Conjure Gnosis

Snuff out your enemy's tricks

2012-02-09T04:30:00.000-08:00

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

2012-02-02T03:33:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

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!

'Choosing' Saints or Spirits

2012-01-26T04:22:00.000-08:00

Every so often I will do work with a certain spirit or saint and when the client sees a pic of the working they will ask me "why did you use spirit/saint X for this job - I thought he/she was only good for Y?"

The idea that a spirit or saint is used for one thing and one thing only is problematic on many levels. Firstly, these are non-corporeal beings. We don't use them. We should discourage this language whenever possible. We pray for their aid, we beg for their intercession, at best we work with them - we certainly don't use them like kitchen appliances.

Secondly, a saint or spirit may be famous for working in a certain area but that doesn't mean that's all they can or will do. This is such a flawed, mechanistic, two dimensional way of looking at these beings - and one that reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about their underlying reality. Moreover, it's rather cynical if you think about it and does them a great disservice.

So I would like to suggest a different approach to this. Instead of looking at a saints 'stats' to see which would be good for your next working - far better, and more fruitful in terms of results, would be to take some time to consider with which saint it is that you have that special relationship and found your work on that. Because, after a while you will begin to notice some of them have a unique and powerful connection to you as a spiritual worker. This can manifest in a couple of ways.

For instance, you may find that contact with a certain spirit or saint comes to you by unusual means: you are gifted a statue; or you find a holy card in the street; you have a dream or vision about them or are otherwise brought into contact with them in some surprising and meaningful way. These kinds of events are special clues that a spirit is about to enter your spiritual framework, and would like to help in your work and establish a relationship with you.

The truth is that in reality the spirits and saints choose us.

You will find that a saint or spirit whom you form this kind of connection with (as apposed to the shopping for cewl powerz route) really moves and gets things done when you petition them. There is a potent flavour to any work you do with them because you know them very personally. What's more is you might find they will work in numerous different areas besides the thing that they are famous for. And they will begin showing you unique ways in which they will work for you alone.

I would like to dedicate this post to the most miraculous and marvellous Saint Joseph. This saint has blessed me by working in numerous different ways over the last couple of years and always startles me with his compassion and power. My his name be elevated in Gods celestial territory!

Prayer of St. Joseph

Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls - Pray for me.

This prayer was found in the fiftieth year of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In 1505 it was sent from the Pope to Emperor Charles when he was going into battle. Whoever shall read this prayer or hear it or keep it about themselves, shall never die a sudden death, or be drowned, not shall poison take effect of them; neither shall they fall into the hands of the enemy; or shall be burned in any fire, or shall be overpowered in battle.

Say for nine mornings for anything you may desire. It has never been known to fail, so be sure you really want what you ask.

Let the spirits do the work

2012-01-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

I sometimes get asked by curious people - how, exactly, I 'work' magic (as apposed to what methods/systems I employ).

In other words they want to know which inner methods I like to use. Do I visualise the outcome? Do I move 'energy' into the spell-work etc.

The truth is most of my work is done before I ever sew a bag or light a figural candle. I certainly don't visualise things or move energy or use any of those kinds of tricks anymore. I just put the working together using the right materials and techniques (candles, tying, cutting, nailing or whatever), whilst respectfully calling down my muertos - and they do all the work. I'm more like a 'magical event co-ordinator', you could say.

I certainly don't internally 'effort' with it at all because it doesn't make much of difference anymore. I just set up a material basis for a magical working, the so-called 'spell', and they take care of the rest.

My real job is to take care of them.

I feed them. I give them masses. I follow their instructions by creating dolls, pots and other vehicles that express their presence in my life. I activate them and materialise them in this world with dedicated, attentive and consistent service and in return they help me with my spiritual work. They do all the heavy lifting in that department, honestly.

This was the very first thing I noticed when I watched good espiritistas and other spiritual workers whom I admire, working: there was a matter-of-fact effortlessness about the process. The work was put together in a straightforward and often shockingly simple way and stuff was expected to happen. And did!

There was no big drama. A true elegance and economy of effort was plainly evident in the way they did things. And confidence. The relaxed confidence that comes from knowing that the spirits will take care of things because the spirits have been correctly cared for.

Happy New Year

2011-12-30T03:48:00.000-08:00

A bit early, but I thought this is a great contemplation for the end, and beginning, of the year. Thanks to all the sweet people who read this blog as well as those who come to me as clients and friends. May your spirit be blessed, refreshed and renewed in this coming cycle.

Conjure Codex Released

2011-11-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

The Conjure Codex has been released by Hadean Press. I am pleased to say it includes an essay by yours truly and a whole lot more stuff. A brief synopsis of my piece:

Infernal Conjure Craft: a system of 'goetic' hoodoo

In this 9000 word piece for the Conjure Codex, I offer an approach to what some have called 'goetic hoodoo'; using for its basis the notorious Grimoirium Verum, and specifically, the subsystems of spell-craft encoded within the Natural and Supernatural Secrets of the True Grimoire. Drawing on hoodoo methods and more broadly from the magic of the african diaspora, I attempt to interpret and then expand the underlying spell systems held within the Secrets section of the grimoire, creating a fully operational, highly versatile system of 'goetic hoodoo' - what I have playfully dubbed Infernal Conjure Craft.

78 Unspeakable Gnostic Hymns to Cthulhu

2011-11-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

I can explain.

This post is inspired by my enthusiasm for the Dark Grimoire Tarot which I, somewhat inexplicably, took a shine to recently. I mean, while I certainly appreciate Lovecraftian tentacle aesthetics I probably never will take too seriously any efforts to turn his fictional horror setting into a magical system, so my regard for such things is pretty low. I ordered this tarot deck because I found Michele Penco's art haunting but attractive and I thought it would be an interesting novelty to add to my tarot collection. However, when I actually tried reading with it I was, somewhat uncomfortably, blown away. So I am trying to make sense of just why this deck speaks with such a fresh and powerful voice, especially considering that when it was first slated for publication by Lo Scarabeo its working title was The Tarot of the Unspeakable (and it was a much better title too, in my opinion).

I can't deny that there is something intriguing about the underlying philosophical trajectory of Lovecraft's work and how it has spawned an enduring mythology so alien yet oddly familiar. And although I don't believe he channelled some sort of revelation about the Great Old Ones, I do think Lovecraft gave literary expression to a certain philosophical sensibility that truly is both great and old.

A sensibility not unlike the one that inspired Gnosticism, in my opinion. In his excellent work, Gnostic Philosophy, Tobias Churton makes the compelling assertion that Gnosticism is an impulse traceable throughout the ages, rather than a single historical religious movement; and that the impulse constitutes a kind of Gnostic Spirit emerging again and again in different times and places. In religious movements like the Christian and Sethian Gnostics, Sufis, Templars, certainly - but also in literary and cinematic forms such as the writing of Jean Baudrillard, Phillip K. Dick and films like the The Matrix.

It's the intuitive perception that there is something wrong with the world, and the truth is hidden just ever so slightly beyond the periphery of our ordinary experience. That the universe is not an entirely benign place but can be quite cruel, implacable and often unspeakably (If I may be permitted to use Lovercraft's favourite adjective) strange. The insight that the Dark Grimoire Tarot sparked for me is that if we turn a Gnostic lens to Lovecraft - a spark of gnosis might be found throbbing latent in the tentacled chaos.

For instance, the gods of Lovecraft's world are hostile, and inconceivably 'other' - not unlike the Gnostic's sinister demiurge and his archons (or the Cathar's theologically cognate notion of Devil - who they recognised as the creator of the material universe). Lovecraft's writing jettisons anthropocentric tendencies that long to place humans at the centre of the mythic stage. Instead, his fiction is permeated by an impersonal terror at our apparent insignificance: trapped in fleshy bodies that hurt, stuck on a fragile blue planet spinning in a cold black void where a lot of terrible, scary stuff happens at the whim of forces unimaginably vast.

Like most of Lovecraft's protagonists we too are not sure why or what exactly to do about our predicament.

Like the Gnostics, Lovecraft imagines a deeper order of reality, dreadful but hidden from plain view by our mundane preoccupations. And like the Gnostics, he imagines no reason why the deities of his universe should be any better than its merciless grinding. No, when Cthulhu returns everyone dies, and his crazed cultists long for the day when "all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom". I can't help but wonder if frothing-at-the-mouth evangelicals dream and hope for anything all that different? I am reminded of the bloodthirstiness of the God of the old testament and the fiery eschaton in the book of Revelations... and in this light it seems quite reasonable that the Christian Gnostics took Jehova to be their monstrous Yaldabaoth - the arrogant, cruel and ultimately insane demiurge.

Like the Gnostics, Lovecraft imagined his world as fundamentally evil and the veil of illusion that is our ordinary consensual reality is what protects the fragile mortal minds of men from the truth. The resulting madness of his protagonists upon revelation of this reality is therefore comparable, mythically speaking, to the madness of saints. I can't help but suspect the reason his work has been so enduring is because the horror of his fiction taps the same existential dread that spurred the Gnostics in their various forms, and is a dread felt by most people in one way or another. The impersonal, intangible anxiety at how we feel cut adrift in a world characterised by suffering. What Buddhism - that great Gnostic impulse of the east - refers to as samsara: the ceaseless ocean of suffering.

There are yet more pleasing symmetries just ripe for the plucking if you take into account that Gnosticism is traceable to the cosmic dualism of ancient Persia. Similarly, Lovecraft traces the original source of the cult of Elder Gods to "the pathless deserts of Arabia, where Irem, the City of Pillars, dreams hidden and untouched". And just as the Gnostic Spirit wends its way through Hellenistic, Greco-Egyptian, Semitic cultures pretty much all the way through the Middle East, Europe and on to Asia - so too the fictional cult of Old Ones rears its scaly tentacled head in most of these places and cultures.

There seems to be a preponderance of stellar symbolism connected to the Great Old Ones who would return when "the stars are right" restrained until some sort of astrological conjunction occurs. Similarly, but somewhat conversely, the Archons - those cosmic prison wardens of the Christian Gnostics - are connected to the zodiac and as such they restrain mankind, binding us with the fetters of fate and matter by means of their stellar machinations.

What I am I getting at?

That perhaps approaching the Lovecraftian narratives in this deck as a kind of modern Gnostic allegory is potentially an interesting, spiritually productive angle to consider when working with the Dark Grimoire Tarot and perhaps even Lovecraft's legacy of writings as a whole.

To this end I find Dark Grimoire Tarot to be extraordinarily tractable and that's because it very successfully combines another celebrated Gnostic model, the tarot, with Lovecraftian mythic imagination. I began researching the deck's background a little and I was surpised at how carefully it had been designed to ensure that it would be genuinely workable as a tarot deck.

It's evident that a great deal of thought went it into its creation and in my opinion the result is something innovative. A rare contribution to tarot in the era of vacuous theme decks. You expect to find a cheesy catalogue of silly monsters but what you actually unearth after spending some time with the deck, like an ancient set of eldritch tablets, is that the underlying existential dread of Lovecraft's world is transformatively activated by the archetypes of the tarot and so doing becomes a vehicle for something far more profound than pulp fiction. A subtle interplay of meaning between the two symbol sets results in a dazzling and balanced gestalt that allows one to reach through the confinement of your personal existential anxiety to knowledge - gnosis - of something transcendent beyond it.

My own Gnostic reading of this is that by exposing the limiting demiurgic forces latent in our experience (represented by the cards as Lovecraftian narratives) - forces which are the fears, demons and shadows of our own projections - we can potentially become freed from them. And in this respect this deck delivers a real sense of beauty and hope with each use. It's no accident either because it seems this feature was consciously built into the deck.
I'll conclude by sharing an excellent comment I found given by an editor at Lo Scarabeo who was involved in the Dark Grimoire Tarot's development:

The basis of Lovecraftian Horror was the concept that the world itself was “evil”, and madness would have been the only fate of those who looked beyond the veil. So the veil of Maya, illusion separating from truth, is our savior.
It is a bad way to look at the world, also because the “seeker” is always the “victim”.
I think the “dark” of the Dark Grimoire Tarot is about touching darkness. (Well, it’s a Tarot deck and not a collection of Lovecraft based illustrations). When you are drawn into the darkness how do you stay yourself, how do you remember light?
How do you allow darkness to change and mold you (because if you go into the darkness you must accept it or sacrifice something precious: read Heart of Darkness by J. Conrad – I really would like to make a Tarot deck on that concept)
And again… what is the meaning of darkness? How can you accept and feel the evil in the world and not be destroyed?
So, when we touch darkness, we don’t do that through a glass window. And still, in a way, even if it doesn’t seem to change anything, darkness is also touched by us.
It was difficult to try to convey the main character of the deck (there are two actually: a man and a woman) as both a victim and a hero. As someone fighting darkness and someone embracing it and learning from it (darkness is both a devourer and a teacher?)
There was one last concept I wanted to address about darkness and that was quite important when thinking about this deck: the concept of “empowering”.
One of the ways to use Tarot we consider important revolves around the concept of “empowering”. Future should not be fate, and a querient (if you read for others or if you read for yourself) should be encouraged by Tarot to find solution, think strategies, act… and ultimately accept responsibility for himself.
When considering a horror/dark deck, one should think that the horror concept really has no heroes but rather victims. The horror comes exactly when the point of view of the reader/spectator has no control over things. There is nothing but to run and hide, and even so, there is no escape. The feeling of dread we receive from true horror is definitely linked to “lack of control”. Doing a horror Tarot deck means asking the people who use it to sympathise with lack of control, and that’s not really good for empowering them.
[An attempt at] answering this contradiction, and trying to find a way to have these two concepts coexist has been an important part of the design work.
One final note. Most of the times creating a deck is not a way to give an answer to all possible considerations about a theme (like darkness, for instance). It’s just a way to ask the questions, or to open a door. We don’t know, ever, what’s behind the door.

PS: I meant to have this post up on the 31st of Oct, but it turned out to take little longer than I expected. Nonetheless - happy belated Halloween wishes to you dear readers.

Rollé I Ching Sticks

2011-09-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

More I Ching stuff.

Ever the experimentalist, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the coin casting method - the most common method for generating the lines of the I Ching hexagrams. For those of us who worry about such things, I found it's a little time consuming, and the math is too symmetrical when compared to the more ancient yarrow stalk method. I would go for the yarrow stalk method but that's way more time consuming/complicated and I would probably end up avoiding divining with the oracle altogether if I had to do all that counting out of yarrow sticks every time I had a question.

Yet, the math appeals to me because the changing yin lines are less frequent, which mirrors the workings of yin in the universe (it changes less frequently). So, I started using what is known as the marble method - which is mathematically closer to the more ancient yarrow stalk method but relatively easy by comparison: sixteen marbles of four different colours are used; representing stable yin, stable yang, changing yin, and changing yang (1 marble of the first colour, 3 of the second colour, 5 of the third colour, and 7 of the fourth).

You just draw marble to generate each line. Not too bad at all...

Until I discovered these ingenious I Ching sticks invented by a Swiss man called Dominique Rollé and sold by Anthony Publishing Co. I'm not a mathematician but according to Carol Anthony the sticks were designed so that the mathematical probabilities are close to the yarrow stalk method - but how cool is this - you generate the primary hexagram, changing lines AND the relating hexagram with a single cast!

You just roll the sticks in your hands while framing your question mentally...

Until you feel the moment is right...

Then you roll them onto the table surface....

And presto - the figures and changing lines are generated in a single, easy movement.

The hex on the left is the primary figure, the dot indicates the changing line (here changing from yang to yin) and then on the right we have our relating hexagram. Additionally, you can create small gap by shifting the sticks apart a bit to help identify the trigrams more easily - which of course helps one find the figure in the book but it also helps one to see how it is built up energetically.

I also find these sticks rather aesthetically pleasing. I like passing them through some incense smoke as I formulate my question and then I find the rolling motion in my hands is suitably meditative. In a certain way they kind of remind me of yarrow sticks in terms of their kinaesthetic quality - but with a very modern twist.

There you have it folks - a better mouse trap.

The curious chinese map-book and diversity in your spiritual framework

2011-09-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

It started with an impulse to take my dusty I Ching to Glastonbury. I had not touched the ancient oracular text in years. Like many I have had the very occasional insight with the book, but for the most part I found it terse, cryptic and too foreign to apply my own experience usually. I tried a different translation, but in the end all those changing lines made my head hurt. Better to open the telephone directory at random, phone up a stranger and ask them a question and interpret their ravings, I told myself. At least there would be no mysterious, impenetrably obtuse 'mountains over lakes' or any of those 'wet foxes crossing a river in the southwest'. Or whatever.

I obeyed the impulse anyway. Especially since it came with that, now familiar, vibratory ping that flashes down from the top of my scalp down to to my heels when I am being prodded by a muerto.

The morning of the workshop and misa I found myself up at an impossibly early hour in my hotel room. Pure agony for a late sleeper such as I. What to do? Out came the yellowed pages of my I Ching, and I attempted my first reading in years with it. It made an uncomfortable amount of sense too. As if a missing circuit in my mind suddenly had been hooked up and the lights of meaning all came on. I spent the next two hours before breakfast studying the reading's hexagrams - puzzled by the unexpected, yet helpful advice of the 3000 year old Sage.

Enthralled, I discovered ancient ancestors being pleased by great offerings. Large dynastic cauldrons filled with animal sacrifices. Angry ghosts troubling people (gui) and spirits of light (shen) descending from Heaven to Earth to inspire. Who knew the ancient Chinese were espiritistas too?

Later I joined Don Azito and Yanu for breakfast, and as we ate we discussed everything we still had to get together for the misa that evening. Yanu interjects to ask padrino if he would allow him to bring a bowl of uncooked rice to the misa. Rice? Yes, Yanu explains - he has the urge to use the rice to cleanse people.

Some oriental flavoured coincidence begins to emerge. I mention my I-Ching discoveries, and we chortle about it as padrino nods along patiently.

Later that day Don Azito and I are hiking down from the Tor after having spent some time listening to neo-pagans drum as we looked out over the glorious vista. On our way back he notices a book discarded on the pavement. We pick it up only to discover that it's a map-book. In Chinese.

A map-book in Chinese?

Don Azito raises and eyebrow and smiles broadly. I scratch my head; partly amused, partly baffled by the sign. Joking about the Chinese spirits in Glastonbury, we toddle down the main street to St. Martha's botanica to chat with Jamie and Jack about the evenings doings. We enquire after some ribbons and other stuff that we forgot to bring for the misa and Jamie, very helpfully, begins looking around the shop for things that could fill in some of the gaps. He turns around holding up a pack of nine lucky Chinese bells with red ribbons attached - perhaps, he asks, these could be used in some way?

At this piont Don Azito and I couldn't help but to burst out with laughter.

And so the emergence of the Chino spirit in my quadro began. Bizarrely, it seems I had to travel to Avalon of all places to meet her. And along with her came my most recent obsession with the I-Ching, which is this 'new' muerto's tutelary sphere of influence, I feel.

This all sounds frighteningly eclectic, I know, but from the perspective of an espiritista this kind of development makes perfect sense. The quadro espiritual, you see, is built out of many different commisiones. These, roughly speaking, are 'nations' of spirits that all fall into some kind of ethnic and cultural grouping (usually stereotyped); Congos, Indians, Hindus, Gypsies, Oriental, Arab and so forth. In afro-cuban spiritist thought these are all a kind of egun - a variety of ancestral spirit which isn't strictly speaking ancestral, even though they they are part of the Dead. Rather, these are spirits with whom you share a pre-natal connection. An espiritista will usually have variety of them, each bringing with them their own wisdom, specialities, likes and dislikes. As Brujo Luis astutely points out - sometimes they don't all 'get along' either and battle for centrality in the framework. This can play out in the medium's life as a kind of metaphysical struggle as the espiritista is pulled in different directions; manifesting, at times, in a somewhat comedic dissonance as the impulses to chant mantras, do Hatha Yoga and read Patanjali at the invisible prompting of a Hindu muerto potentially overwhelms your other previous spiritual commitments - such as say feeding and serving your African spirits. It's the job of the espiritista to gently balance out these energies and integrate everything usefully in the quadro.

In a peculiar way this aspect strikes me as a somewhat post-modern innovation in the Caribean spiritist traditions. An elegant solution to the issue of globalisation in the spiritual sphere using the container of mesa blanca. You see this reflected in the constitution of the boveda too. As I have been taught - the large goblet in the centre represents your primary tutelary muerto and the smaller glasses that satellite around it are for these different 'nations', or commisiones. How many glasses exactly are put around the main goblet varies - but in our house we are taught that this number is to be given to you in a misa, so it's tailored to your spiritual framework. Some will have three, others seven or nine - all the way up to thirteen glasses could potentially be stationed around the central foci. Each holds the current of an individual commisione which, ideally, functions in harmony with the greater whole.

In practice this becomes a very handy way of integrating different wisdom streams into your spiritual life, all rationally 'contained' within the overarching system. This isn't necessarily based on choice. It happens organically and quite often at the guidance of the spirits themselves in the context of misa or otherwise through dreams and omens. At times you are shoved headfirst into contact with a certain spirit's current of wisdom energy. Even perhaps one you never gave much serious consideration before, such as say - a cosmic map-book from ancient China...

Recommendation: Brujo Luis' Sanse blog

2011-09-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

I would like to recommend you check out Brujo Lius' new blog http://sansespiritismo.blogspot.com/

It's shaping up to be an awesome blog about Puerto Rican espiritismo, also known as Sanse. This is a rare find in English let me tell ya. Our house has very strong espiritismo basis, and a slight Sanse flavour runs through our padrino's teachings - perhaps not all that surprising considering he is Puerto Rican himself.

Go check out Luis' site, he's already got a bunch of great posts up and I hope he keeps them coming. For some reason I haven't been able to leave comments yet - there seems to be some sort of glitch. I dunno if that is my mac browser's problem or the site template (Luis?) - so if you can - leave him an appreciative comment. It's the comments and feedback that keep us writing folks!

Spirit Tremors

2011-08-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

Cancer diagnosis.

A misa has been assembled to help a house member who is gravely ill. Only a handful of espiritistas are gathered to keep the work focussed and the fuss to a minimum. More stress is the last thing she needs now.

