Something has been missing in recent years. And I've struggled to figure out what that is. Magic is more a part of the collective psyche than ever before, Chaos Magic has ceased even to be the magic of Chaos... becoming just... the standard for how Magic is done. And yet... something is missing.
Chaos magic groups are a collection of random spells and trolling. The best the occult world has to offer and it all feels so... pointless. I guess? Uninspired?
So I think back to the sense of mystery that I had when it all begun. When there was a mysterious, dark world and I was driven to search. To learn. To grow.
And I have decided what it is that feels missing. Why the mystery has faded from the mysticism that I see in the world today. And that thing is... Ascension.
The Philosopher's Stone. The Elixir of Life. The goal and reason and purpose. Unobtainable, a thing that most likely does not even exist. Cannot yet exist. And yet sought. Fought for.
Magic has been treated as an aside to religion. As the tricks of the spiritual trade without offering a spirituality. A goal. A purpose. And yet... and yet at one time, not so very long ago at all, there was a purpose. There was A Thing.
And I, once upon a time, had called it Ascension.
The continuation of consciousness is dealt with in most religions. Reincarnation, heaven, hell, spirits, ancestors. It is seen as a fundamental tenant that the thing that gives us life, that makes more than just walking machines, can transcend death itself. And perhaps this is a truth, or maybe just a facet of our magnificent, deluded egos. But the belief is there. It is needed. Or religion would have no sway.
And Ascension, in a way like the elixir of life; like the Philosopher's Stone; it is the supposed reason for life, for consciousness itself. And it is... nothing. It is not the rise of a new godhead. It is not power or knowledge or wisdom. It is not even the union with the Holy Guardian Angel or travel to Kether and beyond.
But it is a Thing. And without the ineffable goal, without the quest for something impossible... well, without that we are all bored housewifes looking up spells online and pretending to be important.
I remember for the longest time in my life before I even came close to being able to grasp the concept of Nothing with a capital N, every since I saw the Magic: The Gathering card "One With Nothing", I was intrigued by it and in the back of my head that became a goal of mine. I wanted to be one with Nothing. Ascension is Nothing and Nothing is everything and given my Hermetic existential views we are the embodiment of infinitude with everything existing both within our own being and outside of us. That being said I will go ahead and say that I believe that separation is an illusion.
The idea of ascension as you put it is very Zen to me. In Zen Buddhism some schools of thought believe in instant transmission and some believe that everything is Buddha nature or already enlightened. Ascension is Nothing. Everything is Nothing. We are already Nothing. We are already Ascended. We are already enlightened.
This is what so much of the mystery and mysticism is about. There is no mystery. Once you realize your own true nature, that you are Nothing, that you are a Buddha, that you are already Ascended, the mystery fades from the mysticism. It is a natural thing to happen. The thing about it all is....it is a journey. A never-ending journey. Learn unlearn and relearn. There are endless mysteries to be initiated in and to see through. This is the fun of it all. The options are endless.
Ascension is Nothing. Ascension is everything. Be the journey.