Build the foundation to Build your Practice

 

I'm reading The Sacred Cross by Anastacia Nutt. She makes an interesting point about beginner techniques. A practitioner can be in a real hurry to "learn" a beginning technique and move past it to the more glamorous practices without developing the necessary repetition of practice that informs the use of any technique. The result is that the person over extends and finds that their foundational knowledge and practice are lacking, which can cause problems for the person, as well as bringing him/her back to the necessity of starting over again. It's something I've seen happen before with other magicians and it is a trap that weeds out people who aren't doing the necessary foundational work to build their practice into something reliable.

In my own practice, I'm always looking for ways to improve my foundational knowledge. I figure that even if something seems basic, it probably isn't, because even with the most basic exercise you can uncover layers of experience if you are willing to work it on a daily basis. Daily practice brings with it a way to get to the heart of a technique and make it into an experience that moves you and establishes patterns that allow you to work with your internal energy and with the energy of the cosmos and underworld in a manner that reveals a way to foundationally connect yourself to the universe. Think about a daily practice you do. How long have you done it? How has that practice changed over time? How have you changed as a result of doing the practice? How has your experience of the world changed as a result of doing the practice?

A broad foundation supports the more advanced practices you do and allows you to go in deeper with them because of the discipline you've learned by doing the basic practices. When I first started practicing magic I spent a couple years just practicing the core essential skills of daily practice. The daily work allowed me to explore how magic applied to my life, how it fit with everything I did. It taught me to live magic, as opposed to just doing it for a holiday or to solve a problem. With a strong foundation of practice you live magic because it is part of your everyday life. You are doing it to deepen your connection to the world, to the inner contacts, to the universe, and everything else between.

Living magic is the point of doing the foundational practices. It's not reactive magic. It's intentional, focused...an exploration that leads to more mysteries. All of my experimental work has come out of doing the daily work, because of the insights I've gained in doing that work. It's fair to say that a lot of the experimental work happens during the daily work, because I understand how to take the daily work and turn it into an opportunity for experimentation. The daily work also leads to doing more involved work which may not happen everyday, but when it does happen requires that base level of experience be up to snuff in order to effectively do the more advanced working.

Your daily work builds up your magical muscles as it were. If you don't do the daily work it's not as easy to advanced work and there can be consequences if you aren't ready to do the work, because the daily work isn't even just about building your magical muscles, so much as its about teaching you how to prepare yourself to do the deeper work. A lot of the daily exercises that seem repetitive and boring come in handy when you need to use them in the course of doing more advanced work. For example, my stillness practice has been very helpful for helping me reach deeper states of altered consciousness as well as clearing my mind of distractions. It's a simple practice, but the benefit of the practice is that those abilities are on hand for situations where I need them, both magically and mundanely. Look at your own work. Do you have the foundation in place to support the deeper work you'd like to do? Does that foundation help you in your everyday experiences? If so then you know you're applying that daily work in ways that are paying off and helping you build a strong practice in your life.

Two perspectives on Mediation

Until a couple years ago I never came across the word mediation in context to occultism. However in some of my more recent readings, I have come across the term and it was interesting to note how the term is used and what it means in the esoteric sense of the word. I thought I might share the perspectives I came across on this blog, and then share my own thoughts on the topic.

In Spirit Speak by Ivo Dominguez Jr, Mediation is defined as the following: "In mediation, communication takes place through what appears to be a blending of consciousness between the mediator and the Spirit. In truth it is better described as communication by the use of resonance and mutual induction that results in the replication of pieces of each other's consciousness. One of the components of mediation is the highest form of clairsentience where there is no visible seam between sensing and knowing."

In Living Magical Arts by R. J. Stewart, Mediation is defined as the following, "Mediation is the function of a priest or priestess; a mediator is one who intercedes or acts as an interface between Divinity and humanity... In magic, however, mediation has more precise meaning, based upon the important truth that we all contain Divinity or the original Being within us, just as we are all contained within the Being of the universe. In true mediation, any individual may reach deeply into the states of consciousness where transhuman entities are met... In mediation, a human acts as a focus or gateway for the consciousness of such transhuman being."

If we look at both definitions we see some similarities. Mediation involves a connection with an inner contact or spirit being, where information is exchanged, but also where the spiritual force of the being is transmitted through the person to the world. you are simultaneously invoking the spiritual contact and evoking it by transmitting it to the sacred space you are working in.

One key aspect to understand about mediation is that it going inward to establish contact with the inner contacts. What this means is that we understand that to make a connection we have to find the connection within. William Gray, in Magical Ritual Methods, discusses this in context to using ritual sounds in magic. He explains that while we are making sounds, we aren't just transmitting those sounds to the environment around us, but also to our consciousness, and helping our consciousness become receptive to connecting with the Inner Contacts. The sound is used to condition us, to put us into a space of altered consciousness where we can interact with the spiritual forces we want to connect with. Mediation is an extension of this idea, fully describing what occurs when we mesh our consciousness with the inner contacts we have access to.

For that matter, symbols perform a similar function, providing a focus for the magician that allows him/her to connect with what the symbol represents. One of the reasons I paint is to create personalized symbols that represent the mediated connection between myself and the spiritual entities I work with. The paintings are representative of the meeting and mediation of my consciousness with the consciousness of the spirit being I'm working with.

In thinking about mediation, one conclusion I've come to is that mediation can extend past connecting with an Inner Contact. Mediation can actually involve a connection with the universe...and that when we perform a magical working where we want to manifest tangible results to change the world around us we necessarily need to bring that change to the universe and mediate it. For example, in chaos magic, a magician uses a sigil to represent a specific desired outcome. The sigil is seeded into his/her subconscious with the goal being that it'll gradually maturate into our consciousness and in that process of embodiment bring about the realization of the desired result...however we could take it a step further and not only note that it's seeded in our subconsciousness, but also seeded in the universe and mediated by the act of gnosis the chaos magician achieves when charging and firing the sigil. The sigil is brought to the universe, and the magician mediates a changed universe where the possibility of the sigil exists as a reality. This changed universe is then embodied by the magician and brought back into everyday consciousness where it becomes manifested as the new reality. This has been my experience with practical magic work in general and it shows how the principle of mediation can be usefully applied to achieve more efficacious results in the workings of the magician.

Book Review: Spirit Speak by Ivo Dominguez Jr

This is a book you should read more than once, because with each reading you will uncover something new. This book is written with a variety of audiences and experiences in mind and what you uncover in one reading will change as a result of the experiences you have with the material and with your spiritual life. Certainly this book will be one of the books I keep in my library as a must read text that guides my own spiritual development. Ivo simultaneously imparts complex ideas in a manner that is approachable for all, while also insuring that the reader gets the right level of information for his/her level of experience. This is not something most writers could do, but Ivo does it admirably. If you're only looking to buy one book on magic this year, this should be the book.

The Process of Magic Round 9 Starts May 21st

Magic is a process that changes you and your relationship with the world, if you understand how the process works.  

In this 24 lesson class, we will explore what the process of magic is and how it applies to you and your magical work. If you’re looking for a different perspective on magic that explores the underlying principles of how magic works, instead of focusing on the tools, ceremonies, and other optional features, this class is for you. Round 9 starts on Wednesday 21st. To learn more about this class and what you'll learn visit: The Process of Magic

Reincarnation and Resting on Your Laurels

 

I'm reading the Old Sod, which is a biography of William Gray. One of the themes that comes up in the biography is reincarnation. Apparently Gray's mother believed that she was the reincarnation of a lover of Eliphas Levi and and one of the initial teachers of Gray believed he was a reincarnation of Eliphas Levi. For that matter I seem to recall that Crowley believed he was a reincarnation of Eliphas Levi. I've never really understood the fascination with reincarnation or why people feel compelled to claim they are the reincarnation of famous person x, but nonetheless it seems that it's been quite fashionable to claim you're the reincarnation of someone, as if that somehow passes on legitimacy. The problem I have with reincarnation, as it applies here, is that even if you are the reincarnation of person x, it doesn't matter because you aren't that person anymore, and an investiture in a past incarnation is an attachment that could be quite unhealthy.

