More On The Magic & Witchcraft 101 Course

Image from Pixabay

Since I’ve been asked a few times, I wanted to talk a bit more about my Magic & Witchcraft 101 class coming up and who it’s good for.

The internet is a double edged sword. There’s so much info out there and it’s really challenging to know where to start or what to even do. This class is for people who are getting started on their journey but are completely confused on what’s a good source of info, what they want to do, what traditions & practices are out there, and are completely overloaded & overwhelmed with info. My goal is to break it down.

It doesn’t help that there’s a lot of misinformation out there. Anyone with a platform is assumed to be knowledgeable and an expert. And there’s so much out there to learn and do. Where to start? If you’re in that boat or know someone who is, you may benefit from my class.

The class breaks down the history of well known Western traditions, defines various terms, and tackles common misconceptions. I even discuss cultural appropriation vs appreciation as well as what to look and watch out for in groups, traditions, and teachers.

Magic & Witchcraft 101 starts Nov 21st, deadline to register is Nov 14th.

More info here: https://riverenodian.com/classes

“Tainted Greek (polytheism)” – An Ode To the Lack of a Universal Hellenism

“Tainted Greek (polytheism)”
AKA Ode to The Long-time Suffering of People Who Want “One Proper Hellenism”

(With apologies to Soft Cell!)

—-

Sometimes I feel I’ve got to
Hellenesplain I’ve got to
Moan and complain about the lack of universality
The gods we share
Don’t have the same customs everywhere
And I’ve lost my Walter Burkert book
Want proper piety and purity but neither wherever I look

Once I came to this practice (I practice)
Now I’m out of practice
This tainted Greek you’ve given
I give you all a Hellenist could give you
Take my miasma and that’s not nearly all
Oh tainted Greek
Tainted Greek

Now I know I’ve got to
Achieve arete, I’ve got to
Explain Hekate
I really want my Hellenic purity
To make rituals right
You need to go on the internet and fight
Should mind my business, practice, and pray
But I’m sorry I don’t pray that way

Once I found my muse (I found)
Now I’m not amused
This tainted Greek you’ve given
I give you all a Hellenist could give you
Take my hubris and that’s not nearly all
Oh tainted Greek
Tainted Greek

Don’t talk to me about history
I cannot stand the lack of purity
I want you even though you don’t exist
Now I’ve got to actually research the stuff I missed
Tainted Greek, tainted Greek
Tainted Greek, tainted Greek
Libate maybe, tainted Greek
Off’rings maybe, tainted Greek
Tainted Greek
Tainted Greek
Tainted Greek

Respecting your magical neighbors vs banishing

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Part of being a magician and/or a witch is being in harmony with your environment and local spirits. You may not always chat with or say hello to your neighbor, but it’s not nice to blare music at 12:30am and if you’re going to have a loud and widely attended party, it’s good to warn them in case they want to be elsewhere. And then there are the sorts whom you do not NOT want to invite because of the fallout which will inevitably occur. So what’s an occultist to do under similar conditions in their practice?

My roots as a pagan and my very first spiritual community was with ADF, a pan-Indo European Druidic organization. It was here that I learned the concept of giving offerings to the “outsiders.” These outsiders could include anything from trickster deities like Eris (who already has a tale about her and what happened when she wasn’t invited to a party) to the fae, whom I think pretty much everyone knows you REALLY don’t want to piss off. By doing this, it was making it clear that these weren’t spirits to be banished or cast out but instead “Hey, we’re doing a private ritual and intend no disrespect, but here’s a token of respect so you can party over here instead”.

Nineveh Shadrach details similar practices with the Djinn in his books such as Magic That Works in which the idea is that you warn the neighboring Djinn that you’re about to do a ritual so if they don’t want to be there to get the hell out. Courtesy again in this case matters, as the Djinn and the fae have similar traditions in dealing with them and pissing either off isn’t something you want to do.

