I discuss the principle of invitation and why going to the right level of interaction with a spirit is both a good boundary setting exercise and a way to build more effective relationships with the spirits. I also share some of my own realizations around how I came to this principle.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Skrying and Spirit Work with Harper Feist
In this interview Harper Feist shares her experiences with skrying and spirit work. We discuss the different types of skrying people can do and why skrying can be a viable alternative to invocation/evocation, as well as leading up to those practices. We also discuss the nature of spirits.
Harper has a class coming up on Skrying
Harper Feist is a member of the OTO, a past master of Leaping Laughter Lodge, an ordained priestess of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and the current interviewer of U.S. Grand Lodge’s official podcast, “Thelema Now.”
Why its important to revisit old magical workings
When you have performed lots of magical workings and created specific types of outcomes, it can helpful to revisit that work. I share a few reasons for revisiting old work and also explain why it can be helpful to revise older workings, or shut them down, if they are still working in the background.
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
Featured items from Alison's interview
Picture courtesy of Jennifer G 2022
The Triangle of Hekate - Being used her for skrying purposes and to connect with the goddess Hekate. Comes with a pdf about the archaeological history of the triangle.
Picture Taylor Ellwood 2022
Pentacles - Individual planetary pentacles that can be worked with. Each one has specific attributes that can be drawn upon.
Picture Taylor Ellwood 2022
Hermes-Thoth Prosperity box comes with a papyrus with the spell written out, as well as incense to burn. The box is made of olive wood.
Taylor Ellwood 2022
Mercurial Mind Bracelet - It has each of the pentacles of Mercury on it. Very useful for prompting creativity and helping with communication.
Taylor Ellwood 2022
Bracelet of Blessings - Jupiterian bracelet that lets you tap into the expansive and protection of the Jupiterian current.
Working with Elemental Portals
I discuss how I have worked with elemental portals in elemental magic and share why these can be useful tools for learning and connecting with the elemental spirits.
Magical Experiments podcast: Heart Magic with Irisanya Moon
In this interview Irisanya Moon discusses what Heart Magic is and shares how it can be used to help you heal your heart as well as sharing her work with Aphrodite as a goddess of love and initiation. We talk about what the relationship with a godd can look like and what that entails for one's personal work as a result.
Get Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow and Messenger of the Godds - https://amzn.to/3r7XPgj (affiliate link)
Get Aphrodite: encountering the Goddess of Love, Beauty, & Initiation - https://amzn.to/3ngHfK6 (affiliate link)
Get practically pagan: An alternative guide to health and well-being: https://amzn.to/3Gen3A5 (affiliate link)
Get Reclaiming Witchcraft: https://amzn.to/3tkKjsy (affiliate link)
Irisanya Moon (she/they) is a writer, priestess, and teacher, and has facilitated classes and camps around the world, including the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. She was initiated into the Reclaiming Witchcraft tradition in 2014. She is a frequent contributor to Moon Books anthologies, a contributor to Witches & Pagans magazine, a columnist for Pagan Dawn, a blogger for Moon Books, and a blogger for Patheos.com (Charged by the Goddess). Irisanya has written and published four books: Pagan Portals - Reclaiming Witchcraft; Pagan Portals - Aphrodite; Practically Pagan: An Alternative Guide to Health and Well-being; and Pagan Portals - Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow & Messenger of the Godds. Three more are in the works. She is a devotee of Aphrodite, Hecate, the Norns, and Iris. They seek to find love and to inspire love by reminding us we are not alone, while meeting at crossroads, holding the threads of time, and bringing down messages from the godds. She is passionate about the idea that life is a love spell, a dance of desire and connection, a moving in and out of the heart, always returning to love.
What does magical partnership look like part 2?
I share some specific examples of what magical partnership looks like and how it has changed my approach to magic, as a result. I discuss synchronicities, working with deities, as well as discovering new directions in a person’s magical work.
What does magical partnership look like?
I was recently asked what its like to work with a magical partner. In this video I share my thoughts and perspectives about working with a magical partner and the lessons I’ve learned along the way as a result of doing this work. I also discuss different types of magical partnerships and share why its important to have a good understanding of what the partnership is and what the purpose of the work is.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Appalachian Folk Magic with Byron Ballard
This week I interview Byron Ballard about Appalchian Folk Magic. We discuss how folk magic works and how to create a spiritual lineage of your own. We also discuss the importance of research and why folk magic can be done anywhere. Byron Ballard is a rootworker and energy consultant; a freelance writer and an urban farmer; a weaver of words and webs, and the author of Roots, Branches, and Spirits, Staubs and Ditchwater, Asfidity and Madstones, Earth Works: Ceremonies in Tower Time, and Seasons of a Magical Life. Links to her books are below and are affiliate links.
