Rufus Opus

Posts by frredactumopus

Author: frredactumopus

  • Some Serious Magic

    The Detroit Lions have sucked donkey shit for years in terms of being a professional football team.

    Here’s their record:

    Year  Wins-Losses
    1998     5-11
    1999     8-8
    2000     9-7
    2001     2-14
    2002     3-13
    2003     5-11
    2004     6-10
    2005     5-11
    2006     3-13
    2007     7-9
    2008     0-16
    2009     2-14
    2010     6-10

    You’ll note that the last time they even won more games in a season than they lost was in 2000.

    Then some British kabalist, with as much interest in
    American football as any proper British man should have, picks the
    goddamned Detroit Lions to run a series of experiments on. “A Lion has Roared” he calls it.

    In the last four games, the Lions have won, and won hard. They’re facing the Bears next week, and they’re favored to win. It’s still early in the season, but right now the Lions are tied with the Packers for the lead in their division. In my opinion, that’s pretty unbefuckinglievable.

    I’m watching this experiment with a great deal of interest. I’m looking forward to seeing the results at the end of the season.

    Sports though? Really? What has the wins/losses of the Detroit Lions have to do with magicians? Fuck, if you don’t know the answer to that one, shame on you. Simon Tomasi’s blog is “Trainee Golem Builder.” He’s in training. He’s experimenting, practicing. He’s taken on a project that can have pretty obvious results. He’s testing his skills, flexing his magical muscles. He’s learning how to influence the world.

    He picked something he doesn’t really give a shit about (I don’t think), American Football. It might not seem like a big deal, but Detroit’s going through some major shit. They don’t have a lot to be proud of right now. They don’t have a lot, period. They’re broke and desperate, the Somalia of the United States. A successful home team can be a morale booster that slops over into all aspects of the city’s economy, crime, and future expansion. Every win brings a little bit of joy to Michiganders who have been consistently disappointed for a decade in their team’s performance, in their treatment by the unions and the auto manufacturing companies, and their government. The indirect consequences of a winning season in Detroit could be huge.

    Well begun, sir. And good luck.

  • Goddamn it Gordon

    I’m on my phone posting this at 3:00 in the morning because I can’t stop thinking of baroque magic.

    If it’s not baroque, don’t fix it!

    There, i said it. That was burning my brain.

    But he’s got me thinking. I use specialized language a lot. Hermetic stuff that is almost ro specific. Spheres and such.

    After talking to different people in the flesh at crucible, I’ve remembered some things about semantics I had forgotten.

    So for a while at least, i will be trying out plain english again. I’m going to be talking in ways anyone can understand, I hope. No guarantees on how long it will last, but we shall see.

  • Crucible Report

    A fabulous time indeed!

    I had one of the best weekends of my magical career this weekend. I finally got to meet Jow and Deb, excellent people, and I had a really interesting conversation or two with Andrieh Vitimus. I got to meet Kenaz at long last and hear him speak. Totally different than anticipated, still totally inspiring. I met Frater Servitor Lucem and his lovely wife Lavanah after years of correspondence and exchanged magic over the distances, and I am so relieved to tell you he is much better looking in real life than in his online pictures. He sent me a picture once that scared my son. I think he had a Palpatine lens on that camera.

    I had long and interesting conversations with one of my Gents for Jupiter fellow members (who also happens to be among my top favorite students) and her wife, and she’s awesome. Truly. I bet you solid money she’s the only one of my students who could draw Kammael’s seal from memory. Except maybe Victor. Absolutely brilliant.

    There were several logistical issues that came up for me. Traveling plans will be better planned in the future. And I will hopefully not forget my laptop next time. Thanks Mr. Miller for letting me use yours. And thanks Mr.s Salem for introducing me to DropBox, which allowed me to have my presentation all available when I needed it instead of stuck on a hard drive two and a half hours away.

    Perhaps the highlight of my trip was getting to sit in on three of Jason Miller’s classes. I think it was three, anyway, the details are already fading into a blur of pleasant enjoyment and good times. Ok, two and a panel I shared with him. And we finally got to sit and talk for almost an hour uninterrupted. I plan to do that with him more frequently.

    I’ve gotten to see Jason speak publicly four times now, and I’ve gotten to compare his teaching style to my own and those of other presenters. If you ever get a chance to attend a Jason lecture, you should make every effort to go. He drives the main points home without being an ass. Highly enjoyable, enlightening even. 

