These Be Dark Times in Our Land

 

To believe that Witchcraft and Ritual Magic represent some kind of a-political perspective is foolish at best, delusional at worst kind of reasoning. This is why I feel the need to point to the politics of our time and present it from the perspective of a practicing Witch and ritual magician. What I can say is that regardless of one’s political persuasions or lack thereof, our beliefs and practices thrive when there is an overall openness and progressive bend to the social and political body of our nation. Tolerance, the acceptance of diversity, and empowered rights of the individual, including the most powerless and vulnerable of our populace, is the kind of environment in which Witchcraft both as a religion and as a magical practice can thrive. This is because we are all truly free when everyone is given the respective and dignity that they, as human beings, deserve.

What disturbs me most is when a particular religious faith within the body politic decides to impose their beliefs, prejudices and mythic thinking on the rest of the populace of the nation. I am not a Christian, Muslim nor Jew, but I respective everyone’s rights to practice their faith within a nation where the local and national government is secular and unbiased by religious prejudice. However, lately it seems as if a certain minority of ultra-conservative Christians have pushed forth an agenda that has the backing of the Supreme Court of our nation. I am, of course, referring to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but other recent decisions have made the court a place of Christian fundamentalism, both Protestant and Catholic, instead of a secular body that respects previous decisions.

I cannot abide the mind-set that has elevated an ultra-conservative Christianity to become the law of the land. There is no one truth in regards to religious beliefs and practices, and there is no one true religion. As I have said, because of the common threads between all religions, either they are all true or none of them are true. Of course context is important to any kind of religious perspective, which means that religious truths must be placed within the context of their perspective, and no truth from one religious perspective can overturn or deny the truth of any other religion. Yet this is what we are enduring for these dark times in the nation of supposed freedoms and rights. It reminds me of the hypocrisy of the seven Christian virtues of humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, diligence and patience and how it is practiced as a divisive and sectarian creed. It would seem that the seven deadly sins are more popularly practiced in Christianity than its virtues.

There is a wonderful book that I read back in the early 1980's during the Reagan presidency, entitled “The Handmaid’s Tale” written by Margaret Atwood, and later became a series on Hulu. In that book, the U.S. has been transformed into a theocratic nation called Gideon, where the elite ruling class are the religious leaders of an aggressive and tyrannical Christian fundamentalist movement. I read this book not long after it was published in 1985, and it seemed not too far off for a fictional concept with the ascendancy of the Religious Right happening at that time. I felt at least comforted by the fact that we are a nation of many diverse faiths, with a growing percentage of non-aligned, agnostic or atheist citizens. 

Such a diverse religious population should require a secular government to fairly treat them all with the respect that they deserve, and that not one group and its creed should be placed over and above the others. What worries me is that in the course of time since the publishing of that book I have seen the planks for a foundation of such a theocratic government start to be put into place by various politicians, pundits and even jurists. The Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion and states that no law shall be passed that would violate that guarantee, but we are incrementally slipping into an abyss of autocracy and theocratic rule unless people take their liberties seriously and aggressively defend them from those who would impose on us their creed based values and beliefs.

Roe vs Wade was part of a series of judicial pronouncements from previous SCOTUS rulings that were based on the premise that laws against abortion unduly violated a woman’s right to privacy as based on the 14th amendment of the Constitution, back in 1973. That amendment guaranteed extensive due process rights to individuals. That part of the amendment reads:

“..that neither federal nor state governments can restrict fundamental decisions that affect their liberty or property rights without proving that there’s some kind of overwhelming national interest at stake”

Based on that part of the amendment and how it was interpreted, starting in the 1960's, there were five landmark rulings that defined a greater scope of legal and allowable conduct of private citizens that made them beyond the interdiction or interference of the State. These rulings included Roe vs Wade. Let me list them for you, in case you need a helpful reminder of what is at stake in our legal nation at this time.

1. Griswald vs Connecticut - the freedom to purchase contraceptives to block fertility. Yes, at one time, the pill and family planning were illegal.

2. Loving vs Virginia - the freedom to marry someone of another race. There were laws in the south that made marriage between individuals of difference races (particularly Blacks marrying Whites) illegal or at the very least, unrecognized.

3. Roe vs Wade - abortions became legal with some minor restrictions throughout the nation.

4. Lawrence vs Texas - this abrogated sodomy laws that made same sex intercourse illegal. A number of laws, including sex acts that were outside the missionary position, were forced to be abolished.

5. Obergefell vs Hodges - this started out as several legal cases brought in a number of States that argued for marriage equality, making a marriage between the same genders as legitimate as the marriage between the opposite sexes.

Many of these rulings have a particularly important value and meaningfulness to those of us who are practicing Witches and Pagans. Many of us are also members of the LGBQT community, or at least stand apart from the Christian Religious Right, realizing that anyone who is denied their basic rights puts at risk the freedoms and rights of everyone. We are not alone in seeing the risk of overturning any of these rulings and what that might do to the world we live in today.

The current 2022 ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade represented the Supreme Court’s rejection of precedence and throwing out the whole basis of the 14th amendment on which these rulings were originally based. What that does, in fact, is jeopardize the other four rulings, since they were based on the same right to privacy that allowed Roe vs. Wade to be the law of the land for almost 50 years. If the people’s right to privacy is no longer a valid and dependable right, then we are in for a very rough period indeed. It is likely and possible, with the current make up of the Supreme Court that at least three of those current rulings will possibly fall in the very near future. 

