Inner Alchemy Foundations Starts Nov 3rd

Inner Alchemy is the cultivation of your potential through breath, sound, energy work, and practical skills that help you achieve, clarity, presence, and purpose for your life and turn the lead of failure into the gold of success.

In this bi-weekly Teleclass, we'll explore how to cultivate clarity, presence, and purpose in your life through a combination of meditation techniques, energy work, and practical skills, all designed to help you step more fully into yourself as a person and professional. Whether you want to show up more fully in your personal relationships or your profession or simply want to dive deeper into a better relationship with yourself, this class will teach you the foundational skills of Inner Alchemy. You will learn the following:

• Taoist Breathing Meditations to cultivate your Chi and enhance your quality of life.
• Dzogchen Stillness Meditation to cultivate presence in your life.
• Dzogchen Sound meditations to cultivate clarity in your life.
• Practical skills based off western meditation and neuroscience that help you discover opportunities.
• Wealth Magic techniques to help you manifest your goals into reality.
• Plus, time for YOUR questions!

Whether you've just started practicing magic or have been practicing it for years, this class will teach you the fundamental skills of Inner Alchemy and how to step more fully into your life, relationship and work.

When you take the Inner Alchemy Foundations class you get the following benefits:

• Greater clarity about the purpose of your life and work.
• A deeper, intimate connection with your body, mind, and spirit.
• A comprehensive exploration of Taoist, Dzogchen and Western breathing and sound meditations
• New skills and tools to enhance your magical work.
• Hands-on work with me helping you implement these practices into your life.

Who should attend this class?

This class if for any pagan or magician that wants to achieve more with their life and wants access to skills that can help them be more successful. If you are an armchair magician, then this class isn't for you.

When does this class meet?

This class meets every other week via teleconference starting on Tuesday November 3rd from 7 pm to 8pm Pacific Standard Time until February 16th.

About 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.

Learn more about Taylor

Bonuses

When you take this class you get the following bonuses:

• Access to a private online forum where you can interact with other class mates and me as you take this class.
• Free recordings of the class for your records
• A Half hour one-on-one conference with me to help you get the most out of this class.

How to Register

The investment for this class is $100 a month (for 4 Months). To sign up click on the button below.

Suggested Books

The following books will enhance your work with this class.

Inner Alchemy The Book of Good Practices Manifesting Wealth

How to do Internal Work without Blowing up

In Exorcising the Tree of Evil, William G. Gray points out that when doing internal work to get rid of dysfunctional issues, there is necessity for taking an approach where you don't change too much, too fast, because if you do it too fast, you can end up creating problems with your sense of identity. Nick Farrell offers similar advice in Magical Imagination, noting that the removal of an issue can actually cause other issues, if you haven't taken the necessary time to fully work through the issue. I agree with both of the authors, having seen this happen and having it occur as well with some of my internal work. And its important to remember when you do internal work, it doesn't just effect you, but also the people around you. Most times this is for the benefit of all, but if the work is done too fast, it can be more traumatic than helpful.

My own approach to doing internal work has been revised over the years to become more systematic and careful. I figure that internal work is something best done consistently over time, and done in a manner that allows you to have your realization and sit with it, and after consideration, you make the changes that are helpful to your life. Making changes without consideration is reactive...it may get rid of the symptom of the issue, but what it doesn't do is allow you to really dig into it and discover why it is the way it is. That can only happen if you are willing to spend some time with the issue and tease out it came into your life. You may have some realizations quickly, but don't rush to act on them right away. Give yourself time to be with those realizations, because you'll likely get more insights as a result.

Pick a practice and stick with it. I've been practicing some Dzogchen practices for the last couple years, and I feel like I'm only now beginning to appreciate the depth of that work. I've been doing Taoist breathing meditation work for over a decade and its a practice that continues to reveal itself in the work. My point is that internal work and the methods of doing internal work can't be rushed. Nor should the realizations and changes you want to manifest. To make changes that are healthy for your life, give yourself some time. Take care of you and really sit with what you learn before you act on it. This is advice I would give to a younger version of myself, because while I've made some good changes in my life, I've also rushed where it'd have been better to still myself. Take your time with internal work and with the changes it can bring. You have more time than you think and you are worthy of taking that time so that when you make the changes you seek, it truly empowers you and the people in your life.

Book Review: Exorcising the Tree of Evil by William G. Gray

Exorcising the Tree of Evil is an exploration of the nature of good and evil, as well as the Quiploth. I found the book to be insightful and liked how the author explored the nature of evil in depth and showed how it related to the Quiploth as well as to the Tree of Life. What I found invaluable is how the author explored the different types of evil and where they show up in the quiploth as well as how they show up in a person's life. This book will give you a lot to think about in relationship to your own life and magical work. Gray also provides some useful exercises for exorcising the evil within as well as appropriate cautions about changes in behavior and how to handle them. My one complaint about the book actually has to do with the editing and layout. This is a reprint and yet there are some typos that show up throughout the book, which surprises me, given how exact Gray is about his work. I suspect this is more of an editor/publisher error than that of the author. Overall though this book is a must read for Quabalists, ceremonial magicians, and anyone serious about their spiritual development.

