When inspiration hits, it's a wonderful thing. The trouble is that it's not always forthcoming in an hour of need thanks to pressure and stress and sleeplessness in response to that upcoming deadline.

In times of issues like those, magic tends to be particularly useful. The stories of old are riddled with magical draughts of inspiration-given, so clearly our ancestors felt much the same way about the subject at hand.

When in doubt, I'd recommend conjuring your muse to form and effect and let him or her appear and inspire.

To do so, you will need several things:

• Water (preferably spring water)
• Wine (red wine, not white)
• Basil
• Bay leaves
• Blessed thistle
• 1 red candle
• 2 violet candles
• Abramelin oil
• A heat-proof surface of sufficient size to encompass the work

When you've obtained your materials, sprinkle them with holy water and ensure that they've been cleansed and repurposed to your needs.

From there, when ready, setup your altar. Place the spring water to the right and the wine to the left. Between the water and wine, place the two violet candles and singular red candle in the shape of a triangle with the point away from you; the purple candles should be closest to you. Sprinkle Abramelin oil on the candles and the herbs, being mindful of safety precautions, then place the herbs in the center of the triangle in the a shape like so: \|/. Say a quick prayer, then light the candles and meditate for a while, grasping the intention of your work and the nature of the conjured muse.

In time, inspiration should come. If it doesn't, you've either done something wrong or there's something amiss in your sphere that you will want to look into.

Enjoy!

SE

Greetings folks.

As a follow-up to my earlier post, today I am going to talk about the importance of understanding one's patterns.

If you think about human nature, the way we think, the way we act, and how we tell each other apart, it rapidly becomes apparent that we are creatures of habit.  We like the way a specific sandwich tastes, or how a combination of food and song go together, or even how our routine is laid out; we adhere to our preferred patterns to the best of our ability, regardless of what is best for us.  If you doubt this, just look at what happens with folks who smoke, drink, or drug themselves compulsively on a daily basis.

Having said as much, its also important to understand that human beings are vulnerable whenever their pattern is interrupted, as it is at that time that they are between patterns, upset, frustrated, emotional, and not usually thinking clearly.  As a result, it is possible to manipulate folks by getting them to start unhelpful patterns that are self-destructive or otherwise problematic.  

This is readily apparent when one considers such phenomena as the "mid-life crisis", during which a person, assumedly of middling age, decides that his or her pattern is no longer satisfactory and goes to staggering, sometimes ridiculous, lengths to change them.  Often times, the individual believes that these radical changes will allow them to reinvent themselves, and sometimes they are right. More often, however, such behavior is resultant of not knowing one's patterns and being unaware of how to modify them constructively.

During times like the mid-life crisis, most folks are easily manipulated and give themselves up to peer pressure.  Just look to the desperate housewives syndrome for further examples on the subject.  Older women will take younger men to bed in hopes that it'll make them feel alive, often being conned out of their savings and left once they're dried up and no longer fun for their new "boy toy". Older men fall for younger women, and end up being strung-along as "sugar daddies", never finding what they want.

Those are perfect examples of how folks are vulnerable through mundane means when their patterns are interrupted.  Now, to switch gears, we can also see the same thing in a magical and metaphysical light, though the dynamic changes slightly.  Fascination is, very literally, dangerous, to both men and women, as it is the surest means of bewilderment and befuddlement, for we're distracted and thereby open to attack.

To illustrate this, have you ever seen a person who, to you, struck you as so attractive and different that you couldn't help but stare at them and try to figure them out?  You get carried away in their presence, get heady, and willing to do what they ask of you, purely because it seems right?  That's fascination and glamour at its base; pure, raw, and powerful....it causes you to drop your guard and your jaw.

A skilled witch or sorcerer can use the temporary state of dulled awareness and general susceptibility you take on as a means of imprinting sigilized commands or sending a spirit after you.  I've had experiences where I was fascinated by a woman just long enough for her to tear open my root, draining me of energy very quickly; its what proved to me that it doesn't take much, and it doesn't take long.

In order to stop this from occurring, we need to be able to notice our behavior as it starts. That's where meditation, as mentioned previously, comes in.

There are means of defending oneself, but to do so, you must first have the awareness to know when such a slight is occurring.

Regards,

SE

Ave folks.

At the request of a client, I've decided to talk a bit about the subject of mind control; specifically, I am referring to adequate self-control when it comes to one's own thoughts and feelings. Its an exceedingly important topic, but is largely dismissed in the West, despite the fact that an untrained mind is often weak and pliable. Weak and pliable = vulnerable to spiritual attack for reasons that I'll discuss later.

That being the case, it behooves us to do what we can to work to control the inner machinations of our brains. However, before we can control something, we must be aware of it and understand it intimately.

If we are to understand how we function, we need a tool that'll allow us to do just that.  We are fortunate to have one: meditation; a simple to use, difficult to master skill that's incredibly important in magical work.

When you meditate, the things that pop into the forefront of your mind's eye are usually noise and chatter from your deep mind.  All of those concerns like "did I finish the laundry" and "what the hell perfume was she wearing?!" are little things that your subconscious is ruminating over. Those things are, in magical work, distractions, and until you get control of them, you're going to have difficulty doing magic.

With time and practice, you'll learn not to focus on those little tidbits that pop up.  Instead, you can simply observe them and they'll pass.  Your goal, during meditation, is to be an impartial observer who simply lives with himself or herself. As you do so, you'll begin to see patterns that define you. These patterns are incredibly important, as they are the building blocks of your personal song; that vibration which describes you to the universe.  When those patterns suddenly don't match the usual patterns you observe, you're either going through important changes, someone is screwing with you, you're being visited by a spirit, or you're under extreme duress and need to relax.

See why this is important?

...Good.

That addressed, let's get to the method of how one meditates.

I find that I am most successful when I attain a light trance and then begin to meditate.  It cuts down on the mental chatter considerably while making it easier to focus. To do so, I find a reasonably comfortable way to sit, stand, or lay down, as this ensures that I don't cramp up during the process, as that, frankly, sucks. From there, I begin to control the rhythm of my breathing and close my eyes, turning my focus inwards.  I then stay in that state for however long I need to; usually its 15 minutes, unless I've got a specific goal in mind.

So, let's rehash.  The TL:DR version of the above paragraph, step-by-step, is as follows:

1. Get comfortable
2. Control your breathing
3. Turn your attention inwards
4. Observe your mental behavior until you've done so for a set period of time.

With that said, that's all for now.

Enjoy!

SE