That means that contraception will become illegal, same sex marriage and intercourse will become illegal, and maybe some States will be allowed to once again outlaw marriages between people of different races. It also means that States could be allowed to force certain religious beliefs on their populations and outlaw other unacceptable faiths, such as my own. No one knows how far these precedents will push the legal domain of the Federal Government and States to make life more difficult and a lot less free than it has been. Some States won’t go in this direction, but others will happily interdict their populations with all sorts of restrictive laws on the behavior and life-style of individuals.

All of these events have me dreading the future, since there doesn’t seem to be much that anyone can do right now to push the nation in the other direction. However, there is one antidote to this pernicious slide to a theocratic autocracy, and that is to vote, and get your friends, family and colleagues to vote. We need to build liberal super majorities in States and the U. S. Congress and Senate and pass laws that will enforce the right to privacy. It is something that actually protects all of us from unwarranted scrutiny and interdiction, and we need to be motivated as if our freedom and the conservation of our life-style depends on it - because it does!

No excuses - get out and vote in November. If you don’t vote and these conservative cretins successfully gain power, those of us who are practicing non-Christian based faiths will rue the day that we didn’t act as a majority to save our nation. Keep in mind that the Religious Right represents a distinct minority, and when we act as a coalition of majority minded folks they will be out-voted and put out of power.

Frater Barrabbas

Satanic Panic is Back

So, here we are, in the year 2022, and what do I read in the news? That QAnon is pushing a Satanic child predation conspiracy to destroy the political careers of politicians who are not extreme enough in their support of the former president or who happen to be Democrats, with a big “D” next to their name on the ballot. As an elderly Witch and ritual magician with a long memory, I can recall something similar to this event happening back in the 1980's. I view this occurrence with a bit of horror and also shock at how stupid and misinformed some people are in our nation.

A Satanic Panic, also known as a moral panic, is where individuals or groups are allegedly accused of holding forbidden rites where children are ritually and sexually abused, or even murdered and cannibalized. It is a form of the persecution of stigmatized others lacking validity or any basis in fact, and it relies on the sinister effects of a conspiracy, media manipulation and public gullibility. It is the myth where people believe in the double nature of supposedly good and upright individuals who are allegedly perpetrating untold acts of evil against innocent children. Typically, such accusations are made against individuals who represent a social minority or who are unable to defend themselves. It is similar to the pogroms against the Jews, Catholics, Blacks, Irish, Mormons, Asians, socialists and communists. It represents the basest form of fear mongering and persecuting otherwise innocent individuals who are powerless to prevent their victimization.

The so-called Satanic Panic of the 1980's started with a book titled “Michelle Remembers” written by Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist husband, Lawrence Pazder, and published in 1980. In the book she luridly describes her experiences as a child being ritually abused in Satanic rituals, although it is never claimed in the book to be her own personal experiences. Her husband even coined the term ritual abuse, or RA, and began a career promoting the belief that ritual abuse was a wide-spread social phenomenon. They gave lectures and training to law enforcement agencies even though there was no real proof that such events were actually happening. The idea of a Satanic conspiracy and the horrors of ritual abuse or even the murder of children caught the imagination of some people, particularly those who were religiously conservative and intellectually compromised.  However, by the 1990's, Pazder had already assisted law enforcement agencies in the investigation of over 1,000 cases, ensuring that the seeds of these unfounded beliefs and accusations were promoted as factual truths.

This book was very likely responsible for child welfare case workers being advised to begin to more deeply investigate the possibilities of ritual abuse based on State directed guidelines, and law enforcement agencies were also keen to investigate the possibility of Satanic Ritual Abuse, or SRA, as it was called. A social phenomenon was created by this book and the seriousness of the allegations, coupled with people’s imaginations, made others come forth to admit that they had been ritually abused as children, and some parents admitted to it when pressured by police and accepting plea deals from aggressive district attorneys. Suddenly, this phenomenon became endemic in Canada, the U.S. and the UK. All of this was happening without a shred of actual evidence. It was based on dubious accusations, hear-say, and rumors. In many cases it was a modern version of the Witchcraft scares and persecutions of the pre-modern era.  

The most notable of these prosecutions was the California McMartin Preschool case, where the owner and director (Peggy McMartin and Ray Buckey) in 1983 were accused of engaging in Satanic Ritual Abuse. I recall this time quite well, and the two defendants were given terrible press and depicted as evil Satanists who were secretly engaging in the ritual and sexual abuse of the children placed in their care. This was a highly sensationalized event that got national coverage and was played in the news for months. Even author Michelle Smith got into the fray, counseling the parents of the children who had been supposedly abused. Of course, the prosecution had little hard evidence for all of the counts of sexual abuse alleged against the two figure heads (they had dropped the “Satanic Ritual” part of allegations) , and after three years they were finally acquitted of all charges. Their lives and the pre-school business they ran was utterly destroyed, and all it did was fan the fires of a sensational conspiracy that seemed to have a life all of its own. These conspiracy allegations were taken so seriously that they inspired the U.S. Congress to investigate and to promote bills to protect children against a phenomenon that had no basis in fact or reality.

Child abuse is a real factor throughout the world, but a conspiracy based Satanic Ritual Abuse underground movement is the stuff of fantasy and nightmares. It has no basis in fact. By the early 1990's the press had grown skeptical of the SRA phenomenon and some brave individuals in the psychiatric and law enforcement academic and organizations disputed the claims and argued that there was no hard evidence that SRA was actually a problem requiring legal and government intervention. The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, combined with the University of California, studied over 12,000 cases and found no evidence of an organized movement. The Satanic Panic, which had ultimately captivated and horrified many nations was based on nothing more than hysteria and superstition. The sad effect of this Satanic Panic was that it deflected from the real problem of child abuse, and abrogated resources that would have better spent on a real endemic social problem instead of a phantom menace.  

