I praise Agares,
Justice Bringer
protector
balancer of scales
you who makes situations equitable
and create solutions
that work for the benefit of all
while ensuring that the unjust
the prideful,
those who look down on others
are humbled and brought to their knees
to know their true place.
I praise you for your protection,
your strength, and your guidance.
This devotional was inspired by the recent class taught by a friend. It's also an offering to Agares for his continued support.
Why divination can be a form of enchantment
Lately I've been thinking about my approach to magical work and experimentation. I commented to Kat the other day that I am not someone who is focused on one tradition or spiritual path and I don't think I ever will be. I think of myself as a sorcerer scientist (fittingly enough the term comes from pop culture, specifically fantasy books). While I certainly have a background in magical practices, traditions, etc., I'm at the same time fascinated with contemporary disciplines and how those disciplines can be meshed with magical principles. This prompts a lot of my experimentation. So I've decided to come up with tenets that describe the sorcerer scientist, because I feel that in describing it, not only can I help myself better understand my own spiritual path, but also speak to those people who feel similar and don't feel they fit into conventional occultism. To do this, it's useful to define a couple of terms.
Magic: Magic is a methodology of manifesting a specific possibility into reality using specific techniques that help the person connect the possibility to reality. Magic is also a means for communing with the universe as well as entities that exist on other planes of existence, in order to either better understand the universe or in order to get help with turning a possibility into reality. There are a variety of magical traditions and practices that can be learned and experimented with.
Science: Science is a variety of contemporary disciplinary practices that provide specific perspectives for understanding the universe. For example, hard sciences such as biology or Physics provide perspectives and critical inquiry into the nature of life or the "rules" for how the universe works. Soft sciences such as culture studies or psychology provide insight into behavioral patterns and cognitive activities. There are a wide variety of disciplines that could fall under this term of science, including what people might traditionally consider art. For all intents and purposes, the sorcerer scientist recognizes that the categorization of science is used as a way of recognizing the integration of contemporary disciplines into magical work, as opposed to defining what disciplines could be considered science or art or whatever else.
The sorcerer scientist is interested in the techniques of magic and the disciplinary practices of the various sciences and how those techniques and practices can be melded together to enhance the ongoing work of the sorcerer scientist. The sorcerer scientist isn't interested in using science to explain what magic is, but rather s/he is interested in exploring what magic could be. The tenets of the sorcerer scientist are as follows:
1. Cultivate an active interest in various disciplines, both occult and otherwise in order to see how they can be merged together. The experimenter recognizes that having a broad foundation informs and inspires the magical experimentation s/he does.
2. Keep an open mind about what you learn, but also use critical inquiry to refine your work. Ask questions and examine conclusions carefully.
3. Experimentation is essential for the evolution of magic. Respect tradition and learn from it. Research in order to ground yourself in what others have done. Experiment to find out what you can do and get your own answers about yourself, life, the universe, etc.
4. Be your own authority. Create your own definitions. Work with others, but recognize that what they ultimately can offer is just their perspectives and experiences. You still have to come up with your own answers, and your own questions.
An introduction to water breathing meditation and how to do it.
In Awakening the Luminous Mind, the author discusses how the tensions and blockages a person feels aren't the entirety of the person, but can be mistaken for such. He likens this experience to the clouds and the sky. The clouds are the tension or blockages, but the sky is encompasses them and exists with or without them. He suggests that instead of focusing on the tension and blockages, it can be useful to just still yourself and be aware of the tension, without necessarily doing anything. This is not easy to do. When I tried this and just stilled myself to just be with the tension as well as everything else, I became aware of how much the tension itself occupied my awareness.
