Class 3: Operative Magic – Theory, Strategy, and Practice
Module 0: Introduction
By: John Beckett
Transcript by K.D. Echols
Hi, I’m John Beckett, Druid, priest, and writer, and also, a magician. That would be a spell-casting kind of magician, not a stage illusionist. Our wider society has the idea, the image, perhaps even the archetype, of the book of magic, a grimoire, a book of shadows, an ancient scroll. Whatever form it takes, if you can find a book of magic, and follow its instructions, you can work wonders!
I like books. I was always a good student, whether the subject was math, or science… or magic. But, I’m the kind of person who, once I read the instructions, I want to take the thing apart and see how it works. Can I tweak it to make it work better? Can I redesign it to make it easier to use? Can I take something I learned in this application and use it in that application? It’s no wonder that I became an engineer.
I’ve been studying and practicing magic for 27 years. In all of that time, I’ve become something of a magpie. If I see something shiny, I pick it up and try it out. If it works, or it looks like it might work if I study it more deeply, I keep it. If it doesn’t work, I throw it away. Over the years, I found a lot of things that work.
For some time now, people have been asking me to teach a class on magic. My response was always that I don’t have anything new to say about magic that hasn’t already been said by somebody from Scott Cunningham to the Greek Magical Papyri. But when I was teaching the last class, “Building a New Myth”, I realized that I have somewhat of a unique approach to magic. I could teach my theories about magic and how it works, because when you understand the principles behind something, you are no longer reliant on someone else’s instructions. You can use those principles to write your own instructions.
Then there’s the question of strategy, what to work magic for and how to structure large workings. There’s a couple of people who are teaching magical strategy. But nobody teaches it from the same perspective that I have. Over the years I’ve developed an approach to magic that works. Not 100% of the time – nothing does that. But it’s worked often enough and long enough that when skeptics tell me there’s no way magic can work, I have to laugh. Because I’ve seen it work, over and over and over again.
So, now, I am happy to introduce the third online class from Under the Ancient Oaks: Operative Magic – Theory, Strategy, and Practice.
Goals For the Course
So, what are our goals for this course? First and foremost, an understanding of how magic works – the principles of magic that you can learn and then apply those principles to work magic however and for whatever you need.
Some people say it’s not right to call this a theory because a theory has a scientific meaning and involves levels of proof that magic doesn’t have and never will have. I think it’s still a useful term because we see if A works and B works, and C doesn’t work, we can take what we’ve learned from those three experiences, and extrapolate it to situation D, and figure out, with some certainty, whether it’s going to work in this situation or not. So, I think it’s fair to call it a theory.
On the other hand, it may be better to call it a myth. A myth is not a made-up story. A myth is, to use a quote of uncertain origins, “A myth is a story about things that never were and always are.” Or, as I like to say, “A myth is a story to live by.” So if you don’t want to call this a theory of magic, call it the myth of magic. It’s our story to live by and work by. It provides a framework for understanding magic, and then using magic.
We want to survey a wide variety of magical techniques. I’m not going to go into great depth on any of them but provide a large menu that you can choose from, and then go learn one or two or three that you can put into practice.
We want people to understand how to structure a magical working to get what you want because magic doesn’t always work the way we wish it would. Also, so that we don’t get what we don’t want. There are some traditions that say that humans were taught magic by Trickster Gods who wanted to give us something useful, but also wanted to find amusement in us slipping on the metaphysical banana peels. We want to learn how to avoid those banana peels.
We want to learn how to proceed when you’re not sure what you want, because there’s times when you know you need something, you know you need to work magic for it. You’re not exactly sure what you need to do. We want to learn how to get started until you do figure it out.
Finally, how to make effective magic part of your life, not just something you do when you have some great need that can’t be solved any other way – though that’s certainly a valid approach. How to make magic a part of your life on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.
Then, finally, what does it mean to go deeper into magic? It has some benefits. It has some, I won’t call them downsides, but it certainly has some challenges that it brings. We want to understand what those are so that we can make a conscious decision about how deep we want to go into it.
Operative Magic
This is operative magic. It’s how to manifest results, or, as I like to sometimes say, “It’s magic that gets stuff done!”
This isn’t Witchcraft 101. But, it will help you learn how to be a more effective witch, because you’ll learn more how magic works and how you can use it.
It’s not about Pagan religion. I’m a Druid and a priest, and religion kind of is my thing. This isn’t religion, but it has a religious foundation. All magic has a religious foundation, whether that is the ancient Egyptian religion, or if it is medieval Christianity, or modern Paganism. This is modern Pagan magic. It’s built on a foundation of animism and polytheism.
This isn’t about self-development. There are magical traditions that are about making you a better person. That’s not what this is about. But you will learn and grow, particularly if you do it right. But, also if you don’t do it right and have to learn some things the hard way.
