In my posts, I tend to focus primarily on my Work in the Hermetic traditions. I don’t do a lot of other kinds of magic. I stick primarily to the grimoires, and the philosophical and cultural roots of those texts. I like to think I’m laser focused on what I’m doing.
However, some folks might find that to be narrow minded. I don’t write about things like hoodoo, or the practices of other cultures much. They aren’t my thing, and as an outsider, the level of understanding I can get from those cultures is limited by my experiences, my cultural programming. As it is, I have a hard enough time really grasping the grimoires as well as I do. If you want to see posts about chaos magic, Golden Dawn or OTO magic with LBRPs, Hexagram rituals, and Star Rubies and Sapphires, or even Pagan Wiccan Faery magick (with a K), I’d suggest this isn’t the blog for you.
I’d also hope that you don’t read a single blog expecting to find all you need to Work your magic. I mean, I think I have All The Answers(TM), it’s true, but I recognize I have all the answers for me.
Now, regarding the charge that I’m narrow minded, I’d like to point out that I have written lately about Dzogchen, as well as the Hermetic “sacred texts,” and that in practice, if you go back over my blog, you’ll find that many of the techniques I use are very much similar to the rites and rituals of Hoodoo, Palo, Pow-wow, Curanderismo, Brujeria, and traditional witchcraft. The things I do with the spirits are very much what you’d call “Shamanic” if you weren’t particularly careful with your terminology. The things I make tend to look a lot like mojo bags, spirit pots, and even use a lot of crystals, herbs, and incenses that Wiccans will be right at home with. The spirits I work with can mostly be found in Crowley’s 777 with all the correspondences you could imagine.
I just have my way of working with them. And frankly, it’s the best method I’ve ever found. Direct communication with the spirits. Direct initiations by the spirits into their realms. Direct teaching from the spirits, informed and framed by the writings of the Masters across human history, the source texts for the magicians of the 19th and early 20th century from before they started syncretizing the beliefs and practices with misunderstood Eastern philosophy from Theosophy and the primitive archaeiological findings from Egypt.
I don’t understand the charge that I am too narrow in my pursuits. I don’t see why anyone would even want to dabble in lots of systems, gain initiations into several lineages, cross cultural barriers with the intent to bring back some new system when the end result is usually either burn-out, or worse, a watered-down system that produces more magical theoreticians than magicians.
The cliche “Jack of all trades, Master of none” comes to mind. Jacks are knaves, knaves are fools. Dabblers in many systems have a thin grasp of the obvious similarities of each system, but are robbed of the wmpowerment that comes from devotion to any one of the systems. Their magic is weak, and I speak from experience. I’ve met folks that are BRILLIANT at coming up with syncretic post-modern rites that draw from several cultural traditions that look awesome on the surface, but a little research reveals the pantheons they’re blending belonged to people at war with one another, or the gods they’re using together were traditionally opposed to one another.
I’ve been hexed by chaos magicians, cursed by neopagans, and I’ve even had Focalor tell me a magician who writes a lot about his experiences with spirits of the Goetia tried to kill me by his power. Their magic is WEAK, because their understanding is dime-thin.
So for me, I’d rather be narrow-minded and sure of my standing in relation to God and his many manifestations than be aware of the many manifestations and hae no part in any of them. And I’m not saying anyone who is “eclectic” is a fool; Jason Miller has a broad scope of experiences with multiple systems from multiple cultures, for example. But JAson also has depth in each of the systems he uses, he rarely dabbles. He’s spent the time in his core system to develop the power and authority, the gnosis of his place in the cosmos to be able to then move between the cultural manifestations of Deity without losing the impact of his Will. It’s not impossible.
But I’m not there yet, so I’m immersing myself in my core system. I haven’t run out of interesting things to pursue. I haven’t attained full Mastery of any aspect of my activities. I’m at best at the cusp of White stage of the Alchemical Work, where the dross has risen to the surface and begun to be burned to pure white ash. I consider myself an Adept, fer sure, but big dealio. Manifesting wealth and prosperity, binding evil and exorcising demons, that shit’s just High School work, Freshman High School at that (9th grade, where you learn basic geometry and read Romeo and Juliette, for my foreign readers). There’s more, so much more.
