A Poem for Bune

Hail Bune, Great Three-headed Dragon Lord of the Dead and Wealth With one hand he provides and with another he reminds that all is temporary change inevitable, He'll give you solid advice on wealth and death Just remember to make offers of appreciation for the aid he gives. He'll make you wise and eloquent and provide answers to questions but his greatest strength is that he'll show you opportunities and give you solid advice What you do with it is your choice. Hail Bune I give thanks for all the changes you've brought to my life.

The Problem with spell books

Below is the latest video from the magical experiments youtube channel. If you like what you see check out the other videos on my youtube channel.

Elemental Balancing Ritual Stillness Month 7: Importance

4-21-15 In a conversation today with a business acquaintance, I had a realization. In some ways I have not been good at making the people in my life important. And what that really means is that I haven't always prioritized the people in my life in the right way. I've let my issues be more important and allowed them to take control of my life, instead of taking control of them. That realization is priceless, but what I do with it will be even more important. And this realization does give me a different outlook on a number of my choices and actions. It helps me see something I didn't see before, but now its time to do something with it.

4-22-15 In reflecting further on how I do or don't make the people in my life importance, I recognized that by stilling myself, and really being present, I'm opening myself to recognizing where I'm not showing up in the relationships of my life. Perfect example occurred last night, where Kat and I were trying to plan a trip and I was avoiding making decisions because I wanted her to decide. what she wanted was a mutual decision, something we agree upon together and that's something I'm not always good at. She was frustrated. This morning as I was driving to an event I realized how not making that decision really indicated to her that I didn't feel the trip was important. I had checked out instead of stepping up. So I began thinking about the trip and I came up with some ideas I shared with her later (better late than never). The result was that she sounded happier...I had made the trip and her important. And while I'm glad I recognized this, it made me realize I need to be more proactive. I need to make sure my priorities are in the right order, both in my life and with my relationships. Still I haven't ever thought about the relationships in my life in this way, so I guess this is a good start.

4-26-15 I've been reading and working through the Talking Tree by William Gray. In the sections on the Devil and Lovers Tarot cards as they relate to the paths on the Tree of Life, he makes some points that really stand out to me in relationship to my current struggles. I see that so much of my problem comes down to the unhealthy relationship I have with sex. The other night, in a conversation with a friend, the observation was made about how the abuse a person suffers with sex at someone else's hands can lead to a situation where one's own relationship with sex is abused. Gray makes some similar observations about how people misappropriate sexuality in an effort to create identity for themselves. Their focus is in the wrong direction, trying to establish their identity through the sexual relationships they have with people, instead of examining why they even need to to try and establish their identities in that way. That is part of my own work.

4-30-15 I'm reading Vocal Magick by Bill Duvendack. In it he discusses how thought forms can be created from behaviors and thoughts a person has that are repeatedly replicated and become an obsession for the person. I've come across this before, but I liked how he explained it and it helped me look at some of the work I'm doing from that angle of recognizing that certain behaviors, as thought forms, will fight to survive. I feel that some of what I've struggled with can be summed up in that way, and this helps me see where I need to do some of the work I'm in the process of doing. I'm going to do a ritual of release and see if that helps with this process.

5-4-15 I've been hitting deeper states of stillness through doing the Tsa Lung exercises in conjunction with Zhine, the sacred healing sounds and my Tumo practice. I feel like I'm fitting all these pieces together and hitting this deeper state, which is also providing me some ways to work energetically, emotionally, etc with the issues that have been coming up...and of course I think doing these exercises is also facilitating bringing up those issues, but I also think its worth it for the clarity its providing me.

5-7-15 When I feel certain patterns of behavior and thought come up, I've been still with them, observing them in a way I had never done before and contrasting them to new patterns of behavior and thought. I find this makes it easier to see what is and isn't working. Then it becomes a matter of making choices around what is important, what really matters, versus what is impulsive. I've also been doing some work around my relationship with writing and my sense of well-being. I told Kat, the other night, some of my frustrations around the writing and she grounded me by pointing out the other commitments I've made...I'm far busier than I ever was and I sometimes forget to appreciate that or consider perhaps the necessity of finding stillness for some of those commitments.

5-14-15 In some ways I think depression is the dark side of stillness...though that could just be an attribution on my part. But with depression, you don't really want to do much. You do what you have to do, but that's exhausting in and of itself. Anything more than that just seems like an uphill battle. You just want to curl in a ball and forget about anything else. I feel like that a lot right now with some of the different issues I'm working through.

5-15-15 To really work through any emotion you need to be with it, really with it...not just thinking about it, but actually feeling it. When you feel the emotion and are present with them fully it can be overwhelming but that gives way to release and from that release comes liberation.

5-19-15 The other day I took the above advice and actually applied it. Kat was telling me how she was feeling and I put myself into no-form and just soaked in the emotions behind the words so that I could empathize with where she was coming from and understand her perspective better. It was hard to do because I felt those emotions very keenly, to the point that I felt a weight on my stomach...yet doing it really helped me understand her. In the past I've often come up with rules of behavior, but not really understood her perspective and doing this I feel was a step in the right direction. Taking on no-form, becoming still allowed me to put aside my own dialogue and defensiveness to just be and become her perspective and experience.

5-21-15 As you continue to be still and work with what rises in you, what you discover is that it allows you to reach deeper states of altered consciousness and a higher level of awareness around possibilities. The less distraction there is, the more focused you get. I feel like the work I'm doing around what is coming up is helping me appreciate stillness in relationship to what moves in my life and at the same time question that movement and how it manifests in my life and if that is really what I want.

How to find useful pop culture magic artifacts

The other day I stopped by my local Gamestop to reserve a copy of the new Assassin's Creed game. As a result of making that reservation I got a necklace with the assassin creed symbol. It got me thinking about how people go about finding pop culture artifacts to use in their pop culture magic workings. If you're a pop culture magic practitioner you're not going to necessarily everything you need at your local occult or Pagan shop. You need to go looking elsewhere to get whatever bling you're going to use in your pop magic workings.

