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

When should you experiment with magic?

One of the questions that pops up from time to time in my inbox or on social media is the question of when someone should start experimenting with magic. In other words, when can you step off the beaten path and start exploring and experimenting and trying things out that don’t fit within conventional occultism. This is a good question to ask because when you experiment with magic that’s when you begin to really make what you practice your own work.

My answer may surprise many of you, but I didn’t start experimenting with magic until I had practiced magic for two years, and even my initial experiments were very low key. It really wasn’t until I had put in a good five years that I really began to experiment with magic. The reason why is simple: I didn’t know enough about magic to know what questions to ask or what experiments to come up with. The only way I get to the point that I could experiment with magic was to actually read the books, do the exercises in them and pay close attention to the resultant experiences. I also didn’t have teachers to talk with and was self-teaching myself magic, so that too contributed to me simultaneously taking my time, but also asking questions.

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Magical Experiments Podcast: Spirit Relationships with Bill Duvendack

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Bill Duvendack and I discuss how to build relationships with spirits and discuss the commodification of magic and why its important to create the right type of connection with spirits.

To learn more about Bill visit: http://www.418ascendant.com or subscribe to his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfP7dWvhhyvGo0Aa2PLAnXA

Learn how magic works: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/home

Get free E-books at http://www.magicalexperiments.com/free-books

Become my patron: https://www.patreon.com/TaylorEllwood?fan_landing=true

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Algorithms and magic

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I recently finished reading The Creativity Code by Marcus Du Sautoy (Affiliate link). What really fascinated me about this book was the in depth exploration of algorithms, which essentially are code that is used to predict behavior. A basic example of this can include visiting a website and then later seeing an ad for that site on your Facebook. When you visit a site, if that site has a Facebook pixel, then when you are on Facebook, you get ads from that site because by visiting that site you’ve indicated interest in what is on that site. Amazon employs algorithms on its site for similar purposes, using your behavior to predict what you are likely to buy.

You’re probably wondering what if anything this has to do with magic. Reading that book and learning more about algorithms got me to thinking about how you might design a magical working to be self-improving or to be behavior based, depending on what you or the focus of the magical working did. In general I treat my magical workings like programming code, because I don’t see a magical working as just a strict execution of the working, but rather as an organic, evolving working that can change, depending on the variables that come into play. Applying an algorithmic perspective could take this even further.

Why I do magic when life is good

I share why it’s useful to do magic when life is good to continue to build off what is working in your life and why a strategic approach to magical workings can help you achieve long term success and happiness with your magic.

Learn more about strategic magic: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/strategic-magic/

Get free e-books: http://www.magicalexperiments.com/free-books

Become my patron: https://www.patreon.com/TaylorEllwood?fan_landing=true

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How non-occult books inspire my magical practice

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In today’s video I share how non-occult books inspire my magical practice and explain why non-occult disciplines and practices can help you develop creative approaches to magical work that expand how you understand and practice magic.

Learn how magic works

Get free e-books

Become my patron

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Social Media Sigil Technique

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In my recent interview with Soviet Mercedes, one of the topics we ended up talking about was a social media sigil technique based off using hashtags. Soviet Mercedes inspired this idea for me, because of how she uses hashtags on her FB posts, especially one in particular: #meetmeatthebank. I’ve recently started adding this hashtag to my daily gratitude posts as well as any other posts oriented around wealth magic.

This particular hashtag embodies the concept of wealth magic, because the bank, in one form or another, is where your wealth goes. Whether it’s a physical bank, or a metaphorical one or the bank of your body and the health you have, to meet at the bank is to also meet in the place of your wealth. It’s also where you show your receipts, because those receipts validate what you bring to the bank and what in turn the bank provides you. Note: This is my interpretation of #Meetmeatthebank and not necessarily how Soviet Mercedes would define it.

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Magical Experiments Podcast: Money Magic and Working with Spirits with Soviet Mercedes

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In this episode of the magical experiments podcast I interview Soviet Mercedes about Money Magic, Showing the receipts, and how to work with spirits. We also come up with an on the spot magical experiment!

To learn more about Soviet Mercedes and the classes she teaches visit The Hag School at https://www.thehagschool.com/

Learn how magic works at: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/home

Get free e-books at http://www.magicalexperiments.com/free-books

Become my Patron https://www.patreon.com/TaylorEllwood?fan_landing=true

The role of visualization in magical work

I discuss the role of visualization in magical work and what the advantages and disadvantages of visualization are as well as how to use it effectively in your magical work.

