God is a watchmaker. This is why time is a problem we are unable to solve. It's the last obstacle. And yet, so much successful magick relies on knowing what time it is.
For example, the Talmud suggests that one should not begin studying Kabbalah until one is 40 years old. Professor Wolfson, an expert in Hebrew Kabbalah, states that 40 was chosen because, hopefully, by that time, one is mature and has reached some stability and balance in their life. By then, one would have married, raised their children, and could now enter a more leisurely time conducive to studies. The number 40 holds a more mystical meaning, but that is the subject for another day.
Most people see mythology as a collection of lies without considering why they existed in the first place, why they were accepted as truth, who wrote them, the political climate at that juncture, whether or not those myths repeat themselves over time and space, or why. Myths are important.
As I get older, some of my peers act as though their magick is slowly fading away with their youth. They reminisce about times when they could open up portals into other realities, and their eyes get watery mourning for the loss of the power they had in their youth.
I don't have that problem, and I'll tell you why. That so-called "power" is the imagination; thankfully, we all have it. When we are young, we realize that everything is possible so long as it can be imagined, provided it does not conflict with physics or science. The world is filled with possibility. Many people think physics and science limit the ability to perform magick because it limits the reach of the mind, whereas I see it as something that helps magick become real.
No. Youth has nothing to do with anything. Vision, imagination, idealism, and the desire to have something better than we're born into. That is what opened up all those portals when you were young. If you can no longer do that, it is because you have put all of your eggs in a culture that only values money and things or have bought the illusion of the Demiurge world wherein a person is judged good or bad based on how much they can produce and consume. American culture only values contributions in the form of labor or commercialism. We have to remember how to be children again. That's the magical solution to the metaphysical dilemma. You still have that power. You've only to discover it again.
Let's end the myth that the Shadow (ooooh... spooky) conceals only horrors and shame. If you want to believe in magick again or find true love in a world in which we all live in perfect Harmony: if you want to find God, the "one true God whose name is Love" as Bill Hicks so elegantly put it, you have no further than to look for those things than your own Shadow, because that is where you put them when you found yourself with the prospect of having to give up your dreams, ethics, and happiness to survive. They're still there, along with many beautiful virtues, ethics, and truths about yourself.
There's a lot of magick that takes place right under our noses. We take those things for granted only because we understand them. Somehow understanding has taken all of the mystery and the wonder for everyday magick. For example, consider the magick of synesthesia and how commonplace it is. How a good book can evoke beautiful images in our mind's eye, or how music played in just the right way with just the right amount of cadence can cause us to cry, laugh or even see the color and shapes of the musical note. No drugs are required.
Speaking of time, we are only in these bodies for a short while. Remember: A Roomba is cleaning up at the center of every universe. Get busy.