In my case, I got the necklace as a result of reserving a game and sometimes with video games you can get other props. The clerk told me I could get a replica sword cane or one of the assassin wrist toys, which could be quite useful as possible items for a pop culture working, if Assassins Creed is a pop culture you want to do magic with. However not all pop culture is video games and even in the case when it is, you won't always get a promotional item for that game. So where else do you go to find pop culture items?

Conventions are one place you can go. A convention that's focused on your favorite pop culture will inevitably have vendors selling items that are relevant to that pop culture. You can buy those items and use them in your workings. But if you can't get to a convention, then you might go to a Target or Walmart and see what they have in the toy section. For that matter you may find clothing as well that has your favorite character on it. Barring that, you can also go online. for example you can find vendors online who make specialty lightsabers, which is perfect if you're integrating Star Wars into a pop culture system of magic.

However you might also opt for the creative route yourself. You could sew a costume of your favorite character to use in pop culture magic workings, or make replicas of particular tools and items. These skills aren't hard to learn and a visit to Youtube will likely help you find someone who is demonstrating how to make something you want to use for your pop culture magic workings. An additional benefit of making it yourself is that the act of creation is, in and of itself, a magical act that can greatly enhance whatever you create.

Pop culture magic tools aren't hard to find. And the most important ingredient to add to those tools is your imagination, which makes those tools come alive as something sacred and significant to the magical work you are doing.

Magical Experiments Podcast

This week I interviewed Bill Duvendack and Erik Roth about the spiritual significance of Astrology and how it can be integrated into magic and Paganism. Next week I'll be interviewing Emily Carlin about shadow magic and pop culture magic.

Visualization and Experiences

In Awakening the Sacred Body, the author shares some additional meditations you can do with the Tsa Lung. Some of those exercises include visualization of specific colors that can be associated with the movement of the breath. In my own work, I've tried to move away from visualization, but I thought with these exercises I might see how matching the visualization to other experiences I was already having would work. Initially when I did the visualizations I found myself spending more time on them, than on actually being present with the experience (Which is one reason I've moved away from visualization). However, I figured there had to be a way to crack this problem in such a way that visualizations could be included without distracting from the experience, and if anything helping a person go deeper into the experience.

What I decided to do was match the visualizations up with specific actions I was already doing. The way the exercises had been presented was that you did the visualizations separately, but that doesn't work for me. However, matching the visualization up to an experience I was having allowed me to stack the visualization and make it part of the experience, to the point that it could happen without me having to spend time thinking about it, as opposed to really being with it. Once I start doing the experiential work, the visualization of the color kicks in and becomes part of the experience.

I've never come across books or other resources where visualization is stacked on to an experience (though I suppose NLP would be where to look). There may be some resources or approaches that do it that way, but typically what I've noticed is an either/or approach to experiential meditation and visualization. You either do one or the other, but not the two together, and yet I also have never seen any warnings against it. I think the reason it's not typically done is because the practitioner is focusing on the experience or visualization and not trying to blend senses together in a manner that might be a distraction. Sound and visualization can go hand in hand because you can make the sound part of the visualization, but kinisthetic experiences are very tactile oriented and in some sense directed more inward as a result. Yet I also don't think its impossible to make our vision and kinisthetic experiences work together. It's just a matter of figuring out how they work together and in my case that means associating the visualization with the experience, so that when the experience occurs, the visualization automatically starts and supports the experience by becoming part of it.

My new podcast

I'm now hosting a podcast show on the Pagan Musings Podcast channel. You can listen to the first episode, where I interview Bill Duvendack about his book Vocal Magick here.

Round 13 of the Process of Magic starts May 13th

 

Round 13 of the process of magic starts on May 13th.

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

In this 24 lesson class, we will explore what the process of magic is and how it applies to you and your magical work. If you're looking for a different perspective on magic that explores the underlying principles of how magic works, instead of focusing on the tools, ceremonies, and other optional features, this class is for you. You will learn how to:

• Develop your own definition of magic and why its important to have your own definition.
• Use a process approach to magic to understand how it works and what you change.
• Personalize your magical system to improve its efficacy in your life.
• Understand how to fix mistakes in your magical workings.
• Achieve a new understanding of magic and its place in your life and work.

Here's what previous students have to say about their work with this class:

I have been reading and experimenting with magic and the occult for over five years and it seemed like I was going off in too many directions, without a map to guide me. I felt like I was spinning my wheels. This course helped me focus, without tying me into any particular Religion or belief system. If you are looking for a course that builds a foundation for your understanding and practice of Magic, this is the one!

This course has been amazing and I truly value your knowledge, experience and writing ability. I also like the fact that you are innovative and creative in your approach and take a progressive view of magic and are not mired down in some conservative tradition or other. You are on the “cutting edge” of magic and I am sincerely grateful to have the opportunity to take courses from you! Last but not least, you are ethical, conscientious and relate very well to your students.

Testimonial from G. Marlett

By describing the process of magic(k) rituals, Taylor Ellwood taught me how to enhance my work. He taught me how to analyze and improve some rituals I had made, how to apply proved techniques to experimental rituals for internal magic and how pop culture can also be useful for creating pantheons more in relation to oneself. After this class my rituals have been really effective, and I started to think of magic as a means for transforming myself to get the best out of my environment. Highly recommendable class, I'm really happy I took it.

Testimonial from Ivan Marquez

To learn more and to sign up, go here.

My new podcast and a couple of Book Reviews

I'm starting up a new podcast, through the Pagan Musings Podcast Channel. I'll be doing a show every Monday at 6pm PST. The first one will be on May 11th and will feature Bill Duvendack and I discussing his new book Vocal Magick and the topic of thought forms and magical entities. Most of my writing is focused on Pop Culture Magic 2.0 right now, so this blog post is just a couple book reviews, though I discuss a bit of my work in context to one of the books.

Book Review: The Talking Tree by William G. Gray

Part of my ongoing daily work involves working through The Talking Tree by William G. Gray, which is the companion book to the Ladder of Lights. In the The Talking Tree, Gray focuses on working with the paths in between the Sephiroth and showing how those paths connect the energies of the respective Sephiroth together. Each day, in the midst of my daily meditations, I've been reading a section of the book and then working with the respective forces described in that section by meditating those forces. This is similar to the work I did with the Ladder of Lights, and in fact builds off the work done in the Ladder of Lights, since you've already established contact with the respective forces you are working with.

