Your values and beliefs inform your definitions, which in turn are used to help you navigate through life. A magical working also draws on all of these contributing factors. Watch the video to learn more.
Excitatory Actions and Magic
Excitatory actions are the second basic type of action that a magician can use to induce an altered state of mind. Excitatory actions involve hyperstimulating yourself through activity. A runner's high is an example of an excitatory action. The adrenalin caused by the running helps to stimulate euphoric state for the runner, which in turn can allow him/her to ignore more pain and tiredness. The benefit of doing excitatory actions is that they can help you achieve an altered state of mind in a relatively quick and easy fashion. However, it's also worth noting that some excitatory activities don't leave you with as much control. For some people that can be preferable, but it also has its own dangers. Below are some examples of Excitatory Actions: Running, Weight Lifting, & other Exercises: I mentioned the example of the runner's high earlier, but you can also experience such a high with other exercises. Exercising long enough will push the person into an altered state of mind that can be used to focus on a magical activity. I used to do a series of exercises that I would use for my daily practice, to help me exercise my body, while also using the exercise as a purging/purification from whatever issues I was dealing with at the time. It was definitely effective in both regards.
Dancing: Dancing, especially combined with some kind of repetitive, rhythmic music can be used to induce an altered state of mind. I've also witnessed cases where a person would wear an animal skin and do a dance to the animal in order to create a trance state where she connected with the animal spirit. Dancing is particularly effective as a way to invoke the spirit, allowing it to possess your body and move it through dance. A person can just let themselves go in the movement and then invoke the spirit to allow it to take over.
Entheogens: Entheogens are foreign substances used for the purpose of inducing an altered state of conscious. Alcohol is an entheogen as are drugs, both legal and illegal. While these substances definitely work, it's worthwhile to be cautious in employing them, both in terms of avoiding addiction and also avoiding overreliance on them for achieving altered states of consciousness. If you are going to use them, make sure you have someone on hand who can watch over you and keep notes.
Video Games: I include video games, because of the sensory stimulation, and also because played long enough they can cause altered states of consciousness. I've used video games for sigil work and know of one case where a person used a game to help him coordinate his physical exercise. He created a character that represented him and used that character to model the changes he wanted to accomplish with his exercise. It seemed to work rather well. Video games can be addictive, so it's important to employ some caution in utilizing them for magical work. There are cases, particularly in South Korea, where people have killed themselves because they focused on playing games to the exclusion of anything else.
Yoga, Tai Chi, etc: Yoga, Tai Chi, and related activities uses specific postures and motions to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Some movement is slow, some fast, all of it is used to create a hyper aware state of the movement. Moving meditation is an example of a hyper aware state. The focus is on doing the movements and using them to meditate in the process. This kind of movement is different from dancing, because the movement is far more controlled and focused. Moving meditation can be quite useful for both internal and external magical work. The movements can be thought of as aligning the magician with a particular goal or purpose, with each movement directing the magician toward that goal. The focus on movement is ideal for also focusing on the goal, and incorporating the purposeful movement into the achievement of the goal is useful because the movements condition the magician to pursue actions that will bring the goal about. Doing the moving meditation every day conditions the mind and body of the magician to achieve the goals s/he invests into the movements.
BDSM: BDSM involves using pain, either physical or emotional, to create an altered state of mind. It can also involve using sensuality and arousal for the same purposes. For some people a need to submit or dominate will also be part of what puts them into an altered state of mind. In BDSM, you can encounter cases where some use of sensory deprivation is involved, but it's usually done for the purposes of enhancing other senses. The end goal is to create an altered state, which along with the ritualistic aspects of BDSM, makes it ideal for magical workings.
Sex: Sex has been used for magical purposes for a long time. Tantra and Taoism include sexual practices that can be used for magical purposes, and Western magical traditions also have sex magic practices. Whether a person is masturbating or is have sex with a partner or partners, sex can be used as an excitatory action. It does take some discipline and focused will to effectively use sex for magical purposes, and many people who think they are doing sex magic usually aren't, especially if they end up focusing on the pleasure to the exclusion of the specific purpose they are supposed to be focused on.
Excitatory actions are useful for achieving an altered state of consciousness quickly. A person can get caught up in the feeling and sensations and use that to put them into the proper mental space to pursue magical work. But the magician shouldn't focus solely on using these types of activities. A good balance of inhibitory and excitatory actions is wise to cultivate. I've known people who tend to rely exclusively on excitatory actions for their magical work, and what I've found is they tend to be more strung out and find it hard to do meaningful internal work. That said, excitatory actions are especially useful for doing magical work that is focused on the world around the magician. Since such actions already involve raising energy, the magician can easily direct that raised energy toward the specific problem or goal that s/he is using magic to achieve. As I mentioned above with moving meditation, the magician can imprint on him/herself specific goals s/he wants to achieve by using excitatory actions. The actions will reinforce what the magician wants to achieve by fully conditioning both the body and mind to seek to achieve those goals.
