magick

Sep

2019

Shake It Up

I regularly and strongly advocate for magickal routine and practice. If I had to give a student only two pieces of magickal advice they would be: meditate, and have a daily practice. Magick is no different from any other skill: practice, practice, practice if you want to achieve anything. If you don’t have a magickal practice, compare the work you are doing with learning to play the piano (or any other instrument if you already know the piano). If you played the piano as much as, and for as long as, you’re doing your magickal practice, how long do you think it would take you to master that song? For a lot of us, and I’ve been there, the answer is way too long.

Practice; magick is a skill and a capacity, it’s something that needs to be exercised and worked with. It is the Great Work after all, emphasis on Work. Honestly you don’t necessarily have to do much, either in terms of intensity or duration, the important thing is the regularity. I know there have been times where I’ve pruned my working routine down to 5-10 minutes a day for a few months, but I can tell you that 5-10 minutes made all the difference when I started to get back into a more regular practice.

That said: shake up your routine.

Back when I was in better shape I had no trouble getting down on the ground and doing 100 push-ups. When I was able to do 100 at a time, I decided to shake up my route a bit using a push-up variant, the diamond push-up. (To do the diamond push-up you get into position normally, but then move your hands together with you thumbs and index fingers touching forming a diamond shape.) Even though the exercises are so similar I had trouble doing more than 10, because the muscles it uses weren’t the ones I exercised previously, even though they were essentially beside the other set of muscles. So my daily routine was great about getting me in shape, but it was also limited, as shown by the fact that simply shifting my hands meant I could barely do 10% of my normal ability.

Our energy bodies, our magickal selves, are much the same. A daily practice is the best way to keep yourself in the best shape, but like a push-up routine, it’s limited. Doing a daily practice works certain “muscles” and abilities, unfortunately. I try my best to avoid this, and usually change up a lot of my daily practice every month. Even still this is limited because I’m picking what I’m doing. I’m deciding what I’ll no longer do, and what will replace it. Even if i’m trying to shake it up, I’m still limiting myself based on my preferences, assumptions, understanding and a variety of other factors. To get around this my current experiment is randomly picking a book and working through the activities in the text.

For me I rolled a die, assigning each magickal bookcase in my temple a number. Then I rolled against how many shelves on the book case, to get one shelf. Then rolling to decide left/right side. And I continue breaking the shelf down in halves, until I’m left with a single book. For the next month, part of my daily practice is from this random book. Depending on the book I might try to do every practice in it at least once. Even if you’re very familiar with a basic practice like grounding or casting a circle, you might be surprised at how different (or difficult) doing it according to other instructions can be. You’re working different magickal muscles.

I find this is a great way to make sure I’m actually using books (as opposed to being a book hoarder…), as well as including a variety of practices to keep myself in the best shape. Like the physical body, if you can keep the energetic body in better well-rounded shape, you’ll be better equipped to handle whatever comes your way.

Tune in for my next post where I completely contradict this advice.

Jul

2019

Gather 2019: Overview

A few weeks ago I attended Gather 2019, a “pan-spiritual” conference. I never know how to classify it, but pan-spiritual seems to work, it’s not really a pagan conference, though many attendees might fall into that category, nor is it really an energy worker conference, though many attendees might fall into that category. You have pagans, Buddhists, Catholics, and Satanists; monotheists, polytheists, atheists; energy workers, spirit mediums, sorcerers; psychic vampires, otherkin, and other fringe freaks (said with true love). I have never attended a magick oriented conference that manages to actively encompass so many diverse backgrounds.

I’ve been attending Gather almost as long as they’ve been occurring, I missed a few at the beginning, but this was the 19th year of Gather, and I continue to be impressed by it. Now, I will admit my bias, I am associated with the organization that arranges Gather, House Kheperu. If you’re familiar with their system, I’m the Ally Guardian, if you’re not, it’s easiest to say I’m allied with them, and while not a member of the House, I work with them in most ways a member might. This year I co-headed programming, meaning I sorted through all the class submissions, made the very difficult call of what classes to accept and decline, and helped set up the schedule. So I’ll admit, I’m in a place to be biased about Gather, but I’m also tied so closely with the House and Gather because how much the early Gathers impressed me.

This year the theme was Unleashing Your Potential, and I think Gather itself has been doing that in the last two years. Gather is held at The Hotel at Oberlin (that’s the actual name), in Oberlin Ohio. It’s a beautiful hotel, in a remarkable town, and I’d yatter more about the community but this entry will be long enough as is.

We were very excited to have Ivo Dominguez Jr. as our featured presenter. In fact the first class I attended this year was Ivo’s class “Energy Fitness and Conditioning Practices.” I enjoyed this class immensely, the basic concept being that energy work is work, magick is work, and just like with physical exercises that you need to actively do energetic work to keep yourself in good form. At events like this, it’s not unusual to see someone burn themselves out, doing too much beyond their normal limits (like running 5km when you might only jog 1km every week). The class dealt with exercises that you can do to help prevent that and strengthen yourself.

On a slight aside, I just want to say if you ever get the chance to attend one of Ivo’s classes do it, and if you ever get the chance to actually talk with him, do it. He is a genuine pleasure to talk with, a fascinating person, and I’m lucky I got to spend so much time with him. Also he is approachable and grounded. I’ve been to conferences where the guest presenter is there just to sell books; they teach their class, they sit with their books, and they vanish. Ivo wasn’t like that, he attended classes like anyone else, he stayed for the after Gather lunch. As much as he was our guest presenter, he was also like the rest of us, enjoying a weekend of great conversations and classes.

The second class I attended was my own, “Tantric Tech and the Tarot” focusing on the Chariot, Death, and the Moon. This is the fourth (!) time I’ve offered a form of this class, each year dealing with a different set of cards. In this class I explore the deeper esoteric meanings of the cards as used in the BOTA and Golden Dawn outside of divination. I also offer the rough equivalent of a jenang, a basic Buddhist Empowerment, using the figures of the cards, rather than traditional deities. This is an extension of, and now a driving force, behind my own deep personal esoteric work with the tarot.

That was the last class of the night, but as usual I was up until around 0500 talking with friends I haven’t seen for months, and interesting new folks I just got the chance to meet. As much as I love the variety of scope of classes at Gather, it’s these in between and after hour conversations that really make it a great event.

