This quote, penned above, is something I heard of a voice deep, full of resonance and emotion. I am quite familiar with this voice, as he's been alongside me for many, many years now.

Normally, I don't share these things with others, but its clear that he wanted those words spoken here. They are to be the basis for a lesson, and so here we are.

We get bent out of shape, in life, over the institutions we see and interact with. So enclosed and ensorcelled are we by our Office that we forget what occurs outside of whatever institution we represent. We are not defined by these things, however, and we become so enamored by what they represent to others that we forget to become enriched by them.

Take pride in your vocation, but do not let life's busy-ness take you away from what is important. Don't let it dissuade you from time with your families, nor keep you from being a decent person. Those things matter to an extreme, as when its time to call for aid, those who have watched you make an ass of yourself will remember.

These are essentially "shower thoughts", but it strikes me as an important memo to share. 

Enjoy your day.
~PN/-SE


PS: Your station can change in an instant. Who you are at your core cannot.

​Every tradition has its own Day of the Dead or like holiday during which our ancestors and holy dead are acknowledged and plied with offerings. For me, one of those times is the end of the year, right around Christmas: specifically, for the week of Yule and the remainder of the year, up through December 31st.

When this time is upon us, I like to take time to reflect on them, their virtues, and what I know of them. I tell their stories, I share alcohol and food with them, and I pay them homage. This is a pertinent form of spiritual practice. Our ancestors are the bits that make up the sum of our beings, and thus they probably have the most vested interest in our success and happiness. As a result, this process of Ancestor Worship is right up there with divination and meditation, representing no small importance.

 If you'd like to get in on this and honor those that came before us, I would recommend procuring the following: a beer your family would enjoy (or beer you yourself would enjoy if you're not familiar with their tastes), hard liquor (scotch or rum), tobacco, apple cider, and baked goods (your choice). Set it out upon a place that won't be disturbed by the living, and say the following prayer:

"Lady Hela, we ask that you cast open the veil and allow our ancestors near.
Let them close to the fire, to partake and to hear.
They are valued by us, and represent the core of our beings,
Please let them through, to sit with us this season.
Ancestors mine, recent and ancient,
Share with us your wisdom and enjoy this placement."

Sit with this some, and be aware that you have guests. At the close of the festivities, be sure to dismiss them and thank them for joining you and your family.

Blessings,
SE

PS: For those unaware, Hela is the Norse Goddess who is in charge of the dead and their placements. It is she who can open the road to communicate with her, and she has nothing to do with the concept of Hell.

A question hit my inbox this morning, and I thought I'd answer it here. The individual in question is fairly young, but lamented being bothered by demons and asked for a solution. Since this is an ongoing issue for some, I'll discuss some remedies here.

The word "Spirit" is heavily overused in our culture, mostly because we lack a cultural understanding that the denizens of the spirit world are not unified in form or function. Rather, they are different and have their own tribes, social structures, matriarchs and patriarchs. Some follow rigid rules and restrictions, while others are lawless and have no such limitations or boundaries.

As a result, dealing with their interference appropriately can take a variety of forms, beginning with the most simple of rituals and ending with brazen, forceful rites of expulsion. Which you choose to use depends most heavily upon what you are comfortable with, but also upon the nature of the entity you are attempting to remove from your space. There are times where this banishing can be achieved with a light tap, and there are times where the use of a sledgehammer will be necessary....sometimes literally.

So we'll start small and work our way up to more forceful means of responding. Of the methodologies used, the burning of sage is the least offensive. To do so effectively, procure for yourself a bundle of sage that's been ethically harvested and sanctify it appropriately. If you're Christian, the Lord's Prayer & Hail Mary will do. If not, and you'd like something a bit more sorcerous in nature, use this prayer:

"Spirit of sage, waken and hasten to me
Enchant this lovely bundle, help to set this space free.
Loosen the hold of demons and troubles dire,
As I set alight your base matter through the use of fire.
Genius Loci of various skill
Abide my laws, do my will.
Those present and of ill intent, 
Leave now, swiftly - be no longer present."

