What is High Magic?

Recently someone asked me to clarify what High Magic was. After some muttering, and lots of talking to my cat, I wrote an answer--here is the best, non-snarky part of my answer. And yes, this is why I am not allowed to have students.


“High Magic” is a fancy term for the magic developed by medieval magicians who could read and write. Likewise, “Low Magic” is the magic that those who could not read used. The “High” and “Low” labels are based on…something. One theory is that Low Magic was developed in the low lands where the farmers lived, and High Magic was developed on higher ground. Another theory is that High Magic deals with achieving union with the divine, and Low Magic deals with lowly things like money. High Magic tends to be ceremonial and can takes hours or days, and Low Magic tends to be more spur-of-the-moment freeform “What do I have on hand, and can I do this spell under a half hour?”

I resisted the urge to make a Colorado magic joke...but for just for you, I will.

Lineage dost not make an elder

The other day, during my monthly Trump rage, while reminding people of the global Bind Trump ritual, I was called out onto the mat by one of occultism’s self-proclaimed Big Names, who declared that people like myself were destroying the work of decades by Wiccan Elders to convince Christians that Wiccans are not Satanists. Needless to say, I did not take kindly to the lecture, especially given the implication that the lecturer considers themselves a Wiccan Elder—the fact that they called me Forest Gump didn’t endear me to them either.

What makes this person a Wiccan Elder? Is it their long experience with Wicca? No, I would not call seven years of experience worthy of the label of Elder. No, what makes this person believe that they are a Wiccan Elder, and a leader of the Craft is the simple fact that they were initiated by someone who was initiated directly by Alex and Maxine Sanders, the founders of Alexandrian Wicca. Likewise, this Big Name is now referring to his wife as “Witch Queen.” Again, the only justification is that they claim a superior lineage to the rabble, a claim of initiation that some Alexandrians doubt happened.

In my case, I do believe that an initiation did happen. But I believe that it was the old game of “I will give you a degree, if you give me one.” In this case, it appears that a Golden Dawn initiation (an Inner Order one) was given for a Wiccan initiation. It should be noted that I actually doubt that they are just two steps away from the Sanders. Nevertheless, even if they are telling the truth, I do not believe that they deserve the respect they are demanding from others.

This is not the first time that they have played the superior lineage card. For years, this Big Name has claimed to be the best leader in Golden Dawn, for his contact with the Secret Chiefs of the tradition—uber-humans who only he is enlightened enough to be in contact with. And seven years ago, they claimed contact with a uber-secret branch of Italian witchcraft. Two years ago, they received their uber-special Alexandrian initiation.

They are not the only ones who try to play the superior lineage card. One cannot throw a stone without hitting someone who has been personally picked by the gods to lead mankind to a glorious new age, or a witch who is descended from the many witches who were burned in Salem. Mankind is awash with people with better lineages, better contacts, superior wisdom, and better personalities than the rest of us, the unwashed rabble who should fall behind them in adoration.

Unfortunately, the esoteric world has far too many people like myself, who could care less about your superior bloodline, your superior lineage, and you having been kissed by the gods.

No, my Elders are those who have served for years without having to trot out a superior lineage. Morning Glory, former owner of Herbs and Arts, who provided a place for witches to meet and hold classes, she is an Elder in my book. Cassandra Ravenwolf, who taught herb classes, answered my silly questions, and provided a place for the community to meet, she is an Elder in my book. Alia Deny, who has helped introduce many people to the community, with decades of service under her belt, she is an Elder in my book. My Elders have served for decades, and have never asked me to automatically give them respect just because their lineages were better than mine.

And while I will never be an Elder, despite having written about Wicca and witchcraft for twenty-five years, I refuse to respect someone whose only claim to being an Elder is that they have a better lineage than I do. (The exact reason why I am automatically disqualified for Elder status is that no one realizes exactly how long I have been involved in the community, how old I really am, and most importantly, I keep saying things that no proper Elder would dream of saying—the community has voted, and I am exempt from all such duties, thanks to the filthy words that keep coming out of my mouth.) No, only actual service to the community, and acknowledgement by the community that you are doing good work, counts towards being an Elder in my book.

So those people who believe that I should kiss the hem of their robe, due to their uber-specialness, can go wash their heads in a bucket while I continue to be (as this great leader said) the Forest Gump of occultism. After all, I know my place in the scheme of things—I am here to annoy those who seek to be Elders without possessing any actual merit, and expect instant elevation to chief wombat. It is not a nice job, but someone has to do it.

[Author’s note: This column was started previous to the death of Alia, president of the Hearthstone Community Church; she will be missed by all of us in the community that knew and loved her.]

Why should a magician study astrology?

Why should magicians and witches study astrology? Because it is damn useful if you are working with either practical magic or spiritual development.