I sometimes wonder how much of “imp” or “trickster” activity in one’s home is instead a manifestation of this: a spirit feels forgotten, left out, wanting attention. Maybe they outright feel snubbed or slighted for whatever reason. What’s an attention-seeking daemon to do? Why, hide your things, of course! If you’re finding that a lot of weird activity is happening within your home or surroundings at any given point in time, it might be helpful to do a divination to determine the identity or type of spirit or just go for broke and leave an offering for the local spirits in whatever form or forms they may be in.

It’s good to save the outright banishing rituals for entities of malicious or evil intent, and cases like this where they just simply happen to live near you instead give them courtesy and respect. Be kind to your neighbors, you never know when they too might decide to have a party or otherwise remember you. Allies are just as good to have as are friends.

 

This blog post is part of a blog hop. Feel free to check out the rest of the posts in this theme when you’re done with this one. 🙂

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On being magic

This was a blog post I was going to make before the total proverbial shit hit the fan and I had to make a post about that instead. What I am about to discuss is a case of “no one’s wrong, it’s just a matter of different perspectives and words getting in the way of understanding.” It’s a kinder, gentler post, but no less important. So without further adieu….

I posted a link to a blog a week or so ago entitled Magick, Money, & Bullshit: Do the F**cking Work. Literally my only complaint about this post was the need to censor an excellent word such as “fucking”, but I digress. One of the best parts about it was this section here: “Magick isn’t something you do. Magick is something YOU ARE. How you think. How you live. How you love. How you behave all affect any magickal working you perform.” 

When I posted this to Facebook, I was surprised at a few who didn’t seem to understand the spirit of what was being said, namely “Magick isn’t something you do. Magick is something you are.” One felt the need to point out that magic(k) is a practice while another voiced the idea that once you hit Adepthood, magical practice is something you do less often out of pursuit of other things. Neither of these statements are “wrong”; they just weren’t the point that I felt the deep need to express and celebrate. I also fell short of being able to explain it on Facebook, as the medium really isn’t sufficient for this sort of discussion. Expressing why magic is who you are and not just what you do requires more than it provides.

Magic is a mindset. It’s a mentality. There is no separation between your “mundane” life and your “magical” life, and when you live out your life in a way that expresses that, all of the barriers towards manifestation come tumbling down. It’s not just something you do when you’re lighting that candle, casting that spell, doing that working, this invocation, robing up and entering your temple room, or spending all of your hard earned money over at Wolf & Goat.

Yes Virginia, you ARE magic. This is why it’s so important to take care of yourself, get your physical needs met, and don’t neglect any part of your life. If there’s an area where you’re struggling to manifest something take a good look at why. Maybe it’s your approach, maybe it’s something you haven’t quite digested yet, or maybe you’ve been treating it as something you’re not yet worthy of. Maybe you’ve only done it when you desperately needed to as opposed to making it something you do on a regular basis, like brushing your teeth. Perhaps it’s a fear of failure o the belief that magic is somehow limited to certain things. It’s time to put all of that away and set aside the notion that you’re not deserving. Yes, you ARE worthy. You don’t need to feel guilty or make excuses as to why you can’t do money/job/career magic or any sort of magic; you are the vessel from which the power of the gods flow. You are a magical being, and with every step you take to perfect both the person whom you are and what you put forth into the world, you can make the world around you more in touch with the very essence of magic.

I’ve always found that magicians who quote the statement “As above, so below” and yet draw lines in the sand on their spiritual/personal and “mundane” lives to be demonstrating a sad cognitive dissonance. Repeat after me: it’s all the same. There are no lines, no boundaries, no differences between them. You cannot keep your altars tidy and not extend that into the rest of your life, and while doing one can help to improve the other it’s not enough. Take action, get it done.

One of my magical teachers once said to me that magic is about making a connection. And it’s true. We need to make connections between all of the bits of our lives, and if it’s the physical world we’re struggling with we cannot continue to divorce ourselves from it. Ultimately it’s about striving for what is termed in my faith as aretéexcellence in all things and living up to one’s full potential.

