I strongly support the use of magic for creating social, economic, and political change. Magic alone is not enough, but magic can shift the odds in our favor, and when the stakes are as high as they are around Trump and his administration, we need all the help we can get.<\/p>\n
In his first month, Trump has attacked refugees and immigrants, tried to silence scientists<\/a>, removed federal protection for transgendered students, tried to intimidate the press, and appointed a cabinet dedicated to destroying public education (DeVos), prioritizing economic exploitation over environmental protection (Pruitt), prosecuting marijuana users, ignoring voting rights violations, and supporting government seizure of the property of those accused but not convicted of crimes (Sessions). The only good thing he\u2019s done is pulling out of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.<\/p>\n We know that\u2019s just the start. When your enemy tells you what he\u2019s going to do, best believe him. And start working against him with all the tools at our disposal, including magical tools.<\/p>\n The working in question can be found on the website of author and Tarot teacher Michael M. Hughes<\/a>. It\u2019s said to have been created by \u201ca member of a private magical order who wishes to remain anonymous.\u201d Who wrote it isn\u2019t really important. What\u2019s important is that it\u2019s not likely to be effective, and therefore it is a poor use of your time and energy to perform.<\/p>\n The idea of circulating this far and wide and bringing in thousands of magic users is appealing. The more people you can get working toward a common goal, the more power you can raise and the greater the likelihood of its success. But there are two problems.<\/p>\n First, not all magic users are equal. Some are well-trained, experienced magicians. Some are beginners who are still trying to figure out what they\u2019re doing. Some don\u2019t have the necessary skills or the temperament to learn them. Just bringing more people into the working isn\u2019t going to make it effective.<\/p>\n Learning by doing is a fine tradition that I strongly support. But if you learn something by doing it the wrong way or the ineffective way, you aren\u2019t going to learn much.<\/p>\n More importantly, the public nature of this working means it has attracted attention from those who are opposed to it. A few magicians support Trump and have upped their efforts to protect him. And various fundamentalist Christians who love the idea of \u201cspiritual warfare\u201d are actively working against this spell. Their magical skills are mostly undeveloped (though some are quite powerful) but they outnumber us and their countermeasures will have an impact, though just how much is impossible to say.<\/p>\n Working magic against a figure as powerful as the President of the United States is extremely difficult. He\u2019s supported by the attention of millions of fans and voters, and he\u2019s as charismatic as they come. Attracting the attention of his supporters makes our work that much harder.<\/p>\n Remember the Witches Pyramid: to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silence.<\/p>\n Others have pointed out their own problems with this spell \u2013 these are mine.<\/p>\n It ignores the sovereignty of spiritual beings<\/strong>. This spell calls on elemental spirits, angels, demons, and ancestors to bind Trump. Why would they do that for you? I can guarantee the elemental spirits don\u2019t give a damn one way or another. Angels and demons have their own agendas, and many of my ancestors would have voted for Trump. They aren\u2019t going to do it because they agree with our politics.<\/p>\n What authority do you have to command these spirits? Experienced magicians working in some traditions may have authority over some spirits, but no one has authority over all of them \u2013 and beginners have none. These are independent beings with their own sovereignty and agency \u2013 treat them respectfully.<\/p>\n Do you have existing relationships with any of these spirits? If so, they may be willing to help you. If not, you\u2019re likely to get the same response you give when someone you\u2019ve never heard of sends you an e-mail asking for money.<\/p>\n Are you going to pay them for their work? If so, with what? A few ounces of wine that you weren\u2019t going to finish anyway isn\u2019t likely to be much incentive to take on such a big job.<\/p>\n It implies the spell caster will be safe<\/strong>. In his explanation of the working, Michael Hughes says:<\/p>\n In this document,\u00a0binding,<\/em>\u00a0which seeks to restrain someone from doing harm, is differentiated from\u00a0cursing<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0hexing<\/em>, which is meant to inflict harm on the target(s).\u00a0It is understood, in this context, that binding does not generate the potential negative blowback from cursing\/hexing\/crossing, nor does it harm the caster\u2019s karma.