So last night I was preparing to meditate, and I wanted a
candle to watch as I did so, to add to the trance state. I looked at my
ancestor altar, and wasn’t feeling it. I looked at my Babalon shrine with all
her candles and I seriously considered it, but nah. I looked to my shrine of my
main man, Thoth. The god who has always been good to me and has seldom given me
bad advice. So I lit one of his candles and did my thing.
My thing being playing a bone rattle for about fifteen
minutes. While I did I had a vision of myself, at least someone I once was. I
was a terribly thin man, his bones sticking out against his dark skin of deep
reddish-brown. He was sitting on a comfortable blanket of rainbow colored
weave. I looked up and saw myself to be in a temple, like Karnak, with many
carved pillars. But it was more of a courtyard without a ceiling, and the sand
blew through on gentle night breeze. I was sitting with my brethren, all of
them priests of Thoth. Many had shaven their heads as I had. We were all high
as fuck, having drunk a couple of jugs of lotus wine, and we were all sitting in
front of a small brazier in which we burnt cannabis.
And we were having a good fucking time! We were all jamming
on some kind of drum, or rattle, or even just banging together sticks. We all
played like fools smiling and laughing and gazing up at the stars.
Then today I find out about the mummy of a priest of Thoth
being found in Egypt. I’m not saying the vision coincided with the event. It
was found back in February, but I only now first heard of it. I think it was a
reward from Thoth for playing for him. Because knowledge itself is a reward
which I enjoy deeply.
The working theory of Emergent Animism breaks down spirits
into three general types. The type of spirit helps determine the general
approach and method of communicating with any particular spirit.
The three types are:
spirits of the dead, spirits of place, and alien spirits.
Spirits of the dead are spirits of dead human beings.
Spirits of animals and other entities that once had physical form can also be
included in this classification but may also be considered alien spirits
depending on how closely they still relate to the concerns of the physical
world. Dead humans may also transcend this category if the spirit becomes
something that personifies archetypal quality or has major concerns beyond this
plane of existence.
Spirits of the dead are by far the easiest spirits to
communicate with as they still have some working knowledge of physical form. Depending
upon their ability in life and how often they interact with the physical world
will determine how easily they communicate. Many maintain language skills and
an understanding of human symbolism.
The most useful spirit of this type a magus can interact
with will usually be ancestors. “Blood calls to blood,” is an axiom
almost universal in magical systems. There need be no reason why spirits would
suddenly lose the desire to procreate. By this I mean the drive to continue
ones imprint upon the world, be that genetically or spirituality. Your
ancestors want to live on and can only do this by effecting the physical plane.
They have a vested interest in the welfare of their descendants. Even an
ancestor who did nothing but spit venom at their family when they were alive
can quickly change their tune when they realize their descendants are the only
game in town. Okay, not the only game, but certainly the path of least
resistance. There persists plenty of stories featuring vengeful and angry
spirits. Some people never learn even when faced with the ultimate teacher. But
these spirits can be easily avoided by a competent magus. They can even be
exploited if a magus is so inclined. If they can’t learn to chill even after
they’re dead, fuck ‘em.
I could go on and on about ancestor spirits but a lot of it
is covered in the Emergent Magick book. Here’s a link to that chapter if you
want some more.
Spirits of place include any spirit co-locational in time
and space with a physical form. In a technical sense this includes all living
humans but magi mostly concern themselves with spirits of objects and
locations. The difficulty of interacting with spirits of this type lays
somewhere between spirits of the dead and alien spirits. They can relate to
physicality but otherwise can have quite different goals, motivations, and
modes of thinking.
Common spirits of this type include: spirits of a body of
water (rivers, lakes, etc), the spirit of a city, the spirit of a mountain,
spirits of plants, spirits of stones. The list is extensive, and just as we are
a part of a larger group (homo sapiens, primates, mammals, the universe),
spirits of place can be part of a larger whole. Like the spirit of a stone
which sits on a particular mountain, which is also a part of the spirit of that
particular mineral.
