Hey y'all, its been a hot minute since I had a chance to write for you - I hope you're each keeping well!

One of the topical points that's come up since right about the start of the month is the idea that fear is a hindrance to SO many things. Its a necessary survival mechanism, but if we're not careful it can be empowered to own us and control our every action.

When I was in congress with some of my spirit friends, I heard something significant & worth sharing:

Really let that sink in. Read it back to yourself a few times & go write it on a post-it note as a reminder. For extra credit, make that into a wallpaper and read it as a mantra.

Understand that fear is a necessity and something you cannot/will not escape unless something has gone deeply wrong for you somewhere along the way. It is a part of who we are & we are innately incomplete without it, but that does not mean that we have to obey its every whim.

Make intelligent, cognizant decisions for yourself, minding fear as an advisor rather than as a controller. You'll be shocked at how much you empower yourself.

Food for thought!
​
Be well folks,
-Chris

Following up on my post on conceptual thinking, it seems appropriate to pen a bit more on the subject as the Gemini moon rears its head! This week, we'll be blessed with a New Moon and solar eclipse on the 10th, meaning that creative ventures & the thought processes we attach to them will become more and more meaningful.

The desires we cling to & the creative ventures we hold dear are important, as they're expressions of our fundamental nature. They're reflections of who we are now inasmuch as they're inclinations towards who we wish to become. Just as Gemini has two distinct halves to its whole, so too do we have more going on under the surface than might initially meet the eye.

Recognizing this fact and seeing these aspects of Self as core truths to our quintessence & its expression becomes a part of the self-actualization process. We become what we assume, whatever that may be.

I invite you to contemplate this deeply. Consider how you relate to the moving pieces in your life & reflect upon your disposition towards these life experiences. How do you relate to loss? How do you relate to gain? To opportunity? To excitement? To sadness? To happiness? Each of these things are important experiences which contribute to the whole of our engagement within the world, but more than that, they're also building blocks for our conceptual framework. 

As you come to understand how you respond to the "elements" within an experience, you'll learn to better comprehend how you relate to the spiritual world too. Spirits are often reflections of a specific concept made real, and so just as we might contemplate Water, Fire, Air, and Earth, we should likewise consider how we relate to Happiness, Grief, Joy, Loss, Gain, Passion, etc.

Such enhances your conceptual awareness and gives you a means of interacting with spirits who embody these things.

Food for thought!
Blessings to you all. Have a glorious week!.
-Christopher

When circumstances beset you & cause you to feel frustrated and "low", contemplate what's being communicated to you by your spirits. There's always a reason for the message and a cause for the actions occurring in your world, so contemplating the "intended function" of the experience can assist in the process of stepping beyond whatever is causing you to experience the hindrance before you.

I experienced something like this over the weekend, as I felt an extreme series of ups & downs in response to what has occurred in my life. It was frustrating, but also an eye-opening necessity, as this "trauma" (a term I use rather loosely in this context) helped me to see a difference in how I was presenting myself to the world compared to myself as I am.

Contemplate these challenges & see where they take you. The more you dive into the patterns that cause your experience, the more you'll see and understand of them. You'll experience wide shifts in your perspective, and they can be tools for further unpacking and dissecting your experience!

Blessings,
​Chris

As of late, I've been learning ASL, and that's brought about an interesting series of inspirations worth sharing here!

English is not a conceptual language. Our words represent things, sure, but they're really not a "sight picture" process. We spell out lavish descriptions of things, and we can use our words to invoke emotions & visualizations in others, but we don't really paint a picture with those words. ASL is radically different in this respect, and this is actually what makes it magickally useful.

In sign language, you paint a picture with your hands. Its an inherently visual language in this way, and in this respect, it directly correlates to both mudras (magickal hand signs found in India & Asia) and hieroglyphics. Its something of a cross between interpretive dance and invocation, and it can be a powerful, consuming source of passion.

Fair warning, it'll take some mental gymnastics for this to make sense.

