Okay, first things first. We like Daven quite a bit. He’s a cool person, and really knows his stuff when it comes to magic and paganism (as his many writings and correspondences attest). We just happen to be diametrically opposed to him on the subject of bunny hunting (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — it’s good when you have intelligent, experienced people on both sides of a debate, because then you get a clearer view of the issue). However, we perceive bunny hunting to be an extreme reaction to problematic pagans.

Neither one of us has participated in a bunny hunt, which as you may have read from Daven’s essay, is the art of proactively preventing the spread of misinformation (including dangerous ideas, such as suggesting that belladonna is good for you) within the pagan community. A bunny isn’t just a newbie, but rather is someone who has access to good information yet remains willfully ignorant. Lupa, however, was a part of an online community for several months that organized bunny hunts, particularly that surrounding Elder Ravenfire (ERF), a twenty-two-year-old self-proclaimed elder of his own Wiccan tradition.

For the record, we have absolutely no problem with making sure bad information gets curbed. The same goes for dangerous people, such as sexual predators and plagiarists (who are dangerous for very different reasons). The problem is that since the pagan community is still relatively young and is still in its formative stages, there really isn’t any proscribed way to deal with such problematic pagans. Most of what we’ve seen has been the “spread rumors and shun” method, along with written diatribes (primarily online) about specific people (usually authors). Rarely is there any moderation or oversight on these efforts, which raises a lot of questions as to the legality, particularly of the written actions taken, but even more importantly when such actions go beyond ethical considerations.

Then there is the bunny hunt itself. This is a relatively new phenomenon that appears to us to be somewhat of a mix between the “spread rumors and shun” method and a good old-fashioned witch war. It’s not intended to be as such, but in its more advanced stages it certainly resembles these. For example, a bunny hunt may start with people who have knowledge and experience enough to be considered authorities being on a forum where a bunny is spewing all sorts of esoteric garbage. Said authorities will do as most sensible pagans do and correct the bunny’s misinformation. The bunny, not being a sensible person hirself, will take offense and get all pissy about the fact that s/he’s just been pwned.

This is where things can get ugly, and where we disagree with what happens next. Rather than ignoring the bunny and letting hir stew in hir own juices (and make a fool of hirself in the process), the hunters may respond to the bunny’s bitching and moaning (albeit in a much calmer, informed fashion). This causes the situation to escalate to a point where nobody’;s going to convince anyone else of the Truth. And this happens in regular situations as well. Ever heard of a flame war? Even if you only have one side actually spewing epithets, the other is still contributing to the argument by continuing to respond to the bunny. This may carry on to other forums and message boards, as bunny hunters may follow the bunny from place to place to prevent misinformation from occurring elsewhere. At the same time, they are also harassing that bunny, to the point that s/he may be discouraged from trying to learn because the bunny hunters show no sign of moderation or restraint in their activities. If there was any chance of salvaging the bunny’s potential to learn saner ways, the experience of being hounded across the internet may kill whatever was left. For sure, the hunters have the best of intentions and may not see what they’re doing as harassment, but as Taylor has pointed out before, the intent you have and the impact it has on others may be entirely different — and does the end really justify the means?

Still, so far there’s nothing here that’s really out of the ordinary. A lot of this is just the usual online politicking. However, it’s the latter stages of the ERF hunt in particular that have caused us to really question the effect of the hunt in general. For example, when Lupa was on the aforementioned hunting community, she observed increased aggression on the part of the hunters. The thing that finally caused her to leave was seeing several people discussing, with obvious glee, how long it would be before ERF cracked, since he was showing signs of mental illness. Is this how community leaders and authorities (and -dare we use the term — elders) are supposed to act?

The Bunny Trail

Now, since this was in a private community, we can’t really show evidence of this particular instance beyond hearsay. What we can show you is The Bunny Trail. This website appeared at the end of January 2007 and appears to be the result of the ERF hunt. The site mainly seems to be composed of ERF’s personal information, as well as a couple of examples of flame wars he’s been in as a result of the hunt, emails (without headers) from people commenting on ERF, and the author’s personal opinions on what s/he has observed about ERF’s behavior.

Some of the site has been edited recently; as of the time of this writing, the address and phone number had been removed; however, thanks to the joys of Google cache and screen shots we have an older version of the site showing the address and phone number. We’re not going to post it here (since that’s one of our initial complaints), but if someone absolutely must have proof of this you may contact us about the possibility of getting a copy.

Obviously, with the help of the internet you can find anyone’s personal information within a matter of minutes. What we disagree with is placing that information in conjunction with a bunch of negative accusations against the person (lacking in sufficient evidence, we might add from an editorial point of view). That’s just begging for people to harass the target, even if it’s just for the sake of harassment. And it’s only recently been that internet defamation lawsuits have been awarded in favor of the plaintiff² so people often have the idea that they can say whatever they like without fear of being accused of slander or libel. After all, it’s the internet — people say all sorts of things, right?

However, we’re not here to discuss legalities; we’ll leave that to the lawyers in the event ERF decides to sue. What we’re concerned with are the ethics of this practice. For example, one of the criteria of determining a “toxic bunny” is people who are involved in slander or libel.³ To our minds, what the bunny hunters doing is dangerously close to exactly what they’re trying to protect people against. The main difference is their justification: that it’s okay for them to do this because they’re protecting the rest of us from the scourge of ERF.

And it’s that justification of actions that this whole thing seems to hinge on. It seems that whoever has designed the Bunny Trail site has determined for everyone else what a toxic bunny is. While some of these (like the aforementioned sexual predation and plagiarism, as well as teaching minors without parental consent) would probably be agreed upon unanimously, others aren’t so neatly defined. For example, “Those who continually rewrite history to suit themselves and with the goal of making themselves look to be the victim.”⁴ What the hell does that mean? Are we the only people who think that this statement could be interpreted in any of a number of ways just to get revenge on someone the hunters didn’t like? Granted, right now it would appear that the focus is still on people who spread dangerous information and otherwise are serious problems. However, the Inquisition was also set up to protect the Church and populace from dangerous people — and we all know where that went!

This introduces the idea that there doesn’t seem to be any moderation or oversight by people not belonging to the bunny hunting community. The justification of protecting people is also worrisome, because it brings to mind the Patriot Act and other decisions made by people in power to “protect” others. The question is whether protection is really occurring, and whose agenda it serves to have this kind of protection in place. Who protects us from the protectors? That none of these details have really been addressed by the bunny hunters indicates that in their zeal to protect us from others, they haven’t instituted a means to insure that someone is placing a systems of checks on what they do in their bunny hunting activities.

Additionally, let’s look at one of the details of the fifth piece of evidence: “Those who advocate illegal activities like drug-use.”⁵ So now they get to make decisions on what people do with their own bodies? I suppose that means that every traditional shaman, chemognosis psychonaut, and anyone else who happens to use peyote, psilocybin and other hallucinogens in their practice, no matter how long they’ve been doing so and no matter how respected an authority they might be, is a toxic bunny. There goes Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, a number of the essayists from the Generation Hex anthology, and a good bit of Shaman’s Drum magazine, not to mention traditional shamanic practitioners worldwide! And what about the right of people to have their privacy? Will “Mabon” start knocking on pagan doors, demanding urine for drug tests? Is an otherwise respected member of the community going to be blacklisted simply because s/he likes to indulge in a little Mary Jane now and then?

Okay, okay. We are exaggerating the effects. But our point remains the same: bunny hunting, no matter how well-intentioned, has the very real potential of leading to the ostracism of people from the pagan community who aren’t actually a danger to anyone. Whether this abuse of power leads to petty arguments turning into modern-day witch hunts, or someone deciding that a practice that they (but not all pagans) find unsavory is a problem, the result is still the same: Big Brother may soon be sporting ritual garb and carrying an athame, telling us how to conduct our spiritual lives and even tell us how we must appear in public in order to “set a good example.”

The Bunny Trail isn’t alone, either. We invite you to peruse the following links:

• http://blackthornshuntress.blogspot.com/
• http://diamondsofdumbships.blogspot.com/
• http://witchofthenorth.blogspot.com/

All three of these go well beyond correcting misinformation and into what is basically trolling and internet harassment. While ERF might not be the best representative of the pagan community, are people who stoop to this sort of petty, immature behavior any better? How is this benefiting anyone? Granted, these people don’t represent all hunters, either, but if this sort of behavior is not only condoned but encouraged among hunters, how is this any better than allowing toxic bunnies to run rampant?

