Sunday, June 22, 2014

Financial Sorcery With an Advanced Planetary Twist

I recently built a working altar/table of practice based around a couple of books I've found both helpful and intriguing. I've been reading up on Jason Miller's Financial Sorcery and Advanced Planetary Magick and found a way I'd like to blend the two systems together.

Financial Sorcery is Jason Miller's work with the planet Jupiter and how to take control of one's finances, filled with both magic work and plenty of mundane steps to help one succeed. In this book Jason offers up multiple sigils or glyphs with practical purposes such as drawing money, holding onto money, help with legal troubles concerning one's finances or business as well as entrepreneurial growth and marketing one's business. Advanced Planetary Magick is Jason's approach to not only working with Jupiter but the other celestial spheres as well. He includes 49 calls or short invocations or prayers to be recited using the Greek vowels as seeds for the work in the book.

I found these quite intriguing as I own my own small business that I've recently started and wanted to see if I could add a little extra growth to my own business using Jason's book. I generally make about $200 a month on this small business which is fine as I'm just getting started and have almost zero overhead but wanted to see if I could possibly double or at least give a significant increase to the income I draw in from it.

I had the idea to combine these two works together and see what happens. I took the sigils or glyphs of Jupiter from Financial Sorcery and placed them around the outer edge of the altar. I then placed the sigil of Jupiter from Advanced Planetary Magick in the center of the altar.

The idea behind the altar is to use the Calls of Jupiter in conjunction with the different sigils placed around the altar. For example to help find a job I would place a petition with a dressed candle over the Get a Job sigil from Financial Sorcery and use the Corresponding calls in this instance Mercury of Jupiter for better communication, and Venus of Jupiter to win favor over the competition. An offering of incense and alcohol would be placed upon the central sigil of Jupiter to help sweeten ol' Jove up to the idea of lending his assistance to me.

I plan to use a bit of hoodoo tech with this altar as well, using the specialized oils and incense to help push the intention of the work. Want to market your business? A little "Look Me Over" incense and oil on the candle and petition. The IRS breathing down your neck? "Law Keep Away" certainly can't hurt. Of curse products like "Money Drawing" or "Prosperity" will be constant themes to the work as well...it IS a money altar.

I have noticed an increase in my business since simply building the altar and dedicating a space for the workings. Immediately following me setting the altar up and saying a short prayer to Jupiter before I could even leave the room I received a notification from my best buddies at PayPal letting me know I'd made a sale. Of course this COULD have been a coincidence but I honestly felt a playful wink from Jupiter, letting me know that if I make time for him he'll do the same. That wink has become a batting of the eyes as since the construction of the altar I've had a boom of business and in two days made what I usually do in two weeks.

I had planned to do work on this altar both for myself and my business as well as others. When we put an idea out to the universe it often answers, this time it was to answer the call of working for others. My fiance was recently let go from her job due to corporate gree...I mean downsizing so I will be putting this altar to work to help her find work as well as create stable growth for my small business as well as protection for my own day job.

I'll be sure to keep this work updated to provide both a progress report for my own work as well as the work I do on the behalf of others.

My completed altar




Of course if I've learned nothing else from Financial Sorcery it was to not rely on spirit to take care of my problems but to put in the mundane work as well. I've been much more active in the marketing of my business, both online and off. I've been working all the overtime I can get and taking the advice in the book about taking taking control of one's finances and putting yourself in a position of power over your lifestyle and spending habits.

That being said, of course I'll give everyone links to my store and Facebook Page:

My Store
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheWanderingFool/

My Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/TheWanderingFoolSS

Hail Jupiter! and of course thanks to Inominandum

Until next time...

Monday, May 26, 2014

A Layered Protection Candle Spell

Here is a spell I came up with and have used before when in need of protection from enemies as well as when doing negative work myself.
What you'll need:
White candle
Blessing powders and oil
Protection powders and oil
High John root chips
Master of the Woods
Sage
Basil
Crushed red pepper
4 whole bay leaves
Ink pen or marker

Take a white candle and inscribe your name on it as well as "protection" and "blessings". Dress this candle in a mix of blessing and protection oil. Set the dressed candle on a plate or saucer. Make a ring around the candle holder with a blend of blessing and protection powder, sprinkle some High John chips for strength and mastery over the situation as well as some Master of the Woods to break down obstacles and hardships you face. Next make a ring around the powders using sage to purify, then basil for protection and to attract positive influences and finally a thick wide ring of crushed red pepper to repel and burn whomever attempts to attack. You'll end up with concentric rings getting smaller and smaller until you reach the candle. Take the 4 bay leaves and write the name of each archangels, one on each leaf. Place these in the cardinal directions on the plate or saucer and ask that the archangels surround you and shield you and protect you with their might and strength. Read Psalms 23 and 91 three times each as you burn the candle and ask that the flame of the candle be a guide to help you past the snares of your enemies.

