A Strategic Lens with Magic -

Photo by Nadine E on Unsplash

In my previous article, I talked about the importance of taking a 2X approach to magic instead of a 10X approach to magic. One of the reasons that I take this approach is that I am applying a strategic lens to the magical work that I am doing as it applies to my overall life.

For many people, magic is reactive. They apply magic in the moment to fix a problem that has arisen in their life or to trigger a short-term reaction that helps them reach a desired result. What is not often applied is a strategic lens that examines what the consequences of achieving that result will be or how achieving the result will affect you down the line. This lack of foresight or planning can often create unintended effects that cause you to scramble in your life. You may end up doing more magic in order to resolve the consequences that have occurred because you didn’t take the time to fully map out what you really wanted, not just in the short term, but for the long term.

Magic never happens in a void. It is always situational, based on the context of our lives and the events, people, and places that are present. Yet although it is situational and based on the context of the moment, we can still apply magic with a long-term lens that helps us design our lives.

An Exercise in Long Term Planning

I want you to imagine, as an exercise, yourself as an old person. You're on your deathbed. What kind of experiences has that person had? What kind of life has that person led?

If you were to ask that person a question, one of the best questions that you could ask is: "What is it that you want me to do that you wish you had done?" This question creates a very intentional awareness of your life that prompts you to explore what you actually want for yourself, not just in the short term but for your overall life. For instance, do you want to live in a home that you purchased? If so, that's a long-term decision.

Putting the mortgage payments aside, One of the things that you may want to think about with that home is how long you would want to live there and what you would need to do in order to make sure that that home is livable as you get older.

A strategic approach to magic looks at how magic can be applied to help you achieve the outcome that you want while also considering the variables that are inevitably going to occur in your life, such as getting older. Although we can never know the full extent of how our lives will unfold, what we can do is apply strategic planning to our lives in order to create the desired outcome we want to live.

Free Guide: Why your Spells Don’t Stick – 5 critical mistakes blocking your magic

You aren’t getting the results you want.

And trying to figure out what isn’t working with your magic feels intimidating because there’s so much to track.

Let’s make this easier for you.

Stop guessing and start taking action with our FREE guide - Why Your Spells Don’t Stick.

Get your FREE Guide

Why we don’t think of the long term

The reason many people don’t focus on the long-term application of magic is because they’re focused on the here and now. It makes sense because that’s what we’re living with. We’re living in the here and now, but the reality is you’re likely going to get older. You’re likely to have changes in your life that affect your ability to do certain things, and you also want to think about your future not just in terms of ease and comfort but in terms of the overall quality of your life.

The lack of a strategic lens in Magic is reflective of the lack of a strategic lens in your overall life. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and in all fairness a lot of this is because the standard of living and the cost of being able to afford things is pretty high. Nonetheless, one of the things that a person can do is choose to save some money. Even if you were to save $5 or $10 a month, each month, that is going to be that much more money that you have when you need it for down the line or if you have an emergency situation.

A similar approach to magic can be applied where you start creating the circumstances in your life that favor you for both the short-term and the long-term moments. This means that you can do magical work to help you achieve a short-term outcome and at the same time you can ask yourself how this will help you achieve a long-term outcome, such as more financial stability or a high quality of life even when you’re older.

Article continues below…

Build your Magical Life with Legacy Magic

Learn how to create spells that last a lifetime.

• The art of creating long-term magical workings that continue to influence your life after the first ritual is complete.

• How to use magic to build a life time of results, instead of one moment.

• How to calibrate and improve your life and magic through long term magical work.

Legacy Magic is for practitioners who want their magic to mature from isolated acts into sustained influence.

When my Magical Practice became Strategic

I didn’t always have a long-term perspective when it came to magical work. I did a lot of short-term magic, especially in my teenage years and 20s and early 30s. My main focus was on solving the immediate problem in front of me. This is something which is typical for a lot of people. What we see in front of us is the most pressing problem so that’s what we apply magic to.

I began to change my focus to the long term when I started to see how the choices I was making in the short term were nonetheless having an impact on my life down the line.