That period of time did have an impact on the Pagan and Witchcraft communities. As a means of safe-guarding our communities, some parents decided not to allow their children to attend public or pagan festival gatherings. We as a community became a lot more cautious and scrutinized potential new members to our community, fearing that some local law enforcement would target us and plant informers who would lie or distort what was happening at Pagan or Wiccan gatherings. We also became more adverse to any form of Satanism, and even barred some who were inclined to diabolatry in a gothic guise to attend our gatherings and associate with us as invited equals. It was, overall, a sad time to be a Witch or Pagan, and we were glad when it finally died out and left the public sphere.

Having enduring that troubling time, now I am reading in the news that a new group of manipulative pundits and politicians, some within the QAnon conspiracy organizations, and some in hard-core conservative news or political organizations are pushing a new and revised version of this nightmare. Although this time the moral panic is also focused on the LGBTQ community as well as the Pagan and Witchcraft communities. Politicians who are liberal or even mildly conservative are being accused of aggressively recruiting children to become queer or engage in occultism, Paganism or Witchcraft. Those of us who are actual members of these communities are seeking to avoid any controversy, knowing all too well what might happen if a new moral panic gripped the nation.

Since the political classes in the U.S. are so polarized, it would seem that a revised Satanic Panic with accusations of ritual abuse, murder and cannibalism would seem to be believed by a significant minority of religiously conservative groups. However, it is also likely that the mainstream media will find such accusations to be completely ridiculous, which will shield the general public from assuming that such accusations are anything but complete nonsense. QAnon has not found much respect or acceptance in the majority of the American public, but if the Republican party regains power in the next two years then all bets are off. We may find ourselves hounded back into the broom closet for most, and real live persecution for those of us who are published or publicly known, like myself.

Frater Barrabbas  

Temporal Model of Magic and Gods of Time

 

In my forthcoming book, “Talismanic Magic for Witches” I talk about a new magical model that I recently discovered that explains the magical efficacy of what I call the talismanic equation. There are basically two parts to this consideration. The first part promotes the idea that the best and most stable talismanic force is one that combines both a planetary intelligence or archetype with an element. The second part is that incorporating the attribute of time through the use of the planetary day, hour and the astrological auspices of associated transits occurring when the magic is to be performed places that working into a more powerful disposition than if one were to ignore time altogether.

The first part is based on the concept that a mind and body joined together has greater utility than a mind without a body, or a body without a mind. In talismanic magic, the mind part is the planetary intelligence and the body part is the element energy, and when joined together creates a self-sustaining magical field. You can, of course, work planetary magic without adding an element to it, but there is something special about the energy and the intelligence when combining the two together.

A talismanic field that consists of both a planet and an element represents a kind of magical force that is intelligent (guided) and empowered (embodied) to a specific purpose. Such a magical force is radiant, and, I might add, perpetual. A planetary intelligence attached to a godhead archetype and fused within an element envelope that is continually charging it will continue to radiate its magical effect practically forever, or for as long as the talisman is maintained. Thus, talismanic magic is unlike any of other form of magic.

To ground and preserve this perpetually charged and active magical force, it is projected into a metallic body that is inscribed with symbols and sigils denoting the qualities and authorities (spirits) used to generate it. The importance of using a metallic body for containing the talismanic artifact is to ensure its longevity, since other material containers would be subject to the ablative effect of time and use. As long as the owner of the talisman maintains a mental link with the talisman, it will continue to operate perpetually. A talisman can be destroyed by destroying the base in which it resides and disbursing its energy, and it can become dormant if lost or unused for a period of many months. A dormant talisman can be easily awakened when merely summoned and focused within a consecrated space.  

Talismans can be created through a process of either active or passive magical actions. The active magical process incorporates a star polygon, such as a hexagram or a septagram. It uses the same methodology that is used to generate an element using a pentagram. Drawing the lines of force of a star polygon will produce the energy and intelligence of a specific planet or zodiacal sign. This can done at any time such a field is needed in a magical operation.

The passive methodology relies strictly on the astrological auspices of a given event to invoke and thereby focus that quality on an object or person. It teaches that merely exposing and invoking a celestial quality at the right time will suffice to complete a magical operation. An elective astrological chart is often required, along with the use of the planetary day and hour. Using the active magical approach overrides the necessity for predetermining the astrological auspices and selecting the best time, and many people work planetary magic using this approach. The passive approach has its benefits, and some would argue that it is superior, since it incorporates the omens and portends of a successful outcome. However, it requires more than a working knowledge of astrology and it is locked into a specific time and location to take advantage of a celestial event, thereby limiting when the working can be performed.

A magical  rule to consider whenever approaching magic that uses celestial objects, such as planets, is that there is a greater impact and long-term effect to be gained in the magical working when the factor of time is considered for such a working. When I am referring to time, I am, of course, referring to the event of the working, when it is performed, where and under what conditions. There is an important archetypal factor at play when the ritual magician incorporates time into a working. Not only are there the symbolic auspices at play, such as the planetary day, hour and associated astrological transits that link into the operator’s natal chart, but there are also the nature and qualities of the deity of time itself. There is also a magical model called the temporal model of magic that is also at play as we shall see later.

Planetary magic is more effective when the planet is combined with an element, to produce a matrix of twenty-eight empowered spiritual intelligences. However, some folks can just work planetary magic without combining the planets with elements and produce an effective method of magical workings. Similarly, a ritual magician can use a star polygon to generate a planetary force and summon the angel or archangel for a working whenever needed and set that working to make a change in the physical world.

