Mithraic Magazine

“He who has power over himself has power over the gods.”
— Proclus

I. The Illusion of Instant Mastery

Popular culture has lied to us. It paints the magician as a figure of immediate, effortless power—uttering incantations with theatrical flair and summoning change without effort.

But in truth, the sorcerer is not born, but forged—through failure, repetition, solitude, and sweat.

The Left-Hand Path is no different. It may reject submission and blind faith, but it does not reject discipline. To become a god is not to shed effort, but to wield it with ruthless intent.

II. Knowledge Without Action Is a Dead Flame

Reading about transformation is not transformation. Knowing the names of spirits, the correspondences of herbs, or the symbology of ancient glyphs means nothing if you do not engage them in lived practice. In this way, the occult can become a hall of mirrors—a place where ego grows fat while the Will starves.

Many mistake consumption for creation. But those who linger too long in theory become spiritual hoarders—clutching systems they never use.

As the Zen proverb teaches: To know and not to do is not yet to know.

III. Magick Is a Martial Art

The body of the magician is an instrument. Like a martial artist or musician, precision is earned through repetition. One does not learn to enter trance by reading about it. One learns by entering trance. Again. And again. And again.

Likewise, ritual must be performed—bodily, vocally, mentally—until it becomes second nature. Until the tools become extensions of the Self.

Each failed working, each imperfect evocation, is part of this training. Practice is how we correct our aim, refine our vibration, and come to know the boundaries of our influence.

No great magician ever skipped this process. The Great Work is called “work” for a reason.

​IV. Sacred Discipline: Daily Practice as Temple

The magician’s temple is not just a physical room. It is a rhythm. A set of habits that consecrate the day.

Whether your practice involves meditation, pathworking, trancework, invocation, journaling, or subtle energy drills, the key is consistency. You are programming your reality through repetition, like carving channels into the psyche through which the Will can flow unimpeded.

Magick is not a thing you occasionally do. It is a mode of being.

V. Resistance and the Inner Adversary

Every practitioner knows the voice: I’m too tired today. I’ll do it tomorrow. One missed day won’t hurt.

This is not laziness. It is war. A war between the evolving Self and the inertia of your previous identity. The Adversary is not always outside you. Sometimes it is the whisper of your own weakness.

On the Left-Hand Path, we do not wait for permission or inspiration. We act. We will. We build. Discipline, in this context, is sacred defiance. To rise and work even when no one is watching is to spit in the face of fate.

VI. Revelation Is Earned Through Action

Gnosis—the true kind, not parroting what others say—is only unlocked through experience. You will not feel the presence of a godform until you invoke it. You will not understand the potency of silence until you sit in it. You will not touch your power until you dare to wield it.

You cannot skip this part. The spirits do not come to the idle. The gates do not open for the hesitant. And no amount of theoretical understanding will substitute for having done the thing.

This is why so many wander the outer circles of magick forever. Practice is the key. Without it, the door never opens.

VII. Conclusion: The Black Flame Demands Fuel

To walk the path of power is to choose the burden of practice.

There is no substitute. No shortcut. Every rite you perform, every symbol you trace, every flame you light—feeds the current, sharpens the blade, transforms you into the thing you are becoming.

Let others talk. You work.

​Let others wait. You will.

The Black Flame burns for those who feed it.

Editor’s note: If you want to support Azazel Ra’s work, you can do so buy purchasing one of his many books on the subject. Available from the usual places, including Amazon.