Category: Uncategorized

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome as an Occultist

July 11, 2025

Basics, Community, Uncategorized

Telling That Inner Troll to Sit Down

(everything stated in this blog is based upon my own research, personal practice, and opinion)

If you’ve ever sat in front of your altar, clutching a dollar store candle and wondering if the spirits can smell your self-doubt, welcome. You’re in good company. From fresh initiates to long-time practitioners, occultists of all stripes have wrestled with that greasy little goblin called impostor syndrome. It slithers into our sacred spaces, whispering, “You’re not a real witch. You’re a fraud. You’re just playing dress-up with incense.”

And… sometimes, gods help us, we believe it.

But here’s the thing: that voice? It’s not truth. It’s just loud. Like most loud things, it can be told to shut up and sit in the corner with a juice box while you get on with your magickal life.

Let’s break down exactly why impostor syndrome happens, how we sabotage ourselves (hint: that “just joking” voice isn’t so innocent), and what to do when you feel like the cosplay police are about to break into your living room mid-ritual.

Impostor Syndrome in a Ritual Robe

Impostor syndrome is the psychological equivalent of summoning a minor demon and forgetting the banishing script. It shows up precisely when you’re about to grow, stretch, or try something new. It’s the voice that says:
“You don’t know enough.”
“You’re faking it.”
“Someone else could do this better, and with cooler robes.”

In the world of occultism, where there are no diplomas, no standardized tests, and frankly, very few universally agreed-upon rules, that voice hits harder than a retrograde.

But let’s get one thing straight:

Everyone ,yes, everyone, feels like a fraud sometimes. That TikTok witch with 200k followers? Her too. The ceremonial magician who can recite Thelema backward in a trance state? Him too. The local elder who’s been practicing since the ’70s and still doesn’t know if she believes in half the spirits she invokes? Yep. Still human.

Impostor syndrome doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re aware, which, funnily enough, is one of the top prerequisites for good magic.

The Comparison Curse: No One Wins

Want to supercharge your impostor syndrome? Easy. Compare your practice to everyone else’s filtered, curated, hyper-aesthetic, algorithm-optimized social media presence.

Scrolling Instagram can make you feel like your whole craft is being judged by a panel of ancient gods in flower crowns. They have ethereal altars, misty forests, and Latin invocations pronounced correctly on the first try.

Meanwhile, your altar looks like a flea market crash-landed in a craft store. Your last spell? You forgot half the words and your cat ate the herbs.

Here’s the deal: you’re comparing your behind-the-scenes to someone else’s highlight reel. Nine times out of ten, those glamorous witches don’t have it together either, they’re just good at lighting and filters.

Magic isn’t a performance. It’s a practice. That’s why it’s called practice. Get messy. Get weird. Let your candle topple. Let your incense smell like sadness. That’s real.

The Self-Deprecation Trap (or… How to Accidentally Hex Yourself)

Let’s talk about the sly little saboteur that is self-deprecating humor. You know the lines:

“I’m not a real witch, I just hoard crystals and cry during moon phases.”

“I can’t be a real magician, I Google everything before ritual.”

“I’m basically just a goblin with a Pinterest board.”

Harmless? At first…but say it enough times and your subconscious stops laughing.

Self-deprecation can feel safe. It lets you joke about your insecurities before anyone else does. The thing is, if you do it often enough, it stops being funny and starts becoming belief. You’re not shielding yourself with humor, you’re feeding the impostor troll your confidence as a midnight snack. (You’re also teaching others how they can talk to you…think on that.)

The real kicker? The spirits don’t care. They don’t need you to be perfect. They need you to show up.

Unless you’re literally trying to hex yourself into magical mediocrity, stop diminishing your own power with ironic disclaimers. You’re not fooling anyone, especially not your inner knowing.

“I Don’t Have the Right Tools”

Here’s another greatest hit from the Album of Self-Doubt:

“I can’t do real magic. I don’t have the right wand/chalice/incense hand-rolled by druids under a solstice moon.”

Let me say it loud for the witches in the back… your tools do not make your practice valid.

That chipped mug from your grandma’s kitchen can be your chalice. That stick you found on your morning walk? Boom. Wand. That tea light from the dollar store? As long as you don’t burn your curtains, you’re golden pony boy.

The power isn’t in the object, it’s in the intention. In your focus. In your relationship with spirit. The gods aren’t grading you on aesthetics. They’re asking if you mean it.

Stop waiting to afford the $300 athame. Light the damn candle and do the work.

Ritual Is Not a Performance (Unless You’re Trying to Impress Dionysus)

Another lie that feeds the impostor beast is “I didn’t do it right.”

Maybe your voice cracked during the invocation. Maybe your circle wasn’t perfectly cast. Maybe your ritual robe still smells faintly of Taco Bell.

Guess what? No one cares.

Ritual isn’t about putting on a perfect show. It’s about alignment. It’s about entering sacred space with your whole self, flaws and all. The spirits aren’t looking for a Broadway performance, they’re looking for authenticity. You don’t need to sound like a Gregorian monk. You just need to mean it.

Messy is real. Awkward is sincere. And sincerity? That’s magick.

The Cult of Competence: You Don’t Need to Know Everything

Another impostor whisper: “I haven’t read enough. I don’t know enough. I’m not initiated. I’m not qualified.” (Full disclosure…this is one I have fought in many a bare knuckled brawl.)

Let me introduce you to a hard truth wrapped in a hug. No one knows it all. Not even the tenured chaos magician with 40 years of practicing planetary magic and a only mildly alarming footnote addiction.

The deeper you go, the more you’ll realize how little you know. That’s not failure, that’s progress.

You don’t need to be an expert. You need to be engaged. Ask questions. Try things. Get it wrong. Learn. Repeat. Magick is a living art, not a pass/fail test.

Find Your People and Share the Chaos

Practicing magick alone can be empowering and isolating as hell. I spent most of my early magickal life solitary.

When you’re stuck in your own head, it’s easy to think everyone else has their act together. That’s one of many reasons why community matters.

Find folks you can be real with. Share your flops. Laugh at your spell fails. Admit that sometimes you chant for ten minutes and feel nothing. Let others see the unfiltered version of your path. Because spoiler… they’re going through the same thing.

You’re not alone. You never were.

And trust me, nothing slays impostor syndrome faster than someone saying, “Wait, I do that too.”

How to Tell That Inner Troll to Sit Down and Shut Up

You’re never going to fully get rid of impostor syndrome. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature of being human, curious, and daring to do something sacred without a safety net.

But you can make peace with it. You can teach it manners.

Name it. Say, “That’s impostor syndrome.” Give it a silly name if it helps. (Mine’s called “Ugg” and Ugg doesn’t get to run the show.)

Speak truth over it. “I’m still learning” is not the same as “I’m a fraud.” Say what’s real.

Laugh, but don’t belittle. Keep your sense of humor, but use it to uplift, not diminish.

Keep practicing. Nothing pisses off that inner troll more than consistent action. Show up anyway.

You Belong Here. Really.

Let me say this again, as clearly as I can… You. Belong. Here.

Whether you’re deep in ceremonial magick, dancing under the moon with a coven, or just lighting a candle in your bedroom and whispering intentions, you’re doing it.

You’re not an impostor. You’re a practitioner.

The work matters. Your path matters. The very fact that you care enough to doubt means you’re not faking it. Fakes don’t reflect. Fakes don’t wrestle with the Mystery. Fakes don’t show up, week after week, asking, “Is this real?” and listening for the answer.

You are not a fraud. You’re a witch, a magician, a seeker, an occultist, a weaver of strange truths and unseen threads. You’re walking the path, wobbly, weird, and wondrous as it is.

The next time that little inner gremlin starts whispering doubt hand it a broom. Tell it, “If you’re going to hang around, you’d better be useful.”

Then light your candle. Cast your spell. Chant your words. Stir your tea clockwise.

And remember, real witches feel like fakes all the time.

But they show up anyway.

And that? That’s part of the magick.

Stay magickal. Stay weird. Stay real. And if your spell goes sideways, at least you’ve got a great story for your next get together.

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But…But Real Witches Don’t Charge

July 7, 2025

Basics, Community, Dreams/Oracle/Divination, Rituals, Uncategorized

The Curious Case of Capitalist Shame in a Capitalist World

(everything stated in this blog is based upon my own research, personal practice, and opinion)

Let’s begin with a question that haunts every occult Facebook group, every wand-waving subreddit, and approximately 63% of Etsy reviews for tarot readings: “Should you charge for magick?”

