What does minimal magic mean?

Recently I was asked what my philosophy of minimal magic is, and how it works in the practice of magic. My philosophy behind minimal magic is informed by an essay written by William S. Burroughs, called Do Easy, where he discussed taking the path of least resistance. He applies this approach to life in general, and its one that can be very useful under the right circumstances. In my process of magic taking the path of least resistance means that you use the resources already available to you and that you only use what is needed.

In magic, I apply the practice of minimal magic to a given magical working by using a few principles that embody the practice of do easy. You can apply these principles to your magical work and you’ll discover that they enhance the results you get.

Principle 1: Magic works best on the basis of understanding

One of the occasional pieces of advice I see shared in the occult is that you don’t need to know how magic works. Just do it (with a swoosh) and go on your merry way. The problem I have with this advice is that it diminishes the curiosity of the magician about what’s happening and why its happening. It also leaves a lot of what’s happening in the air.

When you understand what you are doing and why, it increases your overall understanding of what is happening magically and how the magic is interfacing with the world and you. This contributes to the efficacy of the magic and also allows you to let go and let the magic happen, instead of wondering if its working.

Principle 2: Every action should serve a purpose that contributes to your understanding

If you don’t understand why you are doing a given action, then you don’t know how that action is contributing to the magic. If I tell you to do an action, but I don’t explain the purpose of the action, it leaves room for doubt and that doubt works against the magic you are weaving. When you understand an action, then you are able to fully buy into the magical work and actions you are doing. You trust the process.

Principle 3: Your understanding of the working creates the causality of the result

Your understanding of what you are doing and why you are doing it creates buy in and momentum for your magical work. It creates the internal energy that helps move the magic out into the universe. When you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, you connect the magical working to the causality of the universe and this creates additional power for the magic.

Principle 4: The Result becomes your identity through the magical work you do

The Result is a change in identity. Too often we treat results as separate from ourselves, because there is an external manifestation. But the result is an entanglement of the external manifestation and your inner sense of being. Your sense of being contributes to the manifestation of the result. If some part of you is resistant to the result you will undermine the result, because that part of you doesn’t align with the result. Understanding what we are doing in magic, why we are doing it and what the overall purpose of your actions is significantly contributes to the success of your magic. You are creating internal acceptance of what you are doing and matching it up to the change of identity that your magic creates.

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Circularity, somatic adaptation and spacetime magic

In my martial arts and qi gong practice there is a specific concept I’ve been learning more about and applying to my magical practice. This concept is circularity. Circularity, in this context, refers to how the body moves in a circular way. For example, the arms have a circular movement. So do legs. The majority of movements in the martial art practice I’m learning have elements of circularity as well.

I recently starting learning a specific practice of circularity that draws on Nei Gong or inner work. this practice is called circling hands and on the surface it seems simple. You are circling your hands and arms parallel to each other while causing the rest of your body also engage in a vertical circling practice. When doing this practice I feel the energetic channels of my body are activated. This activation serves to release the tension on all levels of my being, while also helping to refine and amplify the natural energetic currents.

As I’ve been learning this practice, I’ve been applying it to space/time magic. The circle is another form of the spiral, seemingly compressed into a singular line, but with the circularity practice I can spiral the qi. the spiraling of the Qi activates the energetic principles of the body, as well as the physical somatic resources. These can be applied to the benefit of our health, but they can also be applied for magical purpose, and in my specific cases, I’ve been using the spiraling of the Qi to access and work the different probabilities of time that are available to all of us.

When I spiral the Qi I can use it to activate my awareness across space and time. I can send myself back to a younger age or move forward to a possible future. The circling spiral opens the possibilities of past and future because I am present in all of those moments. What has limited me is the everyday linear sense of time that functions as a way of making sense of space and time in the physicality of our bodies. When we unlock our bodies through circularity we can embrace the non-linear sequence of the spiral of time and find ourselves in multiple moments of time.