    I was nervous, but probably shouldn’t have been. I wanted a noobier audience for my presentation than I got, it turned out to be the people I didn’t need to cover basics with, so half my presentation was something I could have skipped and moved on to the meat of daily practice and beyond.

    Quick note on if you’re the only presenter there in a tie: Don’t be surprised when the conference members ask you when desert and coffee will be served, the only other people in the hotel wearing ties were, after all, waiters. Still, I think it was necessary for me to wear one. For personal reasons.

    Oh, and the final lesson I learned: an hour and a half is not long enough to cover the entire Great Work and the role of the magician. I figured I’d have that bit done in half an hour and we’d have plenty of time to talk about projection and strategy. By the time I got to the Strategy part, I was reduced to… “Read Jason’s book, and do it, it works.”

    Feh.

    Anyway, there is video, and if it’s as rough as I think it will be, fuck you you don’t get to see it. I was rushed on the parts I wanted to take my time with.

    But the good news is, now that I’ve presented publicly a few times, I’m more comfortable standing up in front of a camera and giving lessons in person. Expect video to play a stronger role in RO stuff in the future. So much fun.

  • Put ALL the Gods…

    A magician friend is going through the painstaking process of putting the gods of a particular pantheon onto the Golden Dawn Tree of Life, correlating the deities from the myths to the sephira. I couldn’t resist giving her some good natured shit over the process, but it was all in fun.

    I’m opposed in principle to the idea that you can take all the gods of any pantheon and plug them into the Tree of Life and come up with a one-for-one match up that is, on its own, a standalone meaningful thing. I don’t like that kind of solipsistic eclecticism. You end up with stupid shit like “Celtic Thelema” when you try to do that kind of thing.

    Back in the 80s and 90s, there was a boom in the pulp fiction occult publishing industry that was made up of basically taking one nationality’s approach to divinity and plugging it into the GD-Ceremonial Magick-based template of Wicca. Crafting a Wiccan Tradition by Raven Grimassi comes instantly to mind, a “how to rip off a culture and still get mediocre results” handbook. We got his Book of the Holy Stregha (Italians gots Wicca!) that way, which stands right up there in my esteem with Dancing with Dragons (Dragons gots Wicca!) and Faery Wicca (Faeries gots Wicca!).

    Now I’m sure some people have gotten great and incredible life changing awesome results using Faery Wicca or Dragon Wicca. Sweet! Good on ya!

    But I think the traditions and lore would provide a more meaningful experience with the divine and its manifestations if it were approached from within its original context, or as close to it as you can get. I think the fey in particular are a tribe of spirits that need to be handled with a great deal more respect and protective eyewear than is generally recommended. And dragons… I mean, come on. There are no “dragons of the quarters”.

    That said, there is still a great deal of value in mapping out pantheons on the Tree of Life. I make fun of the GD a lot because most of it is shit, but there are things in the system that are marvelous. Take this post
    by Nick Farrell for example. I read through the first few paragraphs
    with my usual meh, more GD blah blah blah, but it’s Nick, so at least it
    will be said well, and then about halfway through I’m sitting back
    going, “Oooooo, pretty!”

    The Tree becomes your sorting system, a set of fixed definitions that you can compare to the deities of a culture to get insight into your own interpretation of them. As long as you remember that the correspondences you’re mapping out are your interpretations based on your understanding, it’s useful If you start saying “Cthulhu IS the Intelligence of Netzach!” you’re in for some cognitive dissonance.

    But the exercise itself makes you think about the entities you’re mapping out, makes you consider them, contemplate them, and probably research them a lot more. You find things that reveal aspects of both the entities AND the Tree of Life that you might not have considered before. Aspects of deities that don’t fit the apparent standard definitions of the sphere may be giving you clues to look for in other entities associated with the sphere. Cthulhu’s propensity to eat cultists, for example, can give you insight into those aspects of Venus that relate to death and decay that get missed when you’re focusing on the procreation aspects.

    As a technique to get more information, more thought about the relationships between the gods and your own understanding, it’s beautiful. It’s like reading the Orphic Hymns to get an insight into the Planetary Intelligences. It doesn’t mean the gods of the planets are the same thing as the Intelligences, but it grants you nuance in your own relationships with them that you might otherwise miss.

