(( Formerly Venusmagi. I created the Magiblr tag! ))
Hello! You may call me Venus (magical alias) or Myles (civilian name). I am a man, my pronouns are he/him/his but I don't mind any neopronouns to be used as well. I am 21 years old.
I've been practicing witchcraft and the occult since 2012, and I've been in the magical hero community since 2017. My practice is primarily rooted in pop culture witchcraft, influenced by magical girl & superhero media. Otherwise, I practice baneful magic, kitchen magic, general astral and spirit work, and divination.
I am what you would call a "physical magi," as I use the physical plane for the bulk of my magical work, and any battle I find myself fighting is done on the astral plane. I currently work with an original, majokko-adjacent concept, and thus refer to myself as an Arcane Scientist.
My IRL fiance and I are both magical heroes and spiritual soulbonders, and are in a polyamorous relationship with our partners. Our soulbonds are very separate from their fictional counterparts, so people who selfship with said counterparts are welcome to interact.
I only ever speak from my own experience; please take my experiences and advice not as gospel, but with a grain of salt. Take what resonates, learn what you can from it, and only apply it to your practice if it serves you well.
The art in my PFP is here!
My tag list:
Academy of Arcane Sciences - Informational posts for magic users of all backgrounds and skill levels. I post these every Friday.
Venus's Grimoire - Original posts and reblogs alike, related to my journey, concept, and spellwork; this includes updates, artwork, and anecdotes from my daily life as a magical hero.
Venus’s Garden - Ranting and generally off-topic posts, including asks of all kinds.
The Artisan's Muse - Posting about my soulbond with August. (My fiance and I would prefer to keep our relationship with our other soulbonded partner semi-private, thank you for understanding!)
Do not interact:
Radqueer / TransID
Proship / comship / profic / anti-anti / neutral or anti-shipcourse, and all adjacent terminology.
Pro-para (objectums are the only exception, unless you're pro-para, in which case I will block)
Zionist, MAGA / pro-Trump, pro-ICE, pro-USA, neo-Nazi, far-right in general, anti-political or "neutral" on politics.
Starseeds & indigo children
Non-traumagenic systems in any capacity / pro-endo / use "soulbonding" as a term for plurality
Fultists
Pro-generative artificial intelligence
Blank blogs
People who claim to be able to P-shift / physically shapeshift, or claim to be physically nonhuman, are on very thin ice.
Otherwise I block freely, if I block you it's either because you are on this list or you make me uncomfortable. I value my peace and I don't want shitty people using my knowledge! Learn the hard way if you're gonna be difficult to be around!
Before you interact please be aware that while this account will keep most mature topics out of sight, I am a regular user of cannabis as it is a major part of my spiritual practice. I will discuss it sometimes, either in an informational setting or while discussing my experiences. These posts will be tagged accordingly (cw cannabis) and a disclaimer will be shared at the top of the post. Please feel free to block this tag if you are uncomfortable with such discussion.
Disclaimer: This is not roleplay, but a spiritual practice falling in line with pop culture witchcraft; I am here to share my experiences, and I hope that this information benefits you and your practice.
Please read my pinned post before interacting with my content. Do not interact if you are: pro.endo, pro.ship, pro.para, rad.queer, "plu.ral soul.bonder", and more. Thank you.
This is an epiphany I had a couple of weeks ago that I feel may help some beginners as they learn and come to understand magical workings. If this helps you, go ahead and learn from it.
So a phrase popped into my head, "movement stimulates growth."
And that thought isn't wrong. For example, if you want hair to grow in quickly, you massage the scalp and stimulate the follicles with movement. Working out a muscle and continuously using it and working beyond its limitations is going to strengthen it. Let's apply that same logic to magical work!
You're not going to gain experience from sitting in one place and focusing only on one thing. Sure, you can have devotion and consistency to one concept, but you're not really going to gain a broader experience of magic from that alone, as much as you'd gain some skills and knowledge that are generally useful.
