Strategic Sorcery Blog

Hermetic and Kabbalistic correspondences can a very effective tool for mis-understanding everything. One of the dangers of thinking of gods and spirits in these terms is that we can loose sight of their fullness and only see the aspect that we are working with. I have written about this many times before, often bringing up the example of a magician that placed the Orishas in the quarters of their circle based on elemental attributions, without knowing that Yemeja and Oya do not get along. Correspondences are nice, but they do not over-ride tradition, mythology, and history – even the stuff that you aren’t aware of.

Alas, just because you write about something and warn others about it, doesn’t mean that you won’t occasionally fall into the same trap yourself.

I have been working on my upcoming chapbook on Planetary Magic for a while now. I am on the last chapter, a series of 49 Interplanetary Spells that explore the full potential of the hours/day system for magical magic. In some of these spells I have been making references to the Greek Gods as associated with the planets: Chronus, Zeus, Ares, Helios, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Selene. I was sipping along at a great pace until I arrived at the spell for the hour of the Sun on the day of Venus. I just stopped dead. I revisited it every day. For a MONTH AND A HALF. I could write other things, but I just could not get this damn spell to spit out.

Yesterday, while I was again banging my head against my desk in frustration, I remembered something from a book on Greek Gods that I read when I was in 6th grade about Aphrodite sleeping with Ares and getting busted by Helios.

Turns out that Aphrodite was pretty pissed that Helios spilled the beans to Hephaistos about her infidelity with his brother Ares. To get back at him she cursed him with love for the Persian princess Leucothoe, who he promptly seduced. The goddess, Clytie, who held unrequited love for Helios, revealed the seduction of the princess to her father, King Orchamus, who buried her alive as punishment.

This story tells us two things:
1. Aphrodite and Helios probably don’t get on well, and should not be called upon in the same spell.
2. The Greek Gods are a bunch of psychotic drama queens. Greek Mythology is like Days of Lives S.V.U.

Anyway, I made separate offerings to Helios and Aphrodite to smooth things out. I then approached the combined powers through their inherent emptiness (Buddhist training has a lot of uses) and immediately was able to tap into the current and get it written.

A lot of books on magic place a great emphasis on belief. Rock solid belief in magic, we are sometimes told, is the main ingredient in successful sorcery. If we believe it is so, we can make it so. In Chaos magic theory this was taken even further where belief was treated as a force unto itself that could be easily switched from object to object. Mr Spock was easily as useful as Mercury we are told, if we generate enough belief.

Belief also gets used as a really lame excuse by witches and mages who are too lazy to study.  No need to learn the traditions of herbal lore before making that charm, “it only matters whether you believe in it”. The rituals and tools and formula that have been painstakingly preserved for centuries? These, we are told are merely props for the power of belief.

Now me, I don’t place a lot of stock in beliefs. The magic I do and teach works whether you believe in it or not. Modern religion is much more about what you believe in, than what you do. Sadly people also bring this attitude in to magic. I recently suggested that someone make an offering to local spirits. They informed me that it wouldn’t work because they didn’t believe in nature spirits like that. They were kind of shocked and I think maybe a little offended when I suggested that the spirits didn’t care about whether he believed in them or not, they just want the offering. He still went ahead and made the offerings and lo – the desired outcome came quickly.

Do you need to believe in Hekate to get her to answer your call? Not anymore than you need to believe in your car to get it to take you to work. But won’t she be offended if she is invoked by someone that doesn’t have strong faith? No. Honestly, I can’t think of anything more narcissistic than thinking that a god or spirit is worried about what you think of them.

So, no, I am not a big believer in the usefulness of belief.  I am however a fan of doubt.

I think that occultists could use a little more doubt in their practice. Even notice that you don’t see a lot of blog posts about spells and magical experiments that don’t work out? Part of the reason for that is that we tend not to doubt that we are getting the results we ask for. We call a spirit, and get some kind of response, we instantly declare it a success. It’s rare that I see an occultist question whether they got the spirit they asked for, or whether they even genuinely made contact at all and are not just fantasizing.

Very often I see occultists taking synchronicity and gematric coincidences as proof of their work and direction. I do not often see occultists question whether they might be buying into a texas sharpshooter fallacy or suffering a confirmation bias.

