the magic of writing

The latest podcast interviews I've been on

I have been getting interviewed a lot lately, both solo, and with my magical mate Joanna Brook and I thought I would share them.

I was interviewed twice by Chaos Vibrations. In the first interview we discuss living a magical life and in the second interview we talk about my newest book Scrying the Divine.

Joanna and I were interviewed by Vic Hyland about creativity, divine inspiration, poetry and cutup magick.

Joanna and I were also interviewed by the Knights of the Nephilim about mediumship, spirit work and magick.

Copy writing, magic, and persuasion

One of the books I’m reading right now is Book Blurbs Unleashed by Robert J. Ryan (Affiliate link). I’ve been using the book to help me improve my copywriting skills, when it comes to developing book blurbs. A book blurb is a description about a book that gives you an idea of what the book is about, but also is written to persuade a person to give the book a chance. Anytime you read the back cover of a book or a description in an online store, you’re reading a blurb.

I’m okay at writing non-fiction blurbs. They’re pretty easy to write because you’re presenting a just the facts explanation about what the book is about. But with fiction blurbs I’ve struggled because I’ve never written them before. I picked up Book Blurbs Unleashed, because I knew I needed some help crafting a good fiction blurb.

The power of what you say and write

I recently finished reading The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie (affiliate link) and one of the things that intrigued me about the book was the author’s focus on the power of words. In the book, the gods have to be careful what words they speak, because if they speak something and it’s not true, it drains away their power, because their power is trying to make it true. Whereas if they speak the truth, then the words channel their power and makes what they say real.

It’s an interesting rule for that world, but it made me think about the power of what we say and write. My next non-fiction project is The Magic of Writing, which explores how writing can be used as a magical tool, but also explores the power of the word in general. One of the ways I have explored the power of the word is through how what is written or said does have an effect on one’s life.

Statements and questions as magical tools

I was watching a video recently where the person being interviewed made a rather interesting statement. He claimed that statements limit and/or close off probabilities, while questions expand probabilities. I thought about it and found myself agreeing that if you look at how language is used from a probability angle, then yes language can be used to either limit or expand probabilities. Let’s consider that angle in further detail.

A statement is typically used to declare an opinion or a fact. From a probability perspective, a statement would seem to typically limit the probabilities available because a statement is describing and defining what is being stated. What we need to understand about statements is that in doing all of that, what’s really happening is a defining on the basis of the agenda of the person making the statement. A statement is really an attempt to describe what something ought to be. And that is pretty accurate in terms of limiting the probabilities through language, because if we’re describing and defining what something ought to be, we’re also trying to rule out what it shouldn’t be.