Baby, Who's Driving Your Car

You know what happens to people who have one foot firmly on the brakes and another on the gas?

Nothing, that's what.

A Mage cannot change reality if he's not willing to let go of the past.  Take your foot off the brakes and drive that car!

♫

Waiting On You

The more you wait for other people and events to make your life better, the less control you have over your own life.

You don't get Magick, you take Magick for yourself.  You make it.

If you wait for Magick, you'll be waiting a very long time.

♫

Writes of Winter

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, so today is truly winter.  Whether you think of it as an astronomical phenomenon or a day that marks the return of the sun gods, it is a fact that the instant of solstice cannot be detected.  It is a fact that from the human point of view the solstice is a relative not an absolute.

But we persist in trying, to know, to identify, to celebrate.  That's why we've got so many rites associated with the solstices.

So as we start out into the heart of winter let me ask you this:  Why did the Master entitle the song "Writes" instead of "Rites"?

♫

Wasting My Time

Believing, wishing and hoping with all your heart and soul aren't going to manifest anything. Actually, trying to change your reality that way is more like a little kind of crazy than like Magick. You know - believing you can fly and then splatting on the concrete?

Believing, wishing and hoping are all "try", not "do" (Yoda did know his stuff). Don't be wasting your time with "try".

♫

How Many More Times?

Simple answer:  Many, many more times.

That's because as long as you're alive you've got choices to make and new realities to bring about.

What, did you think being a Mage was going to be a piece of cake?

♫

Who's To Blame

A Mage is someone who creates his/her own reality on purpose, using desire + will + ritual.  Everybody else creates their reality by accident.

You've got someone or something in your life you don't want there?  Well, stop giving that reality your attention.  Use your desire and will for what you want, not for what you don't want.

You create your own reality by accident when you focus on what you don't want.  So who's to blame for that?

♫

Thank You

Thanksgiving 2013:  I am thankful for:

• My readers
• My health
• His music
• The Magick

But most of all I'm thankful for all that I have experienced in my life - good and bad - that has brought me to this very place and time.

♫

Whole Lotta Love

The Mage fears not.

The less fear, the more power. The better the connection the less fear.  Connection to what?  The source of Magick, of course.

You've been learning, but how do you know you've got it?  Well, it feels very much like a whole lot of love.

♫

Tea For One

A Mage's gotta do what a Mage's gotta do.

People want you to do things their way.  They want you to believe the things they want you to believe.  But you know what?  It's your reality, not theirs.  

By your own choices do you get to Magick.  That's not everybody's cup of tea.

♫

Baby Come On Home

No excuses for a Mage.  Once you know you're able to create your own reality, there's no escaping that all of your reality is your own creation.

That means all the crap, too - not just the stuff you worked hard to bring into your reality with Magick.

Yeah, sometime's it's trial and error.  Sometimes you start off wrong.  But baby, you can bring home what you want if you put your Magick to it.

♫

The World Keeps Going Round

How secure do you have to be to shut up about yourself? Very secure, indeed. So secure you don't need the world's opinion to validate who you are.

How secure do you have to be to be a Mage?   You know the answer to that already.

♫

Celebration Day

A year ago today I was in Albuquerque to see Celebration Day (we're a little slower than the rest of the world out here in the hinterlands). My only entry in my journal was “My God!”

The boys (now quite grown up, thank you very much) were celebrating their work together.  They could still generate that Magick.  After all those years, just think.

We are gonna dance and sing in celebration, We are in the promised land.  

They definitely got there.  But you won't get there unless you start.  Get moving!

♫

Prelude

You can't be a Harry Dresden until you've done your homework.  Even Harry Dresden couldn't just whip out the Magick until he had prepared his tools and himself.

What comes before, the prelude, is just as much a part of the ritual as the ritual itself.  Don't be tempted to shirk the prep.

♫

What Is and What Should Never Be

One difference between a Mage and everybody else is that a Mage has to clearly understand the difference between what is, what could be and what should never be before starting down the path of Magick.

