Since we are all human beings, each of us experience anxiety & stress. We've got quite a lot to worry about, as we're seeing very real threats develop in front of us. We're bombarded with clickbaitey media on a day to day basis, and the news parades the latest hairfire in front of us to garner attention and viewership. Its all well and good to stay informed, but there's a point at which this can all become too much to process.

I seek to discuss this point a bit and give you some tools to handle it so that what was once too much becomes manageable and well within your control. To this end, if you find yourself stressed out without an obvious cause, take some time to quiet the mind. When you've achieved that state, ask yourself "what's bothering me right now?" and listen for an answer, whatever it may be.

There are times where that fear or concern is entirely legitimate in nature, and there are times where that internal response is laughable. If its a valid reason to be concerned, the next thing you want to ask yourself is "what can I do to take steps to remedy this situation?" and again, listen for answer. Repeat this process until you have an idea of what needs to be done next so that you can make yourself more comfortable.

You might find yourself in a situation where you're banging your head against a wall because there's no end in sight, but that's going to be relatively rare. This rather simple meditative exercise gives you a tool to first determine what's upsetting you, and secondly gives you the ability to brainstorm and respond to that perceived threat in a rapid fashion instead of simply agonizing over it. As you then take the steps necessary to resolve the trouble, you should begin to notice less fear and anxiety in response.

If, however, the trouble is something that you cannot make mundane steps to resolve, can you, through magical works, begin to create a situation in which steps can be taken? If so, do that, and then begin to take mundane steps in conjunction with the magical remedies applied, as you'll then make it possible to work against what was once an insurmountably difficult hurdle.

Seems pretty simple when written out in this way, no?

If you, however, find yourself in a situation wherein the stress is neither valid nor useful, you can take steps to minimize the fear itself. To do so, calm the mind then mix together benzoin, sage, and neroli (or substitute dried citrus peels). Use a mortar and pestle to pulverize the mixture, and then place the mixture in a dish. Place upon it a candle, light it and say the words "Stress from within me, I acknowledge you and lessen the loudness of your voice. You are valuable and wanted, but I have heard your words and make this choice."

When the candle has burned down, take the herbs and place them into a jar. Fill the jar with oil and consecrate it. Whenever you find yourself in a stressful place of mind, anoint your forehead with the oil and then go back to focusing on your endeavors. This creates a mental link, a magical link, and a mundane link to the point at which you've taken action against your stress, freeing you up to use the aforementioned exercise to deal with actual stresses instead.

Just something to think through and work with. Its a surprisingly handy tool.

Blessings,
SE

This quote, penned above, is something I heard of a voice deep, full of resonance and emotion. I am quite familiar with this voice, as he's been alongside me for many, many years now.

Normally, I don't share these things with others, but its clear that he wanted those words spoken here. They are to be the basis for a lesson, and so here we are.

We get bent out of shape, in life, over the institutions we see and interact with. So enclosed and ensorcelled are we by our Office that we forget what occurs outside of whatever institution we represent. We are not defined by these things, however, and we become so enamored by what they represent to others that we forget to become enriched by them.

Take pride in your vocation, but do not let life's busy-ness take you away from what is important. Don't let it dissuade you from time with your families, nor keep you from being a decent person. Those things matter to an extreme, as when its time to call for aid, those who have watched you make an ass of yourself will remember.

These are essentially "shower thoughts", but it strikes me as an important memo to share. 

Enjoy your day.
~PN/-SE


PS: Your station can change in an instant. Who you are at your core cannot.

For those of you who have followed along the set of posts written recently, by now you should have some idea of how deep the magical rabbit hole can go. If you followed along, you'll have more of an idea of how you can mix and match various magical techs in to get a result.

Protection is an easy subject to start with as its all a matter of how you handle your business.  If things go wrong or you didn't do enough work, or you didn't handle the work properly, the effects are pretty obvious. If you handled the workings appropriately and all went well, life should improve for you.  The proof is in the pudding...or, in this case, the proof is in the response.

Having said as much, now that we've covered herbs, prayers, spirits, etc. and their uses with regard to defensive magic, we can now get into the subject of protection through the use of stones and metals that are amiable to that end.

Like plants, minerals have their uses too.  Each has their own properties and associations, both elemental and planetary. As such, they too are building blocks that can be used to spin your spells.

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.

Greetings folks! Hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day and weekend thus far.  We're getting back to protection magic in full swing.  If you've been reading the previous articles, you've probably realized, by now, that I've been speaking on magical herbs in alphabetical order.

That isn't to say that there are only a handful of herbs in each category that can be used for magic; really, the information is there to whet your appetite and spark a curious fire in you so that you can use the info I've provided to delve deeper into the Artes Magickal. They are, after all, a passion of mine. ;)

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.

As you can imagine, in my line of work, I spend a great deal of time observing all manners of behaviors. I see everything from the best folks have to offer to the worst, both in dealing with spirits and human beings. In truth, though our language and respective cultures vary, we're not all that different.
In truth, successful magic is frequently about understanding someone or something else's language, symbolism, cultural values, etc. A spirit doesn't say things the way you or I do. Elemental spirits have names, but they aren't ones that we can pronounce because we can't successfully mimic the sounds of the Earth.

