The Source

In most religions there are paths that believers may take that will, given faith and determination, lead them into a closer relationship with Reality.  Sometimes these paths are not at all accepted by the dominant religious tradition, but they exist nonetheless.  These traditions exist because some of the believers in those traditions wanted a more direct experience of Reality, something unmediated by their priests and rulers.  From the perspective of those in power this is a most disturbing development.  The ability and position of mediation of contact with the divine is the primary reason that such power hierarchies exist.               
The mediation of contact with the divine is a way of establishing control.  The power to control a person’s contact with the divine is the power to control most all aspects of that person’s life, future, and perception of the past.  These people live under the implied threat of the removal of the divinity in their lives, the loss of wonder and mystery, the loss of hope.  The idea that there can be hope without freedom is foolish and blind.  Those without freedom are without hope, those without hope are easy to control.  The paths that emerged and continue to emerge from the religious traditions of the world are the attempts of a few hearty individuals to throw off the shackles of dogma and meet the Universe on their own terms.  Armed with the religious structure of their respective traditions these mystics and seekers of truth band together to make their own way in the world, they establish their own ways of unmediated experience of the divine.  In their minds they are still members of their original religious traditions, though they may not be a part of the dogmatic community.  They exist on the fringe of their traditions and cultures.  They are respected and feared, loved and hated, always balanced between heresy and innovation.
Many times it has been asked what is to become of those without a tradition?  Or those who are already in a religious tradition but find even the fringe communities to be overly dogmatic and in the business of control?  The answer is not simple or easy.  The path to be set before you is one that should not be taken lightly.  Once you begin there is only one way out, and that is to go forward.  Always growing. No one can help you, when you walk down this path you do it alone.
One might wonder how magic could be a spiritual path to the divine and not at all be wondering in ignorance.  Everything about the modern world tells us that magic does not and cannot exist.  We lock up our insane brothers and sisters, we tell ourselves that only science can show us the way of seeing the world.  We laugh and heckle the candle peddlers and diviners while we try to convince ourselves that new age hippies are the extent of the community of magic users.      We lock away our elders in “resting homes” and wait for them to die instead of listening to their stories and learning their wisdom.  We read our history books and religion texts and pretend that the religions of the ancients were founded on superstition and ignorance.  Since our childhood we have been force-fed the illusions of our leaders, we have had our imagination and sense of wonder beaten out of us from preschool on.  We force our children to see the world the way we do, and never give them the chance to see it the way they do.  This is the reason that children can see us for what we are, they are not yet clouded by logic and dogma.  We are raised to worship science and reason, and are taught that those who believe in magic cannot believe in science.  Science is perhaps one of the most important skills or disciplines one could possess, but it is not the only way of knowing and investigating reality.  Science is a tool, and a mage armed with both science and magic is a tremendous force to be reckoned with.  Magic, like any other thing that can be seen in its own light, is a viable option for a spiritual path, simply because it exists.