Yet this kind of magic is no different than performing an elemental working or an evocation. It is a single event that seeks to produce a very specific outcome. Using a planetary force and its associated angel or archangel might have different qualities than performing other kinds of magic, but it is really no different than just summoning an angel or archangel to help one successfully materialize an objective. All of these methods of magic require mundane steps to help the working to produce the desired results, and the more extensive these steps, the more likely the outcome.

It can been seen that combining a planet with an element would likely produce a more effective outcome because it generates a talismanic field that is constantly working, day and night, practically forever. Since the talisman is constantly working on an objective, there would be less mundane steps needed to ensure a successful outcome. Additionally, if the event of generating that talismanic field is governed by a careful selection of astrological auspices and incorporating the planetary hour or day into the elected date of the working then the effect of that working will likely require even less or no mundane steps to ensure success. Combining these three magical actions together, active generation of the planetary quality, empowering it with a base element and performing the working at the most auspicious time will produce a magical artifact that will be superior to using any other methodology.

You can imagine what could be possible if a ritual magician constructed, generated and charged a series of talismans, each to handle a specific aspect of his or her life, and arrayed them altogether in a sacred place in the home. It would be like creating a “charmed” life for the individual, where misfortune is blunted or even avoided, and good fortune amplified. Creating such a treasure of talismans operating in one’s life would certainly obviate the need for working any other kind of magic, at least for material gain and the blessings of good fortune. This would certainly put someone into the place where they could focus on working magic to expand their knowledge and quench their curiosity while the talismans would handle all of the material based concerns. Not only is this a possibility, but it is one that I have crafted for myself, and so far, it is working and greatly aiding me at all times.

What makes this kind of talismanic magic so potent is the underlying powers and effects of the archetypes, myths and the deity of time itself. It is called the temporal model of magic, and it is one that we should pay close attention to whenever we work any kind of magic.

The temporal model of magic is succinctly stated that when a ritual is performed, that moment in time becomes profoundly significant and auspicious. It places an indelible mark upon the operator’s time line. The more important that ritual working is then the greater its significance and auspiciousness. This event of magic becomes similar to the event of divination, or the event of casting an astrological chart. That event, in of itself, causes a change, whether imperceptible or profound, in the life of the operator. This is because the event triggers the layered occult symbology that is part of our cultural collective, and this causes a transformation of consciousness for everyone connected to that event.

Therefore, it would be highly prudent for a ritual magician to recognize the temporal model of magic working in their practice and to be mindful of the astrological auspices operating when choosing the moment or event of a magical working. The connection to elective astrology or even horary astrology should be evident when considering the efficacy of choosing the optimal time and place to perform an important magical working. There are reasons for this opinion that go far beyond the astrological auspices of a given moment.

The core of the temporal model of magic is the Deity of time itself, known in some circles as Chronos (not be confused with Kronos, the father of Zeus). Chronos is the Greek word for time, but as a Deity, he did not have a shrine nor was he part of the civic state religious cult. Chronos was given an important role in the writings of an early Presocratic philosopher Pherecydes, who was a contemporary of Pythagoras (6th century CE). For the perspective of magic, Chronos is considered a lintel deity who symbolizes both the beginning and end, and the gateway that leads from the past into the future. He is, therefore, similar to other lintel deities, such as the Roman Janus, Herne, Eris, Saturnus, and Laverna, or the Persian God Zervan, to mention a few. He is both the Lord of Misrule and the embodiment of the Celestial Order of continual change.

Such a deity represents the mystery and the magic of the greater potential of change, and the spark of fate or destiny that can be generated for the benefit of the magical operator. It is necessary, then, to give homage to this mysterious and multiform godhead so as to aid a specific magical working, especially a celestial working that incorporates astrological auspices. A simple rule to understand about this kind of magic is that the more the operator knows about the moment and event of the celestial operation, and the greater the focus on performing this act at the best or most auspicious time will ensure that the results will be in accordance with the magician’s objective. It would seem, therefore, that time and the temporal model of magic can help a magical working, or any kind of magical operation, to be more effective and profoundly meaningful.

Frater Barrabbas
 

Strange and Sinister Qualities of Otherness

 

“And now for something completely different.” - Monty Python

Otherness and the stigma of being defined as “other” is a way of classifying something or someone as not being normal, acceptable or not belonging to the group. It is also a quality of the preternatural or paranormal experiences that can accompany magical or mystical activity. This dual semantic meaning represents two very different perspectives - one based on prejudice and the other based on wonder and awe, yet they are linked in some very interesting ways.

When the connotation of otherness is applied to a group of people who are different in some manner (often superficially) then what is occurring is a form of racism, ethnic exclusion or bigotry. It is a process of dehumanizing a group of people to allow its antagonists to behave with extreme prejudice without any accompanying guilt or doubt. When a group is dehumanized then it is easy to denigrate and persecute them, justifying and even making a virtue out of the collective cruelty and evil perpetrated against them. It is a way of justifying prejudice and excusing antipathy for what is truly an overall lack of compassion and empathy.

Not everyone is capable of allowing prejudice to guide their actions towards a group of people who seem different, but some seem particularly disposed toward this mind-set. It is a simple solution to a very complex social phenomena, that social diversity and multiplicity is responsible for personal failings. It is also motivated by the fear and loathing of the unknown, and an intolerance towards anything that is different than what is accepted as right and, supposedly, good. It is, in fact, a propensity for those whose political affiliations are conservative and whose religious perspectives are highly sectarian and inflexible.

