by Jason Miller
4. Remember the question. I meet readers all the time who forget to interpret the cards or the runes or whatever it is that they read with, in the light of the question that was asked. They read like they are just giving a general reading. The question is what will determine the meaning of the card, far more than the little white book your deck came with. One of the reasons that I favor Marseilles-style decks is that the cards are plainer and it's easier to focus on the person in front of me and their problem, rather than the esoteric onslaught of runes and symbols and letters and sigils that have been packed into Occult decks, or whatever fun theme your deck is based on. Hello Kitty Tarots are fun, but is that helping your divination?
5. Get readings from others. As I have said, no one likes delivering unpleasant news. We especially don't like delivering it to ourselves. Get readings from other people, preferably ones who are not invested in you hearing only good things.
6. Gather intelligence. A single reading is a piece of data. You take that and compare it to other pieces of data. This could be other readings in different styles, but it could also be rumors, insight, analysis, and any other way that you can think of to get information. Actionable intelligence is constructed from multiple corroborating data points.
7. Practice. Keep doing it. Follow up with people afterward. It is the only way to get good.
Notes
KEY 1
1. Aleister Crowley, Magic in Theory and Practice (New York: Dover, 1976).
2. Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1988).
3. Frater U.D., Secrets of the German Sex Magicians (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1995).
4. Sara wrote about this in her blog http://traifbanquet.blogspot.com/2014/07/sabnok-giver-of-castles.html. You can find more about Sara and her work at www.mastroszealot.com.
KEY 3
1. Yes, that L. Ron Hubbard.
2. Learn more about Marjorie Cameron in the film Wormwood Star from 1955 and the Camercon Parsons Foundation: www.cameron-parsons.org.
3. For more on Jack Parsons, see Sex and Rockets by John Carter.
KEY 6
1. H.B. Kappes and G. Oettingen, “Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Volume 47, Issue 4 (July 2011): 719–729.
KEY 11
1. Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (Magickal Childe facsimile, 1989).
2. Lon Milo DuQuette, Low Magick: It's All In Your Head...You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is (Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 2010).
3. John 10:34, King James Bible.
4. I cover it in my Strategic Sorcery course.
KEY 12
1. Reference to Justice Clarence Thomas asking Anita Hill, “Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?” A reference, some believe, to the practice of feeding a potential lover your sexual hairs to bind them.
2. First appeared in https://caduceuswild.wordpress.com/2016/04/07/magical-uses-for-dirt. Quoted with permission from the author who prefers to remain anonymous.
3. For more on this, see Grimoires: A History of Magic Books by Owen Davies.
KEY 13
1. William J. Cromie, “Meditation changes temperatures: Mind controls body in extreme experiments,” Harvard University Gazette (April 18, 2002).
2. Robert Downey Jr. on Inside the Actors Studio, 7/9/2006.
KEY 14
1. Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Vintage Books, 1989).
2. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 1987).
3. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge Bowling Green State University (ISSN 1555-9998).
4. Defense.gov news transcript: “DoD News Briefing–Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers, United States Department of Defense” http://archive.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2636.
KEY 15
1. Gabriel appeared to Daniel to explain his visions, to Zechariah to foretell the birth of John the Baptist, to Mary to foretell the birth of Jesus, to Mohammad to deliver the Quran, and to Joseph Smith to deliver the Book of Mormon. Gabriel gets my vote for busiest angel.
KEY 16
1. Gordon White, “Good Spellcasting Means Knowing When to Collapse,” Rune Soup blog, May 24, 2010.
KEY 17
1. Helios caught Aphrodite cheating with Ares and told her husband, Hephasteus. In revenge, Aphrodite caused Helios to fall in love with a Persian princess. When Aphrodite then told the King of his daughter taking a Greek God as a lover, he had her killed. Do not mess with Aphrodite.
KEY 18
1. From the back of an Omnipresencia De Dios candle that I purchased at a supermarket.
2. This is so common it has a name: the sunk cost fallacy.
KEY 20
1. St. Cyprian, the five Dzambhalas, Hekate, Jupiter, Astaroth, and Our Lady of Good Remedy. From the outside these have nothing to do with each other, besides the fact that I encountered them all at various times in my life.
2. Austin Carr, “Blockbuster: We Can Beat Bankruptcy and Netflix,” Fast Company, August 18, 2010. www.fastcompany.com/1683812/blockbuster-we-can-beat-bankruptcy-and-netflix
KEY 21
1. See my book The Sorcerer's Secrets.
PARTING WORDS
1. The Magus by Francis Barrett and Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson. I honestly can't remember which came first, but I checked them out of the library on the same day.
About the Author
Jason Miller's (Inominandum) interest in the Occult was sparked by a series of psychic experiences he had when he was just five years old. He took up the practice of both High Magick and Hoodoo Rootworking while still a teenager, learning how ceremonial and folk Magic can work together and complement each other.
He has been involved with a number of orders and groups through the years, always seeking the quintessence of the arte. He has traveled to New Orleans to study Hoodoo, Europe to study Witchcraft and Ceremonial Magick, and Nepal to study Tantra. Miller is an initiated Tantrika in the Nyingma and Bon lineages of Tibet, an ordained Gnostic Bishop, and a member of the Chthonic Ouranian Temple and the Sangreal Sodality.
He is the author of:
Protection and Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual
The Sorcerer's Secrets: Strategies in Practical Magic
Financial Sorcery: Magical Strategies to Create Real and Lasting Wealth
The Strategic Sorcery course
The Strategic Sorcery blog
Miller lives with his wife at the New Jersey shore, where he practices and teaches Magick professionally. Visit him at www.strategicsorcery.net
About the Illustrator
Mathew Brownlee is an Occultist and tattoo artist located in Philadelphia. He is a member of the Chthonic Auranian Temple and is a Tantrika in the Nyingma and Bon lineages of Tibet. He is a graduate of the Philadelphia Art Institute and works at Baker Street Tattoo in Media, Pennsylvania.
Visit him at www.bakerstreettattoo.com.