Spirits of this type interact with us all the time. Plant
spirits nourish us and provide other biochemical and spiritual effects. The
spirit of a place can affect our mood and our outlook. But most people seldom
communicate directly with these spirits like magi do. The first step in that
communication is interacting with the spirit’s physical form. You could contact
the spirit of Mount Fuji without having been there, but actually being on Mount
Fuji will help a lot. You can probably already think of the numerous reasons
why you would want to communicate with them, and I will get into that in a
later post.
The third type, alien spirits, can be the most difficult to
communicate with. When I say alien, I don’t necessarily mean from outer space,
but they can be. For the most part, they are alien because they spend most of
their time outside of our physical dimension. Types of alien spirits include
demons, angels, daemons, gods, and other really weird shit. Most of them never
had an original physical form, but some have the ability to possess a physical
form for a period of time.
Alien spirits are the most dangerous and the most powerful.
Dangerous because many of them have a limited understanding of human needs and
goals. The potential for miscommunication with these spirits is immense, never
mind that some of them are just outright greedy and hostile. Sure, some of them
may just be trying to communicate with you because they are curious. Some want
something out of it. What that something is may not be what you are looking
for. More than one demon I have contacted has given me the impression they are
just magi like myself trying to figure this shit out and maybe be better off
for it. But don’t assume they are benign.
We tend to look at power in these times like a video game,
as if these spirits have a long and full power bar that lets them deal or take
more damage. That’s a simplistic and silly way of looking at it. They are
powerful because they are simply capable of doing things other spirits can’t.
It’s not a measure of power (though some have immense resources to call on),
it’s that they interact with the universe in a way that beings defined by
physicality cannot.
It also seems that some of these beings, ones we usually
call gods, are the source of or the personification of ideals and or emotions.
It’s a chicken and the egg thing. Did we create the gods or did the gods create
us? Once you understand that time is not at all linear, that question has less
significance. But imagine if you will what a goddess of love would truly be
like. If her goal is love and to always promote love, to be in love, to be in
that moment when love burns brightest, is she really good to have around all
the time? Could you ever really trust her to have your best interests at heart?
No, you cannot.
But you can develop good relationships with these beings.
You can reach a level of understanding that works for both of you. Here’s what
worked for me.
Get to know those ancestors. Get on their good side. Have
them in your corner. They are your spiritual posse. They are your gang, and if
absolutely needed, your army. A lone magus approaching an alien spirit is just
asking to get worked over. A magus with ancestors that reach all the way back
to the dawn of the human race is a force to be reckoned with.
If you have been reading between the lines you already know
these categories are not absolute. The lines blur. An ancestor that becomes a
hero or a saint may later become a god. Spirits of place have been known to
take human form and vice versa. As I said, these categories only serve as a
guide to approach spirits, not define them. Whatever role a spirit currently
fulfills will inform the magus on how to communicate with them.
So I have admitted that for a long ass time I did not do
magical exercises on a daily basis. There was actually a long period where I didn’t
do magick on a daily basis at all, just the occasional personal ritual and
writing and performing magick with my tribe. But over the past year or so I
have had a daily magical practice. Not exercises, but I do magick every day.
Most of that has to do with ancestors.
Every night, I visit my ancestor altar. What’s an ancestor
altar? Just a place in your home where you keep some things that remind you of
your ancestors. It can be pictures, something the ancestor owned in life, or
something that reminds you of them. It can be on any small shelf space and does
not need to be elaborate. It should have space for offerings. Three things cut
across cultures when it comes to making offerings to your ancestors: fire
(candles work fine), incense, and water. If you are looking closely you see
represented the four classical elements. Fire, Water, Air in the form of
incense, and Earth, which is the ancestors themselves because they have
returned to the Earth.
On most nights I simply bring them fresh water. I learned
this from a practitioner of Palo Mayombe, but further research showed it to be
a ubiquitous offering used by many African cultures, Buddhists. Ancient Greeks,
Egyptians, and probably a bunch of others I don’t know about. This makes sense.
