by Jason Miller
Praise for The Elements of Spellcrafting:
“The Elements of Spellcrafting is a no-nonsense guide to practical sorcery, blending tradition and innovation without extraneous blather or hyperbole. With humour and much-needed down-to-earth advice, Jason Miller guides the reader through the key elements of effective magical practice.”
—Phil Hine, author of Condensed Chaos, Prime Chaos, and Pseudonomicon
“In this practical, results-oriented manual, Jason Miller delivers more good advice per page than some entire books. The style is engaging, the writing clear and the lack of dogma refreshing. Highly recommended.”
—Jake Stratton-Kent, author of the Encyclopedia Goetica
“This is one of those books of magic, far too rare, that make me want to stand up and applaud. Miller is not one for airy theorization. He's a practical magician and he keeps his sorcerous tires firmly on the pavement, as he lays out the common misconceptions and errors that magicians make, and best of all, the beneficial techniques that magicians often have to stumble onto themselves. Those new to magical practice will find this book a handy inoculation against nonsense and a guide through thickets of time-wasting foolishness. Those old hands at magic will find themselves thinking ‘oh, so that's why that didn't work—of course!’ It's a time saver and a breath of fresh air, clearing away the clouds of incense, all with humour, humility, and frank clarity. This is a book that makes you want to do magic.”
—Patrick Dunn, author of Magic, Power, Language, Symbol and The Practical Art of Divine Magic
“Poignant and precise, well-articulated and presented with steady pace; Jason Miller once again delivers a magical manual for modern practitioners who want to go deeper and get more out of their witchcraft. Full of newly developed material, wit, and a confident tone, The Elements of Spellcrafting is a new take on advanced witchcraft and spellcraft that will expand your practice and point you in the direction of power and success. This is not a book I would lend out, you will never see it again!”
—Devin Hunter, author of Witch's Book of Power and Witch's Book of Spirit
“Sage, salt of the earth instruction for witches and occultists at all levels. Don't be afraid to ask for more than you deserve and now with this book, you'll have a plan rooted in witchcraft as well as practicality to achieve it!”
—Deborah Castellano, author of Glamour Magic
This edition first published in 2017 by or New Page Books,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com
www.newpagebooks.com
Copyright © 2017 by Jason Miller
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 978-1-63265-120-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Miller, Jason, 1972- author.
Title: The elements of spellcrafting : 21 keys to successful sorcery / by Jason Miller.
Description: Wayne, NJ : New Page Books, a division of The Career Press, Inc., [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017048730 (print) | LCCN 2017050645 (ebook) | ISBN 9781632658869 (ebook) | ISBN 9781632651204 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Incantations. | Occultism. | Witchcraft. | Magic.
Classification: LCC BF1558 (ebook) | LCC BF1558 .M55 2018 (print) | DDC 133.4/4--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048730
Cover photograph © Matthew Brownlee
Background cover image by agsandrew/shutterstock
Interior photos/images by Matthew Brownlee
Interior by Lauren Manoy
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro and Koch Antiqua
Printed in Canada
MAR
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www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter
Seneca once said, “While we teach, we learn.”
This book is dedicated to the students of Strategic Sorcery.
Without you, this book would not have been possible.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: Setting Up the Spell
Key 1: Know What Magic Actually Does
Key 2: Stop Making Crappy Goals
Key 3: Make Sure Your Life Is Enchantable
Key 4: Everything Matters
Key 5: “Matters” Does Not Mean Necessary
Key 6: Make Skillful Statements of Intent
Key 7: Emergency Magic Is Bad Magic
Part 2: Execution
Key 8: Embrace the Power of Offerings
Key 9: DIY Is Over-Rated
Key 10: Use Macro- and Micro-Enchantment
Key 11: You Are a Spirit Too
Key 12: Check Your Links
Key 13: Practice Sane Eclecticism
Key 14: Magic Is a Rhizome
Part 3: Advancing Your Craft
Key 15: Judge Success Skillfully
Key 16: Enchant for What You Don't Deserve
Key 17: Work Outside the Columns
Key 18: Failing Without Flailing
Key 19: Know Where Your Scarcity Lies
Key 20: Trade In Goals for Trajectory
Key 21: Maintain Sovereignty
Parting Words
Appendix 1: The Seal of Manifestation
Appendix 2: 7 Keys for Successful Divination
Notes
About the Author and Illustrator
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I wish to thank my wife and children for their patience and encouragement during the writing of this book. A very special thanks to my best friend and first student, Artist and Sorcerer Mathew Brownlee for providing the art for this book. It was a great time sitting at the bar, coming up with the comics for all the keys.
