The Elements of Spellcrafting

by Jason Miller

  This is the type of situation that is a recipe for disaster: With no smooth channel for Magic to manifest through, it will either fizzle or, if pursued with enough vigor, cause the money to come in through insurance payments on a wrecked car, disability payments for your lost limb, or perhaps the cliché inheritance from a wealthy relative that just happened to die.

  If you want to be “worthy” of big success, you have to make room for it. Part of this is making your life enchantable, as we spoke about in the 3rd Key, but another part is scalability. You have to have a life that is scalable to the effect you wish to achieve. Gordon White once wrote in his Rune Soup blog a few years ago: “There is a natural cap to the amount of money a baker can make.... It's the amount he can produce in an hour times the amount of hours he can physically work times the maximum amount people are willing to pay for bread before they say ‘Fuck this, I'll buy it at the supermarket.’...Successful Magic requires scalability.”1

  This scalability is a kind of worthiness. You are showing that you have a life that can accommodate the blessing you are asking for. If you have a cup that holds 8 ounces but request 10 ounces of nectar, you are unworthy of receiving it. It doesn't say anything about you personally or morally—only that you need to go get a bigger cup!

  Now, perhaps some powers do make moral judgment about people and whether they will work for them or not. If they sense the type of greed that not only desires for you to have more but for others to have less, perhaps that is a turn off to some powers—but you can always contact other powers. Just like people, you can always find someone willing to do it.

  Tips for Blasphemy

  When you enchant for something that somewhere deep down you feel you don't deserve, you are committing blasphemy against your lot in life. How do we do this? We go big.

  Instead of asking how you can increase your customer count by 30 percent, ask how you can multiply it tenfold. What would you have to do to make yourself ready to play at this level? If you can figure out how to make yourself ready to receive that level of increase, then chances are you also know what to do to achieve that level of success. Start slinging those spells!

  Instead of asking yourself if you can lose 20 pounds, ask what you would have to do to get into the best shape of your life. The very fact that it is hard might just inspire you to do more than just dropping the 20 pounds. Sometimes a difficult goal inspires us in a way that a simple goal does not.

  Instead of hoping for some peace and centeredness from your meditation or spiritual practice, ask what your life would look like if you truly lived with one foot in the world of spirit or the divine. What would a life like that look like? Do you deserve such a life? It doesn't matter. Go for it anyway.

  Magic is not alimony; it is not there just to keep you in the manner to which you have become accustomed. Use it to do the things that you never thought possible. The things that you feel you don't deserve.

  The Take-Away

  The problem we are solving here is self-limitation through a sense of what we deserve, or worse, what we think the Gods and spirits think we deserve. I don't care if Harold wants a golden chamber pot and neither do the spirits. I don't care if you want either! Just because someone's “norm” is making $300,000 a year does not make them more deserving than someone making $30,000. Free yourself of this burden.

  The solution is simply to do it. Make sure that your life is set up to handle it, then pull the trigger and go for what you do not deserve. You have no lot in life other than what you accept and what you can grab.

  Key 17:

  Work Outside the Columns

  Modern Magic and Occultism has a terrible habit of creating neat little boxes to lock away all the spirits, Gods, planets, and powers that we deal with. There is nowhere you see this more clearly than in the columns of Khabbalistic Correspondences in Aleister Crowley's “777” or Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick. You see it in paganism as well: Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love, Mars of war, Jupiter of wealth. Even in the Church, this over-categorization plays out with the Saint of this or that being approached within a very narrow parameter.

  There is nothing inherently wrong with this. It's a fine way to learn the basics and get the lay of the land. But this section of the book is all about moving your practice forward, and there is nothing more important for that than taking these powers out of their boxes and learning how widely they can be used. Don't let the columns become bars of a cage. Work outside them.

  It's Not What You Know, It's Who

  What if I told you the best spirit for a given task is not the one that is listed in the column that fits your problem, but the one that you have the strongest relationship with? How would that change your Magic?

  Putting this into more mundane terms, let's pretend you are moving and need help. You can hire movers, but that would stretch you budget thin and you can't really afford it. There is a guy at work that looks like he would be able to haul boxes aplenty, but you have never spoken to him before. Your best friend would be glad to help, and you would probably have a great time while doing the work, but he is nowhere near as strong as that dude at work. Who do you ask? Your friend, of course! And guess what? When you do, maybe he has a hand-truck that will let you approach the move in a different way than you thought.

  Now imagine that you are a devotee of Aphrodite and perform daily prayers and weekly offerings to her. You have received deep messages from her and established a strong relationship. When seeking a promotion at work, who do you turn to? Most column-based systems will tell you that Zeus or Helios are the right Gods to invoke. The problem is that maybe you have never worked with Zeus, and Helios and Aphrodite don't get along at all.1 I would work with Aphrodite, because the Goddess you know is better than the one you don't. Rather than ask simply to get promoted to higher office, something clearly Jupiterian, I would ask that she charm those who are making the decision and make them enchanted with your work and deservedness for the position. Maybe then I would perform micro-enchantments and invoke the aid of Zeus as her Father to bolster my leadership abilities, and appeal to Mercury so that the right people see the right things at the right times, but the macro-enchantment would be under the power of Aphrodite because she is who I already have a good rapport with.

