An Imposter’s Guide to Magick

In the occult, most people are making a fair bit of their theory and theology up as they go along; including the great figures of history. And that is okay. So were many of the early pioneers of science in the Renaissance. Many made up ideas from thin air, because they had nothing better at the time. And that is fine. 

But many also clung to ideas and theories that had been proven wrong, because they couldn’t abandon their favorite personal nonsense. And that isn’t fine. We are charlatans and hucksters. We need to embrace that. You need to know that you are a fake. Half of magick is tricking yourself. The other half is not tricking yourself. And this is the tightrope you need to walk. We are imposters out to find truth. We are charlatans trying to find real magic. And you must get comfortable with the lunacy of this dichotomy if you are to achieve anything useful in the occult.

We’re all Making Things up as we Go

We’re all making things up as we go. Every generation learns that the previous generation knows very little relevant to the world the younger generation finds themselves knee deep in. In the modern world nobody really knows what works because things are changing too fast. By the time one generation figures out how to manage the world they were born into, that world is long gone. The world we grow up learning how to deal with is gone before we are.

Once upon a time, it was possible to have knowledge which was durable. Prior to the dawn of civilization and the Hungry Empire, knowledge on how to live well was durable across many generations. Skills could be refined across generations. But civilization brought an age of change, and change which is accelerating at an exponential rate. Each new generation sees more change across a shorter span of time. I don’t mean technological improvement, although it can include that. I mean that political structures rise and fall. Dynasties speed by at an ever faster rate. And now the quest each of us engages in to find out how to live successfully is a quest out into the darkness. We cannot easily turn to our elders, because they are even more lost. They have learned their strategies, developed fixed ideas regarding how to live, and are trying to apply those strategies in a world that no longer matches those strategies well. And so we all have to make things up as we go. We have to adapt on the fly, because everything is new. Everything is novel. Tradition has been dynamited in the name of short term advantage. The world is on fire, and we have to scramble to stay ahead of the flames.

Life is like Apollo 13, finding improbable solutions to deadly problems with the limited tools at hand. As new problems and new tools emerge, we grasp at them like drowning people clasping life preservers. Success in the modern world goes to the person who can spot new tools and new problems quickly and figure out how to use and exploit those tools and problems before others do the same. If you are a human who lives in the world, you need to be able to adapt and act quickly as the world changes around you. And if you are not a human, or do not live in the world; how are you reading this?

So you need tools. And magick is just another tool you can use in a pinch. And uniquely, magick is a tool designed to work with your mind and how it thinks. Magick is designed to take advantage of the way your brain is wired. And uniquely, magick has been tested across thousands of years. Magick, in its various forms and guises, has existed longer than civilization has existed. Magick is tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old. And if you look at the underlying systems, the common traits that different types of magick share, you will find something unique. You will find a way of living that is durable. And a way of life that is durable across thousands of years. No other human technology has lasted so long and been refined so well.

Great figures of theology and occult have been caught many times making things up on the fly. They still worked and served their purpose. And you can do the same. As long as you understand the underlying systems, the common traits of magick, you too can succcessfully make it up as you go along. There is a very big difference between making it up as you go, and making it up as you go. Look at Jazz. You can play jazz and jam without sheet music if you understand the underlying rules to jazz. And this is what you are going to learn if you study this book. You are going to learn one system for magickal jazz. You will not learn the definitive system. You will not learn the only system. You will not learn the true system, or the proper system. You will simply learn one system among many.

So let’s learn jazz. And let’s make it up as we go.

We’re all Bad Christians

Even when there is a guide, most of us tend not to read it very closely. A lot of guides are boring or long winded. I am writing this in a western English-speaking country, in which seventy percent of the populace is nominally Christian. And as a result there is a good chance that you were raised as a Christian. Have you read the Bible? Have you even read the four gospels that form the backbone of the central narrative of Christianity? Most Christians haven’t read the bible, most don’t know the sermon on the mount or the ten commandments. According to Christianity Today, sixty one percent of Evangelical Christians have not read the bible. You may not be Christian now. You probably aren’t if you are reading this. But think about the strangeness of that. How can one claim to believe in the ideology of a document that they haven’t read?

Many think they don’t need to do so. Even where there is a known route, people tend to assume they know better. Many accept what they were told, rather than confirm for themselves that it is so. And as a result many people have an incomplete and often also distorted view of the ideas for which they claim to stand. Think about that. if you do not check, and rely upon the word of another, then you are a servant to the person who provides that word. Do you want to be a servant? If you allow another to give you the truth, will it be your truth or theirs? And are you comfortable with the possibility that you are being used?

