Showing posts with label sorcery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sorcery. Show all posts

23 July 2013

Prosperity Ritual

Last week I found out that my boss is moving on to another job at the end of the month.  This woman is quite possibly the best boss I have ever had.  She's been my partner in crime on a massive implementation project, a shield against the insanity of other managers, and a sympathetic ear when I've needed it most.  I'm kinda devastated that she's leaving. To add insult to injury, she's leaving the week before we roll out the implementation we've been working on for the last year and a half - so I get to do it by myself.  But wait, it gets worse.  She let me in on some confidential info that the firm is going to be shifting things somewhat in the very near future.  My job is secure, but it's likely that I'm going to get a lot more responsibility dumped on me with no extra recompense.  Lovely.  Just fricken lovely.  So I decided it was apropos to do a prosperity ritual as soon as possible.

The day after I found all this out I trucked on over to Edge of the Circle to stock up on some gold chime candles and some money drawing incense.  I figured that I needed to do something fast because my boss was trying to fast-track a raise for me before she left and I wanted to give that as much energy as I could as soon as humanly possible.  I also wandered into a cute little art shop in Ballard (whose name escape's me) and got some canvas artist trading cards to make a talisman for myself.  I have a pretty decent herb and oil stash at home, so I wasn't too worried about those ingredients.

I had planned on doing my ritual in the hour of Jupiter on Thursday, but life interfeared and it just didn't work out.  I didn't want to wait a week for another Jupiter-Jupiter hour, so I ended up doing it during the hour of Jupiter on Friday.  Not perfect timing, but at least the moon is waxing.  I set out all my ritual components on my altar and got down to business.

I normally cast my circles using a sword, but this time I felt compelled to use a pair of arnis sticks as giant dual wands.  Apparently prosperity magick calls for super phallic circle casting - figures.  I then called the elements and deities, citing the powers associated with them I most wanted to bring to the ritual (abundance, clarity of thought, force of will, happiness, etc.).  I gave special attention to calling Jupiter, as that was the power I was banking on.  Then I explained to all the lovely forces I'd drawn up just what I wanted and why (to be paid what I'm worth in a job that doesn't make me want to jump off a bridge - not so much to ask I feel).  I lit my prosperity incense as an offering.

Next I assembled a mojo bag using a cotton tea bag (yes, I know it should really have been a hand sewn red flannel bag but I didn't have time to hit the fabric store).  I used a good tablespoon or so of calamus root, one enormous high john root, and a tonka bean, and then dressed it with some bergamot and vetivert oil.  I tied the bag shut using three tripe knots.

Then, I dressed my gold candle with the bergamot and vetivert oils and charged it.  I raised the energy by stirring up all the elemental powers in the room with my wands (they're weapons; they want to be swung around aggressively - I saw no reason not to indulge them).

I lit the candle and used the first three drops of wax to seal the knots of the mojo bag.  No wealth spilling out for me thanks!


While my candle burned I took out one of my blank artist trading cards and my colored pencils.  I took some time to meditate and decided to draw a talisman based on the sigil of Jupiter in Jason Miller's Advanced Planetary Magick.  I drew the sigil in blue, filled in with gold.  I sat it on a bed of green, sinking into brown earth, sinking into rock and magma.  Prosperity is always a seed rooted in the earth, to the imagery seemed to work.  I then filled in the sky with fiery orange for action and movement, to symbolize the prosperity energy firing off into the world to do its work.
I then made an offering of my favorite elderberry mead.  I took three sips and pledged the rest to Jupiter.  After that I was pretty keyed up and took a little time to ground.  

I thanked and dismissed the deities and elements, and dispelled my circle.  Once everything was open I took my mead outside and poured it into the garden to finish the offering.  Then I went back into my temple to hang out while the gold candle burned all the way down (never leave candles unattended folks, especially if you have cats!).  I put my talisman in my wallet (in the clear plastic pocket where your ID goes), that way it will both be next to the symbols of my wealth and will always be on me. 
The mojo will go into a special pocket in my work bag or be carried in my pocket.