I realized that as long as I was making short-term decisions, I wasn’t effectively planning for the rest of my life. I knew that it was important to respond to the immediate situation but I began thinking about how that response would also play out in the long term.

What really brought this home for me was getting divorced in my early 40s and realizing that I was starting all over with my life. I couldn’t afford to make short-term decisions anymore. I needed to be thinking about what was going to happen to me down the line and what I was going to do to make sure that I took care of myself.

The truth I’ve also come to recognize is that even when I plan for the long-term strategy, there are going to be short-term experiences that will change what the plan is. This is true for all of us. You can plan for the long term and nonetheless have a variable enter into your life that changes the equation dynamically. For instance you meet somebody and that person changes the entire direction of your life because you choose to be with that person and you want to see where things will go. That can change your plan significantly.

The key approach that you want to take with long-term magic is that you consider the direction of your life and you plan for those variables. If someone comes into your life, for example, you ask yourself: Does this person match my values? Does this person fit in my life in the long term not just in the short term? This kind of thinking can seem a little bit cold and clinical but it’s really designed to get you to think very carefully about your choices, so that regardless of what happens you are taking care of yourself, your life and your legacy.

“Where is this ultimately taking me?”

Whether you have a question about a specific situation or want a general reading, I have answers for you. Get guidance and support around topics including:

• Love and Relationship Support

• Career Questions

• Strategic support around important decisions

• Business plans

• In-depth exploration of your general life situation.

Why we need ritual with magic: A reflection on what ritual brings to our body and being

It was hot and bright day out, the kind of day that perfectly fits the Summer Solstice. It was close to noon. I got up from my computer and started collecting the materials I needed for my impromptu Solstice day ritual.

It had been a little while since I had done a proper magical ritual. I cast spells and do workings, but I don’t always add the formal ritual to those workings. But it had been awhile and I felt a deep longing for ritual burn with me. Today deserved something formalized for the sake of what I was calling in and for myself.

I pulled out a box of crayons and a small square piece of paper. I grabbed my rod, my drum and its beater and I went outside to my backyard.

I set everything on the ground other than my rod. I paced a circle calling in the directions, elements and spirits. I got close to the ground and called in mama. I raised my rod to the sky and called in the cosmos. I called in the Sun in all its forms and names that I know.

After setting the space and the time, I sat on the ground and I colored my own representation of the sun. Once I was done, I stood up and held my little sun to the sky and asked THE Sun if it would grant a bit of its light so I could keep that light for the winter Solstice to help the sun begin its journey back from the long night. Then I beat a drum as I walked in a circle and I did an impromptu chant as an offering to the sun.

I closed the ritual and thanked the spirits, the sun, the land and then I put my drawing into my ritual box. And afterwards I thought to myself, I really needed this.

Why we need ritual

I talk a lot about practical magic. I’ve developed my fair share of practical magic techniques and for the most part they don’t require ritual. They require focused attention, and ritual can be one way to accomplish that, but there are other ways as well.

Yet there is something to ritual that is essential to the lived experience of being a human. Ritual gets us out of our heads, into our bodies, and connected to something deeper and wider than all of us.

I don’t do formal ritual all of the time. I reserve it for specific occasions or when it feels called for. I can’t deny though how it lands in me. There’s a reason we crave ritual, in general. Ritual provides meaning and connection in a world that often feels disconnected.

Article continues below, but first…

Tower Time is officially available!

When the Tower falls, a magician is forged.

You didn’t come to this path to stay safe. You came to wake up.

Tower moments are initiations that tear through your life without warning, but they are not mistakes or punishments. They are thresholds. And every serious practitioner of magic must pass through them.

In Tower Time: Turn Crisis into Catalyst with Practical Magic for Radical Change magicians Taylor Ellwood and Sheena Witter hand you the keys to navigating collapse as a crucible of magical development. This book is a tactical guide for transforming crisis into power, rooted in decades of lived experience, shadow and somatic work, and practical sorcery.

You can order from retailers OR order directly from us.

What stops people from doing ritual

I think what stops people from doing ritual is the perception that ritual is complicated. And certainly it can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

I didn’t get dressed in a fancy outfit or pull out a bunch of ritual bling for my solstice ritual. I brought exactly what I needed and nothing more. And I brought one other essential element: My presence.