Your end result should look something like this.

The Magician

I've recently taken it upon myself to add more stuff to do in my life by writing a book. A book about tarot, to which there are endless examples of. To add increased pressure and stress my book will not be a treatise or essay like those penned by Crowley or Barlow ( a feat in itself ) but instead will be yet another book which accompanies a deck.  My vision of this book and deck which will hopefully set it apart from the plethora of already existing deck/book combos is that I hope to craft a book which provides practical and realistic views of the cards that a novice can pick up and begin reading quickly rather than feeling lost at the prospect of learning astrological and Kabbalistic associations to the cards.

I thought I'd share a little as a particular card speaks to many magicians on several different levels. The Magician card.


“The Magician is the first transformation The Fool undergoes along his journey through the Arcana. The Magician is representative of the will, the ability to create that which he desires as well as using the tools available to do so. Everyone is the magician even if they do not practice the occult arts or realize their power. Every person manifests their desires some more astutely than others. The magician has the power of the elements and their alchemical attributes at their disposal.  Be it with the Wands of the Will and desire, The Cups of emotion and spiritual connection, The Swords of intellect and analysis or the Pentacles or Disks which represent the material assets the Magician puts to use to attain his desires or the Spirits he calls upon on his and others behalf.

The Magician must know himself and both his strengths and weaknesses to put these powers into productive use in his life in a balanced and strategic way. He must know his motivations and understand where they come from. When applied correctly the Magician and the Will he represents is reminded of the magic he witnessed when he was The Fool and the world through his eyes was full of amazement and wonder. He may literally watch his desires and wishes unfold before him.

When the forces the Magician commands are applied incorrectly the Magician encounters disappointment and it is up to him to look deep within himself as to where the problem lies or he may place his growth in peril by becoming jaded, and cynical. It is all too easy for the Magician to allow his ego to get the better of him, especially once he sees the apparent ease of which he may manifest his desires and see the results of the influences he pushes into effect. The Magician must stay ever mindful of his own weaknesses and tendencies or else his manifestations will not be to his liking but will still be the result of his own doing and his devil-may-care approach to his situation.”

 

The fact is that every person is a magician to an extent, be it the CEO of a major corporation living in a lofty penthouse or a guy living in an RV, be it a Ceremonial Magician vibrating names of power in a marble floored temple or a Shaman getting lost in the poly-rhythms of the drums he dances to in a meadow. We are all responsible for the manifestations around us, that is not to say that we are all meant to be rich and famous and mind blowingly successful. What it does mean is that we are all capable of making our lives as enjoyable as possible and that in itself can be a terrifying prospect, especially in an age when victim hood and reliance on elected officials has robbed the majority of any sense of self empowerment. It's far easier to look at others as the cause of why one is the position they find themselves rather than looking inward to see where their own choices have brought them.
As magicians we owe it to ourselves to step back from time to time and both put things in perspective and reevaluate our priorities, look at what we are doing and it's effect as well as reflect on the changes made in ourselves since embarking on a goal.
We all face hardships and pitfalls in our lives, to be the Magician rather than the Fool means to examine these hardships and understand how to apply them in a constructive way that allows growth and better prepares us for the next manifestation of our journey.
 
 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

When Darkness Blinks....

I wanted to relate something that happened while working through the Darkness Meditations from E.A. Koetting's Works of Darkness last year. The reason I'm bringing this up will be apparent soon so just indulge me....or just scroll down.

While immersing myself in this exercise I came across an entity, a shadowy figure who's face would change and distort. This entity became known as "Nox" from speaking with a another magician who had similar encounters during the meditations. I was shown and told some things from this entity that at the time I would have no way of knowing but later became apparent that the entity was both genuine and the knowledge it shared was legitimate. It wasn't until I began the Black Sun exercise found in Julius Evola's Yoga of Power and recommended by Koetting that the truth of this spirits teachings hit home.