Just as with the Ladder of Lights mediations, I used the spirit to mediate the force. I read a section and then do a meditation where I connect with the particular forces in order to mediate them into my life and through my spiritual work. Gray associates these paths with the Tarot and that makes for some useful imagery to work with, along with the correspondences he provides. For me the work has been mostly focused on internalizing each path in order to then manifest it in my life and I've found that with each path I've had relevant events come up that have allowed me to integrate the work I'm doing in a meaningful way with the experiences I'm having.

What's been most interesting about this work is the focus on the paths between the Sephiroth. The majority of books on the Tree of life have typically not covered these paths or if the material was covered, it was only lightly touched on. That makes this book invaluable for anyone who is serious about working with the tree of life and Quabala in general.

My only complaint about the book is that the sections aren't clearly laid out, like it was for the Ladder of Lights. That said I have an older version of the book and the newer version might be laid out in a way that's easier to access the different layers of each path.

Book Review: The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts

This book is thought-provoking in terms of how the material on space/time and working with the cells of the body is presented. There are lots of ideas in this book, which can be worked with if the reader is open to exploring them. What is overtly lacking are concrete exercises to explore these ideas, but if you have some experience, you can likely derive your own. Another issue I have with the book is that at times the message is very law of attraction oriented. While its important to recognize how your thoughts can set up the experiences you have, I think its equally important to note that some factors aren't dictated by your thoughts, and that isn't presented in this book. With that said, its an intriguing book that is far ahead of the time it was written, and worth a read through to see what ideas you can glean from it.

Tsa Lung Experiences

In Awakening the Sacred Body, The five Tsa Lung exercises are shared. these are exercises where the practitioner takes a deep breath, then inhales again and holds the breath while doing physical movements that are designed to help the practitioner work through internal blockages and connect with their internal energy. The breath is then exhaled, and the exercise is repeated. I've been learning these practices and integrating them into my daily meditation work. I've found that they've helped lead me to a deeper place of stillness, especially combined with other Dzogchen practices.

Doing the Tsa Lung exercises are interesting, especially because you are doing them while holding your breath. I find that when I holding my breath and doing these exercises, it clears my mind of any thought. I am just present with the actions, allowing myself to do them and hold space with them. When I exhale, its like I let out whatever blockages were there, letting the attachment to them go with the release of breath. The author, at one point, notes that as you do these exercises you need to pay attention to the space that occurs as a result. When I check in with that space I find that stillness in me. Sometimes it brings up close to deeper issues (especially of late), but sometimes all that is there is space.

Doing this work has illustrated even further the connection between stillness and movement. One leads into the other and vice versa. Stillness can be found through movement and movement can stir in stillness. It's an integral relationship that I'm finding to be quite profound in other areas of my spiritual work.

Radio Interview: Recently Pagan Musings Podcast interviewed the editors and contributors of Bringing Race to the Table. Here is the interview.

What Pop Culture teaches us about Objects of Power

I recently finished playing the DLC for Shadow of Mordor. In one of the DLC's you get to play as the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, who according to the mythology of Lord of the Rings, forged the rings of power, and helped Sauron forge his Ring. Celebrimbor gets the Ring of Power at one point and is able to use it for a time., but eventually loses it when it leaves him. Playing the game got me to thinking about objects of power and how such objects might take on their own personality. According to LOTR lore, Sauron invests a significant amount of his own power into the ring, which ultimately leads to his downfall when the ring is destroyed, but in thinking about how the Ring is treated in the books and in Shadows of Mordor, I began thinking that the ring is its own entity.

The reason I think of the ring as its own entity is because of how it seeks to protect itself. It may find various people to wield it, but inevitably it leaves those people when their value is used up. According to the mythology, the ring is trying to get back to Sauron, but nonetheless I think in giving so much power over to the Ring, what Sauron also gave it was its own identity, desire, etc. And you might wonder what all this conjecture has to do with magic, here's my take: Investing a lot of your own power, personality, etc., into an object is a mistake that will come back to bite you, because it becomes its own being.

In another pop culture mythology, Once Upon a Time, Rumpelstiltskin, is the Dark One because he possesses a dagger that transfers the power to him, after he kills the previous dark one. Whoever holds the dagger can control the dark one or become the next dark one, but there is nothing about the person that indicates that they inherently have the power. Instead the power resides in the dagger, which makes me think that the dagger is ultimately its own being, perhaps the original dark one transformed into a dagger. But regardless of that you see a similar lesson in this mythology, namely that the power residing in the object, as opposed to the person, makes the person vulnerable.

Back when I started practicing magic, I had necklaces, rings, and a variety of tools that I used for magic, but something I learned along the way is that the power in those tools is at least partially derived from what people put into those tools. What that means is that you invest part of yourself in a given tool. You might think of it in terms of the meaning you derive from working with the tool, or something else to that effect. There might be something inherent to the tool, but a lot of what makes a tool useful in magical work is the meaning you put into it, the relationship you create with it. And by extension some of that can be taken and applied to yourself. William G. Gray talks about doing just that by recognizing what a magical tool represents and bringing it into yourself to make it part of who you are as a magician.

I think tools can be useful, but it is wise to consider what you invest in a tool and ask yourself if that's really where you want your magic to go or where you'll find it. You might discover that the best investment you could make involves recognizing and working with the magic within you. It's always part of you...and with that said, knowing wen to use a tool can also be as important as knowing not to overly rely upon it.

Podcast Interviews

Shauna Aura Knight and I were recently interviewed on Green Egg Radio about the Pagan Leadership anthology Immanion Press is publishing and Pagan Leadership.

I was also interviewed on the Pagan Variety Show about Inner Alchemy and internal work (you'll need to go in about an hour, in order to listen to that interview).

The Process of Magic round 13 starts on May 13th

The Process of Magic class starts round 13 on May 13th!

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

In this 24 lesson class, we will explore what the process of magic is and how it applies to you and your magical work. If you're looking for a different perspective on magic that explores the underlying principles of how magic works, instead of focusing on the tools, ceremonies, and other optional features, this class is for you.

