My wife had to explain to me that “muggle” is from Harry Potter. She claims she was reading it for the benefit of a friend. I’m not convinced. But don’t worry. The divorce papers have been filed.

It came up because my Facebook feed was filled with this video, last month. “Muggle” was being thrown around like whatever they throw around in that Harry Potter game. I know it as internet slang for those nerds who don’t know about magic. Christians and accountants, mostly.

The video is a short report from Colorado’s 9 NEWS, concerning the finding of an “occult altar” in a deceased man’s backyard shed. Amongst the paraphernalia was found human bones. Most likely, it was connected to Palo, a Cuban magical tradition.

The video contains a clip from Dr. Max Wachetel, the station’s on-call psychologist, answering the question, “What draws people to the occult?”

“Usually, somebody will turn to that when they are an outcast from society. They already don’t fit in. Maybe they – maybe they’re actively trying to not fit in, so they’re trying to do something shocking in order to push other people away. Other times, you know, maybe from their childhood, they’ve been pushed away by others, and this is their way of kind of reconciling that in their minds.”

This gross generalization, of course, had many commentators spitting mad, letting anyone within shouting distance know that they are absolutely not what Dr. Wachetel described, and that he is obviously one of those dumb muggle bastards, always trying to make the rest of us look like weirdos.

But then I remembered something that happened a little while back. I was at the Albuquerque Pagan Pride festival, a gathering in the park where pagans of all walks come together to enjoy the sun, listen to live music, and sell their wares in an environment of love and openness. While killing time, walking around and hoping to find a story to write about, I overheard someone talking about me.

“Jesus Christ. Look at this idiot.” I was wearing a suit and tie, which is apparently a major faux pas, if you ask the guy wearing a plastic viking helmet and hand-sewn version of Mickey Mouse’s robe from Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

The rest of the day was full of sideways glances and a general sense of suspicion whenever I talked to someone. I felt like an undercover cop.

I also remember the time I was in a New Age shop in Houston, browsing some books on Vodoun, when a skinny albino man tapped me on the shoulder and very earnestly said to me, “Bro. You do not want to fuck with Voodoo. That shit will mess you up.”

He then struck up a conversation with the woman at the cash register, shouting her name and making sure that everyone knew what good friends they were.

Dr. Wachetel’s words suddenly stopped sounding so dismissive. In fact, when I started thinking about it, of the handful of occultists I’d met in real life, nine out of ten (a figure I just made up) were just like these two goofballs: escapists with chips on their shoulders, desperate for attention and power that they obviously couldn’t get through normal channels.

And I was actively searching these people out, unlike Dr. Wachetel, who has probably only met one or two in passing. Is it really any surprise that all he found were antisocial malcontents “actively trying to not fit in?”

What a hate-mongering simpleton. An ignorant, intolerant jerk.

A goddamn muggle.

Howard Bloom was right. It’s the same old Us versus Them tribal dance. We’re watching superorganisms dueling it out to see who gets that most coveted spot: king of the hill.

In The Lucifer Principle, he said that all the fighting, stealing, murder, and subjugation, everything we call “evil,” are just by-products of cultural evolution. One tribe must view all others as “the enemy” and recognize otherness as a source of contamination if it wants to make its way to the top. It’s evolution by way of Capitalism and zero-sum gaming.

And this mentality has served us well, so far, creating what we recognize as “culture.” While the most atrocious acts of war and slavery are byproducts of this system, the transmission of cultural memes is another. When one group exercises control over another, it must inoculate against that group’s infectious ideas, an inoculation that always fails and inevitably leads to cultural dissemination.

The Us versus Them model always falls in on itself, tending to lean toward integration.

With tools like the internet at our fingertips, the differences between groups is becoming fuzzier with each passing day. We’re starting to recognize that every other person in the world is the same as us, only in different circumstances. And that should go for occultists and muggles, as well.

After all, the world is becoming more like us, everyday. Ke$ha’s got pentagrams and James Franco’s got Kenneth Anger. Culture is catching up pretty quickly, and soon, there won’t be any Them left to roll your eyes at.

And many occultists now view magic as a type of technology, anyway, drawing from Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Here, the idea is that magic isn’t a supernatural power, but a natural set of laws which have, so far, gone unrecognized by scientific research. Practicing magic doesn’t mean you’re smarter than everyone, it just means you’ve had access to the right information sources.

