A quick skim through Youtube reminds me that video recording a sincere magical ritual and posting it online is a very bad idea. Not so much for fear of encouraging countless idiotic comments and arguments from the people who have nothing better to do but argue online, or having a foolish person attempt a sincerely dangerous ritual, it’s definitely not for worry of appearing foolish to a wide public audience …but more so for the poor judgment it would be to post anything worth of value or sacredness for public amusement. The very thought of events that would befall such an action made me sick to my stomach when I simply entertained the idea. Although arcane knowledge can be apprehended when it is sought with a disciplined and mature mind, the whole of occult working should be strictly kept concealed from public view (Thus keeping it occult).

People want to be entertained and empowered by promising effects without doing any of the work (a Paramount disposition in the West). All wish to be convinced to try something or believe in something which they have no comprehension of. It’s a good thing the vast majority of attempted conjurations fail since we would have a lot more broken minds as a result.

I usually cannot make it through an entire viewing of one of the countless teenage presentations of ill-informed summoning attempts. Ninety percent are made by fools feigning to be authentic or even knowledgeable about what they are attempting. Everything from the classic Goetia spirits, Satan himself, or beings fashioned from urban legend and fantasy are attempted to be manifested by every sort of dabbler out there. My only pleasure in viewing these complete wastes of time is hearing their disappointment and frustration when the area remains just as still and calm as when they began their “magical-documentary”. Worst are the ones using TV “ghost hunting” tactics and equipment that try to make something from an obvious nothing.

Fortunately, those who have no aptitude for perceiving spiritual phenomena in the first place and no developed framework/blue print to draw from will undoubtedly fail in their attempts to interact with such forces.
(No, reading a ritual from a book a few times and trying out what it says is not what I’m referring to)
Further attempts to contact the spiritual realm will most likely prevent them from encountering anything in the future due to frustration, enforced lack of belief, and an increasing lack of conviction. These people are not magicians.

The curious side of me at one time wondered what apparitions, events, or noises would be captured if I ever video record the entirety of some of my summoning rituals. It would be interesting to be able to see myself at work from an outside perspective, and see if the events captured by camera were the same ones I witnessed with my own senses. However, I loathe the idea of those mentioned above witnessing what I consider some of the most intensely personal and powerful events in my life experience (whether spectacular phenomena was captured or not). The sincere part of me is sickened by the very thought of profane, vulgar, and ultimately idiotic naysayers being audience to one of the rarest and most sacred experiences known to humanity. Personally sacred to me as well, which in all honestly holds more weight. Important points for being highly selective of those you allow to share in magical operations.

There is something ridiculous about the notion of filming a spiritual event/experience no matter how much the entertainment, proof, or fame appeal is. There are many of us, myself included, who enjoy the thrill of possibly seeing a paranormal or spiritual event captured on film. It’s enticing to be able to “share” in extraordinary events from an objective standpoint. Upon further contemplation, I wondered what would appear on camera if someone going through true enlightenment were filmed. Would there be any sights, sounds, or feelings that an onlooker could perceive who had no reference for the experience? Would it even matter if there were? What would be the motivation for trying to convince people who did not believe or had no prior experience with such matters?

I entertained such questions as the above during the earlier times in my magical experiences. I was isolated by the events I had witnessed and greatly wanted others to share in what I was going through. My teenage years brought about many lessons where I attempted to introduce others to the world of magical reality…
Some succeeded where others failed.

I am not sure if others have had similar experiences but I introduced the magical and spiritual world to a few who were obviously not ready for such events in their lives. If someone’s paradigm is not suited to existence of a spiritual world which is dissimilar to the physically tangible and controlled world they are used to, they may have difficulty accepting any manifestations which appear before their eyes.
If some of you are looking for veritable “solid” auditory and visual proof that such and such exists and can be witnessed and recorded in indisputable ways, I am sorry to state that you are not only thinking wishfully, but impractically as well. You’re trying to cram one world (or concept of the “world”) into another world, which was designed specifically different from one another.