The usual cheer and anticipation is muted. Although friendly smiles are exchanged and some small talk takes place, a sombreness pervades the preparations. The table is set up with austerity. The washes are prepared with minimum deliberation. Everyone intuitively understands that padrino wants us to stick to the letter of the form. This is important.

Opening songs and prayers are said.

Even though the opening songs seem more perfunctory than usual, the moment he declares the table open I am hurtled, backwards, it feels, through a swirling storm of light. As disorienting as it is surprising - I am plunged into it that deeply in a single moment. The expected, gradual increase of spiritual energy that is usually felt during the mass is replaced instead by an instantaneous catapulting of consciousness into spirit-space. I am dumbstruck.

The personal urgency of this situation obviously is matched by spiritual gravity because the usual cacophony of discarnate voices that attend to us - whilst still speaking - seem also unusually hushed and respectful here. Wherever here is. This place is different.

Tremors begin to grip my body. Although not an entirely unusual phenomenon during a misa, this time the tremors feel like titanic subterranean rumblings rolling up from the Beyond only to awkwardly bang against the limitations of my human form. Too small. I suddenly feel a little frightened. Just as soon, a deep, cool, calm feeling wells up from bellow and washes over me, as if to meet my fear and diffuse it. I am being cooed, consoled and guided deeper across the strange geography of trance... to a terrain where the conscious fears and limitations of the human can be momentarily suspended in order to make way for the oblivion of possession...

I open my eyes quickly and flex and clench my fists to stay in charge and bring myself back. An uncontrolled possession would certainly be bad form now. Or so I tell myself. This is the internal battle I seem to find myself locked in whenever these tremors come on.

She begins to sob softly.

An espiritista gets up to stand in support behind her and another gently touches her hand; part healing rite, part spiritual transmission, part communal catharsis. Mediums begin giving messages but I struggle to follow what is being said as the tremors start up again.

Without warning the ceiling of the living room collapses upward. An incredible celestial architecture is revealed spiralling upward into luminous infinity. The geometry of its design simultaneously impossible and familiar. More incredible, a dazzling network of beings seem to be woven into its structure, and disturbingly, moving in a continuous rotating cycle whilst also paradoxically remaining stationary for its support.

The unusual, almost hallucinatory, quality of this trance is shocking to me, to say the least. Each medium experiences it differently I am told. For me it's mostly physical; energetic flows, tremors and vibratory undulations combined with fleeting images and whispered voices. This is how the messages are assembled in my consciousness for delivery. As I translate this and the abstraction of what I receive is correctly encoded in ordinary language I will also get additional 'hits' to confirm I am saying the right thing - jolts of pleasant vibration that ping into my body - somatic confirmations from my quadro that I am saying the right thing.

Not this time. Instead, I am plunged into an immersive visionary experience. I can't help but stare upwards into the infinite architecture unfurling above me. A medium across from me looks over with a puzzled expression. We all try to watch out for each other like this in case someone passes a spirit. I must be peering up at the ceiling like a loon, I realise. No matter, because the strange network of beings above us is nearing, their long telescopic fingers reaching down into... everything...with faces; alien, angelic and skeletal. Their movements gently swaying, graceful yet precise a surgeons.

These are not the dead.

Hidden functionaries. Working carefully at the boundaries of embodiment; tweaking, adjusting, guiding beings from form to formlessness and back, I muse to myself, as I watch them operate the machinery of heaven. I would be frightened by the implication but the gentle bone-white symmetry of their bodies is just too beautiful. Their skeletal glances - ancient, curious, caring even.

The other participants are now all staring at me expectantly. They noticed something has just come through and I realise I have to try and say something. We are here to work.

"Jacob's Ladder", I begin.

As these first words are said the rest of the message coalesces in a rapid internal collage of whispers, memories and images forming context and clarification. A bible verse rolled up beneath a pillow. A constellation of stars. A bitter taste spat out. These all rotate around the central image of the angelic fractal escalator above us, forming the message I need to give tonight: a kind of strategy, and hopefully, a path to walk in this dire situation.

There is understanding in her eyes as the symbol shown to me above is given to her. I can sense it working in her. It relates in a way that means something. She recognises it, perhaps on a deeper intuitive level only, but it somehow explains something that before was at the edges of awareness only. That's a good start.

My godbrother begins to cough. At first it seems normal but then the urgency of his coughing increases and he curls over convulsively - as if to expel something invisible. He is passing a spirit, we realise. People begin assisting. It asks for an egg. The egg slips into his mouth in one gulp and he moves in a serpentine movement across her body only to vomit it out again broken. It seems rotten now. The spirit leaves having done it's work.

Padrino asks me to open the prayer book. During the course of the misa a Kardec prayer book will be opened to a random page at the prompting of a spirit, for guidance. I make the sign of the cross over the book and open it to page 73, letting my eyes settle on the first paragraph on the page:

Living voluntarily: the spirit in space and it's profound boundaries: the world...

It is not solely Jacob that enraptured the divine Elohim, who sees the legions that from earth to heaven fly bringing blessings down. It is no longer Socrates the genius familiar for his lessons; It is no longer Mohammed who describes when the Archangel Gabriel received the Koran.

It is with Jesus prolific living prophet from Thabor, from whose lap along with Moses and Elias birth the apostolic church with its luminous wings, fervent aura of truth and spirit asking God celestial, in his tenderness, to come down from heavens in tongues of fire.

Acting like a Kardecian I-Ching the book of prayers produces this startling passage echoing and confirming the vision of Jacob's Ladder. What the Spanish speaking mediums in our house call an "evidencia". Another wave of tremors catches me off guard, this time sweeping from the left side of my body to the right where the book is held in my hand and I almost drop it - as if to punctuate the written words in my hand with a spiritual exclamation. A certain look of understanding passes around the circle - and padrino elaborates on the passage further, explaining its significance to her in Dutch.

She looks hopeful, strengthened and consoled. She thanks everyone for coming. Everyone is genuinely happy and touched - the helpless awkwardness one feels when another person is struck by an incomprehsible calamity replaced, instead, by the experience of having communed with them at the very epicentre of its strike.

Ultimately, I am humbled, having glimpsed a mystery that I might never have seen unless I was forced to walk through that terrifying gate myself.

Spirit Pots

2011-07-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

OK, so R.O. and I have been tussling. It happens every so often and usually these tussles are productive. I think it's good for people to see these perspectives negotiated in the discourse.

Which is fancy way of saying - sometimes it's good to argue so people get the opportunity to see that debate happen and think about that issue themselves too.

If you haven't been following, you might want to check out some of our previous posts. I posted a warning about putting together pots for muertos. Rufus responded to that with some instruction on how to put together spirit pots in a way he has seen work for well for him. I was a little shocked because even though I know he works these pots in a different way it seemed to me that the placement of his response could be taken as directions for creating a muerto pot of the nature I was explicitly warning against fooling around with. I didn't have enough time to respond with full a post, so I did a circular link-back thing using words from my original post to suggest he dumbing down this ATR technology.

It turns out he didn't intend for his post to be taken as instructions to replicate that ATR practice. He responded with an excellent, articulate clarification which I greatly appreciate. He hits the nail on the head about a great many things. Jason also stepped in and brought a much needed perspective in the discussion which greatly helps to reconcile the differences of these two approaches and brings up some excellent points I have not considered.

It's my turn to clarify also:

I didn't mean to hurt any feelings, of course. I admire the way R.O. makes the Western Tradition accessible and above all relevant to modern people. He is living it.

I don't believe R.O. is "ripping-off" the ATRs with his pots either. Spirit pots of various kinds are found in many cultures. Also, I think the exchange that's happening between the traditions is good. I've written and spoken about it myself. I think it has potential for enlivening the Western Tradition, just as the New World traditions have been enhanced by the grimoires and Christian influences. Some ATR practitioners don't see it that way. They see those elements as vestiges of oppression. Or as masks. It's more subtle than that, I believe, which is why these elements persist to this day. In a way it's what motivated me to get even more deeply involved in some New World paths as an initiate - so that my part in that dialogue can be more informed.

However, I think if we start saying a western magical technique/spirit/ritual is the same as an ATR technique/spirit/ritual and begin thinking they are interchangeable we are headed for a whole lot of trouble. Both spiritual and cultural. Specifically, in this case my greatest concern was that someone inadvertently gets into hot water by going 'commando' with a muerto pot of the sort I was talking about. Jason does a very good job of emphasising the dangers.

These kinds of pots truly are not toys.

In my opinion anyone attempting to work with a new western magical adaptation of this idea needs to truly do their homework and prepare themselves. And someone interested in the ATR application of this spiritual technology should look for someone qualified who can guide them through it, because as Jason says, if you decide to free-style it, it's very likely that it can blow up in your face.

Panic at the Boveda

2011-07-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

A reader whom I'll call M wrote to me yesterday, somewhat alarmed after she read a warning in my last post about the possibility of things going wrong when working with the dead. She writes:

I live in Kansas and am Internet taught. I was really interested in the ATR's, but I think to truly join the religion I would have to relocate. It isn't my native culture. I'm not working off advice from my mother. It's just I was told that working with your ancestors is something you can never go wrong with. I may never wear collares or have a proper Eshu, but this, I thought, I could do. And I love my ancestors. I enjoy serving them and spending time with them.

Don't panic too much, my warning was mainly directed to those wishing to create spirit pots, spirit dolls, bundles and so forth for the dead. This is a somewhat more nuanced form of muerto work, during which things can in fact go wrong. Trickster spirits love containers. I mean they LOVE, containers. This does not make ancestor work absolutely dangerous, nor does it make it risk free. No spirit work is ever completely risk free. Ancestor work remains a beautiful and wonderful thing. You just need to work it simply at first if you are flying solo, and not get too wild and whacky with what you offer them or use to work with them.

You also need to take your own fledgling mediumistic impulses with a pinch of salt. You may think you 'know' that the spirits told you this or that but unless their presence has truly been established and settled you could just as easily be tuning into your own unconscious babble as you could be listening to some wandering trickster that wants you to feed it - and will then gladly take everything you give it, demand more and use the foothold to turn your life upside down. Unless you have access to another spiritist more senior in experience to yourself to verify these sorts of messages and guide you, its wise err on the side of caution.

This isn't fashionable to say in the DIY post-modern spiritual marketplace. It doesn't sell books and it doesn't stroke the ego of an audience convinced of its own proficiency at all things spiritual when in fact most modern westerners are basically handicapped in this area when compared to the least educated people in the third world, who live with this stuff as the fabric of their culture.

One of my ideals, always, with this blog - small as it influence may be - is to avoid talking about these traditions in a way that dumbs them down so westerners can more easily consume them. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. One of the recent trends it seems is the notion that "you can't go wrong with the ancestors". Well you can go wrong with them. These are the spirits of the dead not potplants.

It doesn't mean we should be terrified by them. A healthy respect, informed practice and some education about how to do it right goes a long way, however. It may also save you some tears in the long run. In the mean time keep it very simple and go slowly. If you work sincerely with them in this way, I can guarantee you they will put your feet on the path and guide you to the right people who can support you in your spiritual development.

It's their job.

The Craft of the Dead

2011-07-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone is entitled to work with their dead. If you have ancestors, you have a network of potentially powerful spirits who care about you and are willing to get involved with you spiritually, in one capacity or another. However, don't be too easily fooled. Even though these are our relatives, ancestral spirits can get pernicious, moody and mischievous. In our daily lives our relatives often cause us the most stress and anxiety, and this can also be mirrored in the spirit world - just as the support and unconditional love we receive from them is. They can test us with trials. Occultists have a tendency to believe you can dial up spirits the way you dial up pizza delivery, expecting that they will arrive in a friendly, efficient and service oriented fashion. Not so with the ancestral forces.

The reason that the muerto (dead) can be so powerful is because people who work them well - with wisdom and skill - take the time to establish them and strengthen their influence gradually. Most of an espiritista's work is in the cultivation of this foundation by; feeding them; listening to them and then following their instructions carefully; elevating them in services; assembling spirit containers; creating spirit dolls; crafting bundles and other items through which they express their power in structured ways. In this manner the dead begin to take on a tangible and respectful presence in our world. We help give them form once more just as they help give us luck, prosperity and protection. We continually fine tune that process with increasing subtlety and precision. This is the true craft of a muertero - one who passes the spirits.

It's a highly individualised and creative process too, and this is because each muerto is has their own peculiarities. As such we need to be ready to get your hands dirty - to make things; to sew, bead, paint and carve. Yet, this is more than an eccentric craft project because it holds some true spiritual peril too. A wrong move, one cavalier blunder in the early stages of this kind of work and unwanted or outright malign forces could find a foothold in our lives, bringing a destabilising knock - derailing the entire process. And this will cause major havoc in our lives, to say the least.

Above all it is a timely, organic process. A true craft in every sense of the word.

Many assume once you have made contact, that's it, an ancestral spirit is 'here' and ready to work. But really, getting in touch is only the first step. They need time and disciplined cultivation to really start coming through manageably. Their range of influence needs be brought into the world gently at first and then rooted artfully.

As Don Azito likes to say, "we need to clean them up".

Whenever he says this to someone I can't help but picture a ragtag bunch of folks out in the astral. People dressed in old clothes, dusty, rendered in sepia tones like an old photo - all a little confused as if they have wandered forgetful in a strange dream for too long. Then once we start working them, they gradually begin to brighten up, colour returns to their forms, cheer to their faces and a sparkle to their eyes as they begin to remember...

Otherwise it can get a little crazy. A spiritual cacophony as some try to push and shove to the front, and begin 'helping' in ways that really isn't all that helpful at all. Or demand to be heard when they don't have much to say just yet. It's seems odd to say but we need to 'train' the dead.

The good news is, it can be done.

This is why we work consciously at first by elevating them and calming them, before we make demands. The water we offer on the boveda is a medium through which they express, a kind of conductor fluid, sure. But also, and very importantly, it is there too cool them and refresh them. We pray for them, we enlighten them, we soothe them, and by illuminating them in this way their relationship to us and each other becomes harmonised and increasingly structured and workable. The more reliable spirits in our quadro espiritual (spiritual framework) start taking charge of the others and acting as a conduit for the totality of the ancestral forces. The more 'civilised' spirits then start 'bringing in' the wilder, and more tangibly powerful ones, once things are stable enough to do so. These 'leader' spirits - whom we systematically identify and propitiate - begin acting as intermediaries who are able to integrate the 'hotter' ancestral forces in a good, and useful way.

In a very real sense we are weaving a living spiritual architecture, a constellation of discarnate intelligence whom are all interacting with each other in precise ways to, ideally, bring forth a unified and balanced necromantic ecosystem. On another more subjective metaphysical level it can be argued that we are aligning our own personal energetic framework, that interior dimension; finely calibrating and optimising the very core of our own psycho-cosmic identity using its most primal building blocks - our spiritual genetics.

Once a sane vehicle is built for that journey, the wilder forces in the ancestral matrix can begin finding constructive expression in our work, and can be fed those 'hot' substances that get the dead moving...

In this way we pave a road for them to pass into our world. A road that is both secure and reliable. And so the true miracles can happen...

we are the stars which sing
we sing with our light;
we are the birds of fire,
we fly over the sky.
our light is a voice;
we make a road for the spirit to pass over

{algonquian indian song}

A new dawn, a new day

2011-07-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

In alignment with recent developments - both spiritual and mundane - you may have noticed I have revamped both the blog's design as well as the look on my commercial website. It's been long overdue, so I was very happy to get it done.

Along with pretty new graphics I have streamlined the site as a whole and simplified a few things that used to confuse clients. I now have a flat reading rate of $60 per hour for rootwork consultations and readings. My commercial site will temporarily direct to a weebly subdomain whilst my regular conjure.nl domain gets moved to point to the new hosting. This should happen in a few days.

Check it out, and look forward to your comments and suggestions!

The Vine and its Fruit.

2011-07-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

It's great, I have been meeting a lot of new people lately. In workshop environments, talks, ceremonies and so forth; people from all walks of life, and various forms of occult practice - and the conversations we have had has been intriguing. What strikes me is a kind of mass confusion, as well as wonder. In a certain sense it is the wonder and confusion of variety. The near inexhaustible variety that sprung out of the process of globalisation, the internet and the resultant commodification of spirituality.

An explosion in the spiritual marketplace. The explosion of the spiritual dimension as a market place.

On the one hand this pretty cool, because suddenly we have access to so much so fast. On the other it is a disaster. A great poverty of superficiality where everything is glimpsed but nothing is ever actually seen. The glamour of fairy gold.

Put bluntly, if your spiritual journey is on track then the kind of practices, rituals and systems you work with should gradually but steadily be bringing you greater stability, well-being, prosperity and gratitude. You should be feeling happier and drawing people to you who are good for you and care for you; and eventually find that you are moving into a space where you have enough resources (spiritual and material) that you are able to start giving back to your community and world, in some small way.

These are fruits growing on the living spiritual vine.

If the work you are doing is plunging you in to ever deepening cycles of chaos. If you find yourself surrounded by toxic people, defending your territory. If you are overly occupied with costume, and status - not because these are necessarily your values but because you find yourself enmeshed in a network of people that draw you into this kind of interpersonal theatre... then it's time to take a step back and take a careful look at the vine that you are eating from.

Whilst there are productive periods where we might find ourselves plunged into darkness; a gestating spiritual chaos that ultimately produces insight and rebirth - what St. John of the Cross refers to the Dark Night of the Soul. There is also the possibility of aimlessly wandering in its false, barren twin. This thirsty place is filled with strangers all flailing blindly, clawing at each other, each trying to establish himself as king of a wasteland.

Your magical work should be contributing to your life healthily. You need to look at its results in your life, not just its style - however exciting it may seem. It seems odd that this even needs to be said, but it really is the bottom line. If your work is exacerbating your addictions, neurosis and delusions - problems we all have - then it is well and truly black magic. It doesn't matter if you are working with demons, the highest angelic beings, or ancient deities... it's blacker than the minister's coat.

I leave you with Bobby McFerrin's exquisite rendering of the 23rd Psalm, addressed to a feminine deity.

Praise ye Dragons

2011-07-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much this last while because I have been going through a major spiritual growth cycle - inner changes as well as outer shifts mediated by various rites. I have been learning some new things that have changed the way I work and think magically. I have been trying hard to find another way to talk about my spiritual work on the blog.

One of the things that has struck me about this shift is that my interest is flowing increasingly towards a new contemplation of Christianity and the bible. Naturally, this takes shape quite differently to the way most contemplative christians work with that tradition because I am religiously rooted in espiritismo and santeria - and practising hoodoo of course. As you probably know by now the bible and its symbols are imbedded to varying degrees in all these traditions and as they become changed by the globalisation process, many westerners will eviscerate them in a futile attempt to delete its presence.

St Joan

Their objection seems often based on an outdated, crude and cartoonish understanding of Christianity and its symbols. My method has been to find ways of potentizing the christian elements meaningfully for myself - without necessarily buying into Christianity's exoteric salvific doctrines, or the orthodox theology based on eternal damnation and reward.

I have been listening to Father Thomas Keating, for instance, and considering the role of contemplative prayer within the context of my own ATR practice. I have been looking at the bible from new angles, taking the advice of the famous Dutch philosopher, Baruch Spinoza, and seeing if there is a way of reading this text called the bible radically free of the doctrinal interpretations prescribed to us. Though not christian per se, I have always resonated with Spinoza's rational pantheism, and as odd as it may seem to some I think it integrates perfectly with spiritism and androcentric traditions - perhaps because of his emphasis on God as Nature. Though, admittedly, his rejection of the miraculous is tough to shoehorn in there! Of course that classic The Cloud of Unknowing has been a huge influence too. I have been reading Joan of Arc's story, and other visionary saints and just feeling the cool breeze of grace in all these beautiful stories.

I found this fascinating interview with Protestant theologian Walter Brueggemann:

What I love about this interview is his discussion of the bible as a poetic text. What a smart man. He ends with this incredible Psalm which sounds even better in the King James version:

Psalm 148:7

Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.

Praise ye Dragons indeed...

Upcoming Workshops in the UK

2011-06-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce my padrino, Don Azito; godbrother, Yanu Zsigo; and I are taking our show on the road to the UK, so to speak. We will be offering a two day workshop both at the beautiful and mystical Glastonbury Grail Centre and at Treadwells in London. So if you are close to either of those locations I highly recommend you join us - it's going to be something special!

Hoodoo and Afro-Caribean Spiritism : a two day workshop

Day 1: Introduction to Espiritismo Cruzado and the misa espiritual with Don Azito
Day 2: Introduction to Hoodoo Conjure Craft with a hands-on candle magic workshop, with Balthazar

Date: Wednesday to Thursday, July 27 - 28 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Grail Centre, 24 Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury, Somerset.

Date: Saturday to Sunday, July 30 - 31 · 6:30pm - 10:30pm
Location: Treadwells, 33 Store street, Bloomsbury, London WC1, E7BS

Each workshop is limited to 20 seats. Day 1 & 2 together £125. Individually; £ 75 p/Day

For London bookings and information please get in touch with by clicking on the “contact me” link at www.conjure.nl. Once space is confirmed you will receive a paypal invoice for the workshop fee, which will secure your space.

For Glastonbury bookings to www.theoccultconsultancy.com or call Jamie ; 0044 01458830999

Day 1: Espiritismo workshop and Misa Espiritual

Don Azito will introduce participants to the practice of mesa blanca (white table mediumship) in the context of the afro-caribean spiritist tradition. Espiritismo and the misa espiritual (spiritual mass) offers a subtle and potent technology for communing with our ancestral forces. By developing our spiritual framework - the unique network of ancestral entities that support and guide each person - we are able to move into greater wholeness, personal power and spiritual effectiveness. By stabilising the influence and power of the dead in this way we not only develop spiritually, we also illuminate and elevate the spirits - aiding their evolution in return. Through this reciprocal relationship a blessed guiding force permeates our life, bringing increased stability, prosperity and wisdom to the espiritista. Ultimately, the espiritista is given the opportunity to serve and empower their community - sharing their own spiritual gifts and blessings with others.

