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Grounding versus Adjustment

Puella Magi Madoka Magia Side Story: Magia Record introduces the idea of Adjustment: a procedure performed by a Coordinator or Adjuster that can be done to ‘enhance’ a magical girl’s Soul Gem. This enhancement can come in the form of removing impurities or unlocking further magical potential. Adjustment is also necessary when a magical hero uses their Doppel to avoid succumbing to despair.

Adjustment, as it is portrayed in Puella Magi Madoka Magia Side Story: Magia Record, is not a replacement for professional and personal therapeutic practices or experienced Shadow Work. I would strongly advise any magical hero to have a strong foundation in grounding and shielding practices before engaging in any serious work. If you’d like, imagine that your therapist, social worker, or other professional therapeutic practitioner is your Coordinator—they are there to provide you as a magical hero an essential service.

Grounding, on the other hand, is something any magical hero can do and is a foundational technique for any practicing magician. To put it simply, grounding is a way of eliminating excess energy and tempering high emotions that you may have stored up during a ritual or a working. If you have practiced centering as an energy technique, the fundamentals of grounding are simple: remember how you learned to manipulate energy when you learned to center? That's what you'll do to ground, only instead of drawing that energy inside you, you'll push it out—whether that is into the void, into an object, or to be carried off by the elements. Strong visualizations certainly help with grounding but also try something physical or tangible to strengthen its effects; try using your hands or your feet to push out that extra energy and feel it drain into the earth. You can also engage other senses in your grounding like by using cleansing herbs as an incense or spray, or by eating a comforting and antioxidant rich food like dark chocolate.

I often shield as well as part of my grounding practice. This helps protect my magical and physical body that may have become raw from high energy and emotions. Shielding is a way of protecting yourself from psychic, mental, or magical attack by creating an energy barrier around yourself that others cannot penetrate. When shielding, I do not completely close myself out from the world and others around me—I’m simply fortifying my defenses while I am recuperating.

This is my first post in a series of Magi Praxis writings I have planned. If you have any suggestions for future topics, please send me a message! I am always happy to go back and provide further explanation as well. ☆

Time Magic and Enchantment

Many people wish that they can turn back time, whether that is to change the past or to relive a certain event. While time travel is not possible in the mundane world, I find time magic to be a potent ingredient in enchantment and manifestation.

Time magic is just as it sounds: the power to manipulate and control time. When done successfully, you can enchant situations retroactively or usher in a desired outcome. I often add an element of time in my spellwork, even when I am working on influencing the present.

When wanting to perform a retroactive action or enchantment, I refer to powers of Yuna D. Kaito and Sakura Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card. I personally prefer these approaches and techniques over those of Homura Akemi of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, for example, mainly because Homura’s time manipulation lacks substance when trying to glean anything usable for spellcraft; in Cardcaptor Sakura, however, we have several magical tools (namely Sakura’s cards and Kaito’s pocket watch), incantations, and even a depiction of an alternate dimension the magic user can work in where they remain unaffected by the passage and rewinding of time.

When working to manifest something yet to pass, I find Sakura’s approach most fruitful. In 2022, I created a personal divination deck inspired by Sakura’s cards throughout her journey using a meta-paradigm my partner has been developing. While each Clow, Sakura, and Clear Card is not fully represented in my deck, many of the cards contain multitudes. Besides divination, I often utilize the cards individually as entities, involving them in my spellcraft and summoning them for particular actions. My ‘Time’ card also contains elements of ‘Rewind’. I often pair this card with another to emphasize and further enchant what I want to manifest. (For example, I have paired ‘Flower’ with ‘Time’ for opportunity to blossom.) To drive the magic home, I operate as if my desired outcome is already done—that my present is the future I have successfully influenced.

This post is part of my Magi Praxis series. If you have any suggestions for future topics, please send me a message! I am always happy to go back and provide further explanation as well. ☆

Contacting an Incubator

It feels like most of the magical heroes, or aspiring magical heroes, in my orbit are working within the paradigm of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and I’ve seen many requests across platforms for tips regarding contacting Kyubey or another Incubator.

