A lot of what I see made available around magic is focused on short term results, but my own approach is focused around life design. Today I share some thoughts on what life design magic looks and how you can apply it to your life.
When to employ magic during a life change
When you’re going through a big life change, knowing when to employ magic and when to hold off is crucial for making your magical work successful. In this video I explain my reasoning and thought processes around such work and share what I’m doing around my current life change.
Planetary Magic Experiment
I've never worked with planetary magic. I got wrapped up into elemental hermeticism and didn't really explore the planets. But I'm taking the Strategic Sorcery course and one of the homework assignments involved possibly working with planetary magic so I thought I'd stretch myself. Jason thoughtfully provided symbols he'd gotten in his own work, but I decided it was better if I went straight to the source, and the other day in How to Meet and Work with Spirit Guides by Ted Andrews, I found pertinent information on contacting the archangel associated with each planet. I decided to work with one planet: Jupiter, which is associated with wealth magic. The archangel associated with Jupiter is Tzadkiel.
The first step was to contact Tzadkiel. I meditated on the astrological symbol of Jupiter and Tzadkiel's sigil, as well as vocalizing Tzadkiel's name. It took a little while to make contact, but eventually I did. I asked him, if I could get a symbol for Jupiter that represented the planetary energy and associations with wealth and other areas. He was happy to provide it to me, but then we got into a discussion about the associations. I asked him about the association of wealth with Jupiter and what made Jupiter as a planet have anything to do with wealth. He replied it was less about the planet and more about how people perceived the planet (and associated God) with wealth. That what made it powerful had more to do with the perceptions that people invested in the planet. What I'm really tapping into are those perceptions of the power, the perceptions about the associations and how those associations can be worked with.
Since then I've taken the symbol and put it on my whiteboard and each time I've done anything associated with my business or a financial transaction, I've mentally imprinted the symbol on the business or financial transaction, with the idea of drawing on those associations to provide a favorable outcome for me. I plan on doing work with the other planets (and their archangels )and also with Tzadkiel, but it is an interesting thought, to look at the planetary energy in terms of the perceptions invested into it.
Playing in someone else's sandbox
As I've been taking the Strategic Sorcery course, something that has stood out to me is how essentially I'm learning the Jason Miller way of doing magic. This isn't a bad thing per se, because it's fairly clear that how he approaches magic works. Some of it brings back some memories of my early days, especially when I did basic hermetic rituals to the letter everyday, and there are activities we are doing where I know I have my own version of how I do it, and instead I'm choosing to do it via the way the course has laid it out, because the whole point of taking a course like this is learning from the person teaching the course. In fact, I'm really valuing this experience because if it teaches me nothing else, it teaches me not to take for granted how I practice magic or how other people practice it. By doing some practices the way someone else would do them, it forces me to really examine how I approach my magical work and pushes me to be a better magician.
At the same time, I am getting some ideas for how to structure my own courses. I already have the groundwork laid out for one course. I just need to finish writing it up (which should be a bit easier now that MI is out of the way). But what I'm realizing is that this process of developing online classes doesn't have to be nearly as complicated as I made it out to be. Playing in someone else's sandbox can teach you quite a lot, if you are open to it.
Strategic Sorcery Report: Lesson 0
I just did Lesson 0. Without going into the specific mechanics of the ritual, which I can't share here, what I will share is that when I intoned the word and vowels and looked into the symbol, I came to a place where I saw lines of force and felt the presence of other people, all of them pouring their energy into a central space, and yet conversely all of them being filled by that energy. I felt myself touched by that energy and then felt the connection strengthen as I continued with the ritual. Even now I can still feel this connection and I recognize I have chosen to intentionally connect with something which embodies the Strategic Sorcery course, but also embodies the collective efforts of everyone who has taken the course. I am filled with a sense of respect and admiration for those other people, and a desire to contribute my own effort, to pay it forward to others who take the course.
