Defining your process of magic

How to use your defined result to create your process of magic

Feeling the Writing, Feeling the Magic

In Ensouling Language, the author discusses how important it is for the author to feel the writing s/he is doing, and likewise how important it is for the reader to feel the words, to encounter the meanings that have been placed into the words by the author. The author also notes that every author (and I would add any creative type of person) inevitably encounters a truth which he states as the following: "You must not extend awareness further than society wants it to go." The responsibility of the writer is to extend awareness beyond where society wants it to go, because when this occurs what is shared is an encounter that goes beyond the word and enters the imagination of the audience. To do that the writer and reader needs to feel the words and experience the meaning imparted in them. It's an interesting perspective on writing that I agree with. Writing should move the writer and the reader.

While I write a lot about magical techniques and practices, I do think its important to also feel magic. What I mean by that is that when you practice magic it should change something in you, move you in some way. If it doesn't, then it becomes empty, something done for the sake of being done, but not truly experienced and consequently not likely to change reality either. When the practitioner feels magic, feels a change, that's when the magic becomes embodied and real. It has meaning and that meaning has shaped the practitioner as surely as the practitioner has shaped the meaning, and as a result also shapes reality, opening it to possibility.

Whether I'm doing my daily work or I'm doing a specific working for a result I want to feel the magic. It is sometimes easier to feel it when doing a specific working, because daily work can get monotonous, but the reason you do the daily work is to challenge that monotony and to recognize that the lack of engagement is coming from you. There may be times where its really hard to connect with what you are doing or why you are even doing it and yet if you stick with it, you come to a deeper appreciation of your practice and magic. That actually applies to writing as well.

I write a lot and inevitably I encounter writer's block, where I can't really feel the writing. Yet I know if I stick with it I will get through that block and feel the writing again. The words will become more than just blots of ink on paper or electronic signals in my computer. The key is persistence. If you feel a genuine connection and passion to magic or writing or whatever you stick with it and accept that there will be periods where you don't feel it as much. You do the work anyway and you do it because that feeling isn't the reward, but is actually part of the process and it can't be forced, but it also can't be let go of. It moves you and you move it and that's what keeps you practicing magic or writing or painting, or whatever else.

Interview: Motherboard vice interviewed me and several other people about pop culture magic. Read about it here.

Magical Experiments podcast: Interview with Author Tom Swiss about his book and the intersection of Eastern and Western practices of spirituality.

Defining Results for your process of magic

Why defining your results is the first step to creating your process of magic

How to Develop a pop culture system of Magic

One of the appeals of pop culture magic is that you can develop your own magical system around pop culture you like. However developing such a system does require some understanding of how magic works. Also a pop culture system of magic is different from a pop culture magic working. It's much more involved than just doing a working. Understanding that is important, especially if you choose to develop a system of pop culture magic. When you develop a pop culture system of magic, you are developing a framework for working pop culture magic regularly with the pop culture you are drawing from. You aren't just doing a working to solve a problem, but instead are integrating it into your life as a regular practice, a part of your spiritual and/or magical identity. The following are considerations to keep in mind when developing a system of magic around pop culture.

1. What pop culture will you use? Not every pop culture lends itself easily to being used in a system of magic. You want to pick pop culture that resonates with you, but is also something you can graft onto magical principles in a way that makes sense and isn't forced. Additionally if your pop culture lends itself to fitting into correspondences this can be helpful in the development of your system. With that said, what can be interesting with a pop culture system of magic is your choice to buck convention and do something different that doesn't necessarily fit into conventional frameworks of magic.

2. What is the mythology of the pop culture? The mythology of a given pop culture can also be an important aspect of your magical work. The mythology provides a cosmos to work with that helps to flesh out the frame work. In fact, you may find that the mythology plays a central role in the development of the magical system. For example, when Storm and I were developing the Dehara system, part of the work we did involved putting together a mythology that could be integrated into the framework of the Sabbats and consequently set up a way to meaningfully work with that system of magic year round. Having the mythology in place enhanced the Dehara system of magic.