When you’ve done a given action multiple times that action becomes a point of reference that allows you to access the action in a given moment and through that action open the door to another time and another space. Circularity practice can take this to another level because we are engaged in somatic circular actions everyday.

Try this exercise. Stand up and rotate one of your arms in a circle. Do this a few times. Then do the same action with the other arm. After doing this action, do it again, but this time do it with the intention to move across time. There are moments, not conscious ones perse, but moments nonetheless when you’ve been engaged in some rotation movement. Allow your body to guide you across its history of awareness. It knows the ways through the doors of time and it can lead you to another place, another space where you can then use that rotation to bring your forward, back, or sideways through time.

Your body knows time through and through. Everyday we engage in activities that we have done again and again and again. Let those activities lead the way and you’ll discover another way to access the hidden opportunities that await you in the potentiality of time.

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Elemental Magic and Energy Work

Is there a connection between elemental magic and energy work?

There definitely is and I share what that connection is and why you would want to work with it. I also explore what the broader definition of elemental magic is and how energy work can be applied to that definition.

How to dissolve emotions with energy

I share how you can use qi gong to help you dissolve and release emotions so that you can express them authentically or let them go. I also share how this work can enhance your magical work and help you get better results.

How to Turn Tower Time into Opportunity

I discuss how to turn your tower time into opportunities for growth and change. While it can be hard to go through a tower time it is also an invitation to change. I discuss how to use tower time to uncover opportunities for change and growth in your life.

How I'm working with Saturn Retrograde in my magical practice and life

Photo by Tara Winstead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/saturn-spelled-out-in-scrabble-tiles-7666410/

Saturn recently went retrograde and will be retrograde through November. When a planet goes retrograde it essentially seems to be moving backwards. From an astrological perspective, a planet going retrograde is an opportunity to work with the particular influence of that planet in a different way. For example, when Mercury goes retrograde, it provides an opportunity to work with your communication and recognize where your communication skills need work. In the case of Saturn retrograde, the opportunity is around examining what you have built in your life with your career, home, relationships and the boundaries you have around each of these areas of your life.

I’ve entered into this Saturn Retrograde with a sense of quiet awareness as I’ve turned inward to examine my current life circumstances. I am getting ready to make some major transitions in the next couple of months and I’m doing a lot of existential kink work around the patterns I’ve observed in my life. While Saturn is known for boundaries, Saturn is also about separating the chaff from the wheat and in the process culling out what isn’t working. One specific example I’ll use is around my career/work and what it means to be of service.

In the last 6 or so years I have worked at jobs I haven’t found to be very fulfilling. They have allowed me to pay the bills, but what they have also emphasized is how much I settle for doing work I don’t like doing because it feels like that’s the work I can find. As a magician, this doesn’t strike me as a very magical attitude…instead it is egoic, wrapped up in a sense of fatalism around the work I am doing. I have been doing a lot of work in the last couple of years to challenge this perspective, and most recently the EK work has helped me see how an unconscious part of myself has continually gotten off on being unhappy because of how it has validated deeper wounds. As I’ve examined those wounds and done the healing work on them, I’m finding that the power of this pattern is falling away.

Saturn retrograde, as a period of reflection is allowing me to continue this process of transformation. I am embracing an opportunity to let go of the fears and insecurities which have acted as boundaries and limitations that have held me back from stepping into my truest self. I am recognizing that these fears and insecurities have held me back because I’ve clung to them as a form of justification for my circumstances. I no longer can hold onto them because they don’t serve me in any way that is useful.

I am using Saturn retrograde to help me dismantle the boundaries and limits I have raised in my life from a place of fear and a drive for safety. I am realizing that clinging to illusory safety hurts me and the people in my life because it keeps me small and holds me back from living and speaking my truth. I have done it in certain areas of my life and the cost is significant. It also hasn’t kept me safe. Saturn retrograde, as an astrological current gives me a chance to take a specific momentum to this work and use it to propel me toward the deeper changes that need to happen if I’m going to live my authentic life.

