Hello new reader, This is my brand new blog. To tell you a little about me. I’m a Gnostic Magus, pretty much that means I believe all religions come from one source. My own view of Gnosticism is very different from the traditional version. But I’ll talk about that another day.
I believe all Deities and their spirits are real. I am a practitioner of African, European, and some Native American magic. I also study Christian and Jewish Mysticism among the magic and religions I study. I worked for years in the Paranormal trying to help other people. I believed that it was the mission of every magic user to help people in every aspect of life.
Especially in Spiritual Warfare. To say that I was disapointed was an understatement. I learned that most people in the Paranormal were out to get money. Even if it meant faking Para Activity at locations. Sometimes performing experiments on clients to make Activity worse for the sake of documentation.
I learned the Paranormal had an ugly side. A lot of Christians, mostly of Protestant denominations, were fanatical zealots. They enjoyed talking down to Pagans or other faiths in some of these groups. I had a position in a group as an organizer and moderator and I found that I constantly had to tell so called “Para Christians” to stop being nasty to Hindu or Wiccan members. Whenever I did my job, the other moderators (You guessed it, all Christian!) decided to jump on me and tell me I was being sensitive.
One time, I started making Christian jokes to see how long it would take for me to get called out (not even a minute). I was prepared with screen shots of what I was being “sensitive” about and then asked if my jokes were as bad as what they were saying. Every Pagan jumped on that Facebook thread and called out the hypocrisy. After that, those moderators stopped jumping on me while I seemed to be one of the few actually moderating. But I was also marked.
I got called out whenever I stepped out of line and that was it. I was eventually made to leave because I refused to unblock a moderator that was being abusive and speaking ill of me behind my back (the irony was, this guy was a Wiccan). I learned before I left that sadly there are just as many power hungry and greedy magic users as there were Christian zealots. People who claim to be love and light in public, and are hexing other users that they saw as threats in private.
Later I found out that he was messing around with the then, leader of the group. So I said, to Hell with it. Then later I worked with good friends on an amazing blog that is no longer really posting anymore. Again I was the one trying to keep another project alive and working while ignoring my own vision. For a time, I was also part of two different Paranormal Crisis Teams.
A group of Wiccan US Army Veterans formed Covens that were dedicated to Exorcism and Curse Reversals. We tangled some of the nastiest cases you could imagine. Even one with a Haunted Painting that someone had cursed to kill children. There was change in the group structure and a faction from the same group led by another soldier made his own group. He invited me to join and for reasons of my own I did.
But soon I found that it wasn’t for me and I left two weeks later. At the same time, the rest of that new group fell apart. I felt so alone. And so confused. I realized my life was taking me somewhere else.
I began to take apprentices. I taught some very promising new students in different states. I started to go into hermit mode. A group of investigators and I were supposed to get a show on ScyFy about the work that we did. And that hadn’t panned out either.
I suffered from a horrible disease that left me doubled over in pain most days because I couldn’t afford the operation I needed. I looked into the skies one night crying and I said “If you can’t heal me, kill me then,” and I meant it. Suicide had finally become an alternative in my mind now. One day, I was studying magic, for that was one of the only joys I had left at this point and something kept happening. I kept thinking about the Crossroads.
I started looking up my old spell books and I found a pact to do with Papa Legba for knowledge on the Crossroads. That anything you wanted to learn ever, you would do this pact and “things would come for you,” that they would teach you things. If you want to learn Hoodoo? They’ll teach you Hoodoo. You want to learn some other kind of magic? It’s yours. I just needed a specific item and I had to leave it in the Crossroads at Midnight on a Wednesday. So I did as I was told.
I expected it to be like the movies where you see creatures so lucidly that they become physical. I expected it to happen right away. I was disapointed but decided on patience. After almost month I started realizing that I had learned new things. I had no idea where I had learned this magic from.
It wasn’t in any of my books. I hadn’t learned it from my mentors nor did I learn it from podcasts or online articles. I just knew. I finally realized I was being trained in my dreams. But I couldn’t remember my dreams and had no idea how long I was being trained and by who.
