pop culture magic and magical traditions

An intellectual interpretation of a symbol is by no means identical to experiencing the energy embodied by the symbol, particularly when the interpretation involves offhand alterations of basic meaning in respect or relevant words that should describe the subject matter accurately...a magical image, by way of contrast, may or may not have similar attributes to any specific psychological archetype, which persists in the innerworlds or shared imagination for immense periods of time.

From The Underworld Initiation (Affiliate link) by R. J. Stewart

This is an interesting quote from Stewart and one I found useful for understanding Pop Culture Magic from a different perspective. I've never favored the psychological approach to magic, and neither does Stewart. He discusses the concept of inner worlds, which are worlds accessed through specific media such as story, myth, or song. The characters in myths, stories, and song are symbolic, but also represent an energetic connection to the inner world that a person can use to bring meaningful change into his/her life. Stewart explains the following about inner worlds:

Many Innerworlds are intentional structures built through group visualization, linked to specific life-energies. They are given their stability not only by the beings that occupy them, but by the active co-operation of humans...Most of the Innerworlds that we can enter are reflections of patterns that appear, or have appeared, or will appear, in our outer world. Some act as matrices for creative energies, which mould the generation of the outer world, both social and environmental.

This concept can be applied to pop culture. Grant Morrison's The Invisibles explores it in terms of using the characters to reveal the inner world of London, but also to examine the Beatles, especially John Lennon, as a viable contact to a type of godhead that again allows another way to contact the Hidden London. You can also see it with other pop culture and even corporate culture. Storm Constantine and I have worked with this concept via the Wraeththu series, and I've also used it with the Harry Potter universe. Imagination is the key to the gate, and helps bring to life the characters that people interact with. It also brings to life the world those characters inhabit.

Pop Culture can present viable inner worlds that the magician can explore. The reason they are viable is because they are part of the cultural consciousness, and are supported by people interacting with them. Thus Harry Potter, as an example, is a viable Inner World that can be worked with in part because so many people already have invested some belief into it, and also because the characters have become real for people. They may not be real in the same sense as you and I are, but on some level they exist and when people interact with them, they are also able to interact with the meanings associated with the characters. Their is intentional visualization associated with such worlds, even if that intentional visualization is only to interact with those worlds via one's imagination.

The logo for a corporation can also be a gatekeeper to the inner world of that corporation. Corporations can have an inner world, in part because of the investment of the people that work in them and by the consumers, and even by the people and other corporations who are against a corporation. Such interactions are a form of intentional visualization that is sustained by the commercials and brand activity, as well as by how people participate in the corporations. They can be worked with on a magical level, though caution should be applied. A corporation is always out to get more from you than it is willing to give in return.

A magical tradition might not look at pop culture as a viable representation or means of magical work, but the methodology of a magical tradition can be applied to pop culture and it'll work, because pop culture, and even corporate culture are to some degree formulaic. The themes we find in older cultural traditions can be found in newer culture as well, and such themes can be used to provide a meaningful structure for an inner world to be worked with. Identifying such themes can take some research, but they aren't hard to find, precisely because they are formulaic. One might then question why even look to pop culture and in my experience it comes down to what is relevant to a person and will help him/her learn and grow. If Harry Potter is more relevant to someone, it doesn't make it less magical as a result.

Book Review: The Underworld Initiation (Affiliate link) by R. J. Stewart

This is an interesting book that examines the concepts of symbolic meaning and archetypes from a non-psychological stance, while showing the weaknesses in the psychological model of magic. Stewart presents a solid methodology of magical practice that can be applied to the examples he provides, but can also be applied to any story or myth that a person finds meaningful. I highly recommend this book for its solid approach to magical theory and practice.

Being present with your desire

One of the books I'm currently reading is Undefended Love (Affiliate link) and within that book they discuss the importance of being present with something you think you need and learning how to work with it so that eventually it moves from a need to a want and then to a desire and then to a preference. It's something I've been working with lately as I continue to do a lot of internal work and dissolution around different issues. I've found this to sequence to be a good model that explains how something that was a need can turn into something you want, but don't need. When we can learn to recognize that a need doesn't define us, it no longer is a need. When you need something it defines you, but if you want something, you know you don't necessarily have to have it. And as you continue in this process of dissolution you can eventually step away from any labels you'd previously been attached to this.

