Strategic Sorcery: Work-Through & Review
I am starting this thread to review each lesson of Jason Miller’s Strategic Sorcery online course.
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Week One: Meditation
The first lesson is a pdf about meditation. It includes several mantras, a mirror litany (rooted in Dzogchen), a few practices, advice for physical positioning, mental focus, and dealing with distraction. He directs the reader to revisit the Gate of Heka meditation from his book The Sorcerer’s Secrets. It is not provided in the course. There are no videos or illustrations in this lesson.
Since I have experience with meditation, the mirror litany was the most valuable part of this lesson for me.
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This is really cool @Mythopoeia , you’re definitely making strides forward, and that’s the really the most important direction.
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Week Two: The Subtle Body & Energy Part I
The title of this lesson is different from what is listed in the online course description (“Subtle Bodies and Channels”). It consists of another (lengthier) pdf with no audio, video, or illustrations. Energy, Spirit, Psychological, Information, and Meta Models of Magick are briefly discussed.
The reader is once again directed to a passage from The Sorcerer’s Secrets. The subtle realms and their divisions across different traditions are discussed. Miller presents a seven body system for Strategic Sorcery and acknowledges that further bodies (such as the rainbow body) can be developed. I appreciated this note:
“It is also a mistake for the sorcerer to ascribe positive or negative qualities to these levels…Just as matter is forever longing to embrace the subtle realms of spirit, so too is spirit ever seeking to kiss the manifestation of matter.”
Etheric anatomy is then discussed at length. The reader is redirected to the Pillars and Spheres and Pore Breathing exercises from The Sorcerer’s Secrets . They are not provided, but are expanded upon with energy drawing exercises quite similar to the exercises in @norse900 's Pele Grimoire.
An exercise similar to Pulsing the Web from Sex, Sorcery, and Spirit is provided:
All in all, this is a solid lesson. It is not just a repackaging of TSS, but the book is absolutely required to unpack the information. It is unfortunate there are no illustrations of the etheric anatomy discussed. I am looking forward to practicing the expanded exercises.
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Week Three: Zone Rites
Another pdf, no illustrations / audio / video. Banishing, consecrating, and protecting sacred space are discussed at length- including whether they are even necessary in the first place. The reader is once again directed to TSS for the Pillar Rite and the Universal Center exercises, which are not provided.
Miller provides five other “zone rites” of his own, drawn variably from the PGM, planetary magick, elemental magick, classical cosmology, Tibetan Vajra rituals, and angelology. They are meant to follow the Pillar Rite and the Universal Center exercises. These rituals cover a lot of paradigms so most (Western) practitioners should be able to pick something that resonates with them. They are largely tool-free and focus more on hand gestures, spoken word, and visualization.
I am becoming increasingly interested in elemental magick and am looking forward to trying his version of The Compass Round.
He made some very interesting points about tetrahedrons:
“The Tetrahedron shape…is the most solid three dimensional structure…also associated with weapons…any unwanted influence that attempts to breach the temple is instantly destroyed…a three dimensional triangle of manifestation…receiving and conducting higher influences, and its other sides can pull in whatever spirits or influences the Sorcerer desires. Like a three dimensional Goetic Triangle.”
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It’s funny you bring that up a 3 dimensional Goetic triangle.
It is my firm belief that the actual triangle of energy would be,should be a pyramid, the circle of the magician would be a sphere.
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This resonates very much with Franz Bardon’s sentiments on the physical / astral / mental planes and bodies as laid out in Initiation Into Hermetics.
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Week Four: Thought Management
A simple exploration of the value of regular meditation, concentration, self-reflection, positive thinking and association, and gratitude practices. Miller also cautions the reader to stay grounded in reality, and criticizes books such as The Secret.
This was a bit of a lazy lesson, imo, but the content was good. I think he could have gone further into NLP techniques, like he does in his books.
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I’ll be following along! Its been a bit over a decade since i went through the course, i think, and just today I was thinking of revisiting it.