Anything I missed? What would you include or add to this information?
Book Review: Practice of Magic (Affiliate Link) by Draja Mickaharic
This is an excellent book for both beginners and advanced practitioners. I was impressed by the clarity of thought and focus, as well as the author's definition of magic. I was also impressed by his willingness to critique Crowley's thoughts and ideas, which is always refreshing to see. The author also provides some useful exercises that can help the magician enhance his/her own practice. What is most evident from reading this book is that the author has done the work.
5 out of 5
Inhibitory Actions and Magic
Inhibitory actions are one of the two basic types of magical actions a person can use to induce an altered state of mind, and in that state of mind do a magical working. Inhibitory actions involve inhibiting sensory information in order to force the magician's attention inward. The benefit of doing this is that it removes sensory distractions from the magician. At the same time it should be noted that there's no such thing as true sensory deprivation. The magician is always experiencing some kind of sensory information. Below are some examples of inhibitory actions: Meditation: The goal of meditation is to focus the attention of the person. While some will argue that successful meditation is being able to empty your mind, I'd argue that empty mind is just one form of meditation. Taoist Water Breathing Meditation doesn't focus on emptying the mind, but instead focuses on dissolving emotional, mental, and physical tension in the body in order to help the person circulate his/her internal energy or Chi. In fact, from my own studies, the majority of meditation techniques are less concerned with emptying the mind and more concerned with teaching a person how to harness his/her internal energy.
All the same, meditation does involve learning how to tune out or ignore sensory information and distractions occurring around you. A good meditator is someone who can meditate in diverse environments with different levels of noises and other such information without being disturbed by it. S/he will hear the noises, or see the people, but not acknowledge them, because s/he is able to ignore it as extraneous information.
Meditation can be useful for achieving an altered state of mind. Moving meditation, which I'll discuss in excitatory actions, is useful for magical work focused on the world around you, while breathing meditation is useful for doing internal health work (physical and emotional), and/or focusing your mind on a virtual or astral environment where you are working your magic.
A good best practice for meditation is to focus on your breathing. When you inhale, breathe in with your diaphragm. There are different types of breathing, but with each type it's still important to breathe into your diaphragm. This allows you to use the full capacity of your lungs and greatly aides in inducing an altered state of mind. Focusing on your breath can also teach you to be aware of your body and the way your internal energy flows. Because breath is a cycle it allows you to tap into the cycle of your internal energy and its circulation. Breath is the rhythm of your internal energy.
Sensory Deprivation: Sensory deprivation involves depriving yourself of one or more senses in order to focus your mind. There are multiple methods and tools of sensory deprivation. For example a sensory deprivation tank is a tool that a person can use to achieve an altered state of mind. The person is put into a tank of warm salted water, with no light. S/he will float in the water and lose sense of his/her body and in the process achieve an altered state. A bath with salted water can also be used. Turn out the lights and get the blinds shut and you can create something of an environment that's ideal for sensory deprivation.
Another method for sensory deprivation involves some kind of bondage or restraint. Putting an eye cover over your eyes, ear plugs in your ears, or having your wrists and ankles bound to restrict can induce a state of sensory deprivation that you can use to create an altered state of mind. When you find that you can't move or that one or more of your senses is somehow restrained it tends to sharpen the other senses, but it also sharpens the mind, which can then be directed. It's important to be careful with bondage. Make sure the skin has enough room to breathe and if your limbs start to get numb, it's time to get out of the restraints.
Dream Work: When you go to sleep you are shutting down your awareness of your body. Your dreams are a way for the mind to process information received during the day, but they are also much more than that. If you can enter into lucid dreams, you can use them to do internal work and for other magical activities. I'll admit, I'm not impressed with Western techniques for dream work, mainly because they mostly focus on keeping a dream journal. I have found The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche to be helpful, partially because he provides specific exercises to do to help you induce a successful lucid dream state.
Inhibitory activities typically take more discipline and dedicated time to learn than excitatory activities. The benefit however is that over time a person is able to enter into very deep altered states of mind and can apply the discipline to all magical activities (and for that matter to life in general). Because the focus is learning to quiet and focus the mind and senses, the magician ideally is using some type of inhibitory activity as part of their daily work.
