8-24-2019 - I switched over to Venus/Netzach/Auriel the other day and its been interesting to note the energetic shift. I feel a bit more laid back and contemplative since shifting over, but I also still feel driven to write. In one sense, I am experiencing creativity in different phases and the Venus phase is distinct because it doesn’t feel as fast as Mercury, but it does feel a bit more grounded.
With the release of my first fiction book, I think its taken on the form of contemplating why I love what I’m doing, as well as what I’m willing to do to pursue that love. It seems appropriate to Auriel that I’m doing this because I’m starting my fiction writing career and it will take some work that I haven’t had to do in a long time as a non-fic writer.
I was watching a video recently where the person being interviewed made a rather interesting statement. He claimed that statements limit and/or close off probabilities, while questions expand probabilities. I thought about it and found myself agreeing that if you look at how language is used from a probability angle, then yes language can be used to either limit or expand probabilities. Let’s consider that angle in further detail.
A statement is typically used to declare an opinion or a fact. From a probability perspective, a statement would seem to typically limit the probabilities available because a statement is describing and defining what is being stated. What we need to understand about statements is that in doing all of that, what’s really happening is a defining on the basis of the agenda of the person making the statement. A statement is really an attempt to describe what something ought to be. And that is pretty accurate in terms of limiting the probabilities through language, because if we’re describing and defining what something ought to be, we’re also trying to rule out what it shouldn’t be.
I share my continued work with magical entities and how the work is continuing to evolve and change, especially around work with entities for creating a proactive life design for my life.
A couple months ago I was struck by inspiration to create a magnet metal ball sculpture and when I created it, I turned it into a prosperity magic working for the purposes of helping me get more leads at my work. when I created it, I decided to use both magnetism and gravity to not only create the sculpture, but also become magical principles that could help me bring more prosperity into my life. In my case I decided to use it to help me get more leads at work.
I’m expected to get so many leads in order to meet a metric for my job performance, but if I exceed that metric I have the opportunity to also get points through the rewards program the company has. Additionally If I get so many leads per week, I also get spins at a wheel, which provides further opportunities to get reward points. Those points can be exchanged for things I want such as gift cards or items. For example I’ve used the points to get a new computer monitor and I’ve also used them for gift cards.
7-22-2019 Today I shifted over to Hod/Air/Mercury/Raphael and its and interesting shift…a sharp, clear shift that feels like a papercut, especially when paired with creativity. Actually I’m finding this entire meta process to be intriguing because I’m bundling these correspondences together with creativity and of course the creative insights I’m getting and the paths that are opening are very helpful.
Today, for example, it was getting further clarity on how to launch my first fiction book and what can be done to help that fiction book stand out, while also dong some further writing on my next fiction book. In any case I’m just letting myself get carried into the air and the associations with it.
I’m re-reading Music Power Harmony by R.J. Stewart and one of the points he makes in the book is that a magical working is essentially about re-creating the world. It’s a profound observation, because what it recognizes is that a magical working is designed to take us out of the everyday world and then provide us a way to re-create that world with the desired result we want to manifest.
In this video I'm doing a pop culture pathworking with stranger things. I'll share how I've set up the pathworking and then we'll actually do it. Feel free to join along
The other day in the Magical Experiments Facebook group, one of the members asked if it was possible to counteract allergies using the methods I’ve shared in the Inner Alchemy series. I told the person it might be possible, especially if you were to take a targeted approach to working with your allergies and the neurotransmitters that can play a role in signaling the body that you have an allergy. For this article, I’ll describe how such a process could work and what you would need to do, if you were applying my processes to your allergies*.
Before we get into that, I do want note that your body has the responses it has for specific reasons, that are designed to keep you safe. Thus our process isn’t about suppressed allergic reactions, but rather its about figuring out if there’s a way to cure the allergy. The reason we don’t want to suppress the reaction is because the reaction is a symptom, a signal of what the underlying issue. Suppressing the signal doesn’t solve the problem, and if anything may cause you to ignore vital information that you need to have.
I define what pathworking is and share what you want to consider when putting one together. I also share an example of a pop culture pathworking I’m developing
I’m currently re-reading The Way We Think, which explores conceptual blending and how we are able visualize and do other amazing things with our mind that are much harder to replicate with computers. The reason is that a while a computer can do rational analysis, what it can’t easily do is imagine. The power of the imagination allows us to experience the world from a multitude of perspectives and find novel solutions to problems that fall outside of rational analysis.