The expected answer, apparently, is: “Absolutely not! If it’s real, it should be free. Real witches work for love, light, and exposure.” Exposure, presumably, to the elements, since if you’re doing this full-time for free, you’re probably homeless.

This line of thinking is like saying, “If you’re truly good at brain surgery, you’ll do it for free. Otherwise, you’re just in it for the money.” Or my personal favorite: “If you’re really spiritual, you won’t need to eat, pay rent, or own a functioning toilet.”

Ah, but here we are. Again. Dancing the tired tango of spiritual purity versus capitalist survival, as if living in a late-stage capitalist hellscape wasn’t already enough of a metaphysical endurance test.

So let’s talk about it, historically, and honestly.

Back When Witches Got Paid

If you’ve ever been told, “Witches never charged in the old days,” please understand that this statement is so historically incorrect it could be taught in a Texas high school textbook.

Historically, witches, cunning folk, seers, astrologers, and magical practitioners absolutely charged for their services. In fact, they did pretty good business, until the Inquisition made customer service a lot more complicated.

The cunning man who helped you find your lost cow? Charged.

The herbalist who made a poultice for your festering battle wound? Charged.

The granny midwife who whispered charms while delivering your child and cursing your cheating husband’s manhood to shrivel? Charged. (Twice, if the curse was extra juicy.)

This wasn’t considered unethical. It was common sense. If someone was using their knowledge, skills, and years of experience to help you with real problems, they deserved real compensation.

We’ve only recently decided that spiritual or magical labor should be a hobby you do after your 9–5 soul-crushing job. And if that sounds suspiciously Protestant Work Ethic™, well… buckle in.

Blame the Puritans. (Again.)

Here’s the root of it: the Western world has a weird hang-up about money and spirituality. Somewhere along the line, someone said, “Money is the root of all evil,” and everyone conveniently ignored that the original line is “The love of money is the root of all evil”…a very different sentiment.

Puritanism, and later Victorian moralizing, taught us that anything spiritual should be austere, unpaid, and slightly miserable. If you’re enjoying yourself or making money, you must be doing it wrong. You must be a charlatan, a con artist, or (worst of all) a capitalist witch, which sounds like a great band name, but apparently makes you Satan in yoga pants.

This is particularly ironic because religious professionals have always been compensated. Priests, monks, shamans, imams, rabbis; some got paid in donations, some got food, land, or housing, but they weren’t just vibing in a cave hoping someone brought them a granola bar. Even the aesthetics of asceticism have infrastructure; go look at the Vatican. It’s not exactly minimalist.

Yet somehow, modern witches are expected to be broke, barefoot, and broadcasting on TikTok for free. Preferably from inside a forest hut made of ethical mushrooms and debt.

The Ethnocentric Elephant in the Room

Now here’s where the conversation gets uncomfortable, but necessary.

The idea that it’s “wrong” or “impure” to charge for spiritual services is wildly ethnocentric. Let’s call it what it is: a view rooted deeply in white, Western, Christian-influenced frameworks that don’t understand how other cultures treat spiritual labor.

In countless cultures around the world, spiritual professionals charge, and rightly so. Curanderas in Latin America, diviners in West African traditions, babaylan in the Philippines, Voudou houngans, Ifá priests, shamans, herbalists, and so on. These people often train for years, and their communities understand that what they offer is vital work. Not a hobby. Not cosplay. Not something to do on weekends between barista shifts.

The notion that “real spiritual work is always free” becomes deeply problematic when white Western neo-pagans start pointing fingers at BIPOC practioners who are charging for their time and labor. That’s when it stops being philosophical and starts being colonialist as hell.

Because what you’re really saying is: “If I can’t charge for this, you shouldn’t be able to either.”

And that, my friend, is not ethics. That’s ego wrapped in moralistic pants, preaching poverty while scrolling Etsy for another $300 handmade wand.

The Scam Scarecrow and the Straw Witch

Now to be fair: yes, there are scammers in the spiritual world. People who promise to “remove generational curses” for $2,000 and a kidney. That exists. But you know what else has scammers?

Every profession.

There are fake doctors, shady mechanics, lying landlords, corrupt politicians (okay, all politicians), and investment bankers who gamble your retirement fund on NFTs shaped like buttholes.

We don’t respond by saying, “Doctors should work for free, or they’re fakes.” We say, “Wow, that guy’s a crook. Let’s hold them accountable.”

But when a witch says, “I’ll read your cards for $30,” suddenly it’s a crisis of authenticity. A real psychic wouldn’t need money! (…but they apparently do need crystals, rent, groceries, Wi-Fi, and self-care tea.)

This is the double-bind: if you don’t charge, you’re a starving artist. If you do, you’re a greedy fraud. Sound familiar? It’s the same trap we spring on creatives, healers, teachers, and anyone who does work that isn’t easy to quantify in spreadsheets.

And frankly? That’s capitalism gaslighting us into believing that our labor is only valid if it kills us slowly.

The Energy Exchange Argument (a.k.a. Spiritual Capitalism’s Soft Pants)

Now here comes the moment where someone puffs up and says, “Well, I believe in energy exchange, not money.”

Cute. But unless you’re living in a fully off-grid barter commune where your landlord accepts goat milk as rent, money is energy. You work for it. You trade time, skill, and life-force for it. That’s as energetic as it gets.

You want to trade three jars of pickles and a poem about the moon in exchange for a curse removal? Great. But that doesn’t make you less capitalist, it just makes you cute capitalist adjacent.

There’s no “clean” money in a capitalist system. That $20 bill in your wallet probably passed through a strip club, a church basket, a drug dealer, and a smoothie bar before it hit your pocket. The money isn’t the problem, it’s the values we attach to it, and the weird guilt we’re programmed to feel for using it to survive.

Let’s call this what it really is: spiritual labor deserves to be compensated, full stop. Just because you can’t put a spell in a spreadsheet doesn’t mean it’s not real work.

Why It’s Not Just About You

Let’s also talk about the real-world impact of this mindset: discouraging people from charging for spiritual work means fewer people doing it professionally.

Which means fewer skilled witches, healers, astrologers, and spiritual teachers building long-term practices, refining their craft, and offering real support to communities that need it.

Instead, we get an ocean of dabblers who burn out fast, ghost their clients, and treat spellwork like it’s a hobby they’ll abandon when Mercury goes direct.

If we don’t allow people to build sustainable, ethical practices, they won’t stick around. And then you’re left with an army of TikTok teenagers hexing the moon and a few bitter elders living off ramen and resentment.

Charging for magick doesn’t mean you’re selling your soul. It means you’re investing in your ability to keep showing up, doing the work, and not dying of scurvy in a tent.

The Future of Paid Magick (a.k.a. Let’s Not Be Silly About This)

So how do we do it right?

Simple.

Transparency: Be clear about what you’re offering, what you charge, and what your boundaries are.

Ethics: Don’t exploit vulnerable people. Don’t promise miracles. Don’t threaten to curse someone unless they Venmo you $500.

Professionalism: Respect your own damn craft enough to treat it like a real service. Contracts, refunds, communication, be a witch, not a walking red flag.

Magick is a service, an art, and a discipline. It can be sacred and profitable. Compassionate and sustainable. Ancient and modern.

You can have incense and invoices. Tarot and taxes. Sigils and Shopify.

The idea that you have to choose between being real and being compensated is a false binary, built by a system that fears anything it can’t commodify, and then mocks you when you try to not die of capitalism.

Recognizing Our Part

Let’s stop pretending that magick is less real because someone charges for it.

Let’s stop projecting our money trauma onto witches, healers, and spiritual workers who are just trying to make a life doing what they’re called to do.

Let’s stop pretending that starving for your craft makes you morally superior. It doesn’t. It just makes you hungry, bitter, and likely to yell at your herbs.

You want to do this work for free? Great. That’s your path. But don’t slap a purity sticker on it and expect everyone else to bow to your self-imposed martyrdom.

The future of magick isn’t broke witches whispering under bridges. It’s powerful, skillful practitioners building real careers, communities, and practices that can last.

If you’re a witch who charges? Bless you. Keep going.