A Mage knows that reality can be changed.  A Mage also knows that the reality he exists in is not a personal thing:  We all live in a pool of shared reality here on this plane.

A Mage better know that (to roughly paraphrase Wiccan law) what a Mage sends out comes back threefold.  You can call it karma, you call it the Golden Rule, but what it amounts to is that to change what is without carefully considering what should never be is not a wise course for a Mage.

♫

Halloween

Witches, goblins, zombies, ghouls, ghosts.  But no Magick.  Maybe there was once, but no more.  Enjoy, but don't confuse the play with the reality.

♫

The Crunge

A quick additional comment on the last post (also titled The Crunge):

Not going to the extremes is not to say that there is no giving of self.  That bridge you're looking for represents a point of balance - a center in the eye of a hurricane, not a place of indifference.

♫

The Crunge

"n. (crunnj) the transformation twitch when going from sober to stoned."

Tempting, so tempting, those extremes. Straight or stoned. Fight or flight. Cold logic or molten emotion. Those kind of extremes have no place in Magick, for they lessen conscious control and that closes the Mage to the energy of the Universe. No energy, no Magick.

A Mage stands confidently in the middle of the bridge between emotional extremes, exposed, vulnerable - and most open to Power.

So simple, but it's not easy.  I keep saying that.  Keep remembering it.  Find the confounded bridge.

♫

Sick Again

If you're going to be an artist you have to expose an essential part of yourself to the world. You do it because when you create art, you know the art needs to be experienced by others to be complete.  So you encourage fans, audience, art critics and everyone who wants to, to become voyeurs into your most personal self.  Whether they like your work or not, you invite the peeping Toms to peep.

How sick is that?

Mages who use art as the medium for the ritual walk a thin line.  On the one hand - the artist's hand - they want the attention of the world.  On the other hand - the hand of Magick - they don't. That makes them some kind of walking psycho split personality, doesn't it?

♫

No Excess Baggage

How much will does a Mage have to have? Enough will to control his own thoughts without blocking them. Enough will to change his default mode of thinking.

Enough will to not carry around the excess baggage of negative thoughts that undermine the ritual and thus the Magick.

You think that's easy?  Bwahahahaha!

♫

MAGE MUSIC: Interlude: Fiction

MAGE MUSIC: Interlude: Fiction: For something different today, here is a short story for your enjoyment. Small Stuff By Lif Strand (c) 2013

"...it was the most frightening thing I've ever done – because irrefutably, absolutely, incontrovertibly I had used magic on purpose. And that’s the most I can tell you."

Just Like Anyone Would Do

No, no, no!  A Mage cannot do what anyone else would do.  Magick is not a bunch of events in a Mage's life like going to the movies or having a birthday party - Magick is a way of life.  Not anyone would or could do that.

If you are trying to be normal, if you are trying to fit in, if you are trying to do things just like anyone would do, please give up even thinking about being a Mage. Spare yourself the frustration because "normal" and "Magick" do not dwell in the same person.

♫

How Many More Times?

Magick isn't about changing a discrete thing somewhere out there in the world - it's about changing your life. This means it isn't a ritual that is supposed to put a Band-aid on something so you can go on about life the way you always have.

Keep thinking like you've always thought, keep living the way you've always lived, and you'll undo anything you achieve with your ritual - if the Magick is even momentarily successful at all.

If you find you're having to try the Magick over and over again because it's not doing what you had in mind, look to yourself for the source of the anti-Magick. How many more times you have to do a ritual before you embrace the new reality is up to you.

♫

Mage Music: Zoso

Tonight's Mage Music post goes live at 5:30 PM MST.

Help Me

Let's talk painting for a moment.  Light and shade:  When you mix two colors together the result is something between them. Suppose you mix white and black:  you get gray.

Now let's talk about power.  When someone asks for help, that is actually a request for a shot of the greater power of the one being asked.  Good for the one getting the boost, but what about the person giving it?

Let's say that white is the light of infinite power and black the shade of finite personal power.  Mix them and you get something between them.  Gray has its place, but when it's power and not paint, black gains light at the expense of the white.

