Cultural themes vs Personal themes of Wealth

As I'm writing the wealth magic book and getting some feedback from prospective readers, one of the themes coming up is cultural identity vs personal identity, specifically how people define their own identity and definition about wealth in context to their environment, people in their lives, as well as what our culture says people should want. In Magical Identity, I explored how culture, family, environment, etc., shape a person's identity and this can and is easily extended to wealth as well. The perception of wealth that we're shown isn't necessarily the same as the reality of wealth for any given person. I think that truly understanding the concept of wealth as it applies to an individual's life involves some level of internal work that factors in the cultural theme of wealth and explores how much that theme really applies to the person's life.

I use myself as an example. Strictly examining my life by the cultural theme of wealth that is prevalent in the U.S. I wouldn't be considered wealthy. I'm not a multimillionaire, nor am I really obsessed with making lots and lots of money. I even have some debt that I'm paying off. My businesses are gradually becoming more successful, but I've made a few mistakes along the way. I've dropped out of graduate school, worked in the tech writing industry a couple of years and I've written a few books, but I'm not even all that well known in the occult community. By the cultural theme of wealth in the U.S. I would not be considered wealthy.

But by my theme/definition of wealth, I do consider myself wealthy. I am able to live on my own schedule, by my own rules, doing something I love to do. I am supported by someone who believes in me, and in turn I support her in a variety of ways that while not financial, nonetheless are significant to her because they make her life easier and bring her a sense of peace and contentment. I am able to work on my projects and I am happier than I have ever been. I have friends I care about, who also care about me. And while I have some debt, I also have some investments, and a financial plan that is moving me out of debt.

I am wealthy because I choose to define myself by the wealth I have in my life, which is more than just how much money I make. I am also wealthy because I have a plan that I am following, which is slowly but surely producing results. I am wealthy because I am doing what I feel called to do instead of settling for doing something that I don't want to do. I am wealthy because I have support from people who believe in me and are invested in my success, enough so that even when I have doubts, they don't and help me see what I have going in my favor.

I see cultural identity as a mirror of sorts. It shows me what the culture values and allows me to evaluate those values as they apply to my life, but in the end I think it is far more important to define your own values around wealth. This doesn't mean that I advocate believing in the virtue of being poor as a form of wealth, but rather I think that to truly understand wealth you need to understand how it applies to your life and this means consciously creating an identity and definition of wealth that gives you a way to meaningfully interact with what constitutes wealth in your life.

There's a lot of pressure to adhere to cultural standards of wealth, health, and everything else in between, but I don't think you can meaningfully get a lot from those standards because if you examine them you realize they create a lot more stress and unhappiness than anything else. People are so busy trying to fit into those standards that they lose themselves along the way. They can't keep up with the Jones, and they don't even know what they really want.

What really makes your life meaningful is how you define your life in context to how you want it to show up. Are you doing what you love to do? Are you happy with how your life is manifesting? Are you being true to your calling? Those are the questions I'm interested in, as they apply to my life and the lives of others, with wealth as a focus. I figure if you really get wealth, you know it when what you are doing is bringing you to life and who you are doing it with is what motivates you to do it. I admit its not a conventional approach to wealth, but I've never settled for conventional, because conventional is usually flawed.

Round 1 of the Space/Time Magic Weekend intensive starts in March!

On March 30th, my first Weekend intensive for Space/Time Magic will start at 10am, and will end on March 31st at 4pm. In the time between, participants who take this class will learn about Space/Time magic, specifically the system of magic and tradition I've created around this topic. This class will include material I've never published, as well as teaching participants how to customize concepts from my books Space/Time Magic and Magical Identity. I'm offering an early bird special for this class. If you sign up by March 10th, you will only pay 180 to take this class. If you sign up after the 10th, you'll pay 220 for the class. This is an in-person class, based in Portland, OR, which means we will meet in person for the training. When you take the class you will get the following:

• A detailed exploration of the elements of space and time and how they apply to magic.
• Introduction to the dual-deck system of Tarot reading and how it can be used for space/time enchantments.
• How to apply retroactive magic to create the right circumstances of space and time.
• Space/Time Magic techniques that you can use to achieve practical results.
• How to use retroactive magic to make changes in your behavior.
• Space/Time Meditation practices that you can use to connect with alternate versions of yourself as well as your past and future selves.
• Connection with Space/Time Inner Contacts who will guide you in your continued work with the Space/Time Magic System.
• Unpublished material that is specific for the class.

Want to know more about the class or how to sign up? Contact me.

The Value of Refining your Spiritual Practices

While I am an experimenter, I also believe in learning different spiritual practices. All of the practices that I study are subject to revision and I'm excited when I'm able to learn more about a tradition that will help me refine the practices that I'm doing. I'm reading the Six Yogas of Naropa right now. It's a book that is providing me insights into how I can refine the Tibetan shamanic techniques I've been practicing. Short of working with an actual lama its the best resource I have available.