How is Saturn retrograde showing up in your life?

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How to be Present with Tower Time

I share how to recognize Tower Time in your life and describe how the Tower can actually be a really useful and powerful card and energy that shouldn’t be avoided. Instead we can welcome it and use it to help us transform our lives and turn the tower energy into momentum that works in our favor.

Saturn Retrograde Reflections

I share some reflections on Saturn Retrograde and what you can be doing right now with this particular cycle. I also discuss the importance of reflecting, evaluating and assessing your life, career, etc, when dealing with Saturnic influences.

The Rules we live by define the magic we work

I’ve been taking a number of classes lately around men’s work and self-development and in one of the classes, there’s an exercise where you define your code of conduct, as a part of a process of learning how to master yourself and become the man you want to be. I think this exercise is applicable to anyone regardless of how they identify as a gender. What’s fascinating to me however is how the rules a person lives by (or lack thereof) define the magic that the person works, and indeed how the person surveys and experiences the world.

I’ve also been reading a book about this same topic where the author defines some rules to live by, so as to bring order to a chaotic life. The rules he shares are insightful because they aren’t moral rules so much as they are practical rules that define the way people tend to organize themselves, both within themselves, with other people, and with the environment they live in. This illustrates to me that there are chosen rules, i.e. rules where a person says I’m agreeing to live this way because this rule or value resonates with my deepest identity and I want to consciously show up with that way in my live. And then there are systemic rules, rules set by society at large that may favor some people over others and encourage a conformity in order to potentially benefit from your position. And finally there are environmental rules, which are rules that operate outside of human consciousness or control. These are rules all of us deal with and they aren’t easily altered, if they can be altered at all.

A life that operates without rules is a chaotic life, a situational response that always tries to adapt to the moment, but creates little, if any, stability. I have lived that life and I have found it to be an unsatisfying life, because there is little certainty or consistency that comes with it. Over time, with lots of effort, I’ve reoriented my life toward living a more orderly life. And even now I am continuing that process because I find that the more I define my life by rules that make sense and organize my way of being, the more focused I get with creating the life I want to live.

The rules we live by define the magic we work. As you get more and more clear around your life and the rules you live by, it shapes your outlook on your life and it shapes the magic you work. It creates the container in which your life operates, and the expectations you have around that container. Some of those rules are consciously chosen, and many of them are unconsciously chosen. The ones that are unconsciously chosen usually arrive from a combination of ancestral and familial patterns of behavior and societal norms and values. The rules that we consciously choose are ones we pick for ourselves based on an awareness around something we want to change in our lives or a way we want to behave in the world, in order to achieve specific results.

Magic is one process that can make us aware of the rules we’ve unconsciously chosen because it brings us up close and personal with our desires and it allows us to see what’s getting in the way of accomplishing those desires. Many people use magic to bend the rules of reality or find some angle that gets them what they want, but in that process they necessarily ought to take a moment to know themselves and discover what is it within them that is calling for that desire.

Sometimes what we discover is that we create rules for ourselves based around our shadows. For example, if you find yourself in a consistent situation where you are continually getting rejected by people around you, there is likely something within you that craves something about that rejection. You might find that statement odd, but consider that the rejection is a symptom of a homeostatic state of being which is comfortably uncomfortable. You know that state of being. It is familiar to you and there are no surprises to it. It ends with you being rejected, but at least you know to expect that. The problem is that leads you to settling for less.

You can only break this rule when you figure out what you getting from it that satisfies you. And you are getting some kind of satisfaction, even if it is the satisfaction of feeling comfortable with the situation, even though you don’t like it. It becomes a rule of your life, until you break it, and make a new rule, a consciously chosen rule, that you live by. Of course there can also be subtle variations of the former rule and what you’ll need to do is a deep dive into these variations and iron them out and in the process change your relationship with yourself and the agreements you’re making with the universe.

