NMR ISSUE 24

Acting With The Spirit
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Acting With The Spirit

M. J. Makransky

There are two ways of getting what we want from life: raping it, or seducing it—that is, action based on our thought forms (our socially conditioned beliefs and expectations), or acting with the Spirit. The former mode is the way of the average person, and the latter is the way of the Witch. Because these two modes of action are entwined, the neophyte Witch often finds it difficult to determine when an impulse to action truly comes from the Spirit, and when it's just thought forms (ego games).

The chief feature that distinguishes acting with the Spirit from acting on thought forms is patience, and this patience is a product of humility. This patience means understanding that we are not a special case, that the universe is not going to bend itself around us, that the Spirit doesn't care whether we are the CEO of XYZ Corp., or saved by Jesus, or a 93rd degree Magus in the Mystical Order of the Platinum Pumpernickel. No matter how hot stuff we think we are, to the Spirit we're just one of the boys (or girls).

Note that this is exactly the opposite of the way we are trained to act in society. Our thought form training leads us to feel that we're so damned important. Society trains us to believe that we deserve this and this and this—that stifling all our true feelings at society's behest and turning ourselves into mindless robots to serve society's ends gives us some kind of rights in the matter. But this is an illusion. To the Spirit, our little lives and our little pain are of zero importance whatsoever. As long as we feel that the Spirit owes us something, that we deserve special treatment or consideration because of how noble and spiritual we are, or how much we've suffered, then we are acting on thought forms and not with the Spirit. Acting with the Spirit means going to the end of the line and patiently waiting our turn.

If we're dissatisfied with how the Spirit is handling our accounts, then right off the top we're not acting with the Spirit. The first principle of acting with the Spirit is to be satisfied with how the Spirit is dealing with us right now. This means taking responsibility for our karma, for the situation in which we find ourselves; trying to understand what lessons we're seeking through our experience (instead of trying to escape from it into some rosy future). Acting with the Spirit means understanding that life is something we do, not something that just happens to us.

The question arises, if we cannot wheedle or cajole the Spirit, how can we seduce it? Or another way of asking this is: if we cannot use the future as an escape hatch, how can we nonetheless manipulate it to our advantage? The answer is that there is actually no such thing as the future" in the sense in which we are accustomed to thinking of it—i.e., as a linear series of events which takes off from this moment. Rather, there are an infinite number of futures (called probable realities") which take off right from this moment. The future is not so much a straight path as it is an infinitely ramified hall of mirrors.

Bang! We're dead! That was one probable reality right there. Luckily we missed that one; but somebody didn't. Somebody else who wasn't expecting it either. Theirs or his, right there and then.

The point is, what we are attempting to do with Witchcraft is to pick that one of the infinite probable realities which branch off from the present moment which will lead to a future in which we realize our desires. The problem is that our thinking minds, which can only process thought forms (not feelings), are not smart enough to make the right connections, to be able to pick out the right decision in the now moment that will lead us to the probable reality in which our desires come true. We can't see that picking up that piece of trash off the street and depositing it in a wastecan was the decision which led (maybe years down the line) to our receiving that promotion or winning the lottery or finding true love.

Moreover, the Spirit is a trickster, always testing our resolve. It always disguises the decision in the now moment which will bring us what we desire in the future as something which strikes us as disagreeable. The Spirit sets things up so we will tend to reject the very probable reality that would bring us what we truly want. It always makes us go an extra mile—dangles what we want right before our eyes and then jerks it away at the last minute, or makes us keep on keeping on way past what we thought we were capable of.

In order to win the Spirit over, then, we must show it that we mean business. In order to consciously choose which probable reality we will find ourselves in (instead of just letting the random throw of the dice determine it), we must stick to our decisions. If we make a firm, irrevocable decision (whether consciously or unconsciously) and we stick to it through thick and thin, then we will eventually wind up in the probable reality in which that decision comes true.

Note that average people don't usually do this. They are basically only interested in keeping comfortable, and whining and complaining when they are not. They don't have the will necessary to stand by their decisions. To accomplish anything in life (even just running in place) requires unwavering determination.

It is helpful to the neophyte Witch to read autobiographies of people who succeeded in getting the Spirit to cough up what they wanted. Such books as The Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles Lindbergh, Act One, by Moss Hart, and Be My Guest, by Conrad Hilton, are excellent treatises on Witchcraft written by competent practitioners of the art of acting with the Spirit.

When we act with the Spirit we set up a definite intent to accomplish what we desire, but we don't actually do anything to make it happen (beyond systematically visualizing it happening). We make no overt moves on our own account, but let the Spirit bring it to us in its own good time. If we are making conscious moves to accomplish something, we can be sure we are operating on thought forms; and we might as well relax since thought forms can bring us nothing but shame. If instead we wait patiently, then when the time is right, when we least expect it, the Spirit will suddenly pop what we want up right before our eyes. And then—only then—we make a big swoop and grab it.

That swoop can never be the move of a thought form; a thought form could never have the utter self-assurance, audacity and personal power behind it that the swoop of the Spirit has. When we reach out and grab something with the Spirit behind us, there is no doubt or hesitation or anything of the sort.

When we act with the Spirit, we concentrate all our desires on what we want; we visualize it happening with complete confidence that its realization is a certainty—and therefore, since it is a certainty, there is no sense of urgency about it. We know it will happen when it's supposed to.

When we operate with thought forms we feel a strong sense of urgency, of an opportunity to be grasped or lost, of time slipping away. It's not the calm certainty of waiting on the Spirit, but rather uncertain vacillation and disquiet. Squandering our energy on thought forms of worry and self-pity keeps us on a treadmill of frustration all the time. Not acting on our thought forms—just wishing for something with all our hearts but taking no overt action to make it happen—builds up the power required to make it really happen. Denying the urgency by not acting on it produces a great pressure that eventually forces the Spirit to open the floodgates. Wishing for something with the certainty that we will get it is all that's required to make it happen (whether or not it starts out as acting with the Spirit, wishing for it with certainty is enough to make it into acting with the Spirit).

The way to recognize when we are acting with the Spirit is that there is no doubt about it, no question about it; it rings clear and true. Usually most of us have some moments like that here and there, particularly when powerful emotions are upon us; but few of us live like that from day to day—manifesting that clarity, self-certainty and calm decisiveness with every act. Most of the time we run on thought forms.

We can distinguish within ourselves between acting on thought forms and acting with the Spirit by the way each feels. If we feel vague feelings of doubt, shame, smugness, expectation, fear of disappointment, etc.—anything other than feeling good about ourselves and satisfied with our present situation—then it was thought form. But if we feel calm, in control of ourselves (never mind the situation), not urgently pushing, pushing, pushing, to get our way, nor cringing helplessly, nor soothing ourselves with self-righteousness or self-pity and making excuses for ourselves—in short, if we feel good about ourselves, then we are acting with the Spirit. If there is complete confidence in our hearts beyond any shadow of a doubt, then we are one with the Spirit.

1992, M.J. Makransky