3. What are the rules of your pop culture? Some pop culture has specific rules, which may consequently effect the system of magic you develop. Remember that the development of a system isn't just what you want in the system, but also whatever else is relevant to the pop culture you are drawing on. For example, if you were to put together a system of pop culture magic based on Once Upon a Time, one rule you'd have to deal with is Magic always has a price. That's an integral rule of the mythology of the show (and in my opinion, makes it less useful as a system of pop culture magic).

4. What does this pop culture mean to you? This last consideration is very personal, but important because of how personal it is. While you could work with any pop culture you come across, in my experience working with what has meaning to you, especially on an emotional level is helpful for really connecting with the pop culture spirits you work with. Regardless of whether the magical work is purely practical or devotional, its something which ought to resonate with you, at least if you're going to make a system out of it.

What are some other considerations you would apply to developing a pop culture system of magic? Why?

The latest episode of magical experiments podcast features Tara Miller discussing health and magic.

Process and Magic

What a process approach to magic looks like and how it can help you in your magical practice.

How to choose the Spirits you work with

Recently I started working with Agares and Ronove, two Daemons from the Goetia. I've actually worked with Ronove in the past, but it had been some time back, whereas this is my first time working with Agares. They each have their specialties. Ronove provides help with rhetoric and writing, whereas Agares provides expertise on issues of communication. I decided to work with both of them because of some writer's block and a desire to continue improving my communication skills. That got me to thinking about why people choose to work with spirits and how to actually go about choosing the spirits you work with (unless they choose you, which I'll discuss further below).

I've generally chosen to work with specific spirits that bring with them specific skills that can be applied to situations I'm dealing with, but in a manner that I'm not able to do it. I've found this to be a good rule when working with spirits, in the sense that what they bring with them is a different way of handling a situation and that difference can be useful. However that's not the only reason to work with spirits. In some cases I'm working with spirits to develop a specific system of magical work and getting their insights on that system is useful for what it will allow me and other people to do as a result of applying those insights.

How I go about choosing a spirit to work with involves doing some research around the desired result. Once I've defined the desired result, then I can start looking at possible processes, and one of those processes can be working with a spirit. I'll look into the various types of spirits I could work with to determine which one (or more) seems to be the right fit. Then I'll do the invocation connection working to see if in fact it would be a good fit and from there the magical working proceeds.

Sometimes, though the spirit picks you. Thiede chose me way back when I started working with him. He made it very clear that he was going to work with me and that the work we needed to do together was important for him as well as for some of my own interests. And it seems he was right, as he has contributed to the development of pop culture and space/time magic currents. In such cases where a spirit makes itself known to you, you don't necessarily want to accept it on blind faith, but you also shouldn't reject it out of hand. When Thiede first made himself known to me as a spirit, I was already familiar with him and was able to test what presented itself accordingly. You can do the same, and its quite reasonable to do so in order to make sure that if you choose to work with the spirit it will actually be a beneficial relationship.

While not all of my magical work revolves around working with spirits, it is fair to say they play a significant role in my spiritual work and in my life in general. I think if you choose to work with spirits, it is a good practice to figure how you want to work with them and honor them, because you are forming a relationship that brings with it a necessary appreciation for the efforts on both sides of the equation. Pick who you work with, with care, and make sure you follow through on your end.

Magical Experiments radio show: Interview with Emily Carlin about shadow and pop culture magic.

Book Review: Awakening the Sacred Body by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

In this book, the author shares the Tsa Lung and 9 purification breaths techniques and explains how to work with them. The book also comes with a DVD, so that you can actually see how to do the exercises. I found the writing to be clear and explicit and it made it easy to learn the exercises. Doing these exercises in conjunction with other Dzogchen techniques can help you quite a bit with internal work you are doing around issues, as well as learning how to experience yourself and the world from a place of stillness. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn more about Dzogchen or learn some alternative approaches to meditation.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Narrative and Identity

  In The Functions of Role Playing Games by Sarah Bowman, the author brings up an interesting point about narratives in relationship to identity when she explains how people use narratives to define their conscious sense of self, as a way of highlighting key moments of significance and linking those moments together to create a causal logic that in turn shapes the identity of the person by describing both who the person is and how that person is changing because of the narrative they've created. While her focus is on role playing games (RPGs), you can see how narrative is used as a tool in a number of different disciplines including magic, as well as how it reinforces aspects of identity related to narrative.'

