Just what is mastery? What does it mean to become so adept at something that you could consider yourself at the top of your game?
When I bring this up I bring it up in relation to magick and also music but I guess the concept could be applied to pretty much any field. A while ago during a discussion with friends it became apparent that the popular opinion was that mastery of an instrument meant that you where fully aware of each of your actions, each slight movement of your fingers and each change of note in all it’s entirety. Whilst this would indicate to most a high level of competence and understanding of your instrument, for me personally this is not mastery of it. For me, mastery of an instrument is when we have surpassed the mental processes of form and structure, when we have moved on from the physical process itself, when all that is left is the flow of awen (inspiration) and nywvre (energy). The physical process of playing an instrument is just that – a physical process, it has an end – that point where anyone can reach with the right time, training and skill. Yet there are those who go beyond this, those who mesmerise a room with the simplest of tunes played just the same as anyone else. There lies the clue – they practice the physical process the same as any other musician but they have mastered it to the point where they do not need to consciously think on it at all, only the flow of awen.
The same I find is very true when it comes to magical practice. When we create a circle, call on elements, raise our athame and call upon the various forces of nature what we are doing is a physical process. The calls come not from our lips but from our intent – the physical process is just a distraction, a means of occupying that most annoying of human functions, the conscious mind. That niggling element of your brain that will have you pondering if you unplugged the phone when you are trying to raise energy. Those who have mastered this process, this physical distraction can reach the point of needing it any more. Essentially a ritual can be held deep within the mind of the master without walking the circles edge or spending time painting pictures in our mind to try and help “imagine” an element. The functions work to a limited degree but they should only serve as a means to an end not the end product itself.
Mastery is fulfilling ones complete potential. Beyond that envisaged by the people around you or what is expected or governed from the pages of a book. In martial arts there are many coloured belts that you work through, white, yellow, blue, brown etc…until you get to black. It is said that until you reach black belt you are not learning karate, you are preparing yourself to learn karate. Only once you have mastered the physical processes can you really begin to master the spiritual process and subsequently the whole process. This applies to everything we do from music to magick and everything in between.
Tags: magick, mastery, music, occult
I believe that there is no such thing as true mastery of any process.
To completely master something means to perfect it beyond improvement. Once you’ve done that, where do you go?
This is the great thing about Tai Chi (a martial art without silly coloured belts) – you never completely master it. You may eventually be called a “Master” or even a “Grand Master”, but as any Grand Master would say, you never stop learning, you never stop improving and you NEVER get to the point where you have completely mastered Tai Chi.
The same could be said for music. Ask the best pianist in the world if they could improve and he/she (if honest) would answer “yes!”.
The terminology of mastery, like a lot of other things, is only truly judged from the outside. This is how someone can claim the title “Master Craftsman” – because they passed an exam judged by someone else.
Anyone who considerers himself a “Master” of magick obviously still has a lot to learn.
Mastery may be considered as “fulfilling one’s complete potential”, but the wonderful thing is that human beings don’t have one. Our potential is limitless.
Love,
Seán
Sorry Sean but you have completely missed my point which is what everyone kept doing at the moot as well when I brought it up that time a few months ago. I won’t apologise if this reply comes across as pissy as it’s supposed to
as I had 4 pretty pissy people replying to me at the moot when I brought it up but I often blame it on the alcohol….but moving on..
Firstly – no one is saying that mastery means you have reached the end of learning, just the end of learning the physical process and yes this can be done and in all honesty if you feel it can’t – try harder. Go back to the pseudo-pianist and say to him “is there any way it is physically possible to improve the way you move your finger from A to G? The answer if he is really honest and not being a smart arse humble twat will be no.
To try and put perspective on it – a robot can be designed to play a complex classical piece on the piano to utter 100% accuracy within the bounds of the written music, and a human can do this too with the adequate amount of training and practice. What distinguishes the difference? The human ability to go beyond the physical process. Someone who has mastered their instrument is someone who can play a piece of music perfectly within it’s physical requirements and has entered the path of mastery, or the path of the adept – that person who can add the extra, that will make a person laugh or cry with their performance of something this person has heard many times before.
As for magick, well yes it can be mastered, in the sense i’ve just pointed out. The physical process can be perfected and the spiritual/magickal process can actually begin then. Too many modern practitioners fill their time and ritual with all the conscious-mind-distracting nonsense and don’t actually follow on with the real work afterwards. People have become too hung up on the distraction process.
Silly coloured belts?…not really seeing your point with that one – so Tai Chi doesn’t use belts to grade along their system, ok so ergo it must be a better system? to be quite frank if there is someone in any system calling themselves a master but goes on to say they have room to improve what they are physically doing I will just laugh at them regardless of how old they are or how Chinese they are.
I’m sorry but I just don’t buy into the wishy washy “we can all do so many things, its limitless” approach it’s a bit “Llewellyn Publishing” for my liking. Fact of life is – some can some can’t – those who can, do – those who can’t, try.
hmm, yeah probably a little too pissy – I am going through a very “if it even remotely pissed me off im going to scream at it” phase atm. I met my mum in town today for a coffee and some bloke was sat on a stool with a huge backpack on and people squeezing past him, with him huffing and puffing each time someone knocked his bag a little. So I barged it good and proper, called him an ignorant wanker and told him to take the bag off before I “accidentally” spill a lot of coffee right on it.
I certainly haven’t mastered temperament that’s for certain LOL!
I think we’re missing each other’s points here. It’s not the subject but what we understand to be the meaning of the terms – we’re stuck on semantics, I think.
The reason so many people were disagreeing isn’t necessarily because you were wrong, but that you couldn’t communicate your meaning in a way that they could fully grasp.
If so many people keep missing the point, then maybe you need to find a better way to get the point across. Maybe I do too.
It’s semantics again. You have a definition of the term “mastery”, so do, I but they don’t match. Ergo, communication cock-up from stage one.
You’ve definititely got it wrong about the Tai Chi Master though – completely. In this discipline (as in many others) there is ALWAYS room for improvement, no matter how good you are. The whole system is supposed to be endless.
A Master is someone who has reached the stage where they can instruct others to a high level, but they still take lessons from their own teacher. Only the Grand Master has no teacher, but he still constantly strives to improve.
As for the bit about human potential – I stand by that statement. I’m not saying that any individual can run a marathon, or invent unpowered flight. What I am saying is that there is no upper limit to the evolution of the human race and the ability of any individual to improve at what they choose to do.
Semantics is right that’s for certain!
As for Tai Chi we will have to agree to disagree. I truly do believe the masters (in my sense of the word) would never say that that is what they “truly” are, and they would always encourage the idea that learning is never ending – because like I said essentially learning is – it is certain functions that can be perfected which I feel even tai chi masters can do, but never admit. The life story of Buddha is also a good example of this – they had to nag him for many years to actually teach and even then he did it begrudgingly – he wanted people to find these things by themselves and not by his guidance because only that way could they master themselves physically to then go on to attain spiritual nirvana.