Threshold diary: Magic mountain
At the centre of a mountain range, on the top of its highest peak, where the sky kissed the earth, I was joined by a magician. We sat in silence for a while. Then, he suddenly said, “And that is all I can tell you about magic. Everything else I say will just drive you away from it. If you look for magic in the explainable, you won’t find it because it is its opposite, its upside-down antagonist.
Understand that magic can’t be understood. Understanding is just one of magic’s effects. An effect can’t be its own cause, can it? Then it would again, be the opposite of what it is.
The ineffable shines where the effable is silent. Symbols pointing at something beyond symbols, the evading essential. Ungraspable by its own grasp.
Magic is conveyed directly, experientially, in an incomprehensible manner, since comprehension is something else. But also not, because what I say can be comprehended by those who know magic.”
Get Jan M. Braun’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
After a short pause, the magician carried on, “So, now let me teach you some spells as the pendulum swings. From left to right. From hot to cold. From up to down. Expand to shrink. Open to close. Widen to thin. Get active to calm down.
First complexity of polarity, the opposing points of a line. Second phase is the circle, with two ways between the points. Next, a twist of Möbius’ belt to get back to the start, you have to go around twice.
Does the pendulum swing back and forth on a line? Is it a circle? Or does it draw an eight? Or, perhaps just a matter of perspective?”
And the magician turned left, into another space around a dimensional corner I could not see. With a rotation to an additional side, he just vanished.
