Let’s begin with a very simple thought: There is a man inside of us and a man outside of us.

Both of these men are not us. The one outside of us is marked by our skin, the bones and blood and nerves we are clothed into. He - or she - is what the Gnostics called the living grave. Nothing could be more misjudging of its possible power and beauty and divine alignment. The man inside of us on the other hand often remains buried and un-contacted until the day the man outside of us dies. He remains a shadow, a seed, a fading memory of childhood fantasies. The man inside of us is marked by our imagination, the dreams and desires and motives that describe us from within. The man inside of us remains invisible to the outside our entire lifelong. The only way to interact with him is from within ourselves. Our body is the cave that shelters him.

It is important to call out that we are neither of both of them. But let’s not get distracted with who we, the observer, actually is. What is important for now is that we can operate these two men completely independently of each other. That is why we don’t experience any malfunction or absence when operating on the outside only as most of us do during all of our lives. We can engage with either of the men at any point in time. Just like we can decide not to do so.

When we operate the man on the outside we will learn and be taught the knowledge of the outside. We will engage with outer contact, with the material world and all its sensory stimuli. We may be able to grow the outer man, to strengthen it, to balance it, to keep it healthy as it ages and to walk on its outer path with knowledge and skill. When we operate the man on the inside we will learn and be taught the knowledge of the inner realm. We will engage with inner contact, with the visionary world and all its spiritual stimuli. We may be able to grow the inner man, to connect it to other beings of wisdom and spirit, to balance it, to make it walk the fine line of service and self-protection on which all wisdom rests. We have been given a free will and the timespan of an entire life to decide how to engage and interact and co-create with each of them.

It is important to call out that nothing is needed from us. We ourselves are free. And yet there is a constant demand towards our outer and inner man. While we can choose not to eat and drink, not to dream and desire our outer and inner men will require nourishment to sustain themselves. While we are free ourselves these tow men are bound to the needs that connect them to and make them a part of the inner and outer worlds. Now, most of us are used to live in cultures where it is expected to offer a lot of and regular nourishment to the outer man and yet little to almost none to the inner. While the former is bulked up with muscles and tattooed or slimmed down to the bare bone, the latter mostly remains completely undefined. Like a blot of dark consciousness, a silent sleeper. Like a cluster of cells waiting for something to emerge from them. Like a line fading into the background before it could grasp the shape it was meant to take.

As nothing is expected from us this situation is neither good nor bad; it simply is. Exploration, discovery, creation and advancement are all pleasures of the human mind. Yet we are not our minds and therefore free not to follow their natural impulses. We are free to do whatever we like - both with the man inside and the man outside of us. Both with our skin and our imagination. However, whatever we aim to pursue will find its way through us and into the world only one way or the other - as an act of expression of our outer man or as an act of creation of our inner man. They form both sides of the gate in whose invisible, indivisible middle rests our consciousness - ready to walk out over either of the thresholds at any point in time.

When we walk out from the middle of this gate into either side we veil ourselves into the man of that particular side. We wear the outer or inner man like a glove or a mask. Think of yourself immersing your face into a bowl filled with black water. Someone from within the black water looking at the shade that is pressing down through the surface - that is how we are being perceived by other beings in the outer or inner realms. It is still us - but veiled in a material, a body of matter that isn’t ourselves. So as we engage in work on either side of this gate the man of that side turns into our body - one made from biological cells, the other made of cells of imagination.

We pointed to it already - most of us spend their entire lives donned in the body of the outer man. So much so that they identify with it completely. Like that face pressing down into the dark water - believing it is the dark water. When we fall asleep however, we are pulled back from the outer realm, back into the middle of the gate that we are and out on the other side, into the realm of the inner man. Here we wear his visionary body as if it was ours. Yet, most of us move awkwardly in it. Like a drunken man, we stumble from one place to another. We speak gibberish to the beings around us. And upon awakening back in our outer man’s body we recall our inner experiences like a view into a shattered mirror - unable to piece it together and to see the land of stories that lies behind it.

Again, as nothing is required of us except for being this is neither good nor bad, it simply is. Wether we wear the clothes’ of kings or beggars in our outer men, wether we stumble or sprint in the naked visionary bodies of our inner man, it doesn’t really matter - for as long as we continue to form a gate. Because that is precisely what sets human and spiritual beings apart: that we have two bodies to choose from. That we can walk out into the world of tarmac and streets and skyscrapers and mobiles - or into ourselves, into the world of deserts and mountains and temple ruins in the silent sand. Wether we act with - perceived - meaning on either side of these worlds is secondary for as long as we keep the gate open. 

Now, you may ask: Why is that is so important? What matters so much about this gate? This state of being, this balancing on the threshold, on the line between water and air that we so rarely assume? Well, the answer is quite simple. It matters so much because there are many beings out there who perceive us and need us to be exactly nothing but this - a gate. There are tides ebbing and flowing towards these gates from either side - and they can only extend from one realm into the other if our doors remain open. Don’t misunderstand this to be a metaphor: What I am saying is that there are beings who walk through us. They depend upon us as we are the doors that allow them to pass from one realm to the other. 

Think about what happens to a woman when she turns into a mother? Isn’t this the actual metaphor we forgot to read in magical terms? A man and a woman unite their bodies and open a gate. And what walks through that gate after ten months is a new human being. The body of the woman in the end turns into a threshold, a powerful door through which another being passes into the outer world. And what passes through her is just at the same time a part of her as well as an individual being. The truth is, however, every one of us is engaged in this very process at any moment of their lives: We are constantly giving birth. Every breath, every thought, every deed is a passing over the threshold that we are. And beings are passing through us in both directions.

The only filter that we hold to this process are the make-up of our inner and outer man. It’s their character that we define and which filters the energies, beings, tides and moods that pass through us. The outer man’s values, his integrity, his attitude towards others and life as well as his simple everyday deeds and actions form a key. Only the beings whose nature matches such key can pass through such gate into the outer world. The same is true for the opposite process: the inner man’s actions, values and attitudes define which beings he will bridge from the outer into the inner realm. In such a fashion each one of us forms a gate - and without anything being demanded from us, while holding complete freedom about our lives - it’s only us who hold the power to decide what will be passing through us.

So far we have spoken about our basic constitution as human beings. Yet, we haven’t touched on how this affects the way we work magic? What we discovered so far is that we hold two bodies which we can use to extend into and act in the inner or outer realm respectively. In the normal state of our conscious minds we will always occupy one of these two bodies sequentially. That is we are either veiled in the outer man and walking in the waking sphere of life; or we will be donned in the inner man and walking in the sphere of dreams and visions. A state that we rarely achieve - yet one that is critical to master any deeper level of magic - is to be able to act in both bodies simultaneously. Working magic means being able to consciously act on both sides at the same time, that is to synchronise the acts of our inner and outer man under the banner of our will. By acting in such fashion the valves that normally filter the seeping through of powers from one realm to the other are unscrewed - and trickles of energy turn into powerful streams.

This is how radical change can be brought about. And this also explains why working magically means such a significant strain on our inner and outer bodies. When we work magic in such a ‘contacted’ way even the smallest of our acts will become significant - that is they will carry power and meaning, force and direction. In order to work magic in such fashion we do not need robes, temples, wands or daggers. We do not even need symbols, incense or prayers. All that we need is a well trained and well rested conscious mind, our ‘prima materia’. Above all, however, we need the wisdom to open these gates only once we are fully prepared to live up to the consequences of our actions. Because their impact will be significant, often beyond our intent and imagination.