Author: Ben Woodcroft

I want to share my love of magick with you.

Magick for Idiots

Ben Woodcroft10 Comments

Is magick being made so trivial that it no longer works? I think there’s a danger, and I may be partly to blame. There has been a push in recent years for practicing occultists to share secret knowledge, based on a blend of tradition and experience, and to share it quite freely, at a low cost. My book is a part of this publishing movement. When magick is so widely available, people can flip through the most divine and devastatingly powerful rituals and say, ‘Well, it was ok.’ Worse yet, we tempt copy-cat ‘authors’ to write books that look like the real thing, while they actually mock and sneer at the reality of magick.

Magick is meant to work without being complicated, so I still believe, at this point, that the current movement is a good one. But I am alarmed by some of the things I see. There are some occult authors publishing books that seem to me to be mocking the occult, and mocking people who buy occult books. Are we truly to believe that books of supervillain magick, toy puppet rituals, and magick to turn your enemies into whores, is to be taken seriously?

In one recently published book the author presents a ritual to make Satan Dress in Drag. No real reason is given as to why you should do such a thing, except, according to the author,  to show that you are more sick and twisted than a demon. His style of writing suggests that he’s seeing how far he can go before everybody realises he’s mocking occultism itself.

It seems like he thinks it’s one big joke. But perhaps not. Perhaps he believes this is good magick. Such authors could just as easily turn on me and say that I have done nothing more than peddle myths and mysteries to make money out of the gullible. It’s an easy accusation to make, but I hope that it is clear that if there is one word that covers my approach to magick it is this: sincerity. Sincerity is, as you will know if you’ve read my book, the key to magickal success. Sincerity is the light the burns within magick.

The author that I’ve singled out above isn’t the only one to be so trivial, and many of these books that seem to me to be a joke, have 100% 5-star reviews. They are doing better than I am! I should add, I’ve done no magick to make my book popular, and I never will. I want my books to be found, read, worked with and reviewed by those who believe in the power of magick. If you are one of those people, then thank you.

Making magick seem trivial is not new.  I was recently alarmed to see a book all about the musical Wicked, and to find that it was strewn with copies of the Seals of Solomon. I shouldn’t be surprised. Film and TV Production Designers have been using real occult symbols in their shows for many years, even when the writers appear to have no knowledge of how the occult actually works. But when occult symbols are so casually placed in a mainstream book, I fear that magick is leaking into our culture as a distraction, an amusement, rather than the serious and effective practice I believe it to be.

You can see from the reviews of occult books that people expect magick to work like the latest phone app. There is a sense of entitlement that ignores the true power and potential of magick. The might of magick is lost, and it’s seen as another product to be consumed.

I am not one to say that magick should be reserved only for the elite, but I do wonder about the wisdom of putting powerful magick into the hands of people who are, if we are honest, too stupid to know what to do with it. You can buy, for just a few dollars, secrets that people have fought battles to attain, and spent lifetimes perfecting. That may be a mistake.

My fear is that magick will be seen as just another self-help gimmick, as something you add on to your life, rather than the life you lead. Its popularity will make it seem less than it is. Already we see some of the better works being scorned for being too difficult, too complicated, when their simplicity is actually profound. I begin to wonder if the movement I am a part of – to simplify and share magick – is a mistake.

This blog is meant to inspire you to work magick, not to create fear. I have taught many students the art of magick, and I tell them to worry less. I should probably stop worrying, but I will not look away from this problem, and I will continue to weigh my options.

Terrible books about magick will continue to be published, and wonderful works will exist alongside them, and the only way we ever know what is worthwhile, is when we discover what works. Sincere magick, performed simply, and with a powerful intention, is an unstoppable force, and that is what really matters.

– Ben Woodcroft

coverbw

The First Angel

Ben Woodcroft3 Comments

The first time I sensed an angelic presence was not because of magick. The angel came to me, uncalled, in a time of great need. I have studied the occult ever since then, and have asked angels many direct questions, but I still do not understand why angels sometimes reach out with a helping hand to save those in need, while leaving others to fall in front of a truck. I mean that quite literally, because I was rescued by an angel as I was about to walk under a truck.