  • Business Report

    Following up on the last post, I thought I’d go into some more detail on recent projects.

    Business Booster: Lite

    I put together the Business Booster: Lite ritual for a client who didn’t have the time to do the Gates Rites. I don’t think it will be as effective, and I strongly encouraged him to find the time to do the rites for ascension purposes, but nevertheless I expect it to be very successful.

    The trick was trying to find a way to anchor the forces I’m releasing during the rites into his sphere. I think we found a way using the spirits of the talismans I made for him, and a link to the forces using a phrase from the rite spoken at appropriate times.

    If you’re interested in test flying it with me and him, you need to have a business idea in mind already, you need to have the means and will to get started on it, and then we’ll get together and do the magic to supercharge it and increase the chances of its success.

    If you’re interested in being part of the test group, I will take on 2 additional clients for it. Email me by clicking on this link and we’ll talk price.

    It’s a five-week cycle of rituals I perform on your behalf, it comes with two talismans, and you’ll need to, on the appropriate days, perform a micro-rite that will take a few minutes, tops. And you’ll need to visualize some stuff while you’re falling asleep.

    Hermetic Diagnosis

    And the plural is diagnoses. I wish I’d thought of that before picking a name. You know how annoying it is writing “diagnoses?” Well, try it if you don’t believe me. You’ll see.

    Anyway, the Hermetic Diagnosis is perhaps the best thing I’ve ever done for people. In brief as a refresher, the Hermetic Diagnosis is a careful inspection of your spiritual health. It includes a tarot reading, a check for any curses or crossed conditions, and an analysis of your current relationship with the forces represented by the planetary spheres.

    Now imagine me doing this for people several times a week. Each time, I’m conjuring up the Seven Archangels of the Planets. I’m ascending through all the heavens and getting an intimate view of a person’s personal relationship with the forces that create the universe. I’m tapping into the forces that flow through the intelligences into the world at large to get a glimpse into how these forces are playing out in a person’s spiritual life.

    Oh, my brothers and sisters, it changes you. Immerse yourself a few times a week in these powers, see for yourself the things that happen. It’s beautiful. You learn so much about the planets and your own relationship to the forces involved in the unfolding of fate as you work with them. It’s a series of progressive catalysts that kick off chain reactions in your sphere that all work together to create the processes of experienced existence. It’s the DNA production of enzymes and proteins that results in life. Tick tick. Kerplooie.

    And the intimacy with the powers gives you… well. You lot know I don’t mind looking crazy, right? I’ll talk about conjuring archangels and I’m totally comfortable acknowledging that yes, yes I do talk policy with God, in fact. Regularly. This is the kind of stuff that’s kinda nuts, you know? Fringe stuff.

    But the deeper stuff I’ve gotten into I’m hesitant to talk about a lot. First, the words I’d use are lies. They’d be true, but still, reading them is direction and any direction I’d give would be misdirection, distraction from the Source that you need to be looking to for the direction. I can only talk around it, about it, and it’s not ideal at all. Maybe with the caveat up front that you’ve got to look beyond the words to the thing I’m dancing with would help. Maybe not, because of the second thing.

    The second thing is, it’s fucking insane and most rational folks reading about it would be like, “Whoa, RO’s totally lost it. I thought that shit only happened with Enochian magic.”

    But third, and probably the most compelling reason not to mention it is because I really don’t want to talk about it. The Projection stage is about doing it, putting the magic into practice, applying the spiritual lessons to the world at large, making it better as you see fit.

    See? I’ve used those words for years, so really, I’ve been saying it all along, talking the most important thing. So you already know it. Gah. Do. It’s a verb.

    Enough sermonizing. Sorry, it slipped. Can’t help it.

    As I’ve done more and more of these things, I’ve exercised my divination muscles a lot, and in all honesty, I’m pretty buff at the moment.* I find myself using the crystal ball less and less, and using my astral sight more and more. I’m seeing things about people’s spiritual state in rich detail, and the results are getting spooky for some clients. Here’s one recent response from a client:

    RO, I just read the diagnosis and I had to move away from the screen too often!!! It is scary how accurate it is and the Moon and Venus issues are just astounding. I never trusted my earlier attempts at anything astral as they seemed to subjective (I am very analytical – BS in chemistry – Hence you were dead on on Mercury as well!!!) Venus, this is the part that I could not handle, it was TOOOOOOO accurate – [personal information removed.] I cannot believe that you picked up on that at that level.