Remember what I said about English being spelled out rather than conceptual? What I mean is that we don't often think/visualize what we're describing on a conceptual level. When we spell a word, we're usually thinking of the verbal building blocks of the thing, NOT the image of whatever it is we're describing. Its inherent to our language. If you need proof of this, try to finger spell out the name of a Rhinoceros and see if that's the image it invokes..... ;)

The sign for Rhinocerous, however, makes it SUPER obvious.:

Try to take this into account when you consider what you're looking to convey to spirits. There's a LOT of ways to use this, either with your own self-created mudras and signs, or by using ones that are already in existence. Get creative with this, and try to find ways to relate the concept of a thing to others without necessarily needing to be all that linear in your process.

This will be difficult for the non-visual folks at first, but that's part of what makes it so incredibly powerful!

Be blessed!
​-Chris

As some of you may know, I'm currently offering a giveaway that'll wrap up on Friday. I will be individually blessing each person who signs up for this, in effect scaling-up the lives & experiences of everyone involved. This gives me an opportunity to write about some things that's generally glossed over in the magickal community at the same time. 

Blessings are probably the simplest form of active magickal ritual a person can perform. The very process is predicated upon the understanding, cultivation, and conveyance of good will. It is an exercise in active compassion, and that desire to see others do well becomes the basis of the Work. As I see it, there are two ways into this practice: 1) You can seek to bless yourself & see yourself thrive, or 2) you can seek to bless others. Both are entirely valid, and the irony is that either path will automatically involve you performing the opposite of what you've chosen. 

When you bless yourself, you indirectly bless all who interact with you, scaling up the potency of your efforts & all those who interact with you. When you bless others, you beneficially impact those that you will be interacting with, thereby improving your day perpetually, provided you keep up with the process. In this way, it's a very cool win/win & it's a powerful practice with an incredibly small, easily accessible way in to practicing magick. This is a tool, and with it you can improve your life and the lives of others quite readily. 

If you find yourself interested in being able to do this, I will walk you through how you might go about doing so in this article. It is not a difficult process to begin, but there is a core tenement that must be respected if this is to function correctly: you must genuinely care for the person & want to see them do well. There is no room for selfishness in this process, even when you're working on yourself. That might seem counterintuitive, but selfishness is counter to true desire for improvement. It is an negative current that runs counter to that of compassion. It must be put in its place for you to be truly successful in this venture. 

If you can create within yourself that desire to see others succeed without concern for self, you can convey this to spells & rituals. This very expression of active compassion changes the way the brain works and brings the body and mind in alignment with soul. As you create this emotion within yourself, focus it upon the person you care for in this context & spark alight a single candle while visualizing and appreciating the creation of "better" in their lives. See them happy, see them successful. Watch how your spell burns, and see what this feels like to you both during & after. Endlessly contemplate these rituals each time you do them, and you'll start to see and feel how the framework of the universe fits together.

All it takes is a single step. A continual effort like this can become life-changing. It will become life-changing if you let it. If you've not already signed up for the giveaway mentioned above, I would recommend you do so. If you are already participating in this, try doing this ritual directly alongside my efforts this coming Friday & see how that feels. ;)

Blessings to each of you. Thanks for reading. 
-Chris

​Healing can be tricky business. There’s a lot to it, and the deeper the trauma goes, the more complicated it tends to become, but thankfully there are some ways to make it easier. I aim to share these tools with you here to help you on your journey. 

The first tool is compassion: non romantic, genuine caring love felt for another without thought of self. It’s a warm, fuzzy emotion that’s rooted in care and concern for other living beings. It’s largely unselfish in its nature, and its formation and experience is a whole lot like magick. It exists for its own sake, and yet it is not self-perpetuating without our own efforts to the contrary. Compassion takes work at first, and it’s something we must endeavor to create, for it is a virtue with a baked-in irony attached: the more we need it’s influence, the harder it is for us to create. 

I invite you to take this opportunity to consider the content of your thoughts each day. On an average day, how complimentary are you? How critical? How do the two compare? If you were to take a tally, which category wins out? Once you know this answer, take stock of the thoughts you direct at yourself. Are you often very self-critical and hateful towards the person you see in the mirror? It pretty common to notice a trend: those who are super caring and actively kind tend to be a bit less terrible to themselves. The same is true in the reverse, and those who reach for judgement in their day to day tend to be more self-critical too. 

