by Jason Miller
The Power of Craftsmanship
It is impossible to be good at everything, so why expect that you can do everything yourself? When someone like Frater Ashen Chassan creates a tool or Aidan Watcher creates a talisman, it is a masterful and beautiful thing to behold. Their work inspires faith and awe, not only because they are first-rate Magicians, but expert craftsmen.
Now one could argue that anyone can become a master craftsman with effort and just a little talent, and that may be true, but if that is not your calling, you probably won't want to invest that time. DIY purists will insist that any attempt, even one that winds up looking like a kindergartener's art project, will be better than something someone else has done. I say poppycock! Craftsmanship has value, easily as much or more than doing it yourself. I have old tools that I made in high school, but I never use them because, frankly, they look like crap. I would rather purchase or commission something nice and consecrate it to the work. In this case, the consecration is my contribution to the creation.
In any given skill, there are those who gain competency, others who seek mastery, and still others who seek perfection. Perfection is, of course, a lifetime dedication and there will only be one or rarely two things in your life that you devote that level of dedication to. Mastery is time-consuming in terms of thousands of hours over many years. You can master a few things in this life, but not everything. Competency in most things can be gained with just a small investment of time and effort. If all you need is competency, then that's fine. But why not take advantage of masters in the field?
Learning from Something Doesn't Mean You Have to Keep Doing It
When I was young, I learned the basics of making oils, baths, and powders from a few gracious teachers. When I took cat yronwood's Hoodoo course back in the early 2000s (I am graduate #99), I learned even more and made several oils to make sure I understood the principals and Magic involved. Later, when I first was learning about Alchemy, I managed to extract Sal Salis from wood in a very time-consuming but transformative process. Some things I learned can only be learned by making it myself. Some things can only be learned by devising a formula from scratch. The value of these lessons is immense, but does that mean I have to do it myself forever?
I don't enjoy fannying about with herbs and oils. I love anointing with oils in Magic, but I hate mixing them and getting excessively involved in the creation of things that can be done just as, or more, effectively by others. In fact, I pretty much avoid as much arts and crafts as possible so that I have time to actually do the Magic.
In short, I learned how to do it. I do it when I have to. I don't when I don't have to. Far from suffering, my Magic is often more effective by relying on people who are masters of their craft.
If Everything Reflects Who and What You Already Are, There Is No Growth
A lot of people start out their spiritual and Magical lives by rejecting anything that does not reflect themselves. They create their own traditions of Witchcraft and Magic because no tradition out there will “reflect my beliefs like one I make myself.” The problem with this is that traditions don't exist to reflect what you already believe. They exist to give you a framework to grow within. You don't need traditions to tell you that you're right. You need them to challenge you with the possibility that you might be wrong.
Traditions exist to give many people who all have slightly different beliefs a framework to come together. This is true of rituals as well. I hate some of William Gray's overly alliterative writing style, but I do it when I meet with my Sodality because it is something that we can all use and has become a tradition with its own potency. It is an opportunity to grow within a tradition and have a common ground for work with peers, rather than something that must reflect my style and preferences.
The act of creation is an important and potent Magical act, but when you feel like you must create everything to be a reflection of your own beliefs and style, you are building yourself a cage out of mirrors. What begins as self-exploration can quickly devolve into solipsism if gone unchecked.
When DIY Is the Magic
Now, that I have spent a key arguing that you can buy oils instead of making them and perform other people's rituals rather than doing everything yourself, let me take a moment to point out that in some cases DIY is the Magic. If, for instance, one were a traditional Witch devoted to Tubal Cain, the first blacksmith, it would be an incredible act of devotion to learn traditional blacksmithing—to have a forge, to work the iron, to present new creations into the world, each as an offering to Old Cain. This is a powerful thing and the thing that you will be perfecting your whole life. Your soul would be heated, reshaped, and cooled along with the metal, just as the Alchemist is transformed by the making of the Elixir.
You cannot play at this or go in halfway. You have to commit serious time, money, and effort, which means that there are other things you won't be doing. You cannot do everything. Thoreau once said, “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” I hope this key convinces you of the worth of mastering a few things in this life, and valuing the things that other people have mastered, rather than feel like you must do everything yourself.
The Take-Away
Harold is trying to command Salphegor with a Lunar Wand that he made from an old crescent wrench. Sal's not buying it. Clearly Harold is not a master craftsman when it comes to wand-making. The problem this key addresses is the impossible task of having to do everything yourself. The solution is to question whether this is even necessary. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is there something to learn here by doing it myself? For example, I have internalized lessons from drawing the Heptameron Circle on the ground that I think could not be gotten any other way.
2. Once I have learned that lesson, do I have to keep doing it myself? I did it, and now I have the circle drawn in paint on a drop cloth. I can fill the names in with other pieces of cloth as the season changes. I don't feel like I need to keep doing it myself every time.
