Prometheus Unbound

Promethean Magic

Why the best spiritual practice is the one you invent yourself! 

The myth of Prometheus inspires a yearning for freedom in spiritual pursuits. There is no need for the memorization of liturgy, spells, ceremonies, arcana, and call-and-response recitations. Instead by focusing the will; directing the mental energies; synchronizing your mind, body, and emotions with the natural world; and — possibly — summoning unseen forces or entities—all things that are part of traditional ritualistic and ceremonial practice—are best approached in a mood of impulse, anarchy, and anything-goes effort.

This is not the dismissal of the study of esoteric and ethical philosophies. But once you have assimilated the rulebook, or many rulebooks as the case may be, you must throw it away and dance on the edges of your intuition. This was true in a different line of work for the 20th century’s great abstract visual artists, such as Pollock and Dali, who knew quite well how to paint portraiture but at the first possible moment vaulted past expectations. Metaphysical seekers should demonstrate the same agency. Anarchic magic means that you can, and sometimes must, abruptly depart one line of practice and just as abruptly begin another. Such a schismatic act can bring special power. Beginners and latecomers to any field often become its innovators.

The model for this anarchic magic is Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and enlightened humanity. Prometheus is a cosmic figure with special relevance to seekers. Are you willing to try something revolutionary like this, or something like it, in your own surroundings? Or are you too “serious” to venture such a rebellious exercise? The wish for respectability, observed spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti, is the greatest deterrent to selfhood and progress.

The declaration of anarchist revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876): “I cleave to no system, I am a true seeker.” The informal motto of anarchic magic. Mitch Horowitz invites you  “to run past everything you know, forget all your “respectable” spiritualities — and see what you find. When you do find something — and I am confident that you will — do not coddle and nurse it for too long. Do not remain still.” 

When astrologers want to understand the archetype that underlies a zodiac sign, they look to the mythological stories that center around the deity that rules the sign. But astrologers have had a challenge when it comes to Aquarius. This sign’s ruling planet, Uranus, may have been misnamed. The myth that surrounds the Age of Aquarius is the story of Prometheus not that of Uranus. Prometheus is the Titan god of forethought and crafty counsel who was given the task of moulding mankind out of clay. Just like Aquarius, the god Prometheus was somewhat of a rebel. 

The deity Uranus is not one that has much mythological tradition surrounding him. There are not many stories to look to in discovering the meaning of this sky god.  We know he was father to Saturn and that Saturn overthrew him, we know he was a primordial sky god. And that’s about it. No long tales to tell, no intricate personality quirks.  And the things we do know about Uranus only fit Aquarius marginally. It’s occurred to one astrological thinker that there is a different deity whose stories and personality do fit the qualities of Aquarius, and that would be Prometheus.  The astrologer is Richard Tarnas, whose discovery and line of thinking are detailed in his book, Prometheus the Awakener.

There is one figure in ancient mythology who epitomizes the destiny and the meaning of Aquarius.  That figure is Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods. His inspiration and his suffering are part of the Aquarian myth. As the myth goes, Zeus, King of the Gods, was jealous of the aptitudes and abilities of mortal men.  So he withheld from them the use of fire - the symbol of creative spirit - would have made them too much like the gods. 

This myth contains many themes which are profoundly important to the deepest meaning of Aquarius.  The noble impulse is the brightest face of the sign - a selfless impulse, from which Prometheus can expect no personal gain.  His gift was given because he saw the potential of the as yet undeveloped human race, and because he felt it unfair that their own potential divinity should be withheld from them.  His payment is also important to the psychology of the sign, for it implies that the gift of fire - whether we interpret it as knowledge, creative power, recognition of godhood - costs dear.  Nature resents her secrets plundered, or, putting it another way, the gods do not like to share their divinity. An echo of the Prometheus myth may be found in the myth of the Garden of Eden, where God jealously guards his godhood by forbidding Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - and the tree of life - lest they become like gods.  Prometheus is also the serpent, the goad which insists that knowledge is better than blind faith.  

To Aquarius, knowledge is always superior to blind faith. Aquarius has no room for superstitious devotion; and he also has no patience for unexplained authority.  To him, all individuals at the end should be their own ultimate judges. And he will, if necessary, defy the gods to obtain their secrets. 

The dedicated scientist who plumbs the secrets of matter and the universe is truly Aquarian. In earlier days, this probing mind, dedicated to truth, would have been burned at the stake as a heretic, because of the defiance of the authority of religion.  To the modern world defiance of religious belief is still a heresy, although the times are changing as we enter the Aquarian Age. But man's demand to know more about the universe around him, to penetrate to the secrets of the meaning of life, is part of the better face of the Age of Science.  And Prometheus willingly makes the sacrifice, and endures his agony, which after all is not eternal. 

Prometheus, is the inventor, the magician, the liberator.  It is this planet which symbolizes the strong drive in Aquarius to find freedom, to pierce the veil of the mysteries, to shatter hidebound structures.  The Promethean side of many Aquarians is predominant, and they are iconoclasts in one way or another. They foment rebellion - figuratively or literally - because Prometheus drives them to seek freedom.

