| Self-Defense for Spellcasters |
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| Written by Bob Bruhin | |
| Tuesday, 27 February 2007 | |
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Local author Jason Miller (Inominandum) talks to Bob Bruhin about witchcraft, spellcasting, magickal protection, and how he ties them all together in his new book. Jason Miller is the author of Protection and Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual. An experienced practitioner of several magickal systems, Miller is an articulate individual with an understated wit and a quiet personal charm. He met with me at Robin'tilde;s Bookstore in Philadelphia, where he was doing a talk about the book. Bruhin: Readers of your new book will quickly notice that you bring together quite a few diverse magickal practices within. I suspect the best way to introduce yourself and your work, given this fact, is to talk about your personal magickal background a bit. You touch on your education here and there in the text, but I thought our readers might appreciate a more informal, chronological account: Where did you come from, and how did you get to a place where you were inspired to write about this kind of work? Miller: I had a number of psychic experiences involving spirit contact and perceptions outside of normal space-time at a very young age. This ignited a calling towards the mystical and occult side of life. This calling was coupled with extreme synchronicities that brought me into contact with magickal mentors at an early age from various traditions. I had come into contact with a Rosicrucian Magician, Rootdoctor, Santera, Gardnerian Priestess, and Buddhist Tantrika -- all before I was 21, and all within about 20 miles of my home in New Jersey! Having this wide variety of teachers gave me an appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of various different magickal paths, but also the respect for their various cultural matrixes that I see lacking in today'tilde;s "eclectic" movements, where people just mix and match things willy-nilly without knowing much about what they are doing. This book specifically arose out of a desire to design a complete strategy of magickal combat and defense. I seemed to always be asked to do exorcisms and protections for people, which I took as a sign that my karma was tied up in this particular kind of work. The publisher stretched their rules a bit in letting me discuss reversals and counter magick that could harm a potential attacker, but only in the name of defense. One day I will self-publish a chapbook on offensive magick, making this a complete system of magickal combat. I have no great love of curses, but they are a part of magick traditionally and I hate the way in which that whole aspect of the craft is whitewashed. Bruhin: My own personal experiences make me find this a very interesting time for such a book to be released. Your comparison between magickal seals and corporate logos, as well as between neuro-linguistic programming and sorcerous bindings, really hit the mark for me. I also have to note that there's currently another kind of pseudo-magick, known as "prayer" being launched against witches of all kinds at levels unheard of since the Middle Ages. At the same time, more than one esoteric tradition I am aware of is quietly training selected members in exactly this kind of magick. Within that context, could you tell your reasons this book is being released now? Miller: There really wasn't any particular political motive to the books timing. The ancient concept of the magician, shaman, and cunning man as someone that stood between the community and malevolent forces has been more or less retired in the past few decades in favor of ideas about self-improvement, self-actualization, and enlightenment as the main thrust of the work. This is a bit of a shame, because both aspects are important and sorely needed. The fact that corporate logos and right wing prayer groups are dealt with in the book as types of magickal attack is really just keeping current with the magick specific to the times we live in. The overall need for dealing with this kind of thing is timeless. Bruhin: We really have to touch on the distinction you make early in the work between "Wicca" and the much broader area of study you call "Witchcraft." While this book does touch on Wiccan ideals, you're clearly exploring a much wider territory than most Wiccans would likely find themselves comfortable in. Would you like to add anything here about that distinction and how it influenced your decisions while you were writing? Miller: I wanted to make this distinction right off the bat because we are arriving at a point where Wicca and Neo-Paganism are evolving very exoteric religious aspects that don't have much to do with magick at all, and thus aren't really representative of the essentially esoteric craft of the Witches. I have nothing against Wicca, mind you. I think it is a wonderful faith and magickal practice, but it'tilde;s important to remember that Wicca is only one tradition of Witchcraft, and a very recent one at that. Some types of Witchcraft are not Pagan at all, or even religious. In the book, I point out the various types of Witchcraft that exist outside of the Wiccan/Neo-Pagan frame and wanted to get back to this somewhat more traditional and far reaching idea of the craft. Witchcraft is a craft after all, it is something that you do, not just what you believe. Bruhin: I can't help but notice that the very first person you mention in this book is not a teacher, magus, author, or leader (at least, not as far as I know). The first person you mention is your wife. When I very briefly met her, I couldn't help but feel -- or imagine -- there was a priestly demeanor around her. As a person happily exploring a relationship with a magickal and romantic partner, I can't help but ask: Is your magickal life something you share with your spouse? Has that relationship influenced the content of this work? Miller: My wife is quite psychic and often will become aware of the presence of a visiting spirit before I will. She does not keep a formal magickal practice like I do, but is most certainly a partner for me in the work in other ways. She is able to serve as my Tantric Sang-yum and is also a much-needed grounding agent for me, keeping one foot always in the "real" world. Bruhin: One can't really speak about a subject like this one without at least mentioning Dion Fortune's classic Psychic Self-Defense (Samuel Weiser, 2001). True to this, you do allude to her work very early in your own. What I find fascinating is that -- despite clearly footnoting Psychic Self-Defense, you don't actually list it as a source for further study. Can you talk a little about how Fortune's work relates to your own, and why you haven't recommended it? Miller: I actually thought long and hard about it before deciding not to include it in the bibliography. Though there are some real gems in the book, it is outdated on a number of levels. Being written well before Britain's Witchcraft laws were repealed, its mention of Witchcraft is entirely derogatory. Also, the bits about "Black Lodges" that seem to have no purpose but to spread evil and perfidy are a bit far-fetched and should be lumped together with Blavatski's silly ramblings about Dugpas. I think the book should be read, but with a big grain of