I knew though, that “they” for I knew it was a They, had the power to answer my questions in real time. That they could actually manipulate the world around me to give me my answers. Whatever they were. Sometimes I would get a random phone call from someone with my answer. Other times, my human masters would check up on me and advise me.
And sometimes it would be the Cosmic Masters themselves as I learned they were called. I started doing research and found that in the Spiritualist movement there were people who believed that there were transdimensional entities. And that these entities could speak to a Medium and teach them things. Doreen Virtue claimed she was a Cosmic Medium and that she could channel these creatures. I don’t claim to somehow be possessed by these entities.
Or that I am the chosen one who will reset the Matrix! Pazzah! No, I’m just a regular Magus. But I had learned to develope psychic gifts I didn’t have before. I learned things from many cultures that only later I would discover were in books or taught by people in other traditions. Like I said, I view it all from the perspective that it’s all the same common knowledge. So I use many methods in my work. The Masters also sent me human mentors to aid me in my work.
And my disease was slowly being weakened. I still suffer from it, but not as bad as I once did. I began to treat people in my Community for Paranormal issues once again. I started connecting with people of communities like the Vodunsi and the Vodunon of West African Vodoun. The Hellenic communities of Greek Pagans, Native American Shamans, Powwowers and Yarb Doctors from Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Mountains, and even the Witches of the West Country in England.
I also like to study with Celtic practitioners of the old Faerie religion. Both from this country, Canada, and the UK. It has been quite a journey. A journey I never would have thought I would ever have had so many amazing experiences. The final piece of the puzzle came when I visited a Hindu Guru’s house here in Miami.
Her home had many disciples everywhere. I met a Cuban Criolla (Creole) woman who was dedicated to not just Hinduism but also Buddhism. Specifically, to Kuan Yin. I felt an instant repport with this woman. I ended up telling her most of what I have already written here. She then went on to tell me something similar about her.
The Gods eventually told her that she needed to leave the city for a while and go to the mountains. She said,” but how will I help anyone?” Kuan Yin herself told her that she needed time to herself and that the Gods would send her people that needed her new set of skills. When she asked what skills she was talking about? The conversation abruptly ended. So, she spent years living the life of a literal Hermit and became powerful from the knowledge she had learned during her years of introspection. She told me that from what I had told her, I was also being put in a similar situation.
A rebirth she called it. And so I finally realized why nothing that I tried before was working. I wanted all the wrong things and wasn’t appreciating what was being offered to me. I no longer had clients from other states or countries, but I had enough here. People who seriously needed help.
They taught me the value of being paid for my work. Not all of them paid with money, some paid with groceries, my electric bill, and even the occasional movie ticket. But they refused to allow me to help if I didn’t take something. They said it wasn’t right for a Pueblo’s Brujo (village or town sorcerer) to be helping people without a reward. So, I started charging.
And behold my life became more satisfying. I now have the ability to pay my bills and gasps* not starve! I had secular jobs including cleaning places and washing dishes. But thanks to the economy going under, more and more millennials like me were being fired instead of hired. I even had to drop out of college because I could not longer afford it. We were told to return to college to get degrees that would help us get work. Yeah didn’t happen.
I even went to a trade school but my instructor died, and the school decided to only have teenage students. They effectively terminated the adult student program. So I was without work and without school either despite all the advise the older generation was giving about picking up a trade instead of a degree and blah, blah, blah. Of course they were right about one thing : degrees are worthless. After doing my daily Road Opener rituals with Elegua, the Yoruba Orisha (Deity) of the Crossroads he asked “Why don’t you just make your own blog? Expand your magical business,”
And that’s what I did. I had believed that my business in magic was only temporary. But, as my Madrina (Godmother) in Santeria had already told me, from the very beginning, “Your true career is in magic. Stop wasting your time with these other endeavors,”. So here I am.
Trying to do my business and to help where I can. I’d like to give a shout out to T.P. Ward who was one of the many who believed in me and helped me on my spiritual path. So, I hope to get to know all of you and to help you all on your path, whatever that may be.
Adventures of A Mage In Miami 