Beginnings

Every magical act has a definite starting point. It wouldn’t make a good story, if it didn’t. When you pay attention, you just might be able to pinpoint the moment precisely. Immediately you sense that something has happened, a thing changed, a new mode begun. It is not that there is no rising action, precedents—subtle hints moving you forward—but there is one singular moment where perspective shifts and you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. If you are alert and open at this moment, you realize you are on your way. On the other hand, you may shut your eyes and turn back. Rest assured, however, you’ll be here again and next time it may not be as easy to ignore. The universe has a way of knowing exactly what you need and giving it to you a few moments before you’re actually ready. Like a baby thrown into the deep end, sink or swim in a heartbeat—the choice is yours. Transformation works when it is instinctual. The universe knows this. When sanity and survival are at play, we tend to pay attention. Any other time, inertia and comfort are often too seductive.

This spell, this book whose weight you hold in your hand, is rooted in such moments. The preparation took years, but the impetus of the work came together in a few short days. Each question that had dogged the project, preventing me from beginning, was answered… and answered directly, without room for question. The universe, or my own trajectory within it, had decided that, ready or not, it was time to go! The techno shamanic path has one thing in common with its historicity (if nothing else): Don’t argue with the universe; listen to it.

Like many a magical operation, this work began with a historically distant invocation… not a ceremonial fancy dress party, reenacting 19th century mumbo jumbo, but the cooption of unsuspecting bodies. Evocation is the act of conjuring, adjuring, an otherworldly entity to appear and be subjected to the operator’s will. Invocation, on the other hand, means to draw Spirit, the Divine or a particle thereof, into oneself. The act of invocation rests on opening and inviting Spirit in. It is an act of creation not subjugation.

An excerpt from No Sh*t (Rebel Satori Press, 2016)

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