The Book Of Magic

The Self

In the Faery Tradition of Witchcraft, the unconscious mind is called the Younger Self, the conscious mind is called Talking Self. Because they function through different modes of awareness, communication between the two is difficult. It is as if they speak different languages.

It is the Younger Self that directly experiences the world, through the holistic awareness of the right hemisphere (of the mind, remember is connected to the left side of the body). Sensations, emotions, basic drives, image memory, intuition, and diffuse perception, are functions of Younger Self. Younger Self's verbal understanding is limited, it communicates through images, emotions, sensations, dreams, visions, and physical symptoms. Witchcraft helps us to, not only interpret the speech of Younger Self, but teaches us how to speak back to Younger Self.

Talking Self organizes the impressions of Younger Self, gives them names, classifies them into systems. As its name implies, it functions through the verbal, analytic awareness of the left hemisphere  (of the mind, remember is connected to the right side of the body). It also includes a set of verbally understood precepts that encourage us to make judgements about right and wrong. Talking Self speaks through words, abstract concepts, and numbers.

In the Faery Tradition a third "self" is recognized: the Deep Self, which does not easily correspond to any psychological concept. The Deep Self is the divine within, the ultimate and original essence, the spirit that exists beyond time, space, and matter. It is our deepest level of wisdom and compassion and is conceived of as both male and female, two motes of consciousness united as one. It is often symbolized as two linked spirals, or as the infinity sign, the 8 on its side. In the Faery tradition, it is called Dian Y Glas, The Blue God. Blue symbolizes spirit, the Deep Self was said to appear blue when psychically "seen".

In the esoteric Judaism of the Cabalah, the Deep Self is named the Neshamah, from the root Shmh, "to hear or listen": The Neshamah is She Who Listens, the soul who inspires and guides us.

The Faery tradition teaches that the Deep Self is connected to Younger Self, and not directly linked to Talking Self. To communicate with the Deep Self, the God(dess) within, we resort to symbols, to art, poetry, music, myth, and he actions of ritual that translate abstract concepts into the language of the unconscious.

Younger Self - who may be as balky and stubborn as the most tankerous three year old - is not impressed by words. Like a native of Missouri, it wants to be shown. To arouse its interest, we must seduce it with pretty pictures and pleasurable sensations - take it out dining and dancing, as it were. Only in this way can the Deep Self be reached.

For this reason, religious truths have not been expressed throughout time as mathematical formulas, but in art, music, dance, drama, poetry, stories and active rituals.