In magic, narrative shows up in the form of ritual and spells, but also in pathworking and even to some extent in meditation. I'd argue that any process of magic is essentially a narrative which is structured to express the identity of the magician in particular way that enables the magician to establish his/her identity, both before and after the narrative. The purpose of the narrative is to describe the change in identity and what type of journey the magician goes on to make that change.

Narrative describes the experiences the magician goes through, but it also structures those experiences into specific actions and categories. Thus when the magician does a ritual, the narrative created through that ritual provides an essential piece of the experience that allows it to gel into something that changes the magician. The narrative mediates the experience and provides a structure of causality for the magician to use in order to situate the desired change the ritual represents into his/her own identity.

We can use narrative as a tool for our magical work, with the understanding that what the narrative represents is an idealized version of events. It's a description of what's been done, but its not necessarily the actual experience. This is only important in the sense that we recognize that narratives simultaneously describe and explain what has changed and why and yet can also leave much of the technical detail out of the description. The narrative can never embody the experience for other people. We use narrative as a tool to tell our stories and to make sense of our experiences so that we can establish an identity we understand.

I now have a youtube channel

I now have a youtube channel for Magical Experiments, where I share answers to questions, my opinions about magic and the occasional webinar. You can subscribe to my channel here. Below is one of my videos:

The Elemental Balancing Ritual Stillness Month 3: Disinterest

12-23-14 I feel numb right now. I don't think numbness is the same as stillness, because underneath that numbness is a lot of thoughts and emotions stirring. The numbness is just a mask, a protective layer, while I figure out how to process what I'm thinking and feeling. To hear about similar experiences from the only other person in the circumstances I was in is both saddening and validating. I'm not alone in feeling this way. I'm not alone in having the experiences I had...and yet its not really a surprise. I knew I wasn't alone. But hearing it is still something different. I'll figure out what to make of all of it later.

12-24-14 Today as I was doing my stillness meditation, a thought came into my head about an ongoing situation in my life and I was able to follow that thought to several possibilities I hadn't considered before. So I let those possibilities present themselves to me and will see about implementing one., but I mention this here in relationship to stillness because one of the ways I've used stillness is to step away from everything going on in my life so that I can actually observe the possibilities available, instead of letting myself be so into a situation that I can't see the possibilities. I think working with stillness in this way will be something I continue to do to work with as a form of problem solving. I see how putting myself into stillness can be quite useful for opening the possibilities up and although I'd already been aware of that to some degree, today's working further illustrated it.

12-28-14 You can't make stillness happen. When you try to make stillness happen, it's not stillness that occurs. Stillness is something you let happen to you. You make yourself receptive to stillness. The difference is distinct in the sense that imposed stillness is not true stillness, so much as an attempt to be still, whereas genuine stillness is a state of being, an experience of consciousness that occurs to you, changing you because you are open to experiencing change.

1-7-2015 Lately I've been working with the Dehara system of magic, which is based off the Wraeththu series. In my daily meditations I've had vivid experiences of being a Hara in that universe. I feel like I'm tapping into an alternate version of myself. I feel like the stillness work has helped me to be more receptive to such experiences because I'm stilling myself and opening up to what comes my way (within reason).

1-8-2015 Today was the opposite of yesterday. I floundered at being still. It was like trying to grasp a piece of wood in a stormy ocean, with waves about to swallow you whole. So at some point I just gave up trying to be still and let myself go wherever I wanted to go. After that I became still and it was effortless because nothing was being constrained anymore. I was just letting it be.

Tonight I had a reaction. I happened to see an event coming up this weekend and I reacted to it. Part of me began thinking I should try and run my own event and after I entertained this thought for a bit, I stilled myself and asked what really motivated me and I realized it was jealousy and a sense of feeling threatened by the people running the event.  So I was creating this scenario of competition and setting myself up to lose because the motivation wasn't for anything useful and I just stopped. I don't want to go down that route. It's a route I've traveled far too often in my life and any benefit has always been short. My genuine success has come from being true to myself and my vision of what I want to accomplish. Staying on course with that is more important than letting jealousy get the better of me.

