Mastering the Inner Worlds: Justin B the Magician on Spiritual Development

EXPLORING ENLIGHTENED LIVING

THROUGH HERMETIC MEDITATION

AND BEYOND

With Justin B The Magician

Illustration by Justin B

Falcon Books is presenting a series of interviews with seasoned Hermetic practitioners to offer not only their wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and an insight into their own journey, but also to offer inspiration to those on this path. The focus of these discussions are guided towards the spiritual seeker.

Presenting today and interview with Justin B the Magician. A dedicated practitioner of magic and artist who has blog which is now archived and wonderful resource of posts going back to 2008. You can also find him on Tumblr. Justin began his journey at the age of 18. He is an explorer and adventurer whose curiosity for life and adventure lead him on a journey into of magic. Having over 20 years of practice and worked his way through Bardon’s 3 books and now has been given his own system of Kabbalah. He continues to research and explore the infinite universe that surrounds us.

A cordial welcome to Justin. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions.

Falcon Books: I wonder if you could start by offering to us a background into your journey and what took on onto the path of following magic?

Justin B: From many unusual and odd experiences from a very young age such as sleep paralysis as well as seeing a “goblin” wide awake during the day, I knew the world was not how most people believed it to be. When I was around 14 or so I had an intense release of Kundalini energy which from the fear of the experience created something of a demonic tulpa. This being could perform certain poltergeist like activity and would try to possess me. Luckily for me a fellow student at school who was very gifted help me remove this entity and I began my journey at the age of 18 practicing Qi kung and energy work as shown to me from that same friend who was really gifted at psychic perception. He had a very unique method of teaching where it just seemed so simple and direct. Rather than arduous training and practice it was more about getting better at focus and perception. I then picked up some books on something called “the empty force” that I practiced for several years. The description was simple but in practice it can be arduous. Its main practice was holding a horse stance and keeping an empty mind for an hour. You had to do this every day for three years. Needless to say, this helped a great deal when I started Bardon’s thought control exercise. Later I began to dabble with ceremonial magick and spirit work, doing the LBRP and the watchtower rituals. This led me to work deeply with the four archangels of the quarters as spirits I would evoke daily. Some of the ideas they shared with me which I shared with a friend who was a yogi/Bardon magician led him to give me his copy of IIH because he said they were aligned, and they were. So, I started IIH at the age of twenty three.

Falcon Books: It must have been great to have found Bardon’s IIH so early on?

Justin B: Didn’t seem so at the time. That was why I went with Bardon. It was difficult to get past the symbols and inspirations from spirits with my internal chatter or expectation of what they may say, even from years of meditation. You see, this is before the internet had taken off. If you did not know someone who could advise you it had to be worked out on your own, no validation unless it worked. So when I would work with spirits or the archangels I kept questioning if it was some internal garbage within me or pure inspiration from a spirit. Bardon was a great guide in the ways in which I needed to focus and clear the mind. That is also why I recommend Neo-Reichian exercises of tension and relief and Wim Hof. It really helps clear the thoughts.

2. Falcon Books: Interestingly you speak about using ‘tension’ I find parallels with Mouni Sadu’s concentration exercises which include tension exercises to develop this aspect of meditation.

a. Could you please going into a bit more depth about the significance to the this and how using these types of practices help develop clarity and concentration.

b. Could you also give us some examples of such practices.

Justin B: First you must realize that most of your internal chatter, emotional coloring of experiences and reactions to things is due to internalized, repressed speech or expression. Think about small children. If left to their own devices they are chatter boxes. They give direct commentary about everything they experience, and their imaginations are free to run wild and their emotions flow out. Parents or adults then impress the social norms, and teach them to suppress their unending dialogue from being voiced. It does not go away though. The speech, the imagination and all the rest is still pumping away. Watch an adult think about what they are about to say and if you watch closely you will see muscle tension around the throat and jaw. That builds over time, as do emotional responses we must “cover up” because they are not accepted. What the psychotherapist attempts is to re-live the experience that created it, which does not help or helps very little only when the patient experiences a release of the tension (why confession feels so good and freeing) what really needs to take place is a full release of body tension. You experience this at times when you have had a long hard day of work, or physical strain. After such massive strain you flop down and feel as you could melt, your mind is at peace and you drift off into rest. That feeling of peace, of release is really just that! Having a temporary release of the tensions in the body brings that bliss and inner silence which is why hard work has always been so lauded in society; it gets things done and has the added benefit of energetic release. Meditation is another way to do this by essentially starving the stimulus of the senses which allows the inner experience to pour out. If we first work with the muscles tension in the body before we do meditation we will see a profound difference in reaching higher states of consciousness and focus. There is no tension holding you within the confines of the body and you are allowed to surf the waves of blissful awareness even if a part of your body feels pain.

