Greeting & Welcome PM aka GETTING STARTED GUIDE
An overview to get you everything you need to get the most out of the forum, including answers to some Frequently Asked Questions below.
Rules
Most of our rules are the same common sense stuff you’ll find anywhere – please don’t flame, spam, insult people, derail threads, and so on.
We request you read through just once, to familiarise yourself, then you’re ready to go.
BALG RULES - Please read them!
Summary of a few things we do differently to other forums (click the arrow to expand).
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we ask members to please do an intro first, if you plan to post on the forum – tell us a bit about your background, any magickal or supernatural experiences, etc., because this helps us in lots of ways, whether you’re a beginner or experienced with magick
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to keep things real, we prohibit duplicate accounts, but just let me know if you ever need a new ID and we’ll be happy to change it for you
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we don’t permit new topics or posts with party politics, identity politics, or discussion of heavily-politicised topics such as mass migration, social activism, political wars etc., as their core premise, as of September 5th 2018 – you can read more about this, here.
… While we agree with so many of you on many topics, we must limit the discussion of some of them in order to keep the forum open for those who are visiting to talk about magick. Unfortunately, some of the topics we need to limit are the exact topics people feel passionately about — and rightly so in our opinion!
Please don’t consider our rules as way to censor you — rather, they are what allow us to keep our forum alive. -
“Karma”: this is a forum with a heavy emphasis on black magick and free will, so we prohibit responses, where someone has asked for help or advice with a curse, love spell, or similar working, which lecture about karmic repercussions, or any form of moralising
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in the same vein, we don’t allow dogma or preaching of any particular religion or philosophy, opinions are welcome, soapboxing, not so much
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members with Regular beside their name are forum old hands and may give you useful advice on using the forum and how to get the most from your time here
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you can offer free readings on here after you have been a member for 3 months, information in the Rules.
FAQs:
Below are answers to some Frequently Asked Questions, click the text beside the arrow to open the reply.
- Homegrown Magickal FAQ: BALG Forum FAQ By Members, For New & Old Members
- Official Forum FAQ: FAQ - Become A Living God
- What’s it like being magickal? Common Experiences Among Magicians
- War stories: What’s the most retarded thing you’ve ever done in the occult? What's the most retarded thing you've done in the occult
- About the Problem with UPG: Link to external blog Unofficial Forum Tutorials Directory -- beginners look here! - #32 by Faustus
- Tips and Pitfalls to avoid starting out in Magick: "If I Could Pass This On To My Younger Self" - Magick Tips & Things
Magick:
How do I get started in black magick?
I wrote this Simple English Demonic Evocation Guide which is beginner-friendly, and intended to be easy to translate with online tools.
This link will give you shortcuts to various methods and materials by other members and BALG authors: Some Member Resources & Tips
Need money magick? This is a forum-grimoire of methods that have worked for other magicians here, with details: Money Spells That Worked
Same thing for “get your ex back” spells people have had real success with: Get Your Ex Back – Spells That Worked
This newsletter on how to open sigils: How To Start Using Spirit Sigils To Get Anything You Want
And this post by a forum member tells you the kinds of things to really expect: Sigil Flashing Explained For Newbies
This seminar by E.A. teaches you the basics of demonic evocation – free of charge: E.A. Koetting: How To Evoke Spirits To Physical Appearance - Full Seminar
I posted a walk-through on how to create wards in response to a member’s questions in this topic: Creating Wards
And this tutorial I posted may also be useful: Tool-Free Magick Using Your Hands
There is an ongoing list of Tutorials penned by forum members here.
Is magick real and can it work for me?
No-one’s going to convert you, we’re too busy doing our own magick, but you can read some stunning success stories in this location and a massive list of thanks here.
Where's the good free stuff and downloads?
Aside from the Member resources topic, BALG’s Odysee channel has a wealth of information: EAKoetting.
Wikipedia is a surprisingly good source to research both demons and ancient gods, and running a search on this forum for things will help you find resources on and off this site.
Piracy is not permitted here, this is the forum of a legitimate publishing company, so please don’t ask for or offer PDFs/other pirated content either on the forum or by PM, and please don’t link to sites where things like that can be downloaded.
Can I advertise my products and services on here?
If you have a great product or service the best thing to do is contact BALG about the possibility of becoming one of their contributors, by clicking here.
Other than that, the internet being what it is, we don’t permit ads because it would open the floodgates and turn our community forum into nothing but a big billboard.
But you CAN put links to your commercial endeavours in your forum profile, you can read the full rules about advertising here.
What about free readings?
You can give free readings once you’ve been active on the forum 3 months, this is explained here.
And you can request a free reading by searching for scan swap - there’s usually a big thread for this running on the forum.
Please always exercise caution when accepting free services online, and contact me by replying to this message if you have any questions about something you are offered.
If you have a complex problem, please make a new topic and ask for assistance and advice. (Pro-tip – make the topic title as interesting and specific as you can. 
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Rights & Responsibilities of Members:
What are the limits to what we can post here?
You may use adult language, post sex-themed artwork (artwork, not porn; please bear in mind there may be minors here), and openly discuss black magick, including hexes and curses – just please don’t name the target or give any details that may identify them on the post. That’s covered in the rules linked at the top of this message.
As of September 5th 2018, the site owners have prohibited posts whose main premise is magick related to (and discussion of) party politics, identity politics, and highly politicised topics such as mass migration of people.
You can read the original post by BALG co-founder Timothy Donaghue here.
And details of how that works in practice here.
If a problem occurs, it’s usually handled by respectful clarification of where the lines are drawn, and every opportunity given to sort things out in a mature manner.
This forum is not a cult and groupthink is neither expected nor required, many people here are a bit eccentric, and have unconventional views about things.