Water is the one thing all life on this planet needs. It is the primal reminder
of their connection to life. What’s the one thing you can do to help another,
even if you have nothing to give? You bring them water. Nearly everyone on the
planet has access to water, and those that don’t have bigger things to worry
about than their ancestors, and the ancestors understand. I have a nice
offering bowl that I use, but you can use anything. As I write this I’m
planning a trip to Chicago with my wife, so no one will be home to take care of
the ancestors. I will be taking one item from my altar and use a plastic cup at
our AirBnB. If you have limited means, you can start out with something just
that simple. Just make sure the water is fresh and the cleanest water you have
access to.
Which brings us to a minor sticking point. What do you do
with the water from the previous day? It’s fine just to pour it down the drain.
Ancestor magick is practical magick, the magick of the people. Your ancestors
lived a life and they get it. Sometimes you just gotta go with the easiest
solution. You can also dump it on a plant to help them grow, which has nice
symmetry. Me, I pour it in my dogs’ water bowl. My dogs are part of my family
and I want them to participate. In fact, I have pictures and ashes on my
ancestor altar from my last two dogs that passed away. Interesting to note, the
dogs I have now love it. They have multiple water bowls in the house but I’ll
be damned if they do not prefer the ancestor water every time. It’s part of the
covenant between man and dog. I’ll write an entire post in the future about
dogs being closely associated with death and the underworld.
When I bring the ancestors the fresh water, I always speak
with them a while. They want to know about your day. They want to hear about
your successes and your problems. This does not obligate them to do anything
about those problems, but they want to listen. Telling stories about times you
remember with them and how the things they taught you help you now is good too.
You can ask them for help directly, but don’t be selfish. Your ancestors are
not a spiritual slot machine. You should treat it exactly as you would asking a
living relative for money. Only ask if you really need it and pay them back
before anyone else. That means more offerings.
So when the shit gets deep in my life, I light their candles
and burn incense for them. I may still not ask them for anything directly, but
I recognize the strength they have passed down to me and that it’s gonna be
that strength they gets me out of trouble. I also like to give a physical
offering each season, usually on a holiday. I may offer some dried leaves in
the fall, flowers in the spring, evergreen branches in the winter, anything
that will remind them of the time here on Earth. They seem to appreciate the
memories those things invoke.
Then I will move on to my other ancestors and speak with
them. They do not generally get daily offerings as they are busy magi doing
important things in the afterlife and don’t want to be disturbed that often.
They do get candles and incense every time I perform ritual, especially
divination. I’ll talk about them more in a future post.
Then I talk to the two major gods in my life, Thoth and
Babalon. I talk to Thoth about my current writing and magical projects. To
Babalon I speak about my love life and my goals to make the world a better
place (immanentize the Eschaton). They get offerings on an irregular basis.
Sometimes just candles and incense. Sometimes something special. Gods can be
vain and self-important. They will turn their nose up at anything common, so
for them I will spend some money: rose oil, expensive ink, crystals, and other
symbolic items (here’s a good example). For Babalon, I maintain a rose garden,
and in the summer I am constantly trimming blooms off of my roses and offering
them to Babalon.
Then it’s off to bed for old Frater Threskiornis.
Since I have been making daily offerings to my ancestors,
the best part about it has been keeping one foot in the enchanted world all the
time. I think about my ancestors more. I think about magick more. I recognize other
spirits more often since I have started doing these things as a daily practice.
In my conversations with my ancestors and gods, I have learned so much about
myself and the nature of spirits. Listening to the spirits is another thing you
must practice, and for me, it’s one of the most important things in my life
right now.
If you have a similar daily practice, or plan on starting
one, I would love to hear about what you do and your results.
Did seven minutes of rhythm meditation as prescribed in the first exercise of Liber F. Smoked some of the herbal remedy and just sat down on my futon with all the candles on my ancestor altar burning for All Souls Day. I was playing a small rattle, hand made by Sator Mordeci Sova, my mentor in the IOT and a bad ass witch. I owe so much to her. The rattle is made out of the jawbone of some small animal, or maybe a small deer. It has a cluster of tiny brass bells wired to one side which Mordeci herself had painstakingly attached to this piece of road kill she had stripped of its flesh. She was that hardcore! I watched her die right in front of me. A heart attack. She died on a camping trip, surrounded by the people she loved doing the things she loved – communing with nature, and magick. We held a massive party in her honor that night.
