Inception

Christopher Nolan's amazing film Inception presented an interesting idea. A world where we could use science to probe into the minds of others and explore their dreams in order to find information we want. The “heroes” of the film are contracted to engage in an act of inception, a theoretical technique of implanting an idea in someone's dreams so that they believe it is their own idea rather than an idea with foreign origin. Most people working in their field, and most people in general assume this is impossible, but the main character, essentially a psychonaut, has explored the deepest depths of the unconscious mind and its dreamscapes and understands inception not simply as a theoretical reality but as a possible act which he has previously achieved.

This film presents some ideas of interest for us as magicians. Is it possible to take information from the mind of another? To explore their dreams? To implant an idea into their minds? What are the implications of these various possibilities, which very much seem at the center of sci-fi and fantasy fiction regarding magic and psychic powers?

As a boy, the first witchcraft my father taught me, and the act which I think is central to witchcraft, was that of bewitchment, or enchanting a person or animal by gaze in order to affect them. One of the first books I read on witchcraft as an adolescent talked about this idea and called it “mind bending” and described methods for inserting small ideas into people's minds. For the most part most books on witchcraft and magic don't really address this idea though. I am, perhaps sadly, not going to focus directly on the simple method of doing this today, but rather some ideas around magic intended to impact others.

Visiting dreams comes up in some traditional sources. It can go hand in hand with both pulling information or putting thoughts into someone's mind, in a fairly intimate way. Some elements of dream travel connect to some of the ideas we're going to discuss about influence. We're also not going to get too much into the mechanism of entering dreams though, at least not today. We're also not going to talk much about taking info from someone's mind, as in my experience, it's the hardest of these three things...and it's not really part of today's topic, which is about sensibly constructing an approach to affect others by moving past their resistance to the goal presented.

My mentor once wrote about becoming the historian and its usefulness for a magician. What he meant by this was that by attending to details and remembering the specifics of all manner of events with a high level of consistency people will rely on your ability to recount events. People will trust your memory of what happened, perhaps more than their own. There are several sources of power in this. One is growing an understanding of the movements and currents which shape events by seeing details and learning patterns. This can then be used to shape events by making decisions about what to do, or what to manipulate as events unfold. It also creates a position of influence in which you can shape the way people remember events as they begin to accept your knowledge of them more than their own. You can usually only subtly shape their view of what's happening, and your shaping has to prove out in a way that matches to the way events continue to unfold. With this can also come a level of trust in your ability to interpret situations. Creating this sense of being an authority and what has happened and what will happen trains people to accept your thoughts and ideas with less resistance.

Now this isn't simply a matter of creating a position where you can lie to people, although some people may use it as such. It can be a position where you can inspire and direct even if you focus on using true things that people may see or not see on their own. The essential component is overcoming the initial instinctual response to resist those things another person suggests.

While this might sound like social engineering...and on a level it is, there is a magical component to this as well. Your voice, your presence, even on a magical level, have a certain feeling to them. Even non-magicians will have a sense of that. If that voice or presence is one they accept then creating some sort of inspiration is easier because they are willing to accept that influence.

Willingness is another component. Not just being a force they recognize and accept, but allowing the opportunity to consent to influence. Draja Mickaharic in his works on magical and mental influence provides the advice that you should ask the mind to permit you to enter it. If you're trying to connect to someone through dreams, or trying to sense some information from them or impress some thought upon them, it becomes much easier if their mind gives you permission. Your mind simply has to take a moment and ask.

Not to get all chaos magic...but the parts of the mind being approached in this kind of work are not the conscious persona of the individual so much as unconscious and pre-conscious elements and therefore there is not the individualistic decision to retain a pure mental space. A gentle “hey can I come in?” makes it a lot easier to interact with someone than trying to force your way in and fight any resistance they have to thoughts and ideas that feel foreign.

Not feeling foreign can help too. Think about how that person feels when you interact with them. Think about their voice, not just its sound but its feeling, how they speak, what they say, and what it reveals about how they think, feel, and perceive themselves and the world. The more you can make the communication of your idea feel natural to them, the more it will feel like their own, or at least like an acceptable part of their complex of ideas and actions.

