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time because of your folly. Turning around and going back the way you came is an option, but not really a viable one, for doing so will lead to stagnation, death and decay. So what this means is that in reality you are left with only two options; you can turn either left, or you can turn right. To the right lies the known and the tonal. Traversing this way will either lead you back to where you have come from, or alternatively it will lead you onto the Path of Sorcery, if you do not wish to go back to where you have come from. To the left lies the unknown and the nagal. Traversing this way is not for the faint-hearted, for the mere act of embarking upon this way constitutes what is termed the bid for power, an act that is irrevocable, and an act that can only be survived if it is truly for the person concerned a Path with a Heart to be challenged by power, at every turn of the way, to relinquish his self-image and his view of the world. Should you decide to go this way, and provided your bid for power is accepted, it will in time lead you to the totality of the self meaning that you will finally come to realise that the real you is the nagal indwelling the tonal. However, making a bid for power, and having the bid accepted, cannot be done by the mind, for it is not a decision, a thought, a wish, or even a dream. Making a bid for power is quite literally an act of survival, made in the midst of a crisis point which you yourself will precipitate should you choose to go this way. However, merely fighting for your survivai is not enough in itself to have the bid accepted, for it is only if, in that moment of dire crisis, you can manage to listen to and then act upon what your heart is telling you, that your bid will be accepted. Should you, in the moment of making your bid for power, once again follow your mind because you have succumbed to either your fear or your ambition, power will reject your bid. But rejection of a bid means irretrievable loss, for the opportunity to make a bid for power comes only once in a lifetime, and therefore failure to have it accepted means stagnation, death and eventual decay. But if, in having precipitated your point of crisis, you have sufficient personal power to want to learn with every fibre of your
THE SORCERER'S EXPLANATION: The Bid for Power
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being, that deep inner need will enable you to listen to your heart in that moment of fighting for your survival, and, as a result, your actions, coming straight from the heart, will be utterly impeccable in not being tainted by either fear or ambition. If you can manage that, then your bid will be accepted, and from that moment on your life will be totally transformed, the old slipping away from you like an abandoned cloak, whilst the new rushes at you with an exhilarating speed and abundance that will leave you breathless and filled with awe, wonder and joy. Having your bid accepted means that there is nothing left that can possibly stop you from moving forward, for the way then lies clear ahead, and you will continue to claim as much power as you have time to claim in this lifetime, and at the same time claiming more and more freedom every step of the way. However, this does not mean that you will no longer be challenged, for by now you must surely understand that the only way in which to claim the power and the freedom of the warrior is for him to be challenged, and the more severe the challenges, the greater are the gifts of power inherent within them. In other words, finding yourself upon the Warrior's Path is still no guarantee that you will survive the continuous onslaughts of power, but at least you will be fully alive whilst you survive, rather than merely existing as the rot of decay sets into your remaining time on this earth. So this is now where you are at. You can choose to go to the right, or you can choose to go to the left, but what happens after that will no longer be in your hands, for once you have made a decision, power will still come at you, in one way or another, and you will either survive or not, depending upon which way you decide to go. Even should you decide to go left, you will still only survive if you are successful in making a bid for power, and in having that bid accepted. But all in all, and as you can see, you do not really have a choice, even though for all of the time up until now your reason has managed to convince you that it is your right to have a choice. However, as you can also see, none of us really have choice. The most choice we can ever hope to have is in getting to choose what colour shirt we are going to wear today in