The rules we live be define the magic we work and the results we get. What are the rules you are living by? What are the results you’re getting. If you’re not satisfied with them, it might be time to do some deep work around transforming them so you can also change your life.

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How to build up and release

Properly executed magic is more than just working a spell…it is a cultivation of energy and attention and other aspects so that you build them up, and then when the time and space is right you release. I share how to incorporate building up and releasing into your magical work in order to optimize your magical workings.

Inner Work leads to better results

I discuss the relationship between inner work and result. When we do inner work it helps us get better results because we know ourselves and we are living a life by design and by specific values. Inner work helps us figure out who we are and what we want and how to manifest it.

Life Design Magic

A lot of what I see made available around magic is focused on short term results, but my own approach is focused around life design. Today I share some thoughts on what life design magic looks and how you can apply it to your life.

What's underneath the Squiggle: An Exploration of Sigils

picture copyright Taylor Ellwood 2024

Lately I’ve been finding myself fascinating by sigils and symbols again. Whether you’re conjuring a spirit with a sigil or creating a custom sigil for the purposes of manifesting a desire into reality, what makes sigils so versatile is how they can symbolically represent and mediate specific transmissions of information. Yet what’s underneath the sigil?

What’s underneath is something the sigil can’t quite describe or represent. The sigil presents a face to the world that allows us to make sense of the intangible and give it a form we can relate to. It allows us to pack ideas and concepts into the shape and recall them and it allows us to send them out into the world, to create a path of manifestation that turns essence into form and imagination into reality.

Yet a sigil is more even than that. It is a structure that creates a container to describe the essence that is being worked with, whether that’s a spirit’s essence or the essence of a desired result. The sigil becomes a key to unlock that essence and also learn the essence and make it part of your being. The symbol internalizes the essence within you and it becomes manifest through you.

The reason sigils work so well is become of how they work through us. The sigils embed themselves in our consciousness which in turn is acted upon through our actions. It’s a chain of manifestation that acts on the path of least resistance. The sigils, as symbols, are accepted more readily by our consciousness and seed the mind with possibility which then becomes reality, by the convergence of the outer variables of the world and the inner actions of the person.

The sigil is a story as well. We can get to the heart of the story by meditating on the sigil. If the sigil is for the spirit then it becomes path to the spirit that allows the practitioner to interface with the story. If the sigil is for a possibility it speaks to all the variables of the possibility. What’s underneath the squiggle? A universe waiting to be explored.

The commonalities of magick

Different magical traditions and systems and practices are actually more alike than different and why a lot of times the differences have more to do with our own subjective opinions than the actual substance of what is practiced. I also share why its continually important to learn other systems and traditions of magic, even when your practice is mainly oriented around one system or tradition.

Sentence stems as a form of writing magic

I recently came across a new writing technique that I am using as part of my personal development work, but I’ve also found it has some interesting applications for writing magic. This technique is called sentence stems and it was developed by psychologist Nathaniel Branden. The way the sentence stem works is you are provided a partial sentence and then you fill the rest of the sentence out with your own answer. Below are a few examples of sentence stems:

If I were to take 5% more responsibility I would…

Taking care of myself means…

I am becoming aware of…

The sentence stems provide the core of the sentence, but require you to finish the sentence. Ideally you write out a few sentence stems around an area of your life that you want to work on and then you fill them out each day. A month is typically suggested for working with the same sentence stems. This is a repetitive process, but the benefit of the repetition is you get to see how your answers evolve. A couple of examples of filled out sentence stems would be:

Taking care of myself means I am exercising each day, eating nutritious food and getting the sleep my body needs.

If I were to take 5% more responsibility I would write enough content to be scheduled out for several weeks.

I’ve been applying sentence stems to my magical practice as well. I use a sentence stem as a foundation and then complete the sentence. I use it for several purposes. The first purpose is to refine my awareness around the specific result I want to manifest. By continually writing out the sentence stem over a period of time I get the opportunity to drill into the result that I want to manifest and consider the different iterations of that expression. This process helps me develop a precise awareness of what I want, and allows for more effective targeting of magic.