Now if you believe that rocks, bits of ice, and hot balls of super-heated gas have no effect upon you, then you can skip the rest of this and safely leave astrology out of your studies....because nothing I say will convince you otherwise.

And there are a lot of people who are just looking for an excuse, so that they do not need to study astrology. After all, astrology is complicated enough that you can spend an entire lifetime studying it; and who has that amount of time when you are busy trying to knife your way to the top of the food chain? Won't it just be better to study some form of chaotic new age woo woo that does not give any credit to the whole astrological nonsense?

And if you can reproduce the effects of astrological magic without resorting to the use of astrological magic, then good for you. Go forth with your bad-ass chaotic new age woo woo-ist self.

But some of us find that astrological based magic works pretty well.

There are two underlying assumptions beneath astrological magic. One is that the universe was set in motion by a divine force, and that there is a plan for the universe with the planets and stars being hands on a cosmic clock enabling one to figure out the current state of the universe and the people who inhabit it. The second assumption is that the celestial bodies are the bodies of supernatural intelligences who can influence events on Earth.

As such, a study of astrology will boost the effects of any magic cast at the right time and place, the act being imbued with the time stamp of the celestial bodies present in that moment. In other words, the moment that a spell is cast colors the spell, just like your birth moment colors your personality and potential.

And with the right techniques, one can overcome the effects of one's birth-chart with magic. For an instance, a person born under a sun in Virgo can over time become more like a person who was born under a Leo sun---if the magician desired such a change. And someone who had a crippled moon in a water sign could lessen the effect that transits of the moon had on one's daily emotions and reactions.

Now, it should be noted that such changes do happen naturally, but the changes come slowly and only work in one direction as one birth-chart progresses forward. The magician does not have to accept this snail-pace of change. A magician can override this slow gradual development and choose to be a product of an early century if they feel like putting in the work. Or a much later century. One should note that such a grand working would make it harder to interact and understand those of this century, but great mages are never concerned with the real world because of their unique nature and need to be greater than the drooling mass of humanity that surrounds them.

The basic way of working with astrological magic is though symbols. For instance, the fixed stars are associated by tradition with powers and entities, who in turn are associated with names, which are composed of magical alphabets and magical images. By using the images, one can use the forces of the energies of the celestial entity to work change in oneself and the world.

For those who are curious of what such symbols would look like, just take a look at the cards of a Tarot deck. Thanks to a great magus in the past, the stars are connected with the Hebrew alphabet, which in turn is associated with the Tarot cards. This is why one can both study astrology with a Tarot deck, as well as perform magic with a deck of cards.

So yes, the study of astrology is a long and hard process, but there are reasons to undertake it if you are a witch or magician. Bottom line: it is damn useful.

Magic is NOT for everyone

Late last night, a person posted, in the Golden Dawn Facebook group that I help moderate, that they and their partner were in the process of creating a new course. This course is to be aimed at a mainstream audience, so it could not be too occult--but they are planning on cherry picking techniques from Golden Dawn and other systems...so essentially the occult would be disguised. And most importantly, the course had to be effective and reliable for the average individual in western society--all in the name of empowerment.

To say I have a few problems with this idea would be understating things. Personally, I think that the whole idea is a giant bag of poo. Here are a couple of comments that I made about it before the entire discussion got deleted (and not by me...I think that the original poster did not like what I had to say about his project):

"My mind keeps coming back to a problem I see with aiming it at the average individual---your average person is averse to change; your average person is averse to work. So unless you are making another "Law of Attraction" level course (most LOA stuff is...well, flawed---the only real work most of it does is to transfer money from the clients pockets to the person running the course), you have to figure out a way to make your average person accept change, and a way to make them actually work at the process."

"Unfortunately, GD methods are full of change and work....so you are probably going to have to lose this part of your course plan if you want your course to appeal to your average individual."

"And yes, if I was to create a course myself, aimed at the average individual, I would not go for anything more than happy New Age talk aimed at confirming that individual's opinion and biases are absolutely correct....because that is the amount of work and change that your average individual is willing to accept---absolutely no work and no change at all. Therefore, all the GD stuff has to be left out....along with the working bits of any other spiritual development system."

When the person shot back that they want to create human beings that think--I merely rolled my eyes...I have seen what passes nowadays as "critical thinking" training (basically if you do not agree with what the creator of the course thinks, you are labelled a troublemaker and showed the door). And I have seen firsthand the lack of actual thinking in this person's own postings on the internet, so I do not hold out high hopes that they can teach something that they themselves seem incapable of doing.

My "polite" parting shot was: "Here is the bottom line---if any of us knew how to accomplish this goal, we would be doing it already. And that includes you--if you knew how to pull this off, you would not be asking for input."