I find that in a lot of internal work the immediate focus is to do something about the tension one feels. And this is not necessarily a bad thing, but if that becomes the entire point of internal work, it could be we are missing out on something significant: namely how to recognize that the tension and blockages are not the entirety of our being. When I do this meditation where I am just still present with myself as a whole, it is somewhat disconcerting to not do anything with the tension other than notice it. At the same time in becoming the sky, as it were, I'm allowing myself to recognize that my tension doesn't make up the entirety of me and could in and of itself be a distraction from working with stillness. What I'm learning with stillness is that it's a state of acceptance that doesn't necessarily involve a change of any type and so learning to be still with my tension and with the rest of me is a different sate of awareness than working on tension. It is a state where everything is experienced and let go of, without anything being done.
Doing internal work to dissolve tensions is essential, but cultivating this state of being is also useful because it brings with it a level of non-attachment that enables the acknowledgement of whatever issues you have. By stilling yourself and not ding anything at all, you don't become attached to the issues, even through the act of dissolving. Initially when you cultivate this state of stillness it may cause you to feel a bit disquieted because you are so aware of your tensions and yet are doing nothing. However if you can hold yourself in the stillness, you will find that your awareness of the tension does subside. It may take repeated attempts of working with the stillness, but try each time to become the sky as opposed to the clouds and eventually you'll find that you can hold the state of just being without doing anything, the state of awareness of tension and yet also no tension in other aspects of yourself.
What I feel I'm really experiencing is a state of balance. In stilling myself in this way I'm allowing myself to balance my awareness of tension with just being and using that balance to reach a place of stillness. The usefulness of such a place is that while no action occurs, it nonetheless enables a person to experience a state of awareness that is at one within and around the person. That state of being can be very useful for magical work or in general in terms of creating awareness and presence in your life. As I keep working with this concept I'll share more.
Magical Experiments interview with Brandy Williams about the Woman Magician.
Manifesting Wealth is about discovering the opportunities that are waiting for you and turning them into realities that manifest the life you want. In the advanced manifesting wealth teleclass, you'll learn what wealth magic is and how you can use it to manifest a life of wealth and success, as well as how to create an identity and plan that proactively supports that manifestation in your life. These principles of magic can fit with any spiritual tradition, while allowing you to enhance the effectiveness of your magical work, as you apply it to your life. You will learn the following in this class:
Wealth magic is about manifesting a life of quality and success and the people around you. By learning how to apply wealth magic to your life, you can make changes that allow you to get the life you want. When you take this class, you will achieve the following benefits:
Who should attend this class?
This class is for Pagans and Magicians of all spiritual traditions and esoteric orders who are interested in learning how to apply wealth magic principles to their lives and businesses to generate success and happiness for themselves. If you are an armchair Pagan or Magician, then this class isn’t for you.
When does this class meet?
This is a teleclass that meets on Thursday July 30th from 7pm Pacific Standard Time to 8:30pm
Meet the Teacher
Hi, I’m Taylor Ellwood, occult author, magical experiment, and Esoteric books publisher. I love to share my expertise, knowledge, and process with you! I’ve been teaching classes on magic since the late 1990′s. What I love about magic is the endless possibilities for experimentation and process development, as well as how those possibilities can be integrated into existing magical practices!
When you take this teleclass, you'll get the following bonuses:
What is the investment for this class?
The investment for this class is $49. To rsvp for this class, click on the paypal button
I'm pleased to announce that Pop Culture Magic 2.0 is now available for pre-order from my publisher Immanion Press. The book itself won't be published until September or October, but once it's available my publisher, or I will ship re-ordered copies to you. Below is the blurb on the book as well as the cover! In Pop Culture Magic 2.0, Taylor Ellwood explores how pop culture magic has continued to evolve. In this book you will learn how to make any pop culture into pop culture magic as well as why you might want to. You'll also learn how pop culture is becoming the mythology of our time and how older mythologies are showing up in contemporary culture. If you've wanted to practice pop culture magic or are just curious as to how magic and pop culture go together this book is for you. You will also learn:
• How to work with corporate entities in pop culture magic • How to develop your own system of pop culture magic • How to integrate social media and modern technology into your magical practice. • How to use contemporary holidays in your magical workings • How role playing games can help you with your identity work • and much, much more!