  Even though he is not a “Saint of Money,” St. Cyprian has given me one of the best pieces of advice I ever received on financial Magic, to enchant for money left over after expenses rather than a simple number. I only received this piece of advice after working with him every Saturday for years and establishing a solid line of communication. Likewise, Astaroth is not widely thought of as a demon that heals, but she has aided me in a desperate situation precisely because I have a pact with her that goes all the way back to my first successful evocation nearly 30 years ago.

  Hack the Planets

  Astrologers and Sorcerers are both concerned with the planets and their influences but often in ways that seemingly contradict each other. Pure Astrological Magic is based on timing operations to coincide with optimal moments when the planets and stars best reflect the goal of the operation. You form a company, propose marriage, or create your talisman at the precise moment that the stars are aligned best for what you want to do. In the case of the astrological talisman, you are taking a sort of snapshot of the moment and infusing that energy into the talisman so that it broadcasts that power whenever it is worn or worked.

  The Sorcerer, however, has to compensate for problems as they arise and cannot always wait for a perfect moment. This is especially true when the problems are not yours, but someone else's. If you are a Sorcerer worth your salt, your regular practices of offerings, devotions, and other daily work has your day-to-day life running fairly smoothly. However, the client is, by definition, a person with a problem that needs to be solved. What do you do when the planetary alignments are not perfect for what you want to accomplish? Hack the planets!

  If you have ever seen those life-hacking articles about using toilet paper r
olls to boost the bass on your phone, or using ketchup bottles for pancake batter, you know that with a little ingenuity you can sometimes expand your use of things well beyond what most people would consider. The planets are not different.

  The biggest single thing that you can do to take advantage of the planets during times that might seem difficult to achieve your goal is to be flexible in your thinking about how other planets in a better aspect might be used to achieve the same result. The variety and fullness of each planet is unfortunately lost on most Magicians, and this is an area where a little study of traditional astrology would pay off.

  Most Occultists have an appallingly simple idea of the powers of the planets that goes something like this:

  Moon: sex and dreams and astral.

  Mercury: intelligence and movement.

  Venus: love and sex.

  Sun: inspiration and health.

  Mars: war and killing.

  Jupiter: wealth and expansion.

  Saturn: death and restriction.

  This leads to very limited thinking. Everyone that needs money goes to Jupiter like he is their dad giving them money to go out on a Saturday night. If people want Love Magic they go to Venus, as if there are no reasons for their lack of companionship beyond not having enough Venus mojo. When people feel threatened, they go to Mars to kick butt, as if this is the only tool that a soldier has. Many Sorcerers I meet won't touch Saturn with a 10-foot wand for any reason at all, more afraid of its malefic influence than any demon they might summon.

  The truth is that all seven planets can be called upon to affect just about any situation; you just have to know how to apply them.

  To make sure students learn to be flexible with the planets, I have laid down what I call the Strategic Sorcery Two Week Challenge. This challenge encourages Sorcerers to start a working on a Monday and invoke a planet to impact their situation every other day for two weeks. Because each day is associated with a planet, and the arrangement of the planets through the week is according to the law of harmonic 5ths, a pattern where you do a work every other day lets you hit all seven planets on their appropriate day in the Chaldean order: Moonday, Wednesday (Mercury), Friday (Venus), Sunday, Tuesday (Mars), Thursday (Jupiter), and finally Saturday.

  Let's take a look at some different scenarios and see how the planets can impact each, when it comes to either business or love.

  In the Lunar sphere for business, you can invoke her to help make sure that you are working in alignment with the tides of commerce, affecting the deep minds of customers with a new marketing campaign, or revealing deception from backstabbing partners, bosses, and coworkers.

  Next, we call upon Mercury to make sure that the motion is on your side. There is nothing more key when it comes to financial Magic. People treat money Magic as a static goal or set number, but there is never stasis in the business of personal finance; if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. If your money is not moving around and making more money, then it is probably losing value, even if it is just sitting there under your mattress.

  Venus is all about relationships. Have you ever been involved in a business venture that did not involve other people? Me neither.

  The Sun is Gold, right? But it's also about inspiration and illuminating new ideas. No idea, no product. It's worth noting that while Jupiter is king of the Gods, the planets all revolve around the Sun. This is important for leadership and visibility.

  Of course, you can call upon Mars to overcome competition, but I have had a lot of success drawing upon Mars for discipline and drive as well. Never underestimate the power of drive and discipline for finance. There is a reason that so many businessmen love The Art of War.

  Jupiter is a no-brainer: expansion, governance, accretion, benevolence, etc. This is the one everyone calls on, so let's leave it at that.

  That just leaves spooky Saturn. Everybody fears Saturn, and in traditional astrology, it is a great malefic, but limits are important. Jupiterian expansion needs the limits and strictness of Saturn to keep it focused, to make sure that systems do not expand unchecked. Think about all that Solar flare and Jupiterian expansion as an explosion. Saturn is like the barrel of a gun that can restrict it and make sure it hits a target. Also, very simply, if you want something to happen, you can use Saturn to restrict the opposite from happening.