salt. Bruhin: While the title Protection and Reversal Magick would seem to imply a balance between the disciplines of protection and reversal, you go through more than 65% of the book before you seriously approach reversal magick. Even then, you only devote around 12% of the book to reversal, before turning to healing and recovery. A reader might be tempted to wonder if this was an ethical choice or a practical choice. Are you implying that protection is generally more useful than reversal, or do you feel ethically challenged by reversal magick? Miller: I definitely don't feel ethically challenged by reversal magick. I have seen some bad harm caused by well-intentioned but ill-aimed benevolent spells, and some great good achieved through well-placed curses and hexes. I am not above recommending outright attack in some cases, so reversals don't bother me at all as long as they are done well. It was really just a practical choice, there are only so many spells that you can list on one topic before it gets repetitive and dull. I wanted to make sure that the book remained focused on showing a strategy rather than just listing spell after spell. Reversals are only one aspect of that strategy. I think the reason why the word "reversal" is part of the title is that we wanted the potential reader to know that we would be pushing the envelope a bit beyond the purely protection-oriented material that fills the shelves at the moment. Bruhin: I found your aside discussing the difference between practicing magick as an active method to affect change versus magick as a "cathartic ritual" quite interesting. Sometimes I find many people in my community accepting the "cathartic ritual" mentality. I have to confess I've found myself tempted by that path myself, during periods of emotional stress. Clearly you feel this attitude doesn't serve the practitioner. Other than this book, what would you do to minimize this attitude if you could? Miller: Well, it's not so much that magick can't be cathartic ritual -- it can, but that's not ALL it is. There are many Pagans and Wiccans that have no interest, belief in, or talent for spell-casting. That's okay. I don't believe that Witchcraft was ever meant to be a widespread practice. It may be elitist of me to suggest it, but I don't think that everyone can cast an effective spell. Some can, some can't. What we have today, however, are people drawn to the purely religious and spiritual aspects of Neo-Paganism and mistaking it for Witchcraft. They need to find a way to explain the place of spell-casting in a modern world, so its gets explained away in psycho-babble. Many teachers today will explain that spells don't actually offer outer change, only inner change. A spell to help you get a job will perhaps build your confidence but not affect the mind of the interviewer. The claim is that the magick is providing mystery, wonder, and self-affirmation. These are all good things, but it is clear that Witches throughout history did not feel this way about their craft, and neither do I! I and many others know from experience that a well placed and executed spell can alter future events, affect the mind and spirit of a target or a client, and generally deliver the goods that are traditionally attributed to the craft. The effectiveness of this depends on the ability of the practitioner, knowledge of the art, and skillful application of that power and knowledge. Some people have a talent for practical magic. Some do not. Not so long ago, if you didn't have a gift or calling for Witchcraft, you would not have been drawn to it. Now that it has become a popular subculture and religion, I wonder if people that don't have much talent for spellwork feel the need to write it off. To be clear, I don't think that you need to practice spellcraft to be a Pagan, or even a Wiccan, but that doesn't mean we should reduce the classical art of Witchcraft to therapeutic drama. Laura LaVoie once said, "One of my fears with the spellbooks is that they send the wrong message to those looking for answers on how to be Pagan." I have heard her fear echoed often in the Pagan community, but very few consider the other side of the coin: Neo-Pagans can sometimes send the wrong message to those that just want to practice Witchcraft. Bruhin: Your unusual take on the Wiccan "Law of Three" also caught my attention. Do you feel it's important for witches to remember that being under attack makes for different ethical issues than one usually finds in everyday life? Miller: Yes, certainly. Even the Buddha talked about the necessity for wrathful action when necessary. He spoke about a past life in which he killed someone that was going to murder a boatload of people. Not only did he save all the victims, but saved the potential murderer from the karma of killing people. Last week, the world was deeply impressed by the spiritual values the Amish displayed in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting. Their show of compassion for the perpetrator and his family as well as the selflessness of the older girls who calmly offered themselves up to be killed first touched the hearts of a lot of people, mine included. There was something that no-one talked about, though, that bothered me: A man went into the school with guns and cable ties and ropes. He gathered all the girls together and told the adults and boys to leave . . . and they did. Most people I know would not have left young girls in the hands of such a man, even if it meant their own life. I would not have. Neither would most people I know. I appreciate the Amish spiritual fortitude, but if you are so passive that you can't even intervene to save the life of an innocent, than it's no good at all. Bruhin: This interview wouldn't be complete without touching on your personal relationship with the entity you refer to as "the patroness of this book" -- the Goddess Hekate. I'm not even going to try to narrowly frame this question because the relationship with a patron is such a personal matter. Instead, could you tell us anything you would like about who she is in your life and how she influenced your writing of this book? Miller: Hekate appeared to me in the strangest of places: the cremation grounds of Pashupatinath in Nepal. She beckoned that I return to the West and take back up the practice of the Craft, integrating everything I had learned thus far into it. I commune with Hekate, but do not worship her in the conventional sense. In my own understanding of the esoteric craft, the only way to properly worship the gods is to become one of them. We have a relationship, and I owe her much, but not worship. Not to keep picking on Neo-Paganism, but Hekate is so deeply misrepresented that I had to include an appendix explaining that she is NOT a crone. She is actually usually depicted as a younger goddess than most. But because a dogma in the craft developed about Maiden, Mother, and Crone, with the Crone being equated to the dark of the moon and to chthonic/underworld energies, she gets lumped in as a Crone. It'tilde;s really silly, and it yet another way in which eclectics insist on forcing square pegs into round holes. Protection and Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual is published by New Page Books and is available through local book retailers and online book sellers.             |
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