After a retreat, and a wild ride of training with Rinpoche, I’ve reopened my etsy store including options with the tarot, which also include my Triforce spread which I discussed when I reviewed a Legend of Zelda tarot deck a while back.
Magic needs a curious mind. Such a brilliant and simple true statement. There is a problem, in general, but especially in magick, when we stop questioning, and stop being curious. Yet, it’s hard to teach and instill curiousity. What recourse is there?
Cultural appropriation is a touchy and tricky subject. Some people do it without question, some of us really think about it a lot. Even being ordained I worry where that line might be. Not because there is a clear line, and a right or wrong, but more than anything, because there are consequences to appropriation, and we’ll have to pay some day.
Our culture devalues the unseen and spiritual, and slowly a materialistic scientific perspective is winning…but magick is making a comeback, people see there is more to the world.
On the other side here is a beautiful piece on the idea that magick is threatened, and someone’s experience of being drawn back in by the Guardian of Magick. Not only is the experience compelling, something about the writing really draws me.
It’s come up before here that I’m something of a gender queer creature, so it’s nice to see a (small) list of various deities from various cultures who blend and cross the dichotomy of gender
An illustration of why Majora’s Mask is one of my favourite Zelda games, it appeals to my magickal experiences (And if you can’t believe I’m posting about Zelda again, wait until next week.)
I repeatedly say that being a competent sorcerer involves being content with your life. So here are four things that help make you a happier person, according to neuroscience
Part of being happier is non-attachment, and that includes to the notion of a concrete self. Well neuroscience is hinting at the fact that Buddhist ideas of a lack of inherent self might be true
I also talk about how sorcerers need to be cautious of letting their mind run away with them, question reality and your perception. Here are 20 cognitive biases that shape the way we view the world. These are exactly the types of traps our mind gets us with while we’re unaware.
I’ve said this before with (no) apologies to modern (neo)Wicca, but it used to be a subversive faith. Now in order to make itself palatable to the public, both to non-practitioners and new practitioners, it has lost its edge
This is old (both the link and the subject), but listen to recordings of part of the Epic of Gilgamesh in as close of an approximation of ancient Sumerian as we can construct.
io9 gives a list of 10 historical people who were sorcerers.
I’ve noticed this on my own, but this is the first time I’ve seen an article on it, but do you realize how many porn stars are into magick? It’s a surprising amount.
So a certain warlock, who should remain nameless, is taken to court for harassing a 75 year old witch
On the plus side the witch won Also, notice how similar the articles are in their descriptions of Salem and the people involved? I looked for articles that sounded different, but they all seem to be lifted from an original source. Nothing magickal there, just annoyed with journalistic laziness.
.
etsy
Anniversary and Sponsorships
I realized Friday was the second anniversary of opening up my Etsy shop, Blue Flame Magick (I’m original with my naming conventions, what can I say?). It’s been a lot of fun running (more than I thought), while I’ve made items and done magickal work for trade with friends and associates for a while in the past this was the first time I publically offered it. I love the variety of different requests I get, the little insights I get into how people live when they ask for divinations, or the variety of different reasons people have behind a custom mala, or just the challenge of crafting a magickal solution for someone’s problems. For everyone who has supported my etsy, be it through purchasing a good or service, or by signal boosting it, thank you.
As a celebration and thank you, for the next week you can use BLUEISTWO as a coupon code to get 15% off on my etsy.
For a few months I’ve been authorized to perform some new services, and I have privately for people, but I never got around to blogging about them, or adding them to my etsy and I guess now is as good of a time as any.
Every time I try to write about this it becomes too involved with me explaining too much of the background information. So I’m splitting this into two posts, this one talking about what I’m adding to my services, and one in a day or two explaining the cultural/historical background of my practice within Buddhist cultures, and the spiritual reasons for doing it, both for me, you, and all. So if stuff is unclear hopefully the next post will clear it up.
What I’m offering now is the opportunity to sponsor sadhanas, or Buddhist rituals. Essentially when a ritual is sponsored that means I’ll be performing it for you on your behalf. This might seem unusual to a lot of people, but is actually very common in Buddhist cultures, but for a variety of reasons (addressed next post) it didn’t catch on as Buddhism spread out of Asia in the last century. You can sponsor in three different ways, I don’t know if these ways have traditional names, I’ve never heard them, but for sake of ease I’ll call them Open, Specific, and Targeted. Sponsoring a ritual has a variety of benefits: the merit or blessing, accumulated in the ritual is directed towards you rather than me; with a Specific or Targeted sponsoring that can be towards a certain goal/arena; and you help in my development. (More on all of these in the upcoming post)
With an Open sponsorship you’re just sponsoring whatever ritual is coming up, whatever is on my plate, is what you get. You sponsor and I’m doing Medicine Buddha that day, you get Medicine Buddha, if I’m doing Vajrayogini that’s who you get.