Here's what several former students have to share about this class and how it helped them with their magical work:

Taylor Ellwood's approach to magic looks at your life, looks at what you want to change and then uses your magic to improve the situation. If it does not work, improve your magic! Magic is a creative process that ties intimately into our lives and changes not only an outward situation but the magician itself.

In the beginning you will take a look at that process, something I have never seen discussed before. After that Taylor Ellwood supplies a large tool box for magical work. It ranges from creative techniques like using cut-ups to the creation of magical entities tailor-made for the magician's needs. There are a lot of potential magical helpers on your way, gods and demons alike, and you will learn how to establish a healthy relationship with such beings that is mutually benefiting to you and them.

In no time you are doing magic that improves your life instead of reading about magic or pondering about what magic could do for you if only you could find the time to actually start practicing it. I can recommend this course for everyone who would like to become the active shaper of his or her live again.

Testimonial from Wolf Kaminksi

I'm really enjoying your class.  Especially helpful was how you showed the Tarot as offering up possibilities instead of viewing the cards in a rigid way.  I'm also working with the element of Earth for a year.  What I'm really finding from your class is that magic works.  You can't believe how many doors have started opening up for me that were right under my nose.

Testimonial from T. Vorster

If you want to learn more or sign-up, visit the class page for the Process of Magic.

Elemental Balancing Ritual Stillness Month 6: Suffering

3-25-15 I'm feeling depressed or maybe derailed is more accurate. I had to take a bunch of images down from my sites..a lot of work which wasn't productive and it really just hit me hard. But it's also the last month and I'm just working through some tough issues. And so on and so forth. You get derailed and it can be hard to get back on track...especially if you wonder sometimes if there's a point to even being on track. Sometimes I wonder if there is because even with everything I do there is this sense of incompleteness. It's been there all my life, likely always will be and I think I kid myself as to whether I can ever really come to any peace with it. I live with it everyday and its what drives me but its also what haunts me. I'm feeling really haunted by it right now.

3-26-15 Having a confidant in one's life is a gift. Being able to tell someone what you feel, what you need, how your hurting...its precious. I've been working on doing that more with Kat. It doesn't come easily to me, because I've had a lifetime of learning not to tell people what I'm feeling and yet I think if I'd been better at communicating earlier in my life I might have been a better partner for people I used to be with. I can't change that, but I am working on changing it with who I'm with now.

On a somewhat related note I'm reading Awakening the Sacred Body and learning the Tsa Lung exercises. In one section, the author talks about gossip and the attachment people have to it. I had a reaction of sorts, because I do believe in informing people of predators and predator behavior, but I also recognize how it could be perceived as gossip. It's a fine balancing act, because you can get caught up in bitching about someone and that's gossip as opposed to informing someone about behavior that has been harmful to other people and could be harmful to more people if its not recognized for what it is. At the same time I know why I'm having that reaction...because its very easy to complain and let that complaint govern the experience of your life...taking up valuable energy and time that could be directed toward more productive pursuits.

3-31-15 In Awakening the Sacred Body, the author writes the following: "There is one tendency of mind that is important to notice, because it can undermine the positive effects of meditation, and that is our habit of moving from problem to problem. Without realizing it, we are addicted to our to do lists or so much more familiar with our problems that we tend to dwell on them, even when we recognize that doing so doesn't solve them." I was struck by that statement because I know it applies to me. I sometimes have treated my meditation as a to do list item, the work I'm doing as something to do and also as something I end up obsessing over. Part of what made last month hard is that I realized I needed to stop thinking so much and start experiencing more of what I was feeling. Reading that passage reinforced for me how essential it is and how you can only experience a certain level of meditation if you are stuck thinking about problems, and letting that thinking occupy your space.

4-6-15 Some tough work this last week, especially as I recognize patterns repeating themselves and producing the same results for me and in how I affect other people. My work with stillness has fittingly enough brought me back to emptiness, with all of its issues, and yet with an awareness of myself I previously lacked when I worked with it and I see so clearly how my relationship with it just leads to pain if I focus on trying to fill myself up, instead of just being with it and being open about it. I find when I am open about my misery, about what I'm feeling when I feel empty, it actually does serve to provide some relief and maybe I just need to accept that there is some part of me that is just deeply miserable and allowing myself to be that way without trying to change it, might be better for me. I've never done that, but its worth trying.

4-8-15 My suffering has defined a lot of who I am and a lot of the way I've related to other people. I've caused other people to suffer because of the pain I'm in and how I've handled that pain. In Awakening the Sacred Body, the author talks about how we hold on to the pain we feel because it is familiar to us. We become attached to it because we know it. To get past that involves learning how to open yourself to being in a place where that pain isn't there. I'm doing the TSA Lung exercises and as I do them and hold space with what I'm feeling I also consider that it could be possible to let go of the suffering I've felt and my attachment to it as a form of identity.

4-9-15 It fascinates me to encounter people who I recognize have similar traits as I do when it comes to how they measure social behavior and then respond. I talked with two such people today and could recognize how they calculated situations and also recognized the same tendency in me. I approach most situations with an a recognition that studying how people act can help me determine how I should respond, dependent on what I hope the situation will result in. I don't mind admitting that because the truth is I was a socially awkward person for a long time and it took me a while to figure out how to connect and relate to people. I did and do that partially by studying behavior and it makes easier to connect on a deeper level.

4-13-15 This weekend I helped put together a lot of furniture with Kat and the kids. It was a bonding experience and I felt a comfortable sense of work as I got into putting everything together. An experience of flow, which in a way can be a form of stillness because it becomes a moment that stretches beyond the usual experience of time. I've also been reflecting on how characters in books can reflect your own journey and be teachers in their own right. Nothing new in that reflection, but a renewed appreciation of lessons that can be learned if you are willing to see yourself in the character's journey.

4-15-15 Part of my suffering occurs with my creativity. I find it harder to write now than I used to. There will be occasions where the writing just flows and on those situations I write until I can't write anymore. Most of the time writing, for me happens in stops and starts and that's hard. It wasn't always that way and obviously despite my issues with my writing I still manage to put out a lot of writing, both in terms of books and blog entries, but I think I've worked harder for this writing in the last 5 years than I used to...then again, writing came a lot easier to me before I ended up in a long term situation that was fairly traumatic for me. And although its been a while since I've been in that situation, I think part of me is still just healing, and that includes the writer in me.