The other purpose I use it for is sigil generation. After I write out the sentence stem multiple times, I can pick out the best expressed statement of desire and then use the classic method of sigil development, where you get rid of repeating letters first, and then vowels or consonants, if you still have too many letters. The sentence stems make it easy to come up with different statements of desire that you can turn into sigils around whatever you want to work on magically.

I’m also experimenting with using sentence stems in my writing magic practices, with the idea being to pick a specific them and use the sentence stem in my journaling to write that theme into reality. I’ve done some similar journaling practices in the past, but what makes the sentence stem different is the deliberate repetition. The repetition conditions your consciousness to focus more on the theme you are writing about and this in turn allows you to be receptive to how that theme shows up in your life.

Sentence stems is another example of how a writing practice can be taken and applied to magical work in order to get consistent results. It’s also an excellent method for doing internal work on yourself and having an objective record of the work.

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The Role of Daemons in Necromantic practices

I’m currently doing a lot of research and magical work with daemonic spirits and one of the themes I’ve consistently noticed is how daemonic spirits are linked with necromantic practices. S. Connolly notably has several books exclusively devoted to necromantic work with daemonic spirits, which are insightful and helpful, in terms of introducing magicians to the spirits who can be helpful for necromantic workings. I also recently found an intriguing connection in Clavis Goetica by Frater Acher and Jose Sabogal, where they too note the role of underworld spirits as facilitators and allies for connecting with the spirits of the dead.

In my own spiritual practices I’ve done some necromantic practices over the years. When I first started out, I found that working with a spirit emissary was very helpful. My initial work was with Euronymous who’s continued to be an ally I work with for purposes of necromantic magic. I’ve also worked with Saturn, Bifrons, and several other spirits since then and each time what I’ve observed is that the spirits play an essential role as intermediaries in necromantic practices.

My definition of necromantic practices are practices done to communicate with ancestral spirits, the spirits of the dead in general, but also ritual done to assist a person in the process of dying, so they can pass over. My practices are done from a place of reverence and respect, both in terms of working with the daemonic spirits and the spirits of the dead.

My early workings with the necromantic practices focused around near death experiences. Euronymous played an important role in this work, helping to create a state of near death I could work with and apply to myself, which I ended up utilizing in several workings I’ve shared in Space/Time Magic. My later workings have focused more on ancestor work, specifically around letting my ancestors help me and inviting them to help me in my life, and that work has been facilitated with Saturn’s help.

It strikes me that one of the most important skills that a given spirit can bring to a working is how the spirit can play a significant role in facilitating connection with other types of spirits. I think this faculty is sometimes glossed over, but its a significant feature of spirit work and one that can be very useful, especially if you want to create a respectful relationship with all of the spirits involved. In general, this theme of spirit facilitation can be found with nature spirits, and connecting to the land through them, or connecting with underworld spirits or angelic spirits and it is an aspect that is almost taken for granted because it plays an implicit part of the work.

I’ve noted similar facilitation in my work with the Djinn. Initially an archangel is called on to mediate and direct the connection with Djinn. The grimoire traditions apply a similar approach in working with daemonic spirits by calling on angels initially. In some cases the facilitations takes a top down approach, which I don’t recommend, but I do think its important to explore and understand how spirits can be intermediaries for connecting with other spirits, especially on the initial contact with new spirits. You might, as an exercise, track your own experiences with spirits and see if this holds true.

Even now, with my own necromantic practices I still find it to helpful to connect with a spirit that facilitates contact with the dead. It enhances the overall connection because the daemonic spirit naturally has an affinity toward what death represents which is a breakdown and transmutation of life into something else. This isn’t to say a person couldn’t do necromantic practices on their own, because its certainly possible, but in my own experience this work is enhanced by the facilitation of the process with other spirits.

