The Negativity of "Positive" People

So..."negative people".

I'm sure most, if not all, of us have at least one person on social networks who tends to talk about removing negative people from their life and letting go of the negative energy. Personally, I've known so many pagans and witches who talk about this that I consider it a cliche. And I have a HUGE problem with it.

For one, where is the line drawn? What, exactly, constitutes "negative people"? What is interpreted as "negative". Why is there the need to go on and on, making blanket statements about this evil, villainous subset of people? And why does dealing with them have to be an advertised, explicitly defined and announced event instead of being part of the process of life and dealing with the other people you come across.

I never see anyone talk about, for example, praising and focusing on spending more time with the amazing people they know. I never see anyone have their New Years Resolution that they're going to focus on spending more time with awesome people.

And again, where is the line drawn? Is that "negative person" that you feel so negatively toward simply depressed and doesn't have good coping mechanisms? Is the person trying to find support and a connection from others? Are you condemning someone who really just needs help? I've been that person, and so I've known the long-lasting scars that can be left from people who are trying to "be positive".

"Negative people" and "energy", the two most irritating and overused terms and concepts in modern esoterica.

I've Been Thinkin' 'Bout My Own Protection

December has not been pleasant for me. Granted it could have been much worse, but the amount of stress and anxiety eclipsed all the good that has happened lately. For some time it just seemed like things all around were going nuts. With my vehicle issues and the several fights that have come up, it felt like I was under some kind of weird assault.

Divinations did not reveal any crossed conditions, and I had no indication of such otherwise. So...what was the problem? Was I making mountains out of molehills? Was a reading into things too much? I didn't think I was, all things considered.

Then I went through another re-read of The Book of Abrasax, and something Frater MC talked about in the chapter of protective magic stood out. Admittedly, I've been light on the protective magic since early 2011 and dealing with the crossed condition I was under...and that's probably been to my detriment, quite frankly. Part of that was some limited thinking on my part regarding the utility and application of protective magic. Upon doing some introspection, I found my attitude was that I didn't need much protective magic beyond occasional anointing with a protective oil. Frater MC, on the other hand, talks about magical protection as being about more than safeguarding against spiritual assault. When you get down to it, it's really about protection from life's ills.

After all, that's part of what it's about, isn't it? Magic is about enhancing your life, using a backdoor to make one's efforts in life easier or more effective. And what is protective magic but making it so that life's ills don't gang up on you and beat your ass all the time?

With that in mind, I decided it was time to create a good protective amulet to carry with me. Since there are so many fine examples of this in The Book of Abrasax, I decided to go with one of those. I went with the "Preliminary Protection Rite" and the amulet MC made for it initially. But then I did a divination about it.

Somewhere along the way I found a fantastic article by Devi Spring on Witches & Pagans about using Tarot to choose the best rootwork approach, and I decided to try it out with this. So, asking about the aforementioned protective amulet from The Book of Abrasax, I pulled a card. It was The Moon! I found that very interesting, because of the things which jumped out at me. To sum up what I took from it:

• Possible need for obscuring or "invisibility" work or added element in the amulet.
• A need to influence emotions.
• Work with Hekate.

Of these, #3 stood out the most among the impressions, especially since I recently made a place for her in my life as a mentor and created a small shrine to her in my home. So I figured I would switch to one of the many Hekate-based protection spells in Jason's "Protection & Reversal Magic". I decided to pull another card to clarification, and I got the 3 of Cups. The deck I was using is the Robin Wood Tarot, and the 3 of Cups in that deck is pictured to the right. The impression I got was as follows:

• Hekate-based protective work from Jason's book: Yes!
• Work with triple-formed female spirits.

Anyone who has read "Protection & Reversal Magic" will know that this points mostly to one thing: The Wheel of Hekate (pictured left).

I took a 2.5" x 2.5" piece of parchment paper and drew the Wheel of Hekate on it using dragon's blood ink. I wanted to be able to roll it up and store it in a vial of some sort. None of the cleaned-out oil vials I have felt right for this, so I took an old mechanical pencil lead holder, stripped it of its labeling and cleaned it out with Florida water.

In order to empower it, I used the following procedure:

1. Use typical personal purification methods. I used spiritual bathing similar to how they do it in Hoodoo.
2. Recite the Prayer of the Design.
3. Ground and center. I established the Pillar and then performed the Universal Centering.
4. Gave an offering to the spirits of the area and then banished and performed the Sphere of Hekas.
5. Empowered the seal using Jason's instructions in "Protection & Reversal Magic", invoking the Morae, the Furies, the Gorgons, and the Graces in the name of Hekate.
6. Five-spotted the seal with some Hekate Oil that I made (contains myrrh and mint in a base of sesame oil), rolled it up and put it in the pencil lead holder. Anointed the holder itself with the oil too.

The feeling of calm and security afterward was unmistakable, and has continued to be in the background since then.

What I find interesting about this is that there are others who have been feeling the same need for protection lately. Among them Skyllaros and other commenters on his recent post where he used the Wheel of Hekate to make a Hekate-based protective amulet similar to an amparo.

A Long-Needed Update

(NOTE: This is kind of a re-post, because when I initially made it, Blogger wouldn't show it on my list of posts, nor on my blog site on either my laptop nor my phone, so I thought it hadn't posted...until I saw it after posting THIS version. *sigh* Technology, sometimes...)

Now is as good a time as any to admit that the reason I've barely posted for 6 months is because...well, I haven't really felt like writing, and I haven't felt like I have anything to talk about that's related to effective sorcery until recently. As I've likely said before, this does not mean life's been easy or that I haven't been working on things on the mundane level. A few things that have transpired are...

• Got sick for a month with a Mystery Bug.
• Went through the process of having something done about a long-standing sleep problem. I've slept better in the past few months than I have in many years.
• Multiple vehicle problems, recently culminating in me trading in my old vehicle and buying another, newer one.
• Was hired on as a permanent employee where I was working as a contractor. This came with a big raise!
• Had a death in the family.

Spirit Houses and Shitty Weather

One of the things I've been itching to write about is actually something I haven't completed yet. I've been planning a Jupiterian spirit bottle housing Hismael since May. Unfortunately, one thing that has always happened with me is that I'll end up finally getting the inspiration and motivation to work magic and create magical things during the time the astrological conditions are at their worst! Well, it happened the same way with the spirit bottle: Right when I finally got the ideas and means to put it together, Jupiter went into retrograde. Of course, this was on top of the fact that Jupiter is in the sign of Gemini, which puts the planet at its weakest anyway.

The good thing is that I've since made further preparations and will be consecrating the bottle this Thursday, in the hour of Jupiter. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Jupiter can be considered in Mutual Reception with Mercury, as they are each in the sign the other rules. In this case it makes both strong by proxy, apparently. Again, that's if I'm not mistaken. If any readers are more versed in astrology than me, feel free to confirm or correct the above statement.

Shoaling the Hard Shit

Remember where I mentioned my job status change and my vehicle problems above? Well, in late November I found out they were bringing me on fulltime, and as such I had to go through all the hoops of employment onboarding again. This included credit checks, drug tests, background checks, etc. For reasons of my own I was afraid of not passing at least one of those checks.

Enter Gordon White's Sigil Shoaling Technique!

It had been a while since I did any sigil magic, and this seemed a perfect time to do it, especially since I've heard nothing but good things about it. Click on the link above and read the post. Yes, it's a little long but it is VERY much worth it. Make sure and read the technique itself (it's down the page a bit), otherwise the following won't make complete sense!

