The End of Times is always the Beginning of Times.  It is Law.  But hey, don’t get your bustle in a hedgerow over this — it’s just a kind of spring clean for the May queen.

In other words, out with the old to make room for the new.

OK, before I go any further I want to say this: I’m going to be talking about magick, with a K to indicate I’m not talking about stage tricks and sleight of hand but in changing actual reality. 

Second, don’t bother reading more of this blog post if you believe that magick is something… magical.  That is, just the stuff of fantasy. 

Third, stop right now if you believe that power is something outside of you that you tap into.  You might as well click on this link and enjoy some pretty music because reading on will be a hopeless task for you (if you know me at all, you know I’m being sarcastic about the pretty music — I can’t stand Neil Young’s voice).  

I’m here to tell you that you are power.  And that magick is just another word – a way cooler one — for the power that you are.

The Law I mentioned above is not the “do what thou wilt” one, as attractive as that might be.  It’s the law of conservation of energy, which is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed*.  Energy simply is.  It’s infinite, eternal, and it literally is everything that is.  And thus we’re talking about a Law that applies to physics as well as metaphysics, the mundane as much as the magickal.  Because the energy of existence is what everything is.

So yeah, that means the Law applies to you and me. 

We’re made of the same stuff as stars!  We’re mostly stardust!  Stars are physical things just like we are, and maybe they’re huge and hot but they are also finite, with beginnings, middles, and ends.  We’re just like stars, except not quite as huge or hot.

In a way, though, we’re more powerful than stars.  We’ve got something extra going that – as far as we know – stars don’t. 

Stars can affect energy but we mere humans can purposefully shape it.  That is, we can decide to shape it and then do it.  We don’t have to even be Mages to shape energy, but — and pay attention now — we tend to do it even when we don’t know we’re doing it.  In fact, everything that happens in our lives mostly comes about without our having a clue that we had anything to do with it. 

Too bad, because you and I each do have the power to shape energy in whatever way we want.

But yeah.  Cold comfort as we come to the end of the second year in a row that feels like the end of times is nigh.

But wait!  The end of times is nigh! It’s always nigh!  Every moment is an end because every moment is also a beginning.  That’s what change is. We just don’t notice most of what’s happening.  If we did (aside from going crazy) we’d discover that a) we can always fix what’s broken if we want to; and b) it’s easier to change things at the beginning of times because they come immediately after the end (um… even if the end is not actually the end, if you get my meaning). 

All we have to do is pay attention.

What the end of times portends is change, and change is the potent point of potential.  Change = the indefinable moment when a state of energy ceases being one thing and begins being another.  Purposeful change happens on the cusp of that state of change, the point when it takes the least energy to influence the new course of events. 

Let’s talk about inertia!  By which I don’t mean slouched on the couch watching the tube and eating pizza.  As attractive as that might be.

Inertia is another one of those physics things that applies to mundane as well as magickal.  Inertia is “a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.” Oxford Dictionary. 

“A property of matter…” 

Inertia is about matter… physical, finite stuff – not so coincidentally the stuff we are made of.  And not so coincidentally the stuff we can manipulate.

We can be the external force that changes the existing state of matter, and there are and have been people throughout human history who can do so at will. They can create those cusps, actually.  The rest of us need to take advantage of the optimal times to do it, like, for instance, on the cusp between the end of times and the beginning of times. 

When it only takes a little personal energy to effect that change instead of a whole lot.

A nudge, rather than a shove.

Fate vs. choice.  Contrary to what many people seem to think, fate is not set at or before your birth. It’s not about what will happen to you.  Fate is merely the already-developed warp and weft of the energy of which you are a part.  You are not merely a thread in that tapestry but you are also the weaver – of your own thread, at least.

The name of the tapestry might be destiny (fate), but when it comes down to it destiny is as subject to inertia as anything else.  It’s created by an infinite number of choices and nudges that shape the energy of it.  Some of the shaping is recent – like nano-seconds ago – but by far most has been set well before our ancestors walked the Earth. The older, the more set.

Inertia, baby.

Except destiny has never been in a state of rest or of uniform motion. Destiny is made of change. Change is made of choices.

Choices, you see, are what create individual destiny — not the other way around.  An individual’s choice shapes that individual’s experience and thus that individual’s destiny.  The fate you’re weaving yourself through right now is only and always the result of your choices — be they made consciously or not, or even made by your soul in this lifetime. Doesn’t matter. Each choice – to breathe in at this moment or hiccup first; to smile or frown; to turn the page or reread the last sentence – each choice is like all the other choices that brought you to the very moment that is Now.  Each choice will create the next Now and the one after, to the end of time.

If you are into shaping energy, then each moment is your cusp of the end of times, waiting for your choice — each choice transforming the energy into the next beginning of times.  You always have leverage right now to nudge rather than to sweat and groan over a major Working of Magick. You can just do a little nudgy kind of magick any time you want.

And hey — you never have to wait till somebody else’s end of times to create your own new beginnings.

So it’s the end of times? Great news!  Exciting times!
 Now is the powerful moment for you to leverage into the beginning of the next Now!

 Grab the choice and GO FORTH INTO YOUR FUTURE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND LET THE END OF TIMES ROLL!

* This post is about Magick and personal power, not science.  Just in case you were confused about that.