4-16-15 More and more I am seeing how my suffering internally leads to suffering for other people, when I act on that suffering, specifically when I try and find some way not to be present with it, but instead distract myself. Those distractions are really focused on my desires or my needs, as opposed to really being with someone. And when I see the result...a person hurt so deeply because of how I've handled my suffering, I realize that I have traumatized that person with my damage. It's a horrible feeling that deepens the very suffering I'm feeling because I now recognize how it's extended to someone else. I know I'm not the only one who's ever acted this way, but I also know I am the one person I can take responsibility for and that includes taking responsibility for my suffering and damage in a way that doesn't harm other people or myself. Doing that involves shifting from reaction to a place of proactive awareness, where I can recognize what motivates a given action and also acknowledge the potential effects that action could have on me and other people. Then its a matter of making a decision, the right decision, as opposed to continuing to react to my suffering.

4-17-15 One of my problems is I'm impulsive. I see something I want and I go after it without weighing all the factors. This does't always occur and happens less frequently now than it used to, but its still an issue. What I need to do is step back and really examine what the possible results will be. Not easy in the heat of the moment, but I've done it before and I can do it again.

4-20-15 This weekend I finally finished writing chapter of the pop culture magic book...a chapter I started at the end of February. It doesn't escape me my attention that when I get distracted by internal conflict, my writing suffers. Beyond that though, in working with stillness, I've come to see how much it calls up all the issues in my life and forces me to face them. In being present with myself, I am also present with everything going on that I've either buried away or tried to get away from...and I know I can't get away or bury it away. At some point it catches up and gets me...What I do about that though is up to me.

How Spiritual Transmission shows up in Writing

I'm reading Ensouling Language by Stephen Buhner, which is a book about the craft of writing, with some interesting perspectives. In one of the perspectives he shares he discusses something akin to the concept of spiritual transmission, wherein something is passed from one writer to another. Here's what he shares:

In that moment of transference, the real secret that all beginning writers want to know begins to be revealed, slow as that revelation will be...In that moment something begins to be transferred from the older writer to the younger, some invisible that is at the heart of the craft, some feeling sense of state of mind that is essential to the work. And it is that something that is at the core of what it means to be a writer, someone who desires to be more than a typist of words.

I have had this experience of transference as a writer a number of times through my career. It first happened in my early twenties when I was going to a writer's group and sharing my stories in the hopes of improving them. One of the other writers, a fellow by the name of Matthew made quite an impression on me as a writer and it had nothing to do with technique, so much as had it to do with the essence and identity of being a writer. He helped me decondition myself from all the writing classes I'd taken while in high school and college which had filled me with a lot of nonsense about writing.

Later, when I was pursuing my doctorate at Kent State University, I'd go through another spiritual transmission in regards to writing...an awkward and hard stage of learning how to write like an academic. I learned a lot about technique, but what the transmission provided me was something deeper that caused me to become much more of a researcher than I'd ever been. To this day I still do a ton of research before writing. I ended up not getting the doctorate. I wasn't a good fit for academia and vice versa, and I moved onto technical writing, where I received another transmission of sorts at my first contract with Boeing, where I learned how to write process. I eventually took all these experiences and developed my own writing style.

I forgot to mention as well that this kind of transmission, for writers, also occurs through reading the works of other writers. You may never meet the person, but as you read a book with the eye of a writer, you get hit with this awareness about your own writing and suddenly your trying some ideas out about writing to see what occurs. I went through my William S. Burroughs stage for a while doing cutup as a result of such a transmission. Likewise William G. Gray made quite an impression on my writing, with a kind of heavy handedness that found its way into my writing and is still there to some degree. As a writer, you are always picking up the words of other writers and with some of them you experience a transmission that speaks to how you could write and then you find yourself writing differently, your style mutated by this transmission you've experienced.

As for how all this applies to magic...for me, writing is part of my magical work, one of the ways I turn possibility into reality. And I feel that this concept of transmission in writing does extend to more than just other writers. The writer is transmitting the expertise of the subject to readers and its not just a matter of reading words, but also a matter of having an experience that moves you. You read and then you do something with it...you turn what you've read into a reality of your own that has meaning to it. That's how writing becomes a spiritual transmission for the reader who isn't a writer.

The Present is the Point of Power

 

I'm re-reading The Nature of Personal Reality by Jane Roberts and the spirit of Seth, which she channeled. I don't recall when I read the original book, only that it was sometime back in the 2000s. In reading the book now I'm struck by how much it focuses on two areas of interests I have, working with the body as a magical tool and space/time magic. I'm going to focus on the latter and specifically on a statement made in the book, "The Present is the Point of Power." It's worth spending some time considering that statement as it relates to space/time magic, but also how we conceive of the present.

The present is the moment we are experiencing, in a linear sense, as a sense of "now", but the present is also comprised of all your past experiences, beliefs, attitudes etc., and yet it is also what enables us to change what we gain from the past. Seth points out that what you believe about your past is what you get from it and what contributes to what you make of the present. While this might seem like self-evident advice, I think its a useful point to consider in relationship to retroactive magic and space/time magic in general.

Memories are shaped by belief. If you have a negative belief about yourself, then you'll find memories to justify that belief. Likewise if you have a positive belief, you'll find memories to support that belief. If you want to change memories, part of what you need to change about them is the underlying attitude and belief that you've invested in yourself. Your present sense of self is shaped by your memories and what you tell yourself about who you are. Conversely your present shapes your memories as well, so that if we want to change the sense of self and what we identify with, then we should look toward changing the memories we pick or creating entirely new ones and inserting them into the past as events that have actually happened.

Memory is part of imagination and so it is not impossible to create a memory. We imagine memories all the time. We might call them fantasies or daydreams or whatever else, but they can be memories. Imagine yourself as a younger person doing an activity, or spending time with someone, and in that memory insert the new beliefs and values you wish to have. Then insert that memory into your past among other memories, allowing it to spread the beliefs and values into the other memories, changing what occurred so that the present and your sense of self is also changed.