Basically, I made individual sigils for passing each test or check, then one for being successfully onboarded...and then one for having a job period. That last one was my "robofish" sigil; essentially it's a sigil made for something you've already achieved. I really like this idea because I see it as a way of grounding the rest of the magical effects into material reality. Using Jason Miller's 3-level model, I see this as a way of grounding levels 1 and 2 into level 3.

And you can guess what happened. I got the job, things went without a hitch, and I'm working my buns off in my new permanent status with an awesome raise (and less expensive benefits).

Now, when my truck turned into a soap opera of vehicle repairs recently (specifically regarding the brakes), I decided to do another sigil shoal. I did individual sigils for successful and less expensive repair of the individual parts involved. For the robofish sigil I simply made it for owning a pickup truck of my truck's description.

A Little Influence At The Dealership

The truck ended up being a bust anyway. I found out the rear differential was starting to go bad, and said "Fuck it!" That truck turned into a real money-pit, and I was sick to death of worrying about it, so I decided to shop around and buy another vehicle.

I started looking around at cars online, and then worked some macro enchantment before putting forth serious efforts into my search. I conjured Raphael of Mercury and asked him to bless my vehicle search and purchase efforts.

Quickly, information came together and feedback on cars, dealerships, and negotiation tactics came together. At the dealership, I parked my truck. Before going in I used a favorite piece of field magic: I put a dab of Commanding and Crown of Success oils on my hands and rubbed them in. Shook the salesman's hand, and deployed the influencing magic. At the dealership, they were amiable to my needs, and went out of their way to accommodate me on the financing. I though I was going to get a 14.9% interest rate due to my credit history, but came away with 12.1%. In short:

I got my 2005, 1-owner, 86K miles Toyota for less than $9000 with a lower interest rate and monthly payment than I initially aimed for! Needless to say, I'm pleased.

More to come!

Uses of IAO, part 1

Before picking up my copy of Jason Miller's "The Sorcerer's Secrets", I had previously heard of IAO, the gnostic version of the Tetragrammaton, consisting of the Greek letters Iota, Alpha, and Omega.  Frater U:.D:.'s "High Magic" contains a discussion of some uses of the IAO formula as a centering exercise and in the creation of mantric sigils.  Even then I found it pretty interesting, and for a short time I experimented with the centering exercise version as an alternative to the Qabalistic Cross.  The name IAO, to me, has always felt less specific to one particular deity or culture, despite the fact that it's derived from YHVH.  Typically it has had the sense of a general source of power and authority.

Since learning from Jason through TSS and Strategic Sorcery, I've included IAO in my regular practices and in numerous workings through various permutations.  Beyond those things I adapted from Jason's material, though, I hadn't explored it much further until recently.  To an extent, that changed when I read the little chapbook called "The Lunar Formula of IAO" by Derik Richards.  He treats the IAO formula a as belonging on a "lower" arc than I normally work with it on, yet there was still some things I gleaned from it that have proven useful.

For example, an explanation of IAO from TSS goes into the Greek alphabet and their associations with the elements, the planets, and the zodiac.  Fitting since IAO is the Greek version of YHVH, this system of the Stoicheia associates I with Sol, A with Luna, and O with Saturn.  From a Neo-Platonic Hermetic standpoint, Jason's interpretation essentially places it as Sol ruling all things between Luna (the first sphere beyond those of the elements), and Saturn (the "highest" of the planetary spheres.  Thus it places Sol as ruling all things.  Taken this way, a practical use of it is as a way to draw the light of the divine (ie. power) down through the spheres.

With that said, a similar way this can be taken is I being a Solar, generating principle with A being the Lunar, transitioning and changing principle and  O being the Saturnine, stabilizing principle.  Of course this parallels the astrological concepts of cardinality, mutability and fixity. 

Thus, the way I utilize this oh, so nifty name in magical work is:

1. A key with which to draw forth raw, undifferentiated and yet balanced power.
2. A name of power with which to draw upon spiritual authority that can be applied to different types of work.

Following the logic of some of this, it's not perfect but so far it has worked rather well for me.  I have more to write about this topic, especially in relation to the elements.  Stay tuned!

Inspiring Blogger

Although it has been a whole month, just about to the day, since this happened, I've been meaning to post about it.

Skyllaros from The Crossroads Companion tapped yours truly as a Very Inspiring Blogger!  I totally didn't expect this, and am honoured, flattered and a bit humbled by it.  :)

There are certain rules to the Very Inspiring Blogger Award which I'll go ahead and run through before I continue:

1. Display the award certificate on your website.
2. Announce your win with a post and include a link to whomever presented your award.
3. Present seven awards to deserving bloggers.  Create a post linking to them and drop them a comment to tip them off.
4. Post seven interesting facts about yourself.

Thems the rules!  I've covered rules 1 and 2 already, so on to the rest!

Now, the problem with listing seven inspiring bloggers is that, in the case of the ones I have in mind, at least three of them have already gotten this award!  Off the top of my head, they are:

1. polyphanes at The Digital Ambler - A student of Rufus Opus, going through his blog it is obvious he approaches the Art with creativity, intelligence, and quite a bit of scholarly bent.  Highly recommended (of course, that's why he's in the blogroll to the right)!
2. Kalagni from Blue Flame Magick - Hey!  Hey!  Whaddya get when you cross a Tibetan Buddhist with a Ceremonial Magician???  Actually, you get a smart, nuanced and interesting practitioner going by Kalagni who presents some pretty awesome material on his blog.
3. Skyllaros from The Crossroads Companion - If you hear the call of Hekate, you will be led to Her devotees, and you will see and read some interesting stuff!  It's been fascinating seeing Skyllaros' journey from a very Chthonic path to one more Ouranic, and back to a balance between the two.  We sometimes seem to overlap, so I've found his material very interesting and inspiring (!) as well!

Those aside, here are my seven picks as Very Inspiring Bloggers:

1. Jason Miller at Strategic Sorcery - How could I not include this?  Jason's work has been the main influence responsible for completely reforming my magical practice from an inept and lost pseudo-magician to a practiced and solid sorcerer who gets results.
2. Rufus Opus at Head For The Red - If you read through Frater RO's blog from the first post to the latest, you're going to learn so much about Hermeticism and Neo-platonic influence in magical practice.  And that's aside from his e-books and courses!
3. Brother Moloch from Eye of the Sorcerer - Although he rarely posts, Brother Moloch was one of the influences that began the reformation of magical practice and led me to Jason.
4. de heer Balthazar at Conjure Gnosis - As I draw some of the more technical elements from Conjure, Balthazar has been an inspiration for techniques that I have used.
5. Gordon White at Rune Soup - Because, seriously?  Gordon's blog belongs on any inspiring blogger list.  Going through his blog posts, you'll find so much information.  Not just magical information, but more like things that can fill out, inform, and inspire magical knowledge.  And his sigil shoaling technique?  Fantastic.
6. Frater Acher at My Occult Circle - A fantastic blog from a magician who is knowledgeable and practiced.  His explorations of magical topics in his blog are in-depth and informative.  Two highlights to me were his series of Arbatel conjurations and his Everyday Path To The HGA posts.
7. Scott Foster from Exploring Thaumaturgy - I often find it interesting and inspiring when I see a magician who is forging their own system, especially when they have a solid foundation to build it from.  That's what I see with this blog, and while I naturally don't always agree with Scott's material, I do also find it interesting from a spellcrafting standpoint.