She taught me so much both before and after she passed beyond the veil. I am so blessed for knowing such an amazing magical practitioner who now resides in the realm of spirit.
I played those bells for her tonight, and for all of my family.
Magus
(pl. magi):
Originally the name of the priestly class in Ancient Persia. The Order of
Emergent Magi has adopted the term magus as a gender neutral title for someone
who does magick.
Many magi have quite the ego. I am not an exception. It
requires a certain amount of hutzpah to write a book on magick and believe it
worthy to be added to the already massive corpus of knowledge on the subject.
Proclaiming one’s station and ability, however over inflated those claims, is
part of the tradition. Not all spirits are friendly. Some need to be
intimidated. The magus does this by listing their position, their lineage, and
their allies in the spirit world.
Is it all bullshit? Yes, and no. At least in my case. I
freely admit I am a lazy and undisciplined ass who preaches more than he
practices. That needs to end now.
Almost all magical systems start off by giving a perspective
initiate a system of exercises meant to build up their skills in achieving
altered states of consciousness and develop a means of magical self-defense.
These skills are vital for any magus. In fact, I wrote my own prescribed
exercises specifically for Emergent Magick (EMK).I call it Liber F, or Liber
Fodienda, Latin for “The Book of Mining.”Named after one of the core
principles of EMK— “The Citadel of Emergent Magick is built from stone mined through
the disciplines of yoga.”
Time for full disclosure. I hope this makes some people feel
better about themselves and shatters the illusion that any of us are perfect.
I’m doing this from memory so most likely there have been many more failures
not listed. Here is my history of working various systems of magical
exercise.
Golden Dawn System – I’m pretty sure the first system I tried was the GD
system from Israel Regardie’s big book o’ Golden Dawn. That was a mistake for a
lot of reasons. Let’s just say I’m not built for Kabbalah, at least not
anything beyond the basics. I made it through one-and-a-half chapters, then
gave up. Did not complete.
Liber MMM – AKA, Liber Null, the pretty much universally
accepted program for chaos magick. First time out, I did the first three
exercises and then stopped. More on this one later.
Donald Michael Kraig’s Modern Magick – It’s a great system which
I highly recommend. It draws from multiple classic sources. I got to the part
where he has you make your own robe and noped out. Did not complete.
Liber MMM – Again. Actually got through the majority of it
but was not consistent.
Liber O – Crowley’s own program for aspiring adapts. Back
when I thought I would apply to the A.’.A.’.
Made it through two of the exercises and remembered why Crowley annoys
the fuck out of me.
Liber MMM – Again. But this time around my application to
the Illuminates of Thanateros had been accepted. I worked MMM to completion, in
order, for six solid months. I knew what I wanted at the time, and I went for
it. Probably the single most important turning point in my magical career. I
did it. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. At the time my temple was in my garage, and I went
through the program in the middle of winter. No matter how tired, upset,
discouraged, and downright exhausted I was, I kept going into that freezing
cold garage every night. It’s the way it needs to be done. There are no
shortcuts. I call it the Karate Kid method of training. “Wax on-wax off.” You
have no idea why you are doing it, but in the end you WILL have the skills you
need. Understand, I HATE not knowing why I am doing something. I was the kid
who always asked why. To this day I can’t tell you exactly why the exercises
must be done that way, but you have to trust me, they do. You will understand
once you become a dedicated magi. Even with all my power over words I can’t
explain this Mystery. At the time I also had a new job in social work which was
emotionally draining. I had a nervous breakdown right in the middle of the
training and I just kept doing it. Success! But not complete success. After my
initiation, I swore to myself I would keep doing it every day and sure as shit
almost immediately dropped off daily practice once I got into the IOT. I’m that
dumb.
