spirits, Magic
Taylor Ellwood
The relationship between sacred kingship and ...

One of the books I’m reading lately is King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert Moore and Doug Gillette. It’s a fascinating book that explores the archetypes of the mature and sacred masculine. This is currently part of the spiritual work that I’m engaged in as I explore my own relationship with masculinity and heal the ancestoral and contemporary wounds that I’m becoming aware of as it relates to how masculinity is treated and perceived in modern times.

One of the aspects I’m exploring in particular is related to sacred kingship and the land. I am in the process of exploring the new city and surrounding areas that I live in. While I’ve lived here for a year, I didn’t have much opportunity until recently to really begin exploring the area and developing a relationship with the land. I find it fitting and useful that part of the process has also involved cultivating a relationship with the land, particularly on the basis of the relationship has with their home and how that relationship plays out in sacromagical work one does in connecting with the land.

spirits

Sensory over stimulation and scrying

Image courtesy of Taylor Ellwood 2023

I've been continuing to experiment with scrying using a combination of tools for the purposes of overstimulation. For this particular process I've been working with Andras and Haures, two of the daemons from the Goetia. The initial process has involved setting the sigil for the given daemon up so its between a candle and the black mirror I have set up. I evoke the daemon using the enn for it and then stare at the at the mirror through the candle flame...but set up an optical illusion so that it seems like the candle is doubled in appearance.

I also have been filming these sessions live on instagram and I have the camera propped up so its directed at the flame. The camera creates a halo effect with the flame which can also be used for scrying purposes. I use it as an additional layer of sensory overstimulation. I'm chanting the enn, looking at the candle and mirror and then sometimes scrying via the instagram live video.

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Further Scrying Experiments

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I took a little break from my scrying experiments because of a weekend trip I took where I did a lot of intense shadow work. I knew I needed to make time to integrate that work back into myself and that doing scrying work on top of that work wasn't a good idea.

But on Saturday night I decided I as ready to start the scrying experiments up again. This time I chose to work with Goetic Daemon Andras, around helping me release and let go of some fear I'd been feeling and to help me also get to the core of that fear.

I chose to evoke Andras via a candle and the black mirror. I also recorded a video of the scrying via Instagram, in part to set up the phone recording as another version of the scrying. What I've noticed is that when I record the scrying, it actually creates an intriguing effect with the candle, where the light of the candle creates a sphere of light in the recording that can also be used for scrying.

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Sound baths and audio magic scrying experiments

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image copyright Taylor Ellwood

I have been continuing to experiment with scrying, and I recently decided to switch from candles and mirrors to using modern technology.

My initial experiment was inspired by a Gong ceremony I attended. The Gong ceremony put me into a deep state of altered awareness and I ended up experiencing a sensation of time dilation. It was a deeply fascinating experience and it prompted me to consider how I could attempt to replicate the conditions of a sound bath, while using my black mirror and a candle for scrying.

What I did was set up a cd player with two speakers so that one speaker was to the left of me and the other was to the right. I then picked out music that would be helpful for stimulating the mind via biaurnal beats and soundscapes. I used music from Coil, Rapoon and The Anti Group Collective. I played the music and then lit the candle and proceeded to do my usual scrying, but with the music creating a sound batch effect for the purposes of deeper states of altered consciousness.

What I found is that with the right music I definitely achieved a deeper state of altered awareness which led to more visions and experiences via scrying, both for behavior alteration and spirit work. I then decided to move on to another experiment...

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What makes a spirit a spirit?

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Image courtesy of pexels

I've been thinking about the question, "What makes a spirit, a spirit?"

I'm currently writing Walking with Nature Spirits, and in the writing of this book I've been thinking about this question because of how I approach the work with nature spirits, but also because of the stereotypical imagery associated with nature spirits, which usually has them set up with imagery of gnomes, undines, slyphs, etc., basically humancentric shapes and appearances. The benefit of the humancentric shapes is that it makes easy for us to identify with those spirits. The downside however is that we all too often get stuck filtering our experience of a given spirit on the basis of the human oriented shape we associate with it. This isn't limited to nature or elemental spirits either.

We see this same tendency to humanize the appearance and experience of spirits with Daemonic spirits, angelic spirits, and any other type of spirit out there. This tendency brings with it a kind of entitlement as well: Namely the entitlement that the spirits are really here to serve or work for us. It's a naïve belief that isn't fully accurate and can create potential problems when we adhere too strongly to notions of what we think spirits are or are not.

One of my main purposes for writing the Walking with Spirits series is to present an alternate perspective to spirit work that is rooted in building a collaborative relationship with the spirits, but also recognizes that to experience the spirits we must be willing to experience them on their terms as much as possible.

What does that look like?

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Scrying for spirit Communication

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Picture copyright Taylor Ellwood 2023

One of the ways I like to work with scrying is with spirit communication.

I already have a strong connection to spirits, having always had a natural proclivity toward communicating with them, but what I'm finding with scrying is that this proclivity is further enhanced when working with the right tools.

