Snuff out your enemy's tricks

One of the most helpful things about strengthening and building your spiritual framework is that your muertos - the blessed dead who guide and protect the spiritist - begin imparting some very useful information. Of course they bring spiritual power to any work the espiritista performs by empowering it as it is done but they also transmit altogether new workings to the medium. What's important to note here is that the workings that are received in this way are unusually potent because they are fresh - a direct expression of your very own spiritual framework's magical 'language' and tailored to your particular needs.

How that manifests in practice depends on the muerto in question. A gypsy spirit has a certain style of working, while a madama spirit has a somewhat different approach and temperament - just as a chinese or arabic spirit might have their own unique specialities. Each will step in as needed, guiding, nudging and correcting things as you work, based on their specialities. Often these works are surprisingly simple, or even strangely cryptic  - using everyday objects, gestures and ingredients that you might never have considered using in a spell before. Sometimes an irrepressible tune or song bursts out of your throat causing the air to vibrate with spiritual electricity. Yet, no matter how simple the gesture or mundane the object employed it's like a rocket has been lit under the work because it comes straight from the source.

Here is a deceptively simple little work I was given in this manner. It snuffs out pernicious negativity or spells flung at you. Although it's quick and requires a bare minimum of ingredients I've found it to be exceedingly effective.

Ingredients:

Bible
Holy water
Candle (a short stub of candle is all that is needed)
Clear glass bowl, preferably with a flat bottom.

Open the Bible at the book of Psalms (randomly choosing a page in Psalms). Place the empty glass bowl atop the bible as pictured. Take the candle that you will be using for this work and proceed to spiritually 'clean' yourself with it by passing it all over your body from head to toe, praying as you do that any witchcraft, molochia or any other negativity be removed and transferred into the candle. Let that candle take it all up like a sponge.

Next, drip some hot wax (from another lit candle or tea-light) on the bottom of the bowl and while the wax is still soft, position the spiritually 'dirty' candle so that it will stand securely in the bowl, ready to be lit. Pour holy water into the bowl so that it's roughly an inch deep in water and the base of the candle is suitably submerged beneath the holy water.

Call on God, your ancestral spirits and spiritual guides to snuff out the tricks of your enemies like a flame snuffed out by water. Call them into the holy water. Light the candle and leave it to burn. The flame will eventually meet its demise in the water - dousing any nasty tricks and negativity along with it. 

Finally, peer through the clear glass bottom of the bowl to find a passage that jumps out at you. By means of bibliomancy you will now be able to divine more about this matter. 

Dispose of remains appropriately and then finish off with a spiritual bath to seal in the effect.

Sleeping with water: my first line of defence

Every night I sleep with two glasses of water. The first glass is my drinking water, the second glass is my first line of defence. My drinking water has a lightweight lid on it, to 'close' it off from receiving anything spiritually. Naturally, I don't want to drink any of that junk during the night! 

The second glass of water is the glass which I set to absorb anything coming at me. Every night when I prepare for bed, as part of my night time ritual, just before I jump into bed I will spiritually 'clean' myself over the second glass by brushing my hands over my body and away - finally tapping the accumulated 'stuff' into the glass. This sets the intention that this glass is meant to absorb anything sent against me during the night. 

What's most amazing is I pour both these glasses of water in the same type glass, at the same time, from the same faucet. If you imbiggen the pic above you will notice the lidless glass on the right is filled with bubbles and my drinking glass is completely clear - and as every spiritualist knows: when the glass gets bubbly it has taken on icky spiritual gunk. 

At night when we are sleeping we are often at our most vulnerable spiritually - especially if you are a mediumistic type of person you will find that your sleep time is potentially the first point of contact for all kinds of stuff; both good and bad. This simple glass of water is my first line of night-time defence and a very effective early warning system.

Usually I wake up and both glasses are clear. However, every so often the second glass presents filled with bubbles and then I know something is up. Someone is throwing at me, or there is some other spiritual intrusion that I need to take care of. I take up that 'dirty' glass with my left hand and I pour it down the toilet and flush that stuff away. A single incident of this shouldn't get you all freaked out and paranoid - it's probably just general astral noise and grime getting picked up by the water. If the glass presents like this for several nights in a row however, then I will do a divination to find the source of intrusion and take appropriate action.

