Cursed Cards, Planetary Powers, Banning Banishings, Egregious Eclecticism, Wise Wealth Wizardry, and MORE!
Every month there is a Q&A post on the Strategic Sorcery Group where I answer all manner of questions. Below are 9 of the most interesting.
1. You once commented that the Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing cards were rigged to tell bad fortunes.
Can you expand on that?
Well… look at the deck. The amount of negative cards is staggering. Also, despite a claim of being influenced by Lenormand, they bare ZERO resemblance to ANY playing card system that I have ever seen. Given that many readers made their living taking curses off clients, and that this was very popular at the time these cards were released (1903 I wanna say) its not a big leap.
2. Are you doing any ongoing work with the Planetary Powers these days? Seem like the “occulture” has moved on from talking about it, or at least maybe just in my social media feed.
I do planetary work every day in the mornings, and Jupiter stuff for clients. Helios also plays a part in my regular work and is connected with Hekate.
3. I believe you have said in the past you used to follow Kraigs Modern Magick and practice the banishings etc. Twice a day. What was the thing that truly made you break away from that sort of mindset and made you see that it wasn’t necessary and actually more harmful? I’m struggling to get out of that mindset, it’s like a magical form of OCD!
What got me out of it was seeing how magic worked in the rest of the world and paying more attention to some of my early teachers who never did banishing like that.
You need spiritual or magical authority to command spirits, not to live like a magical version of John Travolta in “The Boy In The Plastic Bubble”.
You need to have the power and authority to Banish and Exorcise, but that doesn’t mean you should do it constantly.
Daily Banishing is Shite. I recommended it 12 years ago in my first book, but even then I struggled whether I should or not. Protection and Reversal magic was written for people under psychic/spiritual/magical attack. Daily banishing under those conditions is fine. In general though don’t banish daily. In fact I think people spend far to many hours drawing geometical shapes in the corners of their bedroom. I know I did.
4. Just received Lesson 15, and reading through your list of botanicals, you mention star anise is your go-to as a psychic enhancer. What is your preferred method of use (burning, consuming, etc), and would you consider it to be good for lunar work in general?
There are so many great methods, you can eat it, burn it, etc. Truth be told though, I just keep a bowl of it covered on my altars and even my desk, and when i want to use it, I open it and inhale as I pray or invoke or whatever. Not very impressive, but it helps not stink up the house since my wife has Asthma.
5. Regarding the rhizomic nature of magic, what is the best way to do opposite-effect longterm workings. I’m mainly thinking of shrinking debt and increasing wealth.
I forgot to answer this. The answer is: don’t.
In the example you listed, what is the root problem? You either:
1. Make more than enough to cover all your bills but spend unwisely and have nothing to show for it.
OR
2. You don’t make enough, or barely make enough, to cover your expenses.
Most people with financial problems fall into the second category. People will criticize them for every penny they spend on something enjoyable but the truth is that the Latte or Avocado Toast that costs $5 and makes your current situation just a little more bearable is money well spent. You cannot cut your way to wealt when you are already close to the bone – you need to earn more money, Focus on that. Magic to shrink the debt is pointless – it will shrink from paying it down, which requires more money.
Now, if you are in the first category, you probably don’t have financial problems and massive debt beyond the student/mortgage/car thing that you are handling just fine. You just aren’t investing or saving. Maybe you still just need to earn more, but if you have bad spending habits you will wind up inflating your living expenses to match your income. This is when you need to do that discipline type work.
6. How long does it take you to craft magical strategies? Do you actually schedule a time for it?
You know I never really timed it. It usually begins at teh Macro-enchantment where I am enchanting just “For The Thing” and the type of Macr-Enchantment I choose is almost entirely intuition and interest.
7. I’m right now reading James Houk’s “Spirits, Blood, and Drums”, which concerns magical practices in Trinidad. The author, an academic and a practitioner, writes extensively about syncretism as between Yoruba-derived Orisha practices, Hinduism, Christianity, and Kabbalah/Ceremonial magic.
What do you consider healthy syncretism, especially when we’re talking about mixing wildly diverse traditions as for instance in the manner described above? Is it basically a matter of “that’s between you and the spirits as long as it stays private” or does it go beyond that? If I were to syncretize your St Cyprian practices with, let’s say, Merlin (for the record I wouldn’t do this in real life) do you see that as damaging the tradition or strengthening it?
Healthy synchretism can be pretty wild in my opinion. It just has to follow a few rules:
1. Know the traditions you are borrowing from. If you just read a book or have light experience that is not good enough.
2. Focus more on tech then symbol set. Using your example this would mean that you might take the Baptism of Demons or the pattern of the book from the Black School and try them out with Merlin RATHER than Cyprian. This is a terrible idea, but would be better than the typical “Let let me re-write the LBRP with WIzards rather than Archangels!” approach that most people take.
3. Do not claim titles that you do not possess. Everyone should be frank about what they do and where it comes from. When you grab something and take it out of context or apply it in a different way you should be making that ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to anyone you share it with
People will still have fits for sure, but if you follow the above three rules, you can say “that’s nice, now fuck off” with some integrity.
8. What were the practices you found most beneficial for bringing forth your true self and breaking those negative ancestral/family patterns (as based on an answer you gave recently about ancestors)?
1. Meditation to still the mind.
2. Contemplation to integrate the natural state as it is.
3. Inner Fire to purify and focus.
4. Various Magical Jouries such as recommended in the Gates practices.
5. Mindful aging.
9. On the Nature of sprits, gods demons and Angels , some models say is purely psychological some say they are external, I am leaning towards that they are external and internal at the same time, what are your thoughts on this.
Maybe you exist purely in their mind. Functionally they manifest in the mind and in the world and are both internal and external. I think I have written enough, and even made a video, about how stupid I think people’s single-action models are when it comes to magic.