Recent Video Interview... Andrieh on the Leak Project..

So I know I have been profoundly negligent on blogging. Literally all my resources are going to the shapeshifting course, graduate school and work... really averaging about 4 hours of sleep... Yep thats how its rolling... but I did this interview on last Friday. I was a little tired, for those in Toastmasters a little to high on Um and Ah counting... but surprisingly this really poignant on so many topics that I have been really thinking about lately.

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Shapeshifting CONTEST: You can win a free seat in our Shapeshifting 365 course.

I am once again running the shapeshifting course ( more details on that), and this time for a year. Once again, someone has paid it forward so I can offer a contest to you, so someone of need can get in for free. Would you like this gifted spot, here is how to get a shot at it.

1. Write a little blurb about how you used the techniques of Hands on Chaos Magic and generally love the book.
2. If you don't have Hands On Chaos Magic, write a blurb on how with specifics one of my courses, rituals, or meditations changed your life for the better.
3. Post 1 or 2 on facebook, tumblr, or your blog ( other public places are perfectly ok).
4. Tag @Andriehvitimus in your post and email at andriehvitimus@gmail.com with the url of your post.

I will pick the person who gets in as the Gift, per divinations.

One of my students who was part of some of my in person and private shapeshifter work paid it forward ( as I encourage all of my students to do), and traded with me for someone in the sphere of the internet to get gifted into the shapeshifter course. Thats a $199 Value gift for the contest. Why? Cause my students kick ass like that.

Good Luck!!!

In case you missed the original announcement, here are some more details on the shapeshifting course.

STARTING September 12. 2015
Rocket towards your new life via the power and transformation while investing in this shapeshifting course.  Andrieh takes you on a journey of self-discovery through rigorously tested methods.   You might ask yourself, how can this course help you?
• Supercharge your powers of persuasion.  Amaze yourself with your new connections.
• Gain wealth perspective and enjoy the fruits of greater prosperity.
• Surge with confidence and fortitude.  Learn to nail interviews, sales, even speeches.  Watch as resistance melts powerfully before you.
• Savor your life, as you increase your pleasure. Taste your increased happiness.   Change yourself to have mind-blowing orgasms and more powerful sex.
• Enjoy deeper and more powerful emotional connections with your friends and your loved ones.
• Expand beyond limitations and shift to quickly adjust to any situation.

Over 46 Weekly lessons. 6 live webinars. which will be recorded (each including an in session hypnotically assisted ceremony).
Magically we will cover the following topics and more:
Glamours. Self-Transformation. Radical Detachment Through Continuous Transformation. Astral And Etheric Shapeshifting. Shapeshifting And Information Sorcery. Energy Shifting And Energy Transformation. Vitality Building Internal And External Alchemy/Body Transformation. Reality Tunnel Transformation. Direct Noetic Spiritual Transmission. Personality Reconstruction. Influence And Persuasion Magic. Useful Self-Transformation Techniques. Paradigm Shifting As Shapeshifting. The Beauty Of Self-Mutation.   And this just scratches the surface!!!!!

Join the Journey Now.

Categories: contest

Your friend Daily practice, and the magical30.com

 So it get to do a cheater blog. because well, well lots of reasons.

So I restarted the magical 30 effort.  You should check it out here, http://www.magical30.com

With the last magical30, I decided to write a book with Stephanie Raiser, and submitted a article for the Anthology of Sorcery II, with an article of Sorath.

It makes a real difference when you do the daily work.  Because of school, work, and other real big changes in my life, getting to do the daily work became hard.   Sure I use alot of NLP tricks to dive into trance states quickly, and get the job done, but I miss the one leg out and one leg in.  I think lots of people will agree and understand what I mean.  Plus, I want to play with the magic, which I do not always get to do on such tight deadlines.  So where to begin?

Meditation and Breathwork of course.... WE all can get better at this even if we are great at it.  Its one of those, kick yourself in the ass and work toward mastery :)

So come join me at the http://magical30.com  and if you are so inclined, I am working out some meditative walking techniques based on Taoist principles.  If you think occultists are stuck up, talk to some "Tai Chi" experts.  Actually if you want to see all my magical30 posts, here they are.   So yes one blog a week and I am working on more substantive blogs soon.

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Innvocation of Chao-Kundalini

This is a technique was originally published on my old web site. I had been developing to raise Kundalini energy, and give it a real boost more then just working with the Root Chrakra, and condensing down the time to raise kundalini fully. Warning this is quite effective, and goes back to the time I was working with Peter Carroll's Invocation of Chaos a lot more of the time. I should do that more often now.

