Every so often I get requests where a person asks me to help them obtain special powers through magic. In this episode of the magical experiments podcast I lay down the hard truth that there are no short cuts in magic and life and share some of my experiences and stories learning this truth. You’ll also learn why experience is the best teacher and how to let go of unrealistic expectations.
Magical Experiments Podcast : Can I do multiple types of magic?
In the Magical Experiments Facebook group I was recently asked the following question: “Is it okay to do different types of magick at the same time, for example I am delving into PGM, Heptameron, and working with a deity (hekate)?”
In the latest episode of the magical experiments podcast I answer this question and share some thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of working with different types or systems of magic at the same time.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Is Magic a Quick Fix Solution?
Have you ever tried to magic your way out of a problem?
In this podcast episode I answer the question: Why do people think magic is a quick fix/solution to “mundane”problems, or issues that require “mundane” work.
I also explore the connection between the “mundane” world and magic and show that any division between the two is arbitrary and then share examples of how to marry the mundane to the magical.
The arbitrary nature of elemental directions
When I first started practicing magic I didn’t question the association of the elements with the directions they were ascribed to. Air was east, fire was south, water was west and earth was north. The association of the elements with the directions was something I treated as a given at the time. It was only later, with experience under my belt that I questioned the placement of the elements in specific directions.
I came to question the association because as with most things magical its ultimately an arbitrary choice. If I live on the east coast, why can’t water be in the east? For that matter why can’t fire, with the rising sun? Or west with the setting sun. It seems more effective to base the directions of elements on the actual reality of what you’re dealing with.
For example if I live south of a lake or a river, water being in the north makes a lot more sense than putting it in another direction, but if someone lives north of that same body of water, then water in the south might make more sense. And yet even then it is arbitrary, a convenient placement based on your own location.
The elements are all around us. And we aren’t even limited to the classic 5 elements. There are many more that we can work with if we choose to. It’s important to question what we know or think about a given paradigm. In my book Walking with Elemental Spirits, I deconstruct the classic paradigms and systems of elemental magic and show the possibilities when we let go of the ideas that have been taught as “gospel truth”.
Discover for yourself: What is true about a given path or process, system or tradition. There will always be people who will tell you what they think is true and for them, it may be truth, but each of us ought to question carefully what the truth is and find out what it can be, as it relates to our spiritual work and our lives.
The Rules we live by define the magic we work
I’ve been taking a number of classes lately around men’s work and self-development and in one of the classes, there’s an exercise where you define your code of conduct, as a part of a process of learning how to master yourself and become the man you want to be. I think this exercise is applicable to anyone regardless of how they identify as a gender. What’s fascinating to me however is how the rules a person lives by (or lack thereof) define the magic that the person works, and indeed how the person surveys and experiences the world.
I’ve also been reading a book about this same topic where the author defines some rules to live by, so as to bring order to a chaotic life. The rules he shares are insightful because they aren’t moral rules so much as they are practical rules that define the way people tend to organize themselves, both within themselves, with other people, and with the environment they live in. This illustrates to me that there are chosen rules, i.e. rules where a person says I’m agreeing to live this way because this rule or value resonates with my deepest identity and I want to consciously show up with that way in my live. And then there are systemic rules, rules set by society at large that may favor some people over others and encourage a conformity in order to potentially benefit from your position. And finally there are environmental rules, which are rules that operate outside of human consciousness or control. These are rules all of us deal with and they aren’t easily altered, if they can be altered at all.
A life that operates without rules is a chaotic life, a situational response that always tries to adapt to the moment, but creates little, if any, stability. I have lived that life and I have found it to be an unsatisfying life, because there is little certainty or consistency that comes with it. Over time, with lots of effort, I’ve reoriented my life toward living a more orderly life. And even now I am continuing that process because I find that the more I define my life by rules that make sense and organize my way of being, the more focused I get with creating the life I want to live.
The rules we live by define the magic we work. As you get more and more clear around your life and the rules you live by, it shapes your outlook on your life and it shapes the magic you work. It creates the container in which your life operates, and the expectations you have around that container. Some of those rules are consciously chosen, and many of them are unconsciously chosen. The ones that are unconsciously chosen usually arrive from a combination of ancestral and familial patterns of behavior and societal norms and values. The rules that we consciously choose are ones we pick for ourselves based on an awareness around something we want to change in our lives or a way we want to behave in the world, in order to achieve specific results.