    Another client wrote: 

    There´s so much things i could refer in the diagnose that are extremely
    correct, and you know that :), so i´ll just say that i am very glad with
    it !!!

    I would post a lot more similar responses, but they usually go into specific details that I’m not comfortable sharing publicly. These are at a high enough level that I can post them without getting into too much detail, but they’re a good sample of the kinds of things people say. There’s usually one major area that someone is working on, or that is primarily impacting their lives, and the diagnosis reveals it in a way that lets people work on it directly.
     
    Oh, and doing these has been great for my self confidence. Like many magicians (and humans in general) I tend to think that I’m dealing with issues that no one else could understand. Come to find out, most of us are suffering the same kinds of things. After providing the diagnosis, I always ask my clients if they have any questions or if there’s anything they want clarified, and in the ensuing conversations we get into specific details about the path magic takes us on, and it’s great to be able to reassure people that the things they’re going through are normal, and that some things that seem terrible are actually really good indications of success to come.

    And I really like it when I can help. Obviously I can’t go into details, but a client was contacting me to see if they had anything blocking their financial success,** and something came up about their relationship. I gave them the warning, predicted the struggles they’d have to face, and provided some hints about what would bring them through it faster. A couple months later I got a beautiful report of their struggles and triumphs, and how the advice I gave ended up being the solution that worked for them.

    Overall, this product is my favorite to do. It’s benefited the clients, providing them an overview of their spiritual health and upcoming situations that require their attention, and it’s put me right where I need to be to keep moving forward in my own spiritual path.

    Good times!

    * At divination. Still pudgy physically.

    **  Money’s a big issue for everyone, that’s why I write about it so much. Simple solution: Do magic to get rich, man. It works.

  • What happened to RO?

    So I made a comment on FB about politicians needing to wipe the jizz of their donors off their chins before lying to me, and a couple people were all, “Where have you been!?” I didn’t realize I was missing. Then I checked, and I haven’t made blog posts or been on FB or much of anything for the last couple of weeks.

    I’ve been busy, yo. I have a lot of shit in process. Since April when we started the Jupiter cult and the subsequent outpouring of blessings and grace, both financial and spiritual, I’ve been steadily getting more and more ideas, plans, plots, and opportunities to take over the world. Instead of talking about it, I’ve been doing it.

    I made a pretty major breakthrough in the 8th sphere stuff a couple of weeks ago. It’s not even 8th sphere sturff, it just takes the 8th sphere stuff to make sense of it all. It’s really nothing “more” than Kundalini and the Sacred Fire that flows. It’s what a lot of new age books have been talking about for years and years. I’m using techniques I learned from C. W. “Pedobear” Leadbetter’s Chakras. Things I’ve mocked and ridiculed for years are turning out to be useful Tech, in spite of the bullshit wrapper it comes in. Babies and bathwater, I suppose.

    Whatever.

    Suffice it to say that the stuff I’m doing now is not at all like what I was doing before. It’s the difference between visualizing the archangels of the corners of the world during an LBRP and actually conjuring them and knowing them intimately in a communal rite. All that meditative stuff I did before without initiation, stuff I was sure was real and making a difference in life was in comparison total crap.

    Real quick, I just want to say that going up levels in initiation does not result in leaving behind the “trappings of ritual” at all. You don’t get to a point where you no longer “need” the implements of ritual to “do magic.” There are things you can do without full rites and rituals as you progress, but they are still predicated on having done the rites and rituals previously. And when you do the full rites, the difference in power and effect is monumental.

    I did some more work on the Business Booster Lite rite, and that will be another post. And a ton of Hermetic Diagnoses, which led to the insights into the kundalini thing and a new “level up” experience. I’ll be posting some reactions to the Diagnoses people have had. It’s kind of funny now to hear some things.

    I’m also getting ready for the upcoming Crucible presentation. Next weekend in Jersey.

    Anyway, many blessings upon you, and expect to see more of me in the coming days. I have a couple other projects that aren’t getting any exposure until they’ve reached a bit more solidification. If all goes according to plan, all will be revealed in the coming weeks.

  • Shop Smart

    Had to get gas here. If I didn’t I’d be dead by dawn.