If you’re a witch who doesn’t? Cool, just don’t judge the ones who do.

The real spell we need to cast is breaking the hex of poverty mindset in spiritual spaces.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have invoices to send. The spirits don’t mind, as long as I offer a % to the ancestors and maybe a little extra rum on Saturdays.

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Everything is Magick: the Inescapable Enchantment of Being

July 3, 2025

Basics, Ceremonial, Chaos, Community, Rituals, Uncategorized

(everything stated in this blog is based upon my own research, personal practice, and opinion)

The False Divide Between Magick and the Mundane
Spoiler alert: You’re already doing magick. You just keep calling it “Tuesday.”

Magick, according to modern Western esotericism (and at least three witches on Instagram), is the act of using will aligned with intention to shape reality. Whether you’re summoning archangels with Latin incantations or whispering affirmations to your sourdough starter, magick is typically portrayed as something extra, set apart from your Netflix queue and laundry day. It’s sacred, symbolic, and designated by ritual tools, solemn oaths, and a vague sense that you should probably be wearing more velvet.

But…what if that whole separation is bogus?

What if it’s not just artificial, but laughably wrong?

Let’s entertain a radical notion: if we’re magickal beings, meaning we’re made of the same juicy stuff as spells, dreams, archetypes, and cosmic Wi-Fi, then nothing we do is non-magickal. Every email, every eyebrow raise, every bathroom break is humming with the same sacred circuitry that powers a Solomonic evocation. If will, consciousness, and pattern are the holy trinity of magick, then reality itself is a full-time ritual. To call something “non-magickal” is to forget your own damn nature.

Let’s tear down the velvet rope between “ritual” and “reality” and step into the ever-enchanted chaos we already live in.

Will, Consciousness, Pattern

Let’s define our terms before we go galloping off into mystical metaphor.

Aleister Crowley (patron saint of ego and eyeliner) defined magick as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” Dion Fortune (who had significantly fewer scandals) called it “the art of changing consciousness at will.” Others riff it as “the technology of the soul,” “symbolic interface,” or “a cosmic Choose Your Own Adventure with better lighting.”

Beneath the flowery phrasing, the core elements are remarkably consistent: will, consciousness, and pattern. Magick isn’t some glittery goo you smear on reality, it’s a verb. A process. An active collaboration with existence where your awareness participates in shaping the pattern.

This means, and here’s the twist ending, you don’t need candles or incantations to do it. If magick is about aligning intention with action inside the matrix of meaning, then making a child feel safe, painting a dreamscape, or speaking words that shift someone’s reality is just as magickal as a lunar rite with full ceremonial flair.

The ingredients haven’t changed. Just the costume.

The Myth of the Mundane

So why the big fuss about “magick” versus “everything else”?

Blame modernity… and capitalism…and maybe the Enlightenment, while we’re at it.

In animistic cultures, magick was like air, everywhere, assumed, taken for granted. The wind had opinions. The deer were spies. Rocks were wise. It wasn’t a special category; it was the default setting. Your ancestors didn’t ask, “Is this magick?” They asked, “Which spirit is messing with my crops this week?”

Then came materialism, industrialism, and the joyless march of rationality. Magick got demoted to “irrational,” “silly,” or “that thing goth teens do in cemeteries.” Even modern witches, bless their besom-riding hearts, often draw lines: magickal time vs. normal time, ritual tools vs. normal junk drawer, the altar vs. the sink full of dishes.

A being steeped in magick doesn’t need that split. That split is the ghost of disenchantment, and it’s haunting your mindset.

Spoiler: magick isn’t just something you do. It’s something you are.

If We Are Magickal Beings…
Let’s sit with this: you are a magickal being. Not just on full moons. Not just when you remember to meditate. Always.

You’re not casting spells like a wizard with a wand; you’re casting them because you exist. Your thoughts ripple through the astral like sonar. Your emotions sculpt the vibes of rooms. Your words alter minds, shift moods, and change trajectories. You are a one-person metaphysical jazz band improvising with symbols, breath, and meaning.

Your very attention is an invocation. Your heartbreak is a sacred rite. Your joy? A sigil of the infinite.

This means that every choice is a spell. Every outfit is a glamour. Every kind word is a healing charm. You don’t need to wait until the candles are lit, your very heartbeat is a drum of enchantment.

You can’t opt out. You’re in the spell whether you admit it or not. The only question is: are you an active participant, or just background noise in your own ritual?

But…enough theory let’s zoom in on your Tuesday.

Making Coffee as Ritual –
When you brew coffee, you’re not just chasing caffeine, you’re invoking alertness, presence, power. The aroma triggers memories. The warmth shifts your state. Stirring clockwise becomes a daily spell for focus. That’s not breakfast. That’s alchemy.

Typing Emails as Incantation –
You send an email. Congratulations, you just cast a spell on someone’s mind from miles away. Your words shape thoughts, inspire action, provoke emotion. Each sentence is a charm. If done with awareness, it’s potent. If done mindlessly? Still magick, just less tuning.

Walking as Trance –
Your morning commute? That’s a moving meditation. Your steps drum rhythms. Your breath becomes chant. Graffiti speaks. Crows carry messages. You are a pilgrim in the Temple of Sidewalk. Are you reading the omens?

Sleeping as Astral Journey –
And sleep? Don’t even get me started. You think it’s a nap. But it’s initiation. You dreamwalk into symbol-space. You commune with shadows. You regenerate in the cosmic womb. Whether or not you remember, your soul is doing full-blown magickal heavy lifting.

The point is this: drop the illusion of “ritual” versus “real life,” and suddenly, your entire existence becomes one seamless spell. A 24/7 enchantment cycle. Batteries included.

But What About Terrible Things?
Ah yes. The elephant in the ritual circle: if everything is magick, what about violence, injustice, and suffering? Is genocide magickal? Is capitalism a ritual?

Yes. And no, that’s not a moral judgment. It’s a metaphysical reality.

Magick is a mechanism, not a moral compass. Shadow work exists for a reason. People unconsciously cast hexes every day, through fear, projection, social conditioning, and trauma. Entire institutions are running on automated, exploitative spells of disempowerment.

The danger in saying “this isn’t magick” is that we stop interrogating it. We stop noticing how we’re being entranced by social media, hypnotized by ads, or drained by systems designed to steal attention and autonomy.

Seeing everything as magick doesn’t let evil off the hook, it puts it under a microscope. It says, “Yes, this too has power. Now, what will you do about it?”

The Return to Immanence
This worldview isn’t new. It’s as ancient as dirt…or stars.

Immanence means the sacred is here, not elsewhere. Right here, in the smudged mirror, the subway car, the melting ice cube. Not in heaven, not in nirvana, but now. Every object is alive. Every second is sacred. Every breath is an opportunity to choose alignment or autopilot.

Living in immanence doesn’t mean everything becomes grand and operatic. It means everything becomes real. Available. Textured.

The tree outside your window is a temple. The rain is holy water. Your bedroom is a liminal portal. You’re not waiting for the magick to begin, it never stopped.

Living the Enchanted Life
Now what do we actually do with this knowledge, besides sound cool at parties?

Practice Reverent Awareness: Life is layered. Peel it like an onion. With tears.

Create Rituals in the Ordinary: Clean your toilet like it’s the altar. Bonus: cleaner bathroom.

Speak with Purpose: Words are weapons. Wield them wisely.

Notice the Patterns: Synchronicities are not coincidences; they’re cosmic elbow nudges.

Honor the Unconscious: Dreams and moods aren’t glitches. They’re dispatched from the depths.

Take Responsibility for Your Field: You are broadcasting energy. Constantly. What’s your frequency? Be aware, and own your shit.

Dismantle the Disenchantment: Ask who benefits from you seeing yourself as ordinary. Then revolt.

Invite the Others for Tea: The spirits are bored. Talk to them. They miss drama.

Rest as Ritual: Sleep. Nap. Daydream. Sacred downtime is not optional.

Celebrate the Whole: Joy, grief, awkwardness, it’s all part of the spell. Don’t waste a good existential crisis.

Here’s the mic-drop…

You are the working.

Not your spells. Not your tools. Not your witchy wardrobe. You.

Your life is the altar. Your presence is the talisman. Your choices are the enchantment. There is no escape hatch from sacredness, you’re soaking in it.

You can forget. You can pretend. But the spell keeps spinning.