The simplest way, but not the most thorough is to take a deep breath, hold it while you strain every muscle in a certain muscle group and release the muscles in that group and the breath when you have reached the limit of your ability to hold it. Start with the feet and move up to the head. Scan the body to find any sources of tension and repeat the exercise in that area while being fully open and aware of the area. You will see a marked difference in your ability to meditate. Jack Willis wrote a fantastic free book that is available online that covers many exercises to fully release the tension and the proper breath to do this with. Wim Hof breathing and physical stretching is another amazing way to do it.

3. Falcon Books: Moving on from developing concentration, I would like to ask your thoughts on the importance of developing ‘awareness’ and ‘being in the moment’ and how this affects training later on.

Justin B: That is actually a great segue in discussion because one moves into another. Once you release body tension you will notice more and more the field of awareness grows, you get a sense of what your energy feels like and how to move it. The old trick of thinking about your small toe on your left foot is a good example. Prior to being directed to experience that little digit it was most likely out of your awareness, but once directed your awareness flashed down to it. Grade that awareness though, was it a gentle vague cloud of perception or was it deep and penetrating such as when you stub that toe in the dark and you feel every heart beat within it and the nerves flash like a bolt of lightning. Expanding, strengthening and purifying the state of awareness leads (just as tension and relaxations led to awareness) to psychic states of awareness. The more you work on your awareness the more in the moment and perceptive it is, the more you are open to direct experience in a deeper way from your senses. Your psychic senses are just your normal senses in a more perceptive state. With experience and observing the cycles and patterns in nature the higher realms become as obvious as the nose on your face, always there but slightly out of awareness.

4. Falcon Books: Within studying magic there can be a difficulty in the discernment between imagination and genuine experience when dealing with the subtle realms. I feel is a huge area that needs clarification how do we avoid the trap of fantasy?

Justin B: That is an excellent point. Imagination that is not charged with ‘will energy’ is fantasy. It takes training to work both skills to do magic. Working one gives you great mental vistas and vision, the other the ability to succeed. When united they can do wonders. Now, having said that a purified and trained imagination is better than a mirror to skry in (the mirror is only a physical symbol of the imagination, an object on which the conscious mind and soul have agreed they can communicate in). Observe the imagination and become aware of its actions, its movements, its creations. This is what magic orders really do from ancient times until now. You receive a set of symbols that represent actual subtle forces in the universe. One learns through awareness and meditation what that force is like and links the experience of the energy signature to the symbol the order has prescribed. Through training and ritual this works just as well as me saying the word “cow” and a picture of a cow appears in your mind imaginatively without your will being involved. The imagination so trained can be gazed into and the products that appear will show you exactly what forces are at work around you better than any astrological chart could. Here is where the magic comes in, one then either charges the forces at work to increase their power around you or one can banish it, or add a symbol charged with the will force so it interacts with the other forces on your behalf. There, the whole of practical magic laid bare. It is literally so simple no one believes it or uses it until shown repeatedly that it works. To get back to the point on fantasy though that has always been the warning of the astral plane, it is filled with illusions and deceptions. Yes, because the imagination has not been purified and properly trained to see and interpret the language being discussed. It is like reading a story in another language you either barely understand versus it being read by a master of literature in that language. Where magic differs from literature thankfully is the reader once trained can interject their own story upon it.

5. Falcon Books: I wonder if you could offer further clarification to this, for example if someone is practicing in step 3 working on developing the analogous elements such as fire, they sit down they think of fire, they see themselves inside a red fiery universe as Bardon instructs they then feel the fire.

a. Now they quickly note down mission accomplished. But how do they know what is the difference between this very deliberate and willful exercise to feel the fire and convince ourselves we are feeling it and ACTUALLY genuinely feeling it.

If a step 8 magician was in the room would he/she see any evidence of the element despite the claims of the step 3 student that the exercise is complete.