If you've wanted to integrate contemporary culture into your spiritual work, look no further! Pop Culture Magic 2.0 can help you develop a modern system of magic that is relevant to you and allows you to take the pop culture you love and turn it into a spiritual practice that changes your life.
To Pre-order your copy today, click here!
I share some of the books by William G. Gray that I've found useful in my spiritual work:
In Ensouling Language, the author shares that one of the problems of the English language is that while it's useful for analytical and technical writings, its not a language that explores feelings or the internal reality of a person. For example, the word love is used to describe a feeling that can have many types of variations and yet only one word is used to describe all of that. In other languages you will likely find multiple words that describe the types of relationships and the feelings around those relationships. The author shares that when words can no longer describe subtle experiences, those experiences become lost or at least relegated to the subconsciousness of the person. I think he's right, because in my own internal work, what I've found is that the subtler experiences are harder to explain because English isn't set up to describe such experiences. I've wondered why, in this particular way, the English language is so stunted.
My answer to that question is that it seems that English is more of a visual language, in that it is oriented to what can be seen as opposed to felt, heard, smelled, etc., and that consequently part of we lack is a sensation rich description that accurately describes what we experience. Feelings aren't focused on as much. The problem with such an emphasis on sight is that a lot of subtle experiences can be missed out on because what you see is what you get. In my own work, I've shifted away from visualizations to more sensation based meditation, in no small part because there is a depth that can be useful in internal work, when it comes to experienced altered states of consciousness, and/or working through blockages and tensions.
In Awakening the Luminous Mind, the author discusses the importance of opening yourself to being by feeling it. It's not something easily described...it has to be experienced. That experience can be freeing or limiting depending on what you focus on, but I think it is can be harder for people who's primary access to describing feelings is a sight based language. There is a richness in stillness, in holding space, in terms of the experience that is essential to internal work, but can be harder to work with you if you don't have a way to describe what you feel.
Now it could be argued that trying to describe internal work takes away from it, but I don't agree with that. If anything, I feel that being able to describe what you've experienced can help you integrate it into yourself on a conscious level. We don't want states of experience to only exist on the level of the subconscious, but rather want to be able to engage them in our consciousness. That engagement is defined in part through language, and how we use language to integrate and organize the experiences.
While I find that English is problematic as a language for describing internal experiences, it's nonetheless the language I've got. And part of how you take such a language and improve on it is through learning to really focus on the sensations you feel and then describe those sensations using words that are sensorially oriented toward the sensations. For example, as I touch the keys on this key board, I feel the conclave smoothness, the slight edging of the letters and the edges of the keys as they slope upward. Such a description is more oriented toward the sensation of touch. Learning to do this with physical sensations can lead us to descriptions we can work with in describing internal states of consciousness and consequently help us get more from the internal work we are engaged in.
My latest podcast interview is with Shauna Aura Knight about Social Justice Magic and Pagan Leadership.
Manifesting Wealth is about discovering the opportunities that are waiting for you and turning them into realities that manifest the life you want. In the advanced manifesting wealth teleclass, you'll learn what wealth magic is and how you can use it to manifest a life of wealth and success, as well as how to create an identity and plan that proactively supports that manifestation in your life. These principles of magic can fit with any spiritual tradition, while allowing you to enhance the effectiveness of your magical work, as you apply it to your life. You will learn the following in this class:
Wealth magic is about manifesting a life of quality and success and the people around you. By learning how to apply wealth magic to your life, you can make changes that allow you to get the life you want. When you take this class, you will achieve the following benefits:
Who should attend this class?
This class is for Pagans and Magicians of all spiritual traditions and esoteric orders who are interested in learning how to apply wealth magic principles to their lives and businesses to generate success and happiness for themselves. If you are an armchair Pagan or Magician, then this class isn’t for you.
When does this class meet?
This is a teleclass that meets on Thursday July 30th from 7pm Pacific Standard Time to 8:30pm
Meet the Teacher
Hi, I’m Taylor Ellwood, occult author, magical experiment, and Esoteric books publisher. I love to share my expertise, knowledge, and process with you! I’ve been teaching classes on magic since the late 1990′s. What I love about magic is the endless possibilities for experimentation and process development, as well as how those possibilities can be integrated into existing magical practices!
