So I have admitted that for a long ass time I did not do
magical exercises on a daily basis. There was actually a long period where I didn’t
do magick on a daily basis at all, just the occasional personal ritual and
writing and performing magick with my tribe. But over the past year or so I
have had a daily magical practice. Not exercises, but I do magick every day.
Most of that has to do with ancestors.
Every night, I visit my ancestor altar. What’s an ancestor
altar? Just a place in your home where you keep some things that remind you of
your ancestors. It can be pictures, something the ancestor owned in life, or
something that reminds you of them. It can be on any small shelf space and does
not need to be elaborate. It should have space for offerings. Three things cut
across cultures when it comes to making offerings to your ancestors: fire
(candles work fine), incense, and water. If you are looking closely you see
represented the four classical elements. Fire, Water, Air in the form of
incense, and Earth, which is the ancestors themselves because they have
returned to the Earth.
Think upon this. That the Egyptians of the time absolutely know
how special this stone was. That it was carved and placed in this magnificent
work of art for a relatively minor king of the 18th Dynasty of the
New Kingdom, who’s tomb miraculously went mostly unlooted into the modern era.
Now imagine what wonders the Egyptians created in the over 3,000 years of empire,
scattered and lost in time. Made by hand with basic tools. I see this and do
not doubt our place in the universe. We are mere clever, talking apes, but we
are a marvel to behold.
The working theory of Emergent Animism breaks down spirits
into three general types. The type of spirit helps determine the general
approach and method of communicating with any particular spirit.
The three types are:
spirits of the dead, spirits of place, and alien spirits.
Spirits of the dead are spirits of dead human beings.
Spirits of animals and other entities that once had physical form can also be
included in this classification but may also be considered alien spirits
depending on how closely they still relate to the concerns of the physical
world. Dead humans may also transcend this category if the spirit becomes
something that personifies archetypal quality or has major concerns beyond this
plane of existence.
Spirits of the dead are by far the easiest spirits to
communicate with as they still have some working knowledge of physical form. Depending
upon their ability in life and how often they interact with the physical world
will determine how easily they communicate. Many maintain language skills and
an understanding of human symbolism.
The most useful spirit of this type a magus can interact
with will usually be ancestors. “Blood calls to blood,” is an axiom
almost universal in magical systems. There need be no reason why spirits would
suddenly lose the desire to procreate. By this I mean the drive to continue
ones imprint upon the world, be that genetically or spirituality. Your
ancestors want to live on and can only do this by effecting the physical plane.
They have a vested interest in the welfare of their descendants. Even an
ancestor who did nothing but spit venom at their family when they were alive
can quickly change their tune when they realize their descendants are the only
game in town. Okay, not the only game, but certainly the path of least
resistance. There persists plenty of stories featuring vengeful and angry
spirits. Some people never learn even when faced with the ultimate teacher. But
these spirits can be easily avoided by a competent magus. They can even be
exploited if a magus is so inclined. If they can’t learn to chill even after
they’re dead, fuck ‘em.
Many magi have quite the ego. I am not an exception. It
requires a certain amount of hutzpah to write a book on magick and believe it
worthy to be added to the already massive corpus of knowledge on the subject.
Proclaiming one’s station and ability, however over inflated those claims, is
part of the tradition. Not all spirits are friendly. Some need to be
intimidated. The magus does this by listing their position, their lineage, and
their allies in the spirit world.
Is it all bullshit? Yes, and no. At least in my case. I
freely admit I am a lazy and undisciplined ass who preaches more than he
practices. That needs to end now.
Almost all magical systems start off by giving a perspective
initiate a system of exercises meant to build up their skills in achieving
altered states of consciousness and develop a means of magical self-defense.
These skills are vital for any magus. In fact, I wrote my own prescribed
exercises specifically for Emergent Magick (EMK).I call it Liber F, or Liber
Fodienda, Latin for “The Book of Mining.”Named after one of the core
principles of EMK— “The Citadel of Emergent Magick is built from stone mined through
the disciplines of yoga.”
Time for full disclosure. I hope this makes some people feel
better about themselves and shatters the illusion that any of us are perfect.
I’m doing this from memory so most likely there have been many more failures
not listed. Here is my history of working various systems of magical
exercise.
This is a matter of personal opinion. Many are likely to disagree but heres my stance: Devil is a title, not a name. I think it refers to a certain kind of spirit. A devil is an initiator, a trickster, and unique to each region. I think regional stories about devils are insights to local spirits that don’t have the language outside of ‘devil’ to discuss what’s happening. In some places the terms devil and spirit are interchangeable, but as a contemporary witch I think there is a use in specifying what a devil is for personal practice. I personally do not think that the biblical devil is the same spirit as the devils featured in regional folklore.