I think its important to continue your practice. You can't afford to be complacent, because there is always something you could learn that will change how you practice it. A while back I was reading a book on core breathing practices for Taoist meditations and it changed my understanding of my breathing practices and how I practiced them significantly. While I was already getting a lot out of those practices, learning how to refine them and learning more about some of the context that informed those practices helped me understand what I could do to improve my workings and helped me appreciate what I was doing.

A magician should always be curious about the magical practices s/he does. No matter how much you know or who or what you've learned those practices from there is always room for refinement and improvement. And the magician who accepts that there is room for improvement spends time learning those practices and looking for more information to refine them, as well as experimenting with what s/he is already working on.

The current book I'm refining has filled in some missing pieces and provided me a way to improve the efficacy of my tumo practices. Undoubtedly as I continue to read other books and incorporate the information into my practices, I'll refine what I'm doing even further. My desire to improve what I'm doing is what helps me make the practices personal. I'm turning what I read into an experience that improves the experiences I've already undergone and improves my awareness and connection with the magical forces I work with.

Refining your practices also teaches you a lot about how to experiment. You carefully examine what you are doing, discovering the underlying principles that make your practice into a process that generates results. You test what you do, comparing it to what you already have done and evaluating it what the differences and similarities are. In short you develop a careful approach to your magical practice that helps you when you experiment because you know that you have to understand what you are doing to make the experiment repeatable and verifiable by others.

Be curious...never settle for what you've already done. Take your practice to the next level by looking for how you can improve it, and for what you can learn that informs what are doing.

A case study of a long distance working

Kat was away on a trip last week. We do a daily meditation together in the evening, but we weren't able to do it together because of the trip, so instead we opted to do it via phone. I would put her on the speaker phone and then we'd do our meditation chant and afterwards meditate in silence. Each time we'd end our meditation at the same time, without any prompting from the other person.

What we both noticed was that despite the distance we felt like we were next to each other. Kat told me that even though she was in the hotel she could smell our house while we were doing the meditation. It was interesting me to because it showed that the daily work we were doing was creating a connection that carried across the distance. It likely helped that its easy for us to visualize each other and that we've been doing this daily meditation for a little while now, but it also speaks to the value of doing daily work with magical partners. It builds more of a connection between the two or more people doing the work.

I've done long distance workings in the past with other people, and what has always indicated the success of the long distance workings has been feeling the presence of the people I'm working with. If I feel their presence, I know I've connected with them, and we can always verify that by seeing if our reports are consistent with each other. If they are, then we know the magical work is happening across the distance.

Book Review: Darwin's Pharmacy by Richard Doyle

First a caveat. I know the author and actually took classes from him in college.

This is is an intriguing book that explores the rhetoric of entheogens and how people discuss the experiences they've had with entheogens. The author interweaves his own narrative and experiences with the analysis he provides about entheogens. If you are interested in entheogens this book will be a good read that provides you some fascinating insights into the subculture around them. The author also bases a lot of his discussion around the works of Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, the McKenna brothers and other luminaries that have discussed entheogens in their own work. What I found particularly fascinating was the connected he made to Darwin's Theory of evolution and how work with the plants is a symbiotic relationship of evolution for both humans and plants.

Playing a Sigil Game

I recently joined a chaos magic Facebook group and several of the people asked me if I'd like to participate in a sigil game. In this game you share a sigil (or in my case sigils) and let other people activate them. They then to try guess what the purpose of the sigil is, i.e. what it is it supposed to do.

I thought it was an intriguing game, so I put together six sigils, using my comic book panel sigil technique. Why do multiple sigils? Because I think it would make the game more interesting. I also set the sigils up with two layers of programming, of which one layer is directly relevant to my life, and which the other layer is relevant or has benefits for the people activating the sigils.

I'm including information about this sigil game for any readers of my blog who want to participate in it, for the fun of it. Your task is to to charge and fire all six sigils together. When one is manifested into reality, it will create momentum to bring the other five into reality. A month's time to do it and see what happens as a result, though some results may continue to occur after the deadline.

Projects I'm currently working

I'm working on a few projects right now, and thought I would share what I'm working on, in terms of classes, books, and magical work.

1. Space/Time Weekend Class: I've already announced this class recently, but I'm really excited about it. I'll be taking the concepts and practices in Space/Time Magic and Magical Identity and showing people to turn them into a comprehensive system of magical practice and spirituality. This class will happen in March in Portland, though I am also open to teaching it elsewhere, under the right circumstances.

2. Magical Journal book: Also in March I'll be publishing my next book through Immanion Press, which will be a collection of all the blog entries on this blog from 2008 to 2012. It'll be quite a collection and I'm looking forward to having all the blog posts of this site available in print.

3. Wealth Magic Book: I am also writing a book on Wealth Magic and I'm currently putting a proposal together for a publisher. I'm not going with Immanion because this book has a broader audience. I'll give you more details when I know them.