Ethical Concerns

What’s not clear is whether bunny hunters have any ethical constraints or moderation placed on their activity. It seems as if the only authority bunny hunters answer to is themselves, and we question the ethics in such a case, because there is no one to provide an objective examination of what they are doing or provide some moderation on their activities should they start to go overboard. The bunny hunters have basically taken it upon themselves to police the pagan community, with no thought given to how they themselves will be policed for their activities.

What motivates the bunny hunting is also of concern. Suppose a bunny hunter claims, for instance, that hir god/dess has told hir to go and take all of the bunnies out. We have to wonder how this is any different from the far right evangelicals who make similar statements for their activities. Such claims that deity made me do it leave unexamined the hunter’s personal responsibility and why s/he feels personally motivated to do the hunting. In addition, this kind of reasoning leads to the fanaticism that has caused so many wars throughout history. It leads to dogmatism that proclaims that any other way than mine is wrong. We feel that neither fanaticism nor dogma has a place in Paganism and that such activities as bunny hunting must be questioned critically to ensure that fanaticism and dogma aren’t used as reasons for bunny hunting.

The motivation behind bunny hunting must be exposed and questioned. When bunny hunters feel it’s a holy or righteous mission they are on, they need to be reined in and questioned about how they’ve determined that motivation. It’s healthier to educate people, as opposed to harassing or punishing them. The ERF bunny hunt is an example of punishment as opposed to education. While early on attempts were made to simply correct his misinformation and prevent him from convincing people of some potentially dangerous things, we believe that in the latter stages the hunt was carried entirely too far. Not surprisingly ERF lashed back, no doubt because he felt cornered by what he perceived as personal attacks. When the bunny hunters view that as harassment, we want to ask how it justifies their activities and how they feel about the result and its effects on them. Do they spare any thought to wondering if this is how they’ve made people feel when they’ve felt the need to hunt them down and force them to recant their views?

Alternatives to Bunny Hunting

“Well, okay, Mr. and Ms. Smartypants Bunnylovers,”; you might be thinking right now, “if you know so much and you think that bunny hunting is so bad, what are you going to do about the problem?” We’ve thought about this, because we do admit that there are definitely problems that bunny hunting is an attempt to solve. And we do commend the hunters for at least trying to do something about the problems. However, we disagree that the method they’ve been using is a healthy one. So here are some alternatives that we propose.

Get more good information out there —

We are, of course, biased towards this one because we’re authors, and we like infecting people with the writing bug (more reading material!). Since we both work 40 hour a week jobs at this point along with our writing and other independent business endeavors, we’ve had to learn to be good at time management. This is why we’ve tried to limit the amount of time we spent online, other than networking and checking email. If a person spends an hour a night, five nights a week bunny hunting, that’s five hours a week that could be spent writing. Believe it or not, there’s a lot you can get done in five hours, even if it’s in one hour increments — the trick is to have the discipline to actually sit down and write rather than getting distracted (including by the shiny internet), and it does take practice.

So what do you write? Books are our favorites, but articles work, too. The advantage of writing books and articles is that you not only get to convey information to a wider audience than your average internet forum, but you also get to meet many people in person and teach classes, which can be quite useful for showing bunnies why they might want to do some research. In addition, while anyone can argue on an internet forum, the arguments on forums are mostly perceived as just opinions. Writing your book or article, and most importantly showing your research, can validate and strengthen the claims you make.

You can’t save everyone —

So you’ve written a bunch of online articles scattered across the internet, and your book is on Amazon, waiting for orders. You’ve promoted the hell out of both, and you’ve got 30 weekends a year scheduled for gatherings and classes at pagan shops. You’re doing everything you possibly can to make your information widely available. And then it happens — there’s a bunny! You counter hir argument with one of your well-written articles and maybe even refer your book. And you get ignored. Or even flamed.

Sometimes it’s best to just accept that people have free will, and they’re going to exercise it no matter what. You can’t make others’ decisions for them, nor can you change their minds if they don’t want them changed. And often, doing anything other than presenting basic information will be taken as an attempt to convert people. After all, conversion doesn’t have to be from one distinct religion to another; it can involve differing viewpoints within the same religion. Though hunters may not think that what they’re doing is conversion, it may be perceived as such by some because of the vehemence with which debates may be made.

You know that saying about horses and water? Yup. This is one of those times. Even when we’re just talking about newbies, you can’t force people to read your words or even accept them. Chances are good that if you keep pressing the issue, you’re going to come across as pushy, and turn people off. Sure, you may have the philosophy that it’s worth it if you get through to just one person — but if in the act of saving that person you turn five more away who had originally liked your work but got disgusted with your behavior, is it really worth it? There’s also something to be said for allowing people to make mistakes. Taylor learned magic on his own and made lots of mistakes over the years. But he also learned from those mistakes. The same can be true for any person, provided they have the room to make those mistakes. Correct misinformation when it can be lethal to people reading it, but if it’s just someone who’s trying to find hir way and doesn’t want to listen to you, let it go. That person will learn best by making mistakes and dealing with the consequences, as opposed to having some bunny hunter hover over hir shoulder scolding hir for everything s/he does.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from life, it’s that you can ultimately only be responsible for your own actions. That doesn’t mean that you should shut yourself in a box and hope the world either agrees with you or goes away; we need activism in many areas of life. However, at some point you have to accept that people have free will, and that no matter how much good information you throw at them they’re simply not going to listen. This is especially true if you try to muscle your way in. Being one of a couple of people on a forum who routinely correct bad information is one thing; being one of a half a dozen or more who follow a person around the internet in order to make sure s/he doesn’t dare say something wrong lest someone believe hir is counterproductive. No matter how good your intentions are, you’re still going to come across as a bully to at least some people. Trying to force people to believe what you believe or forcing them out of the community you’re a part of will eventually result in resistance to what you do, and not just from the bunnies you hunt. You can’t convince everyone to agree with you. For example, chances are there’ll be a lot of people who agree with us on this whole bunny hunting issue, and a bunch who agree with Daven, and probably even some who either don’t care, think we’re all bitching about nothing, or otherwise have another perspective on the matter.

Think (and speak) positive —

And this is where we get into the next piece of advice — keep it as positive as possible. No, we’re not saying be all sweetness and light and unicorn giggles. But the way you convey your information is very important. You can have the best information in the world, but if you come across as a jerk (even if you didn’t intend to) it doesn’t matter what your content says. For example, at one of the many events we presented at we had several people come up to us and make some pretty outlandish claims, the kind of thing you hear in fantasy novels and roleplaying games — and they’d apparently been believing it for a good long while. Instead of jumping down their throats, telling them that they were wrong, we politely presented our own perspectives and experiences. We even did healing for one of the people. The upshot was that they bought some books and they left a bit more thoughtful than before; we’d had really good conversations with them. There’s no guarantee that they’ll stop being fluff bunnies, but chances are that we got them to think and left to them form their own conclusions, without forcing our views on them.

People are generally more receptive to a positive tone than a negative one, especially if they’re innocent bystanders. Additionally, the newbies that you’re attempting to save from the fluff/toxic bunnies may not really have enough context to understand why people are arguing, and so may side with the person they perceive as the “victim’ (even if that person really is a predator!). They may view you as the predator because you are coming so strongly, without consideration of how your presentation affects peoples’ responses to you. Remember that most professionally published books on paganism tend to deal less with debunking bad information, and more on actually providing information. The reason we point that out is that while you can debunk bad information, providing accurate information is more important than proving so and so is wrong and shouldn’t be listened to.

If you dislike the positive/negative dichotomy, think of it as constructive/destructive instead. Destruction might be easier to do, but construction creates longer-lasting effects. You can tear anyone down, but helping a person learn and knowing when to provide that person space can do much more for you and help spread the good information around. What needs to be remembered is that people remember how you presented yourself long after they may forget the content of your message. Show people a reason to dislike you and they will remember that and tell other people, but show them that you’re professional and chances are they’ll remember and may even come back to you for advice. The impact of how you present yourself is just as important as the intent behind the presentation.

