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Illusion
We know that the Hindus and Buddhists teach that the entire world is Maya, or "illusion". Gurdjieff understood that there is only one thing repeated endlessly to give the illusion of variation. We know, from modern physics, that the atom is composed of infinitely smaller and smaller impermanent points of potential energy. We are aware that all things are in flux and that the distinction between world and self is imaginary. Given these and an endless array of further facts, and seeing that the alteration of reality is, in fine, the magician's job, it is obvious that the magician must be a "master of illusion". The conjuror, buffoon or practitioner of legerdemain merely carries the "Great Work" of the magus to an absurd degree and in demotic burlesque or genuine mockery, he attempts to "expose" everything as a fraud and to reveal that nothing is sacred, after all.
Thus the stage magician serves a useful purpose by reminding the serious magician to avoid pomposity. The purpose of the conjuror and the sorceror are equally to deceive—the one innocently, as a pastime, the other not so innocently, as an effort to wield power. But the goal of High Magick is exactly the reverse—its aim is to undeceive us about ourselves and the world we inhabit.Source:
The Magician's Dictionary by E. E. REHMUS
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URL:
http://deoxy.org/define/Illusion hyperdictionary—index |