Magic is one process that can make us aware of the rules we’ve unconsciously chosen because it brings us up close and personal with our desires and it allows us to see what’s getting in the way of accomplishing those desires. Many people use magic to bend the rules of reality or find some angle that gets them what they want, but in that process they necessarily ought to take a moment to know themselves and discover what is it within them that is calling for that desire.
Sometimes what we discover is that we create rules for ourselves based around our shadows. For example, if you find yourself in a consistent situation where you are continually getting rejected by people around you, there is likely something within you that craves something about that rejection. You might find that statement odd, but consider that the rejection is a symptom of a homeostatic state of being which is comfortably uncomfortable. You know that state of being. It is familiar to you and there are no surprises to it. It ends with you being rejected, but at least you know to expect that. The problem is that leads you to settling for less.
You can only break this rule when you figure out what you getting from it that satisfies you. And you are getting some kind of satisfaction, even if it is the satisfaction of feeling comfortable with the situation, even though you don’t like it. It becomes a rule of your life, until you break it, and make a new rule, a consciously chosen rule, that you live by. Of course there can also be subtle variations of the former rule and what you’ll need to do is a deep dive into these variations and iron them out and in the process change your relationship with yourself and the agreements you’re making with the universe.
The rules we live be define the magic we work and the results we get. What are the rules you are living by? What are the results you’re getting. If you’re not satisfied with them, it might be time to do some deep work around transforming them so you can also change your life.
Sentence stems as a form of writing magic
I recently came across a new writing technique that I am using as part of my personal development work, but I’ve also found it has some interesting applications for writing magic. This technique is called sentence stems and it was developed by psychologist Nathaniel Branden. The way the sentence stem works is you are provided a partial sentence and then you fill the rest of the sentence out with your own answer. Below are a few examples of sentence stems:
If I were to take 5% more responsibility I would…
Taking care of myself means…
I am becoming aware of…
The sentence stems provide the core of the sentence, but require you to finish the sentence. Ideally you write out a few sentence stems around an area of your life that you want to work on and then you fill them out each day. A month is typically suggested for working with the same sentence stems. This is a repetitive process, but the benefit of the repetition is you get to see how your answers evolve. A couple of examples of filled out sentence stems would be:
Taking care of myself means I am exercising each day, eating nutritious food and getting the sleep my body needs.
If I were to take 5% more responsibility I would write enough content to be scheduled out for several weeks.
I’ve been applying sentence stems to my magical practice as well. I use a sentence stem as a foundation and then complete the sentence. I use it for several purposes. The first purpose is to refine my awareness around the specific result I want to manifest. By continually writing out the sentence stem over a period of time I get the opportunity to drill into the result that I want to manifest and consider the different iterations of that expression. This process helps me develop a precise awareness of what I want, and allows for more effective targeting of magic.
The other purpose I use it for is sigil generation. After I write out the sentence stem multiple times, I can pick out the best expressed statement of desire and then use the classic method of sigil development, where you get rid of repeating letters first, and then vowels or consonants, if you still have too many letters. The sentence stems make it easy to come up with different statements of desire that you can turn into sigils around whatever you want to work on magically.
I’m also experimenting with using sentence stems in my writing magic practices, with the idea being to pick a specific them and use the sentence stem in my journaling to write that theme into reality. I’ve done some similar journaling practices in the past, but what makes the sentence stem different is the deliberate repetition. The repetition conditions your consciousness to focus more on the theme you are writing about and this in turn allows you to be receptive to how that theme shows up in your life.
Sentence stems is another example of how a writing practice can be taken and applied to magical work in order to get consistent results. It’s also an excellent method for doing internal work on yourself and having an objective record of the work.
The ebbs and flows of magical activity
Should you do magic all the time? Is it a good idea to take a break with magical activity? Is there such a thing as too much magic? I answer these questions as I discuss the importance of the ebbs and flows of magical activity in your life, and consider what makes a magical life.
The sun's role in planetary magic
I’m reading Retrograde Planets by Erin Sullivan (affiliate link) and she makes a very intriguing point about the nature of the sun as it relates to astrology. She claims that the sun is ultimately a reflection of the other planets that mediates those energies in our lives, through the sun sign. I found this commentary relevant because of ongoing magical work I’m doing that involves creating a specific space where you phase out sublunar energies, because of how they interfere with magical work. I also found it relevant for another reason, because when you are working with specific materials you don’t want direct sunlight to tamper with the energies. The commentary filled in a gap for me around the work I’m doing.