  • The Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter from the Key of Solomon

    I’ve decided to make a talisman of the fourth pentacle of Jupiter from the Key of Solomon. The timing is all wrong, at the moment, and it would be a while if I waited until the stars were aligned right. So this post is about how to make the best of a bad astrological timing through the conjuration of spirits.

    Mathers‘ edition of the Key of Solomon has the following to say about the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter:

    The fourth pentacle of Jupiter.– It serveth to acquire riches and honor, and to possess much wealth. Its angel is Bariel. It should be engraved upon silver in the day and hour of Jupiter when he is in the sign Cancer.

    Being the erudite occultist that you are, you are no doubt aware that Jupiter is not in Cancer. Nor will he be until June 25, 2013, five years and three months from now. How do we make an effective talisman for a spirit that is specifically supposed to be made at a time that’s beyond our reach? No matter what we try to do now, when Jupiter is in Capricorn, we aren’t going to be able to have it be as propitious as it would be if the timing were absolutely right. But we can try to come close.

    The first thing we’re going to need to do is create the same kind of astrological influences as we would have if the timing were right. We’ll need something to bring in the forces of Cancer to create a backdrop, and then something to bring in the forces of Jupiter to focus those forces through his lens. Since I work so much with the angels of the spheres, I elected to use Muriel, the Angel of Cancer, and Tzadqiel, the Archangel of Jupiter to bring their influences to bear upon this talisman.

    Considering that I’m trying to replicate the sphere of the constellations being in a particular relationship to the sphere of Jupiter, I thought it would be a good idea to draw out the talisman with an additional two spheres represented.

    When I look at any seal that is made of circles, in my mind’s eye I see it as a cross-section of a sphere. The center circle represents the core of what you’re trying to manifest in the mundane realm. Around that is usually some specific manifestation of God or his representatives. Each space between concentric circles represents a particular sphere, and within that sphere you write the symbolic representations of the forces of the higher sphere that you are depending on to make what you want in the center sphere manifest.

    So in the center sphere of the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter, there’s the Name ADNI on one side of the seal, and the Name Bariel written on the other side. Within the center is the figure that represents what it is we want to manifest, riches, honor, and much wealth. I personally feel it is a derivative of the geomantic symbol “Joy, Laughing, Healthy, Bearded.” It’s in Agrippa’s Three books of Occult Philosopy, Book II, chapter xlviii. Page 398 for those with Llewellyn’s Tyson translation, or here for people looking for a link.

    In the table of geomantic figures, the figure is listed as corresponding to the planet Jupiter and the constellation Taurus. That makes sense. Because the intent of this talisman is to pull down not only the wealth and riches that a luxury-loving Taurus would desire, it is inscribed in silver when Jupiter is in Cancer to include the manifestation of honors and glory that come with Jupiter in Cancer.

    Around this inner circle is inscribed a star of David and Psalms 112:3 “Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endureth for ever.” The Star of David represents the “as above, so below” principle of the Emerald Tablet, and the Psalm describes what part of the above should be made to manifest below, specifically wealth and riches.

    Now, since I’m not in the mood to wait five years for this ritual, I created another circle around this inscription. Within this sphere, I wrote out the name and seal of Tzadqiel and the planetary images of Jupiter. These are all available within Agrippa’s Three Books, and I’m not looking up the reference for it right now. It’s where I found them though.

    Around this circle, I drew yet another circle and inscribed the name of Muriel, the Angel of Cancer along with its seal from The Magical Calendar. The end result is a talisman with four concentric spheres (fitting for Jupiter), with the Seal, the Versicle, Tzadqiel-Jupiter, and Muriel-Cancer represented.

    While drawing out the seal, I definitely felt the presence of Bariel, or at the least the forces represented by the seal manifesting. As I wrote out the versicle, the feeling of the presence became even greater. I felt a tingling in my forehead, which was not anointed with Abramelin oil or any other substance that might have made it feel odd. This spread around my head, and I felt quite stoned by the time I was finished with that part of the talisman.

    I finished the other parts of the talisman another day, in the hour of Jupiter. Before beginning, I conjured my HGA, and then I conjured Tzadqiel to bring the forces of Jupiter to bear and Muriel to bring the forces of Cancer to bear. Within their presence, I wrote out their seals on the talisman. Later tonight, since this is the Jupiter Day, I will be performing a full consecration as I paint the image. I don’t have the tools to inscribe a finely detailed silver talisman at the moment, and to make it big enough to capture all the details, I would need quite a bit more silver than I have on hand. As a result, I’m sticking with Virgin Parchment and paint in the appropriate colors from Agrippa.