For the uninitiated, an Incubator is a ‘messenger of magic’; they grant a wish in exchange for service as a magical hero. In Puella Magi Madoka Magic and related works, those who form a contract with an Incubator must defeat witches—corrupted entities that feed upon the hopes and dreams of the masses.

Note: While this agreement may seem fair to some and the Incubator may seem enthusiastic to help by any means necessary, Incubators are known for their calculating ways and almost trickster-like mentality. Incubators cannot exhibit emotions of any kind and as a result Incubators often seem cold and uncaring. However, Incubators seek to achieve only one main goal; to preserve the universe from total entropy. To ensure this, they employ all logical and efficient means to create magical heroes.

You may want to try contact an Incubator if you want to initiate your magical hero journey or if you want clarity or direction regarding this kind of work. I’ve seen evidence of folks using a variety of methods in order to contact an Incubator, namely through evocation, divination, and invocation/channeling techniques. If you are a solo practitioner looking for this communication, I would definitely recommend the routes of evocation and divination. Here is how I would go about contacting an Incubator:

Prepare a dimly lit space with a mirror, and/or perhaps a candle, where you can work with minimal distractions. Banish as you would normally and prepare to meditate.

Position yourself comfortably in front of the mirror or candle. If you have both, try to place the candle beneath the reflection of your face or off to the side—just try to not obstruct the view of your reflection.

Relax your body and begin meditating with your eyes closed. Try to not focus on anything in particular and steady your breathing into regular intervals.

When you are satisfied with your breathing, open your eyes and stare into your reflection with a soft gaze (as in, you do not have to fight to keep your eyes wide open). Try to keep your eyes open for as long as possible before blinking and repeating, all the while keeping your breathing regular.

After a bit, you may notice your reflection changing or distorting, or you may start seeing things on the periphery of your vision. This is when, I believe, an Incubator may approach you—either by appearing behind or beside you visibly in the mirror or by altering your reflection entirely. This is when you can initiate telepathic conversation. Try to keep your breathing regular throughout this experience.

At this point, you can continue communicating telepathically or introduce a divinatory tool. If you want to use a form of divination, I recommend something simple like using a pendulum or automatic writing—something that is not too complex or requires a lot of effort as to not distract you from your breathing or could potentially break your connection.

When you are satisfied, or the Incubator leaves, close your eyes and ease out of state. Snuff any lit candles and banish to clear the space.

This post is part of my Magi Praxis series. If you have any suggestions for future topics, or you have attempted anything I have shared and want you share your experiences, please send me a message! I am always happy to go back and provide further explanation as well. ☆

A Land of Will

Cephiro is the primary setting of Magic Knight Rayearth. It is, as the second season of the anime reveals, a planet located somewhere in the depths of space.

Cephiro is a world separate from Earth and, according to the manga, was created by Mokona after witnessing the devastation and war on Earth. Cephiro can turn almost any person's wishes and desires, even subconscious ones, into reality, hence why it is also referred to as "The Land of the Will". By pure Volition alone, one can create illusions, forge magical weapons, summon beasts, and even manipulate the landscape and weather. Because of this, Cephiro is an ideal location for any magical hero to hone their astral abilities.

While the Magic Knights were originally summoned to Cephiro by an outside force, they could eventually travel there and back to Earth by their own power and you can as well! Once you have prepared your physical and aetheric body for astral work, envision yourself being engulfed and sucked in by a blinding white light. As the light fades, let the landscape of Cephiro come into view as you free fall from the sky: feel the warm sun and cool air on your skin and as you pass through the clouds, notice the vast sea disappearing over the horizon; the floating crystalline mountains; and the forests and volcanoes dotting the main islands. Pick a place to land and direct your aetheric body towards it—maybe summon a flying beast or vehicle to help you to your desired location.

