The Charm of Making
CHARM OF MAKING: - This is said to be the most powerful of all charms and abilities in the occult realms by those who have named it, at least. The truth is that much like many practitioners who devise esoteric concepts the designers and embellishers or refiners of this concept would like us to believe they are all powerful. It reminds me of something I read in Morning of the Magicians when the authors were meeting with the immortal Fulcanelli. They talked about Georges Gurdjieff and his apparent process of dance that incorporates the Mudra/Mutra brain lobe integration and disciplines of breath and centeredness to keep the mind so busy that nothing but truth penetrates the consciousness after a while. A regimen of dance and flexibility with a consciousness of the marvel of our earthly muscular superstructure was a part of it as well. Gurdjieff claims he learned these things in a secluded paradise in the mountain valleys of Tibet where people live to 300 years of age. At the age of 87 (or so) Gurdjieff himself was in a confrontation with a car. He lost! Included in his injuries was a broken pelvis and no one thought he'd recover. He did! Then he died a year or so afterwards. At the time Pauwels and Bergier were talking with Fulcanelli they asked him what he thought of Gurdjieff and his fame. Fulcanelli remarked something to the effect that Georges was a very good man and then said. 'If he knows so much why does he teach and not just create?'
This is what those whose Grimoires are full of decrees would like us to think they can do. Having met them and lived with them, I am not convinced. However, it would seem some truly adept people can (on occasion) make manifest certain realities of a miraculous sort. When someone heals with the laying on of hands, there is no charm of making ritual, but that does not mean they haven't acclimated and trained themselves through some similar process or haven't been given such a talent innately. We can't say for sure that ritual isn't part of miracles but we can say there is no absolute necessity of good being associated with said miracles. In the final analysis I am inclined to disregard the psychopompous nature of power seekers and proselytes who play with things they use and abuse for personal gain.
When the acts are for the good of all and brotherhood they can more frequently be seen as coherent inputs from the natural forces. As the Law of the Magi states - 'Right Thought = Right Action'. Here is a little miracle that I know is possible yet most would say is pure hogwash and fantasy of the 'savage' mind that can't be trusted because they are often drunk and illiterate. Would you imagine yourself able to enjoy drinking if your people had been treated the way they have been? Who defines what value it is to write when the person can't 'communicate' with their soul?
"AMONG THE INDIANS
In 1950, Jean was Dance Artist in Residence for the University of Colorado Arts Festival, so the Campbells returned again for the summer intensive. This time they would drive out from New York, so that afterward they could travel to New Mexico for the magnificent Gallup Indian Festival. Also 1950 would be the first summer that Jean brought a dance troupe to the Colorado summer program; bringing the car would allow them to transport some of the company to Denver.
The Indians who participate in the Gallup Festival include the Pueblos, as well as their more recent rivals, the originally nomadic Navajos; the latter's distant kin the Apaches and the Comanches; and the more northern Great Plains-dwelling Sioux. Even members of the far-off eastern-forest and Northwest Coast tribes attend. It is an occasion on which the various factions within the Native American population agree to set aside their differences and remember their brotherhood. For decades Campbell had wanted to attend the event.
'It was an amazing thing,' Jean remembered. 'There was a parade and then all these dances, from the different Indian tribes... (Jean was trying to write down the choreography of the different dances). At night the dancing ground, a huge open space on the edge of Gallup, {A small desert town when I would travel through it a few years ago.} was lit up by campfires of the various groups of performers--tents all around--then more dances. It was really unforgettable.'
So impressive was the experience that Joseph and Jean repeated it two years later, in 1952. This time they shared the excursion with another couple who were friends from Woodstock, Jane and Wendell Jones. The itinerary included the Zia Pueblo, and a closer probe into Navajo country that was familiar to Campbell from his work on Navajo mythology.
Toward the end of their visit, the Indians of the Zia Pueblo were going to perform some ceremonies; Wendell and Jane had gone their way, and Joseph steered the car down the long, dusty unpaved road toward the isolated Pueblo. It was a very traditional affair, to be culminated by a rain dance. Jean remembered that the men had a purplish paint on their skin {Refer to our section on purple in 'Science' please.} Various ceremonies were enacted, but in early afternoon when it was time for the rain dance, one of the elders knowing that Joseph and Jean were due to return to New York that evening, took them aside. 'It's going to be raining soon,' he said, 'it's going to pour, and it could affect your trip. You'd better go now.' Joseph and Jean said their goodbye under gathering dark clouds that just seemed to materialize out of the boundless western skies. They got into their car and began to drive eastward toward Santa Fe. And then it began to rain.
It was pouring when they finally reached Santa Fe and found a little rooming house. It rained all night, and after they started out in the morning, 'it rained in every place we drove through on the way back. We couldn't seem to get away from it. Finally we arrived in New York, and just gotten home, when it began to rain. By now we couldn't believe what was happening. 'Those guys are pretty powerful,' Joe said." (3 A Fire in the Mind)
Joseph Campbell was one of the premiere anthropologists and he wrote stories that native people throughout the world knew would reach the human race. It is unlikely that each of the peoples who exposed him to such treats didn't know the impact of the books he wrote; and the continuing need to teach the white man the error of his ways would be a part of their purpose. He has many such stories and his credibility and honesty is renowned, but his thoughts on 'bliss' are sublime.
About the Author
Be careful what you wish for - you might get it.