I've hopped from one concept to the other many a time, so I wouldn't consider myself a "veteran" of any one concept, but I feel like being able to engage with a variety of concepts and how they would be applied to real-life magic, and their similarities and difference to any source material (if there is a source material), has helped me gain a much wider scope of how magic can be applied to us.
Remaining stagnant helps no one! So, if youre a beginner I highly encourage you to learn from people who practice within a variety of different concepts, in addition to learning basic skills and rules of magic!
Let me turn this into a metaphor.
Imagine a tree, whose only goal is to reach the sun. It goes up and up and up, and will grow tall but never manages to grow outward. You'll have the skills that make up the tree's trunk, but the tree will have very few branches or leaves. Even if your roots remain the same you have to allow yourself some wiggle room to take that basic knowledge and apply it in a variety of places.
Now, lets take these basic skills and rules, and branch out as you grow, and learn about a variety of magic systems whether you practice them or not. Now your tree is growing out, and over time it'll start looking like… an actual tree! 🌳 Now you have the experience in a variety of concepts that you'd need to help other people (or, trees!) gain the skills and insight they need.
PSA: Beginner magical heroes should not establish their own communities.
When you create a smaller group within a greater community (such as a server), your responsibility is to make sure your members have the tools and skills they need to become magical heroes and are properly informed about the ins-and-outs of the practice.
If you're a beginner, you lack those tools and skills yourself, so you may very well be misleading and misinforming other beginners.
Please leave the community leadership to magical heroes with actual experience, and not only knowledge. Thank you.
Disclaimer: This is not roleplay, but a spiritual practice falling in line with pop culture witchcraft; I am here to share my experiences, and I hope that this information benefits you and your practice.
Please read my pinned post before interacting with my content. Do not interact if you are: pro.endo, pro.ship, pro.para, rad.queer, "plu.ral soul.bonder", and more. Thank you.
I think many beginners are misguided on what the types of shifts actually entail. F-Shift, A-Shift, M-Shift, and P-Shift. Those are the main four shifts I've heard floating around through the pop culture magic community, and their sub-communities of magical heroes and mythicals alike, and I feel like those new to the practice hear these terms and take them to heart, and take them very literally.
In addition, I hear many beginners think "physical magi" means transforming and shapeshifting, just like magical heroes do in anime and other adjacent media; this is not the case, and I'll be pleased to explain why.
So, what are shifts? Shifts, as a broad term, originated with therians and thus they deserve all the credit for coining this term and its many varieties. In therian communities, a shift is defined as "an experience that causes [a therianthrope] to feel more like their theriotype." Shifts can take a variety of forms; they can be involuntary or voluntary, they can be strong or weak, rare or frequent, and even positive or negative. These shifts are not exclusive to therians, and anyone can experience them in many different ways. Some people never experience shifts.
Many beginners tend to share a goal of "physically transforming," as they think that magical heroism presents itself just like anime or other media, or that physically transforming is "proof" of being a real magical hero, and other magis claim to be able to physically transform or shapeshift in this literal sense; I would take these claims with a grain of salt and due skepticism. According to current scientific and magical understanding, P-shifting (which includes this concept of transforming and/or shapeshifting) is impossible. The idea that a magical hero transforms in real life- just like in media, with all the sparkles and flashing lights- is romanticized at best and unrealistic at worst.
I'm not going to completely dismiss any claims of P-shifting, because I think our current understanding may not be set in stone. I would just like to make beginners aware that physically transforming is not what you think it is! Physically transforming is possible, but not a requirement, and also more of an astral transformation than a physical shapeshift.
"But what about physical magis?"
I feel like people misunderstand what being a physical magi entails, and I believe the term itself is misleading. Being a physical magi is actually the practice of being a magical hero whose magical work is performed in the physical plane wherever possible; such as being able to track energy down to hunt for hostile entities, performing spellwork, and even transforming your astral body while still in your physical body.
I've seen many magis discuss shifts as set stages in FMAP format: Fantasy, Mental, Astral, and Physical, in that order.
