Magic for the Resistance

by Michael M. Hughes

  Lift the sigil to your mouth and blow into it. Feel your personal energy empowering the sigil’s intention, the breath of life moving into it and awakening it. Say,

  Awaken to your power.

  Then hold the sigil in front of you. Relax your eyes and gaze at it. Don’t strain your vision. The sigil will likely blur, shift, wiggle, even double as your eyes soften. Just breathe slowly and let it remain the sole subject of your attention. Enjoy the process as it mutates. This is when it is gestating. As you are gazing at it, visualize the end result—the goal—of your intention. Allow yourself to experience the satisfaction you will feel when the sigil’s purpose is accomplished. Really feel it as if it has happened.

  At some point it will simply seem to go dead. What was a living, breathing thing now looks like a dull collection of lines.

  Place the sigil within the triangle of candles. Let it settle or bake for as long as you would like. When the process feels complete, blow out the candles and place the sigil upright (lean it against something) on your altar.

  Setting It Loose and Propagating It

  At this point, your sigil is charged. Duplicates of it will carry that charge in the same way a yeast starter culture can propagate infinite loaves of sourdough bread.

  The key to effectiveness is putting the sigil in front of as many eyeballs as possible. It doesn’t matter if those eyeballs (and the brains behind them) understand its intent. I don’t know why it works that way, but it does. The image gains power and effectiveness the wider it circulates, even if those who see it have no idea what it means.

  Some traditions suggest burning or otherwise destroying the sigil, under the belief that it is then utilized by the subconscious to work its magic. My experience in advertising and marketing, as well as decades of practical magical experimentation, have convinced me otherwise. Contrary to A. O. Spare’s opinion, keeping the sigil alive and spreading makes it far more effective.

  So create a sigil for your cause and incorporate it into your spells. Then set it loose in the world. Here are some possibilities to get you started:

  • Paint it on banners or signs for a march.

  • Get it printed on t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, and other forms of clothing. There are numerous web-based shops that will print and produce them.

  • Turn it into jewelry or an object for your altar (using clay, polymer clay, plastic, wire, wood, etc.). If you create it in clay, consider making a mold so you can mass-produce them for your fellow activists. You can also incorporate appropriate roots, leaves, herbs, resins, and other materials into the clay before drying it (see correspondences on page 226).

  • Turn it into a model via 3D printing. It’s very easy to take a 2D symbol and convert it to a 3D file via website conversion tools. Then it’s just a matter of submitting it to a 3D printing company, paying a fee, and getting your sigil delivered in a huge variety of materials, from plastic to pure silver. You can then create a storefront to enable others to use or wear your design.

  • Print small versions of them (perhaps fifty or more on a single sheet of recycled paper), cut them out, and distribute them discreetly, leaving them in unusual and unexpected places. Years ago, I came up with the term “meme microdots” for my tiny (one-half-by-one-inch) propaganda flyers. I loved the process of leaving them in heads of lettuce in grocery stores, in stacks of newspapers or magazines on a display rack, in the coin slots of vending machines, and tucked into rolls of toilet paper. The more unusual and surprising the better.

  • Have your design printed on stickers. But please, be judicious and thoughtful about where you place them. Don’t put stickers on business property (unless, of course, you’re targeting the business), private homes, public art, trees or plants, or anywhere else they infringe on others or detract from a pleasing environmental aesthetic. The best locations are on utility structures (electrical boxes, the backs of street signs, parking garages), spots already tagged or covered in flyers or graffiti, or other dull, unsightly surfaces. There is an art to stickering—do your best to do it artistically and responsibly.

  • Draw or paint it on crystals or rocks, and then consecrate (see the Consecration Ritual on page 160) and deploy them in strategic locations.

  • Trace it with your finger on the surface of campaign materials.

  • Print postcards and mail them to a person or targeted organization (for support or to bind). You can print the sigil on the postcards or trace it energetically or with oil or water.

  Countersigil Magic

  What if your target or opponent has a widely distributed sigil—that is, a logo?

  Corporations and politicians hire high-priced magicians (logo artists) to create sigils to manifest their intentions (which largely involve making money). It’s almost as if marketers have studied books about magic like this one!

  So if you’re going to resist their magic, you’ll need to counter their empowered sigils. Luckily for you, with a printer and a few keystrokes you can have a printed copy of their logo on your altar in minutes.

  Antilogo Magic

  Print out or draw the logo of a corporate target. You can then write a message across it, put a giant X through it, or otherwise deface the image. In my Hex the NRA spell (page 201), an excerpt from Psalm 37 is written across a printout of the organization’s logo. In written magic, writing across a word or image imposes power upon it. Burning is an age-old form of sympathetic magic, with good reason. It was employed to great effect in the Trump binding spell, during which an “unflattering” (is there any other?) image of the forty-fifth president was burned while the participants chanted “You’re fired!”

  Another option is to alter the image. I once saw an alteration of a famous soft drink logo in which the logo’s half circles were transformed into a cartoon human’s distended belly. Now I can’t look at the logo without seeing a gut bloated by excessive sugary soft drink intake. That, friends, is antilogo magic at its finest.