Most people don’t check. Checking requires energy. And most people have been tricked into expending their energy in the service of the dreams of others. And when they are done laboring on behalf of their masters, they have precious little energy left to spend thinking for themselves. And so they are content to let others think for them. And so the cycle of their bondage continues. Labor for the master who lies to them. Listen to the lies of their master. And labor again.

But the good news is that means there is a gaping hole that a person who wishes to live their own life can fill. You can gain a huge advantage by putting even a minimal amount of effort in learning even a small fraction of the available knowledge. You don’t need to be great. You just need to be active enough and knowledgeable enough to do more than the people doing nothing. Will you hit it big? Almost certainly not. But can you achieve quiet and humble success? Oh yes. Small successes add up.

So you are bad at your magick. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do amazing things. You are bad at your magick. But that doesn’t mean you can’t improve. You are bad at your magick. But so am I, and that didn’t stop me. Embrace the bad. Work to be less bad. Everyone is faking it. Everyone is bad at this. Accept that and get on with your magick.

Everyone’s an Expert

We’ve been taught from day one that we are nothing special. Who do you think you are? You can be anything you want, but not that. Don’t follow your dreams, accept a boring but secure job with medical benefits. We are deluged with information, and are surrounded by voices on a thousand screens explaining why they know more than you. Well here’s a secret. You’re an expert too.

I’m serious.

There are an abundance of things in which you are more knowledgeable than the majority of people whom you know. You know thousands of things. You know big and little things. And although there are many more knowledgeable than one on the things you know, there are also many less knowledgeable than you. And to those people, you are an expert.

How does that make you feel? Apprehensive? No, you say, I’m not an expert. So many people know more than me. Well let me tell you something. When you taught your little brother to tie his shoes, you were his expert. When you helped you friend with their homework, you were their expert. When you helped your mom send that email, you were her expert. Again and again you have acted as an expert. You have recommended movies and books and video games. You have explained the finer points of gin distilling, or Anne Perry novels, or stamp collecting. You are a multifaceted expert of many things. And no, I’m not being facetious. I’m being entirely serious to make a point.

An expert is somebody who knows more about a subject than somebody else and is able to impart that information.

That’s it. No more.

You don’t need to know everything to be an expert. You need to know enough to consistently get the results you want. You need to know enough to explain to others how to get the results which you are getting. Set your standards lower. I’m serious. Learn to settle for good enough. You don’t need that A+, a C+ is still a pass. Twelve years of schooling has left us thinking that if we aren’t providing a near perfect performance, there’s no point. But that’s not the case. Good enough is good enough.

You are still an expert if others know more than you. This is not a competition, there is not only one expert. Don’t sell yourself short. Allow yourself to be a mediocre expert. Allow yourself to be a C+ expert. Allow yourself to be a C+ sorcerer.

Learn what you need. Use what you have learned. If your limited expertise generates the results you want, then you have succeeded. Keep learning and growing of course. But don’t hold yourself back waiting to get to a certain level of expertise or you will never get everything done. Do the dirty work. Put out flawed work. And then put out more flawed work.

If others wish to judge what you know as insufficient, that is their problem and you should leave them to stew on it in peace. What others think of you is none of your business. People will stop you from trying when you would have succeeded. People will stop you from trying because they are afraid. People will stop you from trying because you would have succeeded, and they think that if you succeed that makes them look worse. What others think of you is none of your business. Be your own expert. You know enough. And you will learn more every day. You are expert enough. And you will become more.

Imposter Syndrome is your Friend

Many of us suffer from imposter syndrome. We believe that we do not know enough to be considered competent and we think that others can see right through it. And that is okay. We live in a world that teaches us to seek outside validation. Twelve years of schooling where we do not know if we have done well until our teacher tells us. We work at jobs where our performance is based upon performance reviews, where the mood of the manager is as important as our actual results. We have learned to value the opinions of others more than our own. And as a result we have imposter syndrome. And that’s okay.

You can deal with imposter syndrome by adopting the persona of the Trickster. If your mind has spent twenty years learning that you are an imposter who is not good enough, you can work with that. You are not an imposter, you are a trickster pulling off a hustle. You are Coyote or Brer Rabbit or Anansi. You are Loki or Hermes or Odin. Take the premise offered by your mind and invert it. You are not vulnerable to exposure, you are pulling off a masterclass in subterfuge! You are in deep cover. You are a master of disguise. They haven’t caught you yet, because you are such a skilled imposter. They have failed! You have outsmarted them. Embrace the Imposter as a virtue, not a weakness.

You may know the old adage: fake it until you make it. Now add to that the quote from Kurt Vonnegut: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” This is the path. Embody who you wish to be. Steal their identity and wear it until you grow to fit. Become the trickster who must grow to the hero.

This is your path. Embrace your imposter status and become the trickster. Choose a false identity and fake it until you make it, trusting that you will become who you are pretending to be.