2 warnings. Drink lots of water, second, remember kundalini can cause issues if you have to much of it. Water helps.

I usually start with some body warm up exercises, aka Tai chi And Gigong then perform a some sort of banishing. As this is a ritual of self-alchemy and self power, I do not usually state my intent ( this is more of a gigong like exercise).

I will mentally start repeating the Invocation of Chaos as follows from Peter Carroll.

Invocation of Chaos 

OL SONUF VAROSAGAI GOHU
I Reign Over You Saith

VOUINA VABZIR DE TEHOM QUADMONAH

The Dragon Eagle of the Primal Chaos 

ZIR ILE IAIDA DAYES PRAF ELILA

I Am the First the Highest That Live In the First Aether 

ZIRDO KIAFI CAOSAGO MESPOLEH TELOCH

I am the Terror of the Earth the Horns of Death 

PANPIRA MALPIRGAY CAOSAGI

Pouring Down the Fires of Life On the Earth 

ZAZAS ZAZAS NASATANATA ZAZAS

This last line cannot be translated.

English just provided for amusement sake.  Enochian is the way to go.

I keep internally repeating this, while Visualizing a Chaos Star over my root charka, actually more right where my Vestigial tail would be correct ( harking back to reptilian mind).

Focus all attention and all feelings, visualizations and sound sensations on that point while externally or internally ( if you need to) intoning the Invocation of chaos. Do not just chant the words, it should be as if each word rings through your whole body with like a deep Tibetan bell. This does awaken the flame snake of kundalini very quickly for me.

As I am directly my focus ( and as the energy people would say the energy of the Invocation of Chaos) directly into the root chrakra the snake will start to unravel. This feels great.

So you keep going with the focusing on that spot, redrawing chaos stars and doing the invocations of chaos... at this point, imagine, feel, and see the flame snake rising up through the spine. Kundalini rises somewhat slowly, allow this to pass through and up each chrakra.

I always perceive this is sound as a type of roaring or rushing. When the serpent reaches the top of your head, perform one more invocation of chaos to really feel your body filled with that energy.

Two key points. From my experience of doing this exercise, this is clearly not kundalini energy, in my humble opinion it has some very unique properties. First, the Enochian will activate Kundalini thats for sure, but this mixes with that Chaos vibe so common in the combining/dissolving the opposites. It makes the Kundalini energy far more potentiated and more dissolving in how it rips the blocks through your system. 

 If you call the Kundalini with the goddess Shakti, there usually is a certain level of softness, lovingness and mercy. This is the opposite and this is harsher, more rough, generally less forgiving. It however works fast to build up magical power, with a pull toward non-duality states ( something I have not found with straight Kundalini work). That means, you might need aftercare and self-care.

Now, from Gigong and yoga, its actually considered a real bad idea to keep the snake flowing up and just let that energy in your head. The next part of the exercises uses some fairly kewl Gigong techniques, modified by Andrieh Vitimus, yours truly.

Once you have the snake fully rising. Pull in and raise your sphincter muscle. As you breath in deeply, imagine condensing all the kundalini energy you have built up into your bones. Use as many of your senses as possible to imagine taking all the built up Kundi-Chaos energy and condensing them down into your bones. This helps if you practice some body awareness ( btw one thing people usually visualize wrongly, is the spin is closer to the back of your body then the middle :).

On Breathing out, release your splinter muscle, but hold on to the energy while condensing energy in the bones. The easiest way to imagine this is to feel, see, hear, and know your bones being different as the meditation takes you. Do the breaths until you have absorbed all the Chao Kundalini Energy, and condensed them into your bones ( this is a relatively safe place to condense energy and this energy is more volatile). Leave it in your head, and you might well wake up with a headache or worse.

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Let's Make your upward Spiral HAPPEN.

Book a trial session now, use the code START-THE-JOURNEY for a 50% first time discount.

Are you ready to activate your full potential and already like Andrieh's style, We are now offering a 4 pack of coaching sessions to create a concentrated month of transformation and self-shapeshifting towards that awesome moment of your success.  Book Now.

     

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Self-Love and Self Compassion Part 1

Every once and a while I get an urge to write a blog that is highly academic. Really, I have always wanted to be a Professor (apart from the poor treatment of non-tenured faculty in modern academia).

