A Professional Pagan Magus?

Ever since I became more involved with the Pagan and Wiccan community as a writer and teacher, I have become aware of those who write, consult, present workshops and teach others for a living. Some are modest but very successful “magician teachers and consultants” such as Jason Miller, who I have learned to admire and respect. There are many others as well, like Christopher Penczak, who may have been fortunate enough to start out with a good economic foundation to support them as well as being prolific in their vocation. While I might admire these various individuals who can focus all of their time on their occult studies and practices and still have a decent level of material comfort, I don’t envy them. Even if I were handed this opportunity on a silver platter, I would probably turn it down. Why do I feel that way? After all, isn’t that what all magicians and occultists strive for?

First of all, I absolutely love the work that I am currently paid to do. I love my job and I look forward to each new challenge and project that I receive. I guess you could say that I am very fortunate in that respect. My career may not have much of anything to do with occultism or magick, but it does give me a great deal of satisfaction. Resolving hairy technical issues and designing new application systems in my field of expertise gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment that functioning as a professional magician and either teaching courses or writing probably wouldn’t achieve. Unfortunately, my identity is narrowly defined by my interests in paganism, the occult and ritual magick, so being able to have a really good paying career completely outside of this narrow world view is actually quite mentally healthy for me. In order to achieve my material needs, I have to compete against many individuals who are quite different than me, and to be successful at it allows me to value myself in a manner that has nothing to do with paganism, occultism or magick.

Secondly, I doubt that I could earn the large income that I am presently making if I had to live as a professional magician. I would have to master the art of self promotion and spend a lot of time gathering new clients or students and building up my course work or performing an array of operations to keep them all occupied, so they would in turn keep me gainfully employed. I am certain that Jason has figured out all of these different angles, and I honor him for being able to do all that as well as sharing his knowledge with others for a modest fee.

I guess you could say that I prefer my current employment environment where my technical expertise is easily determined by tangible results that I produce every day. A professional magician would function more like a clinical psychologist, often with only some subjective testimonials indicating that the magick worked for this person or that it greatly helped them. As for me, my professional skill-set is constantly being challenged and measured, even certified by an official testing regimen. Since there is nothing like that in the occult world, then claims of self-mastery and teaching accolades would have to be verified by the subjective opinions of various individuals. For myself, I would find this too intangible and tenuous. There is also the problem that if I initiate and teach someone, any fees that I might apply to that teaching would have to be done on a purely “quid pro quo” basis. I could never charge another initiate anything more than what would cover my out of pocket expenses, if even that.

Over the past thirty years I have managed to reinvent myself and my career every five years. I have undergone an extensive amount of technical training and certification, and I am now contemplating yet another period of training and self redefinition. This might be the last time that I will have to go through this, but I have found that the more expertise that I have acquired, either through experience or training, or both, then the more important I become to my employers. I have managed to escape a number of layoffs and staff reductions because I didn’t get stuck in a rut and become outsourced, nor have I stagnated for years surviving on past accomplishments. I have always been preparing for the next project or the next job, and strategically positioning myself to take advantage of opportunities whenever they presented themselves. I believe that my flexibility and mobility in regards to learning new techniques have been what has saved me from becoming just another statistic in the never ending gulf of financial inequality that is occurring in this country. I have been lucky, but I have also made my luck as well. 

Thirdly, if I were to really consider starting a new profession, I would want to try something completely different than what I am doing now. I would love to be a professional writer who writes historical fiction, historical murder mysteries, or even some science fiction and fantasy. I wouldn’t base my writing career on my occult knowledge or by presenting occult classes or workshops, since I would see that more as a spiritual duty rather than a means of supporting myself. In fact, I fully intend on becoming a full time writer when I am finally forced to retire from my current career, which won’t happen for at least another decade or so. I have lots of stories inside my head, along with characters that seem to assume almost an independent life of their own, talking and acting out in my musings and imaginings. I have been told that having those kinds of things in one’s head is a sure sign of being a proficient fiction writer. All I need to do is to develop and master my ability to write, which I am doing right now by writing this short article.

Frater Barrabbas  

Opera Ex Operato Indeed!

Jason Miller has written an absolutely brilliant blog article today that I just had to comment on. In fact, I believe that his article has helped me locate and determine an important piece of the puzzle that I have been thinking about and wrestling with for quite some time. I agree with most of what he has said, but have some additional caveats to propose. Basically, what he has said is striking and important. You can find it here.

Jason’s essential premise is that belief and intent are not as important as many would presume, including myself. However, they are still operational quotients in the workings of magick, which is what I assume he is communicating in his article. So, don’t discount the power of your beliefs or your intent in the magickal working, just don’t give them too much weight, either. What is important is the work itself! (That was the “Aha” moment!)

‘The term Opere Ex Operato is an ecclesiastic term that translates as “it works because of the working”. It arose as a church doctrine as a response to competition between priests claiming to give more effective sacraments than other priests because of their proper view and purity.’