Don’t just do magic, be magic.

Sex, BDSM, magic, and the potential for abuse

I’m tackling this as a blog post because it needs to be said, someone needs to say it who does not identify as a male given the gendered nature of some of what has been said, and so it might as well be me. Given the subject matter I want to make a few disclaimers utterly crystal clear before I begin so that there is no misunderstanding:

  1. There is nothing wrong with sex in ritual, sex magic, or sexuality in magic and witchcraft–or sex, period.
  2. There is nothing wrong with BDSM providing all parties involved are consenting adults in ritual, magic, sex magic, or in general.
  3. I neither look down upon, judge, or condemn those who choose to do either #1 or #2, and it is utterly none of my business if you do or don’t.

A particular blog post has been making the rounds in the occult communities entitled Forging the body of a witch. While I agree with a number of points this post attempted to make, there are a few things in it which are decidedly problematic. I won’t get into the health points as they’ve been covered to death elsewhere, but I’d like to discuss one which was covered towards the end, namely that women need to submit in a ritual BDSM setting in order to have any power as a witch. To be fair Grey adds the disclaimer that “The kind of witchcraft (he) discuss(es) can be used as an excuse for abuse. For power over the aspirant rather than liberation. For sexual exploitation rather than liberation. That does not make the techniques anathema.”

No, it does not. But let me vehemently disagree on the following points:

  1. That women or people in general need to be sexual in order to be powerful beings, or in order to practice magic or witchcraft
  2. That women need to submit to anyone or be in “dungeons” in order to be initiated, be witches, and have any true magical power

The thing is this: you can add all of the disclaimers to the post that you want, but the implications are clear, and they are fairly disturbing. Of course sex can be abused. Of course BDSM can be done by people looking to abuse. Hells, I myself was raped by a “dom” and can speak volumes about that alone. But as always, I’m not saying that BDSM is abuse or that sex or sex magic is bad. What I am saying is that implying that they are expected, necessary, or required is bad, and does open the door wide open for abuse no matter what you may claim.

And do I really need to get into why a man suggesting a woman must submit, be sexual and submissive in order to fulfill his requirements of what he considers to be a witch is a serious problem? I’ll leave this comment here, no more need be said.

Then there’s the issue of sexuality. As someone who is on the asexual spectrum, I have no need nor desire to be sexual. Nor should anyone feel that it is required or a requirement of being a witch. Even if someone who identifies as pansexual was engaged in witchcraft or any sort of ritual or initiation, their consensual participation in such acts of sex or BDSM should not be assumed or required either. Having a ritual scourge, symbolic or otherwise is one thing, but what was described in this blog post was something else entirely. If people want to have such things in their rites, fine. Do we really need it? No. Can we do just fine without it? Yes. Am I still a witch if I don’t? Absolutely.

I had to deal recently within my own communities a few months back with a similar argument due to a very problematic situation which arose, and it became clear that there were people who felt that if you attended the ritual that you were open to being sexual and you were consenting to this. Had these ideas been clearly communicated and in advance, this would not have been a problem. The problem which arose was that no communication occurred, consent was just assumed. This presumptuous attitude which denies the opportunity to consent and consent knowingly needs to be discussed and at great length, and to ignore it is abuse.

Ultimately this is what makes Grey’s post problematic: the implication that we must all have sex magic and BDSM in our rites to be witches or otherwise have power. I don’t need to be beaten, tied up, or whipped in order to be a witch or have power. I don’t need to have sex or be sexual either, and I find it incredibly disturbing that this is even a subject for debate. It’s not just a matter of “safe spaces”; it’s a matter of not supporting what has been described elsewhere quite accurately as rape culture. Consent should never be required or assumed; it should be given freely, with perfect love and perfect trust.

