feel, be a violation. Ultimately we return to the question of interfering in the free will of another.
Rule Number Eight: An' it harm none, do what ye will.
Here is an excerpt from The Seth Material on the topic of `justified' violence. No doubt there will be some that disagree with the following, but I present it for your consideration.
My class is small but students range in age from sixteen to sixty. One evening we were discussing student riots. Carl and Sue are both in their early twenties. They had been upholding ideas of nonviolence and peace. The older adults began complaining about the rioters with some bitterness, however, until Sue said with some heat: Well, I'm against violence, too. But sometimes it's justified—"
She hardly got the words out of her mouth before Seth interrupted her. Everyone jumped. In the heat of the discussion, Seth and ESP in general had been forgotten. Now Seth's voice really boomed out. There is never any justification for violence. There is no justification for hatred. There is no justification for murder. Those who indulge in violence for whatever reason are themselves changed, and the purity of their purpose adulterated.
I have told you that if you do not like the state of your world, it is yourselves that you must change, individually and en masse. This is the only way that change will be affected." Here Seth stared at Carl and said, If your generation or any generation effects a change, this is the only way it will be done. What I am telling you has been said before through the centuries. It is up to you (nodding at Sue and Carl) as to whether or not you will listen.
It is wrong to curse a flower and wrong to curse a man. It is wrong not to hold any man in honor, and it is wrong to ridicule any man. You must honor yourselves and see within yourselves the spirit of eternal vitality. If you do not do this, then you destroy what you touch. And you must honor each other individual also, because in him is the spark of eternal vitality.
When you curse another, you curse yourselves, and the curse returns to you. When you are violent, the violence returns.... I speak to you because yours is the opportunity [to better world conditions] and yours is the time. Do not fall into the old ways that will lead you precisely into the world that you fear.
When every young man refuses to go to war, you will have peace. As long as you fight for gain and greed, there will be no peace. As long as one person commits acts of violence for the sake of peace, you will have war. Unfortunately it is difficult to imagine that all the young men in all of the countries will refuse to go to war at the same time. And so you must work out the violence that violence has wrought. Within the next hundred years that time may come. Remember that you do not defend any idea with violence.
There is no man who hates but that hatred is reflected outward and made physical. And there is no man who loves but that love is reflected outward and made physical.
9) The ultimate guide for each one of us is exactly that—each one of us. We must learn to trust our inner voice wherever we perceive that guiding force come from—guardian angel, spirit guide, totem animal, etc. We are ultimately responsible for the reality we create. Listen to that still small voice. Never violate that sacred trust between you and your Self. You know when you have done something that you perceived to be wrong. Don't give up your right of self-determination to another. You are the ultimate judge of yourself, and you can use that power to choose now. Choose wisely.
Footnotes
1) Note: It should be understood that Seth is neither male nor female, but the author will follow the example of Butts & Roberts, using `he, him, himself,' etc.
2) Reprinted from an Austin Seth Center pamphlet.
References, by Jane Roberts:
1. The Seth Material
2. Seth Speaks
3. The Nature of Personal Reality
4. The Nature of the Psyche | 
