Magical Combat

              Most magi at some point in their careers are forced to participate in magical conflicts. These conflicts can occur for a multitude of reasons and be fought on many different levels. The author has previously published a text on the planning, adaptation, and execution of such conflicts in a separate work, titled The Occult Art of War. However, this chapter will go into detail about the tactics and methods of participating in these conflicts. While magical violence is a topic that is often preceded by disclaimers and exhaustive essays on the law of returns, karma, and the moralities of such actions, this chapter will deal explicitly with hex creation, countermagick, and offensive augmentation. Let it be said now that the following magical practices have either been used by the author himself or by trusted associates (unless otherwise specified).
              The hex, or curse, is the name that will be ascribed to any sort of offensive magick in this chapter. While there are many ways in which to magically assault an opponent, several will be detailed here.  A hex, at its core, is a spell designed to influence the life of the target in a negative manner, to manifest the will of the attacker in the form of injury, misfortune, sickness, and death. This damage can occur on multiple levels, the two most common are etheric and physical. The etheric is the layer of reality that is most similar and approximate to physical reality. While it is a subtle realm, it is closely tied to the physical, and changes wrought in that reality directly affect the physical. For example, if a magus was to lay a curse upon the spiritual corpus (subtle body that exists in the subtle realms) of an opponent, that cursed person would find that curse manifesting on an etheric level. The most common signs of damage that occurs as a result of etheric assault are sudden bouts of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, or self-destructive behaviors and severe mental disorders for which there are no physiological explanations. Horrible nightmares, sleeping disorders, night terrors, and hallucinations are also signs of etheric trauma. The physical layer of reality needs no explanation, as it is the realm in which humanity spends the majority of its consciousness enmeshed within. A hex that is cast upon the physical corpus of a target tends to have much more physically damaging effects, and thus is more difficult to cast successfully because of the internal layers of doubt held by most magi that their spells can be so powerful. However, if the practitioner can overcome this illusory limitation and accept that magick can exist and affect the physical world, then such spells can be severe and effective. Physical hexes tend to manifest as financial, relationship, or professional misfortune in addition to sudden illness, unexplained or coincidental injury, and possibly death. More often than not such physical occurrences seem to the untrained eye as coincidence or freak occurrence, and are usually not attributed to a hex.

Hexes, or curses by another name, exist in an infinite variety. The magus who is more oriented towards traditional styles and traditions of magical practice can find a wide variety of offensive magick in the annals of history, mythology, and tribal culture. Such sources are full of curses and hexes. From the black corn curse of the Hopi, the voodoo dolls of the Afro-Caribbean cultures, the demon bowls of Babylon, and (when hurling it at someone perceived as demon or heretic) the Lord’s Prayer of the Catholic faith. Though history, culture, and mythology are not the only sources of hexes. As a modern magus the practitioner has the opportunity to borrow from these cultural spells as he or she chooses, mixing and matching to fit the occasion. Also, the practitioner doesn’t even need to have elements of these tried and true methods in order to make a hex work. All that is needed is a clear intent to do harm and the focus/power sufficient to manifest these changes in reality according to one’s will. Often the magus will need ritual or ceremonial elements to the spell for the purpose of providing the magus with a method for focusing on the spell with the intensity as is required to manifest such results. So any ritual, ceremonial, or physical component that is personally relevant to the individual caster can be used. For example, three magi wish to curse the same individual. One magus may choose to create a painting of the individual suffering the effects of the curse, then burn the painting as a way of sending the curse to its target. The second magus may opt to write the hex on a piece of sturdy parchment paper, empower the paper with inked curse sigils, and bury the paper somewhere near the target’s home, school, or job. The third magus may simply meditate and listen to a particularly violent piece of music while focusing their attention on ‘wishing ill’ to the target. Usually a hex is designed to affect the target on either the etheric or the physical level of reality. Though assaulting the target on both levels is possible.