The tale of Prometheus contains a number of themes that connect with the Aquarian temperament and mark him as the originator (planetary ruler) of that temperament.

1. Prometheus loves humanity.  The sign of Aquarius is well-known for producing individuals who are “people persons.”  Some Aquarians love humanity more as a concept and less in terms of one-on-one relating, but Aquarians are famous for standing up for human rights.

2. Prometheus demonstrated a refusal to support monarchy, holding out instead for decentralizing power.  This strongly parallels the Aquarian tendency toward political activism and democracy. Aquarius comes down solidly on the side of the people as opposed to Leo, its opposite sign in the zodiac, which represents monarchy and centralized power.  The best illustration of this is that around the time of the discovery of the planet we call Uranus (which, should be called Prometheus), revolutions began happening as a phenomenon. Speaking of the French and American revolutions. The people joined together and rose up as one against an oppressive monarch, on two continents at the same time.  These revolutions were soon followed by more revolutions, in Russia, China and elsewhere. Since the middle 1700s, revolution exists as a thing in itself, as it never before used to. When Uranus was discovered, the Revolutionary that lay hidden in humanity’s collective unconscious reared up and was activated.

3. The theft of fire from the gods and the giving of fire, with all its power, to humanity, was an act of rebellion on the part of Prometheus.  He was a rebellious god, stuck in his own ideas and doing his own thing. He was a trickster. In a similar vein, the planet Uranus brings out a quality of rebellion in people when it’s strong in their charts.  Uranian types tend to be rebellious, reactive and strong-minded. They sometimes enjoy rule-breaking for its own sake.

4. Fire itself represents insight, inspiration and one central symbol for Aquarius is lightening.  We speak of thoughts having the speed of lightening and ideas striking us like lightening. Thought itself is the passing of electrical impulses in our brains—and it does happen at a lightning-pace.  Sudden insight and the overthrow of old thought-structures is at the very heart of the archetype of Aquarius—and it’s the source of the famous Aquarian inventiveness.

To live fully into one’s sun sign it is sometimes necessary to invite a god into one’s life.  Aquarians, your god is above all things a rebel, a revolutionary, a paradigm-shifter and rule-breaker.  Your god loves humanity, even when that’s not the popular thing to do. Your god is willing to take the hit for humanity and endure great suffering and pain in order to take a stand for humanity’s right to be just a little bit godlike.  Your god gave us the gift of startling ideas and brilliance. He deserves the biggest temple you can build him.

As a Promethean Magician, they may choose to work with planetary systems throughout the universe– but if not, they pass down select paths in consciousness leading out of our solar system and into cosmic realms. The Promethean magician continues upward, inward and onward to greater expansion and Self-realization until finally Cosmic-consciousness becomes once more their own divine perspective.

What is Promethean magic? Magic is the use of a greater law of nature to offset temporarily a lesser law of nature. Magic is nothing less, nothing more.  

All magic is based on the conscious knowledge and the full control of three basic and major laws of nature: the Law of One, the Law of Three, and the Law of Seven. The new aspirant who learns to think synthetically (Law of One), three dimensionally (Law of Three), and in seven-fold planes or dimensions (Law of Seven) can soon exhibit magical powers. The Law of Duality is another subordinate law of the Law of One. It is usually the first major fully realized and controlled Law in the life of a magician.  

The magician simply wields the unique forces contained within these various laws to produce his spectacular results. In the process, he or she must always make use of a greater law or force to control a lesser force.

It is also an innate law within man that he yearns to be free. He longs to exercise total free choices in the world, to have conscious dominion over the forces of nature that now blindly immerse and surround him within an awesome spectrum of great agony to majestic glory. The magician, who has unveiled these laws of nature and learned to discipline, gains conscious liberation from all of the limitations of matter. 

The Promethean magician knows that everyone is fully divine. Source is within all of us–within every atom–but how much? This vital knowledge of how much or how little God-force resides within any aspect or form of life makes up the alluring and highly fascinating textbook of the new aspiring Promethean magician. 

Only when the introspective human being realizes that he is not the body, not the emotions and not the mind does he awaken to his true self-identity as a living ever-immortal soul. As long as he erroneously continues to identify with any one– or all–aspects of his lower self, his true “higher self” will be a mystery to him.

There is logical and clearly scientific reason– esoterically speaking–why the Age of Aquarius is the Age of Magicians. This particular cycle or age embodies the energy of the Seventh Ray, known technically as the Ray of Ceremonial Order and Magic. The reason why the occult or magic has become so accentuated at this time is that Earth is also in direct alignment with the greater cycle of Aquarius. Not only the advanced disciple or initiate in these formerly secret mysteries, but also modern science itself has moved into the subtle realm of ritual. The paradigm of Promethean magic unites science and religion in the service to liberation and enlightenment.