4. Music Magic Experiment: I'm still doing experiments with music, specifically my voice and how it can be applied to magic. There's some fascinating works on the topic if you're willing to dig in and research.

5. Refinement of Tibetan Meditation practices: I'm learning more about some of the meditation practices I do and as a result I'm refining how I do them to take advantage of what I've learned. I've noticed some definite improvements because of the refinements.

That's it for the moment. I have a couple other projects, but those are long term down the line projects, with research being done as opposed to anything active.

Space/Time Magic Intensive in March

I've already announced my newest class, a weekend intensive in March on Space/Time Magic. But I know I have some readers of this blog who might not follow me on my social media accounts, so here's some information and a link to more information about the class.

Space/Time Magic is a magical system founded with the recognition that space and time are essential elements that define our lives. By learning to work with space and time as distinct elements and tools of your magical practice, you will discover how to apply these powerful elements to your life, work, and spiritual practice. Regardless of what your magical background or tradition is, the information in this class can be applied to your magical practice. The weekend intensive occurs on Saturday March 30th from 10am to 5pm and Sunday March 31st from 10am to 4pm.

For more information please go here.

Some thoughts on Daily Practices

The other day I was asked about the daily practices I do and when I do them. It was a good question to ask. My daily practices consist of a mixture of physical exercises and meditations. I think that physical exercise is an absolute must and I've always been puzzled that its not something implemented by more magicians, but I suspect that in such cases the people simply haven't realized that physical exercise is spiritual in its own right and that the importance of taking care of your body can't be understated, as your body is the medium by which you experience this world.

My physical exercises consist of Stretches followed by several Tai Chi practices, and then followed up with 5 sets of ten push-ups, 2 sets of 10 Sit-ups, and 2 sets of 10 leg-ups. I also walk on 3-5 times a week, depending on my schedule and the weather. It's not the most rigorous exercise I could do, but it keeps me in shape, and my body seems to genuinely like it.

My meditations consists of Attuning with Reiki each, Raising Psychic Heat in my body, and doing the Zeroing Meditation combined with a Taoist Breathing meditation. I also do an evening silent meditation with Kat. In the past I have done other daily practices. I change my daily practices on occasion to keep me focused and disciplined.

I find it helpful to do daily practice at specific times of the day or when specific events occur during the day. For example, Kat and I typically do our silent meditation before dinner each night and I do my daily practices in the morning, when I first wake up, or soon thereafter. Keeping on schedule helps me stay disciplined and makes the rest of the day more enjoyable because I've followed through on the daily practice.

If you do a daily practice long enough you will find that you crave it and that the days you don't do it will be days where you are less collected and focused. A daily practice brings stability, a focal point, and awareness of a person's space and time in the world.

The occasions where you don't feel like doing your daily practice are occasions that you must push through and do the practice anyway. You will always feel better afterwards and you'll know that by being disciplined you'll have accomplished the single most important thing you can do that day: You took charge of yourself and chose to be responsible in caring for yourself enough to do the daily practice you needed.

If you aren't doing daily practice in your magical work I recommend it. A daily practice builds reserves you can draw on when you need them and helps you stay focused in times of trouble.

Book Review: The Spiritual Dimension of Music by R. J. Stewart

This is a fascinating book that explores how music and magic can be brought together from a musician's perspective. The author discusses how you can use your voice, but also touches on musical theory and even types of music and instruments best suited for music magic. If you don't have a background in music some of the material will go over you head, but there's still a lot you can get from this book that can be applied to your magical practice. The author also provides some useful exercises that help implement the theories he presents. If you are a musician who practices magic I recommend this book, but if you also want a different perspective on magic this book will open your eyes and ears!

My List of Essential Occult Books

Below is a list of Occult books that I consider essential for a magician's practice. Actually not all of the books are occult per se, but all of them offer something for the aspiring and experienced magician. I have not included any of my books here, because while I would argue they are essential reads, I wanted to focus on other people's works.

Magical Ritual Methods by William G. Gray

This book has been foundational to my magical practice and is one I draw inspiration from even today. Gray explores magical concepts and practices in depth, while providing exercises and urging practitioners to experiment.

Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon

Another excellent practical book that walks you through a variety of magical processes while providing exercises to help you master those skills. It should be one of the first books a magician reads.

Real Magic by Isaac Bonewits

This book does a good job of defining and describing how and why Magic works. While I don't agree with all the laws, I think its still a book any magician should read just to see how someone has developed a definition of magic through systematic work.

Defining Reality by Edward Schiappa

Not an occult book, but a must read because it explores definitions and how people develop them. It's very useful for a magician to understand the power of definitions, both in terms of life and how they apply to magic.