During the course of the workshop Don Azito will give teachings on:

A brief history of espiritismo in Cuba and Puerto Rico and its interrelatedness with Santeria
How to correctly construct and maintain a personal boveda
The core mechanics of conducting the misa espiritual
How to prepare banjos (spiritual washes) for the misa
The correct use of perfumes in the afro-caribean spiritist tradition
How to make use of Kardecist prayers and invocations

Don Azito will lead everyone in learning some of his favourite songs used during a misa to invite contact with our ancestral guides. He will also give advice for the development of each participant's mediumship as well as some important precautions to take into account to ensure healthy and sane evolution in the tradition.

The workshop will culminate in a full spiritual service (misa) during which participants will receive messages, cleansings and learn more about their own quadro espiritual (spiritual framework) via the conduit of experienced espiritistas led by Don Azito.

The workshop includes a CD with all the songs covered during the workshop to take home and use later. Don Azito will be available after for individual spiritual readings and coaching.

Please note: All participants are kindly requested to wear light coloured clothing, preferably white, and a white headscarf or cap. White is associated with funerary practices and therefore the dead in Yoruba tradition (which flows into espiritismo cruzado) as well as imparting a subtle sense of lightness and purity necessary for the propitiation of the dead. Strictly no black clothing is allowed during the misa.

More about Don Azito:

Don Azito was crowned as a priest of Yemaya in Cuba in 1998 and is the proprietor of La Botanica. The padrino (godfather) of an active ile (santeria house) in Amsterdam Netherlands, born in New York and of hispanic decent, Don Azito was immersed in espiritismo from an early age. His mother and aunts were skilled espiritistas recognised for their healing abilities and powerful prayer. Azito himself began falling into trance and spiritually cleaning neighbours and family as a young child. He opened his Botanica in 1990 and is deeply committed serving the community and transmitting afro-carribean spirituality in Europe. He is especially inspired by the transformative power of espiritismo and communicates its potential with great clarity and enthusiasm. He is admired for his gentle character, integrity and compassion by all his godchildren, clients and extended spiritual family in Amsterdam, Cuba and New York.

Don Azito's mother Gladys

Day 2: Introduction to hoodoo and practical candle conjure workshop

Famed for its results, hoodoo and rootwork have attracted an impressive reputation in practical magic. In this workshop we will be introduced to conjure with a historical and metaphysical overview of this vibrant system of African American folk-magic. The talk will be followed by hands-on workshop covering the basics of hoodoo candle work and the practice of setting lights. Spiritual candle work is one of hoodoo's most useful and basic tools; and when done correctly is highly effective in facilitating almost any magical outcome. We will learn how to cleanse and prepare our vigil light, baptise it and then breathe life into it - thereby empowering it for the spell. We will then dress and 'fix' the candle correctly, using magical oils and powders. We will also learn more about the subtle art of writing petition papers. Each participant will complete the workshop with a properly prepared and empowered vigil candle to take home to burn and thereby expedite the magical goal of their choice.

During the workshop Chad will discuss:

The three essential components that any conjure work needs to bring lasting results
How to empower yourself and your spell-work with the unique african perspective behind the religious symbolism at the heart of hoodoo
How to blast your magical work into the stratosphere with extemporised prayer
How to incorporate ancestral forces into your work safely and sanely
How to 'think' folk-magically
A few personal hard-won tips and secrets for developing your spell-craft

More about Chad (De heer Balthazar)

Balthazar is a professional folk magician, card reader and espiritista. A proud Lucky Mojo certified practitioner (1479G), born and raised in Africa, he descends from a line of mediums, dreamers and madmen. In addition to his studies with miss Cat Yronwode he is a student of a respected southern "old-style" conjure worker. He is also a santeria initiate and practitioner of espiritismo cruzado - a form of afro-caribbean spiritism. He informs these practices with the traditional Xhosa and Zulu perspectives on ancestor work and a little ‘muti’ (medicine) learnt back home in South Africa. An avid blogger and writer he regularly contributes to the Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly, as well as the forthcoming Conjure Codex: Red published by Hadean Press. He currently lives in Amsterdam with his spouse where he reads cards, writes and conjures irrepressibly.

Love me or DIE

2011-05-18T01:08:00.000-07:00

A friend tipped me off to this fabulous track by C.W. Stoneking - it kinda reminds me of old blues filtered through Tom Waits. I could never stand more than a few minutes of Tom Waits, personally! C.W. Stoneking is a lot easier on the ear. I went ahead and bought the album.

The song is about the, now famous, 'love me or die' spell. Although this is a work that miss cat teaches, it isn't a spell I personally would make use of. It basically places a curse on the target, which causes them to slowly sicken unless they return to the lover and love them (or die). If they leave again they begin to waste away once more. The spell needs to be maintained to ensure the person stays alive, for the rest of their days. Probably not something you want to throw at someone you really love these days... so I won't describe how you do it.

Makes for a fabulous, atmospheric song though!

Now, certain idealistic people might say that such a spell should never have been conceived at all - but probably this has to do the social and economic vulnerability of women and their dependancy on men to provide for their family back in the day. To a woman with children, a man running away with another woman might well have meant much more hardship than a simple broken heart. So it's good to see this kind of spell in its right historical context before making sweeping judgements about its morality.

Naturally, these days some women (and men) get desperate enough in love that they might actually try this spell anyway. Let me just say - sometimes its easier to throw a spell than it is to undo it.

Sometimes you have to lie in the bed you've made.... or more precisely someone else might have to lie in the bed you make for them.

A hospital bed.

Workshop: Introduction to Hoodoo and magical candle-work

2011-05-04T02:07:00.000-07:00

I've been invited to give a talk and workshop at Shamagika this coming Saturday. So if you're in town why not join us! It's going to a be a lot of fun.

Workshop: Introduction to Hoodoo and magical candle-work, with Balthazar

Famed for its ability to create potent results, hoodoo and rootwork have attracted an impressive reputation in practical magic. During this event we will be introduced to conjure with a brief historical and metaphysical overview of this vibrant system of African American folk-magic. The talk will be followed by hands-on workshop covering the basics of hoodoo candle work and the practice of setting lights. Spiritual candle work is one of hoodoo's most useful and basic tools; and when done correctly is highly effective in facilitating almost any magical outcome.

We will learn how to cleanse and prepare our vigil light, baptise it and then breathe life into it - thereby empowering it for the spell. We will then dress and 'fix' the candle correctly, using magical oils and powders. We will also learn more about the subtle art of writing petition papers. Each participant will complete the workshop with a properly prepared and empowered vigil candle to take home to burn and thereby expedite the magical goal of their choice.

Saturday, May 7 · 6:30pm - 10:00pm

Cost 40 Euros ~ Limited to 12 people so please book in advance.

You can reserve a space by sending a message to Yanu at Shamagika there are a few seats left, so don't miss out!

Geomantic Dice. At last!!!!

2011-04-28T04:29:00.000-07:00

How blisteringly awesome are these puppies!

I used to generate the four mothers used to calculate a geomantic chart using dried beans drawn randomly from a bag. Cattan mentions this method as being used by high-class prostitutes in Bologna to generate charts, which gave me a naughty giggle. I of course couldn't resist trying it myself.

This takes a long time however. I do so many charts every week that I caved and started using four colour coded six-sided dice, converting the odd and even numbers appropriately. I longed for special geomantic dice with dots and even considered making some but never got around to it.

The wait is over, it seems!

Some enterprising fellow from http://www.divinersdice.com posted about these on the Geomantic Campus forum and I am just gagging to give them a whirl. $25 gets you the set. $10 for a single.

UPDATE:

divinersdice.com have got back to me and after a short delay, they have confirmed that they are open for business and taking orders. They temporarily have sold out of the sets of 4 colour coded dice, but still have the single dice available. Rest assured they will be manufacturing more of the sets and lucky for me they reserved one remaining set for me! Thanks divinersdice.com! :-)

The Art of Difficult Messages

2011-04-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

There comes a time as a reader or as a medium when you need to give a difficult message. The way I read cards is rather point-blank in the sense that the systems I use tend to be pretty fixed interpretatively. In other words it isn't all that easy to embroider or obfuscate when something is being shown that is challenging. The same goes when receiving something from a spirit mediumstically - some spirits don't give up until it has been said, and said right.

So there comes a time that one has no choice but to give a hard message. As messengers throughout history have demonstrated this isn't all that easy. There is the inclination to try to please the client and certainly nothing quite as enjoyable as hearing a client wax-lyrical about your reading when it hit the spot for them. However, with certain difficult messages, especially messages that might dent the ego of the sitter, you can be pretty darn sure that the warm fuzzy glow won't be there at the end of the reading. In fact some people might get entirely huffy, or even outright argumentative. The ego does not like being exposed, mine included!

Then there is another variant to this problem; delivering what I like to call the "coded message". These often enough come directly from spirits through a medium but they can show up in a card reading too. The coded message is a message that seems to have a riddle-like quality, or the quality of being somewhat cryptic. The coded message acts like a spiritual time bomb. When the time is right it blooms in the consciousness of the client and with that comes that most potent outcome of any spiritual reading: personal revelation. A unique and profound insight transforms the client as the message aligns itself perfectly with a series of events that allow it to become decrypted in a luminous flash. A higher order of meaning comes out of this phenomenon - one quite impossible to deliver from mouth to ear.

Nonetheless, the coded message can leave the client a little confused and irritable. Everyone likes clarity after all. Delivering a coded message takes even more skill and confidence than giving a hard message because frequently the message is coded in such a way that it does not even make sense to the reader. Yet, the reader or medium knows it must be said. This can leave the reader feeling foolish as the client rolls their eyes and sighs in a critical puff. A way must be found to offer the coded message up in such a manner that it enters the mind of the client gently but firmly enough that when the time is ripe it can trigger revelation.

Therefore, when the client's back is up because what you said hit a nerve; or because you have given a seemingly cryptic message; or the reading has not proven to fit with their cozy expectations in some way, one comes to a critical juncture in the reading. Do you assert your point (and yourself), or do you back down? Either route can have troubling results if chosen poorly. If you press on tactlessly because your own ego is getting drawn into the fray you risk the danger of projecting something the client is unready for and therefore potentially harmful. Readers do make mistakes, even if they don't like to admit it. Conversely, if you cede in an effort to pacify them you run the risk of not impressing upon the client the true and very vital message they were supposed to receive. The very reason they were brought before you.

Sometimes you have to take that leap of faith. You need to be firm and run the risk of pissing off the client if your experience and ability confirms that a message indeed should be heard. This isn't easy. The client will often enough get ornery and the session might end with some tension in the air, or worse with an unhappy customer.

But the fact is that a happy customer is not necessarily a well served one.

Eventually you have to stand your ground, with as much sensitivity and compassion as you can muster. There comes a time to blunt. If you choose that time well, what will happen is that in due course the client will return having seen the outcome of your message, and thereby been softened up by the fates so to speak. They will be more willing to listen with an open mind next time; and they will respect and appreciate your firmness as coming out of deeper sense of concern for them.

Our responsibility as readers then is to refine our communication skills as much as we can, and to listen to our clients and deliver that difficult but crucial message with as much tact and intelligence as possible.

It might just be the message that changes their life.

The Sorcerous Egg

2011-04-12T03:03:00.000-07:00

This Easter I would like you to consider the egg in a different light.

Eggs are some of the most useful items at our disposal as spiritual workers, and there are just so many practical things you can do with them that any fledgling worker will be rewarded greatly by spending some time investigating the various spiritual uses of the egg. Because eggs are made of animal matter they have some very special resonant properties with us as human beings and short of using live animals there are few things that are both as accessible and spiritually absorbent as the ordinary egg. It can be used to cleanse; or as a sympathetic representation of a person, and as such it can also be used as a kind of spiritual 'decoy', among other things. Additionally, eggs can be read after they have been used to cleanse which makes for a useful divination method in that context. As a means of deploying spellwork an egg can be 'fixed' and then hidden near the target to bring into effect its intended purpose. Once emptied out carefully, an egg's shell can also be used as a container spell.

I am all about finding ways of working that are powerful but remain straightforward and accessible, which the the humble egg most certainly is.

Reversing spell and sending it back with a bang:

Here is a nice little trick that was shown to me recently for when someone has decided to burn black candles on your name, or has otherwise thrown bad juju at you in some fashion.

Ingredients:
1 egg
Bottle of dark vinegar
Black marker
Pot
Heat source

I bet it's less messy if you do this outdoors on a barbecue or something but I did it indoors on the gas stove and it worked just fine. Granted, I had to clean up afterward. Totally worth it.

First take the egg and cleanse yourself with it, praying that the bad work be taken from you. In other words, wipe yourself down carefully so as to ensure you don't break the egg. It kind of feels like you are taking an eraser and erasing black charcoal off of your energy field. When you are done take the marker and write your enemy's name on the egg. If you don't know the name of the person you can write "the evil one", or "all enemies known and unknown". Baptise the egg for them.

Next, put it in the pot and fill the pot with vinegar untill the egg is mostly covered, praying that their plans turn against them and go sour. Tell your enemies that things are about to get hot for them. Psalm 70 is also a good accompaniment for the boiling. If you like you can season the egg with some reversing powder, though not strictly necessary. Set the pot to to boil on HIGH and then leave it to boil till the vinegar has boiled off and the egg is left baking on the dry surface. Then leave it like this and back away, making sure to remove children, pets and spouses.

After roughly 25-45 minutes the egg will go black and then explode with a tremendous, and somewhat startling blast!

Problem solved.

Androcentric Spirit Yoga

2011-04-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Spirit-work, to my way of thinking, could be described as a mystical world-view based, in part, in the spiritist perspective as the doctrine relates to discarnate forms of intelligence and their influence on the living; but more importantly, it can also be looked at as a kind of dynamic animism. Which is to say; the notion that our physical world, our universe and its contents are animated; alive, intelligent and willing - heck eager - to relate to us.

That this world of ours isn't a cold lump of dead stuff or some kind of entropic chemical stew. Rather, that there is a vital spiritual intelligence behind the things around us and that these intelligences can be contacted; relationships formed and thereby we are able to move into profound relationship with our world itself.

This very world. The trees, mountains, rocks and rivers, sure - but also seemingly pedestrian things such as a door, a road, a candle, some dirt. Similarly, discarnate forms of human life, instead of being seen as having gone elsewhere (if anywhere at all), are embraced as having a continued and vital role to play in our story. This point of view is androcentric rather than transcendent in that it is intimately intertwined with the condition of our present life, community and of the world. Its a healthy eschatology that expects a vibrant participation in fabric of life by the forces of death - rather than death being the dualistic cancellation thereof.

At first spirit work seems to relate itself to a practical magical agenda. Oriented to improving our life in some pragmatic material way, or alternatively, as a means of extracting an iota of meaning from our lives as society seems increasingly mechanistic; lost in the the stupor of entertainment, production and consumerism. But with amazement we discover as we move deeper into the dance with the spirits, that while at first it seems we work the spirits, later, it becomes quite clear that in fact it is the spirits who are working us.

We try so very hard to do the work. Great effort might go into changing our state of consciousness in order to hear the spirits; or we strain to learn the methods and devices to call them successfully; we effort to make sense of what they mean when they speak - only to discover that they change our consciousness before we can, that they come before we even call them, that they teach us without us ever even knowing.

We are the ones getting evoked. Inexorably sucked into the slipstream of the numinous.

We find ourselves changing without knowing why, without daring to guess how we could have changed, and in ways we could never have accomplished had we tried to do so ourselves. We discover that we are held, guided and then shaken - at times utterly destroyed - and then remade anew.

This wasn't the project of self-perfection by design. We were never tormenting ourselves with stick-and-carrot game of enlightenment. Yet things became increasingly perfect, even when messy. We noticed ourselves filled with more light every day.

Finally, we begin to recognise we are are in fact deeply, deeply blessed and that we can share that blessedness with others; and that we can be whole and well again in the simplest, yet most profound way.

Luz!

Goddess Procession Amsterdam 2011

2011-04-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Dutch tend to be rather pragmatic secular folks, not all that much taken with anything religious or occult - very generally speaking of course - so it's pretty cool when this kind of thing happens in Amsterdam. My friend Zia is involved in the organisation of the Goddess Procession and I wanted to show my support for the neo-pagan community here in the Netherlands and spread the word about this year's march. It looks like great fun too! Word is our padrino might even send along a representation of Yemaya for the procession. Neat.

The Occult Conference: 2011 Glastonbury

2011-03-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

I arrived back from the breathtakingly mystical Glastonbury feeling thoroughly buzzed after the Occult Conference on Saturday. What a great gathering of people and the highlight of what turned out to be a perfectly magical weekend. You just know that a conference is going to be interesting when the compere is an outrageously busty, black-corseted, foul-mouthed comedian called Grim Rita. I find it tremendously encouraging that the occult circuit is vibrant enough as a habitat to sustain what clearly must be the ultimate niche comedic form (occult stand-up).

Happily, I got to meet and hang out with what are probably some of the sharpest minds in western magic. Somewhat inevitably we drank a few too many pints on Saturday evening. We deserved them. A lot of magic got talked that day:

We heard from Kim Huggens; who with a surprisingly large amount of detail drawn from various cultures as far ranging ancient Greece, Haiti and China, described how one might go about surviving a zombie apocalypse. Forewarned is forearmed!

We also heard about the subtle interconnections between Philip K. Dick, Jack Parsons and the Nag Hammadi material, from Paul Weston.

I then spoke about the possibility of learning from the underlying magical patterning imbedded within New World magics as a viable strategy for developing new culturally and geographically specific spell-craft of our own.

The luminaries of apocalyptic witchcraft; Peter and Alkistis from Scarlet Imprint hypnotically wove together the chthonic streams of thought behind their forthcoming title, Abominations.

Finally, with great wit and intelligence Jake Stratton-Kent (necromancer to the stars*) unpacked why the rather conspicuous absence of the Dead from later western magic and their restoration in fact holds the key to the Western Tradition's future. As one might expect at a gathering such as this a distinct necromantic theme managed to emerge in almost all of these talks creating a powerful interplay between much of the material presented.

Peter and Alkistis from Scarlet Imprint on the left, with me on right. Thanks to Cynthia Caton for sharing her photo with me.

Special thanks to Jake Stratton-Kent and Misha for their warmth and encouragement before my talk. I had a slight case of the butterflies but they put me completely at ease. Also, a very special thanks to Jamie who with tremendous grace and effortless efficiency managed to keep everything flowing perfectly whilst simultaneously curbing the the black clad hordes from raising the dead right there on the conference grounds.

On Sunday morning my husband and I took some time to explore the landscape of Glastonbury and were seriously impressed by the power the place holds.

We took a tour of the Abbey, and appropriately, I noticed the three Magi; Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar (top left corner) making their way through the nativity scene on horseback, carved over an entrance...

Later, standing in the Abbey ruins right in front of the spot where King Arthur was supposed to have been entombed, we looked up and noticed that an exquisite sun circle had formed; a circular rainbow, formed by ice crystals high up in the atmosphere. I did my best to take a picture of it (below). If you look closely you will see the edge of the rainbow-ring beneath the birds.

Naturally, this meteorological phenomena dazzled us with an inordinate amount of significance, as we stood on that hallowed ground looking up into crisp blue sky. Oh cosmic alignment!

I looked for a small stone in the grass outside, hoping to anchor the magic of that moment in some way. I divined quickly with four coins whether the spirits of the land would allow me to keep it. Yes. We then asked someone at the exit whether we were allowed to keep pebbles found on the grounds, and were informed that as long as nothing was vandalised we were indeed allowed to keep a pebble. Glad to hear it, I slipped it into my jacket pocket.

We then found our way to Chalice Well - the place where Joseph of Arimathea is said to have buried or washed the holy grail only to have a spring gush forth. And the water truly does taste of blood. I spent a few hours there reading a new book in the shade listening to the water murmur pleasantly.

Refreshed, surprised and delighted we returned to Amsterdam. It really is a deeply fascinating, spiritually stirring place, Glastonbury.

I can't wait to see it again.

*Grim Rita's words!

It's Here: The Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly Premiere Issue!

2011-03-03T01:57:00.000-08:00

It's a full-colour, fabulous, high quality journal chock full of conjure goodies and it's here! It has been a labour of love for the tireless team at Planet Voodoo but I think it has been well worth it. Just look at the exciting line-up of feature articles. I have had a sneak preview at some of the layouts and they are a feast for the eye and food for the brain, to say the least. Not to be missed!

Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly Premiere Issue
A New Journal of the Magickal Arts with a Special Focus on New Orleans Voodoo, Hoodoo, Folk Magic and Folklore

Published Quarterly
4 Issues a Year

Recognizing the resurgence of folk magic and the growing community of hoodoos, healers, and conjurers, we at Planet Voodoo have created a new, high quality magazine that meets the needs of today’s conjurers. Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly magazine shares historical and contemporary information about the conjure arts, including magico-religious practices, spiritual traditions, folk magic, hoodoo, and religions with their roots in the African Diaspora and indigenous herbology. Each issue of Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly magazine brings you original and traditional formulas, spells, tutorials, root doctor and conjure artist profiles, workshop listings, mojo music mania, book, product, & website reviews, and more!
The premiere issue features the following articles and authors:

Denise Alvarado:
The Origin of the Root
Dirt Dauber Nests
Conjure Artist profile: The Georgia Mojo Man
A Goetic Ritual: Magickal Doll to Raise the Ghost of a Loved One

Sharon Marino:
Bat's Blood
Secrets of Se magick: Explore Your Sexual fantasies with the Help opf the Guede
St. Martha Dominadora Love Domination Candle

Matthew Venus:
What is Real Hoodoo?
Bottle Spell for Prosperity

Madrina Angelique
Buying Cemetery Dirt

Alyne Pustanio
Haunted New Orleans Folklore: The Devil Baby of New Orleans: Fact or Fiction?

Chad Balthazar
Planetary Magick and the Venus Love Tub Lamp

Papa Curtis
A Short Look at Witchcraft and Self-Defense in the Diaspora

Carolina Dean
Shoe and Foot-Track Magick

Dorothy Morrison
The Real Dirt on Visiting the Dead

Aaron Leitch
The Return of Psalm Magick and the Mixed Qabalah

H. Byron Ballard
Cove-Witches and Curanderas: Traditional Healers and Magic-Women in Modern Appalachia
And there are several formulas for magickal oils and powders, a little lagniappe (that's Cajun for a little something extra) magick, a free conjure doll baby template, and a historical text related to Voodoo in New Orleans by Lafcadio Hearn (view the Table of Contents on the left).