When I do a ritual, the phone stays out of the circle. When I do a ritual, the focus is on the ritual itself and whoever I’m doing the ritual with. I give myself over to the ritual and that creates the magic of the ritual.

The effect it has on my body and being is really fascinating because there is this felt sense of relaxation that comes through as I do the ritual. The ritual creates an intimate connection between myself and what is called in. There is presence and energy that lands through the entire space of the ritual.

The next time you decide to incorporate ritual into your magic, keep it simple. The focus isn’t on all the objects. It’s on using what’s needed to make the contact come alive. Every gesture, every word, and every tool serves the purpose of ritual. Anything that doesn’t serve the purpose is extraneous and unneeded.

Conclusion

I beat the drum and I came up with words in the moment praising both the sun and the dark. The words weren’t planned. I just knew they were the right words. I let the ritual work through me and I trusted what it brought me.

It brought me to the Sun. It brought me to the Dark. It brought me to the union of all things and in the process it brought me to myself. The best rituals do that. They bring you back to the self that you didn’t even know you were out of touch with.

There are no shortcuts in magic (or in life)

Every so often I get requests where a person asks me to help them obtain special powers through magic. In this episode of the magical experiments podcast I lay down the hard truth that there are no short cuts in magic and life and share some of my experiences and stories learning this truth. You’ll also learn why experience is the best teacher and how to let go of unrealistic expectations.

Can you influence peoples' minds with magic

What is the connection between telepathy, empathy, ESP and magic? In this episode of the magical experiments podcast I explore that question and share some of my own experiences around psychic perception and magical work. I also discuss the ethics that can be involved in this kind of work.

Combat and Protection Magic

Can I get Life Changing Results with Magic?

I was recently asked if it was possible to get life changing results with magic. In my latest episode of the magical experiments podcast I answer that question and offer a few of my own:

What is a result?

What makes a result life changing?

What needs to change about your life to make a result stick?

Magical Experiments Podcast : Can I do multiple types of magic?

In the Magical Experiments Facebook group I was recently asked the following question: “Is it okay to do different types of magick at the same time, for example I am delving into PGM, Heptameron, and working with a deity (hekate)?”

In the latest episode of the magical experiments podcast I answer this question and share some thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of working with different types or systems of magic at the same time.

Magical Experiments Podcast: Is Magic a Quick Fix Solution?

Have you ever tried to magic your way out of a problem?

In this podcast episode I answer the question: Why do people think magic is a quick fix/solution to “mundane”problems, or issues that require “mundane” work.

I also explore the connection between the “mundane” world and magic and show that any division between the two is arbitrary and then share examples of how to marry the mundane to the magical.

Magical Experiments Podcast: Return to Sender Experiment

Sometimes the best response to a situation is to call back what belongs to you, while also returning what doesn’t belong to you. I recently decided to do a return to sender working, using a meditation shared by a friend. I have been working with it a few days and I have noticed some experiences that I have found useful. I share my thoughts on this work in the latest episode of the magical experiments process.

How grounding yourself improves your magic

When you think of the word grounding, what do you think of? What I think of when I consider grounding is the importance of being in presence in the moment I am in a way that connects me across all the levels of my being: Physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Let’s considered what grounded means in regards to each of these states of being.

Physically grounding yourself means taking care of your physical needs. For example, you should be making sure you get enough sleep each night. You also want to make sure your eating healthy food, moderating your use of substances and getting exercise each day. When you are grounded physically, you are also able to listen to your body, feel into the sensations it provides you and as a result adjust your lifestyle. A grounded person, physically is someone at peak health.

An emotionally grounded person is a person who is able to feel their emotions and be aware of them without reacting to them. They know that their emotions aren’t their identity. They are experiences the person is having. They provide valuable information that the person can use to be present to the situation they are in and at the same time the emotions don’t overwhelm the person. An emotionally grounded person is able to open to their sensitive heart and be fully present in a way that turns the emotions into energy for the situation and for the magic.