Compassion works your brain differently, and it forces your synapses to function in a different way. Where there’s less antagonism externally, there’s usually less going on internally, and so life is improved across the board for you and for others around you. Additionally, when you have learned to patients care for others without judgement, you can learn to be compassionate with yourself. Recognizing that you’re doing your best and that you’re trying is a damn impressive improvement over some of the incredible anxieties and depressions I’ve been hearing about from others. 

If you’d like to look for a way to become more compassionate, find ways to compliment people. Figure out what you really LOVE to see and make note of it. Say nice things to those responsible and watch how they are affected and respond. In person, pre-COVID I’d have folks genuinely surprised to receive a compliment, almost taken aback at the idea. It’s that uncommon for most of us, so if we choose to develop this skill, it’ll allow us to connect more readily with others. 

The second tool is vulnerability: being willing to take down those walls around you and let others in. Show of hands: how many of you are pretty open with your friends and family? How many of you keep it all to yourselves for one reason or another? If you feel like there’s things you CANNOT share, there’s some element of you and your existance that does not or will not experience vulnerability. 

Being vulnerable is as simple as being willing to ask for help. It’s as simple as letting others in to know more about who we are. Not just on the surface, but deep down. When we let others in, we offer a piece of ourselves up to connect with them.  When we do this, we lose some of the pretense by and through meaningful disclosure to trusted persons. When we share a little, we invite another person to do the same, and through this we can build a rapport. Do more of this and you’ll find yourself closer with those you care about. Good or bad, we all process victory and loss together. This is how we act as the social species we are, and practicing this how we re-wire our own social structures in a way that benefit us and others involved. 

The third tool is gratitude: being thankful and appreciative. Showing gratitude & making it a habit re-wires the brain and it has demonstrable effects on trauma recovery. It’s been shown to increase general feelings of wellness, decrease anxiety, improve heart health, allow for better sleep, and aids metabolic function by way of activating the hypothalamus (the part of the brain that controls hormone regulation functions), making gratitude a literal mindhack that you can access for free. 

All it takes is a little bit of extra mindfulness and a willingness to address your behaviors and habits. These are three extremely accessible tools, and they can each be applied as building blocks in your life to create sweeping improvements. Learning to be kind, learning to be gracious, and learning to be truly open with others changes how the quintessence of Self is presented to the world, and it’s a profoundly healing experience backed by science and mysticism alike, and I would strongly urge you to apply these tools each and every day!

Use this newfound awareness to change how you relate to the world, and use that improvement to validate your own existence. Connect with other people to connect with yourself, and you’ll find that every one of us is capable of simple, yet powerful changes. 

Sending love & blessings,
Chris

Hey guys and gals, I wanted to sit with you today and talk a little bit about fear & its power. It's an interesting emotion that has an ability to manipulate and gaslight purely by being in the room. We've all heard the phrase "rose colored glasses", but how many of us really actually think about fear in the same way? This conceptual framework is an astute mode of visualization and a tool. 

We tend to create what we think most about, and so if creativity & beauty drive us, we see wonderous things...but what of these fearful things we hold within? Have you ever noticed that your worst nightmares have a tendency to come true? If we spend enough time agonizing over something, it tends to come home to roost. 

Emotion powers magick & magickal practice to a substantial degree. What you feel, what you think, what you believe you need, what you actually need - these are all defining characteristics of who you are. Because who you are is not just to you present yourself to be on social media. It's not just who you show your kids, or your wife or your husband. This is a holistic, wholly involved thing when you're communicating with spirits & working magick, as all of you connects with all of them in the in-between. This is just a way of things, and so if you seek to interact with spirits, it's generally a good idea to be really keenly aware of what it is that you tend to think and feel. 