What else would you include about inhibitory actions? Are there any types I've left out?
An update on the magical experiments course
This is the first year of the magical experiments course, and we are just a month in to it, but already attendees are getting a lot out of the process. Below is one of the testimonials from an attendee. ********
Wanted to say "thanks" for the response. I hadn't heard of mind-mapping before, so I did some research on that and worked with it for a few days, to what I believe is a successful end. I realized I have the most passion and excitement for actual songwriting, and it would be less fulfilling to focus my efforts on the corporate writing, etc. Although uncertain at that point of how the money would come into play so I could achieve my "ultimate goal" most efficiently, I decided to just pursue the song-writing and let the Universe fill in the details in the best way possible -- larger forces know better than me.
So, having come to that conclusion, I had a dream where I was delivered a song title, which I have begun developing into a marketable song I can sell. It's not the type of song that would necessarily fit into my ultimate goal of being a singer-songwriter (not my style, although the message is still something I'm happy to put my name to), so I'm not concerned about "saving it for myself". I'd be happy to sell it and it fits into a market where there is lots of money to be made and songs from independent writers are regularly purchased. I can practice my craft and get some "street cred" as a songwriter, while also accomplishing the financial goal of earning enough money to move away from the day job and pursue songwriting full time.
*******
At this point the 2011 year is closed, but I will be teaching this class again in 2012. If you're interested in taking your magical skills to the next level, then this class will be helpful for you. Best of all you get feedback from other attendees as well, so you're working with a focused group.
Intention, Attention, and Magic
Intention is another vital aspect of the magical process. Your intention can be thought of as your attitude and beliefs, but it is also more than that. It is volitional attention. In other words it is focused attention that is dedicated toward a particular task or activity a person is doing. Thus intention is focused attention directed toward accomplishing a specific goal, activity, or task. A magical working can be one such task. Not all forms of attention fit intention. Paying attention to TV or multi-tasking is a very different form of attention as compared to focused attention. When you are watching a TV show, your attention can be focused, but rarely is it focused on achieving an outcome. Instead it is a passive form of attention, with the person being more or less receptive to what s/he is watching. Multi-tasking, on the other hand, is a kind of attention that is focused on doing multiple activities at the same time. However, it is not focused attention, because you are having to split and shift your attention to different tasks and activities. It's also not as productive as people make it out to be. While a person may seem to be doing a lot, s/he doesn't get as much done precisely because s/he is having to shift back and forth between one activity or another.
Intention, as it relates to the magical process, can also be thought of as focusing the will of the magician. In fact, I would argue that setting intention is the first step in the magical process. You've defined your result and now you need to set your intention to actually get that result. If you've answered the questions in the previous chapter, you should have a good idea of any blockages or beliefs that might compromise your ability to set your intention. If you do discover such blockages, it's important to either assess whether you really need the result, or do internal work to undo the blockages. If, however, you find that all of you is completely in agreement with the result you want to manifest, then it's time to set intention.
How to Set Intention
Intention is volitional or directed attention. Setting intention involves picking an action that can be used to embody and express your intention in your magical process. That activity can and usually does involve creating an altered state of consciousness that is representative of your focus. In fact, for magic to be effective, the magician needs to enter a state of mind where all possible distractions are ignored or removed, where what the magician is focused on is the process for manifesting the desired result s/he wants to obtain. In one sense, your intention is an obsession for the duration of the magical working, because it demands that your attention be completely focused on the process, ignoring all else. As such, an altered state of consciousness is ideal because any such state typically creates a hyper awareness of your process, while excluding anything else.
There are two basic types of action a magician can take, both of which can produce an altered state of consciousness. The first type of action is inhibitory. It involves inhibiting sensory awareness in order to enter an altered state of consciousness. The second type of action is excitatory. It involves entering into an excited, hyper state of activity in order to enter into an altered state of mind. Both types of actions are equally effective for setting intention, though some people may find it easier to use one type of action over another.
Some people think that setting intention is as simple as stating in a verbal or written format what your intention is, but that is new age thinking at its worst. An intention isn't set through a statement alone, but through directed and focused attention. If you can enter into an altered state of mind when writing or saying your statement of intent, then you have set your intention, but for the majority of people, it usually requires more effort and activity than just stating your intent. A person who can enter an altered state of mind by just making a statement is someone who has learned to discipline and focus the mind through years of daily practice. For the rest of us, however, it's important to use specific activities as part of the process of harnessing the attention effectively. This is why rituals, which can involve repetitive actions, are so effective. The repetition of the actions creates a rhythm that focuses the attention of the person on the magical process.