For example, lets say you believe you're the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley. How will you ever measure up to that previous incarnation? I think that such an identification can lead to a resting on the laurels of someone else, without really challenging yourself. I was this person in a previous life and now I don't really need to apply myself because of that. It's ridiculous, because even if you are the reincarnation of such a person, you aren't that person now...and it shouldn't really matter.

I've never been interested in figuring out who or what I might have been in a past life. It's the past and right now I'm Taylor Ellwood and that's all that matters. I'm here to have experiences, learn and share and live for as long as I have life. And when I inevitably slip the mortal coil and go onto wherever I go to, that which is Taylor Ellwood will be subsumed to the primal essence that underlies it all and be returned to the universe...and should that essence be reincarnated it will be as someone else with new experiences to have, new things to learn, and new things to share. I hope that future person won't have the hubris to claim it used to be me or feel a need to return to this life.

I suspect that reincarnation matters to some people because they want to feel that some aspect of their personality lives on in later lives, but your personality is temporary and holding on to it as a form of attachment, brings with it all the foibles and faults that person had, without any guarantee that you'll necessarily have the skills and gifts the person had. It should be enough to be who you are, and let that being speak to the experience you are having now. Whoever you were is gone...now is your moment...embrace it as an opportunity to be in this moment, to learn and to let go of false attachments that do no good and will ultimately only hold you back.

How you can rewrite function in magic

In a previous post I defined function as an action that is supposed to occur within a process, in order to move that process along. I wrote another post where I used an example to explain how functions work in a magical process, namely as actions that lead to or connect with other actions that move the process along. Now we're going to explore how to rewrite a function in a magical process. When a process of magic doesn't work the way you expected it to, then you need to examine the functions of that process and likely rewrite them. A function is really the description of the action and how it ought to work. It is your understand of that action and how it executes a principle of magic in order to fulfill the process. Thus what you are rewriting or changing with the function is your understanding of that action and how it ought to work.

It's important to recognize the distinction of rewriting a function based on description as opposed to action. The action performed may change as a result of how we change the description, but we are changing the description so that we understand how the action works and can accordingly perform it to realize the process. When a process doesn't work, its usually because the magician doesn't fully understand what is happening. That lack of understanding allows for variables in your magical process that can change what happens. In a sense, what understanding does is define the path of possibility and lock it in, so understanding is not only important in terms of knowing why actions occur and how magical principles inform those actions, but it is also important in terms of locking out unneeded variables and possibilities.

When you rewrite a function, you first examine it in terms of what ought to happen and ask why the action didn't happen the way it ought to have. What you'll likely discover is that the function doesn't connect to the next function in a way that is understandable. We humans need to know how something connects in order to fully accept that it will connect. And this mean that the connection needs to be logical or rational. It could be irrational, but it needs to make sense and if it doesn't make sense what that demonstrates is a lack of understanding of what the function is supposed to do and how what occurs fits in with everything else happening in your magical process.

Once you discover what the issue is, you need to rewrite the function. This involves changing what occurs when the function is executed so that it connects to other functions and makes sense to you when doing so. What this reveals to us is just how important it is for a given magical process to make sense to us. If it doesn't fully make sense, some part of us will reject it and that is what will truly sabotage the magical working. This isn't a matter of psychology, as much as it is a matter of comprehension. The way we comprehend the world and our own actions necessarily informs the magical work we do. To neglect that or assume it doesn't matter is to reject a crucial element of the magical work: Ourselves and how we execute the magical work through the functions we perform and our understanding of those functions. I don't think this aspect of magic is discussed enough or if it is, its fashionably written off as being psychological, but I'd argue it's not psychological. It is a recognition that the magician is at the core of the magical process, and that his/her understanding of that process and the functions of the process is a key part of what makes the magical process work. S/he may understand the process and functions in different ways, spiritual, psychological, informational, etc., but however you categorize the understanding what matters is that s/he can can connect the process to the result in a manner that makes sense and enables him/her to execute the process and manifest the magic into change that transforms reality.

The Equation of Working with Entities

Sometimes, in my approach to process and applying it to magic, I like to look at a given process in terms of an equation. An equation elegantly lays out the dynamics of a process, demonstrating what it takes to make that process work. When we explore the process of working with an entity (spirit, daemon, etc.) the equation we are using to describe the process of that work is based on the relationship we have with the entity, as well as our understanding of the relationship the entity has with the universe. I'd argue that our understanding of what a given entity does is subjective, because our understanding is situated through a human perspective and in general what you see written about entities has more to do with the type of relationship they can have with a person than has it to do with what their relationship is to the universe. When you do see their relationship with the universe written about it, it's written in a way which is very mechanistic, as if the entities were cogs in a machine. Again, I think this understanding of their role in the universe is subjectively biased and as such may not be as accurate as it could be.

I've written previously about my decision to take a non-anthropocentric approach to my work with entities, including the work I'm doing with the microbiota within me. The reason I've taken that approach is that I've realized that to really understand and work with entities I need to be wary of applying the subjective lens of my human based consciousness upon them. Even with entities like the Goetia who could be argued to have an anthropomorphized form, it's important to recognize that they are likely taking that form because it is expected of them or because they recognize its the easiest way for us to conceptually understand them. One problem with such imagery is that it can create a false impression of an entity. For example, modern day imagery around angels usually involves a human shaped being with wings on its back. Sometimes you'll even see cute baby angels with smiling faces. However, if you've had contact with an angel, such an image bears little truth to the reality of the angel and holding onto such an image allows us to only connect with the angel on a superficial level (if we connect with it at all).

If, on the other hand, we recognize that our perspectives and awareness of entities are limited we can open ourselves to experiencing them more directly. This can have its own dangers. My own experience of working with angels hasn't typically involved the modern day imagery, but rather has involved feeling their presence. When I feel the presence of an angel I feel its force, its function...in other words I feel what it embodies and does for the universe and my relevance to that entity is very minuscule, based on a criteria which essentially asks: "Is this encounter relevant to my function?" If the answer is no, then the angel isn't going to waste time on me. If its yes, it'll put some time toward me, as it relates to the function it performs. The danger in such an experience is that if the person isn't ready to handle such an encounter it can throw them for a loop. In that sense, the safety that imagery and visualization provide is this: You have a less direct encounter with the actual presence of the entity and what it represents. That imagery provides a filter or screen of sorts, which helps your mind, energy, etc. process the experiences you have with the entity, whereas if you take a more direct approach, you are working with a more primal form of entity and this can be overwhelming if you are not used to doing such work. To work more directly with an entity involves allowing your subjective preconceptions and filters to fall away and open yourself to experience the feeling of the entity, the feeling of the force it embodies and represents. To do this carefully, I suggest gradually working toward that experience, as I share with an example below:

When I worked with the element of fire for a year, I gradually evolved my practice to move away from working with the associations and attributes used to describe fire, to working with fire as a direct primal force. The shift away from attributes and associations was useful because it allowed me to realize how much I'd anthropomorphized fire. When I didn't work with the anthropomorphic aspects of fire, I experienced fire as an element in a direct manner that was humbling (always a good thing imo) and allowed me to come away with a much more nuanced understanding of fire as a force of nature. I didn't think of fire in terms of sexuality, passion, or anger. I experienced fire as a force of heat, warmth, and destruction, as well as rebirth. However this process took the better part of a year to achieve. First I had to recognize the limitations of the imagery, associations, and attributes that usually went hand in hand with fire. Then I needed to open myself to working more directly with fire by asking if I could experience it as a raw primal force. I was cautious in making that request and what I did was work daily with fire via my meditations and other daily practices, but I would only allow myself to go so far as I felt I could handle what I was experiencing. If I felt the experience was too much I backed off from it and did appropriate banishing and aftercare. By taking such a gradual approach I was able to get comfortable with that raw experience of fire and consequently understand it in a different way that I'd not had access to before. I apply a similar approach to working with entities.