Doubt has served me well in my practice. In the 90′s I did a series of enochian workings that sparked a fairly intense and detailed spiritual communication. The spirit had apocalyptic information, it insisted that I write it and share it, it insisted that I was a prophet. I was all kinds of excited to have my ego stroked and to join the ranks of people that were channeling Thelemic Libers, but decided to take a step back and take a look at it in a month with a cooler head. I asked myself, is the information useful? NO. Is there any chance that this might be incorrect? YES. I decided not to do what the spirit said, which is good because all the predictions were wrong.

In 2006 I received a few teachings from Hekate that were meant to go into the Hekate work that I have been collecting since 2001. These specific visions related to a very sexualized form of Hekate. Unlike most of the rest of the teachings, this had no root in her historical practice. While I am not reconstructing anything, I had, up until that point, had things I could point to as roots or historical confirmations. Rather than accept this communication, I let it sit for a bit and did some purification  I then came back to it months later and determined it to be an outside influence – mostly from my own mind.

I think direct experience is great. It is the reason I do what I do. But some  people escape the trap of placing blind faith in tradition only to fall into the trap of placing blind faith in their own experiences. A little doubt can be a good thing for the magician to hold on to.
 

One of my teachings that people can find most vexing is my insistence on meditation as a cornerstone of the path. It can seem counter-intuitive to people that are magically minded. Meditation asks you to sit still, magic often asks you to move around and make potent gestures and signs. Meditation asks for silence, magic usually asks for arcane formula and grand invocations. Meditation asks that you treat all visions, messages from gods and spirits, and psychic experience as a distraction to be ignored, and return to the meditation itself. Magically minded people are often built specifically to experience such things, and tend to place great importance upon them.  For this reason, my insistence on meditation can be
For example, recently I got an e-mail from a student that simply does not want to meditate and does not see the point:

“I have to say that I find your insistence on meditation frustrating and I really don’t think it has as much to do with magic as you think. The magic I am interested in involves talking with spirits, traveling the astral, and raising and controlling the energies of the body. Meditation seems like a side issue.”

My answer: I think that talking with spirits, astral travelling, and energy work are great. Meditation is getting to know and control your own mind.  What part of those things do not involve your mind?

Spirits? Do you think you hear them only audibly with the normal ear?
Astral Travel? Is your mind not essential to this? Is the astral not a realm of mirror-like appearance that can fool and deceive?
Energy Work? There is no system of yoga, chi-gung, or anything else that does not recognize that the subtle winds are linked to mental processes. Literally none.

Setting all this aside, even just normal waking experience of reality itself is only known through the mind. Every day we all perceive reality through a deeply flawed lens. Not only are we a slave to the heuristics that we use to make sense of what we take in, but our mechanistic slavery to what can only be described as the programming we all hold, keeps us from seeing reality-as-such and acting accordingly. If this is the case with normal reality, how more susceptible are we when we start dealing with subtle realms and mystical states?

Meditation is the best way to know the tool that you interact with all experience through. It is the best way to clean that tool and keep it sharp. It is the best way to keep yourself from getting carried away by your own bullshit.

Still though, if we are not just mediators  but Sorcerer’s and Sorceresses’s, we need to know   how and when to let the visions in, when to listen to the gods, and when to make the potent signs and grand invocations. Another student of the course is doing a lot of meditation and mentioned that she knows she is supposed to ignore the awesome visions, but finds it hard.

The rick here is harmony in your practices. When I and other teachers tell people to ignore visions during meditation, it is mostly because we do not want people to confuse visionary and trance work with meditation. Once you know that, there is no reason that you cannot explore those visions outside of meditation. You can either finish your session and mentally attempt to revisit them or explore the vision right when it happens and make time afterwards for more meditation. The trick is knowing that you are departing the meditation in a mindful way for a purpose, not getting distracted from your meditation by shiny spirit baubles.

While potent and meaningful visions are not meditation itself, they are a sign of progress in meditation. By reducing clinging to old perceptions, surface level mental chatter, and base karmic traces, you are making room for deeper stuff to manifest. In fact, meditation can sometimes be a better way to generate such visions than specifically visionary or shamanic methods, as well as leaving you in a position to deal with them critically.