Thanks to all my initiators, mentors, teachers, friends, and informants who have revealed to me the secrets of their craft. Special thanks for this go to John Myrdhin Reynolds, Namkhai Norbu, Lopon Tenzin Namdak, Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche, Cliff and Misha Pollick, catherine yronwood, Tau Nemesius, Dr Jim, Paul Hume, and Blanch Krubner. You all opened yourselves up as mentors for me as a young man, and I would not be anywhere close to where I am today without your guidance.
Thanks to Joseph Peterson for allowing use of his images from his Noblet Tarot Reproduction.
Perhaps more than anyone, I need to thank the students of the Strategic Sorcery course, Sorcery of Hekate course, and all the other programs that I run. Your stories and field reports impacted this book a lot, and I continue to learn every day through teaching. I would not be able to lead the life I do without you, so thank you.
All of my books are guided by spirits, with one standing out as the patron of the book. This book owes much to St Cyprian of Antioch, Sorcerer and Saint, Martyr and Mage, Bishop and Witch and Magus all. Please continue to bless my writings, and the work of those who read them.
Lastly, I want to thank all at New Page Press that worked on this book, specifically Laurie Kelly-Pye, who suggested I start writing books, and her husband, Michael, who was extremely generous with deadline extensions.
Introduction
Some Witches and Magicians think spells are something to be left behind, a phase that you pass through at the beginning of your path, eventually to be cast aside for more spiritual pursuits. Ideas of using Magic to find money or love, win against a rival, heal an ailment,
secure the home, and turn the wheel of fate in your favor get abandoned as a youthful endeavor, or perhaps something that you stoop to as a last resort in an emergency. For these folks, Spellcrafting is certainly not something that you spend time on as an adult. Call me childish then, because I am not one of these folks.
I love Spellcrafting.
I have been practicing Magic and Witchcraft for nearly 30 years. I have dedicated the last of those three decades to teaching what I call Strategic Sorcery, and made a nice career of it too. I have seen remarkable results and flabbergasting failures. I have been party to rituals that saved lives, and others that blew them up. I have learned something from each spell about what works and what doesn't. I am not claiming to be the smartest, the most powerful, or the wisest Sorcerer on the block—in fact, I know that this is not the case. But I have seen some shit, dear reader, and have learned a lot from it.
I think most people who try spells know that they work. A little extra money comes in, a person they are attracted to shows interest back, a health condition improves. Spells work enough to convince the caster that Magic is real, but it is rare that the result is anything that would actually change one's life for the better in a significant way. This is what this book is about.
If people have ever asked you something like, “If spells work, why aren't you more successful?” this book is for you. The issue is not with the Magic itself, but with the application. If you apply these keys skillfully, no one will ever ask you again.
What follows is a list of 21 Keys that show both how to do effective Magic and to apply it in ways that matter—not just for solving a problem at hand, but for building a life filled with worldly success, spiritual fulfillment, and profound meaning.
Three Parts of This Book
The book is divided up into three parts:
In the first section, Setting Up the Spell, I layout the elements of planning that will help ensure success in your work. This involves having a firm grasp on what spells are capable of accomplishing, looking for the “enchantable points” that can be best affected by Magic, and some advice on how best to form spell strategy for maximum impact on those points.
The second section, Execution, details some of the key considerations involved in actually casting spells. Many of these involve regular practices that will impact any Magic you do, and others are about how to weave different spells together to approach the same goal from different angles. We will turn some of the old nuggets of common wisdom on their heads and show how there are other ways of thinking.
In the third section, Advancing Your Craft, I will lay out forward-thinking strategies that can optimize your craft for building a better life. This is the section that will take you from novice to master.
Oh, one other thing: There are comics that start every key to illustrate one of the points. There is no particular reason for this; I just like comics and think they're funny. Some people seem to think that books on Magic should all be hardbound in basilisk leather with only very serious and arcane words. I, however, think Magic can be found in a nice, easily available book, with some snarky humor.
The Importance of Spellcraft
I don't suspect that many people know this, but an essay on Witchvox called “Spellcrafting, the REAL Witches' Craft” was the spark that ignited my career. I wrote it to refute two types of posts that were prevalent that month back in 2005. The first suggested that spells were detracting from the spirituality of Paganism and preventing it from taking its place among the world's great religions. The second were posts about how the details of Magic—the color of candles, the herbs, the words spoken—did not really matter and all that really mattered was intention.