Now you remember.

…and the magick continues.

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“Harm None” : The Neo-Pagan Dilemma of Living in a Bubble-Wrapped Universe

June 30, 2025

Basics, Community, Uncategorized

(everything stated in this blog is based upon my own research, personal practice, and opinion)

“An it harm none, do what ye will.”
The neo-pagan golden rule. The spiritual equivalent of putting on oven mitts before typing an angry email. The phrase that’s been embroidered on too many tote bags and tattooed in too many regrettable fonts across shoulder blades.

It sounds nice, doesn’t it? Like a metaphysical utopia where we all flit about in flowing robes, casting spells powered only by kindness, moonlight, and maybe a bit of organic chamomile. A world with no fallout, no side effects, and certainly no receipts.

And yet, brace yourself, dear reader, the Law of Harm None is a beautiful, glittery, ethical lie.

A comforting delusion. A spiritual placebo. A philosophical glass house where everyone’s pretending, they don’t also throw the occasional stone, especially during Mercury retrograde.

This is not an attack on being kind, or mindful, or morally awake. This is a callout of the idea that it’s possible to live without causing harm, especially if you’re engaged in a path that’s about transformation, power, or gods who definitely don’t play by those rules.

Let’s dig in. The incense is lit. The tea is scalding.

What “Harm None” Actually Says (and Why It’s Doomed)

The phrase comes to us from the Wiccan Rede, a piece of modern poetry cobbled together in the mid-20th century, which somehow got treated like it dropped from the sky engraved on obsidian tablets.

It was meant to encapsulate the moral compass of Wicca: do your thing, but don’t hurt anybody. Sounds fair, right?

Except life doesn’t work like that.

To live is to harm. You cannot not harm. The barista you startled by asking for your latte “blessed by the Moon” is now psychologically scarred. The sage you burned? Harvested from overpicked desert fields. The love spell you cast to “attract your soulmate”? Yeah, you just rearranged the chessboard of someone else’s free will.

Even saying “no” can be a form of harm. You reject a toxic friend? Harm. You set a boundary? Harm. You refuse to attend your cousin’s third baby shower because you’re fasting for the Solstice and aligning your root chakra? Harm.

“Harm None” quickly becomes less a rule, and more a trap: something you can’t follow, but feel bad about violating.

The Tyranny of Good Vibes Only

Here’s where things get dark (but still funny, don’t worry): the Law of Harm None is often weaponized into spiritual gaslighting. It becomes a way to police behavior within pagan communities, especially when someone wants to challenge problematic power dynamics.

Call out a group leader for manipulative behavior? That’s “causing harm.” Express anger about racism, transphobia, or cultural appropriation? “That’s not very Harm None of you.” Try to enforce your own spiritual boundaries? Oh, now you’re the problem.

Suddenly, the idea of not doing harm starts to look a lot like enforced silence and passivity. A kind of fluffy-light censorship, where people are encouraged to smile through teeth clenched tighter than an overused athame.

The irony is that in trying so hard to avoid conflict, many neopagan groups create environments that are emotionally dishonest. Fun fact, nothing screams “spiritually toxic” like a community that can’t admit it’s made mistakes for fear of breaking the no-harm rule.

Nature Doesn’t Care About The Rede

Let’s be honest: if “Harm None” were an actual metaphysical law, the entire natural world would be under arrest.

Nature kills. It maims. It eats its young. It poisons. It erodes, floods, drowns, burns, and then composts the evidence. Nature is the original chaos magician, and it doesn’t ask permission before it floods your basement or gives your aunt strep.

If Neo-Paganism claims to revere nature, which most traditions at least pretend to, it needs to accept nature in full: both the healing and the havoc.

When you perform a binding spell to protect yourself from an abuser, you’re channeling the energy of a predator defending its den.

When you banish someone’s influence from your life, you’re the spiritual equivalent of a thunderstorm saying, “Not today, Be-youch.”

And that’s not wrong. That’s natural. Evolution happens through conflict, transformation, and sometimes, yes, a bit of well-placed destruction.

Ethics vs. Aesthetic: The Real Pagan Struggle

Here’s the thing: “Harm None” is often more about how people want to look than how they actually act. It’s not a system of ethics, it’s a branding decision.

It’s a spiritual performance. Like owning a compost bin you never use, or posting selfies at Beltane with captions like, “All I do is bless.”

Too many people latch onto “Harm None” as a way to feel morally superior while sidestepping the difficult, nuanced ethical questions: When is it okay to curse? What counts as self-defense in magical terms? How do we navigate harm when it’s unavoidable?

These are messy questions. They don’t look cute on a tote bag. But they matter.

If you’re not willing to get honest about when harm is necessary, you’re probably still causing harm, just with less awareness.

The Curse Conundrum

Let’s talk about curses for a hot witchy minute.

There’s a subset of neopagans who go full frothy-mouthed at the mention of hexing, like you’ve just suggested using babies as candle wax.

Look closer, and you’ll find these same people gossiping, ostracizing, and passive-aggressively excluding others in their spiritual communities.

They may not be hurling poppets or calling upon dark gods, but they’re engaging in very real, very effective forms of social cursing. Just less honest about it.

Cursing isn’t inherently unethical. It’s a tool. A scalpel. Whether you use it to hurt or to heal depends on your intention, your situation, and yes, your willingness to take responsibility.

The Law of Harm None doesn’t ask you to consider the bigger picture. It just tells you to keep your hands clean. But real ethics? Real ethics ask you to get your hands dirty sometimes.

The Cost of Not Harming: Magical Paralysis

If you actually tried to live by “Harm None” in a literal sense, your magic would grind to a halt. You couldn’t do anything.

You couldn’t ask for a raise (what if your boss can’t afford it?). You couldn’t end a relationship (what if your partner spirals?). You couldn’t even call in peace without accidentally messing with someone who profits from conflict.

You’d become spiritually constipated—forever waiting for the perfect, zero-harm conditions that never arrive.

This isn’t just unproductive. It’s dangerous. It keeps people stuck in harmful dynamics because they’re afraid that any act of agency might create a ripple of unintended consequences.

Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is cause harm, to a toxic system, to a lie, to a narrative that’s killing your spirit. Not all harm is cruelty. Not all pain is unjust. Growth hurts. Death heals. Decay makes space for beauty.

What Real Ethics Might Look Like Instead

So… what do we do? Ditch morality altogether and go full chaos gremlin? No, unless that’s your aesthetic.

But we do need a more nuanced ethical framework. One that accepts the inevitability of harm, and asks us to navigate it with courage, compassion, and critical thinking.

Here’s a better starting point:

Acknowledge harm is inevitable. Stop pretending you can avoid it and start paying attention to where it’s landing.

Take responsibility. Don’t hide behind vague karma-logic. Own your choices.

Consider power dynamics. Who benefits? Who suffers? What systems are you reinforcing or breaking?

Practice consent. In spellwork, conversations, relationships, everything. Consent is one of the most real-world forms of magic we’ve got.

Balance intention with impact. Wanting to help doesn’t exempt you from screwing up. Learn, apologize, and adapt.

These are messier, less marketable ethics. Messy… but they’re real, and they grow with you.

Conclusion: Beyond the Rede, Into the Real

“An it harm none, do what ye will” is a beautiful ideal. But like most utopian ideals, it collapses the minute you try to live inside it.

That doesn’t mean you’re doomed to be a spiritual sociopath. It means you’re human. You live in a web of relationships, energies, and consequences. Magic isn’t about avoiding harm, it’s about becoming aware of the power you hold, and using it with discernment.

The Law of Harm None isn’t wrong because it promotes kindness. It’s wrong because it oversimplifies a complex moral universe.

We need spiritual ethics not built on fear of punishment or obsessive purity, but on engagement, reflection, and responsibility. Ethics that allow us to make mistakes, to cause harm unintentionally, and to do the difficult work of repair and restitution.

Go ahead: bless, hex, bind, protect, dismantle, grieve, laugh, rage, heal.

…But don’t pretend it doesn’t matter.

Don’t hide behind a bumper sticker when the real work is standing right in front of you, asking if you’re brave enough to do it, harm and all.

TL;DR: The Law of “Harm None” sounds good but fails in practice. Instead of pretending we can live in a consequence-free fantasy, let’s grow up spiritually and take real responsibility for our magic, our actions, and the delicious, dangerous, sacred mess of being alive.