We eventually learn to come to a place of compromise with these entities we work with, work for, serve, or remember. We come up with a language that works for both parties and then set to the task of successfully interacting with them.

I mention this to illustrate the fact that working with discarnate or non-corporeal can often be a lot of guesswork. When you get to know these entities, it no longer is, but until then they'll give you messages in dreams, random thoughts and instincts, images in your head, or strong feelings that you can't shake.

When you've earned a spirit's favor, most times they have great interest in your safety. You're their friend and visa versa, so like any good friend (or other such socially intimate role), they take it upon themselves to inform you when something's amiss. When that happens and you have dreams that aren't par for the course or you feel things that you can't explain, be sure to pay attention. I can't tell you how many times a well-timed warning has saved my bacon.

I've avoided many car wrecks, unstable clients, accidents with handguns or machinery, and other such unpleasant occurrences on account of such notifications. They've seemed a bit nuts at points, but heading those warnings does tend to be beneficial.

That being the case, my recommendation is to listen when your familiars, etc. pop up and give you a heads up on what's going on.  They're usually doing it for your health.

This brings me to the final point of this post: a working one can do to better connect with their Powers, their spiritual allies, for the sake of personal growth, etc.

Firstly, you start with a general offering to whatever strikes you as the image of your highest & best. Focus on that image and emotion you feel when you think about this symbol of raw achievement, then offer up a heartfelt prayer for its betterment and happiness, like so:

Note: Unselfishness seems to be key here. Replace "he" with "she" if you're a woman or make up your own prayer.

Once done, light a candle for this entity and begin to focus on the sigil below, feeling that essence rush into you and fill you up.  You may see other images, hear things, or otherwise be influenced...that is both OK and totally normal.

After meditating on this seal for a while, mentally close the working and the space, then ground yourself out.  Some of you will have instantaneous results, whereas for others it'll take a few weeks to really get into the current.

Enjoy!

SE

'lo again, my witchy friends. :)

At the urging of a friend of mine, I've written a prayer that may serve as the Buddhist version of St. Patrick's Breastplate.  This piece calls Mahakala, a wrathful emanation of Shiva, for the sake of becoming a walking embodiment of His essence so that we might become the change we wish to see in the world around us.

Use this whenever you feel threatened, hopeless, weakened, or in need of a sense of purpose.  Use this when you feel as though the odds are stacking themselves up against you.

By and through this prayer, one may seek enlightenment and cause others to do the same. Consider the use of this prayer to be an empowerment, if you should so choose.

The Prayer:

Great God Mahakala, I call to you in all of Your forms
I prostrate myself before you
and I bind Your essence within and without me from this day forward
such that those who rise against me shall gain no ground
Let Your compassion flow through me so that I and all others
Might be freed from sickness, hindrances and troubles
I gird myself in Your garbs and pick up Your tools
They empower me such that I may always walk with You
Bettering lives, attracting and fulfilling needs
Providing antidotes for the poisons of the World
Let all seek Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
As they see this kala which I've become! 

You are welcome to use this as you see fit or repost this as you see fit.  Please be sure to give me credit for it, however. 

Warm regards,

SE

Greetings once again, dear readers.

This, I'll admit, has been a long time coming - I've been intending to write about some of my experiments with Geoff Gray Cobb's "The Miracle of New Avatar Power" for quite some time, but never got around to it 'til now.

Now, some of you might be aware of this book and what it contains, but by and large, the majority of you probably have no idea what the heck I'm referring to. The book (linked above) is a smallish modern grimoire that is, largely, filled with a smattering of hype and magical praxis that is surprisingly effective in today's day and age. The trick is filtering through the sales pitch and finding the gooey goodness that is made from distilling each of the methods therein.  Coming to understand the reason for the simplicity is strikingly beneficial.

That said, I've been experimenting with it, on and off, for the better part of a few years now with varying degrees of success, depending on the arena.  I've also got my ass handed to me by the spirits therein - Elubatel is, admittedly, a bit of a prick, but she's a prick because that's what I wanted.  To illustrate this point, I felt it would be a good idea to cross-post an excerpt I penned over at EvocationMagic.  I also discussed this previously in my blog post titled Depression when working with Elubatel:

"Well, as the title indicates, this thread is about insight I've managed to glean that has everything to do with depression caused by work with Elubatel. For those interested in reading my blog post about this, click here. I am posting it here as well, as it seemed to be plenty important.

The long and short of it is this: Over the past 2 weeks I've had several very odd, instant-karma-like things happening. Its been incredibly frustrating, and probably has everything to do with the work I do for clients. My girlfriend ended up getting exposed to a material she's incredibly allergic to, so I had to take her to the hospital. A day later, my passenger-side front tire had been punctured, so I had to replace two tires. The day after that, more car trouble...I had to take the car into the shop to get an oil change and whatnot. Later that day, I found out that the company that replaced my tires broke the TPMS sensors. And later still, my puppy had to be put down because she had distemper. All-in-all, its been a royal pain in the ass of a couple of weeks, but that got me thinking.

