Why I Participate in Magickal Anthologies #Magick

I often get asked why I participate in anthologies (especially certain ones) and while I don’t really owe anyone an explanation at all, I thought I would share three major reasons to answer the question once and for all.

1. To share my ideas with an audience outside my existing audience. These seemingly small articles actually draw new magicians to my work, perhaps giving them more practical, real-world applications for magick. I am a practical magician who has dedicated her life to sharing practical magickal applications meant to manifest real change in a person’s mundane life (not just their perception of reality). If you know me, you know that I’m light on the esoteric fluff and purple prose and these articles are no exception. If I can introduce even one magician (who was maybe dabbling before, or who was keen on Hollywood stereotypes) to practical magick, and give them a realistic view of it, and share with them the Daemons and Magick that have enriched my life, then I’ve helped to enrich their lives.

2. Yes, I know some of these anthologies are heavy on the purple prose and esoteric poetry that some magicians, including myself, cringe at. I think my articles balance out those types of anthologies that may be philosophy heavy by offering a different technique or viewpoint. As a matter of fact, I view it as I’m doing a service to magicians everywhere by offering an alternative viewpoint. Everyone who contributes to these anthologies is in this to inspire our fellow magicians.  

This means that instead of running around railing against or whining about occult books that have no practical use for me – I’m actually contributing to these books on behalf of people like me, who want something more practical. Change is made through contribution, not complaining or criticizing.  If you have no intention of contributing, then you might as well be pissing in the wind with the criticism. So if you have a complaint about the books being produced — get out there and write the kind of books you’d like to see. How do you think working with Daemons respectfully became the norm? A handful of us who didn’t like the cocky ceremonial magick approach started producing our own material for like-minded practitioners. We didn’t sit around complaining about or criticizing the techniques we didn’t like.

Kind of like Liz in my OTS series. She mocks the “Black Magick Network” – scoffs at it even because she doesn’t like the sales tactics and the types of magicians the Network attracts. She thinks the network panders to dabblers and stereotypes. But instead of idly sitting by criticizing and whining about it, she agrees to a job as the programming director for the BMN in order to change that and make the network into something more useful to working magicians like herself.  Basically what I’m saying is if you aren’t contributing by trying to make something better with that contribution, you should quit complaining, ignore it, and walk away. IMHO, it’s my hope that my participation will encourage other practical magicians to also contribute.

3. Many years ago I pledged to serve the Daemonic Divine and share the life-transforming magick I’ve learned to help others of like-mind. Will Daemonolatry techniques work for everyone? No, of course not. Magick is a very individualized practice that requires tweaking based on each magician’s individual challenges, fears, and psychology. That’s part of the process of magick and also the reason for the self-work. Hollywood style magick doesn’t exist. It’s not one recipe that works for everyone 100% of the time. If it were – everyone would be practicing magick. So if you’re not one of those folks for whom anthologies are useful to find inspiration in, great, don’t buy them. But if you are someone who finds them useful – then I hope my contribution has inspired you in some way, even if that inspiration is that my particular methods don’t work for you. Either way, I’ve helped teach you something about your own magickal process, so I’ve done my job successfully. (As an aside here, every time someone has a really positive or really negative reaction to my work it’s a win for me, because it produced a reaction. That is exactly what writers set out to do!) 

In closing – anthologies exist to give magicians a wide variety of viewpoints and inspiration for their own work. They’re not gospel. Anthologies also help new magicians find techniques, beliefs, and paradigms that draw them, furthering their own self-discovery and helping them along their individual paths to discover their own great work. The pros of anthologies far outweigh the cons IMHO.    

So these are the reasons I include my work in anthologies that not everyone is keen on. Because it’s not about me. It’s about being the change and inspiring others.