As a practitioner, and student of knowledge what do I do when not working Planetary Sorcery or electing to do so?
This essay started out with my sharing what I do when the Planets aren’t available, for my Patrons and in true fashion grew into something else. I have decided this will be the working intro for my book. I am not a witch, I have been referred to as such, and even tried on the hat for a short time out of connivance. Explaining identity is silly and exhausting, esp inter-personally. Constantly have to break down steps for allistic processing—but is it? Not a title of my lineage, and I don’t limit magical systems to the typecast.
*for accessibility an audio recording of this post can be found on my podcast– In Between Magic
I ask the question while observing the early dissolution of this magical resurgence—Planetary work has begun replacing certain languages of homogenized modern occultism and magic. I suppose modern occultism is relatable to magic with a k—though that K is fairly fluid in both. I automatically associate the notation with the recognition and upholding of Nazi Occultism and I don’t think my mind can be changed.
The planets are not always available, and sometimes they are uncomfy. Sure, we cannot project humanness onto them but there are qualifying factors—and when you fuck up…well let’s just say you don’t want to fuck up.
It’s important to recognize the statement of not projecting Humanness, they are not your allies…how you show up matters, they are going to show up exactly how they are, and whether you are projecting or wearing rose-colored glasses—its neither here nor there.
Longevity in sound is what comes to mind when I visualize this. And I have even found through my experimentation that the collapsing of these castings is very different, as in…cannot.
Now, other sorcery-based workings are a little more and less subjective based on the text, because yes, this work is like an academic study & requires critical thinking, I suppose…I still always check the planets, not just Moon, but I am an astrologer. Casting something which requires defined objects, ingredients, and energy…is not the same as my folk workings which also require defined objects, ingredients, and energy. They are objectively different, dimensionally so.
Then there is the question, are you even getting through…or is who you are working with someone or something very different (this can be the same for closed deities and practices). I have many nuances on this topic. When we work in closed traditions that are not of our people or that we have not been welcomed into, do you really believe that it will go in your favor? Tell me you don’t believe in yourself without telling me you don’t believe in yourself…
Time of study and practice was thrown to the wind. Unregulated Markets give us the example of egos flying high. The Jupiter Rule should always be considered when working with, hiring, or selling a service. And then there is the consideration of those that are adept or a ‘natural’ to the skill. Both fall under, do you trust astrology—many who claim that they do, don’t really, and won’t accept meaning beyond the lackluster gaslighting of the beauty magazine. Only when it suits them…otherwise, we would have a better grasp on momentum and this writing would be very different. Consider the variable differences between instant noodles, and beautiful broth.
There are many facets to source work, just as there are many avenues to magic.
In the foundation of modernity, we are generally exposed to that which is not ours to hold, homogenized practices and lots of things that sound good from popularity and conditioning are the praxis designed by individuals who abhorrently negated basic human rights.
Funneling in their trending beliefs as solid morality or the lack thereof for shock value, and attempt at immortality through egoic conceptual fame—for some, it worked, becoming the Marketing tool of today. Sometimes I like to imagine what Crowley, Jung, or Blavatsky would say if breathing, you know…if they could have cheated the harvesting.
Many of these beliefs are now veiled by the passivity modeled after the modern Christian, which is retroactively influenced—just believe or claim this, you are ‘saved’, you are chosen, you are special.
What is it the teachers of the occult resurgence desired, what did they believe in?
Of humanity, race, and culture?
You can find it if you look…and it’s not lovely.
How does it present itself today?
How does it translate?
Have you deconstructed it?
Are you one of the many choosing complacencies, arcing through the notions of elite euro-centricity?
It is not a matter of wrong or right because nothing is absolute, but it does beg the question of authenticity and how the practitioners of antiquity, moved differently. In some cases, we know and in others…destroyed for the aforementioned.
There are areas that are always open but I find these areas to require a foundation to build on from cultural perspectives of what lives in us, just like everything does. Foundations constantly have to be maintained…but first, have you deconstructed them? Do you understand how and what that can look like?
I understand that there are many opinions to theistic belief in the aspects of Magic…just as there are many spellings—which in my opinion I find telling in ways that are sometimes unethical, sometimes experimental, and sometimes personified identifiers for self and not reason. Presenting itself too, as the distillation of capitalism and not magic at all, not Mercurial but Saturnian without even quantifying the expression or exchange…selling self-help with your claimed deity no more than a trademark. Now of course this isn’t all teachers, but if you felt that in your body…or if you have had to defend your work in certain capacities, consideration should be made.
