Friday, April 25, 2014

Open Letter to Metaphysical Busybodies: Mind Your Own Business

Recently word has reached me that there's been some Metaphysical busybody complaining to a few folks on FB about my pricing & Spiritual methodology. I’d like to take a moment to address this horseshit once and for all.

The world of the Occult is vast and filled with all manner of Spirits both familiar and alien. What you deal with in grimoires is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, people. Further there are many paths and even within those paths there are often many alternatives to dealing with situations and problems. Since no two situations are truly alike, then no two prescriptions are alike - well unless you’re either Hoodoo or Wiccan because they seem to use the same thing for everyone.

No one gets to sit in judgment over anyone else for how you decide or not decide to take on a new client; no one gets to decide how you make that determination; no one but you gets to decide which Spirits to call upon for aid; no one but you gets to determine which method you may choose to use for your client; and no one but you gets to tell a client how much you want for the work.

There is a huge disparity out there among practitioners about pricing. Why? Well first off some are bound within their own beliefs and traditions what they charge for their time and ingredients. Some are not allowed to charge, others may be like I once was which was allowed to charge for ingredients but not my time. Others are free to charge whatever they want.

When a potential client comes to me, s/he may opt to tell me they have had others work on their problem. I may ask what types of others and often they’ll tell me they’ve had psychics, Wiccans, Santeria, Palo, Vodu, Healers, Shamans and so on. Typically I do not ask WHO specifically because it’s none of my business and secondly I don’t care who else has done X for the client.

Unlike a lot of folks, I have been trained. Well trained. I paid dearly for my training too in cash as well as other ways. Many people spend their spare cash and free time pursuing everything from painting to playing instruments to hiking to watching TV. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading, taking notes, practicing, experimenting and summoning since 1987. Why? Not because I wanted to be good at it but because I wanted to be DAMN GOOD at it! A lot of you chose to spend your money & time on concerts, movie tickets, junk foods, cigarettes, beer & liquor bashes, weed and so on. Who the fuck are you to judge me? Seriously? You have gall!

I don’t give a damn if you think I’m “believing my own marketing” or “he believes his own mythology”. You’re welcome to believe the moon is made of green cheese if you wish. You are not ME so where would you or anyone get off standing in judgment over me? Who died and left you King Shit of Turd Island? You haven’t even walked a mile in my moccasins!

And another thing, if I give a game plan to a client with a price, that is not for YOU nor anyone else to evaluate. Hello? I realize some potential clients may be angry at what I charge which is typically begins at $1,000 USD and you know what? That’s what I feel MY TIME IS WORTH! If you want to be one of those Hoodoo or McWiccans who can’t charge anything near that, then what right do you have to question my prices?

Further that potential client was given this information in confidence - I’m keeping his/her ID and problems in confidence! So if the potential client shares with you what I gave to him/her in confidence, what does that tell you about the would be client? For one they’re untrustworthy, for another they are angry over price. And we all know price is relative.

Hell, I have often stated that there are people who come to me that rather than say no to, I simply give them an inflated price and some BS idea and hope they just go away. Most do. None have ever taken me up on my wild offers like that. None. In fact, I turn down more business than I take on. Why? My own reasons but suffice to say, I do the divination, talk with my Spirits and follow their advice. If the Spirits say no, then I’m not going to do it no matter how much you offer and I’ve had a few folks really try to sweeten the offer after I said no.

You do not see me running around on social media bitching bout what Mary McWiccan charges or doesn’t for her services. Nor should I nor anyone else. Why not? Because it’s nobodies damn business! Don’t you have a life of your own to worry about? Clean up your own backyard, dufus. Make your life exemplary for once and quite trying to compare yourself to others.

Some of y’all don’t value your free time whereas I do mine. BIG DIFFERENCE right there! Even you African Religious Systems devotees sometimes make much ado about pricing and I ask who the hell died and crowned you the one all should bow before? Must we run our prices through you first? You feel you’re that self important? Really? How do you walk with balls/ovaries so huge?