A lot of magicians aren't much for exploring ideas of psychic contact and interaction. There's a bit of a line there where some people engaged in work with psychism don't cross over to more obvious magic, and some magicians dismiss the idea of psychic phenomena or direct mental influence. I'm not advocating that anyone believe in the ability to read minds or implant thoughts through any sort of direct mental connection. Nor am I advocating that anyone engage in such work.

But some spell work we do, some ritual magic we do, does involve influencing or impacting people in ways which would be easier if we addressed how thoughts and ideas and goals work for them. You want a promotion so you do a working for your boss to think of you as the best candidate, but what does that mean to your boss? Does your boss even want the best candidate? What does your boss want or need in the situation? Say you call on an angel to inspire your boss to promote you but the area in which the angel works doesn't fit the job, or doesn't jive with your boss's humors? Say you dress your resume in a magical oil to attract your boss to it, and he reads it a bunch, but he doesn't like it? Understanding the situation and its components will allow you to understand how to shape your work and your goal to be well received by the situation.

Maybe your boss has someone in mind for the position, and your work does a great job making your boss think you'd be great for it...but his mind was already made up before you did anything. Maybe the decision isn't your boss's and you don't know that, so you make him think you're a great candidate...but it would've been better to do a working to fill his mouth with sweet words about you so that he makes others think you're a great candidate.

Analyzing our goal and doing a working we're comfortable with isn't always enough. Sometimes we have to work in a way which fits a situation, doesn't create new resistance, and avoids existing resistance.

Certain political magic that recently made the news was a good example of doing all of that entirely incorrectly, specifically from the angle of creating resistance both from the target and the target's supporters by highlighting the magical act. I don't think the target chosen there was even the best target.

In my view, a rather obvious example of working within the situation, feeling familiar instead of foreign, and avoiding resistance would look like this. Say a person of influence was about to make a decision, and part of that person's influence came from the appearance of being a good Christian, and the person's supporters were largely also good Christians. But people fear a choice that person might make. Say that choice, ironically, seems obviously at odds with Christian values and the teachings of Christ. The easy allies to call upon to lead the influential individual to our desired choice are Christ, the Saints, and various holy powers of Christianity...which...have been used in magic since they arrived on the scene. Rather than fighting the idea, or fighting the person, or seeking to curb their power...let Jesus talk them into being a better Christian. What I mean here is, rather than try and force them out of power, or force them to do something they don't believe...make them live the beliefs they claim to hold, because they're already open to that influence.

Spirit magic could be used to send inspiration, or simply use a petition paper with a Sacred Heart candle and an intention that Jesus warm their heart towards a more loving and Christ-like decision. This would be a way of working that speaks to the target and bypasses any attempts by prayer warriors to resist.

But again, that's just one example of this sort of thinking. In Inception their target had mental constructs built to defend from foreign mental influence and the psychonauts had to finds ways to evade them to achieve their goal. This is something we encounter throughout all areas of life, not just magic. We want something, someone else wants something else, we have to come to a place of compromise, or a place where they decide what we want is what they want, or at least is something comfortable and familiar to them.

So take a few steps in your work to bypass roadblocks. Open your work by calling upon the soul or mind of your target and asking them to be open to what you're working or sending them. Or give them some talisman whereby accepting it accepts such influence. Then work in a way which communicates a goal in a manner that they can accept, and that will feel natural to them. Where possible work with spirits and spiritual forces well suited to them, either by character/humor or familiarity.

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Catharsis, Synchronicity, and Eternity

This will seem to jump around, but it comes together...

Yesterday I had the opportunity for a nap. I try to take them when I can because I don't sleep much. Even now, I should be sleeping, I have to be up in four hours. But naps don't come often as I keep rather busy.

When we don't sleep it takes a toll on us, we don't allow the opportunity to regenerate from the damage we do daily. We don't have time for our minds to unravel the information they process. We don't have those occasional natural moments of touching the limitless.

Those of us who don't sleep often don't take time to take care of ourselves in other ways. We don't address our health, physically and mentally. We don't prioritize our own existences or problems because there is always something else. Other people's problems, other people's needs, our responsibilities and duties to the world around us all of these are vast and looming and more important than ourselves. Or at least, many of us feel that way.

So the occasional stolen time for a nap can be a treasure, even though the loss of time for other needs feels vexing. Today though my nap did not get the opportunity to vex me.

