'Ello again folks.  Hope all is well.
We're around again for another round of herbs that can be used for protection.

As a continuation to yesterday's post, I'll be talking more about herbs in this one. We covered a few helpful tidbits previously, and we're going to do the same thing today.

Herbs can be flexible, and that gives them great power and potency if you're wise in their use.  There's a reason folks who did magical work in Europe were once called Cunningfolk....cunning and intelligent are two traits you must have if you want to be successful here. Otherwise, you're just going to wind up being a dumb patsy who can't get anything done. Nature spirits are from nature, and thus have no real concern regarding whether or not they're honest, helpful, or harmful. Sometimes interactions with humans are there solely for the sake of the game. Just something to consider.

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

In keeping with the astrological signs and changes, I've decided to offer 10 Lucky Horse bags here on Sorcerous Endeavors.

We've all got troubles, be they financial, sexual, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise, so the goal here is to get some movement going for folks who are otherwise indisposed and unable to proceed.  If you feel like you're stuck, unmotivated, or otherwise slowed down, I'd seriously suggest giving these a look.

Cost is 60$ apiece for folks in the continental US.  If you're outside the country, you'll need to contact me so we can discuss shipping charges.

I've blessed these extensively, using a mixture of potent rune magic, stone, galdr, wood, and ond.  This isn't your run-of-the-mill conjure bag, and they won't last long. 

If you're interested, please click on the "Buy Now" button and remit payment.  I will follow up with you via email and inform you when the bag has been shipped.

Enjoy your weekend!

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

Evening/Morning, folks. :)

Its a rare day when I get the writing bug during the Witching Hour, but for the moment, I find myself a bit entranced by the allure and pull of a spirit I know well.

Some of you may know of her as a "he" rather than a "she", and some of you may not know of this entity at all; in the Miracle of New Avatar Power by Geoff Gray Cobb, this spirit is called, simply, Elubatel.

For those of you who have worked with her, I don't think I need to stress just how damned effective she is at her job.  For those of you who are unaware and unfamiliar with her, however, it is worth noting that she is a spirit who the text implies will bring one's intentions to successful fruition....one heck of a noticeable function, ain't it?

Ironically, its also something that goes more-or-less unnoticed in the magical world....I guess it just seems, well, too simple and not grandiose.  That is, until you really begin to think on and understand the implications of such workings.

Now, I've talked about Elubatel previously; about how I experienced depression when working with her. About how she wasn't always the easiest to get on with. In reality, my difficulty came from within me, as I've come to realize over the past few months.

What I've also come to realize is that working with her was also a resounding success, even when the results manifested sneakily over a year after the working was done.

With that said, I pen this post for the sake of imparting a bit of wisdom on how one should go about working with Elubatel for the best results.

Before I speak on the methodologies I employ when utilizing her, I feel as though its important to note the sigil used.  Depicted at the top of this post on the left and directly above this paragraph, over the square of her name, it is a spiritual key.  It cuts the nonsense out of the manifestation, and can be used as a yantra and means of evoking the spirit through gazes.

For those of you who don't know what I mean, if you want to utilize the seal above, clear your temple's space, then print or draw it out on a consecrated piece of paper.  And yes, I would recommend creating a new one each and every time you work with her.

After doing so, I anoint a candle in charged and consecrated Abramelin, Cinnamon, or Bergamot oil, from the wick down, and then say a prayer to my Agathosdaimon, in effect invoking my Self as a Divine Being rather than as an incarnate human. From there, I proceed to place the candle on top of the sigil, light it, then pour her a shot glass' worth of holy water and place it on top of the sigil, in front of the burning candle.

This is where Will comes in, as I simply Will her to appear in the candle's reflection through the holy water while saying a prayer of intention and calling like so:

You'll notice that I use a smattering of Old Norse in my conjuration, and it is because it is familiar to me and adds force to the words.  As I speak them, I weave in runic intentions and binds to strengthen the manifestation. You are free to so so as you see fit.

Repeat your conjuration as many times as you need til she appears.  You'll know when it happens, as either she'll make it clear through the Sight or something strange will happen with the candle and make it readily apparent, depending on your ability or lack thereof.

When she's appeared, run through the usual tests to ensure that she is actually there and verify that the spirit is who it indicates it is, then relay your charge in a manner like so:

Let the candle burn itself out, then dispose of the remains.  Be sure to ground yourself out before you operate machinery or anything of the sort.