A good number of you know exactly what I’m talking about here. You tire of the nosey neighbors trying to hone in and tell you how much you should charge or not charge. Listen, if you feel like working for free, BE MY GUEST! I will send everyone who comes to me to YOU so you can do all the free work you want to do for them! That’ll allow me my free time again to practice some things for myself and experiment with some new formulas I’ve created.

This is Sorcery folks, not math. There’s nothing precise or logical about it. Sometimes my Spirits will tell me to use things that make no logical sense and when I listen to them, the working works. It’s when I don’t listen to my spirits and instead try to do it logically my way that things can go wonky.

I don’t comment on how much a Wiccan should sell her bottled oils for. I sell mine very sharply in price. It’s my choice to do so and the Wiccan’s choice to charge what she wants. You as Hoodoo, Houngan/Manbo, Ceremonial Magician, Wiccan/Witch, don’t get to comment on the pricing. I do things to my oils most of you do not. *shrugs* Thus I charge more. Don’t like that I can get five times the price you can? Tough!

And I don’t always work with standard Spirits either. Most of you are grimoire enlightened and while I sometimes may summon one of those Spirits, I have a large variety of Spirits - some you have never heard of - to call on for aid. Just like some of the cursing oil recipes smell lovely and some of the healing oil recipes stink to high heaven, so too can dangerous Spirits do benevolent work. Too many of you talk about going beyond implied social boundaries and yet you pontificate on Spirits as if these boundaries are not arbitrary. Ugh. Make up your bloody mind!

But what I think is at the heart here is jealousy. Pure and simple. The whiner is obviously not accomplished and someone who fancies themselves to be my equal. Right. Look dimwit, none of us are equal in ability because we’re all at different levels based on how much we’ve worked, studied and practiced. I chose to spend more time doing this sort of work than you did. Doubt me? Ask my ex-wife about how much time I spent in my temple instead of with the family. Yes that was a bone of contention with her and in hindsight perhaps I was thickheaded to do that but I wanted to break through certain barriers and develop myself, my skills, and work with Spirits most of you don’t give a rat’s ass about.

When I started all of this, I was in college and worked a p/t job. I had a very inexpensive apartment ($180/month) in 1988 and kept my bills low - i.e. no car payments, insurance, habits to feed, and etc. Thus I’d save up enough bread to allow me to take up to 6 mos off from work so I could just go to school and devote all of my spare time not spent in school work to the pursuit of Sorcery. How many of you can say you did that?

My path is my own. It is not your path. You do not get to evaluate me - what I do, how I do it, who I do it for or what I charge to do it. Got that? My motivations are my own. My machinations are my own. I am free because I do what I want to do without anyone standing over me and looking down at me. No one tells me what to do.

I’m NOT WICCAN. I am a Sorcerer, bitch, deal with it!

Friday, April 4, 2014

When All Else Fails

Some time ago, I received an email from a "practitioner" who was one of those who openly told the world that 'Spirits are aspects of human consciousness' (much like his hero Crowley asserted.) He used to summon Spirits regulary, or so he said, until finally all hell broke loose in his home Temple. He tried various methods to get the Spirit to quiet down or banish it all together but nothing worked.

He tried a host of CM techniques from banishment's like the Star Ruby, LBRP, Greater Pentagram, LHRP, Greater Hexagram, even the Watchtwower Ceremony and all for naught. Then he decided to try Hoodoo methods with different potions, powders, sprays, candles & biblical prayers. Again nothing. He tried getting some folks to come over and do a ritual as a group and still no change. He got desperate so he decided to try some Satanic workings hoping to alleviate the tension in his home and yet still the angry Spirit won't budge. His wife even gave it a shot with some born again ministers she found up the street at a local church and had them parading through their home tossing holy water around shouting in the name of Jesus and still nada.