Justin B: I think the best way to describe this and Bardon even mentions this in regards to evocation and people don’t really hone in on that concept much. Go out into a graveyard at night with no light, or go deep inside a cave in pitch black or into a dank dark cellar. Now call to an evil spirit. Or if that is too scary go into a dark room and convince yourself someone is behind you and about to get you. If you are imaginative and spiritually inclined you probably already have goosebumps, shaking your head “no way!” If you get the point you don’t actually need to do the above, you understand the power of the imagination already. You see we assign power to the imagination in one area but when we say conjure the fire element around you it seems an impossible feat. When you can imagine at will an element, in the same way fear can force you to imagine a boogeyman, then you have attained a certain level of power both in quality and in quantity. I have done some experiments with students who could not magically tell the difference between a gnome or an angel from Geburah on whether or not they could influence psychically another simply by observing some pictures before doing a group meditation. I found that if two people in a group of 6 observed several pictures of a certain artistic quality and the other four were simply directed to observe their imagination, that the imagery would be similar in quality to the images seen by the other two. So, if you are having troubles on an element or force find some form or art medium that would help you fill the imagination with the ideas associated with the force, just like people watch horror movies on Halloween. You may not think it is psychically or magically effective but it does have an influence on the mental and astral forces around you. Feed your head properly. Another point I would like to discuss here is as you develop your skills you may have peak moments and plateaus of experience. The peaks are when you break through to a better quality or quantity of force, where the plateaus are you normal or average levels. When working around others though who have not raises their levels to what you have attained then they experience a difference. If one meditates on this they will see this is why a magician can effect healing on another but may find it difficult to heal themselves. Also, don’t “demand” the way another experiences an element or force. I once did a teaching session at a local meditation center years ago. I was discussing the elements and I was teaching how one can better work with the elements through vibrating the names of the quarter angels and meditating on their qualities. I simply demonstrated the proper way to do vibrate the name Raphael. After I had several people come to me and say that they all had experiences related to the air element. One described a certain smell (one I associate with air that they had no experience with), some described feeling a breeze and one heard wind chimes. The element affected them each in their own way. Don’t demand an experience be the way you desire, just draw it and allow it to work. So many magicians are too focused on control which diminishes their power actually. How much will does it for me to conjure the idea of a book in your mind? If you were sensitive as you read the word maybe you saw a perfect representation of a book in your visual field, maybe you recalled the smell of old yellowing pages or freshly printed paper? Perhaps you heard a book shut tightly. Either way, your imagination with a simple prompt came alive, it may have even cased a flash of will which will cause you to go find the book that appeared to you in some way, whichever was best for you. What power awaits to be aroused in you simply by allowing it to come forth!

6. Falcon Books: There is some debate with regarding studying Bardon’s IIH system, some say that this book is complete and it is not necessary to explore other avenues of knowledge to further gain understanding, while others suggest that Bardon’s IIH are really subheadings and it is our job to flesh out and gain deeper understanding and knowledge of each step through our own exploration and seeking out other literature.

What are your views on this and also your experiences with going through IIH ?

Justin B: To really explain my view of Bardon it is of course necessary to look at the time and place of his writing, of the magical writings of the time, and what he was trying to accomplish. I sometimes ask myself if Bardon wrote IIH today would he have written every word of it like he did then? I honestly think not. The core or essence is the same of course, but if you have ever written an instruction or instructions for another you know how difficult that can be, especially if you can have no interaction or dialogue with that person during or after the reading. I recommend writing instructions on even a simple mundane task as if the reader has no prior knowledge of the subject. It is quite enlightening. So, that is how I look at all magical instruction books. The author has a set of experiences and wishes to convey them in a meaningful way to the reader, but because the subject is the subtle forces of magic it makes it even more difficult. How do you teach it? That is why I always recommend a few other systems be read at least. Get a few maps for the territory. IIH for me specifically, I always compare to a technical manual on building a complex machine like a car. Remember at the time of Bardon writing IIH the only way you could learn occultism is if you joined a magical order, swore oaths, and were trained in a certain set of symbols to be used. Bardon was one of the few tried to keep his oaths and was trying to go to the public with the work. It was not until later that magical orders started having their secrets fall into public consumption. So, if you took all of the work of the Golden Dawn and kept your oaths of secrecy but tried publish an instruction manual on the path to spiritual enlightenment and magical development you would have to teach someone to build their own personal magical order. So, going to a magical order for training is like buying a car at a dealership where Bardon is teaching you how to build a car from scratch. I always try to impress this concept on those coming to me with questions on Bardon. The secrets are all out there, we are flooded in them so they seem of no value. Bardon did not have this world, it was all hidden away. What would he write now with the secrets of so many order available online?

