Review: Financial Sorcery – Jason Miller

Financial Sorcery: Magical Strategies to Create Real and Lasting Wealth – Jason Miller
New Page, 2012, 224pp., 9781601632180

We’ve all encountered that person who asks if magick works, why aren’t we all rich? We all probably have our own answers too, but when we pause to think about it, it is a good question. Why do so many occultists of varying stripes have trouble with money? We summon lovers, find jobs in odd places, protect our homes, and yeah magick the money to get us out of trouble, but outside of that emergency most of us have trouble with money or money magick.

“[T]he magic itself is fine: our spells usually work … The problem is in the application of our magic … …The attitude for most people seemed to be that when everything was okay, it was better not to give much thought to money at all.” (14) As Jason points out when people try money magick outside of emergencies, it’s often for exceedingly unlikely goals like winning the lottery. I’m in that boat. I’ve experimentally tried my hand at the lottery to no notable success, and while I’ve done great with having enough money to get by while in school and then some when I shouldn’t have the money, it’s always been that survival emergency money magick mentality.

That’s not what this book is about. There are sections about it, a sigil for getting some money fast, and a chapter on emergency magick, but for the most part it’s about prosperity and abundance. Repeatedly the message Jason gives is cut debt and expenses, increase income, and grow wealth. Emergency magick, is bad magick. Strategic magick, is good magick.

In this book Jason introduces a wide range of information regarding financial sorcery. Drawing on various traditions we’re given a list of figures to work with, from Vajrayana to Ceremonial Magick, from Catholicism to Taoism to African Diaspora Religions. Frankly I never like the section in books where the author lists a bunch of figures and says go work with them, but they’re not offered “as is” but more as a sample of who is out there, and that we should find whatever figure of prosperity we can to work with and develop a relationship with.

In Jason’s usual manner this book is a mix of different traditions and technology, as well as heavily grounded in practical magick and real world activity. Most chapters that explain how to do something magickally also give some options for the mundane side. Looking to get in a bit of extra cash in a crunch? Jason gives a website to sign up for focus groups in your area. Needing to manage and understand your expenses better? Here is a website that tracks all your money so you know where it is going. Most of these resources are only for Americans, the Canadian version of the focus group site has five focus groups listed across the country since March for example, but can give you a starting place to work from, ideas to look into.

Jason sets out to analyze our perspective on wealth and wealth magick, and by intelligently understanding and strategizing from there help the reader build stable and lasting prosperity. He takes us through daily offerings to spirits to help keep the gears going, to 16 Lightning Glyphs of Jupiter –a collection of 16 sigils for financial magick with all sorts of practical and specific applications–, to understanding how we hold ourselves back from financial freedom, to killing debts, to getting jobs and promotions, to starting our own business, to investing. Step-by-step through big picture and little detail magick Jason works to get the reader to a more prosperous place in their life. While not an advanced book in regards to technique –anyone with basic magickal/meditation experience could make use of the book– it is advanced in the strategy and process. Whether you’re drowning in debt, just getting by, doing well, or just looking to do better this book will have techniques, technology, and ideas that are relevant to you. Unlike most things in life, money will always be there, and it is always something we must deal with, so I really can’t think of anyone this book wouldn’t benefit, and would recommend it to most anyone.

And of course, if you like this book or just want to know more about the author you can check out his blog here.

Review: Money Magic – Frater U∴D∴

Money Magic: Mastering Prosperity in its True Element – Frater U∴D∴
Llewellyn. 2011. 221pp. 9780738721279.

Frater U∴D∴ is back with a new book, this time tackling the sticky issue of money magick. It is an odd beast, but while most non-occultists (and a lot of occultists) think of magick in a financial arena there is very little actually devoted to money magick, especially in a practical and overt sense. Enter Frater U∴D∴’s Money Magic. When I’m feeling cynical I say that so few occultists and authors focus on money magick as unlike a lot of magick you can’t get around the hard nature of money. I’m in good company it seems. “[M]oney magic is utterly objectified: either you achieve what you’re conducting a spell for … or you don’t. Thus, there is little room left for fond delusions and facile cop-outs.” (xi)

Right from the beginning he is pulling no punches, money magick, it will work or not work, no dancing around it. The book starts with U∴D∴ making a case for what element money is, and while the answer is that we can’t really simplify anything down too much he makes a very compelling argument for money being Air as opposed to the more traditional Earth. Money isn’t some dead and static component in our lives or society, but it is a living, dynamic being which is better represented by Air than Earth. I actually used Water as the element of money for most of the same reasons U∴D∴ suggests.

A lot of the book is focused not on what most people would consider money magick, but more internal work. Why? Because we are filled with “culturally conditioned psychological blockages that have evolved over the centuries to actually prevent us from making [money magic] work.” (xii) We’re programmed with views on wealth and money that hinder us far more than they help us, and unless we can tackle them we will work for these programmed systems rather than our own benefit. I was very glad to see this current throughout the book, as a frank discussion on why we fail and a practical system to dig us out of our conditioned states is really needed.

The book contains some of the basic material that it seems every book from a big publisher must have these days: ritual creation 101, LBRP, planetary and elemental associations, and the like. Even though the majority of the magick in the book is freeform (as one would expect with Frater U∴D∴) many examples are given in the Hermetic frame work, to help us ceremonialists get our heads around his ideas.

Magick-wise he covers the creation of good luck charms (and their purpose isn’t what you think), deconditioning notions of self-worth and how money flows in our society, sigil magick, and use of planetary forces, specifically how Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn all work together to increase or constrain out finances.

The book is written in Frater U∴D∴’s usual easy to follow and straightforward style. Examples, ideas, and exercises and woven into the book in a way that facilitates understanding of the material, requiring no backtracking unless that’s what the reader wants. Practical magick in concise writing and intelligently tackled. This book will get you thinking about money magick in a new way, and I would highly recommend it, even to people who currently don’t need help in that area, just to get your thinking in a new way.