A spiritual seeker submits himself to what cosmic force he believes should rule over him - all according to the level of his initiation and understanding. The journeyman magician, as one example, submits himself to the movement of celestial bodies. The transit of this or that planet, or the numerical significance of this or that date, is used by him an existing archetypal template - a blueprint through which a certain order of influences may be enacted upon his life. The master magician, eventually, naturally detaches himself personally from these influences through mastery and understanding. He comes to understand that it is his own projection of the significance of these effects through which they gain power and validity to become manifest in his life. After this realization, these tools then become akin to a map, a means of observing the blind movements of the masses - the more asleep the masses, the more they are subjected to these same existing imprints and influences. Yet when the magician has mastered the depths of his art, whatever it may be, he may then use the gifts bestowed by that art to attain self-mastery. Through self-mastery, absolute awareness - and through awareness, self-knowing - liberation from external projections. Only the internal starts to matter. The inner order is reformed and the outer order surrenders to its will. Therefore, The final lesson of magic is that magic is not required. ![[419B6902-236D-4D3D-A4FB-0FF0DEB06372.gif]]