This practice can also apply to labeling yourself with dysfunctions. I've noticed that many people now label themselves by their dysfunctions and in the process define themselves by the dysfunction. They try to claim the dysfunction, but what they end up doing is "needing" the dysfunction. So instead of working with it, and trying to change it, they let it control their behavior. But it's entirely possible to step away from the label and in the process examine the "need" for that label, and ask yourself why you need the label. You may even find that by doing this practice it can also help you begin to take steps to deal with the dysfunction in a manner that allows you to heal from it.

I've used this practice lately to examine some of the needs I haven't previously questioned and its helped me recognize how many of those needs have been defined by dysfunctional and unhealthy behavior. This isn't to say that there aren't healthy reasons for wanting something, but if something is a need, chances are there is some unhealthy behaviors contributing to that sense of needing it. By examining why I need it, I've been able to focus on those unhealthy behaviors and start healing them through focused meditation. The sense of need has shifted to want, and in turn has allowed me to approach what it is I want from a place of conscious recognition about the value it brings to my life and where it fits in with everything else.

Book Review: Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion (affiliate link) by George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins

Verbal Judo is an excellent book that presents techniques that anyone can use to help defuse tense situations with language. It also helps you understand how to be a better communicator with people in general. I like the stories and examples the authors use to demonstrate the technique, because it shows how it can work and what to do to make it work. The book is broken into small chapters which makes for easy reading, but I recommend taking your time and trying out the techniques. It is a little slow at the start and the authors do a bit of ego stroking, but overall the book is good.

Four out of Five stars

Opening the Gate

Unlocking yourself releases heat that flows to all extremities,bringing forth a heightened awareness of life and your connection to the environment, There's a moment of oneness in everything, a close kind of warmth that snuggles and smothers simultaneously, releasing with it a cry of fear and liberation, I am free and chained at the same time

In the confrontation of opposites, there is the fusion of the similar, which creates a cycle of entropy, as the polar opposites turn on the similar and turn on themselves a cycle that never stops and reveals in its intricacies everything falling apart to come back together again

The inner worlds are revealed by the outer world unlocked by the people who can understand that its not all in your head there's real meaning and power in the symbols you hold so dear. There's liberation in the facing of fear and fear in the liberation you achieve for the unknown calling on and on that you come forth and face the consequences of your choices.

Connecting with the land

I'm visiting the Black Hills in South Dakota with Kat. We drove through Montana, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming to get here and for the last couple of days we've been exploring this area, seeing Mt. Rushmore and Mt. Crazy Horse, the needles, the lakes and the wildlife here. Something which is really important to me, and always has been, is the connection I have with the land. I love Portland and Oregon because of how the land's energy and my own mesh. I could also feel a resonance with the energy in Montana and in the Black Hills. That kind of resonance is important for me. To be really comfortable, I need to connect with the energy of the land. That's why Seattle didn't work for me. The energy of the land and my energy didn't mesh well. Connecting with land isn't as simple as deciding it feels right to you. The land needs to tell you if you feel right to it, if you belong there. And if you don't belong, it will tell you. The land doesn't belong to you. You belong to the land. It's something where the land basically says, "You fit with this land, so I call you as one of mine." I've felt that feeling in a few places in my life, where I've known there was this acceptance from the land and an equal acceptance from myself.

I think of the land as alive, and myself as just one microorganism among many that effect the land, either for good or ill. While a land can accept you, there's still something to be said for making an offering to it. An offering of your sweat, tears, and blood, of your effort, of going into a place, and blending with it, letting it speak to you and through you.

Anytime I feel such a connection I am reminded of how small I really am, how important it is to respect the connection and respect, and how much it matters to me, to feel this intangible connection that speaks so loudly to me and reminds me that I am not over or on top, but really just a part of something much more powerful, much more beautiful, much more significant than myself.