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Opening the Gates: The Power of Daily Ritual in Occult Practice

June 26, 2025

Basics, Ceremonial, Chaos, Rituals, Uncategorized

(also the Monthly Mindfulness oracle pull)

Opening the Gates: The Power of Daily Ritual in Occult Practice

There is a secret known to every serious occult practitioner: how you begin your day shapes not only the quality of your magick but the trajectory of your entire spiritual life.

Ritual is not just a tool; it is the foundation of the entire esoteric path. Nowhere is this more crucial than in your morning daily practice.

In the systems of ceremonial magick, Hermetic Qabalah, Thelema, Rosicrucianism, and even broader occult traditions, the daily ritual acts as a kind of spiritual ignition. It is a metaphysical key that unlocks the gates of consciousness and aligns the practitioner with divine, cosmic, and elemental forces. It is not an add-on to your day. It is the day. Everything else proceeds from it.

The Dawn of the Magician: Why Mornings Matter

There is something sacred about the first light of day. In almost every ancient spiritual tradition, from Egyptian heliolatry to Vedic fire rituals, dawn has been revered as the meeting point between night and day, spirit and matter, death and rebirth.

In Hermetic terms, dawn is the time when the Solar Logos reasserts itself over the chaotic unconscious. Psychologically, it is when your consciousness is most malleable. Spiritually, it is when our subtle bodies are freshly unbound from the dream state and most receptive to magical influence.

To wake and immediately engage the forces of the divine is to stake your claim on the day. It is to say: “I am a co-creator with the Divine. I do not stumble blindly into the world. I shape it.”

Ritual as Spiritual Hygiene

Just as the body requires regular washing, so does the aura, mind, and soul. Magicians do not perform daily rituals to “look spiritual.” They do it because forces accumulate. Energetic residue, emotional sludge, chaotic thought-forms, all of these accumulate through ordinary life.

The daily ritual acts as a cleansing, sharpening, and aligning. In magical terms, it:

Banishes unwanted energy or spirits.

Centers the practitioner in the microcosm and aligns with the macrocosm.

Activates the astral body and its latent powers.

Opens a direct channel between the self and higher forces (gods, angels, divine archetypes, the HGA).

Grounds and integrates the magickal will into the waking world.

Failing to do this is akin to walking into battle without armor or trying to perform surgery with unwashed hands.

The Magical Engine: Building Momentum Over Time

The most profound transformations in occultism don’t happen through dramatic rites, they come from the compounding power of consistent practice.

Daily rituals are cumulative. Each time you perform a banishing, a solar adoration, a middle pillar exercise, or a personal invocation, you reinforce psychic pathways. You strengthen the bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. You deepen your rapport with spiritual intelligences.

Eventually, the ritual becomes a portal, not just a prayer. It becomes something that enlivens your body with power, saturates your mind with clarity, and brings tangible synchronicities into your day.

Many magicians report that after months or years of uninterrupted daily work, the effects move beyond the ritual space:

Dreams become prophetic or lucid.

Coincidences accelerate.

Emotional resilience increases.

Intuition becomes razor-sharp.

Inner guidance grows louder, clearer, more intelligent.

This is no accident. You are literally changing your vibratory state every single morning, and the universe begins to respond in kind.

A Temple You Carry With You

One of the most beautiful teachings in ceremonial magick is that the magician is a walking temple. The circle, the altar, the compass points, the four elements, the planetary spheres, these are not merely outer constructs… They are maps of the human soul.

When you perform a daily ritual, especially one involving the calling of quarters, the pentagram or hexagram, or the invocation of divine names, you are not just “doing” a ritual. You are reconstructing the temple of the self.

Eventually, even when you’re walking through the grocery store or having a conversation at work, the scaffolding of that temple holds. You carry within you the stillness of the altar, the fire of the wand, the clarity of the sword. You become a point of contact between heaven and earth.

The daily ritual, then, is how you rebuild yourself each day as a sacred vessel.

The Archetypal Field: Aligning with Greater Forces

One of the central goals in ceremonial magick is communion with the divine, whether through God-names, planetary intelligences, angelic hierarchies, or the Holy Guardian Angel.

These intelligences do not operate on your schedule. They don’t dwell in the mundane world of distraction and sloth. They live in an archetypal field, a realm of symbolic clarity and spiritual law. Daily ritual is how the magician rises into that field.

By attuning your consciousness each morning through sacred geometry (e.g. the pentagram/hexagram), divine names (e.g. YHVH, ADNI, AGLA), and gestures (e.g. Qabalistic Cross), you train your inner senses to become fluent in that archetypal language. Over time, you develop resonance with those powers. You no longer feel you are calling them “from the outside.” They move through you.

You become a clear channel, not just a petitioner. A conduit of power, not just a seeker.

Anchoring the Magical Will

Aleister Crowley defined Magick as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” But will is not just brute desire. It is spiritual alignment, and it must be anchored.

The daily ritual is how you remind yourself of your True Will, not in a vague, wishful sense, but through direct contact with the divine.

When you perform a morning invocation, say, to your Holy Guardian Angel, the solar intelligence, < insert title of choice >, you realign your path. You call down the purpose that transcends ego and personality. You ask, in essence:

What am I for?

What am I building with my day, my life, my soul?

How shall I serve the divine pattern today?

This is not just a nice sentiment. It has consequences. The world begins to bend around the Will that is reinforced ritually each morning.

The Alchemical Day: Structure and Flow

From an alchemical perspective, the day itself becomes a kind of Great Work. It has stages like the phases of the magnum opus:

Nigredo – The dark, unconscious state upon waking.

Albedo – The light of the ritual illuminating the soul.

Citrinitas – The golden midday labors of your worldly and spiritual path.

Rubedo – The culmination, integration, and review at day’s end.

Daily rituals, especially those performed at solar stations (sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight), turn your entire lifeinto an alchemical vessel. They help the practitioner live ritually, not just perform ritual.

Even the simplest act, lighting a candle, saying a prayer, tracing a pentagram, places you inside that vessel.

Challenges to Consistency, and How to Overcome Them

Despite the beauty and power of daily ritual, many practitioners (myself included) struggle with consistency. Life is hectic. Time is short. Energy fluctuates.

Here are strategies to overcome these challenges:

Keep it short, but sacred: Even a five-minute ritual, if done with presence and reverence, is potent.

Use physical anchors: Create a set altar, use robes, light incense. These tactile cues signal the subconscious that something important is happening.

Ritualize waking: Get out of bed and go directly into your ritual before checking your phone or engaging the world.

Track your work: A magical diary can motivate you, build self-awareness, and provide proof of progress. (I suggest a ritual journal for all practitioners, ALWAYS)

Remember the why: You’re not doing this for performance. You’re doing it to transform your life. Never forget the reason behind the rite.

The Fruits: What Happens After Years of Daily Work

The fruits of a sustained daily ritual practice are subtle at first, and then profound. I cannot speak for others, but can confidently report from personal practice:

A growing sense of inner peace, power, and purpose.

Heightened dream activity and lucidity.

Stronger results in ceremonial workings.

A deepening relationship with divine beings and archetypes.

Spontaneous moments of ecstasy, union, or gnostic insight.

A psychic sense of “being held” or accompanied by invisible intelligences.

Ultimately, the magician becomes a pillar between heaven and earth, living in the world but governed by higher laws. Daily ritual is how that transformation begins, and how it is sustained.

Final Thoughts: A World Lit from Within

In the end, the purpose of a daily ritual is not to escape life, but to sanctifyit. To start your day as a magician is to recognize that every moment, however “mundane”, contains the spark of divinity.

When you rise each morning and step into sacred space, you do not merely perform a rite. You affirm a truth: the temple is here. The gods are listening. The universe is watching. I am awake.

There is no better way to begin.

Your mission, if you chose to accept…tomorrow morning, before you check your phone, before you sip your coffee, step into the circle. Trace the pentagram. Speak the divine names. Light the lamp. Face the east. Do the thing.

…And open the gates.

Extra credit? Do it every day for 1 full lunar cycle and document your day in a journal. We just had a new moon; it is a wonderful time to take that step.

