The Magic of Bliss

Previously in Conscious Living Magazine Caiseal Mor wrote about his Magical approach to life. In this second article adapted from his book, What is Magic? Caiseal explores how Magic works best when it is driven by Bliss.

Everything made by human hands, including, for example, this magazine you’re holding, began its existence as an idea in someone’s head. This article that began in my imagination has slowly grown and evolved until it emerged in solid form in the Mundane World. The imagination is a powerful inbuilt technology for manifesting desires. It’s something we all possess. In fact, our species is so adept at Magic; we’ve literally transformed this planet using only the miraculous blessing of our extremely fertile imaginations.

We’re not the only animals on Earth to use tools only humans are capable of making the invisible, visible. And that, in my view, is a good definition for magic. The awesome power of the imagination is what makes us all human.

The human magical imagination empowers every person living on the Earth today to craft, sculpt and create this Reality. Our ancient ancestors knew this only too well. They also recognized that everyone practises Magic in every moment of their lives; whether they know it or not.

Our culture seems to have forgotten that the world is a Magical place and that Life is a miraculous, mystical, and joyous journey.

I’m fascinated by the fact that people from archaic cultures practised Magic in their daily lives. I’ve also been eager to find out what Magic means to modern people. So over the last six months, Helen and I have been filming an interview series. We’ve been asking participants just one question; What is Magic?

Based on my own experience and the answers we’ve received so far there are two things I can say for certain about Magic. First; It most definitely works. And, second; Magic works best when its driving force is Bliss.

Every culture describes a time, long ago when humans experienced Bliss in their day-to-day lives. This epoch is often referred to as the Golden Age. In those days, it is said, there was no war, famine, or sickness of any kind. Everyone lived to a great age in the Land of Plenty; thriving on a diet of Milk and Honey. Women, guided by right-brain-dominated intuition were considered equals to left-brain, rationalising males.

In Irish folklore, the Kingdom of Bliss was known as Tir na an Og; Land of the Ever-Young. In the literary tradition of Ancient Greece, this realm of peace was known as Arcadia. Whatever name is attached to it this period of history is remembered with deep longing. It seems that unrestrained Bliss was once one of the defining characteristics of humanity.

If archaeologists are right, modern humans have been around in our present form for about two hundred thousand years. It seems that Bliss was banished only fairly recently, in the last couple of thousand years. Magic was forced underground around the same time; when the Judeo-Christian traditions of the Old Testament were first being written down. In the early scriptures women are particularly warned not to openly exercise their intuitive, creative side. Christians have always been cautioned about engaging in any blissful practices that aren’t officially sanctioned.

It seems the logical, literal fathers of the Judeo-Christian epoch were intent on suppressing their own longing for Bliss. They preferred to demonize women for their creative abilities. In the Book of Exodus 22.17 there’s a famous verse that modern fundamentalist Christians refer to as the Eleventh Commandment; “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” In the original Hebrew, the word Witch is unmistakeably feminine. Fear of intuition and creativity underwrite the Judeo-Christian world.

To say we’ve strayed far from the path of our ancestors is probably a huge understatement. In our modern, consumer culture deep, heartfelt Bliss is such an alien experience that the medical profession considers it a symptom of mental illness.

So what is Bliss?

The ancient Greeks had a special word for a Bliss-induced Trance. They called this experience; Ekstasis, which means to stand or be outside oneself. Ekstasis was considered by the ancients to be the most powerful and effective form of Trance state.

Ekstasis was an essential ingredient in the creation of any piece of art, music, literature or Magic. Magicians were believed to be adept at focusing their imagination while in a state of Ekstasis. In modern English we use the word Ecstasy to mean a removal of self from so-called Reality.

Ecstatic Trance has always been a part of my life. I’m liable to fall into an autistic trance without warning. Usually this results in the full-blown Bliss of Ekstasis. While I’m away from myself I experience an altered state of consciousness where logic and literality are abandoned. Time vanishes as does fear, grief and all the petty emotions of the Mundane World.

In Ecstatic Trance I lose awareness of my body. I typically experience vivid visuals composed of wonderfully intricate patterns of light. At the end of a bout of Bliss my mind will be so filled with imagery that I’m left tingling with excitement and inspiration. Afterwards, I may have beautiful music running around in my head that won’t go away until I’ve recorded it. I may also be left with a story that I’m compelled to write down. My best-selling novels are products of Ecstatic Bliss.

Ancient writers on the subject claimed that Ecstasy is always accompanied by overwhelming euphoria. Today euphoria is the name psychiatrists give to an elevated emotional and mental state. It’s a measure of how far removed we are from the wisdom of our ancestors that unrestrained Bliss is treated with deep suspicion in Western culture.

The medical establishment demonizes Euphoria as a psychological, chemical or biological imbalance that doesn’t fall within the range of normal behaviour. Bliss, Ecstasy, and Euphoria have been transformed into sicknesses. This is even though many everyday happenings such as winning an online auction on eBay, may induce a fleeting bout of euphoria.

When most Westerners hear the word Ecstasy the first thing that usually comes to mind is an illicit drug that forces the brain to flood the skull with serotonin. Ecstasy has come to denote a fleeting experience brought on by a substance that has been synthesized in the test tubes of black-market chemists.

A few of these isolated individuals who work away in hidden dens in the dead of night, probably consider themselves the alchemists of the modern world. But in their enthusiasm to spread synthetic Bliss they’ve missed the point. True Bliss comes from within.

Our society seems so intently focused on materialism that authentic spiritual experiences have been reinvented as mere commodities.

True Ecstasy can’t be manufactured in a backyard lab. It can’t be bought, sold or smuggled. It’s a deeply personal, self-empowering practice that is timeless and deeply transformative.

Ancient peoples gathered together at festivals to experience communal Trance and Ecstasy using dance, music, and sacred theatre. In our culture, communal celebrations are almost always accompanied by an excess of chemical enhancement in the form of alcohol or some other mind-altering drug. In the last three generations, we who live in Western materialist societies have forgotten how to engage in Ecstatic practices such as dancing without an added push from some synthesized, brewed, or cultivated substance.

Most people seem to chase after material possessions they think will make them happy. Sadly and predictably, happiness based on Stuff is too often short-lived. Stuff falls apart. Stuff gets damaged, falls out of fashion, and is lost or stolen. The happiness material possessions appear to represent never seems to last for very long.

I find that when my life is filled with Bliss, happiness wells up from within to inspire and fuel the Magic of my imagination. I believe that Bliss sums up everything that most people want from life. For the past few years, I’ve been asking participants in my workshops to list their desires. Everyone uses different terms to describe what they want from life but they all boil down to the same thing: Bliss.

 “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe

that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.”

The Gospel according to Mark 11:24

As an explorer of Magic and magical traditions I am firmly of the opinion that anyone who wanders in the Mundane World travels between fear and Bliss. If you choose to live in fear you’ll find yourself in the Wasteland of Hell. If you choose to dwell in Bliss you’ll walk the Far Country of Heaven forever.