Let's bring this back to the equation part of this post with two thoughts to entertain. The first thought is this: What you put into the relationship with an entity is what you will get from the relationship with the entity. We can take that statement a number of different ways. For example, how we approach an entity shapes its interactions with us. If we approach an entity with fear, then it will undoubtedly recognize that fear and draw on it to shape the experience with you. Similarly if you approach the entity with respect, the entity will recognize that and factor it in accordingly. Similarly if we approach the entity with a specific image, attribute, or association in mind, it will respond to and use that image, association, or attribute (though not necessarily in ways we'd expect). Entities don't necessarily have a fixed form. They will appear in whatever way is most effective to work with you, and I'd argue they may also choose a more experiential model if that's appropriate for working with you. Likewise what you bring to the interaction influences what they bring to the interaction. If you give respect, you are more likely to get respect, but don't assume that will automatically happen and be aware, as best as possible, what you are bringing into the equation.

The second thought is this: An equation has a defined result. A relationship can also have a defined result. Be clear on what you really hope to get out of the interaction with the entity you are working with. If you are clear on your intentions and clear on the ideal result than it can help you determine if you should even contact the entity. In my magical work, in general, I always define the result. By defining the result I can determine what, if anything I need to employ. Defining the result doesn't guarantee you'll get the result, but it certainly makes it much to work with an entity because you can present it with what you are hoping to accomplish with its aid.

Finally, I suggest trying the non-anthropomorphic approach to working with entities. I find it to be more effective because it strips away the masks and allows you to work with the entity on an experiental level that is not always present when anthropomorphism is employed. While that direct experience brings its own risks with it, it also enables the magician to get a much better grasp of the entity, not only in relationship to the magician, but also in relationship to the universe.

Spirit Cord Experiments

Since I took R. J. Stewart's class on the Spirit Cord, I've started reading his book on the topic and I've continued doing my own magical work with it.  Some interesting experiences have happened as I've worked with the cord. I've integrated my work with it into my daily practice, as part of my experimentation, but I've also worked with it in relationship to entity/spirits work and dream work and in each instance have found it quite useful. The spirit cord also has some applications for space/time magic, which I think will be useful in my continued work with that area of magic.

Daily Work - I've integrated the cord into my daily work, with a specific purpose in mind. When I do my daily meditations I wear the cord and I send part of the meditation into the cord, for the cord to remember. Specifically I send part of my altered state of consciousness into the cord, so that when I do the meditation the next time, I can call upon the remembered state of being to slip more easily and quickly into that state as I do the daily work. Each time I've done this I found that it has been quicker and easier to enter into specific states of awareness and consciousness associated with the daily work I do. I've done some of the daily work without the cord and noted that it doesn't come as quickly, taking the usual amount of time it would have prior to me using the cord.

Entity/Spirit Work - One of the ways the cord can be worked with involves utilizing it to make a stronger connection with spirit guides you are working with. I recently did some with a couple of entities and as part of that work I incorporated the bonding ritual that is used with the cord. I've found that doing so does seem to add an a dimension of connection because the cord essentially "remembers" the relationships you've forged with other beings. When I wear the cord in the midst of doing magical work with a given entity, I draw on the memory of the connection as well as the actual work I'm currently doing to re-connect with the entity and I've felt a stronger connection as a result.

Dream Work - I've taken to wearing the cord every other night when I sleep. I do one night on and one night for several reasons. First I want to determine if there is an actual difference in sleep and dream work experiences when I wear it vs when I don't wear it and secondly if there is such a difference I also want to consider the need for deep sleep vs dream work, as dream work doesn't necessarily provide as full a night of sleep as the body might need. So far, what I've discovered is when I wear the cord at night I have very vivid dreams and I can recall the dreams in the morning, whereas when I don't wear the cord, I don't typically remember the dreams or remember very little.

Space/Time Magic Work - The spirit cord operates on the principle of connection, but also of memory. Both principles are integrally tied to time and space. Memory is fairly obvious, in that the cord is used to remember states of being, entities, etc., but the connection principle also applies because is used to connect, to measure one distance from another, or one time to another. The cord also serves to establish continuity and keeps that continuity alive through its use and memory aspects. An interesting exercise that Stewart includes in the book is to attach the cord to a peg in the ground and then try to move with it. What you'll find is that you can move toward or away from the peg (which could be considered linear time) or you can move in a circle around the peg, which is a rhythmic and perhaps non-linear version of time. He actually suggests doing this in relationship to understanding time.

I'm still reading the book and working through the exercises, but I find that this practice has already enriched my ongoing work immeasurably. There's a lot I'm getting from doing this work as it relates to my own interests, but also doing the work as part of a magical tradition that I am integrating into my life. I look forward to sharing more as I continue to do the work and experiment with it.

My problem with demons

Recently Josephine McCarthy made a post about entities, including demons, which demonstrated a problem I have with how Western Occultism, particularly Western ceremonial magic traditions depict demons. In her post, she depicted demons as malignant entities that want to harm people. The problem with this depiction is that its based on Christian beliefs about what demons are and when magicians draw on that perspective about demons, what are they doing is drawing on Christian concepts to describe something. That alone should make any magician question whether its accurate or justified.

If we look at the word demon, we discover that its derived from the Greek word Daimon which originally meant spirit of wisdom. When Christianity came alone, the Christian leaders had a vested interest in depicting the spirits of other religious practices in a light that made those spirits seem evil or corrupt. Thus the word demon came along. And the medieval grimoires that discussed such entities depicted them in that way because the authors were Christian and knew they had to do so if they didn't want end up burned on the stake. Perhaps they even really believed what they wrote, but we need to critically question it, factoring in the political, religious and historical context that has been used to present the information.

In Western ceremonial magic, there is an uncritical acceptance of the word demon and the description used to define such beings. That uncritical acceptance leads to evocation practices where an entity is summoned and compelled to do something by calling on the names of other entities and threatening them with those entities. Now I don't know about you, but if I was coerced in that manner I'd be pretty unhappy about it too.

My own experiences with demons has never been negative. I do refer to them as Daimons, using the proper terminology. And I work with them. I don't coerce them into doing something they don't want to do. I don't strike bargains where I exchange my soul in exchange for material delights. What I do is develop relationships with them, much like I would with any other spiritual contact I make. And much like any such relationship, what I contribute and what they contribute defines the relationship. However I want to note I've never suffered any adverse effects as a result of working with Daimons. If anything, they've enriched my life and spiritual practices.

I think its high time the magical community recognizes that the word demon and all of its associated meanings comes to us from a religion that has demonized our practices. Do we really want that perspective in our magical practice? Do we even need it? In my opinion, we don't and I find that its counter-productive to getting effective magical work done.

Edit: Josephine published another article on her blog where she clarified her perspective and did a great job of defining the magical work involved.