Without that, your magic is in vain, and you have no right to call yourself a proper person let alone a witch.

So how DO you do magic, anyway?

In one of my most recent posts, I covered how magic is about creating connections between you and the force you’re invoking. And in all honesty that covers more or less some of the science and theory behind how to get this stuff to work, but it leaves one question:

But how do you DO magic? I mean, really?

At some point people may realize that it doesn’t matter what a book says or how you do a particular ritual, there’s some underlying actual juice that’s critical to making it all happen. And that all comes from the magician/witch. Otherwise you’re just blindly waving your hands in the air like you just don’t care, except that you most likely do. You really, genuinely care, your hands are in the air, but you can’t quite get that connection going. This could be you trying out divination, throwing out random cards from a tarot deck and reading a book on what they mean, and it’s still not happening. You can have the so-called right tools, be doing things during the correct astrological timing, but nothing’s jelling. Sure, there’s something to “faking it until you make it” but the reality is that unless you figure out how to flip that switch within you and get your shit flowing, it’s not going to.

Some may be reading this and concluding that maybe this “juice” can be learned, or maybe you’re just born with it–perhaps both. Others may say some have more talent in one arena that another–and that’s certainly the case. Not everyone was cut out to perform divination; some may find that their precognitive skills are nada. On the other hand you may be someone whose psychic skills are so keen they terrify you, but good luck doing anything more than accidentally making water goblets explode. Then there are those of us who are natural mediums, but that could be a whole other blog post entirely.

And here comes the potential controversy of this blog post: yes, I’m afraid it’s true, not everyone is cut out to be a magician or a witch. This shit is just plain and simple not for everyone, and merely imagining stuff in your head and going through hours of ritual isn’t necessarily going to work let alone have you actually doing magic. However, odds are very likely if you’ve been drawn to this stuff for some time now and SOME things have happened to you, you probably qualify and possess that necessary quality that allows you to make this stuff happen. It’s just a matter of figuring out what helps you to flip that switch and get everything flowing. Or maybe the switch is flipped but sometimes get stuck halfway, or on vs off, or the channels just need cleaning.

Some of us are very, very lucky and have found themselves doing stuff since their childhood or otherwise got involved relatively early enough in life. They are naturals, and maybe later in life–perhaps when they hit puberty–they started reading a few books and experimenting, and voila! Here they are today. And I say with absolutely no ego whatsoever that yes, I am one of those lucky people. There are drawbacks to being one of those sorts, however, and one of those drawbacks is figuring out how to teach people who want to either learn new skills or refine old ones precisely how to do it. I am hoping that by just talking about my own experiences I can help others make sense out of theirs, and provide them with insights on how to make it “click”. People like myself who have been doing this for a while can easily take how they do things for granted, and it can cripple not just their attempts at communicating it with others, but can make reconnecting a serious challenge if you’re forced out of it due to extreme stress or trauma. And sadly I have been there, done that, and it was terrible beyond any words I can use. But in the process of clawing my way out I learned a lot about how this stuff works for me.

I have found–at least for myself–that much of this stuff is subconscious. Some of the most amazing, fantastic stuff I’ve ever done was when I wasn’t very aware of what I was doing, if at all. I was spaced out, tipsy, not paying attention–in other words, in an altered state of consciousness. Figuring out how to harness that and get it in alignment with your will is half the battle. This is why some will say that yes, you need to learn how to meditate, you need to do personal development, perhaps learn self-hypnosis or NLP, and hells yeah you need to figure your shit out AND this shit called magic. In short, if you can figure out how to drop in and out of altered states at will and know your mind well enough to figure out the right “note” to hit that’s the same frequency as what you’re trying to accomplish, this will help you out a lot.