In my case, the right tools are a combination of candles and black mirror, along with sometimes using additional tools including a pendulum, Tarot, or cowrie shells for divinatory purposes.

I'll also work with specific spirits around specific themes or areas of interest. In the picture above I have a sigil for the goetic spirit Camio that I'm working with for the purposes of enhancing my skills with candle magic and scrying through flame work.

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The relationship between sacred kingship and the land

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One of the books I’m reading lately is King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert Moore and Doug Gillette. It’s a fascinating book that explores the archetypes of the mature and sacred masculine. This is currently part of the spiritual work that I’m engaged in as I explore my own relationship with masculinity and heal the ancestoral and contemporary wounds that I’m becoming aware of as it relates to how masculinity is treated and perceived in modern times.

One of the aspects I’m exploring in particular is related to sacred kingship and the land. I am in the process of exploring the new city and surrounding areas that I live in. While I’ve lived here for a year, I didn’t have much opportunity until recently to really begin exploring the area and developing a relationship with the land. I find it fitting and useful that part of the process has also involved cultivating a relationship with the land, particularly on the basis of the relationship has with their home and how that relationship plays out in sacromagical work one does in connecting with the land.

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Goetic pathworking for internal work

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Over the course of this year I’ve been taking a Goetic Daemon a week course offered by S. Connolly on her Patreon. It’s been a fascinating course to take and its helped me expand my experiences and knowledge of working with daemons. While I already had some experience working with them going into the course, I’m glad I’ve taken the course because of the insights I’ve gained.

One of the suggestions that S. Connolly is working with the Daemons for the purpose of doing internal work and I’ve found this to be a great practice. Often it seems that people think of working with the Goetia when they need an external result or want to do an evocation, but there is a lot of value to be discovered in doing internal work with them.

The wild man and the sacred masculine

I’ve recently been reading a book called Iron John, which is a fascinating exploration of the Wild Man and the journey of a boy to discover sacred masculinity, through the wild man, as well as the sacred connection between the land and the spiritual king. I’m only halfway through the book at the time of this writing, but what strikes me about this book is a theme of journeys, and specifically the journey the boy is initiated through when he chooses to free the wild man (Iron John) from the cage he is in, and goes with him to the wilderness.

It reminds me of the Green Knight and the journey Gawain goes on to return the axe to the Green Knight as well as offer his head. All the experiences Gawain has along the way are part of an initiation into the mystery of the sacred masculine. When he first leaves on his quest, although Gawain is technically a man, he’s really a boy. He only begins to discover his own masculinity, in a sacred context, when he undergoes the various trials that reveal his weaknesses and failings as well as his strengths.

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Researching Mythology to create magical workings

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One of the projects I’ve lately been working on has involved doing research into the Mesopotamian mythos of Ishtar and Gilgamesh. I’m currently reading the Penguin Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. I’m not just reading the myths, but also the notes and information that the translator has shared because it can be equally valuable in terms of informing the translation but also the work around finding this information. The history is often quite fascinating and provides valuable context. I’m doing all this research because I want to create magical workings around tis mythos, but even though I already have a general knowledge of the mythos, I find it useful to do a deep dive to establish a strong foundation from which to build magical workings off of.

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Discovering Deity: How my magical path is changing

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I've worked with deities on and off in my magical practice over the years, but I’ve never really committed to a dedicated practice to a deity, up until recently. This recent change has come about in part because of learning about my magical partner’s tradition, but part of it has also come about because of a deep longing to connect with deity in this way. In a real sense, in taking part in the rituals and practices that I’ve been learning, its caused me to touch deeply on something I’ve needed and wanted but not really explored before.

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Walking with Elemental Spirits is now available!

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I started practicing magic when I was 16 and the very first magical discipline and practice I learned was elemental magic. Over the last 29 years I've continued to practice elemental magic and work with elemental spirits.

My latest book Walking with Elemental Spirits is a dissemination of my years of practice and all the experiences I've accumulated along the way.

But it's also more than that.

It's the evolution of elemental magic from the classic model of the 5 elements Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Quintessence into a modernized approach that explores and integrates other elements outside the classic Five elements.

Elements such as gravity, magnetism, time, and space and much, much more.

And I don't just stop there. Within this book you'll find a variety of elemental magic practices and ways to work with the elemental spirits.

The elemental spirits can be potent allies to work with and in this book you’ll learn how the practical magic skills that you can use to forge strong relationships with the elemental spirits that allow you to work with them as allies. In this book you will also learn the following:

  • The classic Hermetic and Taoist systems of the 5 elements, and my modernized system of elemental magic.

  • How to connect with elemental spirits using evocation portals and experiential embodiment

  • How to do internal work and health magic with the elemental spirits.

  • How to work with the elemental spirits to get practical results

  • and much more!


If you’re ready to learn a new approach to elemental magic, this book will teach you how to work with the elemental spirits and use elemental magic to get results that transform your life.

Walking with Elemental Spirits is available in E-book, paperback, and hardback.

This is a book I've waited a long time to write, but its time is finally here, and with it, the evolution of elemental magic as we know it.