Not all magical activity is repetitious. Drawing a sigil isn't repetitious, but it can still be used to set the intention of the magician. What's really crucial about any activity you use for magical work is that it is an activity that focuses you completely and utterly on what you are trying to accomplish. Thus writing can be a magical activity (as Mr. Burroughs displayed time and again), and likewise painting can be a magical activity. The successful setting of intention is the creation of an altered state of mind where all that exists is the activity the magician is doing. Below are some questions to consider as you determine how you'll set intention.
What activities do I already do that create an altered state of mind for me?
What activity will best express my intention, and focus my attention?
What activity is challenging for me to do, but will also focus my attention?
Results and their role in the magical process
We always get results. We don't always get the results we want. In magic, we are told not to lust for results, but conversely we look to results to prove that magic is effective, and that our magical process works. The reason we are told not to lust for results is because if we do, the obsession we put toward that desired result removes the obtainment of it from us. And I think there's some truth to that reason. I've known people who've become obsessive and let that obsession consume them, which has stopped them from recognizing opportunities that were coming their way. At the same time, you need to know what result you want to achieve in order to create a magical process that will (ideally) get you that result. It is also helpful to be as specific as possible in defining and describing the result. A vague description of a desired result isn't very helpful or useful. For example, if your result is: "I want a job", that's fairly vague. On the other hand if you state: "I want a teaching position, where I make at least 60,000 a year and have opportunities to advance in my school district.", then you have a more specific result that you are aiming for.
Developing a specific result allows you to develop a specific magical process to help you achieve that result. Here are some questions to keep in mind as you define your result:
1. What is the result I want?
2. What are additional details I can include to make the result more specific? Additional details should include anything that you would consider important or helpful.
3. Why do I want this result? How will it benefit my life to achieve this result?
4. Is there any part of this desired result that I don't agree with or feel resistant toward? If there is part of me that feels resistant to it, why do I feel that way?
5. How will I feel once the result is achieved? What will I do with the result?
All of these questions can help you not only develop a specific result, but also determine if it's a result that you can achieve. If you discover that there is resistance toward the result, it's a good idea to spend some time looking at the reasons for that resistance, to determine if the result is something you really want.
Would you include any other questions? If so what would you include?
The Process of Magic
Magic is a process. Strip away all the religious trappings, esoteric terminology, and ceremonial tools and what you have is a process that people use to turn possibility into reality. Understanding this process is all you really need to successfully do magic. Everything else is icing on the cake, and yet, as I'll show that icing is the expression of the process of magic for each person. Your Definition of Magic: The most fundamental principle of the process is the definition of magic that is applied to it. That definition is a description and explanation of magic and its place in your life. Many magicians will rely on the definition that someone else came up with for magic, most notably Aleister Crowley's definition, but I would urge my readers to develop your own definition of magic, instead of relying on someone else's. I've discussed definitions and their relationship to magic at some length in Multi-Media Magic and Neuro-Space Time Magic, but I'll discuss them again in this book to illustrate why it is useful to develop your own definitions instead of relying on someone else's.
Results: We are told not to lust for specific results, and yet if magic is to be effective, we need to know the specific result we are shooting for. This means we need to clearly define what it is we want our magical activity to achieve. Knowing your result doesn't mean you lust for it, but it does provide direction for the magical process you are engaged in and indicates whether or not your magical process is working. A result is the expression and embodiment of your magical process, and it is also an indicator of what you can improve on with your magical process. If you haven't achieved the specific result you wanted, then you need to look at your magical process and make changes to what you are doing. A result, positive or negative, will always provide you information about your magical process and what you need to do to improve on it.
What activities are you doing?: A process is comprised of the activities you are doing to realize that process. Each process has steps that a person performs, so in planning your magical process out, it's a good idea to look at what steps you are taking. If there's a particular order to the steps, then arrange them in that order so that you can look at your process and/or zoom in on a specific step. Knowing the steps you will take to realize a process can help you answer several other questions.
Why are you doing it?: You may be able to answer this question by looking at the desired result you want to achieve, but chances are that while a specific result will contain one reason why you are doing the magical process, it won't provide all reasons. It's good to spend some thinking about why you need to do a particular magical process. What are your motivations for doing it? How will it help you improve your life (or the lives of others)? What need it doing this process fulfilling for you?
