Psychology and Religion and their role in Spirit Work

I recently finished reading Joseph Lisiewski’s Howlings from the Pit (Affiliate link), which is a collection of essays about grimoire magic and of curse his particular argument as to why you have to do spirit work with daemons in a specific way. I don’t agree with Lisieswki’s approach and I’ve gotten efficacious results through my own system of spirit work, but I do think he makes some interesting points that are worth considering, both in regards to spirit work and magical work in general.

Point 1: You have to honor the original religious/spiritual belief system you were raised with - Lisiewski makes the argument that if you were raised in a different religious/spiritual system than the current religfious/spiritual system you are in, and you want to do spirit work, you have to honor original religious/spiritual system at least once or twice a year. I disagree with the author on this limited belief and think it speaks more to his religious/spiritual issues than being an actual and effective axiom.

I was raised episcopalian and was a born again Christian for a time and I never found that I needed to go to a sermon or make some kind of offering at a church in order to do effective spirit work. When a person makes a rule or axiom around any magical work, we ought to carefully consider the subjective nature of such rules. What works for one person may not work for another and may not even be relevant.

Point 2: If you put your power in magical tools this takes away from the power you bring to rituals. - This is an interesting argument that I find myself agreeing with in some ways. Lisiewski is specifically referring to the creation of tools for the Golden Dawn rituals and how part of that process involves embedding your personal energy within those tools, which ends up taking away from the efficacy of your work with other magical systems.

I do think its possible to invest a lot of yourself into a given magical tool, which is one reason I recommend not relying on any given magical tool too much. A magical tool is meant to be an aid and representation of something you are working with. It can help you access certain frames of mind and being, but it should never be something you rely upon so much that you can’t do anything without it.

Point 3: If you don’t do the magical working the right way, you can suffer adverse effects (aka his slingshot method). I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to do magic, but you can definitely tell if a given process or methodology is working by the results that are being generated with that process. Keeping careful track of the results, consequences, and adverse effects that come with magical work is a good idea because it helps you recognize what is working or what can be improved upon.

Sometimes you will experience adverse effects with magical work. These may show up as synchronicities indicating the confluence of possibilities lining up to manifest the result or spiritual forces showing up to help or hinder the work involved. The key is not read too much into anything, and continue doing the work until you’ve finished the operation.

Point 4: Your psychological, spiritual, ideological values play a role in your magical work. This point is a bit similar to point 1, but also distinct. What we believe and think about ourselves, other people, and the world around us plays a role in the magical work we do. It’s important to acknowledge the internal reality and the role it plays in our magical work. In my own experience the majority of the time a magical working doesn’t work is because of the internal reality of a person and what is out of alignment with that internal reality and the desired result the person is going for.

Point 5: You have to do specific activities at specific times with specific items. Ironically, one of the points the author made in contradiction to point 2 was that you need to use certain items at certain times in order to get results. I won’t argue that a given system of magic may speak to specific necessities around magical tools, times, etc., but what I find personally powerful about magic is that you can come up with your own systems and processes and get results that are consistent and powerful. You can also do this with a pre-existing system, but you do operate within the constraints of that system. Either way can work, but its important to figure out what works for you. The beauty of magic is that it provides a versatility that can be explored and experimented with, provided we’re willing to question the underlying narrative that magic has to be done a specific way in order to be effective.

How to Work with Qi when Wintering

I discuss how to work with qi when wintering. I share why working with the element of water can be very helpful and allow you to restore and recover your energy when doing qi work.

The form and the essence of magical work

I was recently reading Howlings from the Pit by Joseph Lisiewski and I was struck by something he wrote in regards to ceremonial magicians creating magical tools that took away from the actual experience and success of magic they worked. What struck me is that the magicians were giving up the essence in favor of the form, when in fact they ought to take the opposite approach and give up the form to understand and work with the essence.

Being the magical nerd that I am also made me think of a scene in God of War Ragnarok where Brok the Dwarf tells Kratos that to create the form you have to find the essence. The essence is the key to the form. The form doesn’t exist without the essence. It made me consider Lisiewski’s perspective from another angle: How much of the essence do we give to the form, which in turn causes the form to have the power, presence, magick, etc that would otherwise stay with the essence?

In my own magical work, I’ve typically taken a minimalistic approach to my magic and spirit work operations. I have sometimes added some effects because I recognized that those effects would enhance the overall work, but even with the inclusion of those effects the question I always ask is: Does this help me connect with the magic/spirit more effectively? This is the question that any magician ought to ask themselves in order to best understand how magic can work.

