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. 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. 
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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

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