After that, I have tried to restart a number of magical
exercise programs and never completed them. But here is my ultimate shame. I
wrote Liber F so that any individual, even someone totally new to the occult,
could read the Emergent Magick book and get what they needed to start. After writing
it, I reasoned (correctly) that if I was going to advocate for a magical
exercise program I should probably actually have done it. So I started working
Liber F personally, and yep, you guessed it, did not finish. So I’m a
hypocritical prick. Though the truth is a little more complex. I do honestly
believe that Liber F is a good program because most of it is just outright
stolen from other systems. The only difference being that the exercises
contained help orient the participant towards group practice, which few of the
others do. So if you are thinking of doing Liber F, by all means give it a try.
I am.
Yep, I’m gonna start again. I’m gonna work Liber F in its
entirety for the next six months, because I need to be a better magician. I
won’t be doing a daily journal. If you are about to undertake one of these programs
they all recommend you do that, and you should. I did when I actually completed
MMM. But the truth is, I’m not a novice. I’m by no means a master, but I have
enough miles in that I know keeping a daily journal won’t be that much benefit.
If you are looking for an example of what such a journal might look like, feel
free to check out my now defunct blog – http://magicalrecord.tumblr.com/
It worked for me at the time, but I would certainly use a different format if I
wanted to do it again. I will, however, keep a notebook handy and will write
down the good shit that comes to me and share it with you here as it pertains
to Emergent Animism.
So go forth! Do your daily spiritual and physical exercise.
Drink plenty of water. Get some sleep. Take care of yourself because the ride
is just gonna get more intense. Get your shit together, and if you need to, put
it in a backpack. That’s what I will be doing.
As much as I would like to avoid it, I feel I must first define Emergent Magick (EMK). Especially considering that at this point, there are maybe about fifty practitioners of EMK on the planet. If you follow my other blog, Scroll of Thoth, you probably have some idea what it is, but I know that I have failed to define it with any concision. Part of that is because I am publishing a book on the subject, which will be released in early 2019. It really needs an entire book and more to get the concept across. Also because like any other magical philosophy, it’s slippery, and no matter how skilled I think I am as a writer, words always fail to encompass it in its entirety. And you’ve probably figured out by now I’m a wordy son-of-a-bitch, which makes it doubly hard to do this. I’ll endeavor to make it as short as possible so we can get on with the real subject at hand.
EMK defines magick as, “The art of altering consciousness.” In essence, the universe itself is created and directed by consciousness, and magick is a way to influence that consciousness. Consciousness itself lacks universally accepted definition. For our purposes it includes any sufficiently complex system that can perceive. If you accept that sub-atomic systems are sufficiently complex, and that quantum theory proves that particles have some form of perception, this includes everything in the universe to a greater or lesser degree. Art, the activity of creation, influences consciousness. Ritual is the art of the magician, and it is specifically designed to alter consciousness.
In Emergent Magick, a magus performs rituals with the purpose of creating altered states of consciousness. The magus then takes what they learn from those rituals to build an ever more concise paradigm, essentially a model for the universe and a method to alter it. While a magus can certainly learn from the magi who came before them, it is what they learn through altered states of consciousness that best informs their magick. Since all consciousness is perspective, what a magus learns through altered states has more weight than anything they can learn by other means.
The ultimate goal of the magus is to perceive the unity of consciousness. To interact with it as part of a larger whole. This manifests in the physical plane by forming tribes of magi and working with them to experience their paradigm, form bonds of love and acceptance, and to influence the collective unconscious through the creation of culture.
At least that’s the short form description of Emergent Magick. Which finally brings us back to Emergent Animism (EMAN).
Emergent Animism is the art of communicating with the spirits.