Through my many years of practicing Witchcraft and being engaged with the outlying pagan and occult communities, I have seen both a tendency of inclusion and also, oddly, exclusion. When I have gone to pagan gatherings I have found that there is typically a small minority of black people in attendance, and in some gatherings, I saw none. While this community has, for the most part, been inclusive, accepting individuals and groups that would find a tolerant community in which to belong nearly impossible for them, there are other groups who are not so accepting. I recall a group of wonderful young gothic Satanists who were treated in a prejudicial manner at one pagan gathering (they had to leave early), and I also witnessed a “women’s only” private gathering turn away transgender women as not “true” women. These are problems within our group, but with such a socially diverse population of people who consider themselves members, it is my hope that such exclusions will become more rare or even nonexistent.

What I can say is that for the most part, pagan and occult communities are inclusive and accepting because all of them have experienced the sting of prejudice, rejection and even persecution. These people know what it is like to be excluded, mocked, and socially ostracized, so they should be sensitive and self-aware about being that way themselves. Witches and Pagans are the paragon of otherness, and they passionately love and celebrate it, much to the dismay of those who believe that the White, Saxon, Protestant way of life represents the only thing good in American culture. There are so many fascinating things happening when different cultures, races and ethnicity meet and peacefully interact and create a new way of seeing and loving the world. That is the operation of human diversity in action, and I have seen it as a great goodness, and a powerful, positive cultural process. It can and it should be a guiding principle for all Witches, Pagans and occultists in general.

Then there is the “otherness” that marks a paranormal experience. That kind of “other” is not represented by any identifiable group and it is not a reaction based on prejudice or bigotry. It is not the stigmatizing of an individual or a group, since it is the direct experience with phenomena that is unknowable and inexplicable. For those people who cannot accept diversity and cannot face something that is incapable of being neatly defined or classified, encountering the domain of the paranormal represents the height of fear and rejection within them. They will either flee the source of such phenomenon or they will reject and disbelieve it, pretending that it doesn’t exist. If they are religiously conservative they will readily define it as evil and associate it with the Devil. To many Witches and Pagans, the experience of paranormal activity is the very thing that they seek to verify their belief in the efficacy of magic and the incursion of Spirit into the material world.

All religious individuals who experience the paranormal phenomena of Spirit in the context of religious activity will define that experience as an affirmation of their belief and as a foundation for their faith. When such experiences occur outside of a religious context then they will be likely defined as being malefic and diabolical, an uncalled for spiritual sign, or a mere coincidence. This process of defining such an experience will depend on the person’s religious orientation, whether they are a conservative monotheist, an open minded religionist, a polytheist or an atheist.

A Witch, Pagan or occultist will see such a phenomena as a very positive sign, and in fact, they might be more open to observing such experiences as a normal part of their existence, therefore, experiencing them often and pervasively. I would have to classify myself in that category, since I have seen a lot paranormal phenomenon occur often in my daily life. Am I hallucinating or deluded?  Not at all. I am just sensitively aware of my environment and open to the wonder that is the world not filtered by rigid assumptions and beliefs. That is the most important key to engaging with and being immersed in paranormal phenomena, to be open, sensitive and aware. Having developed this kind of mind-set over the passage of many years, I find that such occurrences happen often and frequently - making them not so paranormal after all. All you have to do is to look for them with an open mind and a heightened sensitivity and they will be readily perceived.

Some paranormal experiences are just curious occurrences that get my attention, as I go about my daily business. They might be a bit odd, certainly curious, but not exceptionally so. However, when working ritual magic, meditation or just being aware to a heightened degree, there are times when such phenomena cause my spine to tingle, the hair on the back of my neck to stand up and my senses to switch into a different mode of perception, one that I associate with the reception and sense of the magic in the world. I can truly say that I live for those moments, and they have made some of my more memorable magical experiences powerful and deeply meaningful. It is times like these when I know that the magic is working and that I have entered a kind of spiritual twilight zone where thought becomes form and form becomes thought, the nexus of all conscious being. It is also the place where I meet and socialize in my mind with various spirits, deities, angels, demons, fairies, and the ghosts of human ancestors. It is also place, a domain of spirit, and the roads that lead to it and through it are the ghostly roads of arcane knowledge. There are powers and energies there, buried treasures, and there are brilliant lights and a Stygian darkness overall. It is, in fact, a total and complete personification of the paranormal “other” that fuels both magic and mysticism, and gives life to all religious beliefs and practices.

This is the “other” that represents the mysteries and magic of our world, and it is to be embraced and celebrated. We can only encounter this domain if we have removed our prejudices, fear, and denial and instead we have become fully open and aware. It also requires a heightened sensitivity that can be developed through the arts of meditation, breath-control, trance, contemplation and some years of steadfast practice. Using psychotropic substances can help in the short term, but only meditation will make that sensitivity a uniform and permanent part of one’s perceptual awareness. Engaging in practices that manipulate the symbolic world, such as ritual magic, will be the final piece in this transformation of conscious awareness. These practices represent the means to obtaining an awareness of the paranormal world that resides and pervades our mundane world. All we have to do is consistently engage in them, the rest will follow as that practice matures and becomes a kind of second nature.

Now that you know that “otherness” is something to embrace, it should eliminate from your mind any kind of prejudice against that which is different, abnormal or paranormal. This is, of course, the required state for perfecting the art of ritual magic.