First, understand this will be a post about self-compassion. The co-opting of the Buddhist religion by just about everyone is probably a fair critique (McDonagh, 2015). In fact, it probably is the most understated form of cultural appropriation. Even in academic settings, self-compassion is often framed as a type of mindfulness. You can separate out the technique from the religion, of course, as we will do here. However, we need to realize that these techniques tend to lead to certain changes. Of course, while I like Taoism a hell of a lot more than Buddhism (even though they are sometimes related), the perspective I am writing from here is one of a Chaos Magician with heavy Taoist leanings (for the purposes this blog).

So much of what is comprised within modern occult materials leads to the "Love Thyself" refrain that it is very difficult to know what exactly that even means in practice. This sentiment is often coupled with the idea that “Self-Esteem” is key. Certainly the Left Hand Path frames the sharpening of your ego as a primary goal, as well as achievement. It turns out that academically researched, “Self-Esteem” in the best of cases is rather a difficult idea. Self-esteem always has a component of comparison. There is good self-esteem and a bad self-esteem. It’s a self-valuation. If you are on the “bad” or “poor” self-esteem side of things, you are told to go improve your self-esteem, which usually means some sort of achievement. That is not the easiest goal, if you are in a bad place (Breines, J. G., & Chen, S., 2012).

Magicians are doubly hexed by this whole “self-esteem” notion. Some magics, especially sigils, incorporate a substantive level of belief and confidence-effects into the formula of efficacy. (Really, it’s a part of all magic, it’s just that spirit-based magicians tend to want to downplay it.) Another important point which is often given lip service is the notion of detachment. Peter Carroll pretty clearly tried to appropriate Buddhist techniques, but that’s ok since Aleister Crowley clearly tried to appropriate Hindu techniques via Yoga. Both philosophies involve detachment, but why and how does this relate to the idea of “Self-Love?

Let's start with an exercise:

Your Friend:

People are generally far more compassionate toward their friends than they are toward themselves. So, we are going to “clone” ourselves and literally become our own best friend. Through the magic of perceptual shifting, we can do this whenever we need to. Imagine in all five of your senses that you are talking to a friend about their problems, limitations and failures. You might notice that you take a certain tone, body language etc. Now, imagine a friend talking to you about your problems and limitations, trying to work on solution orientated discourse, not just complaining about the problems and issues.

You are working with a friend who does not judge you and who truly wants to help you, on actionable steps that you can take. Have a real discussion in your communication with your internal representation of your friend. Notice in your meditation where you place them in space. 

Now have a discussion with yourself.

Does that situation go as well as the constructive session with the compassionate friend? How does your tone of voice change toward yourself?

Now, as a trick, try to imagine a version of yourself AS the compassionate friend. Have a conversation with yourself as that friend. Become that friend to yourself. Remember, you have already imagined yourself as the compassionate friend, so why do you think it is more difficult using your five senses to experience that version of yourself? What other insights do you get from doing this?

As a final part of the exercise, try to have yourself talk to yourself from this position of compassion and the perspective that everything is just an experience. How does reducing that experience down to information input and not associating with that experience help you detach, improve and grow?

Did you feel more motivated after talking to your compassionate friend with a solution-oriented view, or would you feel more motivated by talking to yourself in a harsh manner? Most people, as it turns out, respond much better to the compassionate solution-orientated approach (Breines, J. G., & Chen, S., 2012). This fact is not at all intuitive and goes against our "go-to" approach in the west, aka Work Harder/Do Harder”. Breines points out the fact that this harsh self-talk increases stress which actually decreases performance. In the worst cases, it becomes crippling.  

Surely, when you do not have self-esteem, the language of the Self changes. These might sound familiar, "It’s just how I am", or worse, the "I can't".  Some "experts" suggest changing the “can't” to “won't”, but in reality, there are real limits to the pain-based self-change ideals. Really, it all goes back to the cultural lie of “work harder= success”.  It is an American lie that infects our self-being.

Psychology (and often, occultists) would often say you need high self-esteem for magic. The rise of self-compassion (directly appropriated from eastern religions) is, in fact, a reaction to the holes in the self-esteem theories. The research says that self-esteem always involves comparison to other (internal or external) reference points. There is always a measure of "how good you feel about yourself" in relation to other states. The comparison eventually leads to "not-as-good" ideas and voices.  Essentially, the comparisons effectively act to tear down self-esteem if a person's situation changes. Eventually this reduces self-confidence as well.