Monthly Mindfulness June into July

This card reminds us of the beauty in not knowing. Sometimes we get so swept up in the future that we forget to be present in today. Sometimes the answer isn’t there. Sometimes we are operating blind. and that is ok. There is power in “I don’t know”, and accepting that not everything is to be revealed to us at our whim. Over the next month ask yourself:

How do I navigate the unknown?

Can you relinquish control to admit not knowing?

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The Threefold Law: A Triple Serving of Nonsense?

June 23, 2025

Basics, Community, Uncategorized

(Why Karma Doesn’t Come With a Receipt)

(everything stated in this blog is based upon my own research, personal practice, and opinion)

Let’s begin with a bold, mildly heretical statement: the Threefold Law, as it’s commonly understood in modern Neo-Paganism, is complete and utter nonsense.

There. I said it.

Now, before you fetch your athame or ready your incense for an uncrossing spell, hear me out. This isn’t a jab at magick, ethics, or personal responsibility. It’s a critique of one specific concept that has taken on the weight of doctrine in certain circles: the idea that “whatever energy you put out into the world returns to you threefold.”

Sounds poetic, right? Almost like a spiritual boomerang dipped in glitter. But the more closely we examine the origins, the logic, the implications, the more it starts to resemble a metaphysical cartoon. Cute, harmless, and utterly devoid of consistent substance.

Buckle up, my friends. It’s time to walk the crooked path of reason and see just how wobbly the Threefold Law really is.

What Is the Threefold Law, Really?

In the simplest terms, the Threefold Law (also called the Law of Threefold Return or simply the Law of Three) states that whatever energy a person puts into the world, whether positive or negative, will return to them three times as strong. It’s a karmic multiplier effect.

This idea is most famously associated with Wicca and, by extension, many branches of modern Neo-Paganism. The phrase was popularized by Gerald Gardner, and later echoed in various forms of the Wiccan Rede (“An it harm none, do what ye will”), a document that itself teeters on the edge between poetic advice and dogmatic commandment.

But where did the Threefold Law come from?

The earliest written appearance of the Threefold Law seems to be in Gardner’s 1949 novel, High Magic’s Aid. The idea reappeared in his writings later, but he wasn’t entirely consistent with it. Sometimes the return was metaphorical, sometimes magickal, sometimes moralistic. Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner’s high priestesses and a crucial figure in Wiccan history, later admitted that the law had been misunderstood and exaggerated.

And yet, it stuck… Why?

Probably because it feels good. Like a cosmic safety net. Do good things, and you’ll get back a triple helping of blessings. Do bad things, and the universe will spank you three times harder than you deserve. It’s justice, but with sparkles.

But is it true?

Let’s Do Some Magickal Math

Let’s imagine a hypothetical: You light a candle and speak a blessing for someone’s healing. According to the Threefold Law, you should receive not just equivalent healing or goodwill, but three times that energy. If that were really how magickal return worked, wouldn’t you be immortal by now from all the nice things you’ve done?

Likewise, if you hex someone’s ex to get a rash in their nether regions, are you destined to suffer three simultaneous groin-related afflictions in return?

This isn’t just an issue of belief. It’s a problem of scale. Energy, action, and consequences are not so neatly quantifiable in spiritual or magickal work. What does “three times” even mean in metaphysical terms? Is there a karmic Excel spreadsheet somewhere tracking these ratios?

The idea crumbles under scrutiny. And yet, many Neo-Pagans continue to uphold it like it is divine law handed down by the Goddess herself. Why?

Why We Want to Believe It

Because it’s comforting.

Because it offers moral clarity in a messy world.

Because it’s a great way to scare off newbies from dabbling in curses.

Because it makes magick feel safe, as if there’s a built-in insurance policy.

But… comfort is not the same as truth. And this is where the Threefold Law starts to feel less like wisdom and more like a spiritual pacifier.

Magick is messy. Life is messy. Ethics are messy. There are no metaphysical referees throwing flags every time you send a spell in the “wrong” direction.

A Pagan Version of Christian Sin?

Here’s a spicy take: the Threefold Law is Neo-Paganism’s version of sin and punishment. That’s right. Despite all the efforts to distance itself from Christian dogma, modern Paganism has, in some areas, simply repackaged it.

Think about it:

Do good, and you’ll be rewarded (heavenly brownie points).

Do bad, and you’ll be punished (triple hellfire).

Be afraid of your own power, because misusing it could backfire terribly.

This sounds suspiciously like the carrot-and-stick logic that drove much of Abrahamic religion for centuries.

Even more ironically, many of the same Pagans who laugh at the concept of divine judgment accept the Threefold Law without a second thought. Why? Because it’s not “God” punishing you, it’s “energy”. The Universe. Karma.

Change the words all you want, it’s still a punitive moral system based on fear of reprisal.

The Slippery Slope of Magickal Absolutism

Another issue with the Threefold Law is its absolutism.

According to the most common interpretations, you are responsible not only for your intentions but also for the full consequences of your magickal actions, even those you couldn’t have foreseen. Accidentally hexed the wrong guy? Sorry, triple karma incoming. Tried to help someone, but it went sideways? Triple punishment is out for delivery.

This is not morality. This is tyranny. A cosmic version of “zero tolerance” policies.

It also discourages nuanced magical thought. Instead of discerning what is just, necessary, or effective, practitioners are encouraged to avoid any magic that could possibly harm anyone, ever.

This makes practioners afraid to be practioners.

But What About Karma?

Ah, karma. The Eastern spiritual principle that got chewed up by the New Age movement and spat out into a glittery, digestible slogan.

In its original Hindu and Buddhist contexts, karma is incredibly complex, tied to intention, dharma, rebirth, and liberation. It’s not a tit-for-tat system or a cosmic vending machine where pressing the “good deed” button gets you a cookie.

But in Western Neo-Paganism, karma often gets simplified into a cosmic credit score. Good spells add points. Bad spells deduct them. If you go into spiritual debt, the Threefold Law comes to collect.

This is not only intellectually lazy, but culturally disrespectful. Karma is not a vending machine, and the Universe is not your high school principal.

So… What Should Replace the Threefold Law?

Here’s the beautiful thing, you don’t need a metaphysical boogeyman to be an ethical practitioner.

There are far more mature, nuanced ways to approach magickal morality:

Consequentialism: Consider the likely outcomes of your spellcraft. What will this action cause in the world?

Intentionality: Examine your motivations. Are you acting from ego, revenge, fear, or compassion?

Responsibility: Acknowledge that magic is powerful and unpredictable. Own your actions, good, bad, or indiffrent.

Reciprocity: Engage with the world, and the spirits within it, as a web of mutual exchange, not a coin-operated machine.

These frameworks honor both the intelligence and the power of the practitioner. They ask you to think, not just obey.

The Irony of “Do No Harm”

The Wiccan Rede is often quoted alongside the Threefold Law: “An it harm none, do what ye will.”

It’s lovely. Noble. Utterly impossible.

All actions cause harm in some way. If not directly, then by consequence or omission. Choosing one path means not choosing another. Lighting a candle may help one person while distracting you from another’s need. Spells ripple outward, and their effects are rarely clean.

To live ethically is not to avoid harm at all costs. It is to navigate a complex web of needs and effects with humility, awareness, and compassion. Not with fear.

Fear-Based Magick Is Not Freedom

Ultimately, the Threefold Law encourages a fear-based approach to magick.

It tells you to be good because you’re afraid of being punished. It tells you not to hex because the karmic police will get you. It tells you that your spells are boomerangs instead of arrows, that the world will respond to your magic not based on intent or justice, but on a fixed, arbitrary ratio.

This is not the logic of liberation. This is the logic of control.

If modern Paganism seeks to free itself from the rigid structures of dogmatic religion, then it must also challenge the internal dogmas it has created, no matter how sparkly, poetic, or well-intentioned they may be.

Let’s Grow Up a Bit

It’s time to admit that the Threefold Law is a charming myth, not a metaphysical truth.

It’s a story we told ourselves in the early days of modern witchcraft to help us feel safe, moral, and justified. It served a purpose. But it’s outlived its usefulness.

We don’t need magickal bumper stickers. We need thoughtful, courageous, and evolving systems of ethics. We need to recognize that life is complex, magick is wild, and consequences are real, but not always quantifiable.

Being a practioner isn’t about playing by rules. It’s about understanding the forces you wield and using them wisely. That means taking responsibility for your actions, not relying on mystical karma spreadsheets to sort it out for you.