This had been going on for about 8 months when I got the email. Interestingly enough, the guy had a pretty decent work up on the Spirit so I had him transfer the details over to me and I had to meditate on this. Somehow the Spirit told him Its name. Funny how with all of those other methods he used, none of them were effective while invoking the Spirit’s name. Further he had some sample drawings of the Spirit along with Its office, hierarchy and what It did.

One of the nice things about being initiated, is you have authority with Spirits. No I’m not talking your typical initiation via Wicca or Ceremonial MagicK but a REAL initiation into a living tradition of Magic. In those mainstream instances you don’t have anywhere near the authority you do like when you’re duly initiated and given real power from a long House line. I knew that this is what it would take to get the Spirit’s full cooperation.

So I went into my Temple and summoned my own personal Spirits first and discussed the matter with them. We unanimously agreed to add this angry Spirit to our ever growing Spirit family. So with the help of my personal Familiar Spirits, I summoned the offending Spirit to my Temple to talk with me. He had a lot to say about why He was angry: no one would feed it. It had tried to tell Mr. Oblivious that It was hungry but Mr. Oblivious being an all knowing Ceremonial MagicKian who knows that figments of your imagination don’t need to be fed, he never bothered. Thus the Spirit being hungry and downright angry lashed out. Banishments don’t work. Prayers don’t work. Threats don’t work. Incantations and orations from grimoires don’t work. Satanic ideas don’t work. Hoodoo potions & biblical prayers don’t work.

To truly deal with Spirits, one needs actual authority behind them. Sure there are many born-again xians pretending to be Ceremonial MagicKians (or is that vice-versa?) which doesn't mean squat to the Spirits. Threats in the name of Jesus doesn't do anything either except annoy them. So what does work?

Having an authentic, valid initiation where you are actually initiated and have Spiritual authority bestowed upon you that the Spirit recognizes is first and foremost. It’s not what you think will work but what the Spirit knows will work. It's not what you think, but what the Spirit thinks that matters.

The end result came about after I agreed to take on the case and lured the Spirit here to my Temple, offered It a permanent home, fed It and now I have an extra, happy servant at my disposal. It knows that It will be fed regularly and will be safe here. Plus my own Spirits will keep It in line and more importantly, out of trouble.

Sometimes thumbing through Agrippa looking for a formula just isn't going to help especially when you have no Spiritual authority whatsoever. Threatening a Non-Physical Entity with punishment you cannot give is not only lame but also stupid. That’s like threatening a lone gang member on the street. He may walk away but what are you going to do IF he calls your bluff? LBRP yourself to death? Pfffft.

I will admit, I dealt with a few such cases prior to my initiation and I won’t lie to you, they were difficult. Disposing of an unwanted Spirit is no easy task when you have no Spiritual Authority behind you - well unless you are psychotic and the Spirit is actually just something inside your head and not real.

A non-initiate has to earn respect from the world of Spirits. Unfortunately, that’s not something that can be taught. It’s like becoming an officer over a platoon right out of boot camp and officer training school: you must earn the respect of the platoon. The average CM is not interested in such. Look at the literature - there’s nothing in there about earning a Spirit’s trust or respect so why would those lunatics bother to think of this?

If you wish to delve more into the where & why of Spirits, re-visit my older blog post from July 2012 entitled Spirits: Not What You've Been Told which will help you find out more about the real deal where Spirits are concerned versus the typical parrots parroting other parrots which is what the occult literature offers from so-called authors. Remember, authors just want to sell books and a lot of them do secondary research with books which is "scholarly". However are you interested in results or scholarship? You need to make up your mind. If you want to get things DONE then forget about scholarship and do the work; if all you care about is being accepted by a bunch of guys wearing funny headdresses, robes & holding pretty hand painted tools while speaking in Medieval English, be my guest.

Ceremonial Magickians think shouting Jewish names of Yahweh somehow frightens Spirits which is one of the funniest things ever!

Spirit: "You’re an asshole and going to regret you just did that!"