So, if magic is a technology, then looking down your nose at an ignorant muggle may be the equivalent of mocking a poor Somalian for not having an iPhone.

Frater Isla

I recently had the pleasure of presenting a class on “The Gentle Art of Rune Magic” for the Calix Sanctus OTO Oasis in Glastonbury. The general theme that its body master Sef wanted me to touch upon was how Runes might be used as a form of “Visual Magick”. How might one use Runes in the construction of talismans or “Tines” and how might this differ from more Spareian forms of sigilisation?

Alphabet of Desire

When presented with time constraints and the group’s palpable sense of tiredness (the class coming after both a number of initiations and the Gnostic Mass) it can be difficult to know where to begin. I began with Silence.

Following a brief introduction about myself I lead the group in 5 minutes of quiet sitting meditation. Perhaps this sounds a bit strange and unlikely to energise, but there was a method in my madness! As practising occultists we can be a bit prone to gathering cognitive clutter. Most likely born from our attempt to inject esoteric meaning, we evolve elaborate Theosophies in order to both comfort and explain. While understandable, I wonder if they actually get us any closer to the Magic.

The rationale for my using silence was to model the act of co-creation. In many cosmologies, the divine realm speaks a “Word” into a primal emptiness in order to make:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3)

These “Words” vibrate air and rattle the body; they are embodiments that bring things into being. When they are spoken with conscious intent they bring the possibility of change for both the speaker and those who hear. Such words are incarnational in fleshing out the realm of ideas: the noosphere if you will.

Runes provide us with a language for such expression. They are whispers or “mysteries” that help us wrestle with and access the unknown. As the High One puts it:

“I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded by a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.

No bread did they give me or drink from a horn,
Downwards I peered;
I took up the runes, screaming I took them,
Then I fell back from there.”

Havamal 138-139

One eyed bandit

The Rune alphabet like those of Greek and Hebrew are not exclusively magical; their meanings seek to capture the world view of those forging an existence in the north-lands. They represent our human need to create, to understand and to express. In seeking to pry them from the realm of the deep unconscious (“the roots”) Odin screams or roars as he takes them up.

The constraints of time and energy caused me to focus our attention on the magical use of the Elder Futhark of 24 runes and the work of esoteric rune giants such as Von List, Marby and Edred Thorsson. Some of the techniques such as “Rune Stadhr” or Rune Yoga may be modern conjecture based on historic hints, but used creatively they can still be employed to powerfully channel the intent of our workings.

The process of making magic is often as transformative as the gaining of some desired outcome. As our small gathering experiments with the carving, singing and empowering of bind runes, my hope is that these mysteries will get internalised rather than merely becoming yet another thing we know about. Such transformation can be difficult: “sacrificing self to self” as Odin puts it. When we seek to engage with mystery, that being we thought of as ourselves, becomes the fuel to forge the more expansive sense of “self” that we might become.

In the creation of our bind runes we are mirroring the Gods of consciousness in using desire and intention to shape from the primal chaos of the universe. Michael Kelly articulates this well in his work Apophis in which a vital feedback loop exists between Apep, Set and Babalon (Chaos, Consciousness and Desire). When we shape our consciousness in pursuit of desire, the process itself transforms us and potentially the thing we think we are seeking.

As well as being a potent means of spell-craft, a well constructed bind-rune provides the Gnostic explorer with what Michael Bertiaux would call a “Magical Machine”. Like a Yantra or Rosicrucian engraving, the bind-rune provides us with a portal through which we can access the numinous.

Whatever the insights that we might gain via our explorations, the mysterious dimensions of “Runa” warp and disrupt any claims that we might make to full revelation. Like the Zen practitioner wrestling with koans, the aspiring rune wizard is given a doorway to a type of gnosis that ultimately transcends language. As we stare into the dark place of sustained practice, we realise that we not only look into the void, but the void looks back! The visions that you win via such questing will inevitably be through your own unique lens, but the call of your future, deep self will whisper of what you might become.

“Dark Matter flows through Gnostic machinery
Metaphysical truths
Now patent absurdities.
Strip it back
Strip it right back,
and Journey into Space
Remembering your true Self,
Seeing your original face”

See http://vimeo.com/45148791

SD