Fantasy shift is described as "the shift where you script your ideal self-concept as a magical hero." However, "fantasy shift" isn't a shift at all; as stated before, shifts are experiences. Scripting can be an experience, and you can have these experiences while scripting, but when you have the set idea of "I know I'm meant to be a magical hero, I want to do this," all scripting is doing is helping the pieces fall into place that will allow you to experience those other shifts in much greater depth. Scripting is simply the gateway to shifts and your other experiences as magical hero.
Here is a brief list of the most common shifts experienced by magical heroes:
Mental shift: A shift in mindset. You've transformed your mundane mental state and mindset into that of a magical hero. It's like how many magical heroes in fiction retain the same personality after they transform, but their mindset is different- they "know exactly what to say/do" even if they never did it before (I understand that in fiction, this is just easy writing, but I've experienced this before and this is the reason)
Astral shift: When your astral body leaves your physical body and ventures to the astral realm. The grand majority of magical heroes fight in the astral plane. Astral projection comes easy to some, and is more difficult for others, so this is only a requirement of being a magical hero if your goal is to fight entities (such as Witches).
Spiritual shift: While very similar to an astral shift, the only difference is that no astral projection or bilocation is involved, so your spirit is still one-in-the-same with your physical body, but is still able to transform
Dream shift: When you have recurring and consistent dreams of being your transformed self; these will usually be lucid, but can also happen involuntarily. I used to fight in the dream world, so turning my dreams lucid (essentially freeing myself from my brain's weaker limitations) would have been my way of inducing this shift voluntarily.
Phantom shift: For therians, this is about experiencing appendages that aren't physically present (such as ears and tails). For magical heroes, this is often described as feeling your transformed self, even if those aspects are not physically present. These phantom aspects can include: feeling your hair being longer or shorter or being styled in a certain way; feeling aspects of your outfit; feeling your weapon or items on your person; "tingles" or "sparkles" can often accompany these sensations.
A comprehensive list of shifts is included here! Click this link!
In addition to the above, I have a term I coined specifically for magical heroes: Henshin shift, also called transformation shift or T-shift. More accurately, it's a balanced combination of mental, astral/spiritual, and phantom shifts, all applied together to be the real-life equivalent of physically transforming. So, whenever I say physically transforming, this is what I actually mean.
Some people do fight entities by T-shifting / physically transforming, and fighting them IRL by combining astral awareness (seeing energy and entities) with applying their astral form and abilities to their physical form; this is technically a form of bilocation, and is not recommended for beginners as maintaining that simultaneous awareness of the astral and physical planes is very difficult if you're not adjusted to it.
So, now I'll teach you how to make the most of these shifts. In advance I'm aware that my advice is very vague and basic, but this is intentional, you should find your own ways of doing things that work best for your brain and your abilities. These are just ideas that you can use to branch out independently.
Dressing in ways that could evoke a transformed state or embody your transformed self, or carrying around items that you would associate with your transformed self or concept. This can help with the shift in mindset.
Learn how to voluntarily trigger a transformation shift. I've experienced a T-shift involuntarily due to intense emotions, both good and bad. Learn how to transform as a method of magical or ritual grounding, or even for self-soothing.
Work on physical abilities. Try dedicating a day's workout to testing your limits in your mundane state (such as only a mental or phantom shift), and then the next workout to testing your limits in a fully transformed shift, if you feel as if your abilities improve when you transform. Compare them. See what you can build on and improve. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. See how you can integrate your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses.
Go on patrols, only if you are able. Whether hunting spiritual foes or looking to do outreach in your community, patrols are a good way to connect with your transformed self.
Finally, I'd like to leave you with a reminder that you do not have to transform or astral project to be a magical hero, but they are requirements for certain concepts, such as Puella Magi or Pretty Cure. Feel free to weigh your options that would match your current abilities and what you want to learn to do.
Lesson 001 — Advice For Those Beginning Their Magical Journey
Disclaimer: This is not roleplay, but a spiritual practice falling in line with pop culture witchcraft; I am here to share my experiences, and I hope that this information benefits you and your practice.