What helps me get to the essence of the work? Is the form a distraction or does it actually help me truly connect with what I want to work with? These are additional questions that are useful to ask. I personally would never take the approach that Lisiewski takes, which is grimoire based because I find that form distracts from the essence. My form, developed and personalized to help me with both magical and spiritual work allows me to connect with the essence of the work I am doing…but Lisieswki would have similar issues, in no small part because of his adherence to his own system of magic and the limitations he operates in.

A given system of magic has its specific rules and limitations. If we recognize this we can see past the form to the essence and focus on working with the essence to help us achieve the ideal form we planned for. We naturally want to attend to the details of a magical working but part of attending to those details is taking the time to understand how the form magic takes actually allows us to connect with the essence and what that means as a result of the work we do.

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.

Why you don't want to draw on your own energy for magick

I discuss why its not a good idea to draw on your own energy for magick and share what some of the potential issues can be when you draw on your energy too much instead of taking the necessary precautions to draw on other sources. I share a personal example and the consequences of doing this based on my own experience.

How to connect to the Energy of a Season

I share some different processes for connecting with the change of the seasons magically, and discuss how to harness that change to help you in your magical practice. I also discuss what that seasonal magic can look like and how we can work with it in our lives in a way that helps us be in touch with the rhythms of our lives.

The Role of Astrological Cycles in Iterative Magic

Iterative magic is a form of space/time magic which employs the cyclical rhythm of time and space in order to create consistent results. One of the cyclical rhythms that iterative magic draws on are found in the astrological cycles and currents that all of us experience in our lives. In iterative magic, we purposely draw upon these cycles to empower and inform our magical work. Each iteration of a cycle refers to the previous and future cycles. When we understand this we can draw on the past, present, and future cycles of a given cycle to enhance the magical work we are doing.

For example Mercury going retrograde would be an example of an astrological cycle that all of us experience. While this cycle is notorious for bad communication, it can also be treated as an opportunity to apply iterative magic to our lives. We recognize that Mercury is going retrograde and instead of hoping that we’ll somehow avoid miscommunication we do iterative magic to either help us improve our communication skills or apply the mercurian cycle in other ways that are related to its influence. We can also apply this same approach to when Mercury is going direct.

We can actually apply iterative magic to any retrograde/direct cycle for any of the planets. Being able to do this doesn’t even necessarily require that you become well versed in astrology either. It may require working with an astrologer or learning some basic knowledge, but once you have that knowledge you can develop iterative magic workings for specific cycles and use that to help you tap into the deeper energies that are present and utilize them for your magical work.

Another approach I’ve taken to astrological influences is to do iterative magic around sun and moon cycles. The moon cycles every 28 days and sometimes there are eclipses which can also be factored in for this work. The sun has its own cycle which we experience through the progression of a year. Each of these can also be used as examples of astrological cycles we can work with iteratively. For instance you can choose to work with the sun at different times of the year (we see this with the wheel of the year) and have each time of the year reference the next and previous times. The same understanding can be applied to moon cycles.

We don’t need to limit iterative magic to astrological cycles, but they are one of the more obvious examples of this work and can be helpful for understanding how iterative magic works and how it can be applied to ongoing magical practices.

A space/time Divination Experiment

I share my latest experiment with divination and discuss the protocols of the experiment.

Why you don't want to be an archetype

I find it fascinating when a person overly identifies with a role they’ve taken on in their lives or profession. Part of the fascination is based off my pop culture studies, where I’ve noted how the persona in pop culture takes on a life of its own. The person who makes up the base identity of the persona is overshadowed by the persona and the attention and energy directed toward it by the people who are interested in the persona.

However this isn’t the only way that identity can be eclipsed by a persona. Identity can also be eclipsed by taking on an archetypal identity and overly associating with it. While there can be a lot of value in working with a given archetype, because of the patterning that the archetype provides, there can also be a limitation involved when you overly associate your identity with the archetype.

When I apply this awareness to my own life I consider that while I practice magic and write books (among other activities) overly associating with the role of magician or author would be very limiting. There are times to take on those roles because they serve a specific purpose and put me into a specific identity, but inhabiting that identity all the time would prevent me from experiencing the richness of my life.

Consider your own life and the archetypal roles you take on. How do those roles serve you? How do they limit you? Do you want to inhabit that role or is something you can outgrow and let go of?

For a long time I have identified myself as a magical experimenter. It’s been a good role to play, but as I continue to walk my life path, I also think about what other roles I might step into as well as what value might be discovered in the process. I will always experiment with magic, but it’s not the only purpose of my life. When I recognized that I was able to step into other roles and let go of some of the attachment I’ve previously held with the magical experimenter role.