Daydreaming, and standing at the edge of a busy road, I felt sure that I had looked both ways and was about to step out into the road. I heard a sound that was more like music than voice, but terrible, profound music that seemed to shout, ‘No.’ And then I was pulled back, by the strongest grip I have ever known. Although this power was strong, I was moved back only a fraction. Maybe two inches. The truck passed by me, so close that it almost brushed my face. I could feel the heat from its metal panels on my skin, and was the blasted by the rush of foul air that swirled behind the truck. That air almost knocked me off my feet. I escaped death, or the most violent injuries, by the tiniest amount. But that tiny amount was enough. I was so overwhelmed with shock and fear, that I forgot about the sound and the hand that had pulled me back. I forgot about it.

When you tell stories of the supernatural, it’s easy for people to scoff, laugh or dismiss them as fantasy or fiction. The more truth you tell, the more difficult it can be for people to believe you, because the truth is amazing and wonderful. When I have told this story before, to close friends, the part they find hardest to believe is that I could forget about that moment of rescue. But that is how it happened, and again, I don’t know why.

What I do know is that later that night, as I lay in bed, I remembered. And when I did, my face was flooded with tears of gratitude. The moment became so clear to me, and I had no doubt it was real. It was now clearer than any other memory I’d ever had. And with it came the knowledge that I could do anything. That moment set me on a path to magick.

Magick, for me, was a way of regaining the certainty of angelic reality. I told myself that I was performing rituals to get results, but what I really wanted was to sense an angelic presence. For a long time, I performed nothing but angel magick, but I never felt the presence of an angel. I did, however, get results from the magick. It was as though I was being teased a little; shown the reality of angels through the results, but without actually sensing the angels directly.

But everybody comes to magick in a different way. You don’t need to be approached by an angel, or rescued, for angelic magick to work. This magick is open to anybody who is drawn to it. Most people, even those who work with angels every day, will never sense the presence of an angel as strongly as I did in that fortunate moment. Perhaps angels help us all the time, but we don’t notice. Or we forget. But if you are inspired to come to the world of magick, that is all you need for the angels to hear you. A momentary brush with an angel is nothing compared to a life driven by a deliberate connection to magick.

It was some years later that I learned how to communicate with angels more directly, invoking the angels so that I could speak to them, and hear their wisdom. The method I employ for that is quite useable, but it will take a long book to describe the process. I will write that book for you one day. But for now, there is a way you can sense the presence of an angel, and I’ve already told you what it is. Perform magick for the things you sincerely want, and when you get the result, in that moment of realization, when you feel the pleasure, your feeling of pleasure is shared with the angel. That is angelic contact. The more you recognize it, the more real it becomes and the closer you will get to the angels.

Whatever brings you to magick, whether it’s curiosity, desire for something to change, or an ache for divine contact, angelic magick is a powerful way to catch a glimpse of the beautiful reality that lies just outside the edge of normal perception. And getting the things you want, through magick, soon begins to feel normal. That is the real power of angelic magick. It makes the impossible feel possible.

Ben Woodcroft

coverbw

Angelic Sigils, Keys and Calls

Ben Woodcroft11 Comments

Whatever you dream of can be yours, with the help of angels and archangels.The most powerful magick has been concentrated down into a simple magick ritual.

I’m delighted to introduce you to Angelic Sigils, Keys & Calls: 142 Ways to Make Instant Contact with Angels and Archangels.  coverbw

Five Star Rating on Amazon

‘It is an amazing and simplified system.’

‘This is one beautiful and elegant system of magic.
Profound methods are presented in a very clear way.’

Using this magick, the angels and archangels will hear your request. They can satisfy your deepest desires. The secret sigils, keys and calls make it possible to establish instant contact.

You’ll find angels and rituals for every desire, from major life changes to minor problems, covering powers related to money, love, the spirit, self understanding and healing.

What makes this different to the other angel books?

It contains the simplest magick ritual that gets results.

Rituals only need to be performed once, on any day that you choose.

There are 127 sigils, with the Secret Admitting Words that make them work.

You will find sigils for Archangels, The Angels of Thrones, The Angels of Virtue, The 72 Shem Angels and The 42 Angels of The Name.

There’s free online audio that makes pronunciation easy.

With many magick books, working out the correct pronunciation can be a challenge. I’ve solved that problem for you, with a host of videos on this page.

gateways

The book is ideal for complete beginners, but can be used to great effect by the experienced, so long as you have an open mind.