When you take this teleclass, you'll get the following bonuses:
What is the investment for this class?
The investment for this class is $49. To rsvp for this class, click on the paypal button
6-26-15 I've been continuing to read the book on scarcity and examine my own life in relationship to it. Something which struck me about it is how one aspect of scarcity is trying to do much at the same time. I've always been a workaholic, always working on multiple projects and I realize as I read this book that it has sometimes diminished the quality of my happiness because I've had too much going on and consequently haven't felt like I could focus. I've lately been divesting myself of some of what's kept me busy and the resultant feeling of time has been really nice. I've been able to focus more on the projects I rally want to work on instead of feeling like I'm giving my time away to someone else.
7-1-15 I had a realization recently because of the actions of another person. He was trying to get me to react to him by tagging me in a rant he was making and I realized that his rant was coming from a place of scarcity and it was a reaction to his various issues (and there are many). And I realized that he was trying to get a reaction from me, trying to put me into a place of scarcity because of his own scarcity. Scarcity begats scarcity...Reaction begats reaction, unless...you recognize it, recognize the blinders, the tunneling and step back and make a different choice, an objective choice. In this case, I realized this person wanted me to react, wanted drama because he's always needing attention from other people. So I stepped back and really looked at the situation and decided not to play in his sandbox of drama. I stilled myself and allowed the stillness to give me clarity so that whatever movement I make is one of proactive choice instead of reactive scarcity.
7-3-15 I've been feeling introverted the last couple of days. Part of it is the summer heat, which just makes not want to go anywhere and part of it is that Kat's away on a trip and so I'm not feeling social and just soaking up the alone time. Part of me wonders if I should try and go out, but sometimes what I enjoy the most is the chance to just be still and right now I have the opportunity to do that and let it pervade my being.
7-4-15 I feel lonely today. Undoubtedly part of it is the holiday and the fact that my sweetie is abroad right now, but it feels uncomfortable. So I'm sitting with it, holding space with that feeling and not acting on it reactively. Being still like this isn't comfortable, but it is revealing and I take the insights as valuable gifts I can draw on in my ongoing work.
7-8-15 Being minimalized by another person is an experience that is deadening. So often what I observe is that a person wants to be listened to, but doesn't want to listen and this is where communication breaks down. A moment of stillness can make a difference for the clarity it brings. Stop and ask yourself am I listening as ell as talking? And am I considering as well as asking to be considered?
7-14-15 In Awakening the Luminous Mind, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, uses the metaphor of the sky and clouds to describe how to hold space with your tensions. He urges the reader to become the sky, which isn't concerned if there are or aren't clouds, but simply is. In meditating on what he wrote, I came to a recognition that sometimes I've focused so much on 'letting go' of tensions and internal blockages that I haven't been fully present with them and consequently have become more attached because I haven't simply felt them. In fact to truly let go of something is to intimately feel it and be present with it, without becoming attached to it. You become the sky and you know there are clouds but they don't define you. Sometimes I really struggle with being present with my pain. It's easier to think about it or to fool myself into thinking I've let it go, but when have I been present with it?
7-17-15 In my stillness work, I've been focusing on just being and being aware of internal tensions without doing anything to them. I'm not trying to dissolve them or change them. I'm just holding space with them. It feels disquieting at first, but as I settle into the emptiness it just becomes part of the background. They are part of my space, but just part of it and any significance they have is given to them by me and my choice to make them more important. And this doesn't mean some dissolving work shouldn't occur, but I feel that in learning to just be still, it allows me a chance to not do so much as be, which doesn't come naturally to me, but can be helpful.
7-19-15 To feel recognized and vindicated is a wonderful feeling. I felt it today, reading the article on the Wild Hunt on pop culture magic, and seeing my work recognized and seeing a level of positive interaction about that work, which I've seen more and more of in the last couple years. To experience that recognition and know I've earned it...it feels really good...a moment I can enjoy and savor.