Self-Compassion vs. Self Pity

Goldstein points out that "Because one’s awareness is totally consumed by subjective reactions, one cannot step back from the situation and adopt a more objective perspective. In contrast, self-compassion requires that individuals do not over- identify with their emotions, so that there is ‘‘mental space’’ in which to extend oneself kindness and recognize the broader human context of one’s experience" (Goldstein & Michaels, 1985; Scheff, 1981).  

Neff goes on and says "Self-compassion, therefore, involves being touched by and open to one’s own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one’s suffering and to heal oneself with kindness. Self-compassion also involves offering nonjudgmental understanding to one’s pain, inadequacies and failures, so that one’s experience is seen as part of the larger human experience"  (Neff, 2003).

Self-Pity then becomes the state in which we DO overly identify with a subjective reaction (usually, at the basis of a comparison.)  Let's leave out the kindness explanations and describe this in a more Taoist way.  Is the experience which we are attached to any more intrinsically real then the opposite experience?  Are any of the experiences more valid in themselves?  No, they are all just experiences. Or, from the NLP perspective, they are just information. Is experiencing the pain and suffering any more valid than the joy? Not really, although the joy feels better, it is not more valid, as all experience is valid.

Self-pity is not adaptive to the situation and does not allow for a person to make objective judgements about the situation, only subjective judgments about themselves. The judgement does not mean it’s more valid in the pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps version of negative reinforcement, self-harshness, and self-pity. The bootstrap mythos would say, “Well, just believe you can do it and get off your ass!” but this harsh self-aggression only serves to disempower the individual even further. On the flip side, one can easily see how a person might "Get off their ass and DO" and it would only serve as a temporary aid in their self-esteem. In fact, it might be just enough of a boost that the person would stop taking in new information and thus, sooner or later, crash.

Motivation 

This comes down to different strategies of motivation, only one of which is sustainable. The “beat yourself up” (cause yourself pain to remind yourself to avoid similar situations) and the “move toward positivity in self-analysis” methods. The bootstrap- “beat yourself up” method might work in the short term, but in the long term it pretty consistently associates the "ego" or self-voices with pain. The subconscious mind's goal is the avoidance of pain (aka survival instinct) so the real lesson it learns is to ignore you eventually. Any changes you want to make = pain, so they must be bad. This path of the inner critic is by far hugely destructive and it is something we struggle with for a long time even as magicians. There are, of course, people who say "Nah, that ain’t me".

Ask them how much they drink. 

Remember, pain reduction is the goal of the subconscious mind and what does alcohol do?

This of course means that the opposite is true as well. Positive reinforcement is the enhancement of the relationship between the self and the subconscious mind 

Exercise 2:  That Inner Voice.

Repeat Exercise 1 doing only the last step. Think about and question yourself on how your motivation changes. Are you more or less motivated when using the positive self-compassion model, or more motivated by the self-critic? 

Repeat the last part of the exercise, drawing that compassionate self into your throat and asked it to fill every part of you with that compassion and self-love.

Although that is a fast modification, there is a lot more you could do once you began amplifying those sensations of self-compassion via the methods detailed in Hands on Chaos Magic.

On Ego-Destruction

The “kill your ego” this and “kill your ego” that of the new age verbiage has always irritated me. You cannot kill your ego. However, your "ego", (the story of the “I”) CAN certainly be ill-adapted to current situations. Really, pride, self-confidence, and self-respect can be utilized to good effect, but the attempt to be humbler then thou, well it is best summed up with this and this.  Simply put, you need your ego to survive and most human communication is about influence. That said, sometimes we can get stuck on an experience and overly identify with that experience in a way that is non-adaptive. People will act in ways that are self-destructive. Of course, if you go tell yourself "STOP that shit, you asshat", well, that’s counterproductive. On the flip side, people who claim to be without ego are lying. They just have mutated their ego to fit a certain set of expectations based on the culture of the new age market. Essentially, their ego and self-esteem are based in how well they conform to that particular world view (see the comparison).  The important thing, (and self-compassion seems to generate this) is that "Self-compassion increases self-improvement by allowing a belief that elements of mind are changeable and improves motivation and success outcomes" (Neff, 2003). It’s not the end of the ego transformation that really is important, only that the ego can change and transform. That fact makes the motivation to change and how you do it all the more important.

Sometimes Stress is a Sign: a further cog in the machine

Before going into another exercises, let's not forget these technologies are appropriated. Mostly, I might say “so what” to that, but we have to take a look at the greater culture surrounding the appropriations (and more importantly, how that affects the magic.)

