Hail and welcome, folks. Lovely to have you here. As a tertiary result of the multitude of evocations I've been performing of late, I have been moved to communicate an idea through this page, and I hope it catches on. In short, I'm here to talk about the mark of a magician as it applies to one's intellect. 

In the Lemegeton/Ars Goetia, there are a number of spirits who are known to "make men wise" or "teach astronomy and liberal philosophy" or otherwise educate us fleshy persons on matters of higher thought. Despite their prevalence, this concept is largely glossed over, often to the point where no mention is made of just how incredibly beneficial this can be.

My own observations have generally indicated that folks want to obtain the result they desire but don't really want to educate themselves around the object of their affections. As a result, spirits like Jazar (educated in matters of love), Marax (teaches astronomy, liberal sciences, the virtues of plants and minerals), Marbas (educates us on hidden things, makes men wise in medicine, and assists in "changing the shape of man") and so forth are largely ignored, their virtues cast aside as being paltry and pointless. 

This is a viewpoint that I stand in opposition to, as I rather believe that the mark of a mage is, in part, their intellect and understanding. I've been conjuring, working alongside, and conversing with spirits for essentially as long as I can remember, and for that they've made me wise. I won't profess to be the foremost scientific authority on interstellar phenomenon or a theoretical maths genius, but these interactions have caused me to see and understand the world differently. 

How could they not? Your average human being isn't all that inclined to talk to noncorporeal beings of massive force and intellect beyond  the scope of humanity despite their lack of manifest form. The thought is, to most, rather terrifying, but for those of us who dare to do so, I would posit that we should well seek out these alternative educations. 

Sure, these learnings won't miraculously end with a doctorate in medicine, but you could well go on to such achievements with the appropriate help. Even if you're simply content to learn as much as possible without the associated degrees, it's entirely possible to apply that knowledge in satisfying ways that also benefit your career immensely. 

Case in point, when I was working in Information Technology, I started out as a lowly peon. I had plenty of opportunities to assist folks in a hands-on fashion, remedying everything from forgotten passwords to applications and systems troubleshooting. It was satisfying to be so helpful, but it wasn't challenging, so when an opportunity arose for career advancement, I took it and landed myself in a specialized field wherein I was a complete novice. 

As with all promotions, you sink or you swim, so I leveraged my past experience with the application class I was expected to manage and my skill at conjuring spirits to learn how to do my newfound job more effectively (in addition, of course, to studying textbooks and guides on the subject matter). In so doing, I received the respect of of my peers and, more than that, I'd impressed my boss' higher-ups and was offered a 30% raise roughly six months in, and then yet another at a year. 

I should stress, too, that during that time I did not spend much time enchanting for a raise. Instead, I focused on performing my function as effectively as I could & worked to earn the respect of those I worked with. Raises and accolades came as a result, but I was far more concerned with ensuring that I could learn how to perform such an incredibly complicated job with success. I did so with a good deal of aplomb, too, and even had moments where spirits would walk me to the answer I sought when puzzling over a difficult problem at work. 

As a result, I was often able to find solutions to troubles that others were unable to solve. And when I couldn't do that on my own, I would enchant to work more effectively with my team so that we could solve the trouble & receive praise as a group. 

You see, this doesn't seem like a hugely Important thing at first glance, but if you're willing to apply some cleverness, you can do great things with your life and reshape it. You might not be able to return to school to do something different with your life, but if you work with a spirit like Sitri to learn what designs and room flows are aesthetically and emotionally pleasing, you could well become an interior designer as a result.

This is only one such example of how best these spiritual assistants might be applied. While it might not seem quite as powerful or poignant an application at first, the transformative impact can be impressive. I urge you to apply this in your day-to-day life and see how things evolve. ;)

Blessings,
SE

Greetings folks & Happy Friday. I hope the week has treated you well up to this point. Earlier on, I conjured Michael the Archangel to learn a bit more from him, provide offerings, and so on. In so doing, he & I got to talking about my recent projects.