While doing the Black Sun I was confronted with my own personal demons and issues, I saw through many fallacies and preconceived notions I had clung so dearly to. I was on the verge of a breakdown while going through this period of intense clarity coupled with just as intense disillusionment of everything I held dear. I was so disenfranchised I could barely listen to another person speak as words had lost all meaning and I was going through varying degrees of ego death.

At this low point I decided to push myself further into the darkness as I felt I had nothing to lose as everything was illusion. I made contact with Nox and was told some things about the nature of darkness and how it can imprison just as easily as it liberates one. While in a deep meditative state in a type of waking lucid dream I confronted this entity and this is just some of what he shared and is most pertinent to the topic.

"The path of darkness draws the weak but is not intended for them, they seek the darkness to hide their weakness, one needs strength to walk this path or else they will get lost in the darkness." What became clear to me from working with this spirit was that the more one tried to deny or repress something the more it was pushed outward and became their reality, the darkness was about accepting ones self, all the good and all the bad. If you could not be honest with yourself and face the things you resented and feared and lusted after, the things you secretly love or hate the darkness would push them at you harder almost a case of kill or cure.

I came to a great sense of clarity and understanding after all this was said and done and felt I had passed or overcome a great milestone in my own development. Great right? Yeah I thought so too. The tricky thing is that just because you learn a lesson and pass the tests issued doesn't mean we can just push these things to the side and move on to our next goal or phase of our personal development. We have to keep these lessons learned as a constant reminder so that we do not revert, we may be moving ahead in other areas but if we forget to apply lessons previously learned we're not only cheating ourselves but denying our own responsibility to our own development and evolution.

The point of all this? I promise I have one...I had forgot these lessons myself, I let my self revert and fall back into old habits and while I hadn't forgot just how hard those lessons learned were and how difficult the journey to understand them was I forgot to embrace them and make them a continuous part of my development.

I found myself back in a position of being reactionary to my environment and situations that I had found myself in and to a large extent had created for myself through my own denial and repression. I had become petty, weak willed and possessive and insecure. Not qualities a mage of any degree would care to list on their priority list. Getting the wake up call was a hard one indeed and no snooze button was in sight. I had to face those hard truths once again and come to grips that all of this was my fault and no one else. While I was far better equipped to handle it this time the lesson was no less painful and lacked that sense of accomplishment that I previously felt. I knew what I needed to know, I just forgot to make it a priority and use those lessons to help me along my path.

So in closing just remember that just because we walk away from an experience better armed and more knowledgeable doesn't mean that we can't forget to apply these lessons and fall back into old habits.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Keeping Unwanted People At Bay

I wanted to share something practical with everyone, the kind of spell that most who aren't too uncomfortable with some aggressive work may appreciate. I call this spell The 8 of Swords due to it's resemblance to the Rider Waite Tarot card of the same name. This spell is designed to repel one from your life who is causing trouble, it's a variation of a mirror box and designed for those who can't get to a graveyard to dispose of the materials or bury the box there.



What you'll need
8 Black Candles
4 Mirror Tiles
1 Doll/Poppet
Whiskey
Vandal Root
Goofer Dust
Destruction or DUME Oil
Grave Dirt (Properly purchased according to what tradition you follow)
Materials for a name paper
Photograph of Target

The first thing we'll need to do is create a petition paper, this can be done separately or on the back of a photograph. Since there is no way in the world I'll show you the real target behind this spell I offer this artistic rendering.
Look at this guy!!! Completely unapologetic...let's get him.

On the back of our photo we have our petition paper or one can be made separately. Write the targets name 3 times and then cross it 3 times with your own name as a sign of you controlling the target. Then WITHOUT lifting your pen/pencil write in an unbroken chain a statement of intent, keep it simple and to the point. Something along the lines of "stay away'',"leave me alone" etc.

An example of a petition paper

Once the petition paper is created we'll add some nastiness to it to help encourage our troublesome friend to rethink his life decisions. I added Vandal root to repel enemies and their evil doing and Goofer dust to sicken and harm my enemy should their meddling continue. Add a small amount of each to the name paper and fold it away from you, turn it 1/4 turn counter clockwise and repeat 3 more times and set it to the side.

Next we'll create our doll or in this case baptize and existing effigy to represent out target. I used a key chain size artist doll, I baptized the doll in the name of my enemy and after wetting it with whiskey.
This doll is an anatomically correct representation of my enemy...no balls

Next we take our plate and sit our target don in the center, we take the grave dirt we previously purchased and build a small mound around our target asking the dead to hold our enemy down and if necessary to take him to the grave if he doesn't go away.