I’ve always treated imagination as a sacred aspect of myself. While there’s a tendency in Western culture to treat imagination as something restricted to children or being childlike, I think we lose out when we don’t use our imagination. The imagination is the gateway to the possible of the universe, the means by which we can entertain what might be instead of just sticking with what is.
In my work with space/time magic, I’ve utilized imagination as a tool for the forecasting of timeline possibilities, wherein you essentially access a possible future and live it through your meditation. It’s a useful way of getting a sense of probable outcomes without committing to that future and it’s enabled me to also project potential consequences for achieving the result of realizing that future.
Another way I’ve used imagination with space/time magic is to create a mansion of identity/memory, where I’ve created multiple versions of myself, each version focused on a specific topic of interest I want to learn about. I can interact with each version and get information from them on a subject, but they are also actively acquiring additional experiences and information and then processing it so that I can draw upon what’s been learned quickly and efficiently. Imagination allows them to model what they learn and work with it to come up with solutions to problems I’m trying to solve. By applying my imagination to the problem and allowing the appropriate versions of myself to have at the problem (whatever it is) I can come up with a solution that resolves the problem.
Imagination has played a role in every magical technique I’ve developed, because I ask myself what if, and then use my imagination to help me map out the reality of that what if wonderment and turn it into something that can be applied practically to the world. You can do the same thing: Take an existing problem and ask yourself what if…what if I could solve this with whatever I wanted to solve it with. Then let your imagination entertain that possibility and chart a path forward for you to discover the answer.
We use imagination to meditate, to do pathworkings, to connect with the sacred and merge it with the profane. Every act of magic is an act of imagination that allows us to turn the possible into reality. When you recognize what a role imagination can play in your magical workings, it helps you see how it opens us to the hidden world. It’s imagination that allows us to connect with the spirit world and the spirits, because imagination is a state of being that touches the essence of all beings that can imagine and wonder. We channel that imagination, through stories, but we can also channel it through our capacity to imagine possibilities and turn them into reality.
I’d invite you to consider imagination as another part of your magical tool set. What can a sense of wonder and imagination teach you about magic, life, and whatever else you apply it to? You may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.
6-24-2018 I’ve started working with the Archangel Gabriel and the energy of Yesod/Moon for this month. Appropriately enough I think I’ve already set myself up for the work and not in a wonderful way. There are times I really I think all I’m good at doing is fucking up. This is one of those times. I made an impulsive decision (I’m good at those) instead of slowing down. I always learn after the fact, but when the damage is done, what good is the learning?
6-25-2018 Continued work with Gabriel today and I’m very much feeling the influence of the West and water, as well as a sense of tidal pulsing back and forth. Life comes and goes. The tides pull and push. Life continues.
Can wards and spiritual defenses be bypassed? In the approach to protective magic explored below, a working can have weaknesses, limits, or dependencies that deserve examination. Understanding those features is a way to review your own protection: what anchors it, how it is reinforced, how its layers fit together, and what falls outside its purpose.
If you are new to the idea, begin with what a magical ward is. This article goes further into the design questions behind a protective working. The guide covers five design questions, a practical review process, a hypothetical example, and answers to common questions.
Five factors in protective magic
The other day someone asked a question about how to take down wards and protective magic, especially in a situation where you aren’t physically at the location where said wards and protective magic are applied to. It’s an interesting question that got me recalling my early days in practicing magic, because one of the first things I started experimenting with was protective magic and how to take it apart and also how to improve it, so I thought I’d write this post from the dual perspective of how take apart protective magic, but also how to improve your wards and protective magic.
The first thing to note is that any protective working or ward will likely have a weakness. You just have to be very patient and find where that weakness is and what it is. Once you find that you can unravel it quickly. Likewise if you create a working, you should test it thoroughly and try to figure out what the weakness might be and make adjustments accordingly.
Whether you’re creating a ward or protective magic work or taking it down it’s useful to consider the following factors:
Is there a physical embodiment of the working?
Is the working once and then done or is it done everyday?
Is it a singular working or are there multiple protective workings?
Is the protective working setup with countermeasures in case someone is trying to mess with them?
Are there any other vectors or means of getting past the protective working?
Each of the questions are worth exploring because of how they can shape your approach to either creating better protective measures or breaking through said barriers, so let’s consider each of them in depth.
Is there a physical embodiment of the protection/ward? If there is, this can be a weakness that can be exploited, provided you can find it. Breaking the physical embodiment serves to either weaken the working or destroying it altogether depending on how the working has been setup.