Some thoughts on teaching magic and where money fits into it all

Recently I came across this post by Josephine McCarthy about Magic and Money. She had some interesting points to make about teaching classes on magic and how when money is brought into the equation it changes the dynamic. In particular she noted that some magicians try to make teaching classes their main income stream (which imo isn't a very good business model as I'll explain further below) and that the material they teach sometimes ends up being modified in order to please the student (a bad idea in my book) or modified to be more commercially viable.

I have started teaching weekend intensives, so when I read this post it gave me a lot to think about. I'm just starting out, designing my classes and putting a lot of thought into what I'll teach and how I'll teach it. Above all I'm mindful that what I teach is something that could have a deep effect on the people choosing to learn from me so I know I need to be prepared to guide them carefully, while also encouraging them to experiment (which is my preferred approach to magic). I've written a number of books on magic and I have taught smaller classes. I've even developed a correspondence course, which thus far has seemed to have been beneficial for all the people taking it. Still I know that as a teacher I'm taking on a responsibility to my students that is significant and must always be considered. I'm also taking on a responsibility to the material I'm teaching because its something which needs to be accurately conveyed.

I don't think that teaching classes is the most effective business model out there, which is why it's not my main stream of income (and likely never will be). Much like writing a book, the monetary return you get from teaching classes is not as significant as you might think. When you write a book, you have to factor in not only the time spend writing and promoting the book, but also the time spent researching for the book. The royalties you receive don't even begin to cover the amount of time spent writing the book. This is why its really important to be clear on why you are writing the book. You are writing it because you feel that you have a message you want to share. You feel a calling to write that book and you realize its more important to write it than not to. You also recognize that unless it becomes a bestseller you're unlikely to make back your investment of time and effort. The same applies to classes.

With a class you need to factor in time spent prepping class materials, as well as the cost of said materials. You also have to factor in the cost of the place you are renting, the cost of food and gas (and possibly lodging) the time spent traveling to and from the class, and the actual teaching of the class itself. And if you're like me and you believe in providing actual follow up teleconferences free of charge so that people can ask questions and check in with you about their experiences, then that's additional time that's being provided. As such the actual cost of a class doesn't necessarily net the amount of profit that you might think it would, especially if you also know that you can only teach to a certain class size and still effectively present the material. Of course there are ways to minimize some of these costs, especially with modern technology, but if you're like me and you actually prefer to teach face to face and perhaps also know that some things can only be conveyed in such settings then you are less likely to use such means to teach your classes.

I feel called to teach the classes I'm teaching. I know my classes aren't for everyone and that what I'm teaching will necessarily involve a certain level of experience on the part of potential students, especially with what I wish to teach. I know that I need to stay true to what I'm teaching because it's something I want people to be able to use to change their lives and to evolve as spiritual and human beings. I do feel justified in charging for my classes because of all the costs I've mentioned. It's not the best model for bringing in income, which is why I have a few other income streams, but what that income allows me to do is cover the costs of teaching the classes, presenting at conferences, and travel without dipping into my main income stream which goes toward paying bills. I believe that the cost is an equivalent exchange for my services, an energetic exchange if you will.

Teaching classes isn't really about the money. The money covers the costs involved to go and teach those classes, but what teaching the classes is about is being able to share specific information, concepts, and practices with people that want to learn those practices. Of course they can pick my books up and read them, but at a certain point, if you want to go deeper it can be useful to have that face to face connection. I myself am taking classes from a spiritual mentor which I think is well worth the cost because what I am getting from the direct experience is something that is much deeper than just reading the books would have provided. It is important to me that I also provide that same depth to my students. I want to honor their needs, but also honor the teachings I share so that what they get is something which authentically conveys the deeper mysteries while also honoring their journey in this world and all others they touch.

Book Review: Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins

This is a collection of articles from Henry Jenkins, over the span of his career as a media academic. Some of the articles are good, others are less impressive, but overall he provides the reader some for thought about the evolution of pop culture studies and pop culture in general. This is a useful book for exploring some of what pop culture studies is about and providing some context as to how the academic study of pop culture has evolved as pop culture and technology have involved. It's limitation beyond the fact that it's a collection of articles, is that some of the material can already be found in the author's other works in a more comprehensive form.

Function is a lot like conjunction junction in magic

I recently wrote a post about function and its role in magic. In it I defined function: "A function, in and of itself, describes a specific action that is supposed to occur within a process as well as why it occurs in the process in way it does." I also explained that function, as it relates to spirits, describes the essence of those spirits and what they are supposed to do. Some of the responses I got to the post asked me to go into a deeper explanation of function and how its supposed to work in magic and that got me to thinking about function and what came up initially as a way to explain function is the old school house rock tune "Conjunction Function, What's your function?" If you've never watched it, you should watch it because it's just that awesome. If you watch that video, it actually explains the concept of function quite nicely, but I'm still going to explain it in my own way as well.

The first thing I'd note about functions is that to some degree they are subjective. You use a function to describe an action and how it ought to work. Functions can also be likened to the attributes you associate with a component of magic, again with the understanding that the attribute, as a function, is describing how the component ought to work or how it ought represent a principle of magic.

The second thing I'd note about a function is that its a connector. Functions are specific actions, which when executed lead to other functions which perform specific actions and so and so forth...get the picture? Basically a function connects to another function when executed properly. And if it isn't executed properly nothing happens. Usually when a function isn't executed properly its because the people doing it don't understand why they are doing it or don't have a clear understanding of the principles involved. In my experience, to make a function, you have to understand why you are doing what you are doing and understand the principles involved. That lack of understanding translates into what you are doing and sabotages the working. Let's provide a specific example or two that helps demonstrate function.

One of my recent workings involved invoking Vinea, a Goetic Daimon. I was doing this invocation to make initial contact with him so that I can do further work with him in the future. Here's what happened. Step one: I briefly look over his name and sigil, to memorize the sigil and to make sure I know how to pronounce his name. The functions at work in this step are memorization (which will lead to another function) and Pronunciation (which will lead to another function). Both of these functions are the foundational functions used to set up the initial ground work of the invocation. Each function performs a specific action. Memorization imprints the sigil into my mind to be recalled when I need it, while pronunciation allows me to learn how to say the name for when I do my invocation chant.

Step 2: I lay down and get comfortable with my head against a pillow. I close my eyes and visualize the sigil, and mentally I say Vinea's name three times. The functions at work in this step are relaxation, visualization, and mental chanting of the name. Relaxation performs the action of getting you into a space where you aren't focused on your body so you can actually focus mentally and spiritually on connecting with the entity. Visualization performs the action of recalling the sigil and using it as a visual marker to focus on connecting with the entity. The mental chanting performs the action of building up your energy, while also creating a an auditory link between you and the entity. Think of it as providing a path to connect you and the entity to each other.

Step 3: I whisper Vinea's name three times, then I say it louder 3 times, louder again 3 times, then I shout it 3 times. While saying his name, the sigil turns into a shape that is representative of him. The functions at work in this step are sonic chanting and visualization. Sonic chanting as a function builds on the initial auditory link you created with the mental chanting. It increases the resonance of the connection, establishing a way for the entity's energy to connect with yours through the pronunciation of the name. The visualization as function builds off the previous use, but in this case is also an indicator that the entity is connecting because he's choosing to appear to you in place of the sigil.

Step 4: I commune with Vinea. We essentially have a conversation which involves an exchange of images and words, as well as coming to an agreement (if we can) of how we'll work together and what we'll do for each other. The function in this step is the communion. It's a function that occurs on both ends and requires both parties to participate.

Step 5: Assuming an agreement is made I follow through on my end by doing agreed upon actions and Vinea follows through on his end. I won't spell out the functions here because this step occurs after the invocation has happened, but I mention it as an example of how functions lead into other functions past the actual working.