01 March 2013

Getting Started - Part I

For the most part, this blog is for folks who have been working with magick for a while.  What I do is usually pretty advanced and I rarely bother to spell things out for the new folks.  This post is different.  I spend a lot of time over on Tumblr and have seen so many posts along the lines of, "Hey, I'm new to magick/witchcraft/etc.  Can somebody help me figure out how to get started?"  This is my answer to that question.  These are personal opinions and are not the end all and be all.  I'm a solitary eclectic witch with strong Wiccan tenancies, so my answers are going to be skewed towards that flavor of magick.

First Steps

The first thing any honest seeker should do is read up on magick.  There are tons of books and websites out there with information on getting into magick of all flavors (check out the suggested reading list at the bottom of this entry).  Read as much as you can from as many traditions and styles as you can and find out what resonates with you.  Magick in general and witchcraft in particular is very personal.  There is no one right way for people to do things - but there probably is one way that will feel the best, most natural and fulfilling, to you.  Some books will tell you that you HAVE to do things a particular way to get results - that usually means that the author's tradition says so.  I've never found that to be the case, which is why I'm not a traditionalist.

If you're looking into all this primarily for the religious/spiritual aspect, rather than the magick, finding what feels right is even more important.  Your relationship with deity is just that - YOURS!  Read the poetry and mythology surrounding the path that interests you the most.  Read books that detail those specific paths.  See if you find any particular deities that resonate with you, deities you might want to have a personal relationship with.  Maybe you'll find that you don't want to work with particular deities or pantheons and would prefer to work with archetypes, ideas of nature, or just the energies of the universe - that's just fine.

Maybe you're not interested in finding a new religion at all, but just want to get into the practice of magick - no problems there either.  If you've got an existing religion you're happy with you can bring the practice of magick to it, adapting the forces called on in your work to those of your religion.  If you're an atheist or agnostic you can think of the spirits called on in most spells as mere symbols, or you can omit them and work directly with the energies they personify.  I started out as an atheist witch, but over time came to know forces that felt an awful lot like deity to me so I became a polytheist.  I've also known folks who came into witchcraft believing in deity that switched over to atheism. Many of the books you'll find do approach magickal practices from a religious standpoint - don't discount them just because you don't like the tone.  You can look at the magickal practices of any tradition and learn their techniques without buying into their viewpoint.


Experiment

It's ok to experiment with both religion and magick.  If you're not sure what kind of practitioner you want to be give several different styles a try.  In terms of magick, try a little witchcraft, ritualcraft, meditations, Hoodoo, Ceremonial Magic, etc.  Try out the different styles that interest you.  Almost every tradition has a few beginner practices (spells, meditations, trance work, etc.) that you can try without needing to necessarily be of that tradition.  For example, almost everyone has done the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram at least once, regardless of whether they like Ceremonial Magic or not.  So to, almost everyone has done some form of candle magick or rootwork regardless of whether they consider themselves Hoodoo conjure folk or not.  Experiment and see what feels good to you.

And yes, you can experiment with the Gods.  When I was first starting out I did a number of ritual "meet and greets" with different deities.  You can do a ritual where you say that you want to get to know a deity to find out if you want to work with him/her/it and if he/she/it wants to work with you.  Most deities are pretty understanding of new folks and would rather you got to know them (and vice versa) before committing to anything.  Just be respectful, open, and honest - they'll know if you're not.

The same applies to any group you want to work with or elders you approach as teachers, but I'll talk more about working with others in my next post.

On to part 2 - Working With Others

Suggested Reading List (read all of these and you'll know enough to sort fact from fiction)


Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner - Scott Cunningham (an excellent intro)
Witchcraft Today - Gerald Gardner (the one that started the modern movement)
Charge of the Goddess - Doreen Valiente (the best ritual poetry I've ever read)
Complete Book of Witchcraft - Raymond Buckland (also known as "Uncle Bucky's Big Blue Book")
Real Magic - Issac Bonewits (how magick actually works, and doesn't work)
The Spiral Dance - Starhawk (west coast eco-paganism)

The Triumph of the Moon - Ronald Hutton (the real history of modern Wicca)


Witchvox - The best site on the web for information on Wicca and Witchcraft.  Also a great place to find others in your area.
The Wild Hunt - Some of best actual Pagan journalism out there.
The Pagan Newswire Collective - another great Pagan news site
The Grey School - Accessible non-denominational magickal education.
Patheos -  a wonderful site with blogs and info from respected members of the community