We have two worlds. One is real and does not require us to be validated. It exists and always has without us. In six billion years of Earth’s existence, humanity has been here for only four million, and important for only 10 thousand. In that time span the Earth has done well, most of it without us. The other world is also real, but requires us to be validated. We build this world, alter it, and completely exchanged for another on a moment’s notice. I will call, for these pages, the one that is real without us “the Universe,” the one that requires us is the “Theory.”
Maya, as the Sheiks use the term, is the illusion of the theater. To produce a play, the actors take on roles, dressing the parts right to masks of wood or makeup. We dress the stage in scenery and lights, and we give props for the show. Everything is real, made of atoms, mass, energy, and all that. Still, the story itself, and the presentation itself, is an illusion. It is this interplay between the real world and the illusion that the Magus is interested.
A Book of Shadow and Light — a journal of thoughts, dreams, and actions — is a study of the Maya. With our knowledge of Magic, we wish to be directors more than actors. This journal is a memoir of that effort. We perform experiments, and record the results. We ask questions and record the answers. Sometimes, we go back to the questions and find the answer so ridiculous as to be childish. So, we rework the answer, or maybe just the question.