Despite being up until 0500, I woke up and attended a 1000 class: Oneironautics 101 by Duende. It was an introduction to dream work, and the hypnopompic and hypnogogic states. Despite being early, it was an enjoyable class I’m not sure how much I’ll manage to make use of, because as folks might know dream work just seems to be beyond me, despite trying everything forever. (Perhaps a bit of hyperbole) But nonetheless it was interesting and has me rethinking some of my dream issues.

Then I had the second class that I taught: Dealing with Your Demons. It was a redux of a class I did years ago on how to use magickal techniques for working with demons and spirits, and how to apply those techniques to our “personal demons,” our psychological structures and baggage and all the internal stuff that makes our life difficult. It was well received. It was also one of the classes that was recorded, so if you’re interested in the class but didn’t attend you can purchase access to the recording (more on that below).

The next class I attended was Integrating Initiations with Dani and Hrafn. It is a class I wish was better attended, because conversations after Gather showed how much it was needed. The class looked an initiatory experiences, spiritual awakening and emergence, both informal, and formal, how they impact the individual and societal group, and how to navigate the upsets, mental, energetic, social, and otherwise. It had some good solid advice and perspectives, both presenters have been part of initiatory magickal traditions, and one presenter is a licensed therapist. If you’ve never been to a large event like Gather you might not realize it, but in a lot of ways if you’re open they’re initiatory experiences, and there are always people who have issues getting back into the swing of things afterwards.

The second Ivo class I attended was Castings & Containers: Choices In Creating Sacred Space. This was one of the two classes I was most excited for. I greatly enjoyed, and recommend, Ivo’s book Casting Sacred Space. In fact one of the techniques from that book was used during a ritual at Gather several years earlier that I was one of the ritualists for. This class was less on specific techniques for creating space, like in his book, and more on the different types of space, how to make it in different ways, and why would you want space that is more a fortress than a crossroad or a lense.

Cat’s Minor Meta-Surgery class was the other class I was very excited for. Meta-Surgery is a phrase we use for intentional alterations to the energy body. In this case the class covered the basics, what it is, why would you do it, how do you do it. This class focused on making a very simple augment for the finger. We had an experiment of sensing three items concealed in fabric or a box with our hands, then creating this extension to our finger, and then using that longer appendage to reach into the wrapping/box around the items and sensing again. While the class was nothing particularly new to me, I really enjoyed it because Cat is a blast (the only person I know who refers to an energy ball as “that motherfucker” and check out her amazing energy body artwork) and meta-surgery isn’t really talked about a lot, so was curious to see her present on it.

The last class I attended was Ivo’s third class on Sunday morning, The Consequences of Magickal Action: Aftercare and Healing. A great class to finish Gather with, looking at all the different issues that can arise in magickal work (especially intense and closely grouped workings, like at a conference like Gather…). Very practical, down to earth, take care of yourself advice, but needed.

I was a minor part of the closing ritual at Gather, where I spoke about the Questions of the weekend, and challenging others with them. The theme was unlocking your potential, and for me, the question that I kept coming back to in that regard is “Who are you?” We think of ourselves in relationship to other things, we’re children, siblings, lovers, we identify as our job, our hobbies. When all of these things are gone, when you take away all these supposedly defining traits: who are you? Want to unlock your potential? Know who you are.

Then, suddenly, Gather 2019 was over. I’ve already booked off the dates for Gather 2020. As I have stated, and I’ll state again, Gather is my favourite magickal conference/convention/event, and the only such event that I will rearrange and fight everything in my life to make sure I make it down. If you were unable to attend, you can buy digital access to the recorded classes here.

To the folks I met at Gather this year and came to my blog, welcome!

To folks reading this who are interested or curious in Gather, I hope to see you there for Gather 2020.

May

2019

Field Report: Haunting of the Estranged Sister

I’ve decided to try out some more field report style blog entries. A lot of my blog is sharing ideas and speculating, but I don’t talk enough about the lived experience of these things. I’m going to try writing about things just as experiences, not necessarily sharing the sum of my experiences, such as I am with the Starry Path material, but just the experience as it is. Since these are just the experience don’t expect anything overarching or lessons learned, just “This was my Tuesday.”

I got a request from a friend of mine to look into a haunting, it had been a while since anyone had called me in for that. I like investigating hauntings, while I wouldn’t call myself a medium, I can get info from/about spirits and work with that. Often I’m called in for an exorcism/banishing, despite the fact that’s very rarely needed or appropriate. Sometimes people are a bit let down that I’m not running around with a cross yelling about the “Power of Christ” but in the end folks are happy with the results, even if it has a lot less sparklebang than they were hoping.

This haunting investigation got my interest for two reasons; it was from my friend’s sister who had essentially disowned her due to her spiritual beliefs, and the sister was a material atheist. You know a haunting has to be bad when a material atheist is willing to turn to the occult to handle it. The day I was originally supposed to go in to look at it there was a major snowstorm, and we postponed almost a month.

I’ve already shared all I knew when I was heading to the haunting. The house was about fifteen minutes from the subway, and it was a surprisingly nice day so I walked it. En route I started picking stuff up. Apparently this is not that uncommon, some people think it’s actually the spirits communicating before you arrive, personally I think it’s more psychic perception and precognition. The spirits aren’t coming to me, I’m picking up instances that will occur, or perhaps part of my mind has jumped ahead and is in contact with the location before my body arrives.

As I’m walking I’m getting impressions of an old woman, her hair is still dark, short in stature, and I’m not sure if she can speak English or not, but she’s definitely of Eastern European descent. I presume she’s related to the haunting I’m approaching. She seems to be a mix between sad, frustrated, and angry. She doesn’t really say anything, that’s rarely how I perceive spirits, but I can tell that a lot of her emotions are due to being ignored, but she’s not taking it personally, it isn’t about her, though that doesn’t make sense.

I get to the house, meet my friend and her sister and enjoy the wonderfully awkward and strained vibe between them. I quickly pick up a few things, the woman is definitely from this house, and the wall is covered with icons from an Eastern Orthodox tradition. I don’t mean that any of them were currently up, but even looking at the nature scene paintings around the room I was aware of icons hanging all around in the past, in the house as the old woman knew it.