We ought to consider carefully who we become as it relates to the archetypes we connect with. Each archetype has a purpose, but we also have purpose beyond the archetype. Getting curious about the overall purpose of your life and being can be just as empowering as any other role you might take on.

A Couple Factors to Consider in Fueling Magic

Whether you are creating a magical entity, putting together a magical working, or doing some other kind of magical operation, one important aspect of the work you always to consider is how you are fueling your magical working. Today I share why that’s important and help you consider the factors that are involved in such work.

How to use Tower Times as a catalyst for change

There are moments in our lives where it seems like the world is ending and everything is going wrong. I call these moments Tower Times and they can be moments that happen in a flash or they can be moments that last years. I have experienced a fair amount of what I would consider to be Tower Time in the last 6 or so years and with each of those experiences what I have discovered is how much they help me transform my life, especially when I took on a perspective where I welcomed the tower time as an opportunity for growth.

In the face of events where everything seems to come crashing down on you, it can be hard to cultivate a perspective where you welcome the experience. There is suffering that occurs during tower time and this is normal to feel. Life as you know it is changing and usually its changing in a way where you are losing something important to you. What are you losing though? Often what is being lost, as painful as it may be, is ultimately something that could be holding you back from something greater.

What is that something greater? The only way to discover this is to embrace the tower time as a time of growth. For example, I used a breakup to motivate me to explore my relationship with myself and my masculinity. I recognized I needed to change something about myself and that the tower was signaling the need for a significant change in my life. I also realized that my old patterns were simply not working and that I needed to break those patterns by choosing to do something, which in my case meant doing some deep work around my identity as a man.

Tower times challenge us and in the moment the challenge is happening it can feel like the situation is hopeless but by cultivating a spirit of curiosity, you can discover the opportunities that lie in wait and open yourself to new perspectives. It won’t necessarily make the experience easier, but it also reminds you that these times will pass and that if you do the work, you will gain clarity and focus around what really matters to you and make that the focus of your life.

With that in mind, I want to share some processes you can apply during a tower time event to help you navigate that event. These processes won’t make the tower time go away, but they will help you get through them to the other side.

The first process is to breathe and be present with yourself. That seems simple enough but it can be hard sometimes. What I also do in this situation is tell myself that I love myself. I remind myself that the situation will pass and that life will continue on. It may take a while before the overall situation gets better, but I find each moment and treasure it.

The second process is to do some activities each day that help you with your process. For instance, I meditate each day and I also go walking and do somatic exercises. These different processes help me work through whatever comes up and allow me to stay present with the feelings and thoughts.

The third process is to do activities which are enriching and nourishing for you, activities that you like to do which feed your soul. For me, that’s going to Kungfu, my men’s group, and also attending cultural events. For you it might be something else, but making time for nourishing activities and making the effort to connect with other people can make a significant difference in your life and how you handle tower time events.

The fourth process is to take a break from magical workings. You might be tempted to do magical workings to get you through a tower time more quickly, but I recommend slowing down and not trying to magic yourself through the tower time. Treat this tower time as a sacred experience that will enable you to grow and make space for it. You’ll know when to do magic and what to do as well.

If you need help with some of these activities sign up for my free class Inner Alchemy of Wintering. Joanna Brook and I will share our best practices for navigating tower time in that class, as well as other practices you can do to recharge.

Directions, Correspondences, and Intentions

I explore the relationship between directions, correspondences and intentions and use this exploration to demonstrate a profound aspect of magical practice in relationship to how we call in the spiritual forces in our lives.

The Role of Boundaries in Spirit Communication

When we don’t establish the right kind of container with the proper boundaries, spirit communication and work can become problematic. I discuss the importance of setting clear boundaries in your magical work and share why this can benefit you.

If you want to learn more about my upcoming class Advanced Spirit Communication, go here.

The role of somatic meditation in spirit communication

Somatic meditations can play an important role in spirit communication, helping us to connect with the spirit through the medium of our bodies and in the way the spirits interact with the body. I discuss that this experience can be like and why it can help you improve your communication with spirits

Reading the darker side of Tarot

I’ve been starting to read oracle cards and Tarot at metaphysical fairs and one of the fascinating trends I’ve observed has come in the form of people who get readings from me and ask me not to pull any punches with the reading. One recent customer shared with me that they didn’t want me to filter my reading for them in any way. I never filter my readings anyway and explained that to my customer but it got me to ask them a question in turn.

“Why do you think people filter their readings?”

“They probably don’t want to deliver bad news or share something that will make someone uncomfortable.”

