Every now and then I meet someone who claims that they have transcended the need for tools or any link to traditional methods.

Transcending Tools? More like misunderstanding them.

That’s like transcending the need for a car or a plane because you can walk to main street. On the one hand walking is free and healthier and gives you a more detailed look at the terrain. On the other hand a car will get you there faster, and the car and plane will get you places you cannot walk to in reasonable amount of time at all.

In short: its not a question of whether you need tools or not, but what you need them for.

I have a background in Tibetan Tantra which has an interesting relationship with its tools. On the one hand we are talking about some of the most detailed, complex, and painstaking preparations of physical equipment to be found in pretty much any tradition. On the other hand you have many Lamas instructing their students to visualize offerings, use mudras when they don’t have a tool, and in general not obsess over the “stuff”. This is supported by a Mahasiddha tradition where beer jugs (or in Drukpa Kunlegs example , his dick) gets used as Bumpas (Vases).

So what gives? Are tools something to be transcended or should we be using them in everything we do?

The answer lies in exactly WHAT you are trying to do. Doing a daily practice should require little physical equipment. “You should be able to do your practice in prison” Lama Kunga once told me. On the other hand if you are doig a working where you are asking for a physical result, you should have some physical tools making waves. If you are looking for a dream vision of a spirit, a lamp in conjunction with some dream yoga will do the trick, but if you are looking to evoke an entity and have a conversation in your waking state, you should have proper tools to bring it into this reality, at least for initial contact.

In The Sorcerer’s Secrets I gave a short spell to invoke the presence of Bune from the Goetia of Solomon*, that requires nothing more than a seal and a circle. A few people took issue with the lack of equipment given in that book for a full evocation. What they failed to read is that this was not at all meant to be a full evocation. It’s a spell to request aid. You can build upon it for sure but it is not an evocation.

There are levels of manifestation of spirits. There are levels of ceremonial complexity. There are levels of how much “magic” you should toss at any given situation. Going balls to the wall, max-that-you can, is not always the answer.

For instance, going back to Tibetan practice as an example. If we demanded that EVERY Vajrakilaya Sadhana be performed with multiple, freshly made tormas, full tantric costume, and Phurbas made with the three irons**, and so on, daily practice would be impossible. It is better to rely on mudras, visualizations, re-usable Tormas, and such so that you can actually DO the practice daily, which is the main point. If however you are going to USE Vajrakilaya to do an exorcism of a place, or kill liberate someone, a lot more attention to physical supports should be used. Unless your relationship with Kilaya is very advanced because of prior work, then perhaps you need less and can maybe use less tools and ceremony (or in Drukpa Kunlegs example , his dick).

But chances are you are NOT a Mahasiddha or a great Saint of any kind. Over and over when I workshop peoples rituals that are not getting results I see people not taking advantage of tools and materia because they believe that they have somehow transcended the need. In fact, the whole reason that New Page Books contacted me to write my first book was because of a Witchvox Article that I wrote refuting the previous three weeks of posting on that site about how tools don’t matter, and how everything is intent.

Tools DO matter, and should be in accord with what you are trying to do.

Now, what tools you use, and how traditional they must be is another matter that I will take up later this week.

Stay Tuned.

*Yes, I contributed to Bune becoming overpopularized. He was like the damn Katy Perry of Demons for a while…

**Iron from Meteorites, Iron from Earth, Iron from a weapon that has killed someone.