Should the magical senses of the victim or the victim’s associates be sufficiently acute, countermagick can be attempted. Like hexes, most countermagick works on the etheric level, physical level, or both simultaneously (much more difficult). Countermagick is magick that targets the spells and magical workings of other practitioners or entities. While countermagick has its applications outside the realm of hex removal, the methods in which countermagick is employed to resolve curses are the same methods used to perform countermagick in most any capacity, so as the technique remains similar, only the combat aspect will be dealt with in this chapter.
The most effective form of countermagick is to have potent shielding techniques as described above. If one’s shields are of sufficient versatility and power, they can resolve most incoming magical assaults before their negative influence can infect the life of the magus being assaulted. Should the shields be circumvented for whatever reason, there are several techniques for removing unwanted magical influences. One method is to construct magical countermeasures that extend beyond simple shielding. Creating talismans, wards, or spells that are specifically designed to block, absorb, dissipate, redirect, or reflect incoming offensive spells are a very effective method. The best way to accomplish this is to create the spell with much the same technique and visualizations as one creates shields, then once the core spell has been constructed, load a ‘defense’ protocol into the spell. By visualizing how the spell will function and the sorts of magical influences it will guard against as you create it will further empower the spell to your advantage.
Inevitably there will be offensive magicks that will slip past the defenses of any magus, just as entropy enters any physical system, so will harmful magick eventually find its way into the life of every practitioner at some point in their lives. When this occurs the best way of dealing with those magical influences is what will be could the ‘scorched earth’ method. First isolate the target of the spell, be it a person, building, beast, or object. The goal is to blast the victim with an overwhelming amount of magical energy with the intent of removing any and all magical influences. While this method will also remove positive magical influences, this is a good way to be absolutely sure that the negative influences have been removed, as most such spells are very insidious and difficult to completely root out any other way. This can be done entirely by direct energy manipulation without any ritual component should the victim and associates choose. Though some ritual components are usually helpful. Perhaps the magus could draw a bath of hot water and scented oils and ‘soak away’ the harmful influences. A trip to a bathhouse or a sweat lodge is an effective way of leeching out the offensive magick, provided that the actions taken are sufficiently empowered by the will of the practitioner. For buildings a good method is to redecorate, remodel, or freshly paint the property. Items can be dipped, sprinkled, or sprayed with empowered ‘magical cleansing solution’ and left to dry or rest in a sufficiently empowered location for a period of time. The author and associates (when not using the pure energy method) have at times used ‘decontamination chambers’, which are simply temporary ritual spaces created through placing sigils on every window and door of a room, then having the victim remain in the room inside a sigilized ‘detox’ casting circle for varying lengths of time.
Magical offensive augmentations is another method of magical combat. This technique is the use of magick to augment pre-existing forms and tools of conflict. While this element of magical violence is not usually a part of the life of many magi, there is always the chance of a situation requiring such techniques and activities. For people who practice magick as more of a hobby or pastime, this is an element of magick that may not become of any precedence. Though for those of us who have incorporated magick into our daily lives, we have the opportunity to use it in ways that many others have no occasion to attempt. We will discuss several sorts of offensive augmentations, the use of magick to empower mundane tools to be effective on an etheric level, and the ability to lay magick aside in favor of more effective methods.
As modern magi we have access to a great many tools of conflict. The techniques described can be used in conjunction with any tool, though for the confines of this chapter we will discuss the gun, the knife, and the fist. As they are the most preeminent tools of violence in modern society, they hold a special place in the magical arsenal of a magus. It is hoped that one will never have to use such tools, though preparedness is a key element of magical practice, and as such these tools are a part of the sorcerer’s toolbox.
While no amount of magical enhancement can replace technical skill with a firearm, an industrious magus can use sigils and spells to increase the accuracy of the firearm and enable the bullets to cause harm on an etheric level as well. Let it be stated that while firearms can be made, through magical augmentation, to harm non-physical entities, the physical bullets must still be accounted for, and so the use of firearms for this pursuit is discouraged. There are two common ways to empower a firearm with magick. One way is to use a metal engraving tool to etch sigils of accuracy and etheric harm into the gun itself, or if one is careful the bullet casings (don’t blow yourself up by pressing too hard). The other is to empower the gun before shooting, usually by calmly blowing a controlled breath into the gun (usually into the firing mechanism or the trigger, don’t blow your head off blowing down the barrel). The breath acts as a carrier for the magical energy that fuses with the gun to make it more damaging and accurate.