I highly recommend this practice to people who move in magical circles where there is potential for spiritual attacks, or to people who are readers or otherwise active in a spiritual scene of some sort. This deceptively simple thing is not only a fascinating demonstration of the mechanics of the watery spiritualist technology that pervades espiritismo, but also highly effective at keeping you spiritually clean and secure.

It's easy, it works and it will save you a lot of problems in the long run, let me tell you!

'Paying' the saints for their help

A recent e-mail conversation with Rose Weaver regarding saint work got me thinking and I would like to post something about the various ways of 'paying' saints for any work they do when you petition them. There is so much information about this on the various social networks and websites and a lot of it can be quite unreliable, frankly.

So firstly before we go into what to pay - it's important that you know you shouldn't 'overfeed' spirits by giving them too much too often (foodstuff and other things). Don't overfeed any spirit. That's one of the first things I was taught as an espiritista. It's counter intuitive because you think that if you ply a spirit with goodies they will favour you more. But for some reason it doesn't work that way. This well-meaning approach seems to make them 'lazy', which is to say, slow to get moving. Why bother if you get loaded with a ton of free stuff anyway, right? It's especially easy to get carried away when you first start with spirit work. I know I did.

You need to find a balance.

Keep it simple but always keep your word. If you promise X, give them X. And it doesn't need to be that extravagant. There will be times that you want to promise something big but that should be for those truly important things. And sure, you might want to make a general show of appreciation by doing or giving them something special once in a while and that's perfectly acceptable - but generally speaking it's better to keep it moderate.

With that side-point about overfeeding out of the way, lets look at the saints specifically:

Some saints certainly do have particular things that they like to receive as offerings (cake, money etc.) It's always good to research the saint you are working with and find out what their traditional associations/likes are and give them those things as payment. It sounds like common sense but a lot of people don't bother. What I see a lot of these days, and find quite irksome, is people simply posting "Thank you St. X!!" as a status update on facebook.

Seriously? You think the saints are on facebook reading status updates?

But I am "spreading their name and fame", I hear you say. Well, actually, only a few of saints are known to find that pleasing. How do we know? It's included in the catholic liturgies and prayers associated with them. I know that St. Expedite likes that, and probably St. Jude because he got a bad reputation due to his association with Judas the betrayer. Unless I am mistaken - there are at best one or two other saints who like publicity as thanks. As for the hundreds or thousands of other saints out there it just doesn't fit.

Also, it's kinda lazy. Traditionally you would publish a notice in a newspaper - but come on - a lousy facebook status update? (That reminds me - you should totally friend me on Facebook. Gordon says the age of blog is almost over and social media is where it's all going. I don't want to miss out). Your petition is fulfilled and all you can bring yourself to do is shuffle over to the computer in your pajamas and post a status update?!

I know I am going to get heat for saying this from all the facebook hoodoos who have popularised this practice but it has to be said: you can do better!

If you are entirely unsure what to offer the saint you are working with, rest assured all saints happily accept flowers. A nice bunch of flowers not only beautifies the altar it also raises the spiritual vibration of an area with its scent and freshness. You really can't go wrong there. Next, considering that these are saints - holy people canonised for their goodness and service - you could consider making a donation to a charity working in the area of their patronage.

This approach is definitely ratified by folk-catholic tradition too. Saint Anthony's Bread is an excellent example. This is a donation collected by churches in the name of St. Anthony and the money is then given to feed the poor. It is said that the practice started in 1263 after a child drowned near the Basilica while it was being built. Desperate, but strong in faith, the child's mother prayed to St. Anthony and promised that she would give to the poor an amount of corn equal to the child's weight if he returned the child to her. After hearing this promise St. Anthony restored the child to life and soon the practice of St. Anthony's Bread began.

Similarly, as thanks for granting your petition you could donate some time or money to a local addiction recovery program in the name of St. Jude, for instance. Or you could donate to a child protection program in the name of St. Michael. There are so many of these worthy charities that I can't think of a more wonderful, and magical, thing than to combine your saint work with kindness and service. Everyone wins!