With a Specific sponsorship you pick what ritual is being done in your name. This has the benefit of giving you a blessing in a specific area of your life depending on what the ritual was for, so if I’m doing Medicine Buddha then the blessing is geared through his healing essence.
With a Targeted sponsorship you pick what the ritual is, and it is performed directed at you. With a Specific sponsorship (or most ritual practices in general) there isn’t a personal target for the work, you’re offering the benefits to all beings. A Targeted sponsorship has you become the target of the ritual, it’s not just being done on your behalf, it’s being done on you. This means you’re not just getting the blessing of the ritual, but the full effect of the magickal work behind it. To put it in a way that makes sense to more Western understandings: Open and Specific sponsorship transfer the “good karma” from performing the ritual to you, where as a Targeted sponsorship makes you the focus of the ritual, not just the “good karma” but all the magick and energy work that builds up to that. You’re both the recipient of the action and the reaction. So again using Medicine Buddha as an example, you’d get the blessing from me performing the ritual, but you’d also be the person I direct the healing of the ritual towards.
I’ve been doing these sponsorships for a while for my local community, but figured there is no reason not to open up the practice to a wider group of people, especially as my lama said when not everyone has access to a community that offers and performs such things. I figure I’ll do them for a few months as a trial and see how they go with people. So if you’re interested in it, or want to learn more about what is being offered just click this link to get to my etsy.
Wednesday Webshare: Corpses, Pants, Sex, and Greeks
To start off my Wednesday Webshare I thought I’d remind readers that I have a small etsy shop BlueFlameMagick Supplies. I sell consecrated pendants, malas, and divination services. I’ve been thinking of listing more of my services on there to make it easier for people to contact/contract me. Anyways three items I want to call attention:Quartz Mala, of which there is only the one; Custom malas, which are fun to make, I’ve been asked to make them for the Three Rays of Witchcraft, Hekate (twice), Hermes (twice), Lilith, Samael, Lucifer, Vajrasattva, and the concept of Ice; and lastly the Chthonic Mala, because they’re back in stock, and were the first item I had that ever sold out (also jokingly called the most Goth item I’ve consecrated).
I shared this on twitter quite a while back, but it really deserves to be shared again. This is fairly graphic, so consider yourself warned. Below is photo documentation of a sky burial (jhator), an example of excarnation. I really enjoyed it. If you’re unfamiliar with the practice this is a Himalayan form of disposing of the dead. It’s a great reminder of impermanence. In the burial a body is partially (or completely) cut up, and left for carrion to eat. It’s fascinating to watch how it all happens (I love the photo of the guys running away from the vulture swarm), you can also see where some of the idea of offering the body in Vajrayana Buddhism (specifically in Chöd) came from.
Speaking of Buddhism, not sure what to wear to meditate? How about $995 meditation pants? I’m pretty sure Buddha wore them too. And people worry about commercialism and religion.
Such pants may not be on as long as normal pants, as apparently meditating boosts the sex drive. I will say that some of you know me, and no more needs to be explained. Though it does make me curious about celibate monastics, no sex, lots of meditation, poor guys.
While it seems overly simple, and is your basic sympathetic magick, there is some evidence that destroying or throwing away written negative thoughts helps you get over them. Like I said, it’s simple, but considering some of the ideas behind sympathetic magick (not to mention psychologizing and giving form to things) it’s not too surprising.
To go back in time, The Unlikely Mage has recently started his Agrippa for the non-Medievalist. He’s going through The Three Books of Occult Philosophy chapter by chapter and giving a synopsis, explaining some of the background material, and trying to have it make sense to modern readers.
Polyphanes has started a series of posts on the depth and seriousness of magick. It’s an attitude I understand and love seeing expressed, I recommend everyone check out Getting Burnt by the Stars.
Going farther back io9 asks Can we bring the Greek Gods back please? I know more than a few people who are upset at the implication they left, but it’s a fun article on the “advantages” of bringing back the Greek gods.
Also from io9, and also dealing with Mediterranean culture, do you want to look like a Vestal Virgin? A hair-stylist goes out of the way to learn how to recreate the iconic hair style and gives some brief instructions on how to do it.
Celebrations, Sales, and Anniversaries
As I’m coming up to two years (!) of this blog, and three months of my etsy shop (not to mention the financial fun of the first month of school) I’m going to offer another sale. One random item will be marked down 10% every day (I’ll announce on twitter each morning and update this entry) and you can use the coupon code SEPT12 to get another 10% of everything in the store until September 26th. (Three days before and three days after the anniversary) And yes, those discounts can stack.
Currently marked down:
Buddhist Space Mala
Earth Mala – Buddhist
Air Mala – Buddhist
Wealth Mala
Medicine Buddha Healing Pendant
Fire Mala – Western
Spirit Mala – Western