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ICE MAGIC In the colder regions
of the earth, especially so in the area of the Polar circle around the North Pole,
the elementary survival of man and animal alike, in their struggle against the most
unhospitable powers of nature conceivable, certainly met with a challenge greater
than anywhere else. It is no coincidence that it is amongst the tribes and peoples
from the most northern regions of our planet that one finds the cradle of technologies
and knowledge, the mechanisms and efficiency of which surpass all others. Their
description is but one of many tasks which the book Ice Magic meets in an befitting
and serious manner. At some point in
the course of the past months and years the author took the liberty of tentatively
labelling all forms and contents pertaining to this topic as "Ice Magic"
in his conversations and lectures. This mere title led some people to the wildest
speculations and most absurd fantasies. Add to that the intermingling of only half
understood information, rumours and pure conjecture, as has actually occurred, and
the claim by others to understanding or explanation of the meaning of "Ice
Magic" cannot but lose every base in its very conception. Hence the need for
this presentation! It seems to be the
fate of well-meant improvisations aiming at a crudely simplified and easy to grasp
introduction to a world of paths hitherto untravelled and possibilities never exercised,
to raise many a latent fear, as well as stimulating the proverbial bias of the timid
and diffident, wavering and demure towards prejudice of any kind, which serves to
protect such people from reality. There are a great
number of better reasons, albeit including those mentioned above, to supply a general
entree for the expert and the interested public alike to this realm of highly powerful
and fascinating practices, techniques and legacies. Granted that the
well-known formula, "Magic is the art and the science to cause change with
the aid of alternate states of consciousness in conformity with will", to take
but one example, may represent a first notion when undertaking to describe the subject
matter at hand. After all, it shows distinctly the insufficiency of those presumptions
and tools we are forced to employ when approaching this taboo-ridden field. The
recourse to psychologisms and mysticisms contained in this formula documents man's
initial difficulties when relating to magic, as he has developed a constitutional
preference for suppression, evasion and compensatory conjurations when confronted
with a complex world and reality. From its very inception,
the permanent presence of paramount forces of nature which man's claim to life has
to face in the polar region, disavows any refuge to tests of endurance, training,
exercises or even vacant space for trial and error, for experimentation and even
instruction in the conventional sense. With winter temperatures ranging from -45øC
to -70øC (minus 49øF to minus 94øF) for four to six months
in the year, intensified by wind speeds Beaufort 3 to 11, accompanied by an extremely
low humidity and a minimum of 3 sunless months per year, the small remaining span
of time can leave but scarce and far too little scope for the growth and bloom of
survival resources. Obviously, such
unsurmountable and merciless circumstances attendant to sheer human existence in
theses climes demand unexampled qualities of the development and exertion of man's
magic. Thus, a magic elementary, innovative and consequently highly intelligent,
becomes the most obvious and self-evident requirement. Its main characteristics
are sobriety and efficacy, for the conditions of its evolution and practical circumstances
leave no scope for games, sentiments or the temporary decline into a bland consumer's
attitude. Therefore, an improvised formula within this context could read: "Magic
is the art of being able to do without aid, embellishment and conditions in the
course of achieving to one's interests." It is only logical
that translating such a clear-cut, uncompromising craft and the highly sophisticated
and most sensitive of sciences inseparably linked with it, into our comparably soporific
social environment with all its pretensions, complexes and diversions, in a teachable
form must meet with considerable difficulties. Certainly, this magic is more practicable
and efficient than everything else. But it is for this very reason that it also
invokes fear and disconcert within those souls orientated towards ready consumption
and essentially content with the current status quo. The book, "Ice
Magic", finally clears the path towards a practical and theoretical introduction
to this demanding magical art which subscribes to efficacy alone. It makes itself
available for understanding, examination and personal practice by well-defined laboratoria,
a reasonable processing of experiences, stories and traditions and last but not
least by the systematical examples corresponding to this magic, of its transposition
into our cultural and environmental realms. To take one example:
the author's instructed attempt to employ the ambit of a different and consequently
redirected bio-organization with the objective of mastering enormous difficulties
by traversing the limitations and contingencies/ possibilities of a bird, left him
with the distinct impression of actually having been a certain bird. In accordance
with his possessive bents, the question became unavoidable, whether he could not
become a bird for a longer, yet limited period of time (and thus, surely, even more
tangibly). However, the reply was prompt to come: "Are you really willing to
trade your possibilities and your point of departure now?" Faced with the clearly
outlined experience and the most tightly tautened contrast he realized immediately
that this was not his pursuit. The ensuing question, whether he would now easily
be able to overcome those tremendous difficulties which claimed and restricted his
cardinal attention and to leave them behind, placed no demand on confirmation. He
knew. It is owing to his
preoccupation with Ice Magic and its bearers that the author has primarily attained
to a freedom of individual, untrammeled and socially uninterlaced uninhibitedness
only truly developable now. He understands this uninhibitedness as a consequence
and a presupposition of that vast field of magical skill which, however, commonly
hides itself behind the horizon of conventional magical hopes and efforts. It is
only the preeminence of individual emancipation and the fulfillment of desires which,
to his present knowledge, grant those premises free of stricture and retroaction,
to share abilities, knowledge and power with others and to push them far beyond
their limits. However, he is certain that it is only on the basis of individual
acceptance that the way is clear towards alliances however limited and temporary,
but reliable. Assiduous friendships will then be no longer the product and object
of wishing and pure expectation but rather a growing, logically established chance
and possibility. The spirit carrying
and stimulating ice magical practice in its most considerate and freedom-loving
manner may be best described by the following small anecdote. Dating back to the
turn of the century and before, several attempts were made to settle the tribes
of the Lapps (Samer) by offering them land, obviously with the goal of integrating
them into the predominant social order and to make them as governable and controllable
as everyone else. Without being clearly aware of the social and political dimensions
and impact of these settlement designs, it was a Samer himself who succintly pointed
towards the enslavement and hazards entailed with these offers of settling down.
The proposal to settle him and his clan permanently along with dwellings, farmsteads
and agriculture, while taking into account their traditional way of life by guaranteeing
that, following their former life of unrestricted and unentangled moving about,
their future homesteads should keep a minimum distance to the next settlement or
any neighbouring houses of at least 5 kilometer (3.25 miles), met with his spontaneous
and apprehensive comment. "How," so he demanded of the people in charge,
"can one expect human beings to live in such close vicinity with others?" Finally, an ice
magical manifesto can be introduced along with the book, whose sole design is to
provide encouragement and suggestions for those people who relate to the pursuit
of freedom, expertise and growth in magic to organize, or, at the very least, emancipate
themselves for the furtherment of their individual research without the jeopardies
involved in the aberrations and derangements of power politics - and without therefore
sooner or later being fettered hand, foot, soul and spirit only to be thrown back
consequently in their quest. The ice magical manifesto will show real and feasible
possibilities of manifesting this spirit, provided appropriate interest is given. |