    Note that for the conjuration I will be using the modified formal conjuration I discuss in my ebook A Modern Angelic Grimoire, available for purchase from my web site.

  • Oh, Christians!

    The role of the Christian in the world, according to the bible, is to love god, to be kind, and to share the gospel. Do that, and you’ll fulfill all the commandments. 

    The Gospel is this: Jesus died for your sins and you’re forgiven. That means you can sit down with God and talk to him. You can talk about your life and find out what your purpose is for being here. You can know and be known by your Source. There’s nothing separating you. You don’t have to be good and nice and kind to hang out with God, all that sin or bad behavior is not a barrier between you anymore. God can be a friend, like he was with Adam, and Moses.

    That’s what Christians are here to do. They aren’t here to push the gospel on anyone, or to convert anyone. The Holy Spirit does that when you speak the gospel, if it needs to be done. You don’t tell people what to do.

    And Christians aren’t here to run for political office. They aren’t here to establish the Law of Moses as the Law of the Land. They aren’t here to picket abortion clinics. They aren’t here to deny gay couples the right to marriage. They aren’t here to meddle in the things of the world.

    Christians who do more than Love God, Love their Neighbor, and Speak the Gospel are exceeding their mandate, giving in to their evil natures, trying to dominate and control the world so we’re safe, when god says to depend on him for our safety, not politics, not police, not the military. He places the government in place, and Christians are told to pray for the leaders of the land, not against them, and certainly not to try to become them.

    If you’re a Christian, read this and remember, God wants you, to spend time with you. Let the world go to hell if that’s what it wants to do, God is in control. Pray for our fellow Christians to change their hearts and return to God. Pray for this message to spread through the Body of Christ like a prairie wildfire.

    If you’re not a Christian, please try to remind Christians that this is all they’re supposed to be doing. They’ve been lied to, coerced by evil men, and they’ll argue and fight with you at first. Sorry about that.

  • Again.


    In the Mask of Zorro, there’s a scene where Anthony Hopkins (Diego) is training Antonio Banderas (Allejandro) in sword fighting. Throughout the scene, as Allejandro gets better and better, Hopkins keeps saying, “Again!”

    I tried to find the scene I’m talking about, but I could only find it in Czechoslovakian.

    But anyway, that training scene is cool. Gaining proficiency in magic is a lot like that, a process of mistakes and gradual improvements, each time you get it right the universe hits you with “Again!” It takes practice to get good at it.

    The first money spells I did were abysmal failures. I tried Jupiter, and had no success. The opposite of success, which is not failure, but actual regression. I tried Bune to win the lottery (cliche, I know), and failed. I changed my approach with him and found success, and failure. I tried the Solar Heptameron Angels, and failed, miserably. I haven’t went back and tried them again since. I tried Och of the Olympik spirits, and had some success, and some failure. I tried Jupiter again, this time with some experience under my belt, and found bountiful success. I tried Mercury and found another kind of success. I put Jupiter and Mercury together and found still yet more kinds of success.

    These days, I’ve got the knack of it. I have everything I need, and then some. I’m working on increasing that, too, aiming for an impossible goal by dividing the process into steps, and magicing each step to be a great success. Building my way up to the million dollar idea. Strategically.

    And it’s working.

    But I wouldn’t be able to enchant for success without having tried, again and again. I failed and was told Again! I succeeded and was told, “Again!” Each time I learned something new, learned the things that had to be in place to ease the transition from idea and thought to actual experience, learned how the forces manifest, learned how to apply them in ways that are better and more successful.

    Magic doesn’t always work. I mean, it always does something, but not always what you want or expect. That’s because we don’t know shit about shit going into this. Words don’t convey the process adequately, and a lot of the people writing when my generation of magicians were learning were talking out their collective asses about things they hadn’t experienced, advanced concepts of a system they had never been initiated into.

    These days we’ve got magicians doing the magic and posting the results, and it’s a beautiful thing. But still, my words can’t convey the experience that brings skill. I can tell you about it, but I cna’t make you feel it. Book smarts aren’t hands-on smarts.

    Do the magic, do it and fail, and do it again. Steps towards the goal. You can’t change the world with your magic until you learn how to use your magic, and you can’t do that reading about it.