Be cognizant of who you are and be mindful of what you struggle with and against. As you become more aware of this automated internal dialogue you're having with the world, you can instead decide to change it for the better. Everything we do causes ripples, and this is as true in our lives as it is in the lives of others. By being mindful of who we are and what we bring to the table, we naturally place ourselves in circumstances that are better than when we started. Try to keep that in mind as you hustle, grind & work your way towards a better future and you'll eventually defeat the manifestations of fear before they can ever become anything more than a minor anxiety. You will be shocked at how much of a difference paying attention to your inner landscape can make! ;)

Blessings,
Chris

Hey folks! Happy Monday to each of you!
I hope you're each doing & keeping well following Mercury's return this past Saturday. Now that this planet and its spirits are no longer in a wonky mood, we're seeing the other half of the shuffle occur and things are returning to their natural order day by day. As this is occurring, we have the opportunity to work with that current & flow in a productive capacity, so I'd like to give you some guidance in how to do just that!

If you're finding that your home is chock full of crazy, be it technological or social or down to scheduling, I recommend the following ritual!

What you'll need:

1. An orange candle.
2. Spearmint
3. Wintergreen
4. Chaparral
5. A mortar & pestle

When you've got the materials needed, mix the herbs into the mortar & pestle in equal parts. Grind each down into a fine powder while saying this prayer thrice over the mixture:

When you've done so correctly, you should feel a change in the mixture's energy and presence. It should feel like it hums a bit in your hands and has some life to it, as that's the point where the spell itself is ready to be constructed.

When the mix is ready, use it to coat the candle lightly with magickal dust. Use enough that the candle looks like its flecked with magick, but don't turn the candle into some furry looking thing. When you've done so, set the candle alight and see in your mind's eye how your world needs to change to set this flow aright. Visualize and consider those changes, feel them occurring, and express then gratitude to the spirits charged with making this happen for you.

Then, watch the ritual and take notes on what happens for you afterwards. Extra brownie points for you if you remember to come back to me and let me know how this works for you. ;)

Give it a go and watch the magick happen in your life!
Blessings,
​-Chris

We're in a space where financial matters are becoming more & more pressing for a great number of people. 2020 wasn't exactly kind to folks in that regard, and we as a society are still reeling from the social and economic impacts of this rather drastic change to how we do things. Knowing this, I'd like to attack this topic head on & provide each of you with some spellwork tips to get you creating your own wealth.

First, you need to take stock of what you're doing in your life. How many hours are you working? How does that compare to the number of available hours in your schedule? Do you work a salaried position, or are you billing at an hourly rate? These three questions set the stage for all that you do, as their answers define the what can and cannot become a reality. If you're salaried, working for extra hours isn't going to do much for you unless you can work overtime at your position and get paid time & a half. If you're working a part-time hourly gig & have an extra five to six hours a day that could be spent working, that means that you could potentially get a second job to create more wealth for yourself.

Once you have those answers, you'll know a bit more about how to aim your magick! From there, you can then begin to formulate spells meant to fulfill your goals and improve your life. You can pick herbs associated with a specific kind of change and then mix & match based on what you feel you need from life. To help inspire that process, here's a brief list of Useful Herbs:

• Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) - This is a well-known magickal plant associated with creating and clearing harms inasmuch as its associated with journeying and visionary work. I like to use this in rituals to both clear the way and make obvious the magickal developments that I work towards, since it tends to hone the mind inasmuch as it can create positive change.
  
  
• Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla/Chamaemelum nobile) - This is an easing and smoothing herb that's tied very heavily to our internal set state and view of self. In medicine, its used as a bitterant and digestive aid that sooths the stomach, meaning that in medicine, it can make easier the process of growth. This herb can be used to create plentiful opportunities and abundance in equal measure, which makes it an understated but powerful addition to spells.
  
  
• Cinquefoil (Potentilla *) - Five Finger Grass is an old hoodoo/rootwork/conjure staple for a great number of traditions, and with good reason: its all about grabbing opportunity & actively pursuing opportunity. Use this if you need a boost in winning a gig.
  
  
• Lady's Mantle (Achemilla mollis/Alchemilla vulgaris) - This plant has been a folk remedy associated with magick for a looooong time. Its hardy as hell, and its often associated with collecting blessings and gains due to its shape. In medicine, it relieves feminine pains and it can be used after giving birth to heal the uterus; this makes it a feminine herb tied to female power & grace in equal measure, so if you're looking to create wealth as a woman, its a fantastic plant.
  