Repeat this prayer as you make the rounds through your space, ensuring that the smoke touches all that might require purification. I would recommend opening windows and letting the light into your space, as locales untouched by light have a tendency to draw near things that flee from it.

If this has worked, you'll experience a sense of peace, after which you can fill your abode with warmth and good cheer. Be mindful of this need to refill the space with pleasant energies, as ANY time you clear out a space, you've emptied liquid from a jar - it must be filled to the brim once more to ensure that nothing else takes up residence in the space you've cleared.

If cleansing with sage hasn't been effective for you, and you need a slightly more nuclear option, procure for yourself Artemisia vulgaris (Mugwort), being mindful not to confuse it with Artemisia absinthium (Wormwood), for the herbs have different affinities unto themselves.

As before, you will make the rounds, but this time your attitude should be less peaceful in countenance. Instead of asking others to depart, this time you're demanding, gently yet firmly, that the entities who have taken up residence take their leave of you.

Use this oration:
"Spirits of place with ill intention,
This before me is due prevention
Of all ill and harm one'd seek to create,
And with it I send you elsewhere to seek your fate.
Leave now, gently and without trouble or harm,
For I seek to reclaim this space, making it safe and warm.
Leave now, for you are unwelcome here.
This space is reserved for those I hold dear."

Mugwort is suggested, in this instance, as its temperament is more aggressive than that of sage. Spirits are generally rather offended by it, and it can be a useful means of warding off their influence. That is the reason for it being chosen for this purpose.

To speak on offensive herbs, from a folk magic perspective, the most potent among them is rather easily recognized: Asafoetida, or Ferula assa-foetida. Its considered to be an "aromatic", and its commonly known as Devil's Dung. It smells awful to us and worse to spirits.

If sage is a gentle "please leave", mugwort's a "You need to leave, now." Asafoetida is in a class of its own, and it could be seen, accurately, as an herb that says "Get thee the f*** out of my house!" There are accounts of it being placed on coals to ward off the dead, demons, and other intrusive entities, and I can personally attest to its efficacy.

Just be mindful of using it around the house, as it stinks to hell and upsets everything around you...often to a visible extreme. This is what you use if you want to tell everything within a mile radius to go away, so bear that in mind.

You can couple this with a prayer, but its not needed. Such is the nature of this herb. 

In addition to the rootwork means of sending spirits packing, there are plenty of invocations that can be used to this extent as well. For instance, procuring for yourself a Medal of St. Michael and saying over it these words can provide a strong charm against Evil:
"St Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Spare us the wickedness of the Devil and his Horde.
Act as a shield between the Righteous and the Fallen,
Vouchsafing us before the Lord and granting us his fury."

Play with this and get creative, as there are a great number of ways through which one might safely remove encroaching entities without an insane amount of work. 

Good luck,
​-SE

Greetings folks, its wonderful to have you here.

Some time ago, I was sought out by client to discuss the subject of blessing a knife to make it safe & ready for ritual. I've been meaning to write about it here for quite some time now, so I hope this information is useful to you.

Knives are, without a doubt, a much maligned tool, and they are illegal in some areas. In others, you have to pick the right tool for your locale. It does and doesn't matter what you pick, here. I'm not going into that today, as there's too much to talk about in that arena.

Once you've selected your chosen tool, its time to imbue it with energies and intentions that work for you. There are many manners of doing so, and thus I provide you with one.

Procure water from a local stream, rainfall (assuming its not illegal to collect rainwater in your area), or a river. If you don't have access, use tap water instead. Mix one cup of water with a teaspoon of kosher salt. Over that salt, say the following: "I bless you according to the merits of your ingredients & the rightful benedictions of your Creator."

As you do this, think about the process of this mixture being infused with essence and import, of significance and heart. Feel it come alive in your hands.

When this life has been imbued and the associated state achieved, place the blade of your chosen tool in the concoction and say "Tubal-Cain, lord of the Forge, I ask your blessing of this, my tool that is cousin to what you've made in your Shop. Let this steel come alive in my hands and be made useful to me."