When I lost my father I spent a lot of time focusing on making sure things were good for my family. I did not take much time to process things for myself or to rest within the experience of my own situation. This led to a few problems which swelled dramatically about a year later. Much of that year involved bad stuff happening so eventually I got to a pretty difficult place mentally. There are a lot of things in my life which go back on some level to trying to straighten out stuff from the point I got to at what seemed to be a low point.

All in all though I have things pretty together and am very successful in a lot of ways. But there is still stuff that hangs out there. One of the things that has been helpful is magic. At my dad's funeral several people noted how my take on death reflected a comforting view about the continuity of things through transition. This is because rather than just accepting stories or philosophical speculations and allowing them to comfort me I get the pleasure of experiencing an array of things, in terms of initiations, spiritual journeys, and interactions with Gods and spirits that inform my view in a direct and perceptible way. So there is not wondering, fearing, and hoping so much as "yeah, that place isn't easy to get to but I know it's there, and I've talked with the management."

Soon after my dad passed I found that dreams were an easy way to talk with him. Some dreams are just processing thoughts and memories and those are fine. But growing up I often had dreams that dealt with reality in a more engaged way. My parents were aware of this and helped me with it. Understanding the difference in a dream, and a DREAM, was something that was important early on. So, when my dad shows up in a dream, I can usually tell pretty easily when it's my dad versus when it's a memory.

Sometimes he comes to tell me things to reassure me, or to remind me about stuff for my family or to help me understand a problem or think about something differently. Sometimes it's just a visit. These days it's not too often, but I don't need it as often now.

About a year after he passed I did a pretty elaborate very Classical necromantic ritual to achieve katabasis and go into Hades to talk to him and some other dead folks. We chatted, he urged me not to do it again because it wasn't the safest way, and to just meet him in dreams. He explained that a part of dreaming occurs in your mind, but that there is a part that enters an in-between space, a place that connects your mind to the soul of the world, and that that in between space, being neither here nor there can allow communication between different places. Liminality, it rocks.

The tough part about communication in that space though is also based on its liminality. There is no time. There isn't a clear presence of mind. There isn't a grounding in space. So things are pretty disjointed. In the experience there are often moments of "shit what are we doing, you're dead how are we out shopping?" "Well, I'm dead there but here isn't entirely there so I'm not quite dead here." It's never straightforward. It's always this answer about blended time and space and atemporality making chronological events like dying less relevant. A regular dream answer would probably be something like "No I'm not, silly, hey look, the dinosaurs are painting a mural."

Today's dream was different. It was basically a set up to unpack that confusion and the emotions tied to it. We hung out and then I had this freak out moment. "Dad, you were dead before, now you're not. But when I go back to that time you'll be dead again, but not in this other time. So you can't help me with these things that we're planning. Because I'll be back in that time where you're already dead. This happens a lot where you're dead but not dead, I don't know what to do about that." An interesting element of this is that in the dream instead of a vague sense of the familiar or of memories, in these dreams I have very specific coherent memories and thoughts irrespective of the disjointed space of the dream.

So he walked me to a door, because we were suddenly on the porch of the house I was a child in. He takes me there a lot. I went in without him. And I found my mom there. My mom is still alive. She was laying on a couch on which she used to sleep. I saw her and thought how much I needed support from someone who was there in the world and asked for a hug and then broke down. After this the dream took this turn where my dad, pretending to be someone else, talked with me about my life and my feelings and going back into my childhood addressed issues and feelings I have and tied them to my current experience. He basically gave me this really thorough therapy session.

When I woke up I felt pretty good. Kind of like after a really good work out where your muscles have that weird state of energized exhaustion, or like after doing an extended pranayama session where you've purged out so much. Like everything tensed and released. So I laid there for awhile, trying to get a little more normal rest and also just enjoying feeling safe and comforted.

I did wonder though why this kind of happened out of the blue. I wasn't dealing with anything to draw up these issues. I hadn't done any recent libations or ancestor work. Hadn't reached out for help. I've been doing more work at making my sphere more holistic and right. Aligning forces properly and thinking about ways to straighten out impediments that I place in my way. I guess this was a way for my spirits to help me with those impediments.

