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.
Dream work update
I've been continuing to do the Dream Yoga work each night. Consistently my dreams have focused on issues that I'm currently working on via other forms of internal work. I've lately been focusing on the positions that you need to enter into when you got sleep, and when you wake up at different times of time, in order to facilitate more lucid states of mind while dreaming. Combined with the breathing technique I found its easier to remember the dreams after I've woken, as well as be consciously aware I'm dreaming while in the dreams. The dream work is proving using for the internal work that I'm continuing to do. One possible avenue that I'm goign to explore is purposely planting a suggestion or focus for the dream, that wouldn't focus just on internal issues, but could even be used as a way to connect with the consciousness of the body. I'll keep people updated with what I find.
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.
Karmic Traces and Dream Work
I've been continuing to do the Tibetan Dream Yoga each night and I've found that I've been more aware of my dreams as a result. In the book I read on Tibetan Dream Yoga the author talked about karmic traces, which are essentially patterns, behaviors, attachments, etc. The karmic traces are something we all have and they show up in our reactions and they also show up in our dreams. The dreams I've been having have been ones where I've been aware I'm dreaming. But what I've also been aware of is he karmic traces that have shown up in my dreams. I've had dreams about prior relationships, or occurrences that happened during the day and throughout the dream I've been aware of how what's really being shown to me is the karmic traces, the attachments to certain outcomes and behaviors. And when I awake with this insight, it's lead to deeper internal work that's helped me continue to dissolve and release the karmic traces.
Consistently doing these practices leads to greater awareness of how you can continue to imprint these karmic traces in your dreams, as well as how your dreams can be used to help you resolve and work through them. In each dream, I've been able to see in the dream how my role in a situation has been sustaining karmic traces in my life. This awareness is helping me to target my internal work so that I can continue to dissolve the karmic traces and change my identity in the process. It is a very freeing process.
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.
Estrogen - Taylor's Report
Estrogen appeared as a snake with a with wide mouth that, when it enfolded me felt warm and moist. My experience with her was one where she had a similar feeling of femininity in counterbalance to the masculinity I experience with Testosterone. At the same time the experience was also of a rhythmic cycle, which was steady in its beat and yet nonetheless powerful in how it moved me. She told me that she helped to modulate the balance with testosterone and provide grounding to his energy.
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
My holiday special
If you're shopping for that magician in your life, or just for yourself, the following holiday deal is on until winter solstice. Buy three books from me and get a fourth one free. You can find a list of my books here. Also I'm still taking sign-ups for my class, so if you're interested in spending a year learning magic from yours truly, consider taking the Magical Experiments class. I promise it'll be a challenging and interesting year. I do take payment plans.
Most of all, have safe and happy holidays. I know I will.
Where your attention goes...
Kat and I recently had an interesting discussion about how what you watch on TV or play on a video game can vividly imprint itself on your psyche. I certainly agree that this can occur. I've been playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood since I got it last week and there were nights I went to sleep and dreamed the game. My attention was focused on the game so much that it was what was prevalent to my consciousness. One of the choices I made in my early twenties was to no longer get Cable TV, because I didn't want to clog my psyche with irrelevant advertisements and TV shows, and as my example of the video game shows, it is easy to imprint on your psyche external memes. While I definitely enjoy the game, I can say that having such vivid dreams about it did impress upon me once again why I'm so careful about what I expose myself to.
For the magician, the ability to focus and empty the mind is key for fully immersing him/herself in the magical work s/he is doing. And in my opinion, being able to have control over your imagination, and thus using it as a tool is also key to fully exercising it in your magical work. The imagination is the key to the door of magic. So while it is good to play a game or watch a show, it's also worthwhile to spend some time away from modern media, so that you use it sparingly and not let it consume your life.
I enjoy games a lot, but I've made it a point to also play board games and the like, because there is some imagination involved and it gets me to use it instead of just letting it be hijacked by the TV or videogame console. I think its important to exercise your imagination regularly and recognize it as a magical tool that you want to respect. So remember to take a break from the TV, computer, or videogame, or mobile phone sometimes. That break will help you get some perspective and focus for your magical work.
Manifestation and Magic
If people measure magic's efficacy in their lives, it is usually done by looking at how magic manifests change and tangible results in their lives. But to make a manifestation count for something, it's important to consider what you can do to make it a long term investment, instead of a short term problem solver.
What magic's about
I'm working on chapter 5 of the new book today, which deals with neurotransmitters, and neuro-physiology, and how the magician can work with neurotransmitters, cells, etc., in order to induce change in the magician's identity. I recall once a conversation I had at a campfire when I was speaking at Gathering of the Tribes about DNA, cells, and magic. One of the people said that he thought I was making mountains out of molehills, but as I've continued to explore the connection between neuro-chemistry, magic, and now identity, I find that it has opened entirely new vistas to consider, and also a healthier relationship with my body. As we continue to learn more in general about the universe, it behooves us to take that information and apply it meaningfully to our lives. To me, applying it to magical work makes perfect sense, because with magic we can not only learn the information, but actually interact with it, and that's what magic is about.
I know I've written about that before in my blog, but I think its such an important principle of magic: interaction. And I don't think you can really know anything until you've applied it to your life and interacted with it meaningfully. So for me, really understanding neurotransmitters and neuroscience hasn't involved just reading about it, but has involved exploring the soundness of the information via magic.
Don't ever let anyone discourage you from being curious about exploring something you've learned. Over the years I've practiced, I've had a number of people try to discourage me, telling my ideas were fluffy, or that I was overthinking it, or any number of other things. If I had listened to those people I don't think I would've written any of my books or had as many of the experiences I've had. Many people will try to tell you how to do magic, how to live life, and all kinds of other, often unsolicited, advice. Don't listen to them or let them stop you from trying something new, with or without magic. We learn best by experience.
Magic, as a process, and a way of applying information to life, provides each person the opportunity to genuinely learn and explore their own place in the universe. That's the single most important lesson I've learned about magic. So go out and learn and experience and be curious with your magical practice and with your life in general. Make mountains out of molehills, because what you might discover is something other people will overlook in their haste to go where others have already gone.