Black Arts

Just a few minutes ago I put the finishing touches on an item I've been wanting for over 6 months.

Black arts oil (also, incenses and powders) is used primarily for two things:  Crossing and pact-making/demonic evocation.  For a good synopsis of its uses, check out Brother Ash's post on it.  People, I'm not gonna lie, I've had the urge to curse people since day one of being into magic.  In fact, it was one of the main things that drew me into it all.  I got into Wicca, where cursing is basically forbidden, and practiced that for most of the past 15 years, but I always had that urge in the back of my mind.

Despite that, I've never actually performed a full-on hexing, crossing, or other curse.  However, I decided to make some Black Arts oil as a "Just In Case" measure.  Here's the recipe I used.  It was inspired by similar formulas by Brother Ash and Catherine Yronwode:

• 1 tsp Patchouli herb
• 1 tsp Valerian Root (aka Vandal Root)
• 1 tsp Black/Brown Mustard seeds (slightly ground)
• 1 tsp Spanish Moss
• 1 tsp Mullein
• 1 tsp Sulphur
• 9 whole black peppercorns
• 1 pinch black dog hair
• 2-3 ounces blended olive, mineral, and castor oils

Blend the patchouli, valerian root, black mustard, spanish moss, mullein and sulphur into the base oil, heat for a few minutes, and then store in an airtight container.  Shake everyday for 3-7 days.  When this is done, filter the oil out using a coffee filter or cheesecloth.  If desired, pour in about 9 drops of patchouli essential oil.  Pour it into a 2-3 ounce bottle with a pinch of each of the herbs, plus the peppercorns and the black dog hair. Following this recipe resulted in what you see to the right.

Pretty much all the ingredients are associated with cursing, hexing, harming enemies, and conjuring malevolent spirits, according to Yronwode's Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic.  The only one I don't quite get is Patchouli, where according to the aforementioned book, it's mostly used for love, money, and jinx-breaking.

Heh, the funny thing about the black dog hair is that I don't have a black dog handy.  What to do?  Well, I lied to the pet groomers!  "Well, it's my niece.  I promised her I'd help her get this for her science class project.  It involves putting animal hair under a microscope, and her part of it specifically requires black dog hair."  And amazingly, there was no fuss, no muss after that and I walked out of there with a fistful of the stuff (in a bag, of course)!

And now that I've made it, it's time to plan for the empowerment.

It just so happens that today is Saturday, and Saturn most aligned with the purposes of Black Arts products.  I think, for the empowerment of this oil, that I'll call on Hekate Kthonia for assistance...


Oh, also, for the record: Black Arts oil really doesn't smell that great.  Seriously.  Even adding a little patchouli oil to it doesn't help, not in the slightest.  Just adds a new dimension to the noxiousness.

Gratitude

I've been reflecting on what Thanksgiving means and what I'm thankful for.

In my spiritual path, I am very much thankful to three people:

• Brother Moloch:  If not for his writings on his website, I probably would not have gone on to find Strategic Sorcery and the whole collection of occult blogs out here.  Although I have not directly practiced in line with his writings, he was the gatekeeper.
• Inominandum:  Strategic Sorcery has truly changed my practices, and it is all for the better.  There's not a single negative thing I can say about Strategic Sorcery.  I'm definitely more skillful with my craft than I used to be, and I see things more clearly.  The magic I've worked has been consistently much more successful.
• Rufus Opus:  I FINALLY got my feet wet with evocation!  I even have a loose paradigm within which to frame my practices (although I am indeed keeping it loose)

Those were just the ones I'm most thankful for. On top of them, I'm also thankful for all the other bloggers and resources I've learned from and encountered here on the internet.  All those in the blogroll on the sidebar, all those who have commented here on my blog, all of you.

And I'm thankful to all who read this blog.  There are some who have come to me with questions, and I've answered as best I can.  It really does me good to know I can help others with this stuff.

Taking things down to a more "mundane" level...this year has been hard.  It's very possible that things are going to get really bad for me again economically (it's all just so up in the air), but I'm grateful for the lessons learned this year, all the ways I have been tempered as a person, and for those who helped me when times were rough.

Planetary Seals

Even before I signed up for Strategic Sorcery, when I was reading through Jason Miller's book "The Sorcerer's Secrets", I was fascinated by these newfangled planetary seals he revealed.  There were a few in the book, and the rest were revealed in the course.

The seals provide a direct link to the planet's force, unhindered by any astrological aspects at that particular time.  As a gift to him, one of Jason's brothers in the Sangreal Sodality gave him a set of the seals printed in the correct planetary colors on what looks like black paper or cardstock.  Pics of them can be found in a few one Jason's blog posts: here on the wall behind the altar in the sixth picture, and here in the lefthand picture.

Ever since laying eyes on that set, I've wanted one for my own use.  And now, I have the means and the source to print them from!  I took to the GIMP and recreated the seals in their respective colors on a black background.  What is shown here are the same seals that Jason reveals in The Sorcerer's Secrets, as he asks us in the course not to spread them all around the internet.  But since he revealed three of them in the book, I'm ok with showing the same three from the graphics I made of them, plus Jupiter since he revealed it with the cover of his new book recently.