Using the Angelic Sigils, Keys & Calls, you have access to  more than 330 individual powers, making this is the most comprehensive angel book you can find, but for a fraction of the cost.

If you feel that angelic magick could work for you, that is a sign that it will work for you. Discover the power of Angelic Sigils, Keys and Calls.

coverbw

Paperback and ebook now available.
The ebook can be read on almost any device, with the free Kindle app.

Ben Woodcroft

The Source of Modern Magick

Ben WoodcroftLeave a comment

You might wonder where magick comes from. Has it been around for millennia, centuries or just a few years? Is it unchanged or constantly modified?

Magick is constantly being invented, discovered and honed, but there is also a tradition of magick being shared in absolute secret. What’s happening today is that secrets from many previously hidden sources are being shared with the public.

In the The Keys to the Gateway of Magic, Skinner and Rankine repeat and summarise their belief that magick is not much to do with secret societies. They also suggest that magick was not passed down through the traditional village ‘cunning-man’. Instead, they say, it was handed down from one scholar-magician to the next. It’s no surprise that these two great academic writers  (great scholars, that is), would believe such a thing. We can’t be too surprised that they’ve summed up the whole history of Western magickal transmission in this way. They go on to add that magick tended to belong to one social class – the upper class Establishment.

I like a lot of what they they say in their book, but I think these particular points contain too much academic study, and not enough experience of magick in the modern world. Magick comes from many places. If you only do your research in places like the British Library, you miss the rich reality of modern magick.

Of course it’s true that the Establishment would record magick most effectively – they wrote books, and secret documents which were indeed passed between high-society friends. But that is not the whole story. If the lower classes didn’t record their magick so well, that’s more to do with the fact that publishing was reserved for the elite.  But if you read The Cunning Man’s Handbook  by Jim Baker (for which Rankine himself wrote a glowing Foreword), it is clear that the ordinary folk did have  access to spells, sigils and seals that were supposedly reserved for the upper classes.

I admire the way Skinner and Rankine have tried to distance practical magick from the Illuminati and Freemasonry and such like – it’s just too easy to say that all magick is being held by the super-powerful people who hide it to retain power. And it’s not true. I know, from personal experience that people from all walks of life have access to magick, use magick and make great gains with the magick they use.

Magick may have been beautifully recorded by lawyers and judges of old, as Skinner and Rankine note, but I think it is also true that magick has long been used by the village occultists, as well as by secret societies composed of more ordinary people. People who aimed for more. These societies were (and are) small, private groups of individuals. These people were not obviously running the world, but influencing aspects of it.

Magick brings power, but that power isn’t always walking the corridors of Whitehall (or Congress, or anywhere else). There have been secret societies in publishing, in music, in the theatre, in trade and transport, and even education – it’s not all governments and banks. I have encountered several such societies in my life, and have been a member of more than one.

It’s strange that we often talk about the ‘chaos magick movement’ as being an invention of the 1970s, when magicians boldly simplified magick and broke the rules, finding that even with lots of changes the magick still worked. If that’s what chaos magick is, then it’s been going on for centuries. While the scholar magicians passed down their secret ideas, other secrets were passed between occultists in the more ordinary world. They were shared and adapted, tested and changed. They were made to work.

But who has the best magick? Isn’t the purest magick, passed down by scholars the best? Would you rather have the magick of a wealthy Lord or a normal businessman who’s a member of some small unknown group? Remember that the power of Lords was inherited, not earned, and I think this point is often missed. Those already in power do not need the results that magick can provide as much as those who are struggling. They may be fascinated and curious, but they do not need to work with magick the same way that others do.

Ordinary people, aiming for more, achieved great magickal work. It was clear to these people that you could rise to a certain level through hard work and ingenuity, but it was also apparent that you could not leave your social and economic class easily. Not without magick. And that’s what many people did. Modern magick was not a blurring of the truth found in ancient documents, but was a genuine search for magick that works, led by people who needed the results. This is more real and exciting than reading an old, pure document.

Much of the magick being shared today is a blend of magick from many origins. It comes from small secret societies that tested and developed the magick through personal experiment. These societies are not yet catalogued by academics, and they have drawn on many sources, creating magick that works. This is what I hope to share through my books: the hidden magick that has been used, quietly and effectively, by ordinary people who seek to live in a way that is more than ordinary.

