The Four Goals of the Magician
(Lesson 4)

1.     Seek growth – mentally and spiritually

2.     Help others to seek growth

3.     Seek to increase your power, but temper it with an equal amount of wisdom

4.     Seek to benefit the common good

Four goals – it seems simple enough.  In fact, if we wanted, we could narrow them down to just two simple phrases:  “Learn and grow” and “help others.”  However, as magicians, we tend to read more into a simple phrase.  Besides, as many who read this are beginners, I thought it would be more beneficial to spell things out a bit more clearly.

You might also note that all of these goals contain the word “seek.”  As magicians and “students of the Universe,” we are seekers.  We “seek truth.”  We “seek enlightenment.”  We “seek arcane knowledge.”  What we truly seek, is growth.  Everyone, ultimately, is seeking growth.  It’s just a matter of whether they are actively seeking it or just sitting by the river and waiting for it to float by.  Only by actively seeking growth will we actively grow.  Only then will we be able to help others to do the same.  When we do help others, we are given the opportunity to see this growth from a different perspective.  This experience in itself brings growth.  Consequently, by helping others to grow, we are ultimately helping ourselves.

Often, we see it written or hear it spoken that we should not seek power.  “If you desire wealth, power and fame, seek elsewhere, for there are no shortcuts through magic.”  These are wise words, but they leave the impression that a magician shouldn’t seek these things at all.  This is not the case.  Granted, there are no shortcuts to these things.  That much is true.  If anything, magic will tend to make things harder for some.  The lessons we are given as magicians are usually hard ones.  Many a spell for wealth and power has ended in disaster.  Those seeking notoriety and fame have often found themselves the objects of fear and loathing – more “infamous” than “famous;” more “notorious” than “noteworthy.”  Still, I say, it is not wrong to seek these things, provided your motivation is not skewed in such a way that your methods are self serving.  The pursuit of power in and of itself is not bad, it is the way in which that power is used that decides whether it is good or bad.  Do you seek power to further your own ends or do you seek it so that you can better serve the common good?  If the first is true, then do follow the advice at the beginning of this paragraph, because you will ultimately destroy yourself.  If the second part is true, then I say, “Strive forward!”  Seek to increase your power, but temper it with wisdom.  You will push your limits, you will make mistakes and you will suffer by them – do not let these life lessons be wasted!  Learn from them.  As the old saying goes, “the fool grows wise by his follies.”

Contrary to what it might sound like, I am not wishing you ill.  In fact, with luck, you will listen and learn from the stories of the many “fools” who’ve gone before you.  However, at some point, everyone has to have their own occasional “oops.”  It’s human nature, and even more so for the magician, to say, “hey, he had a problem when he did this…I bet if I did the same thing, but only I’ll hold my mouth differently and it’ll work better for me…”  Well, you get the picture.  My point is, when it happens, I pray that you have the presence of mind to pay attention, so that later, you can look back, laugh and then actually learn something.  And, by these “follies,” you too shall grow wise.  In this way, your rapidly growing reserves of “power” will not be wasted, nor will they continue to be turned against you by your own silliness…

These goals are not finite.  There is no point where you will be able to say, “okay, I’m there.  All finished.”  These goals keep us in a state of “constantly becoming.”  We don’t stop growing, simply because we think we’ve grown enough, we don’t stop learning because “our brains are full,”  We don’t stop helping because, “we’ve helped enough,” neither do we stop striving to benefit the common good, because, “we’ve done enough.”  There is always something more to learn, we can always be better than we are right now, there is always one step further that we can walk for the benefit of our fellow human being.  If we’re truly “done,” than it is time to move on to the next life.

So, strive onward and never stop becoming.  Open yourself to growth.  Learn all you can, whenever and wherever you can.  Open yourself to others and make the effort to help them to learn and grow, also.  We learn through teaching and grow by encouraging others.  By helping others to seek their own paths, we might also be guided to something new on our own paths.  By continuing to benefit the common good, we reap boundless awards.