Now, one thing I'm aware of off the bat is that some of the colors I have used so far are different than the ones on Jason's set.  In the altar pic, I honestly can't quite tell what the color for Saturn is.  It looks like a dull pewter color, but as you can see in my graphic, I used indigo.  Once I have them printed, I'll go over the ones for Sol and Luna with gold and silver leaf pens, respectively.

I also thought about creating these each with a double circle around it detailing the name of the planet in latin and with the permutations of IAO around it.  But I'll leave off that for now and work just with the seals themselves.

I'm thinking of making these available to fellow students of Strategic Sorcery.  But for now, I want to get them printed, mounted to black cardstock or board, and charged as planetary talismans.

I gotta admit, people: I'm a little excited about this and proud of my work.  :)

NOTE:  The seals themselves are copyright Jason Miller and Matthew Brownlee.

An Attempt At Mercury...and stuff!

Continuing the initiations into the Planetary Spheres, I recently conjured Raphael as governor of the sphere of Mercury.  He declined to grant me the initiation and integration of Mercury at the time (as of writing this it was a week ago).  I honestly had trouble perceiving him, so I didn't entirely catch his reasons why.  There was something about me not being ready.  I'm not irritated about it like I was last time I requested initiation from Raphael (in his role as Governer of the sphere of Air).  If nothing else, Saturn has taught me to be patient.

I'll keep trying, though!  I doubt he's willing to deny me forever.  ;)

With that said, I've been rather busy lately.  Life has been full of my new job, and friends!  I've been trying to get back in touch with friends who had fallen by the wayside for the past couple years, and so the past couple weeks have been full of hanging out.

But about that mention of a new job.  I got one recently, and it pays more than any regular, long-term job I've ever had.  During recent employer-induced financial struggle, I went all out with magic.  During the process I made several condition oils that ended up being effective.  In fact, with all the field reports from other blogs on the Sorcerous Blog-O-Sphere, I've been tempted to do a write-up of my efforts and what I did to affect my situation for the better.

Today, during my regular practice, I decided to try something different at the end of my meditation session. In the lessons for Strategic Sorcery, at one point Jason covers the levels (not just the 3 in The Sorceror's Secrets), and talks about how you can access each one, even through meditation and astral travel.  The method he gives for shifting to higher levels is something he calls Sandpiling.

I decided to try it today and see how it goes, and I didn't really expect much.  I started from my basic meditative level left over from my normal session.  Then, I started sandpiling.  I drew my sense of awareness inward, towards me.  After a few minutes of this, there was a shift and I was experiencing things from a higher level.  In this case it was the Aetheric.  Then I repeated it, going upward towards the astral, then the soul level.  When I sandpiled into the mental level, things got interesting.

It was true to the mention of others in that there was no form, no distance...just information.  I found myself having to thing and act in commands.  I even manipulated the information level of a few things, including myself and someone else, while on this level.

Then I moved onto the causal level.  I can't remember if Jason said it could be accessed via sandpiling or not, but I decided to try anyway.  It's hard to describe what I experienced there.  The thing I remember most from it was my will being present.  Writing that now, it sounds strange to me...but that's the way it was.

I'm going to work with the sandpiling technique some more and see what I find.

Venusian Initiation

A little bit ago, I decided to continue my planetary initiations by conjuring the archangel Haniel to initiate me into Venus.

Normally I would have tried for yesterday since it was a Friday, but I was busy that evening.  So, I decided to try the more Abra-Melin based method of reckoning the planetary times.  It just so happened that Venus hit the midheaven at 2:55pm today. So, around that time, I performed my version of the Trithemius rite modified with Strategic Sorcery tech.

When asked what the best time by her Nature was to call her, Haniel answered that the absolute perfect time to conjure her would be on a bright, clear summer day while Venus is in the middle of the sky.

Then I asked her what method I could use to conjure her in less formal situations.  What I got was, "Let art and, if possible, people be around thee.  Sing my name aloud or under the breath in a melody of thine choice.  Hold thine arms out as if for embrace and speak thy will."

When it came time for the initiation itself, Haniel jumped right into it!  It wasn't like others I've gone through.  it was very sensual.  I mean, VERY.  Sensual.  All over...all kinds of places.  Yeah.

The scent of the incense (benzoin and red sandalwood) seemed to expand and permeate my sense of smell completely, even seeming to push out the smoky aspect of the smoldering incense.  I felt increased bloodflow to certain parts of my body, and muscles in my lower back began to twitch wildly for a moment.

Then it was all over!  After the initiation, I had a question for Haniel about Venusian talismans and she gave some advice as well as a brief consecration/empowerment of the lamen I was wearing.  After that I closed down like normal.

Overall, this is one of the more vivid and powerful conjurations I've done.  Haniel was very nurturing, personable and friendly, much like the forces of Venus are reputed to be!  ;)

Oh Boy...

It finally happened.

I opened up a fucking Twitter account.