The problem with ceremonial magic and the grimoire tradition
In a way I hate the fact that I chose to go down this path. It makes me doubt all of my operations and puts into question all the time, effort, study and application I’ve committed myself to. There is one aspect of all ceremonial magic that I find the most problematic and it just so happens to be the most important; the tools.
The magic tools are a goddamn pain but absolutely essential. The Book of St. Cyprian lists around 15 individual items (wand, staff, daggers, swords, mitre, robe etc. etc.) all completely necessary to conduct the ceremony safely, and all of them should be made from scratch and all of them should be consecrated in various different ways using various different methods (blood of a black cat, made in the day of Jupiter and so on.) Now unless your a skilled blacksmith, woodworker and have a couple of thousand of pounds/dollars in your pocket I very much doubt that ANYONE has every single tool made in the prescribed manner.
The Goetia has a very small itinerary of essential tools (not including all the appropriate rings and talismans) including the sceptre, cap, robe and essential perfumes, so pretty simple here, but then there’s the girdle of lion skin.
Now practising the Goetia seems to be quite popular, and loads of occultists claim success while lacking the tools, so who out there has the girdle of lion skin? Who out there has all the essential tools listed in St. Cyprian? I goddamn don’t and I very much doubt that most of the wonderful magicians and practitioners I’ve met don’t. And we all say that we’ve had success in evocations while lacking these tools, so how is this possible? Are we liars? Are we lazy? Do we not care? Are we frauds? Are we hacks? I don’t believe so. I think we try our best, I think we experiment and explore. I think that despite lacking the tools we are still drawn to the grimoires and will always endeavour to practise and evoke. I think we’re bloody amazing by sheer virtue that we try, try, try. But sometimes I feel like a fraud.
I adore the tools that I DO have and I’m very grateful that I own things that some practitioners don’t, and I really have no clue why or how I’m still successful. In no way I’m saying that I’m an uber magic master and every ceremony goes 100% perfect and I evoke spirits to full physical manifestation. My success rates vary, but I have done and continue to be successful. But why? Why does it work when by all accounts it shouldn’t?
I can’t answer these questions, it’s been a problem that has latched onto me since the beginning of my studies. The whole reason I joined Tumblr was because this is the only place I can raise these questions and discuss magical practises to the whole community. So fire away, reply, message me let’s get a conversation going here, don’t hold back if what you think I’m doing is folly, don’t hold back if you want to criticise the shit out of me. Go for it.
PS: this is is no way an attack or attempt to invalidate the work of my brother and sister magicians or any other magical practitioner. I will believe your success stories, I honestly do, it’s just I’m doubting my own work right now.
Come to the chaos magick dark side. You’ll be surprised to learn what works.
On a more serious side, I think most of the required tools have a very symbolic nature to them. I also think that one way or another, medieval magick has a whole lot of extra stuff in the requirements that in this day and age is probably not totally necessary, and to be honest may not have been necessary even then. I think the success of modern ceremonial magicians goes to show that goetic spirits can be summoned just as easily with a magic dagger that’s -not- soaked in the blood of a black cat and hemlock juice. My suspicion is that a lot of the necessary requirements were, in the days they were written, more of a way of gatekeeping. Hopefully what I’m saying is making sense, I’m too tired to articulate well this morning…
Back to tooting the chaote horn, this is why I love working with chaos magick, and attacking things from that approach. It’s a great way to strip things down and get to the bare bones of what works and what doesn’t in magick. Like I said earlier, if we get results, than we’re doing something right. Experimentation and figuring out what works best can be one of the most fulfilling parts of practicing magick, imo.
Literally
If you plug in hoodoo stuff
You’ll be ok.
Seriously. So much of Haitian and New Orleanean voodoo and hoodoo is partially descended from the systems of the Verum.
Dont have a huge hunk of gold to make a seal? Anoint a yellow candle with the proper oil and paint the seal on.
It sounds like it shouldn’t work but it does. It’s an old trick.
I’m living for the Solomonic-hoodoo culture in occultism that’s getting expanded on more and more these days tbh
Also pls don’t go to the chaos magickkkk dark side lol
I second @psilocyberotica. Imagine you’re an astrophysicist and you want to contact aliens. You would broadcast on as many channels as possible. But if they call you back, you wouldn’t necessarily know which band they received it on until you ask. So do the work to the best of your current ability, and ask the spirits themselves what number they want you to call them on.