So as you can see functions are a lot like conjunction junction. They make connections. One function leads to another, which leads to another, and everything is pull together to produce a process that works. That process makes the magic happen, as long as you understand the functions and what they ought to do or rewrite them to work the way you think they ought to work (but that's another post altogether).

Here's a link to my recent radio interview with Mainstreet Radio about Wealth Magic and my newest book.

Narrative flow and magic

I'm reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud. It's a fascinating book that explores how to write/draw comics, but of course there's also magical applications, if you're willing to look for them. For example he discusses comic book panels quite a bit and how the arrangement of them is used to shape the perceptions of the reader, but also how taking one or two panels out changes the story. And that got me thinking about how you could use panels as visual representations of magic and rearrange them or get rid of some or include new ones in order to explore potential time variants or to change a space and the identities associated with that space. According to McCloud you change the story when you remove a panel...and if you think about your own life as a story, then you can apply the same idea to the narrative of your life. Write out your life or create panels and then make some changes. It doesn't just change your perspective...it changes the experience of the narrative. 

One of the key points he makes is that you can direct the narrative...that what is paid attention to or what causes a distraction can be predicted and used in writing a comic. This is also true in writing. The way words are used and even the format of the text can set up pacing for the book. For example, if you use a lot of dialogue you're usually trying to move the narrative along. The same applies for action sequences. Now if you apply this to magic, think about why you are doing magic. You're typically doing it to make a connection, create a change, or work through your internal crap. Ask yourself how you are directing the narrative. What are you paying attention to and what aren't you paying attention to? What could you change that would allow you to discover what you aren't noticing?

I've only read the first chapter of this book, but what it reveals in terms of telling stories can be applied to magic precisely because magic is a story as well. A lot of the ritual work we do is done to tell a story as much as it's done for other reasons. We are using magic to act out the current situation and what we want to change and then imprinting that story on reality as a way to provide the specific possibility a path for manifestation. Seems simply enough, but the story aspect isn't considered in terms of a narrative that can be changed, unless we actually think along those lines. When you do a magical working or ritual, consider how you are putting it together. What are all the elements involved? What elements could you change, add, or remove and how would that change the story you are trying to tell? How would it change the working you are doing if the story is changed?

The narrative flow of a given magical working is an arrangement. You cut out what doesn't fit, and you put into place what does fit. Then you tie all those elements together and you tell a story to reality that embeds the possibility you desire into yourself as the magician and reality as the recipient. The result is a manifestation of magic. Pretty simple really, but its made complicated by the attachment people have to descriptive elements which are really just placeholders to describe something they represent. If you understand what's represented, you can get rid of the place holders and work directly with the source. Making Comics is actually an excellent example of that principle because while it overtly discusses how to create comics, if you treat it as a meta text, which I've done in this article, you can also use it to understand certain principles that cut across disciplines and you learn to work with those principles directly as a result, because you're getting to look behind the curtain and actually examine how those principles work. That look behind the curtain teaches you to think about and work with magic differently because you recognize so much of it is arbitrary, set up a certain way because of the given agendas of the people who came up with whatever they came up with. Once you recognize that, you stop relying on the arbitrary aspects of magic and start exploring what really works because you want to see behind the curtain. And IMO, that's really the best way to learn magic. No one, myself included, can tell you with complete authority how magic works, because we're all putting our own spin on it. That's why I tell people to personalize their understanding of magic. I can describe how I think magic works, how I know it works, but you have to discover for yourself how it works.

Book Review: What Video Games have to teach us about learning and literacy by James Paul Gee

This is an intriguing book that explores what video games can teach people about how we learn. The author develops 36 principles of learning which can be found in video games and shows through both personal experience and interviews with gamers how these principles work. In that process he also makes some interesting connections between identity, meaning and learning. What I found most useful about this book is how it got me to think about identity in a different way than I'd previously conceived it. Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in how we learn.

How to Design your life with magic

 

In Manifesting Wealth, I discuss the importance of creating a wealth identity. Part of that process involves making the decision to live your life by design instead of by reaction. Living a life by design involves planning your life, which to my mind really means that you figure out what you really want and then decide how you'll go about getting it. For example, I realized in my mid twenties that I wanted to be self-employed by my thirties and here I am self-employed. I didn't necessarily plan out every step of the way to get to that point, but nonetheless I did decide to make self-employment part of the pattern of my life.

These days I'm more methodical about designing my life. Part of that undoubtedly comes from being a business coach. I help businesses plan their businesses by design instead of reaction and that consequently informs my own decision to plan my life. However, part of my reasoning comes down to the simple fact that I've made enough mistakes in my life based on impulsive decisions and reactions, that I've come to recognize that its much more effective to live a life by design and to carefully examine my choices and ask: "Is this really in line with what I want for my life?"

Where magic fits into all of this involves approaching your life as a narrative and using magic to help you shape that narrative. In my case, this means that a lot of my magical workings are done in context to my life, and how whatever occurs fits into the design I am manifesting. I don't do magical workings to solve problems, s much as I do them to proactively pave a path that is beneficial to me. A good example of this concept in action involves the creation of an entity called Cerontis. I created Cerontis over ten years ago with the explicit purpose of making me aware of opportunities I might want to take advantage of. Simple enough, but also profound because what it really involved was utilizing his services to help me discover opportunities proactively instead of reactively letting them happen to me.

When you design your life by magic what you are really doing is using magic as a tool to help you make intentional choices that fit into your design. A lot of my wealth magic work has been focused on helping me become more successful at working on my business, because I feel that its an integral part of the design of my life. While I certainly want to make a living from my business (and increasingly this is happening) I realize to effectively do this I need to design my business and really design my life around having experiences that will simultaneously teach me the skills I need to learn and help me implement those skills in a practical way that allows me to use them.

Look at your own life. Where do you want to be? what do you want to do? Who do you want in your life? Answer those questions and you've started to create your design. Now start doing magic to actually bring what you want into your life and do it with a mentality of design. Ask yourself: "Does this really help me manifest my design?" If it does, then do it...and if it doesn't, re-evaluate your magical working or your design or both. By taking such an approach you develop a proactive awareness that allows you to implement your design and live your life by your standards instead of continually reacting to whatever comes your way. You learn to filter out what you don't need and so you start to avoid it in favor of living your life by design and your magical work is geared in a similar way and thus helps you keep your life on track as well.

I was on the show Pleasure Saucer, where we discussed magic as well as some contemporary news. It was a fascinating range of topics.

Book Review: When: The Art of Perfect Timing by Stuart Albert

This is an intriguing book that explores how to apply timing to business and life experiences in order to better understand the flow of events and be able to plan for them and their pacing in time. The author shares six types of timing and provides examples of how these types of timing can be applied to understand the temporal aspects of a given activity. In addition, he nicely ties all of the types together and shows how a timing analysis can be done using each type of timing in conjunction with others. If there is one weakness in this book, its that while the author does provide examples of timing, he doesn't show readers how to use that knowledge practically beyond being able to do a timing analysis. However this book can teach you to appreciate time from an unusual perspective and that, in and of itself can be useful for looking at your life, business, and other practices from a different angle than you may have done before.

The Role of Function in Magic

In my post on Tarot collage work, I mentioned that the word and concept of function plays an important on magic, but that I'd explain it in a later post. So here we are. The reason the word function is important as it relates to magic is severalfold. A function, in and of itself, describes a specific action that is supposed to occur within a process as well as why it occurs in the process in way it does. Function, in magic, also speaks to how spiritual entities are supposed to behave. For example, angels are defined by the functions they perform. Those functions are the actions the angels perform, as well as their area of responsibility, but in another sense the function is also the soul of the angel. This understanding of function can be applied to other "types" of spiritual entities as well.