At the same time, we do need to continue dialogue about what to do when someone really is a threat to others. In some cases, such as plagiarism and violent crime, there are legal avenues in place to deal with these issues. However, in cases where the solution isn’t so simple, there’s a lot of questioning as to what the S.O.P. ought to be. As the pagan community matures, we believe more solutions will be found, effective ones. We are still a young subculture, comparatively speaking, and problematic pagans are a part of the growing pains that can’t be ignored. However, while bunny hunting may seem like a great idea, it has the potential to become a toxic well all on its own.

We have no doubt that bunny hunting will continue, but we end this article with the thought that bunny hunters may also someday be hunted down for how they treated people. They would do well to remember that the judgment they cast on others can be cast right back. When there is no moderation, no sign that the bunny hunters answer to any authority other than their own, we must question the ethics and actions of the bunny hunters. Otherwise we risk the rise of a movement in paganism which is just as virulent as the evangelical fundamentalists and just as willing to take matters to an extreme that is unwarranted. By questioning the activities of the bunny hunters and monitoring what they do we can insure that they don’t set the standards by how someone is accepted in the spiritual communities we are all part of.

Sources—

1. ERF in Yahoo cache.
2. USA Today Internet Defamation Story.
3. ibid.
4. Quote.

©2007 by Taylor Ellwood and Lupa.
Edited by Sheta Kaey.

When I read the first half of this book I wasn’t initially impressed. Tyson did a good job of covering the history of tarot and laying out the basics, but I wanted to know when the reader would get to the meat of the book, i.e. the portable magic system he was talking about. It wasn’t until I reached the second half of the book that I got what I was looking for in this book — an innovative and original approach to utilizing tarot cards in magical practice.

In the second half of the book, using the Golden Dawn as his paradigm, Tyson explains how Tarot can be used in practical and metamorphic magic. He does an excellent job of laying out how his system works, and even explains how the magician can use the astrological correspondences in tandem with the rest of his system. What I really appreciated were the examples of workings he provided and his notes on how he personalized his own approach to Tarot magic, by changing some of the correspondences in the traditional Golden Dawn Paradigm. Additionally, it was heartening to see internal citations used in this book, a step up from the majority of works that are released without out those citations.

There are only two issues I had with the book. The first issue is the one I mentioned above in regards to the first half of the book. I’d have liked it if he’d cut down on some of the basics material, pointing readers to other works instead, so that he could focus his work more on his innovative approach. Additionally, while he referenced Golden Dawn ritual work for the Tarot, it would have been nice to have seen some focus on other approaches to Tarot that utilize ritual magic. Gareth Knight’s work and Mary K. Greer’s work particularly come to mind. These two issues lowered my rating to four out of five stars.

Review ©2007 Taylor Ellwood
Edited by Sheta Kaey

Recently, I decided to do a grieving ritual for my time in academia. I’d dropped out of my Ph.d in 2005 and for almost a year had not really had a chance to process the emotions over leaving under such circumstances. My wife had bought me the Voyager Tarot, and I needed to break it in, so I decided to use it to help me divine the various causes of my grief. By objectifying my grief through the reading, I could draw those elements out of my psyche and take control of my grief, bring it to a resolution.

The central card was Logic, which accurately represented academic thought processes and so was the core of the particular sorrow I wanted to evoke.

The card to the bottom left was a card that explained the mission of the Voyager Tarot. The lines that stood out to me were: “Voyager Tarot is a mirror extension of yourself. Respect it as you Respect yourself¹.” The words “mirror” and “respect” especially resonated with me. I’ve always used mirrors as a gateway to myself, and I realized that I needed to find some respect that I’d lost for myself in leaving academia.

To the immediate left was the Sun card, representing glory and power. In this particular case, it represented a feeling of disempowerment that I’d felt as a result of my academic experiences. That disempowerment came in the form of a loss of self-confidence in my writing and in who I identified myself to be.

On the upper left was Compassion, which indicated a need to forgive myself as well as the others in the situation. I tend to hold grudges for a long time, both toward myself and other people. In order for me to find my peace I knew needed to forgive everyone involved.

Above the Logic card was the Seeker Card. This one represented both my desire to seek a resolution and the vulnerability I’d felt as a seeker of knowledge in academia. It was the loss of my social life (at that point in time), but also the loss of my innocence. When I’d gone to academia I’d sought a community of fellowship and had quickly found that no such community existed and that a lot of competition was involved in the learning process.

The card on the upper right hand corner was time-space and represented my feelings of bitterness over spending three and a half years in a Ph.D. program, without getting the degree. There’ve been times where I’ve felt I wasted those three and a half years. Rationally I know otherwise, because all experiences are never wasted. Emotionally, I was irrational and wanted those three and a half years back.

To the immediate right was the learner card, which represented the loss of wonder and enjoyment in learning I experienced when I realized academia was a game and not quite the place of learning I’d thought it was. I wanted learning to be fun again, instead of being a tedious chore of proving who could drop more names than the other person.

The card to the lower right was confusion, which represents what I felt and still feel about my academic experience. I was confused by how I got to the point where I needed to leave the program. I was also confused by the feelings of bitterness I had over choosing to leave, and the wistful longing that occasionally brought up a desire to be back in academia.

After I did the reading, I left the cards out and pulled out my art supplies. I felt it was useful for me to grieve by evoking and expressing that grief. I allowed each tarot card to register in my mind’s eye and then asked the consciousness of that card to take over and guide my hands in painting the symbols that best expressed the meanings I’d found in the cards. I also wanted to paint how those meanings related to each other, by creating in the symbols a linkage to the other symbols.

During the actual painting, I didn’t feel any grief. The trance I was in focused more on getting the symbols on paper. But the creation and linkage of those symbols was also meant to create a gate in the painting, for the purpose of containing and evoking the energy of the emotions I felt, so that the energy could be put to better use than in a continual cycle of grief and anger.

Once the painting was completed, I vividly recalled the feelings I associated with academia. The frustration I felt at failing the exams, the politics, the three and a half years of time I’d invested into the degree, not getting the degree, the loss of confidence and the feeling of disempowerment I felt; all of these feelings surged with a vengeance into my consciousness. My chest felt heavy, as if a large block was on it. I then opened my mouth and “vomited” the energy into the painting. A loud keening cry of sorrow came from throat as I gave voice to the grief and regret I felt over everything that had happened. This continued for quite a while. When I could no longer give voice to my grief, I stopped. The energy had gone into the painting, where I could access it as needed, but where it would also no longer be a toxic presence in my life.

I’ve always taken the approach that any and everything has its uses. I’ve used similar evocations of emotions before to store away emotional energy. I still feel the energy, but it’s then recycled and stored away until it’s needed for magical workings. I no longer wallow in the pain. Instead, those emotions are directed toward accomplishing specific goals and tasks that will help me achieve my desires. I would note that a person shouldn’t think I’ve closed myself off from the emotions or denied their validity. The purpose of the ritual is to grieve, to vent, and give the sorrow a voice, but also to redirect that energy so it no longer cycles back to the subconscious to torment me further.

As an interesting side note, after doing this ritual, some of my insecurities reared their heads, probably because of the deep plunge into the subconscious to deal with the lingering emotional issues concerning academia. In particular, I had a vivid nightmare of being judged by a panel of people. Over the next day and a half, these insecurities were expressed in several different ways, through online posts and through just feeling the emotions. However, in each case I was able to consciously act in regards to the insecurities and come to a resolution that was beneficial for those feelings. I think these insecurities woke up because they related to the issues in the painting. In other words, it was the rest of the emotions expressing themselves before being funneled into the painting where they could be stored until evoked for magical purposes.

Footnotes

1. Voyager Tarot Kit: Intuition Cards for the 21st Century Wanson & Knutsen 1984

©2007 Taylor Ellwood
Edited by Sheta Kaey

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body, and Pop Culture Magick, among other works. You can visit his blog at http://magicalexperiments.com/ and his website at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/.

Ever heard of the stereotypical “poor Pagan”? The one who barely lives paycheck to paycheck, drives a hunk o’ junk around because s/he has no credit, and never seems to get ahead? This stereotype, when it comes to money, is justified by the idea that being poor is virtuous. The rationalization is that it’s okay if you’re in debt, and/or don’t have much money — you’re keeping it real by not being too materialistic or capitalistic. But this virtue of being poor isn’t really a virtue at all. For many (but not all), it’s a rationalization for why a person is poor, so that s/he can feel better about his/her decision to stay poor. Pagans aren’t alone in this, but it seems that we are pretty good at providing reasons for accepting poverty over wealth. For those Pagans who are disabled or chronically ill, poverty may not be a choice, but instead an unfortunate reality that can’t be avoided. Even so I have a suggestion at the end of this article as to how we as a community can help the members of our community who aren’t as well-off because of situations radically out of their control.