How does it work?: How does your process work? Answering this question is essential to understanding what happens when it doesn't work as well as what you'll change about it. You should be able to describe in detail what every tool does, what every gesture or word contributes to your magical work. If you can't explain it, then why include it? Even the role of a deity or an entity should be something you can explain. How your process work, how the steps you do provide you the ability to turn a possibility into reality is something the magician should know. When you know how your process works, it will always work. And when you know how it works you can always improve on it.
Where/when: For some people this will be an important part of their magical process. They might choose to do magic at a particular time of day or week or month. I personally don't think it's that relevant, but remember what I said about your definition of magic. Your process of magic is one that is personalized. If the time of day and where you do something is relevant to your process then include it in your process.
There are some other variables we should also consider that aren't traditionally considered part of the magical process, but nonetheless should be considered because they are very relevant to the practitioner. The practitioner is a key component of the magical process and if we don't consider these variables, then we ignore how we are influenced by them to our own detriment. The beliefs and values that a practitioner has is derived from these variables. Being able to examine these variables will help the practitioner understand how the magical process is allowing him/her to express those beliefs and values or determine if there is a conflict of interest. If there is a conflict of interest, it is suggested that the practitioner go back to the drawing board to build a magical process that accounts for these variables.
Culture: Your cultural background and interests will inform your magical process. What you identify as your culture is an influence that affects what magical forces you'll work with. If you're a Celtic reconstructionist, then you'll want to draw on that cultural information for your magical process. Or if you're like me and you find pop culture to be interesting, then you will want to use pop culture icons as part of your magical work.
Ethics/Morals: If you follow an ethical code, then you will need to consider that code in your magical process. Likewise if you have particular morals that you follow, those will need to be considered. Trying to do a magical process that goes against your ethics or morals will always fail. If you're someone who tends to take a shades of grey approach to life, then you'll likely be able to find reasons that will justify doing the magical process, but I'd still look at that part of your process very carefully.
Ideology: Ideology is another factor to consider, particularly as it pertains to types of magic. If you identify as an anarchist, trying to do some form of money magic will likely be harder to pull off given how linked money is to the structures that the anarchist might oppose. Your ideology can also be a religious belief system and as such that particular system will need to be considered when performing magic.
What would you include that I haven't included? What would you exclude that I've included?
The role of results in your magical process
I think results play an integral role in a person's magical process. If you don't know the result you want to achieve, you can't develop a process that will help you achieve that result. Results help to define and shape the magical process you use. Watch the video to learn more:
What information do you draw on for your magical work?
I recently posted a couple of comments on invocation via Twitter and what I do to do a successful invocation. Someone else responded and mentioned how using Astrological information can be useful. I agree it can be useful, but I also admitted that I never used that information in my workings. Some people will use astrological and planetary information because that's part of what they need for doing magic. And other people will draw on other information. When I do an invocation, I don't always stick with traditional entities. I look for an emotional connection, a feeling of resonance, and attributes and characteristics that I can imitate and adopt. I suppose in some ways that my approach is derived more from observation and a desire to fit what I perceive is the mental and physical state of what I'm going to invoke. I've always found this information to be highly useful and effective for my workings.
The information you draw on for your magical work needs to be information that you understand and resonate with. I don't know a lot about astrology, so drawing on that information wouldn't work, unless I spent some time learning about it and integrating that information into how I do magic. On the other hand, I'm an avid student of human behavior and pop culture and find it easy to work with that information in my magical work.
The ability to personalize your magical workings is essential for really getting the most out of magical practice. This means that while you do make time to learn how others have approached magic, in order to develop a sound foundation, you also experiment with integrating other interests into your magical work, to make it more effective for you.
Book Review: Rebel Buddha (affiliate link) by Dzogchen Ponlop
Rebel Buddha is a guide to finding Buddha within you, as well as exploring the concept of the Rebel Buddha, which is the voice of your waking self reaching out to challenge you. The essays in this book explore Buddhism from a philosophical/lifestyle approach as opposed to a religious approach. I found that I really got a lot out of such an approach, because the author doesn't use a lot of esoteric language. He strips Buddhism down to its core, and in the process asks the reader to do the same with him/herself. This is a book you'll read multiple times and you'll get something new out of it each time.
Magic vs Magick
This is an article that was originally published in 2004 on Suite 101. In my Magical Experiments class, a question was asked about magic vs magick and one of the other people searched and the first result was this article...so I decided to republish it on my blog. To me it illustrates how much can be read into the even spelling of a word. The other day, in my livejournal, I got into a discussion about the word magick and why people use it. It occurred to me that I had been using this word for a long time, so much so that it had become automatic for me to write the word magick, without even thinking about it. I suspect this is also the case with many other magicians who use this word. If we use a word automatically, without thinking about it, can we really appreciate it, or what it represents?