What Makes This Class Different?
What makes this class different from the other classes that you can take and the other books you can buy? Well, it’s not a spell book. We’re going to walk through some workings, but it’s not going to be a spell book. There is plenty of them out there already. We don’t need another one.
It’s not just how to do magic. It’s how to understand the nature of magic. If you want to consider theory or a myth, how you understand the nature of magic so you can go off on your own when you need to.
It’s what to work magic for. When to work magic and when not to work magic. Sometimes magic is the right approach. Other times it isn’t.
What to do when the magic doesn’t work, because it doesn’t work 100% of the time.
Who Should Participate?
Who should participate in this class? Who is this class intended for? People who want to use magic to make their lives better. And guess what? You get to define what “better” means for yourself. So, if that is bringing more money into your life, or getting out of a difficult situation, or deepening your relationship with various spiritual beings, you get to define what better is. If you want to use magic to make your lives better, this course is for you.
It’s for people who want more than a cookbook. Cookbooks are great. There are some things, particularly if you are moving into a new cuisine, there’s times when cookbooks are very helpful. But, if you open your pantry and there’s six items and you’re trying to figure out how you can turn those into a good meal, you need more than a cookbook. You need to understand the principles of cooking. Understanding those principles and being able to apply them is the difference between preparing some food that will provide you enough calories to sustain your life, and creating a meal that is enjoyable, nutritious, and fulfilling.
The class is really intended for those with some exposure to magic and witchcraft, somebody who has already read one or two of the Wicca 101 books, people who have a little bit of experience with magic in one tradition or another.
That said, there are no prerequisites and if you are starting from ground zero, I’ll do my best to get you through the class. You will probably need to do some extra reading and maybe some foundational work that most of your classmates won’t have to do. If, at the end of all this you feel like you want to do it but maybe you don’t have enough experience, I encourage you to go ahead and do it, and work through it, because you’re going to learn a lot when you do.
Who Should NOT Participate?
Who is this class not for? Who shouldn’t participate? If you are looking for an occult lineage, this isn’t it. If you are looking for an initiation for a tradition, for membership in an order, this isn’t it. This is operative magic.
Those who want to be spoon-fed should not sign up for the class. I’m going to give you the material. I’m going to do my best to present it in a straight-forward way. I’ll guide you in it. I’ll provide feedback for it. You have to do the work. Now, that’s true in any form of magic no matter who’s teaching the class or what book you’re reading. If you don’t do the work, you are not going to learn it. But I want to call this out up front: those who expect to have it handed to them, it doesn’t work that way. You have got to do the work.
If you want to learn magic to impress someone else, go learn juggling. Go learn stage magic. You are never going to convince your atheist friends or your materialist friends that magic is real. You’re not going to impress the boy or the girl whose attention you are trying to get. Go take up another hobby. That’s not what this is for.
Finally, it’s not for skeptical trolls. It’s ok to bit skeptical. I’m a bit skeptical. When you see something work over and over again, you come to the conclusion that there’s something real behind it.
If you are sitting on the fence, maybe you want to take the class, because, as I like to say, “The best way to believe in magic is to work magic.” Do the spells right, you’ll get the results. Maybe the first time is coincidence. Maybe the second time is random chance operating in your favor. But the third or the fourth or the fifth time – there’s something there. If you take the class, either you are going to be convinced that this is all real and this is how you can use it, or you’re going to have rationalized it away enough times that you should come to the conclusion that you’re never going to accept that it’s real and you should move on to something else.
The class isn’t for everybody. If it’s for you, I hope you’ll sign up for it and work through it. If it’s not for you, go find something else.
Six Modules
So, what is the class? There will be six modules. We will begin with A Brief History of Magic. This is the context module. This explains some of the things that people have done throughout history and before history to work magic, to manifest results. It’s not just something that arose in the Middle Ages. It’s certainly not something that arose in modern times. It’s something that people have been doing as long as we’ve been human. We’re going to go over that at a very high level to provide some context for what we’re going to do.
Then we get into the stuff that makes this class unique, Magical Theory. How does magic work? How does it not work? What are some of the principles that you can learn that we can apply in different situations, even if there is no spell book for exactly what you want to do.
We’re going to do A Survey of Magical Techniques. This will be a high-level look at a lot of different ways to work magic: kitchen witchery and Earth magic, sigil magic, energy work, spirit work. We’re not going to go into any great depth in any of these, but this is to give you a menu of options that you can choose from that you can then go in and start honing in on the one or two or three techniques that you want to put into use.
Magic Tactics: Writing Effective Spells: How do you construct a spell or a working or an operation so that you get what you want and you don’t get what you don’t want?