Go ahead. Light that candle. Cast that spell. Think carefully. Act with intention. Accept responsibility.

If you still believe in the Threefold Law… May it return to you threefold.

Whatever that means.

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I Am the Sun: A Living Invocation of Liber Resh vel Helios

June 20, 2025

Basics, Ceremonial, Rituals, Uncategorized

(everything stated in this blog is based upon my own research, personal practice, and opinion)

Adoring the Sun: The Esoteric Power of Liber Resh vel Helios

At the heart of Thelemic spiritual practice lies a deceptively simple ritual: Liber Resh vel Helios. Also known simply as Liber Resh, this solar adoration rite was written by Aleister Crowley and published as Liber CC (200) in the curriculum of the A∴A∴. Despite its brevity, Liber Resh is one of the most potent daily rituals in Thelemic magick, designed to align the practitioner with both cosmic forces and the deeper dimensions of the Self.

Find it here – http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Liber_Resh

This fourfold ritual, performed at sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight, invokes ancient Egyptian solar deities at each station of the Sun: Ra in the east, Ahathoor in the south, Tum in the west, and Kephra in the north. These names are not chosen arbitrarily; they represent a powerful spiritual cycle, a microcosmic reflection of the soul’s journey through light and darkness, life and death, ego and divinity.

Origins and Symbolism: A Ritual of the Solar Mysteries

The roots of Liber Resh lie in the solar worship of ancient Egypt, where the Sun was revered as the embodiment of divine order and the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Crowley, influenced by both the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and his personal mystical experiences in Egypt (notably the reception of The Book of the Law in 1904), crafted Resh as a bridge between ancient symbolism and modern magickal practice.

Each of the four solar deities invoked corresponds to a phase of the Sun’s daily cycle and, symbolically, to the phases of the magician’s spiritual transformation:

Ra (Sunrise/East): The dawning of awareness, new beginnings, and divine inspiration.

Ahathoor (Noon/South): The height of power, beauty, and creative expression.

Tum (Sunset/West): Decline and reflection, the death of forms, and inner wisdom.

Kephra (Midnight/North): The scarab god of resurrection, representing hidden transformation and renewal in darkness.

Crowley simplified and internalized the solar framework of the Golden Dawn, reworking it to reflect the core Thelemic principles of individual will, divine identity, and cosmic alignment. In the A∴A∴ system, Liber Resh is given early in a student’s journey, forming the cornerstone of a daily rhythm that links the aspirant’s consciousness to celestial motion and archetypal power.

Daily Practice as Magical Transformation

The practical function of Liber Resh is both spiritual and initiatory. At its surface, it is a short series of adorations timed to the Sun’s passage. When looked at deeper we find it is a ritual of energetic alignment and consciousness training.

Each adoration requires the practitioner to physically face the direction of the Sun’s position and speak a praise addressed to the corresponding deity. This daily discipline fosters an awareness of natural cycles, not as abstract metaphors, but as lived spiritual realities. The magician becomes attuned to the rhythm of cosmic forces, mirrored in the Sun’s journey across the sky and within the soul.

As the day turns, so too does the soul move through phases of clarity, power, decay, and renewal. In Resh, the magician ritually acknowledges and participates in these shifts, developing a stable, solarized center of being; a consciousness that holds steady like the Sun, even as the world spins.

Thelemic Cosmology and the Solar Self

In Thelemic thought, the Sun is not just a celestial body, it is a radiant symbol of the True Will, the divine purpose within each person. Liber AL vel Legis: The Book of the Law (ch1v3) declares: “Every man and every woman is a star.” This star is the essential identity, the flame of Hadit, a point of infinite potential and divine purpose.

Each of the four adorations in Liber Resh marks a movement through the alchemical process of spiritual development:

Ra (Dawn): The first spark of Will, innocence, and awakening.

Ahathoor (Noon): Will in full expression, joy, and creative strength.

Tum (Sunset): Wisdom, detachment, and the descent into mystery.

Kephra (Midnight): Transformation, gestation, and preparation for rebirth.

By tracking the Sun’s movement and integrating it through daily ritual, the practitioner begins to live from their center, aligning their actions, thoughts, and aspirations with the divine Will. This, in Thelema, is the essence of enlightenment.

Energetic Alchemy: The Solar Current

Liber Resh also functions as a tool for energetic transformation. In Hermetic and Thelemic systems, the solar current is the clearest, most refined form of spiritual energy, conscious, radiant, and life-giving. Unlike lunar or chaotic forces, the solar current sharpens awareness, fortifies the will, and fills the body with clarity and strength.

By invoking this energy four times a day, the magician bathes their mind and subtle body in light. It is an alchemical fire, gradually refining the base elements of the ego and transforming them into the gold of spiritual realization. This is the work of the inner alchemist: to expose the soul to divine heat until it shines with its own solar radiance.

Ego Discipline and Divine Affirmation

Crowley emphasized that Liber Resh is not a prayer of supplication, it is a ritual of identification. Each adoration culminates in a direct proclamation:

“I adore Thee, O Ra / Ahathoor / Tum / Kephra!”

This is a declaration of unity, not separation. The practitioner does not merely praise the Sun, they become it.

This dual function serves the Thelemic initiate in two essential ways:

Affirmation of Divinity: By ritually identifying with solar deities, the magician declares their own divine nature. The adoration becomes an act of sacred self-remembrance.

Ego Discipline: In placing the personal self in alignment with a vast cosmic order, the transient ego is humbled and refined. The Self, the divine flame within, is exalted above personal whims and illusions.

Hadit, the central flame, does not move, yet is the source of all motion. Practicing Liber Resh cultivates the ability to dwell in that still, eternal center, even amid life’s chaos and change.

Invocation: The Arc of Becoming the Divine

To fully grasp the power of Liber Resh, it helps to understand the deeper mechanics of invocation, the magical act of drawing a divine force into oneself, not to worship it from afar, but to become it from within.

Invocation unfolds in a recognizable arc:

He who is – The god is recognized in lofty, third-person terms: an exalted archetype.

Thou art – The god is addressed directly; relationship is formed.

I am Thou – The magician assumes the god’s essence; identification begins.

I who am – The divine speaks through the magician; full embodiment is achieved.

In this progression, the practitioner moves from reverence to realization, from duality to union. This isn’t roleplay or fantasy, it is the sacred act of becoming what you truly are: a vessel of divine power and cosmic intelligence. In Liber Resh, each adoration is a mini-invocation, an alignment not just with a mythological figure, but with one’s highest self.

Vibrating sacred names/formulas like IAO, OM, AGLA, or ARARITA further deepens this transformation. These sounds resonated through breath and voice, tune the magician’s energy field like a sacred instrument, unlocking altered states of consciousness and spiritual attunement.

A Compass for the Soul

Liber Resh vel Helios is far more than a timekeeping exercise for occultists. It is a compass, a spiritual gyroscope, that orients the magician toward the center of their own divine flame. By adoring the Sun at its cardinal stations, the practitioner does not worship a distant god, they reclaim the god within.

Crowley designed this ritual to cultivate what he called “solar consciousness”, a radiant state of spiritual sovereignty, unshaken by external chaos and anchored in True Will. With consistent practice, Liber Resh becomes a golden thread through the day, weaving each moment into a tapestry of meaning, power, and illumination.

In the end, the Sun is both above and within. To adore it is to remember that you, too, are a star, a being of light, purpose, and endless becoming.

Personalized Resh – Becoming the Embodiment of the Sun upon the Earth

In the daily rhythm of Thelemic magick, few rituals are as simple and profound as Liber Resh vel Helios. Beneath its elegance lies a potent formula for invoking not just the outer Sun, but the divine solar self within.

While the original ritual addresses solar deities in the second person, a powerful variant emerges when the practitioner steps fully into identification, proclaiming: “I am the Sun.” This is not metaphor. It is ritual truth. Let’s explore the symbolism and method of Liber Resh, culminating in a fully embodied, first-person version of the ritual that affirms the practitioner’s divine identity as a living star.

The Solar Axis of Thelema

In Thelemic cosmology, the Sun is more than a celestial body, it is a symbol of True Will, the divine core of the individual. Each human being, like the Sun, radiates a unique orbit of purpose and power. The goal of Thelemic practice is not submission to divine forces but realization of divine identity. Thus, Liber Resh becomes more than praise; it is invocation, embodiment, and exaltation.