When we consider function in relationship to process, what we discover is that function is what moves process along. A process that isn't working is usually not working because specific functions of the process aren't being activated or don't work the way they should. Without the right functions in place, a process fizzles. So how do you make sure you have the right functions in place? First you have to understand the process and where those functions fit into the process. For example if lighting a candle is a function in your magical process, what is it that function does? How does that function contribute to the process and move it along? What happens if that particular function isn't activated?

Likewise if you are working with an entity, it's worth while to consider how you are interacting with the function it embodies. That entity can't go against its function, so you pretty much need to be in alignment with that function. There's some wiggle room in my experience, but that wiggle room has more to do with interpretation of the function than actually getting around it. This is why its important to be selective about what entity you'll work with, or if you're creating one be very specific about the function its supposed to embody.

Although function sounds restrictive, it really isn't if you understand it. The given functions are restricted in terms of what they do, but where the magic really happens is when you combine multiple functions into a sequence that creates your process and produces a result. If you understand how each functions work off each other, then you can plan for which functions you'll use and optimize your magical working. One of the ways I like to optimize my workings is to thoroughly explore the functions I'm using to see what they can and can't do. Then I know where and when to apply them in whatever magical work I'm doing. This understanding of function makes it easier to find problems in the process as well and then fix those problems. A lot of times it boils down to: "This function doesn't work in relationship to this other function."

This probably comes across as a mechanistic approach to magic, but I don't think it is. If anything I feel that it helps me appreciate magic on a much deeper level because I can understand how and why it works and know what to change in order to improve on what I'm doing. I like that and at the same time it gives me a deep appreciation for the wonder of magic because it never ceases to cause me to feel wonder to see a process come together and produce a specific result.

Collage tarot cards as enchantment workings

Shauna Aura Knight recently made a post about creating your own tarot cards using collage. It's an intriguing idea, and her methodology is useful as a way of doing some deep work with Tarot that nonetheless allows you to create a personal connection with a given card through not only the act of creation, but also meaningful pathworking done with the collage to get at the heart of the meaning of the Tarot card (Note: the image for this post is a collage tarot card that Shauna created and I'm using it with her permission).

One of the other uses of this technique is that it could also act as a form of enchantment. In the capacity of enchantment, the creation of a collage tarot card would be focused on not just helping the person understand the meaning of the card as it relates to his/her own internal work, but also understand the card as it relates to the world, and specifically to what function the card is supposed to embody to the world at large. I think the word function is critical here, in understanding the purpose of the Tarot card. Actually, I find the word function is critical in understanding magic generally, but that's a post for another day. Anyway, the tarot card you create via collage will be one that fits a particular function. That function is partially derived from the card itself. For example if the card is two of swords, then part of the function of the card is derived from being the two of swords, but part of the function is also derived by your understanding of what that function is and how it applies to the world at large. So a question to ask would be: "What does the Two of Sowrds mean to me and how does that meaning function in my life and in the world at large.

What makes Tarot cards useful is the relationship the cards have with each other. While the 2 of swords has its own meaning, context, and function, all of that changes in relationship to other cards. What the 2 of swords means and how it functions is altered in part by the combination of other cards. For the magician this is useful as a form of enchantment, because what s/he does is pick out the relevant tarot cards and line them up to produce specific outcomes. The functions of the cards interact with each other to modify the enchantment and produce a specific result that occurs because of the functions the cards embody and perform when used for enchantment.

When I do a tarot working for enchantment, it works in the following manner: I shuffle the cards and then start pulling cards out. I don't set them up into a spread right away, until I've pulled all the ones I need to pull. Once I'm satisfied I then arrange the cards into a spread that connects each card to the other cards and creates a sequence of functions that perform the enchantment. To activate the enchantment, I read the cards and through the act of reading, simultaneously internalize the cards, imprinting them and their functions into my consciousness so that I can embody them, and externalize the cards by evoking their functions into the world in order to start aligning the variables effecting the enchantment. Approaching enchantment in this way insures that the internal beliefs and values of the magician is aligned with the objective reality s/he is seeking to manifest. I find that it creates a path of least resistance, if you will. If you choose to make collage tarot cards, then you can add in the creation of the cards as part of the enchantment. The creation of the card can be understood to be a gathering of the meaning/function of the tarot as well as the creative force of the magician, with the end result being a personalized card that uniquely represents the function of the card.

What I like about using Tarot cards for enchantment purposes is that they can help the magician make logical sense of the enchantment. The spread is used to create a sequence of steps/functions that generate specific actions, which in turn generate specific outcomes. That's how magic works, in my experience. You create or follow a process you understand and you use that process to program a specific result into reality. It's so simple that it might cause a person to struggle with it, but why make magic more complicated than it needs to be?

Working with the Spirit Cord

This last weekend I attended a workshop run by R. J. Stewart, which focused on the Spirit Cord teachings. It was a profound experience for me...one where I felt that certain gaps in my magical education were filled in by the work we did. I've never done cord work before and hadn't found much in the ways of reference to it in the works I've read so I was really curious about what this workshop would be like and what I'd learn from it. I'd gotten a purple cord the week before at Jo Ann's and with that in hand I headed to the workshop. Originally Kat and I were both supposed to go, but she got sick, so I went alone, which felt a bit odd because she had introduced me to this kind of work, but as it turned out even that happened for a reason, as we learned later in the weekend.

The concept of a cord, as it applies to spiritual work, is that the cord can embody all the traditional magical tools, while being none of those tools. The cord is a flexible connection between each tool. I found this interesting, especially as it related to my work with William Gray's material, because Gray discusses how to really understand a given magical tool, it's important to actually take it within you and embody it, and as I learned this weekend the spirit cords works in a similar manner. R. J. explained that the cord is also representative of and connected to your spinal cord, so that in a sense what it really represents magically is a connection to your entire body and how your body process and works.

Another interesting correspondence that came up was that cords traditionally had 7 seven knots in them. 7 knots could be related to the traditional 7 planets in planetary magic, as well as the 7 stages of Alchemy. I suppose we could create a lot of correspondences actually, but I felt that those particular correspondences were significant as it relates to western sacromagical work. As I continue to work with the cord, I'll undoubtedly explore such connections but for the moment I'm going to focus more on just learning to work with it.

Another key aspect of the spirit cord is that it remembers for you. What this means is that the cord can be used to store energies, experiences, memories etc. I tried this out when I wore the cord while sleeping. I found that I vividly remembered a dream that was magical focused in a way that I might not have otherwise, and that as I wrote it down, I could touch the cord and remember what I needed to remember. The cord helps you access those memories and experiences and re-embody them. I also found it relevant to my ongoing work that the cord could be utilized for both stillness and movement and that it's linked to birth and death.

The physical version of your cord is actually representative of your astral cord (not the silver cord typically discussed in astral work). In the meditative work we did with the cord I found that several experiences occurred. First in just working with the cord and connecting it to the spinal column, I could feel how it could be used to raise or lower spiritual energy. Second in working with the cord, I also felt how it could also be used for attunement purposes. For example, in the workshop we did a working with the Faerie Realm where we asked if we could attune the energies of the Faerie Realm to the cord. In my case, Puck came and attuned the cord with Faerie Energy. On Sunday evening, I did a similar attunement with Dragon and On Monday I did the same with the other spirit beings I am working with. In each case, when they did the attunement I could feel the energy flow into the cord and into me.