The old woman doesn’t strike me as the type to require calling someone in for a haunting, but she does have her temper, so I could be wrong.

Due to the nature of the haunting, and my friend’s request for her sister, we performed a chöd ritual. This ritual was offered to the spirits of the area, the old woman, but really any spirit that wandered by could join the feast.

As we perform I become aware of the old woman, leaning against the door frame into the dining room, a dishtowel on her shoulder, just watching and smiling. Again she just does not seem like the troublesome haunting type, nor did any of the small random spirits that popped in.

Reaching out I struggle to find what the haunting could be, maybe the sister was wrong? I don’t know how to describe the next perception that well, but essentially I “rewound” the perception of the space. It’s even more murky than my normal perceptions, but can give me a sense of if something had happened, and it had, but I was no closer to knowing what.

After the ritual the sister begins to explain some of the backstory; she’s lived in the house for a decade and while there have always been little things, she could ignore and rationalize them. Then her husband died, a few weeks before the initial investigation was scheduled. Her husband died and activity spiked. She didn’t think the activity was her husband though, she said it didn’t feel like him, and was often too aggressive. Since there was always activity in the house though she was worried that something might have been happening with her husband and the spirit(s) that haunt the place, a type of struggle between them perhaps.

Again, it doesn’t seem to be the type of thing this old woman would do. I mention my perception of the woman, and that she doesn’t seem the type to do this. This was apparently correct, the person they bought the house from had explained that she lived in the house for a few years after inheriting it from her aunt, who was a short, devout, Ukrainian woman. This all fit my perceptions, but still left the problem open of what was this haunting? Was it really just this aunt moving minor things and the current owner overreacting? Where did the dead husband fit into the picture?

As I pondered I suddenly “got it,” the type of knowledge download where everything clicks. I explain this to the owner. She has cultivated the ability to ignore what is happening for years. Unfortunately that meant when her husband passed she did not pick up on the times where he tried to contact her. It seems like he was a fleeting presence, just a day or two trying to say good-bye, but unable to do much.

That’s where the dead aunt comes in. She was livid about this: how dare this woman ignore her husband? He’s trying to say good-bye, the least she could do was listen!

The increased activity was originally this woman trying to get the owner’s attention, and then was her annoyance that the owner didn’t listen when she had the chance.

Insert a period of discussion and crying between my friend and her sister about missing her chance to say good-bye. (Call me to handle the dead people, don’t expect me to deal with emotions)

Finally we closed with a discussion about the woman, and how to be accommodating with her. She’s just a friendly old aunt lady, who happens to lack a physical body. I’m sure I’ve said it here before, but I’m not a fan of the whole exorcise and banish at the drop of a hat. Most spirits are decent enough, and the majority of hauntings I’ve dealt with can be addressed by clear boundaries, and sharing the space. This was no different. It boiled down to asking the dead woman to not be disruptive (though again, she really never was until the husband died), but also finding a space and item to offer to the woman as something that is hers in the home. I gave a few suggestions, but don’t know what the owner decided on.

My friend has not reported back with any continued haunting, so hopefully the issues have been addressed.

Jan

2019

Colour Wheel, Magick, and Divisions

101 Rant

Colours are cool. Stay with me, it’s odd to say be it’s true. Look at that colour wheel, every colour humans can see is part of that wheel, just some adjustments for light and dark. If we frame our world as a visual thing, and most people do, that wheel contains the elements for everything we’ll ever see. Every stone beneath our feet, every reflection we catch in a window, every sunrise, every not-quite-right skin tone as we say our final goodbye to a loved one, it’s all there.

In some ways that’s just too much for us to work with. Thankfully we can divide the wheel in two, that’s much easier to manage. The colours on the left are considered cold, the colours on the right are warm, and sure they blend in the middle, but you can see why the line fits where it does.

That’s still a lot though, everything we’ll ever see divided between warm and cold? But if we divide it in three, now we’re getting somewhere. Now we see the wheel is broken into primary colours: blue, red, and yellow. But if we divide it the other way now those three sections are secondary colours: purple, orange, and green. It’s the exact same wheel, but those divisions make a clear difference, and yet, the divisions are completely meaningless too.

Including both sets of lines we get the six primary and secondary colours. We clearly can identify these colours, we know what is blue and what is orange, even without the lines on the wheel if I asked you could point to red.

These divisions will make sense to most of us, we know this colour breakdown, even if we never deal with colour blending it’s probably drilled in our heads from childhood. But what if we divide the wheel into quarters? What are these sections now? Blue, and golden yellow, and orangey red, and olive green? It’s harder to say what those sections are? What about five sections? What are they now? These divisions probably make less sense to most of us, and yet they’re just as valid as any other way we split the wheel up. There is no good reason to divide the wheel one of these ways versus another.

What if we take away the lines again? I said if I asked you could point to red, can you find red on the wheel? Can you find blue? What’s between them? Purple. Now looking at the wheel can you tell me where blue ends and purple begins? We can identify the “centre” of the colour, but the edges aren’t clear, there are no edges. The difference between blue and purple is one of convenience essentially agreed upon by our society, and yet I’m sure we’ve all had at least one conversation with someone disagreeing what colour a car or dress was. Even with our cultural boundaries, that which lies on the edges is hard to define, impossible to pin down.

This is magick. This is one of those 101 things that I feel shouldn’t have to be said, that I shouldn’t need to post and ramble on, and yet all the time I see people making what I would consider magickal errors because they don’t understand the colour wheel. Or even when they’re not making a mistake, they’re making an ass of themselves.

The colours on the wheel are everything we could ever see, but let’s expand that. The colours are a representation of everything, we could limit it to the human experience, or scale it up to include everything, but we can use this wheel as a map for reality, for all experience, for all magick.