1-10-2015 Today I relaxed into the stillness work. I started Zhine, found what I'd focus on and relaxed into it and there I was...still. When I hit such states, I find that the stillness gradually deepens and eventually you no longer focus on anything. You become part of the background. Nothing and everything all there, all at once...just being.

In my Dehara work I was taken on a journey by Dahuun to Malkuth, where Aruhani is and explored Aruhani in the context of Earth and Malkuth, combining planetary and Quabalistic associations. It was a fascinating journey that helped me appreciate certain aspects of Dehara better as well as reimprinting some principles of magic through the work.

1-14-15 I'm very careful about the people I have in my life. Today I defriended someone because I noticed a lot of negativity on his page and didn't really want to read about it further. His response was over the top, but seemingly typical. It just confirmed why I don't want that drama in my life. Part of the cultivation of stillness, for myself, is cultivating the right relationships and letting the rest go. I see no need to tolerate someone just because of how they might react...that's a toxic relationship right there.

On the Dehara front, I've progressed up to Netzach with the pathworking, visiting and remediating the experience of the Sephiroth with the Dehara I've associated with them. I've found this useful for further imprinting the Sephiroth and Dehara on my consciousness and subconsciousness. I may try this with other systems of magic to see how it changes my understanding of those systems.

1-17-2015 Today in my stillness work, Zadok told me how important it is to be aware of my stillness and ask myself why I want to be moved toward a possibility. Am I moving myself there based on reaction or am I moving to that possibility for other reasons? Do I even want to move from stillness? Good questions prompted by the entertaining of a possibility while in stillness meditation and recognizing that my desire to realize that possibility was primarily because of a reaction and that such a realization wasn't necessarily the best use of my resources or time. Actually, what I recognize from this meditation today is just how easy it is to get caught up in possibility, for I do it a lot and even if I do nothing else that still can be a distraction or a benefit (or both) depending upon how I direct it.

On the Dehara front I've worked my way up to Geburah, associating Pellaz and Calanthe with Tiphareth and Geburah respectively. I'm not sure if anyone else would make those associations, but they make sense to me. I guess the real test will come when other people give this work a try on their end. It occurs to me as well that when you are working on creating or developing a pop culture magic system, you play a role in the perception and work of other people that come after. You've set the stage for them and that brings with it some type of responsibility.

1-19-15 Stillness can be chaotic. Stillness isn't about perfect harmony...it's about being present with whatever is in your life in that moment. So if there is some chaos, that's ok. The key isn't to try and change it into stillness. The key is to be with it and be still, allowing yourself to feel the chaos without necessarily becoming the chaos.

One of the books I've been reading, The Nature of Personal Reality by Seth shares some intriguing ideas about the communication in the body and in the thoughts of a person. A lot of it echoes some of my own writings and I see once again how this book has influenced my spiritual development. There are some work that won't really make an impact and others that will, but you own't realize it until years later when you look over the material again. And some just hit you over the head. I guess that's a lot like people as well. In any case, in reading over the material I'm struck by how relevant some of it is, especially to the inner alchemical work I'm doing.

1-21-15 In the last week or so I've had two different people try to draw me into their drama, in one form or another. It hasn't worked very well for them, mainly because they're a lot more invested in being right than I am in them being wrong. At a certain point in a debate, when the conversation goes around and around with no change in either stance, its wise to simply say, "Let's agree to disagree" and leave it at that. Unfortunately many people get so invested in proving their point of view, proving they are right and the other person is wrong that they try to have the last word or do their best to disprove the other person. I could care less. I know going into such situations that I likely won't prove my point of view to the other person's satisfaction because they are looking for a specific result (that they are right) and so its not worth my time to try and argue otherwise. So I take the stance of disinterest because I'm not interested in being their punching bag or agreeing with them. I know that my stance is based on my experiences and while I'm happy to entertain the possibility that they could be right, I don't necessarily feel I need to agree or validate them. I also feel that there are many ways to explain something and my explanation can be just as valid as anyone else's. That said I don't expect anyone else will agree and that's ok. They can disagree...just don't expect me to go out of my way to waste time arguing about it. I have better, more productive usage of my time in mind then arguing over who is right and who is wrong.