Discount on Space/Time Magic class

Space and time are two elements of our lives that we live with and use every day. In the classic models of magic, these elements are not overtly included. In this class, I will show you how to integrate both of these elements into your magical work. You will learn why its important to factor time and space into your magical workings, as well as how the inclusion of these elements can radically change your understanding of magic. You will also learn:

• How movement and space can be used to construct sacred space.
• How to manifest multiple possibilities using sigils.
• How to create a sigil web that maps your life in terms of space and time.
• How to work with your future and past selves.
• What time dilation techniques are and how to use them.
• How to work with alternate selves and learn from them.
• Free e-book version of Space/Time Magic included!
• Free Tarot Reading included, when you sign up for this class!

Space and Time are two elements that we can’t ignore if we want to really understand magic. This class will help you take your magic to the next level.

This is an eight week class starting on August 1st from 5 pm to 6 pm PST and ending on Monday September 19th. A free e-book version of Space/Time Magic is included!

The cost for this class is now discounted to $165.00 until July 31st. You can pay via check, paypal, or credit card. If paying by credit card, contact me. Payment plans are accepted.

Liberation and Tradition

The value of any transcendent tradition should be found within its liberating qualities. A tradition, of any sort, has no other ultimate value. The use of tradition for tradition's sake is a perversion, a tool of suppression.

From The UnderWorld Initiation (affiliate link) by R.J. Stewart

I've just started reading this book, but I found this paragraph to be tantalizing because of what it says that a magical tradition should do, i.e. provide some form of liberation or freedom through the magical work a person does. That theme is present in a variety of different occult subgenres. Chaos magic advocates for it, as does Thelema, but the danger within any subgenre is the blind adherence to tradition because that's the way it's been done and that's how we should do it.

The idea of examining a tradition or practice of any kind for its liberating qualities is something I agree with, because ideally any magical working you do will be meaningful in a personal way that improves your life by freeing you of limitations either imposed on you by other people or self-imposed due to your own circumstances. When a tradition fails, it is because it actually imposes limitations in the form of dogma and non-questioning. It's easy to fall into those traps, particularly if you are in a group setting and want to "belong" to the group, but when such belonging becomes the priority, the liberation the tradition might offers falls to the wayside in favor of trying to fit into what you think others want.

One of the reasons I've pushed for experimentation with magic is to get out of such group think dynamics. Its good to work with people, when you do so with a spirit of inquiry and acceptance that the experience one person has doesn't need to apply to everyone else, to be valid and useful for that person. Experimentation encourages the idea that magic is best experienced in an environment where a person can try an idea out without getting shut down. When people try to shut you down, it is usually because they feel threatened by your desire to liberate your preconceptions by challenging them through experience. They may feel that by challenging your own preconceptions, you challenge their own, but this is projection on their part, done as a way of preserving a cherished image they want to cling to, without recognizing that the value of experience is that it allows us to shatter what we hold onto, in order to discover how much it may have held us back.

Interview with Crystal Blanton Part 2

In this interview we discuss the forthcoming Shades of Faith Anthology and minorities in Paganism. I'll be scheduling a show again in the near future, when I'm back from holiday.

Listen to internet radio with Experimental Magic on Blog Talk Radio

Tattoo for Identity

When I ended the elemental Emptiness working back in 2009, I'd switched to the element of Time, or so I thought, but I ended up realizing part way through the year that I'd really ended up with element of Identity, which makes perfect sense, because after emptiness I found I needed to establish a new identity. I'd cleared so much of myself out that I needed to rediscover who I was. Not to long after the emptiness year ended, I also got divorced, which brought its own change in identity with it. And in looking back at the years I'd done my different elemental balancing rituals it became apparent that much of my understanding of identity is wrapped in that elemental balancing work, because that work gave me the first opportunity to move past so much of what had held me back and replace it with what was healthiest for me.

As you can see the tattoo isn't finished yet, but this is what we gone done today. I hope to finish it up in a month, but I'm really pleased with the work the artist did.