Speaking of 101, think back to the last time you read a description of the different levels of energy bodies, how many divisions were there? Two? Three? Seven? It doesn’t really matter. We break up these levels for convenience, but it’s a gradient, like the colour wheel. Even the line between our physical and energetic body is blurrier than a lot of people realize the closer you look. Yet how many of us have seen (or participated) in discussions where there is a disagreement about this? “Your system is incomplete, you think there are three bodies: energy, ethereal, and astral. Please, what about the noetic body? Or the mental body?” I’ll let you into a secret Judgy McMage, those other divisions of the body? They’re probably in that “incomplete” system, it’s just their boundaries for the bodies are a bit bigger, so the mental body is part of the astral. (Note: I actually don’t ascribe to any clear language about layers of the energy bodies, so if they’re out of order or anything, it doesn’t matter, they’re not literal, either in this analogy or in reality.)

Or when people argue about how many elements there are. Again systems of three, four, a different four, five, a different five, another five, seven, whatever, they’re all complete within themselves. They’re all a whole wheel divided. The problem is people think the boundaries are objective, but we should know by now that magick is subtle, and abstract. Sure, that system might be “limited” because it doesn’t inclue the elements of Light, or Dark, or Time, or whatever people want to add on. All the powers and attributes you’d ascribe to those elements, they exist in that “limited” system, they’ve just drawn the lines a different way, so those elements are part of the other elements.

“Your colour system is incomplete, sure you have blue, red, and yellow, but where is your purple?” Again, the boundary for blue and red are a bit larger, and purple is within it.

This applies to pretty much everything in magick. How many elements are there? Three, four, five, seven? Again it’s where you draw the lines. How many types of people are there? Three? Wet, dry, and faith? Three? Vata, pitta, and kapha? Three? Priest, Warrior, Counsellor. Even when the same number of divisions exist, they can divide the wheel differently.

This analogy can be applied to a lot of areas in magick. How many layers are there to the energy body? How many energy centers? How many elements? Are they the same four/five? What makes a god a god, and what makes a celestial a celestial? Where is the dividing line between god and celestial? Where is the dividing line between celestial and saint? What makes demons demons? How many planes are there?

There are dozens of small simple discussions, yet these blurry edges are everywhere. If you know that, it’s great. If you apply arbitrary boundaries to help conceptualize it, that’s great. If you ascribe to an unwavering division because you can’t see beyond your boundaries, then you’re on the wrong path. These divisions help us work with something vast and abstract, and that’s wonderful, but when you confuse the map for the territory, as they say, you’re the one who is working with a “limited” or “incomplete” system.

I hope none of you are that person in the online arguments, but if you are, next time you’re disagreeing in a woogity conversation take a moment and ask if you are disagreeing with the idea itself, or are your boundaries just drawn on the colour wheel differently?

Nothing in life is clear and straight forward. The boundaries in every aspect of our lives are blurry somewhere. Why would you assume that magick would be perfectly divided into clear distinct parts with no blurring?

Jan

2019

Starry Path: Purpose, Path, and Goals

Since I’ve had a few good questions about the Starry Path, I figured it was worth having another “about” post going into more detail around the Path.

What is the purpose of the Starry Path, and my purpose in exploring and sharing it?

I’m not sure it’s fair to assume there is a major teleological element to the Starry Path. That would feel too religious to me. Sure, there is a purpose to the Path, like any magickal path it’s about opening ourselves up, to perceive reality in a deeper, more complex way, and to understand that reality, and our ability to influence it. The Path is about studying, and embracing magick and spirit, but not necessarily with some clear end goal, like a favourable afterlife or reincarnation.

My “purpose” in exploring it is just that, to learn more about magick and spirit, the Cosmos and my place within it. Purpose may not apply here either, because as much as this is a path that I’m exploring, there are definitely times when it feels like I don’t have much of a choice. The spirits have made themselves known, and my options are either ignore them, or go with them. Parts of the Path are intentionally explored, other areas I’m tossed into by the spirits.

As for sharing it, that is a bit harder to explain. The Starry Path is my experience, I’m not sharing it as a religious concept for others, or a path for others to follow whole-cloth, but as a record of my experience, an example of what can happen, and yes, as a system of arcana I hope others can explore too.

In fact, the purpose in sharing is something I think I didn’t make clear enough in the past. I mentioned the Path is ecstatic and gnostic, but inseparable from that the Starry Path is at its core a tutelary Path. Something that doesn’t get talked about enough in magick is the fact that most traditions seem like they are meant to be tutelary paths, not something to be slavishly followed. It seems though as trads spread and age, things become codified, and people think of that path as only what is presented to them. I love my encounters with these spirits, what they have shown and done for me, and I love hearing from people who have tried things from the Path…but if I ever meet anyone who is following my instructions/explanations on the Starry Path and that’s it, they haven’t moved beyond that, then they are doing the Path wrong.

The spirits I introduce aren’t meant to be merely summoned for a task and sent off, they are the teachers of the Path. Part of the Starry Path is accepting the spirits as teachers and guides. They know far more about it than I ever will. The Starry Path is meant to establish connection, and give a Path to walk, but it’s to be a guide. To paraphrase Chumbley “Confuse not the Path, with what I have written on it.” If you’re trying out stuff that I post, and not learning directly from the spirits as you go, then you need to slow down and engage them. It’s a tutelary path, learn from the spirits, innovate, and explore, do not just follow what you hear from me or others.

Are these new spirits? Why do we need new gods and spirits?

They’re not new at all. It is only my exploration of the Path that is new. They have always been here, they appear across time and spirit in many traditions, only my engagement with them is new. Some of the spirits on the Path are directly in other traditions and mythologies, others are more like resonant figures, perhaps the seed of myth that has been codified. They are not new, but I’m looking at a different facet of their complex being.

As for why do we “need” these “new” spirits, that’s an individual thing. Above I mentioned how a lot of paths start off tutelary, but over time become ossified and strict. Reality bleeds into myth, and legend, experiences become “fact” and ideas become gospel. The spirits of the Path appear across the world in different times and cultures, some of the magick they teach appears in other traditions. The Starry Path was borne out of a need and desire to experience things as they are. That is where the Path being ecstatic, gnostic, and tutelary comes in. It’s an attempt to engage this magick unadulterated by mythology and culture.

Of course, there will always be contamination based on the person, and culture experiencing, but it is hoped that those are less because it’s more direct, not over long stretches of time. I won’t deny that my explanations and explorations of the Starry Path are filtered through me. But like a game of telephone, the less people it passes through, the clearer it will be.