He's offered up a new sigil for me to share here, and here it is in all its glory:

For those of you who aren't terribly aware of just who St. Michael/Michael the Archangel is, he's often considered to be one of the elementally-associated angelic forces within Judeo-Christian magic. In my experience, he's a rebellious, forceful spirit of protection with a fair bit of war-wisdom. As such, he can be evoked or invoked when you're under attack.

Here is a prayer to him that you may use:

This is meant to be a useful tool when coming up against nigh insurmountable troubles. Angels are a powerful force, and Michael is one such example.

Blessings,
​-SE

Hello everyone! It's wonderful to have you here, and I hope the day is treating you well.

As most of you know, today is a day of rememberance. A decade and a half ago, something awful happened on 9/11, and each year since, I've made a point of setting out a slew of offerings for all those afflicted. It's one of those things that just feels appropriate.

I'm not here to talk about what happened then, but I am here to talk about offerings. Specifically, offerings made easy, as its one of those areas of magic that's either forgotten entirely, or folks are intimidated by the thought of doing it themselves.

Offerings are a "thank you" to those who have walked with you and made your life a little better. They can be made to people, places, spirits of place, critters, deities, and so forth, and their complexity is primarily a matter of taste (yours and theirs).

This aims to act as a simple how-to for the act:

1. Procure a piece of paper, a pen, a candle, a candleholder, a stick of incense, an incense burner, some orange juice, and a cup.
   
2. Say a prayer over each of these things to consecrate and purify them. It should be heartfelt, but need not be religious.
3. Write a sincere note to the entity you are thanking. Sign it with your name. Place it onto your chosen altar.
4. Light the stick of incense and call the entity's name aloud. Place it at the upper left corner of your note.
5. Light the candle, call the entity's name aloud, and then place the candle in its holder, to the upper right corner of your note.
6. Pour the orange juice into the glass, say the entity's name aloud, and then place the glass on the note.
7. Close the rite with the words "Please enjoy these offerings which have been set out for me & then depart in peace."

After that, let the candle and incense burn down and then dispose of it in the trash. Then you may go back to your life having completed your first offering. ;)

Blessings,
​SE

Greetings folks. I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

To start us off for the week, I had a thought last night and started writing away: it's time to talk about magnifying our results with magic.  Time and again, this subject comes up in private messages and emails. Neophytes and seasoned hands alike often find themselves having issues with creating large results with their magical endeavors, so I'm writing to help out. 

If you're having trouble manifesting results for one reason or another and your target choice is sound, you may wish to use one of these:

These sigils are a series of magical amps used to deepen the flow of the currents you work with. In so doing, they can saturate your space and act as a kind of magical magnetic pooling. 
​
I recommend adding these to your workings. Scrawl them on candles, Mark out sigils in their image on paper, and add them to your conjure bags and the like. If your other tech is on-point, you'll notice a substantial uptick in the nature of the manifestations you create. 

Play with them and see what suits your fancy. See what works for you and what you resonate with, as we've all got our different skills and strengths. If they don't work for you, I would recommend reevaluating how you're going about working spells. Those who have tested these have gotten impressive results under lock and key. 

Blessings,
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

Given the start of the new year & our eagerness to begin correctly, it seems appropriate to speak of foundations. In magic, foundational work usually takes the form of elemental rites as a basis for long-term achievements. That's rather fitting, as these are the assumed building blocks of our world.

And who amongst those creatures are more noted, in Western magical practice, than the "Elemental Kings": Nyxsa, Ghob, Djinn, and Paralda.

Now without getting in to the history behind them (as that's really rather convoluted), we'll instead take a more practical bend: focusing on how to work with them without much in the way of tooling.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you'll notice that I've written about working with these spirits in an office environment. Those inclusions were a means of conveying the idea that you really don't need much to make this work....just some quiet and the ability to focus.

For those of you who like giving your monkey mind something to do so that it doesn't get distracted, raw simplicity doesn't quite work. When that's the case, I recommend procuring items that fit with your view of the element in question.

