Magic for the Resistance

by Michael M. Hughes

  Stones and Crystals

  Though it makes me a bit of an outlier in the magical community, I place more value on special stones I’ve found in nature or had gifted to me than on store-bought crystals and gemstones. Over the years I have found rocks that resemble faces, one that looked like an eye, another a snake, and several that don’t look unusual but continue to carry the memory and energies of magic locales I’ve visited.

  There are also ethical reasons why I don’t spend a lot of time buying and using crystals, including environmentally destructive mining and exploitative labor practices in the industry. So if you do purchase crystals, do your best to assure they have been mined in sustainable ways by ethical companies.

  There is a reason gems and crystals have been a common element in magic and witchcraft since the dawn of time, however—because they work. Crystals, in particular, are powerhouses for magical work because they readily store and transmit energy.

  I have suggested certain gems, crystals, and rocks for a number of the spells herein, but use your intuition and consult the correspondences in the Appendix for creative options.

  Small, Wearable Bags and Pouches

  Although I spent the early years of my magical practice making complex (and often costly) talismans and amulets, it was my explorations in Hoodoo and Conjure that led me to work with the much cheaper and simpler—but just as effective—mojo bags.

  Traditional mojo bags (also known as hands, gris-gris, and tobies) are made of flannel because that was a common fabric among the poor, enslaved Africans who worked with them. But any material will work—felt, leather, silk, cotton, you name it. You can even use a handkerchief.

  Amulets and talismans, including mojo bags, are some of the most practical and useful magical tools. Many people carry something special for good luck, but magically empowered objects can provide protection, draw positive energies, repel negativity, and boost your confidence and charisma. If you’re an activist, you’ll likely run into tense, uncomfortable, or dangerous situations. Having a protective mojo bag may give you just the edge you need to avoid unpleasant confrontations.

  You can also make these bags for others, personalizing them for an individual’s needs or for the particular activist goal or campaign.

  Images of Power

  Tarot cards, statues of gods or saints, photographs, drawings, or other powerful, iconic images are frequently employed in rituals. The Justice tarot card is an obvious choice for spells related to social justice workings and for anything involving the legal system. The Tower card was used in the Trump binding spell, as it could be associated with his garishly branded towers. A printed photo of a politician target of a binding spell (perhaps with a sigil drawn on it), a drawing of the Statue of Liberty, a polluting company’s printed logo, or other photos, drawings, or printouts may take their place on the altar as needed.

  Name Papers, Prayer Papers, and Sigils

  Paper on which you’ve written the name or names of your targets are known as name papers. If you write out a prayer or spell, it is called a prayer or petition paper. You can use any sort of paper and pencils, pens, or markers. Some people emulate ancient Egyptian spellcasters and use brushes and ink on papyrus (available online), while others use scraps of paper shopping bags, as is common in Hoodoo and Conjure. Use recycled paper whenever possible. One thing to keep in mind is making sure there is enough contrast between ink and paper that you can read or write on it under candlelight.

  If you can get a signature of your target, that is also an excellent link to them. Even if the signature is a facsimile, it will be effective. You can often contact your government representatives (via letter or email) and get a signed document in response.

  Pyramid as Energy Tool

  This is a tool you won’t find in many other books of magic, but I’ve used it since I was in my early teens.

  One of my first concrete experiences of magical energy happened after I read a book on pyramid power in the seventies. (Yes, instead of comics, I was reading books about witchcraft, UFOs, and pyramids. I was a bit of an odd kid.) I decided to build my own pyramid to test some of the book’s assertions. I cut sheets of cardboard and taped them into a small replica of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, cut panels into the sides (so it was open), and proceeded to do some experiments.

  I was floored by the results.

  First, I placed a section of an orange beneath the pyramid and one right outside it. The fruit beneath the pyramid dried up completely, while the piece a few inches away became covered in green mold. Then I tried the same experiment with a piece of raw bacon. Again, the bacon inside the pyramid dried up, while the piece outside quickly rotted.

  The most impressive experiment used small cups of milk. I covered each cup with plastic wrap. After a couple of days, I uncovered the cup beneath the pyramid. It had a very neutral smell, reminiscent of yogurt, and had formed a curd. When I removed the plastic wrap on the milk outside the pyramid, I made the mistake of lifting it to my nose and smelling it. I gagged and could barely keep from vomiting. It was thoroughly spoiled, and to this day I have an aversion to milk.

  I also did experiments with bean sprouts, and the seedlings under the pyramid grew dramatically faster and taller.

  Duly impressed (as were my bewildered but supportive parents), I typed up my experiments on a manual typewriter, took some Polaroid snapshots, pasted it all on poster board, and submitted it to my school science fair with the title “Do Pyramids Affect Decomposition?” I won first place, which qualified me for the Maryland state science fair.

  My first lesson in how mainstream science treats things outside of its orthodoxy took place as I watched the state science fair organizers debating where to place my project. Was it biology? Chemistry? Physics? They spent a half hour puzzling over the question before finding me a spot in between categories (a liminal zone I’ve learned to appreciate in the years since).