A parallel for this is the terma tradition in Vajrayana Buddhism. In Vajrayana Buddhism it’s very important to have a lineage. For many of my major empowerments, I can track it backwards in time, from me, to Rinpoche, to his teacher, to his teacher’s teacher, and so on back to some famous Buddha or saint. Despite this emphasis on lineage though, it’s understood that overtime teachings shift, get corrupted, misunderstood, and change. A terma is a revealed teaching. It’s believed that great masters (generally Padmasambhava, but termas from other figures exist) have left behind their teachings, hidden, to be discovered later. Padmasambhava for instance taught in the 8th century, that is a long time to assume that no teacher or student has misunderstood his teachings, no one has been confused in passing it on, nothing has been lost. Foreseeing this as a problem it’s believed that Guru Padmasambhava hid teachings, termas, so that centuries later someone would find them, and “refresh” the tradition with more accurate knowledge. A few centuries pass, things shift, and someone finds a terma text, and suddenly we know how things have been misunderstood for a few centuries, and we can correct that. We’re going back to the source, rather than trusting in a centuries long game of broken telephone. Terma exist as both physical scrolls that are found, and also Mind/Space terma, which are more of a vision/revelation of the information.

In that way I think on a basic level you could compare the Starry Path to terma. It’s an attempt to look past the myths, past the ideas and opinions, past ossified concepts, and to see what was at the base of it, and bring that back out. So yes, these spirits are probably in various myths, some directly, others are vague inspirations lost in the mists of time, but with the Starry Path I’m asking them to teach me directly outside of the religion/culture that has codified them over centuries.

Is X spirit, really Y spirit?

You’ll have to ask them. In some cases there is a one-for-one link between spirits on the Path and spirit in another tradition. Sometimes one spirit was divided in myth into two or more, and sometimes two or more spirits were combined under the same name. Other times it’s a general echo, X spirit might not be Y, but stories of X may have inspired the myths of Y down the line. The webs of history and myth are subtle and abstract. Because the tradition is gnostic/tutelary, I’m not going to say who is whom in my experiences, at least not yet.

Do you have to follow these rituals in order, contact spirits in order?

Yes and no. I certainly didn’t follow the order I’m writing in. Hell I’m still sorting out experiences in the last decade that I didn’t realize where connected to the Starry Path, or experiences I thought were connected but aren’t. A few of the practices have an order they need to follow. That’s why I’m introducing the Star Fire variations first in order. You can’t create Red or Blue Salt of Star Fire, without normal Salt of Star Fire, that’s just how it works out. Put unless I specifically mention that one thing has to precede another, feel free to jump around my writings in whatever order you want. Part of what makes this difficult to write about is my experiences have not been clean and orderly over the last decade, so I was never given a “This is where you start, this is what’s next.” So I’m going back through notes and thinking things over trying to reorder my experiences and information in a way that is easier for people to pick up and follow.

Are you just going to blather on this, or actually give us some magick to do?

Don’t worry, the base is more or less laid, so soon we’ll actually be doing stuff with the Path.

Dec

2018

Starry Path: Tzotzora, Salt of Red Fire, Watcher of the Ways

[I can’t believe it’s been a month since I posted. I held off posting this as Tzotzora was not happy with the post and needed to correct me, and as those on my twitter/facebook know my boyfriend just moved in so it’s been a hectic month. Without further ado here is the post, and Tzotzora hasn’t complained about this one, so hopefully I’ve made no mistakes.]

I realize looking at my notes, that I haven’t yet talked about the Twin of the Star Goddess. (My apologies, over the years this information has not necessarily come to me linear, so my notes or way of thinking about it may jump around.)

In a mild paradox the Star Goddess is Their own twin. This is nothing too unusual to anyone who has been on a mystical path for a while.

Twin Queen of the Underworld. Goddess of the Deep Below. Lady of the Great Earth. Mother of the Stars Within the Earth. While They have many names, no single name has rung as clear for Them as “Star Goddess” has for the other form. Personally though I’m partial to Mother of the Stars Within the Earth, unfortunately that is a bit wordy.

While the Star Goddess is represented by the starry night sky, Their twin form is the ultimate pitch of darkness. Space where no light is cast, deep beneath the earth and far above it. While the Star Goddess is the Creator of All, as Their twin They are the End of All. Star Goddess is the Womb, Goddess of the Deep Below is the Tomb.

You see more generative and peaceful Star/Dark/Night deities in a lot of mythology, but there are also the more destructive and forceful ones. In Greek mythology Zeus himself was afraid of Nyx. Hine-nui-te-pō is goddess of night and death. There are many cases of overlap of night/dark deities and death and destruction. Star Goddess is no different. They are all things, and thus They hold this paradox within Themselves. I think in this case the more I elaborate, the farther we go from the reality of the matter, that every description moves us farther from what is being described. Most people I believe have some intuitive understanding of this link and paradox, and working with such spirits it will become clearer. I had to introduce this aspect here, because the next spirit I’ll introduce, Tzotzora, has a connection to the Mother of the Stars Within the Earth, and working with him involves some work with Them in that form, albeit very basically.

Tzotzora seems to be the spirit of Algol and Red Fire, one of the variations on Star Fire, and a Triplet. At first I thought he was Zoriyah’s triplet, but I’ve been told that’s not the case. The Triplet nature has not yet been made clear to me, other than the fact that Algol is a trinary star system. There are three main aspects of Star Fire, I suspect each triplet is connected to one of them, but that’s just inference and theorizing, the spirits have not confirmed or denied this yet.

Tzotzora appears as an old man, so gaunt and pale that it is impossible to place a racial descent, he almost looks like he is on the verge of mummification. He wears grey robes, but they have the appearance of being white in the past, but time and dust have changed them. I will let Tzotzora explain who he is. What follows is an example of the more grimoire style of information from the Starry Path. When I first encountered Tzotzora I asked about who he was, and he dictated the following. (I often have an audio recorder running during spirit communication, so I can repeat what they’re saying so I can properly record it, and have a record of their actual words.)

When we Fell we were smothered by the weight of the world, the crushing air slowing our movement.