When you land, your possibilities are endless! While the landscape of Cephiro is constantly being shaped by the Volition of its inhabitants, take note of the landmarks around the main islands that have stood the test of time.

If you want to forge magical weapons or tools, head for the Spring of Eterna nestled in the Forest of Silence where the legendary ore Escudo can be found. When viewing the spring from the side, it just looks like a glowing blue line extending horizontally over the ground but from above, one can see its calm waters. When you plunge into the spring, you will end up in a dark pit in which you must face illusions of your deepest fears before obtaining your Escudo. The Forest of Silence itself provides its own set of challenges, particularly that one cannot use magic there. Your troubles will be worthwhile, however, because with Escudo you can create evolving weapons that react to your desires.

Of course, you can just choose to explore the land and practice your aetheric and magical abilities to your heart’s content!

This post is part of my Magi Praxis series. If you have any suggestions for future topics, or you have attempted anything I have shared and want you share your experiences, please send me a message! I am always happy to go back and provide further explanation as well. ☆

What is a Witch’s Kiss?

In Puella Magi Madoka Magica and related works, a Witch's Kiss is a marking, the personal symbol or calling card of a Witch, used by a Witch and its Familiars (or Minions) to control the minds of humans and to mark their Labyrinth. These markings can be used to exacerbate pre-existing negative emotions and thoughts, change personalities, make people commit crimes or self-harm, or lure them into a Labyrinth to be consumed by the Witch inside. Some of these actions may not necessarily lead humans to being consumed: some Witches may merely desire to spread evil and misfortune regardless if they get sustenance. Furthermore, a ‘kissed’ human may not always die from it. Familiars can also kiss humans well outside of the Labyrinth they hail from in order to bring them to their Witch.

Note: In the magical hero community, I’ve heard these markings referred to as ‘sigils’ as well, but I hesitate to use that terminology for this case because I think it can cause unnecessary confusion for practitioners who regularly use sigils in their own magia. I can acknowledge that a Witch utilizes their Kiss as a sigil for their own gain, however.

If a puella magi or other magical hero is in possession of a Witch’s Kiss, it generally means that they came across it somehow in their day-to-day or astral travels and took note of its components for later exploration into the corresponding Labyrinth. The Kiss can contain visual elements that reveal attributes of the Witch including her appearance, nature, or even aspects of her Labyrinth or Familiars; this information is extremely helpful for any magical hero who is preparing to engage in magical combat with a Witch. The Kiss itself can also be used as a portal into its owner’s Labyrinth.

As a chaos magick practitioner as well, I assert that one can also reverse engineer a Witch’s Kiss for their own spellcraft. Is there something that you want to combat magically? Sigilize components of whatever you want vanquish and create a Kiss. This, in turn, can help conceptualize the trouble you are facing into a Witch and thus easier to focus energy towards defeating.

If you need a template for understanding or documenting a Witch, whether found or created, I recommend this format that was used for many of the Witch Cards that were displayed on the original Japanese website for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime:

[NAME], the [DESCRIPTOR, NOUN] Witch with a [DESCRIPTOR, ADJECTIVE] nature. The Witch is mainly colored [COLOR], is [DESCRIPTOR, SIZE], and resembles a/n [NOUN]. This Witch is [DESCRIPTOR, STRENGTH] and her weapon is [NOUN]. Her Labyrinth resembles [NOUN/DESCRIPTION] and her Familiars are named [NAME].

You can also add any additional information that helps you further visualize the Witch and its influence.

This post is part of my Magi Praxis series. If you have any suggestions for future topics, or you have attempted anything I have shared and want you share your experiences, please send me a message! I am always happy to go back and provide further explanation as well. ☆

Engaging the Doppel as Shadow Work

The work I am presenting here is not a replacement for therapeutic practices administered or recommended by a professional. If you do not have any previous experience with Shadow Work, I urge you to have a conversation with a professional, such as a therapist, or a trusted and seasoned practitioner and decide whether or not it would be most beneficial to do this work on your own. I would also strongly advise any magical hero to have a strong foundation in grounding and shielding practices before engaging in any Shadow Work.