$19.95 Premiere Issue (96 pages, full color journal)

Herbal Ingredients: less is more

2011-03-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

I have been chatting with a client who is putting a work together for herself and we have been going through the various herbal ingredients that she might include, and it occurred to me to blog a little bit about this process...

It's tempting to throw every single applicable ingredient you have at a spell; but one soon discovers that this approach, other than being a little wasteful, doesn't always translate into results. In my experience it kind of muddies things to the extent where the result is unclear. Like with cooking, too many flavours can spoil the dish.

In fact, I would say one should try to craft the work with a minimum of ingredients - focussing instead on the efficacy and clever manipulation of what you have. It's not like each ingredient brings a certain percentage of magical 'juice' and by filling up your jar with everything you have that corresponds to, say, 'love' you are cramming it with that love juju.

Nope. In my experience ingredients are more like words - and what we are trying to do is compose the materia-magical equivalent of a poem (be it a love poem or a battle-cry). The idea isn't to use the most words or the biggest, fanciest words but the right words. A great poet knows the how to insert or remove just the right amount of syllables to create the precise effect needed. A gifted poet can compose something deeply profound with very few words, as is demonstrable in the tradition of the haiku.

Similarly, a spiritual worker is benefited by a brevity of materials - focussing instead on how they are put together to tell the story they need to tell. And good conjure work tells a kind of story. It's the story of what you want to happen.

It is your prayer manifest.

To this end get to know a few ingredients well. How does the plant grow? Why is it included in the corpus of the tradition? How does it behave when you use it? How can you manipulate it when you work with it?

By getting to know a few ingredients at a time, one can build up a good working vocabulary which you can combine in innumerable ways, adding little flourishes here and there. You can only get to know ingredients in this way if you work with them in modest combinations. If you have a ton of different herbs in there, how will you ever know how any one thing is contributing?

Happy conjuring!

Telephonic and Skype consults now at no extra cost!

2011-02-23T04:27:00.000-08:00

I used to charge a little extra for telephonic/skype readings, but I am doing away with this fee and instating them at no extra cost. I have noticed consistently that people whom receive telephonic consults get far, far better value for money, clearer readings and better understanding of the way I like to work. This all translates into better results for them in the long run, and more satisfaction for me. These clients more often than not turn out to be my return customers, who check in every few months as things develop - because we have built a good worker-client relationship based on mutual understanding and clear communication.

This makes me happy of course, and even better, it saves time doing away with all that endless back-and-forth on e-mail trying to clarify what a reading is saying, or attempting to explain how to do a spiritual bath. Something that can usually be done in a minute or two when talking real-time to someone.

Additionally, there is a lot to be said for talking to someone when reading for them. A stronger spiritual connection is felt (IMO) and a more engaging reading experience is possible.

We can talk over Skype if you have a mic and some headphones, which is easier to arrange than you realize and free. Alternatively, you can call me on my landline and we can do it that way. Naturally, regular call rates can be expected with landline calls.

Telephonic/Skype calls are always by appointment.

I look forward to talking with you!

Synthesis, Syncretism and Dissimulation

2011-02-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

OK, so if you have been following all the back-and-forth everywhere you might get the impression I am completely, inflexibly, intolerably opposed to what people have been referring to as 'syncretism'. As RO points out with his post, I am in fact all about synthesis. Much of what I blog about is synthesis. Yes, my blog is even titled Gnostic Conjure. So why am I being such an enormous pain in the ass about it with Jason?

Firstly, I am not convinced that syncretism is something that can be done consciously by individuals. No, in my opinion, syncretism is a cultural force that happens when living systems interact with new information and external pressures; historical, social or environmental.

Individuals synthesise. It is what makes us human - we compare and combine in order to make sense of all the diverse facets of our experience, spiritual or otherwise. We do it in order to find common ground and areas that overlap. When I learn a new language, for instance, one of the easier techniques I was taught is to listen for all the words that kind of sound the same as the language that I already speak and then build my sentences out of those words, adding the new language's grammar and vocabulary as I go a long. Most germanic and romance languages have quite a few words that are the same - and sooner or later I am speaking more and more of the new language by using what I already know as the basic framework.

Secondly, our blogs have been getting increasing visibility and currency in popular occulture which is neat. This kind of discourse and debate is healthy and important because it brings an important issue out in the open so we can confront it and talk about it. And the issue of cultural appropriation in western occultism is an important one. It's one that won't go away by pretending it doesn't exist because it is thorny or uncomfortable - nor should it. It's a bit like racism - nobody likes to talk about it. And when confronted with it everyone groans and shuffles their feet uncomfortably because, surely they would never do or say that. Yet racism continues to exist in our world. It's a harsh reality that many, many people have to contend with every day. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't make it go away, it makes it more malignant. It enables the people who are guilty of it.

Is everyone who uses a technique from another tradition guilty of cultural appropriation, and should the culture police raid their temple and confiscate their dream-catcher, didgeridoo and hotei statue? Probably not. Does it give us free license to grab whatever we like, in any manner we like, from whomever we want?

No, it doesn't.

The question that remains is this - can anyone stop us? Probably not. So we are totally free to be the spiritual equivalent of those annoying fucking morons on quad bikes that are destroying the beautiful, fragile dunes in Cape Town. Just go ahead and tear through another culture's magical heritage like it's our big play ground; spin our wheels and then piss-off when we are done and have had our fun.

Though, you can bet whenever I see one of those idiots rampaging around the dunes I tell him what a stupid knob I think he is and that I pray he falls down and breaks his neck next time he ramps over the fynbos.

What then, is the difference between sane, sensitive synthesis and making a mockery of another's heritage? I am unsure quite frankly, and it is confusing terrain that I continue negotiate as carefully as I can. Conjureman Ali, takes an eloquent stab at distinguishing the two issues here.

Check it out he makes some good points.

In response to Jason, who was responding to RO, who responded to Frater AIT

2011-02-16T04:23:00.000-08:00

I can't leave this one alone.

Quick recap: Frater AIT waxes lyrical about the pivotal nature of energy work. Rufus Opus makes a very, very good case that energy work is load of crock tacked on later by Victorian busy-bodies. Jason, appropriately, tries to find an inclusive middle ground free from extremes.

Unfortunately Jason's rhetorical position is so terminally post-modern that it becomes as myopic as those he accuses of adhering slavishly to the "narrow context of tradition". A breath before this remark he says:

I am a member of several ancient and not so ancient traditions. All of them have a lot of tech in them that can be exported to other systems.

And this attitude is exactly what is wrong with Jason's position. Don't get me wrong, I think Jason is a super spiritual guy and an innovative magician with a balanced perspective usually but with regards to this he is dead wrong. Even the way he chooses phrase this statement reveals a sense of entitlement as thoroughly dangerous as it is ignorant.

And, unfortunately, it's a sense of entitlement as westerners we all share - and is ultimately the result of the driving philosophy of the colonial powers that put us in the top 5% in terms of wealth, health and resources comparable to the rest if those on the entire planet. It's an attitude that turns the spiritual dimension, and the various spiritual traditions that interface with it into a super market where we can happily free-wheel around with our shopping cart and fill it with as much goodies as we want. You know, "as long as it works".

Chogyam Trungpa called it spiritual materialism.

Jason then goes onto compare the sharing and cross-fertilisation that happened culturally over many generations - hundreds or thousands of years - between various living magical traditions to the grab and mix appropriation of small groups self-entitled westerners inventing their own stuff. Putting aside the perils of do-it-yourself spirituality, you simply can't compare these two things because they are not the same thing in the slightest.

It's not happening in a similar way, or scale (either temporal or geographical) and it not happening even for vaguely similar reasons. And it's the conflation of these two ideas that has been getting an awful lot of traction for the last hundred and fifty years or so leading to a huge amount of confusion, dilution and exploitation of traditions, including the Western Tradition.

You may call it "exporting tech", but what it is, is in fact cultural appropriation and its destructive and disrespectful to the traditions in question. Worse, it does none of the techniques in question any justice because it's all being mashed together in a half-assed way by people who have no concept of their original meaning, or true mastery thereof.

Look at Crowley who proclaimed himself a yogic master after spending all of 15 minutes practising second hand yogic techniques which he then sweepingly incorporated into his magical system. I think it is safe to say that he was no true yogic master, or that he even really grasped the basics of that tradition. Yet, there we have it ensconced in that legacy - which continues to percolate down into western magical perspectives influenced by it.

The primary reason those Victorian magicians mashed together everything they could lay their hands on was because their new magical system reflected the zeitgeist of their time, which included the political climate that they functioned in - which let us not be mistaken - was imperialist. Vast quantities of cultural wealth was being plundered and "exported" physically and symbolically from Egypt, India, the 'Orient' or anywhere else that the British empire stretched to.

The influx of all that cool exotic bling, along with the rise literary romanticism dazzled and fuelled the imaginations of the well-to-do bourgeoisie involved in that magical revival - leading to the faux Egyptian pageantry, yogic visualisations and breathing combined with theatrical masonic style grimoire magic. It wasn't because energy-work and visualisations worked so darn well and was missing from their own system, but rather that they had a bunch of old grimoires and a lot of new ideas flying at them from all over the planet and they grafted a system together using all the new loot over a masonic framework.

And for better or worse this is the true legacy behind much of that system of magic and its post-modern western magical decedents such as chaos magic and its newer NLP based spin-offs today. Additionally, its a legacy that continues to inform and distort the way far too many western magical aspirants approach foreign magical traditions they find interesting to this very day.

Once again Jason - I have great deal of respect for you bro, but this is an area that you need to look at, and probably rethink more seriously.

The Occult Conference: 2011 Glastonbury

2011-02-09T02:48:00.000-08:00

I am excited to spread the word about the upcoming Occult Conference in Glastonbury. And even more pleased and honoured to have been invited to speak at the event; and to finally meet magical movers and shakers such as Jake Stratton-Kent and the visionaries from Scarlet Imprint.

From the organisers:

12th March 2011 Grail Centre, 24 Chilkwell St, Glastonbury

After the success of last years Occult Conference, we have decided to hold it again this year, on a date less prone to vast amounts of snow! This time it will will be held at the Grail Centre, 24 Chilkwell St, in Glastonbury – a great location within walking distance of Glastonbury Tor and the Chalice Well Gardens.

This is a one day event taking place on the 12th of March 2011, and tickets for the day are £20 – this entitles you to access to the market and all the talks that will be going on throughout the day. The market will be open to people not attending the talks free of cost – however donations will be greatly appreciated.

Check these pages regularily for updates and confirmations, tickets can already be ordered on the “Tickets” page or at The Saint Martha Botanica in Glastonbury.

Sponsored by The Occult Consultancy and The Saint Martha Botanica

Speakers:

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech
Founders of Scarlet Imprint www.scarletimprint.com

Goetia: Corrupted Spirits and Infernal Keys:
Our work with the Goetia and the forthcoming Scarlet Imprint title Abominations, destroying many of the misconceptions that surround the so-called Lemegeton or Goetia of Solomon the King.

Jake Stratton Kent
author of numerous books including his new work Geosophia. A founder of http://www.underworld-apothecary.com/

Dhr. Balthazar
Rootworker, santeria initiate and espiritista working from Amsterdam. He is also an avid blogger and contributor to the Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly, as well as the forthcoming Conjure Codex: Red published by Hadean Press. He is particularly interested in the intersection between New World magic and the Western Tradition and what it means for the future of both.

Folk Technicians: Harnessing Sympathetic Material Processes in your Spell Craft:
At the heart of many folk magical traditions we find the skilful use of of sympathetic magic. Unfortunately, sympathetic magic has frequently been misrepresented as crude or simplistic by western magical commentators when in reality extremely subtle and sophisticated technologies underpin folk magical forms such as hoodoo. Arguably, as subtle and sophisticated as any form of ritual magic can be.
At the core of this technology is a nuanced way of thinking about the material world and it’s processes in relationship to practical magic and the spiritual dimension. Once familiarised with this perspective we are given a rather practical toolkit with which one can devise effective, accessible spell-craft with whatever we have at hand in our environment – be it home, work, or on the street.

Paul Weston
Paul Weston is the author of Avalonian Aeon, Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus, and Mysterium Artorius. A frequent lecturer, he can also be heard on Blog Talk Radio.
Jack Parsons and the Nag Hammadi Plasmate. Babalon: Perfect Mind:
A consideration of the Gnostic interests of the James Dean of the occult. Places the legendary Babalon Working and its later ramifications in the context of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts as understood by Philip K Dick.

Kim Huggens
Kim Huggens is a freelance researcher specializing in Graeco-Roman malefic magic, necromancy, modern Vodou and Hoodoo Conjure. Kim keeps herself busy collecting and editing anthologies of papers for Avalonia Books and writing papers herself. Previous anthologies include “From a Drop of Water” (2009) and “Vs.” (Forthcoming 2011). She is currently working on “Memento Mori.” Previous papers appeared in the aforementioned, as well as “Horns of Power” (2008), “Priestesses, Pythonesses and Sibyls” (2008) and “Both Sides of Heaven” (2009). Kim is also a Tarot and mythology enthusiast, and the co-creator of “Sol Invictus: The God Tarot” (Schiffer Books, 2007) and the author of “Tarot 101: Mastering the Art of Reading the Cards” (Llewellyn, 2010). She is an initiated Hounsi Lave Tet in Sosyete Gade Nou Leve, a Haitian, Sanse and Dominican Vodou house run by Houngan Hector Salva, and a member of Ordo Templi Orientis.

The Truth About Zombies. Or: How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse:
It has been asserted that every interesting person in the Western world has formulated a plan for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse. But how can the interesting occultists out there know how to implement these plans without first understanding the magical, mythological and medicinal mechanics of the Zombie? This talk will examine the tradition of the Zombie in the context of Hoodoo Conjure, Haitian Vodou, and the ancient Graeco-Roman sorcerers. From necromantic rites and the dredging of a soul out of Hades, to psycho-spiritual Zombie effects and ethno-botanical studies, we will discover that surviving the Zombie Apocalypse requires more than a just shotgun and people who run slower than you.

Doorways

2011-02-08T02:02:00.000-08:00

I have been noticing that much of the initial portion of consultation with folks who come for either rootwork or a reading focusses on reframing their concerns to some extent. Most readers will tell you that what clients want to know and what they need to know, frequently, turns out to be somewhat different.

And to my mind, this is what a good reading is all about discovering. Before you sit for your reading you have been moved by inner and outer forces to come out of a state of ambiguity and confusion into a state of clarity. That clarity doesn't necessarily mean you will feel everything is fixed but rather that the amorphous blob of confusion whirling around a situation has somehow crystallised into something more negotiable. You have come into touch with the underlying currents or energies that are at work in your situation. I don't use the word energies lightly here. I really do believe that a reading opens up a doorway to the raw 'stuff' that is at work in your life.

I was laying down cards and typing up the reading for someone late one afternoon when I found myself becoming a little woozy. I decided to leave the cards on my reading table midway and have a little snooze on the couch. As I was nodding off I saw something dark and mean coming at me. I leapt off of the couch, startled. When I looked over to the cards I briefly saw a flicker, a shadow, passing over that area. I later told my godfather about this happening, he just frowned and said that this wasn't at all surprising; "you left the door open."

I had left the door open, I realised.

It became clear to me that I wasn't just spying on destiny with little bits of cardboard, but that I was opening subtle portals to the spiritual world and its denizens who are operating the levers behind these events. Ever since I have become more formal in the opening and closing of my readings - so as to ensure that the door is always being opened and closed deliberately and firmly.

Nonetheless, when a portal to the causal stuff is opened consciously and artfully it can be a highly transformative encounter in it's own right. A magical act that potentially activates either the positive or negative underlying patterns latent in any situation. Hopefully, it is the positive threads we are able to tease out and the negative tuff we can dispel or otherwise avert. This can take the form of self-knowledge and skilful action certainly, but from my perspective its also about working directly with those energies in our spiritual work and magic.

This of course makes a very good case as to why readers should make sure they have good solid spiritual protection not only in the form of talismans/bags but also in the form of spiritual guides or helpers who work with you when you read. Along with this a good cleansing regime, which can be something fast and simple that you do on the spot before and after a reading, or something more elaborate such as a spiritual bath.

People who know my style won't need to ask what I think of the efficacy of visualising white light and other similar new age frippery. And you won't believe the amount of arguing I have to do with stubborn clients who suffer from persistent spiritual interference yet insist that these sorts of visualisations should be enough, and if they could just do them long enough or hard enough they will eventually work - right?

If it was enough you probably wouldn't be knocking at a spiritual worker's door!

Get yourself a basic plastic perfume spritzer fill it Florida water along with a dash of holy water, spray some on your palms, rub them together briskly and wipe yourself down and away quickly with a prayer. Clap your hands. Ring a bell. Take a bath. Do something physical to anchor the spiritual effect. It isn't that much more work, and it works. You really don't want to start seeing the issues that are disturbing the person your are reading for, cropping up in your own life.

Similarly, developing a clear closing routine after a reading is another way of ensuring that the energies contacted are disconnected from the reader. There are various ways of doing this based on your religious inclinations and world view. After saluting my spirits, I like to pack up the cards, make the sign of the cross over the deck placing it facing down on the table and put it away in it's pouch or box. I then cleanse myself with my Florida and holy water solution - or if the reading was especially troubling and I am picking up heavy stuff around me - I take the deck to my ancestral altar and I place it there and set a small white tea-light over it.

They watch the door far better than I ever could.

Certain old geomantic texts warn that if the figures Rubeus or Cauda Draconis appear in the first house, that the chart should be destroyed and the client sent away! Modern authors tend to dismiss this as an overly extreme reaction based on superstition but I am of the opinion that if you trace the origins of geomancy to the root systems it relates to such as Ifa in west africa or the diloggun in the New World, you find an identical response to certain figures appearing in a reading. The diviner will banish the figures' malign influence and cleanse, or in some cases when a figure is too dangerous - the diviner will immediately close the reading and refer the client to a priest of higher ordination who has been in initiated into working skilfully with the energies contained in that figure. I suspect the renaissance geomantic texts that warn that this sort of chart should be destroyed are a remnant of this african tradition. Considering the primacy of the first figure in the calculation of the totality of a chart it becomes obvious the power that a malefic sign there holds.

I haven't destroyed charts or sent clients away (yet). But I do take extra special care to cleanse and disperse the influence of that figure as soon as possible.

Conversely, one wants to activate and manifest the positive signs and energies revealed by the reading also - what the famous and totally awesome I-Ching scholar, Stephen Karcher, eloquently refers to as fixing the omen.

But that, dear friends, is a topic for another post.

Aah, Sweet Success!

2011-01-24T13:28:00.000-08:00

I got this great feedback from a dear client and friend who carefully put together and worked with my sweet success jar. The sweet success jar is one of the most, er, successful spells that I have put together for myself. What's cool about it is that because it is a jar you have to keep working it regularly, and as anyone that does a lot of practical magic will tell you - money magic needs to be maintained rather than fired off sporadically in a panic when things get dire financially. I am totally jazzed to hear that someone else had such excellent results!

Here is what she had to say about it:

I wanted to update you on my results with your sweet success jar. When I first put it together I was bringing in $400-700 a month in income, which was just enough to cover my student loan payments and a portion of my business expenses. Now, just a few months later, I am bringing in $1200-$1600 a month! So that's obviously a huge jump. I am completely supporting myself as far as discretionary personal expenses, paying my monthly student loans, covering my business expenses, and able to put some money towards investing in myself through classes. This has taken a stress off of my husband, who even though he earns a fantastic salary still freaks out over every dollar that leaves the house - LOL. He's quit riding me about money, and even when I carry a balance on my credit card from one month to the next, he no longer worries about it, because he knows it will be paid off within a few weeks. Barring any unforseen setbacks, I will be able to travel internationally to participate in a spiritual convention that I have been hoping to attend.

Working the jar is actually one of the highlights of my day! I wake up, go to my prosperity altar, greet my spirits, light some incense, dress and light a tealight. That's it...and it WORKS. If I need some extra cash to pay for something, I dress a candle and set it working on the jar, light some incense, and then ring a bell over the altar while calling to my spirits to bring in that amount. I kid you not, since adding that jar to prosperity altar, I will have the amount I asked for within 48 hours!! This has happened on multiple occassions. My jar sits on a plate with pyrite and my 6lbs lodestone (fed weekly with whiskey), underneath which sits my financial goals...and since the jar has taken up residence there, things have just been amazing.

SO, thank you so so much for sharing that work, and for trusting with the extra secret bit to make it really powerful. :) - Mrs. M

Strategic Sorcery blog vanishes (and reappears)

2011-01-22T15:30:00.000-08:00

A rather worrying announcement from Jason Miller over at Strategic Sorcery follows. It really freaks me out to hear this can happen on blogger...

Dear Readers of Strategic Sorcery,
As most of you know, Strategic Sorcery mysteriously disappeared on the evening of Wednesday, January 19th. The blog was not locked or cancelled by blogger intentionally, nor does it appear to be a deliberate hack. It is a glitch that is effecting about 50 other blogs.
Strategic Sorcery will now be hosted at my own website.
The new address is http://www.inominandum.com/blog/
Please take a moment and update your links and follow me at the new site.
A big thanks go out to the owner of this blog for helping me get the message out. Thank you readers who have written in concerned about the situation. I am awed and gladdened by your support.
Thank you,
Jason Miller (Inominandum)

What's with "De heer" in front of your name?

2011-01-12T04:24:00.000-08:00

I have been getting a lot of questions about the "De heer" appellation I added in front of Balthazar. I thought I should briefly explain. It sounds fancy but it's just Dutch for "mister"!

:0)

ESP research

2011-01-11T04:20:00.000-08:00

The scientific community is outraged that what appears to be an otherwise respectable scientist has published research in a peer reviewed journal that suggests that there is evidence of extra sensory perception.

Outraged, I tell you!

The mere thought that he would even dare to publish such research seems to invalidate the entire peer review process, according to many of the critics of the research. A bunch of people have come out of the woodwork to chip away at the paper using the truly sorcerous art of statistics.

The consternation around this reminds me of institutional hysteria that scientists face if anyone even thinks of doing psychedelic research after Timothy Leary's dubious LSD research brought the entire area into ill repute.