If we consider that the solar energy is essentially a mediation of other planetary energies as they show up in your life, then there exists the possibility that we can change our relationships with a given planetary energy by changing how the solar energy mediates that planetary energy. For example my Saturn is in Leo. My sun is in Libra and mediates that Saturn energy around relationships and my ability to love myself versus seeking love with other people. The result is that I’ve necessarily had to do a lot of self love work around myself because of the Saturnian influence as mediated by Libra, but in doing that work, one of the aspects I’ve explored is how to change my relationship with Saturn. This necessarily has involved changing how I approach setting boundaries and healthy relationships in my life, but it also of late involving working on self-responsibility and applying a Saturnian approach to relationships that redefines them in favor of healthy self-awareness and taking responsibility in a way that empowers me, instead of punishing myself.
This new perspective also has helped me see how retrogrades can actually be powerful and positive experiences that open us to awareness around the areas of our lives where change is needed and opportunities are available. For example, when Mercury goes into retrograde, the opportunity is revealed around the area of communication and what you take for granted about communication that could be worked on. Or apply this to Venus or Jupiter, with whatever meanings are associated with those energies. What could you discover about yourself in a retrograde period that could be worked on and developed in a meaningful way?
The application to inner alchemical work is clear when you apply this lens to planetary magic, but you can also apply it practically to your life. For example in the case of relationships, you can engage in magical work that’s designed to help you improve your communication and relationships skills. This ay mean you work with mercury to call up situations where you can practice your communication skills or that you approach a specific situation with an aim of enhancing your communication using mercurial magic…and at the same time you’ll factor in the solar influence and how that shapes your approach to communication. In my case, the solar influence is Libra/Scorpio cusp so I have to consider how that communication might be really intense and also a balancing of different perspectives, in a way that might work against me. The solar mediation of mercurial energy is an essential aspect to consider in terms of how I might apply magic to communication.
Taking this perspective on around planetary magic has shifted my overall approach with a consideration of how to factor in the planetary influences on the sun, as well as how the sun also plays a role in the other planets. It is a two way street and meditation on this idea can be helpful, especially as you develop planetary magic workings further, or apply them holistically to other endeavors. I’m applying this awareness to my daily work as well, in consideration of how to best direct the given planetary influences and also be more aware of them in terms of how they show up in my personality so that I can apply them in a way that is helpful to my efforts.
A nuanced approach to planetary magic factors in the way the planets influence each other, instead of treating them as siloed entities. Ideally you’ll get the various influences to play off each other, but even if you don’t learning how to plan for them can help you get better results with your planetary magic. Applying this understand may provide an additional key that opens doors for you with the respective planetary forces you are working with.
How to Re-Write and Re-wire Memories
Awhile back I went to a restaurant and took myself on a dinner date. I don't normally eat out alone, but I wanted to re-write and re-wire a memory and I've found that sometimes the best way to do that is to revisit a site and make a new memory that overwrites the old memory.
But what if we can't do that? What if we're too far away or if the memory is simply too triggering?
We may still want to change the memory, but we may need to take a magical approach to doing that work that liberates us from the trauma and tyranny of the past, while also enabling us to transform our present and presence.
I like to take two different approaches to this kind of magical work.
1. Use pathworking to rewrite the memory and create a new story and narrative
I have used pathworking to rewrite traumatic memories. In the book Magical Imagination by Nick Farrell (Affiliate link), there's an excellent script you can use where you create this idyllic garden in your mind.
The garden seems really peaceful, but there's a rotting tree in it and that tree represents the memories you need to work through. You go into the tree and you find a corridor of doors and each door leads to a memory.
You go into the memory but you have complete control of that memory. You can change it anyway you want and rewrite the memory and experience however you please.
You can make different choices and cause different actions to happen and transform the way the memory unfolds. It's magical and it can help you change the deep patterns in your life.
2. Transform the memories with the memory box.
You can also use a magical tool like a memory box. A memory box is a tool where you store memories in order to transmute them into energy in your life. It's similar to that magical tool in the Harry Potter fiction...the pensieve.
I created my first memory box many years ago and I've used it for a variety of space/time magical workings, but one of the workings I do is I store memories in it, and convert them into energy for transforming my life.
The traumatic memories become fuel for empowerment. By removing them from my active and unconscious memory and storing them somewhere else, I let them go from my life and this frees me from the trauma I would otherwise be holding onto and allowing to define me in my life in a way that empowers and frees me from the past so I can embrace the present.