On the other hand if you’re using a physical embodiment, I recommend making multiple copies and putting them into places that aren’t easy to reach. You might even put specific protections and counter measures around them, as a way of deterring people messing with them.
Is the working once and then done or is it done everyday? A working that’s done once is something which can easily be undone, because it isn’t being reinforced. A protective working or ward that’s set up each day, on the other hand is constantly being reinforced and the person doing the work will be sensitive to any variances they detect. Plus if you’re trying to undo something, they’ll catch onto it when they redo the working and may even sense it as you’re doing it because of the fact that they devote a significant amount of time to redoing the workings.
Is it a singular working or are there multiple protective workings? If there’s one protective working setup, its much easier to get through, because you just have the one and once you can find its weakness, you can take it apart. But if there are multiple workings, it can take longer and if they’re layered just right the weakness of one will be covered by the strengths of the other protection magic, making it hard to break any one of them.
Is the protective working setup with countermeasures in case someone is trying to mess with them? If the protective workings are set up with counter measures, those counter measure will be deployed when you try to take the protective workings apart. Counter measures are developed when a person has thoroughly tested out their own defenses and knows where the weaknesses or simply wants to have counter measures on hand, just in case. Usually counter measures are offensive, but set up as a tit for tat kind of mechanism. You break a ward or protection and this happens in response. In such a case you’ll want to take a measured and cautious approach.
Are there any other vectors or means of getting past the protective working? Sometimes the limitations of a working can best be discovered by what the working won’t protect against. If you can find a way to bypass the protection by using its limits against it, then that can be a way to get around the protection. For example, instead of attacking a protection working head on, why not find a way to implant your attack from within the protection. I once had someone try that very tactic with me by sending me a “gift.” It initially worked, but I became suspicious and realized that the gift was anything but. I purified it and then got rid of it and learned my lesson: look for the indirect attack as well as the direct attack.
I haven’t written this post to encourage you to go around messing with other people’s protection workings, but rather to get you to think about your own protective magic workings and also to recognize the thought process that can go into breaking into a protective magic working. Understanding that thought process can help you get creative with your own protective magics, and on occasion can also help you deal with situations where you need to take action.
How to review your own protective working
The five questions above can be used as a structured review of a working you created. Start by describing the design as it exists now, rather than as you remember intending it. List the subject of the protection, the anchor or medium, any repeated practice, and the role of each layer. The purpose is to make assumptions visible before changing anything.
Separate the anchor from the intention
First identify what the physical embodiment contributes. It might mark a boundary, provide a focus, or serve as the material connected with the working. Then ask whether the intention depends on the anchor remaining in a particular place or condition. Those are different questions: describing an object is not the same as explaining its role.
Review ordinary changes too. Has the object been moved? Is the room used differently? Has a threshold, workspace, or practice area changed? An identifiable change is a useful starting point for review because it gives you something specific to examine. It does not require treating every unexpected feeling as evidence that someone has interfered.
Make reinforcement a defined practice
If ongoing attention is part of the design, describe what that attention involves. Returning to the intention, repeating a chosen exercise, and reviewing the anchor are not necessarily the same action. Decide which steps belong to your working and what each is supposed to contribute.
A maintenance process should be understandable enough to repeat consistently. If you change the purpose every time you return to the ward, write that down as a revision. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to distinguish maintaining the original working from gradually replacing it with something else.
Give every layer a separate role
Layering is most useful to examine when you can explain how one part differs from another. Make a short list of the layers and their purposes. Then note any shared dependencies: the same physical object, the same location, or the same maintenance step.
For instance, two protective actions attached to one object may still share the practical problem of that object being moved. The question is whether the layers differ in the way you intended, or whether they repeat the same assumption in different forms.
Review the purpose of a response
Countermeasures are one feature of some protective workings. In reviewing your own design, be clear about whether a response is part of it at all. If it is, describe the condition it is meant to respond to and how that relates to the scope of the working.
A response should not be an unexplained addition to a design you otherwise understand. When its role is unclear, return to the intention and reconsider the design before adding more layers. A simpler working whose parts you can explain gives you a clearer basis for reflection than a complicated one you cannot describe.
Name what the working does not address
No statement of intention becomes clearer by expanding it indefinitely. Write down the boundaries of the working: its subject, its intended use, and the circumstances outside its scope. If you discover a new concern, decide whether it belongs within this design or is a separate question.
This is especially useful when the use of a space changes. A working associated with a particular practice may need review when the same place takes on a different role. The first question is whether the original intention still fits, rather than whether more elaborate protection should be added automatically.