With that said, in accord with the rules, here are some things about me:

1. I'm very tall (6'7"), but when I'm standing a distance away, I don't *seem* that tall.  It could be caused by me being overweight, but I've always noticed the same thing with my dad, and he's less overweight than me.
2. Males along the paternal line of my family have all had a natural talent with dowsing.  My dad has it, as did his father, and his father, etc.  Dad claims that he's always used L-shaped rods for it, but I think he can do it without tools, and there's a reason I think this.  All my life he has hunted Native American artifacts.  He has display case after display case full of arrowheads, cabinets showcasing axe and hatchet heads, and flint chisels.  He would literally go out into freshly-plowed fields and find these things, left by Native American tribes hundreds of years ago!  I always found his accuracy and luck with this uncanny.  When going out with him, me and my stepsister rarely found anything.  But he always did!  Despite his claims to using tools, there was one time he mentioned using his hands, and I think his ability helped him find those artifacts.
3. I don't know if it's a defect with my vision (despite my vision being very good), but I've always noticed this *thing* pervading everything.  The best way I have of describing the way it looks to me is like a transparent television static with smaller pixels, that flows along all things and just so happens to match flows of energy I've heard psychically sensitive friends of mine describe.  It's not dust, either, because dust looks different than this, and dust doesn't flow like this stuff does.  I've never known what to call it or think of it.
4. When I was a kid, my eyes were a rich brown, and ever since my late teens my eyes have changed to become more hazel.  I've repeatedly had people tell me that my eyes are pretty.
5. This is not something I often admit, but in my early days as a Wiccan, I was an almost classic "fluffy bunny".  I'm not proud of this, but it is something I've been reframing to see as just part of my development.
6. When I was a kid, up to age 7 or 8, there was a period of years where I had these nightmares involving me owning a mansion that gets invaded by monsters.  It always ended with me running from them.  When I was 7 or 8, I had the nightmare again, but this time I reached the end of it.  While running I tripped, fell, and the monsters caught me.  Oddly enough they were spiders of various (and I mean various) sizes who howled like wolves.  Meanwhile, in real life, I started screaming bloody murder, sat up in bed with eyes wide open clawing at myself, screaming to get them off me!  It was strange waking up beside my mother the next morning, as she wasn't there when I went to sleep!  But she reported what happened; apparently she had to wrestle me back down onto the bed, because I was totally losing my shit.  With my fascination with lucid dreaming, I've always wanted to enter a lucid dream and find a way back into that mansion, just to see what I find.
7. I've been in IT since 2006, but before that I tried to go into nursing, and before that I was in a major art school here in Indianapolis, IN.  Currently, I've been considering my options for going back to school for something non-IT (because, frankly, unless you're a software developer, IT tends to suck ass).

Thank you, Skyllaros, for the award!

Interesting Stuff This Week!

I've decided that, in between my normal posts (as few as they've been), it would be nice to do some signal boosting.  Therefore, on a semi-regular basis I will try to post articles and blog posts I found interesting and/or worthwhile for your enjoyment, dear readers.  :)  I might not include all the articles I found interesting, but these will be the highlights.

To start with, two magicians that I look up to in one way or another were interviewed on internet radio shows.  There was Gordon White from Rune Soup making a guest appearance on Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole.  Around the same time, there was my esteemed teacher of Strategic Sorcery, Jason Miller, over at Paranormal Palace Radio talking about Financial Sorcery.  I highly suggest going and listening to both.  There were a lot of interesting things discussed, and I for one enjoyed it immensely.

Speaking of Financial Sorcery, Brother Ash did a review of the book.  I say review, but he stated that it's more of a "Go out and buy this NOW!!!" statement.

Over at The Digital Ambler, polyphanes has some pretty awesome stuff going on.  If you're in the D.C. area, he is now teaching classes on a number of magical topics, centering around Hermetics and Geomancy.  In addition, he is providing readings at Sticks and Stones on a regular basis!  In addition, this week he took advantage of a Mercury election to empower some of his mercury-related talismans and gemstones.  The ritual he used is very interesting, as is the orgone generator he used to boost the whole thing.  I've always had a background interest in learning more about orgone generators, and after hearing about his results, I'm a bit closer to experimenting.

One area of interest I've always been drawn to is that of lucid dreaming.  I've never really been able to achieve much there because of the effects of obstructive sleep apnea on my REM sleep.  However, the solution to that is in the works.  But in the meantime, Karmaghna is looking into the use of dietary supplements to assist with lucid dreaming, and will be updating with his findings.

Thus far my favorite post, Skyllaros over at The Crossroads Companion posted about the Dimensional Sphere Sigil Technique.  Reading through it, I definitely want to try it!  The concept of not only firing off the sigil, but also filling your sphere with it and it moving your sphere closer to your goal...something in there strikes me as solid.

That's all I have for now, but the week isn't over yet.  ;)

The Release of the Set Point

In his latest book, Financial Sorcery, Jason Miller devotes a chapter to the concept of the Set Point.  The original theory is that every person has this built-in mechanism that determines how much bodyfat they will carry.  Attempts at changing one's amount of bodyfat through dieting will be affected by this set point, as it compensates in order to keep your body in that state.  So far there are only theories as to how a person's set point can be adjusted, but in terms of weight loss, one of the prevalent theories is that exercise helps to lower it.

Jason takes this concept and puts a somewhat different spin on it.  Instead of just a biological mechanism that determines bodyfat, he applies it to areas outside of that, such as finances, love, spiritual practices...just about anything.  In this way, the concept of the set point becomes a place where, deep down, you are comfortable, complacent, and/or acclimated.  By this line of thought, a person can have any number of set points in life.

For example, one set point that I had, which plagued the ever-living shit out of me revolved around the times I get to sleep at night, and the times I get up in the morning, especially on workdays.  I work an 8-5 job Monday thru Friday, and every morning, silly as it sounds, I could not stop myself from hitting the snooze button until 6:50-7am.  As a result, I ended up being perpetually behind every morning.  Some days I could get to work on time, some days not.  Fortunately my bosses don't track my time, and I would make it up at the end of the day.  Still, it bugged me.

Being a constant, daily source of frustration, I decided that this set point would be the first one I released using Jason's technique.  I originally learned the technique from the Strategic Sorcery course.  The version of the technique in Financial Sorcery is, however, mostly the same.  The basic technique involves reliving a time where you gave in to the set point, mental fold it up, and place it into a visualization of elemental fire, destroying it.  It is repeated on 9 consecutive days, and then after that you put all your effort into improving.  And once you see success, the set point is reset.

After completing this technique on my sleep/time-management set point, I found myself finally able to get up with my alarm and get to bed when I wanted.  The relief and the extra time it has afforded me in the mornings has been fantastic!  Going forward, I have other set points to work on with this technique, and I'm looking forward to the change within myself that will result.

As you can imagine, I definitely recommend the Set Point Release technique that Jason writes about in Financial Sorcery (hell I recommend the entire book).  It can give you the edge you need over those habits which you usually feel so powerless to resist.  Give it a try.  What do you have to lose (aside from repression)?

The Coin of Paralysis

"Oh, my beautiful idiot.  You have what you've always had!  You've got me."

-- Idris, Doctor Who Episode The Doctor's Wife

In the course of working with my therapist on my issues with depression, at one point she observed that there seem to be things about me that I'm not incorporating into my sense of self.  This intrigued me greatly, because I can point to certain things that this applies to, but at the same time I suspect that there is more there that I'm not seeing.

