Rufus Opus is not a prophet. Or he's a false prophet.
Rufus says everything you do will eventually lead to things being all right. Just do your will, and you'll be good. You'll gain riches, love, your will, etc.
A prophet tells you everything will go to hell if you don't repent. You must turn away from yourself, and turn back to God (the Source, the Divine, whatever). Maybe it will go to hell even if you do what the Divine wants. See Jeremiah chapters 14, 28.
I'm not saying that what Rufus says isn't correct, or useful. I'm not saying he can't be an inspiration.
I am saying that Prophet is not his title. And to you I say: If you are not inspired, even sent, by the Lord to warn of calamity, do not claim the title of prophet. If you speak of peace, you will be proved false, for the Lord did not send you.
I have met prophets, men and women sent by God to warn of calamity. They've been correct, but they were not nearly as personable as RO is. He's no prophet, he's not nearly disagreeable enough.
- Monsignor Scott Rassbach
I am totally a false prophet. And I should be stoned, dammit! Why am I not stoned?
He's totally right, in every way. I am not a prophet, in case you thought I claimed that. I do not claim that. In fact, if you start acting like I'm a messiah or a guru, you will be receiving your very own electronic version of this quote going forward, or a link to this blog post. I am not a prophet.
What I am is a Magus. Of the Ecstatic Hermetic type. I like the passionate pursuit of power and transformation. I love the burn of the dross as it is consumed, the charred hot dry smell of purified ME in the morning. I love to stand in the power of the forces of creation, and feel it rise up within me in harmony with the power in them and course through me, and into the universe at large. I love watching it take shape in my life, the lives of my clients and students, the lives of my friends who come along for the ride.
I'm a bit of a junky.
When the juices are flowing, God is in his Heavens, his Angels surround you, and You are in your place, and all is right with the world. There's nothing wrong then. You're plugged in, and your will is manifesting, you aren't even thinking anymore, you're just sort of thrilling with the rise and fall of the music as it dances in time to the motions of your wand, like conducting the biggest and best orchestra ever playing the Ode to Joy, or the 1812 overture with full cannon accompaniment. It's fucking awesome, and I love it. And I want everyone to feel it.
And I'm a fatalist. Amor fati, Love your fate. Fate, Will, same fucking thing. Everything you do will work out. It will work out faster if you know what you really want. You could sit there and wait for shit to change, or you can just change shit. It's your choice, your will.
What do you want to do? That's your fate. What you end up doing, that's your Will.
The only thing that changes with this magic stuff, really, is what you're paying attention to, and the technology you use as a result. Eventually, shit happens in your favor, wealth and health and love just fall out of the fucking sky whenever you need it. Spirits you don't even think you need to conjure pop up and make themselves known, and then turn out to be exactly what you needed right when you needed them. Gods bring a touch of divinity to everything you do. You start rubbing off on people just by being near them.
Weird shit.
Happens.
A lot.
Other shit falls from the sky too, especially at first, but it gets better, and better, and better. And then it's fun. Really fun.
It's not a perfect life all the time. Shit gets wrecked for me as much as it ever did, and I still have to deal with it. But I find I'm happy Working on whatever I'm doing these days, whether it's cleaning up leftover shit piles from bad decisions in the past, or diving into the brilliant mysteries of the gods...
I'm not happy about everything all the time, but I get there as soon as I start applying what I learned about using magic to create and influence my world. I don't get what I think I want every time, but I do get something interesting, and I learn a bit more about how to do things.
It's a passion in and of itself.
So in summary: RO is not a Prophet. Just a Magus.
Given your interests, I'll say this is a good title for you.
ReplyDeleteWiki says: "Magi (Latin Plural) is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote followers of Zoroaster, or rather, followers of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which was – in the main – the ability to read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold. The meaning prior to the Hellenistic period is uncertain."
I'd say that Scott+ nails it pretty close on the head, although I will be the first to announce that you do appear to speak prophetically - in particular on the topic of esoterica and occultism. You speak before those two hope to have an experience of your vocation - the Nevi'im were similar advocates. Prophesy has less to do with telling the future or divining future events, rather it is about speaking the truth as revealed to you by your own experiences of the divine.
ReplyDeleteI really did make that comment in a not-totally-serious way - I hope you feel like this has just prompted interesting discussion and not "oh dear God I have a stalker/groupie".
ReplyDeleteI *am* serious when I say that it's interesting that many blog posts by a couple of different magic-doing folks seem to have stuff that really speaks to me these days. I think maybe that's the "rubbing off on people around you" thing you were talking about up there (points up at post).