3. And sometimes you just need to do a cathartic magical working...
I said I was only going to share two ideas, but I thought about it and sometimes what you need to do is a cathartic magical working where you release the emotions, thoughts and triggers of the memories.
In the summer of 2022 I hiked Mt. Pisgah. I took with me three letters I had written. Two of them were written to an ex. One was a letter where I just vented over my hurt feelings and another was a gratitude letter. The third letter was for me and in it I wrote about the life I wanted to create for myself. It was an act of magical writing designed to help me create a new narrative for my life.
I hiked all day and I found three different spots. At each I did a ritual where I buried a letter and did a ritual of release where I cut the ties that bound us, and in the process began healing from the traumatic experiences and memories I was feeling. By the end of the day I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but I also feel cleansed and this began a process of healing that is allowing me to radically transform my life.
Our memories don't need to define us. We can turn them into tools, we can heal them and we can let them go and live our best lives.
Rewriting the narrative of your life through social media
I find social media to be a fascinating tool, as a writer, because of how it has become a journaling tool for people. Each day I’ll read updates where people share fascinating notes about their lives, as well as their various interests. Something which has always stood out to me about social media is that it’s a space where people are rewriting the narratives of their lives through the content they generate and the live interactions they have with other people.
One of the ways that I experiment with social media as a magical practice involves creating a distinct narrative of my life that I want to manifest. I consider social media to be a hypersigil, but instead of creating a character to represent myself, I simply use the medium of social media as a representation of my life as it is happening. The writing and reading of events can create a compelling narrative the speaks to the reality of the person doing the writing, as well as those doing the reading.
As a a writer I become the reader of my life, both in terms of responding to other people’s comments on what I’ve shared but also reviewing the memories of my experiences that are on the social media sites. We are co-creating an interactive dialogue that shapes the narrative between us in written and sometimes graphical form.
From a magical perspective the approach I take is that social media allows me to create a narrative of my life fused with a specific intent that is embedded in the writing. What I choose to write and share is reflective of that intent. One consideration is that the intent is filtered because social media and writing in general is filtered by the subjective biases we bring, but that’s also a strength from a magical perspective, because that subjective bias becomes a magical tool for the writing. Your subjective bias has all the personal attachments connected with it and that fuels the writing and crafts the experience of the narrative.
In my upcoming class the Practical Magic of Writing, we’re exploring how to create a narrative of your life, using hypersigils. Social media can be one of the mediums you use for this kind of magical work, especially when you integrate other elements such as pictures and videos. I have used Facebook to create manufactured memories and on Instagram I’ve been developing some reels and videos as well as stories told through pictures. The stories I tell become part of the magic of my life and shape the manifestation of that life into reality.
How to use minimalism in your magical practice
One of the yearly practices that I do is around this time of the year, when the winter season sets in. The longer dark nights and the coldness of the season creates a natural sense of introspective awareness that simultaneously calls for some minimalism in spiritual practice. Recently my magical mate and I followed through on this sense of introspective awareness by creating a wintering altar, where we took many of our ritual and magical items and “retired” them for the season.
Doing this activity gives those ritual and magical items a rest, and it also gives us a chance to evaluate what is absolutely essential to our spiritual practice. Sometimes, when you do an activity like this, what you are really doing is also creating a specific purpose for whatever you leave out. In the case of the wintering alter, leaving out only the essential ritual and magical items involves picking out what would be used for wintering practices, but you can apply this same understanding to a different type of ritual and find that you would use different ritual items based on the purpose of the magical work.
One of the minimalistic practices that I’m applying with wintering is the use of a candle flame, where I stare into the flame for a time, with no other light in the room and allow my consciousness to appreciate the light of the candle, in relationship to the dark. I then blow out the candle and close my eyes, allowing the after image of the flame to imprint itself on my mind. Eventually even the after image fades to darkness and I contemplate the darkness. I can then start up the process again or leave it as it is.
You can do similar process with sound. Take a bell and ring it. Listen to the sound as it fades. Then listen to the silence. Then ring the bell again and repeat the process. When we create practices around our senses that incorporate this kind of minimalism it can teach us a lot about how to incorporate one of our most potent tools into magical and spiritual work: Our bodies.
A minimalistic approach to magic, for whatever the reason or purpose asks that we get creative about our practice because it calls on us to give away what isn’t absolutely essential to our practice, but to figure that out we have to actually assess our practice and determine what to keep and what to let go (for a time). Yet the essentialist aspect of this work also challenges us to discover how we create an experience with less that nonetheless takes us to more.