Daryl J. Bem's research may well be a hoax for all we know but the establishment's reaction to the mere spectre of such enquiry is interesting. Most interestingly, from what I can gather reading that New York times article it seems scientists here in the Netherlands are leading the charge against Bem's paper.

OK, who loves those zener cards?

Many hours of fun were had with a home-made set when I was a kid. I was no good at predicting which card would be drawn when I experimented by myself but I discovered I was way better when someone else selected a card and 'projected' it to me. My best friend and I got so good at it that we managed to get into serious trouble at school for upsetting our class mates with our 'demonic' powers.

Ah those were the days - when a couple of metal records and home-made zener cards were considered enough evidence for devil worship.

The Three Wise Men

2011-01-06T05:23:00.000-08:00

Nicolaj over at Speculum Celestae reminds us that today is the the Day of Kings, also observed as the Epiphany. This is the day that the three Magi; Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar - following some kind of astrological indicator, it seems, found and recognised Jesus.

It's a meaningful day for me because it is from the last Magi that I took my conjure name, changing the "s" to "z" so that it matches the numerology of my birth date. Also, the 'z', like totally, crackles with magic.

The entrance of these mysterious foreign magi into the nativity narrative always fascinated me. It struck me even as a child as a thoroughly magical inclusion in the story. Recently I was pleased to discover that Robert Conner in his stellar Magic in the New Testament makes a rather convincing case that the part about the star stopping above the place of Christ's birth seems to be an extract from a spell in the Greek Magical Papyri.

The book is in a box somewhere in the chaos that is my home after the recent move so I can't get into any more detail without looking at his exact argument but what I can say is that he does comparison and there is a rather disturbing copy-and-paste quality between the two ancient texts. If you haven't heard of this book you should make the effort to check it out - it totally baked my noodle.

Blown minds aside, the special role of these three characters symbolically and magically in relationship to the bible seems something worth thinking about and celebrating today.

The Greater and Lesser Mysteries

2011-01-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

The role and difference between the major and minor arcana in the tarot is something that has interested me for a while. That difference is something I have struggled with, contemplatively and practically. It wasn't until recently after a new technique tumbled out of this struggle that I found that I have been able to frame my take on this as a coherent idea in some way. Maybe this of value to my readers.

My tarot perspective has been far more influenced by Paul Huson's historical and mystical take on the tarot than by any of that tacked-on qabalah. This concern has to do with my own idiosyncratic mission to sharpen my tarot as a practical real-world divination tool and brutally divorce it from its more recent application as meditation/psychological/self-exploration device. While those applications are perfectly valid of course - for me - in many ways they have muddied the divinatory accuracy of the tarot system itself. Instead of gleaning useful information about real-world happenings, it seems, one is more likely to discover inner perspectives or subjective symbolic patterns that might be meaningful in spiritual or psychological sense but tend to be less clear cut with regards to real-world events. Your mileage may vary of course.

Back to the majors and minors for a moment - how does one usefully and distinctly interpret these two types of cards?

Clearly they are 'supposed' to be different - both in function and interpretation. Yet, practically, during an average tarot session they tend to be read in a very similar way. Sometimes the minors seem to repeat ideas from majors and one is inclined to interpret both a minor and major of a similar character almost identically. This duplication seems awkward. The functional difference between the two parts of the deck is rarely addressed cogently within any structured tarot system that I have seen and certainly not in in any tangible way that is directly applicable as a reading technique. Rarely are the differences described in anything other than broad philosophical terms. Often the word 'archetype' gets thrown at the problem. At best the the majors are said to emphasise a particular concern. Having disabused myself of semiotic hall of mirrors brought later to the cards with assignment of qabalistic values, I have continually attempted to construct, frame or decipher the value and meaning of the majors in contrast to the minors within the context of a robust if personal tarot divination system.

One evening I lay soaking in the tub after doing a particularly puzzling reading for myself and something struck me. What does it actually mean when we say some of the cards are trumps? Why are they called major and minor arcana?

Trumps. Mysteries. I rolled these concepts around in my my head like two cool, round pebbles in a gurgling stream.

What if the cards are suggesting the emergence of a kind of mystery, or by association, some sort of riddle in our experience? What if we are looking at large and small riddles? And a riddle of course poses a certain conundrum; asks a certain kind of question. Macroscopic riddles vs microscopic riddles or mysteries.

I don't mean during a reading either. I mean in your life.

What if a major arcana card is announcing that you are about to grapple or are currently grappling with a particular unanswered cosmic question, a mystery, which is taking the form of a series of events - indicated by another order of cards in the pack: the minors?

From this perspective whenever a major arcana (appropriately then called a trump card) emerges in our story we are being asked to attempt to answer one of the twenty two big questions that we get asked endlessly throughout our life by that cheeky sphinx called Time. The major arcana card DEATH, for instance, would not necessarily be the arrival of an answer in a reading so much as it announcing the arrival of one of the great questions in our life. A living question that asks that we negotiate, over and over again with a great conundrum - the greater mystery of death, endings, termination, expirations, collapse, destruction and obliteration in this instance.

And when one of the twenty two great questions gets asked that question filters the entirety of an experience (whatever that experience displays as), through the mystery of that question. In the case of DEATH it might be asking us in a million different flavours, styles and guises: "human, what is dying, termination, expiration, collapse?" What does it mean in this scenario, or this one or this one?

Twenty two cosmic koans that simultaneously drive and define any possible human experience.

By contrast then the minors would be the fifty six configurations of our mundane experience. Fifty six sets or scenes - like the scenes on the pips of the Rider Waite. And in this way fifty six possible configurations in which the twenty two major questions might infinitely pose themselves in the manifest world - so doing displaying as the minor mysteries.

Twenty two raw forces that ask to be known over and again; each moment arranging events in a novel pattern that we might discover their faces anew.

Practical Application: a tarot technique

I hear you thinking - what on earth is he going on about? First he complains that the difference between the majors and minors has only been described in vague philosophical terms and then like the Fool he leaps off a cliff into pure abstraction! And right you are, theory should be validated by practice.

To this end the idea above can be applied within the context of an actual reading in several ways. Firstly by forming two distinct orders of interlocking interpretation neatly divided by the majors and minors. More than that it suggests a very handy interpretative device that makes use of that distinction - allowing us to add greater subtlety nuance and depth to any card's meaning and resultantly the reading as a whole.

This is done by taking the idea that a major is either of kind of macroscopic lens through which the minors are read, or conversely, that it is a force that expresses through a minor. How does this look practically?

Stay tuned for the next instalment of this post in which I will give the core technique that I have been playing with as well some spreads and other launching points for working with the ideas presented above.

The Pattern Behind Self-Deception

2010-12-24T06:20:00.000-08:00

I like going to uncomfortable places with my spiritual practice. I'm not sure what this is about but as soon as I get cozy with a point of view I like to begin exploring the opposite view. Especially things that make me uncomfortable seem to hold a perverse fascination for me and I am drawn to jump in there with that feeling and wriggle around in it. Usually I learn from it. Sometimes it gives me the heebie-jeebies and I flee. I think it has something to do with reconciling opposites.

The most interesting states of consciousness have emerged when apparently irreconcilable forces crashed in my inner world, hurling me to the outer limits of what I can conceptually frame. Often catastrophically collapsing everything I thought I knew and then from that rubble something strange and shiny emerges. I have got a huge amount of mileage out of magically jamming God and the Devil like this for instance, to name one dualism that I like to meddle with. The other being the atheist perspective with the theist - which as you may have noticed took the form of this recent controversial posting.

Lately it has been the attempt at reconciling scientific materialistic and animist perspectives. Reconcile is a strong word, I suppose. It really just is two parts of my own experience, both vivid and undeniable, reacting horribly to the utterly alien radiation of the other.

This has taken the form of investigating ideas which scientifically attempt to explain away, well, pretty much everything about magic, spirituality and the paranormal. This glib TED talk hits a nerve in that regard - striking at the heart of what magic and divination are all about: the emergence of meaning from pattern and how we delude ourself in that process. What if our preoccupation with sorcery really just is some cognitive defect - an evolutionary artefact? Check it out and share your thoughts. As occultists, conjurers, card readers - how do you respond to the ideas presented in this lecture?

On the mend

2010-12-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

Just a note to say thank you all for the sweet e-mails, lights set as well as the patience of my clients after my recent health collapse. The good news is after a trip to the hospital yesterday they were able to plug a cerebrospinal fluid leak by injecting blood in the lumbar puncture site. Rather miraculously this fixed the problem almost instantly and I am able to walk upright again! You don't realize how useful sitting and standing upright is until you can't do it any more. I must say my relationship with western medicine had become rather troubled after the whole spinal tap business, so this fix has been welcome to say the least.

At any rate I wanted to let those clients who have outstanding readings know that I will be upgrading your readings to a full spread/geomantic chart combo reading to express my appreciation for your patience. Folks who ordered oils and bags that have been delayed will be getting a free gift in each package.

Thank you all for being so patient. May your Christmas festivities be blessed with good health and much love.

Best laid plans of mice and men

2010-12-15T05:52:00.000-08:00

Well that was interesting.

Went to bed on Sunday evening feeling a little under the weather and woke up on Monday with a high temperature, cough, aches and pains etc. I assumed it was a bad cold so I stayed in bed. And then my temperature climbed, and climbed, and climbed. Got up on Tuesday morning not feeling good at all. Sat next to my husband on the couch and said; "I feel kind of dizzy baby". I then had a seizure.

I have never had one before and let me tell you it gets people worried.

Anyway, about fifteen minutes later we are in the ER and the doctors were reaching consensus that bacterial or viral meningitis might be the cause; and then my physician casually remarked that a spinal tap would be needed to make sure. I assumed he meant the other spinal tap. You know, the one that doesn't involve shoving a long thick needle into my spine in order to siphon out cerebrospinal fluid. Oh wait.

I fainted during the first attempt. So don't let any of those crafty doctors smooth talk you into a recreational spinal tap. They definitely hurt. A lot.

It turns out I don't have any kind of meningitis but rather a truly severe form of flu. I am part 0.2% (or something) of adults who have seizures when their core temperature goes critical.

Another interesting thing about the spinal tap is that until your body has replaced that cerebrospinal fluid it has the curious side effect of leaving you unable to sit or stand up fully because the change in pressure produces blinding pain in your head. I also discovered that during a seizure you kind of sprain every muscle in your pack as your body goes rigid exorcist style (apparently the sound effects were pretty awesome too).

Resultanty I am unable to lay down, sit or stand up without being in some degree of agony.

I suppose I should mention some deft sorcerous trick that helped to swing things in my favor but frankly there was none. I was quite out of it for the most part, although I did manage a terrified Our Father as the second spinal tap attempt commenced. The real magic was having had enough insight and good fortune to marry my wonderful husband; who got me to the hospital in a flash and blur practically carrying me in his arms; who sat through the entire day of brainscanning, tests and whatnot holding my hand whenever he could and who cried along with me during the second spinal tap. Now he is busy doing all the house moving stuff by himself after only having had a few hours sleep fussing with me the whole night.

Just wanted to let you all know what has been up. Keep us in you thoughts and hopefully all will be back to normal pretty soon.

Dear Rootwork Clients

2010-12-10T03:16:00.000-08:00

Lovely people, my response time with e-mails will be a bit slower over the next two weeks, though I will do my best to always get back to you as soon as I can. We are about to move house and between packing here and fixing up there, things are bit in a shambles right now.

Apologies for the inconvenience, I hope for everything to be back to normal shortly.

Happily my conjure room will be much bigger! I have been tripping over lamps, jars and vigils which are spread across every available surface and even the floor... can't wait to have more surfaces to put client work on. The space thing has been driving me a little nuts.

Atheism, Diaspora traditions and the end of exoteric religion (or the world)

2010-12-05T04:41:00.000-08:00

It strikes me that some the most valid critiques that atheists and humanists level at mainstream religions, in some sense, collapse when you look at the Diaspora traditions such Ocha, Vodou, Hoodoo, Umbanda, Quimbanda etc. Sure, atheists might point to the preponderance of seemingly irrational or superstitious beliefs that are found in the ATRs - beliefs which seem all the more more fantastical, bizarre or sometimes even down right insane to the mechanistic gaze of scientific materialism.

However, when compared to mainstream religions the Diaspora traditions demonstrate a nimble, remarkably robust application to human experience that not only gives meaning to particpants, but more importantly, transcends the dualism and deadening dogma of mainstream exoteric religion. Dogma which has had a tyrannical strangle hold on the planet so toxic and undeniably destructive that humanist/atheist movements have made an entirely legitimate case that religion should be removed from the public sector entirely.

That it harms.

This then is where Diaspora traditions differ in my opinion. Where mainstream religion wants to impose a rigid moral order on society - one that is founded on the promise of reward or punishment in some idealised afterlife - Diaspora faiths focus in great part on ways of improving the quality and enjoyment of this life. This is done in various ways; the most distinct being the magico-religious interaction with the spirit world with the aim influencing the material world tangibly.

More than that, the preoccupation with some idealised after-life in which all meaning and hope is vested is almost entirely absent from the main thrust of these paths. Instead direct experience of the spirit world in meaningful lived relationship to this life and body; it's connection with the natural world, the community, wealth, health and well-being are all of central importance; domains which are understood to profoundly interconnected and above all rooted in the present life. Similarly, notions pertaining to an afterlife are rooted in the present with pervasive emphasis of ancestral veneration. Death and the dead are interconnected with life and living rather than being sublimated into a strange necrotic obsession with the consequences for your own soul after death. As such these traditions maintain pragmatic and sophisticated technologies for relating to the manifest world, and human mind and soul which are all understood as being a direct expression of the spiritual dimension rather than being at odds with it.

Instead of having a passive religious experience mediated, interpreted and codified by a textual dogma of some sort; spiritual meaning and revelation is grounded in the demand and indeed, expectancy, for direct ecstatic experience for each participant. This then taking various forms such as; trance possession, divination or mediumship. Instead of being at mercy of an uncompromising, distant and inflexible exoteric expression of Godhead - one which demands total submission and obedience - participants are able to negotiate and communicate directly with the Divine forces.

These forces might become befriended, rewarded or even punished based on their influence and performance in the devotee's life. Now that's what I call a personal relationship with Jesus.

Most importantly these traditions maintain an unbroken chain of initiatic teaching; older ways of knowing and being in the world that might prove vital if the human race is to grow up and develop in ways that avoid self-annihilation. A downward spiralling global economy, impending environmental collapse and political turmoil pervades our planet as the gears of the scientific materialistic project revolves to its final deadly conclusion. Looking forward to science's next cold wonder to improve us, reward us and ultimately save us from ourselves has clearly proven to be a failed strategy. Yet, that seems to be the only thing we can do when operating from that broken world view.

Instead of looking at new technology, just perhaps, it is the technology that preserved in these older ways of being with the planet, each other, and fundamentally, the universe itself that holds the key to moving forward with any scrap of hope.

Revenge, death and destruction

2010-12-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

I think I've finally been able to frame my formal position with regards to doing dark work for clients. Which is to say; throwing juju at enemies. It's taken me a while to figure out where I stand on the matter because, in principal, I am just fine with doing dark work. And I have done so. I would even go so far as to say it is an important part of the tradition and an art that needs to be maintained. The question really then remains: when am I willing to take on the task of throwing truly corrosive juju around for clients?

I wasn't all that sure. I was just deciding on a case by case basis.

However, I have been dealing with a severe case of this nature and this got me thinking that I need to have a formal position that people can familiarise themselves with before asking me to do that kind of work. I began to examine my motives very carefully and I asked myself: what genuinely motivates me to do this kind of work and when do I feel personally comfortable and morally indemnified (or compelled) doing so for a client?

Justice? Money? Righteousness? Malice?

Then it became clear to me. I have to apply the rules that I use in my own life to my client work.

In my own life and affairs you would need to harm me or someone I care about, substantially, before I will ever consider going to a graveyard with black candles in my hand. You can insult me, annoy me, spite me, anger me - you might even manage to get me flame spitting furious but that alone will never be enough to get me to the point where I will scratch your name into a black candle with a rusty coffin nail.

That just isn't my style.

You have to either directly harm or substantially threaten to harm me or someone I really care about. What does this mean for my clients? It means I need to know you well enough and have worked with you long enough that I would be willing to go to that place for you. Justice alone is not enough for me to go there. The world is full of injustice. Not my job to fix it. Money won't do it because, very simply, I am nobody's hoodoo hit-man. Similarly, your hatred and fury means nothing to me. But if you mean something to me then you might have my ear and my heart. Nobody hurts anyone I care about on my watch.

It might sound a little peculiar but what it comes down to in practical terms in my own conjure practice, is this:

If you come to me out of the blue seeking revenge, pain, death and destruction on your enemies - no matter how justified it all seems; no matter what the reading says; no matter how angry/sad/bitter you may be... it's pretty darn unlikely you will get me digging around the graveyard for you. Sorry.

I'll hot-foot a nuisance gladly, I might jinx up a competitor and I will most certainly dominate and control an idiot when it is called for; but I will never rain down destruction on anyone - for whatever reason - if you are a total stranger to me. Never.

However, if you are an established client of mine who I have been reading and doing spiritual work with for some time already (and enough so that I have had the opportunity to get to know you; your character; and your story adequately), then, there is some chance that I might consider doing this kind of work for you. And this will be based on my sincere and very genuine personal concern for you as my trusted client and friend.

Like I said - nobody hurts anyone that I care about.

Divinatory Literacy

2010-11-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

I have had the good fortune of being able to read for people from all over the world lately. What I have discovered is that people that hail from countries which have a culture of divination (even if it was just something that the older folks did) tend to get far more out of a reading than those that don't (very broadly speaking of course). I think I have come up with a term for this: divinatory literacy.

Allow me to me elaborate. On Thurday evening I attended a regular bi-weekly misa and this was an unusually small misa because of a furious storm raging in Amsterdam on Thursday. Not one easily put off by storms and in need of a good cleansing I jump on my bicycle, (almost getting blown into a canal) and I made my way to the centre, to find a small group of damp but determined espiritistas.

When a misa is smaller the format changes somewhat. In the larger 20-plus people misas there is an 'audience' that sits in rows and the white table gets 'worked' by a group of espiritistas in the front. They step into the audience and give messages or pull people out to cleanse etc. However, in the smaller misa everyone sits in a circle and as such everyone becomes a medium and is allowed to give messages from the spirits who come to attendance. The idea being that there is no hierarchy in espiritismo and that a junior medium can possibly give a message to an elder in need of it. Or even more interesting - sometimes one medium will get one fragment of a message and another medium another piece and together they make sense.

Anyway, in this smaller group setting an elder explains the rules in the beginning so that the whole thing does not devolve into chaos with people talking at the same time or worse. The first rule being don't cut a medium off, apart from being rude it cuts off the contact to that spirit which is disrespectful to the spirit. Secondly, when you are given a message from a medium that makes no sense whatsoever (and some messages do sound strange indeed) - don't argue with the medium. It isn't a discussion circle. Once you try and enter into a whole discussion with the medium the spirit contact weakens, and really, what you have is two egos bumping together which is a waste of time. Worse, our elder informs us, is that this then sabotages the energetic dynamics at a misa and the whole thing devolves into a less healing experience and more irritating/confusing one.

If you get a message that is confusing you are supposed to just hold onto it and if in time it still makes no sense then you let go of it as mere gibberish. Sometimes the message comes out wrong or gets given to the wrong person altogether. However, what happens usually is a few days later something happens and BAM it makes sense. The spirits experience time differently - so they might be talking about a future context and that message only falls in place when a certain set of circumstances are in place. They don't care if you don't understand it now. You will.

So the idea is to be relaxed and open - at least for the duration of the misa. Later you can be critical. In your daily life experience the whole thing plays out and you get to see what the validity of it all was. And let me tell you; I have received some truly bizarre messages that fall into place with such incredible clarity that I felt like I might faint with shock.

I have noticed at misas and during my own client readings; those who get the least out of the experience are the ones who are going, yeah but, yeah but, yeah but. It's not making any rational sense yet, you see. Westerners are addicted to reason. I had someone come to see me the other day who upon plonking themselves down on the chair across from me informed me, arms folded, that they are in fact a 'critic'.

Oh joy.

What this really means is that I am supposed to play the psychic mystery revelation game with them. This is where you pull something out of your hat that so unlikely, so spot-on, that only someone familiar with the most intimate details of their life could have possibly known it. And you know what? Even if you do that, even then, they will tighten up their body language turn their head ever so slightly - one supposes to cut of those invasive psychic rays - and inform you that this was due to some marvellous guess work.

My job isn't to make believers. I have no interest in converting anyone to the wonder and joy of interacting with the numinous directly or the satisfaction of living the magical life. I do have an interest in getting people their money's worth, or getting something out of the reading at least. Even if it was just talking to someone about your personal experience in a supportive context. Coming to it with a closed attitude is a total waste of time. Further, it places the reader in the awkward position being tested in some way. Now, a reader is being tested for ability during every single reading they give anyway - this is a given. Just as a pilot is being tested during every flight. This is different to having a nosey passenger sit up front in the cockpit scrutinising all the dials. "I don't believe in flying anyway" they might interject during take-off.

Why then, dear sir, did you buy the ticket?

This I put down to divinatory literacy. Which is having a certain understanding and attitude towards divination and the diviner. Which, mind you, isn't the same thing as blind faith. No, divinatory literacy is about cultivating an open attitude and being willing to make contact with the sacred. One in which the most critical part of the self is put on hold for the time being while the more playful, receptive part of the self is allowed to come out. It's not unlike the attitude that you might have when going to see a film, or listen to a new piece of music. You don't hype it too much for yourself or you might be disappointed and you don't arrive with your clip-board and qualitative evaluation checklist either. You just relax and let it happen.

In addition, a good reading really proves its value over time. Sure you might have a few things lock into place for you there and then, or get some details about the past you might only have known about (which can be affirming too), but what you want is something that helps you navigate ahead. The reader interprets the cards, shells, chart or whatever the tool being used is but the sitter then has the job to carry that seed given during the reading and to interpret it further for themselves as their own life unfolds. There will be parts that make no rational sense but if you stay open things begin shifting inside (and outside), lining up just right, and then there might be a sudden insight that can be profoundly transformative.