The more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that I've repeated the same thing with other things in my life.  Most notably for this blog's purposes, that has extended to my magical practices.

In my last post I mentioned that there are issues in my life that I have not been addressing with magic, and have instead been focusing solely on mundane actions and personal work to deal with them.  For some time, I've been wondering why this is.


In one regard, it is fear.  Fear of all kinds of things.  Fear of failure, fear of success, the usual schtick.  But there is also fear of the effort, fear of self-embarassment after ease after fear of effort, paralysis from indecision, and it can go on and on.  Fears that hold us back can be so pernicious!  But then there is also limited thinking.  Due to a variety of reasons, mostly in reaction to opinions found on the net and other resources, I'm pretty sure I limited what magic can help with in my own mind.  Even that can tie into fear (fear of lack of implementability).

This side of the coin is Knowing What To Use Magic For.  The advice I gleaned from this is: Don't limit what you think magic can do.  Keep an open mind to the possibilities of things it can effect!

The other side of this little Coin of Paralysis is How To Do Magic.

See, I've been studying magic for a total of 15 years now.  In that time the amount of tech I know has grown pretty big, in my opinion.  Trying to decide how to work toward a particular goal using magic has, at times, been daunting.  The Paralysis of Choice comes in here again.  Yes, you have many valid choices to pick from.  Yes, it can be overwhelming.  But for starters, know what techniques work best in which situations.  Each thing has its place.  And for those things which all share the same place, there is a heuristic I like to use:  When faced with many valid choices, pick any one of them!

That's it!  Pick any one of them and go with it.  List them alphabetically and pick Technique A, then B, then C.  Assign them to numbers on a die and roll the damn thing,if you have to!

But the last thing you should do is put on blinders and not act!

The way we deal with the Coin of Magical Paralysis is through open-mindedness and decisiveness.  My conversation with Adam the other night helped me to come to this conclusion.  You already have what you need to do magic.  In the end, it's not outside of you and it is not beyond your ability to comprehend.

Good God, Man! Where Has Ocean Delano Gone???

My poor, neglected blog has been left by its lonesome for too long, I think!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how my online presence has calmed down in recent months and how it reflects a lesser amount of magical activity on my part.  Although I've maintained a semi-regular practice, I have not done much aside from a small amount of client work.  Initially I chalked this up to a lack of immediate need for magical activity to subsequently write about.  After taking a look at my life, my goals and current problems I decided that was not the case.  Then I guessed it as a lack of inspiration...and I think that's partially correct.

See, once I got my current job and it proved to be as stable as one can get in this economy, my level of Will-I-Have-A-Home-Next-Month quality of stress began to truly lower for the first time in a while.  But then something happened: my drive to continue improving things magically ebbed away over the course of a couple months and this complacency set in.  I've recognized it for some time now, but have mainly watched because at this time in my life, I've been going deep into my mind and figuring out truly what makes me tick.  It's not to say I haven't continued to improve my life, but it's almost like I've avoided the use of magic in it.  I've been watching for the thoughts behind the complacency, the laziness (I dig Cognitive-Behavioral techniques).  However, I've swiftly been realizing I need to break out of this because it has the possibility of taking everything I've rebuilt from the ruins of my late 20's and bring it all crashing back down.

The other night, I had my hipster, musical, web master, designer, fantastic werewolf and all around awesome friend Adam over.  As usually happens, some fantastic conversation happened that stretched through the corners and crevices of various topics with a flashlight, illuminating things we both really needed.  It was one of those conversations where, to both of us, it felt like we were digging our way down to something awesome and revelatory.

Even though it's been a couple days since, I'm still processing parts of that conversation, and trying to get my brain to remember others.  But there are things that stand out.

When it comes right down to it, I've been getting in my own way so much it's just about shameful!  One of the worst ways I have done this is by having this unconscious limit on what I feel magic can help me with, and the variety of ways I can implement its use in my life.  Coming to the realization that, despite my proficiency with magical technique and theory, the person holding me back since before I started this blog was *me*...well, it hasn't been comfortable.

You see, Adam is a magician and doesn't know it.  During the Conversation, he talked about things that touch on purpose and one's bliss in life (a phrase which he hates).  In the end, we reframed it into a person's work.  Follow your work!  And then, as we kept going, he eventually uttered it.

You know what I'm talking about.  He totally said it.

"The Great Work."

And this is coming from a guy who, despite being an Atheist and not being involved in the occult at all, has as his work the drawing of ideas from the great abstract and fleshing them out, giving them form, giving them harmony, and realizing them in material reality!

Sounds a bit like magic to me.

So.  Work.  Each person has it, whether they realize it or not.  I'm not going to launch into using Crowley as a basis for this topic, flinging 93 and True Will all over the place like a drunken Thelemite.  But it makes sense to me that each person has their work to do.  They can avoid it, and just simply not do it...if they don't care about having a fulfilled life.

And the essential message that came to me from my conversation and hangage with Adam the other night is basically the importance of getting up off your ass and doing your work, whatever that work is.

I've had a background understanding that I've mostly been the one getting in my way, magically speaking.  But now this fact is in the light of day and, much like the light of Helios rotted away the monster at Delphos after Lord Apollo defeated it, it will be obliterated by the light of crystal clear awareness!

Fiery Wall of Protection: Revisited

Back in April of 2011, I created a bottle of Fiery Wall of Protection oil as part of my efforts to recover from a crossed condition.  At the time, I pulled the recipe from Judike Illes' book "The Element Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells".  It seemed to work fine at the time, and I used it with moderate success.  Cut to December of 2011, and it turns out I have some awesome people who read this blog.  An anonymous commenter left quite a few tips for improving my Fiery Wall of Protection formula.  On top of that, in February, Polyphanes took the formula I used along with the comments of Anonymous, and made his own Fiery Wall of Protection formula.  Srsly, check it out, it's a pretty good post.

Taking inspiration from all of these, I revised my recipe and remade it thusly:

Ocean Delano's Fiery Wall of Protection

• Ginger
• Dragon’s Blood
• Rue
• Cinnamon
• Sandalwood
• Devil’s Shoestrings
• Black Pepper
• Red Pepper
• Angelica

I decided not to give the exact amounts I used here, but keep in mind that the ingredients are listed in descending order of their amounts.  I combined them in olive oil and used warm maceration to infuse their essences.  After the oil cooled, I added essential oils of ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, and sandalwood for scent.  The end result (pictured to the right) is a nice, deep red and smells very spicy and warm.

Charging

My method for charging this oil was inspired by de heer Balthazar's post where he details his creation and empowerment of his All Things Under My Feet condition oil.  Symbolically, his method was very sound, and though I wanted to do something like it, I felt that something more symbolic of being surrounded by protection would be more appropriate.

Unlike the last time I made this formula, I drew upon elemental Fire as the primary force behind its empowerment, with the forces of Mars assisting.  Unlike Polyphanes version, I left off the forces of Sol based on guidance obtained from divination.  Pictured to the left is the setup after the first day of empowering the oil.  The black and the blue candles were dressed and empowered for protection.  The red candle is representative of the forces of Mars, while the gold candle is representative of the more refined, divine aspects of Fire.  The white candle represents the light of the divine.  At the end of the initial empowerment, they were all sitting upon a written copy of the invocation I used for calling upon elemental Fire and the forces of Mars:

IAO, AIO, IOA, AOI, OIA, OAI...
By that most high and holy name
I call upon you, O MICHAEL, Governor of Fire
Let descend the Angel Aral to lend me aid.
I draw forth the fire, I draw forth the flame
To surround me like an impenetrable wall:
Protecting me, shielding me,
Keeping me safe from all harm.