While you don’t have final say on how much you’re paid at a job, or the social situations you’re in that can negatively or positively impact your life, you can decide what you choose to do with your money. Even the debts you pay were debts that you took on, whether it was to purchase luxury items on a credit card or to deal with an unfortunate situation such as a car accident. You may never have complete control over your life or the situations you’re in. But you do have control over your reactions and how you choose to deal with a situation.

You also have complete control of your attitude when it comes to money — but you might not learn you have that control until after you’re knee deep in debt and sinking further. The problem that many people face (not just Pagans) is that they aren’t educated in financial literacy, i.e. how money works. High schools generally don’t teach many classes on finances and other real-world issues and unless you decide to take courses in college about accounting or other related majors you likely won’t get the education there. At home, unless your parents talk to you about money and how they handle it you likely will only learn how they handle it from observation. (And, of course, if your parents don’t handle money well, chances are you won’t either if you use them as examples!) Most of us learn what not to do with money, and that through hard experience, which is the absolute worst way to learn about finances.

This is because you usually have to make costly mistakes to learn. Run up some credit card bills and you’re stuck with high interest rates and struggling to pay the debt off. Don’t put money away into savings or investments and you may find yourself working a fast food job in your eighties. Spend too much on books, video games, and other luxuries and you may not have enough money for the bills, therefore accumulating even more debt. Live paycheck to paycheck and when something big comes along, such as the transmission going out on your car, or an uninsured medical emergency, you’re not going to have any way to pay for it. None of those experiences strikes me as particularly virtuous or desired.

Pagans don’t have to be poor. I suggest, in fact, that we adopt the attitude that having money is a good thing. Money is good to have because it can insure relative self-sufficiency, and it can pay for unexpected situations, such as an accident or sickness. Money can pay for education and provide security for old age, and it can allow you to travel to other countries and experience other cultures at their source. Of course, those are just a few reasons why having money is good; I’m sure you can think of plenty of others.

We first need to look at our current attitude toward money. Take a moment and look at a bill or a checkbook or something else that’s financially relevant. Take a pen in your hand and on a blank piece of paper write down your initial impressions when you look at the financial artifact and think of your monetary situation. If you find yourself writing and/or thinking of money in negative terms then you need to adjust your attitude. The reason you need to adjust it is because your attitude about finances is sabotaging the conscious choices you make when you have money.

Because most people haven’t been taught financial literacy we usually have negative experiences with money. This negativity imprints and we soon regard money as an affliction or a problem as opposed to a means of offering potential security and/or freedom from bad circumstances. Certainly this was the case for me, up until recently. I always had some form of debt that needed to be paid off and yet no matter how I tried I just couldn’t seem to get ahead or feel confident that my money would last beyond the current paycheck. But one day, having complained about money for the umpteenth time, I happened to pick up a book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki. The core concept I got from this book was that I alone was responsible for how I spent my money and that my education about money and how I thought and felt about it greatly shaped my spending of it¹. This seems like such an obvious point, but to someone who felt that money was an amorphous force that controlled his life, I found it to be liberating. No longer did money control me. Instead I could take control of it.

I suspect that many other Pagans, were they to examine their attitude about money, would come to a similar realization. Although this awareness is liberating, we still need to undo the negative attitudes we have. There are a couple of ways to start doing this and I’ve found both of them have really helped me get a handle on my financial situation.

Meditation, Magick, & Consciously Loving Money

My first solution involved meditation. I prefer using Taoist meditation practices that involve dissolving internal energetic blockages. These energetic blockages usually also have emotions, beliefs, and attitudes attached to them. By dissolving the blockages I can allow myself to feel those emotions, beliefs, and attitudes, and then consciously change them so that they no longer sabotage me². However, any technique will do provided it allows you to enter into a state of mind where you are receptive to examining and changing your beliefs on a particular subject. The reason this is important is because our everyday mundane consciousness tends to operate on autopilot, which means we don’t always examine why we are doing what we are doing. By being contemplative and reflective about the problem we can see it from a perspective outside the everyday tunnel vision. This in turn can lead to conscious change.

Once you’ve examined the attitude and decided you want to change it, you need to determine what you will change it into. For example, I changed my attitude of money from dislike into love of money. I decided that I would love money and in return invite it to love me. Using meditation, I changed my memories of bad experiences with money into positive experiences where I learned to love money. I visualized myself in the various moments where I’d gotten negative imprints about money. I then visualized myself changing the actual occurrences into ones that were more positive in terms of how I handled money and felt about it afterwards. Through these meditations I was able to undo the negative imprints and create more positive ones that helped me feel more comfortable with handling money.

To reinforce this positive attitude further I decided to create an entity that would encourage my wife and me to love money and become more knowledgeable about it. My wife made a pouch out of blue leather (we associate the color with money). In the pouch we placed a couple of coins and other personal effects that represented our desire to change our attitude and approach to money. I then came up with a phrase: “I love money.” I took out the repeating letters, condensing the phrase into “Ilvmny”, which was now the name of the entity. To bring the entity to life we decided that the energy that would feed it would be both the spending and receiving of money. Every transaction would give the entity energy to perform its task, which was to help us cultivate better financial habits. Our first transaction was to go out and buy books on money management. After each purchase and every time we make a sale, deposit a check, or invest in stocks we hold the pouch and say, “Thank you, Ilvmny.”

Although my first solution was to use magic to help me change my attitude, I also knew I needed to learn more about money. It wasn’t enough to have a positive attitude about it. Something I’ve noticed in myself and many other people, Pagan and otherwise, is a decided lack of knowledge of how money works. Living from paycheck to paycheck illustrates this because it involves using money strictly for day to day survival with little preparation for the future. My second solution was to acquire financial literacy.

Financial Literacy: Making Money Work for You

When you live paycheck to paycheck, you’re working for money. This is what seems to happen to a lot of people. We go to work, we make money and we spend it, putting little, if any, aside for a rainy day or retirement. When a situation does come up we wish we had more money to solve it, even though it’s not really more money that will solve the problem — it’s making money work for you.

First, you first need to learn how money works. If no one talked with you about money and how to use it responsibly then what you need to do is educate yourself. This doesn’t have to involve evening classes at a college (and in fact that would probably be the most expensive and least successful way to learn about money in the immediate real world). Instead, I’d suggest going to your local bookstore or library and looking in the business and finance section. You’ll probably want to get several books on how to handle personal finances because you never want to get just one person’s opinion on any situation, let alone how to handle money. I’ll list a few recommendations at the end of this article, but you might also want to see what members of your family or friends have read about personal finances. Speaking of family, if you have kids, start talking to them about money as you learn. You can never educate your children about money too early. In fact, you may help them avoid mistakes you made and come out ahead when it comes to retirement and other financial matters.

Many people don’t pick up books on money because they think such books will be loaded with technical financial jargon and hard to read. But a good book will explain the different terms and principles in a clear and concise manner. They also may think that money management is boring. While it may not be as riveting as, say, a mystery novel, once have a basic understanding you may find that it’s actually an interesting subject to learn about. Even if you still don’t find the subject fascinating, it’s important to educate yourself about it. You don’t need to know the intricacies of the daily life of a stock broker, but knowing the basics of how money works and how you can make it work for you will make your life a lot less stressful.

Making money work for you means learning how to invest in stocks and IRAs, maximize your 401k plan, and getting the most out of your bank accounts. When you know how to make money work for you, it becomes its own magic, with the result being more numbers than you had before, provided you take advantage of the systems in place. For instance, with stock investment, you don’t have to invest stocks through a broker. You can invest in a company directly. This allows you to make your money work for you and know where that money is going. At the same time the wealth that is generated isn’t wealth you had to earn. Instead you let other people (i.e. the employees in the company) earn it for you. To use another example of making money work for you, there’s a lot more to a bank than free checking or savings. Do you know the interest rates of your account? Do you know the other options available to you at a bank? Do you know the differences between a bank and a credit union? Knowing the answers to those questions can impact how much your money works for you as opposed to you working for it³.