I will leave my thoughts on self-critique for my next post: The Usefulness of Doubt.

I was asked the other day by a dharma brother why I no longer hang out in Buddhist circles. In fact, most of the people I am closest to don’t. The reason is that while there are a sizable amount of people who get into Tibetan Buddhism from a magic/occult angle, most people approach from a meditation – psychology angle, or worse, a completely saccharine pseudo spiritual desire to be exotic. Those of us that approach it from the magic angle make the others uncomfortable to say the least.

The approach I took, and the teachers that I hold dear, have made my experience a little less like Kundun, and a little more like The Golden Child.

I thank them with all my heart. Strategic Sorcery would not be what it it without them.

In all the fuss getting the apprenticeship program together, I forgot all about the Equinox and the spring sale I had planned!

Spring is a time of resurrection and renewal. I myself have been re-evaluating and changing my daily and weekly practices to fit my current needs, something I try to do every quarter or so.

If you are trying to renew your practice, or add something new to it, I want to help you out. From now until Saturday the 30th, you can join the Strategic Sorcery Course for just $100!  

If interested in receiving the course, please send an e-mail to inominandum@gmail.com with the words STRATEGIC SORCERY in the Subject Line.

Here are a few words from people that have taken the course:

“I operate several websites and have done so for several years. Just recently I revisited the financial magic given in innominandums Sorcerers Secrets book, but in the light of what I learned so far in the course. Within two days of the working my income from my main money-making site went up by 420% and it has stayed there for the last two months!“
-Malcolm

“This course is brilliant.  Not only has it given me a broad and deep understanding of spirits, energies, and the self, it has also given me powerful tools to transform my life.  In just seven months I have identified and left a toxic relationship, earned funding to pursue my Master’s degree, and started a lifelong dream of writing and publishing a book.  This course will give any aspiring witch or wizard a comprehensive and effective framework to empower their practice.  I highly recommend it.”
-DK

“I had already been getting excellent results with Jason Miller’s books when I joined the course. It turns out it was a wise decision because I can now say that I’m ten times more successful. This stuff just works!”
-AK

I had been dealing with obnoxious, disturbing neighbors all last year, and had numerous confrontations with them. This summer, the loud bass started again, and the house -which seemed to be a “party house” was getting back into full swing for the summer. Utilizing the information from this course, I summoned Kammael, and felt the urge also to include Taphartharath to assist with the problem. I went to bed that night after performing the ritual. In the morning my daughter woke me up, to tell me that the police were next door. I looked out the window, and sure enough they were at the house. I am not sure what happened, but is seemed something had happened to them. After that, it has ceased to be the party house, in fact, it has now been quiet as a church for the last 3 months and my family and I have enjoyed a peaceful summer!
-Mark

“This course gave me a firm theoretical background, putting together everything I’ve known before and it also gave me a lot of new information and practical tools. So far this has been the luckiest year of my life – I am currently doing my internship in the headquarters of one of the biggest European banks and after one month I have got an amazing job offer from them. However, I turned it down because at the same time I’ve been offered a 5-year contract for a well-paid PhD dream job in one of the top Scandinavian universities where I will start in September. I have also met the best boyfriend in the world and we are very happy together. I have a feeling that all the best opportunities are being offered to me and I am very grateful for this, I’ve never felt so happy in my life before. Thank you so much!”
-Alisa

“As a traditionally trained Hindu Tantrick, the content of the course has allowed me to further consolidate my tradition from a sorcery perspective and become more innovative in its practical application. Many thanks from Australia”
-J

“The SS course is full of information and is intensely practical. It’s providing me with a solid foundation in actual ritual and magical practice. I currently have 40 odd lessons and not one contains “filler”, rather there’s enough stuff in them to take way more than a year to complete. In fact, it’s not one to complete, but to integrate into a life style if one so chooses. I am finding that I’m beginning to integrate other methods into my magical curriculum, and the SS course enables this to happen. And then there’s the forum. I’ve used it a few times and had well thought out answers and conversations with students and those who are far ahead in their own practices.”
-Foolishmagus

“I’m the Senior Instructor of the Hoshin Budo Ryu under Soke Rob Williams. What me and my students have started doing for about the last month or so is prior to beginning classes, is to make a personal offering to God and the spirits of the area.  Since we make every effort to train outdoors, what has begun happening is that the weather cooperates most days with nice breezes. The mosquitoes stay away from us, and we have begun picking up more and more spirits that hang with us. The spirits, a great deal of them are warriors are readily seen in our Auras by those that know how view Auras.

