Taken from MEZLIM Vol. II, Issue No. 1

The dangers of the magickan's path are many, and not the least of them come from HIrself. The threat of madness is a lingering worry in the back of the practitioner's head, rarely made concsious until too late. Sanity is like a fulcrum-point, with balance being maintained on both sides. When it is tipped too far, by an excess of power on one side or another, the fulcrum slips and balance is lost. Those sides can be considered as common reality and magickal reality. Both can endure tremendous amounts of power, which manifests as attention and focus, but both must be attended to equally to maintain the balance. In eastern mysticism, a teacher is the accepted failsafe of the student. A teacher will guide the student within the confines of that teacher's magickal reality. It is the sharing of that reality which is import- ant here. In sharing the new vision of the world, the student is linking - combining magickal reality and common reality. No matter how much power and intensity the student is subjected to, it is balanced through the contact with the teacher's understanding. This knowledge is essential when working in the far corners of Chaos. The primary danger of the solo magickan is that of isolation from his fellow peers. _ISOLATION PRECEDES MADNESS_. In our tendency to gravitate toward those who understand us, we inadvertently protect ourselves from this danger. But often our wanderings take us far from any shared system. And, in order to grow, we must go outside the known places of our world, even those shared magickal realms. A fellow traveller, if not a teach- er, can be your safeguard in these places. As one who has walked upon the tightrope of sanity and madness, I share with you here what I have learned. From: Black Crawling Systems @ V0iD Information Archives