When you help others who use your power to raise themselves, you'll feel the drain of your energy as it is mixed with theirs.

If you're a Mage being asked for help, think before risking your own pure light.  Change your own reality, not theirs, because you can't really change other people's lives for them, anyway.

♫

Gotta Make Their Future Bright

You want to engage with others.  You want to defend your person, your ideas, your loved ones.  That's human nature.  But that's not going to get you to Magick.

No one has the right to make choices for others who are capable of making choices for themselves, and who have in fact made all the choices that got them to where they are right now.

Just like you have.

Magick is about changing your reality - on purpose, not by accident.  So what you can do is change your own reality to one where things are going the way you want.  That's what Magick is for.

If you want to duke it out with someone else to change their mind, don't bother with Magick, is all.  Fists and Facebook are there for you to use, instead.

♫

Federal shutdown and other "crises"

If you wish Magick to change your reality, you need to know that you can change your own reality.  However, you can't change other people's reality, no matter how powerful your Magick is.

That doesn't make you a victim, because your reality is still yours.  The whole point of Magick is based on this point alone.

When you fully grasp this one point, you own the key to Magick.

Down time

I'm on vacation - will resume posts in a week or so.  Listen to some good music for me while I'm gone!

Dreaming

You make your own reality, they say.  Doesn't mean you control it, but you still make it.

Of course, if you're planning on using Magick in your life, you better learn how to control it.

♫

Bonzo's Montreux

He owned the drumming world.  He still owns it.  The beating heart of Led Zeppelin.

RIP John Henry Bonham 31-May 1948 -- 25-Sept 1980

♫

Everything I Do Is Wrong

Let's face it: Sometimes it feels like you're shoveling shit against the tide. Sometimes Magick seems an impossibility. But you know - the Universe isn't your mommy. The Universe will deliver the energy that you use to manifest if you know how to ask for it - regardless of why you're asking or what you will do with it.

That part's up to you.  So, Grasshopper - if anything you do is wrong, don't be blaming the Universe.  Know what I mean? 

♫

Talkin' About You

If you only think you know what you want - or even if you really, really know what you want but you are dithering about it - Magick isn't going to do anything for you.

If you only dream of who you want to be and you aren't really ready to go there yet - Magick isn't going to do anything for you.

If you think you need to have or do one more thing, if you think you need to make your ritual a just a teensy bit more perfect - Magick isn't going to do anything for you.

Listen up, Grasshopper:  Magick isn't something out there, outside of you. Magick is an invocation to the Universe that says this is what I now am, let's make it so!  But it's all about you. The Universe is the energy source, but you've got to flip the switch. Only you can do that. You.

♫

Hey Hey What Can I Do

Choosing is better than not choosing.  You can have all the desire you want, you can have tremendous will, you can put together a fabulous ritual - but until you've made a decision about what it is that you specifically want, you won't have any results from Magick.  The stronger your decision, the stronger the Magick and the faster it all happens.  

So don't be asking the Universe what to do.  Make your own decision and then go for it.

♫

Gonna Shoot You Right Down (Boom Boom)

The temptation is to shoot someone down - or at least reject their ideas -when they conflict with what you think or want.

Don't do it.

A Mage doesn't reject anything in the world because everything has meaning and each thing is a guidepost to creating a new, desired reality.  A Mage knows that ideas that are not congruent with his own desire or will can still be of great value, just like a street sign can be that tells you you're going the wrong way.  A Mage simply makes choices and doesn't waste precious energy creating obstacles that aren't really there.

♫

South Bound North Bound Any Direction At All

Magick is like traveling by train.

• You have to be very specific about where you want to go. It won't do to get on a train headed east if you want to go south, and just any south bound train won't do it either. You don't want to get on a train headed for Miami if you want to get to someplace in Mexico. 
• You have to decide on what you need before you get on the train.  Once the train's left the station you can't go back home to get what you forgot.
• You have to stay the course. Hopping off the train at just any old station along the way isn't going to get you where you want to go.
• You have to give it all the time it takes. The train will get there when the train is supposed to get there. Once it leaves the station, your part in changing the end result is done.