Perhaps the most important module in here is Magical Strategy. I’m an engineer. I do project management. If you’ve got a big project, you don’t start just working on it. You make a plan, and you break it down into sections. You have milestones when you know if this is ready or not. Things you do, the prep work you have to do, before you start doing the big work. We’re going to cover that in some depth. Again, as I’ve said in the video, there’s a couple of people that teach magical strategy. Nobody teaches it exactly in this context.
Then the sixth module is A Magical Life, putting this all together, not just how you work magic, but how you incorporate magic into your life on a regular basis. Then what it means to go more deeply into magic, and go from somebody who does a spell once a year because you have a great need to somebody who makes magic a regular part of your life.
Course Format
Course format – there will be weekly video lessons. The format is exactly like this introduction. There will be an opening video. Then there will be slides with a voice-over. There will be homework. If you like what you see in this introduction, you’re going to like the class. If you say, “This isn’t what I want,” then you’re not going to like the class.
I say weekly. The exact frequency may vary. In the last two classes, I hit all of the regular weekly dates. I expect to again this time, but I don’t guarantee it because these are not-normal times and I don’t know what may come up. But, expect to do it weekly.
It is on demand. You go watch the modules when you’re ready. Once they come out you go do it when you’re ready. Some teachers like to teach live. The problem with that is if your schedule and my schedule don’t line up, the you can’t do the class. This way you do the class when you’re ready to do the class. Do it any time of the week. Do the homework when you’re ready. Turn it in, or don’t. Then, the next week the next class comes out.
And, if it’s six months from now or six years from now and you remember that there was something in the class that might be helpful to you now and you want to back and review it. It’s still here. You come back. Once you’ve paid for the class, the videos are always available.
There are no textbooks this time. There will be a bibliography. There’s more than a few books that I think will be helpful, that have been helpful to me that I’m referring to as I’m building this class. I will list those if you want to go back and read them. They aren’t required reading, but certainly things I will recommend and I’ll provide a list of them as we go.
There will be homework. It will start small and it will get bigger as we go.
Homework Reviews
Doing the homework is optional. It is highly recommended. Now, you can not do it. You can do it and keep it to yourself. Or you can do it and turn it in and then I’ll look it over.
There are no grades. I don’t know how I would grade this, and I don’t know that grading it would be useful to you.
For those of you who have taken either one or both of the first two classes, I will warn you, I’m going to be more critical than previous courses. With my homework reviews in class one and class two, I basically tried to see, do you understand the concepts? And I tried to reinforce a couple of things that I thought, that showed that you were on the right track. I’m going to be a little more technical here. I’m going to be a little more critical. If you turn in something that’s weak, I’m going to tell you it’s weak. Better that you hear that from me up front than to do a weak spell and get results that are not what you wanted. So, I will be a little more critical this time. I still will try to not nitpick things and know the difference between a technical error and a difference in interpretation.
As always, what you do with that feedback is up to you. If you find it meaningful and you make changes, or if you say, “No, John, you’re wrong,” that’s entirely up to you.
Homework reviews will end about a month after the final module. You don’t have to keep up with it on a week-to-week basis. It’s probably better if you do. But, you know, our lives are busy. They’re complicated. They are even more complicated now. If you do it at your pace, I will continue to review homework and offer feedback for about a month after the last module goes up. I’ve found that if somebody hasn’t done it within a month after it ends, they’re probably not going to do it.
Private Facebook Group
There is a private Facebook group. Facebook calls it a “secret” group, so only members can find the group and see what’s in it and what they post. Once you sign up for it, if you are my Facebook friend, I will send you an invitation to join the group. If you are not my Facebook friend, send me a friend request and send me a PM telling me who you are, especially if your Facebook name isn’t the name you used when you signed up for the class.
The Facebook group is for questions you have that you may want to throw out to the group. It’s for conversations among your classmates. It’s for sharing your experiences and getting more feedback than I can provide.
I do have one Facebook group for all Under the Ancient Oak participants. So the people who took Class 1 are there, the people who took Class 2 are there, so it’s not just the people in this class. The Facebook group hasn’t been as active as I would have preferred and that some would have liked. But it’s been useful for those who have used it. I encourage you to check it out.
But it’s completely voluntary. If you say, “I don’t like Facebook”, or “I don’t want to be a part of it,” you don’t have to. If you say, “I go on Facebook but I don’t really want to do this,” that’s fine, too. If you want to be a part of it, contact me and we’ll get you added to the group.
Questions
If you have questions about the class, I will do my best to answer any questions you may have even after the homework review period expires. If you have a question related to this class, ask the question, I’ll do my best to answer it.
Typically, if it’s a short question, that will be an email response. I may answer it in the Facebook group, or I might throw it out to the Facebook group and ask other people their opinion, too. If it’s a particularly deep question, I may turn it into a blog post. You just never know.
I Don’t Do Casual Conversation!