Relaxing into your Being by B. K. Frantzis

This book provides an excellent introduction into Taoist meditation practices and lays out the value of doing internal work for personal development, as well as developing your internal energy

Magical Pathworking by Nick Farrell

A Useful Exploration of Pathworking, hypnosis, and related techniques and how to use them for internal work and invocations.

The Magician's Companion by Bill Whitcomb

A Useful Encyclopedic reference book that comes in handy if you want to get a quick reference to an occult tool or system.

Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path by Don Webb

A useful guide to the left hand path practices, as well as providing an intriguing essay on initiation that is a must read regardless of what path you are on.

Kissing the Limitless by T. Thorn Coyle

This is a book of Western Magical practices that also includes internal work as a part of its core practice. It explores a person's relationship to the world via spirituality and its exercises will definitely help you evolve.

Living Magical Arts by R. J. Stewart

Another excellent book that builds off the concepts in Magical Ritual Methods, while also providing a different perspective to the core principles of magic.

I could probably recommend many more books, but all of these are a good start for a beginning magician and recommended for more experienced ones as a way of helping you fully flesh out your practice in a comprehensive manner.

Book Review: The Hidden Adept & The Inward Vision by R. J. Stewart

This is a fascinating biography about a little known occult adept named A. R. Heaver who lived in England from 1900 to 1980. R.J. Stewart shares details of this person's life as well as his own encounters with him in the 1970's. He also discusses the Avalon sanctuary, and several other fascinating details. I enjoyed the book a lot because it provided some details about R.J's work in relationship to A. R. Heaver and proved to be fascinating in terms of learning a bit more occult history. If you are learning the Sphere of Art or other related work that RJ does this book is a must, and if you are a student of occult history, you will also want to pick up this book.

Elemental Balancing Ritual Movement month 1

10-22-12 Last night I did the switch over to the element of movement. Eros, who is traditionally thought of as a love deity, but also has some attributes related to movement. I got a statue of him a little while back and I paced that statue on my Tesser-act board and then I vocalized his name, calling to make a connection with him. We connected and then I entered into a meditative state where we talked movement in my life. He had me feel the movement of my heart and other parts of my body, and then we looked at the movement of my relationships, businesses, and life. He told me that we'd be doing a lot of work and he was right, because right out the gate he gave me a challenge.

He told me that I needed to write to two of my relatives. I have some blocks with these people and he felt that I needed to address them instead of avoiding them. So today I wrote to letters and sent them off. Right now I feel queasy. They were not easy letters to write, but I also feel some sense of movement within myself. I feel these places of tension and old pain being stirred and while its not fun to feel, I know that choosing to face it could free me of that pain and tension.

10-23-12 I've had one relative respond, while the other has not. The one who responded offered excuses more than anything else. Still its not what is offered, but what I get, which is movement away from moments that have defined my life in ways I no longer find useful, and never really did. Eros, with his curly locks, and angel wings tells me that movement is a state of being as well as transition,  space become fluid.

10-26-12 When I met with my business coach earlier this week he suggested that I create a time budget sheet and analyze where I'm putting my time and/or even prioritizing my time. I have decided to do the project because it will be good for my businesses, but also because it is an analysis of my movement. He even suggested that if I could cut back on certain activities, it might prove helpful in terms of helping me focus, which I'm inclined to agree with, especially when I put it into context with working with movement. I find it ironic then that in November, I'll be in a situation where I will necessarily have to scale back some of my activities due to a temporary limitation of movement. But there is value in starting in stillness, because stillness is the seed of movement.

10-27-12 In meditation today I ended up revisiting some past memories of my childhood. Eros pointed out that remembering is its own form of movement, an attempt to rewrite the past or come to terms with it or even just to experience it. I felt something crack open and inside was a candle flame. He told me it was the flame of my childhood hopes, still burning even with everything that happened. I approached it with the reverence and wonder of a child, allowing myself to bask in its warm glow, even as I fed it with the hope I feel now.

10-29-12 I've been reading Cupid's Poison with Kat. Reading it has been mind blowing in terms of understanding the physiology of orgasm sex vs non-orgasm sex and in terms of understanding how physiological changes induced by orgasm have contributed to relationship problems in the past. It also has caused me to look at polyamory in a new light, especially when you look at the arguments in books on poly which state that one of the reasons people choose polyamory is because one person can't entirely fulfill the needs another person has. For a long time I believed that, but my views have been shifting for the last half year, mainly because I am with someone who I can really open up to and feel safe with, and most recently because of this book and its explanation of what happens to the neurobiology of a person after orgasm. Certain behaviors make a lot more sense to me now because I can actually track the changes in behavior and recognize a physiological correspondence. And I can also track those behaviors in myself and others from previous relationships as well as observing the behaviors in other people's relationships. The effects that orgasm has on a person's neurochemistry explains the biological part of the drama that occurs in romantic relationships (whether monogamous or polyamorous). So I'm trying something different for a while, and having sex without orgasm being the goal, just to see what happens on a behavior and physiological level.