After taking our forms we learned that our bodies were mortal. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, went mad and ran off into the night, lost to us. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, went mad and fled into the day, lost to us. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, threw themselves deeper into the flesh, to embrace the joys of the flesh to ignore the terror of mortality. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, returned their gaze to the heavens from which we came and began to seek the spirit. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand our mortality, decided to accept mortality, and explore the unique world this opened.

Of all my siblings, I was the first to trace the paths of spirit. Age couldn’t claim us, but injury and magick could. I sat with the dying, seeking understanding of death, the experience, the process, and the result. I sat with the dying, watching their spirit pull away from the world. I sat with the dying, being shown the paths of spirit.

As they died I watched the spirits, freed from matter, flow out of their form. They opened cracks in the walls of the world. Rifts that they would step through, from this world to another, rifts that flitted close behind them like a sheer drape.

With each death I better learned the roads between here and Eternity, the ways of walking from the flesh into the spirit, the bridge of the worlds.

Through the cracks in the walls of the world I could hear the Song beyond. I sang in harmony with that Song, and sang the names of the dying and dead, thus I called them to stay in this world, and take up new flesh, for we could not leave. This migration of bodies fully completing the fall into matter.

I guard the gate of spirit, I watch the ways, I keep out those who would harm, invite those who would be allies, I open the path of spirit, the bridge of worlds.

Salt of Red Fire

Tzotzora is connected to Red Fire or Red Star Fire. Much like with Star Fire in general, this post includes how to connect to the energy, as well as how to Earth it into salt so you have it as a materia. Salt of Red Fire involves two main steps that can be done separately or together. One is embracing the Red Fire, the second is channeling the Red Fire into salt.

Required:

Salt of Star Fire
Black or red candle
Mirror
Charcoal
Incense
- Amber (1 part)
- Cinnamon (1 part)
- Myrrh (1 part)
- Dragon’s Blood (2 part)
Knowledge of Algol’s position in the sky (or an app which can locate it for you)

Light the charcoal and put the incense on it when ready, leave some incense unburnt for later.

Put the Salt of Star Fire between yourself and the mirror, where you can see your reflection. Light the candle and call to the Star Goddess to bless you with the fire of stars. Perform the four fold breath while filing yourself with the Star Fire until it fills you and dances across your skin. Look at your reflection, see the white flame around yourself mirrored in the candle.

Call to the Star Goddess. “Queen of Heaven, Twin Queen of the Underworld, may your light guide our paths.”

Looking at the fire and its reflection in the mirror, blow out the candle. In that moment of sudden darkness feel the fire around yourself turn black, subtle, and nearly impossible to see, then red. (It is like turning out a light in a room, there is momentary darkness, and then your eyes will pick up dim light, like the light on the power button of your tv) It will fade out quickly without the candle. With a deep breath and force of will breathe in the red fire, draw it into yourself before it can fade. Square breathe as you pull in the last of the Red Fire, then Square breathe like a bellows, fanning the red fire.

Red Fire does not exist in the same way as the red of a normal fire. It is a fire of transmutation. It exists in that brief moment right as a flame is extinguished. Red Fire is the transition of matter to spirit, whereas Star Fire is spirit descending into matter.

After building up sufficient Red Fire breathe it into the Salt of the Star Fire, still in the dark. See it burning the salt and changing the Star Fire, extinguishing it and seizing the Red Fire. Take some of the incense, the ash and the unburnt incense, and mix it in with the salt, just a pinch is needed, but you can add more.

Red Fire is useful as a transition. Casting it in circles around you allows it to bridge the subtle and the solid. Make the physical and spiritual levels of a place more connected.

The second part of this ritual requires the Salt of Red Fire you are working on, and a cemetery with two exits.

Walk into the cemetery, open yourself up, enter a light trance, whatever you do to prepare for magick. Half way through the cemetery begin to call on the Star Goddess in Their form as Their own twin, the Dark Goddess Below. As you walk talk to Them, tell Them you walk Their paths, the ways of spirit that run through matter, the egress of form. They open the path before you as you walk, inviting you deeper, out of this physical space, but into a spiritual place.

Then begin to call to Tzotzora, asking him to show you the ways of matter ascending to spirit, to show you the cracks in the world that open to the more subtle realms. He might answer your call indirectly, or he may even show up to walk and work with you.

Pinch some salt and throw it in a circle around you, swinging your arm over your head. Starting in the North and going counter clockwise (you can also orient the “North” as whatever direction is in front of you as you walk). See trails of red fire follow the salt, forming both a circle where you drew it stationary on the ground, and one that stays surrounding you even as you move, as you walk out of the circle that stays where it was cast you step deeper into spirit. Perform this salt circle twice more as you walk. Surrounded by the red fire breathe it in with a square breath, and then breathe it into the remaining salt, burning it red with flame wisps of blue and white.

Hold the salt towards the star Algol (there are many free smartphone apps that will help you locate specific stars, while Algol doesn’t need to be visible above the horizon, if possible I think that’s better), and thank the Guardian of the Gate for opening the way and blessing the salt.

Keep walking out of the cemetery. One you have left the cemetery you can let your focus on the red fire circles lift, and let the energies dissipate as you walk.

Nov

2018

Starry Path: Star Fire and Star Water

After working with Zoriyah in the last post you’ve connected to Star Fire and it is easy to call with or without the Salt of Star Fire. Honestly it isn’t much different from any other energy you’ve learned to tap in your sorcerous career.

Here is a method of calling on Star Fire, it can be used in general to gather the energy for a magickal purpose, it can also be used to reconnect or strengthen your connection with the energy. Even though Zoriyah puts you in contact with the energy, it’s recommended to do this practice as well to solidify that connection.

Breathing Down Star Fire

Far above your head picture a brilliant pure white star, brighter than any star or planet in the sky (even if you cannot see the sky). If you prefer, if you’re out at night, you can focus on a specific star for this instead, but make sure you are focusing on Star Fire, many stars have their own “flavours” and traits which are useful for other magick, but for now you just want that basic primordial Star Fire.