Please read my pinned post before interacting with my content. Do not interact if you are: pro.endo, pro.ship, pro.para, rad.queer, "plu.ral soul.bonder", and more. Thank you.
I've been involved with magical heroes and our practice for nearly a decade, and during that time I have come to grow and evolve just as the rest of the community has; in fact, I believe we've come a long, long way since our community's birth, in our understanding of magic and how to apply it in our practice.
I've seen quite an influx of beginners looking into the practice, and making very common mistakes; sometimes, large mistakes that cannot be easily undone, such as rushing into contracts without any knowledge of anything else, and only yearning for the aesthetics of magical heroes without much regard to anything else, among other things.
That is why I am writing this post: to identify common mistakes among beginners, and correct them so that beginners can go into the practice with peace of mind (and, quite bluntly, so that experienced magical heroes don't have to answer the same five questions more times than we can count).
You need to acknowledge that magical heroism is a responsibility, not an aesthetic; thus, you must learn the basics of magic before all else.
I see many beginners, especially those coming from TikTok and going into the Puella Magi concept, rush into magical heroism and what it entails- contracts, all the responsibilities- without knowing how to do any of it, or recognizing the responsibility that comes with it.
Being a magical hero is not all glitz and glamour, nor is it all happiness and sunshine. It can be exhausting, and there is a chance you'll have a "honeymoon phase" after first becoming a fully-fledged magical hero, but this only lasts about a few months before it starts getting exhausting. Remember to pace yourself, and set realistic limits; be competent in your duties, but don't overexert yourself.
If you are fighting hostile entities on the astral plane, you must learn how to astral project, and attune your clairsenses to detecting the entities that you fight so that you can hunt them on the physical plane if you choose. If you're looking to fight in the dream plane, learn to lucid dream. You need to make sure you can reliably astral project before going into a concept that requires astral combat.
No, bilocation is not easier than astral projection, it requires simultaneous awareness of the physical and astral plane in two different places, and can be very jarring if you're not used to it. You should learn to astral project first.
No, a physical ritual is not a workaround for learning how to astral project, nor does it make you a "physical magi" in the sense of your combat and practice being just like what's depicted in anime- that is incorrect.
"Physical magi" simply means you perform duties such as hunting and training in the physical plane. It does not inherently mean physical combat. While physical combat is possible, it is something beginners may find difficult, as it requires complete awareness of the astral plane and being able to apply your abilities to an astral form overlaying your physical body. It is never the same as its fictional depictions.
By all means, you can create a replica of your transformed state's attire and enchant it for magical duties, but you will not be able to shapeshift. I will make another post on the details of transforming and shapeshifting.
You can't expect immediate results; embrace the journey and trust the process. You don't need to stick to a concept immediately, and it's okay to change concepts or be unsure of a concept.
I see frustration in many beginners, with the mindset of "it's been a month, why can't I astral project?" It took my fiance 12 years to first astral project on purpose! I promise, a month or two or three is nothing. Be patient, and learn!
Some people choose Puella Magi as their first concept without knowing what to wish for. That's fine- wait until you have a meaningful wish, that you're willing to fight for long-term. The wish won't be granted immediately either, it will manifest gradually as you have to work for it. Keep your wishes realistic and within limits and you'll be fine.
Many beginners focus too much on methods and rituals and following them all to the letter, and immediately sticking to a concept. This is completely unnecessary at best, and will disrupt your journey and hinder it at worst. A refusal to accept the process and accept what experienced magis try to tell beginners, is why we have ex-magical heroes completely discrediting the community.
I've seen concerns in the magical hero community here that "the community hates beginners;" this is not the case, but in all honesty it would be more accurate to say experienced magis can easily get annoyed at beginners who consistently spread misinformation or refuse to listen to experienced magis. It's a very loud minority who hold this belief about the community, as the majority of beginners have good intentions and actually intend to learn the workings of magic, even if that intent is fleeting and they may leave.
If it's meant for you, you are always welcome to stay. If it's not meant for you, you are welcome to leave and move onto other pursuits. The key to your success as a magical hero is patience and an open mind.