11-2-2012 It's interesting to me that my first month of working with movement involves dealing with the reality of having some of my mobility constrained due to circumstances not in my control. Nonetheless I find the synchronicity of it useful as does Eros, in terms of really appreciating movement as an element in all of its forms, up to and including the restriction in movement.

11-7-12 Tonight Kat and I had a discussion about my ability to let others spoil me. I've never handled being spoiled all that well. Truth is I've always felt like I needed to give, but part of that has been a way to protect myself from others.If I gave them pleasure whether in bed or in other ways and they were happy, then I could be safe, and maybe even have some control over the situation. Allowing someone else to spoil me has always made me uncomfortable, at risk, perhaps they will really see me, and consequently no longer want me. I didn't say it was rational, but it makes sense in a twisted kind of way. I feel blocked when it comes to receiving pleasure and I see that most poignantly in the fact that I feel it is important to make sure someone else is happy, or that there pleasure comes first. It was ingrained in me early on...do the chores, make sure others are happy and maybe you'll be left alone...or put the pleasure of your lover first and maybe you'll be worthy of being kept for a little while longer. Allowing someone to actually take care of me, pleasure me, spoil me is so different, brings up so much...it takes a lot of patience on my end and the other person to work through all the issues that come up as a result.

11-13-2012 As I've continued to read Cupid's Poisoned Arrow and carefully looked at my sexual history, and weighed it's neurochemical research with the research I've done into neuroscience, I am more and more convinced that there is merit to the arguments of the book. My experiences with Dopamine were of it as a trickster, and it seems born out. If you have an excess of dopamine, you have impulsive sensation seeking, unhealthy risk taking, aggression, sexual fetishes and compulsions, more wanting but less liking of sex. All of that sounds like me at my worst. If you have deficient dopamine it causes low libido, inability to love, erectile dysfunction (or the female equivalent) depression, social anxiety and low energy. I can think of a few people those symptoms apply to. If there is a healthy amount of dopamine there is also healthy bonding and libido, energy and vitality, motivation, sound choices, etc.

Books on polyamory commonly argue that poly occurs because one person can't fulfill all your needs. If you look at the neurochemical effects of orgasm sex, especially in regards to habituation, then this argument makes sense. But if you were to refrain from orgasm and focus on sex as a bonding activity, I don't think that argument holds up. Instead of feeling restless and empty, I feel clear-headed and more focused, happy and satisfied. However having also had orgasms, I've noticed that spending time bonding afterwards seem to really be the key. If you are cuddling and consciously focused on bonding it makes a difference. Maybe the key is simply making time to connect with someone very consciously, which I'll admit is something I never did much of, prior to this relationship.

11-18-12 Today I cleaned out the closet and got rid of about 1/3rd of the clothing and other effects. The space feels better for it. I got rid of some clothes Ive had for over a decade, but I'm not one for meaningless sentiment. Keeping something for memory's sake just weighs you down. If the memories are really worth having, they will still be something you'll recall.

11-19-12 Closing this first month out, I'm struck by the relationship between stillness and movement. One seems to lead into another and neither is necessarily contradictory to the other.  I haven't moved and yet I have moved. I have also been moved even in being still. There is never a time without movement of some kind.

Snow White Mythos in Pop Culture

I recently saw the movie Mirror Mirror. A little while back I also saw the other snow white movie that came out this year. And of course Once Upon a Time has Snow White as a main character, as well as the wicked Queen. There is a lot of focus on the Snow White Mythos, and when this kind of attention happens its worthwhile to pause and take notice. I find it fascinating how much Snow White has become popular. It shows how a story can endure and go through changes in its appearance that nonetheless still supports the original story.

From a pop culture magic perspective, the snow white mythos is prime estate. Whether its the movies or the show there's a lot being done with snow white and it's worth studying. Pop culture is about relevance. Why something is popular is based on how it speaks to the needs of the people at a given time. Snow White has relevance because it speaks to the desire people feel to come out of a bad time, but also the need to find someone who represent the hope they need to feel as they weather that bad time.

Snow White has become more relevant because people identify with the story. The princess is oppressed by the evil queen who fears her power. The princess runs away and tries to get help, while the queen does whatever she can to stop the princess. And so on and so forth. There are variations of the story which the current movies and show are presenting. And those variations are what keeps Snow White relevant. By seeing the myth retold in contemporary culture, explored in context to the demands and needs of the time, the myth is refreshed, rejuvenated, made into something relevant to the times. The myth is reborn and people's buy in to it is also reborn.

When I look at Snow White mythos right now I see strong female leads who come to the rescue of the Princes who are in love with them. I see allies who can help her, but often require her help as well. I see an evil queen who is much more than evil. I see characters people can relate to, that embody the times we live in. And that's the beauty of a mythology evolving. It provides us a chance to see the mythology change and be reappropriated by the themes of the times.