In the mobile game Puella Magi Madoka Magia Side Story: Magia Record we are introduced to the concept of the Doppel. According to the official Magia Record website, "Magical Girls in Kamihama City can summon a power known as a Doppel. Only awakened Magical Girls have this ability, which allows them to invoke a portion of the Witch power in their Soul Gem when it becomes fully tainted."

In the Puella Magi Madoka Magia universe, a magical girl typically becomes a Witch when their Soul Gem turns completely black from developing too many impurities. When they use their magic, experience strong negative emotions, or sustain physical injuries, the magical girl’s Soul Gem gathers impurities and becomes progressively darker. Generally, the way to rid a Soul Gem of its darkness is to extract it with a Grief Seed or Grief Cube but inside of Kamihama City, however, the ‘Doppel’ power can be invoked instead.

If a Doppel is summoned, a subconscious confrontation occurs between the magical girl and their Witch self, in which the Witch attempts to convince the girl to give in to their inner darkness and relinquish control. Usually, the Doppel user will reject their inner darkness and the Doppel will be semi-autonomous; but by fully accepting their flaws and achieving a catharsis, a fusion referred to as a Doppel Version can be achieved in which the user is fully in control of their Doppel powers.

Doppels are extremely powerful, making them useful in battle, but come at high risk to its user. This transformation is only possible because of the trauma a magical girl is forced to endure, whether as a consequence of their wish to an Incubator or by merely existing. Most of the time, we need to suppress our traumas and anxieties just to get through the day but the Doppel System is a stark reminder that we can become over-encumbered at any moment. (Not to mention that in its semi-autonomous state, the Doppel will thrash about and attack without abandon, potentially causing serious harm to its magical girl and those around them.)

So, as magicians and magical heroes, how can we utilize the Doppel System in a healthy and constructive way? How can we harness the power of meeting our inner darkness and bringing it out for good? The most obvious, and arguably most difficult, method I can think of is engaging in Shadow Work.

The goal of Shadow Work is to bring suppressed personality parts back into our consciousness and learn to accept and even love them. This is easier said than done, as Shadow Work forces us to confront parts of ourselves that we rather not know about and then actually take responsibility for that which we judge in ourselves and others. Like the Doppel System, Shadow Work asserts that the solution lies not in the permanent avoidance of our darkened soul parts, but in their full acceptance and approval.

Shadow Work a process of acknowledging the ‘ugly’ parts of ourselves and learning to love them despite our judgements or fear of them. Our shadow parts can look like many things in our conscious lives including:

Jealousy

Addiction

Depression

Anxiety

Codependency

Self-sabotage

Excuses

Lies

Procrastination

Resentment

Passive-aggressiveness

Bitterness

Aggression or Anger

Violence

Victimization 

Guilt and shame

Lack of confidence

Issues establishing or maintaining boundaries

Shadow Work is also trauma work; many shadows are created as a result of developmental or attachment trauma when we were children and didn’t have the resources to deal with our emotions fully and so are stored in our bodies and in the stories we tell ourselves. Your shadow can control your life and will keep presenting you with uncomfortable opportunities to integrate it, as Witches and the Doppel System threaten to do.

As our shadows form and present themselves in different ways, there is no set approach for dealing with them. Shadow Work can be practiced by:

Self-observation and mindfulness Practice being present and conscious of your reactions. Identify your triggers; when your reaction to an event or someone’s behavior is out of proportion it is usually rooted in your past and in your shadow.

Practicing emotional inquiry Develop a sense of curiosity for your inner emotional world and view your emotions as information.

Journalling Start with a prompt that forces you to identify parts of your shadow or go with a stream of consciousness.