Of course the ecclesiastic term was more likely promoted so that the incompetence of some members of the clergy could be overlooked when attending a mass that was below the minimum standard of quality to be considered at all effective. But there is some truth to this statement, and it does answer some questions that I have been puzzling over.

I have been present, witnessed as well as heard of botched magickal operations and liturgical presentations that seemed to work quite well even though the celebrants were completely incompetent and the resultant working was considered terrible. However, that doesn’t mean that any operation however poorly contrived and executed will work regardless simply because it somehow resonates with some magickal or spiritual archetype, being or force. Magick can and does fail. Learning to be knowledgeable, proficient, capable and well practiced in the art of ritual magick is still an important objective for any student. Also, I have found that a more proficient magician will not only produce more elegant and esthetically pleasing ritual workings, but that they will be more likely to produce the desired result. So intent, belief, capability and understanding do play some roles in the ability of a magician to work magick and the product of her magickal workings. If this were not true, then all teachers would not be able to justify teaching others how to work magick, and perhaps even charging for it. (Hmm..)

I even recently believed that by intent alone a poorly contrived and executed ritual would be effective, but that supposition has always left me feeling like something was missing. One could intend to work magick, and then decide to drink a six pack of beer and watch TV. Would that intention count for anything - decidedly not! The world is overwrought with intentions that never amount to anything because they also require that the “intendee” gets off his backside and actually does the work. Belief in what you are doing and intention are also important, since they can be foundational to what you are doing - but the work is critically important, and without it, nothing happens.

However, the nature of the work is subtle, and does not need to conform to established praxis in order for it to be competent and successful. I create (make up) ideas and come up with new ways of doing my ritual magick all of the time, and it works quite effectively. It also works for others as well, so I would suspect that it isn’t necessary to either do something or engage with something that has a long history of being done or being engaged with.

Chaos magicians seem to prove this quite often, using anything that strikes their fancy as a system of magick, and yet, it works. One of my old teachers built an entire magickal and liturgical system out of the Superman comic mythos, and as silly as it was to watch and experience, it still worked. Perhaps we could say that Superman resonates with aspects of the godhead and the hero demigod (perhaps like Hercules or Samson, except with even greater godlike powers), but the silly quotient in what was being done had to be overcome as well. Culture is replete with all sorts of stuff that could be incorporated into one’s magick, even things that would be absurd (such as having pop icons as gods and goddesses), and yet the magick would probably still work.

Another thing that has to be understood about magick is that it is decidedly “wiggly.” That means that it doesn’t conform to logical structures and often seems to have a mind and will of its own. To make rules and suppositions about magick usually invokes the wiggly nature of magick. Therein lies the crux of being found out in some embarrassing manner that one’s rules are decidedly too rigid to actually encapsulate the whole mystery of what magick is and how it works. So we can all sit in our comfy arm chairs and discuss the nature of magick, while it’s running loose and fomenting all kinds of mischief behind our backs.

Also, one needs to qualify what is meant by belief and intent, since there could be weak and strong versions of these qualities. The weak versions would represent our whims and superficial expectations and desires (often quite changeable), and the strong versions would represent our greater expectations at a deep level of our being, and our true intent devoid of self deception and delusion. Deciding to work magick always runs into the powerfully paralyzing qualities of inertia, sloth and indecisiveness. These are forces in the personality that can and will nullify any kind of plan or operation, and they have to be dealt with through personal discipline and an act of willpower.

Thinking outside of box and accepting challenges that are not part of one’s usual equation are the elements that evolve and help us to grow. Without them, there is stagnation and ultimately, devolution. Jason is dead right about that issue! We need to be always open to many possibilities and experiment with new things and concepts, even things that might appear to go against our superficial desires and wants. Inertia and sloth, disguised as comfort and always working in the box will not help us grow and become strong, It will in fact ensure that we remain within the boundaries of the box and never succeed in achieving much of anything in life. Pushing the envelope and learning to master the self is critical to all spiritual pursuits and paths, especially in the practice of magick, where more often than not, we have no one to either guide, direct or bash us across the side of the head from time to time. Magick is definitely not something that is comfortable and predictable - so get out there and push the envelope, make something happen and by all means, do something that you have never done before.

So, a tip of the hat and “kudos” to Jason Miller for his insightful and interesting blog article. I have to admit, you made my day!

Frater Barrabbas

What Is A Core Discipline?

Jason Miller, in his recent blog article (No Replacement for Meditation) in the blog Strategic Sorcery has stated that meditation is the core discipline in the practice of magick. He has emphasized this to the point of saying that he would give up all of his magickal practices if he were forced to just practice one thing, and that one thing would be meditation. What Jason is saying is that meditation is the core discipline to the practice of magick. I couldn’t disagree more with what he has said, even though I would agree that meditation is important and at times, even critical to the achievement of the higher ordeals of ritual magick. However, meditation is just a tool, not an end to itself. I would not classify meditation as the core discipline of what I practice as ritual magick. So, I guess the question that I must answer is, what is the core discipline for a ritual magician?