The knife can be similarly empowered, by etching sigils of harm and striking precision onto the blade or handle. Also, like the gun, a knife can be ‘awakened’ with the breath or some other significant act. Unlike the firearm, the knife is a most effective tool for dealing with non-physical entitles, as they can be struck and damaged without much risk of the injury of bystanders or property. Again, this is a situation in which the possession of acute magical senses is of vital importance. With a blade that ‘works both ways’, a magus can enter almost any location without fear of not being able to defend themselves. Most entities will flee the sight of a witch carrying an enchanted blade and prepared to use it for real. Using a knife against a live opponent is a different matter all together. There are many books and classes available to teach one how to properly use and care for a knife, and it is highly suggested that such training is undertaken as soon as possible. As with the gun, there is an overwhelming temptation to use the knife as a tool of prevention instead of a tool of resolution, this is a mistake. As many of the training manuals and live instructors will tell you, never draw a weapon that you do not have the will or intention of using.
For those readers who have ever trained in martial arts, the idea of using magick in conjunction with physical combat is not a new idea. For those who have not, it is possible to blend magical technique with physical combat in such a way as to make the body of the mage a casting tool. It is suggested that training manuals or classes with live instructors be consulted on the actual technique of physical combat, as there are many styles of martial arts available and the style that best suits your personal needs is out there somewhere. The blending, once a rudimentary understanding of a martial style is achieved, of magick and physical combat results in the ability to harm the subtle bodies of the opponent. In essence, the ability to harm someone’s ‘soul’ with physical techniques. By becoming aware of the energy fields generated by the physical body, and developing an awareness of the etheric realm and resulting spiritual corpus of the energy, the magus can produce results far beyond those possible by non-practitioner combatants. For example, one magus, though no fault of his own, becomes involved in a late night bar fight. He avoids a clumsy strike from his assailant and delivers a powerful fist strike to the abdomen of his attacker. The fight is broken up and everyone goes home. The assailant is not even bruised where he was struck, but soon develops severe internal damage in the form of a bleeding ulcer because his etheric subtle body was torn to shreds the night before when struck by the magus. While this may seem like an extreme example, it is not. Extreme would be causing aneurisms and cardiac arrest. As most energy healers and mystics will tell you, severe damage to the subtle bodies results in some pretty heinous physical manifestations. 
The final form of magical combat is the ability to leave magick behind and consider other options. On one level, this is the ability to blend mundane skills with magical technique. If a witch has constructed a curse statue, she must have the stealth and intelligence to bury the statue in the backyard of her target without being noticed, which is a difficult task indeed. Though on a more meaningful level, the ability to leave magick behind is manifested in the magus being able to find alternative solutions to magick. Sometimes the best way to get someone to like you is to talk to them, while magick can help, it must be provided with avenues in which to manifest. While a spell for a new career is a powerful thing, one must actually go out and look for a new job. Though this chapter is about violence, so in closing an example of magical combat without magick will be used. Let’s say that you have just entered into magical combat with an opponent who is far more powerful than yourself, and the offensive magick being hurled against you is far more than you can handle. Your magick seems to just bounce off the shields of your opponent, and nothing you can do magically seems to make any difference. If magick isn’t working, try something more mundane. If you are wealthy, buy their house note from the bank and evict. If you are a computer whiz you could alter vital information. There are many ways in which you can solve your magical violence situation that just magick. Think about this, how different would the occult community be if in their famous magical battle Mathers, who was clearly outmatched by Aleister Crowley, had put aside magick and instead leaned across the table and punched Crowley in the teeth? Hard to do as thou wilt when choking on your own blood.