I did not see this point right off though, I went through the work and realized it as I went. So, for me having worked Bardon, I like to see it as having given me the insight into any magical system or order. It is a Tabula Rasa for magic in my mind. An almost scientific journal from which one can penetrate the meaning of any system or symbolism, even say Enochian magic or Thelema. I think a good study of IIH with that perspective would benefit any magician no matter their belief system or practice.

7. Falcon Books: Which aspects did you find the most challenging going through Bardon’s books?

Justin B: The soul mirror, which I think is everyone’s biggest challenge. It was not until I took a Jungian Active Imagination approach that I really had great success with it. I tried it all, from will work, sigils, autosuggestion, the magic of food and drink EmoFree and I must say that the book The Inner Guide meditation by Edwin Steinbrecher is an excellent resource (I found it much later sadly) but If I had to do it again I would focus on a Neo Rechian approach first with some Jungian Active Imagination for balance which is what the Steinbrecher book is all about with Astrology added. Honestly I am not a fan of the methods Bardon chose to work on balancing the soul mirror, I think if he had more modern methods he would have chosen those. I think an honest, unflinching look at one’s soul is needed and valuable but creating lists of hundreds of issues will not fix anything. It is discovering the need within the issue. Every negative trait or quality arises from a behavior that was acquired to defend and protect the ego. Only by facing the need and releasing the tension can healing begin and balance achieved. The positive trait will then bloom on its own from the released psychic or emotional tension. A good astrological chart work up can be of great assistance in discovering hidden problems.

8. Falcon Books: Which step took you the longest and why?

Justin B: If I look at my work from a strictly IIH perspective Step 8. Not because of the difficulty but because that is where I did the most magical experimentation. If IIH was a college I probably majored in the evocational arts. This of course translated later into kabballah. I delved deeply into their study for several years with a good portion of my blog devoted to that part of my work.

9. Falcon Books: In Bardon’s IIH – astral travel is specifically described as the separation of the astral from the physical body and is described as a very blissful and very serious event. We see all over the internet Astral projection exercises described in such a way that they sound more like mental projection from the strict Bardon perspective.

What is your view upon the Bardon method of Astral projection and does subscribing to that method relegate these other methods despite being called astral projection to actual being mental or etheric projection?

Justin B: I think most methods online focus on mental projection which can gently lead to astral projection with practice. I had sleep paralysis as a child so anything coming close to astral projection instantly caused panic. For me personally, mental projection which eventually allowed me the freedom and peace to allow myself to astrally project was the way to go. Let me just say this: when you astrally project there is no doubt you have done so. It is not a very vivid mental projection or guided imagery, it is an experience that changes you. You still have a slight perception at first that a residue of your awareness and personality is within your flesh but 99% of your consciousness is out and that is when you KNOW beyond doubt another world exists (that is if the Other has not found you prior to this like it did me). It is night and day difference. Like Gordon White says it is like “becoming invincible”.

10. Falcon Books: One significant part of the IIH journey I believe is that of the depth point exercise in Step 5. Here according to Rawn’s amazing guide we learn about the infinitely finite point and therefore the infinitely infinite circumference. Can you share anything more about the significance of this part of the journey and how this links on to subjects such as the personal and universal akasha?

Justin B: Be open, be empty. If you look at IIH, and this is some of the genius of what Bardon did, you see the training builds on itself. Learning Vacancy is a warm up lesson to working with the depth point and akasha. So, when students of IIH have not yet done the vacancy work and ask questions about the depth point it is a struggle because even the relatively simple experience of vacancy has not been perceived (to say nothing of the deeper and more profound experiences that one can achieve through vacancy). It is like not having learned your numbers in elementary school but asking how division works. I can give an answer but it will do you little good. With that being said read up on what Peter Carroll says on the force of Chaos, also what Steiner said on the Akasha or Chaos and how it works. Go out into the country and find a large flat piece of land. Lay out under the stars. See in the constellations how even the gods play through their cycles in the night sky. Think of space and everything contained within it. Know that you are made up of mostly empty space with charged particles in a somewhat distinct order that is completely changed out every so often, yet you appear on initial inspection to be “the same”. You too are a constellation in a manner of speaking. Seek the part of you that all life comes from, all feelings and thoughts. Where is the root of your consciousness, its depths? Every river has its source, you are a river of experience. The source is your depth point.