3. Is it a lesson I need to learn? We don't have time to learn every individual lesson. There are mysteries involved in the creation of dud-tsi pills that I will probably never know because those mysteries are primarily for people who are called to that work. That doesn't stop me from using the pills as part of my Tantric work.
4. Is this something I love to do and have the time and desire to master? I love writing and experimenting with ritual, and I devote the time to doing it. I love to work with wood and have made many wands, but no longer have the time to devote to it, so I don't anymore. I have never liked mixing oils, and while I learned how to do it reasonably well, I still tend to avoid it.
5. Is there someone else who makes it better than I can? If someone else made a really nice version of the circle, maybe with organic paints that have fluid condensers mixed in, I would not hesitate to buy it and use it. My hazel wand recently broke, and I am probably going to buy one from Jake Stratton Kent for some upcoming work with the Verum, rather than make another one myself. I will re-consecrate it of course, but I trust that he cut them at the right time and place.
DIY is great but don't let it stop you from taking advantage of the works of other artists and craftsmen, engaging in traditions that you might learn and grow from, or just save a you little time that you could spend enjoying your life.
Key 10:
Use Macro- and Micro-Enchantment
In late 2000, I was looking for a job. I had just spent several months in Nepal and so had a huge gap in my resume. Before I went to Nepal, I was an “underwriter technician” (aka glorified administrative assistant) for a large insurance company. I dropped college after two years and had no degree. This is not at all uncommon for people in the Occult and pagan worlds: a focus on the mystical sometimes comes at the expense of advancement in career and traditional education. It was also even more common in the 1990s, the decade that practically celebrated the Gen-X slacker. The only problem is that I was tired of slacking. I wanted
a job, one with benefits and weekends off.
I wanted to come back to the United States and embrace the life of a productive grown-up. I set up an altar to my favorite Buddhist God of increase and wealth: Dzambhala. I would say his mantra every day and, as is traditional, I would offer water by pouring it over his statue as an offering. This offering comes from a legend that claims that Dzambhala stepped in the way of a rock thrown at the Buddha, taking the hit. The Buddha healed him and told Dzambhala that in the future, anyone who calls upon him and pours water on his head to soothe him should be granted both material and spiritual wealth. As I poured the water, I asked Dzambhala to bring me a new job, one that would pay me better than I had ever been paid. One that would give me the perks I wanted. One that I was probably not qualified for in the least.
A week or so after beginning Dzambhala practice, a close friend told me about a position that would ordinarily require a four-year degree or years of experience in the field. At very least, I should have a lot of tele-command internet knowledge that I didn't have. He offered to work with me to get me up to speed. I did a spell invoking Manjushri, the Buddha of intelligence, to help me qualify for the job and absorb information easily. I did 10,000 mantras in one sitting while breathing the power into a sesame seed, then ate the seed to allow his power to grow within me. The day of the interview, I did a Kurukulla ritual to help charm the person who would be interviewing me. I got the job and started a new career in VOIP telephony.
What Is Macro- and Micro-Enchantment?
Macro-enchantment is a single ritual designed to get you the thing you want—a job, a love, a win, whatever. It is the only ritual that most people do, a spell to solve for X.
Micro-enchantments are smaller spells, rituals, and acts of Magic done to enchant each step of the way to your goal. They can make all the difference.
In the previous example, the Dzambhala offering rite was the macro-enchantment. It could have been a novena, or a candle spell, or a Mojo Hand, a bath, or anything that is designed to get me a better job than the one I had. The macro-enchantment steers the overall strategy of whatever it is I am trying to do. If I have a well-designed strategy to achieve my desires, it boosts the probability of success, overcomes obstacles, and generally greases the wheels of the universe. If I do not have a clear path to my goal, as was the case here, it creates opportunities and brings needed information.
Macro-enchantments are usually the only spell that people do on a single issue. Sometimes they are enough. Some people believe that doing more than one act of Magic toward a goal is disrespectful or shows lack of faith to whatever powers were originally invoked. Thankfully, this is not a belief that I share, because it is precisely by discarding this nugget as superstition that I started produce better results in my Magic.
Micro-Enchantment
Vodou Priest Louis Martine once told me, “First comes the working, then comes the work”—the idea being that you do a spell, then follow up with the non-Magical acts. He said this because he was stressing the importance of not neglecting mundane measures to people who might otherwise cast their spell than wait at home for the girl to show up or the check to arrive in the mail. I agree with this sentiment, but it got me thinking about taking it a step further. What if, instead of just Magical acts being followed up by mundane ones, we built a flow chart where Magical actions are followed up by mundane actions that are then boosted and followed up on by more Magical ones? These can then open new avenues for more non-Magical efforts and the pattern repeats. This is where the idea for micro-enchantments comes from.
In the example of my finding the job, the rituals to Manjushri for learning the crash-course in VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), and the Kurukulla spell to help ace the interview were micro-enchantments. The opportunity to employ them only came about because the macro-enchantment with Dharmshala opened up the opportunity for them. You can see this in the following chart.