Further commentary on practical magic

I recently posted about the reluctance to do magic for yourself. I got some responses which made me do some thinking and this post is a culmination of those thoughts. One of the responses was that the person was concerned about the possible harm that could occur. She needed to be absolutely sure she wouldn't harm someone if she chose to do magic for herself. Another response was the concern that doing magic to get a particular result might cause the person to miss out on a better opportunity. It was better to let the universe bring whatever opportunities would come her way.

These are valid comments to make. But at the same time I wonder if perhaps they create too much hesitation. If we wait for opportunity to come knocking, if we hold back from doing something because of potential consequences, what are we letting slip through our fingers? Practical magical involves making practical choices and taking risks. It recognizes that if you really want something and you think magic is necessary you do what it takes to make it happen.

I'll admit I'm not the most ethical magician out there. I figure if I'm doing magic for a practical result it may be a result that only favors me. While it may not harm someone in an obvious way, there's a chance it could still have an effect. For example if I do magic to get a job, and I get the job I have used magic in my favor and harmed all the other people applying for that job. It's not intentional harm per se, but it could be considered harm. I recognize that and if I choose to do magic I have to evaluate if choosing to do magic to provide a favorable outcome is really worth doing.

And its true that if you use magic to achieve a specific outcome that you could miss out on other opportunities. However it's also possible to set yourself up with the opportunities you really want. For example, I created an entity that specifically looks for opportunities and notifies me of them. I don't miss out on the opportunities because I am made aware of them.

With practical magic there is always some risk involved. But the same is true with living life. Even if you don't do magic when applying for a job, the very act of applying for the job and going to an interview and getting that job could still be considered harmful to the people applying for the job. We can choose to paralyze ourselves out of fear that something could happen, or we can take a risk and do it and deal with the consequences as they come up.

As someone who has done and continues to do a fair amount of practical magic I'm comfortable with doing it for the purposes of achieving a specific result. I recognize I could be closing one door, while opening another, but that's why I'm doing magic. I want to achieve a specific result. I know there are consequences, but there are always consequences when you take action. Life always has a risk attached to it. But if you want something then you have to decide what that really means. Practical magic is about shaping your life in a direction that is favorable to you. This doesn't mean you discount others, but it does mean you evaluate what is needed to help you achieve your desired outcome and then you do it.

Why Magic is necessary for our spiritual practices

In Ethics and the Craft, the author argued that "Magic and Spells are a small aspect of modern Pagan spirituality and not a necessary practice" I've seen the rise of this kind perspective for a while now and it always concerns me, because in a way I think it caters to the fear that if we talk about magic then we won't be taken seriously or worse yet we'll be demonized with the stereotypes associated with the practice of magic.

I don't think of magic as an optional or small part of modern pagan spirituality. Magic is at the core of pagan spirituality and defines what pagan spirituality. To describe it as not necessary is to turn our backs on essential practices that are used to connect with the very spiritual forces that a pagan works with. Magic is necessary because it provides the practices we use to connect with the spiritual forces we work with. If we discard magic or say its optional what we are really giving away is our spirituality and replacing it with empty formulaic activities.

When you look at magical processes, you see certain practices that are universal. For example, invoking deities is a universal practice regardless of what pagan path you happen to belong to. Invocation is considered a magical technique. If you argue that magic is optional, then why do invocations? Yet pagans do invocations and its because they are an essential part of their spiritual practice. You can't take magic out of Pagan spirituality...or at least you shouldn't.

I recognize that there are pagans who don't practice magic. I realize that magic isn't considered to be an essential practice by some people, but I think discarding magic or trivializing it isn't a good idea. What are we giving away in terms of our spiritual practices when we marginalize our spiritual practices as optional?

Book Review: Ethics and the Craft by John Coughlin

I am not a Wiccan and this is a book about Wiccan Ethics. With that Caveat made, I found this book to be an excellent exploration of Wiccan ethics, both in terms of the history of said ethics and the exploration of those how ethics are applied to one's life. I also like that the author explored ethics in relationship to one's magical practice. I highly recommend this book as a useful guide to understanding Wicca and its ethics, and even as a book that may be interesting to someone who is not Wiccan but practices magic and wants to learn about various ethical systems. While I did disagree with the author on a couple points, I found that all of his arguments were well put together.

Round 3 Process of Magic Charity Special

It's time for the Process of Magic Charity Special. If you sign up for the Process of Magic class this week, I will donate half of the class fee to a charity. The charity for this round is the Amboselli Trust for Elephants. This is a charity that protects wild Elephants from poachers, and ensures that they stay wild.

The Process of Magic class offers 24 lessons, with a lesson sent out each week. Additionally you'll get a free e-book from me, as well as feedback on the homework for the course and access to an online forum for the class. If you have questions or want to know more about class, contact me.

