What I learned about Magic This Week

Jason mentioned that Gordon hasn't done any "What I learned from Magicians this Week," probably because he's been too busy dealing with some shit in his life, either good shit or bad shit, or just the standard ordinary bull shit. That happens to online people occasionally, we get things happening in meatspace that unplugs us for indeterminate interludes.

And I've been dealing with too much of the latter category of shit to really spend a lot of time reading and learning from other magicians, although I did learn that I was right all along about the use of the term "Energy Work" last week; it's got so many meanings to different people in different contexts that it's useless to even use the term. But it's interesting to learn what you can about people from their different interpretations of the phrase.

Oh, and another thing... I wanted to mention that the spectrum I put up with Jason on the left and Balthazar on the right in terms of syncretism had no "bad" side, and that the use of the word "rational" in the center didn't mean to imply that anyone further left or right was any less rational. I just meant it to mean that in the center you weigh everything against the extremes before syncretizing carefully. Jason in his position on the far left would still be doing his syncretizing rationally, he would just be more comfortable working with multiple traditions than I would be. And the main point was it reflected my opinion of where people were at in their personal approaches to sycretizing traditions.

And I think syncretization is a good thing, and anyone who can operate in the Pure Chaos realm is equally entitled to and deserves respect for being able to handle that much at once. I get thread-processing errors often enough from "straight" Hermetics, because it's as far from straight or pure as you can get. I couldn't function the way Jason does, but that's ok because I'm not Jason. The spectrum thing was only supposed to be a reflection of a person's comfort level in terms of what they can plug together and make work in harmony. I can handle Greek, Roman, Hebrew, and Persian influences mingling under the proto-Christian banner, but only because the parts that work together do so in a harmony I can relate to.

Ok, enough of that. The thing I learned this week in magic is for those who have been working on getting K&CHGA, or the Supernatural Assistant, or who have been working with the Three Fold Keeper of a Man, or who has received a Solar Assistant, or the Agathosdaimon or whatever. There's a part of the Stele of Jeu that Crowley made into the rubric in Liber Samekh that makes for an awesome all-purpose conjure rite that brings fast luck, nearly instant wealth, opportunity, blessing, and uncrossing. Here's a sample for getting some moneys when you need it quickly:

Come thou forth, and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether, upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land, or in the Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and every Spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto me!

Now, all you Spirits subject unto me, bring me the money! Cash, piles of gold, overflowing! Let my purse not be empty, let my bank accounts remain black, open my eyes to the opportunities you will provide, and above all, bring me cash and coin and checks and money, without harm, injury, or stress to myself or any that I love. I'll do the Work, you make straight the way.
Agathosdaimon! See to it!

See? Easy as pie. Worked great for me to get rid of some bad juju I stepped in while cleansing a client.

Which brings up another thing I learned about Magic, that Mexican curses by the brujos y brujas is some bad-ass shit! In taking apart a multi-layered curse that was also hidden from casual divination, I learned a lot about layering your efforts on a matter. You can design a web of aspects to a rite that affects multiple people simultaneously so they are all characters in a story, each carrying out actions prompted by what looks like a minor hexing if taken individually, but turns out to be a massive curse when you see its effects start coming together. It was a work of art, man, and getting rid of it was literally exhausting. I slept for 12 hours plus naps for a couple days this week just recuperating. I did some Solar Work to revitalize today, and that's helped a lot.

But man, these magicians don't play. They have integrated the things Jason teaches about in his Strategic Sorcery courses and his book Sorcerer's Secrets in a massive way. Hats off to the brujos, man. Respect. Cleaning that mess up was, as a friend warned me, hard!