This example is very simple, of course. The chain can get much longer when needed. A client who has been unemployed for a long amount of time recently found an excellent job, but it took a serious amount of work. After a consultation with him, and finding out that he was adept at working with the Greek Gods associated with the planets, we came up with the following chain that eventually landed him a design job that paid twice what his last job did.
In this scheme, you can see that we started with a big Jupiterian macro-enchantment, Jupiter being the planet of expansion and wealth. We also invoked the four virtue Goddesses Abundantia, Gloria, Victoria, and Harmonia to empower a Jupiter Glyph Parchment that he would keep on him until he found a new job.
After this, he went on his social media and contacted friends and former coworkers to let them know he was looking for a job. That Wednesday he did a micro-enchantment short invocation to Mercury and burned an orange candle to ensure that his networking efforts reached the right ears in a speedy way. Shortly thereafter, someone he used to work with told him about a job opportunity and said he should send in his resume. He customized his resume for this job, sent in the digital copy, and printed out a version of it to place on his altar where he would call upon the powers of Helios and chant “Helios Achebukrom” to make it shine brighter than all the other resumes that were expected for that position—a number likely in the hundreds. Because the copy on his altar was not one he was sending in, he could dress it with oil and sigils and whatever else he needed. He was scheduled for an interview and took a three-day Crown of Success Bath to make sure that his whole body was immersed in Magic before that interview. He also did a dual invocation to Jupiter and Venus:
Ay-Eu (the syllables associated with Venus and Jupiter), oh, Aphrodite and Zeus, bearers of beauty and benevolence, bless me before this interview. Aphrodite, bring me charm and beguiling presence. Mighty Zeus, magnetize me with majesty and affluence that I may be hired for this position and glorify your names. So shall it be.
The client landed the job and is living quite happily five years on. He told me that he now uses this combination of macro- and micro-enchantment on projects in his profession and will soon be employing a similar pattern for a promotion he wants to nab.
The Might of Multi-Micro-Magics
One of the great things about using micro-enchantments to follow up on a macro-enchantment is the possibility of approaching the same problem from different angles. This also helps with compensating for problems that can arise when an approach we think is able to be influenced with Magic is not so easily swayed.
A classic example of this would be a court case. You might do a single macro-enchantment to win your case, such as summoning a spirit or performing a court case spell with Psalm 35. This creates an overall blessing on the case and asks the judge to rule in your favor. The micro-enchantments make it more interesting because you can attack the problem from all of the following angles at once:
Once you know who the judge will be, you can gather some personal links, like a picture and signature, to use in a sweetening spell that will help win her over and be as lenient as possible.
Similar links from the opposing attorney (whether it's defense or prosecution) can be used in a confusion spell where their links are held every night over burning poppy-seeds, mullein, and other jinxing herbs.
Your own attorney can be blessed and bolstered with good luck petitions and success spells.
Dirt from the courthouse can be brought to your temple so that you can enchant yourself to win on that ground and to make offerings to the spirits that dwell there.
This approach, where you are pinging all sides with Magic, including the judge and even the place where the case is being heard, is potent because if one of these approaches proved unenchantable, the other approaches still might work. If you were the defendant, and the prosecutor was particularly strident in his work or had some spiritual protection of his own, you might not be able to affect him, yet still charm the judge in your favor. If, however, you could not sway the judge, then perhaps the confusion sp
ell would be enough to get the case thrown out. There are a lot of variables in every situation and using multiple micro-enchantments increases your success rate dramatically.
The Take-Away
This key addresses multiple problems. How do we approach a problem with numerous spell types? How can we deepen the use of Magic in a strategy? How can we ensure success? How do we keep multiple Magics all cohesive? Harold is presenting Salphegor with a long list of enchantments in this key's comic. Thankfully, most powerful demons have staff for this kind of thing; you will find them in the Grimoires as “legions.”
The macro/micro mix will allow you to hit your problems from different angles and use a variety of techniques. Your micro-enchantments could involve energetic work, candle spells, and spirit-summoning, all aimed at the same goal. Similarly, we can cover multiple angles, so that if influencing key people turns out to be unenchantable, other spells aimed at creating beneficial chance might have better luck. We keep all these disparate parts of our strategy bound together and overseen by the one macro-enchantment that steers the whole effort.
All this goes a long way in solving the one big problem we are always trying to solve: How do I obtain my goal?
Key 11:
You Are a Spirit Too
For much of the 1980s and '90s, when I was first learning Magic, it was a popular idea in Occult circles to think that spirits, Gods, and other powers were all simply mental constructs of the Magician. Aleister Crowley commented that “The spirits of each Goetia are portions of the Human Brain.”1 Lon DuQuette famously says, “Magic is all in your head; you just have no idea how big your head is.”2 Chaos Magic took this even further and made the spirits completely irrelevant, stating that Scrooge McDuck was just as effective as the Archangel of Jupiter, possibly more so.
