Sin, Service And Mastery

"If you do not serve yourself, then surely you will be made to serve another.
If you do not master yourself, then another shall certainly master you."

Let me take the time, now, to clarify what the above phrase means to me.

Everybody has habits. Large habits, such as smoking, drinking or bigotry; small habits, such as fiddling with your pen or using irritating cliches all the time.

Most of the time, nobody notices their own behaviour patterns, whilst being highly annoyed at other people's - but once in a while, perhaps in a moment of enlightenment, some of you do become aware of those habits, whether good or bad.

Rarely, those who are aware of their self-enslavement to patterns controlled by their unconscious minds can do something about it.

A book, written for a roleplaying game called Mage: the Awakening, posited a scenario where prospective members of a fictional group called the Clavicularii - Key-Keepers, as in "Keys of Solomon," or goetic magicians - sought out powerful Goetic magics to control and dominate their vices and flaws, to vanquish them so as to emerge from their ordeals as more enlightened, perfected, purified beings.

Their initiation ceremony involves taking the candidate into himself, to a place where he is confronted with the sight of a man kneeling in abject prostration in front of a King in all his regalia.

The man and the King are the same - both the candidate, who perceives himself both as the ruler and the servant.

The lesson here is that a man can behave in a manner consistent with both Servant and Master. And the Clavicularius must always check himself when about to fall into a habit, particularly those under the unconscious' control, and ask Does this behaviour mark me as King or Beggar? Master or Servant? Is my behaviour Noble or Base? Worthy or Unworthy?

The lesson to take away from this is this. Was your behaviour today noble or base? Whose behaviour would you like to emulate tomorrow?

And the day after?

And the next, and all the rest?