Space/Time Magic Space/Time Magic Taylor Ellwood Stafford, England Space/Time Magic By Taylor Ellwood © 2010 All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. The right of Taylor Ellwood to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988. http://www.magicalexperiments.com Cover: Todd Heilmann Cover Design: Andy Bigwood Layout: Taylor Ellwood Editor: Lupa Set in Book Antiqua and Poor Richard Second edition by Immanion Press, 2010 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 A Megalithica Book Edition http://www.immanion-press.com ISBN 978-1-905713-27-1 Also by Taylor Ellwood Creating Magickal Entities (with David Michael Cunningham and Amanda R. Wagner) Pop Culture Magick (also available through Immanion Press) Inner Alchemy Multi-Media Magic Kink-Magic (With Lupa) The Ethics of Magic (With Vince Stevens Forthcoming) Neuro-Space Time Magic (Forthcoming) Liber Praxis (With Bill Whitcomb Forthcoming) Dedication I dedicate this book to Elephant, Purson, Thiede, and the Spider Goddess of Time. Acknowledgements Lupa has generously given of her limited time to edit this revised version and her edits have helped make it a better book, Storm Constantine for publishing this second edition, and Andy Bigwood for modernizing the cover. I also really appreciate Todd Heilmann's cover art, which really evokes the theme of this book. Thanks to Bill Whitcomb for companionship, long talks on all things esoteric, and being a stand-up best friend, John Coughlin for the original Introduction, and Michael Skrtic for the new introduction, and also to the Friday group for continuing to meet and talk and experiment with magic. Table of Contents Foreword 8 Introduction to the First Edition by John Coughlin 9 Introduction to the Second Edition by Michael Skrtic 15 Chapter One: What is Space/Time Magic? 17 Chapter Two: Space/Time Divination 24 Chapter Three: Retroactive Magic and Perception 39 Chapter Four: Sigil Work 50 Chapter Five: The Magic of Writing 59 Chapter Six: Space/Time Magic and Art 71 Chapter Seven: Space/Time Magic and Music 76 Chapter Eight: Space/Time Magic and Science 82 Chapter Nine: Invocation, Evocation, and Meditation 93 Chapter Ten: Magic and Technology 103 Epilogue 111 Appendix A: A Space/Time Death-Rebirth Ritual 113 Appendix B: The Importance of Magic Manifesting in its own time 119 Appendix C: Space/Time Entity Work 122 Appendix D: Several Pop Culture Approaches 123 Appendix E: Powerspots and Time Bubbles 128 Appendix F: Space/Time Magic: Time Management 133 Appendix G: Daydreaming the Future 135 Bibliography 139 Foreword I have a confession to make. I never really liked the first edition of this book. Oh I loved the writing and ideas, but I hated that I had to use a citation system I didn't like and the layout overall could've been better. So when Storm mentioned to me that Space/Time Magic was the only book in the Immanion Press line not moved over to the Megalithica Imprint (our Non-Fic line) and could I please do that, I asked her if I could revise the book. She said yes and the result is that I get complete control over the layout and design as well as an opportunity to revise the writing, which while good, definitely could be improved on. So what will you get with this revised edition? Mainly what you'll get is a clarification on some of my original ideas, and some revision of the concepts and practices I wrote about, when I first put this book together. I'm currently in the process of writing Neuro- Space Time Magic, a sequel of sorts to this book. In fact, it's rather convenient that I get the opportunity to revise this book, so I can revisit my older theories and practices around space/time magic as I finalize the research for the new book. You'll also get citations in APA format (which is what they should've been originally). As an interesting side note, I got the edited version of this book back, on the day I switched over to the element of Time. Coincidence or synchronicity, it highlighted to me how I needed to not only focus on the future of space/time magic, but also go back to the past and revisit where I've been. I'm really excited to go back and revisit this work. It's my favorite book that I wrote to this day (and seems to be the favorite of the people who buy my books). So I hope you enjoy this revised edition, and also look forward to its sequel. Happy Birthday to me, Taylor Ellwood Portland, Oregon October 21, 2009 Introduction to the First Edition We stand at the threshold of a new generation of magic, rooted not in the formal setting of old school ritual magic, a la the great lodges, but fed by the first generation of popular chaotes such as Carroll and Hine. The seeds that those pioneers planted are now blooming through the works of authors such as Taylor Ellwood. Times have changed, and the world of the modern day magician is very different from that of the forefathers of traditional western ritual magic. Like every generation, we seek new models and new vocabulary to bridge the gap between this ideal of magic with our ever-developing grasp of reality. Perhaps one hundred years from now new generations will smirk at these new models, just as we smirk at some of the antiquated ideas of earlier magicians. The problem that most face with models is that we tend to take them so damn seriously. A model is not the final answer – it is a stepping stone. A model is not the reality, but a representation of a perceived reality. It serves a purpose, but has its limitations. Consider the Bohr‘s model of the atom we learned in high school chemistry (they still teach that, right?). Before the advent of wave theories and modern quantum mechanics, it seemed to have all the answers, and was a huge step above the classical models, opening the door to a whole new level of science. However, once our scope began to go beyond the atomic level into the subatomic, that model, as well as our perception of the makeup of physical reality, began to unravel. Yet the model still has practical applications, so long as you use it within the scope of its limitations. Our perception of reality itself is but a model, based on our subjective experiences of it (and what we have been told). We think we have all the answers, until some odd synchronicity makes us wonder just what is really happening ―out there‖ beyond the scope of our very limited physical senses. It would seem the reality we know is not as solid as we like to think. What is low magic but the attempt to understand those unknown forces that influence the objective universe so that we can harness them to our benefit? The distinction between the subjective universe (how we perceive it) and the objective universe (that which is independent of our perceptions) is a fuzzy one at best. Both in science and in magic each appears to influence the other. The observer and the observed interact in some unknown cosmic dance that transcends mere time and space. Probably the most frightening thing about magic, which every magician ultimately must face, is that it really does work and we haven‘t a Taylor Ellwood clue why. Oh, we have our theories – our models – but they are only useful until an exception is found, at which point our models either expand and adapt, or we try to explain the exception away, lest our models crumble before our eyes. We experiment and observe, and glimpses of these unknown mechanics are expressed through occult symbolism and jargon. But sometimes we trade one self-limiting model for another. Does it really matter, for instance, if I do a love spell on a certain hour of a certain day during a certain phase of the moon? For some it does. Their models do not adapt, and they work only so long as one does not ask too many questions. A magician must not only question reality, but also question his or her own perceptions of it. Our beliefs are more conditioning than we may care to accept. Much of what we believe to be ―true‖ rests purely on the fact that we were told so. Our perceptions reflect the biases of the society and culture in which we were raised. This becomes more apparent when we begin to look at other cultures. Consider gender roles; in some countries it is not uncommon to see men weep openly at funerals. Being raised in a society where men are discouraged to show such ―weakness,‖ despite knowing on an intellectual level that such expressions of emotion are psychologically healthy, chances are most of the male readers here go out of their way to hide their tears. Consider also how little we know of the effects our own unconscious influences. We like to think of ourselves as being composed of an individual Self, yet as we meditate we find contradictory thoughts and feelings welling up from the depths of the mind. Many of the voices in our heads seem to have a life of their own. Those who have explored the realm of individuation and shadow work of Jungian psychology know only too well how insidious projection can be in influencing our perceptions.