♫

What Magick Does

This, my friends, applies to more than just engineering. This is what the greatest music is about. This is what Jimmy Page has always known and what Led Zeppelin took to heart.

This describes what Magick does.

MAGE MUSIC: The Journey is a Trip

MAGE MUSIC: The Journey is a Trip: Magick is such a trip! No, not the kind you do with chemical assistance but the kind of trip that is a journey. If it is never attempted, the goal will never be reached.

Good Times Bad Times

What do you really want?  The Universe is waiting for you to use your Magick (your will, your desire and your ritual) to bring it to you.

The more you are focused on what you really want, the more you bring the energy of the Universe to you. The more you bring that energy to you, the more power you have.  The more power you have, the more successful you are at manifesting the reality you want.

The most powerful Mages are those who know what they want and live it.

♫

The Only One

You don't have to be the same as everyone else, you know.  In fact, a Mage can't bother with that.  A Mage has to boldly go where he or she has never gone before.

The world will pressure you to conform.  Just look through Facebook or other social media - it's all about trying to get you to fall in with the flock.  But you can't be one sheep of many and expect Magick in your life. You don't have to be a lone wolf, but you do have to walk away from the temptation of the safety of sameness.

Every religion, every government, every political movement, and every social media line of thinking - every blog! - proclaims  that it is the only point of view that works.  But that's not true.  The only point of view that's going to work for you if you want Magick in your life is your own.

♫

The Impossible Factor

What do you mean, Magick is impossible? Says who?

If you want to succeed at Magick, ignore the nay-sayers. They're people who are afraid of the idea of personal power and are afraid of the idea they could change their own reality. You wouldn't think that there are people like that, but they're everywhere.

And they don't want you to succeed.  They don't understand, and what people don't understand they fear, and what people fear they want to control.

Don't let them muck around in your life.  Don't tell them what you're doing and don't ask them what they think about Magick.  Then get on with it and do the impossible.

♫

When nothing happens

So you've mustered up the desire and will, you've designed the ritual and you do it and... nothing happens.

What does it mean?  

Hard to say.  Sometimes you just need to give it time.  Be patient and move on to something else, though, because if you fret and dwell on the changes that haven't come about yet, you're undermining the Magick.

Do It Your Way

You can't do Magick by copying what other people do or say.  Magick is about you and the energy of the Universe.  It's about changing your own reality.  No one else's point of view or understanding is a substitute for your own.  No one else's reality is your business.

How some Mage does what he or she does simply will not work for you at all - not until it comes from you. If you want your Magick to work, you have to dream your own future, you have to drum up your own will, you have to create your own ritual.

Due Diligence

Do your homework.  Be prepared.  All that stuff you've been told all your life?

It's true for Magick, too.

The more you take the time to align yourself with the reality you wish to manifest before you get to your ritual, the less you have to mess with the ritual itself - the less perfect, the less elaborate, the less... well, anything the ritual has to be.  If you are so totally prepared that you're practically already there before you  even start the ritual, then you can afford to screw up a little with the rest.  

The big Magick is inside of you, not outside.

♫

An actual tip

Read Mage Music, first of all.  All the way from the beginning.  I'm not saying this just to waste your time - the Mage Music blog is there to tell you about Magick and really contains all the basic concepts.  This blog here is just for tips - you know, little add-ons.  Extra riffs and embellishments, not the main melody!

Next - a real tip!  You can't fight Uncle Sam (US readers will understand that one most readily) and you can't fight the Universe, which is where the energy of Magick comes from.  So don't even try!  If you're struggling with Magick, just stop!  While Magick might take some actual work, it's not necessary to suffer to get what you want - the only necessary is to focus on what you want!

Tips, thoughts and nonsense

What can I say - I wanted a place to post quick tips, but I didn't want to mess up the format I'm using on Mage Music, so here's another blog for aspiring Mages and for people who are just interested in Magick in general.  Might include stuff about music or I might just ramble on about nothing much.  Depends on what I feel like!