I waited awhile to get this tattoo, partially because I had to decide if I was going to cover up a tattoo I already had. In the end I decided to cover up the old tattoo as the final part of a reclaiming/purification ritual for myself. Reclaiming my identity and my freedom to be who I need and want to be. I've pretty much done that already in my life, but this tattoo is the final part of that reclaiming, the last resolution needed to move on.

It's a lot more than that as well. I chose the Yin/Yang symbol surrounded by the five classic Chinese elements of Fire Water, Metal, Wood, and Earth. It represents the elemental balancing ritual and how much of a role it's played in my life, in terms of establishing and exploring my identity and place in the universe. And the yin/Yang symbol is representative of the Taoist meditation techniques I've used to help me do so much of the very needed internal work I needed to do.

Today as I was inked, I did the water breathing meditation and relaxed into the pain of the needle, letting it wash over, purifying me of the past, even as it helped me embrace the present and my promise to myself: Never to sacrifice my identity for anyone else. To always strike the right balance in all my relationships so that I can honor myself and the people I interact with. To be honest with myself so I can be honest with the people in my life.

I let the pain wash over me and I meditated on the pain of change and realized how good it can be. It's hurt while it's happening, but the end result, the realization is you're in a better place than you were before. And that's how I feel: I'm in a much better place than I've ever been.

Zeroing Time

The first author who really introduced me to Space/Time Magic was William G. Gray. In his book Magical Ritual Methods he talks about the Zero exercise, where a person created three circles around him/herself and brought them into alignment with each other to create space/time point of zero possibilities, where nothing existed except the person and what/she brought into the Zero. I've lately been reincorporating this practice into my daily work as one of the ways I can align with the elements of space and time. The concept of zero is a place where all possibilities can exist, but no reality occurs. Reality can only occur when an action is taken that moves a possibility into an actual reality. Zero is a state of being, a way of looking at space and time and the intersections of the two elements and the possibilities that spring out of that intersection.

Actually it's fair to say that Zero, as a concept that Gray introed to me, has been around since I first learn about it. It's an integral part of my mythology as it applies to space and time, and emptiness. What we can learn from zero is to how cultivate a state of being that's simultaneously removed from the present and connected to every possible moment that was and could be. The benefit is a temporal-spatial awareness that enables you to find possibilities that might otherwise be missed. It does make you somewhat non-linear...and zeroing is just the first step to hitting this state of awareness.

The Spiritual Tipping Point

I think of magic as a process that's akin to a tipping point, a spiritual tipping point. With magic, you're stacking the odds in your favor, and focusing on creating a very specific outcome. Part of how that works is that you create a tipping point where the amount of resistance against the desired outcome tips to the desired outcome, because enough action has been put toward the outcome that the resistance is a less viable option. This kind of approach to magic is useful in long term scenarios, where you're trying to achieve a specific outcome but you recognize it might not occur right away. A good example is a job hunt. When you're hunting for a job, you have to do a number of activities that will help you get the job. you need to fill out applications, network, develop a resume, go to job interviews, and do other related activities. When you add magic into the mix the focus is on using magic to help you get a job that you want, but in order to accomplish this, you know it could take a little while, because you're dealing with a number of people who are also job hunting. Those people, along with employers, create a resistance field. For the magic to work you have to specify not only what you want, but also how you'll turn that resistance into momentum. How I have approached this in the past is simple: I'll do a magical working for the job or create an entity to help me get it and part of what fuels the spell or entity is the activities I do that are related to the job hunt. They create a momentum that starts to create a tipping point.

Possibilities become reality when there is enough momentum behind them that reality tips in their favor. So with the job hunting example, multiple actions done in conjunction with magic can create a tipping point where the desired possibility becomes reality because the other possibilities, or field of resistance, doesn't have enough momentum to sustain itself against the dedicated momentum you've built up on multiple fronts.

Personally I prefer to employ the tipping point approach to any situation where I know I'll already be spending a decent amount of time working toward achieving the outcome through mundane means. The spiritual tipping point just makes it happen a bit sooner, and it always works, because its done on the understanding that what you accomplish will occur, and you're just helping to make it inevitable with everything you are doing to create it.