A hypothetical review of a room ward
Imagine a practitioner who has established a ward for a room used for magical work. This hypothetical example illustrates the review process. The practitioner has one physical anchor, a reinforcement routine, and two layers with different stated purposes.
The room is later rearranged. The practitioner reviews the five questions and notices that both layers depend on the same anchor, which now sits in a different location. The reinforcement routine has also become irregular because the room is being used less often.
There are several distinct questions here. Does the anchor's new location still fit the design? Are the layers performing different roles in the practitioner's conception, or simply duplicating each other? Does the maintenance routine match the current use of the room? Combining all three into a vague impression that the ward is weaker would make the next decision less clear.
A deliberate revision could address one question at a time. The practitioner records the current arrangement, revisits the intention, and chooses a maintenance routine that fits the way the room is now used. If another layer is later added, its purpose and dependencies are recorded separately. That creates a readable history of decisions rather than a series of unrecorded additions.
Keep a useful record of the working
A practice journal is most useful when it separates actions, observations, and interpretations. “The anchor was moved” describes a known change. “The room felt different during practice” records an impression. “The movement affected the working” is an interpretation that you may want to revisit. Keeping these separate prevents one kind of statement from silently becoming another.
A compact entry can contain the date, the original purpose, any known change, what you actually did, and a question for the next review. You do not need to record every possible influence. Choose details that help you understand the working and your decisions about it.
The library entry on recording insights and taking action offers a related point of departure. Reflection becomes more useful when it leads to a clear next step: retain the design, clarify its purpose, revise one element, or decide that a different working is needed.
This kind of record supports disciplined personal reflection. It helps you see what changed and makes your own reasoning easier to examine.
Common questions about wards and protective magic
Can a ward be examined without being physically present?
The opening question includes distance, but there is no single remote procedure described here. Its main contribution is a set of design questions. You can review your own recorded intention and known dependencies from elsewhere, while recognizing what you cannot directly inspect about a physical anchor or location.
Does adding more layers always improve a working?
The discussion describes layers covering different weaknesses. That is not the same as assuming that every additional action makes a design better. Identify each layer's purpose, its dependencies, and its maintenance needs. If those are unclear, clarify them before expanding the design.
How do I decide when to revisit a ward?
Use both a chosen maintenance routine and known changes as prompts. A moved anchor, a different use of the space, or a revised intention can all justify a review. Choose a timetable that fits your practice and the particular working.
Where should a beginner start?
Start with a specific purpose and a design you can describe. Read the magical ward reference guide for the foundations, then use the five questions here to examine how the parts fit together. The aim is thoughtful practice, not complexity for its own sake.
My latest book, The Magic of Art, is now available in print and e-book. In this book I share how to apply the mediums of art to your magical practice to help you achieve consistent results.
Best of all, you don't need to be an artist at a gallery. you just need to be willing to pick up a paint brush, sculpting clay, or scissors and glue (or whatever you want to work with) and start creating art magic workings.
In this book you'll learn my techniques for using art to create evocation portals, practical magic workings, and even magical tools that you can draw upon whenever you need them.
This book also features essays by other art magicians, who share with you their own approach to art magic and how it has helped them with their magical practice.
I wanted to share an example of a long running magical working I’m doing and how its shaping my life. I think its a good example that illustrates the value of long term workings and shows how they can proactively enhance and improve your life.
The working is the Sphere of Art, which I first learned about a few years ago, from R. J. Stewart. I began working with the Sphere actively when I started memorizing the chants in the fall of 2017. I chose to memorize the chants because I felt it would help me integrate the sphere into my memory, and consequently embody it. This is also the practice recommended by R.J. Memorizing the chants also served to introduce me to the archangels associated with each chant. This allowed me to get to know them further and paved the way for the actual work of the sphere. When you memorize the chants you condition your mind, body, and spirit to become open to the sphere and how it will interact with you.
5-24-2019 Yesterday I started on the next phase of my work with the sphere of art. This is work I’m developing on my own, independent of what R.J. Stewart has already shared. This month I’m working with the archangel Sandalaphon and the planetary/underworld energy of the Earth. I’ve decided that this will help me build up the correspondences further as well as refine the sphere of art further, in terms of how it can be worked with.
5-26-2019 When I do my meditations with Sandalaphon, I’m using the elevated alchemical materials for Carbon, which represents Earth/underworld. I’m actually thinking of Malkuth as the gateway to the underworld, which might seem odd, until you consider that is where the seeds, minerals, etc are buried, where life begins and in one sense the underworld is as much a part of that process as anything else.