Afterwards, light some incense that you believe would be appropriate. You're free to choose what works for you.

Then on, each time you sharpen your knife, be sure to offer the iron filings up. They might not seem like much, but that's incredibly important to a spirit of craftsmen: its a sign of use of the craft they chose to master.

Blessings,
-SE

Greetings folks!

So a really cool topic came up out of a long-dead one over at StudioArcanis, and it led to a damned good question being asked. I'm going to share both the question and the reply here, so as to record this for my readers who don't tend to hang out on forums.

The question:
"Wanderer are you suggesting a theory of magick that the older a symbol is and the more that it has been used, then the more efficacious it is?[...]"

-Amind


My answer:
"Sort of, but not quite so directly as that.

In my experience, three things matter when doing magic:
1) How established is that current?
2) How easy is it if for [b]you[/b] to get into that current?
3) Just how potent is that current capable of being?

And they really do matter in that order, for the most part.

Runes are ancient. We don't really know how old, but I suggest that you read Jan Fries' Helrunar, as it would indicate that there are some runic forms that go way, way back. Some of 'em were painted all over the world to boot, and usually that's for an unknown reason. Take what you will from that.


Age is only one factor in establishment of a faith, though. There are plenty of old systems that clearly didn't work all that well, as the cults did not survive. Those that were potent had pieces of themselves adopted by other, newer religions that still kept enough of the old ways to make it work (Sun Worship, anyone?). The fact that Christianity has survived and thrived may well be an indicator of just how robust it is as a religious system, even if its one I don't find particular resonance with.

Establishing a faith/system and keeping it going for thousands of years requires quite a bit of human interaction with said system. Furthermore, one could argue that it would require a fair deal of deific interaction too, so as to keep its tenants from being forgotten. When that happens, "grooves" are formed along human consciousness, and what your ancestors did is often easier for you to do. We can posit this theory because mice have been proven to inherit fear-based responses to stimuli like the smell of cherry blossoms (link).

The more something was done before, the easier it is to do again (theoretically speaking, anyway). This is why the status & establishment of a system matters.

Next up, we've got the point of "well, just how easy is it for you to get into that current?", and that goes along the lines of what I mentioned above. If your ancestors did it and you inherited genes that have those spiritual tendencies of theirs locked away therein, then it should logically be easier for you to get a sense of what they did and do it yourself. Likewise, your practices could well be inherited by your kids, provided you got into those practices before they were born.

If this is indeed true (and it appears to be, per science), then those whose families have practiced magical work for generations are going to have a leg up on others, so long as they follow the same line of study.

Finally, we've got the matter of power. How powerful can that system actually be? We've all heard stories of people levitating, crushing others under the weight of their psychic blows, and so on and so forth. These 'miracles' are said to have occur, but hearsay doesn't matter at this point; what matters is actualization. And whose to say how powerful a system is at the end of the day? That's a matter of crafting theories based on tons of resarch.

And here's the particularly important part about the 3rd piece of this puzzle: the pinnacle only matters if you can attune yourself to the system so effectively that you can actually utilize and channel the current at its full potency. If you can't do that, the glittering peak of power-in-a-system means nada to you.

.....and then you get into points of contention like "does this deity still exist?" and "is this accessible?". Some deities & spirits just won't like you regardless of what you do. Its not "fair", but "fair" is bollocks.

Its also worth noting that new systems can be damned powerful if based enough around old systems. I'm convinced that's why New Avatar Power works so damned well...our ancestors wouldn't have had the time to run around with a special dagger, tiger skin belt, and so on. They would have used the down, dirty, and quick way so as to fire their magics off quickly, without fanfare. Hushed, rapid whispers make more sense over grandiose conjurations if you look to history."


Continuing on, this is a topic I've asked spirits about, researched endlessly, and obsessed over for years and years and years now. Its a curious question to posit, but one with a potentially incredible impact. If we're being honest, doing magical work is about results. Would you agree?

