Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

46 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

There are numerous mentions of “Great Truths”

whose opposites are also true in this book. This idea

sounds sort of Zen-like, but it comes to us from a

European physicist of the 20th century:

“There are trivial truths and there are Great

Truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly

false. The opposite of a Great Truth is also true.”

—Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr was an important figure in the devel-

opment of quantum physics. To help get a grasp of

Great Truths, try these pairs of ideas on for size and

see how each one is true:

Everything is connected. Everything is separate.

There are no accidents. Everything is an accident.

All is joy. All is sadness.

There is no objective reality. All reality is objective.

The universe is pure material. The universe is pure spirit.

These things can be simultaneously true because the

nature of the Universe is paradoxical. (Is this a Great

Truth too? Think about it.)

Task: Infinity Mirrors

You can use two mirrors like this, if you know

the way of it: you set them so that they reflect

each other. For if images can steal a bit of you,

then images of images can amplify you, feeding

you back on yourself, giving you power.

And your image extends forever, in reflections

of reflections of reflections, and every image is

the same, all the way around the curve of light.

Except that it isn’t.

Mirrors contain infinity.

Infinity contains more things than you think.

Everything, for a start.

Including hunger.

Because there’s a million billion images and

only one soul to go around.

Mirrors give plenty, but they take away lots.

—Terry Pratchett (Witches Abroad, pp. 50–51)

A great way to experience the holographic uni-

verse is to stand between two large mirrors, and see

your reflection repeated again and again, endlessly

into infinity. It gives you a new perspective.

I once visited an art exhibit that had a cubical

room you could enter, with mirrors covering all four

sides, plus the floor and ceiling. Of course, you took

your shoes off and went in with just socks on your

feet. There were light bulbs at each of the eight cor-

ners. When you closed the mirrored door and stood

in the center, all that you could see was your own

reflection, from all angles, and the lights like stars,

repeating and receding over and over forever. It was

an amazing experience!

You can get the general idea in your own home,

if you set up a couple of mirrors facing each other on

either side of a hallway, and stand between them. The

trick is to not have them both flat against the wall, but

have one slightly angled so you can see the image of

one mirror reflected in the other as well. You can also

experience something of this effect in clothing stores,

where they have little recessed mirrored alcoves.

Doing this will expand your wizardly perceptions!

Heaven above

Heaven below

Star above

Star below

All that is above

Also is below

Grasp this and rejoice!

—Alchemical text

Lesson 3: Surfing the

Synchronicity Wave

Meaningful synchronicities of “lucky coincidences”

are especially noticed by Wizards and other magickal

folk. Often when you are on the right track in your

life, synchronistic events occur as signposts of cos-

mic approval or divine guidance. When there seem to

be a lot of synchronicities piling up, it’s time to pay

attention! I like to think of synchronicities like waves

in the ocean. Most of them are just little “coinky-

dinks” (as I call small random coincidences), like the

little surface waves and ripples that lap against the

shore—nothing to get excited about, just the normal

background flow.

But when several such coinky-dinks fall together,

a larger wave rises out of the sea of probabilities. Then

Daniel

Blair-Stewart

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