I nodded and took that in and gave them their reading. I can’t really speak to the experiences that anyone else has around giving or receiving readings but in my own experience of giving readings I’ve always opted for trusting my intuition and telling the person what I’m actually getting about the situation. I trust that if anyone else have given me a reading they have done the same.

The exchange got me thinking about reading the darker side of Tarot and Oracle cards. In some cases you find that reading through reversals, but I actually think you can look at a given card in of itself and regardless of what the position is you can read it and look at all the angles.

For instance, if I look at the Hanged Man, the positive perspective I can take is that the Hanged Man represents presence, being still in the moment, and cultivating awareness. The shadow side of the Hanged Man could represent blockages and obstacles both internal and external. Both the shadow and the gold are present within any given kind of reading and yet it’s up to the reader and readee to determine what applies for a given situation. The way we read a situation matters because it tells what we can learn from that situation and the same applies to a Tarot/oracle reading. The most important skill you can cultivate in divination is learning to look beyond the surface meanings of a card, so you can read into the card and how it relates to the overall experience.

Want a reading from me? Schedule one at this link, and let me show you what happens when you combine two different decks for your reading.

How to learn a divination deck

I share my process for how to learn a divination deck and an exercise you can do each day to learn a card and what it means as it applies to your life.

5 common misperceptions about communicating with spirits

One of the questions I see frequently asked by other practitioners is how to test and verify if a spirit is on the up and up as it were with the information it provides. Another question I see asked is whether anyone has ever seen a spirit manifest in physical form. These types of questions are valid ones to ask but what they often indicate to me is that the person is caught up in surface level details and is missing out on the subtleties of spirit communication. This brings me to the topic of this article…

5 Common Misperceptions about Communicating with Spirits

The first misperception that many practitioners have around communicating with spirits is an expectation that spirits will communicate using the verbal language you are used to hearing. Naturally we want spirits to communicate with us in the language that we are used to using every day and some spirits may choose to do that, but more often than not I have found that spirits communicate in much more subtle ways, and through what I would consider to be a transmission of information, which acts as a download. Spoken and written language, in comparison are very limiting.

The second misperception is the expectation that spirits will appear in a physical form that you can see. This is one of those tropes of modern occultism where there’s a perceived value in a spirit manifesting physically even though said manifestation doesn’t accomplish much if anything meaningful. I’ve never had a spirit manifest in a physical form yet I’ve had efficacious workings with the spirits. The need for a physical manifestation is a vanity and ego play in occultism which keeps the practitioner from accomplishing real work with the spirit.

The third misperception is the expectation that spirits have the same types of desires and needs that we have. This is reflective of a tendency to humanize spirits. We do this because we want to ascribe motivations and desires to the spirits that we can understand, but these motivations and desires are out of alignment with the nature of a spirit. A spirit may have desires and needs, but those desires and needs are based in the experience that spirit has, which is significantly different from our everyday experience.

The fourth misperception is a tendency to focus on specific aspects of what a spirit can do or provide without considering the bigger picture. This misperception is rooted around the tendency to focus on specific aspects of a spirit, such as its elemental correspondence or domain of influence, because you want the spirit to do something specific for you. It cherry picks the spirit for what is convenient for you and ignores other aspects that either might be helpful or detrimental…or may cause you to ignore other possible spirits to work with.

The fifth and final misperception is around the understanding of power and potential versus form and manifestation. Spirits don’t have the same material awareness or form that we have, but they have access to more power and through it potential. What they provide is possibility and influence which can be directed to help manifest a result, but we bring something essential to the equation as well. We bring the ability to manifest potential into reality through our material and manifest form. If you want to turn a possibility into reality you necessarily sacrifice power for manifestation.

If you want better communication with spirits, where you get consistent results that transform your life then you’ll want to sign up for the Spirit Communication class, where I’ll share my tried and true techniques for connecting with spirits.

Can you get results with spirits?

One of the questions that I see asked a lot about spirit work is whether or not you can get results with spirits that are tangible and real. Today I share my own thoughts on doing spirit work and what the results can be. I also discuss what your role and the spirit’s role is in this work.

As I mentioned in the video I’m teaching a class on spirit communication and how to get better results with spirits. If you want better results, sign up for the class!

Why do people want to communicate with spirits?

Communicating with spirits is an activity that fascinates people, regardless of what they believe about spirits. I share some thoughts on why people want to communicate with spirits and why spirits want to communicate with people and discuss the importance of building reciprocal relationships.

Power over and power within

I explore the dynamics of power over and power within in magical practice as a way of considering the overall approach we take to our magical work and what will produce the best results for the work we do.