7-21-15 Relationships of any type bring with them constraints and limitations. I used to rail against such constraints and limitations, afraid in part of how I felt when I allowed someone to become close to me. And sometimes I still struggle with that aspect of a relationship. Whether its a friend or lover or what have you, being in any relationship does bring with it some type of limitation. It's not a bad thing either, but rather a recognition that choosing to be with someone requires a person to change in some ways. The acceptance of limits isn't inherently bad or good...its what you make of it. I'm learning to accept and work with that in a way I never did before...in part because the stillness work is helping me to really ground myself in what I have in my life, instead of just restlessly moving from one thing to another.
How I use Sound in my Magical work
One of the practices I associate with space/time magic that other people have shared is how they've created a distinct space separate from mundane reality, in which to do magical work. Now, it could be argued that casting a circle is exactly that, but I'm actually referring to techniques specifically designed to remove a person from their participation in space and time. One technique that both William G. Gray and R. J. Stewart share involves using sound to create a sphere of art. The practitioner vocalizes the vowels O A I. Each vowel is associated with a form of stillness. The O stills your sense of time, moving it from a linear perspective to a holistic, cyclical, spiral perspective. The A stills your sense of space, expanding it from a contracted linear experience to an expanded non-linear awareness. The I stills your sense of movement, getting you to slow down and just be with your expanded sense of space and time. Doing this technique shifts you from linear time and space to a rarified sacred time and space.
In Dzogchen, the cultivation of Zhine, a meditative state of stillness, leads to a similar state of awareness. As you still yourself and your thoughts, you enters into a place of hyper awareness that goes beyond the physical and ventures into the spiritual, or at least I do. In Zhine, I feel as if I can see all these possibilities around me. the goal isn't necessarily to do anything and it could be said the possibilities are a distraction, but experiencing them is similar to what I experience with the OAI.
I find it interesting to examine these two techniques which are distinctly different from each in terms of how the state of stillness is reached, as well as culturally, and are also different from each other in terms of the desired result. Yet nonetheless it seems that both of these techniques take a person to a similar state of consciousness. However with that said, I think its important to honor each technique and so when I do Zhine work and cultivate stillness, I'm not necessarily doing it to access possibilities so much as be present with them. And when I do the OAI and set up the Sphere of Art I'm doing to commune with my spiritual contacts and sometimes for the purpose of manifesting possibilities into reality.
Stillness plays an integral role in my space/time work. It's within stillness that possibilities can be fully explored. Stillness is the 0 of space/time, the potential for everything. The potential of stillness is changed when you chose to manifest a possibility. At that point you shift from stillness into movement, for movement is what is needed to turn potential into reality. Yet I would argue stillness is a profound state and that what it can teach us is the importance of not taking action too quickly, but instead really being present with the possibilities and exploring the consequences and results of realization. By learning to still ourselves, we expose ourselves to the gift of making a choice from a place of proactive awareness instead of from reaction. When you are ready to move, you move yourself knowingly, to achieve results that are consistent with what you want for your life, as opposed to just solving a problem that has come up in your life.
Magical Experiments podcast Interview with Sara Star about Kitchen Alchemy and traditional witchcraft.
Look what arrived in the mail today! It's my latest book, Magical Movements and is a compilation of the blog entries on the Magical Experiments site from 2013 to 2014 as well as the entries on Pagan Square. If you're like me, and you like a print copy of what you read electronically, this book is quite nice because it collects all the entries into a format that you can underline and dogtag and have as a reference guide. Or if you're a diehard fan of my writing, then this book will be a nice edition to your collection. If you're interesting in buying a copy, you can order it from Amazon or directly from me.