If this is something which you know you’re not good at, don’t worry–I know of a lot of longtime magicians and witches who struggle with this and find it difficult to get into the right state, easy to get jostled out of it, and find it that much harder to get back into. It’s something I have to learn to be mindful of when I do group ritual with folks as I found out that not everyone can dip in and out like I can out of so-called “ritual mindset” with ease, and I could potentially say or do something not ritual related that will jostle someone out of theirs. And if they can’t get back in as easily and as quickly as I can, I just screwed them up and threw them off track. Oops.  I had to learn this the hard way, by pissing off other people I was doing ritual with. 😀 If you’re entirely solitary, so much the better. But I’ve found doing magic with others to be a fascinating and educational experience in how others work and perceive things.

For starters, so much of magic and psychic work is figuring how you sense the world around you and what your primary or strongest senses are. Some people are more visual, others auditory, then there’s more of a sensory “feeling” experience. It may not even be a physical, bodily sensation but some other sense of “feeling” inside of you, running through you. Maybe the only way you can discuss it is through analogies to other things, whether it be temperature, emotions, experiences. It may be that people who come here from having had psychic experiences and know how to sense and feel energy have it made while the rest have to figure out how to have that. It also may be that it’s just easiest to learn that when you’re younger and your brain isn’t so formed, rigid, and solid. If your inner child is either suffering, dead, or in a coma, best of luck to you–you’ll probably struggle and I bet you are already. But that’s the part of you that remembers another way of thinking before other patterns and programming seeped in, and there’s real scientific data behind hypnotizing someone back to a particular age and certain things that were true then come back. Get back there any way you can, and regain that fluidity of consciousness. If you’re a cynical bastard you can stay a cynical bastard if you want, but you’ll need to rein that in and become more flexible if you want to become any better at this shit. It doesn’t mean embracing rainbows, tie dye, and Birkenstocks, but it DOES mean embracing a wider reality out there and not limiting yourself or the possibilities in it. If you are already feeling frustrated reading this, start now, start today, work on getting it done. Find out why that attitude is there to begin with and get rid of it. If it requires healing, get that healing going. And know that it’s okay if you don’t get it all done in one day, week, or year.

If you know how you generally perceive the world, you’re in luck: you’ll know if you are more visual, more sensory “feeling”, etc.: “I see you”. “I feel you”, “I hear you”. Maybe you have some combination of a few, or maybe you know for a fact that some things you just struggle with, like visualization. In that instance, find out if visualizing concepts vs a literal image work better for you. If you want to visualize wavy lines or an ocean but can’t, think about how oceans and water feel, how they make you feel, and what sorts of sensations those conjure up and use that as a template. I did this technique while running an online Zener test on myself to see how it would rate my ESP skills, and it improved my score significantly. While I am not terrible at visualization and do a pretty good job, I do much better feeling/sensing things and analyzing the input that way. It’s far more abstract but that just may be how my mind works.

Working all of the elements in a particular ritual with various correspondences and symbols operates much like the example above but in the reverse order. Instead of having a particular thing and getting a whole bunch of feelings, symbols, and imagery on it, you’re instead taking those feelings, symbols, and imagery to conjure the thing. And there you have it, my best attempt to describe how I “do” magic.

Of course the reality is that you’re not “doing” magic as much as being magic. And it’s why it takes a lot of discipline, practice, sweat, and tears. While this blog post may not necessarily describe everyone’s experience, maybe it’ll help someone out there to make that own connection to theirs or fine tune it–or start a very interesting discussion on how all of this works “under the hood”.

On being ready

When it comes to magic as well as personal alchemy, I’ve discovered two things about being ready:

  1. It’s easy to underestimate when you are
  2. It’s easy to overestimate when you are

#1 is the one I tend to be the most familiar with, and what I typically tell people who are wondering when they need to begin the next phase in their spiritual and alchemical development is basically when they’re feeling comfortable. Like, maybe TOO comfortable. Perhaps they’re even dragging their feet and feeling like the water is just fine so why get out?

