Noted sorcerer Jason Miller aka Inominandum has just started a new series of magical instruction at his Strategic Sorcery blog. Full disclosure – Jason does also give classes and do work for which there is a charge. BUT this blog series is free. The first installment begins:

Whole Magic Part 1: Mind vs Materia

Whole Magic: Dynamic Tension between Sorcerous Extremes

It seems like I am always telling people reject extremes and find harmony between seemingly conflicting mind-sets. To explore this further I am kicking off a new Blog Series that examines two seemingly opposing factors in magic and how they both need to be kept to make a whole practice. Stuff like: research vs revelation/innovation, LHP vs RHP, inner focus vs outer action, reliance on spirits vs reliance on self, transcendence vs immanence, creation vs consumption, etc.

Lets kick it off with….

Mind vs Materia

In both the Hekate training course, and the Black School, I run into people who have had such a strong emphasis on either mind or materia, that they have difficulty incorporating the other, or even treating it as “real magic”.

Now, just to be clear lets define terms for this post…

MIND: By mind, I am talking concentration, visualization, and the direction of what most would call “energy” (or chi, prana, lung, ruach, light, fluid, magnetism, whatever not-quite-right-but-good-enough term you like). In short anything that does not involve something that is audible or visible to someone standing next to you.

MATERIA: Here I am not just talking about herbs, bones, candles, oils and items in your botanica shopping cart, but also spoken words and occasionally ritual gestures. In short I am talking about the manipulation of stuff that is visible or audible to someone else in the room.

http://www.strategicsorcery.net/whole-magic-part-1-mind-vs-materia/.