Magickal Principle of Dynamism

As part of my rethinking and re-presentation of the generally accepted and used Laws of Magick in my Post No. 562 - A Rethinking of the ‘Laws’ of Magick, I proposed the Fiery Magickal Law of the Taijitu, which encompasses the Magickal Principle of Dynamism, as described in the extract below.

 ***

Before I discuss the Fiery Magickal Law of the Taijitu, I need to make sure we all understand what the Taijitu is. In a nutshell, it is this:

Oh, you recognise that? And, no doubt, you’ve called it the ‘Yin-Yang symbol’, until now. Well, now you know what it is ‘officially’ called :)

My take on this symbol - and I actually don’t care what the official take is, or what so-and-so says it is :) - is that is shows two polar opposites in a dynamic situation: the opposites seem to be chasing each other around the perimeter of the circle, which is repelling the opposite and also, when viewed from a single point, transformation. To further complicate matters, each polar opposite contains the seed of the other within it.

From this, we get the three Magickal Principles covered by this Law: Dynamism, Opposites and Dynamic Balance and the Opposite Seed Within.

Because this symbol illustrates transformation, I have associated it with the Magickal Element of Fire. 

 

The Magickal Principle of Dynamism is just that: things are not static, they tend naturally towards activity and, above all else, change. Where things seem to be unchanging, what could actually be happening is:

·         the change is happening on a time scale too vast to be perceived by the observer;

·         the situation could be one of dynamic balance - discussed under the next Magickal Principle, and potentially a healthy condition; or

·         an artificially frozen or enforced stasis - which is often not healthy, but may be in situations where it enables rest and recovery (although, … that recovery is a form of dynamic change - from tired and worn out, to refreshed :) ).

On a physical level, this is where the Second Law of Thermodynamics [2] comes into focus. On a nonphysical level, however, this is where the importance of intent becomes clear. If you do a magickal working without proper focus, you won’t noticeably impact the dynamic balance or dynamic influences on your target situation, so nothing much will happen. If you do have the proper focus, and you are simply adding a little to dynamic influences that are heading towards the result you want, you will find little effort is needed. On the other hand, if you are trying to change something where strong influences are going the other way (and people trying to counsel against war too often find themselves in this situation, sadly), you will need to make more effort to manage the dynamic influences in that situation.

Doing rituals to mark the passage of the Wheel of the Year (i.e., the Sabbats), or the Esbats, is an example of magickal workings that are in harmony with dynamic influences.

Note that this does not say ‘going against the flow’ is impossible: it just says that it is more effort than going with the flow. And, in the example I gave above, of a society that is heading down a path to war, that flow may not necessarily be a ‘good’ thing …

On the other hand, attempts to enforce stasis, rather than a dynamic balance, are doomed to failure … eventually.

This Magickal Principle encompasses the Hermetic ‘Laws’ of Cause and Effect, and Transmutation of Mind.