At least that’s the one-sentence vital core of it. Some old-school magi like to have things summed up in a sentence or two (and I am one of those magi). Why Emergent? First, because I am one of the creators of Emergent Magick and it is how I currently define my practice. Since Emergent Animism is my personal paradigm, it comes from an EMK perspective. Because the methods used to explore and define the paradigm are the methods of EMK. Verified personal experience takes precedent over accepted knowledge (although there will be plenty of that). Those experiences are then shared with my personal tribe and their experiences added to the body of knowledge. You may notice the shifting tense there, because this is work that has been performed and is ongoing. In fact, the creation of this blog is a lot about me documenting my personal paradigm, and renewed awareness that I need to get back to the basics and start rebuilding things from the ground up. This blog will contain descriptions and results of my daily practice.
Which brings us to animism. Much smarter people with better sources have described animism. And I really want to just tell people to go read Shamanism:Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, by Mircea Eliade and Willard R. Trask, and then come back and continue reading this. But I understand that’s not a realistic expectation, so I’m gonna have to give you my woefully inadequate description. Animism has been called the world’s first religion, and from the archaeological evidence and current anthropology there is little reason to doubt that all hunter-gatherers practiced some form of animism.
Animism as a world view, sees the universe as populated with spirits. In animism, all things have some vital essence that can be communicated with, from spirits of rivers, mountains, and lakes, to trees, rocks, and clouds, also the spirits of humans, animals, insects, and the spirits of those living creatures that have died. Some animists also believe in alien spirits that come from other dimensions of reality. The practice of animism is the communication with these spirits through some form of altered state of consciousness. This can be ritual, dance, music, meditation, and the use of psychoactive substances. Shamanism is a particular type of animism where individuals of a tribe use altered states of consciousness to contact the spirit realm, referred to as journeying, and petitions the spirits for the benefit of the shaman and their tribe. I do not consider myself a shaman for various nit-picking reasons that I am sure I will go into at some point.
In Emergent Animism, spirit is synonymous with consciousness. So the art of magick in EMAN terms is the art of communicating with the spirits. Which entails all forms of conversations, pacts, offerings, and all the other traditional and non-traditional methods of contacting them.
Still interested? It’s going to get better from here. This blog will mainly include my writing on the subject, and how I practice magick, along with other resources I find helpful. Know right off the bat that I don’t think anyone should try to pick this up whole-cloth and use it as their own. All magi must ultimately discover their own paradigm and follow that. But I do know it has been helpful for me as a magician to read about other people’s practice. To see what works for them and what does not and learn from it. I find the magical world to be sorely lacking in resources that describe exactly what magi are doing. There’s plenty of description of rituals and theory but little of what a magus actually does on a day-to-day basis. I hope I can add a unique perspective and inspire some people to try these practices themselves. I say don’t follow my path, but do feel free to steal anything that you think can work for you.
Why take my word on any of this? I have some credentials. I have dabbled off and on through my entire life, but truthfully, I only came to seriously dedicate myself to magick in the past decade, much later in life than most. I am initiated member of the Illuminates of Thanateros, and hold a degree in Comparative Religion. I am co-creator of Emergent Magick, and Scribe for the Order of Emergent Magi. At the risk of displaying my ego, I consider myself well-read on a variety of subjects—religion, history, anthropology, archaeology, primatology, Ancient Egyptian spiritual practice, to name a few. As a devoted magus in the service of Thoth, I also happen to believe I am a passable writer.
What I am not is a great magician. I admit that my own work is sloppy, ill-documented, lacking in discipline, and does not meet basic standards of progressive research. That’s another reason why I’m doing this. To hold myself accountable to actually doing the work the way it should be done. It’s well past time for me to get back to the bottom, and do this the right way.
Which is why I decided to make this a tumblr blog. I could have just decided to write another book, but I have plenty of other books I need to write. Doing this as a blog keeps it raw. No content editors, no limitations that come with putting things in print. I can use art that I find on tumblr to illustrate my feelings and link books, articles, and video. No need to make this a single coherent narrative. I can just fire off thoughts as I have them, long or short. Right now the goal is one long text post a day, maybe a couple of short ones, and miscellaneous re-blogs and links when I stumble across them or they seem appropriate.
For the sake of auspice, we begin on the Day of the Dead, All Saints Day. A time when so many cultures feel the nearness of the spirits and honor their ancestors.