Magical Experiments Radio: A fun interview with Vincent Piazza about pop culture magic, lovecraftian magic, and Taoism.

The Elemental Balancing Ritual Stillness Month 11: A pause

8-23-15 As I've continued reading about Scarcity and reflected on what I've read, I've come to a fundamental recognition: Scarcity is simultaneously a motivator to action and also what keeps people in a place of discord within themselves as well as with others. Its an experience that is embedded in us physiologically and psychologically. I see it in the various interactions I and others have, in how businesses are run and how relationships are approached. It is a good recognition for me, because it demonstrates how much scarcity is so much more than just a person's choices. Certainly behavior is part of scarcity, but when the environment is set up to encourage scarcity, it makes it much harder to change those behaviors, much harder to find your center in your stillness as well. Nonetheless, I also see ways to approach scarcity that can work, if the person is willing to recognize the environmental aspects and plan for them. And I think part of that is actually found in stillness, in the ability to give yourself moments where you just are, instead of always doing. I have been an always doing kind of person...this last year of stillness work has taught me, more than ever, the value of just being, and how that can enhance your live significantly.

8-30-15 Part of stillness work involves learning how to be still not just with yourself but around other people. It can be hard to be still around people, because it requires you to put aside your attachments to what those people are doing or saying and just be still with what's happening. Yet it can also be a useful exercise for learning how to be present with someone and can show that person that you genuinely want to be present. Lately I've been stilling myself around other people and paying very close attention to those moments when thoughts do surface and I move away from stillness. It's helping me recognize what disturbs my stillness so that I can work with that more closely.

9-4-15 The other day I did a writing exercise from Ensouling Language and one of the questions the author asked is what do you hate. I put myself in that section and in reflecting on that answer I came to realize how much I do hate myself in some ways. It's ingrained from my childhood, when I was told I was a disappointment, told really that I wasn't good enough and never would be. Consequently there's always been part of me that's believed that I'm not worthy of anyone in my life and that I'm useless. Pretty sad and harsh and doing that exercise really helped me get in touch with that part of myself. I expressed it this morning to Kat, really just let her in and recognized in the process how much that part of me has hurt myself, has sabotaged me at different times of my life. I feel, after the fact, a bit drained, but also ready to do more work. Being still has helped me get much deeper into these issues that have dictated my life.

9-9-15 It came to me today, in meditation that stillness will only be until October and then I'll move into the next element. I thought initially it might be two years, because of movement being 2 years, but today it was made clear that stillness is one year and that I need to prep for the next element. I feel good about it. I've learned a lot from stillness, but at a certain point, with any element, its time to transition and it feels that way with stillness.

9-10-15 In my meditation I got further confirmation. I went deep and Zadok appeared and explained that knowing stillness was good, but knowing how to balance stillness with movement, to balance everything is just as important. It points the way to the next element.

9-14-15 In Dealing with People you can't Stand, I learned of a technique called the Pygmalion Power. It intrigues me and I'm going to apply it to myself and see how it helps with behavior modification. Basically they way it works is that you set up an expectation verbally. so for example if you want to encourage positive behavior you tell the person they are special or wonderful...or if you want to change, you might say, "That's not like you, you are X." Quite fascinating (and a bit manipulative), but I can see how it can be applied to create specific changes in behavior in one's self or in other people, especially if you use it to interrupt a person's behavior, causing them to reset.

9-17-15 I've just started to set up a patreon account. I've known about it for a little while, but I was on the fence about it. In thinking about it though I realized it's actually a good idea and seeing a few other people I know who have such accounts and seem to be making it work. I sometimes feel that when it comes magic, I'm ahead of the curve, working on projects and creating new techniques, but when it comes to business, I see other people who seem to do it effortlessly. I'm sure they'd say otherwise, but the perception is there. Still I figure I'm learning how to be better at business with experience and mistake I make.

9-22-15 You can't always control a situation, but you can plan your response to it. A planned response is always better than a reaction. It allows you to put the situation into a context that is favorable to you, and either puts the other person into neutral or puts them into a negative light. Be still, consider how you want to respond and then make the response that provides you a way to come out of the situation favorably.

9-23-15 I've been reading Exorcising the Tree of Evil by William Gray and he talks about lust and how its insatiable. You can't ever satisfy it. It reminded me a lot of emptiness. then later I did my meditation and Gray and Zadok showed up and talked about lust and how stillness could be used in regards to lust. It gave me a lot to consider and really helped me examine my relationship with emptiness, because I could see parallels to lust in what they discussed.

