As some of you are aware, tomorrow is the beginning of a particularly strong Mercury retrograde, so I'm here to offer a bit of a guide for getting through it and using the chaos to your own benefit. 

Mercury's the Mercantile God, as well as the energy behind commerce, music, discussion, intellectual pursuits, and technology. The energy of the planet has its fingers in these things too, so retrogrades can cause a feeling of slowness, sluggishness, and uncertainty, all the while making life feel less fulfilling.

Folks tend to get a bit crazier on the roads, and they become less conscious of what they do and say during these periods. You'll likely notice people acting like they're embattled and feeling very haggard, so choosing your words carefully and working to avoid misunderstandings becomes particularly important.

Cultivate an awareness of how you feel and how balanced/unbalanced you are in that moment. Be kind, be understanding, and try to comprehend where others are coming from so that you can work around and with their difficulties. Doing this creates goodwill where frustration and aggravation can otherwise occur, and it makes this period less painful, less troublesome.

Furthermore, I would recommend giving offerings of Sandalwood & Copal to the powers of Mercury during this period. It's a good way to use this juju to your benefit between now and the 19th of August.

Otherwise, go about your day as you would normally and you'll get through this without much trouble. If you feel like this period is going particularly poorly for you, feel free to comment here or contact me directly.

Regards & blessings,
Chris/SE

Greetings folks. Its fantastic to have you here, and I'm pleased to be able to write something for you.

A bit of a quickish post today, but this month is going to be pretty exciting from an Astrological POV, so those of you that are paying attention may wish to make use of the powers at play. This post is primarily a head's up. 

The two big things that are happening are a Lunar eclipse on the Full Moon & a Solar eclipse on a New Moon. These are happening August 7th and on August 21st, respectively. To make a long story short, eclipses are very frequently times to make big, positive changes in your life if they're used appropriately.

If you've been struggling for a while now, now's pretty much the time to set yourself right with whatever God (or spiritual practice) you've been neglecting as a means of getting into the right orientation with the universe et al. It's a bit hokey sounding, but when you fall into step with everything else and march to an appropriate beat, life is a hell of a lot easier over the long haul.

If you do fall into step and stop struggling against the tides you're not really supposed to be working against, you can then turn them to your advantage and cause massive psychospiritual growth as well as physical niceties to boot. 

I've been seeing this as a cosmic reset, and a much needed one at that. I highly recommend paying attention this month and doing some work around it. Seriously - light incense, bang on some drums, and have fun with it....if you make this work for you, you'll thank me later.

If you're struggling for ideas as most do, here are some suggestions:

• Conjure Ophiel to find new housing accomodations if you're looking for a home.
• Work to cut red tape that's holding you back.
• Use the tides at play to pull positive things your way.
• Road opener work.
• Blockbusting.
• Anti-curse work.
• Opportunity creation.
• Invocations of higher forces (Shem angels, Elubatel, Dynamis, Uriel, Anael, etc.)
• Invocation of "lower" forces (Ghob, Paralda, etc.)
• Invocation of go-betweens (Personal daemons, your HGA, creation of servitors, etc.)
• Sigil work towards specific goals that you've been waiting on.
• Monetary work
• Luck rites!
• Offerings!!!

​That's quite a list, but it'll get you started.

That said, onto the less major notables that you might want to put to work for you....

First up, Uranus is retrograde as of today, so now's high time to make sweeping changes. If you've got situations that are troubling you, wherein things are standing in the way of your personal successes, now's a good time to make use of the current. Start conjuring spirits associated with seeing the way through the troubled times and you'll be well ahead of everyone else.

Second, there's a Jupiter/Pluto square come tomorrow. If you're looking to find a deal on necessary hardware, its good timing to do so. With changes like this going on, there's going to be a fair bit of financial shuffling to be done, and that can work to your benefit if you're clever.

Third, Mercury is retrograde as of August 12th (and returning to normal come September 5th), so communications will probably start to have some issues. I fully anticipate that folks will be complaining about not being able to effectively talk to others, so be aware of the energy at play and make an extra effort to speak clearly. If you do so, it'll highlight your ability to overachieve, which makes things like getting a job much, much easier. ;)

Fourth, Saturn goes direct come the 25th, so the frustrations you've been dealing with around the "hurry up & wait" juju at play will come to an end. Be prepared to spring into action, as you're going to want to make use of this.

It'll be a full month if you're planning to take advantage of these currents. I'll be doing so, and I recommend that you do the same.