  Sigil magic, like all magic, has defensive applications. Use it or lose it.

  [contents]

  * * *

  29. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, “Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class of Antidepressants Might Be Right under Our Noses,” ScienceDaily, May 20, 2008, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080520110415.htm.

  Chapter Five

  Offensive and Defensive Magic

  Resistance magic is not always nice.

  While many popular books on witchcraft claim that magic should only be used for healing and “positive” ends, I strongly disagree. Magic has always been used for self-defense and in defense of others. The idea that it should not be used defensively or to inhibit the actions of others is a twentieth-century invention, and the entirety of the historical record, from ancient times through the present, makes that abundantly clear.

  When I published the Trump binding spell, I expected to encounter resistance from fundamentalist Christians and orthodox religious types. After all, in their view, all magic is evil and the work of the devil, including magic done for healing and positive outcomes (benefica). I even baited them a bit by throwing in the phrase “demons of the infernal realms,” knowing it would tie their underpants into knots and send them into paroxysms of prayer for their beloved “Christian” president.

  But it takes a lot of work to conjure demons, as any competent ceremonial magician knows, and they’re not just going to do what you ask them—like any employee, they won’t work unless they’re paid. And as I’ve stated elsewhere, I prefer to work respectfully with cooperative and helpful spirits, not the lowlife dregs of the astral realms.

  However, as I replied to some of my fundamentalist critics, I would be absolutely delighted to have the cooperation of any and all infernal spirits willing take a whack at the horrid demons infesting Donald Trump—the demons that make a man believe grabbing women by the pussy is kos
her, for example, or the demons that make him enjoy mocking someone with disabilities. The demons that make him believe dumping coal waste in mountain streams is morally acceptable seem especially malign.

  Not only did I expect harsh criticism from the religious right, I egged them on. Their overblown reactions even helped further empower the binding spell (because that’s how magic works). What I did not expect was a wave of blowback from the witch and Pagan communities.

  Many of my Pagan critics pointed to the threefold law of Wicca as their reason for condemning the spell. This law says that any negative magic (malefica) you do comes bouncing back at you with three times the consequences. If you curse someone and they break their leg, the bad mojo is gonna come careening right back at you and break your legs and your arms and burn down your house. It’s a variant of karma, just with a moralistic edge against what is presumed “bad” magic.

  I respectfully pointed out that the threefold law was very likely the creation of Gerald Gardner, one of the originators of modern witchcraft, and didn’t appear until he inserted it into one of his novels in the middle of the twentieth century. And many witches, particularly non-Wiccans, don’t consider it part of their tradition anyway. While I do acknowledge the reality of karma, my experience is that it is a much more complex phenomenon than the simple equation “do bad—get hurt.” First, who defines what is good and positive or bad and negative? Like most ethical issues involving complex human beings and their societies, it is far from simple to label most actions simply good or bad.

  Just think of something as simple as owning a pet cat that you’ve rescued from a shelter. A good act, right? Absolutely—both you and the cat would agree. But that cat requires food, which means meat (and please don’t try to turn your cat vegan). So the fact that you saved the cat means many animals, most of which are raised in horrid factories, are suffering and dying to feed it. If you let the cat outside—which you may feel is a positive experience for your pet—it might kill endangered songbirds.

  Some of my witch critics said binding spells were inherently negative because they aim to thwart the target’s desires and intentions. That any magic inhibiting someone’s will is, by definition, harmful. It’s a good point, so let’s examine it with a couple of thought experiments.

  • Your child is being stalked by an adult with a history of abusing children. You have done everything you can to get police to detain or restrain him, with little success because you don’t have actionable evidence. You know the abuser is still actively seeking your child because you saw him sitting in his car across from the school playground where your child was playing.

  • A state senator is on the verge of passing legislation to pave a local wetland to put up a strip mall. The wetland has been declared critical for protecting the local watershed from nearby farm runoff. In fact, your well draws water from an aquifer that is threatened by the development.

  • You just moved to a small rural town. You and your partner are married and have adopted two mixed-race children. A local fundamentalist minister is whipping his congregation into hating you because “marriage is between a man and a woman,” and “children need a father and a mother, not two mothers.” Your children are increasingly bullied to the point where they dread going to school. The teachers have tried to help, but the minister’s hold on the parents is too strong. Today you opened your mailbox and found a letter threatening to kill you and your children if you “disgusting perverts” don’t move out of town.

  • The drug your mother needs to stay alive has gone from five dollars per pill to two hundred dollars, all thanks to a pharmaceutical company CEO. You have no idea how you’re going to pay for the life-saving medicine.

  So … would binding spells or hexes be okay in those situations?

  Yes, those are extreme examples. But every day corporations, politicians, corporate executives, lobbyists, cops, judges, ministers, lawyers, and other authorities make decisions that cause serious harm to innocent people, animals, and ecosystems.