  So, if you are in a situation where Jupiter is negatively afflicted in your chart, or working during a time when Jupiter is retrograde or otherwise not aligned well, you have a lot of other options as a Sorcerer who is looking to make some business-enhancing spells. Just avoid the negatively affected planets that would ordinarily be concerned with business and take the others out of the box.

  Let's take a look at love work: Luna is all about the love—deep mind, sexual drives. Not exactly stretching our minds with this one, so we can move on and pretend she is ill-afflicted and won't be available to help us this week.

  You can call on Mercury to make yourself witty, confident, and funny. Looks may be the thing that gets initial attention, but wit, confidence, and humor will beat looks for sealing the deal and establishing a real connection every time. Mercury can also do some networking to make sure you are in the right room with Mr. or Ms. Right.

  Venus is the love Goddess, and thus the obvious choice we do not need to go on about.

  Sol will illuminate you and let you shine bright amongst dimmer lights. Honestly, I wonder why more Solar Love talismans are not in production.

  Martial power might seem like a stretch for love work until you realize just how much there is to be conquered in the pursuit of love. Historically, the language of love draws upon the imagery of the hunter and prey, or frames love as a conquest, to the point where it is so common that it is cliché.

  There is also an enormous amount of fear for people to overcome in the quest for love. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of ridicule—the drives of love and sex are so primal that they turn the volume up on everything and make it impossible for us to keep our cool. One of the most successful love spells I ever did for a client was a Mars spell to overcome fear of rejection and build confidence. All the Venus work in the world did him no good until he got that under control. It was Aries, after all, that Aphrodite had the passionate affair with.

  Has anyone in the Greek pantheon had more sex than Zeus? Jupiter is really good for love Magic. Having money doesn't hurt, either, for that matter.

  Saturn is tricky, even when thinking outside the box. It can be used to end bad relationships, deal with pain, and, in general, get right with time—all things are impermanent. You can also petition the planet to remove its influence and free you from its grip. People rarely think about that, but it works. Petitioning a power to leave you alone is actually one of the oldest uses for Magic.

  More nefarious Sorcerers might invoke Saturn in love spells that strongly bind someone or curse them until they love you. Such work is traditional in many circles, but that still doesn't make it a good idea.

  We can take a quick look at healing too. Healing is often done with the Sun, but it's easy to see how Luna might work on mental anguish. Mercury can move you toward good health. Venus can heal emotions. Mars can do battle with disease directly. Jupiter encourages sovereignty over your own body and healthy vigor. Saturn might be petitioned to bind and control symptoms, or even give more time in terminal cases. Learn to think differently about how to use the powers you have and you will never...

  Be a One-Trick Pony

  When I decided to study Tibetan Magic, I made myself a promise that other than group rites with friends, I would do only Buddhist Magic for five years. This was not asked of me; it was a limitation I put on myself so that I could focus on the system and learn it from its own base.

  The problem was the only initiation I had for the first couple years was Vajrakilaya—the practice of destroying obstacles with the Phurba. I did not yet know how to do Kurukulla pujas to enchant people, Simhamukha for reversing harm, Manjushri
for intelligence, or Dzambhala for building wealth. I had my Phurba and a couple weeks retreat of how to use it. So I became a one-trick pony for a while.

  Need protection? Let's destroy the obstacle with Phurba! Need money? Let's destroy your poverty with Phurba! Need love? Let's destroy the obstacle to finding love with Phurba! Calcified gland? Let's Phurba the heck out of that! Bad weather on the way? Point the Phurba at the cloud and PHAT! Whatever it was, I found a way to apply the Phurba to the problem.

  Two things happened. First, I learned how to think outside the box of what I could and couldn't do with a Magical nail. Second, I got really good at using Phurbas for Magic. Taking one deity, Saint, or practice, and restricting yourself to just that for a year or two is a worthwhile thing I recommend you do at some point. You will learn that you apply your Magic in a variety of ways, while getting really great at what you have specialized in.

  The Take-Away

  What this key is telling you is to look at the powers that you interact with in a different way. I could have talked about the Elements or the Saints instead of Gods and planets but the lesson would be the same: What powers are you close to? What forces are most available right now? How can you apply them differently?

  What powers are local? That is another factor to consider. The Tenma sisters were bound by Padmasambhava at the Asura Cave in Nepal, and when I was at that cave, I felt their presence immediately. Here in America, they seem more distant than the Yakshinis that dwell in the land where I live.

  For good or for ill, Harold has a relationship with Salphegor even though the Grimoire lists Salphegor as a wealth-granting spirit. Sal points out that money has never hurt anyone's chances with the finding partners—a fact that seems to be true for both men and women and hetero and homosexual couples. Money has no biases. Whatever powers you decide to call upon, how can you use them in ways that are different from how you typically think of them? This is how great and interesting works of Magic are made.