Let’s consider a few other points: Human beings as a statistical fact, are very poor observers and worse at recalling events exactly as they happened. One of the main reasons Hypnosis regression recall is seldom used in courts is because it is not an objective account of what transpired but a limited perception that is cataloged within the workings of a human brain. Our brains absorb information through a multitude of different filters which places a heavy slant on holistic comprehension. This fact multiplies many fold when nonphysical elements are included.

Even with various instruments, video, and audio recording, the human brain is still the final perceive and interpreter of the data. Certain spiritual elements might even be captured on video tape, but unless the one watching it has the ability to perceive and comprehend what they are looking at, the occurrences may still go unnoticed.

As I’ve previously written about, in order to behold certain occurrences, there has to be a suitable unconscious frame work or blueprint in which to perceive it with any amount of comprehension. If none exists, then the occurrence will go by unnoticed (invisible/unperceived) or else just case a slight disturbance which will be brushed aside by the conscious mind as unremarkable. Other times, these same people are shocked by occurrences that frighten and confuse them but give no other framework for understanding.
It’s really not a difficult a concept. Through simple hypnotic suggestion, I can make myself seem invisible to the subject, where they simply cannot focus or perceive I am there because their mind tells them not too. If there is a deeply ingrained structure or “suggestion” that states certain beings do not and cannot exist, its going to be very difficult for the conscious mind to be able to see “that which does not exist”. Introducing the presence of spirits or nonphysical beings to an adult (early teenage and older) mind, that had no previous framework or reference for is practically useless and sometimes harmful. By that time the mind has already constructed a fairly substantial grid of what occurrences are acceptable and included and which are not.

In normal circumstances, perceptions of reality are a sounding board against fellow observers (other human beings within the same social structure) who share at least similar concepts of acceptable reality. Anything outside this spectrum is either discarded by the rational mind or causes a disturbance in which “fear” is typically the reaction, as the mind searches for ways to interpret the foreign information/stimuli and fit it into a known frame of reference from which to attempt understanding.

(Also, research the hypothesis of the “quantum field” when dealing with human conceivability.)

Interesting side effects can occur when people undergo something their minds are not ready for. The results may actually have more to do with the witness’ psychology than anything external. When people are not able to accept or process the information they are witnessing a few amusing (and at other times disturbing) reactions can occur.

Some instantly divert their attention and eyes away from whatever it was I was trying to have them see, becoming nervous and seriously uncomfortable. The body makes odd sorts of shivers, and nerves twitching motions as if attempting to divert all sensory perceptions toward something physical and familiar. Even people who seem to be quite lucid and aware of being in the midst of something extraordinary may later seem to forget or totally dismiss what they experienced since the mind has no place to put the information in a rational, systematic place of familiarity.
Occult power and knowledge is occult {hidden} for a reason, and not due to the powerful and gifted magicians wishing to keep it that way. Many people are not meant to explore the realms of the unknown for a variety of reasons. Exposure to such events or entities, even accidentally can cause mental and emotional disturbance in ways not immediately apparent.
True Magic gives “power to the participant” were new constructs, concepts, worlds, and beings become perceivable and even acceptable over time. Magical ritual creates a systematic blueprint and/or foundation upon which we can build a framework for encountering and experiencing all sorts of spiritual phenomena. Psychedelic drugs or chemicals can bypass the conscious mind’s insistent control over permissible perceptions of reality but will typically not allow useful information and experience to be comprehended once returning to familiar states of consciousness. This is not Magic.
Magic requires the successful mediation between the seen and unseen worlds to whatever capacity the magician is able to fathom. Ritual and disciplined preparation create a road map for which the adventuring mind can observe foreign archetypes and circumstance without completely losing the construct of acceptable reality. Ritual creates a separate space, if you will, for the seemingly “impossible” to occur. Ceremonial alteration in mind and atmosphere allow the learning of new ideas and concepts to be assimilated without a paradoxical conflict of differing realities. In lingering between the worlds, the mind will either shut out what I cannot process or become dangerously unbalanced resulting in skewed mental/emotional functioning and perceptions of reality not acceptable to their fellow sounding boards.

