Until a couple years ago I never came across the word mediation in context to occultism. However in some of my more recent readings, I have come across the term and it was interesting to note how the term is used and what it means in the esoteric sense of the word. I thought I might share the perspectives I came across on this blog, and then share my own thoughts on the topic.
In Spirit Speak by Ivo Dominguez Jr, Mediation is defined as the following: "In mediation, communication takes place through what appears to be a blending of consciousness between the mediator and the Spirit. In truth it is better described as communication by the use of resonance and mutual induction that results in the replication of pieces of each other's consciousness. One of the components of mediation is the highest form of clairsentience where there is no visible seam between sensing and knowing."
In Living Magical Arts by R. J. Stewart, Mediation is defined as the following, "Mediation is the function of a priest or priestess; a mediator is one who intercedes or acts as an interface between Divinity and humanity... In magic, however, mediation has more precise meaning, based upon the important truth that we all contain Divinity or the original Being within us, just as we are all contained within the Being of the universe. In true mediation, any individual may reach deeply into the states of consciousness where transhuman entities are met... In mediation, a human acts as a focus or gateway for the consciousness of such transhuman being."
If we look at both definitions we see some similarities. Mediation involves a connection with an inner contact or spirit being, where information is exchanged, but also where the spiritual force of the being is transmitted through the person to the world. you are simultaneously invoking the spiritual contact and evoking it by transmitting it to the sacred space you are working in.
One key aspect to understand about mediation is that it going inward to establish contact with the inner contacts. What this means is that we understand that to make a connection we have to find the connection within. William Gray, in Magical Ritual Methods, discusses this in context to using ritual sounds in magic. He explains that while we are making sounds, we aren't just transmitting those sounds to the environment around us, but also to our consciousness, and helping our consciousness become receptive to connecting with the Inner Contacts. The sound is used to condition us, to put us into a space of altered consciousness where we can interact with the spiritual forces we want to connect with. Mediation is an extension of this idea, fully describing what occurs when we mesh our consciousness with the inner contacts we have access to.
For that matter, symbols perform a similar function, providing a focus for the magician that allows him/her to connect with what the symbol represents. One of the reasons I paint is to create personalized symbols that represent the mediated connection between myself and the spiritual entities I work with. The paintings are representative of the meeting and mediation of my consciousness with the consciousness of the spirit being I'm working with.
In thinking about mediation, one conclusion I've come to is that mediation can extend past connecting with an Inner Contact. Mediation can actually involve a connection with the universe...and that when we perform a magical working where we want to manifest tangible results to change the world around us we necessarily need to bring that change to the universe and mediate it. For example, in chaos magic, a magician uses a sigil to represent a specific desired outcome. The sigil is seeded into his/her subconscious with the goal being that it'll gradually maturate into our consciousness and in that process of embodiment bring about the realization of the desired result...however we could take it a step further and not only note that it's seeded in our subconsciousness, but also seeded in the universe and mediated by the act of gnosis the chaos magician achieves when charging and firing the sigil. The sigil is brought to the universe, and the magician mediates a changed universe where the possibility of the sigil exists as a reality. This changed universe is then embodied by the magician and brought back into everyday consciousness where it becomes manifested as the new reality. This has been my experience with practical magic work in general and it shows how the principle of mediation can be usefully applied to achieve more efficacious results in the workings of the magician.
Book Review: Spirit Speak by Ivo Dominguez Jr
This is a book you should read more than once, because with each reading you will uncover something new. This book is written with a variety of audiences and experiences in mind and what you uncover in one reading will change as a result of the experiences you have with the material and with your spiritual life. Certainly this book will be one of the books I keep in my library as a must read text that guides my own spiritual development. Ivo simultaneously imparts complex ideas in a manner that is approachable for all, while also insuring that the reader gets the right level of information for his/her level of experience. This is not something most writers could do, but Ivo does it admirably. If you're only looking to buy one book on magic this year, this should be the book.