A space/time Divination Experiment
I share my latest experiment with divination and discuss the protocols of the experiment.
The Scythe of Saturn: A consideration of cyclical aspects of Saturnic work
One of the themes of my inner work this year has been around Saturn, in terms of sacred masculinity, but also in terms of space/time magic. I've lately been reading the book Saturn in Transit by Erin Sullivan which explores the astrological influence of Saturn on the transits. One of the more intriguing points she makes is the following:
"The need to castrate our old oppressor in order to install a new order, then swallow out creative issue so as to preserve the status quo, is quite normal in the various stages of development. When we recognize that this is a process, and one, moreso, which repeats itself, we are freed to re-enact this scenario over and over again without reserve. Saturn is the planet that establishes our rites of passage from the one status quo to another and, as that functionary, should be regarded with respect and not with fear and dread. Furthermore, once we recognize that the revolution is originating from within, we are then more capable of conspiring and cooperating with the timing of the events precipitated by the transit."
What I've observed in my own work with Saturn is that there are cyclical aspects of the work that need to recognized in order to get the most out of the work. Once I recognized these cycles and started employing them, I was able to get a lout of the work that I had previously missed out on. So what are the cycles?
The cycle of Fear - Saturn connects us with our fears, because the fears we feel often play a role in the limitations and boundaries we experience. However the real depth of Saturn with fear is that Saturn shows us how we sabotage ourselves with our fears. The mythos of Saturn demonstrates this because of how Saturn sabotages himself with his fear off being overthrown. We can either allow our fears to control us and sabotage our possibilities or we can learn to be present with those fears and discover how to work with them in an intentional way that allows us to liberate ourselves and achieve our potential. Saturn challenges us to do the latter by causing us to experience the former.
A sneak peak of Iterative Magic
I talk about Iterative Magic and what it is and give you a sneak peak of my upcoming class iterative magic
Long Term Thinking and Planning in Magic and Life
Are you applying a long term perspective to your magic and life or are you getting caught up in wanting instantaneous results? I share why its better to cultivate a long term perspective to your magical work and life and also share what can happen when you don’t apply this awareness to your life.
The connection between Spirits and the Imagination
I share why your imagination is one of the most powerful means for connecting with spirits and also explore the cultural baggage around the imagination and how this keeps you from connecting with spirits. I also discuss how to determine if a spirit has connected with you.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Elemental Magic and Troubleshooting your Magic with Frater Barrabbas
In this episode Frater Barrabbas and I discuss elemental magic and talismans and how they work and also discuss how to troubleshoot your magic and work through your failures.
Get Elemental Power for Witches.
Frater Barrabbas (Richmond, VA) is a practicing ritual magician who has studied magick and the occult for over forty years. He is the founder of a magical order called the Order of the Gnostic Star and he is an elder and lineage holder in the Alexandrian tradition of Witchcraft. Visit and learn more at www.FraterBarrabbas.com and fraterbarrabbas.blogspot.com
Magical Experiments Podcast: Incense and Orphic Hymns with Sara Mastros
Sara Mastros and I talk about her magical path and past as well as her books The Big Book of Incense and The Orphic Hymns. We discuss how to work with incense and how the sense of smell can play an important role in magical work as well as discussing how to modify and experiment with existing magic rituals and why some customization of such rituals can be helpful.
Sara Mastros, author of Orphic Hymns Grimoire and Big Book of Magical Incense, is Pittsburgh's leading Witch for Hire. In addition, she teaches tarot, witchcraft, Greek and Near Eastern mythology, Pan-Levantine folk magic, and practical sorcery online and at festivals all over the east coast. You can check in on her courses and lessons at www.WitchLessons.com, sign up for her newsletter at www.MastrosZealot.com, or follow all her witchy shenanigans on facebook at Facebook.com/Sara.Mastros
Can you work magic with modern technology?
Can modern technology and magic mix? I share my own thoughts on how modern technology and magic can mix and why its important to look at how magic and technology can be applied together for effective magical work.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Ancient Magical Artifacts with Alison Chicosky
In this episode, Alison Chicosky and I discuss the various magical artifacts she's created and she tells us how she created those artifacts and what her research process is. We also address the recent controversies she's been dealing with in the occult community.
Visit Alison's website at http://www.practicaloccult.com
To see pictures and links of the products we discussed in the show visit: https://www.magicalexperiments.com/blog/2021/11/4/further-experiments-with-pentacles