Frater Barrabbas   

Pandemic Isolation and Gifts of Writing

Over the course of three years I have not posted very many articles to my blog, and this was due to a couple things that happened to me. The first is that I came off a work-related dismal project that destroyed my profession self-esteem and then by being demoted to my old job, trying to rebuild my reputation and bolster my confidence. It was a difficult time, starting in the last quarter of 2017 and finally ending in the end of 2019. I had paid for work-related relocation from Minnesota to Richmond, Virginia and was stiffed by my company, who broke their promise to compensate me for that move. I proved to myself once again why corporate cultures and the managers that preach it are not to be trusted. As far as work is concerned, “To thine own self be true.”

There were amazing coincidences and magical happenings during that time, all without me working any magical rituals at all. What I had set in motion in June 2017 had helped me to overcome a career disaster and turn it into a providential gain. During that time I was working sometimes every day beyond eight hours without much of break, and I was getting to the final stages of burnout, which has a lower threshold for someone my age. What happened to me was a kind of intervention that saved me and my career. The irony was that getting demoted set me up for a future promotion that helped me to completely reinvent myself professionally.

I believe that this kismet occurred because of the time and effort that I had invested in creating a talismanic magical machine. It helped me sell an oversized house, move across the country and establish myself in a new environment. What catastrophes I endured ended up benefiting me greatly, and I believe that the magic I had set in motion on the Summer Solstice night of 2017 made it all possible. Granted, there were mundane actions that I took to mitigate the disaster that I endured, but overall, I was very fortunate not to lose my job and reputation while having relocated to a town where the job market was unknown to me. All of that action in my life took me away from writing articles, books or working ritual magic. What little time I had was spent either reading, studying or meditating. I had to travel a lot for my job, and the novelty of that feature in my life soon wore off.

The next thing that happened in my life was the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. I was already relocated, no longer traveling, telecommuting and resigned to my demotion when this terrible calamity struck the whole world. What it did to me, a man in his late sixties with allergies, was to shut me up in my house. I then traveled only when necessary and then, locally, shied away from appearing in public and infrequently saw the few friends that I had made. There wasn’t a lot to do and I don’t like being idle, so I wrote two books from the period of early 2020 through early 2022.

I have crafted a book titled “Elemental Powers for Witches” (already out in December 2021) and another one titled “Talismanic Magic for Witches” (out in February 2023). Both books required quite a bit of research and writing, and between that, my job and my relationship, there was little time for anything else. I will do a write up on these two books, but I wanted to let you know what I was busily doing during this period of the Great Pandemic.

You can see that I was not idle as far as writing is concerned, but from a magical perspective, outside of continuing effects of the talismanic machine that I previously built, not much else has happened. I would like to get back into a magical ritual practice and a regular practice of meditation. I would like to attend a Zen Buddhist retreat somewhere, and I would like the pandemic to transition to an endemic occurrence of coronavirus strains no more risky than the flu. I get a flu shot every autumn, and I could see getting a  coronavirus shot every autumn as well.

Another thing that I need to do is to get to know my local Witchcraft and Pagan community. I am unknown to that community, and there is much I would like to share, teach and collaborate with others of like mind. I greatly miss having the social dimension in my life, but the pandemic cut off my exploration of the community, and I am hoping to renew that exploration sometime later this year.

Anyway, I have also taken up writing blog articles, so you will start seeing some on a regular basis. I will try to post some interesting ideas and things that I discovered in my extensive period of study and research. I am also going to write yet a fourth book in the “For Witches” series, and this one will be about Witchcraft based theurgy, or what I call advanced liturgical magical practices. I will want to bounce some ideas off of my reading public before I commit them to my writings and judgment of my acquisitions editor.

Bright Blessings -

Frater Barrabbas  

Truth or Lies and Magic

 To believe in the efficacy of magic and to practice it is also to be accused of possessing or believing in a fantasy world that doesn’t bear the scrutiny of science or logic. However, as someone who believes and practices ritual magic, and who has done this for decades, I find that such a simplistic approach does not take into account that human nature has an emotional and romantic dimension to it that cannot be dispelled by logic or empirical science. While the concepts of spirits, deities, energies and paranormal qualities can be shown to be attributes of the conscious mind itself, and its cultural collective, occult practitioners have typically had to deal with the cognitive dissonance of living in the post modern world and practicing rites that would be better understood from the perspective of the middle ages or the early renaissance. Still, these are all phenomena that are a part of the emotional, irrational and artistic, creative mind-set, neither invalid nor subject to scientific testing.

What this means is that a practitioner of ritual magic can live in the post modern world and also work with deities, spirits, energies and seemingly paranormal perceptions without dooming their ability to objectively deal with the world and function in a rational and logical manner. Practitioners of magic do not reject the world of science, logic and academia as some might think. Instead they extend their world-view, beliefs and perceptions to include other possibilities and perceptions based on their experiences, realizing that magic and its various attributes are part of the phenomenon of individual and collective consciousness. In other words, the world-view of science and the rational liberal arts are the foundation to understanding and practicing the arts of magic and the philosophy of occultism. Beliefs are tested by experience and by peer review so that they might retain a high degree of sane rationality. When this balance between belief, experience and factual knowledge break down then all sorts of crazy ideas, conspiracies and forms of outlandish self-glorification can and do occur. It starts one down a slippery slope that can lead to a form of complete social dislocation and even temporary madness.

We engage with our ritual magical practices with our feet firmly planted in the world of occult philosophy, science and the liberal arts, taking a rational and balanced pathway that is guided by a certain degree of skepticism, objectivity and input from our peers. Using this approach, we keep ourselves from acquiring a world view that is wholly divorced from facts, logic and rational thinking. This is not say that I am promoting an approach to magic that excludes imagination, creativity, artistry, vision and emotional aspiration, in fact these are critical components for practicing ritual magic. What I am promoting is a healthy balance between occultism and its practices and an objective world-view based on facts. So we can practice what Dion Fortune referred to so many decades ago as “Sane Occultism.”