Why I'm taking the Strategic Sorcery course
Last night I signed up for Jason Miller's Strategic Sorcery course. I've heard about his course for a while and I've seen a few cases where its clear people applied the work to their lives and made some changes. Now you might wonder, "Taylor you are making changes to your life with magic, and you've developed a variety of practical systems that work. Why are you taking the class?" You're absolutely correct. I have developed a few different systems, detailed in my own books and my approach to magic is practical and I regularly get measurable results. But just because I've done all that doesn't mean I've stopped learning. One of the primary reasons I write books is to educate myself about what I'm writing about. The process of writing and developing the magical practices is how I learn about something that interests. But as I write about in my Holistic Business Coaching blog, I'm also a firm believer in learning from other people. For the most part, with my magical practice, I've self-educated myself, and my prior experiences with mentors is one I don't care to try and repeat, but taking a class is different. It's purposely set up to provide guidance, but also freedom to learn, without necessarily having someone try and constrict your creativity. At least that's my feeling on classes. So I figure taking this class is a good opportunity to learn from someone else, improve my skills further, and become a better magician.
When you rest on your laurels is when you stagnate. Challenging yourself to grow is an integral part of living life and improving your craft. I do it with my business coaching, and I do it with my magical practice.
I have another reason I'm taking this class. I'm in the process of developing my own course work for magicians. It focuses on the process of magic. I have no idea how to set it up though. I don't want to copy Jason, but I want to get a sense of how someone creates and sets up a class. So it's a case of not just learning magic from someone, but also learning a bit about how they do business. If you want to be good at something, then learn from someone who is already doing it.
Jason Miller's blog moved to a new site
Dear Readers of Strategic Sorcery, As most of you know, Strategic Sorcery mysteriously disappeared on the evening of Wednesday, January 19th. The blog was not locked or cancelled by blogger intentionally, nor does it appear to be a deliberate hack. It is a glitch that is effecting about 50 other blogs.
Strategic Sorcery will now be hosted at my own website. The new address is http://www.inominandum.com/blog/
Please take a moment and update your links and follow me at the new site.
A big thanks go out to the owner of this blog for helping me get the message out. Thank you readers who have written in concerned about the situation. I am awed and gladdened by your support.
Thank you,
Jason Miller (Inominandum)
Melatonin and Tryptophan
Melatonin always appears as a dark skinned woman. she's the polar opposite of serotonin, but also does similar activities in terms of balancing the neurochemistry of the body as well as a person's emotional moods. She's also helpful in cases of insomnia. She and serotonin can be worked with simultaneously in order to help with situations such as insomnia, where there might be too much serotonin and not enough melatonin or in cases of waking up, where serotonin can be upped while melatonin is decreased.
Tryptophan appears to me as a pregnant sleeping Empress. She aids in Digestion and is consequently a force for change in neurochemistry. People may wish to work with her to get help with digestion issues or sleep issues.
Book Review: The Sorcerer's Secrets by Jason Miller
In this book, the author presents practical ideas and strategies for people who are just starting out in their magical practice. This isn't a 101 book, but its safe to say it's a 102 book that also offers some insights to magicians with more experience. What I appreciate the most is that the author takes the time to focus on considerations such as finances and explains that while magic can help, it's also important to learn practical mundane skills.
I also appreciate the author's choice to draw on a wide variety of sources that fall outside the traditional bibliography usually found in books. The author illustrates the importance of developing a well-rounded strategy by exposing readers to alternative sources.
There are two reasons this book gets a four instead of a five, however. One reason is because the author doesn't address the value of doing internal work as a practical and strategic solution. while knowing how to do practical magic to solve a problem is important, being able to identify your participation in the problem and making changes is even more important, and more practical. The other reason is that while the author does draw on non-traditional sources, he doesn't address the topic of innovation and how it can be used to develop practical magic.
All that said, this is an excellent book to read, and one I'd recommend to someone just starting out.
What is practical magic?
I've been thinking about what practical magic since I've started reading a book about strategic sorcery. When I think about practical magic and what it is, I don't just think of magic used to solve a problem or crisis in the mundane world, but also as the magician taking a step further and examining what his/her participation was in the problem, and then making changes in his/her life past managing the problem that the magic solved. The video says the rest.