by Frater Choronzon
The general function of a Wishing Well is understood from an early age by most people. The user projects some required outcome of events, or "wish" into the well, perhaps accompanied by a symbolic financial donation, and waits for events to take their course. Similar properties are attributed in popular tradition to acts of cutting a birthday cake and breaking a wish-bone while devoting certain species of poultry.
In every sense, the act of making a wish using any of the above ritual props is a magical operation though experience suggest that Wells tend to be more effective than both chicken bones and all but the most esoterically decorated cakes in achieving the intended result.
As of late, many Wishing Wells have been withdrawn from public access; and, moreover, recent opinion polls have indicated high levels of dissatisfaction with the scarcity of wish-fulfillment opportunities, particularly among vegetarians. This paper attempts some analysis of the dynamics involved in successful wish-making, and offers a ritual procedure which readers may find useful pending the launch of another "Wishing Well Withdrawal" from the public eye.
Anyone who has studied non-linear dynamics (or Chaos Mathematics) as applied to the interaction of complex systems (for instance life-in- general) will be aware of the extreme sensitivity of such systems to initial conditions. This is illustrated by the so called Butterfly Effect; a model of the process by which a butterfly flapping its wings on the Carribean Islands can set in train a series of atmospheric interactions which may culminate, after some elapsed time, in the occurrence of a hurricane in London.
The hypothesis in this context is that the ritual act of making a wish sets up initial conditions for a Chao/dynamic process which culminates, after some elapse time, in the occurrence of whatever event was the original objective of the wish; hence the subtitle "Releasing the Butterfly of Chaos". Atmospheric effects are often synchronous with successful magickal operations as was observed, for example, by those who were present for (or within earshot of) the 4,000 watt "Enochian Verse Recital" in South London, 17.30 Hrs, Monday, 28 May, 1990; but where magic is concerned the atmospherics are felt to be little more than by-products of casual sequence which is primarily electromagnetic in character.
The actual process by which a successful wish is transformed into its outcome is, of course, magic; at least in the sense that modern TV receiver might be acknowledged as such by Agrippa or Abra-Melin the Mage - Was there ever a more effective acrostic "for divers visions" than an infrared remote control?
A detailed explanation of how the magical process appears to work would fill a book (reasonable offers from reputable publishers accepted); suffice it to say that no rewrite of either the Laws of Physics or the Axioms of Mathematics is required, and to mention that the Astrological elements of the hypothesis will form the substance of a paper to be presented to a forth coming meeting of the "Talking Stick".
For the purpose of this exercise, the process may be appropriately visualized by consideration of nothing more complicated than a humble smoke-ring. In mathematical terms this is a Torus (a ring- doughnut shaped structure) which has a clearly defined, coherent and self-contained existence for an extended period within a fundamentally chaotic matrix; ie. it can hung around for several seconds retaining its structure in the turbulent air of a smoke-filled room. Such ordered structures fall quite naturally out of the Chaos Mathematics which models the behavior of gases and liquids (Fluid Dynamics for the technically inclined). Examples of such ordered structures in a chaotic environment abound, and not only on this planet. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter, for instance, has been in existence at least since Galileo observed it in 1610, though the chaotic nature of that planets atmosphere was not appreciated until the flypast of the Voyager spacecraft of 1979.
A perfect smoke-ring requires very little expenditure of energy to be brought into existence, though that energy, in the form of a controlled pulse of gas projected from its creator lips has to be quite precise - ie. smoke-rings don`t always work, particular if someone is watching, and the best ones of all usually happen quite by accident! Significantly, the only way an observer can know if a smoke-ring is there because it has smoke in it. If an identical pulse of gas is projected from a non-smoker, the Toroidal ring structure will be established in the just the same way within the atmosphere, but its presence is almost impossible to detect, even with the most sophisticated of scientific instruments.
The atmosphere is not the only chao/dynamic envelope surrounding our planet; there also exists the magnetosphere, which we perceive at ground level as the earths magnetic field. At present it exerts a force which causes a compass needle to point approximately towards the North Pole.
The magnetosphere extends out into so-called empty space well beyond the atmosphere of the planet, and is anything but static in character. Complete polarity reversals can occur. A record of these is preserved in the sequence of North and South oriented volcanic rocks which have been mapped in the ocean floor extending outwards from mid-oceanic ridges, such as that which runs the lenght of the Atlantic. The magnetosphere exhibits its own "weather" patterns which, like the atmospheric weather, are driven primilarily by radiation from the Sun/Solar Winds. Magnetic and electric storms which affect TV and radio reception are a phenomena of magnetospheric weather, and interaction between the magnetosphere and the atmosphere can result in phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. Other manifestations include ball- lightning and St. Elmo`s fire.
The ritual procedure put forward here postulates a process whereby a sudden pulse of electro-chemical energy, through an operators nervous system, establishes a magnetic structure which is the mathematical equivalent of a smoke-ring. It is suggested that this can occur on the onset of orgasm or accompanying a powerful martial-arts styled shout or KIAI, by a process akin to that of the Faraday Induction described in any half-decent textbook. The "magical" part of the process involves injecting a flash-visualisation of the eventual desired outcome of the magneto- smoke-ring as it is being established. The rest of the process of wish fulfillment is left to the wondrous dynamics of Chaos. It may be helpful for the operator to face towards the geographical (magnetic) North Pole.
If performed as a solo working, this ritual may usefully be preceded by a banishing and visualisation exercise. The ritual text is written in the Enochian language of the angelic calls which were devised or discovered by Dr. John Dee in the 16th Century. In the sense that Enochian can be seen as a system of control (or cyber-) language for "life, the universe, and everything" it has many of the characteristics of a computer programming language. Among such properties would be those of recursive self-reference (ie. the ability to modify itself), and some of the phraseology of the preamble to the ritual is designed to apply ideas developed by Douglas Hoffstadter in his book Godel, Escher, Bach to the Enochian language. Specifically, the text of the ritual should increase its own potency with repetition.
After the Enochian preamble, the participant(s) should make a vocalized statement of a "wish" or willed endpoint for the working, at the same time strongly visualizing the desired outcome. This "wish" may be of a benefic or malefic intent, but beware! the Enochian preamble carries a force of personal honor, in wishes of a dishonorable character they are likely to backfire.
The pre-climatic mantrum "Zarzas Zarzas Nasatanata Zarzas" is held to be untranslatable. It is, by tradition, a formula which opens the Gates of Hell or the Abyss; in this context it is used to invoke the dynamic process of Chaos by which the wish can be fulfilled. Some occult authorities, Crowley among them, assert that the Zarzas formula is dangerous and advise against using it. Modern Chaos magicians do not share that view and, besides having employed it for years with no particular ills impacting the user, is consistently been found to enhance the effectiveness of most categories of magical working.
The final climatic KIAI may be shout such as that projected by a martial arts practioner in the process of shattering a concrete block (or someone`s sternum), or else an exaggerated cry of orgasmic ecstasy. Prospective participants with orgiastic inclinations may care to experiment with variant techniques to effect the final KIAI exclamation which sets the magical "butterfly effect" process in motion. For example, the Enochian couplet following the statement of the wish might be committed to memory by operator of either gender, and repeated while other participants stimulate that operator to a frenzied pitch of ecstasy, culminating in the final KIAI. Such variants are for the more experimentaly inclined, but it is the sort of experiments which magicians of an unhibited frame of mind (or body) may find it enjoyable to carry out as an end in itself. Any feedback on results would be welcome!