Taylor Ellwood is the author of Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy, and several books on magic. He is also the Managing Non-Fiction Editor of Immanion Press. To learn more about him and his continuing journeys visit http://magicalexperiments.wordpress.com and http://www.thegreenwolf.com

Sigil Business!

Sigil Business!

Sometime in early 2009, I was approached by a person about creating a sigil to help him get more business. While I’m personally of the belief that if you want something, you should do it yourself, I was also intrigued by his request, partially because I was in the process of working to get more clients for my own business ventures. However, as I thought about it, I realized I wanted to do something magical that worked for more than just one or two businesses, and had more of a positive effect for people in general.

I took this request to a group of other magical practitioners I work with on a regular basis. We started out by asking ourselves what the best method of delivery was. Should we  use a sigil that we could give out to people, or should we work some kind of ceremonial magical working and then share that working with others, or should we work with a deity or daemon of wealth? We discussed all of those possibilities and ended up rejecting all of them for various reasons.

Another concern we discussed what exactly what we’d focus that’d really be representative of economic activism. We didn’t feel that helping corporations to be economically healthier was really benefitting everyone, and also felt that magically prompting people to spend money was both unethical and not a definite solution to the poor economy.

The more time we spent discussing what would be a viable form of economic activism, the more we realized that it was very hard to come to a group consensus about a magical act that all of us could be comfortable with. However one theme that consistently came up was that any magical work we did needed to incorporate the theme of collaboration in it, the idea that people would actively help each other out and work together.

Eventually we decided that we would create a networking entity; specifically an entity which would help people network better. While the stereotypical image of a networker is a person holding a business card in one hand and a drink in the other, the reality is that a networker is someone who is focused on creating quality relationships with the people s/he knows and finding out what each person needs, while matching him/her up with someone who can meet that need. In essence, the very quality of collaboration that we’d agreed on, and an essential ingredient in really building up a community.

The next step was to create an entity. We decided to use a technique where the entity would tell us it’s naming using a pendulum and letters. One of us would use the pendulum and be guided by the entity, while the rest of us put our energy into the creation of the entity. This was a fairly exhausting method for determining the entity’s name, especially for the person using the pendulum, but we also thought it was a useful way of introducing ourselves to the entity, while also creating it. Eventually we did get a name: Zi Fupsekip Vosri. It actually rolls off the tongue fairly well, and the image that came to mind was of some Eastern European person in a suit, with a pleasant smile and an eagerness to help others and collaborate.

Having the name wasn’t enough. We also needed a message from this entity that embodied what it had to offer and a symbol that embodied the concept as well as a method of transmission by which we could share the entity. The method of transmission we decided on was to create a business card format. Because business cards are used as a transmission of a person’s information we thought this might be a successful way to share the entity with other people.

On the front of the card we placed the name of the entity, and a symbol that represented networking, the bringing together of many different connections to form a pattern of success that could be shared to the benefit of everyone. We wanted the concept of networking to focus on success, regardless of whether it was monetary or bargaining or some other form of success, so we came up with a phrase: Mutually Assured Prosperity, Inc(arnated): Wherever people meet to create  abundance. The idea being that if people met to share and collaborate this entity would be there, helping them to do that, as well as encouraging the possibility of other opportunities. On the back of the card we provided further details about what Zi Fupsekip Vosri does and how to feed Zi Fupsekip Vosri (simply pass out the card to other people).

All it takes to activate Zi Fupsekip Vosri is passing out the card. We’ve already put together a small batch of cards, and more will be sent to a professional printer so that we can start passing them out to our local community. The best thing about this card is that it can be a conversation starter, which is the spirit of true networking. Passing the card provides the opportunity to explain what the card is about, but also will provide you the opportunity to find out more about the people you are meeting. Remember to ask the phrase, “What do you need?” It’s a powerful phrase that will allow you to find out what someone else needs and start figuring out who you know that can help this person. And of course, don’t be shy in sharing what you need. You never know who that person is connected to, who could help you!

Below are images of the front of the card and the back of the card. I invite readers to create their own cards and share Zi Fupsekip Vosri with the people they know and don’t know. Network, collaborate and share, and through that create an act of economic activism that helps everyone as opposed to only a few.

ecactivism2

rear of card

I would like to thank Innowen, Cobalt, Rowan, MM, and Bill Whitcomb for their help and participation in creating this entity.

Taylor Ellwood

Podcast: Download

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After the most month-shaped week in history, we return to game with a great new episode of SittingNowish delights. This weeks guest, the fantastic Rodney Orpheus, gives us a great interview about the infamous Aleister Crowley. Discussed: Magick, The Abbey of the Thelema, The Ordo Templi Orientis, The A∴A∴, why Crowley is still so revered, Doing thou will, and our plot for a strange Victorian porn film.