Magician: “IN THE NAME OF YHVH! I COMMAND YOU TO BE SILENT!”

Sp: "Really? You did not just say that to me! Oh I am so going to fuck you up, fool!"

Mag: “ADONAI HA-ARETZ! BOW DOWN UNTO AND SERVE ME, THOU BASE CREATURE! I COMMAND IT BY THE HOLY NAMES OF TZAPHQIEL! AURIEL! MICHAEL! BE THOU SILENT, I COMMAND IT!!”

Sp: "You know this is an enclosed space, that’s frankincense you’re burning and pretty soon, your oxygen supply will be getting thin..."

Mag: “SILENCE! ELOHIM! EL! EL SHADDAI!”

Sp: "Seriously? You’re shouting Hebrew names at me because why? Is that supposed to scare me or something? I’m not scared. Try harder!"

Mag: “HOLY ART THOU, LORD OF THE UNIVERSE! HOLY ART THOU, WHOM NATURE HATH NOT FORMED! HOLY ART THOU, THE VAST AND MIGHTY ONE! LORD OF THE LIGHT AND OF THE DARKNESS!"

Sp: *yawn*

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Superstitious Flakes

Some of you reading this baffle me. Why? Because you are superstitious to the point of being a flake. Look I know the occult world has a mixture of superstition, religion, metaphysics and so on, all intertwined. Seriously, you do not have to be one of those folks who think just because s/he practices Sorcery or (ugh) MagicK that everything you do has some sort of “consequence”.

What is the deal with thinking that everything that goes wrong is always someone out to get you? Or some Spirit is out to harm you? Seriously? You’re buying into the Bogeyman theory? C’mon you’re supposed to be a practitioner of the occult not some half-witted flake pretending to practice the occult!

And where is it engraved in stone that if you are initiated or have Spiritual abilities that you’re impervious to problems or danger? Who’s the moron that thinks just because you’re a Navy Seal that you’re bulletproof? Yes it IS the same logic. Some of you have this idiotic belief that if you get initiated all your problems will somehow disappear. Hah!

Dogs runaway, cats get run over, neighbors can just be asshats, vehicles have problems, appliances break down, life has PROBLEMS, all right? It’s part and parcel of the business. If you don’t have any problems, you’re not doing anything. Hello? Life happens and thus we have problems whether we’re rich or poor, intelligent or stupid, young or old initiated or not. It’s the way of the world. Get used to it!

Yet the biggest purveyors of the idiotic nonsense that if you’re initiated or have Sorcery, you shouldn’t have any problems are those halfwits who believe in Karma. You’re the ones who make up all of the excuses as to why such bad things happen to begin with. No one said life was going to be easy just because you made your wand or you follow some hermetic path, did they? If so get a refund.

There are magicKians out there who argue over the definitions of magicK or argue about which neo-masonic order is valid or whether Barrett actually stole from Agrippa and so on but none of these geniuses ever bother to stop and look at how foolish it is to think that just because you have met your HGA (well for those of you who actually DID the work to meet it!) that all your problems would simply vanish.

Yes superstition goes hand in hand with the occult, metaphysics and Sorcery but does that mean you have to some kind of new age flake who every time something bad happens to you that it’s automatically some Spirit or some practitioner working against you? Please, you are not that important! Did you read that? YOU ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT.

I know many of you would like to believe you are important but in reality, you’re not. If you ceased to be, some would feel sadness from your departure but overall the world would still spin, rains would still come & go and the seasons would change without fail.

Had a practitioner email me asking me what was befalling him since his sister somehow managed to let their dog out and forgot about the dog that it got lost and ended up freezing to death in a very cold stretch of cold weather this past winter. He wanted to know why. After all, he’s initiated. Well la dee friggin’ da. His sister is a moron and he should get rid of her. But it’s not the Spirits fault nor is it his wards at home or any such thing. It’s just pure human stupidity. Nothing more. Nothing less.