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.

magic

Why Subjectivity is important in magic

In Holy Daimon by Frater Acher (affiliate link) the author makes an insightful point when he notes the following, “While objectivity is certainly necessary in, for instance, medicine and some fields of physics, it causes real problems when it is applied to all modes of human enquiry.” I agree with his point about objectivity because objectivity is often held up as a holy grail for all methods of inquiry to aspire to, but this isn’t realistic, because not all methods of inquiry can be rooted in objective study. Magic is one such method of inquiry, and with magic it is better suited to ask the questions, “Does it work?” or “Am I getting results?” then to focus on finding objective proof of magic.

These are subjective questions and subjectivity is often treated as less than reliable because it becomes more personal, and the question of proof arises. Can you prove that X helped really happened because of Y? is a question that may naturally arise from a skeptical person. My answer has always been to look at the overall consistency of magic in my life and note through observation whether there are repeatable patterns. Yet, there are also situations where I do magic for a specific situation or to have a specific experience and I may never need to do that magical working again. Even then, what I look to is the overall efficacy of the magical work.

Has this work changed my life? Am I moving in a direction that I want to go toward? Am I having meaningful, life changing experiences? These are the questions I am interested in answering, as well as the inevitable question, Can I experiment with this idea and this process and get a result. I’m less interested in proving that magic is objectively real. I think the evidence for that question is already present by the fact that magic, in one form or another, continues to be a prevalent part of humanity.

Subjectivity is important in magic because it allows us to make room to explore the intersection between out human consciousness and the liminal aspects of reality that don’t fit neatly into conveniently labeled categories that are thrust upon us by people craving certainty, instead of embracing the uncertainty that is life. Subjectivity allows us to be present with the unknown and consider alternate ways of knowing that can bring as much value to us as objectivity can.

A person on the magical path ought to recognize as well that the path IS highly personal. None of us will walk exactly the same path, nor do we need to. Subjectivity helps us recognize this reality of magic and embrace it. My experience isn’t the same as yours and it doesn’t need to be. At the same time, it IS good to apply some rigor to the work. Making fantastical claims without backing those claims up just makes the work harder for all of us, but if you can apply some rigor to your experiences you’ll find consistent patterns in your work that speaks to the questions I mentioned above. Embrace your subjective experience and also track it!

,

Magical Experiments Podcast: The Connection between astrology and alchemy with Maria Miles

,

In this episode of Magical Experiments Podcast, I interview Maria Miles about the connection between astrology and alchemy. She shares her background and how she got into astrology and alchemy as well as explaining how astrology can be used in alchemy and magic to get better results with timing.

Maria Miles is an Alchemist, Hermeticist, Witch and Diviner, specializing in Cartomancy and Traditional Astrology. She has been studying these arts collectively for 16 years, beginning as a teenager. What began as a personal endeavor of self discovery has become her primary vocation as a professional astrologer. She has been seeing clients professionally for six years for cartomancy and astrology consults. Her study of alchemy began around age 21 growing into a practice with the instruction of Robert Allen Bartlett. She aims to integrate traditional techniques of astrology and Hermetic philosophy into the lives of modern people, who ask the same questions that humans have always asked.

Maria is an accomplished Sorceress who offers tutelage and advice to those clients with an interest in the occult. Her studies of magic have ranged from traditional witchcraft and folk-cunning to astrological image magic and the crafting of talismans and spagyric elixirs she sometimes has available. All materia magica is limited edition and only available when the stars are right and the proper rites have been observed. She approaches her consultations from a holistic angle aiming to uplift her clients by promoting a mindful consideration of fate. She lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States where she has lived for more than twenty years.

To learn more about Maria go to rootedstarsastrology.com

, ,

Rediscovering my Identity part 4

, ,

Rediscovering your identity can be a process of trying things and discovering what works and what doesn’t work, as well as being open to the opportunities that present themselves to you. As I also share in this video, it is important to be in touch with what brings you meaning and satisfaction.

,

Creativity, love, and magic

,

One of the books I’m currently reading is Creativity by Robert Fritz (affiliate link). He provides a fascinating definition of love, within the first couple pages which has really stuck with me. He explains that love is at the center of creativity, but that in the context of creativity is an active force, instead of a passive experience. Love as a passive experience, is an experience where love happens to you and you get some type of benefit from it. In contrast, love as an active force is a form of generative process, where you are actively creating something.