Have fun, and happy conjuring!

SE

Greetings, dear readers.

Recently, I had an incident that occurred with a client which prompted this post alongside a slight change to how I do things with clients. In short, this was a situation wherein there were too many hands in the cookie jar because the client in question decided that it was pertinent to hire three or four other workers alongside me, despite our conversations about how it was better to avoid complicating things.  It dawned on me, as this was occurring, that he had little to no idea of why this can be an issue, so I thought I'd talk about it here.

To start us off, think for a moment about working in a  kitchen with others, as that's something we've all done.  What happens when you add another person to the group working on cooking a meal? The room gets slightly more crowded with each addition of a new body.  Even when doing prep work, each person needs between a foot and a foot and a half of elbow room, not counting the counter space, to say nothing of the cook, whose likely wandering around the kitchen.  When you've only got 6 or 7 feet of counter space on each side of the kitchen, with an aisle that's ~3 feet across, that space gets damned crowded.  You've got people running around with knives, spices, meats, veggies, hot pots, boiling water, and Gods know what else; the area quickly becomes a hazardous sight.

Magic's really not all that different.  If your life is the stew and the sorcerer's the chef, its up to the chef to season the stew to provide you with what you ordered (the magical result).  If I am seasoning the stew, I have a pretty good idea of what spices I need to add, and what prep work I need to do. If you start adding other chefs to the mix, soon its going to become an incomprehensible mess, as I don't have the slightest idea what the hell the chef to my right is doing to the stew.  He's probably adding spices I'd never thought of with impunity, totally unaware of the fact that the meat in the stew is intentionally flavored a specific way.

To drop the metaphor and get down to brass tacks, in essence, when there are too many folks doing magical work at one time, the situation can get incredibly complicated.  The fact is that every working I do changes fate ever so slightly...when I'm the only one fiddling around, I can do this with a fair deal of control.  That's no longer the case when you have one other spirit worker doing work concurrently. Adding more to the mix only further complicates the problem.

That being the case, its not an issue if you hired someone to do the work prior to getting me involved, so long as they've already done their work.  Its also not an issue for you to hire someone a few months after I've done the work if the case is not, Heavens forbid, resolved.  But for the love of all that is holy, do not hire someone else while you're having me do the work. It'll likely become a convoluted mess and have really crappy repercussions in your life.

Granted, with that said, there's some flex to this "rule".  The fact is that some magical work is incredibly touchy, and other types are really rather cut and dry, for the most part.  Love work is naturally a pain, and everything's a balancing game, so that's a terrible time to add confusion to the mix.  Uncrossing and blessing work, however, is very direct...its simple, and generally, there's not a heck of a lot of confusion that can be caused.

Just do bear this in mind when you're either doing work for other people or having work done for you, as I'd hate to see your result get dorked up because of impatience or indecisiveness on your part.

Cordially,

SE

Greetings ladies, gentlemen, and in-betweens.

Today's a special day; one for fun and mirth.  It is the day of the Fool, and its meant for pleasure and enjoyment, misrule and a measure of chaos.

Traditionally, this day was dedicated to the Horned God, whom some know as Puck, and others as Pan, Herne, Cernunnos, and on; its a day to be foolish from sunrise til noon-time, proceeding down the street in various shades of color and flourish.

Nowadays, its a day in which we play pranks on those unsuspecting, tickling our fancies with mischievous delights. However, this post is no prank, trick, or game.  I just returned home after some wonderful news, and I am now free of the divorce proceedings with my ex-wife, and can and will go on happily.

One could say that my Patron, ol' Puck, smiled on me, and I'd be inclined to agree.  As a result, I am offering the Fool's Blessing to any and all who approach and pay on this day, the first of March; the rate is dirt cheap, but the benefit is oft staggering.

The link to donate is below; such a blessing will run you 10$ per person - that's 80% off!  I'll need the name and location of each person to be included.

I'll let this run until midnight PST.

Enjoy!

SE
-Für den Ruhm des großen Gottes der Narr-

Greetings, ladies and gents.

I've got some exciting (to me) news to convey: I am, as of this date, going to be doing magical work full-time for a while. If this works out, it'll probably be permanent, as I rather enjoy the Work.

That being the case, if you're in need of dedicated assistance, please let me know.  During the holiday, when possible, I will avail myself to attend your needs and wants.

With that said, thank you for reading this blog, for your continued trust, and your continued support.

Blessings!

SE