– Ben Woodcroft

A Life of Magick

Ben Woodcroft1 Comment

magicafoot2

Magick is not a gift or a blessing, but a responsibility. If you are lucky enough to find magick, you are one of the elite. You may not feel like it yet, as you struggle with the ups and downs of life, but to know magick is to be one of the elite, and it is your responsibility to live the best life that you can with magick.

If you’re new to magick this may sound over the top and head in the clouds, but if you’ve seen even one thing happen, because you performed magick, you have seen the true potential of life.

There was a time in my life when I was overwhelmed with jealousy. A young man who attended my school – a quite ordinary school – came from a wealthy family, and being brought up around wealth made him different. To him, it seemed absolutely normal to paint watercolours of birds at the weekend, while the rest of us were walking around town with our hands in our pockets, contemplating shoplifting or other petty criminal distractions. His paintings were beautiful, but I didn’t see them as skilful, only as the privileged output of a lucky boy who’d been born into money.

I was wrong about that, because money and opportunity can be squandered. There are many wealthy people who become nothing more than idle and greedy, dazzled by baubles and glamour. Rather than being consumed with jealousy, I should have admired my wealthy peer for making the most of the privilege. His talent was quite remarkable. There was nothing to stop the rest of us learning to paint that well, but his background meant that he’d been encouraged, provided with time and equipment, while the rest of us had been told to shut up and do our homework. It wasn’t the money that mattered, but the life that went with it. The opportunity.

It was only when I discovered magick, and how magick could help me, that I tasted this type of privilege. I did not become wealthy overnight, and life remained a challenge, but I found that our fate is quite malleable. With magick, we can make change. There is no greater privilege than that.

With willpower and determination you can achieve many wonders, without ever using magick. A person with severe disabilities (either physical, financial or circumstantial) can make a better and more fulfilling life than somebody who is privileged and blind to their potential. But willpower and determination are not as important, or useful, as magick. Magick is the supernatural edge, the ultimate advantage that you can take to any situation. This is how you can thrive.

I can’t deny that fortune and circumstance play a big part in your life. A person born into wealth will have better financial skills, better contacts, and a greater vision, than somebody who is struggling with poverty – even if they both know magick. If you’re in a country, or area, that’s in financial turmoil, you’ll struggle more than somebody who’s living in a thriving economy. But magick can transcend circumstances more effectively than willpower, luck, fortune, fate, background, networks, connections or family. Even in the most hopeless circumstances, people with magick can do very well for themselves, and for the ones they love.

This is why I believe that if you discover magick, and find that magick works for you, it is your responsibility to live the best life that you can, enjoying what you can, sharing what you can, and developing in every way you can. This does not mean you need to be bound by outrageous ambition, but that you find peace within yourself, and from a place of peace and strength, find what you can be, what you can enjoy, who you can help, and then use magick to get the life that makes the most of who you are.

Ben Woodcroft

The Magickal Spectrum

Ben Woodcroft1 Comment

reachingformagick

There are many kinds of magick being worked today, and my personal take on the matter is that lots of this modern magick works.

I’m just as happy using a simple spell as I am calling on an angel. All that matters to me is that the magick triggers a change, without causing harm. My magick does not work with dark forces. This does not mean you have to pray or worship, but it will certainly help if you have some respect and wonder for the creative might of the universe.

I plan to share my knowledge, for what it’s worth, in the pages of this blog, and in the pages of my books, which should be published quite soon.

Magick books have always been available, but never so easily. Once upon a time you had to know where to look, and then you would write to a mail-order company, with your dusky magickal tome arriving some weeks later in a plain brown envelope. Today, there are thousands of books with glorious covers and big ideas, and you can read them within seconds of buying them if you’re willing to read an ebook.

This is a revolution, and something that pleases me, because the power of the elite and the hidden is now being made available to anybody with an open mind and heart, who can spare a few dollars. It feels right that I should contribute what I have come to know.

The past few years have seen some of the true secrets of magick being revealed, along with the usual trash that follows in its wake. This is how it’s always been. I will leave it for you to judge whether what I write for you is trash or gold.

Consider this question. Do we live in a world of darkness or a world of light? Some might say we live in a murky mix of shadow. I prefer to think that life is pure white light, split by the spectrum of experience. Existence and experience can shield us from the brilliance that is available. But magick is always there. Magick is a way of returning to the brilliance of your life. That’s what I hope to share with you here.

Ben Woodcroft