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Magical Experiments Podcast: Spirit Work with Laurelei Black

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In this episode of Magical Experiments Podcast I interview Laurelei Black about her work with Aphrodite and the Goetia. We also discuss divination systems and what a do not call list is for spirit work and why you may want to have one in order to help you determine what spirits to work with, as well as what spirits to not work with.

Laurelei Black is a hedge-rider, a Cunning Woman, a traveler on the crooked path. She is a priestess of love and pleasure, an Ishtar-woman, an Aphrodite-woman. She is a friend to daemons and a mate to the Red God. A bone collector; a temple dancer. Laurelei is the author of 13 books (including Temple of Love and The Witches' Key to the Legion: A Guide to Solomonic Sorcery), a co-Director and frequent presenter at the Babalon Rising Festival, an OTO initiate, a co-owner of Camp Midian, and the proud proprietress of Asteria Books and Events and of Blade & Broom.

The Witches Key to the Legion (Affiliate Link)

Cult of Aphrodite (Affiliate Link)

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Working with genius spirit of the land

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Recently my magical partner and I visited Portugal. One of the many amazing places we visited was Monsanto, Portugal, which is a village that is built around the natural boulders. The buildings actually incorporate the boulders into the building and the villagers take pride in having a boulder as part of their home or business. I thought that was really fascinating because it struck me that they had made an intentional choice to live with the boulders and make them part of their lives.

When we explored the mountain around the village, my partner and I looked for a place to do some magic. The picture above, of a path between a couple boulders is near where we found such a space, but finding that space required us to listen to the genius of the land, the spirit that inhabits and defines the identity of that mountain. When we first scouted for a place to work magic, we found an area that seemed right and we went back and got our ritual gear, but our search for the right space was just beginning.

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How to extend your senses in spirit work

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Lately I’ve been doing some experimenting with how to extend the senses in spirit work. This experimentation has come about for a few reasons. I’m taking a course on scrying from Harper Feist, as well as doing more spirit work and because I’m teaching a course on my patreon about working with the psychic senses for the purposes of connecting with spirits. All of these things have been helpful for me, in terms of exploring the kind of spirit work I want to do, but also in terms of exploring how to better apply my sensorial awareness to the spirit work.

In the West, we are used to thinking of the senses in terms of sight, sound, touch, smell, and hearing, but these broad categories don’t encompass the subtleties of our sensorial awareness. These subtleties can be worked with in spirit work to lead us to a deeper connection with the spirits we’re working with. At the same time any sensorial awareness is to some degree subjective because its our senses making us aware of something. At the same time, our senses are limited and there’s a lot we don’t experience which is nonetheless happening around and to us.

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Now available for pre-order: Walking with Elemental Spirits

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In Walking with Elemental Spirits I share the modern system I’ve developed for working with elemental spirits that gets you consistent results while helping you build collaborative relationships with the elemental spirits.

The elemental spirits can be potent allies to work with and in this book you’ll learn how the practical magic skills that you can use to forge strong relationships with the elemental spirits that allow you to work with them as allies. In this book you will also learn the following:

  • The classic Hermetic and Taoist systems of the 5 elements, and my modernized system of elemental magic.

  • How to connect with elemental spirits using evocation portals and experiential embodiment

  • How to do internal work and health magic with the elemental spirits.

  • How to work with the elemental spirits to get practical results

  • and much more!

If you’re ready to learn a new approach to elemental magic, this book will teach you how to work with the elemental spirits and use elemental magic to get results that transform your life.

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Magical Experiments Podcast: The Luciferian Current with Anima Noira

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In this episode of magical experiments podcast, I discuss the luciferian current with Anima Noira. We discuss spirit work and how to work with Lucifer as well as discussing love spells and magical workings and when one should or shouldn’t employ magic for results driven purpose as well as what its like to do magic for the purposes of internal work.

My magical name has been variously translated as “Breath of Darkness”, “Dark Life Force” “Animating Darkness” or “Dark Fire”. Anima Noira is an occult writer, artist, videographer, and host of the Devil’s Disciples talk show. She has done the Devil’s Work as a model, witch, and priestess. She publishes her essays on the occult on her website, Inner Ignition.

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Breaking out of the 5 Element model: A different approach to elemental magic

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I’m currently writing Walking with Elemental Spirits, which is a book that explores my system for elemental magic. One of the central arguments of that book is that the 5 element model of earth, water, fire, air, and quintessence is a bit outdated. It has worked well as a model, but its evident that there are more elements than just the aforementioned elements. Why are we holding onto an outmoded model that was used to describe reality a long time ago, as a taxonomic means of categorizing the experiences of the world? I’ll be bold and just say we hold on to such models because we are taught that something which is old is typically considered better and if it works why change it.

I don’t agree with this sentiment. While I think the 5 element model is a great foundational tool, I also think that when we hold onto an old model and never question it we’re missing out on an opportunity to evolve magically, as well as to evolve the overall discipline of magic. I’ve been practicing elemental magic since I first started practicing magic, and for many years I did rely upon the 5 element model because it was what was available. Yet being the magical experimenter that I am, I inevitably ended up questioning it.