The only way that we can answer this question is first answer the question of what is the ultimate objective for the practice of ritual magick. Answering that question should allow us to quickly identify what is the core discipline. The answer, as I understand it, and have stated for some time in this blog and in my books, is to become one with the Deity. All other actions are either ancillary to this goal (in other words, they incrementally assist) or are distractions to it. How does a ritual magician facilitate union with the Deity? Through the practices of alignment, assumption of godhead, devotions, communion, and ultimately, the Bornless One invocation rite. The magician creates a personal religious cult where he or she is the sole celebrant, congregation and personal avatar of the chosen deity. Such a relationship may seem idolatrous, presumptuous and even heretical to adherents of an orthodox creed, and indeed it is! However, the assumption of the Godhead is a practice that eventually fuses the personality of the magician with that of the Deity, causing a powerful ascension of consciousness, and a corresponding materialization and actualization of the living aspect of the magician’s personal imago of God. The ritual magician is first and foremost a priest or priestess, acting as the arbiter of the Deity in the material world. This is not a new idea or belief, but is based on a long tradition of magickal practices - but perhaps lionized first by Aleister Crowley, who changed how magick was practiced in the early twentieth century.

If I were to use Jason’s analogy then and be forced to reduce all of my practices to one thing, it would be variations on Godhead assumption. All of the other practices are tools that assist the magician in mastering the mind, the domain of spirit, body and one’s material circumstances - they are, in a word, nothing more than tools. So from this we can deduce that the core discipline in the practice of ritual magick is the assumption of Godhead and all of its related liturgical expressions and practices. It doesn’t matter if one is practicing magick from either the left hand or the right hand path - this core discipline can be reinterpreted to function in many different ways, but all of them lead the magician to the ultimate achievement - at-one-ment with the Deity, however that entity is defined.

Don’t misinterpret what I have said, though. Meditation is important, but then, so is the craft of divination, the arts of earth-based magick, theurgy, goetia, operant philosophy, occult research and study - the list is endless. But all of these practices, however important, are just tools - they are a means to an end, and that end is union with the Godhead.

One thing that any practicing magician needs to be aware of is that many systems of meditation and contemplation are highly integrated into a specific religious system. Whether one is practicing Vendanta Yoga, Zen Buddhism, Christian monasticism or any of the many different disciplines, almost all of these systems take a dim view of the practice of ritual magick. They are, in a word, incommensurate systems that will cause a powerful dissonance in one who would attempt to practice both systems in a deep and ardent manner. This is why I chose Kriya and Tantra/Kundalini Yoga as my foundational practices, since they not only allow me to practice ritual magick, but seem to highly encourage it, since the objectives of these disciplines are indeed commensurate with a worldly spiritual outlook such as ritual magick. To cherry pick a system of meditation and take it out of its context in order to practice it as some kind of core discipline will certainly short circuit the effectiveness of that system, in my humble opinion.

Also, ritual magicians begin their path in an incremental manner. In the beginning of their practice, they perform short ritual workings to effect a certain change or reap an opportunity. Meditation assists them in acquiring the right mind state in order to perceive and manipulate the forces and spirits associated with their work. Meditation is a tool for them, not an end in itself.

Meditation is therefore defined as the practices of asana, simple forms of prana-yama, mantra and mandala (yantra) and contemplation/concentration, stripped of their spiritual context. Anyone who has performed the simple fourfold-breath while maintaining an internal state of “being the witness” will tell you that doing that for just ten to twenty minutes will produce altered states of consciousness. What are those altered states of consciousness? Greater and more subtle awareness of oneself and one’s environment, sensitivity to spiritual and paranormal phenomena and a greater alignment with the Deity as the union of all being. From this vantage point, the magician can begin the ritual work that he or she sought to do in the first place. The more often these practices are performed, preferably at least once a day, every day, then the magician will be more sensitive and in tune with the magickal processes that he or she is attempting to engage. A regular meditation session is the repertoire of the competent magician - thus, it is tool and nothing more.

Jason has cleverly put a picture of the Buddha meditating at the top of his blog article, but the fact is that the Buddha would have found any and all magickal practices as superfluous. Christian mystics would be horrified at the thought of the magician assuming the Godhead in an obvious aggressive manner, and even Indian mystics would find the worldliness of ritual magick to be highly problematic. None of the adherents of these disciplines would either agree with or look kindly upon the practices of the typical ritual magician, but then they are operating in completely different spiritual context and could not be expected to either agree or condone such an obviously different spiritual discipline. Therefore, practitioners of ritual magick must carefully choose the components of their spiritual regimen so that everything that they do is harmonious to the practice of magick. My Tantra teachers not only know full well that I am a practicing ritual magician, but they also highly condone what I am doing and how I am doing it. I know from personal experience that this is more of an exception than the rule. As a ritual magician, I am often open to criticism, disapproval and sometimes, even hostility from those who are adherents to a spiritual tradition that is quite unlike mine. I consider it one of the perks of my avocation.

Frater Barrabbas