What you can learn from Pop Culture characters

I study pop culture characters in comics, cartoons, shows, books, etc., because of what I can learn about them, in terms of character development, attributes, correspondences, and how you can apply all of that to your own magical work. There's a lot of detail that's put into a character, in terms of origin, history, personality and all of these details are useful not only for developing a pop culture magic working, but really for developing an eye toward the kind of detail that can be necessary to pull off a good magical working. With a pop culture character, the details that go into the development of the character are ones that help make that character memorable to the people watching the show or reading the book or comic the character is in. If you want to create a compelling character you need to develop all of those details, because they will all help draw the interest of the audience.

How does that apply to magic? If you're creating a magical entity you want to be as detailed as possible in the creation of it. What are its characteristics and mannerisms? What is its origins, its special abilities etc.? Those details can bring that entity to life for you, and empower the magical work you do.

But lets look beyond entities to other forms of magical work. I find that paying attention to the details is essential to being successful with magical work. When I put a magical working together, I try to think of the details as part of the narrative of a story I'm writing. By taking lessons from pop culture, I've been able to put those details into focus in my magical work, so that I don't leave any loopholes in what I'm trying to accomplish.

Radio interview with Crystal Blanton part 1

In this show, I interview Crystal Blanton about Pagan Group Dynamics, instagroups, and her book Bridging the Gap. Next week I'll be interviewing her about the upcoming Shades of Faith Anthology. Click below, to listen to this week's show!

Listen to internet radio with Experimental Magic on Blog Talk Radio

The Process of Magic Radio show

The latest radio show is on the Process of Magic. I discuss why the process of magic is important, answer a question about energy, and provide a couple of examples. For the next radio show I'll be interviewing Crystal Blanton. It'll be a two part show.

Listen to internet radio with Experimental Magic on Blog Talk Radio

Patterns of Reality

"Mind patterns could be 'woven' like cord patterns, and these mind patterns were what 'move' spells. Different coloured threads indicated different kinds of consciousness, and their physical arrangements had to be projected into equivalent Inner patterns of power" -- From Magical Ritual Methods (affiliate link) by William Gray I pulled this quote while doing a bit of research for Neuro Space/Time Magic. The concept is interesting, using different colored threads to represent specific patterns of thought and being. I was once part of a ritual where we used silver threads to create a tesseract matrix of time. The thread represented the journey to access temporal possibilities, but what I find interesting with this concept isn't even that, but rather how the mind can be organized into different states that can then be evoked using a simple prop such as a colored thread, and a pattern or shape to bring it forth.

This concept can be replicated with other methods as well, such as using an alphabet of desire to embody different states of consciousness and patterns of reality. The key, however, is to recognize how you will actually use a specific state of being to change a pattern of reality you are in. Lets say you are doing a habitual behavior that you want to change. You are aware of it, and you can name it, and provide a symbol/shape to embody it. Now you could take this embodied shape and destroy it, but would that really solve your problem?

An alternate approach would be to devise a symbol and/or shape that represented a desired state of mind/being that you could use to counteract the habitual behavior. Ideally, this symbol/shape could even be the same color of the initial symbol you developed to represent the habitual behavior. Thus when you started to do the habitual behavior, you could visualize the shape and letter of that state, and even vocalize it. Then you could change the shape and letter to the new state of being, even as you also changed the vocalization, imprinting the new behavior on the habit, in order to change it into the new behavior.

All of this I got from a quote by Gray. If you haven't read his books, give them a try. They offer a lot to any occultist lucky enough to find them.

Beginning-Ending

My mind is all aglow and on fire with the secrets of the universe being whispered in my ears by all possibilities and none, XAH highest of me, EHEIEH, god breath that moves space and time into place to show me the silver pathway to all I can be. In these whispered words I hear the song of the elements combining everything together into patterns of manifest reality that present a sense of the universe that goes beyond any explanation and yet speaks more eloquently to the harmony of all things and none that come together to present possibility an opportunity to become reality tangible, palpable reality.

I gaze with crystalline eyes into the silver light seeing a web that hums and strums with power spatial nodes representing place, person, or thing, while temporal strands of activity move the spaces with their songs of power and promise.