Mindfulness means you produce more. There are countless Silicon Valley companies, including Google, using mindfulness and self-compassion techniques. Is it really compassion they are pushing? Compassion for what?  Meditation and these types of exercises lower stress which improves performance. Certainly you could transform yourself to be more present and more self-compassionate in line with what you need to do to succeed at a job. But what is going on here?  You are transforming yourself to be a better, more productive slave for a corporation. Google throws around nice terms like “search within”, and many Silicon Valley companies have people meditate.

The truth is that teaching people to meditate and accept their lot a) Reduces stress so lowers medical bills. b)  Allows the corporate master to eke out just a little more of the person's time and energy for productivity. c) Builds a more compliant slave.

Does this sound like freedom?  NO! It is hypnotic, meditatively induced compliance.

Sometimes you are stressed out and your internal voices are all so pissed off BECAUSE THEY SHOULD BE!  They are the internal warning signs that something ain't right. Sure, a lot of the time these angry internal voices are in fact internalizations of external people but sometimes you need to step up and listen.

While new age philosophies will often deride anger, as a magician sometimes we have to ask what the anger is really about, because sometimes you should be angry!

USE THIS EXERCISE WISELY, IN SUPPORT OF YOUR OWN HAPPINESS, NOT JUST TO BE A FUCKING COG!  

Exercise 3:  That Inner Critic: A Chao-Alchemy Voice Transformation

Silencing the Inner Critic is one of the hardest things to do. It is also (mostly) not possible. However, taking a page from Hands On Chaos Magic, a few NLP techniques, and a dash of self-hypnosis, we can turn the corner on the Inner Critic.

First, the Inner Critic is more like a collective than a singular voice. You will have more than one of them. If you have ever talked yourself out of an idea, or harshly criticized yourself, you are well familiar with the Inner Critic.

Relax. Breathe. Center.

Remember a time that you were really harsh on yourself. Or, imagine what it is like when you are overly harsh on yourself. Pay attention to your own body language, including posture, eye movement, and other cues. Notice how you talk to yourself. Hear the language you use, the tone, the pitch, the speed. Notice what pronouns you use when you talk to yourself. Pay attention to how you structure statements and the cadence of speech. You may notice that this originates within a certain spatial area around you or from some specific position within your body. The voice(s) will probably make you feel uncomfortable. KEEP GOING.

Move the voice to your throat area. Notice any changes. Force the voice to use the “we” or “I” pronoun. Notice how the voice changes. Despite the discomfort, ask the voice what positive purpose it serves.

Every internal voice, even negative voices from the subconscious, will have a positive intention. Usually the negative voices are trying to keep you away from some sort of pain.   

The hard part is that you have to express compassion (just like you did above) with the voice and even express non-judgmental love (regardless of what the voice says).  Just keep going and asking what is its’ positive intention, what is its positive purpose?  Eventually, while speaking as the “we/I”, it will give you an answer. Often times, you will just know the answer is true (the epiphany, or “ah-HA” moment).

Keep expressing that compassion and love (it is self-love, hard love at this point). After the voice softens, tell the voice you are willing to listen and work with it. That you might not do what it is advising, but you will always listen and consider its point of view. Notice how that changes the voice. Ask the voice, in compassion, acceptance and non-judgmental love how you can best work with it. Make suggestions, assure it that you will listen, ask it if there is a positive way it can be heard while meeting its core purpose. As it is speaking about you via the “I/We Voice”, remember, this is you talking to you.  Compassion directed at the Voice is compassion directed at Yourself.

 Keep expressing that love and compassion towards the voice. Eventually it will reflect that same love and compassion back to you.

Keep going and do not stop until you get a change (and you will).  It might take several sessions to get to a point where you can really work with the voice, but you will find out that it can bring tremendous changes to your day to day existence.

At the end of the session, LAUGH OUT LOUD. This is just to give you an extra boost after a potentially difficult time.  (Laughter is also an effective form of banishing).

What happens when you do this effectively? How can the self-compassion work change you?  Self-compassion towards your harshest internal critics softens all of the voices. Your internal obstacles start falling away. You gain room for growth and internalize positive motivational stimuli. This is significant movement towards greater and greater self-compassion and expression of self-love.

These methods of personification can be explained more comprehensively via some of the shadow and servitor work chapters of my book, Hands on Chaos Magic.

Next Week:   

Part II:  SELF-COMPASSION & PRACTICAL MAGIC:  so what does this do to your magic?