A mentally grounded person is someone who is aware of their thoughts, but doesn’t let their thoughts control them. They can be mindfully aware of their thoughts and consider them carefully without indulging in the monkey mind awareness that causes the mind to go in circles and circles. A person who is grounded mentally has clarity of thought and awareness and applies that clarity to help them make sound decisions.

A spiritually grounded person is in touch with their spiritual energies and with their allies. They are connected to the spirits around them, but don’t let that connection overwhelm them. They are able to see through the veil of time, but don’t let their oracular vision fool them into believing that their knowing is always accurate. The spiritually grounded person learns how to cultivate internal and external sources of energy and knows when to draw on them.

The grounded person overall knows when to take a rest from magic and other activities and also knows when to move ahead. They know how to monitor themselves, take care of the essentials and stay healthy in all the ways mentioned above. At a given time, you may find yourself ungrounded in one of these areas. When you do orient toward that area and do the work you need to do to get yourself back on track.

How to accept where you are to get what you want

Are you feeling stuck?

Caught up in the uncomfortable Discomfort?

I share how to turn that stuck state upside so you can get better results with your magical work. When we learn how to accept and relish the state we are in, that’s when we open the doors to potential and unlock the possibilities that we’ve been holding back because of how stuck we felt.

How to improve your energy work

Do you feel like you can’t sense energy?

Do you struggle with figuring out what to do with energy work?

I’ve got you handled. I’m going to answer these questions and share some tips to help you become a better energy worker.

And if you want to take your energy work to the next level, sign up for Advanced Energy Alchemy, starting August 10th.

How to dissolve emotions with energy

I share how you can use qi gong to help you dissolve and release emotions so that you can express them authentically or let them go. I also share how this work can enhance your magical work and help you get better results.

How to Turn Tower Time into Opportunity

I discuss how to turn your tower time into opportunities for growth and change. While it can be hard to go through a tower time it is also an invitation to change. I discuss how to use tower time to uncover opportunities for change and growth in your life.

How to be Present with Tower Time

I share how to recognize Tower Time in your life and describe how the Tower can actually be a really useful and powerful card and energy that shouldn’t be avoided. Instead we can welcome it and use it to help us transform our lives and turn the tower energy into momentum that works in our favor.

Saturn Retrograde Reflections

I share some reflections on Saturn Retrograde and what you can be doing right now with this particular cycle. I also discuss the importance of reflecting, evaluating and assessing your life, career, etc, when dealing with Saturnic influences.

The Rules we live by define the magic we work

I’ve been taking a number of classes lately around men’s work and self-development and in one of the classes, there’s an exercise where you define your code of conduct, as a part of a process of learning how to master yourself and become the man you want to be. I think this exercise is applicable to anyone regardless of how they identify as a gender. What’s fascinating to me however is how the rules a person lives by (or lack thereof) define the magic that the person works, and indeed how the person surveys and experiences the world.

I’ve also been reading a book about this same topic where the author defines some rules to live by, so as to bring order to a chaotic life. The rules he shares are insightful because they aren’t moral rules so much as they are practical rules that define the way people tend to organize themselves, both within themselves, with other people, and with the environment they live in. This illustrates to me that there are chosen rules, i.e. rules where a person says I’m agreeing to live this way because this rule or value resonates with my deepest identity and I want to consciously show up with that way in my live. And then there are systemic rules, rules set by society at large that may favor some people over others and encourage a conformity in order to potentially benefit from your position. And finally there are environmental rules, which are rules that operate outside of human consciousness or control. These are rules all of us deal with and they aren’t easily altered, if they can be altered at all.

A life that operates without rules is a chaotic life, a situational response that always tries to adapt to the moment, but creates little, if any, stability. I have lived that life and I have found it to be an unsatisfying life, because there is little certainty or consistency that comes with it. Over time, with lots of effort, I’ve reoriented my life toward living a more orderly life. And even now I am continuing that process because I find that the more I define my life by rules that make sense and organize my way of being, the more focused I get with creating the life I want to live.

