Belief: The Deep Spells that bind humanity

And the work of Deep Magick.

I planned to start publishing some musings after launching this publication on Apophenia’s last birthday. But shortly after, I embarked on a new adventure which involved relocating to a new city. So it’s taken a while to get started.

Belief is a tool”, they said. “Nothing is true and everything is permitted”, rings the call of Chaos Magick.

I’ve pondered over the concept of ‘belief’ much since I first read Pete Caroll’s Liber Null in the late 1980’s. And yet still it holds mysteries ripe for opening.

I suspect that’s because the concept of belief does not paint the full picture without discussing it in the context - bringing it into relation with everything it touches on. I hope you find some useful insight or inspiration below…

All belief acts like a projection upon the world. Beliefs influence perception and filter the expression of what we call ‘will’, ( another mystery I’ll attack later), much like the dreamer in a lucid dream. Beliefs may appear consciously defined and in plain sight. Or they may lurk in shadows, unconsciously held or bound up.

All beliefs contain lies. They get passed around in bonding rituals at tribal and cultural scales, and are often handed down from parents or ancestors long gone. Rarely do the deepest of beliefs face scrutiny by those that cling to them.

Consider mindfully what you believe for they define the limits of your achievable reality.

At a wild and stormy pagan weekend gathering in the bush lands of New South Wales, Australia in the 1990s, a magickal elder asked me, “So, what do you believe in?” I was new to magickal groups and didn’t have a very good answer, so I just said, a little nervously, “I believe in myself”, not realising that what sounded like an assertion of confidence, rephrased as “I believe in my Self” provides a good basis for doing pretty much anything. The elder laughed deeply as others listened and said “This one will go a long way.”

Beliefs form the deep spells of the subconscious mind that operate far below ordinary conscious awareness. For most, once established, they do not change much over the course of life, much like our values.

Beliefs should not be confused with thoughts. It’s easy to think a thought while deep down believing something entirely different. Just look at the use of affirmations, which rarely sink deep enough to make lasting difference, and often do more to prop up egoic desire to believe the affirmation while simultaneously supporting the counter-belief that the words of the affirmation are false, for why would one need to repeat the affirmation if they were true? What a mindfuck of attachment!

Changing the deepest of beliefs may feel unpleasant, confusing, and even traumatic to the central nervous system - a disturbing experience. It can cause ‘spiritual emergency’, psychotic breaks and breakdowns. And it can give rise to ‘spiritual emergence’ and breakthroughs. So most human nervous systems will naturally resist attempts to dislodge deep ‘belief-spells’ in favour of certainty, predictability and the collective illusion known as “sanity”, even if those beliefs cause suffering for themselves or others. Their histories inevitably involve survival of some traumatic events, made easier to adapt and move on from by the construction or adoption of deep belief-spells that trap unresolved emotional energy into defense mechanisms masquerading as offensive behaviour. Deep belief spells can be so powerful that, over time, they influence the physical structure and appearance of the holder. Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Reich called this ‘character armour’. Root causes may appear as innocent as losing a beloved person, pet or home, or as unpleasant as surviving a crash, rape, war, famine or natural disaster.

When we dare to look, its’s not hard to find some particularly ugly beliefs lurking deep in the dark recesses of humanity’s subconscious. Racism, sexism, self-loathing, claims of authority or status, and most forms of prejudice (pre-judgement) have a basis in the deep spells of belief. Their formulas always include statements, the most viscous and insidious of which involve the use of the words “is”, “am”, “are”, “was”, “were” and all the derivations of the verb “to be”.

Much of modern therapy aims to unravel these subconscious belief complexes - to de-armour self. The most effective of them work by bringing awareness to the emotions that bind them in place, then safely releasing them. In my personal experience, breathwork, deep meditation, movement and shaking, psychedelics, singing and walking barefoot in nature have been the most powerful and accessible of these. But each of us has unique history and keys to unlock our own alchemical mysteries.

The work of what I’d call ‘deep magick’ dismantles the acquired deep belief-spells, and empowers individuals to safely believe nothing, to permit Kia, True-Self, Universal-Mind, Parusha, Spirit, or whatever you’d like to call your essential spark, to express its own success directly into the world.

Deep magick liberates the mind to enjoy the ride, enables us to sit at the edge of the void, embrace the unknowable abyss of chaos, gaze deeply in, find bliss nourishment and other treasures. And perhaps for some, to inspire others to do the same.

May you find all the dark deep spells of belief easy to dispel!