Ideally, when money works for you, you have money to pay your bills, some set aside in savings to take care of emergency situations and some applied toward investments for your eventual retirement. You want your money to grow in such a way that a lot of the money you make isn’t even money you had to work for. Your goal isn’t necessarily to end up rich (though that doesn’t hurt) but it is to end up financially secure, without having to worry how you’ll pay off your debt or take a day off work without pay or even retire. If you do want end up rich you may have to take some risks, and that involves a different level of financial literacy, which focuses on how to take those risks and hopefully come out ahead⁴.

Are We Getting Too Materialistic?

I suggested earlier that the poor Pagan stereotype is not virtuous, for the simple fact that being in debt and/or having to worry whether you’ll make your ends meet each week or month is never an ideal place for anyone to be in. But is having money evil? I think, in and of itself, money isn’t good, evil, or any other moral value we may place on it. It is however a force, one that must be acknowledged and respected because it’s one we interact with everyday. Even learning how money works won’t necessarily make you more or less materialistic, though it will help you become better informed about your spending habits.

Where the virtue (or lack thereof) comes in is with you and your choices. Once you know what your spending habits are you can choose to change them. If you find yourself spending most of your money on luxury items for yourself, perhaps it’s time to stop purchasing them. Find other uses for your money such as your child’s college fund or funding for that trip to Europe you’ve always wanted to take, but never had enough time or money for.

Another stereotype that Pagans are accused of is of not offering enough public services or charities that help the community at large. As Pagans become more successful with money this perception can be changed. When you have more money to spare you can put some of it toward the charity or public service of your choice. Better yet, you can help those members in your community who are poor and have no choice in it. Adopt a Pagan family or person who’s less well off. Donate money or food or other goods to help them out. Support your community and in doing so create a closer connection so that everyone can benefit. Remember though that money alone won’t solve the world’s problems or even that of a local community. Devoting some time to public service or giving some food to food banks or doing some other form of community work is equally valuable and worth doing.

Loving money doesn’t mean you’re a materialist and out to steal from the poor. Loving money merely means that you enjoy being prosperous and prefer it over other circumstances. You won’t turn into a yuppie or a snob by choosing to love money, unless you want to. For me, loving money isn’t about putting money before everything else; it’s really loving the idea that I don’t have to worry if I’ll be able to pay this or that bill or feel guilty because I wanted to buy the latest Jim Butcher novel. There’s enough to worry about in life. Security about money or bills or buying a book without clean out your checking account is something all of us can have provided we accept that having money doesn’t equal being materialist. Remember, it’s your choices that define how you think of yourself and who you are.

Money is a medium. Without it, we can’t easily survive. With it we can enjoy what life offers while establishing financial security for the rough times and old age. Remember that it’s not how much you make that insures a good relationship with money. It’s how you use the money you do make that determines if you have a good relationship with it. Even someone who doesn’t make a lot of money can still come out ahead by using the resources s/he has wisely. And you can always help other members in the community who aren’t in as good a situation as you are. None of us have to be “poor Pagans.”

Footnotes

1. Kiyosaki, Robert T. (2000) Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! New York: Warner Business Books
2. Frantzis, B. K. (2002) Relaxing into Your Being: Breathing, Chi, and Dissolving the Ego Berkeley: North Atlantic Books
3. If you don’t know the answers I’ll leave it to you to do some research. It’s worth your time, trust me.
4. More on this in a later article, as I’m still learning and researching!

Recommended Reading

• The Motley Fool: You Have More Than You Think : The Foolish Guide To Personal Finance by David and Tom Gardner
• The Richest Man in Babylon: The Success Secrets of the Ancients by George S. Clason
• Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner by David Bach

© 2007 Taylor Ellwood
Edited by Sheta Kaey

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body, and Pop Culture Magick, among other works. You can visit his blog at http://magicalexperiments.com/ and his website at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/.

One of the aspects of the occult writing industry that often puzzles me is the lack of internal citations. There’s usually a bibliography in the back of each book, but in the actual text there are rarely any internal citations, which show how the author has drawn on the material from the bibliography. Instead the reader finds a book where the author is essentially claiming all the ideas for hir own, and in that process blatantly plagiarizing the works of other authors that s/he draws from. The bibliography is a token gesture; all the references are placed in the back of the book where no one will likely bother to look at them. If a person does decide to look at the bibliography to get an idea of where the author got hir ideas, the problem that’s encountered is that without the specific internal cite reference, the person has to buy every book on the list to find out where the author got a particular idea. Not everyone can afford to do this, nor does everyone want to.

Besides that, there is the ethical issue of plagiarism, an issue that both publishers and writers should be held accountable to. The publishers should enforce and demand that an in-text citational style be used by writers who draw on sources, and at the same time the writers should be ethically responsible enough to put the in-text citations in. There is no excuse for laziness on the part of any writer who draws on the ideas of other people. There is no recommended style of citation as yet for occult works. I prefer to use APA citation, but that’s a result of my academic schooling.

Ironically, the choice to not do in-text citations not only detracts from the credibility of the writers and publishers, but also cuts down on potential sales. If I put a quote in here and you find the concepts in the quote intriguing, chances are you’ll actually consider buying the book. If I don’t, and claim the idea as my own, you might see the book referenced in the bibliography, but with no in-text citation, you’ll have no reference or reason to even consider exploring the ideas within that book further.

Besides the publishing and writing issues, however there is a magical side to using citations that most people never even consider. Using citations can be a form of literary necromancy, when you cite the works of authors who are dead. It’;s also a form of contemporary magic when you cite an author that’s read now. Let’s consider each of these ideas separately.

When you’re citing an occult book, you’re investing in the ideas and concepts that went into it. You put more life into the concepts that the book embodies, and to some degree into the persona of the author. The persona of the author is a construct, not quite the actual person, but having an existence of its own. Yes, I’m a real human being, but I also have an author persona that people imagine when they think of me in context of my writing. Whether it’s accurate to the real me or not, this persona exists and it’s to that persona that the attention, the fandom and interest of people (all of it energy) goes. This process still continues even for a writer who is no longer contemporary. So long as a book is owned, read, and even glanced through, some energy is going to the book and author. And when that work is cited, awareness is brought to the reader and consequent potential interest arises that can be directed toward the cited source.

Likewise, a form of literary necromancy is performed in the case of authors that are dead. Though these authors are dead, the books they wrote and indeed the personae of the authors live on and can be invoked, to be worked. I frequently invoke such authors when I start to write a book, to show respect to them, but also to draw inspiration from them. Every citation of a book by a dead author is an energy gateway to the ideas of that author, and indeed an offering to that author that hir ideas will be respected and drawn upon and that people might buy hir works to further honor hir.

By extension, in taking this perspective and invoking the different authors you choose to cite, you are also getting their blessings, which in turn can help you improve your ability to write, but can also increase potential sales. It may even help you with the presentations you make, if you do workshops, as again you’re drawing on their blessings. Even if you disagree with their ideas, by citing other writers, you essentially are not only giving them credit, but also making sure other people acknowledge their work. Usually my invocations involve taking a bit of text by the author that I’m citing and saying at the end that I invoke [name of author]‘s blessing on my writing that it might draw attention to hir works as well as my own writing. This seems to work and is respectful to the author.

However, you can make this more elaborate, right up to making an altar to the author, with a picture, copies of his/her book (autographed are even better), and any other relevant information you think will help with the blessing of the author. I use my bookcases as altars, since that taps into their purpose of holding the books. While you’re writing a book, use the bookcase as an altar, and when invoking the writer you can even leave out some food and wine.

Using in-text citations is in and of itself a magical act, and with the invocation, it becomes even more so such an act. As writers, we stand to lose nothing by acknowledging the shoulders we stand on and can even get some magical aid. As readers, we learn more about where a given author is getting hir ideas, specifically, and we can use this to learn more about a given subject.

On the other hand, not using internal citations disrespects the author you drew the ideas from, and disrespects the writing industry you’re in. You’re pissing in your own drinking water when you don’t responsibly cite another author. To apply this principle to magic, by not citing an author, you corrupt the energy you put into the writing, harming your own efforts and the efforts of others.