I sound forth the seed syllable "O":
O KAMMAEL, ruler of the Sphere of Mars
Bring forth GRAPHIEL and BARTZABEL.
Powers of Mars, work hand in hand with Fire,
Lend your strength and your steel to this Fiery Wall
Help me stand tall and strong and secure.
Let its rays be as spears which drive back the darkness.
Let its heat most potently and aggressively drive away
Any entity, any creature, any force or spell or person
That approaches to do me harm, or drain my life,
Or sap my will, or cause me anguish or ill.

With all of this in mind, here is the procedure I used to empower the oil:

1. I began by performing the Universal Center and establishing the Pillar.
2. Recited the Prayer of the Design.
3. Performed the Zone Offering and then cast a circle and called the directions via the Compass Round.
4. Dressed and empowered each of the candles.
5. Used the invocation above to draw upon the forces of Fire and Mars.
6. Pore breathed the energies of Fire and Mars, and imbued the oil with them using the Triangle of Manifestation gesture.  While doing this, I further invoked the forces called:  Lay your holy hands upon this oil in consecration.  Empower it, that whatever this oil anoints or dresses will be surrounded by such a mighty wall: A fiery wall of protection, made completely safe by the light of your grace and the fire of your might!  In the name of the highest: IAO, AIO, IOA, AOI, OIA, OAI!
7. Set the candles in place and lit them, starting with the candle for divine, then for Fire and Mars, then the ones for protection.
8. Each day after that, for a total of five days, I held the bottle of oil, shook it, and recited the invocation, then lit a dressed and empowered tealight over it.

At the end of the five days, I checked the oil to see if it was done.  A pendulum divination confirmed it was ready, and exploring it with my psychic senses yielded impressions and visions of fire.  Even holding it while doing so resulted in me getting very warm, to the point that I ended up pore-breathing fire out of myself before I finally cooled off.  Two days since then, holding the bottle causes my hands to warm up and me to feel as though I'm surrounded by the namesake Fiery Wall of Protection.  It is definitely cooking, and brimming with spiritual fire!

The Formula In Use

With it completed, I decided that the first thing I wanted to use it for was on my apartment.  Using it as part of a larger working for cleansing, protecting and blessing my home, I went around and five-spotted all the doors and windows.  Once that was done, I anointed the edges of mirrors.


The effect afterward was, for me, palpable.  To my mind's eye, the entrances to the apartment were covered in an intense fire that threatened to burn everything around them.  I felt so completely safe, that I realized the formula I used before, while indeed protective, was nowhere near as powerful as this.


Because of how much more effective this formula was, both in terms of the empowerment and the actual recipe itself, I've gone back and changed my original post about it.  My experience with this formula has shown me how much more satisfying the results can be when attention is given to traditional herbal and curio lore.

What I've Been Up To Lately

Lately, I've been thinking that I really should write a bit more than I have been.  The early part of this year has seen a general lull in my online presence, especially here on my blog.

This is not to say that I've been inactive magically.  While I haven't had as much going on as I'd like, I have been active.  The downside is that I seem to have hit a rather unfocused phase in my activities, and so I've been working on that.  My regular practices have been up and down, leading to me being on a type of "break" from that than I would rather not be on.  Through talking about this and related trends in my personal life, I've decided that I need more routine in my life.  After all, you can come home and zone out on the internet all evening only so much before that gets really old.  Well, at least that's the case with me.

At one point I began to take a look at all the "projects" that I have going.  It seems to come down to quite a few items.  I've had some interesting highlights.

CLIENT WORK

At one point I decided to take on some client work, free of charge, to help me gain further experience, sharpen my skills, and complete one of the homework assignments from Strategic Sorcery.

My first client in this vein is a close friend of mine ("Jewel" from previous posts last year), and she had fallen on hard times due to being dismissed from her job and having difficulty getting another one.  After consultations and hitting her problems from a couple different angles, I'm happy to report that she got a job and things are going a little better for her.  On top of that, her musical career on the side has become much more successful since my work on her behalf.  Things are still tight for her, monetarily.  But that's where my work with her fiance/my-other-close-friend "Topher" comes in, hopefully.

My work with Jewel helped me get new experience in a couple of things.  First was the type of tarot consultation that I did for her.  I've been working with some of the material in Ly de Angeles' book "Tarot: Theory & Practice", and like a lot of what I see.  In short, I do a slightly abbreviated version of her full consultation method.  This allows me a good picture of her situation where I can analyze to find any crossed conditions, "weak spots" in the situation where magic will be the most effective, and what specifically should be avoided.

I also got some experience in creating a conjure hand.  Strangely enough, for a while it didn't seem to be having a strong enough effect.  Then, after I burned a candle over it to lend power and also burned an uncrossing candle on the side, improvement happened pretty quickly.

MATERIA, MATERIA, MATERIA

I've continued to use and improve my materia used in spellwork.  I've worked on refining formulas that I have posted previously, and have also worked on creating new ones either from scratch or from a pre-existing recipe.  Talia Felix's book, "Conjure Cookbook", has been absolutely WONDERFUL for this.

One formula that I came up with is a love-oriented one specifically geared toward men seeking men, as I didn't have any Q or Lavender Love Drops, and didn't have access to recipes for either one.  The funny thing about this one is that I had written out the intended formula, meaning to make it as I wrote it.  However, I decided it would be a good idea to consult with my Genius via a pendulum.  The interesting part is that what my Genius indicated for the ingredients and their amounts was completely different than what I had created...and yet it was even more appropriate!  Scentwise, it has a lavender topnote, rose middle note, and cardamom bottom note.  So far I call it "Gentlemen's Favour", but won't be posting it on here anytime soon.

I've also re-done my Uncrossing and Fiery Wall of Protection formulas, and they seem MUCH more effective.  Looking back, though, I've found that the source book I got them from had often pulled its formulas from Herman Slater's formulary, which is a bad thing in my opinion because of a frequent lack of accuracy of his formulas in relation to the lore that at least the formula names were drawn from.

THE CALL OF HEKATE

As I've been going along, I've been feeling more and more of a pull to work with Hekate.  This urge culminated in me sitting down one evening, invoking her, and then going into a contemplative session wherein I met with her.  It was a very dream-like sequence, during which she talked to me about things regarding my spiritual path that have been on my mind lately.  I have gotten some benefit from that meeting with Hekate, and I'm going to work with her a bit more.


With so many "projects" going on, I decided to give The Unlikely Mage's technique for finding direction a try, and came to the following:

• I will focus on studying Agrippas 3 Books.
• I will start engaging in a cycle of conjurations of the Governors of the Planetary Spheres, as well as daily recitation of the Orphic Hymns of the planets.
• After a long time of putting it off, I have been urged to actively work with the spirits of the Strategic Sorcery Mini-Grimoire.
• As per the advice given, I will continue developing my formulas and use of materia.
• Study of tarot and also the Lenormand oracle will continue.
• Discipline in maintaining a regular practice as well as continuing my course of training has been suggested.

On top of this, there are some things that I have been urged not to continue with for at least 6 months:

• Adapting my own conjuration ritual, independent of the Trithemius version.
• Further client work and offering of services and products.
• My study and practice of Geomancy.

That last item is the one that disappoints me the most!  But, all things considered, I think it would be for the best for the time being.  In the meantime, I'll develop the suggested items while finishing up current client work. 