  As a male, this changes and softens the attitude of the spellwork and can in turn be used to make yourself more approachable and less intimidating. 
  
  
• Linden (Tilia cordata) - This plant is used to heal difficulties and work one's way through them, so if you're struggling really damned hard, this is a fantastic material to include. The plant spirit itself dislikes suffering and generally wishes to work with us to alleviate that discomfort, so if you add Linden to the mix, tell the spirit your woes and be honest about what you need and want. Don't hide a damn thing, as that transparency is necessary to this magick.
  
  
• Oak (Quercus *) - All varieties of Oak are hardy trees associated with growth and strength in equal measure. Using the bark or leaves of an Oak tree in your works can add resiliency to your step and create stability in your foundations. I recommend this as an ingredient when times are tough, as being able to stand unshaken is a powerful thing!
  
  
• Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) - This has long been considered a fertility herb, but in addition, its also a scent-marking plant. It smells so strongly that it can be used to hide one's faults and/or draw others in, so its fantastic for creating opportunities! 
  
  
• Quassia (Quassia amara) - This is a drawing herb, plain and simple. Whatever it is that you seek, it can pull that to you and seek to integrate that magickal effect into your reality. It works by both drawing opportunity in and forcing/inspiring us to make the changes we need to make in order to create the realities we want to experience. Its very handy, but do use this mindfully....it doesn't need to go into the spellwork if you're not actively working to make those changes you feel you need to make!
  
  
• Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) - This was used to create the original Root Beers, meaning that it has an association with pleasure. It can be used to create OR protect pleasure, including the creation of wealth and gain. Its a strong plant that can be used to heal financial woes on top of this, so its all around a worthwhile addition to your magickal cupboard!
  
  
• Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) - A weed of a kind, this is used to treat infections, parasites, and epileptic seizures. It kills off harmful sources of trouble while also generally working towards our improvement and healing. This makes it a fantastic herb when others are working against you, so using it in spellwork when competition is fierce can give you an extra edge.
  
  Its an aggressive herb, so don't use much of it when you do decide to work with it!

These ten herbs will get you started! There's more that you can do and more ingredients that have use in these ventures, but this should do to get your creative juices flowing. ;)

Have fun with this, and if you're struggling financially, be sure to get in on this giveaway I'm running. That'll be done next Thursday, so you've got a week to sign up!
Blessings,
-Chris

Mindfulness is a shovel; it can either be used to dig a great hole for yourself or as a means of escaping one. It all comes down to how you use it. Let’s address this here today. 

Mindfulness is meant to be an exercise in awareness, both of the self & circumstance. When we meditate or otherwise begin to engage in awareness exercises, we dig deep and become more cognizant of what happens inside our sphere of influence, and it’s this shift in perspective that is something of a godsend for us. ***but only if we use it***

According to a fair bit of research that’s been done on the subject, asking “why?” is not at all useful to our growth. Instead, “why?” keeps us stuck in a loop very much like a hamster running on a wheel. Instead, I would posit that you use this awareness as a tool to discern the “what?”:

“What can I do next to improve my circumstances?”
“What do I do here to improve upon today & tomorrow?”
“What can I do to be more successful?”
“What am I doing to hold myself back here and now?”

These questions matter. Next on the list is “how?”:

“How do I stop doing self-limiting things?”
“How do I better myself and make a more enjoyable life for myself?”
“How do I step beyond my own hindrances?”
“How do I do a better job of attending your needs?”

These are each a far cry from “why is this happening to me?” These are each actionable discussions with end points attached, and each can be used to find a way forward and a way out of the circumstances that trouble us. If we use this mindfulness well & as the tool it’s intended to be, we will make ourselves more productive and grow beyond our limitations. It’s when we stop asking the “why’s” and instead start looking for solutions that things tend to change for the better. 

Recognizing this and continually committing yourself to the process of baby steps towards better is how you retake your life. This is at the core of the self-improvement that we hold dear, and over time it becomes a proof that any situation can get better. We hold the keys to that particular lock; it all comes down to appoint the right questions & using our tools effectively. 

Blessings,
Chris