The rules we live by define the magic we work. As you get more and more clear around your life and the rules you live by, it shapes your outlook on your life and it shapes the magic you work. It creates the container in which your life operates, and the expectations you have around that container. Some of those rules are consciously chosen, and many of them are unconsciously chosen. The ones that are unconsciously chosen usually arrive from a combination of ancestral and familial patterns of behavior and societal norms and values. The rules that we consciously choose are ones we pick for ourselves based on an awareness around something we want to change in our lives or a way we want to behave in the world, in order to achieve specific results.

Magic is one process that can make us aware of the rules we’ve unconsciously chosen because it brings us up close and personal with our desires and it allows us to see what’s getting in the way of accomplishing those desires. Many people use magic to bend the rules of reality or find some angle that gets them what they want, but in that process they necessarily ought to take a moment to know themselves and discover what is it within them that is calling for that desire.

Sometimes what we discover is that we create rules for ourselves based around our shadows. For example, if you find yourself in a consistent situation where you are continually getting rejected by people around you, there is likely something within you that craves something about that rejection. You might find that statement odd, but consider that the rejection is a symptom of a homeostatic state of being which is comfortably uncomfortable. You know that state of being. It is familiar to you and there are no surprises to it. It ends with you being rejected, but at least you know to expect that. The problem is that leads you to settling for less.

You can only break this rule when you figure out what you getting from it that satisfies you. And you are getting some kind of satisfaction, even if it is the satisfaction of feeling comfortable with the situation, even though you don’t like it. It becomes a rule of your life, until you break it, and make a new rule, a consciously chosen rule, that you live by. Of course there can also be subtle variations of the former rule and what you’ll need to do is a deep dive into these variations and iron them out and in the process change your relationship with yourself and the agreements you’re making with the universe.

The rules we live be define the magic we work and the results we get. What are the rules you are living by? What are the results you’re getting. If you’re not satisfied with them, it might be time to do some deep work around transforming them so you can also change your life.

Inner Work leads to better results

I discuss the relationship between inner work and result. When we do inner work it helps us get better results because we know ourselves and we are living a life by design and by specific values. Inner work helps us figure out who we are and what we want and how to manifest it.

What's underneath the Squiggle: An Exploration of Sigils

picture copyright Taylor Ellwood 2024

Lately I’ve been finding myself fascinating by sigils and symbols again. Whether you’re conjuring a spirit with a sigil or creating a custom sigil for the purposes of manifesting a desire into reality, what makes sigils so versatile is how they can symbolically represent and mediate specific transmissions of information. Yet what’s underneath the sigil?

What’s underneath is something the sigil can’t quite describe or represent. The sigil presents a face to the world that allows us to make sense of the intangible and give it a form we can relate to. It allows us to pack ideas and concepts into the shape and recall them and it allows us to send them out into the world, to create a path of manifestation that turns essence into form and imagination into reality.

Yet a sigil is more even than that. It is a structure that creates a container to describe the essence that is being worked with, whether that’s a spirit’s essence or the essence of a desired result. The sigil becomes a key to unlock that essence and also learn the essence and make it part of your being. The symbol internalizes the essence within you and it becomes manifest through you.

The reason sigils work so well is become of how they work through us. The sigils embed themselves in our consciousness which in turn is acted upon through our actions. It’s a chain of manifestation that acts on the path of least resistance. The sigils, as symbols, are accepted more readily by our consciousness and seed the mind with possibility which then becomes reality, by the convergence of the outer variables of the world and the inner actions of the person.

The sigil is a story as well. We can get to the heart of the story by meditating on the sigil. If the sigil is for the spirit then it becomes path to the spirit that allows the practitioner to interface with the story. If the sigil is for a possibility it speaks to all the variables of the possibility. What’s underneath the squiggle? A universe waiting to be explored.

The commonalities of magick

Different magical traditions and systems and practices are actually more alike than different and why a lot of times the differences have more to do with our own subjective opinions than the actual substance of what is practiced. I also share why its continually important to learn other systems and traditions of magic, even when your practice is mainly oriented around one system or tradition.

Constructing a personal cosmological system of magic

I discuss how to create a personal cosmological system of magic and what the benefits of creating such a system are, as well as how it can transform your overall approach to magical work. I share an example of a system I’m currently refining and developing and the medium I’m using to represent the cosmological system.