Speaking of the client work, one of the current clients is apparently being plagued by a night hag! So I will soon be preparing the Hekatean spirit trap (the design of which is shown on Jason's book "Protection & Reversal Magic", along with Fiery Wall of Protection and Clearing work.

So this is what I've been up to lately.  There is much going on, and I will have more to report!

The Job Workings, part 3

Where I last left off, I had interviewed for a position doing helpdesk support which, while not a type of position I like, the pay and stability was really attractive to me.  Unfortunately, the interview left me highly intimidated and internally shaken.  The IT director, who was part of the interview, was the type of interviewer to hit hard and fast with intensely difficult questions that are beyond the job involved, and had some courteous, yet sharp (and to an extent unfair), criticism for me.  But despite all that, I turned out to be the best candidate and was accepted for the job.

A month in, however, I found myself under criticism from my manager over something that had more to do with him and his own personality than with me and my abilities.  In response, I went about applying some field magic to help with things.  Namely, I did Crown of Success work via setting lights.  I also dressed certain key spots at work with Crown of Success oil, as well as Commanding oil to gain influence with my coworkers.

Unfortunately, the situation was just too difficult for me to overcome, magic or no.  With time I would have done well, but the manager just didn't like me.  He even stated that my abilities are fine...but he seemed to think I didn't have the energy level for it.

So, they decided to do a bad job of hiding the fact that they were interviewing my replacement no 20 feet from me while leaving me alone to man the phones.  This was 2 months into this job.

Fed up with being lied to, I finally asked my company what was going on and had my fears confirmed on a Friday.  Fortunately, the client company was decent enough to give me one last week there.

I spent that weekend coping, and bringing a lot of magical action to bear on the situation.

SOL AND JUPITER AND SATURN, OH MY!

First, I contacted Tzadkiel, governor of the planetary sphere of Jupiter.  I conjured him and asked him to bring forth Yophiel and Hismael to bring forth the blessings of Jupiter into my sphere, and to bless me with an abundance of job opportunities, and to guide me toward the job that would be best for me.

There were elements of macro and micro enchantments involved here, and it was all spirit work with little materia involved.  I did, however, give an offering with a physical basis.

Next, that Saturday, I conjured Tzaphkiel and, at the advice of my magical group, asked him to send Agiel and Zazel to bless my sphere with stability.  This was more macro than micro because it mostly targeted my general sphere.

That Sunday, I conjured Michael and asked him to send Nakhiel and Sorath to assist me.  With this, I specifically asked for them to let the light of my personality shine forth and help me to find a job with stable hours, that suits my abilities, that challenges me well, and where I will be needed for the long-term.

Throughout all the conjurations, I instructed each power to work with the others as appropriate.

Now, during this particular weekend, I got a call out of the blue on a Saturday regarding a job opportunity.  This itself was odd, given that recruiters normally only operate during the weekdays.  The job opportunity involved was for a company that, after searching online, I found no presence of within the city I live in despite the claims of the recruiter.  But still, I went with it, and Monday they told me I was scheduled for a phone interview on Wednesday at a very accomodating time that allowed me to get home from work first.

Thus, Wednesday came along, and I got home from work.  I decided to prep with a little magic by doing the Conjuration of the Commander from TSS.  The interview went well, and I got along great with the interviewer, who was actually the manager for the position.  I found out more about the job, its challenges, and my responsibilities.  I answered technical questions and gave my opinion about related things.

Less than 24 hours later, I had the job!

I was floored!  Never have I ever been accepted for a long-term position after just a phone interview!  Given the circumstances, I could see why they did it the way they did, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

So, I finished at the helpdesk job, barely having anyone even bother to say goodbye, and got ready for the new job, which was desktop support and definitely preferable to helpdesk for me.  I started the new job the next week on a Wednesday, literally one week after my interview.  All in all, I was unemployed for 2 days total.

And that's the job I'm working at now.  It has its challenges, and it gets frustrating.  Plus, being the only "Computer Guy" onsite has its downsides.  But I'm happier with it.  It's closer to home, pays just as much as the helpdesk job, and it fits well.

WHAT I LEARNED

This has been another lesson that magic can only take you so far when used on a situation that is stacked against you too much.  However, when used well on the right points of a situation, it can do a lot.  It's like any other tool in that way.

I also got a solid lesson in what to look out for in future jobs, and what traits of a manager raise a red flag for me.  And in the future I'm going to make sure I do myself the favor of responding to them with proactive steps to minimize the severity of the blows they can deal to me.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY

In this series of posts, I talked about situations I found myself in.  If I were faced with those or similar again, the first mundane steps I would take are as follows:

• Keep my resume updated at all times.
• At the first sign of any instability, start regularly looking for and applying to job opportunities.  Brush up on interview skills and common interview topics.
• Research the local job market and send notes to all my recruiters that I'm exploring opportunities (again, at the first signs of instability).

Those are just a start, in my opinion.  They can also apply to any contractor getting to within a few months of the end of their contract term.  And, dear readers, if any of you have suggestions for additions to this list, I would definitely be willing to hear it!

On the magical side of things, there other steps I would take or do differently as well:

1. At the first sign of instability, I would enchant a master copy of my resume by the powers of Jupiter.
2. Also at the first sign of instability, I would perform macro enchantments with the powers of Jupiter, Sol, and Saturn.  Jupiter would be for abundance, Sol for guidance and influence, and Saturn for stability.
3. Any cover letters I send would be enchanted by the powers of Venus.
4. I would create some kind of talisman for job finding, such as a mojo hand.
5. Perform some kind of mass micro enchantment, such as shoaling or a large candle working.

And that is in addition to the workings I described in these posts, which includes:

• Uncrossing one's financial or job situation.
• Setting lights targeting aspects of the process of interviewing or onboarding.
• Deploying field magic such as influencing oils on your hands prior to an interview, and dressing key locations around your workplace with success and influencing products.
• Success workings to support one's efforts on the job.

And that, dear readers, concludes my report on The Job Workings.  I learned a lot from this, and I hope you do too.

Sigil Magic

One of the first magical techniques I ever learned was sigils.  Although I did not put them into much use at the time, years later they became a frequently-practiced technique for a while.

Gordon over at Rune Soup has posted an excellent article on this technique, that I wanted to share, in case my readers don't already read his posts as well.  The post itself is chock full of information, and on top of that links to all kinds of other sources of information to flesh out what is there.

If you have not read it yet, go check it out:  Sigils Reboot

It has definitely reignited my interest in sigils.  :)

The Job Workings, part 2

In my last post, I detailed the situation that left me searching for a job again and the financial uncrossing I did.  Before I continue on, however, I want to give a little bit of my history.

From ages 18 to 28, I always held down steady, continuous work (except for a few weeks when I started college).  If I couldn't stand a job, then I found another and left the old one.  This all changed in late October 2009, when the economy ate my job.  Just after this, my truck's transmission failed and it was 4 months before I was able to get it fixed.  While I subsisted on unemployment benefits and kept looking and applying for work, a number of things happened:

• Got a job and got my truck fixed.
• Lost the job in an abrupt introduction to how easily managers will now let you go, as well as the extremely flimsy reasons for which they will do so (seriously: In this case I have yet to meet anyone who does not think the reasons were total horseshit).
• Took odd 1-2 day project jobs.
• Took a 1 week job that ended up being extended to a month.
• Took a job outside my field, making WAAAY less than I did before the layoff, in order to keep my first-tier unemployment benefits from running out.