My argument here is basically this: A word such as magick is a word that is loaded with meaning and ideology. A person who automatically uses such a word without thinking about that ultimately doesn't appreciate or realize that s/he is representing more than just his or her own take on a word. Am I being pedantic? Perhaps, but then again how you use the language says a lot about your ideologies and what traditions or beliefs you hold valuable.
The urban legend about the word magick is that Aleister Crowley appended the k to magic as a way of differentiating it from the magic practiced by illusionists and stage magicians. However, in looking through his writing on the subject, I was unable to find any explicit reference by Crowley for the reason he chose to add k to magic. The closest I came to finding a reference to the matter is in the following quote: "I chose therefore the name 'MAGICK' as essentially the most sublime, and actually most discredited, of all the available terms. I swore to rehabilitate magick, to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated, and feared" (Crowley, 1994, p. 127). Now Crowley clearly states a reason for choosing the word magick, but not a reason that justifies the spelling. This matter gets even more complex because many magicians, in fact, use magic, not magick, when talking about their beliefs or spiritual practices.
In the discussion that occurred on my livejournal as a result of my post, one person told me the following: "I'm so used to seeing scholars and other outsiders spell it "magic," and practitioners spell it "magick," that it looks like I'm pretending to be an outsider when I drop the k" (Ulbh-Livejournal Comment). The irony here is that its not just scholars or other outsiders who use the word magic, but also fellow magicians. What's equally fascinating to realize is that the majority of writers in the occult industry do not use magick, but do use magic. Why is this important?
To me, it suggests that the use of the word magick is associated with one specific ideology, in this case Thelema. This word is not necessarily associated with other pagan belief systems and in fact there is sometimes tension between the choice of using magick or magic: "What follows is unashamedly and perhaps blatantly about something which up till recently has always been called 'Magic' (Without the k please, Mr. Crowley!)" (Gray 1984, p. 9). As can be seen, despite the seeming lighthearted joke, there is in fact some tension between the choice of magick and magic. And one author's choice to use magic as opposed to magick is indicative of not just a choice in words, but also ideologies and the traditions that inform those ideologies.
Unfortunately I haven't found any other writing that suggests an overt disapproval of either word. At most what I find are different definitions of what magic is and why it's practiced. And I find two discourses, one discourse which promotes magick, and Aleister Crowley, and another discourse, which uses magic and seeks to distance itself from Crowley. Neither word is inherently wrong to use. I think what it really comes down to is personal choice. But it's also important to know the history of the word you use. Knowing that history allows each of us to make an informed choice. Further it allows us to understand our cultural and spiritual history, which is something we need to know. Such history is easily lost and without knowing why a word is used, you cannot really know the power behind that word or what that choice says about your beliefs and ideologies. You may think as well that using magick or magic says nothing about your beliefs and ideologies, but it does, because people will identify, correctly or incorrectly, the traditions and beliefs that you draw in your spiritual practices. This, again, is why it is important to know the word you use, as well as what it means to others.
When we know our cultural and spiritual heritage, we will also know much of what informs what we do today and why. The attitude that it doesn't matter why you do something or use a particular word is ultimately apathetic, suggesting as it does that you don't really care about what informs your beliefs. Knowing the why of a matter, the how it came to be, is essential to knowing what can be done by using a word, by representing yourself and potentially other people of your beliefs. I know, if nothing else, that for now I'll use use magic, if only to question why I previously used magick so automatically that I didn't think about it.
Knowing why you want to do magic part 2
In one of my previous posts I asked if you knew why you were doing that magical process or activity you were doing. Here's a video with some further thoughts on the subject:
Do you know why you're doing that magical process?
"In these endeavors we do not need to know HOW magic works, only that it does. We prove this by doing the work, recording the results and sharing our information with other magicians" -- Grant Morrison I have always found these two sentences to be contradictory. It seems to me that if you want to do the work, record results, and share information, you necessarily do need to know how magic works. If you don't know how it works, how can you really know if it worked at all? For that matter, I also think you need to know why you're doing a magical process, spell, or working.
Why?
From my own experience, it seems that when you understand your personal readings for doing any kind of activity, it makes it that much easier to do the activity consistently, as well as get results that you want from it. When you don't know why you're doing something, not all of you is fully behind doing it. If you don't understand the benefit of doing an activity, then even when you do it, you won't really know if it's actually gotten what you wanted from it.
Knowing why and how to do something is essential for understanding the value of it within your life. It's not enough to simply do it, if you don't understand where that activity fits into the living of your life.
