Beltane 2014 - Tesla's Ghost

Wow, it's almost Beltane!  When did that happen?  I've kinda been mentally buried for the last few months, but as my herbs are springing forth so am I.

My big plans for Beltane are to do a little pop culture magick at work.  I do one of those weird hybrid jobs that's impossible to quantify on a resume.  I'm an attorney, but I'm party of our firm's IT group and I implement and manage our case management software.  It has its good days and bad days.  IT is never really given the priority it should be at my firm, so our servers are old, badly patched, and all around terrifying.  On any given day it's a toss up as to whether everything will be functioning when I get in.  I already have a host of action figures and plushies at my desk for my personal protection, but I don't have anything to actually protect the technology that I work with.  I've decided to change that.

I've decided to spend my Beltane creating a server guardian.  To that end I've purchased a Tesla bobble head.  For those of you not in the know, Nikola Tesla is one of the great innovators of the modern era.  He came up with breathtaking inventions and concepts that are still being explored a hundred years later.  The man came up with the concept of cell phones in 1900 - truly remarkable.  Nikola Tesla was essentially the Tony Stark of his era, though not nearly as rich. If anyone can help me keep our servers up and running, it's the spirit of Tesla. 

I intend to do a fairly elaborate ritual to charge my bobble head, as I'm basically going to conjure forth Tesla's spirit and ask him to hang out with me on a regular basis.  I work with the dead rather often, so it's not that big a leap for me.  I intend to spend some time reading a biography of Tesla, and then make some offerings of incense and vodka on my altar.  I'll have a chat with Tesla's spirit and ask if he's willing to help me out.  If he is, then I'll help him take residence in my figurine and give him regular offerings as time passes.  If he's not willing, then I 'll just have to make a servitor to the same purpose.  Either way, it should be some good solid magick.

Oh, and for those of you that are in the Puget Sound region, this Saturday May 2nd I will be over at Avebury Mystikals over in Bermerton for their 2nd Anniversary Celebration.  I'll be signing copies of my book, Defense Against the Dark, and possibly doing a few tarot readings :)  Come by and say hello!

Pop Culture Magick for Geeks - Who's Your Doctor?

In my last post I talked about some of the general ideas involved in working with pop culture characters as part of your magickal practice.  Any level of thought can create a link between yourself and the astral version of a character, but it really helps to dig a little deeper.  Before you begin working with a character it's important to decide which version of the character you want to work with.

Say you want to work with The Doctor (like I do).  The first thing you have to ask yourself is which Doctor?  Not only are there thirteen different regenerations to choose from, you've also got to look at the different versions of the Doctor that you find in things like comics, novels, and video games.  No, fanfiction versions do not count - unless you're crazy - and it's totally cool if you are. The older and more popular the character the more versions you're likely to come across; how many versions of Batman can you think of off the top of your head? 
   
You also need to decide if you want to work with a living character or a static one.  When I say a living character I mean a character whose canon is still evolving - particularly characters in active series where new material is constantly being put out into the world.  Living characters are still evolving and changing, so you have to keep potential changes to their natures in mind when you work with them.  It's slightly easier to work with a static character, like one from a completed series or a standalone film or book.  The character of Gandalf isn't going to be changing much, if at all, (even with new movies being produced) because the canon of his character is firmly etched in the works of Tolkien.  You know exactly what you're getting with a static character, thus making it easier to know who they might behave magickally.  Either way, know the version of the character you want to work with as thoroughly as possible so you know what you're getting yourself into.

What about characters you've created yourself?  We're working with popular characters because of the enormous amounts of energy that have been poured into them over the years by thousands of fellow geeks.  However, working with a character that we've created ourselves is essentially working with a thought form we've created and endowed with extra personality.  Oh yes my friends, chances are your half-orc barbarian in a five year Dungeons & Dragons campaign has had more thought and energy put into it than your average servitor.  Gaming characters (particularly pen and paper RPGs) also have the added bonus of available, customizable, figurines that make great simulacrums.

Many of us have put more energy into our gaming personae's thoughts, abilities, and actions than the average person would strictly consider healthy. Like when World of Warcraft has to remind us to log off and talk to our families - you know what I'm talking about *gives you a good stare*.  Gaming characters have the advantage of being malleable; we can turn them into just about anything we want them to be.  This means that we can purposely create characters with the aim of eventually using them in magickal workings.  Need a familiar to help with healing magicks - create a healer character; need help with protection - how about building a paladin?  But, of course, working with gaming characters has a unique problem: they occasionally die.  This can put a damper on things.  It's not so bad with MMORPG characters, they're designed to be resurrected ad nauseum, but sometimes when a pen and paper RPG character dies they're pretty much gone forever.  There's no rule saying you can't still work with the astral energy of a "dead" character, but the energy is different.  Just something to think about.

Basically, know what you're getting yourself into before working with a character. It's the same rule as with working with any power outside yourself - if it's got the ability to think it's got the ability to do something unexpected, so do your homework and be prepared.