This has been a great course and one of the best decisions thus far that I
have made in a long time.  Keep it coming.  Thanks and feel free to use my
name.”
- JAMES F. ALEXANDER

“The Strategic Sorcery Course has kick started my work into a whole new level, its perfect for any kind of tradition practitioner, and you will be amazed with the results, and it gets easily integrated with other systems, it gets on a lot of aspects often neglected out there, and Jason’s eloquence will make sense of many subjects often obscured or confusing, rather than a particular system, this is a robust course on sorcery, on many aspects you will get your hands occupied for a long time even after completing it, do the homework, and get the most of SSC, don’t let this awesome material rest in filed, put it into practice, you gotta make it happen.”
-Jadean Lazuli

So there are a number of posts floating around about Why Evocation is important. Here is Aaron Leitch. Mike C. The commonality among them is an assertion that magic works through the agency of spirits and that any assertion otherwise is modern and incorrect.

I agree that the evocation of spirits is important in magic, and I teach it. Spirits also get invoked through prayer, simple calling, trance, astral projection, possession, and other manners as well. Each provides a different level and flavor of contact, and each of these can be useful for different things. For instance, when pulled over by a policeman, I might call upon a spirit in a whisper to help me influence my way out of a ticket – a full evocation at that point is neither useful nor possible.

Perhaps if we decide to limit our discussion of magic to only the western ceremonial tradition, than we can say that Spirits are the sole operating force in magic. I don’t limit my view of magic that way. Certainly in the west there is also an enormous amount of folk magic and sympathetic magic that is not relying directly upon spirits for their intercession. Perhaps there are prayers, often to simply to God, but the action of binding a figure, separating candles, beating a bag, or whatever it may be is the primary act of magic and it is thought that the practitioner if acting directly. This of course does not negate the use of spirits in magic, or the validity of the so-called “spirit model”. You see, we are spirits too. 

Yes, we have bodies, but within those bodies we have spirit and soul. People have power.

That’s why in Tibetan Magic you have training to raise the body temperature through breath, to breathe mantras into other people, even to switch bodies if the Yogas of Naropa are to believed! That is why people that try sex magic usually are successful with it. That is why some people can heal with their hands.

Even more interesting is that very often the spirits that get evoked in an evocation end up telling the exorcist (as Aaron notes in his post) HOW to do something rather than just doing it. Very often they tell you HOW To do the very type of thing with gesture, energy, breath, or materia that gets passed on in these traditions of yoga, Tantra, Witchcraft, and so on.

The Spirits are often reminding us that we are spirits too and can do what they do.

I learned magic mostly from mentors. People that knew who I was, worked with me one on one, and took into account my interests, schedule, and personality. As happy as I am with the Strategic Sorcery Course and the amazing success reports that I keep getting from students who take it, I have been hungry to teach deeper secrets in a more personal manner. Some mysteries can only be communicated mouth to ear, and mind to mind.

With that in mind, I have decided to open up a limited number of slots in an apprenticeship program. This will be for people that want regular communication with me by both e-mail and regular phone/video consultations. I will also be setting up in person meeting/initiations with apprentices that can travel, or who I can travel to see.

Anyone at any level of experience or training may apply to be accepted as an apprentice, spaces however are limited. If you are interested in this program, please write me ASAP at strategicsorcery@gmail.com with the words  APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM as the subject line.

Last night I gave a talk at Rutgers. It was a small talk, which enabled me to quickly abandon the lecture format and start talking to people one on one. It turned into more of a group coaching session than anything else, brainstorming side businesses for everyone there. As RO kindly noted on his blog, this morning someone on FB asked how to make a quick $400 and I buzzed out a quick idea on tutoring four people in something you know well and charging them $100 a piece.

That’s all well and good, but it still leaves the question: what am I going to teach? What am I going to sell?