Our sense of time is static, but the actual experience of time is fluid and if we know this then the present does become the point of power because we aren't constrained by false linearity, but rather recognize that any given moment can become the present through the use of imagination and memory. When we insert a memory into the past or change an existing one, what is being changed is the identity of the person. You may discover new possibilities in the present as a result or look at your experiences with a new perspective about yourself and others that helps you navigate situations you are in. When we take charge of the present and use it to change the past, when we recognize that our experiences aren't set in stone, but can be shaped by what we invest in them, we unlock the potential of imagination and memory to be more than just something that we fantasize or remember. We become what we identify with and use that to discover what we can become.

How to Invoke Pop Culture Characters

 

When it comes to invocation, I think the pop culture magician has a wealth of material available for crafting an invocation working that is efficacious. We have multimedia resources available that can allow us to study the various portrayals of characters, as well as multiple versions of characters to draw upon, with different characteristics emphasized depending on whatever suits our needs. All of these resources provide us lots of inspiration for invoking pop culture characters.

When I invoke a pop culture character I like to learn as much as I can about the character. I'll study the various versions of the character, what they wear, what they say, how they say it, and how they move. I'll pay close attention to what triggers them emotionally, positive or negative, and how they react to situations. I'll put myself inside their heads, getting a feel for what they are thinking. I need to know all of this if I'm going to invoke them, because part of invocation is identification. I want to become the character as best as possible.

For some people, pop culture invocation will involve getting the costume of the character and certainly that can work, but what I do is focus on movement and voice. How does this character move? How do they speak? If I can get their movement down and speak the way they would, I've already established a muscle memory I can use when invoking the character. For example, if I work with a stealthy character then, I want to be able move in a stealthy manner. I'll observe how the character moves...does s/he stay out of sight, stick to the sides, or is s/he in plain site, but unobstrusive?

I think part of an invocation is identity. Can I let my identity go and take on the identity of another being? To take on the identity of another necessarily involves shifting everything about yourself into the identity you'll become. Method acting is used by actors for that purpose, but magicians can also use it for invocation. When I invoke a pop culture character I am embodying that character in my movements, words, actions, everything I do, and also everything I am.

What the character says is also important. Does the character use big words or say very little? Is the character funny or serious? Does the character laugh and if so how does the character laugh? The laugh of Joker is very different from the laugh of Rumplestiltzkin. You might not think this is important, but its all part of the identity you are establishing. You become the character when you do what the character does.

After the invocation is done and the pop culture character has done what it needs to do, there's also the question of getting back to you. If you are wearing a costume, you could just take the costume off. If you aren't, then what you need is some other way to get out of character. What I do is use a specific anchor (an NLP technique where you use a gesture of some sorts to create a specific frame of conscious reference). In my case, the anchor is cracking my fingers. When I'm the character I won't crack them, but when I'm ready to come back, I crack them and I'm back.

How do you approach invocation of pop culture characters? What do you do to get into the role and change your identity? What do you do to get out of role and become yourself again?

Book Review: The Functions of Role-Playing Games by Sarah Lynne Bowman

In this book, the author shares her research and experiences with role playing games and explores how such games can be used to explore different identities. I found this to be an intriguing exploration of role-playing games and how people use them to explore their identities as well as how they are used by society in general for problem solving. The author does an excellent job of showing the breadth of role-playing games, and the various uses they are put to. This is an excellent book to read to understand identity alteration and how the assumption of different roles allows people to explore who they are in relationship to the characters they create and become. The author also provides some useful insights via Jungian theory on archetypes and identity that can be helpful for understanding the psychology of role playing games.

Elemental Balancing Ritual Stillness Month 5: Stagnation

2-27-15 I'm feeling pretty fried from all the travel I've done, plus the jet lag I'm feeling. I'm leaving on yet another trip in a few days and then after that, I'm done for a while. In all of that I've tried to maintain my connection to stillness and sometimes I have and sometimes I haven't. I don't stress myself too much about it, because it just is part of this time of year and also an opportunity to find stillness within movement. The two lead into each other and create each other.

3-2-15 I had a breakthrough realization about my meditation and actually about some issues in my life. I'm analyzing them too much...not engaging them on an experiential level. I know what you're thinking is...isn't that what you are writing about and doing a lot of and yes I am, but I can attest to the fact that some times you have to learn some thing multiple times, in multiple ways in order to get it. You realize it on one level and then go deeper and realize it all over again in a different way.

3-4-15 There are occasions where I feel a sense of destiny, a recognition that something significant will happen. I felt that way today, going into a business meeting and I'm feeling about my trip to the Between the Worlds Conference. The key, when you feel that way, is to still yourself, let the event unfold and know what you want from it, so that when the opportunity occurs you can take the right action to produce the desired result.

3-8-15 It's been quite a weekend at the Between the Worlds conference. I had several experiences that in their respective ways have brought about some deep realizations for me. I had a chance to meet with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki for about 2o minutes, to discuss her books and the possibility of her publishing her books through Immanion Press. We chatted for a bit about western esotericism and people such as W. G. Gray as well as discussing publishing and I'm hopeful she'll publish books with us...but I also had an experience with her that I've never really had before...or if I have it hasn't stood out in quite the way it did this time. She did a spiritual transmission with me. I felt this wave of energy pass from her to me. The hair on my arms and legs and head stood on end and I could feel this heat pass through my body. It lasted for a quite a while after and I knew it was from her. I also know its one of those things, where it will manifest itself as needed, when its time for it to manifest.

And I felt like it already has manifested a bit, because I came away with another realization this weekend, more on the shadow side of things. Basically I came to recognize on how selfish I can be and how that selfishness has hurt people in my life in the past and in the present. I have a tendency to get really fixated on something I want, to the exclusion of thinking anything or anyone else...and sometimes that can be good, like when working on a creative project, and sometimes it can be bad such as when I place my own desires over anything else in my life. I'm really sitting with that and recognizing how its a pattern that's shown up multiple times in my life. I know I can change it...I also know I need to own it.

3-11-15 The last few days have been rough. I've really had to come face to face with my own selfishness and what motivates that selfishness. My conclusion, at least as it applies to relationships, is that its a defense mechanism in order to not let people get to close. The selfish part of me doesn't want the experience of love, so much as it wants whatever sensations it can have access to in order to distract it from itself. It's always been an issue for me that has played out in my relationships as well. It's a cold, calculating aspect of myself, my survivor really, but it's not helping me when it comes to my important relationships. It's focus is on taking care of itself to the exclusion of taking care of the people in my life and it really sucks.

3-13-15 Feeling something, instead of thinking about it, is hard. It calls for a level of vulnerability that doesn't come easily to me. And so much of what I feel is wrapped around this core part of myself that is trying to escape what its feeling. I know this is a recurring theme for me, but its a theme that nonetheless is profound for me because of how much it motivates my choices. Am I doing something to escape what I'm feeling inside or am I doing it because I genuinely want it? I don't know because the two are so entangled.

3-14-15 A friend of mine sent me a link to an article on what self-loving people do for themselves. As I read through it, I realized what behaviors I was doing and what behaviors I wasn't doing. I'm learning to listen to my emotions. This seems like a long journey for me, but compared to where I was years ago, I'm actually getting better at feeling emotions. I'm pretty good at taking responsibility, but I'll admit I still sometimes slip into blame mode, more often than not with myself and I do feel there is a difference between taking responsibility and blaming yourself. I definitely feed my passions and creativity and I enjoy spending time alone. I'm getting better at weighing long term choices over instant gratification, but I have a ways to go as well. For me, instant gratification has often been a way to just tune out, instead of really being present. Setting boundaries is a skill I've had to work hard at and being aware of the boundaries of others is another skill I've had to work at. Both are skills I'm still working with, and it goes right back to the instant gratification over weighing long term goals. As for admitting mistakes...in some ways that's the easiest skill, though it does venture into self-blaming. Still reading that article does indicate I'm getting better at self-love, slowly, but surely.

3-15-15 Feeling without labeling is a part of stillness work. I found myself trying to label today, to judge really, and I just called myself on it and went back to feeling. I feel that the Spiritual Transmission that Dolores gave me has helped me with some of this work. It's blown up some blockages and allowed me to do some integration work within myself.

3-18-15 The last few days I've had a cold, which has made doing any work much harder than it normally would be. There is just enough fuzziness there that it becomes an exercise to do anything. Feels a lot like stagnation and I realize that's the shadow side of stillness...where everything grinds to a halt. This month has felt a lot like that for me.

3-19-15 To experience an element, you necessarily need to encounter the shadow aspects of it. If you can't do that, then the work involved isn't for you. In some ways I think the shadow work is the most essential part of finding balance with an element. It calls on you to be vulnerable and open to changing yourself, especially aspects that you may not have examined. Ignorance is stripped away and what is left reveals who you are becoming as you do this work.

3-23-15 This month has been the hardest one with the stillness work. I feel I've come face to face with the shadow side of stillness and it is not easy to deal with. Nonetheless I also feel I've gained a lot from working with it...deeper insight into myself and my issues that allows me to see a history in my relationships that I hadn't previously acknowledged. It's hard and necessary work, but its work that keeps me going because ultimately I feel better for doing it. I feel stagnant, but actually i'm really not...I'm just encountering that feeling of stagnant as it shows up in my life.

Pop Culture Grimoire 2.0 Deadline extended to April 15th

The deadline for submissions for the Pop Culture Grimoire 2.0 has been extended to April 15th. So far Emily and I have 13 submissions . If you have an interesting idea, we need you to submit a first draft by April 15th. Look below to see some guidelines on possible submissions.

Email for inquiries and submissions: Taylor Ellwood

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for The Pop Culture Grimoire 2.0.

This anthology explores pop culture magic and Paganism in the 21^st Century. We invite you to share your pop culture magic practice, pop culture Pagan spirituality, and your experiments, spells, and other workings that have integrated pop culture into your spiritual practice.

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology:

• Pop culture spells
• Your experiences with a particular fandom
• Magic at conventions
• Cosplay magic
• Social media magic
• Blending older mythology with pop culture
• Your experiences sharing pop culture magic
• Video Game magic
• Pop culture art and magic
• Your systems of pop culture magic
• Role playing and pop culture magic

Rough drafts are due April 15, 2015. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editors. Essays should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Essay requirements:

• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material • Bibliography of works cited • Prefer APA format

Write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely talks in the first person about your own experience, please include this also. There is a wide range of voices, and we are interested in being as inclusive of style as possible.

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

The anthology will be edited by Taylor Ellwood and Emily Carlin.

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Pop Culture Magick, Magical Identity, and other books on magic. He is also the managing non-fiction editor of Immanion Press. He can be found online at http://magicalexperiments.com

Emily Carlin, author of Defense Against The Dark, is a Wellesley grad, lawyer, geek and specialist in Seattle haunted lore.  She presents regularly at PantheaCon, and teaches defensive and shadow magick at http://www.shadowkrafting.com

Relaxing into Non-Conceptual Awareness

In Awakening the Sacred Body, the author does an excellent job of defining conceptual and non conceptual awareness. Conceptual thinking is a distraction from stillness. It is thinking about the meditation or the focus of the meditation as opposed to really opening yourself to presence. It is judging what you experience instead of actually allowing yourself to have the experience. Non-conceptual awareness, on the other hand, is allowing yourself to be present with the experience, to let it happen to you without having to interpret or categorize it. As you might imagine, it is not always easy for people to experience non-conceptual awareness.

When I do meditation, I find that the experience of non-conceptual awareness is an experience of relaxing into it. If I try to force it, what happens is that I move further away from it. Stillness isn't something you can force...it's something to be relaxed into as an experience.  So when I meditate, I just allow myself to be where I'm at, and it happens to be in a place of lots of thoughts, then I let that thinking occur, instead of trying to quash it down. By opening myself to that experience, eventually what occurs is I enter to a place where the thoughts go away and I'm just present. And if a thought does occur, I know what it is and I let it go. It's a kind of silence really that is actually quite relaxing and puts me into an altered state of consciousness. The key is to accept that in order for this experience to happen, you let go of trying to control it and just let it happen to you and move you to a place of stillness.