At this point of time, I was declared a defeatist by the other person, who then cited Gandhi, Einstein, and Tesla as people who had vision and had made a difference. It was right after this that I said "I guess that you are the Messiah."

I didn't get to say anything else because someone (and I think that it was the original poster, aka the creator of this "soon to revolutionize humanity" course) deleted the entire discussion.

Seriously, ideas like this worry me. Every course I have ever seen aimed at the masses is nothing more than a control and asset reallotment scheme (think like me, and give me your money! and feel good about yourself for making a difference....in other words, thanks for being gullible and buying me a new jet). And this individual's idea that people who subscribe to courses actually do the work is flawed---just look at the numbers of subscribers that pay for the BOTA course, who do not do a lick of actual work with the course...and that course is about empowerment and change.

No, the only real reason to create an occult course, no matter how watered down, aimed at the masses, Joe Q. Common, is that you are running a scam and want to fleece people of their hard-earned money, so that you do not have to work hard yourself.

If you actually want to make a difference, you aim at those individuals who can and are willing to become exceptional--you do not have to disguise the occult or make them feel good about themselves--and you never mistake them for the common herd.

Yes, magic is for all of you---and God wants you to send me your money because I need a new jet. 

Tarot and healing

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Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop, Imbolic 2014 edition. Today's subject is Tarot, creativity and healing. In light of that I thought that I would talk a little about a healing effort going on in the ceremonial magic community.

Simple layout for Tarot healing spells.

A few weeks ago, the ceremonial magic community learned that Donald Michael Kraig, best known as the author of Modern Magick, was suffering from stage four pancreatic cancer. Upon learning this news, several members of the ceremonial magic community started to post rituals to magically help Kraig survive this illness.

Donald Michael Kraig--author of Modern Magick.

I will admit that I find it interesting that I have yet to see anyone suggest that we need to do a divination before warming up our cauldrons and circles. One of the things that Kraig writes about in Modern Magick is that one should always perform a divination before doing magic. Basically, his position (to the best of my understanding) is that good intentions are not enough to prevent a spell from going dark--rather it is the eventual outcome of the spell that determines whether you were doing white, black, or grey magic.

No, I am not suggesting it either. While I might be using Tarot cards in my spellwork, they are for focusing purposes. My personal opinion is that this is one working that it is probably safe to skip the divination on.

(For the record, healing magic can turn negative...let's say you save the life of the next Adolf Hitler, that's probably dark mojo there. Or a child abuser. Or a drug kingpin. Or a serial killer. You get the idea. But in general, most healing spells can be assumed to be white magic, or grey at worst. Generally, most of us don't sweat the idea that a healing spell can lead to bad things.)

The idea behind using Tarot cards in spell work is that just like we use the symbols of Tarot to communicate with the universe about events, we can also use them to communicate with the universe about what we want to happen. In practice, it is like playing a game where you present a situation and guess what cards (forces and events) would come up in a reading that would be read as representing that situation.

(Practical hint--if you have never done this before, buy a separate Tarot deck for your spell work. It has been my experience that spell work with a deck hinders its use in divination.)

The first card of the spread represents the client to be healed. In this case, I chose the Magician because Kraig is a ceremonial magician and a writer.

The second card of the layout represents the illness to be healed. This does not have to be a physical illness; this layout can also be used for emotional, mental, and spiritual illnesses. In this case, I was undecided what card to use, so I looked up the astrological ruler of cancer in Rex E. Bills' The Rulership Book. According to Bills, cancer is ruled by the Moon and zodical sign of Cancer. D'oh! He also suggests looking up the organ in question, which in this case is the pancreas, which is also ruled by Cancer. Being someone who still uses the Golden Dawn attributions for the Tarot cards, that means it would be represented by the Chariot.

(Interestingly, I understand cancer to be a set of cells that are growing out of control--therefore, the symbolism of the Chariot does seem to fit the issue at hand.)

The third card represents the healing force to be activated and used in the curing of the illness. Honestly, I am not sure what force to use (while I have Reiki, I only have the first level of it). In general, healers (including doctors of modern medicine) are ruled by Virgo. (Except for faith healers, who are ruled by Neptune--they pull power from above, aka God.) So I figure using the Hermit (Virgo in GD terms) would be the proper card to use. Kraig will be undergoing procedures with doctors, so hopefully it helps the procedures to take and put the cancer in remission.

The final card of the spread is the hoped for outcome. In this case, it is a personal choice. I feel like I owe Kraig a drink or three, and hope to someday be able to buy him a drink or three.

(This involves me also overcoming my own health issue of moving vehicles being one of my migraine triggers, as well as my budget problems--gee, this spell has two layers to it...scary, isn't it? Yes, I just realized that.)

