Are you strong willed, are you a wilful person, have you ever had a battle of wills. These phrases all seem to portray the will in a negative sense. Yet the will is something you cannot get very far with out. In fact being strong willed is just what is needed in any form of spiritual growth. If there is to be anv growth you need to will that growth, after all, the whole universe is held in existence by a balance between positive, outward and negative, inward forces.
Now it is true that many people have a wonderful experience with the sort of passive, internal, interaction that typifies mystical, spiritual attunement and heightened. awareness. But, it must be remembered that we are not something separate from the Universe we are a part of the Universe and at the same time the whole of the Universe on a smaller scale. So if there is a balance between will and acceptance, positive and negative, Yin and Yang, in the Universe then that same balance needs to be apparent in us.
If you have read any old grimores or magical diaries/textbooks you will have notice that before anything can be accomplished, any initiation or contact with angels or other beings, a long period of preparation was required. This part 1s often left out either because later writers wished to appear more powerful by leaving out a vital ingredient and therefore, they could do it but you could not, and so pay me even more money. Or they thought it not necessary and only put there to put people off trving it.
The truth is, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is a well know scientific fact, and yet, people forget it or think that scientific facts do not apply to spiritual matters. The Universe is ONE there is not a physical Universe and a spiritual Universe, of course some of the laws may need reformulating but what applies to the physical applies to the spiritual and vis-versa. Actually it would be as well if we could stop thinking in terms of duality.
What ever, people like to say there is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal. All things are natural there is nothing above natural and there is nothing apart from normal. What we understand we call normal what we do not understand we call paranormal. Clearly then, all that is required is a greater understanding.
To get back to what I was saying, the preparation mentioned above, is in fact an extreme act of will, it is building up the will to such an extent that the Universe is slightly out of balance and therefore there will be an in rushing of the opposite element.
To put it into perspective, let us consider that it is desired to learn or have knowledge from the Universe. This is a passive or inward. in-taking act. Now, you can make this happen, there are no great secrets.anyone can gain knowledge. about anything but you must work within the Laws of the Universe. So before you enter a passive state and allow things to enter, you need to do the opposite, you need to exercise your will and this is the preparation stage we mentioned before.
Examples of these preparations will clearly show what I mean. In The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage. It is stated that in order to hold conversations with angels and demons it is first necessary to prepare the place and oneself. In preparation of oneself, we are advised to always wake before dawn, bath in cold water, eat only plain foods, dress plainly and avoid at all cost sexual impropriety. there are of course other instructions but enough has been said to make clear, that what we are being asked to do is to perform an act of will.
Now it just so happens that the regime suggested is also beneficial. but the point to note is that if that is your normal routine then no effect will take place. What is required is that you force yourself to go outside your normal habits. to exert willpower. [f it had been suggested that you do not smoke during the preparation and you did not smoke anyway what would be the point, so we could say it is about putting something into the operation, in order to get something out. Now what could be more normal than that.