I don’t do casual conversation. I hate online chat. I don’t do online chat with my close friends. Don’t send me Facebook Messenger thing saying, “Hi! How are you?” If you’ve got a question, ask the question. If you want to chat, find somebody else. Don’t send me stuff to read or especially to watch to ask me what I think.
If you need spiritual counseling, I do that on a consulting basis. If you feel like you would find that helpful, contact me privately. I’ll explain my rates and what I do and what I don’t do. I’m a Druid and a priest. I’m not a psychologist.
But, again, if you’ve got a question even tangentially related to the class, ask the question and I’ll do my best to answer it.
Cost
What does it cost? Same as the first two classes, it’s $50 for the entire course. I prefer PayPal. So far, everybody has used PayPal. I can take a credit card but I have to run it through PayPal, and that costs one or both of us more in fees, so let’s just use PayPal.
A limited number of scholarships are available. I know some of you are in difficult financial situations, and probably more of you are now than have been in the past. We want to make the class available to as many people as possible. The more paid registrations and sponsorships I can get, the more scholarships I can offer. As I am recording this, I’ve already had a couple of people who’ve funded sponsorships. Basically, they’ve paid for somebody else to take the class. Each sponsorship fully funds one scholarship student, and it counts as a paid registration that determines how many scholarships I can fund. If you’re in a good financial situation, maybe you want to offer a sponsorship for somebody else.
The deadline to apply for scholarships is May 30. You don’t have to provide a bunch of details. You just have to say, “I need a scholarship. I’d like to apply.”
Schedule
The schedule: May 18, 2020, Module 0 is released, obviously, because you’re watching it. Registration is now open. I told my newsletter readers some time ago that this class was coming, so I said, “Don’t try to register for it now because I’m not ready.” Now, I’m ready. Go ahead and start registration.
And I’m now accepting scholarship applications. May 30 – that’s the deadline for scholarship applications.
June 1, I will notify all the scholarship applicants. Hopefully, I’m able to fund everybody, but if I’m not, I’ll let you know that also.
Thursday, June 4, is when Module 1 becomes available and the class starts. It runs for six weeks, assuming it all goes to the schedule, which it always has in the past. But, if life intervenes and it runs longer, then it runs longer.
Signing Up
Signing up is easy. You can use the contact form. If you’ve already got my email (john@undertheancientoaks.com), if you’ve got it from the newsletter, from being a previous student, just send me an email. It’s easier for you and me than using the contact form, but either way works.
I’ll send you a PayPal invoice. You pay the invoice. Then I’ll register you for the class.
Expect a 24-hour turnaround. If you catch me when I’m sitting at my desk at home and I’m not doing anything, it may be done in a few minutes. If you catch me while I’m at work and can’t get to anything, it may be the end of the day. It may be the next day. Expect a 24-hour turnaround. It might be longer but probably not since I’m not travelling right now.
Homework
This is the syllabus class. If you remember from college, and sometimes from high school even, you go into class on the first day and the teacher hands you the syllabus, walks through the class and tells you what they expect. Then you’re done in 15-20 minutes and they dismiss class early. At least, that’s how you hope that first class goes. This is that first class, but there is homework out of this first syllabus class.
Homework: Module 0
Look at one or more of your Wicca 101/Witchcraft 101 books: Scott Cunningham, Silver RavenWolf, Raymond Buckland. After I wrote that, I realized that’s a certain generation, that those names might not mean anything to some people. Perhaps for you, that’s Christopher Penczak or Jason Mankey or Thorn Mooney. Whoever it is, go back and pick up one of those basic Wicca/witchcraft books that you read, looked through, worked through whenever you did it.
Review some of the spells in them. Which ones have you done? How well did they work? What didn’t work so well? Most importantly, what did you learn? And if you read one or two or three of these books, and you didn’t try out the spells, why was that? Give that some thought.
If you don’t have any 101 books, then I recommend Six Ways by Aiden Wachter. There is a review on my Patheos blog. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it from the publisher. This is probably the best entry-level magic book for the type of magic that I do. I don’t do everything the way Aiden does it. There’s a few thing that he has that I don’t agree with. But if there was going to be a textbook, this one would be it. You don’t have to run out and buy this book, but you may want it. And if you don’t have any 101 books already, then I suggest you get this one.
So, that’s the end of the introduction. The path of magic is not an easy one. There’s a phrase in our modern society, “Well, I can’t just wave a magic wand and make it happen.” Whenever I hear somebody like that, I always want to just say, “No, that’s because magic doesn’t work that way.” It’s a difficult path. You need to learn some principles. You need to learn some practices. You need to get some experience in what works and what doesn’t work and what works well for you and what just doesn’t resonate with you.
It’s not an easy path. But it’s a fulfilling path. This is how I understand magic. This is how I’ve worked magic for 27 years. I’m excited to share this with you. I hope you find this interesting. I hope you’ll sign up for the class, and I look forward to working with you in the days and weeks ahead.