Breathe out as much as you can. Hold your breath while your lungs are empty. Feel the empty pressure in your lungs, waiting to be filled. When you take a deep, full breath in a thin pillar of white Star Fire descends from the star above you, runs down through your body, your spine or central channel, and into the ground. The pillar is about the width of a finger, keep that energy running. Hold your breath for a moment. Breathe out fully again. If you’re performing this with Salt of Star Fire, a little bit in your palms as you rub your hands together and then place a little pinch on the crown of your head and rub that in a little bit, this helps you establish the connection easier. This is useful if you feel blocked, or out of practice. If you have trouble, you can all chant Zoriyah’s name slowly, and every few recitations say something to the effect of “Zoriyah, send to me Star Fire.”

When you breathe in this time, stop the Star Fire in the energy centre a few finger widths below your navel. It helps to stop the energy in that centre if you draw up the pelvic floor when you breathe in. (If you don’t know how to do this, go to the bathroom, and part way through stop the flow of urine, that muscle set you tightened to do that, that draws up the pelvic floor)

Once you have stopped the flow of energy at your navel, switch to Square Breathing or Fourfold Breath. If you’re unfamiliar with this technique it’s very simple, and useful in general so it’s worth learning. Essentially the process of breathing is broken down into four stages: breathing in, holding your breath, breathing out, holding your breath exhaled. With square breathing you even out these four stages, so each step takes the same amount of time. It’s helpful when learning to count it out, breathe in 1,2,3,4, hold your breath 1,2,3,4, exhale 1,2,3,4, hold your breath 1,2,3,4.

Breathe in drawing the energy into your belly, hold your breath letting the energy you breathed in merge with what is in your belly, breathe out leaving the energy in your belly. Take as many breaths as you need to fill your belly with Star Fire. When you have enough you hold your breath, and let the white pillar dissipate. Once the pillar is gone (usually a second or two) you can resume breathing normally. From here you can manipulate the Star Fire energy in the way you might any other energy. You can run it through your system, you can exhale it on the breath, send it out your eyes or your hands or through your pores. As previously mentioned Star Fire is the most “neutral” energy on the Path, so you can use it in place of most energies used generally, to cleanse, to empower, to create forms, etc.

The only thing I would not recommend is running it intentionally down channels or through blockages. It can be used for that, but I would wait until you’ve worked with it a bit more to avoid straining your energetic system.

When you are done with the energy you can either send it down into the earth with another white pillar, or gather it into the navel and leave it there. It will naturally disperse throughout your energy system from the navel over the next while, how long depends on a variety of factors, but generally several minutes to an hour.

The more you work with Star Fire, the easier it is to connect to and use. After enough practice breathing it in this way, you can fill your entire form with Star Fire in the space of a single breath, drawing the Star Fire from within and without.

While I don’t want to muddy the waters with too much at once, both breathing Star Fire and creating Star Water are short and simple so it makes more sense to group them rather than to drag out the posts.

Star Water is essentially holy water on the Starry Path, and it can be used more or less in any way you might use consecrated water. It has some specialized uses I’ll touch on later. Once the water is consecrated it can be used to enhance any working on the Path. When contacting a spirit you can anoint your throat and your third eye, so you may communicate and perceive. Anoint door frames and windows, and asperge each wall to bless and seal a home. Sprinkle around you in a circle to help create space. Cleanse items, and self purification. I’ll explain the Sea of Stars in another post.

Star Water

Required:

Salt of Star Fire
Glass jar with lid
Small mirror (small enough to fit flat on the bottom of the jar)
Purified water

Put the mirror facing up in the jar and fill with water. Take the jar outside with some salt. This can also be done inside as long as the night sky is visible and it is not a full moon, but outside is preferable.

Place the jar on the ground and sit beside it. Breathe in Star Fire. Breathe in and call up all the sensations of Star Fire, call it down from the Heavens and out from your Core. Let it fill your body, as though you’re an empty crystal container, and the fire fills you and dances on the surface of your skin. When you have flickering fire all around you breathe into the jar, and sprinkle in some Salt of Star Fire. Let Salt, and water, and Star Fire, and breath become one. The water may take upon the appearance of having many small lights drifting inside of it.

“I open up the Waters of the Way, I open up the Waters of the Heavens, I open up the Sea of Stars. May the Light of the Stars and their Fire Fall into these Waters, imbuing it with their light and power.”

Let the energy settle in the water, the Star Water. Once the water is filled with Star Fire, dip your ring finger of your non-dominant hand into the Star Water, trace a star over your third eye. Dip your finger in the water again and flick it upward, if possible perceive the water breaking up into stars that hang in space for a moment.

That is all you need do for Star Water, at this point you can seal the jar and put it somewhere safe, preferably where it won’t get direct sunlight, until you need it.

There is a semi-complicated system of when the best nights to collect Star Light in Star Water. A general guideline is the darker the night the better. The closer to the new moon, the better. A lunar eclipse is even more powerful. The most powerful is actually during the day of a Solar Eclipse. The Star Light in weakened in sunlight, so it is preferable to bring the jar inside before dawn, or at least as soon as possible. If during a Solar Eclipse only take it out during the eclipse.

There is also an astrological component, which is where it gets a bit more complicated. There are two (at least) “power positions” in the sky. The closer the new moon’s position to these spots, but before them, the better.

21 degrees of Taurus (Sidereal, or 16 degrees of Gemini for Tropical Astrology), and 20 degrees Libra (Sidereal, or 15 degrees of Virgo for Tropical Astrology). There might be other “power positions” but so far this is what I’ve been given.

Well charged Star Water only needs to be recharged once a year if it lasts that long, the last new moon before either of the locations above would be the best choice.

Next post I’ll introduce another spirit, and also include a section of the more grimoire/scripture styled writing as that spirit actually dictated/channel their history.

Sep

2018

Revisiting Spirits of Place

This is my second last post reblogging of older popular posts.

This isn’t a single post, but a series I did. Local spirits are something I work with a lot, and find they’re overlooked too often. So I wrote up a series of five posts going from what are local spirits, what aren’t, and how to work with them.

Local Spirits: Categories and Classifications. Common types of spirits that get lumped as local spirits, but aren’t necessarily such in my understanding.

Local Spirits: Clarifying Sadak and Shidak Explanation of the sadak and shidak, and the nature of local spirits proper.

Local Spirits: Reasons of Engagement Why you should work with local spirits, what they can do for you.

