Everything Under the Moon

"The first rule of magic is simple. Don't waste your time waving your hands and hoping when a rock or a club will do." --McCloctnik the Lucid To some, combat magic is an abomination, and should never be spoken of except when accompanied by a dire warning to avoid it at all costs. Clichés ...

The pronunciation depends heavily on your paradigm. Some ceremonialists claim that energy lies in the names that you are given and thus the pronunciation is vital toward the ritual. For instance, names of Enochian angels are commonly thought to be powerful even when casually spoken of or read. Ultim...

I buy a lot of magical supplies off of ebay because 1) it's cheap and 2) they offer an interesting selection. Also they take paypal, which a lot of my money is in because of webdesign commissions that I take.

There is also ebay. Ebay has some pretty cool stuff.

Depends on the level you are. For instance: beginners might have to actually cast a physical circle in order to spark their ability to visualize the magical circle while adepts don't need the physical prop. The same applies to vocalization. The physical vocalizing of the words are a means of activat...

So I've been reading various ceremonial magick texts recently, and I was wondering how everyone confronts the somewhat daunting challenge of reproducing a circle 9 foot in diameter complete with serpents, hebrew characters, and various other symbols? Where do you draw it and with what do you draw it...

I recommend the Goetia and works in Enochiana for purposes of study. The former deals with demons and their summoning/controlling and the latter deals with angels and their prophesies (along with their language). An interesting site that deals with the Goetia in rather simplified (and perhaps incomp...

You might want to scour a few old bookstores for books on freemason symbolism (or do they still sell them these days?). My old English teacher gave me a practically ancient book that she dug up from her attic written by a freemason that lists symbols and their meanings (as a gift for telling her tha...

General attitude toward magick: if it doesn't work, don't use it. Science is a description of what works on a regular basis and then a subsequent 'explanation' of why it works that makes relative sense. Magick is what works on a regular basis (or why the hell would anyone practise it other than to f...

The original east-air, south-fire, west-water, north-earth pairing was used, apparently, by the Celts. About.com asserts that maybe the directional correspondences were related to geographical features relating to the position of Britain. As they have listed: West - The west is associated with water...

It's usually used to refer to people who are taking the optional a year and one day worth of training before initiation.

Well, you might want to look at what aspects of paganism you're most interested in. Is it the emphasis on magick? If it is then you might want to look into something that is more secular (though works with deities) like chaos magick, which, admittedly, isn't strictly pagan (or anything else for that...

Eh, I'm alive and well, family's alive and well, and friends are alive and well. 15 years worth of experimental magick and nothing's burst into flames yet. I'm just thinking how fun this summer is going to be when I visit a fellow chaote up in NYC. She's a great baker. I expect biscuits at our trick...

I advise jumping in primarily because books don't offer a substitute for practising and fear of 'things going wrong' is also one of the primary factors of disappointing magickal yields. Books frequently highlight things like "you shouldn't do this because yadayadayada blah blah blah." Not ...

Eh, experience is the best teacher. At least next time they'll know what they did wrong. I've never known a magician who never f*cked something up before, and, frankly, f*cking up is part of the learning experience. This is not to say that you shouldn't do some reading at one point or the other. Rea...