The Magickal Diary By Phaedron The Magickal Diary is an essential tool in the practice of Magick that will prove invaluable in your pursuit of enlightenment. It is not a notebook. It is the result of personal Magickal phenomena, as you'll see. One of its purposes, of course, is to record the results from any act of Magick or spiritual activity either formal or informal. Magick is not just intellect or physical alone. It occurs on many levels. Like a dream state, Higher Experiences may dissipate within moments and can be difficult to recall. The discipline of making daily entries in your Magickal Diary helps develop your own self-control. As always with Hermetic Magick, quality is more important than quantity. Be genuine in your writing. The more dedicated you are to your art the more your book will make a difference to your development. Some general guides: When keeping your Magickal Diary be sure to include the date and year for each entry. Look for consistencies or relationships between entries that recur regularly. For example:
Full moon/new moon/certain planetary aspects. Anniversaries of significant personal experiences or traumas. Menstrual cycles, job/career/monetary distractions or conflicts. Family or romantic concerns, lifestyle changes—marriage, graduation, moving, illness new or loss of job, etc. Weather, seasons, whatever else you can think of? There's no limit to charting cycles that influence your life. You may discover patterns or cycles that you can use to your advantage, or avoid if they affect you unfavorably. It's never too late. If you have slacked off in your practices or put off writing in your Magickal Diary, you can always resume. Of course, you will never totally lose the previous practices you did! Make it fun! Use writing in your Diary as an opening up practice. You'll be surprised at what comes out when you reread it. Write from inspiration. Be creative! Be dramatic! Magick is your response to different stimuli. Vent your artistic expression. Do you create as often as you wish? Are you creative? If not, why? The inner and creative part of the mind is the link between spirit and manifestation. Thus, it is Universe acting through you. Like all Magickal talismans, the quality of energy you put into your Magickal Diary will affect your growth. Be judicious. Here are a few elements that a Magickal Diary should contain that apply, generally, to many old traditions: 1) Daily entries. (Everything is an act of Magick.) 2) Entries should not only be intellectual documentation, but also be written from the emotions—with feeling. Record your spiritual experiences according to all four Worlds: Atziluth (spiritual), Briah (emotional/creative), Yetzirah (perceptible/intellectual), Assiah (how the above manifest in the physical world). For further qabbalistic explanation see NMR 4:1. 3) It is critical that your book is written and kept appropriately; it represents your soul! Don't be superficial. Make your Magickal Diary an expression of your Will. 4) Reread your Magickal Diaries. Revise your perspectives as you grow. 5) Do not use this Diary for scraps of other information you might keep. 6) It must be written with little thought that is in the same process that produces music or poetry. It should just flow out of you onto the Assiah (paper). For an example refer to William Blake, the better documentaries of Crowley, or any other inspired, spontaneous writing from the heart. 7) Record and experiment with objectivity (as if you saw or experienced something for the first time) including observation of yourself. 8) Interpret every experience and thing in your life as an act of Deity. Then understand its beauty. 9) If you are prone to an active intellect, create something with your hands as a regular practice. Record this experience. 10) Document your dynamics with others: how influences flow back and forth. Know what it's like to be another person you know or have seen. 11) Record habits. Determine how you are aware of unaware of them and how much control they have on you. Can you regain control of these parts of your self? 12) Find the source of specific thoughts you have today. They are usually from what you acquired during youth. What were your specific thoughts before those events in your youth? 13) Determine how you let spirit guide you. (Spontaneity) 14) Do you have times when you are enraptured by something, which fulfills you emotionally? As an infant you had such times. Do you do things that recapture that feeling today? (Don't mistake the lower instincts for fulfillment.) Record this. 15) What are your limitations? (As with everything, be specific.) 16) Note your endurances. Endurance is the first test of entrance to the Tree of Life. 17) Investigate the activity/passivity balance within you. 18) What are your needs? 19) What are your desires? 20) Specifically, how do you regard yourself? 21) What influences you? 22) What would fulfill you? 23) Get into a position in which you must serve someone or some organization on a regular basis. How do you react to such service? 24) Know all your moods or emotions and their sources or causes. 25) Write honestly, don't fake it. 26) How do you feel about death? 27) How do you feel about sex? 29) Get to know your quantity, quality, use, reasons, etc. for faith. 30) How have your spiritual practices, etc. changed your life? 31) Where does inertia manifest in your life? (See NMR 5:5) 32) What are the results of your practices, etc.? 33) What is your physical state? Most of these topics you must enter regularly, in addition to your daily entries. You should make evaluations regularly, and make comparisons to previous evaluations. This is a sample of how you can use your Magickal Diary as a course of practice. However, don't be limited to this list alone. 1993 The Holy Order of the Winged Disk, All Rights Reserved. Phaedron is the G. H. Hierophant of the Holy Order of the Winged Disk, Director of its International Academy of Hermetic Knowledge and author of The Practica Arcanum. For more information call (804) 293-7485, or send $1 for information to: PO Box 4384, Charlottesville, VA 22905. | 