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is reflective of dualistic thinking: some magic is good and other magic is evil \u2013 white magic\u00a0 vs. black magic, if you prefer. Magic isn\u2019t that simple. Life isn\u2019t that simple.<\/p>\n In almost 25 years of magical practice, I\u2019ve seen no evidence the Threefold Law actually works as stated by some Wiccans. I\u2019ve seen plenty of evidence of the \u201cStrawberry Jam Effect\u201d \u2013 you can\u2019t work with it without getting it all over yourself. Some of this is psychological \u2013 the more you think about aggressive magic, the more aggressive you\u2019ll become. Some is spiritual \u2013 ask spirits for their help and they\u2019re going to want something in return. Good intent is no protection and generic disclaimers (\u201cfor the good of all with harm to none\u201d) serve only to weaken the spell.<\/p>\n This spell also has a pretty na\u00efve and ill-informed idea about what constitutes violence:<\/p>\n In other words,\u00a0this is not the equivalent of magically punching a Nazi; rather, it is ripping the bullhorn from his hands, smashing his phone so he can\u2019t tweet, tying him up, and throwing him in a dark basement where he can\u2019t hurt anyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you tie me up and throw me in a dark basement, I\u2019m going to consider that violence and respond accordingly. Of course, if the person in question really is a Nazi that may be a perfectly appropriate action\u00a0(FYI, I do not think Trump is a Nazi. I do think he\u2019s a fascist dictator wannabe).<\/p>\n Real magic is not safe.\u00a0 Witchcraft is not safe. Participating in a revolution is not safe. Those who pretend it\u2019s safe are dangerously na\u00efve. Experienced magicians who promise beginners safety are behaving irresponsibly. Either that, or they aren\u2019t as experienced as they think they are.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not trying to scare off beginners or anyone else. This work is necessary and I want everyone who can to participate. But I want them to participate with their eyes wide open.<\/p>\n Do you really want your President to \u201cfail utterly\u201d?<\/strong> The President of the United States is in charge of everything in the Executive branch of the federal government. Do you want the Post Office to fail? The Centers for Disease Control? The EPA? The Social Security Administration? Part of Trump\u2019s agenda was a much-needed increase in infrastructure spending \u2013 do you want that to fail?<\/p>\n I want most of Trump\u2019s policies to fail: those that are nationalistic and xenophobic, those that prioritize greater wealth for the rich over a more equitable distribution for all, those that deny established science, and those that pander to his fundamentalist Christian supporters.<\/p>\n But I want my government to work, and that means I do not want Trump to fail utterly. I just want him to fail in his wrong-headed policy decisions.<\/p>\n Specificity in target selection is one of the primary keys to successful magic.<\/p>\n Blow up the Death Star, stake the head vampire, kill Hitler, and everything is all good and fine. Our popular culture tells us that if you remove the head, the body will die. Reality is rarely that simple.<\/p>\n If you get rid of Trump then you get Pence, who looks and acts Presidential but who is a raving misogynist and homophobe. In 2020 you may get Ted Cruz, who has zero respect for individual rights and wants to create a Christian theocracy.<\/p>\n Trump won because millions of people felt like the game was stacked against them and Trump would do something about it. He won because it\u2019s easier to blame jobs going overseas on voiceless immigrants than on billionaire executives\u2026 and on yourself for demanding \u201clowest price always.\u201d He won because Washington has become dysfunctional and he promised to drain the swamp. Remember: Barack Obama \u2013 a black man \u2013 won twice on a platform of \u201chope and change.\u201d Hillary ran on \u201cI\u2019m ready for this\u201d and lost.<\/p>\n Trump and his policies are the immediate problem. If you get bitten by a snake, treat the wound first, then look for the nest. But unless we address the underlying issues \u2013 politically, socially, and spiritually \u2013 we will get one bad leader after another. This is complicated, it\u2019s hard, and it will take a lot longer than getting rid of an incompetent President, even if we only get rid of him by the 22nd<\/sup> Amendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n But if we don\u2019t address these issues in an honest and straightforward manner, we\u2019ll never fix them.<\/p>\n Do what you do best<\/strong>. Do it passionately. Do it intelligently and mindfully. Most of all, do it faithfully<\/a> for as long as it takes.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve done binding spells with only modest success. I\u2019m much better with sigil magic. I\u2019m even better with bardic magic. I\u2019m going to work in the areas where I\u2019ll be most effective \u2013 I suggest you do the same.