  Witchcraft and magic are tools. When you, someone you love, or a place of great beauty and spiritual power is threatened, why would you not use all the tools at your disposal?

  On Binding and Hexing

  I have a very simple equation when it comes to whether or not I will use binding or hexing magic: Would I use all other available nonmagical means to stop the harmful person or activity? For example, would I use a lawsuit to stop a development threatening my drinking water? Would I call the police to get a restraining order against someone stalking my child, and would I physically attack the sicko if I saw him trying to approach her at a playground? Would I do everything in my power to protect my life, the lives of my children, and my home from a group of rage-filled bigots?

  If the answer is yes, then I feel ethically justified doing binding or hexing.

  It is also critical to examine how far you would go in a hex. If you wouldn’t do something by nonmagical means, don’t do it with magic. I advocate nonviolence as the most useful and practical mode of resistance, so I would never do magic that would physically harm or kill someone, like cursing someone to get cancer or to get hit by a bus, just as I wouldn’t slip a carcinogenic poison into their drink or shove them in front of a bus. I would most definitely do magic to nonviolently impede their actions from harming me or others I care about.

  If, however, someone physically attacked me or the people I love, I would do whatever it takes to stop them. Full stop. Self-defense is always justified.

  Magic has always been the tool of the oppressed, the downtrodden, and the persecuted. African American Hoodoo, Rootwork, and Conjure are prime examples. They grew from enslaved people who had little agency in their daily lives and no recourse to justice. Their magic required curses, jinxing, and tying (binding) to fight injustice in their communities and to resist the oppressive slaver class. It arose from necessity.

  White-light magic is fine. Some people are naturally resistant to doing anything that could be seen as harmful or negative, and they should heed their instincts. Binding and hexing make up only a very small part of my magical practice. But refusing to use magic in self-defense or in the defense of the voiceless, marginalized, and oppressed because of a law of dubious historicity seems extremely foolish to me.

  Magic is a tool for healing and for defense against injustice.

  Binding

  Binding is the magical equivalent of a cease-and-desist order, a straitjacket, or putting a toddler into time-out. Its goal is to restrain someone from particular actions to others or to themselves. In the Hellenistic world, binding was one of the most common uses of magic, as evidenced by the abundant curse tablets (defixiones) uncovered by archaeologists. The binding spell would be written on a piece of lead, folded, then pierced with a nail or other sharp object, before being buried (often in a graveyard) or thrown into a well or pool (please do not do this, because lead poisoning is a thing). Human figures made of clay were frequently used as well, sometimes pierced with pins or nails.

  If you do a binding spell, it is important to bind only the negative or harmful behaviors of your target, otherwise you are verging on more harmful magic with greater potential to generate psychic or karmic blowback. Many witches and magicians believe that malevolent magic is “sticky,” meaning it can leave unpleasant residue on the caster. Therefore, your binding should be very specific about the behaviors it targets. Let’s look at some of the language in the Trump binding spell, for example:

  So that his malignant works may fail utterly

  That he may do no harm

  To any human soul

  Nor any tree

  Animal

  Rock

  Stream

  Or sea

  Note the careful language: not that his works may fail utterly, but his malignant works. If his policies turned out to be beneficial to citizens, the environment, liberty, the political system, and truth, the spell
would have no effect. Aim for the same specificity in your bindings.

  Just as importantly, always incorporate the ideals you are working for. Again, from the Trump binding spell:

  In the name of Justice

  And Liberty

  And Love

  And Equality

  And Peace

  Calling upon the highest ideals that drive your spell adds further focus and energy and serves as a safety valve to guard against any “sticky” negative residue. You are, after all, doing your magic in service to important ideals and for the greater good. Be sure to always integrate that into any binding or hexing.

  Another safeguard is to add a prayer to your preferred deity or deities before and after the working. Pray that your actions manifest the highest good for all those concerned, and trust that divinity will bring the required balance and justice. Adding a cleansing salt bath, both before and after your working, is another useful tactic.

  We cannot possibly know the ultimate outcomes of our actions or their potential unintended consequences. But inaction has its consequences, too. Those who fail to vote allow crooked politicians to rise to power and enact dangerous legislation. Those who failed to act as the Nazis rose to power enabled the unprecedented horrors of the Holocaust.

  So we must act. The future hangs in the balance. Pray, weigh all the possibilities, and get to work.

  Hexing

  Because hexes can be so destructive and unpredictable, I advise using them as a last resort and only in extreme situations. I also do not hex individuals but save hexing for the most destructive, dangerous groups and organizations and only when all nonmagical means have been exhausted.

  My Hex the NRA spell (page 201) came about because of the reprehensible response of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to the murder of seventeen students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day 2018. It was a tipping point in the national dialogue on gun safety laws for a huge number of American citizens, including many of the kids who survived. Instead of accepting what had happened as another inevitable tragedy, the young adults began speaking out, condemning the NRA’s antagonism toward any and all gun safety legislation, its intensive lobbying and funding of local and national government representatives, and its embrace of extreme-right politics.