Have fun!
​-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

As mentioned previously in my post about Timing, astrological happenings can have a major impact on everyone.  How much of an impact and what sort of impact any heavenly changes and transits have upon an individual depends largely upon their personal natal chart, so some folks are bound to be more heavily swayed by an event than others.

Before I proceed further, its worth acknowledging the facts that by & large, astrology is a divisive concept: some love it and swear by it, others hate it and call it silly nonsense. Some fall right in between, and are admittedly rather agnostic where such concepts are concerned. Let there be no mistake: astrology and the associated changes are crucial to understand.  Like it or not, you're at the butt end of a giant cosmic joke where the aforementioned are concerned, and you can either acknowledge and use it or simply be used by those changes. You're never going to free yourself from their influence entirely, as its going to mess with you even if you don't want it to.

Modern science may well say its junk "science", but the reality is that Police Stations staff more officers during the full moon because they've seen this in action. Same goes for Emergency Rooms. If you think this is nonsense, pull up a lunar calendar and watch just how nuts people go during the Full and New moons. Observation trumps "science", in my experience, as there are plenty of things that we simply do not understand at this juncture. Give it another 30 years and we may then have a bead on why these events effect us so.

Having called as much into the limelight, the reason for my post today is that we are currently undergoing a Mercury retrograde. It started as of September 17th and will end on October 9th. Between now and about two weeks from the end date on the 9th of October, you're going to be dealing with the effects thereof.

We're also dealing with a Pluto, Uranus, Chiron, and Neptune retrogrades at this time. That's why things have been uniquely unhinged for the past while.

What that means is relatively simple: when a planet goes retrograde the darker side of its influence comes out to play and the positives get put on the backburner.  The Universe is in a constant balance of woeful and wealful influences, so right now we're dealing with the wealful influences of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. We're dealing with the woeful influences of Mercury, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and Chiron. 

Taking a break from the recent discussions on energy work, it feels appropriate to discuss timing from a magical perspective. It seems its a subject of little discussion.

All things in life have their rhythms, and each of them is cyclical.  Sometimes observing those rotations is crucial to being successful, and others its not all that useful.

In martial arts, one frequently performs drills to get in the habit of observing how another person moves and reacts. One such drill I've used in the past involves staying in contact with a sparring partner as he moves his arms and attempts to attack using short movements. A simple version of this can be found in this video below:

It might look a bit silly, but the purpose of the drill is to get into a flow that speeds up or slows down according to the movements of your training partner. This is one of many such drills, as I've seen the same sort of thing used in Tai Chi, Kenpo, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Karate, Kali, and several other arts.

On a spiritual level, it works the same way. One can learn to observe how others flow in order to better help them, for example.  When healing a target, understanding when they sleep, how long they sleep, when they eat, how they respond to those things, and how their internal clocks tick can be used to time work more effectively. Setting a healing rite to occur at the same moment a person eats a tonic-filled meal can be an incredibly potent practice that takes a great deal of work out of the arrangement long-term.

The same concept can be applied to the external rhythms seen in nature through astrology. Understanding lunar phases, the movement of the Behenian Stars, and the transits of the planets can be incredibly potent when applied to workings.  On a simple level, the Moon's status can be used to cause an effect to grow (while the Moon is waxing) or to decrease (when the Moon is waning). This logic applies to any and all states within the Universe so long as they effect what you are attempting to work with.

Keeping this in mind, becoming aware of how those transits and changes affect you is very important as well.  I can't tell you how many times a client has done something harmful as a result of being impacted by a retrograde they didn't know about. Less frequently, sometimes folks get crazy lucky as a result of making a business decision at the right moment, and it catapults them ahead.

Just like watching the stock market, using those energy fields appropriately is a matter of observation and wisdom, so I suggest you start paying attention.

So too, when performing magical work for yourself, this can be useful. If you know what's coming around the mountain in a social situation, you can use it to your advantage. Let's say, for example, a woman you're interested in is going to be at a party and you know you're going to try to ask her out later on in the evening. Blessing her day and then glamouring yourself such that she's more inclined to lower her guard around you can be just enough to make her more likely to pay attention to you and want to make her day even better by acquiescing to your request for a date. Someone's going to be more likely to say yes when the opportunity is seen as positive and they've been having a good day.

Likewise, doing things before their time can sometimes be harmful.  Doing work to get a promotion when none exists, for example, can get you a bunch of attention from your superiors during a financial pinch point. If you get that attention and then don't rise to the occasion, you could well find your job in jeapardy.  