It’s important to use citations, regardless of whether you perceive the use of them to be magical or just important for literary purposes. It’s your responsibility as a writer (if you write) to acknowledge where you got your ideas. To not do so is an act of theft, and as such taints the energy of your writings, stains your name, and does dishonor to occultism. While we should never take ourselves too seriously, we should make the effort to respect the work of others. It’s my hope that more authors will use internal citations or footnotes so that interested readers can benefit fully from the effort of their work.

©2007 by Taylor Ellwood.
Edited by Sheta Kaey.

One issue that occurs with both Western and Eastern sex magic is the polarization of the sexes. This kind of thinking about the sexes can be found in nineteenth century occultism (and even further back). “One calls the forces positive and negative, and one rediscovers them in good and bad, emission and reception, life and death, idea and action, man and woman (positive and negative magnetic poles) in the material plane and, conversely the woman (active pole) and man (negative pole) in the mental plane.¹” The division into polarity is often used as a way of explaining the unity found in sex magic. In other words, it is the union of opposites. Intriguingly, “enough love” is often cited as a necessary ingredient of sex magic, in order to make it particularly effective. We are inclined to agree that love, in sex magic, can be very important as an energizer. Whether the polarity is necessary is another case, as the union of opposites is by it’s nature a negation of polarity and the need for it. We feel polarity is an unnecessary approach to sex in general, that has caused far more harm and misunderstanding precisely because it is cultural, as opposed to biological.

And yet incorporation of polarity occurs all too often even in modern texts. In Shaping Formless Fire: Distilling the Quintessence of Magick, Stephen Mace states that “The difference between men and women — in both anatomy and quality of energy — is conspicuous. Men eject the quickening jolt, the surge of power, that animates the enterprise. Women provide the form that can thus be stirred to life.²” Unfortunately for Mace, this statement reveals his ignorance of female anatomy. The majority of men are ignorant of the fact that women can actually ejaculate fluid as well, and as such, by his criteria, are capable of that same quickening jolt.

Beyond that, it’s not unknown for a woman to be the active magical worker. A female magician may also use her vagina to draw in a male magician’s energy and work the necessary magic with it, rather than simply being a vessel for the magic he works. In this way, the man could simply be a generator of energy, while the woman is the one who shapes it and creates the magic. In one case, a woman has actively vamped sexual energy from men, without them knowing it, and then directed that energy toward her own purposes.³ While we don’t condone her ethical values (as we think using a person’s energy without hir permission is harmful to the person) it does illustrate that a woman can be the active principle.

Polarity automatically buys into an attitude common in both Western and Eastern sex magic texts: the idea that having a vagina makes a person automatically passive/receptive, whereas the penis endows one with active/projective energy. The stereotypical polarity not only thrusts people into limiting roles, but it also oftentimes relegates the biological woman to being a convenience rather than a participant in magic, a mere cauldron in which the male magician stirs the elixir of life. But in sex magic, polarity is not a biological fact. “Our physical gender does not determine the type or amount of energy we have access to, and does not determine the roles we must play in sex magic workings.⁴” It’s important to remember that we are not defined by our sex when it comes to magic. Instead, if sex is something which must be defined, let it be defined in a way that is helpful, as opposed to harmful.

Western sex magic generally involves heterosexual intercourse, with the focus being primarily on coitus. It is assumed that the climax of the magic will occur when the man ejaculates, regardless of whether the woman has an orgasm or not. (And we don’t care how good your magic is — there’s no way to guarantee simultaneous orgasm!) The magic is not considered complete until there’s sperm floating around in the mix. In addition, on an energetic level, the focus is on the energy raised when the man orgasms, while the woman is the container for this energy. In short, the woman serves no purpose that could not also be filled by another man, a blowup doll, or the male magician’s own hand.

Part of the problem is misunderstanding or downplay of the female orgasm. In Lupa’s experience, at least, a clitoral orgasm is much stronger than a vaginal orgasm. This is a common trait among biological females, though not universal. The difficulty for many women to have a clitoral orgasm during coitus can be seen as a distraction not worth bothering with until the real ritual is over — if even then. We wonder how many women have never had a chance to discover the clitoral orgasm exists simply because they end up with partners who can’t give decent face or hand (or who are too focused on their own pleasure to try).

The vaginal/uterine emphasis bolsters an unhealthy attitude — the idea that the highest function of a woman is to give birth, whether figuratively or literally. This strengthens the idea that effective sex magic can only come about through coitus, and that anything else is less effective because only coitus involves reproduction. While symbolic reproduction can be useful in creating effective magic, it is not the be-all and end-all of sex magic. Otherwise why would so many magicians of all sexes use masturbation to cast sigils? Yet from Cerridwen’s Cauldron to the Holy Grail to the ceremonial Cup, women are limited in symbolism only to their uteri. The clitoris is left out in the cold.

This emphasis also puts lots of pressure on men. The need to perform, to be hard in an instant, and ready to have sex (whether you want to or not) is something that men experience, but which is also frequently unnoted, because of the supposed male privilege. And yet even as not all men are ripped and buff (an image which is portrayed as the ideal man), nor do all men have a high sex drive, or for that matter an overwhelming need to have sex all the time. Nor is sex the only thing that is on a man’s mind. And yet inevitably men will be accused of “thinking with their dicks,” or be portrayed as sex crazy idiots. This stereotype is very harmful to men, putting pressure on them to conform to these images and yet also shaming them for having a perfectly natural desire for sex.

The secret to breaking this dichotomy starts at the very source of our genitalia. Every human fetus starts out as female. It is only after three months that some fetuses change over to being male. This means that everyone’s genitals start out from the same basic little buds of developing flesh. The penis and the clitoris are analogous to each other anatomically speaking, as are the testes and ovaries.⁵

There is no biological truth to polarity, because polarity is a cultural concept, with meanings associated with it that are used to define it. It’s true that the bio-males and bio-females have different physiological functions. The man can produce sperm and the woman can produce an ovum, but these functions still are focused on the same end goal and are rather similar in terms of what occurs, i.e. the sperm is produced by the man’s body as part of the procreation function, just as the ovum is produced by the woman’s body for procreation. The difference is that a woman can actually carry a baby to term in her body, and a man cannot…but the woman still needs a man in order to produce the baby. Even with that difference noted there is no definitive polarity about it. The reason is because that difference is related to a biological function as opposed to something more meaningful.

Also if we associate polarity with biology we leave out (in just the human race) the intersex people, the androgynous, the gay and lesbian community, the transgendered community, and the people who don’t have the full biological capacity to produce sperm or ovum — needless to say polarity becomes a confining system that tries to ignore the inconvenient truth that biology is capable of more diversity than just the dualistic male and female ends of the spectrum. Other species can also be pointed to as an example of the fact that polarity is not a biological constant. That people associate it with biology is a result of cultural beliefs about biology. It’s also a rather limited human-centric perspective on biology, one which tends to focus only on the human experience as opposed to trying to understand the variety of biological diversity that exists.

Polarity is a cultural concept precisely because it is an attempt to define biology outside of its functions and in ignorance of what those functions are. So we define certain “values” with polarity. Men are the active principle and women are the passive principle in sex for instance…but is that a biological reality? It is not. It is a cultural definition and a shoddy one at that. It focuses on assigning attributes to biological roles without providing any biological basis for these attributes. Unfortunately this assignation of roles is cultural and has ultimately been harmful to women precisely because it has tried to minimize them and control their capacity to enjoy sex. It harms men because it’s helped to create a stereotype where men are sex hungry creatures that only think about having sex. It’s also harmed any person who’s gender falls outside the traditional heterosexual sex roles. We’ve noted with some dismay that the majority of books on sex magic don’t, for instance, offer much to the gay and lesbian community on sex magic for them.

Now some people might point to energy work as part of biology and say that is where this concept of polarity and men being active and women being passive comes from. And yet while energy is an intrinsic part of the human organism and part of the biology of a person,⁶ any associations/meanings made about it are cultural. We need to examine those cultural assumptions and ask why they have been emphasized and who it benefits to emphasize those assumptions about sex, energy work, and polarity.

In our own work with energy, we’ve yet to find it true that women are passive and men active. We think it’s a case of associating the biological functions of the body with energy work. But can we prove that the biological functions make a man active and a women passive? Just because a penis thrusts into a vagina does not make it active. If anything we’ve found that such “polarities” are switchable in sex magic and that women can be the active principle while men are passive. Indeed, at least in Taylor’s case, he prefers for the woman to be the active principle, directing the energy and focusing it as she sees fit. That preference is both a personal turn-on, and a recognition that a woman is just as able to do magic the way he does it (regardless of the difference in biology). In other words, there is no difference (beyond the biological level) unless people make a distinction of difference. Any difference on the biological level is a difference of function, but not a difference of polarity.