How to merge Anthropomorphic and Non-Anthropomorphic meditations

In my weekly meditation meeting, we are currently in the process of doing some work with neurotransmitters, bacteria, and other microbiota of the human body. This is a continuation of the work I started in Inner Alchemy, but it's also been an opportunity to experiment further with non-anthropomorphic meditations, in a group setting, which has provided some valuable information. What I've confirmed is that just launching into non-anthropomorphic meditation is hard because the frame of reference is so different from the usual frame people have. It can be done, but its not as successful as it would be if an initial "human" context was provided. Note: Are you curious about the terms anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic...scroll down past the rest of the article to see definitions and then scroll back up to read the rest.

In contrast, if I've done a meditation with an initial anthropomorphic reference its provided a level of context that has been helpful for the participants. What I've then done is actually had the meditation transition from an anthropomorphic reference to a non-anthropomorphic reference. This has worked out very well. The initial meditation provides enough context for the person so that when the transition occurs there is something recognizable they can still use as a frame of reference. So let's break this down in practical terms...

Let's say you decide to do a meditation to connect with epinephrine, a neurotransmitter. The initial meditation would be an anthropomorphic one, where you ask Epinephrine to appear in a form that is recognizable to you and ask it to communicate with you. Typically the communication will be in your first language, and the form will be something that is either human or rooted in what we know. You might ask the neurotransmitter for a symbol that you can use to connect with it.

Next lets say you decide to transition into a non-anthropomorphic meditation on the same neurotransmitter. What this involves is experiencing the neurotransmitter and its effect on you. You would ask the anthropomorphic version to become the experience that it creates in your body and you would communicate with the neurotransmitter through that experience. No language, no form based in human perception, just the experience itself. Let that experience in...let it move you, let it become part of your consciousness.

The anthropomorphic meditation provides enough context for a person that if s/he chooses to do the non-anthropomorphic meditation it becomes easier to work with. With that said a person can just attempt a non-anthropomorphic meditation and see what happens. It's not impossible to do and can be interesting to experience without the human filters in place.

Definition time! Anthropomorphism refers to the tendency to ascribe human qualities, emotions, values, language to something that isn't human. In magic, it is essentially used as a way to communicate with nonhuman beings.

Non-anthropomorphism is the attempt to experience the entity with as little human filters as possible.

Radio interviews

I was interviewed on Main Street Radio about Pop Culture Magick and Pop Culture Magic 2.0

I was interviewed on Pagan Musings Podcast about Pop Culture Magick and Pop Culture Magic 2.0

Magical Experiments Radio: I interviewed S. Rune Emerson about Tarot Sorcery.

Some Thoughts on how to create a system of Magic

Some Thoughts on how to create a system of Magic

Mad Max and Supernatural Values

I am playing the new Mad Max video game and one of the aspects of the game that really stands out to me is how some of the characters talk about their cars, treating them as spiritual entities that can be worked with and bonded with through various driving activities. Why I think this is worthy of note is because I see it as a commentary on spiritual beliefs and how spiritual beliefs are formed around need and form. In Mad Max, you're dealing with a post apocalyptic society, where every person is on the edge of survival and cars are the significant form of transportation. Consequently it makes sense that the cars are invested with a supernatural meaning and authority because those cars are a significant part of what keeps those people alive.

Now granted this is fiction, but such a commentary is invaluable in that it can get us to consider our own spiritual needs and how those needs are shaped by the forms available to us. In the universe of Mad Max the form is the car, and the need it fulfills provides the impetus to invest supernatural authority in the car. For us, so fortunate to live in a world that is not post apocalyptic, spirituality takes many different forms. What prompts a person to identify with one form or another is partially dependent on what calls to that person and to the marketing around a given spirituality. The need of the person defines the form to some degree.

One of the reasons I've focused on pop culture magic is because I think its important to be open to different forms of spirituality. Conventional, mainstream religion never worked for me, and while I do find some value in traditional approaches to magical work, I also find a lot of value in expanding outward and drawing on other resources that don't fit in the traditional frameworks of occultism. Pop culture is one of those resources. It provides a wealth of context and is something more people are identifying with in a spiritual way.

Every so often I inevitably hear from people who try and knock pop culture magic as not being magic enough, authentic enough, or whatever else. I find it odd that they need to comment on why they don't like pop culture magic. It's OK that it doesn't fit their needs, but why knock people who do find spiritual value in pop culture magic? I personally find no value in such statements made usually out of ignorance. It is, perhaps, one of the reasons I find myself pessimistic at times about magic and occultism, because too often it seems people just want to get in each other's way instead of just accepting and supporting that there can be a variety of experiences that fall outside traditional paths.

What matters most isn't how you do magic. Certainly you do need to learn the fundamentals and knowing the tradition and history has its value. But what matters most is how we make the magic our own, how we personalize it and make it a part of our lives in a way that is useful. I figure if someone wants to perceive their car as being a supernatural mystery in its own right, there's really nothing wrong with it (provided that person isn't going around and harming others). It may not be anyone else's cup of tea, but its rather boring to insist that everyone be the same when it comes to the spiritual practices or anything else. Where I choose to ascribe meaning and how I let that effect me is what's important and that I might share it with others...well that can be important to, in terms of what a person can learn from others, but to quash what someone believes or practices because it doesn't fit your own paradigm. That's just stupid and ignorant. You don't need to agree with what someone practices or believes, but you don't need to bash them either. It serves little purpose beyond validating your own egoic frailties.

And for those inclined to trot out critical thinking and critique being open-minded, let me remind you that being close minded does not involve critical thinking. You can be open-minded and still use critical thinking. What you are doing by being open-minded is accepting the possible experience, but you can be critical in your experience and use that to help you determine if you wish to proceed further. When you are close minded, you aren't even open to having an experience and so it is much harder to be able to critique something, if you've already decided to be closed to it.

Magical Experiments radio: No show this week or last week due to a guest cancellation and technical difficulties but the show is continuing.

Pop Culture Magic 2.0 is available!

I just got my first shipment of my new book Pop Culture Magic 2.0, which means its now truly available to any and all. I created a video (below) celebrating the happy news. If you're curious about what the book is about, here is a summary (click the link if you want to order the book):

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.

How to Recognize if you've been cursed

How to Recognize if you've been cursed:

If you want work with me

I'm a fairly busy person, always working on some type of project or another. Occasionally I get queries from people about how they can work with me or what it is I'm working on, so below is a list of the services and products I'm currently offering.

Books

I've written a lot of books and all of them are available either on Amazon or from my publishers. If you go to the Publications tab on this website, you'll see a list of books I've written. If you order books from publishers, I will actually sign and ship them to you (because I co-own the publisher).

Classes

I teach classes on magic. I'm offering the following classes currently:

The Process of Magic: This is 24 week correspondence course, where you get a lesson each week. Additionally every other month I do a teleconference with the students so I can answer their questions. In this class we explore the fundamental processes of magic and how they work in order to understand and improve our magical workings. I'm currently accepting students for the next round, which starts September 9th. The investment is $100.

Sign up for the Process of Magic Class

Space/Time Magic Foundations: This is 24 week correspondence course, where you get a lesson each week. Additionally every other month I do a teleconference with the students so I can answer their questions. In this class we explore space and time as distinct elements of magic and learn how they can be integrated into both practical magical workings and spiritual work. The next round starts in November. The investment is $100.

Sign up for Space/Time Magic Foundations

Inner Alchemy Foundations: This is a 4 month teleconference class, with teleconferences occurring every other week. I'm starting the first round this October and in this class we'll explore how to use breathing meditations, energy work, wealth magic, and practical techniques to do internal work and enhance the quality of your life and work. We'll also do a basic exploration of how to work with your neurotransmitters and microbiota magically. The investment is $100 a month.

Sign up for Inner Alchemy Foundations

One shot Teleclasses: On occasion I offer one shot teleclasses on a variety of topics. Nothing is currently scheduled, but be on the look out for future classes.

Consulting and Coaching: I also offer consulting and coaching services.

Magical Apprentice: I also do one-on-one training with people interested in working with me directly. We meet each week for a half hour or every other week for an hour to go over your magical work. Additionally I'll assign you projects to work on that are relevant to your goals. The investment for this is $200/month and I do ask for an initial commitment of 3 months. To learn more, contact me.

Dual Deck Tarot Readings: Do you have a question you want answered, a problem you want to resolve, or a possibility you want to explore? I offer a half hour Tarot card reading using two decks simultaneously. The Investment is $50.

Sign up for a Dual Deck Reading

Magic Consultation: Do you have a question about magic, or a magical working? Do you want some advice or someone to runs ideas by about magical workings? I offer consultations on magical workings, using both my extensive background in various magical practices and systems and my own experimental approach to help you. I can help you with a variety of issues, including healing, career, business, wealth, relationships, etc. Note: I do not do magic workings for clients. I will help you develop one that you can do. The investment is $100 an hour.

Sign up for a magic consultation

Author Coaching: I've recently been getting some inquiries about whether or not I coach people on writing or on marketing and selling books. In fact, I do! I have over a decade of experience in the publishing industry as both an author and publisher and can coach you on writing as well as how to market and sell books. If you do want to coach with me, I do ask for a three month initial commitment, as this process can take some time. I charge $400 a month and that gets you 4 1 hour coaching sessions per month on writing and marketing your books. For more information, Contact me.

Business Coaching: Do you own a business and want to figure out how to run it better? I teach business owners how to plan their business by design instead of run it be reaction. To learn more, visit my business coaching site.

Scarcity and Wealth Magic

One of the problems I have with most approaches to wealth magic is that such approaches aren't really designed to help a person manufacture wealth, so much as help a person manage a crisis or shock of scarcity that has come up in their life for whatever reason. It's a reactive approach and unfortunately its not always an effective approach. The root of the issue is that in such cases what we're dealing with isn't really wealth magic so much as its a response to scarcity. So let's consider for a moment what scarcity and how it affects us:

Scarcity is not merely the gap between resources and desires on average...To be free from a scarcity trap, it is not enough to have more resources than desires on average. It is important enough to have enough slack (or some other mechanism) for handling the big shocks that may come one's way at any moment...periods of scarcity can elicit behaviors that end up pulling us from into a scarcity trap. And with scarcity traps, what would otherwise be periods of abundance punctuated by moments of scarcity can quickly become perpetual scarcity. This, incidentally, does not mean that the only way to avoid scarcity traps is to have wealth large enough to weather all shocks...this discussion highlights the need for instruments for buffering against shocks. From Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir.

Scarcity is partially derived from a person's identity and relationship with money and other sources of wealth, but it is also significantly derived from the environment a person is in and how that environment is set up. The environmental variables a person deals with play a significant role in the experience of scarcity or wealth. I would argue that the more reactive a person is to his/her environment, the more likely that person is dealing with scarcity traps. Scarcity encourages reactions, because when a person is dealing with scarcity, what they are typically dealing with is how to survive the current situation they are dealing with, as opposed to planning for the future. Consequently a person dealing with scarcity of some type is in a place of reaction, and unlikely to find their way out of such reaction, because the solutions generated are primarily short term solutions. Not surprisingly the majority of so-called wealth magic is really a reactive approach to handling problems, and so it would be more apt to label it scarcity magic. It's magic done for the purpose of dealing with a crisis, as opposed to magic being done as a form of proactive planning for the future.

Scarcity isn't just limited to money. Scarcity can also be applied to time, or space, or other environmental aspects that are important to a person, but I do think if you find scarcity in one area of a person's life, you'll probably find it in other areas as well. The reason for that is because scarcity is a domino affect. When you experience scarcity, you cognitively end up tunneling, or hyper focusing if you will, on the actual problem that's causing the scarcity. While that tunneling can be somewhat useful for solving the problem, it causes a person to ignore other possibilities and environmental variables that while not tied to the issue at hand, nonetheless affect the person. This then sets the person for further experiences of scarcity, for further shocks if you will that deepen the experience of scarcity.

Now you might be tempted to believe that if a person just learned the right skills, scarcity wouldn't be an issue, but scarcity isn't simply a result of skill deficiency. While the skills a person has can help that person navigate scarcity, the environmental variables the person is dealing with are not always something that can be handled by skill alone. The truth is we aren't always in control of the environment we are in, and even when do have control of the environment, it's typically a limited form of control. If the wrong situation occurs at the wrong time (for the person, then despite all the skills the person has s/he can still be dealing with scarcity.

But what then of magic? Isn't magic supposed to provide us some means of control over the environment around us? Yes and no. Magic can provide a way to navigate and work with the environment, but even with magic (or science or anything else) you won't control everything around you. And that lack of control is where scarcity seems to show up. So how then can a person manage scarcity, with magic or anything else?

True wealth magic is proactive magic. It's magic which is formulated as a design, a plan, if you will to help you manage scarcity and accept that while you don't have complete control of your environment what you do have control over is how you respond to situations. The best response to any situation are designed responses that anticipate situations as best as possible, and if nothing else give you the breathing room to make a situation that isn't informed by the need for an immediate solution. Wealth magic alone isn't enough, but wealth magic encourages the active development of a plan. The wealth magic practitioner also recognizes the need to actively study different forms of wealth management and integrate that management into their lifestyle, as well as magical practice. Ideally the wealth magic practitioner is learning about topics which can include magic, but should also include education on finances, relationships, business (especially if you own one) and other related topics.

Wealth management is the effective management of your resources for three purposes. The first purpose is the cultivation of the lifestyle you want to live. The second purpose is to maintain that lifestyle should you choose to retire. The final purpose is to be able to handle moments of scarcity, without letting those moments become longer than they need to be. Management of wealth isn't just money, but is also your time, relationships and various other resources that contribute to you living the life you wish to live. It's also proactive management of scarcity. Proactive wealth magic is utilized in tandem with the skills a person learns from other disciplines, in order to design one's life and anticipate as best as possible environmental aspects that could affect the plan. By taking such an approach, scarcity can be managed and planned for. You won't escape the experience of scarcity, but you will be able to limit it and how it effects your life. And you'll also have steps in place to get you back on track to living your life the way you want to.

Magical Experiments podcast: Interview with Stephanie Conolly about Demonolatry.

How Environment Affects your Magical Work

How Environment Affects your Magical Work:

The Process of Magic starts in 2 weeks

The Process of Magic Round 14 starts September 9th.

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.

Whether you are just learning about magic or have been practicing for years the Process of Magic course focuses on what really matters: Learning how to use magic to proactively improve your life. Below is a testimonial from one of my students:

The Process of Magic class really helped me to define what magic is to me and why I was sometimes having a difficult time getting results - and helped me to understand why I got results when I did! The classes lead to some very introspective, and sometimes uncomfortable, moments; but it has helped me to become a better, more aware, magician. The addition of the in-person teleclasses adds a very useful dimension to talk through any concerns and challenges with Taylor and my fellow students. I'd recommend this class to anyone who is interested in doing effective magic.

Testimonial from Victoria aka Leona Oigheag

Who should attend this class?

This class is for Pagans and Magicians who are serious about improving their magical expertise and who want to understand how magic works from a practical perspective. If you are an armchair magician, then this class isn’t for you.

When does this class meet?

This class is a correspondence course, which means that I'll mail lessons to you each week.

Bonuses

When you take this class, you get the following bonuses:

• Access to an online private forum that is specifically for this class.
• Free Teleconferences every other month to discuss the material directly with me!
• Free MP3 Recordings of conferences.
• A Free E-book copy of Creating Magical Entities.
• Two bonus lessons.

How to Register

The investment for this class is $100. If you've been wanting to understand how magic works or how you can achieve more effective results, this class is for you.

The illusion of Will

I've always been fascinated with will power and the depictions of will power that a person can find in pop culture. The hero for example, who prevails against the odds because of his/her will power carrying them through the hardships and temptations that come their way. Will power also shows up in magic, to some extent, in the sense of the magician imposing his/her will on reality. To some degree Will can be treated as destiny or fate, when describing someone doing their true will. In that sense it's almost a compulsion of sorts and may not really have anything to do with will power. The problem I have with will power is that to a large extent it seems to be illusory. It's a trope of the rugged individual, a person who is always in control or uses will power to get control of a situation and yet based on my studies of behavior and environment I find what makes will power effective has less to do with the person and more to do with the person's environment.

The environment you are in, and what you have in that environment plays a role in will power and how successfully you are able to use it. For example, lets say you are on a diet. If you have food near you that you would want to eat, it becomes harder to resist eating that food, especially if you are engaged in other activities that take up your attention. To a large extent what makes will power work has more to do with how you design your environment proactively to support your success in whatever you are trying to change. If your environment isn't set up for optimal success, then it becomes harder to make those changes and while will power can help, it can only do so much.

Magic, to some extent, is about controlling the environment, and so I think that if a person wants to make a change, part of designing the environment should involve doing some magical work to that effect. For example, you might set up specific energetic spaces or zones which encourage the specific change in behavior you want or ping your consciousness when you are about to do something that doesn't support the change in behavior you seek. The more you work with the environment you are in to design it to support your desired change, the easier it is for your will power to execute that change. I'll be writing about this in more depth as time goes on, because I've become increasingly convinced that genuine change is developed when you have the right tools and environment in place to support the change. All the will power in the world won't do you any good unless you have the environment set up to support the execution of will power toward change.

Note: I chose the picture of Dr. Doom to represent will power, because that's the first image that comes to mind when I think of will power.

Magical Experiments podcast: Interview with Lydia Crabtree about Family Covens and Hereditary Witchcraft.

Why pop culture deities and spirits are viable to work with

Why pop culture deities and spirits are viable to work with

Elemental Balancing Ritual Stillness Month 10: Tension

7-27-15 Today I was meditating on tension I was feeling and it became very clear how the focus on tension really distracted me from being still or being present with my whole being. I could feel that tension take up everything, occupying my mind entirely and yet I knew it wasn't the whole of my existence. Sitting with that awareness helped me step back from the tension and realize that my identity didn't have to be defined by it and that I was allowing it to define my sense of awareness and being moreso than it actually might be.

7-30-15 I had a realization today about how I handle closeness with people. I only let people in so far before I start to push them away. It's a fear of abandonment. I'll abandon a person before they abandon me. Looking back on my history of relationships, familial, romantic, and otherwise, I see where I felt I was abandoned and consequently how this pattern developed out of that as a response to possible rejection. Nonetheless it hasn't helped my relationships with people in the past. I do feel I've changed it somewhat and I know that because I've let some people into my life enough for them to at least be some what close to me.

8-1-15 A long. hard conversation with Kat this morning really helped me appreciate on a deeper level how my issues have hurt the people in my life as well as appreciate how stillness is helping me go deep into those issues and see them from new perspectives. I can be an asshole sometimes to the people in my life and I really own that in a way I haven't before. Thankfully I am with someone who is willing to give me the benefit of the doubt and stick it out with me, even when I have made some hurtful choices. And I see how in making those choices I have sabotaged myself with her and with other people...but I also know I can take control or I can be defined by my issues. I'd rather take control and become a stronger, better person for it.

8-9-15 The qualities you want to embody are already within you. That's what Dzogchen offers in regards to working with a quality you want to cultivate. You aren't cultivating, so much as finding it, because its already within you. In my work with stillness, I've been realizing that in going deep within myself I can find my inner resources to draw on. They are already there. I don't have to look elsewhere. I think that in finding and working with the concepts and practices of Dzogchen, I've found a path of internal work that has allowed me to go further than I ever have in resolving my issues. And in stillness I'm finding clarity about who I am and who I want to be.

8-13-15 When I feel scarcity I feel tension and so I've been paying attention to that tension, acknowledging and then letting it merge into the wholeness of my being. This seems to be helpful because it causes me to recognize that the tension is just a moment, as opposed to all of me and that the moment will pass. It's not my identity. In Awakening the Luminous Mind, the author discusses how the tension is the pain mind and that pain mind is a distraction from being present...however to deal with the pain mind, you have to accept the pain, and care for it. You need to not judge it. I've always been judgmental of myself, but I'm finding that just being with the pain is helpful for coming to a different place with it, one where it doesn't occupy my thoughts, but instead is just part of me without encompassing me.

8-19-15 Sometimes I feel envious of some of my fellow authors. They understand the business of selling themselves and their products and services better than I do. I have written more books than most of them, but they've leveraged themselves as a business better than I have. Erik, my astrologer, told me that one of the reasons I'm here is to learn about business, and I am. It's a struggle sometimes. I see what other people do and it seems to come to them much easier. Some of it, I think, is that their writing is focused toward a wider audience that wants the traditional magical material. My writing is focused on edgier topics, with more of a niche audience. I see that with the response and lack of response that occurs around the topics I post about. When your writing is on the edge you get challenged more, either out of skeptical disbelief or envy on the part of other part for not thinking of it first. Still all I can do is keep learning the lesson I am learning about business and being a successful author. I've stumbled a lot on this journey, but I keep picking myself back up, determined to succeed.

8-20-15 One of the ways I'm learning how to work with tension is recognizing the importance of not acting on it right away. Yes I feel it and I hold space with it, but before I do anything else I just let myself feel and wait before I make a choice. I give myself time to fully get to the heart of it and then make an informed decision. To often, in my past, I've just reacted to tension and more often than not I haven't really liked the consequences. I let the tension define me, instead of defining it...now I'm defining it.

Pop Culture Magic 2.0 is coming out in September

I'm pleased to announce that Pop Culture Magic 2.0, will be published in September. It is available for pre-order now and here's why you want to pre-order it:

• You get a personally autographed copy from me when you order it.
• I'll send you a pop culture magic e-book free when you pre-order (this only applies until the book is released!

And of course you'll get the book which has content and ideas about pop culture magic you won't find anywhere else. Pre-order your copy here.

Some Thoughts on Devotionals

The other day my friend Kelli taught a class on Daily Devotionals. What fascinated me about it was the process for coming up with a devotional and why you'd even want to. I'll admit that my approach to magic is fairly technical at times, but there's still a spiritual dimension to my practice. I have entities that I commune with each day, but what this class challenged me to was find a way to connect with a specific entity more intimately. I decided to match this work up with a problem I have sometimes, which is writer's block. I actually have recently reconnected with a Goetic Daemon I've worked with before: Ronove aka Ronwe, who, amongst other things, is proficient in language and writing.

The other day I was feeling a bit blocked with some writing I wanted to do, so I composed a devotional on the spot to Ronove, raising him and asking for his aid to inspire my writing. Right after I did that, the writing became much easier to do. The block just seemed to go away. I haven't done the devotional since, and I don't feel that Ronove is really looking for that. If anything, what I like about it is that its a devotional for a specific situation so I won't use it all the time, but I will use it when that situation occurs.

This makes me think that it might be useful to come up with devotionals for specific situations that match the skills of the entity you are working with. The impression I have from Ronove is that he'd rather have a devotional from me in a moment of genuine need than to just have one for the sake of having it. I'll have to see if I get a similar feeling off of other entities I work with, as it applies to given situations, but I like that approach. Mind you, I'm only applying this to myself, but I think when situations come up that I need help with, I'll develop devotionals for the situation. I'll change them each time as well, because I think the spontaneity of such a change is useful as well. It shows the deity I'm working with that I'm willing to make an effort on my end, which is significant in its own way because if you're going to ask for help, why not show what you can do as well?

