Divine Buzzwords
Everyday we are employing a magickal tool: Words. The use of words is a form of common magick, yet few persons spend much time contemplating this mystery. One might think that most people would recognize this miracle for what it is and so acknowledge the possibility that even more subtle effects could be created by the use of words.
First, a distinction must be made between words as representative of ideas and objects, and the word as a spoken sound. Each quality has potential in magick. Certainly the ideas which words represent form a type of everyday telepathy. Say “rose” and an image of a flower comes to the minds of several persons hearing the word “rose” spoken. That verbal communication can produce this mental change is a mystery well worth analyzing.
At some level, all language is possible because we have a connection to other humans around us. They are a part of us, we are a part of others. Physical, social, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual connections form multiple levels of simultaneous relation. We are vessels of the cosmic spirit, and so directing our attention to the thread of this truth is one of the aims of magick.
The use of “attention tuning devices” allows the possible transmutation of experience from the word/concept, to the word/sound, to the sound/mind/body/vibration and onward beyond normal conceptualization, directly experiencing the subtle divine pulse of cosmic current. It so happens that some words are especially good as tuning devices, acting as remembrances of innate states of being which can aid us in recreating that experience. Some words can quiet our mind, others can drive us into great agitation. Few can deny that words can have potency. In spiritual practice, the use of words may involve considering words not so much as identifiers of worldly objects but as rough mapping devices to help us go to the essential “pre-lingual” thought-form or vibrational basis which the word represents.
It is helpful to mention here that some languages consider themselves “conscious” languages. Sanskrit, the mother of Indo-European languages, is reputed to be such an example. Each root sound of spoken Sanskrit is supposed to correspond to a spiritual vibrational status. Sanskrit mantras are such words, though magickal words exist in other languages. Although many Sanskrit mantras have a common worldly definition, such as the name of a particular god or goddess, this is merely the outer aspect. The sound formation of the mantra and its recitation induces a vibrational change in the psyche of the reciter, thereby offering an opportunity to transcend beyond the common concept of the word, culminating in the essential vibrational experience of the word.
Establishing steadiness of this vibrational experience may require thousands of recitations conducted over many hours, days or weeks. This practice is called japa. You might regard the spoken mantra/word as the seed, which if watered by recitation, both mental and verbal, may break open to reveal the living essence of inner vibration. Once mastery of steadiness through japa has been attained with a given magickal word, for you it is a “live mantra.” Even casual mention of the word from your lips has special importance because your link to its essence is strong and close to the surface. A person reading the same word from a book is unlikely to have this comprehension of the word. For you it is a tool.
At every level of this process, application of attention during japa/meditation may allow a linkage in the mind/spirit to other words and ideas, and thence to their vibrational essences. This split of attention allows the braiding of various vibrational flavors into new combinations and the creation of new effects. The experience of this attention is actually beyond description. It is neither thought, nor is it not thought. It is neither emotion, nor is it not emotion. Yet it is there. Words are the maps. Go travel. Experiment, don’t take my word for it!