11. Falcon Books: You have shared more than most when it comes to meeting beings of the EGZ and the Planetary Spheres in your IIH, PME and KTQ walkthrough.

Can you tell us about this time evocation, mental travel and how the quality of these communications changed after completing Bardon’s first book IIH?

Justin B: In a classic full circle story I realized what initially brought me to Bardon, the fact that I could not finely slice whether a spirits “words” were coming from the spirit, or were my own creation or if they met somewhere in between was finally achieved. I knew after so much work with the spirits that they have no “language” other than energy, as in they are energy and their interaction with us produces certain cognitive experiences. The more similar we are in our views, culture and life experience the more similar our experiences with the spirit will be. If I sat down and did an evocation with someone from a radically different culture we would have some perception differences but the overall message would be the same. I have tried these experiments and they work. That is what a tribal group, coven or order has by being together, a shared language and symbol set from which the spirit or god is experienced for easier communication. So, once I learned that really the important thing is the awareness and experience of the spirit or god’ss energy, then some of my big questions started to get answered. Yes, I could translate the shared energy into a dialogue for many people to understand but to me it was energy moving and flowing between to conscious beings. The practice is like quietly being engaged in music that makes you feel something. Vacancy of mind and single pointed focus are paramount in this. Let me also say, you can clothe these forces in denser energies. I have seen some wild things. It is novel and can be a confirmation but it is eventually pointless and a real hassle to get accomplished.

12. On the same subject you shared some very detailed correspondences with these beings. How influential upon your development have these beings been and now that you have moved into other areas of magick do you still work with these same ‘Bardon’ spirits or have you been introduced to a host of new friends to speak with?

For me Bardon’s catalogue of spirits is an odd breed. Energetically they are very different than say calling Ophiel or Uriel. They are very inclined to teach and yet they are reserved. If you go in with intentions they don’t find proper I have seen some of them straight up ignore a magician or give them a brush off answer. Very funny sometimes, actually! Once had some dilettantes wish to evoke a Bardon spirit so I explained how it could be done, they tried it and they told me the spirit requested they plant a tree and it would help them with the task. They did so but the task was not completed. I just saw it as a spirit teaching them a lesson. Just from my experience Bardon spirits are more selective in what they do or who they work with. Also, appearance wise they somehow “look” different. Maybe more modern is the word. I will let the intrepid student discover more, and maybe that is just how they act towards me or those I have spoken with. I have had a few other Bardon magicians tell me the same but again they lived in my cultural and temporal location. The exception to that seems to be the elementals. They appear to be more willing to work with even non-Bardon magicians in similar ways other spirits do. There is only one spirit from Bardon’s PME I still dialogue with and that is only when a nice thunderstorm rolls in.

Illustration by Justin B

13. Falcon Books: I would like to ask about developing the connection to our HGA/ higher-self how did you begin to develop and connection and once you had did your life drastically change?

Justin B: I have seen many descriptions and explanations on the HGA. I started with Bardon’s automatic methods for communication which gave me a “name” which I later found out had meaning in Yiddish which I thought was fun. The most dramatic and life changing work came the first time I did the (little did I know at the time that it was mistranslated) Bornless ritual. I began using it before evocations and no matter what spirit I called I first got this powerful presence. When I dug deeper into the Bornless and discovered its history and how it is actually The Headless Rite, I used it in much the same manner Crowley recommends in Liber Samekh. I did daily invocations and spent as much time focusing my mind on the force. After several years of this I recommend the practice. For me the real key is just opening yourself up and giving yourself to the highest, make the connection to it and allow it to guide you and to work on you. It can be as simple as a single pointed focus and focusing on your highest state of mind or consciousness. Open yourself to that force and know that everything that you see, hear, read, occurs is a message from the highest working on you for your development. BOOM, the practice will skyrocket if you can do that. Don’t think of some babe with wings but you can if that helps. Also, the message may be an hour or days after. The real key is truly focusing on the divine connection within your consciousness and being open to inspiration for a time. As my best friend and fellow magician used to half-joke it is just “You from the future”. Think of yourself at your most divine, your most inspired, your most compassionate, your most insightful, conscious and potent. That is it. Allow that energy to work on and reside in you now. Once you can connect to that, magic is actually as simple as inner dialogue or like pillow talk with a divine lover. Let go of your desires, open yourself to the divine by creating a space for the divine to manifest and work in and through you. It is the merger of prayer and magic. As the medicine man Fools Crow said, “Become a hollow bone.”

