Key 1, The Magician
| Hebrew Letter | Path of Wisdom |
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| Yellow | |
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Self-consciousness is the primary human expression of Life-Power. It constitutes our awareness with our environment. This is awareness of mental impressions we receive from the world around us through the channels of sensation. The activities of our environment are manifestations of various powers of subconsciousness. |
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Summary
Self-consciousness is the consciousness of be-ing ONE relating to others. "I am I, and that is not I." At a higher level of unfoldment, what is usually called "myself," or the physical body is included among the things "not - I."
Beyond this is a state wherein the personal consciousness is like the physical body, an instrument for expressing the Real Self's super-conscious power.
In partly developed persons, the objective mind creates the illusion that the Real Self is a particular personality which means the personal "self” separate from others.
Concentration and meditation lead to freedom from this illusion by enabling us to see that it is an illusion.
When we come to this recognition, we will no longer think and act as if we were a separate being. We will know that our personality is an instrument through which the One Force, typified by The Fool, finds expression.
The Life-Power works through our self-consciousness. Our will is not a delusive shadow but a specialization of the universal WILL.
To know this is to be sure that our true will is irresistible.
This establishes confidence in the happy outcome of all our undertakings.
It is the only knowledge that can make us genuinely Self-reliant, free from the least trace of worry or anxiety and therefore able to give undivided attention to the experience of the moment.
This consciousness enables us to live in the NOW.
In truth, it is always NOW.
This consciousness permits us to live in eternity instead of being time-bound to the past or the future.
Power of Attention
Key 1 is designed to awaken the power of attention which is truly magical.
By acts of attention, the etheric vibrations of external objects are concentrated on a brain center.
These vibrations organize that center per the intrinsic nature of the thing attended to which the brain center is tuned to the idea and the inner reality of the thing under observation.
This attunement is expressed as the conscious perception of that inner reality which allows us to see through the form of the thing into its essential nature.
We must be alert to the life around us.
Use every instrument of sensation to gather accurate information.
Resolve to see into life instead of merely looking at it. As a result, we will find the world transforming itself before our eyes. This is one of the great, fundamental secrets of magic.