If that is the case & success is your goal, adopting a system most prone to get you results is key. And no, I'm not recommending blindly following someone purely because they have the oldest magical system on the books - that would be idiocy. Instead, I suggest that success should be thy proof a la Crowley.

To that end, constantly tinkering with and trying new-to-you systems would be wise. As would integrating truths you find from different places and things.

We would be foolish to believe that these old systems have survived unmolested, and so piecing them back together and distilling them until we've found the absolute heart of the practice is incredibly important.

That is what I do, day in and day out. It is a passion of mine. Maybe it can become a passion of yours. ;)

Be well,
​SE

I've realized I've been a bit lax in sharing pertinent ideas and practices here, over the past few months, so I thought it time to post a bit.  With that in mind, I've been contemplating & experimenting with the idea of using magical grids, mandalas, and so forth when doing work for quite some time now. The idea first struck me many years ago, and I lazily pursued it at the time, only to have my interest rekindled by Gordon over at Rune Soup when he talked about Sigil Shoaling. This pattern of pursuing the idea, then losing sight of it, then pursuing it again has repeated on and on for many years now, and so I am making a conscious effort to put it into practice once again.

As I do so, I am finding that several things happen. Firstly, the vibrational feel of the working picks up considerably.  Secondly, this causes results to manifest more quickly.  And thirdly, it just feels right; something clicks into place and suddenly the individual workings that felt very much alive to start rapidly develops palpable depth and breadth. The workings begin to dance with each other, develop their own music, and then go on to live as if they're villagers that have shuffled out into the world.

Incidentally, since I started doing this, I now get asked if I'm a musician every other day or so.  I love and adore music, but lack the aptitude to create it outside of the creation of sung or whispered charms and such.

Getting back to it, grids, as I'll call them here, can be crafted and shaped in any number of ways with whatever materials you so choose.  You can use numerology, sacred geometry, aesthetic balance, elemental associations, astrological meanings, tarot cards, playing cards, bones, runes, psephoi, colors, and so on and so forth until you've built up a truly impressive and massive magical grid (how's that for a tongue twister, eh?).

Above is one such grid that I use in my home alongside other workings.  When inclined to do so, I often elect to branch out from what you see above and connect this grid to smaller gridded workings like you see below.

The possibilities, potentialities, and arrangements are pretty much limitless in theory.  In reality, they are limited by space and materials. In my case, I limit the size of the workings to 2 altar tops' worth for the sake of not making too much of a mess. :)

When setting up such a system, its useful to take the intention, available materials, and available space into account.  Don't go above and beyond what you can feasibly control, lest it bite you on the rear end at a later date.

I suggest starting small, first by considering the numerical value you want to utilize.  I am partial to letter-based systems of divination a la psephoi (aka the Greek Alphabet Oracle) and the runic Futharks, planetary, and elemental magic, so I tend to arrange grids around those ideas.

If I were to make a fire-related grid for spiritual illumination, I would utilize the numbers 3 and 7, as they strike me as being active and relatively fiery in nature.  I'd utilize 7 different types of materials, be they sigils (Fire symbols from various books, the tattva for fire, picture of a salamander), oils (Fire From Heaven, Bend Over, Commanding), vegetebilia (Cinquefoil, ash, Blessed Thistle, Devil's Claw) mineralia (obsidian, glass, tempered metal, or fire agate), candles (red, orange, jet blue), charms (against Evil Eye, dragon pendant, all seeing eye), animalia (lawfully and humanely harvested bones, sinew, misc. viscera from salamanders, geckos, fire-bellied toads, coyotes, rattlesnakes, vultures, scorpions, mountain lions), uttered or written prayers, energy work, and so forth. I tend to use whatever is available to me - you may or may not have certain limitations, so use whatever you're comfortable with.

Were I to utilize Lunar magic, I'd do the same thing with the numbers 5 and 8. For Jupiter work, I'd use 4 and 7, and so on and so forth, mixing and matching to my heart's content.

With any luck, this post will have provided you with plenty of ideas for magical workings that you could do in the future.

Enjoy your Saturday, folks!

SE