The beginning of a new year is a powerful time.

It's a time to let go of the year before. To be grateful for what went well, and turn the page on what didn't.

More importantly, it's a time to re-envision the year to come. Not just the goals you will set for yourself, but the person that you will push yourself to become in order to achieve those goals.

There is no better goal to set for yourself than that of mastering your own mind.

No matter who you are, what business you're in, what walk of life you're in, what your responsibilities are, what challenges you face—all can be mastered with a trained mind. This is what magick provides.

Now, many say that magick takes a lifetime to master. And that's certainly true—because like going to the gym, once you learn the basics, you have to keep at it to stay in shape.

But getting fit? Getting into fighting form so that you can rock this year? That's much, much faster.

In fact, I'll wager that you can get farther into mastering yourself and your life with one year of studying magick than with perhaps any other discipline or tool.

Ask yourself: What could you do in a few months of practical magick? Six months? A year?

More importantly, who could you become in one year of consistent magical practice?

Where Can Magick Take You in a Year?

One of my favorite magick books of all time is The One Year Manual by the late, great Israel Regardie.

It's actually not one of his better known books. Regardie is, of course, famous for not only being the secretary of Aleister Crowley at a young age, but for his own tremendous accomplishments as a magician. Regardie later published the grade papers of the Golden Dawn (breaking his oaths!), without which the Golden Dawn—the order from which nearly all modern magick springs—would likely have been completely forgotten. He also trained as a Reichian psychotherapist, and was able to apply his insights from working as a therapist to the development of magical students. He wrote several books, some of which are overly flowerly re-writings of his hero Crowley's work, and some of which are absolutely essential.

The One Year Manual really got my interest as a young student of magick because it cohesively laid out a training regimen that a beginner could follow to make real progress in a year. It contains a lot of the basic old Golden Dawn rituals, and actually makes a lot of use of the Biblical psalms. It's very "old school" as far as magic goes—actually, it kind of fell out of fashion because it so heavily relies on Christian symbolism (along with the Golden Dawn mythology).

When it came time for me to create Magick.Me, however, The One Year Manual made a pretty good guide. I decided to follow Regardie's lead, and create a comprehensive one-year training program. I named my program The Magician's Workshop, and it unifies everything that's taught in Magick.Me into one cohesive curriculum.

This curriculum is designed to take a complete beginner, or somebody with previous knowledge who wants to up their game, and—along with the recorded video courses that come with it—put them through Boot Camp. Spiritual Basic Training. The wizard school you always wanted. And the exercises work.

That's because I've put a lifetime of learning into them. In doing so, I had to assess the entire field of magick, and decide what really mattered.

What Should a Good Basic Magical Training Regimen Include?

Magick is a skill that you practice every day. In that sense, it's like martial arts or going to the gym. You can't just do it once—do one big no-holds-barred ritual—and call yourself a magician. You've got to keep at it, keep honing yourself.

So what really are the basic skills of magick? What really matters? This is a critical question, because there's a lot of information in the occult marketplace. Too much, actually. Not only is it easy to get overwhelmed by all that information, it's also easy to interpret it incorrectly. I see people doing it every day—covering their clothes or their Instagrams with spooky symbols, or loading up on expensive leather-bound limited-edition grimoires, or generally immersing themselves in the fashion and glamour of magick without ever actually getting anything done. Magick isn't like that. It's a way of using what you already have—your will, imagination, perception—your own brain and nervous system—to live a truly unique and wonderful life.

So, what are the core skills that training must cover?

1. Meditation. The ability to still the body, calm the breath, and hone the mind into single-pointed concentration. The benefits are tremendous. First, you get a level of focus that nearly nobody has. Next, you get control of your own nervous system and emotions. Meaning that you can get into really, really high and blissful states, even if you're going through a momentary tough time in life. This is a life skill as important as brushing your teeth, and most never develop it.

2. Astral, Dream and Psychic Work. Meditation makes you highly sensitive to the world around you. Ultimately, it makes you sensitized to the "subtle" levels of existence, which can be experienced through astral, dream and psychic work. Some amount of work on these levels is critical—most importantly, so that they don't become overwhelming. It's easy to get lost in all of this stuff and think it's more important than it actually is.

3. Elemental Work and Balancing. Fire, Air, Water and Earth make up the basic energies of, well, everything—not in a literal sense, but in a metaphorical or even psychological sense. Understanding how to work with these elements, and bring them into balance within one's own nature, is critical not just to spiritual progress but the more technical feats of magick that come later.

4. Understanding and Working With Spirits and God Forms. This is another one that has to be handled carefully, because people can end up taking it all just a bit too seriously. But working with non-human consciousnesses is a critical part of magick, and it has to be done within very set and clear parameters. Learning basic protocol in this arena is absolutely necessary.

5. Working With Symbol Sets. Whether it's divination systems, sigils, talismans or magical languages, the budding magician is working to facilitate a way to contact their own unconscious mind, and furthermore, the "collective unconscious." Adopting and working with a basic symbol set, or creating one from scratch, is key in this endeavor.

There are many other areas which need addressing—keeping a record, good daily practice habits, constructing basic tools, understanding the history and theory of magick, and a lot more. Luckily, The Magician's Workshop covers all of these, and of course, the recorded lectures at Magick.Me cover a vast array of material for the budding magician. I think I've created an absolutely incredible training structure, and hope Regardie and others who followed him would be proud.

Make This the Year of Mastery

Too many people dabble in magick. They learn a few things, read a few books, but they never commit to focused practice. And they miss out on becoming the person that they truly know they are meant to become.

Make this year the year that you commit to owning this Master Key of Life—owning your power, and owning your True Self and True Will.

Life doesn't get any longer. Take control of it now—and make your life a masterpiece—with Magick.Me and The Magician's Workshop training program. Just click the link below to start learning. The Magician's Workshop is included in the package.

See you in class.

– Jason Louv


At Magick.Me, you can learn magick and meditation—anywhere, on your own timeline. Supercharge your life with empowerment, clarity & purpose. Stream in HD to any device. Binge or take bite-sized units one by one. Build your skills. Become who you are.
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