This concept of love as an active force reminds me of another book I’m reading by Christopher Alexander which explores the process of generative creation in context to architecture. Both authors have a similar stance in that they opt for an iterative approach to what is created, recognizing that such an approach brings an organic awareness with it that informs how we appreciate the act of creation and the result.

, , ,

How to deal with occult community drama

, , ,

I discuss my thoughts on occult community drama and how to deal with it. Most importantly I share what you should really focus on and why that is more important than getting into arguments with people about what you do with your spiritual practice.

Learn how magic works

Get free e-books

Become my patron

How to start over with your magical practice

In last week’s blog post I shared the importance of why you are your own authority and I talked a bit about a moment when I had to start over with my spiritual path because I had gone down a rabbit hole of sorts. In this post, I want to share what that process looked like and how starting over with my spiritual practice ended up being one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

Starting over with any discipline can be intimidating, because in one sense you really can’t start over. You have all the knowledge and experiences that brought you to the point that you’re at. You can’t erase it or wish it away. It’s part of you and so that will inform everything you do.

So how do you really start over with a spiritual practice?

,

The problem with authority in occultism

,

One of the statements I frequently make in my videos and writing is that you are the ultimate authority of your life. I go onto point out that no one else, me and other occult authors included, are the authority of your life. I make this statement for a couple very important reasons that I think need to be spelled out, because all too often people give away their own authority to someone else they deem to be a guru or spiritual master.

A person who self-proclaims themselves to be a guru or a master isn’t one at all. They are making such a proclamation from a place of ego and insecurity, and perhaps because they want power over other people. Such a person should always be regarded with skepticism and carefully tested, and perhaps ultimately avoided, because anything they offer is coming from the wrong place. The fact that they need to proclaim themselves an authority makes them suspect and even if they do offer some genuine wisdom, you will want to temper that offer carefully.

What should a daily practice of magic look like?

The other day I was asked what a daily practice of magic ought to look like, for someone who’s starting to practice magic. The answer I give is going to be general for a specific reason: I can give you some suggestions on what a practice ought to look like, but the specific practices you decide to do are your own, and should be, because what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. I throw that in there, because as always, YOU are the authority of your life and so you should be the one to decide what you’ll do or not do.

With that said, I do have some recommendations on daily magical practice that can greatly benefit you and is really applicable across the board to anyone who is new or who has been practicing magic for a while. And if you don’t already do a daily practice, I highly recommend it because by making it a regular part of your life, you really get the benefits that are otherwise missed out on.

So what are my daily magic recommendations?

, , , ,

Elemental Balancing Ritual Creativity Month 18

, , , ,

3-23-2020 Last night I transitioned over to Ain Soph Aur/Pluto/Suvuviel. The three veils aren’t typically included in a Tree of Life work, but it seemed appropriate to me that I work with them. But I’ll admit I sense of morbid amusement that I would start working with Pluto on this month, of all months, when we’re dealing with the corona virus. Then again, it really is appropriate because Pluto is about death and rebirth and all of us, in one form or another, are going through exactly that.

Suvuviel is also appropriate because he’s the archangel of the present, and of the spirit cord. He ties everything together with the cord, but he can also unravel the cord. He’s present in all moments, because he is part of the present.

When I connected with Ain Soph Aur/Pluto/Suvuviel, I felt like I was at the very pinnacle of the solar system, looking back at the sun and the planets, at the earth and everything going on and I felt Suvuviel come through and explain that part of this experience is necessarily about seeing the entire picture, looking beyond the immediate circumstance to the underlying patterns. I’m not just looking at this moment in time, but all the work I’ve done the previous 17 months.

Copy writing, magic, and persuasion

One of the books I’m reading right now is Book Blurbs Unleashed by Robert J. Ryan (Affiliate link). I’ve been using the book to help me improve my copywriting skills, when it comes to developing book blurbs. A book blurb is a description about a book that gives you an idea of what the book is about, but also is written to persuade a person to give the book a chance. Anytime you read the back cover of a book or a description in an online store, you’re reading a blurb.

I’m okay at writing non-fiction blurbs. They’re pretty easy to write because you’re presenting a just the facts explanation about what the book is about. But with fiction blurbs I’ve struggled because I’ve never written them before. I picked up Book Blurbs Unleashed, because I knew I needed some help crafting a good fiction blurb.