I see my stance of disinterest as a form of stillness, informed as it is by my desire to not engage in pointless arguments. When a conversation has a point and there is give and take, then its a worthy investment of time, but when its all about proving someone wrong or one's self right, then it becomes an exercise in futility and allowing yourself to be moved by that kind of argument takes away from your quality of life.

How symbols can be used to create pathworkings

I hold a meditation gathering for the magical experiments community each Monday. At one of the recent meetings, a question was brought up about pathworking. The person mentioned that she had trouble with narrative pathworking, because as she would start to do it, it she'd get caught up in some detail which would distract from her from the rest of the pathworking. She wondered if there was an easier way to do a pathworking that didn't involve using a narrative structure. It was a fair question to ask and consequently we decided to try an experiment out, which I'll get into more detail below.

It could be argued that part of the purpose of the narrative is to allow a person to have experiences that may be relevant to the pathworking. In other words, if a person gets focused on a detail in the narrative, it may be due to the fact that the person needs to get some message from that detail. On the other hand, it could also be argued that if your learning style isn't ideally optimized around a narrative or audio learning then it may be harder to get something from the pathworking.

I've used narratives for pathworkings before, and you'll find that in hypnosis a narrative is typically created as a way to help direct the person's imagination in the creation of the environment they'll work in. That said I've sometimes found such narratives to be cumbersome and I question how essential they are, especially if the purpose is to connect a person to a particular space/energy that already exists. If that space already exists, shouldn't the person be able to connect it to via means that are less complicated?

My personal pet theory about the astral realm is that its comprised of the superconsciousness of humanity and the spirits and is accessed through the imagination. I think the same applies to any given space a person is trying to access through such methods as pathworking. I'd also argue that if specific entities are associated with a given space they don't need the narrative of the pathworking to appear in that space. The narrative can be useful for creating an impression of the space, but there may be other ways to accomplish this as well.

The mansion of memory technique involves the use of symbols to store information, which can then be recalled when the symbol is focused on. A variant of this technique can be used with pathworking. Pick a narrative for a pathworking and pick out the key imagery and themes. Then create a symbol that is representative of the imagery and themes and use that symbol to call up the particular space and associated spirits. It's an instant pathworking without the narrative. For example, the picture above is my painting of the crossroads. I use that symbol to access the metaphysical space of the crossroads as well as connect with the spirits associated with that space.

In my meditation group we experimented with this technique. I passed the painting around and had each person look at the painting for a few moments and then we meditated on the symbol, using it as a door that would unlock the crossroads to each person. Each participant was able to access the crossroads instantly. The symbol was representative of the energy, information, and meaning of the password and that was enough to open the door for the people involved. However the people at the group were already familiar with the crossroads.

At the next meditation group night, we tried the same technique. This time there were a few people who weren't familiar with the crossroads and I didn't tell them what the painting represented. While the previous participants did go to the crossroads, using the symbol, the other participants did not. What this indicated to me was that some type of context was needed to provide a destination of sorts for the people using the technique. To test this further I showed the participants another painting and provided some contextual details about what the painting represented. When we did the pathworking technique with just the painting as the focus everyone went to the specific space it represented and several picked up on details not shared by myself.

I think the instant pathworking technique can work but participants need to know what and where they are going. Some contextual information must be provided to establish a connection. On the other hand, a full narrative is likely not needed, especially if you have a symbol you can use to represent the core concept people are seeking to connect with.

How to Build Spiritual Muscle Memory

Whenever I'm learning a new technique, one of the things I seek to do is build up the spiritual muscle memory of the technique so that it becomes something I can do without necessarily putting a lot of thought into it. The reason I do this is because I find that to truly master a skill, you need to make it part of you in a way that doesn't involve thinking about it. It's not something you do...its something you become. Developing that kind of spiritual muscle memory involves a systematic approach to learning a technique. You break the technique down into steps and focus on learning each step.

When I learn a technique, I focus on one step at a time. When I was learning the five Healing sounds of meditation, I focused on learning one sound at a time, working with that sound until I felt like I knew it and also knew what the sound was supposed to do when I meditated on it. I imprinted the sound on my consciousness, making it part of me, so I wouldn't need to think of it. Then I'd move onto the next sound, learning it and integrating it into the previous work. By scaling my learning, creating distinct steps to learn the technique I was also able to make it part of my spiritual muscle memory. Once a step is mastered, I move on to the next step. By the time I've fully learned the technique it has become part of what I do without much thought, because I don't want thinking to get in the way of doing the technique. I want it to be an immersive experience and this occurs when you have spiritual muscle memory.

Spiritual muscle memory is a form of conditioning that allows you to train your entire being to become what you do. The technique resides within you, a part of your identity that moves you and moves with you. You know the technique and your knowing of it occurs in your ability to do it without putting much thought into what you are doing. Thought gets in the way of technique...it becomes a distraction that holds you back from the experience you could have. You will think a lo when you first learn a technique, but as you imprint it and make it part of you, you won't need to think about it. You'll become it, let it infuse you with what it is and as a result make it part of your expression.

Take a given technique as a whole and break it into steps. What is the first thing you need to do. Do it until you know it...until its something you do automatically, then move onto the next step and learn it in the same way. You'll find as you initially learn the technique that it will grab the whole of your consciousness, occupying you with the effort involved in learning it. But one you've learned the steps and made them into something you do automatically, it won't grab you in the same way, and this will free you up to go in deeper with the technique, to open yourself up to the experience that only comes when you know something. It's a deeper experience that allows you to get to the heart of what you are doing and make it into something that fits with other work you are doing. It becomes more complex and yet simpler as well. Simple in the doing of it, complex in the connections you make to the other work you do. The spiritual muscle memory supports it and allows you to go deeper, work more intensely with whatever it you are working on. That's why I build spiritual muscle memory with techniques, because it leads me to more immersive work, allowing me to plumb the depths of whatever I'm focused on.

The Importance of Tracking your Results and Process

Whether you are practicing magic for practical results or for spiritual communion or a combination of the two, its important to keep track of your results, as well as keep track of the variables that potentially effect your magical working. The reason tracking this information is so important is that it can help you determine how effective your magical workings are, as well as what variables need to be accounted for. And in some situations it also helps you determine what you've missed in previous workings so that you can refine them in the future. Recently a friend shared with me some magical work he was doing. I asked him to break the working down into a process he could track, and list all the variables associated with that process. By taking such an approach, my friend was able to discover a lot about the magical workings he was doing that he hadn't accounted for or tracked. It's not enough to track your result, though that can be helpful. It's important to track every aspect of the working so that you can fully understand what is going into it. When a magical working goes unexamined, what it presents is a lack of awareness that allows variables into play that could be accounted for otherwise. Those variables will change the efficacy of the working because they aren't unaccounted for. Tracking what you do, on the other hand, enables you to anticipate and plan for those variables, even making them part of the magical working, as opposed to something that distracts you.

When you can't account for what you are doing or have done, that lack of accounting even becomes a variable that effects your magical working. What is not tracked becomes resistance or pushes your working into a different direction than what you seek out. Typically the reason a magical working goes unexamined is for one of two reasons. The first reason is the lack of discipline on the part of the magician. The magician may explain it away as letting the magic do its work, but what this explanation is a lack of rigor on the part of the magician and an unwillingness to examine their magical work to determine if its even working. The second reason is because the magician hasn't been trained to track their magical work. They don't keep a journal to examine their magical work. In either case, starting to track their magical work will help the magician learn more about magic and what is or isn't working in what they are doing.

To track your magical work, first focus on defining the result. Then define the process that will help you achieve the result. Write out each step and account for the variables that influence each step. By doing this you'll develop an understanding of what you are actually doing. You won't simply be doing a ritual, but rather you'll be doing the ritual and understanding how that ritual ought to connect to the world at large to generate the result you are seeking.

How Pop Culture becomes Mythology

In my previous post, I discussed how older mythology shows up in pop culture. However that's not the only mythology that's present in pop culture. Pop culture creates its own mythology, or rather the various people that interact with pop culture help to create new mythology, rooted in the cultural artifacts produced in this era. This mythology of the modern era is found in the stories that are told through modern media, such as comics, movies, television, radio, and the internet. What makes these stories mythological is how people interact with them, how the characters come to life and what those interactions mean to the people having them.

Pop culture creates myths for the modern time, based in contemporary culture, providing people in this culture something they can relate to because of the context to their lives, and yet nonetheless also an offering of something more. What that something more is depends on the person. For example, I find that pop culture mythology provides me a connection to the spirits of this era, and while these spirits may be birthed in Fiction, they nonetheless have a reality to them created by the needs that they embody for people. Other people will frame the mythology in terms of psychological terms and yet others will dismiss it altogether, arguing for specific standards and definitions based on their own biases about what constitutes a spirit.

In my experience of working with pop culture characters, I found that what makes them into mythology and for that matter what makes them spirits is the intent of the interaction. For example, in working with Thiede from the Wraeththu series, I found that what made him real was my recognition that in fact there is a spiritual resonance I share with the character. I could identify with the character and that identification helped to move the interaction from reading into actual spiritual work where I encountered him as a specific being within my pantheon. Continuing to work with him created a deeper relationship, which has continued to develop as I integrate him into my spiritual work. I imagine the same is true for anyone else working with a pop culture character. At some point, as continued spiritual work is done, the character becomes more than just a character. And that change shifts everything because the identification you have with that character calls for an investment on your part that allows the character to be real, regardless of what the origin of the character is.

Another example I can think of is Batman. For me, Batman is part of my mythology, moreso than Superman or some of the other heroes, in large part because what makes Batman so interesting is that he doesn't have any powers. He's rich, but his intelligence and his other skills are things he's had to hone and work with over a long period of time. More than that though is the actual calculation of the character in choosing in his fictional world to become a mythological being, utilizing the emotional responses to him as part of his way of creating such a mythology. The way the writers of the series have written about him, specifically in relationship to the mythological aspects he embodies in his fictional reality, shows a meta narrative that evokes that mythology into this reality because of the character's awareness of myth and his choice to make himself into a myth in the minds of the people who interact with him (both in the fiction world and in the mind of the readers/viewers). That kind of intention on the part of the character demonstrates to me a presence of being that moves beyond the narrow limitations and definitions humans try to impose on what is or isn't mythological.

If we open ourselves to the idea that pop culture can be mythological, then we also open ourselves to having meaningful interactions with the spirits of this time. We allow ourselves to work with those spirits, and in that process enter into a different relationship with this era and culture, one that may ultimately be more healing for us. The relationship we have with this culture and with what is important to us in it, is just as important as any relationship we have with older cultures and the spiritual forces of those cultures.

Book Review: The Secret Tradition of the Soul by Patrick Harpur

In his latest book, Harpur explores the connection of the soul to identity, daimonic reality and sacred imagination. Much like his previous works, he draws together a wide variety of sources to offer readers a multitude of perspectives on the subject area. What I enjoyed most about this book is how the author deftly explores the soul in context to the various traditions he refers to, defining in the process what the soul is and what role it plays in our lives. He also does a good job of building on his previous works while also differentiating this book from those works. If you are mystically inclined or want to understand the nature of the soul this book will be a thought-provoking read that will inspire your own spiritual work.

Book Review: Spreadable Media by Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green

This book examines the concept of viral media and argues for a different paradigm based on participatory culture and fandom, where people choose to spread ideas and their interests to other people. It's a fascinating book that presents an alternative perspective on marketing, but also on pop culture studies, bringing those studies to the 21st century by focusing on the role of social media within pop culture. If you are interested in pop culture, you'll find this book useful for understanding how pop culture spreads and if you are interested in marketing this book will provide a different perspective to the prevailing wisdom of the time.