We also did a working with an astral temple, where we found our Astral cord. My astral temple was on top of a dormant volcano, but the inner alter was in a place where there was a lake of lava. I had an interesting experience there. After I'd worked with the astral cord, this gigantic being came out of the lava and presented itself to me. It then touched my forehead with the tip of its finger and I felt this energy go through me. I asked what it was and it said "He (RJ Stewart) would know me as a Titan." He then told me that if I wanted to work further with it, I should return and seek another audience. On Monday I sought another audience, because I want to get further understanding of what had occurred and the Titan told me I could ask one question. So I asked How and when should I seek your aid? He seemed to like that I'd managed to make one question into two and told me that I'd know when to work with him when the situation called for it and that I'd be guided in how to work with him. He also told me that what I thought of as need differed greatly from what he thought of as need and suggested that I shouldn't call on him lightly. He touched my cord and then my forehead again and I felt a rush of energy go through me, attuning both me and the cord.

We did another working as well, with the Ashim, which are lunar angels. This working involved traveling up and down the gold and silver steps which are representative of the paths a soul takes when it goes to be born or goes to die. I didn't recall much of the experience., but I do remember my Angel showing me the pattern of my lives.

Kat told me, when I came back, that she felt that my energy was different...that my vibration had been raised. Now some of that could be temporary, but I felt that a genuine shift occurred and that continuing to do the cord work will continue to imprint it into me. I already integrated it into my daily work. And later that night when we did our weekly devotional work to Dragon he came through and told her that one reason she'd been sick was because I needed to go to that workshop alone, to show my commitment to the work and show that it wasn't a commitment to her, so much as a commitment to the work itself. And y'know there's something to that because when you get introduced to a specific type of magical work by someone, at some point you need to know why you are doing that work, who for, and what it really means to you. This weekend showed me that and moved me deeply as a result.

Sound and Silence in Ritual

One of the classes I presented at Convocation is the Ritual Sonics class. It's a class I've recently developed because of my own experiments with sound and at Convocation I taught the full version for the first time and was pretty pleased with it. A couple of the concepts I explored focused in one the relationship between sound and silence. In my experience sound and silence are in a symbiotic relationship  that structures so much of our experiences with sound in both mundane and sacred circumstances.

Consider sound and silence in relation to each other. One begins where the other ends, and both are defined by the experience of the other. I actually pointed out in my class that we never really have silence. Turn off your music, be quiet for a few moments and just listen. You'll still hear background noises, and perhaps you'll even hear your own thoughts, suddenly standing out to you because your mind isn't being occupied with sound. In that sense, silence is an illusion, but let's consider another angle.

Sometimes what silence really is involves our choice to stop making sound and just be with whatever is there, or to purposely create a sense of quiet that helps to build up the energy of the ritual. When silence is used in this way, it becomes a part of the sound that is engineered to enhance whatever sounds are made. For example ring a bell and listen to the sound eventually quiet down to silence and listen to this silence and then ring the bell again. What you are doing is building up the sound using the silence as a way to enhance the recognition of the sound.

Another way I like to use sound and silence involves chanting the name of a deity or entity. The chant first starts in your head. You think the name of the deity or entity a few times, and then you whisper the name a few times, and then you say the name louder a few times and then you say the name louder again. then repeat the cycle, using the repetition of the silence and sound to build a cycle of sound that calls out to the deity or entity and establishes a group connection for the people doing the chant. The sound and silence create a rhythm and also illustrate something important in a group setting, which is that initially we're individuals, but as we sync our vocal efforts together we become a group and that group consciousness in turn helps to manifest the connection to the deity or entity.

Sound and silence work hand in hand if we choose to allow them to. I like to integrate silence into the sound work I do because I find it makes the magical working much more purposeful than it might be otherwise. Silence causes us to appreciate the sound more and at the same time go deeper into ourselves to draw on the resources we'll use to make the connection with the entity, deity or purpose that we're choosing to make sound for. The sounds we make in turn allow us to not only connect with the deity, entity, or purpose we are seeing to connect with, but also help us appreciate the silence and use it, in and of itself, to be present with the connection we make.

A book review of Manifesting Wealth

Manifesting Wealth was reviewed by author Lilith Dorsey on Patheos.

Book Review: Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity by Etienne Wenger

In this book the author explores the concept of organizational design from two perspectives of practice and identity and explores how those perspectives inform the creation of community within organizations as well as the power dynamics that occur as a result. The author has some intriguing ideas to present and it's worth a read if you are interested in building community or improving the efficacy of your organization. This is an academic text, so it's not focused on how to build community, however you can get a lot of ideas from reading the text. I'd recommend it as a way of also understanding some of the dynamics in your organization so that you can make changes or make your organization sustainable.

Memory and Retroactive Magic

Lately I've been doing some work some new space/time magic entities. One of the ones I'm working with, which I'll discuss in more depth in another post is the Goetic Daimon Glasolya-Labolas. One of the topics we've focused on is memory and retroactive magic. The concept of retroactive magic is that you do a magical act that effects a past event in such a way that it changes the present and the possibilities you have access to in the present. I also think of retroactive magic as doing magic in the present to effect a past event. To illustrate both concepts, let me share two examples from my own practice. My first example involves doing magical work to change a present behavior by going into past memories and changing the behavior in those past memories. I have found that if you want to change a behavior in the present, it becomes much easier when you change it in the past. What I do is do a pathworking exercise where I revisit specific memories and re-live those memories, but change the actions and behavior I did in those memories to ones I find to be more desirable. This consequently enables me to change the behavior in the present, because I've built a past where the desired behavior was already being performed.

The second example involved doing a magical work with a group that was in the U.K. I did the working several days after the group did their working (but before they reported in) and sent my magical working back in time so that even though I was doing the working in the present it was contributing to the working in the past. When I checked in with the group from the U.K. they reported strongly feeling my presence on the day they did their ritual, which indicated to me that my present working had effectively reached back to the past.

I've used retroactive magic to also discover possibilities in my present that I initially didn't were available due to past choices. When I felt that way, I'd do a ritual working to change the past choice, or at least change the outcome of that past choice and then I would discover new possibilities that were more favorable to me.

In my meditations with Glasolya-Labolas, he has suggested that time is not fixed and that memories aren't set, but only seem to be set because of the linear perspective we apply to time. If we were to instead consider that time isn't fixed and that within a given memory there are also other possible experiences, we could access those experiences and work with them to change the experience of the present we are in. It's an intriguing idea to experiment with, and although I feel I've done that to some degree via retroactive magic, I'm going to work more closely with Glasolya-Labolas to explore what his approach is and how it might fit or challenge my own understanding of retroactive magic and memory work.

Pop Culture Magic and Video

I've just finished reading Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins (See Review Below). In one of the last chapters he discusses early Fan video creations (bear in mind this book was written in 1992). What I find fascinating about that chapter is 2 things. First that long before youtube came along people were creating video parodies and stories about the characters they enjoy, which just shows that while contemporary technology is helpful for creating such videos, it isn't absolutely necessary. People were making videos before we had social media. That said, social media and better video technology has definitely played a role in the proliferation of videos.

The second thing I find fascinating is the magical angle, because to my mind there's always a magical angle. I've made a few videos (not all that good) and I'm planning on getting better video technology in the nearish future to make more. What's stood out to me about videos though is that with right editing software, you can not just shoot a video but add in some other effects, such as sigils, sounds, random pictures etc, and through that process create an experience for the viewer that can be helpful for your own magical purposes. After all, if the person is watching they are providing you their attention, which brings with it some energy of intention on their part, which can feed into your own.

