The Raven's Crucible

Tag: Solomonic magic

  • Beginning Spirit Work: Solomonic Conjuration for the Modern Mage

    I’ve written previously about how to get started with divination, and how to build a solid magical practice more generally. The vast bulk of my magical work at this point, however, is spirit conjuration – specifically in or inspired by the Solomonic tradition. Let’s say you’re learning your chosen divination system and you have your…

  • The Magic Triangle: Ease, Consistency, and Miracles

    I’ve discussed in previous posts my own long and meandering exploration into magic. I’ve spent over a decade struggling with a simple question: what can be accomplished through magic? I’ve tried to consistently find ways to push the bounds of what I thought was possible. In doing so, I’ve repeatedly struggled with cases where magic…

  • On the Role of Grimoiric Traditionalism

    I’ve encountered a couple folks recently asking what are essentially variations on the same core question: “I’m reading grimoire X, and there are a lot of heavy-handed Christian elements that seem excessive or make me uncomfortable. Can I modify these bits or take them out?” It’s a great question, and the answer (as with most…

  • On Magical Language

    Meredith Graves, occult powerhouse and magical director for Kickstarter, makes a wonderful observation that our own first exposure to magic – whether it comes through fairytales, Disney movies, or stage illusionists – leaves a lasting impression in the way we comprehend and interact with the unseen later in life.1 That initial conception of magic sets…

  • What They Meant Was…

    One of my biggest pet peeves with modern analyses of historical texts is when an author states – with authoritative confidence – they have decoded the true meaning of a text, and that it is something only tenuously implied by the text itself. And this happens all the time with magic and occult topics. Things…

  • A Long and Winding Path: part 2

    This post is part of a two part series. You can find the first part here. Last time I talked about how I first got into magic. When we left off, I had just discovered ritual magic in the style of the Golden Dawn. I spent the next several years practicing meditation, divination, and banishing…