  Today I use a frame pyramid made of brass to charge items I place beneath it. When I make a batch of incense or oil or a mojo bag, I keep it beneath the pyramid’s center for a few days after I consecrate it to further energize the item.

  If you want to try it, you can find metal frame pyramids online—I recommend them over solid models because you can see what’s under them and easily access the items inside. Or you can make your own, of course, and instructions are available in books or online.

  There is something as yet unexplained about how this particular shape creates a field of energy empowering growth while paradoxically arresting decay. After the fad passed in the seventies, research declined in the United States, although it has continued in Russia. Though I don’t know how it works, pyramid energy has proven to be undeniably real and useful in my practice.

  Other Items

  I always have the following near my altar for easy access:

  • Spare candles in a variety of sizes and colors

  • Charcoal blocks or disks (for burning woods, herbs, and resins)

  • My collection of incenses, oils, and plant products

  • Glass jars, vials, and droppers

  • Matches or a lighter (I keep a fireplace or grill lighter to reach inside tall glass prayer candles and to light charcoal)

  Where’s the wand, dude?

  So where’s the magic wand? How can any witch or magician expect to be taken seriously without a wand?

  I have a number of wands, some of them very beautiful. I spent a dozen hours carving, sanding, and painting one of them with intricate sigils and symbols (because that’s what Kabbalistic magicians do). And though it may seem counter to everything you know about magic—and heretical to Harry Potter fans—I seldom use any of them. Why? Because I’ve found my hands are exponentially better at directing and manipulating energy.

  If you feel compelled to use a wand, or if your tradition includes it, go for it. As you’ll soon get tired of me rep
eating, magic is an art, and a personal one at that. What works best for me might not for you.

  Consider, though, the intimacy of our hands and fingers and how we transfer our energy via touch. If your pet cat or dog is in pain and suffering, would you rub it with a stick? I doubt it. You’d caress it gently, and your love and healing energy would be transferred through the powerful magic instruments known as your hands. Think of the way even the lightest touch from someone you are madly in love with makes you feel—is there anything more invigorating? Entire healing systems are based on what is called in religions the “laying on of hands,” including one practice, Therapeutic Touch, that has been widely embraced by medical professionals.

  In this book you will be encouraged to use your hands or your fingers to generate, hold, transfer, or direct energy. I suggest trying it that way unless you’re already using an energized wand in your practice and are happy with the results. When you begin working extensively with energy, you’ll be surprised at the change in sensitivity in your hands.

  Knives and Athames

  I sometimes utilize an iron knife when very strong defensive magic is required, and the energetic effects of a ritual blade can be extremely potent, even when wielded by beginners. Much of that is due to our ambivalent associations with blades and acts of cutting and violence. In general, there’s no need to use ritual knives unless they are a component of your tradition.

  Tarot in Resistance

  Tarot cards, especially the major arcana, make excellent charms and talismans. They’re portable, potent power images you can tuck in a backpack, purse, or coat pocket.

  Consider choosing a card to carry when you head out to an action or other activity. You can also adopt a card to use as a symbol or focus of a campaign or project (as the Tower card became associated with the Trump binding spell).

  Fool: Beginning a new action or campaign, helping the homeless (the Fool iconography in the earliest tarots derives largely from medieval and Renaissance depictions of wandering, homeless, rejected people)

  Magician: Anytime you’re working resistance magic (or other magic)

  High Priestess/Papesse: Study, academics, secrecy, reconnaissance, reproductive rights, feminism

  Empress: Working for a female politician or leader, women’s empowerment, fair pay, equal rights, maternal health

  Emperor: Confronting politicians, fighting empire, antiwar, capitalism

  Hierophant/Pope: Education and academia, spiritual instruction, combatting and exposing sex abuse

  Lovers: Physical and spiritual love, reproductive rights, sex worker protection, breaking a physical or sexual bond (inverted)

  Chariot: Public transportation advocacy, pedestrian or bicycle advocacy, public speaking

  Strength: Any project requiring or promoting strength (particularly women’s strength), animal welfare, nonviolence

  Hermit: Spiritual or moral guidance, enlightenment, leadership, elder advocacy

  Wheel of Fortune: Revolution, social progress, fighting the gambling industry

  Justice: All matters involving social and legal justice, legal issues, court cases, and trials, the broad goal of justice via the “righting of the scales” or karma

  Hanged Man: Death penalty, torture, prison reform

  Death: Death penalty, war, violent crime, gun law reform

  Temperance: Peace, community healing, social welfare, addiction, water rights

  Devil: Rebellion, slavery, religious fundamentalism, addiction and recovery, predatory capitalism, fascism, human trafficking

  Tower: Trump binding, antiauthoritarian, crony capitalism, wealth inequity, corporate excesses, opposition to construction projects

  Star: Peace, water rights, human rights, environmentalism, astrological influences

  Moon: Feminism, animal welfare, pet adoption, water issues, nighttime actions, psychic abilities, art advocacy

  Sun: Transparency, solar and renewable energy, farming and sustainable agriculture, transparency in law

  Judgement: Legal matters, revolution, uprisings

  World: World peace, all environmental issues, trans rights, vegetarianism, animal welfare

  Disposal

  A few words about disposal of spell remnants:

  Many traditions suggest disposing of spell remains (candle scraps, wax, ash, liquids, paper, pins, etc.) at a crossroads, in running water, in a graveyard, and so on. Do not just leave your spell refuse in the middle of a crossroads! Spiritual practice does not excuse littering. One option is to find a convenience store or gas station located at a crossroads and place the material in its trash receptacle or dumpster. Voilà.