14: Finally, as you mentioned earlier in the interview I wonder if you could tell us about your experiences with Wim Hoff and how using his training methods has assisted you in your own practice?

Justin B: I think Wim has created a really fantastic system teaching energy work and meditation which can lead to some amazing places but packages it in a way that just seems simple and an atheist could work with. Magicians of all stripes should at least take it for a test drive. If you want to really get a grasp on vital force or energy work then please try it. Shamanic breath work can also be a potent tool which is very similar (as is Holotropic breathing as taught by Groff).

15. Falcon Books: Where do you see your magical path leading?

Justin B: In the past few years I have finally answered a lot of the remaining questions I had. It was a long arduous process and in many ways it was for me like going into the lab every day and doing research on the structure and nature of the universe. I had a lot of questions I wanted answers for, and which I did not want; or in my younger days, did not have someone to just give them to me. I had a couple of guides but they were human. My major drive in magic, evocation and similar works was the drive to just find the truth. Another person can give you only their perspective, not the truth as you can experience it. The finger pointing at the Moon. So, once I had the answers I sought I had a period of time where I felt sort of lost. What do I do now? The answer was of course what step 10 in Bardon is about. You develop your perception, your ability, your consciousness to divine levels. You manifest spirit into matter, the work of the Sun described in the Emerald Tablet. This also translates for me in my work with others and my art. I am beginning to work on some things and have been doing experiments with art and paintings as a way to help others work with magical forces. Probably in the next year or two I will do commissioned paintings as talismans of sorts for people who would like a certain magical force in their lives or just a piece of magical art.

16. Falcon Books: Is there anything else that you would like to add or feel should be covered?

Justin B: 1.Always keep in mind this simple fact, when magic seems too difficult or complex: Cave men figured it out on accident. Study shamanism, its views and beliefs and try to extract the workings behind what they did versus ceremonial magic or Bardon magic. They have distinct things in common. Grab hold of those similarities and realize the rest is just trying to get everyone on the same page linguistically on what to do with these forces that occur naturally. Ponder for a bit what is really the difference between a shaman, a psychic, a witch or a magician or someone who is extraordinarily lucky, or a genius, or someone possessed of mind blowing talent? Are they using the same force in different ways? How could all of these groups get similar results with drastically different belief structures and means? I have seen someone with no training or magical experience who was so afraid of magic read a spell that produced stronger results than a ceremonial magician with years of experience trudging through an incantation. What did one tap into that the other could not?

2.Keep a journal of weird experiences, synchronicities, magical results, recurring or odd dreams, and things that seem magical that occurred to you. Go back and read it every now and then. There is something in our consciousness that likes order and structure, that tries to pull the veil over our eyes. Magic plays with that order and structure, it pulls the veil open. So anything too unusual will be pushed away or forgotten by the conscious mind. Remind yourself now and again the world is weird. Realize you will probably never cast physical fire-balls to amaze your friends and even if you could somehow do it, doing so would disrupt the observer’s psyche so much it would be fairly close to rape in terms of disturbance. Because of that same mechanism that protects your conscious mind from the weird it also protects others from the weird. They would most likely suppress the experience and develop some odd behavior to compensate for the tension caused. Usually magic works in giving you an advantage, by increasing your odds and making something more likely to occur. However, if you get some fairly weird magicians together by themselves you will get some weird alterations in reality. A magician; once they realize where real power comes from, becomes a gateway for the divine to work miracles.

3.Adopt Chaos magic’s philosophy of “Use what works” if it does not work try something else. Find what works. This is not a free pass to jump from system to system, you have to put in the work, but if chanting a classic mantra for the element of fire does not help aid the imagination or inspire you try something else that does, even if it is imagining throwing a fire-ball.

4.Most importantly, there is no race for magical development going on. Savor the work. Enjoy the experience. See every challenge as a gift from the divine to develop your Self. This is yours, all yours. Take your own time as you need. Be honest with yourself. Don’t see this life or this world as something to escape from, but see it as your mission to use the gifts given to you and the skills you have acquired to making this world more divine. That is why we are truly here. The philosophers stone is really our own transformed soul, use it to make the world around you golden. Ask yourself is your work your own or someone else’s? You can talk shop with other magicians, be inspired, moved or guided but your path should always be your own. Be who you are. Share your light. Be a force of nature.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions and always a pleasure to speak with you.