How I integrate writing into magic
Manifesting Wealth is about discovering the opportunities that are waiting for you and turning them into realities that manifest the life you want. In the advanced manifesting wealth teleclass, you'll learn what wealth magic is and how you can use it to manifest a life of wealth and success, as well as how to create an identity and plan that proactively supports that manifestation in your life. These principles of magic can fit with any spiritual tradition, while allowing you to enhance the effectiveness of your magical work, as you apply it to your life. You will learn the following in this class:
Wealth magic is about manifesting a life of quality and success and the people around you. By learning how to apply wealth magic to your life, you can make changes that allow you to get the life you want. When you take this class, you will achieve the following benefits:
Who should attend this class?
This class is for Pagans and Magicians of all spiritual traditions and esoteric orders who are interested in learning how to apply wealth magic principles to their lives and businesses to generate success and happiness for themselves. If you are an armchair Pagan or Magician, then this class isn’t for you.
When does this class meet?
This is a teleclass that meets on Thursday July 30th from 7pm Pacific Standard Time to 8:30pm
Meet the Teacher
Hi, I’m Taylor Ellwood, occult author, magical experiment, and Esoteric books publisher. I love to share my expertise, knowledge, and process with you! I’ve been teaching classes on magic since the late 1990′s. What I love about magic is the endless possibilities for experimentation and process development, as well as how those possibilities can be integrated into existing magical practices!
When you take this teleclass, you'll get the following bonuses:
What is the investment for this class?
The investment for this class is $49. To rsvp for this class, click on the paypal button
Research is a significant part of my writing, but also of the spiritual work I do. Recently, I finished reading The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Jung (review below). One of the reasons I read his works is because I wanted to understand his perspective on the concepts of archetypes and individuation, but also because I'd seen him referenced by other writers and I wanted to know if their take on is work was accurate. By researching the source I came away with a better understanding of the terms archetype and individuation. In general, I do a lot of research when writing my books and all of that research is driven toward getting a comprehensive understanding of other people's takes on a given subject so that I can see how it informs my own understanding as well as the spiritual work I do.
When it comes to spiritual work, research is important because you can discover a lot that informs your perspective on your spiritual practice. Just settling for what one source has to share can really limit your perspective, whereas uncovering multiple resources can help you critically engage with the practice you are involved in. To uncover those sources, you might ask for recommendations or look at the bibliography of the books you've already read.
Its also useful to find resources outside of the discipline you study in. While those resources may not contribute directly to the discipline, they may provide you alternative perspectives that you can bring to your spiritual work. For instance, reading books on physics and psychology has informed a lot of my spiritual work because the perspectives I've gathered from those works have helped me look at what I'm doing in a different way, as have other perspectives from other sources.
Good research involves not just reading, but actively working with you've learned. In my case, its involved coming up with experiments where I've applied and test what I've learned, as well as modified it. That work has also been part of the research I've done. It allows me to verify what I've read and truly learn it because I've applied it to my life, instead of just reading about it. Good research is a combination of reading and studying and experimentation. Your experimentation may point you in the direction of further research. For instance, in my work with inner alchemy, I've been reading a variety of sources and that has been partially inspired by the ongoing experimentation and the realization that I need to explore additional sources of information to determine what directions to take that experimentation.
How do you integrate research into your spiritual work?
Podcast Interview: Mike Sententia of Magick of Thought shares his unique perspectives and experiments with magical work.
Book Review: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Jung
This is a collection of essays by Jung about his work with archetypes and individuation. I highly recommend it if you want to understand the psychological concepts and the context in which those concepts are framed. There's some interesting perspectives that Jung shares on these terms that can help readers understand what they mean and how they apply to states of awareness the person experiences. I also found the case studies and art useful for further demonstrating what the author was sharing in terms of what his patients experienced. If you want to understand archetypes and individuation read this work.
How I use painting in my magical work
Round 3 of Space/Time Magic starts on July 8th.
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. You will learn the following:
Whether you've just started practicing magic or have years of experience, this class will teach you the fundamentals of space/time magic work, and how to access and turn possibilities into reality.
