Commentary: Drag Racing the Mars Rover

This week, our editor Christine Hall asks the question often asked by new magicians: Does Magick really work?

For the last month or two, I've been leading our magickal group, the Guardians of the Phoenix Star (GPS), through a series of planetary workings. The purpose of the workings is to expose our group to the energies of the planets, hoping that they will balance themselves within the planetary energy by the time we are through. We started with Saturn and are working our way down the tree in order.

The workings themselves are fairly simple, at least as far as anything is simple in high Magick. We do the requisite pentagram and hexagram components, along with the middle pillar and the cross, then establish the group within the Sephira associated with that planet. Then a planetary hexagram is performed, to bring in the planetary energy, and that energy is then brought into the participants and into a crystal. Pretty simple. Pretty basic. An in-and-out in a half-hour sort of working.

Of course, if you're sane, you always wonder when you "do Magick" if you're really accomplishing anything - or if you're only playing dress-up magician. If you're paying attention, however, you don't have to wonder for long, for the universe has a way of validating your magick. As an example, right after we did our Saturn working, I found myself suddenly "paying back" karma that I didn't even know I owed. After Jupiter, thankfully, I found myself being blessed. Our store was blessed with a few weeks abundance and my consciousness was blessed with new cosmic insights.

This week we we did a ritual invoking Mars.

In case you don't know, Mars is the planet of the male. It is also the planet of the warrior and, conversely, the planet of war. There are, of course, other aspects of Mars (and maleness) that are less destructive, for Mars is also the energy behind our will and behind nearly all of our actions. But for too long, the Mars energy on our planet has been unbalanced toward the war/warrior/disruptive aspect. Indeed, in the Tarot, Mars is represented by The Blasted Tower.

We designed our Mars working in a way intended to bring balance to Mars. At the beginning of the working, the warrior was there. So were implements of war and destruction. By the workings end, however, the implements of destruction had turned into implements of construction - Mars in his higher aspect.

Which brings us back to our skepticism. Did we really bring the energy of Mars into our temple, or were we merely playing like children at being Magickal? One clue, as we departed the temple to go our separate ways, a cop had someone pulled-over across the street. Cops are nothing if not martial. The universe had given us a sign.

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