Bibliography

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Breines, J. G., & Chen, S. (2012). Self-compassion increases self-improvement motivation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(9), 1133-1143.

Goldstein, A. P., & Michaels, G. Y. (1985). Empathy: Development, training, and consequences.

Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Leary, M. R., Tate, E. B., Adams, C. E., Allen, A. B., & Hancock, J. (2007). Self-compassion and reactions to unpleasant self-relevant events: The implications of treating oneself kindly. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 887-904. 

McDonagh, M. (n.d.). Mindfulness is something worse than just a smug middle-class trend » The Spectator. Retrieved May 9, 2015, from http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9355692/whats-wrong-with-mindfulness-more-than-you-might-think/

Neff, K. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and identity, 2(2), 85-101.

Neff, K. D., Kirkpatrick, K. L., & Rude, S. S. (2007). Self-compassion and adaptive psychological functioning. Journal of research in personality, 41(1), 139-154.

Categories:

Break the virus: Paganism needs magic.

First, this is a draft article so I meet my self promise of getting a blog out every Monday( will correct it over the week).  Next week, I have a final, so no posting.  Second, I know this will generate extreme opinions, but do keep the comments civil.

I will probably say things that will offend some people in this posts, in fact, probably lots of people. I need to specify that this is just my opinion and that this is the opinion of a rather practical magician looking in. I believe the continuous drive to remove magic from Wicca and Paganism in general is one of the worst tendencies I have encountered. This is even more confusing when witchcraft is presented as devoid of magic. I have said something similar for 15 years, and will take it a step further and say something even more controversial here. Rituals for community building (as is “popular” right now), is mostly a bunch of bullshit. No punches pulled. If you have a guttural reaction to what I just said, realize that you are reacting to something that you identify with. I get it. Hear me out though. Read through the whole article. The tendency to divorce magic from Wicca and Paganism in general stems from a greater cultural process of the demystification and mass production of, well, everything. If we look to business-thought leaders such as Weber and Benjamin, we can see a disturbing pattern. Art’s connection to ritual, Benjamin asserts, gave it what he calls an “aura,” or a certain authenticity given by its particular creation in history and space. But new technologies such as film and photography lend to mass reproduction of art and thereby a demystification of the process of art’s creation. Benjamin writes: “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.” Even now, the technologies have advanced so we can now have instant replication, and thus instant demystification of art. How does this apply to ritual? Weber noted that as art itself removed itself from ritual, that art became commoditized. It should be no secret that ritual itself should be commoditized. Defanging Witchcraft is the clear result of that commoditization. The ART of ritual becomes simply another mechanical reproduction. Using the addictive energy of “Ritual Lite” to create community bonds is a sign of that commoditization. First, ritual lacking in any real substantial energetic power and presence is simply shared hypnosis based on well-known and well-conceived psychological processes involving shared belief states. Really, this is just the natural synching of emotion and intention that happens as a result of our mirror neurons. No, I do not believe all magic is “just” this at all, but 95% of public rituals, and 99.9999999% of all rituals used to “create community bonds” certainly are. Why? Why has this commoditization happened? Before anyone thinks I am pointing to the pagan community and saying, “look how bad this sucks”, it is not a pagan or occult issue. It is a cultural issue of the west, in its full scope. Do Mega Stadium churches really allow for an experience of the divine in a personal way? Of course not, nor is that the purpose. The purpose is control and conformity. Rituals which use cookie cutter forms with experts who are filling the role of priest or priestess but who have no belief in the supernatural whatsoever. Many of these individuals even openly display contempt for the concept of spiritual transformation. Those that use standardized ritual forms to make people “feel good” in a psychological sense, but do not allow the participants to reach psychological states where real transformation is possible, are just another mechanized control structure. They are simulations of real experience, just as the internet fills our lives with the ability to live vicariously in simulation. The infecting virus is the same. Of course, one objection to what I am saying is that, well, you can be “spiritual” without magic. This is true in a way, if you define magic as primarily selfish. The techniques of genuine spiritual transformation and results-oriented magic are unbelievably similar. In fact, no real spiritual transformation can occur without changes in your life, so the separation becomes even thinner. Real spiritual work as real magical work has real consequences. If you have a profound spiritual experience, you will find you must change your life. It is that simple. What the simulacra allows, is the belief you had a real experience, with none of the profound after effects. The feel good, without the transformation. Transformation means risk. Pain. Suffering. Growth. Real spiritual encounters, whether internal or external, causes these. Often those community rituals do, in fact, fit all the criteria of a drug without substance that is used to control and prevent any deeper level transformation. Justifying this under the flag of community building is even more onerous and self-serving. A community does not get built by a “community building” ritual or pandering to say what people want to hear about it. Community gets built by people GIVING A SHIT about each other. Authentically. Not via some self-serving causes a leader is pushing for. However, saying what people want to hear with the “feel good party” is enough for most people to buy in. Shit, I know my rituals beat the llama’s ass, but they aren’t feel good drugs, they are effective and they get results. Experts peddling these superficial “feel good” rituals and lines of thinking should be ashamed, but I know they won’t be. Historically, we have to look both back at Jung and then at Joseph Campbell for part of the reduction of the mysterious to explainable forms. Ideally, the people using these forms might most honestly refer to themselves as secular humanists but that removes a whole sense of the romantic. It takes the luster away, and thus decreases some profit margins. I, who have studied psychology, NLP, and hypnosis in depth know that those tools ARE insanely useful and wonderful. I just wouldn’t try to package it as a religion. As L. Ron Hubbard said, “science fiction gets cents per world, religions make hundreds of dollars per word”. This is the natural tendency of our culture and those “educators” to fill that role and by doing so, to fit within the greater cultural tendency so as to reap the profit. Wicca and Paganism without Magic is very profitable, as is sanitized Christianity. It is what people want to hear. No-effort community building and spiritual thrill-rides. Have all the fun you want, don’t worry, you do not have to risk anything. It is also very far from what any of our ancestors believed. That profit-motivation, is the white elephant in the room. Don’t get me wrong- I love money and money loves me, but I make sure my rituals are transformative, and that the techniques presented work. I also am quite honest about the fact I believe authors and presenters should be paid. The masking of this motivation under the guise of “communit”, while people are making money, well- it’s what B.T Barnum said- sell an idealized view of things, mask the real intention, and give people the “idea” of what they want. That is what is being offered. Simulation. Real spirituality and real people are messy, better to have a nice commoditized brand of a person. Why do I care? I want to see a more magical world. I want to see and experience a world where I get to go to Wiccan and Pagan rituals and have the divine, as people understand them, connect through the people. I want to see communities where people do the hard work of giving a shit. Let’s not cheapen magic or community, and instead rebel against the flawed virus that passes as cheap control mechanisms. Let’s stop and think. Let’s make a fucking mess. When I hear the tendency and drive of people to divorce magic from Paganism to a greater degree, it saddens me. Even some people trying to divorce the occult from witchcraft and Wicca. Sorry, Wicca is a derivative of the Golden Dawn via the OTO. It is steeped in occult history and lore. The original pioneers of Wicca that I have had the pleasure to have met have been deeply spiritual people. I could understand some of the logic around a lot of the rules and structure. Not everyone was meant to be the priest or priestess (nor should they be). The problem with this commoditization is context. More correctly, the contextual meanings of a ritual/art/creation become removed and interchangeable, like parts on the assembly line, and are treated as similar things. Real community becomes a thing that develops via community building rituals where the individuals in that community are really interchangeable consumers of the festival culture. Is this “real” or simulation? Like Weber would say, we become the imprisoned in the machine of the bureaucracy we create, where everything seems devoid of actual life. Fuck that, let's make things MESSY. Messy rituals where people have a real contact. Messy communities where we are fucking individuals who fight and piss and have personal issues and flaws and we fight to overcome them- sometimes failing, sometimes crying, but always owning our shit- not just grandstanding social issues divorced from our own problems. Most of all let’s GIVE A SHIT, not a cursory “I support you” lip service nod to “community”. I dare you to ENGAGE. I dare you to GIVE A SHIT. The funny thing about a drug is that the people on the drug are fast to protect their dealers. Certainly, I have heard some specific critiques mentioned about some presenters for the reasons that really get down to the lack of “spiritual” impact. Immediately, the loud voices drown the person out. It is not surprising really. I am sure I have people who will defend me too, although I am far more complicated and nuanced to really defend in that fashion. I am just a difficult snowflake and I am ok with that. For the record, I have been saying shit like this for 15 years. If anyone thinks I haven’t, ask anyone who knows me. I have been basically promoting people DOING MAGIC, as opposed to service to the “community” for a long while. The reason is simple. Real magic forces you to further engage with reality. Almost always, the service to the “community” when divorced from the magic, engages an idea and a type of thought form that, in itself, often leads nowhere. The simulation breaks down and ultimately reveals itself as hollow, usually at the point people who have been supporting the idea of “community” in pagan or occult circles have trouble paying rent or need to stay in the hospital for a while. Then it gets messy and inconvenient for people, and people move to the next voice that will “support” the idea of community because it is a pleasant fantasy to stay in. At some point people have to get their hands dirty BUILDING shit. Protecting each other, reaching out to extend some practical help and support, not just pretty words with no useful action behind them. Things like sharing meals, offering to watch each other’s kids, going to visit each other in the hospital, helping out those in need who may be short on rent or going through hard times. Those people who tend to engage in magical pursuits and spiritual transformation, they might not have all of the answers, but they do tend to get their hands dirty as they tend to at least try to break free of this type of social control. Not saying every time, but more often than not, that is what I have seen. Diving into the magic starts to rebel against the prison of the simulation, and thus relationships become more authentic, choices become more authentic, life becomes messy and thus so much richer.

