Omaha

'Omaha...

Somewhere in middle America
Get right to the heart of matters
It's the heart that matters more
I think you'd better turn your ticket in
And get your money right at the door"

- Counting Crows

Tonight my son, who is 15, is going to be teaching a class on the Magus Card of the Thoth Tarot deck, as a part of Thelema 101, a class he's presenting with Harper Feist. She'll be teaching the gematria of Love and Will in the Greek and doing some Isopsephy with people's names. It's going to be cool.

Listening to him prepare has got me thinking about the Magus card in general, and magicians in particular. I've been doing these classes on Thursdays that are about Hermetic basics, and the Magus card of the Thoth deck is totally us. All the symbols on it are the symbols of Magick. They are the tools of the Magician. Elemental, scriptorial, the things necessary to take a thought and make it manifest in the material world where it can be experienced. All the Hermetic Magick Stuff.

But guys, where is the Magician? Right there in the center. All the symbols that represent the elements circle around him. The Magus is the center of the universe, and all the things that manifest in it.

And I heard in my head Counting Crows singing about Omaha, somewhere in the middle of America, and the heart of the matter, and the heart that matters more.

The Magus is all air and Mercury, and it doesn't talk a lot about the heart. But before the Mind of Air, or the powers of Mercury can focus on making a thing manifest using the symbols of the spiritual elements of our daily existence, there has to be something you want. Something you desire.

And that's the heart. And it's the heart that matters more.

To me, the heart is the source that tells us what we want, and what we like, and what we love. It beats in the middle of the Magus. It's the source of the ideas that manifest. It's the instructor of the mind. It's the indicator of success and failure. It's what tells you whether you're doing it right. And whether you're fucking up.

Joseph Campbell talked about following your bliss to find enlightenment. In Thelema, the phrase goes "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love is the law, love under Will."

That love, our hearts are the only real guides we have in this path of magick that means anything. Gotta listen. Gotta be in the middle, balanced within the symbols we use as tools to make this world as we see fit.

And we can't be without listening to the Heart.

It's the heart that matters more.