It would ultimately be better to do away with polarity and the duality it inspires. Sex can be active for both participants or passive, but as long as it’s good sex does it really matter who is active or passive? By overthrowing the reliance on polarity we undo the cultural harm it can cause to people of any gender. That harm is manifold as is witnessed by the murder of transgendered people, people who refuse to fit into the sex role of their genitals, and instead choose their own gender. They are murdered for simply making that choice and this is because the cultural memeage of polarity only allows two genders, as opposed to any others. As magicians, we owe it to ourselves and to other people to not use this kind of cultural meme in our magical workings as we only reinforce the kind of hatred that can destroy so many people. And of course, limiting yourself to polarity leaves out a lot of potential fun to be had with other people!

With that recognition about the cultural values that have infiltrated our notions of sex and sex magic, we can free ourselves of them and recognize that polarity is entirely a cultural meme, infecting us with values that are oppressive, restricted, and ultimately useless to the process of sex magic. Indeed we can then accept as well that whether it’s hetero, homo, or pan sexuality being explored what meanings we make of what occurs is entirely our own responsibility and a way of making the sex act more meaningful and intimate…more a celebration and less a reinforcement of stale cultural norms.

Footnotes

1. Randolph, Pascal Beverly. (1988). Sexual magic. Trans. Robert North. New York:
   Magic Childe Publishing, Inc. Page 10.
2. Mace, Stephen. (2005). Shaping Formless Fire: Distilling the Quintessence of Magick. Tempe: New Falcon Press.
3. WitchWitch. (2006). Witch does vampire sex magick. P. 6. Widdershins, 12.1.
4. Williams, Brandy. (1990). Ecstatic Ritual: Practical Sex Magic. London: Prism Press.
5. http://www.the-clitoris.com/n_html/n_develop.htm
6. Lipton, Bruce. (2005). The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles. Santa Rosa: Mountain of Love/Elite books.

Additional Reference

• http://www.the-clitoris.com/f_html/ejacula.htm

This article originally appeared on Spiral Nature.com and is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Kink Magic.

©2006 Taylor Ellwood & Lupa.
Edited by Sheta Kaey

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body, and Pop Culture Magick, among other works. You can visit his blog at http://magicalexperiments.com/ and his website at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/.

Lupa is the author of Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic, A Field Guide to Otherkin, and co-author of Kink Magic, among other works. You can read her blog at http://therioshamanism.com and see her website at http://www.thegreenwolf.com.

From the middle of February through to the beginning of April, I involved myself in a working I designed around the seven steps of alchemy. I had been reading Dennis Hauck’s The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation, and in it he suggested that the seven steps of alchemy could be applied via visualization. He described each step, including much of the imagery, so that the reader could get an idea of how the visualization was supposed to work.¹

I don’t have much use for visualization, which I feel is a poor substitute for actual experience. Both Lisiewski and Frater Albertus argue that to really experience the transformative powers of alchemy, you need to do actual alchemical work in a laboratory (2002, 1974). I agree with this point, though I’d argue that what constitutes a laboratory can differ from person to person, depending on circumstances. I, for instance, have neither the money nor the space to have a proper working alchemy lab (in the classic sense of the word). I can, however, work with some forms of plant alchemy, which is a start on the physical lab work. But another laboratory exists, which I’ve been actively working in for the last ten years of my life. That laboratory is comprised of my body and my consciousness. My body provides the physical setting, and my consciousness provides the vehicle by which I explore and run experiments on both the laboratory of my body and the laboratory of my surroundings.

While I found Hauck’s concept of working with seven steps of alchemy to be interesting, I didn’t want to rely solely on visualization to interface with the different alchemical steps. I would read the chapter about each alchemical step only after I had already meditated once on the particular step I was going to work with for that week. Additionally, I decided to include several other magical techniques into the overall working so that I wouldn’t be relying on one technique alone. Finally, I wanted to externally manifest these steps into my life, so although much of the work occurred internally, the results also played themselves out in my life.

The seven steps of alchemy are as follows: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation. Each step of alchemy is part of a process of refinement that is meant to excise impurities, both from the substance worked with, and from the actual practitioner. This means that the practitioner comes face to face with hir own insecurities and issues, and through the process of alchemy, ends up refining hirself. The work on a physical substance in a laboratory is meant to refine the substance, but also act as a parallel reality that reinforces the internal process the practitioner is going through.^2,3 Again, I note that I took a different approach in method, but the overall theory proved to be very sound, as I would intimately experience.

When I first decided to do this alchemical working, I was getting ready to move across the country to Seattle, Washington. I had never been to the Pacific Northwest, and thought that it might be ideal to undergo this alchemical process to change my life while actually planning on a big life change. The move certainly contributed to the magical working, even as the working, in turn, contributed to the move.

I also decided to draw on the Dehara system of magic, based off of Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu series. In alchemy, various images show the hermaphrodite as the fully realized alchemist who is in touch with all aspects of hirself. I felt it appropriate to work with the hermaphroditic paradigm of Dehara, utilizing it to get further in touch with the alchemical principle of transmutation. On a personal level, I’d always found my workings in the Dehara system to be highly effective, and felt it could only contribute to the working I had in mind. I decided to mix the meditation on each alchemical step with some pathworking in the Dehara system, where I would find and work with a seven-faced Dehar godform who embodied the transformative mysteries of alchemy.

On a side note, I was also reading Don Webb’s Uncle Setnakt’s Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path, and found his explanation of the seven steps of initiation to be strikingly similar to the seven processes of alchemy. His seven steps of initiation are Wandering, Shock, Daydreaming, Shock, School, Shock, and Work.⁴ I decided to merge Webb’s concept of initiation with Hauck’s steps of alchemy. I found that devising my own initiatory approach to express the end of a cycle of my life and the beginning of another cycle to be more effective than what was offered solely in their books. Sometimes a personalized ritual is more effective because you invest more personal power into it and the ritual is not entirely planned out. In other words, the ritual is a discovery, which emphasizes the idea that an initiation should be about discovery.

When I did my first week of meditation, I worked with the Dehar known as Aghama, who is the central godform in the Wraeththu Mythos. My purpose in working with him was to be introduced to the Dehara of Alchemy. This Dehara had seven faces and seven forms, but was one and the same. Each face and form represented one aspect of alchemy, and each week the Dehara of that week served as an initiator and guide into the particular step of alchemy I was working with.

The first week of my initiation was focused on Calcination, which is the first alchemical process. Calcination is a burning fire which destroys the ego, leaving ashes.¹ Another way to consider calcination is that it shows you, through different incidents, how you create illusions of ego to protect yourself from harsh truths. In Webb’s model, this step would be Wandering — specifically, feeling the need to wander away from what is safe and to risk the unknown.⁴ In choosing to undergo this process, I was wandering from what I thought I knew about myself and the world around me. The Dehara of that week was named Areha. He had a muscular, ebony body that emanated heat. He wore a long headdress that flamed at the ends and his face was hidden behind a mask, but when the mask was taken away I found a scarred and pocked face. His voice rasped, a bare whisper, burned out by the fires contained with him. He would take me harshly to task everyday in my meditations, but also in moments after an incident had occurred that reminded me of calcination.

My experiences during the week of calcination involved either fits of temper or highly embarrassing situations. Upon reflection, I could see that I had sabotaged myself with my ego in each incident. This internal awareness seemed only to bring more incidents forth into my external environment, as if to fully force me to face the full extent of how my ego deceived me. The burning of calcination showed the single greatest fear of the ego: the feeling of loss and failure. But the ashes left behind opened me up to the realization that there was also growth potential to be experienced if I could just endure the fires of humiliation that calcination offered me.