People that come from countries, communities or families where there is a culture of divination, it seems, have an instinctual relationship with diviners that comes passed down to them. Part of it respect and faith, sure - but from what I can tell it mostly is the willingness to make some space and time for that which is not altogether rational and possibly therefore, wondrous.

Free Stuff!

2010-11-03T10:12:00.001-07:00

Gordon is giving away free catholic folk-magic goodies! Apparently my chances of of getting some are increased by reposting about it. So go check it out!

The Mojo of Jesus

2010-10-28T03:18:00.000-07:00

Attracted by the colour of hoodoo, people seem to make a beeline for the saints. Saints are accessible and much of that has to do with exquisite iconography that is so readily available for them. People make spiritual choices based on aesthetic criteria all the time and I think this is one of the reasons the saints have such magnetic charm - their images are visually very evocative. Additionally, when faced with the Christian framework of these New World paths; people with occult leanings, I think, find the saints to be an easy doorway to access these traditions without having to face up to the broader Christian underpinnings.

In terms of hoodoo; historically, the inclusion of saints was really very tiny and mostly limited to a select few geographic regions; not surprisingly these regions were more densely populated by practising catholics. For the most part hoodoo is a Protestant tradition - you wouldn't think so when you look around online! I know I for one am fond of talking about the saints.

However, if you want light a rocket under your rootwork and give it some real spiritual clout - even when petitioning the aid of saints - you have to square it up with the big JC. That's right. Nobody delivers the goods like the King of Kings. If you want to make mince meat of any obstacle, manifest any goal, overcome any enemy then the Lamb of God is an unstoppable, indomitable, inexhaustible treasure house of spiritual force. Can I have an Amen?

I invite you to discover the power of the magical Jesus. In fact I dare you.
Jesus the greatest conjure man ever to walk the earth.
Jesus the master of miracles.
Jesus the magician.

I was taught a powerful trick by Momma Starr: take a picture of Jesus and put it under anything you are working on, whether it be a jar, candle - whatever. Put that picture there and see what happens! Just the image of Christ is so potent that I have found by adding this simple element the speed and efficacy of a spell is radically boosted.

This is the true beauty of hoodoo as a spiritual path; you get to discover Jesus in a whole new way. I'm not talking about the Sunday school version.

His Spirit and power will reveal Itself to you and ooze down into your work, your mind and your spell-craft and blow open your mind to a whole new dimension of Christ and what he means on the most secret inner levels. He can reveal Himself to be something completely different; something magical, extraordinary and entirely unorthodox.

Become a truly antinomian magician.

In fact, I would say that if the idea makes feel squeamish then it might be especially useful for you to work with Jesus directly. Go to that uncomfortable place, expose it and see what happens. If you are a Neo Pagan and you are about to unfollow from my blog, then I would like to point out that the early Hermetic magicians would invoke the power of Christ right along with Abraham, Hermes and Anubis - all in one the same conjuration! They didn't have Jesus issues because they knew a powerful Divine name to conjure by when they saw one. And they weren't afraid to call it out, either.

If you are a would-be hoodoo then you gotta get you mind and your heart wrapped around the role of Jesus in this tradition. He cannot be deleted from hoodoo - anymore than the Lwa can be from vodou. So why not look Him in the eye and see what He has to say about your juju? Why not call on His power for you next candle working? I am willing to bet my last penny that you will be very, very surprised by what you find.

Earlier this week I was working on a new client's case. It's a story that really touched me, a grave injustice and tragedy had befallen this family. I was busy preparing a lamp for the case and as I was putting it all together I felt the Spirit move around me so I stopped and I began praying; at first quietly but as the intensity of my words began building I felt this sudden wave of force come down and I switched over into Tongues - ordinary words no longer being adequate for what was being expressed - an urgent primal call swept through me. Suddenly I had a vivid spiritual encounter:

I see Jesus ablaze in golden light. A network of stars; constellations knitting together his body and robe. Woven throughout this is an exquisite chain of sigils, symbols and divine names cycling eternally throughout His luminous form. And in that moment He seems utterly alien to me - cosmic and inexplicable. Ineffable. Magical. Timeless. Breathless and startled I discover my body becoming filled with a gentle surge of peace and heat. It extends everywhere, into the lamp, the walls, floor, ceiling - everywhere.

I sat quietly like that for a few minutes, dazzled, and then eventually pulled myself together and lit the lamp...

Now, I am not saying you go all bat-shit 'hallelujah' crazy, waving your bible around. This isn't about religion. I am simply inviting you to discover what is probably the most powerful magical secret held within this tradition, hidden in plain view.

The "Lord is my Shepherd, I Shall Not Want" Mojo Bag:

A holy card of Christ the Shepherd (any picture of Jesus will work)
Three coins
A magnet/lodestone (I prefer magnets)
High John the Conquer root
Master root
23 Psalm printed out
Red thread
Pine resin
Cinnamon
Frankincense
Myrrh
Pyrite
Magnetic Sand
A Picture of yourself
I Shall Not Want oil

A red flannel bag.
A vigil light adorned with picture of Jesus Christ.

Inspired by the beauty of Psalm 23 I formulated the "I shall not want" bag as a perpetual abundance mojo. It calls on the Divine promise issued in Psalm 23, and Christ the Shepherd for its power.

On the back of the psalm you should declare all areas in which you shall no longer want in your life; money, love, career, friendships, knowledge, peace of mind etc. Then cover and cross it with your name seven times. Seven is the number of Christ but it's also the number of victory. Dress it with I shall Not Want Oil in the quincunx pattern. Fold this up towards you and wrap it around the Master root, then wind it up with red thread praying: the LORD is my Shepherd I shall not want. Tie it off.

Take the picture of Christ the Shepherd and place upon it your pic, so that you are being held by Jesus. On that put the magnet/lodestone and feed it magnetic sand and I Shall Not Want oil. On the magnet place the three coins. I use these little Chinese lucky coins that I bought in bulk because I send bags all over the world and I like to use a universal symbol for money. Also, they are really pretty!

Next, fold the holy card around all of this to form a packet and tie it in with thread to keep it together.

Take every single ingredient, one at a time, and pray the 23rd psalm over it - declaring at the end of the psalm once again the areas in which you shall no longer want:

The LORD is my Shepherd I shall not want for money.
The LORD is my Shepherd I shall not want for friendship.
The LORD is my Shepherd I shall not want for safety.
etc...

Place them in the bag as you do this and then finally breathe life into the bag and tie it off. Feed it some oil and whiskey and place it in under an over-turned bowl so that you can burn a the vigil over it. Dress and fix the vigil - light it and let it burn over the bag. Take the bag in your hands daily and pray Psalm 23 over it, feeding it oil and breath each time you do. When the vigil has done burning the bag should be rocking and ready to go!

Divination, divination, divination

2010-10-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

The value and power of accurate divination when doing spellwork professionally has been on my mind a lot lately. Firstly, when a client comes for a consultation and you are able hit the nail on the head with your reading, or even perhaps pull out a few secrets or little facts that only they could have possibly known; this goes a long way to establishing confidence and trust in your abilities and in the work itself. Which in turn helps create good rapport between the worker and client.

You could be the most fabulously powerful magician in the world but if you can't read adequately then you are flying blind. Secondly, you really do need to know what the shape of the situation is so you don't take on work that you are unable to successfully conclude or handle. Naturally, nobody is able resolve every single job successfully but you want to be able to assess carefully what is and is not possible in any case and be sure to build your work on top of that - flowing with the pattern of events rather than against them.

Then there is the matter of the client themselves - you might be able to do the job successfully, but even so some clients might prove very difficult to work with. I find it is good to be forewarned so I know how to handle a client appropriately.

Then finally, divination is really powerful for guiding any decisions regarding what kind of work would be most suited to any case. This is either by deduction, looking at the reading as a whole, or more specifically by doing extra divination to see what kind of work should be done; how long for; ingredients employed, as well as for decisions regarding which saints, spirits and so forth you might want to work with. You know that old saw: genius is 1% inspiration 99% perspiration? Well, sometimes I feel like one could say: rootwork is 1% conjuration 99% divination!

The ratio is probably a little exaggerated there, but you get the point...

If you divine accurately, you are able see the important connections, relationships and forces at play in any given situation - and with the blessing of the Divine sometimes all that is needed is a gentle magical push or pull in exactly the right place; creating a cascading domino effect, leading to the perfect outcome.

It doesn't always work that way but with a bit of practice, good divination can certainly help make this kind of thing happen more frequently.

Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly: Fall 2010!

2010-10-19T01:46:00.000-07:00

How cool is this! Check out the Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly. Its a new journal for rootworkers and eclectic practitioners of the magical arts with a special focus on New Orleans Voodoo, Hoodoo and folklore!

Another neat thing is that it includes a feature length piece by yours truly! If you found my Venus "Love-Tub" Lamp post tickled your fancy, you might like to check out the Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly because it gives that working in full detail; including all the herbal ingredients and planetary conjurations along with theoretical underpinnings - offering detailed instructions for performing the spell yourself.

More than that the journal includes workings, articles and reviews by a whole team of skilled practitioners. I am happy to say I have been invited to become a regular contributor and I am thrilled to be writing for such an exciting publication.

From the press-release statement:

Recognizing the resurgence of folk magic and the growing community of hoodoos, healers, and conjurers, Planet Voodoo (www.planetvoodoo.com) has created a new, high quality journal that meets the needs of today’s conjurers and the curious. Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly journal shares historical and contemporary information about aspects of the conjure arts, including magico-religious practices, spiritual traditions, folk magic, hoodoo, and religions with their roots in the African Diaspora and indigenous herbology. Each issue of Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly magazine brings you original and traditional formulas, spells, tutorials, root doctor, spiritual mother, and conjure artist profiles, workshop listings, book, product, & website reviews, and more!
Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly is a thoroughly researched periodical created by New Orleans-born author, artist, rootworker, and PhD level social scientist Denise Alvarado and her business partner Sharon Marino, and New Orleans style Voodooist, eclectic witch, and Wiccan High priestess. When you read a copy of Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly, you can be confident that what you read is the real thing. Whether you are a beginner who is just intrigued by the notion of folk magic, want to pick up some techniques for your trick bag, add to your personal grimoire, want to learn about the African -derived and indigenous spiritual traditions, or want to keep up with the social world of today’s practitioners, Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly delivers!

The content of Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly comes from a variety of channels. There is a veritable hoodoo admixture of contributors that includes several notable authors, as well as “regular folks” from the hoodoo and conjure community. The intentional input of professionals and experienced lay people involved in varying degrees in the magickal arts guarantees the reader receives multiple perspectives, a broader base of information, and cross-cultural and cross-regional views of occult phenomenon. Our contributors include Aylene Pustiano, New Orleans author, occultist and paranormal researcher who specializes in New Orleans folklore; Dorothy Morrison, a practicing Witch for nearly 40 years, and award-winning author of numerous books on Witchcraft and its practical application to everyday living; Chad C. Balthazar, a gifted reader and rootworker, avid blogger, current resident of Amsterdam who was born and raised in Africa, and descendant of a line of mediums, dreamers and madmen; Madrina Angelique, Tarot Reader, Conjure Woman and Mojo Witch, as well as Madre Nganga of Munanso Centella Ndoki Nkuyo Malongo Corta Lima Cordosa and Iyalorisha of Ile Ori Yemaya, born and raised in rural Georgia, and student and practitioner of traditional southern hoodoo since childhood; Papa Curtis, a gifted intuitive trained in the arts of traditional Rootwork, Hoodoo, and Dowsing; and Matthew Venus, a rootworker and eclectic magician who has been practicing, studying and teaching the magical arts for the past twenty years; as well as Sharon and myself, of course.

So don't miss out and get your copy!

The Secrets of the Lenormand Oracle: a Review

2010-10-15T03:28:00.000-07:00

I was ready to hate this book. Firstly, it outlines Sylvie Steinbach's personal Lenormand card reading system and as such departs from Lenormand tradition in many respects (doing away with the system's cornerstone spread and changing certain card meanings). Traditions usually are well-worn paths for a reason: they work. So this then was a sticking point for me. To make it worse Steinbach's online presence can be somewhat alienating. On the Aeclectic Tarot forums she managed piss-off a sizeable proportion of would-be Lenormand enthusiasts with arrogant, patronising and often childish antics.

Unfortunately these shrill histrionics have been immortalized in cyberspace and remain available for everyone to see whenever they do a search on this book or author. Resultantly, none of the online opinions I came across were all that reliable because, it seems, that people had fallen into two camps: haters of Steinbach bent on 'exposing' her and defenders of Steinbach bent on praising her. Being allergic to drama, I passed on the book and instead opted for the Treppner course which had a good reputation.

Eventually (having worked through the Treppner material) I caved out of curiosity and bought the book. And I am extremely pleased that I did. In my opinion Steinbach has laid bare one of the most versatile and accurate cartomantic systems ever devised. Sure, the text is terse and a little condescending and there is a lot of 'psychic' this and 'psychic' that (a term I detest). However, that cannot change the fact that this appears to be a blistering hot innovation in Lenormand card reading. It may not be for everyone but as professional reader it really excites me.

The Secrets of the Lenormand Oracle offers a fast and highly versatile method for getting accurate answers to the kinds of questions clients tend to ask. And what is most ingenious about it is that it uses a context based system for drawing meaning from this little deck of cards, and that is because card interpretations and meanings are contextually tailored to the type of question being asked. To do that she has sections in her book dealing with each major area (timing, moves, business, love, spirituality) and the cards interpretations in relation to those types of questions, as well as little interpretative nuances for each category. Need to know how a future lover might actually look, physically? Steinbach's system can do that. Need to know when something might happen? Steinbach's system can do that. Need to know whether a love interest is actually willing to commit? Her system does that too.

What's more; her card meanings and combinations seem truly contemporary and these clever ascriptions span the gamut of modern western daily life and in all its mundane glory. There is a card combination for internet romances. There is a combination that indicates a person with passive aggressive tendencies. There is a combination that suggests a lover might be well endowed. There is even a card combination relating to blogging and bloggers!

This is put to work using what Steinbach refers to as her 'no-layout' system - a term I find somewhat erroneous because it does employ a layout format, unstructured though it may be. More accurate might have been to call it the 'free layout' system. Terminology aside, this method is a brilliant cut-to-the-chase way of getting answers out of the deck quickly and with a minimum of fuss. Especially surprising about her presentation of it is that she encourages the reader to re-ask a question and lay down the cards again if they are getting a muddled answer.

Heresy!

But when I tried it, it worked really well. Out the window goes my long held belief that I should attempt to eek a reading out of group of cards that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever (and if I am unable to do so it's because of some personal failing as a reader). Nope, just try again. Very refreshing indeed.

What I would have liked to have seen is how the author treats same-sex relationship readings, because either the gentleman or lady card is 'charged' for the love interest enquired after, leaving the other as the querent's significator - which is fine in a heterosexual reading but in a same-sex scenario it becomes a little tricky. I have had to resort to trying to fit the pair into 'passive' and 'active' roles and in this way assigning these two cards anyway. Unfortunately, this relies on gendering gay relationship roles which I don't think is all that useful. There are other ways of going about it (using the bear card as significator for my own husband for instance gave me a giggle) but then you potentially lose a valuable meaning-producing card from the reading. This is just a small quibble however and for the most part I found the book offered plenty of versatile techniques and ideas that I could immediately put to use in my own readings.

My advice: ignore the online drama; ignore the author's patronising tone and get this book if you want to use the Lenormand oracle well. This is one of those instances where you really just need to forget what you may have heard about the messenger and listen to the message.

It does exactly what it promises on the tin; giving Steinbach's personal secrets, gleaned from her own experience working professionally with the deck for many years.

Triumph of the Sacred

2010-10-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Not sure what this phrase means, exactly. It came to me during an ecstatic experience. I suppose we could ask what does it mean to you, dear reader (if anything)? Open thread... muse away.

Most Powerful Tools the Arte

2010-10-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt my most potent and often used tools.

The dropper, for oil.
The engraver, for inscribing candles, fixing vigils, moulding wax doll-babies.
Thread, for everything... (wrapping, sewing, tying).

I can work without any tools if need be, but damn, these three are so handy...

The Full Canvas and its Threads.

2010-10-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

It's kinda spooky because I have been sitting on this post for a few days trying to figure out how to frame what I am trying to say without sounding whacky. Well, less whacky than usual. Then Rufus Opus posts this. It kind of comes from the opposite end of where I was going but it really hits the nail on the head.

More specifically, I was sitting contemplating the differences between the main thrust of classical western magic and folk magic systems like hoodoo. It occurred to me that western magic's preoccupation with language, symbol and sign-making (whether this be in the form of sigils, pentacles, barberous words, angelic languages or their equivalents), these all seem kinda like the aristocratic literary twin of the tangible sympathetic and very material processes of hoodoo.

And with that I mean to say, is, that the sympathetic gestures that are encoded in these sorts of hoodoo spells are a kind of manifest language. A kind of divine script that permeates the natural sympathetic signifiers found all around us and then seized upon and deployed in conjure. Sweet things, for instance, mean more than that yummy taste - in the magical context their potency extends far beyond the sensory experience of taste and on to the much vaster abstract symbolic value of sweetness itself. What it means when something is delightful, attractive, magnetic - or what it feels like when people get together in happiness. It's sweet.

That's all encoded in a cube of sugar just as it might be in the seal of Venus.

Yet the sugar is different - its language is direct, more primal. Sugar needs no translation. Sweetness is inscribed upon it wherever you go in the world, whoever tastes it. That essential quality, is what I am talking about. Those essential primal signifiers permeate all of creation, kind of like the fingerprints of God. These fingerprints are everywhere - in the stickiness of sticky things, the sharpness of pins, the sourness of lemons, the magnetism of lodestones - their meanings and values all fantastically capable of functioning with as much magical precision as any arcane cypher, any angelic script.

Rufus remarks: You take a symbol and do something symbolic with it, but you tell a story.

Exactly. These stories can be threaded together with the most common of objects; the winding up of thread; by cutting apart; sewing together; by setting aflame; burrying; nailing down or tying a knot. This vernacular of the ordinary when transposed to the magical context becomes the syntax of the Divine.

Considering what Rufus has to say about manifestation process through the spheres, it's not all that surprising that the magical materiality of this kind of sympathetic vernacular can be so effective when wielded skilfully. Perhaps the reason that happens is because these things are already manifest, and by employing them in spellwork we are able to pull on the very same threads woven by God throughout all of creation - that full canvas.

Oops, still came out kinda whacky.

God's Treehouse

2010-09-28T02:54:00.000-07:00

This is so much better than waving a bible and ranting at people through a megaphone. What an inspiring, deeply magical idea. God told Horace to build at treehouse and that if he obeyed he would never run out of materials.

The treehouse is currently 97-foot high with ten floors, and growing!

It really makes me feel so amazingly good to know that God is as eccentric as all this. As a long-time lover of treehouses, folk-art and crazed prophets I highly recommend reading the touching story about Horace's treehouse.

Also check out this flickr set of pics detailing the treehouse in all its arkish glory.

Frenemy Fix

2010-09-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

"Frenemy" (alternately spelled "frienemy") is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" which can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival.[1] The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953." - Wikipedia

We've all had them. Do they drive you crazy or what? Do they confuse you? Is it possible or advisable to fire them as friends? Should you try and do something to turn them into true friends? Should you hire a hit-man? What on earth do you do with a frenemy?

For various reasons one quite often has no choice but to live with a frenemy; whether they be a fixture in a larger circle of friends, a work colleague or a family association. Sometimes it's even an old school friend who over the decades has become ensconced in your life but for various undefinable reasons seems to harbour ill will. You can't put your finger on it but you know that they're just waiting to turn the knife in your back. That feeling might have been lingering for years already; the subtle sensation that they do the happy dance at home when you fall on your face; that unmistakable sense that when they call you to console you after your break-up, they are positively oozing satisfaction at the wreckage that is your romantic life. When you tell other friends about your concerns re the toxicity of said frenemy you find that somehow this makes you look mean-spirited, petty, hysterical even.

Ugh... the dark, dark taint of the frenemy. Surely there is no blacker arte?

Wrong! :)

The Frenemy Fix spell:

Before I describe it, it is worth mentioning that, magically speaking, frenemies do pose a genuine risk of jinxing your money, love and overall luck. Many folk-traditions maintain that jealous friends and family members have an especially strong ability to influence your well-being by means of what sometimes is called the evil-eye. So it's not all that surprising that a frenemy can feel like such a problem. The fact is when people harbour you ill-will whether they act on it or not, simply wishing it upon you can have an effect. Combine molochia with a little gossip, social manoeuvring and the kind of game-playing that the frenemy is so masterful at, you have a rather bitter cocktail that you are forced to sip every other Friday night out with the girls/guys.

Ingredients:
Frenemy Fix Oil
Purple jumbo size candle
A piece if devil's shoestrings
Powdered cloves
Two whole pepper corns
Spider's webs
Calamus root (powdered)
Liquorice root (powdered)
Red pepper
Gun powder
Powdered crab shell
Holy water
Molasses
Picture of the frenemy
Red thread
Glass jar with screw-top lid

Butt and reverse the candle. Carve eyes and mouth with a sharp knife near the new 'head' of the candle. If you like, you can take a magic marker and draw outlines for the eyes and mouth, to make it more realistic. Take a tiny pinch of gun powder, mix it with some crab-shell powder and a tiny pinch of red pepper and stuff that in the mouth. You can keep it there by dripping a little wax from a tea-light, to pack it in the mouth. This is to ensure that any gossip, innuendo and double-speak back-fires in the frenemy's face. Take two whole peppercorns and stick a peppercorn in the pupil of each eye. This is to cancel out the frenemy evil-eye effect.

Carve the frenemy name in mirror writing on the candle (you should be able to read it in the mirror). Next, baptise the candle with holy water that has a little sugar dissolved in it:

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I baptise thee N.

This baptizes the candle whilst keeping the frenemy, seemingly, sweet.

Dress the candle with Frenemy Fix oil, then dust it with the powdered Cloves, Calamus and Liquorice. This is to dominate and control the frenemy, so that you gain the upper hand, but will also to keep them nice. If your frenemy is particularly wily and you worry that they might suspect something you can sprinkle some poppy seeds on there to confuse them a little.