To the first point, I simply must say that all religions have their Sorcery. In some, like Tibetan and Thai Buddhism, it is right out in front for all to see. In others, it is connected to a mystical strain of the religion, like Kabbalah within Judaism or Sufism within Islam. In yet others, it is folk-practice that, while not endorsed by the mainstream, still has a far reach. Examples such as various strains of Saint Magic throughout the Catholic world or Hoodoo within African American Protestantism also fit the bill. In short, Sorcery is everywhere.
In most cases, Magic and religion have an odd relationship where Magic attempts to control or mitigate the perils and pitfalls of life, while religion attempts to explain and give coping tools for when Magic fails. Magicians often fall afoul of religion for not conforming to dogma, and for usurping the power and connection to the world of spirit that is supposed to be the providence of the priest. Even within the mainstream religion, we may consider intercessory prayer as a type of Magic. Rituals are taken beyond simply praying, such as prayers repeated for a Magically important number of nights, or manipulation of statues and ikons, or the making of offerings are the first steps into spell work proper. The line between religion and Magic is blurry at best.
As to the second point that the Witchvox crowd was so fond of, that intention is the only necessary element in Magic, the idea is hogwash and kind of offensive. A Theban Magician did not painstakingly preserve and hide the Greek Magical Papyrii with its many formulas because intention was all that mattered. The Grimoires were not passed among a network of underground clergy and literate laity because the precise instruction did not matter. Families of African slaves did not preserve traditions of Congolese Magic in the New World at risk to their life just because your intention is all that matters! Yes, it's true that substitutions can be made and that Magic does not work through slavishly adhering to dogmatic instructions, but it's a bit disrespectful to suggest that the instructions do not matter.
What I Hope You Get Out of This Book
Magic works, and if you are reading this book, I assume you know or at least believe that already. If you don't know that already, I am not going to try to convince you. What I want you to get from this book is not just more instruction in how to perform Magic, but how to do it well.
Chances are that this is not your first book on Magic, Witchcraft, or the Occult, and you likely have enough spells on your shelf already. If you are a Magician, you have catalogues of dozens of spirits and instructions on how to conjure them. In this book, the focus will be on how to apply spells and how get the spirits to offer aid in meaningful ways. This information is what will make the difference between a life in which Magic provides some weird experiences and helpful coincidences verses a life in which Magic plays an integral role in realizing your true potential, achieving personal success, and giving back to the world.
—Jason Miller,
The Feast of St. Cyprian of Antioch, the Sorcerer Saint,
September 26, 2017
Part 1:
Setting Up the Spell
7 Keys for Making Sure That Your Magic Will Mean Something
Key 1:
Know What Magic Actually Does
Before we can talk about the best ways to apply Sorcery to your life, we need to talk about what Magic can actually do. Because Magic is a subtle pursuit that is not even acknowledged as real by many people, this is not as clear as you might think, even to its practitioners.
By far, the most popular definition of Magic is from Aleister Crowley: “Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.”1 Ever since Crowley set this definition down, people have been adding qualifiers to it to fit their particular spin. Dion Fortune seemed to be concerned that people would take some of the promises of traditional Magic too literally and lose track of the inner transformation she hoped Magic would cause, so she changed Crowley's definition to read “Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with the Will.” Donald Michael Kraig, author of Modern Magick, was worried that Crowley was too broad and that his definition could be applied to literally anything, so he said, “Magic is the art and practice of causing change in accordance with will, using methods not currently accepted by science.”2 Frater U.D. had an interest in pushing the Chaos Magic idea that altered stat
es of mind are the key factor in working Magic so he added “Magic is the Science and Art of causing Change, on a material as well as a spiritual level, to occur in conformity with Will by altered states of consciousness.”3 If you start Googling you can probably find a dozen or more spins on Crowley's definition, each reflecting a vested interest of the writer. Rather than add on to Crowley's classic definition, I would like to simply change a key word that I think instantly improves understanding of Magic and how to use it.
Magic Is an Influence, Not a Cause
If I could only change one thing about Crowley's definition it would be this: “Magick is the Science and Art of influencing change to occur in conformity with Will.” The key here is to take out the idea that Magic is a direct cause of change, and instead make it an influence upon change—one influencing factor among many, the nudging of fortuna.
This is a much truer description of not just Magic, but almost any attempt at change. Whatever the effort, your influence is in competition with other influences, some of which support your goal, some of which work against it. If we are trying to sail a boat to Greece, we have the influence of the wind, the design of the sail, the quality of the boat, the skill of the other crew members, and a dozen other factors impacting the journey. When you extend this idea out, we can look at how the diet of the crew and events in their personal lives will impact the quest. We also have unforeseen events that may pop up that will have an impact: Something as large as a sudden storm or as small as a distracting glimmer have impact. Whatever action we take directly to make our sailing successful, it is set amidst this sea of influences.