Bune Business advice
I'm starting a new business that focuses on applying internal work to dissolve blockages in a person's life so s/he can discover his/her true potential. That's the gist anyway. If you want to learn more visit the Inner Alchemy website, follow me on Twitter or Fan my new business on Facebook. I'm mentioning this on here, because while internal work is a passion of mine and something I consider an important part of magical work, I want to focus my posts on here on other aspects of magical work, while using the new website to focus exclusively on internal work.
But there's another reason I'm mentioning it as well. I believe in following one's own passion. It's what you feel passionate about that really makes you live your life as opposed to just letting it pass you by. In October I did a working with Bune and the focus of my working with him was to inspire in how I could bring in more business. I've actually done well this year with my core business. I doubled the amount of business, which is really good, but Bune focused my attention on the internal work and asked me why I wasn't doing anything with those skills. It was a tough and good question to ask.
When you bring in outside consultants (in this case the goetic demon Bune) the reason you do it is for their perspective, which will look at what you're doing with fresh eyes and lots of questions. My working with Bune didn't automatically bring me new business to my existing business (though I did actually get a couple new clients in Nov and Dec), but he did inspire me to look at what my other passions are and asked how I could use them to bring more business. The result is a class on magic, which is starting tomorrow (there's still time to enroll and I offer payment plans) and this new business I'm starting.
I have no doubt as I continue to work with Bune and follow through on his suggestions that he'll offer additional advice. It'll be up to me if I follow it, but my working with him illustrates something I've realized again and again about magic: "You always get what you need, even if you don't always get what you want." I'll admit, I had different ideas as to how Bune would help me, and yet with how matters turned out, I can honestly say I'm much more pleased with the results and looking forward to seeing what the new year will bring.
Happy new year and magical blessings to you.
Magic and Causality
Magic involves taking a possibility and increasing the chances that it will become a reality. There are different processes for making this act occur, but it all boils down to turning possibility into reality. However, for a possibility to become reality, a person has to also already be doing something to realize that possibility. For example, two people I know were doing job hunting. They utilized magic as part of their job hunting effort, but realized that they needed to actually be doing job hunting to make their magical work effective. In one case, the person creating a job hunting entity that would help her network and get interviews for a specific type of job with a specific income range. She was already doing job hunting for this type of job (and had been for four months), but shortly after she created the entity, she landed her first interview. Although she didn't land that job, shortly after she landed a position that allowed her to network with people that would be her potential superiors if another position opened up. Approximately six weeks after the creation of the entity, another similar position opened up and she was interviewed and got the job. Was the magical acts alone responsible for her getting the job? No...but magic increased the possibility that she would get the job she was looking for.
In the second case, another person was also looking for a job due to being notified that he would be laid off. He did a working to Bune, who gave him advice that essentially told him to get his life, in general, in order. In turn Bune would provide him the job he wanted. This person took Bune's advice and got his life in order both at home and at work, consequently showing his employer why they needed to keep him on. A couple of weeks after the working, He was told that his current employer had decided to keep him on and they would provide him the training he needed. Was the magical act alone responsible for him getting a job? No, but it did motivate him to take some necessary actions and seemed to push a situation more into his favor.
The causal aspects of magic focus on influence...It's like rolling dice, but the difference is the magic weighs the dice in order to improve the manifestation of specific possibilities into reality. That's one way to look at it anyway, but I also think there's something to be said for recognizing how much a person's perspective or belief about a particular situation influences his/her awareness of opportunity in that situation. Magic, if nothing else, is a process for opening a person's perspective and allowing him/her to see and utilize opportunities that s/he was otherwise ignoring.
In different situations in my life, the application of magic has helped bring about specific results that I wanted to obtain. Whether those same results would've occurred without utilizing magic is a moot point, because what I have always found is that when I've utilized magic, the results occurred shortly thereafter, which indicates a causal relationship. Whet6her it's all in my head, or a very real force, the fact that I can obtain results consistently speaks to the efficacy of magic and its role in my life.
The proof of your success
The proof of your success is found in your daily choice to live by your principles and live on your schedule. Your principles are your values and beliefs, and you choice to follow them may not always get approval from others, but should always get approval from yourself.
Living on your own schedule doesn't mean you don't work at a job. It means you're choosing to live life on your terms, right up to and including how you choose to make a living.
Achieving success involves takes risks to gain what you value. But they should always be calculated risks, ones thought over, and planned out.
Don't compromise what you believe or or how you live your life because of someone else's self-righteous judgment. Your only judge is yourself, and the standards you set yourself.
