Message #80725

[Bianca]

Last week we did a really quick definition, or possibly more accurately, a characterization of consciousness and ended up with the notion that higher consciousness requires a genuine kind
of freedom such as we refer to when speaking of  “free will.” I just want to tie up one loose end
before we go on.


Dion Fortune added “consciousness” to Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic, making it “Magic is the art of bringing about change in consciousness in conformity with the will.” We do not know whether the word “will” means this higher, freer will, or the basic instinctual drive that often passes as will.
The inability to distinguish between these “wills” is one of the things that can make magic dangerous for those who are not developed in wisdom. But I believe that what Dion Fortune had in mind was truly free will.

So we have the following elements that characterize consciousness from last week: 1) We are aware and we are aware of ourselves as aware, and we have the awareness of subject and object. 2) There is something about higher consciousness that enables us to share a view of reality with others. We are not aware in a vacuum. We establish this connection with other beings who are presumably conscious by means of language. 3) Higher consciousness enables us to see things so that we can make choices freely, driven to a minimal degree by instincts, emotions or other forces that might cause us to make choices that we know not to be in our best interests or in accord with our real intentions. Or, to put it simply, are we being conscious when we cannot keep to a diet?