I am in the zero space/time continuum where nothing matters and everything is revealed where identity becomes one from zero and emptiness gives way to realizations of empowerment through peace identity changing from dysfunction to function to awareness that no one is a victim of themselves unless they choose to wallow in their victimhood and excuse themselves from taking responsibility for their end of matters

Magic reveals the greatest truth that life is an endless play of possibility on reality of the conjoining sexual acts of space and time joining each other shuddering in lustful, blissful abandon to create this present moment a baby of circumstance, fate, destiny and the shattering sighs of universal harmony dissonant in our ears, for we cannot hear fully that song of time and space joining into one, The present is a present, with the past full of hidden secrets and the future blazing ahead to provide this final greatest moment of life passing to death passing to life the cycle has no end or beginning just endless possibility, endless illusion til you strip away the scales from your eyes and see all along it was a joke you played on yourself to bring meaning into your every moment a cruel explanation of why when we look into each other's eyes we realize we know each other for you are in me, and I in you and soon we discover we are all in each other everything we ever needed

Now join me for this one last act this blissful orgasmic death love lust act of sex, the little death the beginning-end of our song and drama I let you go, let go of myself and find in the release the expression of space/time that exquisitely presents this god breath whispering into me writing. We're all joined in this moment. Hello to me, hello to XAH my highest self telling me the secrets of the universe penning them down, laughing all the while. We'll meet again you and I, when we see ourselves in each other and realize it's all an illusion this joke of you and I.

Deadpool as a memetic virus

One of my favorite comic book characters is Deadpool. Since the very beginning he's actually been a favorite character for a lot of readers and at the same time he's a bit more than that, and also something that Marvel didn't expect in terms of popular interest. Deadpool's popularity has grown enough that he's gotten multiple comic books and even a possible movie deal. The character is fascinating in his own right, breaking the fourth wall frequently and at the same time playing with a lot of comic book tropes in terms of hero and anti-hero concepts. There's enough character development to keep him interesting, but a lot of the focus is on his humor, self-destructiveness, and the healing factor that keeps him alive despite it all.

Why do I think of Deadpool as a memetic virus? In part, I think of him as this because of how much his character has come to pop up in video games, comics, etc., and in art because he breaks the fourth wall frequently. I see him as an agent of chaos (which can be good). More than that I see him as a sticky character, which is to say he stands out in the minds of the readers in ways other characters don't.

Having been familiar with the various iterations of the character, since he was first invented, its interesting to see how he's evolved from a comic book villain to something more than a comic. I find tracing the history of such entities can be useful for learning if you'll work with them, as well as understanding just how they've changed due to popularity and interest.

Why magic isn't a bunch of categories or labels

I think sometimes people try too hard to boil magic down to categories. You ask someone what type of magic s/he practices and you get a long list list of categories such as Chaos Magic, Postmodern Magic, Shamanism, Ceremonial Magic, etc. Add in magical lodges the person belongs to and you've got another set of categories (made into Acronyms) such as TOPY, OTO, OSOGD, GD, Etc.,I see these categories applied to the future of magic as if that can be boiled down to a specific type of magical practice. I'm guilty of this too. I talk about experimental magic as a label of some kind, as a way of trying to differentiate what I'm doing from what others are doing and labeling their practice as. Yet at some point it becomes a haze of semantics and the question that arises is: Are you doing anything with all of this anyway or just armchairing it?

On some level there's a necessity for labels and categories, to be able to provide some vocabulary for the discussions, but when we get obsessed with it, it ends up becoming some kind of circle jerk indulged in for the sake of trying to prove who is cooler than thou or who's the most elite occultist out there, or whatever. We all want to stand out and how better to do it than come up with some crazy ass term that sounds cool and might even mean something up if we get through the semantic haze.

But I like my magic simple. Yes, I want to experiment with it, but I also want it to be something other people will do and understand without having to throw in a lot of specialist jargon. So I'll use a definition where applicable, and otherwise keep the focus on doing the magic.