But then there’s that second one. I see it all the time. People win the lottery but are unable to handle it, aren’t prepared to deal with it, and lose it all and then some. People who do job spells, money spells, love spells, and are totally unable to deal with the consequences that follow because they haven’t done the personal development and growth necessary to be able to deal with that next stage. And when your magic is good and that spell is all well and awesome,  you could very well lose any sense of safety net which prevents you from getting in over your head.

Take money magic, for instance. If you’re convinced that rich people are conniving and that it’s impossible to be both a good, spiritual person and have wealth, that’ll mess you up royally. You’re already standing in your own way and have issues with the very thing you’re trying to draw into your life. And like the biggest and worst enemy  you already are for yourself, you’ll commit self-sabotage. If you struggle with feelings of self-doubt, lack of “worthiness”, and wonder who you think you are to be doing such things when xyz people are poor and hungry, you’ll never get anywhere. Instead, think of the people who got rich and did good things with it. JK Rowling was homeless and poor before she wrote the Harry Potter series, and she was a billionaire–up until the point where she gave away so much to charity she was downgraded to a millionaire instead.

You don’t need to have heroes to lift you up, but finding good examples of people who are living the sort of life you want to live often helps. If you can’t find any, think up one and write it down in every detail the sort of people you want to become should your magic work. Visualize it. If you find that you need to develop certain traits in order to get there, work on it. Find out where you’re lacking and get on it.

Otherwise, you’ll get the job and later the promotion of your dreams and find yourself in over your head, worrying about whether or not you’re really qualified, and ultimately sink yourself. You’ll meet your soulmate but find that you’re getting in the way of both yourself and the relationship.

It’s okay to struggle and it’s okay to have doubts. Just don’t commit the ultimate self-betrayal by giving into them and not letting yourself live the life you richly deserve to have.

How to magic: the programmer and linguist edition

As many of you know, I’m a student of Jason Miller’s Strategic Sorcery class, which I very, very highly recommend. Sometimes we do community blog hops where many of us write about the same topic. This month, I’m hosting and we’re writing about “Magical Links”. You can see a COMPLETE LIST of all the blogs and choose which to read, or travel through them in order. You’ll find a link to the next blog (Scarlet Grace’s) at the bottom of this post.

 

One of my magical teachers and longtime friends once said to me that magic is about making a connection, and he’s absolutely right. People who get into the “Nothing is at rest, everything vibrates” principle will also argue that it’s about vibrating at the same frequency of whatever you’re trying to attract or reach out to. Heck, sounds a lot like some of the Law of Attraction folk so I’ll stick that perspective in there too.

So what does that mean? What is creating a connection or a link all about in magic? My perspective of it is this: it’s about speaking the right language as to be understood, and programming your ritual in such a way that you’re able to communicate with whatever force or intelligence exists on the other end. Ceremonial magicians can go on for hours about correspondences; Crowley’s 777 is evidence of that alone and that’s one of a few texts purely on that subject. You pick what makes sense, and you leave out what doesn’t, and the end result is a coherent recipe upon which to lay your ritual foundations and even the timing of the ritual itself.

Which makes people’s objections in the pagan and polytheist communities about “plug and play” with deities of different cultural backgrounds into a ritual that had nothing to do with their culture make all that much more sense. I’m not going to use a Hellenic ritual to make an offering to Papa Legba, and it makes no sense to call on Apollo in an Irish Druidic rite–even more so if these were deities and daemons I’ve not had any or much contact with, and hence have no established personal connections to already. If I wanted to phone the French ambassador, I am not going to address him in Japanese or call him by names other than his preferred given name and titles. It’s not just a matter of being understood; it’s also a matter of respect.

The Chaldean Oracles warn not to “change the foreign words of evocation” for they contain within them a sacred power, and that those names are also sacred. While I’ve heard all sorts of reasoning ranging from respecting the original culture and maintaining purity to merely “words have power”, I’ll also argue the more practical “This is the best way to establish a connection or link to the entity or force you are calling upon”.