The reason people get stuck in conceptual thinking is because we have a tendency to analyze and critique and judge and get caught up in lots and lots of thinking. The problem with the conceptual thinking is that it distracts you from feeling. So if you feel uncomfortable, but get caught up in analyzing that discomfort, you still aren't dealing with the discomfort. You are thinking about it, but you aren't experiencing it. The experience of discomfort in your body and in your state of awareness is very different from thinking about it. It forces you to get real with what you are feeling. And when you do that...when you stop making it into a concept and just experience it, then you end up achieving a liberation of sorts, because you are allowing yourself to just feel it, and in the feeling of it, enabling yourself to really be present with it. Non-conceptual awareness opens you to a place of vulnerability. That place of vulnerability can be frightening, but if you are willing to engage it, what it provides you is the experience and that experience allows you to let go of the feeling ultimately.

In the past I've had a tendency to spend to much time in my head, over thinking what I'm experiencing. It's resulted in less than genuine work because I haven't been present with it in the way I needed to be. What non-conceptual awareness has helped me do is stop being in my head so much, so that I can be present with what I'm feeling. It's not easy work, but its the kind of internal work that can ground you into your body and into being more present with what you are doing in your life.

*****

I was recently interviewed on the Donna Philisophica Show.You can download the show and listen to it by clicking the link and finding it on her list of interviews.

History and Visions of the Future

At Between the Worlds I had the pleasure of attending Literata's talk on modernity and visions of the future. Literata was presenting a historical perspective and explained that modernity as a historical era was a commitment to rationality, and occurred roughly between 1453 and 1945. She explored the occult movements from the Golden Dawn to Starhawk, to show how the various leaders interact with modernity as a concept and also how they had their own visions for the future. It was a fascinating talk, not the least because I started tracing some of the history of various occult authors I've been inspired by, in relationship to their own vision and the history of that vision.

For example, in examining Gray's life, I see how modernity influenced his own approach to magical work, but also how he evolved beyond it and how that in turn influenced the lives of the people who came after him and their spiritual work. I also thought about this in context to my own life and history. I have my own particular vision for occultism, which is reflected in both my writing and in the publishing we do via the press. I see how in the 12 year period that I've been publishing and writing how that vision has changed. In fact, in writing pop culture magic 2.0, this is most evident to me because of where I am now as a pop culture magician as opposed to where i was when I wrote the first book.

I think that applying a historical perspective to your practice and the people that are part of the lineage of that practice can be quite helpful in helping you situate what you are doing and why you are doing it, as well as what and why other people are doing what they do. For example, in another lecture Jason Miller examined the history of the OTO, not just in context to Crowley, but also in relationship to the original abbey of Thelema and the roots of that, which stem from the work of a medieval poet. And seeing that history and how it influences the modern current of the OTO is significant I think in really appreciating what it could be (or so I would imagine for people who are in the order).

Part of my own research of late has involved exploring my own lineage and finding out more about the lives and history of the people who have influenced my own practice of magic. At one time I wouldn't have thought that as important, but its clear to me now that it actually is important because when we exist in a void as it pertains to history, we don't necessarily appreciate the context of what we are working with and yet we may need that context to really understand our magical heritage and how we want our own visions of the future to manifest.

Space/Time Magic Foundations Round 2 Starts April 1st

Round 2 of the Space/Time Magic Foundations class starts on April 1st

Space/Time Magic is the expression of possibility upon reality, the shaping of linear space and time through non-linear means, if you know how to work with space and time as elements of magic.

In this 24 lesson class, we will explore the fundamentals of space/time magic, specifically how space and time can be integrated into your magical process as distinct principles and elements. If you are looking for a different approach to magical work that integrates the elements of space and time into magical practice, then this class is for you.

Here is a Testimonial from one of the students currently taking the course:

The Space/Time Correspondence Course extends our perception to see Time and Space as essential elements in magical works. It provides us wide variety of practical techniques and ideas, all of them will be great aids for our own experiments. The whole course is like a fascinating tool-box for anyone interested in the Magic of Space and Time. -- Yutaka Furuki

To learn more and sign up for this class, go here.

My work with the Nine Purification Breaths

 

Lately I've been working with the Nine Purification Breaths technique, which is shared in Awakening the Sacred Body by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.  This is a useful technique to work with before you start meditating as its purpose is to clear our your energetic channels of emotional attachments. I've started using it at the beginning of my meditation practice, and its helped to deepen the state of my stillness work. I'm still figuring it out. It's a seemingly simple technique that nonetheless calls on you to really be aware and present in your body to get the full benefits.

The way it works is that you start with closing your right nostril off with a finger and inhaling with your left nostril. Then you close your left nostril and breathe out your right nostril. Do this again two more times. As you inhale you are drawing the prana in through the left nostril and then cycling it to the right nostril to clear out any anger you feel. After you have done this breath three or more times, you switch and close your left nostril and breath in through your right, then close your right nostril and breathe out through your left. You do this at least two more times and this time the purpose is to clear out any attachments you have. The final three breaths involve inhaling with both nostrils and then exhaling with both nostrils. This time you breathe out the doubt and ignorance you have.

The entire process can go fairly quick, but I would urge you to take your time with it. Be present with the breathing and more importantly with what you are seeking to clear out of yourself. For example, when I breathe out the anger emotions, inevitably some associations will come up and this can be useful for helping me to see if I need to address something with someone or if I just need to let it go. By taking your time, you allow yourself to be present with what you feel and let it go fully with each breath. And if you need to do some of this breathing more than three times, allow yourself to do that.

I also think there could be some applications to banishing with this technique or other forms of magical work. For example, you might want to breathe in specific emotions such as love or compassion. Or you might use the breathing to clear yourself of any conflicting emotions or attachments before and after you do a magical working. I've used it with my meditation practice and it has helped me reach a place of stillness with less effort involved because I'm clearing out what my other wise be a distraction. And at the same time it helps me open myself to my body, which is the first step toward embracing stillness (or movement for that matter). As with anything, what makes a technique like this useful is your willingness to engage it as a consistent practice in your life.