Find yourself a spider's web in the garden, basement or attic. Wrap that web around the candle and as you do so say:

"N. may you become tangled up by your own devices! May your scheming come to nothing! May your own words and games get you snared up like fly in a web"!

Take the photo and write the command TRIPPED UP & TIED DOWN over the pic nine times. Dress the pic with some Frenemy Fix oil in the quincunx pattern and then wrap that around the piece of Devil's Shoe Strings. Take some thread and wind that around the pic and root - and tell the root to hold the frenemy down and tie them up. Work it spiritually as you bind that up.

Put it in the jar and cover it with some molasses. That's to keep things, apparently, sweet between you and your frenemy but because the molasses is thick it will also slow down the frenemy. Place the candle inside the jar so the base is firmly set in the molasses, beside the Devil's Shoe String.

Pray over the whole thing. Call your frenemy out and tell them you see what they are doing and every one else will too and that they will have their tricks reversed back on to them. Light the candle. Sit there watching it burn and continue to work it spiritually until the wick burns down to the 'mouth' and that gunpowder ignites. As it does loudly call out your frenemy's name and tell them all their games and tricks will blow up in their face!

Leave the candle to burn down. When its done, cover the remains with molasses close the jar and put it in a dark closet.

Obligatory Safety Notice:

Please, do not blow yourself up with too much gunpowder! I mean it. TINY pinch.

Grimorium Beerum

2010-09-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

You can find almost anything in Amsterdam.

Hellishly good too.

Inscribing Prayers

2010-09-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

Sitting in my conjure room, inscribing a psalm on a pillar candle. A quiet prayer on my lips. Suddenly I feel small and overwhelmed by the movement of the spirits around me. I'm still a conjure baby, I realize.

Just a baby.

Old Style Conjure radio

2010-09-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

Well, let me tell you - if you want to hear some powerful and important messages you gotta listen to the esteemed Momma Starr and Dr. Love Bug's new blog talk radio show.

This is all about the ethics of conjure, and what it truly means to be a spiritual worker and about the inner attitudes that you need to cultivate if you want to be a decent good hearted worker. I have been blessed with the very good fortune of being able to take classes with Momma Starr and she tells it like it is. Marc is right once you talk to her, your ideas about a lot of stuff suddenly gets put into a whole new perspective! Some difficult stuff comes up but its very important stuff. Similarly, Dr. Love Bug has got an infectious fiery passion for the tradition second to none, and his spiritual skill is formidable. I have had the pleasure to chat quite a bit with him (we hail from the same region in South Africa) and he is sharp conjure doctor, to be sure. I can't wait to hear more from these two strong voices representing the essentials of the tradition at a time when conjure is reaching a global audience at such a rapid rate. Tune in and enjoy folks! Highly recommended.

The Venus Love-Tub Lamp

2010-09-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's kinda hard having a conjure blog. I constantly have to resist blabbing out personal tricks and techniques on this here blog thingy. Being at least a little secretive about what you do is an important part of the tradition, but sometimes the joy of blogging overcomes the need to keep tricks up my sleeve (like today). And after the discussion about lamp work on MyHoodooSpace yesterday I thought it seemed all the more relevant.

I devised this lamp for a love reconciliation case. What's more - it wasn't pure hoodoo. For some reason I got all *cough* eclectic and mixed up doll-babies; astrological timing; renaissance conjurations - along with an an afro-caribbean style lamp that employs hoodoo herbal symbolism.

I know, I am all 'traditional' this, 'traditional' that - and then when left alone in my conjure room for five minutes I turn into a magical hypocrite...

It just felt SO good :)

The work was wrought on the day and hour of Venus; sculpting two beeswax doll-babies filled with appropriate goodies and then baptised with holy water. My latest obsession is to write petitions on dried bay leaves.

Next I take three pieces of cotton bandage and I braid the wicking as I pray. I then pin the bay-petition to the wick with pink topped dressmakers pin. I thread the wicking through the tinfoil platform. The secret to creating a good lamp is the wicking; it needs to be thick enough to draw up enough oil and stay burning brightly but not so thick that it blazes too brightly and empties out the well every three hours.

I tie the doll-babies together so that they are embracing, whilst praying my petition, then I place them on a bed of controlling and compelling roots along with a generous portion of libido and love enhancing herbs. Like so...

I drench the doll-babies with syrup, I add vegetable oil, along with the appropriate condition oils, making sure to saturate the wick. Don't those doll-babies look like they are cuddling in a hoodoo hot-tub?

Finally, I draw the seal of Venus on the ground with blessed chalk along with sigils for the planetary spirit and intelligence of Venus. I place the lamp atop this - and intoning conjurations from the Heptameron I invoke the appropriate planetary agencies as I light the lamp, making sure to include my petition and an offering of appropriate Venus-attributed incense. I refill the lamp with oil every day in the hour of Venus repeating the conjurations, along with incense offering and petition as I do each time. I also add different herbs to the lamp as the job progresses - to sweeten, heat or otherwise manipulate the situation as the case may need.

Day 1: Client texts target. Target at first does not respond at all and then eventually responds with cold and disinterested attitude.

Day 5: Target's phone makes a 'phantom' call to client. Client sees missed call, excited, phones ex to hear what the call was about. Ex denies having called, something weird is going on with the phone. Client and ex both confused - they chat a little.

Day 14: Receives early AM message begging client to come out. Client in shock and disbelief - so much so that she turns down the invite! Rootworker wants to strangle client when he hears this.

Day 16: Ex contacts client at more sensible hour hoping to see client again. Client agrees. Much fun had, sexy time etc. Happiness all round.

They all lived happily ever after.

THE END

Nocturnal Weirdness

2010-09-08T00:58:00.000-07:00

My sleep time is prone to weirdness . For some reason if anything is going on spiritually with me then night time visitations or interlopers are prompt to follow turning our bedroom into an occult wonderland. My poor spouse has had all manner of things happen to him at night; grabbed by unseen hands, spoken to, growled at, and generally - just having the living daylights frightened out of him. The fact that he stays with me through all this shows a true and abiding love. I don't think I would stay with me.

Anyway, it is safe to say I have the bedroom battened down. The husband is also trained in a emergency night-time protection drill - which he does with remarkable efficiency for someone who has been has been accosted at 3am by unknown forces, and without blinking. Now, I don't want to keep everything out because for whatever reason my dreams and nocturnal interactions with Spirit are an important source of information and feedback - but on the other hand this makes for a crack through which unwanted intrusions can happen.

Nonetheless, last night we saw an entirely new spin on our usual nocturnal programming:

The hubby gets woken by yours truly standing next to the bed gently stroking his leg. He wakes to find me standing with someone unknown beside me. Alarmed, he asks what I am doing and who the stranger our bedroom is? We both walk out the door. And then...THEN...he notices, ah, but in fact I am still sleeping in the bed next to him.

I don't remember a thing.

He tells the story with a remarkably prosaic attitude - such that it makes me think he is just relieved he didn't get growled at, again.

In honour of spooky, yet somehow funny weirdness - I believe a song is in order:

UPDATE: I was just informed by my spouse that I got some details in this post wrong: apparently, said ghostly apparitions left by way of the window. (sorry pooks!)

The Sweet Success Jar

2010-09-07T01:10:00.000-07:00

So, you want a spell that will help your business to take off? You want loads of spending customers, goodwill and a steady flow of cash coming in, along with ever increasing profits? To this end I offer you the Sweet Success jar. And I am happy to say it works pretty darn well. May it bring you limitless abundance and sweet, sweet success!

What you will need:
A glass jar with metal screw-top lid
1 magnet - not a lodestone, but a strong magnet*.
Magnetic sand
Pay-me oil
All Things Under My feet oil
Dirt from a busy marketplace
Dirt from your business premises
A list of goals and ambitions for you business; your business plan along with your business name or logo.
Sugar syrup or honey (I prefer syrup)
Calamus root chips
Liquorice root chips
Sassafras root chips
Bay leaf
Cinnamon
Coin of every denomination
A brand new, crisp bank note of any denomination (higher is better).
Sugar
A hair from your crown
A Pay-Me vigil-light
Red thread

First cleanse your jar properly, wash it and wipe it out with a little Florida water. Then fill it one third of the way with sugar. Next wipe off the coins with a little Florida water and anoint each coin with Pay-Me oil - then drop them into the sugar. When the jar is done - looking through the syrup it kinda reminds me of sunken treasure on bottom of the seabed.

Next, write out your petition and cover and cross this with your name. Be thorough - word your petition carefully and with thoughtful consideration. Work this out before hand. Naturally you want to ask that your business be blessed with many customers, who spend generously, come back often and have good things to say. Also ask that obstacles and negativity be removed and cleared away from the path ahead. Place your petition on top of that crisp fresh new bank note - dab some Pay-Me and All Things oil on the corners of the bank note.

Now, baptise the magnet and name it after your business. To do this I sprinkle a little holy water over the magnet and making the sign of the cross, I say "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I baptise thee N." Then I blow a puff of cigar smoke over the magnet to feed its spirit and I also feed it some oil and a pinch of magnetic magnetic sand. Next, take the dirt from the market place and mix it with the dirt from the business. I sprinkle this onto the magnet praying that as the market place teemed with customers, so too will customers be drawn to the business. Then cover this with the roots and herbs, along with a few drops of Pay-Me oil - at this point I like to blow another puff of cigar smoke into my hands which I cup over the petition, magnet and herbs. I pray that the smoke awakens and feeds the roots and herbs - sending my petition to the spirits of the plants, feeding them and enlivening them.

Next, I fold the entire assembly into a packet by folding the bank note toward me - that way the bank note forms the outer layer. When the packet is folded I take the red thread and I begin winding it around the packet in a cruciform - I wind toward me praying with as much intensity as possible. When I have nice red cross holding it all together I tie it off. I place this in the jar along with the printed logo and business plan and I cover it all with syrup. Before I close the jar I add some Pay-Me oil in there.

Finally I dress fix and light the Pay-Me vigil on top of the jar. I work that vigil with daily prayer (Psalm 8 and Psalm 23), adding Pay-Me and All Things Under My Feet oil daily. When the vigil is done I burn tea lights daily atop it thereafter. Each day that I work it I take the jar and I shake it calling out the petition with confidence. You need to take care not to neglect your jar and work it often, or else all the power will get sucked out of it and it will go stale.

I usually create all my work under the aegis of a spirit - whether it be a saint, ancestor, one of the helpful dead or some other guide or spirit. You don't have to but that works well for me. You can work with only the Holy Trinity - and that is the traditional way- and you will have fantastic results, but being catholic and coming from spiritualist background I like working with a spirit or saint for each thing I do. It takes the work where I can't take it myself. I am not saying which spirit I worked with for my jar, that is my business - but there are many powerful spirits that might be suited to yours; San Martin the Caballero being a well-know all-round generosity inspiring saint. Alternatively you might do some research - chances are your line of work has patron saint that might be willing to lend a hand ;-)

*Stay tuned for my upcoming lodestones vs magnet power rant

Winning with Green Fast Luck

2010-09-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

Got this awesome bit of feedback about winning at gambling using my Green Fast Luck formula from a dear client of mine:

"I didn't expect to play today cos the table was full. I decided to play a little blackjack for fun and lost initially. I refrained from using the Green Fast Luck for gambling cos its unstable luck, waiting till I combine it with some Money Stay with Me oil. Didn't have a choice but to use it, and I ended up winning!

One of the guys commented. You're running hotter than the sun! That's a great start B. Can't wait to reap the full benefits when your good work is complete my genius conjurer :)"

I'm like totally jazzed! I would almost give the stuff away for free - just to hear this kind of story! Almost... ;)
Testimonials aside, this brings up an important distinction about Fast Luck formulas that I would like to clarify. Green Fast Luck is designed to bring lucky money, fast. However, these kinds of formulas give what can described as an unstable luck. When my client heard about that part it made her a little nervous, like it might backfire on her in some way. This is not the case, what is meant by 'unstable luck' is very simply that you will experience a sharp burst of short term luck rather than a lower intensity but sustained form of luck.

For instance, you use the oil in some money work and as you walk down the street and you find a hundred dollars lying on the pavement - wow lucky money! This is quite different to walking down the street and getting offered a job that pays hundred dollars an hour - which is unlikely with Green Fast Luck. Do you see the difference? The latter thing is a long term luck and the former is quick lucky flash - green fast luck.

Altars

2010-09-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

In the light of what Jason recently posted about his altar reconfigurations, and the general altar talk around the blogs - thought to share some altar pics.

My Boveda Espiritual. This has a very, very cool energy and is where I do my daily praying and interaction with all helpful the spirits in my tableau; ancestors, guides, saints etc. My favourite place in the house.

This is the home of Holy Mother Death.

St Cyprian of Antioch and St. Michael share the protection shelf which watches the door to the conjure room.

There are a couple more, but they have client work in progress on them and I don't really like it all that much when people look at that. I am having a space crises at the moment, I just don't have enough place for everything I do lately - major motivation to find a new house.

Another of Santa Muerte in a different outfit, she likes to wear different things for different occasions.

The birth of the Unmanifest Fact

2010-08-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

OK brace yourself, we are going for a little trip to into the strange land that is my personal mysticism...

For me, the key part of all magical success involves getting into the paradoxical place where I know the spell has worked, before it has. This is a rather peculiar emotional state because it requires knowing/feeling with certainty that something has happened when, apparently, it hasn't happened yet. Some call it faith, and that is one way of talking about it but what I don't like about the word 'faith' is that it implies the work is going to happen still - it rests all its hope on some future event. No, what I am talking about here should rather be described as an unmanifest fact. What exactly, I hear you ask, is an unmanifest fact? Well, very simply put - it is the unwavering knowledge inside, an indisputable fact - that states something has already happened but the outer stuff, you know what some folks call 'reality' is still, shall we say, catching up. And it catches up quickly too - sometimes so quickly that the gap is nearly unnoticeable.

Now, what's important about this is that once spawned an unmanifest fact invariably becomes a manifest fact. You see, they are both the same fact already - and the latter must necessarily proceed from the former just as the sun must rise in the east and set in the west. The question then becomes how to spawn an unmanifest fact in ones internal experience, which to say - the condition of knowing with absolute certainty something is true without having any evidence yet? What I am suggesting here is a kind of gravity defying mental/emotional contortion; a fabulously sparkly yet affordable form of non-dual awareness; a kind of inverse magical perception of reality; a radical point of view that sees things the way they are before they are the way they are.

A few important characteristics I've noticed about the Unmanifest Fact:

The unmanifest fact is outside of time - it knows no future, or present - it just is.
The unmanifest fact is real, perhaps more real than real stuff.
The unmanifest fact is a feeling, a knowledge, an internal experience but its also the result of that feeling/knowledge/experience.
The unmanifest fact is a fact just like all other facts except it appears to precede them. I say 'appears' here because something cannot precede something if it is that thing already, but we are using dualistic language here and I am doing my best to talk about something that annihilates all efforts to describe it.

One way of describing the mechanism for creating these kinds of facts would be to say that the most fertile ground for the spawning of an unmanifest fact is a state of consciousness that one could describe as the 'miracle-mind'. The miracle-mind is an infinitely available, fabulously wide open, mental-emotional continuum that entertains any possibility - even if only for a single moment. It's not an altered state of consciousness, however (although it can happen during those). I blogged about this idea once before and people thought I was being euphemistic at best or perhaps a little odd - even for a conjurer. Nonetheless, detractors aside - I was being quite serious. If you want a miracle to happen then you should be able to entertain the possibility of a miracle even if it's just for one second. And whilst this sounds either obvious or crazy (or both) I would like to offer that at any moment of miracle-mind, which is that that impossibly wide open space of anything-is-possible, an unmanifest fact can be born. And you know what I am going to say comes after those don't you?

That's right, true magic.

I know, I know - it sounds like I am teaching a kind of Neo-Advaitan New Thought seminar on acid.

Nonetheless. Perhaps you recognise what I am talking about, perhaps you think it's just some kind of pseudo magical babble I've made up - but in upcoming posts I will try to elaborate more on how this entirely paradoxical approach works for me.

Smart Magic

2010-08-25T01:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, I love hearing about smart magic, even better is hearing about smart magic that worked well because of one my products! What a buzz!

Gordon describes the technique along with the underlying principles that he used to get his partner hired on the spot. It's an excellent post - and besides the groovy plug, in his ever insightful way, Gordon manages to get me to think a little differently about magic. You should check it out. This isn't chaos magic anymore people it something much smarter. And it works.

The Lenormand Quickies: a reading

2010-08-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

So, I have been working my way through, like, a zillion Lenormand readings - OK, OK I exaggerate it's more like thirty-five... ;)

Anyway, I would like to thank the folks who sent in their questions; there were some very interesting questions and then some pretty heavy ones too! Sheesh, put pressure on a guy why don't you! So, with some of the heavier questions I couldn't in good conscience read using my practice Lenormand quickies alone so I have in some cases cast an extra free geomantic chart to confirm and elaborate on the cards - especially if the question seemed to be heavy or one that carried some special charge. So if I haven't got back to you yet it is because my 'quickies' sometimes turn out to be not so quick after I read and write up the cards and a chart. And in some cases I did extra geomantic readings just because they were so darn interesting I couldn't resist. My mother always says to me "Seuntjie jy weet hoe om a lat vir jou gat te pluk" - which translates as "boy, you sure know how to cut a switch for your own ass!" :)

I especially want to thank the querents who responded with feedback on the Lenormand quickies - the feedback is valuable and helps sharpen up my Lenormand mojo.

Anyway, as promised here is a Lenormand quickie reading for your interest and perusal...

It was for a querent whom we shall call W. - her question:

My boyfriend & I have been seeing each other for a bit longer than 2 years. We're both in our 40s and have had previous not so great marriages. Our relationship is wonderful. We have a lot of fun, delicious sex, enough common/different interests to keep things balanced. However, the dude just won't commit. Never mind that he doesn't really have time to see anyone else, he doesn't want to lose the possibility. So, my question is, should I continue with C. as stated above, or begin seeing other people?

lady+fox+sun+ring+clouds+ship+rider
tree+letter+gentleman+cross+anchor

Interpretation:

The poor man seems stressed out about his work - it weighs on him heavily and is impacting on his inclination to commit. I think he sees problems ahead with his career, or worries about it a lot.
The cards suggest that you were perhaps a little devious in the past and tried to conceal it by pretending everything is rosy - you might find he is aware of this and it made him a little cautious. The good news is this period of non-commitment looks temporary and it seems like it might well come to an end - probably after he resolves an important business matter that he has been working on, or feels his career is in a stable place he is satisfied with. It seems his past has influenced him in a such a way that expressing himself takes time, possibly he even communicated to you that it would take time - so he might think that you are willing to wait.

I would say yes that he will commit, you just have be a little patient, it seems he is preoccupied with his work and until he feels secure about that he might not be ready to take that leap.

W. responds:

Yep, that rings pretty true. He is starting a business, just sold his family home, is seeking funding for the business...I think some patience is in order.
I read my Tarot using court cards for C. & me, and the first major arcana for what action to take, and I got Death reversed...so that sounds like "just hang in there" too.
Thank you! It definitely makes things more clear.

More on the Lenormand technique used above:

One of the cool features of the system is that it works by using key cards and one of the ways a reading can be done, is by searching through the deck (keeping it in order) for the key cards related to a question, and then reading cards that precede or follow the key cards in the deck. So to clarify: you might ask the question, shuffle, and the go through the deck until you get to the key card appropriate for the topic and the draw out the cards, in sequence the precede and follow the key card. In this case above I use two key cards; the ring (for commitment) and the gentleman (for her boyfriend). These cards are then are all combined with each other and the key card to generate meanings. It's a kind of divinatory filtering system, that ensures you get to the information you want and is relevant to the topic, making sure that the spread is talking about what you need to know. I think that's pretty neat! What is interesting is that you will notice that the tone or 'energy' of the deck is rather worldly, or I suppose you could even say mundane - dealing with day to day events and symbolic language. A helpful thing when dealing with such things, if you ask me.

Geomancy, Fractals, Africa

2010-08-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

A reader tipped me off about this fantastic TED talk by Ron Eglash, entitled; African Fractals, buildings and braids (thanks George!). As a geomancer and someone involved in african and african descended traditions this talk excites me. If you are interested in geomancy, math, divination and the complex relationship these topics have with African spirituality, village building and even weaving (!) - this talk will be of interest.

Most interesting is that in fairly scientific terms Eglash manages to highlight the incredible legacy of geomancy - both in the spiritual and mathematical sense. Looked at in the light of the information presented here it gives one an inkling as to why it might be that the system is such a blisteringly accurate divination tool. What's more, as far as I can tell it represents a lasting and profound link between the European and African traditions - going way back.

The Traditional Folk Magic Festival

2010-08-16T04:19:00.000-07:00

How cool is this! The Traditional Folk Magic Festival, in New Orleans.
From the festival website's blurb:

Some of the highlights of this one-of-a-kind festival:

THE MANY STREAMS OF CONJURE: AN AMERICAN MAGICAL TREE OF KNOWLEDGE WORKSHOP with Orion Foxwood

LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING THE GREEN: The Language of Plants

VOODOO CEMETERY TOUR with Bloody Mary

TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES FOR SPIRITUAL MAINTENANCE with DARA ANZLOWAR

Knot Work: Weaving the Magic of Spirit with Rev. Mother SUSAN ASSELIN

Love Magic: Calling in the Love You Desire (New Love, Self Love, Enhancing Existing Relationships) with SUSAN DIAMOND

THE VOODOO/HOODOO DOLL MAKING WORKSHOP with BLOODY MARY Milan

The MAKE YOUR MONEY/GAMBLING LUCK MOJO! Workshop with Auntie SINDY TODO

Ancestral Guidance: Working with the Spirits of our Kin with Rev. Mother SUSAN ASSELIN

Candle Preparation and Healing with Archangel Michael and Eggs with Auntie Sindy Todo and Susan Diamond.

The Black Hawk Workshop - with Author and Traditional Root-worker STARR CASAS

MEETING THE DARK RIDER AT THE CROSSROADS with Author ORION FOXWOOD

Neo-Hoodoo and the dilution of the tradition

2010-08-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

With hoodoo's recent surge of popularity across a broad spectrum of the online occult audience some complex, perhaps thorny issues have been brought into the dialogue. A lot of traditional workers - people who grew up in the communities who passed on and evolved this tradition over many, many generations feel that there is a genuine risk of true conjure becoming lost, diluted or bastardised. The influence of new age concepts, wicca and other modern western systems - and even that of its fellow afro-diasporic traditions, such as santeria and vodou can have an unwelcome and destructive influence.

