Here’s some more musings from our pal Inominandum. And while it’s not stemming directly from what folks might consider Thelemic practices per se (though in light of Liber Librae: “unbalanced mercy is but weakness which would allow and abet Evil. Act passionately; think rationally; be Thyself” I don’t see how it’s not applicable). You might disagree, in which case, feel free to ignore.
“I was talking about purification in one of my classes and the transmutation of negative emotion into positive. Sometimes people take this to mean that we should abandon any kind of sharp response, wrathful action, or unpleasant words in favor of always being positive and nice. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whether we are talking about purification, mindfulness, calm abiding, or compassion – it is not about being nice. It is about not letting you mind or your soul get colored by any action you may have to take.
“Peace is all well and good, but peace without justice is meaningless, and justice is rarely ever served by simply being nice. At times you may need to speak harshly, take actions that will negatively effect someone, or even (hopefully rarely) respond violently. Curses and Bindings have their place in magic for a reason after all.
“Now, none of this should be taken as a licence to be an asshoile. Just as there are spiritual people who think being “nice” is the height of spiritual realization, there are a lot of magicians out there who seem to feel being dick is the height of wisdom. You don’t make your own water taste sweeter by pissing in other peoples cups, but I have seen a lot of that this week.
“You can be sharp and even wrathful when the situation warrants it without holding hate in your heart. You can do all these without being overtaken by anger. Just like you don’t hate your child when you punish him or her, sharp actions can be happen out of necessity. If you are plugged in to your primordial awareness, or the divine, or really into anything larger than your own grasping – the sharp actions taken in the moment will be so small in comparison it wont be able to twist you up.
“The effective Sorcerer or Sorceress may very well be nice most of the time. As a person who values politeness and constructive discourse I hope that they are. Like Dalton says in Roadhouse, be nice… until its time not to be nice. ”
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