How patterns define reality

In reading the variety of books that I am wont to read at a given time I am always struck by an awareness that each and everyone of them represents a patterened perspective of reality or how reality seems to manifest. This is true even with the fantasy and SF books I read. There is always a formula at work, a way of presenting information in a specific pattern that leads to a specific conclusion.

Awareness of patterns can help us understand what they have to offer us, but can also lead to a myopia of sorts, that only sees the pattern and mistakes it for the reality, kind of like mistaking the forest for the trees. A pattern isn't reality, so much as it is a perception of how reality manifests. It structures our awareness of reality, but it also leads to specific conclusions, while excluding other conclusions.

When we understand patterns from this perspective we can critically engage them and challenge whether or not they are actually realistic to the situation we are in. A pattern doesn't have to define reality. We can step away from it or change it, with the recognition that we are creating our own pattern in the process. In  fact, I don't think we can really live without patterns, but we can recognize their limitations and account for those limitations in a way that allows us to knowingly make changes. Every pattern is an opportunity to interpret reality, but it is our choice to rely upon that interpretation or to challenge it.

Information filtering and magic

Ever since I read the post from Scarlet Imprint about their choice to leave Facebook, in part due to information overload I've been thinking about information filtering and where it fits into magic. Scarlet imprint makes a valid point when they note that your average person can only handle so much information before s/he is overwhelmed. Back in the days when I taught social media, I saw first hand how overwhelmed most people were (and still are) by how fast social media technology progresses, but also by the sheer amount of information that is shared. It can make your head spin.

My approach to handling information involves filtering information, both in terms of importance, but also in terms of how I process information. It is easier to filter information by importance because you can simply ask whether the information is important or relevant, and recognize that a lot of it isn't. As such cutting out the information that isn't important can be effective for reducing the stress on your cognitive load. But even then you still have to process the information.

In Magical Identity I discussed how I have developed a technique where I devote a specific aspect of myself to learning and processing information about a specific discipline. Information about that discipline is directed to that specific aspect and that aspect processes the information, and also comes to the fore when the information is needed. So for example I have an aspect of myself that is focused on processing information about neuroscience. I have another aspect that is focused on processing information about small business development. And so on and so forth.

By creating multiple aspects I can effectively improve my cognitive load and process more information on a variety of topics. I can then draw on that information as needed by simply tapping into that aspect to call it forth. And when I don't need the information, that aspect goes into the background and continues to process information and provide insights as needed. Sometimes I will find myself thinking about a particular subject of interest, and the needed insight will come to mind immediately, provided courtesy of the aspect that I have devoted to that exploring that particular subject. I think of my aspects as background programs that continue to run at all times, helping me process lots of information. As such I have never really found myself overwhelmed by information.

The creation of an information filter can help you with your cognitive load. As you can tell there are different types of information filters. Creating ones that filter and then process information frees up your everyday consciousness to focus on what is important in the moment, with the knowledge that you can draw on a vast store of information as needed.

When to be wary of gifts

Mike recently made an interesting post about how physical touch can be used to get around shields. It made me think of how else someone might try and get around magical shields and what came to mind is when someone gives you a gift, it can be the perfect opportunity to attach something to the gift that is malevolent. I can even think of a personal example.

A few years back another magician sent me a couple of rattles. I was wary about accepting them because my relationship with that person had soured, but nonetheless I did. I shouldn't have. I should have remembered instead how he'd tried to harm two people I knew, as well as trying to undermine me in a couple of other ways. I think I hoped he'd changed his ways, but knowing this person as I do, I should've known better. And by accepting his gifts, I was accepting his continued influence in my life, and also whatever he attached to those gifts.

I got rid of the two rattles a year or so later after I received them and I noticed a distinct change in my environment. I also noticed that my creativity improved. Now it could be psychosomatic, but nonetheless, just as Mike notes that physical touch can be used to get magical shields, why not also include gifts given, since if the gift is accepted, what is also accepted is what the person attaches to the gift.

I got rid of the two rattles by taking them out of my house and then burying them in the Earth, making them an offering to the land and asking that anything attached to them be recycled to the benefit of the land. And I did a banishing ritual in regards to that particular person, with the desire that he stay out of my life. I didn't feel a need to do anything else, nor a desire to.

That incident did teach me to be careful about the gifts I accept from people. While I'd like to believe that most people are motivated by a genuine desire to give something freely and with good intent, I can't help thinking of the poison apple given to Snow white. It looked good, it seemed like a wonderful gift, but one bite..,and she discovered that the gift had a bite of its own. So I accept gifts, I'd prefer to accept them from people I can genuinely trust as opposed to people who might have an alternative agenda.

My history with blood magic

In Ethics and the Craft, John Coughlin briefly discusses blood magic and why people don't use blood with magic. The original reason for not using blood with magic is that the energy released isn't stable or reliable. I've found a similar claim made in Stephen Mace's book Nemesis and other Essays, where he discusses how one of the Roman emperors abused blood magic, to the point that it caused him to make rash decisions.