It was odd timing though. Later in the day scrolling through Facebook I saw that it had been the anniversary of the death of the father of a friend. She wrote a beautiful post about her dad's spirit leaving feathers and coins to let her know she wasn't alone, and about very specific findings that showed up when she'd ask for a sign from him. It was really beautiful and it was great seeing someone able to find that kind of connection and assurance.

Then just before bed, I saw an acquaintance posting in memory of another acquaintance, who had passed away earlier that evening. I knew he had been sick, but I hadn't seen him in a month or two and had thought he was doing better. Not being Facebook friends with him or his family I hadn't initially seen any posts and couldn't post condolences. But it still gave me pause because despite only being acquaintances he was such an amazingly nice guy that thinking of him felt like thinking of a friend. He would always greet me with so much friendliness and happiness when I would see him. He always spoke to me about people as if I knew everyone in his life because he always spoke as if we were people who were old friends. I think he was probably like that with most people because he was just such a wonderfully friendly person. I remember the first time I met him, at a fencing tournament. I lost to him in a round I very much wanted to win, it was a bout I should have won. But despite that being the situation of our first encounter I still feel like I have nothing but positive memories of him. One of the last times I saw him, he drove hours to my club for a tournament on the wrong day. He was sick from the illness that I imagine caused his death. I apologized for the confusion and he was still happy and friendly, he fenced with my student, and then hung out and chatted for a bit, and didn't complain at all.

So in sitting there remembering him I asked myself, what do you do for someone who isn't here? The answer is easy. Pause and think about them, wish them well, pray for them. Take a second and reach out to that piece of them that is infinite and tell it you hope for the best and feel happiness for it. Wish peace upon it, and for it to achieve whatever end is right.

This was probably easier to do and to take in having gotten to unpack some of my own death related issues earlier in the day.

At the end of it all, I remembered that this guy has a daughter. I don't think I ever met her. He was super proud of her and always talked about what was going on with her. She is sadly pretty young to be experiencing the loss of her father. Thinking about that, about the loss others experience is one of the worst parts about death. I hope she is able to find some connection that brings her comfort. I hope  everyone who reads this is blessed with such connections when they experience loss. So as much as we pray for those from whom the veil of life has fallen, we should pray more for those who are still engaged in the dance of the veil of life...and hope that the veil between the two allows for whatever connection and closure they both need.

Unprotected Night Time Adventures

So, last night I had some questions I wanted answered. Sort of along the lines of issues related to mercy and severity.

I determined I needed some insight from the spirit world, but I wanted a general kind of view, from positive and negative spirits, a broad perspective.

A few months back I was having some really intense dreams where I was being challenged by malevolent spirits and was having to exorcise them. The dreams were much too real and were somewhat inexplicable. I took a rosary sealed with St Benedict's seal and tied it to my bed. St Benedict is the patron St of exorcists and he repels witchcraft and black magic. In general I assume Benedict is intended to be used against all magic, but I find his talismans useful to have around as a magician.

The dreams stopped right away. A couple other nocturnal disturbances got sorted too. It was good. Although positive spirit communication in dreams reduced too. Which I didn't really notice until I opened stuff up.

So, feeling the need to talk with spirits I opened up the door by taking down the rosary and put out kind of an open invitation. This is generally viewed as a bad idea. You usually want to know who you're inviting in and make sure to keep others out.

A lot of people would also feel like opening dreams is risky because you're inviting spirits into your mind. This isn't usually the case. Dreams typically do take place in your head. Even lucid dreaming is mostly a psychology thing. But some dreams take place between the world of spirits and your mind. You meet in the middle, so there is still a buffer. If you pay attention you'll notice a different feel to the environment in magical and spirit communication dreams than in normal ones, this is why. Not the same environment.

Aside from the buffer I was kind of in the mood to dive deep into whatever and felt comfortable with my ability to handle whatever came to visit. In fact the worrisome guys were more of who I wanted to hear from.

They were apparently not worried about talking to me though as all I got were angels. A bunch of them.

It was kind of like they put on a moral play in which I had an open ended role so my choices could answer my questions. It was pretty angelic in its somewhat indirect and melodramatic didactism.

I woke a bunch of times and always fell back into continuing the narrative. This usually doesn't happen for me.

In the end I guess the angels expressed their view, and tried to do so in a way to make me feel like it was my own.

To a degree they made me feel the draw towards Mercy and Providence...by convincing me to flog an angelic prince with fire...