 
 
Next we surround him with the 8 dressed black candles so that he is imprisoned and can go no further. Use one of the candles to provide a few drops of wax to fix each candle to the plate.

 
 
Next we take 4 small mirror tiles (which can be dressed in reversing oil if you didn't forget to buy some...I know). This serves to reverse the works of our enemy and keep offer us protection from the harm he's attempting to cause. you can either carefully set these down up against the dirt pile or use some wax from a candle to help hold them in place. when your done it should look like this.


Just like any good cooking show I already had my own spell prepared while I was explaining how to do this using my targets name and photo and all ready to go.



I prefer to do this spell all at once rather than have it last over several days, I did choose to do this spell of Saturday for the Saturnian influence of binding and restriction. If you prefer to stretch this spell out I would do it for 8 days total for the significance of the Tarot card this spell was modeled after. Once the spell has begun and the candles are burning take out your frustration verbally commanding your enemy to stay away, stop their harrassment or die. Keep this up until you are too exhausted to continue or void of any emotion.

Once the spell is complete  dispose of the remains (keep the plate) in either a running river or at a crossroads. Once the spell is complete I suggest a cleansing bath followed by some work to draw happiness and prosperity into your life...after all you did just get rid of problem so enjoy the rest of your day.

Until next time
TWF

Monday, May 5, 2014

The Wandering Fool Does Wandering Spirits

In my last blog post I said I'd be doing 30 days using E.A. Koetting's exercise from Evoking Eternity  involving Wandering Spirits to see what results I get from this exercise.

The exercise has one call upon wandering spirits to make themselves known to the magician, the magician then uses a series of structuring exercises to solidify the spirit and give it a perceivable form if only from an astral or 3rd eye view. Every night for the past month I would perform this exercise usually on my lunch break from work. I work nights so I had the city to myself more or less and my choice of places to practice from. The places I practiced from included abandoned crossroads, cemeteries, hospitals, a place where people were once executed by the state and a closed prison complex/mental health facility know for its poor treatment of it's patients.

Not once did I see anything as terrifying as this...Those soulless eyes.

When I first began this exercise I can honestly say I was not impressed. I got absolutely nothing save for minor impressions that I could easily write off as imagination. The more I progressed the stronger the impressions became. From feeling a general presence to seeing faces that would morph or change into various shapes and expressions. I was truly surprised that some of the stronger experiences were at locations I had little expectations of contact. I had parked deep down a rural road for one session and seen what appeared to be coyote in my minds eye, the more I focused on this it took the shape of a humanoid creature perched on all fours like a person simulating moving like an animal. I could not make out a face or make substantial contact with this spirit it moved around a bit in my sight and then vanished as if it had lost interest or satisfied it's own curiosity.

Another session at the local hospital did not provide any substantial contact which I was expecting. I did however have some emotional responses as I quieted myself. I felt a deep sense of worry and dread, not so much as if something would happen to me but to those I care about. This reminded me of the same feeling's I had when I lost my grandfather at this very hospital a few years earlier. This came as a shock to me as I'd made peace with his death long ago and do not mourn for him as he suffered greatly in his final days and knowing he was at peace was a great relief to me. I came to the conclusion that what I was experiencing was more akin to picking up on the emotional consciousness of the area and tuning into it.

I had quite a frightening experience at a location where prisoners where once executed and the electric chair used to do so was housed for many years after. I parked next to the building and stilled myself and began calling out to any spirit to make itself known to me. Just a few minutes later a stray dog had jumped into my open car window. The dog made no effort to attack and seemed extremely friendly as well as fond of Cheetos as I gave him some of my lunch once my heart stopped pounding and I was certain I didn't need to run home for clean pants. Apparently wandering spirits aren't the only thing I was attracting that night big ass goofy dogs heard my call as well. I had also spent some time at a local cemetery that is free of fences or gates which allowed me to pull in to a nice hidden spot and focus on the intent of the exercise. The most notable thing I experienced there was  a face I could clearly see that looked pleasant enough and then took on a shape and look of fear or pain and then vanished.