The ritual or magical act itself for me is part communication, part computer program, or perhaps more accurately “a program which allows me to communicate with whatever force or entity is involved in this operation”. On the whole, I think of magic as my ongoing connection and communication with an underlying part of reality which can talk back and respond to my ideas and desires. It’s a respectful, meaningful dialogue. In comparison with what I am communicating I am clearly on the level of a two year old, still struggling with basic sentence structures and not really getting a whole lot yet while trying to figure out this weird thing called “reality”. I may never get there, and my attempts at doing so may boil down to me poking at it with a stick, but if I find that certain types of pokes get certain results, then that’s progress I can repeat.

 

Read the previous blog hop on magical links here: http://www.inominandum.com/blog/missing-links-and-spell-failure/

Head to the next blog hop on magical links here: http://unseenseraph.com/strategic-sorcery-blog-hop-magickal-links

 

Public occultism: is it dying or merely an oxymoron?

Herein I will respond to a post on a public occultism blog which claims that public occultism is bad, and succeeds in demonstrating this but for entirely different reasons than the intention of the blogger and his post — and not just due to extreme irony.

Other rebuttals to this post are fantastic and I don’t feel the need to repeat and rehash their points. I will instead make a couple of points not fully covered which badly need to be addressed:

Firstly, let’s cover the definition of public:

adjective
1. of, relating to, or affecting a population or a community as a whole: publicfunds; a public nuisance.
2. done, made, acting, etc., for the community as a whole: public prosecution.
3. open to all persons: a public meeting.
Next, the definition of occultism:
noun
supernatural forces, being, and events collectively
adjective
hidden from view
The inherent problem of “public occultism” is exposing something to public view which typically isn’t meant to be exposed, and the challenge becomes how much of occultism do you choose to make public and why. It’s a double edged sword. On one hand, you bring about a much-needed body of information and people who have it accessible to those who either want or have need of it, but on the other what is being exposed to the masses isn’t meant to be exposed to the masses, and under the weight of that contradiction there will be problems and friction.
And then you just have the Internet in general, which is inherently a hot fucking mess no matter how you slice it.
Secondly, let’s address this part, shall we?
If you publish anything, whether it’s a public blog, books, etc., on a specific selection of topics and discuss them at great length for everyone to read you are setting yourself up as an authority on those particular topics. And as an authority of these topics, by putting yourself out there online you are inviting people to comment and ask questions. If you don’t want this, then stop writing books, quit writing blog posts, remove yourself from social media, and don’t present topics to the masses like you have any sense of understanding or knowledge about them. The ability to present knowledge to the public is power, and with power comes responsibility. If you don’t want this responsibility, don’t be accessible online or otherwise. Period. You can’t have it both ways; you’re either an authority on subjects people care about or you’re not. If the notion of being a leader and an authority is burning you out and giving you more trouble than you can handle, it’s time to cool your jets and take a much needed hiatus from the whole thing, and I’m going to beg Nick to do just that. Nick, with all due respect as a fellow magician, it’s clear that you’re stressed, frustrated, and burnt out and judging from your numerous “get off my damned lawn” type of posts as of late, it’s high time you logged off and focused on your own personal work and development. No harm, no foul–and no shame in doing so. Please take my advice; you’ll thank me for it later. I learned the hard way about this myself after I got burnt out in the Hellenic pagan community after years of leadership. And don’t trick yourself into believing you have to be here “for others”. Martyrdom sucks, my friend. Don’t fall prey to it (like I did). Rest and recharge, or regret it later. Being a leader, whether self or community appointed or both, is a thankless and stressful task.
Let’s talk some more about this idea of public occultism and positions of authority, actually. It’s rather relevant to the next point. Nick has argued in his blog that occultism has been “dumbed down”, is too accessible online, is too contaminated by a number of issues including over-analyzing, making magic purely psychological, and people on the whole are too lazy, don’t want to do the work, don’t want to properly pay respect to a teacher’s time and energy by valuing their time, etc. A number of these points I agree with, especially the part on armchair magicians and treatment of magic as being purely psychological. I frequently liken these types to the “theoretical magicians” of the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell novel. I personally would much rather be a practical magician, thankyouverymuch. I think a degree of this “magic is only in your head” nonsense is laziness, some of it is cynicism, and the rest is people not able to do the more fantastical aspects of occultism and declaring it impossible simply because they themselves haven’t succeeded in bringing those aspects out in their own practice and experiences as of yet. And then you have so-called “experts” in the community writing entire books dumbing-down magic and presenting it as being “all in your head”, and it’s not helping.
Sadly many of these issues outlined have little to do with the Internet being to blame and much to do with human nature. But here’s the thing: the problem with the Internet is that absolutely anyone with any degree of clue who sounds intelligent and is able to present themselves well on social media and blogs can set themselves up as an authority on the occult, WMT, or any given topic without much fact or background checking–and pretty soon you have a cult of personality. This problem is absolutely universal online and goes well beyond the occult community. The fitness and nutrition related communities online, for instance, are riddled with bad armchair advice from people completely not qualified to give any sane or sound information and people wind up getting sick, hurt, and almost dying from bad advice from loud people who gain an audience from people who swallow their shit and think they know what they’re talking about. The blogosphere and social media both have the ability to hand anyone a sound box where they can stand and voice off on absolutely anything under the sun, and as a result you have a lot of noise to wade through before you can hear some decent information. The noise amplified is in both directions and the dumbing-down and lack of quality goes both ways, not just in terms of the students but in the available teachings online and the teachers/people in positions of authority whether assumed, earned, or otherwise.
Unfortunately many of these teachers come in, have some good points to make but rather like the blog post I’m replying to make those points along with a bunch of other suspect bits or hastily made conclusions–but due to actually making sense in parts it’s assumed everything’s golden. And with just a spoonful of that sugar, you’ve just swallowed a ton of horseshit. People brand new, unassuming, and perhaps a bit too trusting in their desperate quest to Learn Stuff can fall in with the wrong people as a result. Been there, done that. And then you have the other side of the coin, which is good leaders/teachers/people in positions of authority who have their good nature and patience tried and tested with the scores of people who want the Great Work handed to them on a silver platter on the backs of rainbow-farting unicorns and sides of fries with that. As much as I disagree with some of Nick’s points–especially the ageist ones that pin this on it being a generational issue versus a human one–I can totally understand and sympathize with his frustrations. Some of the questions I myself receive from others as a result of my blog and social media presence range from creepy to WTF. And that’s what I get for putting myself out there online.
So what to do with “public occultism”? Well, make it less public, that’s for sure! Some of the best places online right now are all closed or secret groups on FB, message boards with huge sections only available to approved and registered members, and emailing lists that also weed out the noise, spammers, etc. I run a forum online called The Great Work which has about 95% of its boards invisible except to registered and approved members and is low in noise and high in content. I stick to the quieter corners online and avoid the exceedingly large groups where noise to quality ratio is not to my liking. It keeps my blood pressure low and prevents me from wasting my time online on shit that doesn’t matter.
And for all else? Just log off and focus on yourself, that’s what matters.

Abramelin, day 266

Morning rite and noon prayer rite went well, but today was a personal struggle. My job continues to go VERY well and I remain blessed in this regard. I’m working with really great people and I thank my gods daily for being here.

I’ve been doing something past few days which I rarely do, which is eat calories at maintenance level. I’ve been in fat burning mode, but that’s no good before I start a week of fasting. Had some chocolate this evening, painfully aware it will be my last treat for a while. But it’ll be worth it.

I’m beyond nervous and anxious. I hope not to fuck this up.

I’ve moved all of the robes, ritual gear, and tools which I need for the last seven days into the temple room.

Evening rite went well. Gods help me.