The Game (Part 6)

THE GAME (Part 6)

The Great Work

The great work began in earnest during my days in the mountains. I had a cabin of moderate means to myself and I set about making myself comfortable for the winter. I worked magick on a daily basis, there seemed so much to do, so much to discover and I wrote incessantly in the inspirational surroundings, I made many good friends and went camping, skiing and hiking on a regular basis. I roamed the mountainsides and even the caves beneath Tunnel Mountain, Fortress mountain and Sulphur Mountain. My days were sheer delight and I did a great deal of true and good things for the first time in many years, maybe ever. I studied hard too, devouring books and so I learned a great deal of the native American way, a legacy I have treasured greatly and the more so for my understanding of my experiences on the Rosebud Reservation and in the Dakotas at the time of my great vision. I had great friends and a string of callers, they nicknamed me "Gandalf" which amused my camping companion, Ken, whom I had named "Radaghast" on one our our first trips. I undertook a few journeys in the otherworld too searching for the blue haired girl but I only ever glimpsed her by accident in my frequent and vivid dreams. I began to formulate a working explanation of magick as well as undertaking a series of rituals based on the paths on the tree of life as described by the tarot. I took few real risks, I had regained my freedom from the Crowley demons tenfold had had no desire to return to the darkness of my past by either accident or design, so I came to learn that there is a great case for knowing when not to practice the arts as much as there is for knowing when magick can be advantageous. I learned, maybe truly for the first time, about humility although this was not so easy with the environment around me beginning to generate my fame (or was it infamy?). People in Banff are warm and sincere as well as more than willing to judge at value and so I experienced freedom to be considered an "occultist" without the usual prejudices such titles entail - on the contrary, I became firm friends with a local priest who I met at the bridge club and our long conversations and theological karate lasted deep into many a whiskey filled night.

The magickal workings I performed during my time in the mountains were as extensively written down as they were performed, I intend of course to begin publishing not only the ritual formats but also the journeys and encounters I had during these times, I worked through all the tarot trumps, all the rites of each planetary aspect, elemental journeys and also the ten sephira on the tree itself, this latter being only partially successful as I found it difficult after working the trumps as I did. By now it was darkest winter and I resolved to work further in the realm of Faerie which I suppose was quite strange given that my pantantheon of archetypes rested firmly in Britain but I achieved some degree of success and, as the days grew slowly lighter, I came to think more and more of Britain and a homecoming I never thought I would see.

Eventually I did return and I set about increasing my library and stocking up on more and more text books and historical books about my own country. It was from these books that I became interested in witchcraft and came to meet Margaret and the local coven (described in my article "First Encounters With The Craft") with whom I studied for nearly a year learning a great deal about the craft, natural magic and the pagan ancestry of Britain. During this time too I had become interested in the journalistic activities of a group of psychics who had discovered an underground British organisation dedicated to some very unsavoury magickal practices. As the activities of The People Of Hexe and their international big brothers, The Wheel, increased so did my interest and the burden of responsibility placed on my shoulders to assist in thwarting their dark purpose. Through a combination of factors I never acheived my "proper" initiation into the coven and after it was disbanded I kept the festivals and sometimes met socially with the old members I drifted away from dedicated following of the craft. I took with me however, a great deal of learning and my time with them greatly shaped my future (and now current) views of the world. All in all I suppose I am a regretful that it was not possible to have been initiated then, it seems to me such a challenging and deeply balanced, wise and proper "religion". I am also sorry that I became so heavily involved in chasing black magicians all over the country but I was gripped by my own importance in such matters and I admit I allowed my enthusiasm to cloud my judgement on numerous occasions.

Several of the events that took place during that time I will describe in greater detail later but there is a need for certain prudence in discussing matter of The Wheel, The People Of Hexe and The Dark Council in so public a forum - I state now, clearly for the record - I have no interest in pursuing or unveiling the secret rites and purposes of any of the aforementioned groups, if anyone wishes to pass on information or the like I suggest they do so to Andrew Collins who I understand will be a good deal more interested and grateful than myself.

I undertook, after the last episode with The People Of Hexe, a series of cleansing rituals, my psyche reeked with the bad stench of black magick and I was, though relatively protected, not unscathed during my encounters. The purification rituals led me on to delving back through the journeys of my year of spirit wandering and I developed a far greater understanding of what had happened to me and where it had led me - the highest Magickal Path still eluded me but I was maturing greatly and, I believe, acquiring a degree of wisdom necessary to compliment my knowledge which was, by this time, quite extensive.

Despite some of the vows I had made to both the coven and to the higher intelligences that guided my spirit through its wanderings I maintained a degree of independence that allowed me to explore other theological media, most notably the native American way and I became a regular co-respondent with a large and varied community of occultists, qabalists, shamen, witches, Thelemites and practitioners of the higher arts. It was then somewhat inevitable that I encountered Crowley much more frequently and so I spent a considerable amount of time studying his life and works. I admit I know relatively little about Thelema but a lot about Crowley's escapades and a good deal about his genius for ritual magick. I took up the disciplines of ritual once more and through five or six years now of steady progress have worked a great number of magickal acts and come to a reasonable understanding of the arts as well as now (2002) returned once again to the fold of the witches with a great sense of joy and the realisation that the spiral ever turns for me.

The final chapter of my introduction to my magickal background will spell out my current views on the tides of mankind's fortunes, my aspirations and hopes for the continued future of the world and my place in (and beyond) it.