Wrong Goofy but no less terrifying when confronted on a dark night


The last night of the exercise I decided to go to a semi closed prison complex that also had several mental health facilities on it's grounds. This place was well known for the poor treatment of its patients as well the many deaths that took place on these grounds. I decided to make this the culmination of my 30 days and hoped to see some truly impressive results. 20 minutes after arriving I was deemed a person of interest by the police who patrol these grounds and was asked to be creepy elsewhere. I drove to a local park which hugs the complex grounds and began the exercise again. I was disappointed that I was asked to leave and a bit irritated but nothing like the anger that soon washed over me. The more I sat there focusing on the spirits the more livid I became. I was convinced I had wasted my time or my experiment had been ruined by the patrolling officer. This anger followed me for the next day and I seemed to feel a real negative cloud around me that seemed to be shared by others in my home.

I spoke to a good friend of mine Orismen from Orismen's lab ( http://orismenslab.blogspot.com/) and he thought I may have picked up on the negativity and brought a bit home with me. I took his advice under advisement and performed a good banishing followed by a cleansing bath and was surprised how I felt back to my normal self afterwards.

So in my estimation of this exercise 30 days is not fully enough time to get the full benefits of it, this exercise in my opinion would be much better suited to becoming a part of ones normal meditation/concentration exercises. A good exercise but definitely more time is needed with it.



As a final comment to this already long blog post I did find a quite interesting experience not related to the exercise but one I feel was benefited from the consistent structuring exercise I had completed. I decided to revisit the black mirror, something I've not had great success with as I usually get far better readings using the Tarot, Runes and Bones. I crafted a small mirror and began a really light hearted and not serious at all scrying session. Much to my surprise instead of the usual haze that seems to form over the mirror a literal mist looked like it began to project out of the mirror almost to my eyes. In this haze I saw flashes of light or sparks that would pull me out of the light trance I was in and I'd have to start fresh. I will make a point in saying this was not a serious session. I had people up and moving around as well house hold pets playing and being loud in my vicinity. I attributed this increase in success to the black mirror's use as a direct result of the structuring exercises. I'll hopefully have more to share in regards to the black mirror in the near future.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Back to the Magick Journal: The Revisiting

Progress is a hard thing to measure, we often don't realize we're making any even though we're always in a state of forward movement. We don't realize we're getting older, stronger, fatter, thinner,balder ( oh the baldness...) or whatever. This stuff doesn't happen overnight and rarely do we see the results of our spiritual work manifest results overnight either. Many in the occult are hardcore advocates of taking meticulous notes and logging their experiences like scientific data. This is never a bad idea as one can look back and see what mistakes if any were made and see how to correct it. The magick journal also has another benefit I don't see get mentioned much. The magick journal is as much a snap shot of our past, a measuring point for the progress that's been made as it is a recipe book or log of what we did.

Measuring One's Growth

How to aim a fart I think...poor tree.
Doing occult exercises and perfecting techniques takes time. One can easily see results when they consciously push themselves to perform these exercises on a daily basis. None the less it's not uncommon for one to get deterred. Just like in the real gym (I've hear people use those things.) your magick muscles do not develop overnight and it's easy to feel like progress is not being made or at least not in a time frame that's to our liking. I've noticed when doing the work that often the immediate results we notice pale in comparison to the real progress that was made months down the road.

An example I'll share was a simple visualization exercise I had been performing for weeks and weeks trying to perfect or master it. It's a simple technique of visualizing a pendulum swinging back and forth, the point of the exercise was to visualize this arcing movement for a set period of time without losing the visualization as well as keeping the arc of the pendulum consistent. Sounds simple right? Yeah, that's what I thought too. This exercise kicked my ass, when I could keep the imaginary pendulum in sight for a few minutes the thing would start misbehaving and not swing in it's perfect arc (how in the hell an imaginary object misbehaves is beyond me) and would begin doing circles or figure 8's. I kept this exercise up diligently practicing everyday, multiple times a day, no way was I going to let an imaginary pendulum get the better of me. So long story short the imaginary pendulum got the better of me, this was a big let down to me that I couldn't control such a simple construct for a set period of time. I should be able to do this I'M A MAGICIAN after all, I bend reality, cause change at my whim and make a pretty mean bowl of cereal! Well a few months later I was looking through one of my notebooks looking for something completely unrelated when I stumbled across my old foe once again. I looked ahead and noticed that although my visualizations had gotten better I hadn't realized it as I had been so focused on that one particular goal I lost sight of the benefits I had gained.

So having said that I invite all of you to take a journey back through time and revisit your journals. Especially if your feeling like your not making progress, or things are slowing. Look back and see just how far you have really come and take a minute to congratulate, appreciate and motivate yourself to push forward and then get back to work.

 

Until we meet again...you bastard.