In the case of the chapter, the fans creating the videos were really creating their own narrative stories with beloved characters and as a result contributing to the pop culture reality of those characters, which consequently I think can also be useful for connecting with a given pop culture entity. When people interact with various characters they are giving those characters more attention, more life via the interaction. Video creations provide fans a way to interact with the pop culture they like and tell stories, weave new realities for those characters. Apply that on a magical level and what you get is deeper interactions with the characters, which can then be applied toward magical workings with those same characters. The videos can be the magical workings as well, with everything set up so that the magical working is done, and then when viewed the ritual is charged and re-done because of the audience participation in watching the video. For example, think of a music concert. When you go to the concert you are caught up in the feelings and experiences of that concert. If you were to watch the concert as a video you'd experience a similar feeling of participation and intention. This can also be applied to videos that are made, with the understanding that the goal is to get some type of emotional response from the people viewing the video in order to continually charge and fire the magical working done in the video. Antero Alli's films are good examples of that principle in action, but I think it could also be done with pop culture, and that if you look at the various fan films that are available on youtube, you'll see the potential. When people are willing to dress up as characters and create their own stories, what they are doing is creating not just a story, but a magical working in its own way, that if understood from that perspective can be helpful for pop culture magical workings.

Speaking of Pop Culture Magic, check out my latest post on Pagan Square where I discuss the esoteric secrets of fantasy.

Book Review: Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins

This book is a must read for anyone interested in pop culture studies or anyone who is a fan and wants to understand the history of fan movements. The author does an excellent job of showing how different fandoms found empowerment in their communities and in their own fan creations based off the pop culture they liked. While this book was originally written in 1992, it's still relevant to contemporary pop culture studies and if anything provides a fascinating historical perspective that allows the reader to understand contemporary fan movements and use of technology better through the context of reading the book. What I liked the most is that the author explored a number of types of fandoms (SF but also romance) and fan activities such as slash, filking, and video making. By doing this he provides a holistic perspective on fan activities that can help the reader better understand fandom and how it shows up in culture.

You are your best teacher

I was reading a post by Josephine McCarthy about meeting teachers and walking the path of magic. She makes some interesting points about being open to magic and meeting teachers, but what I get from that post is this: You are your best teacher.  And the reasoning for that statement is simply this: No matter who you meet or where you are or what you do, you ultimately have to decide if you are open to learning, and once that's decided then you need to not only learn, but actually implement what you've learned. McCarthy points out that:

If a person truly wants to evolve within magic and penetrate even a small fragment of her mysteries then the organisations and safe boundaries need to be cast off, and the magician must forge their path of magic while wandering through the forest of life. There are no short cuts, there is no ‘destination’, magic is constantly all around you: the key is to pay attention.

There's a lot of truth to that statement. Just about any magical organization I've run into seems to, on some level, sanitize the experience of magic, confine it, make it safe, make it something which is regulated. But the experience of magic isn't meant to be regulated. What I've found with the organizations I've encountered is a dulling of the mind and spirit, a loss of creativity because the focus ends up being on the social dynamics of the organization instead of on working with magic. I'd rather focus on the magic.

You are your best teacher because while anyone can teach you something, you can only really learn if you apply and implement it. This is why in my books, and the courses I teach I tell people that they need to make what they learn their own. My books, my courses can teach you something, but unless you apply it and make it your own, what you'll learn is limited. True learning occurs when you make it your own, when you do the work, and you make it a part of your life, to the point that it becomes something you've personalized and come to understand in your own unique way.

With all that said, be open to learning from other people, books, etc. Go out and have some experiences, take some risks, live life. Magic is part of all of that and I think you find magic when you look for it and make it the central part of your life, when you are open to that moment where you meet a stranger and share something unexpected with that person that changes the way both of you experience the world, or wen you read a book and it blows your mind and gets you to think in different ways than you'd ever thought before.

My latest guest post on Pagan Square explores how to work with bacteria from a non-anthropocentric approach.

Book Review: The Necessity of Strangers By Alan Gregerman

In this book, the author argues that strangers are an essential part of innovation and that to truly cultivate creativity and innovation we need to be open to new ideas, meeting strangers and learning from different cultures and disciplines outside of our own culture or discipline. The author illustrates this point through a variety of case studies in both business and everyday life to demonstrate how contact with strangers can be helpful for sparking innovation. While the case studies are interesting the author doesn't really explain how to implement these ideas. This is a good book to read to inspire you to be open to learning from other people, but while the author provides a couple of ideas on how to do that, for the most part what he discusses is shared as ideas as opposed to really examining how to implement these ideas meaningfully.  Still I recommend reading this book to challenge yourself to be more open to new ideas.

Anthropocentrism and Magic

 

I came across this article from Alison Lilly the other day about anthropocentrism in Paganism and Polytheism. You can find another article here where she defines Anthropocentrism in more detail. My brief definition of anthropocentrism is that it's a humancentric perspective of the world that considers experiences of consciousness in primarily human terms and applies human behavior, attributes, emotions, etc. to things that aren't human in an effort to simultaneously categorize and control what is labeled. The problem with such a perspective is that its extremely limited and presupposes that humanity and its perspective is what matters.

In my own spiritual work, one of the things I've tried to do is recognize when I'm applying anthropocentric perspectives, behaviors etc to connections I make with spiritual entities, the world around me, and anything that isn't human. The reason I seek to recognize this application of perspective is because I recognize that it is a filter that stops me from genuinely connecting with whatever it is I'm connecting with. For example, when I was doing my year long work with the element of fire, one of the realizations which came up was how mediated the experience of fire is by anthropocentric perspectives. We label fire with human attributes and emotions such as anger, passion, and creativity. This provides humans a way to understand relate to fire from a human centric perspective, but it doesn't allow you to experience fire in other ways. When I stripped away the labels, attributes and emotions associated with fire, what I experienced was something much more primal and raw, something that had more to with fire as its own force as opposed to something mediated and interpreted by human perspective. I recognized even then that to some degree I was still applying a human perspective to the experience, but as much as possible I was also being open to experiencing fire on its level.

I make the point that I was still applying human perspective because I don't think we, as humans, ever fully get away from that human perspective. This doesn't mean we shouldn't try to experience other forms of consciousness, but rather that we should acknowledge that on some level, at all times, we are interpreting a given situation through the lens of being human. With that said, by being aware of that lens, we can also open ourselves up to a given experience where we seek connection with something that isn't human and recognize when we are labeling interactions through the being human lens and put it aside to focus on the interaction. Let me share a very recent experience.

I'm currently working with the bacteria in my stomach. In my opinion, bacteria is pretty far removed from being human, but the probiotic bacteria we have in our bellies play an integral role in the digestion of our food and I want to work more closely with them via magic. In my meditations and my daily awareness I've been focusing on connecting with the bacteria. Instead of trying to label the bacteria through human terms, what I've done instead is used the feeling of digestion to make contact with the bacteria. This provides me a chance to engage them on their terms, through an activity they are doing. The experience of their consciously isn't remotely human and the communication that occurs is based more on feeling than on words or visualizations. And even with all that, I recognize I could still be applying human perspectives to the experience, but what I'm not doing is assuming a human consciousness on the other end, or human values, or human communication or anything else, because such an assumption takes away from the experience and the ability to genuinely connect with the bacteria.

I think the same applies to any kind of contact you make with something that isn't human. Even if that consciousness approaches you on human terms, using human communication, it shouldn't be assumed that it holds human values, culture, etc. It might, or it could be that its trying to meet us on our terms because its easier to communicate that way or because it wants to experience our consciousness. I figure even if an entity I'm interacting with has two arms, two legs, a a head, and a somewhat human shape, even that doesn't mean it has the same consciousness needs, etc. That can only be discovered, never assumed and when we apply anthropocentrism to such interactions we make assumptions which can be dangerous, and if nothing else are faulty by virtue of our own limited perspective.