You can Learn more about Byron and her work at https://www.myvillagewitch.com/
The process of experimenting with magic
I think the conventional image that people must have of a magical experimenter is someone running around with crazy hair, doing all kinds of off the wall magical workings, which may or may not be grounded in conventional magical theory and practice. I can understand if that’s the image that comes to mind, but the reality of magical experimentation is that it is a careful process, grounded in the experiences of the magician and the work they have done up to the point of experimentation.
When it can be useful to go old school with your magic work
Way back, when I first started practicing magic I used to have a sword, an athame, a rod, a chalice, and candles and incense, and other various tools that people typically use with magical work. Over the years I drifted away from using such tools, taking a minimalistic approach to my magical work, or coming up with my own tools, based on unique needs I had. However of late I’ve been going back to an old school with my magical work and I’m finding it to be refreshing to do, because its like coming back to an old friend you haven’t seen in a while and picking the relationship right back up.
Why I work with more than 5 elements
I discuss why I work with more than five elements in my elemental magic and share an example of working with the element of movement in order to release blockages and create opportunity.
The role of separation in magical work
Are you the magic you work? Are you the experiences you have? Are you the clothes you wear or the car you drive? Before I go all Tyler Durden on you here, the reason I’m asking these questions is because of something I read in the book Creating (Affiliate link), where he discussed the necessity of being able to separate yourself from your work, relationships, experiences, etc. It really struck me, because there is something to be said for overly identifying with something.
In magical work this over identification is framed as a lust for results, but it could also be framed as an obsessive fixation on something. You hold on too tight to an identity and the result is that you don’t actually get what you want, because you’re too caught up in the identity instead of knowing when to separate yourself out from it. You let it define you, instead of seeing it for what is. the only way to free yourself from fixation is to recognize it for what it is and separate yourself from it.
Should you call someone into your life?
Should you call someone into your life? I weigh the pros and cons of evoking people into your life and share some of my experiences with this kind of work.
A Writing Magic Exercise
My latest post on Patreon explores how to apply magic to the process of writing.
I'm a firm believer that magic can be done by incorporating creative activities into your magical work. It's one reason I like to do paintings for both practical magic and spiritual offerings. Another practice I enjoy doing involves incorporating writing into my magical work.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Experimenting with Magical Mechanics with Rich Kiska
In this episode Rich Kiska and I discuss experimenting with the mechanics of magic. Rich shares her spiritual journey and how she became a magical experimenter and then we discuss space/time magic, pop culture magic, and how to experiment with magic in general.
Rich Kiska offers spiritual services and works with The Emotion Code which involves divination through channeling and muscle response testing; astrology; identification and removal of energetic/spiritual blocks, contracts, curses, and demons, to name a few. Learn more here
Magical workings as an unfolding process of wholeness
One of the latest sources of inspiration in my magical work is a series of books by Christopher Alexander where he explores how to create life through architecture (affiliate link). While these books admittedly, on the surface, have little to do with esoteric secrets for summoning spirits or the other types of occult lore that is usually so favored by occultists, I nonetheless find them to be quite inspiring because of how they look at the process of creating a building where people feel a sense of life. There is something profound about a discipline that explores how to bring life to the process of building.
And I find that it carries over to magical work, provided one is willing to explore the possibilities and perspectives that are offered. I’m only a bit over halfway through the second book of the series, but nonetheless I have discovered a profound amount of insight and knowledge that be applied to both space/time magic in specific and magic as a discipline in general.
Elemental Balancing Ritual Connection and Truth Month 12
9-21-2021 Today I’ll be switching over to Ouranos (Uranus). This morning my magical partner and I collected dew from the bottles and afterwards we talked about partnerships and feasts and I note this only because it happened while we were collecting and distilling the dew for the archaeus work and since such conversations are happening its worth noting as a relevant and related to the energy and efforts of the work we are doing.
I meditated on plate 12 of The Mutus Liber. It’s almost the same as plate 9 though there are subtle differences. I didn’t get any specific insights beyond what I’ve already gotten, but I noticed the triangle shape again and the offering to Mercury.
Also I did switch over to Ouranos (Uranus)/Metatron and felt a sense of welcome. Last year, the creativity work was ended in such a weird way, because of events. It felt like this month is actually a redemption tour of sorts and I got the cover of my newest book today, so that felt significant as well.
Magical Experiments Podcast: Balancing the Magic with the Mundane, with Soviet Mercedes
Soviet Mercedes and I get together and have a fun conversation around the importance of balancing your magical work with mundane activities. We discuss why it can be good to take a break from your magical practice and how that can help you create a baseline for your magical work, as well as sharing examples from our own experiences about how we’ve balanced the magic with the mundane.