Local Spirits: Offerings and Engagement How to make offerings and how to sense and work with the shidak.

Local Spirits: Sensing and Structures More on sensing shidak, as well as how they seem to be structured and operate.

Aug

2018

Review: The Witch’s Book of Spirits, by Devin Hunter

The Witch’s Book of Spirits – Devin Hunter

Llewellyn, 2017, 9780738751948, 306pp

The Witch’s Book of Spirits is a refreshing book on spirit work and magick. Devin Hunter leads you through a theoretical tour of spirit realms, introduces you to spirits along the way, and teaches you how to work with them.

Spirit work is the cornerstone of most witchcraft traditions, but what Hunter presents is both applicable to most magickal traditions, but also distinct in and of itself. That’s one of the main things I appreciated, Hunter’s system is its own thing, it’s fresh and new, not a rehash of older grimoires or Books of Shadows.

The book starts with a look at the history of spirits and magick, the importance of spirit allies, and explaining the spirit realms. The book felt almost like a spiral, rather than a linear book. Instead of being a straight progression from topic to topic, it felt like topics were introduced, explored, and returned to a while later with greater understanding. From a teaching perspective this is a great way to keep the information fresh and relevant in the reader’s mind.

The book spirals out, looking at familiars, protections, spiritual flight, returning to the various spirit realms, and methods of conjurations. While I might disagree with some of Hunter’s delineations of spirits and realms, they do make a useful model to work from. If the worst thing I can say is that I disagree with some definitions, then I’d say that this makes this a fairly solid book on spirit work.

It’s the last half of the book that really shines in my opinion. Hunter gives us nine “Keys of Hecate” which are a combination of sigils and energy work. These Keys are symbols of power, each one with a different purpose and method of use ranging from establishing authority and protection to helping spirits manifest on our level. I found these really interesting because while the origins and symbols are different, the underlying principle and method is very similar to work I’ve had revealed to me by my spirits, just as these Keys were revealed by Hunter’s work with Hecate.

Now that the reader is equipped with the Keys to handle spirits the book spirals back into a deeper look at the classification of spirits, from angels and demons to the dead and the fae. The book ends with a grimoire of 33 spirits, spirits of the Vexna-Kari. They’re an interesting mishmash of spirits of different types and different origins. Several apparently were spirit familiars to witches in the past, but for whatever reason even after their witch died the spirits remained, brought back into the fold by the Vexna-Kari. The abilities or domains of the spirits are the standard fair: help learning, drawing love, protection, financial aid and so on. The head of the spirits, the Vexna-Kari, are three spirits, progenitors of witchblood, angels who walked the Earth. This section, like the Keys, had a few eerie similarities to my own work, and considering much of that comes from spirits who also claim themselves as bloodline progenitors and angels on the Earth I think it’s good confirmation having similarities arise. I suspect those who follow paths connected to the Crooked Path, Sabbatic Craft, TradCraft will probably find Hunter’s work very resonant with their own.

While I would recommend the book in general, for anyone wanting to improve the connection and work with spirits, I will say it probably will have an extra “layer” to those who walk paths connected with Hecate, the Bene Ha Elohim, and TradCraft. Even if you’re fairly developed in your spirit work, I would recommend the book for the Keys of Hecate and the Vexna-Kari grimoire.

Aug

2018

Review: The Elements of Spellcrafting, by Jason Miller

The Elements of Spellcrafting: 21 Keys to Succesful Sorcery – Jason Miller

New Page Books, 2017, 9781632651204, 222pp.

“It doesn’t matter what I’m teaching them, or what level they’re at, this book will be essential reading for my students.”

When I said that, I realized in a lot of ways that is one of the highest compliments I could give a book. I don’t care what tradition they follow, this book will help.

The Elements of Spellcrafting is not your normal book on magick, and I don’t mean that as a cheesy hype line, it’s true. It’s one of the best books on magick I’ve read, and it contains no real spells or rituals, no meditations or exercises. It really is a book about magick, as a conceptual process, not as a how-to. It’s very much a meta-book in that sense, it’s advice on doing magick, that is intelligent and grounded. As my initial quote suggests, it doesn’t matter what someone is learning, what system, this book will help them think about their magick in a more effective manner. As such, this is not a book that can stand truly alone, if you don’t have a magickal practice, this won’t teach you one, but if you have one this will improve it.

The book contains “21 Keys to Successful Sorcery” as well as a bonus 7 keys for successful divination. These keys are advice, ways to reframe your magick, your practice, your goals. I’ve talked before about practical magick, the importance of doing magick for the big and amazing, but also the small and reasonable, how to reframe your magick to be the most efficient it can be, and that’s what this book is about. (Also another reason this will be required reading for my students is that many of the points Jason makes I already have to really hammer into some students, so a book to send them to will save me hassle)

Sorcerer Harold and Spirit Salphegor introduce each chapter

The 21 keys are divided into three groups of seven. Part 1 is “Setting up the Spell” and is all about the lead up to actually performing magick: how to create good magickal goals, opening your life up so it can be influenced, how to plan ahead and keep things flowing. Part 2 is “Execution” and is about performing the magick itself: practical use of magickal materia, enchanting big and small for the same goal, how to think about magick and the way it spreads and grows. Part 3 is “Advancing Your Craft” and that’s about looking at your magick and your life and taking it further: It contains how to honestly evaluate your success (something I often have criticised sorcerous folks in general for being horrible at), setting big goals and boosting your confidence through that, how to accept failed magick (and if you’re a sorcerer who thinks magick never fails either you’re not doing magick, or your goals are laughably small) and how to learn from those failures. Most chapters also end with a few related questions to get you thinking about your magick differently and beginning to see where and how you might be able to improve your work.

The book is written in Jason Miller’s normal straightforward and accessible style. It’s down to earth, but definitely not downplaying magick, it’s practical, but not limiting. Whether you’re a student or teacher, new or seasoned, if you want to become more successful and effective as a sorcerer I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

magick

Shake It Up

Like this:

Gather 2019: Overview

Like this:

Field Report: Haunting of the Estranged Sister

Like this:

Colour Wheel, Magick, and Divisions

Like this:

Starry Path: Purpose, Path, and Goals

Like this: