Hello folks,
My newest book pop culture magic systems is now published and available.
You can order it on Amazon:
You can order it at local occult book store.
You can order it directly from the publisher:
http://www.immanion-press.com/info/book.asp?id=506&referer=Hp
Did you miss an episode of the magical experiments podcast in July and August? Listen to them.
Magical Experiments podcast: Performance Art and Magic with Hannah Haddix
Magical Experiments podcast: Victor Anderson: an American Shaman with Cornelia Benavidez
Magical Experiments podcast: The Masks of Lucifer with Asenath Mason and Bill Duvendack
Magical Experiments podcast: The pop culture magic of Star Wars with Leni Hester
Magical Experiments podcast:Practical Sales Magic with Dubious Monk
Magical Experiments podcast: The pop culture magic of Zelda with Cloud Jetters
Book Review: The Hidden Adept and the Inward Vision by R. J. Stewart
This is the fascinating story of A. R. Heaver, a little known practitioner of magic and his work with Stillness as well as the western mystery traditions. It's more of a biography and history book than anything else, but there are some interesting esoteric gems in the book and if you have an interest in the Glastonbury well, then this book will have some pertinent history that's worth learning. I do wish the author the author had included some of his own interactions with A. R. Heaver in the book. He only gives a passing mention to them. That said, I've found reading and meditating on some of the material of the book to be helpful with my own meditations on stillness.
6-26-17 I'm reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. She talks about the relationship we have with being vulnerable and what do we associate with vulnerability. Until I started doing my stillness work, I'd say my association with vulnerability was that being vulnerable was being weak. But with stillness, I've opened myself to being vulnerable and found that its actually helped me become a better person. When I am vulnerable I can open up and share. Stillness has taught me to become more comfortable with being vulnerable and to become better at expressing it.
6-30-17 There are moments where I really question the point of anything I'm doing. This is one of those moments.
The other day I was having a conversation with one of my friends. She shared she was feeling anxious about the upcoming weekend where she would be doing a lot of vending and she pessimistically said she didn't think she'd sell a lot of product.
Now I'm no stranger to such pessimism, having some of it myself, so after she vented for a bit, I asked her if she was open to some feedback.
Recently I was having a conversation with a friend about results and consequences. Often times in practical magic workings we focus on the results that we want to achieve, but what isn't always considered are the consequences that come with the results. Yet consequences are a natural reality of a result. The problem that happens is that the result is treated as a point of closure. You've created and executed the magical working and then the result has occurred and that's the end of the story. But is it?
5-26-17 I had a dream this morning. In the dream was the dark haired, dark eyed woman that had shown up in a couple previous visions. She showed me an alternate life, where I didn't have a lot of stability. I traveled a lot and did work I didn't like and I had no deep connections. As she told me, it was really about showing me what a life without stability would be like. Afterwards I felt this radiating sense of fear in my chest and I sat with it for a while. It's that fear of being too stable, which may seem off, but when you've lived a life where much of it has been chaotic, it can actually feel strange to have stability. It makes me realize again what the next element needs to be, but also what I can do to use stillness to work on that feeling of fear of stability.
In my own magical practice I'm a real stickler for details. The reason is because I like to figure out what is working and how it's working (or conversely what isn't working). Not everyone feels this way about magic. Sometimes I'll hear people say that it doesn't matter how magic works, as long as it produces a result. I always find this response (and variants of it) to be fascinating and perplexing. "Why wouldn't you want to know how something works?" is one of the questions that I ask, along with another one, "What do you do if your magical working doesn't work or produce the results you were going after?"
I never really get a satisfactory answer to those questions.
I find that a lot of people think of magic as something you actively are doing, but sometimes the way magic works has more to do with being in tune with the flow of possibilities into reality and allowing the right possibilities to come through. What does that really mean?
I look at it in this way. Yes, sometimes the magical work involves taking action, but sometimes it involves being in a situation and recognizing how to make that situation work for you, even when it seems to be stacked against you.
Did you miss an episode of the magical experiments podcast in May? Here are all the episodes.
Magical Experiments podcast: Magical Activism Pt 4 with David Salisbury and Mat Auryn
Magical Experiments podcast: Paganism and consent with Shauna Aura Knight and Katessa Harkey
Magical Experiments podcast: Building and Maintaining Sacred Space with Ivo Dominguez Jr
Magical Experiments podcast: Conflict and Community with Crystal Blanton
Book Review: The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene
This is a fascinating book which explores the various theories about parallel universes and uses modern physics to examine the veracity of those theories. The author does an excellent job of walking readers through the physics and exploring the viability of the various theories. Whether you enjoy physics or are just curious about the universe, this is a good book to read, which will provoke some thoughts and ponderings to be savored.
4-24-17 This prior weekend I went to a spiritual retreat lead by R.J. Stewart, where we explored the Further Path...basically a Faery teaching. It was profound work and it seemed like the right time in terms of matching up with some of the changes I'm feeling internally. There's this feeling of movement...and a sense of stillness coming to an end...or maybe just a transition. There will always be stillness work to do, but ho do you come out of stillness? That's really what I'm gravitating toward at the moment. It's like this slow awakening and stretching is happening.
Whether you're building a public spiritual community or a private one, there's a couple of factors you want to consider that will help you build your spiritual community and make sure its a healthy one. In this video I share what those factors are and how to strategically approach them so you can build your spiritual community.
The other day I got into a conversation with an acquaintance who said they wanted to be successful with magic. I asked them to define success and they told me that to them success was using intention to create manifestation. It sounded like a lot of new age fluff and the problem is that it basically is new age fluff. Words like intention and manifestation have become ambiguous words that say very little while sounding very buzzy. In the defense of my acquaintance, this was a person just starting out on their magical journey. When I explained that they needed to be more specific in defining success with magic, they had trouble because they didn't know what it looked like.
Did you miss an episode of magical experiments in April? Here are all the episodes, for your enjoyment!
Magical Experiments Podcast: The Magic of Poetry with Bethany Moore
Magical Experiments podcast: The Aesthetics of Magic with Rune Emerson
Magical Experiments Podcast: Gnostic Christianity with Lainie Petersen
Magical Experiments Podcast: How to take care of yourself spiritually with Bill Duvendack
If you want to learn more about Gnosticism...
Gnostic Wisdom Network www.gnosticwisdom.net
Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio
Gnosticism: From Nag Hammadi to the Gospel of Judas: The Great Courses (Dr. David Brakke)
Gnostic Society Library: http://gnosis.org
Introduction to "Gnosticism": Ancient Voices, Christian Worlds by Nicola Denzy Lewis
Gnostic Book of Hours: Keys to Inner Wisdom Hardcover – December, 1992 by June Singer
Book Review: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
This book came into my life at the right time. The author shares the core skills of whole-hearted people and how any person can learn those skills. This is a book I would recommend to anyone because it teaches you how to to bring joy into you life and change who you are as a result, in a way that truly will make you a happier and more whole hearted person.
Book Review: One small step can change your life by Robert Maurer
Big isn't always better and this book explains why that is. The author makes a persuasive case for why trying to make big changes can cause you fear, anxiety, and stop you in your tracks, while if you make small changes it can actually help you build momentum and make it easier for you to reach your big goals, because you're getting around your Amygdala. I've applied some of the ideas in this book to my clients and my work and it has made a huge difference in both cases.
3-23-17 One of the most pivotal lessons my work with stillness has taught me is to stop looking outside myself for completion. Stop looking toward a job, a lover, friends, etc., because when you do that, it never satisfies you and objectifies the people. With romantic love, we're sold a myth that you can find that one true love, or multiple loves that can somehow complete us and know us. But no one can know you the way you know yourself...and yet many people do not know themselves. This is one of the challenges of internal work: It forces us to really know ourselves and to recognize that any sense of completion must come from our own ability to resolve the internal tensions in our lives, and as a result discover the true liberation of the self from all the conditioning and patterns we've previously lived with.
I've been working with the element of stillness for 2 and a half years, via daily meditations and internal work. The stillness work is part of the elemental balancing ritual that I've used to create a dedicated system of internal work, which I've been implementing in my life since 2004! Today I thought I would share why I've worked with Stillness for so long and share a stillness working with you. Check out the video:
I've lately been on a bit of a simplicity kick with my magical practice, and part of that has involved going back to basics. It may seem odd that a magician with 20 plus years experience would go back to basics. After all, don't I already know this material? And the answer is yes, and yet also no. You see, I think one of the traps I see magicians fall into is one where you take for granted what you know. And actually this happens outside of magic. If you meet an "expert" in a field they know what they know and they sometimes take it for granted. So I want to share with you 5 reasons for going back to the basics and how doing that can help you become a better magician.
Did you miss an episode of the magical experiments podcast in March. You can listen to all of the episodes here.
And if you enjoy these episodes, please donate to the magical experiments fundraiser. Your donations allow us to continue putting shows liek these on, for the next year.
Magical Experiments podcast: The Aesthetics and process of magic with Taylor Ellwood
Magical Experiments podcast: Magical Activism Pt 1 with Crystal Blanton, Jacki Chucalate, and Felix Warren
Magical Experiments podcast: Magical Activism Pt 2 with Tallah Hovisdottir and Katessa Harkey
Magical Experiments podcast: Magical Activism Pt 3 with Shauna Aura Knight and Joseph Robicheaux
Book Review: Inner Traditions of Magic by William G. Gray
This is an excellent, must read book on magic. In it Gray walks readers through a number of magical operations and shows you how to take those operations apart and work with them. I like the depth of theory he explores and find that his approach really makes magic easier to understand. I will note that his writing style does tend to be ponderous at times, but if you stick with it, you will get a lot from his work and be able to significantly improve your own magical practice.
In this case study, I share a recent working I did with Glasya-Labolas that shows how focusing on the influence aspect of a spirit can produce great results. To learn more, watch the video below.
Get my 5 secrets for personalizing your magic that produces consistent results.
2-23-17 What stillness teaches me in the moment is how to recognize when I'm putting myself in a situation where I need to take a moment and ask myself if the course of action I'm engaging in is the best choice. It's also helping me step back and recognize feelings of irritation and frustration I feel in everyday situations such as driving. I hadn't realized how often I've felt those feelings until I started practicing my stillness work in everyday situations, but recognizing those feelings also helps me realize I need to be consciously aware of how those feelings show up, so I can work through them, instead of reacting to them. I would rather be consciously aware of them and be able to sit with them, than just react because I'm feeling them.
3-3-17 I was reading the Gifts of Imperfection while vending at NEWTS. She brought up some really important perspectives that helped me understand some of my issues around positive emotion. She discussed the importance of a gratitude practice...and I'm going to start doing that everyday because I see some real value in taking a moment to state what you're grateful for. And as the author points out, it can enhance the joy in your life. She also makes a distinction between joy and happiness, noting that happiness is situational, while joy comes from a deeper place, but also how vulnerable a person can feel with joy, because it can also bring up a fear of loss. I realize that's what has stopped me from sometimes stepping into my joy more fully, that fear of loss...you can feel so vulnerable that you try to find some way to shut down that feeling.
That's been me sometimes...and realizing that's why is helping me approach my positive experiences and feelings from a different place, one where I'm allowing myself to be vulnerable and work through whatever fears arise so I can step into the moment and let it be what it can be.
3-6-17 I've been paying closer attention to who I am and what I'm feeling. I guess what that really means is that instead of putting on masks for myself, I'm taking them off, so I can really be present in the moment. I may still put on a mask for someone else, but the days of not paying attention to what's going on internally are over. Stillness has given me that gift.
3-8-17 I was feeling some anxiety today around the work I'm doing. It seems like every time I'm close to finishing it up, I discover another layer that needs to be factored in. And then I worry...will this even work? I can choose to listen to those fears, express them and/or use them to motivate me. I can also be still with them and get to the real heart of the matter, which is about worthiness. I'm choosing to do some of those actions today and reminding myself that it's my first time doing this work and that I'm not just doing it, but learning how I can do it better the next time I do it. So be patient and dedicated and iterate.
3-9-17 Yesterday I was telling Kat that I want to help people through my content. I want people to get value out of what I create as opposed to having people try and get value out of me. when I used to have much worse boundaries than I have now, I wouldn't always recognize when people were coming into my orbit with ulterior motives. I've gotten better at paying attention to the details, and also recognizing that what I want to give people is the gift of my experiences and knowledge, but also have the right boundaries in place for myself.
3-15-17 When you can talk with someone about what is uncomfortable, and settle into the conversation, it brings with it, its own form of stillness. I've only recently discovered how to be comfortable talking about uncomfortable subjects, with someone. Seems odd that its taken me so long, but given how guarded I've been my entire life, maybe not so much. Relaxing into the stillness of the moment is what liberates you to discuss what needs to be talked about.
3-21-17 This month has really been about details. What stillness is teaching me about details is how to be present with them, without letting them get to me. I look at all this work I'm doing right now for my businesses and my life and there's this feeling of readiness...The details are getting attended to so that I can make that move out of stillness into wherever I need to go. And this makes me glad I devoted a 3rd year to Stillness. I needed to get to this place with Stillness (and a bit further) in order to go to the next step of my spiritual journey and life. That's the value of Stillness. It helps you stop long enough to figure out where you need to go instead of continuing to react. You break out of the patterns and start developing your own.
