It seems that many wish to change the world, be it on a grand scale or on the smaller scale of one’s ‘personal’ world, being that of immediate circumstance. Fewer people, however, look to change themselves. Fewer people, scrutinise long held views, beliefs, habits and other attitudes and behaviours. Many quote that stasis is stagnation and death, that the Cauldron of Existence can never ‘be still’ but few have Faith to apply this statement to their own becoming. Note here, how I have chosen to use the word ‘becoming‘, it alludes to the idea that we are not ‘there‘ yet, we are still working through and moving ahead (we hope!) in the process of Being.
Yet many people seem comfortable in the current crafted form of their persona; ‘this is who I am, this is where I choose to stand in the world, I know my strengths, weaknesses, I know myself because I have made myself‘. If only this majority could see that they in fact do not know themselves in the way that they think they do, they only know the constructed projection of their persona. To know their true Self is indeed to know God; when God is realised the desire to nurture or hold a persona fades. In the words of the New Testament, Matthew 16:25:
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
What are we to do then?
Personally, I feel that we have been given an opportunity, through mortal life, to realise ourselves as conscious conduits and transmitters of Divine Virtue. We seek to do this with open heart and mind, being Truth-full and accepting the raw material containing impure dross in which we must initially work with. A Crafter cannot craft if they do not learn and accept the nature and properties of the raw material with which they wish to work with. We are all a composite of the ‘metals of antiquity’, though we each hold them in differing amounts and purities. The Crafter in the initial stage may wish to assess the composition of their raw material and know to what degree they hold each metal. From then they may garner insights in how to test and temper their ‘work in progress’, how to adjust the levels of each metal, so that the finished piece in which they are working towards is a Work of Strength and Beauty.
Tubal Cain, my Clan’s tutelary deity, I personally see Himself in one aspect as the Master artificer of my Being, I am his apprentice. As I ‘progress’ in life, I improve by degrees until my Work speaks for itself and I too am the Master artificer of my Being. The world as His forge, He shall raise the temperature of the Forge and adjust its environment so as to test and shape specific ‘metals’ at specific moments. There is a thought that the Divine shall place us in situations in which we shall ‘learn’ what we need to throughout existence, I propose that this is His adjusting the forge to allow us to work the metals towards the necessary balance. The more we neglect the necessary balance the greater the shock when we are forced out of the status quo; we can either work with our own initiative or be prepared to have circumstance forced upon us. As I approach a proficiency in my Crafting as His apprentice I shall be able to see in what circumstance or environment each metal is being tested, then I shall be able to act and mould accordingly, I will not be passively subject to Fate and circumstance, I will be actively working with the bestowed environment. When, in my apprenticeship, I may arrive at the lofty proficiency of Master Artificer, I will be co-creator with Tubal Cain Himself, I shall raise and lower the temperature of the Forge as necessary according to a purified perception, in changing myself I will be changing the World.
“When Man triumphs, fate stops and the Gods are defeated – so you understand the meaning of magic now. Magic and religion are aids to overcome Fate, and Fate is a cradle that rocks the infant spirit.”
~ Robert Cochrane
Flags, Flax & Fodder,
Gestumblindi
Man of Goda 