Thoroughly Modern Magick
by Jeffrey Pierce

Long ago, our spiritual ancestors used to stitch together a specific type of doll called a poppet. The poppet represented a specific person and was used to symbolize and act as a focus for that person in spells and sacred rites. Our spiritual ancestors made use of the resources they had available immediately at hand and the poppet could be crafted from a wide range of materials including cloth, paper, roots, wax, stalks of grain, or other objects that were a ready part of the practitioner's world.

Part of this crafting was purely practical. Our spiritual ancestors used the materials of their immediate world in their crafting. Its why we still rely on things like brooms and bowls in our ritual workings. What's more is that by crafting the poppet out of the materials of everyday life, they built a strong symbolic connection between the doll and the target's actual world.

Fast forward a few centuries to our modern world.

Every year at Winter Solstice, I begin considering the resolutions that I am making for the new solar year. I contemplate the implications that each resolution holds and try them on for size between Winter Solstice and First Spring (our family's name for the Sabbat occurring in early February and commonly known as Imbolc.) This year I decided to try something a little different. I made a poppet to represent myself and began to work it symbolically through the themes that I wish to bring to life in my own life. However, since I'm not typically surrounded by herbs, roots, and grain, I crafted a poppet out of a completely modern material.

Enter the pixel.

My poppet was crafted on my xbox via one of my favorite downtime video games. I made the poppet look as close to myself as I could, dressing it in clothes like those I typically wear. Out of the thousands of possibilities, a close representation of myself slowly came to life in a symbolic world. As I put the poppet through his paces, his successes represented the success I'm reaching for in the solar year before me. Various aspects of his persona reflect aspects that I'm developing or rediscovering within myself. When I had finally solidified what I wanted to represent in my poppet, I moved it to a symbolic setting and captured it in the photo below.

Virtual Jeffrey having achieved all of his New Solar Year's Resolutions

There are nine different New Solar Year's Resolutions reflected in this screen capture. Having already brought the transformation to life in a symbolic manner, it will be that much easier to manifest those resolutions in my own life.

Key to Jeffrey's New Solar Year's Resolutions

Here's the key to my New Solar Year's Resolutions:

1. The Map. It represents the resolution to take off and go on at least one long-distance photo expedition this year.
   
   
2. Land. It represents the resolution to purchase land this year and begin taking the next steps on our path and reaching out to Tribe.
   
   
3. The Vehicle. It represents my writing career. I published three novels last year (Escaping Destiny, The Awakening, and Remembering Tomorrow) that moved spectacularly well (at last count we exceeded our goals by over 15,000 copies). This year I have three additional novels scheduled to publish (Lost Within (March), and A Tide of Shadows (July), and Night (November) as well as a non-fiction title (How to Save the World). My resolution is to be financially successful in my writing to the point that I can justify buying an old Toyota Landcruiser to access additional shamanic sites, video locations for Old Ways, and photographic opportunities. Why an old Toyota Landcruiser? Because it's shown up in dreams I've had of long distance journeys for much of my life.
   
   
4. Sledgehammer. It represents a very specific aspect of my spiritual path - my own warrior nature and the connection with my Norse ancestors. My resolution is to embrace and celebrate this synthesis in my own spiritual practice, my relationships, and in my approach to my physical body.
   
   
5. My Persona. While you can't see it in the picture, the persona that I chose speaks Spanish - something I am resolved to learn this solar year.
   
   
6. The Body. Underneath the clothes, my poppet is ripped. I chose a form that is as close to what I look like in peak physical condition. My resolution is to reach the point that my poppet is jealous of my body and wishes he looked as good as I do. It's not an ego thing - my energy flows better and I'm able to do things and access wild, rugged places that I can't when I'm not in shape.
   
   
7. The Tree. The trees represent my traditional shamanic path, something that I am resolved to move deeper into and begin teaching this solar year.
   
   
8. The Ocean. One of my resolutions is to return and backpack Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary while creating a new video for Old Ways.
   
   
9. The Picture. While it's not numbered, the picture itself represents my photography - which I will be doing more with this year. Rather than saying, "I want to do x with my photography," I'm simply willing to step through the doors that Spirit opens on my path and do my best to embrace what is found there.

Our spiritual ancestors didn't attempt to reconstruct the practices of earlier peoples, but modified their approach to magick so that it was current and meaningful to them. While I often embrace older traditions in my own practice, I also fearlessly experiment with new concepts, like crafting a poppet out of pixels. What's important to me isn't the specifics that a rite follows, but the symbolism and energy it contains. The more we can symbolically mirror a ritual with an outcome, the stronger the magick will be. But to create the flow of energy necessary for magick, we must also be able to connect to the energy behind the ritual. Crafting a poppet that reflects the goals I wish to achieve and leading that representation of myself to a place of overwhelming success, lays the energetic groundwork for me to do the same in my non-pixilated world.

Thoughts? Comments? You can contact us at connect@oldways.com or interact with Jeffrey, Briana, and the Old Ways community on our Facebook page.

Originally published in Old Ways on January 17, 2011 edited and republished on December 31, 2011. And for those keeping track at home, I'm working with the same list as last year. Only #9 is new. I made progress on all of the, but intend to see them through this year.