Something that is sometimes classified as Magic but is not Magic in the context that I speak here is manism, Ancestral Work; honoring, and venerating. I will admit that sometimes I refer to this work and some others as magic because it is easier—like Astrology getting lumped into the metaphysical community because of the Spiritual Industry umbrella but when it is a serious study it is far from, right? It is where the topics are found to be seen. For instance, contextualizing and defining religion from an academic perspective requires expansion to translate to those that have not studied in these spaces, this is synonymous with esoterica.
To begin working with your Ancestors & maybe not sorcery–sorcery is not for everyone but we all have ancestors some of which were supernatural or magical workers. You do not have to know who, you may have lost ancestral traditions as many of us did from colonization…but your ancestors know you—they are you. Now, like all work, there are differing sensational areas and cultural aspects to working with your Ancestors. If you are not raised with this tradition, simplicity & intuition are key. (I have many posts on my Patreon on this work that I am moving into downloadable content for my store.)
Remember the sickle is not to collect our souls, but to harvest our bones to be reborn, which leads us to our next practice.
Familial: through all the time I have worked with clients I have found that by aiding in rebuilding connection through heritage & lineage…there are reminisce of household practices that remain like breadcrumbs. Something that lingers or calls to you—and in the cases that these traditions have been fully stripped away the above-mentioned swoops in to fill this. Your job is to match the energy in learning what it took for you to exist.
You see, I believe that ‘magic’ in however you want to discern this, describe this, or how it articulates for you, calls louder to the lines that it has been taken from—that we do not have a choice from birth until we reach puberty & then we are given the grace in articulation. That through its accessibility of modernity this grants privilege beyond the gift, the magi, or the sage—the sensational feelings have to be met (like a test) for authenticity.
As Neptune leaves Pisces I predict that a lot of the ‘ability’ being performed will disappear as if it were a dream—because much of what is being described as ‘Magic’ is not. And when we see slivers of the attempts, a lot of messy ‘magic’ that has been cast, a lot of misinformed literature guiding people to continue this mess—a very simple example in the context of unlocking ‘psychic’ abilities like intuition. When intuition is a survival instinct, humanness…Or empathy, which is sold as being an ‘empath’, but emotional intelligence and built upon intuition—these are innately human qualities that have been taken by social oppression. Being an empath encourages boundary issues and the invasion of energetic space to be cute or quirky. Or prolifically, ‘psychic hits’ and pop astrology laced with Victorian Spiritualism is socially accepted as parlor tricks–diluting these spaces to nothing more than silly. To the serious or studied practitioner, we know this to be early and continued propaganda.
The Human Experience unto itself is mundanely Magical, animism is a human right, and polytheism is an open umbrella (deities and spirits are not), but this is not unto the same thing as a healer, practitioner, source worker, magi, timekeeper, et al…not everything is for everyone and if nothing else when you have to force something you are not in authenticity.
Familial workings are your folk practices. How did those before you clean themselves, what did they add to their food for wellness, why did they dance, which ancestors were venerated, what are they called & where do they live now, to who were offerings made and why, how were the elementals and spirits recognized…
There are so many actions and expressions that I can’t list them all. I know many of these things were lost but I believe that through reconnection this can be reconstructed—maybe not the same as it was, but we are not the same as we were.
For many people, the appropriation of ‘Magics’ is from the ‘subconscious’ telling you that you are missing something—because you are, but the placebos & highs of things like pretty altars and bad reiki attainments that wear off unless fed—I mean, do you even know the bargain that was made for reiki? Combined with the overall historical misinterpretations, and victor’s written history of the witch hunts. Most are just practicing early Christianity—and that’s ok, just learn what it is and know that it might help fill the whole. As you know, it was also constructed from pieces of other’s traditions.
Don’t get me wrong. Everyone has the access to grimoires, and the right to study & practice…that is not this critique and a discussion for a different time.
With Planetary Magics, timing is everything when working with the lords of time, followed by other requirements—and I don’t just mean the day of the week or hour—which are a good beginner place to start, excellent for the mundane, for building ritual, and held easily in a polytheistic approach. I use this for when I honor and venerate deities, but that is not casting. Trancing is not casting, offerings are not castings, and so on and so forth…
And not all spellwork requires a cast, but this is also something I would debate variably—from multiple perspectives. Because at the end of the day you are going to do what you are designed to do and your ancestors live through you.
The imprint of the nativity is fixed, and it takes great strength to bend it.
The Swans Dialectic 
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