The reason I feel like I owe Kraig a drink or three is the fact that I was reading his book, Modern Magick, when my Golden Dawn sponsor first spotted me. If it wasn't for that book, my sponsor and mentor wouldn't have spotted me, and I might have ended up being a self-initiate, rather than being a Vaulted member of one of the many branches of the Golden Dawn system of magic. So I figure that if I ever meet Kraig that I should buy him a drink or three, just for getting me entry into the Temple.

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Proper Samhain

Bribes might change our opinion of your numptiness.

Exactly one year ago, someone posted a post on one of the forums wishing everyone a Happy Proper Samhain--which made me aware of this particular issue that was silently bubbling in the magical community. So what the hell is "Proper Samhain"? According to some people, Samhain should be celebrated on the day that falls exactly between the Fall Equinox and Winter Solistice--or when the Sun is in the fifteenth degree of Scorpio (the "astronomical Samhain" or "astrological Samhain")--November 6 or 7 this particular year (depending upon where you live).

And my response to this idea that everyone, other than these enlightened armchair occultists, are doing Samhain on the wrong day? Poppycock!!!

Honestly, my opinion is that the "Proper Samhain" theory was created by a bunch of people who decided that they have to be smarter than practicing Wiccans and pagans, especially the sainted Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca. The theory sounds good on paper, but really does not hold water when it comes to actual practice? No, it does not.

For one thing, the "solar-astronomical" Sabbaths, the Equinoxes and Solstices, are known as "Lesser Sabbaths." The "Greater Sabbaths" are all planting/harvesting/fertility holidays. Therefore, a proper astrological correct Samhain instantly becomes a Lesser Sabbath, a mere point on the journey of the sun though the zodiac--in other words, something other than solar position makes Samhain what it is--a Greater Sabbath.

Secondly, the theory ignores the non-universality of the observance of the Sabbaths. The holidays that the Sabbaths are based on were not practiced everywhere; and more importantly, when they were practiced, they were based on local agricultural conditions...or some local religious observance.

In other words, local conditions trump (override) the astrological theory. Your first harvest ritual corresponds to when your first harvest actually happens in your local neighborhood--not when the sun is in a particular degree of the zodiac. Likewise, your last harvest (aka Samhain) occurs when your local growing conditions cease to be suitable to leave the majority of the crop out in the fields (please note that there are some winter crops that can be harvested or planted despite the drop in temperatures). In fact, last harvest can vary from year to year--last year, my own last harvest occurred in late November--this year, it was mid-October. The only reason that modern-day Wicca gets away with fixed dates for the Sabbaths is that most of us are not farmers or gardeners anymore--but that still does not make the astrological version more valid than the farming/fertility version of the Sabbaths.

And in the case of Samhain (All Hallows Eve--Halloween), it occurs on a day that several cultures (including the much-hated Catholic culture) consider preceding a feast day celebrating the honored dead. This is another form of local condition overriding the astrological theory. Then again, that may be the real reason that certain armchair occultists want to move the celebration to a different day--in their minds, we can't share anything in common with the hated oppressors of the pagan religions...despite the fact that the Church lifted that particular feast day directly from the pagans themselves with us merely reclaiming it as our own in modern times.

So Happy Proper Astrological Samhain! to all the armchair occultists. And stay out of my garden!

QoD Is daily (clergical) practice neccessary?

Here is a taste of a post from the blog Aedicula Antinoi: A Small Shrine of Antinous that kicks around the idea that for many modern pagans that we do not need to engage in daily duties that would normally be the job of the full-time clergy of ancient times (please note that this idea may not actually apply to ceremonial magicians and apprentice witches, but I still encourage you to go read the rest of the post):

The notion in many sorts of paganism that everyone is “their own clergy” and thus has clergy status, and therefore must in a variety of ways perform as if they are clergy, is rather erroneous in my view. As much as certain teachers and practitioners would suggest all of the modern pagan/polytheist population have some sort of daily practice (which usually looks like “daily meditation” in most forms I’ve seen it), I can’t really support that necessity from a general viewpoint, either as a reconstructionist or as a general spiritual practitioner who has many strong deity devotions, including Antinous. What I do and what I am is not to be taken as “an example” of what all people who are devoted to Antinous should be doing, any more than my current unemployment or being without romantic relationships should be taken as “required” for anyone who is devoted to Antinous.

See what I did there? Taking any person’s style of life as “exemplary,” even in one area of their life like spiritual practice, is a very big mistake. Every relationship with every deity, hero, or other divine being requires individualized, particularized, and highly unique negotiation, offers and counter-offers, efforts and counter-efforts, and all sorts of reciprocity as well as contractuality coming into the picture on the part of the gods/heroes/divine beings and the humans who are devoted to them.