Constructing a personal cosmological system of magic

I discuss how to create a personal cosmological system of magic and what the benefits of creating such a system are, as well as how it can transform your overall approach to magical work. I share an example of a system I’m currently refining and developing and the medium I’m using to represent the cosmological system.

The ebbs and flows of magical activity

Should you do magic all the time? Is it a good idea to take a break with magical activity? Is there such a thing as too much magic? I answer these questions as I discuss the importance of the ebbs and flows of magical activity in your life, and consider what makes a magical life.

The Eros of movement

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Eros, aside of being considered a Greek Deity, is also a concept that shows up a lot in multiple spiritual contexts. The usual context is around sex, because Eros as a force is classically associated with Eros as a god of love, but if you dig into that classical context you can discover there are different myths and that Eros is also associated with movement, as an overall force. Eros is an erotic force, but that eroticism goes beyond sex into other dimensions of being and identity that are just as relevant as sex can be to the experience of Eros.

The experience of Eros is the experience of life. Movement is one of the ways we encounter and experience Eros. The most obvious form of Eros is found through sex and its not surprising that its emphasized so much because sex can be a very powerful and life affirming experience (though it also contains the seed of death within it). The one problem with sex is that it can also be a distraction from the experience of Eros. What I mean by that statement is that the pleasure aspect of sex can override the experience of movement and life and become the most important experience. While pleasure is good to experience, it doesn’t always create the desired intimacy that two or more people may want to experience with each other. Pleasure can be an essential part of Eros, but an embodied expression of Eros doesn’t focus on one sensation over others.

For example, if you practice sex magic, you know that if you fixate on pleasure it actually takes you away from the sex magic you are working. Sex magic isn’t focused on pleasure. It may use pleasure as a source of energy for the magic, but it never lets the pleasure become the reason to do magic. When pleasure becomes the reason to do the magic, the Eros leaves the experience and the magic isn’t as powerful as a result.

Eros as it is related to movement in general is a practice that brings you into intimate awareness with yourself and the environment. For example, when I practice Kung Fu or Qi Gong and I am connected to Eros I feel each sensation as I move and I am feeling it on ever level of my being. I am also connecting with how those movements bring me into awareness with the environment around me as well as whatever is present within that environment. Eros as movement allows us to connect to the overall embodied experience of reality…our bodies, but also the body of the universe and for that matter all the other life, in all the other forms that exist.

Meditating on this awareness of Eros can open you to how movement acts as an elemental force in your live. Movement is fundamental to Eros. Eros is the underlying power of movement. Eros is the first movement of the universe and so Eros goes hand in hand with movement and may even be thought of as movement, in and of itself. The eroticism of movement isn’t inherently sexual, so much as it is connective and that is true understanding of eroticism in general. Eros is a connecting principle and that connection occurs in many different ways.

A practical example of this…go for a walk and spend that walk paying attention to how the act of walking connects you to your environment and to whatever is in the environment. Pay close attention to your movement as well as to the sensual experience you have as you open your senses to the environment. Part of what you are experiencing is Eros at work and when you apply that understanding to your walk, it will change the way you experience yourself and the world as well as movement itself.

Working with Eros is a discipline as well. It requires discipline to connect with movement and not get caught up in distraction. The distraction is the choice to focus on sensation to the exclusion of the work. When we work with Eros we accept the sensation as part of the experience but we stay with the movement of Eros and allow it to guide us deeper into the mystery of the connection instead of letting the sensation take us in ourselves and out of connection with everything else. It is the difference between senseless hedonism and mindful awareness.

Explore related entries in the Library

• Movement Anchor for Tower Work
• Aphrodite

Interpersonal Growth and the Magical Life

Your interpersonal growth goes hand in hand with your magical practice. If you aren’t growing and changing as a person then your magical practice will go stale. I share why you can’t settle for less in your life if you truly want to live a magical life.