  If a material is to be buried, you can bury it in your yard (if its aim is healing, defensive, or beneficial) or in a circumspect location away from your home (if it is for binding, hexing, or repelling). Never bury anything toxic, nonbiodegradable, or dangerous to animals or people. Err on the side of caution and don’t break any laws.

  Leftover glass (such as empty prayer candles) should be recycled.

  If a spell directs you to dispose of objects in a public place (say, a courthouse or a vigil location), follow this rule: for every object you leave for magical and symbolic purpose, pick up three times the equivalent in litter and dispose of it. Keep the scales in balance, and tip them in your favor by always doing a little extra remediation.

  Altars: Creating Your Magical Dashboard

  If you’re going to take magic seriously, you’ll need to set up a proper workspace. As with any endeavor, having a space separate from your day-to-day activities and the proper tools at hand will allow you maximum effectiveness in your magical workings. In most traditions this space is called an altar, and I like to think of it as my ritual dashboard or spiritual cockpit, the control center from which I launch into, and navigate, magical space.

  It’s helpful, but not necessary, if your altar occupies a permanent space in your home. Obviously, a permanent altar is not always possible, whether due to a need for secrecy from roommates or spouses, to keep away from pets, or simply because of space constraints. In that case, temporary altars may be set up when necessary and taken down and packed away into a suitable container.

  The altar serves as a focal point for your energy and sets aside a sanctified space for magical workings. It houses your working tools and, over time, will acquire a palpable energy. Merely standing or sitting in front of it will allow you to quickly slip into a heightened state of consciousness.

  You will need to ensure privacy while working at your altar. Nothing kills the magical vibe more quickly than a roommate or child wandering into the middle of a ritual. Do whatever is necessary to ensure your absolute privacy—make it known to others that they are not to interrupt except for absolute emergencies. If you have a companion or roommate who is antagonistic to your practice, tell them you are meditating or working. If you have young children, you may need to wait until they are asleep. Of course, privacy means shutting off your phone and other electronic devices, too. Time at the altar is sacred and should be treated as such.

  If you’re fortunate enough to have a secluded yard, beach, or nearby field or wooded area, you can set up an outdoor altar, though you may want to carry your working tools with you versus leaving them exposed to the elements or to curious people or critters.

  Options for permanent or semipermanent altar spaces may include the following:

  • A section of your desk

  • The top of a dresser, cabinet, or table

  • A dedicated section of a bookshelf

  • A hearth or mantle

  • A specially constructed altar of wood or other materials

  • A slab of stone or wood

  • A large rock, tree stump, or other flat area outdoors

  If a permanent altar is undesirable or impossible, find a suitable spot where you can set up a temporary w
orkspace. Some people use a covered box, crate, or other unobtrusive container (such as a plastic tub) to store their working tools, perhaps covering it with a cloth during rituals to make it less drab and utilitarian. When finished, the tools go back in the container until the next working.

  You may sometimes find the need to construct a temporary altar outside of your home. For a protection ritual for an endangered wooded area, for example, you may want to build a temporary altar for your spell on a rock, stump, in the crook of a tree, or just on the ground. You might even set up a temporary altar in front of you on a sidewalk during a protest ritual, as many witches did outside of Trump Towers in New York and Chicago during the very first binding spell in 2017. Just be sure to take all of your components with you when you’re done—the “leave no trace” ethic should be part of magic, too (with certain exceptions, as detailed later in the book).

  Sometimes you may want to construct a secret or hidden altar, perhaps to protect an area from development or to bind the energies of a corporation on its property. Archaeologists and historians have found evidence of hidden altars and other magical tools made by enslaved African Americans in a number of historic residences. You may want to do rituals at the site of an injustice in a surreptitious way by creating an altar that blends in with its surroundings, but at which you can perform regular workings to keep it empowered.

  You may also put together a portable altar, especially if you are traveling as an activist or want to do regular rituals at different locations. Any easily carried container works, or you can simply keep the required altar materials safely wrapped in your backpack.

  The key to creating your altar is to make it truly yours, reflective of your personality, your aesthetics, and your magical affinities and goals. Strive to make it a singular work of art. After each monthly Trump binding spell, members of the official Facebook group post photos of their altars. Their beauty and diversity are breathtaking. Some have specific themes, whether Egyptian, Wiccan, or Greek. Others are composed of shells, plants, rocks, crystals, wood, and other natural materials. Many are very simple, with just the spell’s components artfully arranged, while others use a collection of colored candles, deity statues, personal symbolic items, and handmade art.