I’m convinced that this process cannot be forced artificially, even with discipline. It also cannot be attempted just by “reasoning it out” even by the most gifted of minds. The parts of the brain which control the perceptions and interactions with the ‘unseen’ worlds are not the rational consciousness. Likewise, there is definitely an ‘exterior moderator’ which seems to allow certain individuals to experience these events and others not to. I still do not understand exactly what factors decide what allows a person to experience the dynamic magical, and what completely conceals it from another. It seems to ring true however, that “A magician is brought forth from his mother’s womb…. all others who assume the function are unhappy.”
The argument for particular magical experiences being “in the mind” therefor is a misconception. The mind is the medium the magician explores the magical world through his or her frame of reference. The Spirits, ghosts, demons, Fae, and angels are there regardless, but extend past what the imagination can hope to capture them in.

A few reflections:
“Philosophy: Comparative Religions” was one of the most interesting college course that I ever had the pleasure of taking. That class along with Cultural Anthropology, my multitude of Psychology courses, Ethics, and a few others. The professor of the aforementioned course was one of those rare individuals whom you will never forget and will forever have the utmost respect and admiration for. She was over seventy years old and mentally sharp as a razor blade. She was able to argue intelligently and convincingly from any religious/philosophical standpoint and pretty much own a debate on all ends. She challenged me at the best points of my discussions, making me reconsider statements I made during class which I had the utmost confidence in. I began growing a profoundly richer and more compressive view on what I truly believed, and more importantly WHY I believed. I was also able to release, change, and discard previous “truths” I held on so tightly too and was able to reexamine assumptions I had about the workings of the world. I have found that as I go on through life, I’ve taken the academic and scholarly skills I learned in school and have applied them to my daily work and experience. My wish for everyone is that they find those rare teachers who truly do make a difference.
One of the largest areas my comprehensive learning has changed would be my views of religion and faith. Before my college courses and further learning, I had already abandoned the position of being in the “Singularly correct and one true Christian faith”. I had been raised Methodist which may possibly be one of the “lightest” forms of the Imperialist Monotheistic religion. I actually enjoyed church growing up and engaged the minister after his sermons on points of the various sermons. Religion, faith, scripture, and ethics were never “boring” to me so I never accepted it as passive integration into my life. I actively embraced, pursued, and questioned it. However, by my early teen years, I was having too many personal experiences with the spiritual and supernatural to accept any religious dogma as being anything near “fact” or “Truth”. Eventually after learning the history of my birth religion’s atrocities towards other human beings and faiths, I abandoned it altogether in search of something more agreeable.

I became quickly drawn to Celtic Druidism, (having skipped over the more popular Wicca and Witchcraft movement as being to erratic and popular-media driven) as it contained almost all the aspects I had been looking for and what I also felt intrinsically to be closer to a living “truth”. I researched and studied all I could on the subject, making some very close friends and contacts on the way. Shortly after, a “grove” was formed and I became an active member and leader within its small numbers. I experienced many rituals, gatherings, and events that shaped my life and to which I still hold a dear measure in my heart. My “break” from this path was brought on more so by the people than the philosophy. I enjoyed the wisdom and abilities from a select few but found that many pagans were undisciplined and rather erratic in their approach to spirituality and religion in general. They were angry or dissatisfied with the mainstream religions or culture they were brought up in and still had trouble securing measures of success and balance in their personal lives. “Organized Pagan Religion” was very much a new concept and many groups disbanded not long after they were formed with the leaders often being people of unhealthy physical, social, and psychological standing. Unfortunately, our own group, like many, began being more focused on mundane, social activities and complaints about “The Christians” rather than doing our parts to make the world and ourselves better.