Testimonials
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
Taylor Ellwood's Space Time Magic course has given me a new perspective on what Space-Time is beyond the fabric of our reality. One of the incredible ways I've been able to utilize this knowledge is in relation to healing while re-writing (in effect) a past circumstance from 7th grade in which I wasn't able to speak my voice and be heard. Through Taylor's practiced ideas of retroactive magic I journeyed back to that time and break the hold that time period had on that part of my life. I also took advantage of his knowledge and work with sigils and how it can transform, flowing from moment to moment. It gave me opportunities to work with my art skills in a new way. Beyond that one portion of the course, Taylor's frequent teleclass opportunities to talk with him provide another beneficial platform to share your experiences and get answers in real time from him. This class is more than worth what you would invest into it. I wholly recommend it! -- Erik Roth
How to Register
The Investment for this class is $100. If you want to understand how to integrate space and time into your magical practice and achieve better results in your magical work, this class is for you.
Sometimes when I've talked with fellow Pagans and Occultists about the word Tradition, what I'm struck by is a sense that the goal of being part of a spiritual tradition is to somehow keep the tradition from ever changing. The practitioners involved want to keep the tradition static, to make it be the same as it was when they first learned it or when it was first created. I've always found this a bit worrying because when something becomes static it doesn't adapt and eventually it does out. Sometimes, why a given spiritual tradition stays viable is because that tradition changed or adapted to the times. The other day I was reading The Talking Tree by William G. Gray and he made the following observation about Tradition:
Tradition should be a living spirit, persisting among people from one generation to another and consequently leading them constantly from past learning to future illumination. This means that Tradition ought to be in a continual state of evolution and improvement. It is essentially the spiritual growth of human souls both individually and collectively. It stands for regenerative replacement and never for degenerative decay.
What I get from this statement is that tradition is never meant to be static. Tradition is meant to evolve and change and adapt to the times and people that are involved in it. This isn't to say that the past shouldn't be honored or acknowledged or explored...far from it! The past always informs the development of the future. We stand on the shoulders of those who come before us. A spiritual tradition should never divorce itself from its past and yet it should also embrace the future and experimentation that is relevant to the tradition. By doing so, the tradition doesn't become static but instead is sustained by the active inquiry and work that its practitioners perform. More importantly those practitioners do that work from a place of active engagement, instead of rote performance for the sake of doing it the way its always been done.
Tradition renews us spiritually, but we renew it spiritually as well. A tradition is not defined by the person who created it or the people chosen by that person to continue it. The tradition is defined by every practitioner of it and as such each practitioner's journey with the tradition is sacred and meaningful. There may be certain people who become spokespeople for a tradition, but those people should never presume that their word is final or discourage the spiritual journey of another practitioner in the tradition. With that said, part of what makes a tradition viable is that people do examine the work that's occurring and ask if it really does fit the tradition or really is an evolution of it. If magical work occurs that moves away from the core values and principles of a tradition, that work may not fit that tradition (although it could become its own tradition). As such its important to have some idea of what constitutes change in a tradition that still makes the change part of tradition.
For example, if you're working with specific deities in a tradition, its one thing if how you work with them evolves. That could be considered part of the tradition. It's altogether different if you start arbitrarily adding in other deities or getting rid of specific deities. In such a case, the question: "Is this part of our tradition?" is a valid question to ask, because you may be changing the tradition itself. Likewise if you experimenting with a technique that is part of the tradition that can be an evolution of that technique. If, on the other hand, you randomly introduce a technique from another belief system, it may need to be examined carefully, especially if contextually it doesn't make sense. Yet it should be noted a technique could be introduced and become contextually relevant if it is applied within the parameters of a tradition.
As Gray notes traditions should be a living spirit. To make a tradition a living spirit, the evolution of it should be welcomed and embraced as an opportunity for the people involved to grow in their spirituality and in the work they do. If change can be embraced and at the same time applied with a standard that is relevant to the core values of the tradition, then the tradition will stay relevant.
Magical Experiments podcast: In this episode I interviewed Ivo Dominguez Jr about his work, the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, and the Neo-Alexandrian Library.