Just some musings to consider.

Be well folks,
SE

The recent Q&A session got me thinking about sharing my own experiences with the Arbatel, as well as on detailing the methods I employ in working with those spirits.

For some backstory, I've worked with the Arbatel spirits on and off for the past 7 years or so.  I first stumbled on them when reading through AE Waite's "Book of Black Magic", if memory serves, and was immediately intrigued by the nature of the spirits therein. Working with them over the years is actually what inspired me to create planetary keys, etc., as the spirits themselves are what turned me onto the idea.

These are powerful entities, I find. Not ones to be trifled with, and provided you get on with them, they are plenty able to rearrange minor and major things within the known universe.  Case in point, working with Ophiel to find a new home, some time ago, resulted in my being led to an apartment complex with a room for rent on the third floor, in the third building, near third street, within 3 days (if memory serves - bit hazy on if it was three days or three weeks).  The locale was well within my price range and, little did I know until I moved in, I wouldn't be charged for electricity for nearly three years.  I believe it was 2 years and 7 months before the management company audited their records and I was informed that there had been a mistake on their end that allowed me to get by without being tagged for an electric bill.  I found that rather interesting, as while actually saving money was not the intention of the rite, staying within my price point was - and living in Arizona is quite costly on that front.  In fact, during the summer months, one's electric bill can easily be between five and six hundred dollars...and I was keeping my home at 76 degrees Fahrenheit at all times.  This calculates out to me having saved ~15,000$ at roughly 4500$ a year, give or take. All in all, pretty damned impressive for a spirit that some have relegated to a stance of less importance on account of his not being a deity.

Ophiel has come to my aid, repeatedly, since that time. I've worked with him at least six times for housing-related concerns since then, at least thirty times for clients, and probably more than fifty times for other Mercury-related concerns.  As a general rule, working with him has proven to be incredibly helpful in both the short and the long term.  As such, I am of the mind that serious practice in Planetary Magic requires some familiarity with him.

So too is this the case with his brethren Och, Phaleg, Phul, Aratron, Bethor, and Hagith.  Each has their effects and potency, and as such they are quite worthwhile.

My methods, in working with them, are simple.  The best results I've gotten have required the least level of preparation on my part after having been initiated by them.  Prior to my simpler approaches, the thing that really kicked my experiences with them into higher gear (after moving into the apartment mentioned above) was evoking the lot whilst intoxicated; while I wouldn't recommend it, the process led to some potent internal changes that afforded me the ability to work with them more easily. Prior to this change, I found that using three candles of an appropriate color, the appropriate planetary oil, a mix of frankincense and myrrh on a coal, and the spirit's sigil worked quite well.

After the initiatory experience, writing a short petition and lighting a candle for the spirit in question became more than enough to readily conjure them.  The process became, for me, something of an offering and a prayer. That in mind, I mention this because working with spirits like this in a simple, unimpeded way seems to be of value.

With that in mind, I have endeavored to pen, for you, Attunement Sigils to unlock the Arbatel's potency for you prior to work with the lot. I would recommend proceeding slowly, doing one a week on the appropriate day, during the appropriate hour if you're not familiar with Ophiel et alia.

Each of these sigils is correlated with a Planetary energy, and thus with a specific day, Planetary Hour, and thus a spirit. You can use Lunarium to calculate planetary hours - be sure to change the location to where you live, as that is crucial.

May these sigils serve you well.

Enjoy!

SE

As some of you may be aware, at the end of this week we are going to be experiencing an interesting flood of astrological changes. Things are likely to be a bit rocky, so I thought I'd post about it and pass the word on.

On February 28th Mercury goes direct, so this will be a perfect time for luck, money, flexibility, and memory-related workings.

The following day, March 3rd, a New Moon will be occurring alongside Mars going retrograde, and then upon the following day Saturn will follow suit.  The combination of these effects are likely to cause a fair deal of upheaval for folks for a short while, but on the positive end of things, these changes will allow those who take advantage of the auspicious time to reinvent their lives by powering through obstacles and grasping at the pinnacles they seek.

Finally, with Jupiter going direct on March 6th, for those who jumped at the chance to begin doing work at the start of the cycle, financial gain should begin to manifest and take hold.  All in all, it is an exciting time to formulate new plans and take action to see them through!

It is at this time that I intend to begin anew a fairly sizable operation.  The results, upon their culmination, will later be posted here with the intention of chronicling the effects of magical work done during times of large planetary shifts.

Happy hunting, folks.

Regards,

SE