Book Review: Aion by Jung

Aion is a continuation of Jung's work in psychology. He explores the role of symbols in archetypes and how symbols are used to creation connection with archetypes, as well as exploring different aspects of a person's sense of self. I found the book to be useful for understanding Jung's contribution to psychology and why his work has continued to be significant. If you're interested in psychology or just want to understand Jung, this is a good book to pick up.

Water Breathing Meditation part 2

Water Breathing Meditation part 2

Process of Magic Round 14 starts September 9th

The Process of Magic Round 14 starts September 9th.

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.

Whether you are just learning about magic or have been practicing for years the Process of Magic course focuses on what really matters: Learning how to use magic to proactively improve your life. Below is a testimonial from one of my students:

The Process of Magic class really helped me to define what magic is to me and why I was sometimes having a difficult time getting results - and helped me to understand why I got results when I did! The classes lead to some very introspective, and sometimes uncomfortable, moments; but it has helped me to become a better, more aware, magician. The addition of the in-person teleclasses adds a very useful dimension to talk through any concerns and challenges with Taylor and my fellow students. I'd recommend this class to anyone who is interested in doing effective magic.

Testimonial from Victoria aka Leona Oigheag

Who should attend this class?

This class is for Pagans and Magicians who are serious about improving their magical expertise and who want to understand how magic works from a practical perspective. If you are an armchair magician, then this class isn’t for you.

When does this class meet?

This class is a correspondence course, which means that I'll mail lessons to you each week.

Bonuses

When you take this class, you get the following bonuses:

• Access to an online private forum that is specifically for this class.
• Free Teleconferences every other month to discuss the material directly with me!
• Free MP3 Recordings of conferences.
• A Free E-book copy of Creating Magical Entities.
• Two bonus lessons.

How to Register

The investment for this class is $100. If you've been wanting to understand how magic works or how you can achieve more effective results, this class is for you.

The Balance of Power

For my fun reading, I've been reading some Star Wars Fiction lately. The other day I was reading Visions of the Future by Timothy Zahn, and in it the characters Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade have a conversation about power versus guidance as it applies to the Force. Luke has been cutting back on how much he uses the Force, trying to rely on himself more and Mara points out that the resultant clarity he's gotten has occurred precisely because he's balanced the application of power. The Sith always use the power of the Force to excess, which is why it burns them out. Reading this got me to thinking about my magical practice and how its changed as a result of a similar realization I had years ago.

When I first started practicing magic, I used it for pretty much every problem I encountered. In fact I did that for about a good decade or so into my practice. A problem would come up, and inevitably I'd utilize magic to "solve" the problem. I enjoyed doing it, enjoyed seeing what I could do with it. But then something changed. I'd always integrated meditation into my practice, but I began doing a lot more internal work and I saw how much my practice was really reactive. A problem would occur and I would react to it. And what I didn't see was how many of those problems were similar to each other, nor did I acknowledge the one constant in those problems: Myself. Doing internal work helped me take a step back and ask myself what I really wanted from my magical practice and from myself.

Over the last decade and change, I've taken a different approach to my magical work. While I still occasionally utilize magic to solve problems, overall my focus has really been on doing the necessary internal work I need to do and as a result the need to do magic to solve problems has exponentially gone down. The majority of magical workings are proactive, focused on achieving specific designs or experimenting for the sake of learning something new. The power is there, but it is focused in a different way. And if anything I've found that by doing internal work and ironing out my issues, I've actually empowered myself in a much deeper way. I'm coming into my own as a person and my actions are guided by an awareness of who I want to be, instead of just reacting to my issues and whatever external variables have come together.

There is something to be said for approaching situations and seeing what you can do to resolve them without magic, or better yet to take a proactive approach with your magical work and create by design what you truly want. But I don't think you can really know what you want until you've stepped back and examined your choices and behaviors and discovered the patterns that speak to the tensions within you that need to be resolved. That's kind of self-discovery takes time. I only really started in my mid twenties and now in my late thirties I can still safely say that I have a ways to go, though I do feel more clarity in my choices and decisions than I previously had.

A measured approach to magical work, as it applies to practical changes, is wise to take. Ask yourself if you really need magic to resolve a situation or if there are other ways to handle it. And ask yourself what you really want out of the situation. Knowing what you want will help you pick the best process, magical or otherwise. It also help you knowingly accept any consequences and proactively plan your life to to help you achieve what you want. If you need to employ magic, you'll do it in a manner that fully respects the power of what you are working with, but also your power as a person.

Magical Experiments podcast: Interview with Laurie Pneumatikos about the Left Hand Path and the upcoming Left Hand Path Consortium in April 2016!