Someone else broke a rule, what can I do?
This forum respects its members by encouraging member-moderation, and that means YOU! You can help moderate this community by flagging any post or PM that causes you concern, this helps us to handle problems early, before they grow into something bigger.
Click the three dots … at the bottom of any post or PM to flag it – there is a confirmation step, and it is private and confidential (the person will not be made aware who flagged them):
Use the Something Else flag to alert us about something that may be a problem.
Using a flag bumps this to the top of the Moderators mailbox and it will be the first thing to be handled. You will usually be privately notified about what action was taken.
Trolling, spam, derailments and flamewars are always removed so they don’t pay off, so, if someone starts posting nonsense, don’t waste time getting involved, just flag it, it will be removed shortly.
This forum’s software also has the ability to automatically hide posts or lock a topic for a short period if it receives a lot of flags from several different members, giving everyone involved time to cool down, so your flags really do matter.
I've seen a post which offends me, what can I do about this?
Aside from posts which break forum rules, we defend a wide range of freedom of speech on this forum and that does mean you will occasionally see things you find disasteful, contrary to your personal values, or just outright weird and improbable.
You can always Mute an individual topic, which will prevent it showing up in Latest, and you won’t get any notifications from it, even if someone’s @'s your name or replies to you.
To do this, go to the bottom of that topic and you will see a button, if you replied it will be set to Watching, or otherwise to Normal, and you can select that and make it Muted.
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Scroll down to this button at the bottom of every topic, it may say Normal if you have not replied in that topic:
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You can also use this menu to Watch any topic, and be alerted of new replies, without needing to post a reply.
Please note that this forum does not permit members to derail topics by preaching about karmic repercussions, the “Rule of Threefold Return” and similar moral constraints.
There is a White Magick & Right-Hand Path Category where you may freely discuss your own workings, conducted according to your personal moral or religious code.
Usability:
How does this forum work?
This is a sandbox where you can play around: https://try.discourse.org/
For example, to upload images, you can drag and drop images right into your post, or paste the link, links to other forum posts and external web pages usually display a small text preview with an image, and threads update in real time, without needing to refresh the page.
If you’re more familiar with traditional forum layouts and feel a bit lost, click or tap Category view, which will make the sections display in a more familiar order.
Can I get the forum to display as pages, not infinite scrolling?
This platform isn’t designed to paginate, but if you want to read a long topic, use Bookmarks, as demonstrated at the top of this message, so you can get right back to where you left off without needing to scroll.
If you’re having serious problems using the forum, or can’t find something, please contact me by replying to this message.
My post or topic has disappeared, help?
It may have been referred for moderation, in which case you will be notified shortly what happened.
If any posts are removed permanently, you’ll usually get an automatic or moderator notification, but if you don’t receive anything within 36 hours, contact me and I’ll see what happened.
Broken links & missing pictures
For various reasons, sometimes older posts have broken links, missing pictures, or other formatting problems. If you happen across a broken link to a topic on this forum, first try the solution suggested here: broken in-forum links.
If that doesn’t work, or you don’t understand how to use it, flag the post as “Something Else” (as described above) and I’ll try to sort it out. Please also flag or PM me if you find a post with significant formatting problems, or missing pictures, sometimes I am able to fix these using archived or other material.
Editing and removing your own posts, and closing accounts
There is a one-hour edit window for posts, and the edit function is shown as a small pencil:
If you want to make significant edits to a post after this window, please contact me with a link to the post, and the exact text you want pasted in.
If you feel like you need a time-out from the forum for any reason, contact me, I will place a temporary block on your account with no questions asked: this doesn’t count against your membership, and it can be removed when you wish it to be.
I can also place a block on posting for any duration you require, so that you can retain access to currently active PM conversations, and all your usual Bookmarks etc., so contact me if you want to enquire about this. I use browser add-ons myself to help control time spent on some sites, and I understand that sometimes it’s helpful to have tools for this purpose.
If you want to remove any posts, please be considerate of the time and effort other members have put in reading and replying.
If you wish to leave the forum permanently, that’s fine, and if you need to, we can Anonymise your account, which will sever links to your registration info and replace your name on all posts with a title like “Anon965874.”
PM me to do this, and, Anonymisation cannot be reversed once done.
Are there skins I can apply to this forum and its white background?
Yes! There’s a dark skin for this forum called Midnight that a lot of us prefer, click here for a preview of that and information on how to set it up.
Fitting in, getting on, and standing out in this community
People on this forum are generally friendly and willing to help, and you can also help yourself by using Search – that will deliver years of great content by many members, far more than are online at any one time and available to answer your questions. You’re welcome to bump very old topics, but it’s usually easier to start your own new topic, and link some older posts.
And there’s no rule against asking something that’s been asked before, so if you’re stuck and can’t find anything through using Search just jump in, make a topic, ask your question, someone will try and steer you right.
Ask any questions you may have in your intro topic, and someone will probably be able to help soon.
Here are some other tips:
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A distinctive avatar can help you stand out from the crowd and help members remember you better
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You can upload images and text to personalise your Profile, use the figure-shaped icon beneath your avatar at the top right of any page:
- Proper paragraph breaks make your posts more inviting to read and get more responses. Members here deal with some dark energies and taboo concepts, but no-one likes the dread wall o’text!
If you want to read something but not right now, you can **Bookmark** a message
Click or tap this text to see how to bookmark something for later
Click or tap the three dots … at the bottom of any post or PM:
Select the ribbon-shaped icon:
To find your Bookmarks again, click or tap your avatar at the top right of any page, Bookmarks are the ribbon-shaped icon again:
Bookmarks can also be set to remind you to revisit a topic or PM at the time of your choosing, this menu will appear when you select the Bookmark icon.