Hyde to Kim’s Jekyll, Daddytank, returns with a nostalgic, but great MySpace Heroes. This weeks Musikal weapons:

Twiggy and the K-Mesons : Preset Love
Yellow Then Blue : The Black Rose
Raleigh St Clair : Alphabet

Books recomended by Rodney:

Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley & The Eye in the Triangle: Interpretation of Aleister Crowley

Rodney’s own fantastic book:

Abrahadabra: Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thelemic Magick

Don’t forget to give us a review on iTunes when you have a spare 2 minutes, we’d really appreciate it.

Enjoy!

Rodney Orpheus’ (impressive) Biography:

Rodney Orpheus was born in Northern Ireland, and in the past years has lived in Hamburg, Germany and Los Angeles, California. He currently lives in The Cotswolds in England.

For the past twenty years Rodney has been well-known as a musician, record producer, and author. He lectures frequently at colleges and music business events, where his ability to present highly technical matters in an entertaining, understandable style has made him very much in demand.

Rodney has acted as a consultant with many of the top companies in the music instrument industry in the past years, most notably with Steinberg and DTS, as well as writing a regular monthly column for Computer Music magazine and running the ground-breaking musicians community at mi7.com

After the release of his seminal band, The Cassandra Complex’s first records Orpheus spent several years touring Europe, originally basing himself in Aachen, Germany, where he joined Ordo Templi Orientis. Orpheus had been studying the works of Aleister Crowleyand other occult authors since his teenage years, and previously had been founder and editor of the UK occult newspaper Pagan News along with Phil Hine. While in Aachen he began work on the book Abrahadabra, published originally by Looking Glass Press in Sweden, later republished by Weiser Books. The book has been described as “a significant contribution to the field of thelemic, or Crowleyan if you will, magick.” and “one of the very few competent and readable introductory texts to Thelemic magick.”

He still also occasionally gets time to play with The Cassandra Complex on stage and in the studio. He is currently completing work on his second book.

Podcast: Download

Austin Gandy

Austin Gandy

In this weeks show we chat with the fantastic Austin Gandy about the basics of Magick. Austin knows his subject and delivers the goods this week in another great interview. Fans of our friends Out There Radio will know Mr Gandy from his work on the ‘Invisible College’ episode of the show, as well as being their guest for some of the best episodes. In this episode we look at the real basics of magick, as if the listener was a would-be adept, walking through their local occult bookstore, pondering where to get stuck in!

Claire delivers once again with her awesome Weekly Weird News, and we make a desperate plea for attention from our fans! Next week we’ll hopefully be heading back into the paranormal world with an interview about Crypto-Zoology!

Music this week comes in the shape of Kid606, you can download this track for free here, background music this week comes from Earth and Don Cab!

See you next time!

Taking the Path of Least Resistance in Magic

If there is one challenge that magicians face when it comes to determining the effectiveness of magic, it is figuring out if the magic you performed aligned with your internal values. Sometimes, even if we think we want a particular result, we actually don’t want that result. Speaking from personal experience, I always found it odd when I would do a successful act of magic and get the result I desired, but then have the impact of that result not really count for handling my situation. It was only much later that I would recognize that the magic I did at that time was going counter to my internal values. I’ve also noted this type of occurrence with other magicians: they would get results, but when those results were not in alignment with their internal values an essential part of them rejected the results.

Recently I read a passage that I would like to share, which speaks to this issue, “Magick defines suffering as the result of straying from one’s natural path of ‘least resistance’” (Schueler 1988, p. 222). Suffering arises from straying from one’s natural path of least resistance. This is an interesting statement, because it speaks to several questions. Is a degree of suffering necessary, and if so, how much? When we are on our path of least resistance, which some might call true Will and others would name a calling, are we then aligned with our internal values?

Considering these questions is important when considering the effectiveness of magic, when magic should be employed, and more importantly why it should be employed. If a magician gets a result, but finds that the result is wasted, then the magical work has also been wasted. Internal work is needed to determine the problem in the process, and if the problem is a conflict with internal values, then the magician needs to determine if what s/he is doing is causing hir to deviate from the path of hir Will. If that’s the case, there’s still the consideration of suffering and how much is needed in order to learn from a situation.

While I don’t advocate suffering for its own sake, I do recognize that it has a valid place in the continuum of personal experience. I don’t subscribe to a karmic notion of it, but I do believe that a person will have the experiences s/he needs to have. Over time one can learn to realize hir will, calling, or internal values; this knowledge is necessary to engage in the path of least resistance. People, by nature, are usually not equipped with the skills to recognize what they truly want. Martha Beck explains this in terms of a conflict that is created by the social self focusing on cultural-social approval while ignoring the values of the essential self (2001). The social self is the aspect of your personality that wants to fit-in in every situation and have people like it. It’s concerned with external environment. The essential self is aspect of your identity connected to your internal values, to what you really want, as opposed to what your friends, family, and society think you should want. The social self can be so focused on what someone else believes that the magician should want that s/he forgets about what is truly desired, what truly aligns with hir internal values.