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I really like Jason’s take on this stuff, adding these types of practices have certainly helped me. I’ve long been fascinated by NLP, and I’ve found that some of the techniques on noting and changing how you “see” things like memories have impacted how i practice and teach visualization work.
(Oops, meant to reply to the week 4 post specifically).
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Hopefully it comes up again in the course. I like what he wrote about NLP in his books as well. Btw, did you take his Jupiter course?
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I signed up for the first cycle, so i have it all, but it’s one that I really need to go back and dig into again.
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Week Five: Offerings
The usual pdf with no illustrations. It explains the value of adopting a regular offering practice, explores the different kinds of beings one can make offerings to, how this exchange works and how to do it strategically, and the symbolic significance of different kinds of offerings. I appreciated this lesson, though I did not gain too much as I already have a solid daily offerings practice.
The most amusing part of this lesson:
"Pain itself can be offered to spirits. I have worked with magic involving BDSM at times in the past, and have made an offering of the pain from whipping a willing submissive as a sort of “human sacrifice”.
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Week Six: Offerings
The usual pdf with no illustrations. More on offerings, particularly on cleansing them beforehand and disposing of them afterwards. An offering invocation is provided. Miller insists that you should never consume spirit offerings. I have eaten MANY a piece of chocolate left for demons, weeks afterwards. And once Juno’s popcorn, a few days later…
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I have also partaken in offerings (Or, I prefer to call them gifts, since they’re mostly given to the Gods). When praying to the Norse Gods, I often drank from the alcoholic gift I gave. Although, I do not do this anymore, since I consider alcohol to generally impede the spirit. But the first time I didn’t give it, I got a distinct impression that it is perfectly fine to partake of the drink. So, it’s simply a personal preference.
Interestingly, I know a Medieval Astrological grimoire in which the Arabic text prescribes a feast given to a spirit very much like the Personal Diamon, but doesn’t mention partaking of the feast, but the Latin text explicitly does. And otherwise in the text sacrifices are variously either destroyed or eaten.
So, I don’t think it matters too much. But what comes to mind is that partaking of offerings can have a special purpose of obtaining communion with the Spirit or God. While offerings not partaken of may have a special focus on devotion, or otherwise on bargaining if with Spirits who barter.
Just my thoughts on it, since mentioning that let me think on it a bit!
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Week Seven: Subtle Body Anatomy Part 2: Power Centers
The title of this lesson is different from what is listed in the online course description (“Subtle Body Power Centers”). It consists of another pdf with no audio, video, or illustrations.
This was a wonderful lesson in subtle body anatomy and centers as anchors for the physical / etheric / astral / soul / mind / causal bodies. Miller discusses secondary centers and channel points and his views on visiting them, assigning qualities (such as elemental and planetary) to them, and altering them.
The lesson ends with an exercise for sending power from these centers into the hands and crafting energy constructs. Once again, similar to @norse900 's Pele Grimoire exercises and teachings I have recently received in ritual from a spirit mentor.
This is an excellent lesson overall, but would really benefit from illustrations.
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I wish I could convey how grateful I am for seeing these correlations. While I know what I was given and get results with (myself and others), it’s not Western Ceremonial based stuff and it’s easy to feel like a fish out of water. Thanks, Myth.
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Week Eight: Prayer
The usual pdf with no illustrations; this time a lengthy discussion on different types of prayer (intercession, blessing, expiation, gratitude, adoration, mystical) and prayer recipients, including the HGA. The HGA and operations to know the HGA in modern contexts are explored. I enjoyed this lesson very much, especially this passage:
"Prayers of adoration can be deeply misunderstood if you think that it is just all about worshiping a diety for the sake of worship. A prayer of adoration is meant to bring you closer to the object of prayer, not just supplicate that being. You adore the object of prayer like you adore a lover. You express your desire for union, be it with God, a Set of Gods, your Holy Guardian Angel, or just reality itself."
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