This brings me to the point of my article. I am presently observing my nation torn apart by divisive and delusional beliefs and opinions that have absolutely no basis in facts. Of course, even the media inspired perception of a social division in our country is likely a form of sensational hyperbole, but it is occurring within a group of people on the far right of the political spectrum, leaving those of us in the center and the left scratching our heads and trying to understand what is happening to some people. I had thought that my beliefs and practices would be subject to derision and disdain, but actually, I seem to be very rational and sane compared to these folks even if I practice magic and talk to spirits and deities. One would think that I was the odd-ball individual promoting and practicing a system of dubious and nefarious behaviors. Yet compared to these folks, I am the paragon of sanity and rationality.

In our troubled times, facts are no longer seen as the foundation of knowledge. What appears to be important these day are emotionally driven opinions that do not require any kind of rational analysis or scrutiny. Logic and critical thinking are given up for emotionally satisfying platitudes, politically toxic propaganda and view-points based on a fantasy world-view. This disease of the mind is affecting a small percentage of our nation’s population, but they are driven and given currency but media companies that seem to be only interested in making money and not reporting the news in a factual manner.

I am, of course, referring to Fox News, but they are just one of many right-wing media organizations that are spewing a form of poisonous propaganda that is endangering our democratic institutions. The conservative political mind sees the slowly changing demographic of our nation, where white Christian Protestants are becoming a minority in a very racially and culturally diverse country, as a kind of existential threat. The only solution in such minds is to suppress the rights and civic privileges of those who are not of the white race in favor of those who are, and thereby establish a kind of racial and religious apartheid backed up by a political authoritarian regime that would replace our democratic republic.

I can tell you right now that in such a regime people like me would not only lose our rights, but also our freedoms. I would be part of the unruly crowd that would find itself in concentration or reeducation camps, if not outright exterminated. I might be a white northern European man, but I am certainly not the right kind of white person because I am not at all Christian. I would imagine in such a nightmarish world that many others of my fellow Witches, Pagans and various other occultists would find ourselves zealously persecuted. We would be joined in our imprisonment by blacks, non-white Hispanics, Jews and people of color. Since I have written articles and published books, I would be one of those targeted and unable to hide in the anonymous crowd of white faces.

Of course, this kind of extreme outcome is not very likely to happen, since the majority of Americans have a tendency to rebuke authority and to be largely contrarian and nearly ungovernable as a people. I doubt that if obvious and threatening moves were made to deconstruct our democracy and to install a religious and racial based tyranny that the majority of the people of my country would not take that change without a very forceful backlash and inspired moral outrage. Such a perceived civil war would be over quickly if it even had the chance to start. What we are seeing today is the balance tilted to the far right, and our social and political world is due for a swing to the political left that is coming soon. That is, certainly, my fervent hope.
 
The phenomena that we are witnessing is the gullibility, foolishness and cognitively biased perceptions of a small percentage of our population who are misled and misinformed by money grubbing media companies and cynically calculating politicians. As this process continues to spiral to ever greater confabulations there is a corresponding increased incidence of deadly violence perpetrated by right-wing gun toting fanatics and their fellow paramilitary cultists. What was once fringe racism and bigotry is now become the main-stream through the efforts of conservative pundits, soulless and power-hungry politicians and certain oligarchs who wish to transform our nation into a society of servants and a wealthy master class. None of that will likely happen, but in the process there will be people killed, insurrections and civil disorder. I believe that it ultimately will give birth to a more just, diverse and tolerant society since many of these intolerant conservative activists are members of the older generations. Those who believe and actively support racism and bigotry are on the wrong side of history, and that they, too, will be diminished and disappear over time.

So what does this have to do with the practice of magic? I have outlined a phenomenon that is happening now. It is a terrible object lesson of what happens to individuals and groups when critical thinking is rejected over emotional-cognitive bias and paranoid delusions. We are meant to be challenged at all levels, and we should try to meet those challenges with as high a degree of objectivity, alacrity, critical thinking and even some helpful peer review. If right-wing nut-cases got to talk to their relatives and community members who did not share their beliefs, and actually listened to them, noting that there are differences of opinion without a deviation from objective facts then they would probably have to loosen their rigid perspectives and realize that they are surrounded by people with a diversity of beliefs, but who share a common humanity. It is my hope that such a reconciliation does finally occur, but at times it seems like a forlorn one.

As ritual magicians and occultists, we must always walk a balanced pathway so we do not succumb to fantastical beliefs that have no basis in facts whatsoever. We see the various news outlets pushing right-wing fever dreams and we can observe what happens when people start believing in outright lies and propaganda over facts based on our shared social reality. This is something that we need to passionately avoid so as to embrace the unifying quality of empathy and compassion in all that we do. We are, after all, human beings, but that does not mean that we need to dispose of our common sense in order to obtain the temporary security of the mind-set of a cult.

Frater Barrabbas

Money Magic vs. Inequality

Perhaps one of the oldest types of sorcery in material-based magic is the body of spells and rituals for achieving some kind of economic increase, whether for modest and most needed fortunes or for massive windfalls. Money magic is as old as love spells and curses, and it is often predicated by chance and probability. Those who engage in such forms of magic are typically lower middle class or the poor, but even staunchly middle class folks find themselves working money magic. Usually, a magician seeking a modest monetary increase will focus on strategic changes, such as getting a new job with better pay, taking advantage of opportunities that arise or just trying to bend the probabilities for personal advantage.

