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!