The next week was Dissolution. The Dehar of that week was named Elolis. He had a blue body and was dressed as a clown or a jester, which was rather appropriate for the alchemical step of dissolution. This step takes the ashes of calcination and sifts away any lies that continue to cling, via the purification of water.¹ In Webb’s model, this step is Shock — specifically, feeling the shock of your illusions being peeled away from you, exposing the truth underneath.⁴ I held tightly to the lies that were most dear to me, and that protected me from fully facing responsibility for my choices. The easy rationalizations and excuses I had didn’t hold water in the step of dissolution, as Elolis mocked me with the truth, showing me in a very harsh, somewhat funny manner how easily I lied to myself. This week of meditation was particularly hard for me, because I came face to face with a lie I’d told myself about graduate school: that it wasn’t my fault that I didn’t succeed. Over the course of that week I was forced to review and admit that much of the responsibility for not succeeding laid ay my feet. The actual meditations often had me feeling as if I were deep underwater, feeling an irresistible pressure shape me, much like a diamond.

The first two meditations and subsequent external experiences occurred right before Lupa and I moved. The week we drove out to Seattle was the third week, and it was rather appropriate that the third step of alchemy was Separation. I was being separated from every environment and person I knew. I had never even visited the state of Washington and had no idea what waited out there for me. I would feel, in the coming month, both homesickness and a sense of culture shock.

Lhah was the name of the Dehar of Separation. He had one black hand and one white hand. Separation is the alchemical process of removing any remaining impurities by bringing them to the surface.¹ In Webb’s model, this process is Daydreaming, which was also appropriate for this trip as I felt at times as if I were in a dream.⁴ While my actual week of driving across the country went well, the process of being removed, being separated, brought many insecurities about the choices I’d made to the surface. Throughout this week Lhah manifested mostly in my dreams, a subconscious reminder of the process I was working through, and a gentle but insistent presence. My clearest memory was of my head in his lap, his hands gently reaching in and plucking out strings of energy that represented all of my fears.

Week four found Lupa and I in Seattle. We stayed with her aunt and uncle indefinitely. I admit that the following month and a half were stressful months for me. While they put us up, there was always a sense of tension. It wasn’t that they didn’t want us to stay with them, but I think no one anticipated how long it would take for us to find jobs and get our own place to stay. I would feel increasingly alone and alienated as I continually found frustration in my job searches. It never occurred to me that the alchemical process might be having an effect on the job hunt and on how people viewed me (more on this later).

The fourth process of alchemy is Conjunction. This is a process of bringing together what remains after the first three processes. The practitioner must choose whether s/he will follow through on the process or go back to the state s/he was previously in.¹ I chose to move forward. In Webb’s model, this step is Shock. Although this step of shock has been experienced before, another experience of it is not unwarranted given that initiation is about facing new circumstances and new aspects of the self.⁴ The Dehar for this step is named Voorhalis. He is faceless except for a nose, and was frustrating to deal with for both the lack of a voice and the lack of features. In fact, I suppose he fits in that he illustrates the unfinished state and the hinted promise of becoming more. Likewise, his lack of a face leaves a lack of ego, which is often mistakenly assumed to be the identity of the person. And yet just as the nose is only part of a person’s face and not the whole of it, so too is the ego only a part of a person’s identity. I felt this process through a five hour walking meditation that left me feeling even more disconnected with Seattle and unfinished in general. This step was also the beginning of the most painful parts of this alchemical journey.

The alchemical process of week five was Fermentation. Fermentation is about new fertility, but also about experiencing putrefaction, which provides the manure for the fermenting process. Putrefaction is wallowing in the left over bits of ego, and challenging yourself to transmute them to something better.¹ In Webb’s model, this step is School, about schooling and teaching yourself. I experienced the very painful realization that I likely wasn’t qualified for the jobs I was applying for. The Dehar was named Dvelin. He was golden in appearance, but had black hands. I recall that my meditations had a lot of yellow light in them, a sense for me of being purified, of facing the last deepest ingrained beliefs about myself and realizing how unfounded they were, but also knowing I could grow from them. I realized that I needed to acquire new skills and market myself differently, and to a broader potential job market, than I had previously thought. It was during this week that I fell into a very deep depression that wouldn’t lift until several weeks after the alchemical process had seemingly finished.

The sixth process of alchemy is Distillation, and the sixth step for Webb’s model of initiation is Shock. The process of distillation is cleaning out or washing away the final debris and making sure the person is ready for the final step.¹ Likewise, the experience of shock in initiation is once again having the experience of the unknown. A person falls into a routine, even with initiation, but the process is about avoiding too much routine, so shock is necessary for bringing a person out of complacency.⁴ The Dehar for this step is named Baloor. He has a blue face, but from that face extends the faces and aspects of the other dehar that are part of the alchemical process, as well as their arms. He looks similar to an Indian god. My experience in this week during the meditations and external experiences was a deepening of the depression. On a Saturday morning, after wandering for four hours around downtown Seattle, I came back to my mate. She helped me see how far into depression I’d fallen, how I’d created a shell of negative energy that was blocking my progress. This was confirmed several days letter by a fellow occultist who’d shown my resume to a recruiter, who could feel the negativity and said that she wouldn’t interview me because of that energy. The distillation of the depression was my choice in no longer allowing myself to be a victim, but making active changes in my methods and goals for finding a job.

The seventh process is Coagulation, and in Webb’s model is Work. Work is appropriate, because initiation doesn’t stop. It involves work, and continuing the process of transformation even after the obvious ritual is done.⁴ Likewise, coagulation is only the beginning of more alchemical work. It is a condensation (and dissolving at the same time) of what is left of the person, a preparation for more alchemical work and for a rebirth of the person — a transformation into a new being.¹ Oddly enough, my experience for coagulation was not a Dehar, but instead an entity that I’ve had intimate experiences with before: the Phoenix. The Phoenix did not do or say anything beyond telling me to wait, that my opportunities would line up shortly. I still felt rather devastated when, at the end of that last week of alchemical workings, I found a job as a house cleaner. In retrospect, I realize I still needed to purify myself — that although the obvious process was done, the actual working was far from over, and the house cleaning job was a sign from the powers that be that I needed to clean up my attitude to the entire process. I was too focused on getting an obvious result, as opposed to experiencing the process.

I only worked at the house cleaning job for a week, but that week gave me a lot of time to think and consider how I was presenting myself, and my attitude toward the move and everything else that had happened. Instead of blaming others and general circumstances, I started to critically look at my own behavior and examine how I contributed to the various situations I’d found myself in over the course of not just recent months, but also the past couple of years.

My condensation was the realization of how often I’d created situations that were unfavorable for me. My dissolving was letting go of my own role in those patterns, so I could remove myself from them. In the weeks after my alchemical working officially ended, I gradually became acclimated to my new environment. My attitude and energy also changed, and I found myself getting many more interviews. Eventually, Lupa and I moved into our new home, and although the process of that move was somewhat stressful (we moved into a house being renovated), nonetheless we found a home. Literally on the first day that we moved in, I received a call and was told I now had a job at Boeing as a technical writer.

I wouldn’t start this job for several weeks, which would actually be useful for the alchemical process that was still playing itself out in my life. Over those weeks, Lupa and I unpacked, and I had the opportunity to go through memories, reflect on prior experiences, and decide what I needed to get rid of, on both a physical level and a spiritual level. It was also during those weeks that Lupa and I presented at the Florida Pagan Gathering. While there, I was finally able to close what summed up a cycle of my life — a cycle of emotional chaos and uncertain circumstances. That weekend, I got my first tattoo — a phoenix — and in my dreams that night, Phoenix told me that my first cycle of my life was finished and I was now moving into my second cycle.

Since getting that tattoo, I’ve felt different. I’ve felt more confident about my choices, and about the direction of my life. I’ve felt reborn, and I’m still feeling this process of birth, of change. I have no idea where it will take me. I only know that the seven-week ritual I did was a gestation period, a period of sacrifice, and from that, renewal and transformation.

Footnotes

1. Hauck, Dennis William (1999) The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation; New York: Penguin Compass
2. Frater Albertus (1974) Alchemists Handbook: (Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy; York Beach: Weiser Books
3. Lisiwieski, Joseph C (2002) “The Alchemical Teachings of Frater Albertus” in Christopher S. Hyatt (ed.) Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation and Other Devices; Tempe: New Falcon Press
4. Webb, Donald (1999) Uncle Setnakt’s Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path; Smithville: Runa-Raven Press.

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body, and Pop Culture Magick, among other works. You can visit his blog at http://magicalexperiments.com/ and his website at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/.

©2006 Taylor Ellwood
Edited by Sheta Kaey