These kinds of modest money magic have a greater chance of occurring because they are more probable than purchasing a winning lottery ticket or discovering a massive load of hidden treasure. A magician seeks to acquire the positive charms of good luck and good fortune and thereby eliminate blockages or the downward spiral of misfortune, which some call bad luck. This is what can be expected from successful money magic. It can also be said that self confident individuals are more prone to having good luck than those who lack self confidence. These are the typical victims who seem prone to having misfortune or bad luck, and money magic, properly applied, can greatly aid them.

However, for the middle class magicians or even poor practitioners, there is a limit to what money magic can do for one’s economic situation. Outside of the very rare windfall or “Black Swan” occurrence, nearly all money magic can be compared to fighting a life threatening disease like cancer; whatever successes occur do not reverse the ultimate condition of mortality. This is because the economic system to which we are all engaged is rigged against nearly all of us except for the very wealthy, and that Capitalism has a built-in bias towards oligarchies. That means that whatever good fortune comes to an individual, whether practicing magic to make it happen or not, over time the money will flow away from nearly everyone and accumulate for just a few individuals. The economic system of Capitalism is mathematically set against most of us, and in the end, succeeding generations will have far less opportunities than the previous generations.  Inheritances will diminish and dry up leaving only the oligarchist with any real wealth. That is the reality in today’s market economy, and unless something dramatically changes, it will be our economic fate. Magic cannot either address this situation or in any wise rectify it.

If you think that my pronouncement sounds defeatist and unrealistic then a recent article published in the magazine Scientific American might change your mind. This article was written by Bruce M. Boghosian, who is a noted mathematician. He has worked with the mathematical model called the ‘Extended Yard Sale Model of Asset Exchange’ and has shown that even a completely level playing field where individuals start with the same assets and the transactions that gain or lose money are determined purely by chance, ultimately one individual will acquire all of the assets originally held equally by the members of the experimental set in the beginning of the test. You can find his paper on this model here. Of course, a very simple version of this model is something that many gamers discover when playing Monopoly. Each potential transaction is guided by chance, although players can influence the outcome somewhat by using a form of shrewd judgment. Yet in the end of each game it is mostly chance that determines the winner and often it allows for a different winner each time the game is played, which is why it has been so popular over the decades. The winner ends up accumulating all of the money and assets in the game, unless the other players concede defeat, which has the same result.  

Of course, there is no level playing field, transactions of gain and loss are not based on pure chance, and we don’t start out with the same assets. So, the leverage of those who have massive wealth is even greater. This causes the financial model to skew or distort even more to such an extent that inequality accelerates. Where the ability for the masses to attain some degree of economic mobility dwindles as more individuals possess smaller shares of capital compared to the wealthy few. This is how this system works today, and it has worked in this manner ever since people began the economic game of bartering and selling. There are always winners and losers over time, and most of the players ultimately lose to a small group or even a single individual. Capitalism, unimpaired by any other mechanism for control and redistribution, will ultimately create oligarchies.

I won’t go into the details of Mr. Boghosian’s article, but his basic premise that economic inequality is inevitable, particularly if the economic system has built in biases that would give advantage to those who already have substantial wealth, with tax breaks, tax havens, credit opportunities, political contacts and laws that specifically favor them, is correct. It is interesting to note that the current inequality in our nation began to increase rapidly during the Reagan presidency and that despite certain attempts by Democratic presidents, such as Clinton and Obama, the pace of inequality has increased.

Republicans are probably mostly to blame for the legislation and tax breaks that have helped economic inequality explode over the past three decades, but they are not the only party that has done the bidding of the rich and powerful. This why we need the federal government to intervene in our current crisis of inequality and make some changes to our unequal system of taxation, and to put into place mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth. We also need to remove the advantages and influences that wealthy patrons have placed on the government, where the donor class is able to have undue influence on the politicians at all levels of the local, state and federal bureaucracy.

Perhaps the greatest magic that magicians could undertake would be to help nearly everyone who isn’t part of the 1% richest in the nation and project their magic into influencing politicians to roll back the laws aiding inequality by instituting a wealth tax, higher capital gains taxes, higher income taxes on the very upper strata of income, and to put into place a universal basic income commensurate with individual wealth and income.

Could you imagine what it would be like if most of the people in the country had a guaranteed basic income that would cover the basic needs of life? Having a job would be voluntary, and there could be many more artists, poets, community organizers, teachers, home healthcare providers and people just helping other people without having to worry about being financially self-sufficient. This nation would change dramatically overnight, and I believe this change would be positive, constructive, and it would alleviate the stresses of poverty and overwork. I could even imagine some people turning their hand to studying and practicing magic full time without ever having to perform money magic.

Since I have had to put my retirement on hold because I need the income and I am not yet ready to let those opportunities go, I have spent far more time working my day job than working magic, reading occult books, writing and researching. I do a lot more work that gives me less joy and happiness than having a well rounded life consisting of friends, family, a social life, and just plain having fun. Instead, I am working week after week and on many weekends, wistfully dreaming about what I could do with my time if I didn’t have to ceaselessly work in the corporate world to earn my bread and board.

So, if we want to work money magic and make a real change not only for ourselves but for all of the middle class and poor then lets work magic together to cause a class based economic revolution. There are more of us than the wealthy oligarchs, so all we need to do is to vote and to voice our demands in a powerful and peaceful manner. Like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi, we can change our world if we unite in solidarity and demand a better and fairer out come to our lives. Because if we don’t unite and force the government to change the economic system imposed on us and give us a level playing field then we will become the new servant class, and no amount of magic will save any of us from that fate.

 
Frater Barrabbas