In a previous statement I said that actualization is the key skill in any creative self development quest. Now it is time to show you a real example. And my choice for today is actualizing the four laws of magick. Grab your magick wands, here we go.

To know. To dare. To will. To be silent.

This is how classics formulate the four essentials of magick. There are other versions, preferring slightly different terms or switching the order of the statements. Like this: “To know. To want. To dare. To be silent.” Essentially it’s the same.

Before you pigeonhole me in any eso-bio box, just remember that this is merely an exercise to show you how actualization works in self development. I did pick an eso-bio subject - if you like. But I tried to pick one that really has to do with self transformation.

The premise.

Magick is always considered a creative act. The magician is a creator. By his focused intent and power, he succeeds in manifesting the object of his will.

You are recreating yourself

Self development is a creative process. You have the strong desire to change yourself and your life. In this process of transformation you have to manifest creative power. You have to create something new. You are recreating yourself according to your desire. You are the object of the will of the magician and you are the magician.

The 4 laws in details.

According to the above stated laws of magick, you have to take 4 steps in order to succeed in your creative effort. These 4 laws can be seen as steps, so they will should be treated one after the other.

1. To know.

At first you have to figure out your goal. Knowing your goal is the first step. Also at this point you need to find the proper means to carry out your act. This can mean finding the method for your particular purpose. Let’s say you want to get in touch with your creative side. Or to put it in a fancy way, “to boost your creativity”. This is your goal. Now you need to find methods to do this.

Knowing the means. There are tons of informations available, this should not be a problem. Your task is more like choosing the proper one. Choosing the one to commit to in your effort.

This needs also self knowledge, so “To know” is getting one more sense: to know yourself.

One more thing here. It is also imperative to be aware of the consequences. “To know” means also knowing the consequences. Projecting yourself mentally to the phase where you already have successfully unleashed your creativity. Is it going to change you? Is it going to change your life? Maybe it is going to affect your social relations too? “To know” here also means to be responsible.

2. To dare.

To act, to set in motion, to start. After thinking it through, you need to start applying what the method requires. Do not rush, but also do not take your time for too long. When you feel you have enough in terms of required knowledge, go ahead and start applying.

This law is also about your vigor. It is about the energy you can mobilize to feed your drive. It is about the intensity of the desire. Without the proper motivation, you will not be able to bring forth your effort.

This often means also courage. Sometimes the chosen method requires you to act in a way that you dislike. Change might require to renounce to some old habits. This can test your courage.

3. To will.

At this point, desire is not enough anymore. You need to use self control, self discipline to carry on your effort. What you are trying to achieve is not going to happen fast. At first, the novelty of the method and your curiosity were giving you enough propulsion. But after familiarizing with it you might not be so enthusiastic as were at first.

Having a strong will means being firmly set for your goal. If you want creativity, than you need to go all the way for it. This might sound quite paradoxical and creativity might not be the best example here. The spontaneity on what it relies is in apparent conflict with rigor and power of will.

Remember, we are talking about the process of achieving a goal, about generating an effect upon yourself. You are a magician who works upon himself. You are striving to transform yourself which is the toughest possible task. This requires a strong will.

4. To be silent.

This 4th law might seem the strangest of all. Why being silent? When to be silent? Think of those people who are talking all the time about what they will do soon. They are planning all the time, which is good, but they are telling everybody about it. I am not saying that you should be secretive. By no means. But you have to realize, that until your newly gained capacity, in our example creativity, is not firmly enough established, you can easily fall back to where you’ve previously been.

This is quite similar with telling dreams. I am sure it happened to you too. A dream which you told everybody is not so alive any more. It looses sense and you’ll forget it. Try to remember your most ’significant’ dreams. You will see that you remember mostly those that you kept only for yourself. (No tricks here with diaries please …)

What else this silence teaches you in your self development quest? Keeping silence saves you a great deal of psychical energy. It improves your ability to focus. It makes you more conscious of what you are doing and what you are after. You should not tell about your effort until you are sure you are there.

How you know you are there?

The best sign of knowing it is that you do not feel any urge to tell about what you are doing. The ability is your’s now, no need to speak about effort or any sort of acting. You are there. Instead you might want to show what you can do now with your new skill. In our example, when you are able to get in touch with your creative side, results will obviously speak for themselves. Let them speak instead of you and just listen to how people will react.

This is how I think actualization can be performed in self development. We’ve been thought that ancient wisdom is as valid today as it always was. But how to give it some life? How to make it speak for us? Actualization is one of the possible answers.

Now what? Now, by knowing the 4 four laws of magick, you also know that every method that claims self transformation must comply to theses laws. From now on, you can have an effective reference. Also, probably save some time when you take upon another self development method.

Can you use the presented laws for another self development task? I presented you how to get closer to your creative side. I would like to know if you can give other examples, according to your experience.

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