Then I got the desktop support job I mentioned in the first post. I was there a year and was laid off for two weeks.  That leaves us back at mid-September of last year, and at this point you can probably guess how skittish and paranoid I had become regarding employment and job-security.

I began the financially-focused uncrossing at the beginning of the first week off.  It concluded mid-week.  By that time I had interviews set up for two jobs: One I didn't like, and one I really wanted!  At that point, it was time for further enchantments!

Jupiter, Macro Style

One thing I did that same week was continue the series of planetary initiations by the angels by conjuring Tzadkiel to grant me initiation into the sphere of Jupier, and integration of its forces into my own sphere.  He granted this with the Jovian grace one would expect of his sphere.  I was drawn into a vision of many financial, authoritative, high-level things and then found myself back in my chair in front of my altar.  In addition to the initiation, I asked Tzadkiel expressly to bless my overall jobsearch efforts.

Targets Identified

Right along with the macro-enchantment from Jupiter, I began doing micro-enchantments.  This consisted of the following:

• Before each of the interviews, I put a small dab of Commanding, High John, and Crown of Success oils on my hands and rubbed them in.  I used just enough to put the lightest coating on my hands, avoiding making my hands look greasy.  I got this idea from Jason, and it's so strategically awesome!  Rub the oil on your hands, do the interview handshaking and VOILA!  Magic deployed!
•  For the job I really wanted, I empowered 3 candles.  Each one had a purpose targeting an aspect of the situation: The first was to go work at that job; the second was to help me pass the military interim security clearance the job required; and the third was to help the flow of the process.
• Further prayers to the powers of Jupiter.

Admittedly, these were not nearly as much as I could have done, but it was a good start.  At that point I had not received the financial magic lessons in Strategic Sorcery.  For the second week of my layoff, nothing really happened.  So after that I went back to work, tried to clean up the mess that was caused by my absence, and continued on with another general job-finding vigil cangle.

As it turned out, I was offered both positions!  The one I wanted even took less than 4 hours to decide!  I turned down the first job in favor of the second, and set about doing the extensive paperwork required to apply for a security clearance.  The second week of my layoff was uneventful and dead in terms of my jobsearch.  So I filled my time doing research for said paperwork, and filling the whole thing out.  This continued even after I went back to work when the two weeks was up.

Unfortunately, there are things that magic cannot help with, and that security clearance was one of them.  The DOD has been cracking down on the part of their process that focuses on a candidate's finances, and given mine, I was denied.  Magic, it seems, could not help with that.  It was a tough and very frustrating pill to swallow ("How can I improve my finances if you won't give me a fucking job???"), but swallow it I did.

Another job came along paying even more, but doing helpdesk (which I don't like).  I decided to go ahead and try for it anyway, and scored a phone interview.  After that I landed an in-person interview.  Even from that interview I was extremely intimidated by their director, and at the end of the interview I was seriously shaken, but they took me.  While on that job I still did magic to help improve my chances of staying there, but it seems that there were more walls I ran up against.

But that will be covered in my next post.

The Job Workings, part 1

Back in September 2011, my job at the time hit its first signs of instability.  It was a desktop support job -the first one of that type of IT support work that I'd had, as my previous experience was in helpdesk.  Being the first desktop support job I'd had, and with the economy being the way it was when I was brought in, the companies I worked under used their advantage to pay me way less than this type of position normally makes.

Cut forward one year and two weeks from my start date, and I was broke, tired, and exceedingly frustrated.  Just a month prior, I found out from the company I worked under (a major technology company) that I was going to be forced to take a total of 32 hours off -unpaid, of course- by September 23rd.  I scheduled this with them to have me off each friday up to and including the 23rd, and things chugged along.
Until Friday September 16th, that is.  At 3:00pm that day, I got a call from my company explaining that the client needed me to take the following 2 weeks off -again, unpaid- starting that coming Monday.

I was screwed.  A dozen and one things went through my mind: what about rent, what will happen at the end of that two weeks, will I be let go, I'm already behind enough on the bills, etc.  Due to the previous cuts, I already had to borrow $200 from family just to cover my moving expenses from when I parted ways with the hellish situation I lived with previously.  Total disaster was running through my mind.

One trait that I've been able to successfully overcome has been the tendency to let fear and depression paralyze me from action.  I flew straight into updating my resume, posting it to the major online jobsearch sites (especially Monster and Dice, in my case), and applying my ass off!

Fortunately for me, with the industry I work in, once you post your resume online, calls from recruiters will sometimes just flood in, so to speak.  As expected I began receiving at least 2 calls or emails per day, and by the end of my first week off I had two job interviews scheduled.

In addition to that, I applied for unemployment.  My state has an initial waiting week before benefits kick in.

And right there along with it, I knew it was time to dredge up some magical action.

I've HAD It With This Muthaf***ing Cross On My Muthaf***ing Money!

The aforementioned series of events made something snap inside of me.  Prior to this, I had not done much magical work to pull my finances out of the hole they’d gone into.  In retrospect that was especially stupid (and lazy) of me, but then again stupid and lazy are what many people do when suffering from severe depression.  Nonetheless, at this point I decided enough was enough.  The entire previous year-and-a-half had been one long string of financial disaster after financial disaster.  Everytime I came close to even beginning to set things right, something else would happen to make me backstep too far back.

I didn’t even bother with a divination; I knew what was going on: My finances were crossed.  This added to my consternation even more because of the uncrossing work I did back in April of 2010.

In general, the procedure for this was much like my previous uncrossing, except that I made more materia for it that, ingredient-wise, gave a distinct focus on the uncrossing of one’s finances.  This wasn’t absolutely necessary, but I wanted something special, something powerful, and something especially powerful!  Here’s a summary of what I did each day:

DAY 1

1. Brewed and used the Financial Uncrossing bath, letting it run down the drain afterward and dedicating it and the crossed condition to the Underworld powers.
2. On the day of the Sun and in the hour of Jupiter, I fixed a white vigil candle using my Financial Uncrossing oil and related herbs.  During the fixing process, I called on the powers of Sol and Jupiter -in particular, the Intelligences and Spirits.  Then, I lit the candle and wafted the appropriate incense around me.
3. I added some of the Financial Uncrossing oil, along with my VanVan oil, to some diluted pine-sol in a spraybottle and cleaned house!  I made sure to give special attention to spritzing the carpets and then vacuuming them, going from the rear of my apartment toward the front door.
4. Divined to see if the condition, if any, was broken.  The divination reported that there was still a spiritual affliction upon my finances.  At least this confirmed what I initially didn’t even bother confirming!

DAY 2

1. Bathed using the Financial Uncrossing bath, the same as Day 1.
2. Stood before the still-lit vigil candle and prayed for the condition to break.  Wafted the incense around me.
3. Brief spritzing of the cleaning solution around my apartment, from rear to front.
4. Divined to see of I was still afflicted.  I was.

DAY 3

1. Bathed using the Financial Uncrossing bath again.
2. Prayed before the candle and wafted the incense around me.
3. Spritzed the apartment lightly and then five-spotted doors and windows from rear to front.
4. Divined to check the status of the condition: Broken!

I proceeded to go through the rest of that week with things flowing along nicely.  In fact, I got two job interviews, both of which I got accepted for!  I turned down one in favor of the other due to payrate, but there was a TON of paperwork involving a security clearance I had to get through.

But I’ll cover that on my next post!