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Magic is a experimental Contact Sport

So I almost got suckered into buying a 300 occultly kit of magic goodness.  Primal hot.. it was great marketing, which I should use ( and the truth is 300 I thought, I don't really want someone else activating my herbs for me).   I probably will buy it, cause I am a faustian whore, and really buying occult classes and kits is perfectly ok.  

In fact I have a few, please buy MINE.....in August the shapeshifting course will start again.  It will be primal and rough.   The truth is, I do my best with stuff like http://magical30.com to get you involved, if you buy something from me...... because no you, means really that regardless of the paradigm, regardless of the "info", it is just a book on the shelf.   I want to see and live in a transformed world.

but there is a missing ingredient in everyone of those occult classes and kits, even mine are missing this key ingredient.

YOU.

It isn't that the information in those kits and the information in the books is not useful.  Certainly, I try in my classes to make them useful.  Other people do too.

The effectiveness and thus real value however comes from you.   No amount of appeals to ancient secrets, no amount of elitism, no amount of salesmanship makes any of it worthwhile.

The so-called secret arts are bullshit.  What really matters is the experience of those systems and your investment of time.   No amount of book knowledge is the same as experiential knowledge and no amount of book knowledge will prepare you for the experience of any occult or supernatural thing.  No, you have to do it and it will consume you, transform form and rebirth you.  

Really, there is no spiritual or magical power without "Experiencing" it firsthand.  It must be part of you.  Empower the runes, well you have to live them.  Connect with ancestors, you have to live it.  Tremendous transformation with Ganesh or Yoga, again have to actually live it.  Then it has power.   Before that, words, garbage symbols, and a mismash of ideas.

You have to invest You in that process, and the process will destroy you.. you will be a different you.   Seems a ranty blog but its not.  Thats probably the first secret of all esoteric thought.  Of course, you can get talismans, you can get XYZ and some will work, but those only get you so far.   The sick marketing reveals the one secret, you are still the missing ingredient.  You are the lever point which invests and becomes or not.

It is the experience, the internalization of the system, which is the doorway to real power with the system.  Sure people will argue that they have the most secret and awesome system, but really, the internalization and thus ability to congeal intention to the system that becomes most important.

Aka the system is only worth the time and effort you put into it.   Of course, in the marketing people might say stuff is "spiritually instead of ritually empowered" but this is all gimmicky pitch of sales told for certain reasons that appeal to the basic idea of elitism.  Elitism is not real power either magically or spiritually.

Even if there are spirits backing something, there is still a period of time to acclimate to those spirits.  Even if a system is the most awesome system ever, it has to be internalized.   Essentially there are no shortcuts, you must integrate with the new energies or symbols sets.

Really this sums it up.

When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

THOSE DUES, ARE almost always dealing with change and the acceptance of change.  Success in magic and any spiritual pursuit changes you.  It change your environment and forces you to adapt.
Many businessness do sell you products, and I bet still the information is awesome, but its still only as useful as the amount you can practice it.  Unfortunately, that includes my materials at well, but I will certainly JOIN you in experiential learning, if you invest you.

That always means time.  Time Spent working the system.  Time Spent integrating to the system.  Time to get into the system.  Time to make magic a contact sport. 

So I didn’t buy the super course and book set, but it still looks interesting and I  might buy it when I have time to invest and study it.    To make it part of me not just, just a book the time.  That’s the real secret, is to give things time to make them part of you to grow you as they grow in you.

You will always be the missing element and the most important. 

You.

Spend the time.  Really dive in.. It will be worth it.

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