Learn how magic works: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/home

Get free books: http://www.magicalexperiments.com/free-books

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Magical Experiments Podcast: The Future of Magic with Astrid the Psychic Witch

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In episode 1 of the Magical Experiments podcast, I interview Astrid the Psychic Witch about the Future of Magic. We discuss the place of tradition in the future of magic, and explore how form can be mistaken for substance and why evolution is a necessary part of any discipline.

To learn more about Astrid visit her website: online-tarot-reader.com/

Learn how magic works: https://magical-experiments.teachable.com/p/home

Get Free e-books at http://www.magicalexperiments.com/free-books

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Why pop culture magic works

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I always find it interesting when critics of pop culture magic make the arguments that pop culture magic either can’t work or if it does work, the results aren’t as good as other systems of magic. I wonder why they make those criticisms, especially when its clear that for the most part they haven’t actually tried pop culture magic, and therefore don’t have any qualified experience to critique pop culture magic. The conclusion I’ve come to is that such critics attack pop culture magic because they feel threatened by the idea that pop culture magic my supplant their practice of magic. As a result, they feel the need to try and take pop culture magic down.

When I first started writing articles and later my first book Pop Culture Magick, I was on the receiving of similar criticisms. I was told I was reinventing the wheel and that pop culture magic wasn’t real magic. Nevertheless I continued writing articles and books and giving talks on the topic, because I knew there were other people practicing pop culture magic and I also had tangible results from using pop culture magic. And over the years I have heard from people who read my books and articles and told me how they didn’t feel so alone and realized that pop culture magic could be a viable path of magic, one where viable systems of magic could be developed and used.

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Cobra Kai and Pop Culture Magic

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One of the most fascinating aspects of pop culture (and by extension pop culture magic) is how pop culture reinvents and refreshes itself. The most recent example that comes to mind is the show Cobra Kai, which was recently acquired by Netflix. This show takes place 30 years after the Karate Kid movie series and is an update on that series, which focuses on the characters from the first film (initially). I watched the entire series myself recently and like many other people got caught up in the Karate Kid saga again.

There’s two factors that make a given pop culture relevant for people who practice pop culture magic. One factor is the personal relevance you attribute to a given pop culture. People who are die hard fans of a pop culture will be so invested in that pop culture that it won’t matter if it is or isn’t relevant to other people.

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Can you still practice pop culture magic if the pop culture has been cancelled?

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The other day in the Pop Culture Magick Facebook group I asked the question: “Can you still practice pop culture magic if the pop culture has been cancelled?” I used the recent example of J. K . Rowlings and her comments on the Trans community as an example where someone might practice pop culture magic, but have an issue with what the creator of that pop culture said or did. could that person still work with the pop culture itself.

If you click the link above, you’ll get to see the responses to my question from the community. There were answers all across the spectrum on this issue and I feel like all of them were well considered. But here, I thought I would share my own answers to this question.

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Elemental Balancing Ritual Creativity Month 22

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7-22-2020 Today when I did my meditation the archangels told me that the next three months is all about an integration of everything I’ve done before with the Sphere of Art, as well as the Qi Gong I’m doing. “That’s more than enough work for you right there, especially with everything else you’ll be doing.” And they told me that all of this would continue to lay the ground work for transformation. So I accepted what they said and just focused on the integration. It is important to make time for the work you’ve done, to ground it and embody it in you and that time, for me, is right now.

7-23-2020 I’m rereading the Slight Edge and he makes an excellent point that changing how you think about what you do matters, because how you think about what you do dictates how you actually do it, and if you even do it. What makes a person successful at whatever they’re doing is the thought that seeds the actions and keeps them doing what needs to be done, even when the person is seeming to fail. It’s a good reminder for me.

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How to deal with Hostile Spirits

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Not all spirits have your best interests at heart. Sometimes you’ll encounter hostile spirits and in such a situation you need to figure out what to do about the hostile spirit, because if you don’t do anything, it’s going to make your life miserable. So how do you handle a hostile spirit?

Let’s first consider the reasons a spirit might be hostile. The first reason could be because the spirit is inimical to life. It’s function is about destruction and breaking things down and you happen to be in the way. It’s nothing personal. It just doesn’t want anything to do with you and you happen to be in the way of its function.