Ritual Night Talk for July 27th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on visualization and scrying. The link to the brain machine article is here and the donation link is here.

A lot of beginning magicians have questions about visualization, and some of those questions are rooted in misunderstandings. For example, students sometimes assume that magical visualizations have to be as clear, detailed, and intense as images in movies or on television, and usually only the very best visualizers ever get close to that. Likewise, some teachers emphasize visual scrying to the exclusion of any other spirit perception and/or communication method. In fact, interaction with spirits is accomplished by means of our psychic senses, which in many people map onto senses other than vision.

Enjoy!

Ritual Night Talk for July 20th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on energy work. The donation link is here.

Energy work is an important component of magical practice, especially in the Thelemic system. There is a big difference between intoning a word and tracing a figure in the air and infusing those words and figures with chi/prana. It makes your probability shifts better, your consciousness shifts better, and your daily work more effective. In this talk I cover some of the basics of energy work and some ideas on how to integrate it with ceremonial methods.

Enjoy!

Eating Their Own

I suppose in hindsight something like this was inevitable. The QAnon conspiracy theory derives much of its support from conservative Evangelical Christians, which I'm convinced is where the whole "Satanism" angle comes from. It's a holdover from the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s (which, as you might recall from the other day, comes from porn) that at some point was basically shoehorned into the earlier Pizzagate trafficking narrative. And as I've mentioned, the minute somebody proposes that massive groups of Satanists are doing anything, you can know that it's false because there are no massive groups of Satanists anywhere. I don't think there are even tiny groups of Satanists that do the things QAnoners accuse them of.

But for once, today's post isn't about that. It's about QAnon turning on the same Evangelical Christian leaders that have given the movement some validity in Christian circles. This has happened with pretty much every "blood libel" conspiracy throughout history, and that adenchrome nonsense definitely places QAnon among those. Conspiracies that rely on flat-out demonization are dangerous things that are hard to handle, even when you are on their good side. The idea that political opponents are unspeakably evil instead of just being political opponents is not just unrealistic. It engenders a level of paranoia that can easily be turned against anyone, including onetime political allies.

Earlier this week, Right Wing Watch noted how MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who is running a primary campaign to unseat Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, has openly embraced QAnon conspiracy theorists as part of his campaign, only to become a target of their conspiracy theories. QAnon activists accused the pastor of pedophilia and child sex trafficking in July after he posted a photo of his young daughter wearing red shoes.

Similar allegations are now being leveled against several high-profile evangelical leaders. Late last month, self-proclaimed “prophet” and QAnon conspiracy theorist Johnny Enlow posted a “prophetic alert” on his Facebook page in which he warned that “many of our most famous pastors and Christian leaders are about to be exposed as sexual deviants, pedophiles and worse.” We had no idea what that meant at the time, but now it appears to be related to allegations being put forth by a woman going by the name Madyson Marquette, who claims to have been a former adult film actress who was sexually abused and trafficked by several well-known evangelical leaders, including Kenneth Copeland, T.D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and even the late Billy Graham.

Ritual Night Talk for July 13th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on the dangers of magick. The donation link is here.

From the standpoint of relative risk, magick is not very dangerous. We do many things in the course of our regular lives that are more dangerous, like driving cars, that we don't generally worry about all that much. Still, there are various considerations that can reduce the risks that do exist in magick, and the first step towards implementing them is understanding what the real risks are. Once you know that, you can implement strategies that should help you improve the results of your practice.

Enjoy!

This is Where it Comes From!

I've posted and posted here on Augoeides about fundamentalist Christian ideas about what "witches" and "Satanists" do, and how it has hardly any bearing on how real witches, magicians, and even Satanists practice. I've argued that making magick less mysterious and increasing magical literacy among the general population would help people see the ridiculousness of those ideas. The supposed "black magic" of fundamentalist imagination is mostly fiction, and doesn't even consist of workable or effective magical methods.

Fundamentalists have been insisting for decades that this fake magic is out there and very real. It was one of the big motivators behind the "Satanic Panic" that sent hundreds of innocent people to prison in the 1980s and early 1990s. At the dawn of the Internet, primers on that same fake magic were circulated first on UseNet news groups and later on Christian websites. Even today, it has managed to fold itself into the QAnon network of conspiracies. The latest crop of Satanists is described the same way as the last one - evil people doing evil things for no other reason than to be evil.

The sheer perniciousness of this particular urban myth has always made me wonder where it came from. Some of the ideas, like "blood libel" sacrifices, are very old accusations commonly made to persecute marginalized groups. But some of the others seem bizarre even from an occult standpoint. "Being evil" isn't something that gives you magical power. It might make you more willing to engage in unethical applications of the power you have, but that's it. Really, it gives you no more advantage than a garden variety psychopath, so the idea that it serves some magical purpose is laughable.

But I'm burying the lede a bit here. What I wanted to bring to your attention is that I think I found the origin of at least some of these silly ideas about witches and Satanists. They come from porn. I suppose it makes sense - most porn these days that has plot or structure is a parody of some sort. If that's the origin, it's entirely reasonable to consider "fundie Satanism" a parody of real magick. That fits nicely, and explains why when you look into these alleged practices it's clear that most of them would never work.

Ritual Night Talk for July 6th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on Initiation. The donation link is here.

In this talk I discuss some of the ritual technology behind initiation, some of the advantages of going through intiatory processes, and how those processes can facilitate effective group magical workings. I also cover some of the differences between toxic gatekeeping, maintaining the integrity of traditions, and vetting initiatory candidates by means such as sponsorship.

Enjoy!

Cancer Elixir Rite for 2021

Here is the video of Tuesday's Cancer Elixir Rite hosted on our Leaping Laughter YouTube channel. The donation link is here.

The sign Cancer is attributed to "The power of casting enchantments." As I interpret it, this is related to the ability to magnetize or draw things into your life in accordance with your will. So those sorts of intents are most appropriate.Also, keep in mind that those powers are descriptive rather than proscriptive, so intents related to any quality you might find listed in an astrology book under Cancer should likewise work fine.

Enjoy!