Time Dilation Experiences

Time dilation is one of the experiences that's always fascinated me. I suspect just about every person has experienced time dilation. Time dilation is the experience of time either slowing down or speeding up. For example, if you've done a magical ritual before and you've felt like hours passed when perhaps only a half hour passed, you've experienced time dilation. Or if you've raced for a bus and felt like time sped up around you, you've also experienced time dilation.

When I do space/time magic, I like to warm up, as it were, using time dilation techniques. they are techniques that help to push the mind out of the linear frame of thinking it is used to, while prepping it for opening the doors of consciousness to explore time from a non-linear perspective. One of my favorite exercises to use comes from Jean Houston's Book The Possible Human (affiliate link). In this exercise you visualize time as a yard stick with past, present, and future occupying 12 inches each. Then what you do is take the past and give it 12 more inches, while having six inches off the present and future, and focus on experiencing a perception of time where most of the perception is on the past.

You can do the same exercise with the future, giving it 24 inches, and giving the past and present 6 inches each, or apply it to the present. Now you'll note that this is still a fairly linear perception of time, but the point of the exercise is to loosen up your habitual perception of units of time.

Time dilation is the first step toward experiencing and accepting that time isn't a constant and that we have influence on it. The usefulness of doing a time dilation exercise, whether in daily work, or just before you do a space/time working is that it'll push you outside the digital measurements of time we've come to rely on so much. And learning to activate time dilation at will can actually help out in those everyday situations, as well, because it teaches you to rely less on external measurements of time and more on internal awareness. You can apply that internal awareness toward shaping time around you, like in the time sphere working I discuss in Space/Time Magic.

Time dilation frees us of the automation of time, challenges us to question the measurements and schedules of others and shows us a glimpse of what time could be, if we are open to altering our perceptions of it.

Some thoughts on protection magic

Each day I do meditation to ground myself, but part of the meditation also involves sustaining protective magic as part of the grounding aspect. Protection from what? Protection from external influences, or internal beliefs, or a combination of the two, or some dastardly wizard out to get me, because of something I said or did? I've seen several books on protection and reversal magic, where someone throws something at you and you say, "I'm rubber and you're glue." I've always found it interesting that people will buy the books and put so much effort toward protecting themselves and then I'm reminded I do daily work that essentially acts as a protection.

I think protection is important, to one degree or another. For some people, who have a need for drama, protection may be especially important as a way to protect against the magic someone else might do toward them. Whether someone is doing magic or not is a question, because for such people there is a suspicion that it's all in their heads. On the other hand, there are legitimate cases where another magician will try to mess with you for whatever reason and it pays to have protection against those people. Setting up your home with wards and reinforcing them can pay off, when someone comes knocking on your door with a desire to put the hurt on you.

But for the majority of times that I really think about magical protection, it's really for potential mundane disasters. Car accidents, natural disasters etc. It's magic you do for that eventual day when something comes up that's out of your control and the only thing you can do is hope what you've put into place will turn it aside enough to make sure you walk away.

There's always a place for protection, so long as we don't let it stop us from experiencing the world. Protect yourself, but also challenge yourself.

How I use paintings in my magical work

I use paintings in a lot of my magical work. I'm currently working on one now, which is a self-evocation piece. The majority of my paintings tend to be used for entity work of one form or another, but I also have used some of them for specific spell work, like when I created a painting for an astrological alignment that was occurring. I find that paintings provide me an opportunity to align myself with particular events, people, etc. and express that alignment as well.

This is a painting I did a while back for my work with Elephant. It's obviously not a literal painting of an elephant, but it is an expression of my connection to elephant and at the same time functions as a portal to connect with the primal energy that represents elephant.

This is a picture that represents the spider queen of time. It's fairly abstract, because it's actually focused on representing the web she weaves, but it works to convey that web as well as provide a gateway to it.

This is a painting I did for Bune to thank him for his aid in my wealth magical workings. It's his goetic seal, but it's personalized because of the painting. Any work I do involves using this painting.

As you can see paintings are an important tool in my work. I find that the creative expression puts me into the right frame of mind to do magical work, and that the space I create via my paintings is useful for shaping the magic I need to do.  Do you use any art in your magical workings, and if so how?