Obviously unless I know you, I can’t answer that for you. What I can tell you is to approach it as we would in Strategic Sorcery, which often starts with breaking things down so you can take a look at what is really there.

1. First make a list of every job you have ever had. Add to this every hobby that you excel at. Now add your magic practice, not just as one item, but each individual task. Don’t worry about marketability yet, just get it down there.

2. Take each of those items and put them at the top of another piece of paper. Break down every skill used in those jobs and hobbies. Lets say you work at a warehouse. You have knowledge of proper lifting technique, safety requirements, how to read MSDS sheets, taking inventory, report generating, forklift driving, packing, etc. Do the same with your hobbies and your magic practice. Lets say that outside of work you like to practice martial arts and in your magic practice you specialize in energetic shielding.

3. Highlight the things that you like to do the most.

4. Reeces that stuff together! See what makes a good match. Perhaps a DVD on stretches (that you learned in Martial Arts training) aimed at people who do manual labor? Classes at your local continuing education program. Maybe Energy Shielding for Martial Artists? Maybe Energy Shielding for executives. Maybe breath work (learned from your shielding).

5. If your skills don’t match up perfectly, look a bit outside yourself at skills you can become competent in quickly, or at people who would be interested in what you do. Take the energy shielding thing and market it for Law Enforcement personel (you would be AMAZED at how many cops I know are into psychic/occult jazz).

Point being, by looking at yourself and breaking your skills down you can get a fresh perspective in just how much you have to offer, and perceive new ways to apply your skills.

So because Zeus did me a total solid yesterday, than completely doubled that today, he has been on my mind and tongue.

Talking with a reader today that has been trying to meet girls and date girls, but who has been striking out with Venus talismans. I suggest that perhaps he might give Zeus a spin.

His response: “Zeus?! Isn’t that Jupiter? Isn’t Jupiter about money not love”

My response: “Dude, have you ever looked at a family tree for the Greek Gods? He had sex with like, everyone.”

Seriously though people. Sometimes I think that too much focus through a planetary lens or Khabbalah lens can make you blind. You would think that there were only ever seven or ten Gods, seven or ten Archangels, and seven or ten spirits.

Learn to tackle the problem from different angles.

When I wrote the Strategic Sorcery Course I really struggled with whether or not to include a chapter on purely offensive magic. People usually fall into one of two camps on this issue, both of which I think are deeply mistaken. One the one hand you have the people who feel that any kind of magic aimed at causing harm is inherently evil and will cause nothing but ill to all involved. On the other hand you have people who revel in Dark Paganism, or Nightside magic, or Sinister whatever and who range from feeling that vengeance is a good thing that you should engage in whenever wronged to true sociopaths and just will use any means necessary to find love, wealth, or power.

To me baleful magic is not fundamentally different than a gun. Magicians and Witches should know they exist, and even if you never plan on using one yourself, you should understand what they do and how to at least defend yourself if needed. Those that do employ it should do so only in dire circumstances that truly call for such action.

When I did write the attack magic lesson for the course a funny thing happened. About half the people in the course did not receive it. I had to send it three times to get it out. On the one hand I felt strongly that this is a part of magic and should be dealt with in a sane and responsible manner. On the other hand, I hated the idea of putting ideas into peoples heads that would cause harm for ignoble reasons.

Today, I am thankful that I did include it, because I received the following field report.

I am student XXXX from cycle 2 of the course, and wanted to write you up a report. I believe that your attack magic lesson may have saved my husbands life. Three years ago my husband witnessed a crime and provided the testimony that ultimately led to a conviction. A little over 2 months ago, the guilty party was released from jail and we started to receive threatening phone calls. Though I employed protection magic, two weeks ago my husband was attacked outside the store where he works. Thankfully someone heard the attack and ran to his aid, but the criminal got away.

I remembered that you had mentioned that in cases where someone is threatening physical harm, using magic to attack first might be more effective than only using protection. I used three techniques, all suggested by the Attack Magic lesson. I am not going to lie: I went right past binding and into outright cursing. Yesterday I found out that my work was successful. I don’t want the details posted, but the person will not be in a position to bother us again for a LONG time. Thank you for being one of the few people who provide clear instructions on how to do this kind of work. I hope I never have to use it again, but I am glad I had access to it when I needed it.