What's most confusing about this is that because of the of the way hoodoo evolved it's already comprised of a broad range of magical influences ranging from its roots in the kongo traditions, to European witchcraft and Native American herbal lore. People take that to mean that it's a free-for-all and that it can be mixed with anything from wicca to chaos magic. Most destructive is the fact that the people being drawn to this new glamourous sparkle that the tradition is receiving forget that it in fact is the heritage of a group of people. It isn't simply magical system - it's a folk tradition. Which means that it is deeply intertwined with a group of peoples cultural experience and identity. It isn't this free floating thing that can be claimed by whoever pleases because it already belongs to someone.

Whenever this argument gets put forth it's usually round about now that people start getting uncomfortable. A slippery sense of entitlement rears its head - one which will have you believe we are free to do as we please and take what we want from whomever we want, because we are special. We are spiritual. What harm can we do?

So I will offer an example of the damage that can be done by the New Age machine.

One word: Reiki.

Most people don't know this because I am worried it might damage by bad-ass image ;-) but I have been trained and attuned up the Master-teacher level of Usui Reiki. In fact I went through the whole cycle of training from Reiki I to Master level a total of three times. Each time with different teacher. Why three times? Because I was determined to find an authentic transmission of the original system created in Japan. You know what I discovered? You pretty much can't. The reiki healing system was raped and pillaged so many times by so many greedy self-entitled westerners that the original form, whatever it was, is basically gone. Now you have Crystal Rainbow Dolphin Reiki, and Fairy Pumpkin Kundalini Reiki and Lumerian Varja Monkey Reiki. I personally was considering starting my own school of reiki - called Michael Jackson Moonbeam Reiki after I got a tingly sensation in my palms while watching Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk on TV the other day, just after he passed over to the other side. I swear, I laid my hands on someone and they said they could kinda sorta hear the baseline of Thriller pulsing in their crown chakra.

I am being silly, I know.

I don't mean to bash reiki people, because I have spent a lot of time with them and they are a lovely bunch to be sure. Some of my dearest friends are reiki teachers and I have tremendous respect for them. And I am quite certain that Lumerian Vajra Monkey Reiki really does make people feel a lot better and happier - but what what grinds me is that the Usui system, even the forms which claim to be traditional are simply remnants of whatever Dr. Usui received during his enlightening experience on the mountain. Interestingly, the founder of Aikido received his system in a rather similar fashion (a flash of golden light coming down through his crown) and roughly at the same time as Usui - supposedly they even knew each other. Now, compare Reiki today with Aikido.

Anyone for some Fairy Dolphin Kundalini Rainbow Aikido? Why not? I bet Aikido could be vastly improved by crystals and new age music, personally.

I am being silly again, I am sorry.

But my silliness aims to illustrate how destructive and demeaning sloppy New Age appropriation along with greedy self-entitlement can be. Just because you think it's spiritual and makes you feel good doesn't mean its right. Reiki got eaten up alive by the New Age monster and spat out as a pale spectre of its original form. Word is there is a clutch of original Usui Reiki practitioners somewhere in Japan, in hiding. I really don't blame them, honestly I don't.

Getting back to hoodoo for a moment - we find there is this problem that comes with being an outsider participant to any living tradition that you weren't born into, which is that you are inevitably going to bring your own world view and existing beliefs and practices to it. It cannot be helped. It's a human response to learning - you want to synthesise, blend and find commonalities that overlap so you can integrate what you know already. You are trying to make sense of it all, and this is sane and natural. The goal then should be to study the tradition in its purist form, with greatest respect that you can. To work with it as it stands before you begin chopping and changing the parts which don't fit your cosy expectations or the blinkered ideas you are bringing to the table. In all likelihood you are actually changing the parts that you need most of all, and in fact the part that makes it, you know, work. Before you know it what you have left is this watered down grey goo (or worse, fairy rainbow goo) which you will eventually abandon for next months new magical flavour because surprise, surprise it doesn't actually deliver anymore.

In the hoodoosphere this week

2010-08-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

There is so much hoodoo goodness on the interwebs right now I decided to do a little round-up of all the stuff you shouldn't be missing out on :

Firstly, I have been so wrapped up with rootwork clients and readings I cannot believe that I totally missed the advent of the 5 Star Spells radio show! If you like the Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork hour then you will love this! It boasts a fabulous panel of speakers including my all-time favourite conjure worker, Miss Dara Anzlowar. From the blogtalkradio blurb:
Experienced Spellwork Professionals Dara Anzlowar, Susan Diamond, Orion Foxwood, Sindy Todo and Rev. Mother Susan talk about the many types and flavors of magic including hoodoo, conjure, rootwork and witchcraft.

Next, Dr. E shares an extremely potent working for taking a spirit off of someone, and folks, this is solid gold stuff. Seriously, this could be my all time favourite post from Dr.E.

Then, my online friend and fellow Lucky Mojo grad Dr. Raven has entered the blogosphere. Check out his blog - he is a sharp guy and has some good tricks and tips up there already.

Finally, after a brief hiatus due to internet connectivity issues my friend and colleague Devi, over at Queen of Pentacles Conjure, gets back to it with a whopper of a post outlining setting up your magical apothecary at home. Excellent stuff.

Angels Charge Over Thee

2010-08-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

I recently was inspired to create a condition oil formula that embodied the feeling and power of psalm 91, my favourite psalm of protection.

Angels Charge Over Thee oil:
Calamus root
Frankincense resin
Myrrh resin
Angelica root chips
Peppermint EO
Eucalyptus EO
Ginger EO
Rosemary EO
A Secret ingredient
Psalm 91 printed tiny and rolled around a sprig of rosemary, placed inside the bottle.
Olive oil base

First, I take the roots and resins and macerate them till fine in the olive oil base. I then place this mixture in a jar and I leave it for a week or more, shaking it all up daily with prayer. The oil is ready when it turns a yummy golden colour from the myrrh resin - then it is poured through a muslin cloth and squeezed to get the oil out of the pulp. It smells spicy and golden - with the sweet myrrh odour subtle but unmistakable.

To this oil added then are the essential oils balancing them very carefully and only putting one or two drops or ginger or it will overwhelm everything. Next I print psalm 91 in tiny letters and roll this around a sprig of rosemary whilst reciting psalm itself with energy and conviction.

Psalm 91
¹He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
²I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
³Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
⁴He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
⁵Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
⁶Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
⁷A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
⁸Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
⁹Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
¹⁰There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
¹¹For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
¹²They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
¹³Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
¹⁴Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
¹⁵He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
¹⁶With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

I place this then in the bottle with the oil. I also put some of the roots and resins in the bottle, because, well, I think it looks pretty :)

Next, I hold the bottle in my hands and pray the psalm over and over (I like the number 7 for this) until my hands begin heating up as the Spirit passes into the bottle - awakening the power of the roots and oils. I then place the bottle on top of my bible, on my altar and come to it daily in the morning to pray over it.

The rosemary is significant here because not only is it a protective herb in its own right, but biblical scholars argue that the plant that is referred to as 'hyssop' in the bible might in fact actually be rosemary. As you might notice the starting point for this blend is the biblical high altar oil of the old testament, to which then ingredients are added that bring forth angelic, cleansing and protective qualities. Additionally it employs the use of rolled up scriptures and the dissolution of prayers in fluid as sometimes is found in Christian, Jewish and even ancient Egyptian magic.

Pride

2010-08-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

It's pride weekend here in Amsterdam which means the city fills up with revellers and the entire place turns into a party. The waterways get filled with brightly coloured boats, there is music everywhere and the city teems with happy people having a good time. It's a really good feeling. Already there is festive buzz humming in the air.

I don't think I ever mentioned this on the blog but - I am gay.

My husband and I are planning on wandering around the city soaking up the sun (please let there be sun), music and DANCING. I love dancing :)

A quick cruisy hoodoo tip for my queer readers (and the ladies):

A cotton wad with a few drops Fast-luck + Essence of Bend Over in the back pocket of your designer denims, along with a prayer - will have the boys buying you drinks all night long, girl. If you see a boy you want - slip your hand into your back pocket, squeeze the wad of cotton so you get a tiny bit of oil on your hands and then when you talk to him put your hand on his shoulder, arm, or back with some intention - along with a sexy smile of course. Then, hold onto your hat.

Not that I would know, mind you. I am married ;)

Quote of the Day:

2010-08-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

"sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
- Vodouisant on the Old Style Conjure Network

Very witty dude!
*applause*

Update: Argent informs, that this clever twist on the famous Arthur C. Clark comment - is in fact attributable to Larry Niven. Quote Nazism aside, it's still a good one!

Lenormand Freebie Readings: Update

2010-08-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the great response for those freebie practice Lenormand readings! I am closing down the offer as of this post, since I have more than enough to practice with for some time. Some really interesting questions were received and I will start doing the readings and sending them to the participants when they are done, and posting a few of the interesting readings to the blog for you all to check out.

Thanks again,
St.B

UPDATE to the update:
I just noticed Gordon posted about the freebie on Rune Soup - so to be a good sport, I will accept freebie reading submissions till August 2nd, then the offer closes up for real. Boy oh boy - I think I'll be wearing out my deck at this rate! ;)

The Lenormand Oracle: thoughts and a freebie

2010-07-31T03:08:00.000-07:00

After an inspiring conversation with a spiritual worker called Mister M, I recently started studying the Lenormand more deeply. Being a stickler for tradition I decided to sign up for the Treppner course (which Mister M recommended), and it seems it is the most traditional presentation of the Lenormand in the English language (the lenormand has a fairly structured traditional system). This was the first deck of cards that I ever read with simply because these cards were what my mother and grandmother used to read with and I had access to them living at home. When I left home I couldn't take my mother's cards with me so I moved on to tarot, which at that time seemed more occult and serious to me. I also could not track down another Lenormand deck at the sole occult book shop in the Transvaal (pre internet days), so tarot it was for me.

My mother's style of reading them was very intuitive, she would lay them down and just start talking about stuff - sometimes it was unclear how it all related to the cards, and I suspected that she just needed an excuse like cards in front of her to talk. I like structure in any divination system, and found the more structure there is the better. But she never approached the Lenormand in that way.

The Lenormand does not disappoint in that regard, however. The traditional system is exceedingly structured in its own way, with very clear processes and tools for reading the grand spread, combining cards and drawing meaning and narrative from a spread. Cards form constellations, and when read in their entirety create unique meanings based on the card composition of each constellation. Cards are also combined in traditional ways in the grand spread. Much of this you just need to memorise and learn by rote. I like that because out of that structured reading format great accuracy arises and on a macro level truly complex narratives and intuitive insights begin forming. Geomancy or Horary astrology works well for the same reasons, I believe. Whilst the tarot can get pretty deep space with subtle mythic and spiritual layers the Lenormand is a lot more mundane in its scope - if you want to know whether you got the job, he will call you back or if someone will swindle you in a business relationship then this little oracle speaks very plainly to those sorts of things and that is what makes it so great.

It has been really nostalgic flipping through these little blue-backed cards this last while - taking me back to time when I was but a wee occult lad in the 80's!

So... I am practising as much as I can with the deck right now, using the Treppner method, but I won't be practising on paying clients (naturally)! For them I reserve the tools that I feel I am suitably skilled at already.

Freebie Lenormand Readings:

So, feel free to send me a question if you feel like it and I will do a short free reading for you. I will do so with the grand spread, a nine card draw spread or any other of the traditional methods that I am busy practising, or feel is appropriate. I will be reading using the Blue Owl Lenormand, or the Mystical Lenormand based on my fancy.

Conditions:

If it seems interesting I might post the reading on the blog, along with the spread and question. So if your question is intensely private then it probably won't be a good idea to ask it.
The reading is a practice oriented freebie for fun and entertainment, not an intense full reading or consultation. If you need more serious divination, you know where to go.
I will get to it when I get to it. Please don't hassle or nag me if I don't respond immediately with a free reading.

Other than that fire away! :) Send your question to me in an e-mail. Remember when phrasing a query for a reading - clear questions always get clear answers. Names will be changed to protect the innocent ;)

UPDATE:
The freebie offer is closed. No more questions please folks!

Secrets of the Playing Card

2010-07-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

An interesting and entertaining documentary related to cartomancy, that I thought y'all might like...

Evangelism: Ordeal rite or Annoyance?

2010-07-28T01:57:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have been talking about evangelism this last while - it started with a fairly harmless post by Jason and then it kinda took off from there. Gordon makes an interesting observation too. I got thinking about how I feel about being evangelised at - be it by reborn Christians, Scientologists, Hare Krishnas or any other people who feel they might have some good news they want to blast at me. Something struck me about the evangelising of these people - and it is something that both endears their efforts and annoys the crap out of me.

The more fanatical forms of evangelising are rarely about the soul of the person that the efforts are directed at. The focus, really, is on the one who is doing the evangelising.

And with that remark I mean to say - that people who go and stand on street corners with a megaphone and bible are not there because they care about the souls of the passers-by, or because they think they will catch any that way. No, this kind of evangelism is much closer to a kind of subversive act directed against what they perceived to be a corrupt hegemony. It is part protest, part performative devotion. They know they are pissing off people and making fools of themselves and that is the whole point. It is the very ordeal and the shaming in the eyes of the hegemony that becomes the quintessential expression of faith and commitment to their conception of the divine. It could quite plausibly be compared to a mystical ordeal rite of some sort. And for that I respect these people. They are really going out on a limb and scrambling their own social conditioning, and in that scrambling I think they are trying to find illumination and transcendence. I find that admirable, I really do.

What then irritates me is that this is all about them. And while they are screaming about my soul and damnation and whatnot they don't care all that much about my soul - it is their soul that is seeking salvation through what they believe is this act of radical, if irritating, devotion. And this is all happening at another's expense in some sense. People at the receiving end of this are props in their self-orchestrated psycho-spiritual drama.

Naturally this is talking about the more radical and annoying forms of evangelising and not the more subtle forms that we all engage in with our own blogs, words and actions on a daily basis.

Cleanse early, cleanse often

2010-07-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

I was going through a patch of bad luck this week. It started rather mildly with an odd feeling that something was a little off, but then it soon developed as I lost a transport card loaded with quite a bit of money, next I ended up late for an appointment because some clocks were mysteriously set back an hour, along with a series of rather annoying accidents and inconveniences which accrued over two days, giving me the distinct impression that something was working against me. Finally, when my irritable mood indicated that I could ignore it no longer I sat down for a reading to investigate what was wrong. Experience has shown me that these small streaks of bad luck can precede something a lot worse, as a kind of early warning - and if you ignore the small indicators then that bigger nasty thing catches up with you. If you work a lot with spirits; in graveyards or with graveyard dirt; or are casting spells of some sort then you are open to picking up stuff - either while you are doing the magical work, or from the people and places in your life. Worse, someone might actually be throwing for you or you may have inadvertently offended a spirit that you worked with.

Anyway, I was glad when the reading revealed nobody was burning candles on my name, nor were any spirits pissed at me. It turns out I had picked something up in a bar where I met a friend for a drink, some of the spiritual grime that collects in those sorts of places. I remember walking out of there relieved to be out of murky and oppressive atmosphere, but it seems the murky, oppressive atmosphere followed me out! I set a light on my Santa Muerte altar and resolved to get up first thing before dawn to get the gunk off under her aegis (she is an exceedingly powerful saint to call on for spiritual cleansing). Shortly thereafter I retired for the evening and later that night had a vivid dream of her standing over me dressed in grey looking down - her steady gaze becoming a cool, very sweet wave slowly sweeping through my body. I woke up feeling incredible - squeaky clean. It appears La Muerte decided to do an impromptu cleansing on me during my sleep!

After this, it occurred to me to post about the importance of cleansing, and the importance of regular cleansing habit. Especially for magical practitioners who work with spiritual entities or read for others - regular cleansing is as important as brushing your teeth everyday. People sometimes have the impression that you should only cleanse when there is a problem but in fact you can and should do many small, quick cleansings as frequently as is practical. Had I done a two minute 'quickie' after leaving that bar with the icky feeling it might not have escalated to full blown streak of bad luck. A little bit of spiritual gunk soon begins attracting more gunk and then soon enough spirits that resonate with that vibration will begin taking their chances with you too. Now, I don't want to encourage OCD thinking with anxieties about pervasive spiritual contaminants lurking around every corner - so if you suffer from mental illness please skip this post. However, like with any other type of infection a bit of caution and some healthy personal hygiene, be it spiritual or physical, can serve to be an effective preventative.

You might be asking what 'quickie' cleansings I recommend? Here are a couple:

My favourite simple and pleasant quickie cleanse is to splash some florida water on my hands and then sweep my hands over my limbs brushing the mess away. You can do each arm, over your head, down the front and back of your torso and down your legs - very briskly and with conviction. Remember to firmly brush the mess away from you. Some people clap behind each leg and the back to finish it off. You can do this before and after reading, spiritual work or whenever you feel it is called for.
Take some small change rub it all over your body and throw it in the street, or crossroads. People will pick it up and the mess gets dispersed.
The Lords Prayer and light. Recite Our Father and let light stream into your crown and down out of your feet. It takes about a minute and does the trick when you have nothing else at hand. Alternatively, praying a rosary along with light does an amazing clearing out job - albeit taking a bit longer.
A white egg rolled over your body very effectively absorbs spiritual grime. You can do an egg cleansing for yourself in about five or ten minutes with a bit of practice - and it works brilliantly. The egg should be disposed of by throwing it in a crossroads, or in a pinch I break and flush the egg down the toilet.

These quicker cleansing techniques should ideally be supplemented with a full regular spiritual bath. I try to fit in at least one spiritual bath a week just to stay on top of things. Here is the recipe that is currently my personal favourite:

Three Ingredient Cleansing Bath:

Half a cup of Holy Water (proper Holy Water from a Church)

Tablespoon of Ammonia

Half a Cup of Salt

Add this to a jug of hot water (unless you want a cold shock). I like to take a tea-light, dress it with some uncrossing condition oil, light it and float it on the surface with a prayer (usually Our Father). I leave it to cool for a while and when it's the right temperature for bathing, I take the tea-light and put it on my boveda; and then I take the spiritual bath pouring the solution over me praying that all negative influences be removed washing down and away as I do. This usually leaves me feeling radiant and psychically minty fresh! :)

This sort of regime can work wonders because we all have a core of well-being and luck that is intrinsic. That is my belief. When we are returned to our natural clear state things just flow better, coincidences are in our favour, we meet the right people and learn the right things. A good cleansing routine is central to staying in that healthy place and makes it possible for all the good things life and the universe has to offer us to be magnetised to us. It ensures our spirits and guides come through clearly and strongly. It ensures that our spell-work's results don't get warped unintentionally. It helps clear the connection points to your personal destiny and good fortune - ensuring that the earth is always solid beneath you and your feet are walking in the right direction.

The Gnostic Conjure Shop

2010-07-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I have been a little quiet this last while. That's because I have been busily finishing up my new online shop. I now offer my services online; altar work, custom mojo bags, custom rootwork, speciality oils, readings and advice.

For my readers I have a special opening offer which is available till the end of July: buy any two readings or altar workings and get a third of the same value as either purchased item - for free!

http://www.conjure.nl/

The Genie Syndrome

2010-07-04T02:42:00.000-07:00

When we approach spirit work in its varied forms we do so from the valid position of wanting practical favours and constructive influence in our lives from the spirits. Certainly when working with spirits, magically, we are coming to the work with this as our primary aim. What sometimes gets missed however is that a spirit doesn't have to give you what you want every time. As in any other relationship there are times when you can count on a person and times when you can't. Nobody will do as we please every time we ask. Sometimes they will say no. Sometimes they might misunderstand us and do something else entirely. Sometimes they don't have time or they don't agree with what we want. Perhaps they are annoyed with us regarding an infraction of some sort - or perhaps we are only nice to them when we need a favour.

In an effort to simplify things with the spirit world during practical magical work, spirit relationships are often treated like working relationships. We might ask for something but we pay the spirit in return for doing that favour. This keeps things as equitable and fair in the spiritual world as it does in the physical. Similarly, there are working relationships that are based on mutual respect and admiration, and there are working relationships in which a task is performed strictly as a duty, or for reward. Both are 'professional' relationships of a sort but the former often is more pleasant and productive and the latter more coldly economic. Naturally, we want to cultivate the former style as it will be most rewarding and sustainable.

The biggest challenge in doing so is avoiding what one might call the Genie Syndrome. When caught up in the Genie Syndrome our understanding of the spirits is as two dimensional as the chromolitho print or sigil that depicts them. They become wish granting machines that we 'use' instead of petition. If you watch the language you slip into when discussing your spirit workings you might be surprised that you yourself slip into Genie Syndrome talk. They have no personalities, or even any input to offer from the perspective of the person caught up in the Genie Syndrome - what they are to us is defined, very simply, by what they can get for us. "X spirit is great for money magic" you might say, further flattening out any subtlety or identity from these living non-corporeal beings.

Treating spirits like Genies naturally then leads to Genie-like behaviour from them. When they are robbed of voices and reduced to the role of spiritual prostitutes, they begin teaching the way the Genie teaches in the stories - by tricking the owner of the lamp, by imbedding lessons in outcomes of wishes that were never what he wanted but exactly what he asked for. They teach by trial. Eventually the owner of the lamp grows up - and either gets rid of the lamp claiming it is cursed and should be buried deep under the desert sands, in a vault, or frees the Genie making a friend that might not grant his wishes all the time but no longer intentionally torments him to teach him.

At the heart of Genie Syndrome lays the implicit suggestion that the Genie does not really exist as a separate living thing at all. 'It' is just a means to an end, a tool, a device to be used at the whim of the mighty magician. And imbedded beneath this conceit lays the inflated importance of the role it is imagined the magician has in the world of the spirits - a role which somewhat mistakenly conceives of the magician being at the top of the hierarchy blasting out commands, instead of something akin to a small squirrel running headlong into eight lanes of oncoming traffic.

Free the Genie - you need all the friends that you can get.