Since everyone’s pooping in their pampers about the Devil time to bring this back
I think folkloric devils and the biblical devil are the same in many circumstances, and there’s plenty of historical attestation and modern praxis to suggest this. Though I certainly don’t believe all people who work with a/the devil(s) must find themselves within a Christian framework or paradigm, I think a lot of contemporary new agers are too quick to write off anything that appears remotely Abrahamic in a way that does a lot of damage to real histories of folk magic. Particularly in American regional folklore, I would be hard-pressed to say that many of those spirits aren’t in some way biblically-inflected, particularly considering the types of folks they’re said to have appeared to.
But certainly not all devils=The Devil, and you make a quite good point that there’s a real death of language (at least in English) with which to describe regional folk/initiatory spirits tied to the land.
Like I said people are bound to disagree, and it’s not out of disregarding the devil or Christianity. I use the Bible on a daily basis in my work. I work with more than one devil. I stand by that in my experience most folk devils are called that due to a lack of language but the word is pretty goddamn close to the original use. They are unforgiving, ruthless, and can be horrific. And in my experience they have been there a long time with no bible to say what they are.
Again, I’m not trying to disagree with your personal experience. What I’m saying, though, is that there’s a massive amount of historic attestation to running across the biblical devil in the guise of a folk devil. Your exact words were “I personally do not think that the biblical devil is the same spirit as the devils featured in regional folklore.” As I said, that’s certainly true in some cases! Perhaps many! However, the biblical devil is irrefutably the same as some devils in American regional folklore, and its either disingenuous or ignorant of those folk traditions to say otherwise.
Hey so can we maybe tone it down? Why are we throwing around words like disingenuous and ignorant because of a small technicality in what could be a freaking dialectic difference? Especially to someone who is, in my literal, physical personal experience, one of the most knowledgeable and well-worded witches I know. And I’m not saying that to be somebodies fluffer, I’m saying that because it’s the damn truth. There’s no reason to assume that because you personally did not understand or interpreted their answer to be a certain way that they are disingenuous or ignorant, and this is the kind of thing that makes tumblr a toxic place. You may not have meant it to be nasty but as an outsider looking in it reads like a slap in the face. There is no reason, none whatsoever, for the use of those words when SouthernCunning is literally sharing an opinion based not only on their experiences with the Devil, but with how those experiences have played out. And you know what, SouthernCunning and I don’t share an opinion here, because literally EVERYONE experiences the Devil differently. But that doesn’t mean that I believe they’re telling me I’m incorrect in my experience, or that they’re simply ignorant of other traditions. Like literally they are so fucking knowledgeable about so many other magical traditions that they’re literally like a damnealking Encyclopedia Magica.
Tumblr it’s seriously time for us to stop this. This kind of attitude and callousness is not cool, it doesn’t make you seem like the bigger person, and at the end of the day the people you are talking to another person. Make no mistake I’ll boot stomp someone if I need to, but those comments were not warranted when you were in the process of having a discussion.
Again, you’re talking to someone who has been instrumental in my own personal growth and development, and I’m not sorry to say that you’re comments were unwarranted. SouthernCunning is scaring their own experience, and foryou to say that the way their experiences have shaped their view is disengenuous or ignorant. What even is that? Let m tell y’all something, very few witches will agree on things like this. It’s li👏🏻ter👏🏻a👏🏻lly all about your own personal experience. And I’m really over us being nasty to each other.
I don’t think I was particularly mean–in fact, I took pains to be what I considered level with my tone and choice of language. As I have said (now repeatedly), I am not here to dispute any of SouthernCunning’s personal experience, nor anyone else’s. Personal experience is just that, though–personal. SouthernCunning made a totalizing comment about the nature of folk craft that DOESN’T account for everyone’s experience, though, which is why I said anything at all. I’ll quote it again here, so we’re clear:
“I personally do not think that the biblical devil is the same spirit as the devils featured in regional folklore.”
“I do not think,” I fear, is the missed link here. You seem to be reading it as a measure of personal experience. If that is what they meant, that’s not at all semantically clear. “In my experience I have not encountered a folk devil who is also the biblical devil” would be about personal experience. Though “I do not think” is fundamentally different than, say, “I do not know,” the way that sentence is structured semantically (folklore as the object, not experience) offers us a truth hidden behind the qualifying tenor of “I think.” That sentiment is: the biblical devil is not the same spirit as the devils in regional folklore. And, again, that is factually not true in many, many historical and contemporary instances. This is a really, really, really important part of huge swathes of American folk tradition. It’s not a minor point to me and many others.
To be clear, again: of course all sorts of people experience a/the devil(s) in wildly different ways. I am literally not here to disagree with anyone’s personal experience. All of them can be true. All of them being true includes the biblical devil’s role in American folk heritage in a way SouthernCunning explicitly disagreed with. When we talk about folkloric tradition–which they invoked, not me–that conversation inherently revolves around a historical record which is quite clear about this. Claiming to speak for what folklore “means” while ignoring its (extremely well documented, in this regard) history is either disingenuous or ignorant. Claiming to speak for history and folklore, as such, cannot be question of belief or personal experience.