When performed in the first person, Liber Resh transforms from an act of worship and alignment into a magical assumption of godhood. You do not merely adore Ra, Ahathoor, Tum, and Khephra, you become them, moment by moment, light to shadow, death to rebirth.

Ritual Structure: Invocation in Four Movements

To recap from earlier, each performance of Liber Resh corresponds to a solar station and a godform drawn from Egyptian mythology. These are not just metaphors, they are masks of the divine Self in its changing aspects throughout the day:

Ra (East / Sunrise): The dawning of awareness, fresh Will.

Ahathoor (South / Noon): Triumph, beauty, full creative force.

Tum (West / Sunset): Wisdom, joy in dissolution.

Khephra (North / Midnight): Hidden transformation, rebirth.

I have been practicing Liber Resh as first person, daily, for 11 years. When approached in the first person, these invocations become acts of powerful divine embodiment. The practitioner declares: “I am Ra… I am Ahathoor… I am Tum… I am Khephra.” This is magical identification, the central act of invocation, where separation vanishes and the god speaks through the self.

First-Person Invocation: Liber Resh vel Helios Reimagined

Below is the first-person version of Liber Resh, designed for use in daily practice. Perform each adoration at the appointed time and direction. Begin with the sign of your grade, then speak boldly, clearly, with breath and presence.

At Sunrise (East) — Ra

Face East. Give the sign of your grade.

Speak aloud:

Hail unto I who art Ra in My rising,
even unto I who art Ra in My strength,
as I travellest over the Heavens in My bark
at the Uprising of the Sun.

Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow,
and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.

Hail unto Me from the Abodes of Night!

Give the sign of silence. Perform the Adoration.

At Noon (South) — Ahathoor

Face South. Give the sign of your grade.

Speak aloud:

Hail unto I who art Ahathoor in My triumphing,
even unto I who art Ahathoor in My beauty,
as I travellest over the heavens in My bark
at the Mid-course of the Sun.

Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow,
and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.

Hail unto Me from the Abodes of Morning!

Give the sign of silence. Perform the Adoration.

At Sunset (West) — Tum

Face West. Give the sign of your grade.

Speak aloud:

Hail unto I who art Tum in My setting,
even unto I who art Tum in My joy,
as I travellest over the Heavens in My bark
at the Down-going of the Sun.

Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow,
and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.

Hail unto Me from the Abodes of Day!

Give the sign of silence. Perform the Adoration.

At Midnight (North) — Khephra

Face North. Give the sign of your grade.

Speak aloud:

Hail unto I who art Khephra in My hiding,
even unto I who art Khephra in My silence,
as I travellest over the heavens in My bark
at the Midnight Hour of the Sun.

Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow,
and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.

Hail unto Me from the Abodes of Evening!

Give the sign of silence. Perform the Adoration.

Ritual Notes

Each invocation ends with a ritual pause, the sign of silence, and may be followed by an adoration, prayer, or moment of inward stillness. For those who use the adoration from the Stele –

https://www.luminist.org/archives/stele.htm

, note I will also take it first person if/when using it in my daily practice. The ritual itself need take no more than a few minutes, but its effects are profound. It weaves your day with intention, alignment, and a golden thread of solar consciousness.

If you desire, you may vibrate sacred names/formulas, like IAO, after the adoration, further tuning your body and subtle energy field to the divine current. These vibrations help activate the godform within you, anchoring the transformation.

Living as the Sun: Thelemic Realization in Daily Life

Practicing Liber Resh in the first person does more than structure your day, it reforms your consciousness. You cease to think of the divine as “out there” and begin to know it as in here. The Sun becomes not just something you orbit, but something you are.

This is the secret of Hadit, the invisible point at the heart of every star:

“I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star…” (Liber AL vel Legis ch2v6)

To invoke the Sun as Self is not ego worship. It is the dissolution of the transient ego into the radiance of Will. As you proclaim “I am Ra,” you speak from that place of eternal fire. You become a conscious star, moving not by chance, but by design.

Final Thought: The Sun Behind the Sun

In Liber Resh, we trace the visible path of the Sun. But… the magician knows: behind the Sun is another Sun, the hidden source, the inmost light. Each time you face east or west, north or south, you are not just honoring the sky. You are reawakening to the divine that burns at your center.

Perform Liber Resh in this spirit, not as a chore or a dogma, but as a celebration of who you truly are: a vessel of the solar flame, a radiant axis of Will and Light.

On this Solstice, as a little treat, I leave you with the adoration I currently use after first person Resh. May it bring you life, light, love, and liberty as you bear witness to the power within.

Hail unto Me from the Abodes of Time.
For I am the Sun in rising, in fullness, in dying, and in return.
I Am the Sun.

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Contemplations From the Woods

June 18, 2025

Community, Festivals/Events, Uncategorized

This year marked my 11^th Babalon Rising. For those of you who have not experienced a Babalon Rising festival, it is a festival dedicated to living by the law of Thelema, held in southern Indiana every June. For 4 days, we communally create a space where attendees have room to push themselves in the exploration of their Will. With 3 tracks of workshops covering a broad range of topics, scheduled (& unscheduled) rituals, vendors, and a main fire every night it is a festival I highly suggest.

2025, the year of the Hierophant was a layered experience for me. Around the time I attended my first BR my etch-a-sketch had been violently shaken by the universe. Being a double Scorpio I am used to hard resets, but this one cut deep. The isolation brought by such a disruption in my world created a need to find a way out of the rubble. It wasn’t coming out of my shell, but rather it was more of digging myself out of the shattered shell before it collapsed taking me with it.

Through the last 15 years I have used this festival for the personal “shattering” aspect of my magick. I have had the blessing of meeting authors who changed my life as a teenager. I have attended workshops that blew open the fount of my magickal perception. I’ve made interpersonal connections that are worth more than their weight in salt 1k times over. I found my people, and in doing so I have, and continue to flourish. My fears decreased over time, and slowly I found my voice again. It was only fitting to debut my first ritual/occult book at the festival this year.

I wish to extend my gratitude to those who attended my workshops, and/or picked up a copy of Glamour of The Spheres: Practical Planetary Makeup Magick. Your interest and support in my work as I embark on this next life shift means more than you may realize. I am a firm believer in the living nature of magick, and the importance of its evolution through experimentation. I have spent the majority of my conscious magickal life pushing on the boundaries of how I practice. I often refer to it as throwing a ritual against the wall until it breaks. Breaks? Yes, I said I actively set a goal to break rituals. To paraphrase a quote a dear sister used in class Friday, you learn the rules like a professional so you can break them like a master. The rituals of old are powerful, but they can be so much more. The world is evolving…we, as a species, are evolving. It is up to us to progress the practices…to bring the magick to new heights with us. We are the weavers of our reality.

I have had a lot of firsts over the last 15 years. My first public ritual, my first workshop, my first community magick undertaking, they all brought me to the here and now of today. I stand to embrace the side of the hierophant that rang the bell of my soul. I stand to embrace the lesson of self-guidance. I stand to embody complete confidence in foraging my own path through the jungle. I claim the courage to teach my personal system to others without the sabotage of self-doubt. I acknowledge the validity of my power to be a guide for others The path of becoming is calling us all. As I embrace my new “first” I step into my future, and I invite you all to walk with me. Let’s make some magick happen!

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Welcome Wanderers

May 26, 2025

Uncategorized

Welcome to The Art of Becoming (111). Where to began? That is always the fun question in my world. Let’s start with the recent release of my first book on ritual, Glamour of the Spheres: Practical Planetary Makeup Magick. 30+ years in the making, this work is the beginning of a journey we will take together.

(Grab a copy https://a.co/d/izTS6SP )

Why do we practice magick? For growth? Enlightenment? Gain? Safety? A little of each? Whatever your reason I would wager that the root is to become more than, to reach that which is seen in the distance. This journey goes by many names, this art of spiritual alchemy, of becoming that which you set for yourself. My goal with this book, and the ones to follow, is to lay out a map of what I have found works for navigating the path we all walk. Each topic is a precious stone I have carfuly sculpted over my years of study and practice. I present them to you. Work them into your crown as ye Will. Let’s experiment, and learn from each other. Magick is alive, and evolving. Let’s make some magick happen!