Taking responsibility for your actions means you choose to change because you recognize the value in changing. Apologizing for a choice isn't enough; You need to follow through and make changes for what you genuinely feel remorse for.
Internal and External Realities
It's tempting sometimes to create a duality between the internal reality of a person's psyche and the external reality of the universe. It's important to recognize however that such dualities are illusions, created more for our convenience. That convenience is ultimately a blockage, and when we get rid of it we find that our understanding of the universe and our places within it is more readily changed.
Simplify your magic
I recently had someone contact me about a situation that was bothering her and she wanted some advice. I ended up telling her to revisit the situation in her memory and re-live the memory, but in the process change her actions. She asked if it was really that simple. And yeah it really is that simple. Some people have this idea about magic, that it needs to be complicated, and you have to have the right robes and ceremonial gear, etc., and for those people that might be the case, but I prefer simplifying my approach to magic. To me simplifying magic means being able to look at the magical operation and determine what is actually needed to accomplish it. Then look at everything else that's included and ask what role it serves. For some people what is needed will differ. For example the ceremonial magician may very well need to have all the ceremonial tools because using them puts him/her into the headspace to perform the magic.
For me, what I typically need is to be able to apply creative processes to my magical work. This is why painting and writing and drawing play a large role in my practical magical processes. I also rely on internal work and meditation, but I I find that utilizing a creative approach simplifies my magical work.
It all comes down to customization and being able to create a methodology that fits your identity and how you express yourself. The methodology does need to conform to the rules of magic, so it's not that you want to go and make up something, but when you have a solid foundation, it's worthwhile to experiment and see how you can personalize and simplify your magical work. It'll be much more effective for you if its something you can apply to yourself and it fits how you express yourself.
Why I do Magic
I got into a couple of interesting conversations this week and in the process realized once again that why I practice magic isn't to get anyone's approval or acceptance of what I practice or get the general community to accept my practices.
Corticotropin and Betalipotropin - Taylor's Report
Corticotropin showed up as a white snake. It explained that it helps with the stimulation of adrenalin and helps with the focus a person has in moments of stress. As an interesting note corticotropin also helps with the lipoprotein uptake uptake into cortical cells, which increases the availability of cholesterol in the cells of the adrenal cortex. Betalipotropin showed up as an alligator, easy going but also quick to anger and explained that he primarily helped with the stimulation of anger and related emotions.
What love magic won't do
I'm re-reading The Passionate Marriage (Affiliate link) by David Schnarch. It's an excellent book for any type of romantic relationship and my re-reading of it has already allowed me to recognize nuances that I'd missed the first time around. And perhaps most telling for me is something which I think applies to any area of life, whether its love, finances, work, etc. Namely you've got to work at a relationship to make it work. When I think about love magic, I think of the stereotype of the rejected lover who decides to do love magic as a way of getting his/her ex back. And sometimes it works, but in a disastrous manner where the effected person doesn't so much love the person as s/he is obsessed with the person. Kind of like the guy in the movie The Craft (Affiliate link). He can't stop thinking about the girl who cast the spell on him, even after she's no longer interested in him. And what love magic can't do is it can't really make someone love someone else. It can, when done right, put you into circumstances where you meet your next lover, but its still up to you in the end.
And there's something to be said for actually loving yourself, as cliched as that may sound. It is hard for other people to love a person that doesn't feel some degree of self-respect and love. It quickly becomes apparent if the person doesn't feel that way about him/herself.
Love magic won't make a person love you, or make you love yourself. That work is on you. At best love magic can increase the possibilities that you'll meet a person that fits your circumstances. Or it may help you come to a better understanding of your own issues with love, if you direct it toward yourself. Love magic isn't the cure for the missing date at Valentine's Day.
Love takes work. It's a beautiful feeling to experience, but once you get down to it, its more than just a feeling and really experiencing it involves learning a lot more about how you communicate with others and yourself about your needs, while also learning to listen to their needs. Remember that before doing any love magic, be ready to fully handle the results that come your way!
Book Review: The Nine Doors of Midgard (Affiliate link) by Edred
This is a curriculum of rune work that teaches people about runes from a variety of angles including rune yoga, chanting, and pathworking. However, it's also much more than that. It's a program that's designed to teach you how to fully integrate the runes into your life so that you can use meaningfully. It's a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn runes, but I would also recommend getting the recommended reading that the author points readers to. This isn't a book for a beginner or a book just to be read. It is a book that opens doors to new experiences and it is on you to actually go an experience what it offers.
5 out of 5