This happens with everyone, including magicians. Even if a magician is involved in a counterculture, there are still social expectations that determine expected behavior. Regardless of how you consider yourself socially, the social self is involved with allowing you to fit into those circumstances, even if they run counter to what your essential self wants. Consequently, the social self can put us into situations where we suffer. We end up in unsatisfying relationships, in jobs we hate, or in social situations where we don’t like the people. The suffering we encounter is not intrinsically due to the social self, but rather to the conflict between the essential self’s desires and the social self’s drive to ‘fit in’. The essential self will sabotage your social situation, in an effort to get you back on track with your internal values. I can personally point to this in my life; even though my social self said I should get a tenured position in a university because it’s as secure a job as you can get, my essential self found that to be unbearable and consequently derailed that effort. I looked back later, after I had left my Ph.D program, and could see how I had sabotaged myself because my essential self and my internal values were at odds with my social self and what I felt I should be doing.

In the present, I find that my life has gotten easier because I’m learning how to figure out what my internal values are. I still listen to the social self, but I balance it with an awareness of following my true calling. The amount of suffering in my life continues to decrease. This isn’t to say it’s automatically easy, but I can face challenges with mindful presence and awareness of my needs and internal desires. That makes a big difference when I choose to apply magic to a situation.

Magic is often treated as a quick way to deal with a situation, but rarely is it examined as a process for focused change. Used mindfully, with awareness of intent and impact, one can steer the direction of one’s life towards the path of least resistance. In my case that it is only in the last few years that I have begun to work magic as an ongoing process, as opposed to just getting results to quickly fix a situation. It has involved stepping back and examining the direction of my life and how magic can be applied to it. I’ve asked myself if I’m really listening to my internal values, true Will, or whatever term one chooses for being in touch with the essential self or Holy Guardian Angel. Magic, used as a process, has helped me ask if I need to use it in any particular situation or if I need to handle that situation differently. I’ve come to recognize the impact of my magical intent and used that to determine if the magical action I’ve taken is really in alignment with my internal values. If it isn’t, chances are the result will manifest, but the situation will still not be resolved in quite the way I wanted.

Taking the path of least resistance is learning to take the path where your internal values shine forth and guide you through the challenges you face. Magic, used mindfully, is a process and a tool that is helpful for directing you on your path. Listening to your essential self will let you know how and when to use magic so that you get more than just a momentary result.  You can manifest change that lasts a lifetime and helps you achieve your goals; working in alignment with your internal values will reveal your path of least resistance.

Taylor Ellwood

Bibliography

Beck, Martha. (2001). Finding your own north star: Claiming the life you were meant to live. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN: 978-0812932188.

Schueler, Gerald J. (1988). Enochian physics: The structure of the magical universe. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications. ISBN: 978-0875427126.

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Pop Culture Magick, Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy, and Multi-Media Magic, and co-author of Kink Magic (With Lupa). He is also the managing Non-Fiction Editor of Immanion Press. More information about him can be found at http://www.thegreenwolf.com or http://magicalexperiments.wordpress.com and can be emailed at taylor@spiralnature.com

Podcast: Download

This week we cosy-up with our new pal, occult author Taylor Ellwood, to discuss the many and varied ways to approach magic/magick/chaos Magick…arrrrgh my head is exploding!! Taylor has authored many books on the subject of new and experimental approaches to magic, as well as being a professional life-coach…though, like us, he has still yet to figure out how to make fireballs come out of his hands!

Featured music this week is a cool live recording of the amazing Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz by Mr Bungle.

Taylor Ellwood Biog:

Taylor Ellwood lives in Portland with his beautiful mate Lupa, and two cats. He’s a co-author of Creating Magickal Entities (with David Cunninghman and Amanda Wagener), and Kink Magic (with Lupa. He is the author of Pop Culture Magick, Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy, Multi-Media Magic and the editor of the Magick on the Edge Anthology, Manifesting Prosperity Anthology, and the Pop Culture Grimoire. When Taylor isn’t editing Non-fiction books for Immanion Press, or working on his latest work, he can be found gaming, reading, and enjoying the company of his lovely wife. For more information about Taylor, please go to The Green Wolf or visit Magical Experiments.

Podcast: Download

Our guest this week, Lon Milo DuQuette, has authored numerous magical texts including The Magick of Aleister Crowley, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, and Gods of the New Millennium, but without question his most popular work is the story of his own life as a practicing ceremonial magician, My Life with the Spirits.

My Life with the Spirits has been optioned for a feature film and is a required text for classes at DePaul University, Chicago. He is often called upon to appear on radio and television to comment authoritatively on matters pertaining to the Western Mystery traditions and matters of the occult. He travels extensively worldwide and speaks on a broad range of esoteric topics including Qabalah and the Tarot. He is on the faculty of the OMEGA INSTITUTE in Rhinebeck, New York where he teaches ‘The Western Magical Tradition.’

Lon has just authored a new book entitled Enochian Vision Magick: An Introduction and practical guide to the Magick of Dr John Dee and Edward Kelley

Background music this week comes in the shape of Plaid.

Featured song is Assassins Blade by R. D. Burman