Blood is representative of a person's life force. We can't live without blood and so it is a powerful agent of transformation that can be used in magical work. I've used my own blood in my magical work. For example, when I made my pact with the elementals I gave them my blood and I've done similar pacts with other entities and shed blood as part of the pact. In such a case, it is an exchange of my life essence for their life essence.

I've never drawn on my blood for any other magical working, but I also know of cases where people who have chosen to donate their blood have also chosen to enhance its healing capacities with magic. Certainly a worthwhile way to utilize blood magic.

I respect blood as a fluid of life and as a symbol of life energy. I wouldn't write off drawing on it, though I think the only blood you should use is your own. I do think its important to be careful with it. Use sterilized tools if you are going to draw blood and have respect for what you are drawing on via the blood, i.e. your life force. I suggest using Lancets, though I've also used a knife in the past. Lancets are much less messy and you can get a few drops of blood from a finger and have it heal fairly quick.

Blood magic isn't something to do lightly. As I mentioned, I only use it for making pacts with spiritual entities I want to work with and I don't even use it for every kind of entity I work with. There are specific circumstances that warrant it, such as when I wanted to develop a closer connection to the elemental spirits. I reserve it for those occasions and those occasions alone.

Social Media, Technology and Magic

Recently Jason from the Wild Hunt reported that Scarlet Imprint is leaving Facebook. Scarlet Imprint offered their own explanation of leaving Facebook as well as a critique of technology. Finally here is a report on how Facebook's changes in terms of reach have affected people and businesses, specifically in terms of cost involved in order to reach your entire fan base. I don't care for how Facebook has changed the ability of a given business or person to reach his/her followers, which is why I think its important to use multiple social media, but I'm also not going to write FB off just yet.

Scarlet Imprint decries technology and social media as a dumbing down of magic and claim they wouldn't be online if it wasn't for the press. Perhaps they wouldn't be. They go on to argue that people who discuss their magical work online are diminishing their work. That's the gist of their message. It's ironic then how much modern technology they do use, but they likely have realized that a business that isn't online is less likely to be discovered.

They'd no doubt be appalled that I take a different tact. I'm one of those magicians who likes incorporating technology and pop culture into magic. I'm one of those "low" magicians. I think Facebook and other social media can be useful for sharing information and I think its good to get the information out there to people who might otherwise never be exposed to it. I even think its possible to apply magic to social media (a subject for a book). I don't think its wise to write off social media and while I think they make some valid points it all comes off as elitist. That may be a compliment for them.

I'd definitely like it if Facebook went back to letting businesses reach their fans without charging for it, but I'm still going to post on Facebook and on social media in general. After all, its thanks to social media that I have really found my fan base. Pre-social media, I honestly wondered who was reading my work and/or what they were doing with it. Social media showed me what people are doing and gave me a chance to answer their questions and comment on their work. I don't see that as a diminishing return, but rather as a chance connect with people who appreciate my work and want to stay dialed into what I am doing.

The Metaphysics of Ethics

I'm reading Ethics and the Craft by John Coughlin. It's a good read and its gotten me thinking about the metaphysics of ethics, or if you will, how ethics are enforced. Consider for example the idea that if you do something you'll get back three times what you put out. So if you do harm to someone, you'll get 3x the harm back on you and if you do good you'll get 3x the good visited on you. I've never subscribed to this particular law, but as Coughlin notes, there are people who believe it to be a literal reality, while there are others who teach it, but relate it to three degrees that are part of Wicca. I understand the latter interpretation, but the former interpretation strikes me as unrealistic. Nonetheless I could also see how it could be a reality for the people who believe in it.

So why it is a reality for those people (and no one else)? It's a reality because they believe in it, and because they will subjectively find proof to support the belief  that they will get 3x the benefit or harm, they put out. This is especially true when it comes to harm, and the reason for that is that typically harm is emphasized, in order to discourage people from doing magic for harmful purposes. That emphasis consequently encourages a fixation on the experience of 3x harms moreso than 3x the benefit.

Belief is a powerful tool in magic, but it is double edged, and the beliefs we hold can sometimes cut us, precisely because we believe them and give them power to effect our lives. This is why it is important to examine our ethics (whatever they are) carefully to really determine how those ethics impact us.

I'll admit that I am not the most ethical magician out there. I think one of the reasons I am more "ethical" in my life these days boils down to doing the internal work and working through the dysfunctional beliefs I've held that contributed to the chaos in my life. Doing that work has helped me realize how much the rules we hold ourselves to can be helpful or harmful depending on what we believe. Perhaps this is why I base my ethical decisions on situations as opposed to an overall code for living life. I look at every situation and evaluate how I will respond based on the situation and the contexts and variables effecting the situation. That makes me ethically flexible, which some people would frown upon, but I'm satisfied with that flexibility, and it allows me to factor in my beliefs in, in a way that causes me to examine how those beliefs will impact me.