This may seem like linguistic nitpicking–if you feel that way, so be it. I feel it exposes a critical root that I feel the need to engage with. Belief, “I thinks” of any variety, are dangerous when they present themselves as totalizing and indicative of broad systems.
The Biblical devil isnt even The Biblical Devil half the time. (Agreeing here that both The Devil and Satan are titles and necessarily the names of specific beings, and that there’s still a huge amount of debate over who exactly Satan, Lucifer and Devil are supposed to be referring to in scripture) All discussion of Satan, The Devil, ext are going to be heavily subject to personal experience and interpretation irregardless of typical convention or recorded testimony.
Yes, there are definitely multiple biblical figures referred to as a/the devil! I didn’t want to bring in that wrinkle as it didn’t seem relevant to the broader argument, but you’re absolutely right.
However, I want to resist the idea that when we talk about magic and spirits, we’re always inherently talking about personal experience. Though there’s clearly a critical place for personal experience in such discussions, we can (and, I think, must) also be able to engage with historical and theoretical texts outside of that context. This doesn’t mean we must bow to convention in any means–you use the word “interpretation,” and I think that’s a good one. But engagement with textual histories and arguments–even interpretive engagement, which all readings essentially are–can exist outside of and complement discussions of personal experience.
Particularly in regard to folklore and other historical testimony, the fact that you may have experienced something different doesn’t mean that the folkloric version isn’t also true or important. In essence, folklore is collected experience, and honoring it as itself (rather than only in relation to our individual experiences) is a critical facet of magical praxis and theoretization.
Despite some of the nitpicking which I will assume really comes down to miscommunication, there is a lot of good observation here. I am especially happy that no one on this thread thinks you can simply write the Devil out of the Western Esoteric Tradition. Also, I’m pretty sure the Devil is enjoying this post immensely.
So I have admitted that for a long ass time I did not do
magical exercises on a daily basis. There was actually a long period where I didn’t
do magick on a daily basis at all, just the occasional personal ritual and
writing and performing magick with my tribe. But over the past year or so I
have had a daily magical practice. Not exercises, but I do magick every day.
Most of that has to do with ancestors.
Every night, I visit my ancestor altar. What’s an ancestor
altar? Just a place in your home where you keep some things that remind you of
your ancestors. It can be pictures, something the ancestor owned in life, or
something that reminds you of them. It can be on any small shelf space and does
not need to be elaborate. It should have space for offerings. Three things cut
across cultures when it comes to making offerings to your ancestors: fire
(candles work fine), incense, and water. If you are looking closely you see
represented the four classical elements. Fire, Water, Air in the form of
incense, and Earth, which is the ancestors themselves because they have
returned to the Earth.
Did seven minutes of rhythm meditation as prescribed in the first exercise of Liber F. Smoked some of the herbal remedy and just sat down on my futon with all the candles on my ancestor altar burning for All Souls Day. I was playing a small rattle, hand made by Sator Mordeci Sova, my mentor in the IOT and a bad ass witch. I owe so much to her. The rattle is made out of the jawbone of some small animal, or maybe a small deer. It has a cluster of tiny brass bells wired to one side which Mordeci herself had painstakingly attached to this piece of road kill she had stripped of its flesh. She was that hardcore! I watched her die right in front of me. A heart attack. She died on a camping trip, surrounded by the people she loved doing the things she loved – communing with nature, and magick. We held a massive party in her honor that night.
She taught me so much both before and after she passed beyond the veil. I am so blessed for knowing such an amazing magical practitioner who now resides in the realm of spirit.
I played those bells for her tonight, and for all of my family.
As much as I would like to avoid it, I feel I must first
define Emergent Magick (EMK). Especially considering that at this point, there
are maybe about fifty practitioners of EMK on the planet. If you follow my
other blog, Scroll of Thoth, you probably have some idea what it is, but I know
that I have failed to define it with any concision. Part of that is because I
am publishing a book on the subject, which will be released in early 2019. It
really needs an entire book and more to get the concept across. Also because
like any other magical philosophy, it’s slippery, and no matter how skilled I
think I am as a writer, words always fail to encompass it in its entirety. And
you’ve probably figured out by now I’m a wordy son-of-a-bitch, which makes it
doubly hard to do this. I’ll endeavor to make it as short as possible so we can
get on with the real subject at hand.
EMK defines magick as, “The art of altering consciousness.”
In essence, the universe itself is created and directed by consciousness, and
magick is a way to influence that consciousness. Consciousness itself lacks
universally accepted definition. For our purposes it includes any sufficiently
complex system that can perceive. If you accept that sub-atomic systems are
sufficiently complex, and that quantum theory proves that particles have some
form of perception, this includes everything in the universe to a greater or
lesser degree. Art, the activity of creation, influences consciousness. Ritual
is the art of the magician, and it is specifically designed to alter
consciousness.