[New Year New You] Wheel of Morality: A Response

The goal I focused on for the New Year New You project was to get all of my bills caught up and to start my emergency fund off with $200.

Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it on time.

But that's just the bad part.  The good part is that I got all but two of my bills caught up on Monday.  I've been keeping my budget and, if I'm not mistaken, I will have the funds for the remaining two tomorrow.  Any tax refund that I get will go toward my emergency fund, and it currently is tax time.  I just have a missing 1099-G form holding me up.

In short, although I didn't achieve my goal by Valentine's Day, it has a very high likelihood of being achieved within the next week or two.


What Did I Learn?

In the end, most of the last couple years where I've been perpetually behind on bills wasn't due to any other reason than my own neglect.  I don't just mean my neglect at initially causing them to be behind, either; there were times where I favored getting takeout more than keeping that money to put toward getting caught up.

I've also learned the sheer extent to which I've been in a bad position in life, teetering on the edge of complete and total ruin.  I've been leaning on the kindness and generosity of state and family, and that's no way to live your life.  By not having at least a little money motivation, I've been dooming myself to a life of daily grind, routine, and a type of slavery where I never get to really have an amazing, fun time.  I want more than that!

It's a struggle, and it may be a struggle that I will always undergo, but it's totally worthwhile!


Where Do I Go From Here?

More financial enchantments are in store.  For a long time I had planned on creating a magical cashbox, detailed in TSS.  But with the tools and materials I've had available, my primadonna side won't let me.  So, I'm considering a Jupiter/Mercury-based spirit bottle!  I even have a cobalt glass bottle that is just right for it!

Of course, I'm not stopping there.  There will be conjurations of various and sundry spirits for information and guidance, at least one talisman, sigils fired off, and other goodness.  More immediately, I'm going to be enchanting for repairs on my vehicle, which at this point is more an issue of the funds to pay for my mechanic's cheap prices!  ;)

I even have a post in mind to detail magical actions I've taken to help with my employment.  And once I start seeing proof of results or failure on them, I will detail the cases of my first clients!  I'm so excited!

I'm definitely keeping on with the New Year New You project for its longer-term version, if it's still ongoing. Even if it isn't, I'm taking notes of the relevant posts from her blog and will probably put them into practice! That brings me to my next point...


Final Word

I want to take the opportunity to thank the lovely and marvelous Deb for putting this experiment together.  She really has a muse going on there, because I know I've been inspired!  I look forward to more goodness!  ;)

I feel a little Meme-ish

[New Year, New You] Fall Off The Horse, Get Back On - Rinse and Repeat

I've been at odds with life lately.

By "life", I mean that strange *thing* that can alternately mean fate, chance, The Way Things Happen...the whole package.  It's what your parents are talking about when you're a teenager complaining about something or other, and they tell you, "Well, that's just life!"  Shit Happens, as they say, and on most occasions, it seems like there is little or nothing anyone can do about it, least of all you.  Even though it's happening in and to your life.

This post is in response to the New Year New You writing prompt by Deb entitled 'Some Enchanted Evening'.

Well, when "Just Life" happened to me recently and I lost my job because of some namby-pamby feely-weely personality fascist, I jumped straight into enchantment in a way I never truly have before.  In a recent post I talked about how I immediately went into conjuring the powers of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury to lend stability to my life and to help me find work again quickly.  They delivered, and I've been at the new job for 2 1/2 weeks now.  It's been an adjustment, but it's coming along.

I've been lax with the enchanting lately, though.  It has honestly felt like, since I got my new job, I've been trying to play "Recuperate" and failing at it.  There are things I haven't entirely processed, and I really need to stop, assess where I am and where I want to be, and then move forward accordingly.

However, that is just in regards to my life in general.  For my stated goals for the New Year New You experiment, however, I'm only slightly behind.  There has not been much enchantment that needs to be done.  The only things I can think of are as follows:

• Doing work to assist with better discipline as I near the completion of my stated goal.
• Doing further workings to pull together more money from miscellaneous sources to finish faster.
• Setting up a Jupiterean/Mercurial spirit bottle/house to help with my financial goals.

This coming Tuesday, I will be starting the work on the discipline, and on subsequent days after that, I will be doing more work toward the rest.

Miscellaneous Update

It's been so long since my last post that, yes, I must post twice in a row!  :P

Having covered the things going on in my general sphere lately, I wanted to cover a few miscellaneous things that I just felt like updating you about, dear readers!

Black Arts Oil

A while back I made Black Arts oil and posted about it.  In addition to a recipe and method for making it, I posted a picture of the product immediately after bottling and shaking.  Since then, as happened with the other oil I made and put into a mana potion bottle...after the ingredients settled, this little project took on an artistic little turn, as shown in the picture to the left!

This somehow looks very fitting, and I really like it!  A lot of the tiny granules of sulphur settled on the tendrils of the spanish moss, and it looks a bit like something twisted and ash-covered in there.

The Witch's Jar

My initial uses of my new Witch's Jar have seen positive results.  It has been a few weeks since I last used it, so I need to get cracking on that if for nothing else than to test the extent of its abilities.



Handmade Mojo Bags

In the past week or so, I made a set of red flannel bags by for use in making Mojo or Conjure Hands.  In Strategic Sorcery, Jason teaches a specific method of constructing them that was taught to him by Papa Legba.  In the same lesson, he goes on to give two recipes he has used with success.  I took the one for finding a job and modified it for long-term employment ends as well as finding secondary income while working a full-time job.  I'll update with the results once I actually make and empower it.

Initially, the bags took a while to sew by hand, as I don't have a machine and didn't know good hand-sewing technique.  But then I watched some videos about hand-sewing, put the stuff I learned there into practice, and now I can get through a bag in about 20 minutes.

The Much-Needed Update

I must say, it has been a minute since I last posted here!

Basically, Shit went down in my life, namely in the form of losing my job.  After two weeks of them putting me through mental torment by doing a horrible job at covering up the interviews with replacement candidates not 20 feet from me behind closed doors...the news was sprung to me by my company on a Friday (Jan 13).  I was allowed to finish with one more week, which was decent of the company involved, given my admittedly biased-sounding opinion regarding their absurd reason for letting me go (hint: it wasn't about my actual, real-time job performance, behavior, interaction, or attendance; they had little to no complaint about that).

I spent the weekend emotionally coping, polishing up my resume and posting it on the major jobsearch sites.  I also spent chunks of time doing macro-enchantments with the powers of Saturn (stability in my life and steady work), Jupiter (abundance in life and job opportunities), and Mercury (business success and technology).  Some of it wasn't so macro because, though I called on the archangels of the planets to send blessings into my sphere, I also called upon the intelligences and spirits of those planets for more specific tasks and influences.  I had more magical activities planned for the ensuing week, along with much applying, networking, and overall job-seeking.

However, I didn't get that far.

The day after my company broke the news about my impending unemployed status, I received a call from a recruiter about another job, and that Monday a phone interview was scheduled.  It was made obvious right from the start that the phone interview would be the only interview...which raised a flag for me, but I went along with it.  I interviewed that Wednesday, and on Thursday I had a job offer for just $1 less per hour than I was making before (which somehow turned into the same amount I was making later, on paper).  Another company gave me a phone interview after too long a delay, but I rolled with it...and a day or two later, they wanted an in-person interview!

However, I took the first job because it paid the same as I was already making and was closer to where I already live!  I started this past Wednesday, having been unemployed for all of two (2) business days.

Let's just say I'm planning an elaborate offering ceremony to a certain three planetary powers.