At one point I realized I did not require any specific social group to be convinced that I belonged or which I needed to feel imbued by others with some sort of esoteric importance. I vied to focus solely on personal development in magical and spiritual arts no matter what tradition or religion they stemmed from. Within the past decade or so I returned largely to the Western Esoteric systems of magic which are largely Catholic in nature. The irony of this decision was not lost on me and I found myself mending many broken ties with my former religion as well as having deeper appreciation for the Catholic Church which I previously held just above a level of contempt.
Few people these days will ask about my religion or what I believe, but when they do I will respond according to how I wish to steer the conversation. I will never lie or mislead intentionally but will typically not answer directly for a multitude of reasons.

-If I were to give a direct answer, I would state that my “religion” is Magic. In saying this, one would have to understand what my personal definition and understanding of what “magic” is. The word itself stirs up a multitude of images and labels in our society, even among practitioners. The essence of the word for me is the embodiment of my personal connection to the divine. It is the conduit through which real “truth” may be seen. When it works and is working well, I experience life, and the spiritual in stark clarity and expression. I integrate information and wisdom from a source beyond human relating and simple written words. I experience beings and energies that are dissimilar to any other involvement in the world. The whole spectrum of experiences and sensations that the practice of magic has given me makes up the closest thing I can have to a solid religion. Just like a reasonable Christian would see Jesus/God as being the focus of their faith and not “Christianity” itself, “magic” for me is not the object worshiped but the method, the practice, I utilize to worship. In my case the worship is geared toward whichever aspect of Spirituality I am focused on at that moment, which I all conceive of as being from a Creator who exists beyond the capacity of religious framework or human comprehension. By magical means I can connect to the current of vibrant and living archetypes, spiritual beings of great power and feel some measure of their influence.

Through my magic I can be okay in realizing that my perception and conception of the spiritual/divine is limited by my own psychological, cultural, social, environmental, and genetic variables. Though academic learning, study, and interaction with fellow magicians and thinkers I can appreciate the diverseness of experience and comprehension of the universe. Because of my magic, I can be okay with experiencing the unknown in a particularly unique and individual way because I am actually experiencing it. Through magic, I can study the techniques of priests, healers, seekers, shaman, and wise-people of various cultures and religions try their methods out for myself and see if I can experience a part of their own conception of truth or spirituality. Through magic, and faith in its origins, the unknown is not something to be feared and avoided, its something to be explored and sought. Through experiences by magic, I’ve learned that not all intelligent beings in the world, think and reason as human beings do which has caused me to be more humble and open toward events I don’t understand.

By magic, I can immerse myself in the ecstasy of divine presence without any need of assistance from other human beings. Magic, is indeed my “religion”: The vehicle I use to experience divinity and understand the divinity within me. Through magic, other faiths are not only appreciated, but experienced. Anytime I am present to experience the divinity of nature, the words of truth from another falling upon my ears, while gazing upon the wonderful workings of art, expression, beauty, life in existence, it is magic. Magic is life, magic is constant and pervasive for those who can feel and sense it moving through them. It is beyond the frequencies of human comprehension and sensation, yet can enhance and strengthen each. Beyond any other sensation or physical experience, involvement in magic has taken me to the deepest levels of passion, and the highest states of spiritual bliss.
My view of the Druid, magician, or wizard still remains the same, even after all these years. Beyond the title, they are the ones who stand apart in their journey when compared with the multitudes of humanity and their pursuits. They are the ones who assist those in their community as best as they are able to with the seen and unseen goings on. They are the moderators between the spiritual and physical worlds; those who attempt to have the widest view from as many sides as they can see so as not to be blinded by limiting “human ideals”. Beyond right or wrong, they experience what they believe instead of accepting it from others. Hopefully they/we are the voice of reason when fundamentalists of any standing threaten to become extremists.
Despite the best of intentions and the highest of learning however, the magus will error in his assessments and judgment. We are human after all and cannot see all beyond the filters of our humanity. Even as we stand apart, we are put back in our place by the same works we seek to understand and often control. That’s why the wisest among us will wrap themselves in the mantle of humility and compassion.