In my mind, the accessible elemental energies we're all familiar with are earth, air, fire, and water. They are respectively touted by the Gnomes whose king is Ghob, the Sylphs who answer to Paralda, the Salemanders who are ruled by Djinn, and the Undines who obey Nyxsa (or Nyksa, Nicksa, Nickse, Nyxse...there's a lot of potential Romanized spellings). There are other, more advanced components to this, but we're discussing basics, and these are the leaders of each.

I assume that each of you has a pretty good idea of what each element does and is used for, so I'll leave that out of this post. What may not be understood, however, is how to contact them and make use of their energies...there are a lot of ways to do it.

One such methodology involves the use of a miniature idol that you could carry with you to the office, then 'tap' as a means of activating that current. These should probably be the size of a dime or quarter, as you will wish to be able to keep them in your work bag or pocket. Beyond that, the form used is up to you.

When I first worked in an office environment in my teens, those items were a knife, a lighter, a USB drive, and a pen. The knife was made from ore, found deep within the earth, and formed into a shape useful to man. Dwarves & gnomes favor workmanship and tooling, and thus it was dedicated to them. The lighter is rather simple to connect the dots with, as flame is obviously sacred to fire spirits. Thus, they value the means of creating fire (matches work too, but they're a little less portable and water resistant). The USB drive struck me as being a means of storing and conveying data, which could be used to compress information. Information is valued by Sylphides, and so this became my micrototem for those spirits. Finally, the pen, while a simple and innocuous object at work, became associated with water for the simple facts that ink is a liquid & I've always had an easier time writing my emotions rather than saying them. And thus my my toolkit was built, and that was that.

I could use them in my day-to-day work (which was a serious benefit, outside the lighter) and nobody ever batted an eye at any of the other objects being used; I was constantly saving things on the USB, opening boxes with the knife, or writing notes. Easy, eh? And simplicity is usually more useful than complexity.

Whenever I needed to invoke a particular energy, I could just focus on the tool as a signal tuner, make the call to the appropriate King, then use the energy or spirit sent my way. It was fairly easy to get used to, and the spirits were responsive to my system. I could use it to make plans with friends more easily, help my boss to understand me, make writing a less difficult task, and so on and so forth. Didn't require a whole lot of effort, either, which in an office setting is basically required, lest you look like a total weirdo and get yourself fired.

If you like the idea put forth here, I would recommend giving this a go. Make a toolkit that works for you, and carry it about as a means of more readily accessing these currents. Over time, this will have an added benefit of making it easier for you to work with these energies, as well as show you what your strengths and weaknesses are.

It has been my experience that sometimes an immediate response is more useful than a large show of force. This sort of kitwork, if it works for you, will afford you a greater ability to utilize elemental magic in your day to day life, all while adding an element of expediency to it.

Have fun!
-Chris/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 spent the last several days talking about the properties of various herbs that can be used in magical work.  I've spent relatively little time discoursing on the subject of actually using those herbs...more specifically, how to do it. The point of today's lessen is to remedy this.

Working with herbs is all about relationships.  What you cultivate is key, and if you don't have a relationship with the spirits behind the fleshy, fibrous mass that is their corporeal form, the roots, stems, leaves, resinous chunks, seeds mean nothing to you and have no power outside of what you create and will.  What you imbue into them, if you will.

As discussed over the past two entries, protection is a multi-step, many stage affair that has a great deal to do with preparation, awareness, skill, and flexibility.  Learning to improvise is good, but being prepared is better.

When your preparations have failed you, its time to get creative and work with what you got.  In keeping with this theme, I've decided to discuss herbs that can be used for protective magic.  Some are offensive, some are defensive, and some are a mixture of the two.  There are those in this list that only work (for protection) when combined with other materia magica too.  I'll do what I can to summarize a portion of those tidbits here, but rest assured that you're going to have to play with the mixtures you want to use to learn the ins and outs of the spirits behind the flesh. I'll be using both folk names and Latin names where possible.

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