I went through the protection and upkeep checklist I keep, and I found that the one thing that really needed to be done again was a success rite. So, that said, I did my usual preparations and conjured up Elubatel. Mid oration, I realized that I had better backtrack and ask Her a question (yes, She appears to me as a female...dunno why that is, as others seem to have a different view). Specifically, I wanted to know why every time I worked with her, I suddenly got depressed after the fact. Every time, I'd be a whiny little bitch of a man for the next few days for no apparent reason, and I'd always be in a funk that I just couldn't shake myself of. Well, in talking with Her, I discovered that She's granting us success, in open-ended requests, by giving us what our subconscious wants the most. In some people, that just happens to be a reason to tear ourselves down. No idea why it is, but apparently I have that deep-seated masochistic urge, which is rather interesting.

That, of course, leads me to two realizations and boons:
1) I know myself a bit better.
2) I basically just got thumped and told to be more specific.

It certainly made for an interesting reminder, and I thought I'd share it with you folks."

Having said as much, this is one of many such mind-blowing realizations that I've had from working in the system.  That being the case, I am, going forward, hoping to perform more experiments from this book on behalf of my clients, and for my own reasons.

For a limited time, I will be doing the workings from NAP for clients at the cost of 100$, regardless of the spell.  I will choose who I do these workings for, as always, and I will be posting the results here after removing any of the personal data.

Below are the names of the various applicable workings per GCC's Compendium:

- Astral Bomb Attack Ritual
- Psychic Guided Missile Ritual
- The Etheric Shrapnel Ritual
- The Occult Judo Ritual
- The Theurgic Booby-Trap Ritual
- Exorcism to Repel Evil Spirits
- The Attack Cancellation Ritual
- Incantation for Winning Contests
- Invocation for Money
- Chant to Bring Success
- Win a Legal Action Invocation
- Invocation from Protection From Evil
- Chant to Excite Love
- Rekindle a Mate's Interest Incantation
- Invocation to Bring Secret Knowledge
- Chant to Bring Health
- Incantation to Give Power Over Others
- General Purpose Invocation
- Vital Bring-Me-Wealth Spell
- The Enterprising Ace-King Spell
- The Terrific Win-It-All Spell
- The Tantalizing New-Strength Spell
- The Occult Seduction Spell
- The Psychic Sex-Appeal Spell
- The Tremendous Beauty-Is-Mine Spell
- The Stupendous Young-Again Spell
- The Exciting Brilliance-For-Me Spell
- The Haunting Horror-Producing Spell
- The Crushing Disharmony-Exercising Spell
- The Staggering Return-Evil-to-Source Spell
- The New Opposition-Begone Spell
- The New Shattering Partnership-Disruption Spell
- The Mighty Attackers-Confusion Spell
- The Instant Business-Success Spell
- The Ancient Fame-and-Honors Spell
- The Fantastic Win-At-Law Spell
- The Glorious Move-Up-In-Life Spell
- The Wonderful Money-Aid Spell
- The Startling Come-From-Above Spell
- The Expansive Bring-Me-Excitement Spell
- The Certain Danger-Stay-Away Spell
- The Brilliant Travel-Safely Spell
- The Reliable Know-the-Unknown Spell
- The Protective Magic-Away Spell
- The Rewarding Ticket-Come-To-Me Ritual
- The Overwhelming Good-Luck-is-Mine Ritual
- The Great Money-Spinning Ritual
- The Miraculous Gold-Creating Ritual
- The Titillating Nature Ritual
- The Irresistible Bring-A-Lover Spell
- The  Stimulating Partner-Enslaving Ritual
- The Supreme Back-to-Health Ritual
- The Secret Disease-Banishing Ritual
- The Fast Unwinding Ritual
- The Explosive Eye-Glance Ritual
- The Magical Win-in-Battle Ritual
- The Volcanic You-Will-Submit Ritual
- The Titanic Enemies-Vanquished Ritual
- The Astounding Change-Opinions-of-Others Ritual
- The Powerful Take-Me-to-the-Top Ritual
- The Forceful Buy-Sell Ritual
- The Automatic Test-Success Ritual
- The Delightful Tell-Me-My-Powers Ritual
- The Thrilling I-Can-Wow-Them Ritual
- The Unique Know-What-Comes Ritual
- The Marvellous See-Where Ritual
- The Ideal Change-My-Home Ritual
- The Flashing Cause-Discord Ritual
- The Arcane Invisibility Ritual
- The Genuine Bad-Luck-Banishing Ritual
- The Mysterious Enemy-Repulsion Ritual

The process for this is simple.  Use the "Contact Me" page and drop me a line letting me know what you would like done. I will send you an invoice, and then do the working on the appropriate day and time.  From that point forward, you will report your experiences to me, and I will record them here on the blog.

Thanks for reading!  Take care,

SE