Analyzing your favorite stories Make a list of your favorite media and jot down their rough storyline. Think about the characteristics of your heroes and how they might relate to you, your unfulfilled potential, or secret desires. This is an intuitive way to explore your shadows by looking for symbols and archetypes in the stories you resonate with most.

Sitting with your shadow in meditation Learn to sit with yourself in silence. Just being able to be with yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings is a powerful way to get in touch with your shadow parts and sit with your emotions.

Inner-child work Since most of our shadows are created during childhood development, there is a lot of potential here for healing and integration. There are many guided meditations out there that can help get you started on this particular journey.

Seeking therapy and/or coaching

By working in these ways, we can essentially tap into the Doppel System and achieve untapped magical potential by integrating and purifying our shadows.

This post is part of my Magi Praxis series. If you have any suggestions for future topics, or you have attempted anything I have shared and want you share your experiences, please send me a message! I am always happy to go back and provide further explanation as well. ☆

Chaos magick and witchcraft can be distinct practices.

Traditional witchcraft has an established canon (or canons, if you factor in different folk traditions) and some practitioners of witchcraft are followers of Wicca, a religion.

While some chaotes fall victim to the trappings of dogma, whether that is through the exploration of certain paradigms or through literature penned by other chaotes, chaos magick is fundamentally non-dogmatic in that it emphasizes the importance of paradigm shifting.

Chaos magick is concerned purely in the essence of magia through technique. Chaotes can, and often do, implement tools and methodology of witchcraft or other paradigms to further our understanding of magia. While practitioners should be sympathetic to closed traditions and wary of insensitive appropriation, there is no ultimate truth and thus we are free to explore and experiment.

Eclectic witchcraft and chaos magick both embrace a variety of methods, but chaos magick can be dynamically dogmatic: chaotes can use belief as a tool and the dogma shifts with the paradigm. A while an eclectic practice may be syncretic, an amalgam of a bunch of practices without a common theory, chaos magick, and particularly paradigm shifting gives us a way use a variety of practices while keeping each distinct.

Furthermore, I would say that a practitioner of pop culture witchcraft is different from a chaote using pop culture magics. Someone who has a pop culture witchcraft practice probably uses a syncretic system to operate while a chaote could not.

Edited for clarity. Thank you to @niaskotl for the notes!

My most earnest piece of advice for all magical heroes and practitioners in general will always be to remain critical of those who take up a title of ‘leader’ or ‘mentor’ in magical spaces.

While I find it so important in life and in magic to be soft and trusting, too many times has that kindness been seen as weakness to those who tout a position of power (whether that position is of an elder or teacher, by someone who claims ownership of a movement or idea, or is bureaucratically instated).

Respect should be something that is inherent in all directions, not something that needs to be earned. Never feel like you are less worthy to practice or take up space in a community because you do not have the same knowledge or tools at your disposal. If you are ever made to feel that way, or if you suspect others are being made to feel that way, the best thing you can do is distance yourself from it and perhaps start something new.

However, too often I’ve seen an earnest project turn into a cult of personality and I caution anyone who feels the need to start an intentional community, magical or otherwise, without the proper emotional maturity and experience with working with a diverse group of individuals.

If you’re new to visualization and astral projection, are having some difficulties with it, or even if you’re a veteran looking for resources, I highly recommend The Mentalist's Handbook: An Explorer's Guide to Astral, Spirit, and Psychic Worlds by Clint Marsh with illustrations by Jeff Hoke.

It was one of the first occult texts I picked up that I found refreshingly succinct and accessible. One of my biggest pet peeves is when occult authors describe tools or techniques but fail to explain the mechanics or don’t even attempt to offer any insight; Marsh not only details an approachable practice regimen but Hoke’s illustrations offer a bit of whimsy and inspiration for your own visualizations. Not to mention, the publication itself is just beautifully printed! Of course it is also available online in many formats but I definitely do not regret having a copy in my personal library!

Are there other topics you’re looking for more information on or are interested in other recommendations? Feel free to send me a message and I can try to point you in the right direction! ☆