<\/p>\n Do specific workings against specific targets<\/strong>. \u201cStopping Trump\u201d is so vague as to be meaningless \u2013 it\u2019s like all these nice pretty useless workings for \u201cworld peace.\u201d It\u2019s too big, too broad, and too vague.<\/p>\n But stopping an illegal executive order on immigration? That can be done. How about a truth-revealing spell on his conflicts of interest or protection spells for immigrants? How about prayers for your transgendered friends, particularly those still in school?<\/p>\n The more specific and the more localized you can make your workings, the better your chances of succeeding. That\u2019s not as glamourous as \u201cbinding Trump\u201d but it\u2019s a lot more effective.<\/p>\n Attack the core problems<\/strong>. Patriarchy. Systemic racism. Income inequality. Xenophobia. The wrong values and a lack of virtue. All of these problems are expressed in laws, policies, and cultural norms. Laws, policies, and cultural norms can be changed.<\/p>\n These problems can\u2019t be fixed right away but they can be improved. Go make them better.<\/p>\n Keep up the mundane action<\/strong>. Say this much for Trump: he\u2019s reinvigorated citizen engagement. Keep writing and calling your elected representatives, keep marching, and keep giving to organizations like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.<\/p>\n Our government officials are rattled by all this attention \u2013 they don\u2019t know what to do with an angry and engaged citizenry. But they\u2019re assuming that all they have to do is wait us out \u2013 sooner or later we\u2019ll get bored or frustrated and we\u2019ll quit. We have to keep it up through the 2018 mid-term elections and on through the next Presidential election in 2020. And beyond that.<\/p>\n Politicians will always ignore citizens unless they\u2019re made to pay a price for ignoring us. They only understand two things: money and votes. We have to keep this up.<\/p>\n Build a better way where you are<\/strong>. Trump or no Trump, the world is becoming a less stable, more dangerous place. We will not get through this difficult time<\/a> alone. We need to build strong, vibrant, caring communities. We need to build alliances with other people of good will. We need to build alliances with our Gods, ancestors, and spirits. And we need to take care of ourselves.<\/p>\n If you like this mass binding of Trump, go for it. I suggest you re-write parts of the spell to make it stronger and more specific, and I strongly suggest you do cleansing and purification work both before and after. I question its effectiveness, but it can\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n No, it\u2019s not safe \u2013 but real magic never is.<\/p>\n Regardless of which activities you choose, if you have magical skills you can\u2019t not<\/em> do something. Defending your country and its citizens and residents \u2013 both human and other-than-human \u2013 is part of your civic duty.<\/p>\n The expansion of individual rights and liberties over the past 60 years has been a good and necessary thing. But along the way, we\u2019ve lost our sense of obligation to the common good. That\u2019s a bad thing. So I\u2019ll close with this often-quoted and often-ignored quote from President John F. Kennedy:<\/p>\n \u201cMy fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.\u201d<\/p>\n For some of us, what we can do for our country is to work magic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m not participating in the mass binding of Donald Trump because I believe it will be ineffective and therefore a poor use of our time and energy. But if you have magical skills, you can\u2019t not<\/em> use them at a time like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":6170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1255,1241,725,1256,4,5],"class_list":["post-6162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magic","tag-binding","tag-cursing","tag-donald-trump","tag-michael-m-hughes","tag-pagan","tag-paganism"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"sky](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/02\/sky-02.20.17.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Publicity Around This Working is Harmful<\/h1>\n
![\"Hot](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/02\/Hot-Springs-2015-75-600x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis Spell is Poorly Constructed<\/h1>\n
![\"ADF](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/02\/ADF-Texas-Imbolc-2017-62-600x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTrump is a Symptom of a Deeper Problem, Not Its Cause<\/h1>\n
![\"GCG](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/02\/GCG-2015-85-600x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat To Do Instead<\/h1>\n
![\"vigil](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2017\/02\/vigil-for-refugees-01.30.17-04.jpg\" "\\"Vigil")
<\/a>But Do Something<\/h1>\n