Dragon's Blood

I’ve been doing a fair amount of herb work lately - making balms, oils, herbal waters, etc.  Most of what I make is protective because, well, I’m rather paranoid and I like the vibration of a good homemade protective concoction.  I use a lot of different herbs, oils, resins, and spices in my various protective recipes but if I had to choose just one as my favorite it would definitely be dragon’s blood.

No, dragon’s blood isn’t real blood nor is it colored ink.  Real dragon’s blood is a resin that comes from particular trees that grow in Southeast Asia. The resin can come from several different species of rattan, though it most commonly comes from Daemomorops Draco.  You can find dragon’s blood resin in any occult/metaphysical shop sold as incense and can find its essential oil in the better shops and online.  Some shops will sell the vastly inferior perfume oil, which I used before I knew any better, but it’s so unlike the real thing as to be laughable.  Real dragon’s blood smells like the sap it is - smelling rather like a slightly spicy pine.  It should be a dark, rusty red color in resinous form and the pure oil is often red-brownish.  

Dragon’s blood is highly protective and aids in the potency of any protective or banishing spell.  I like to add chunks of the resin to mojo bags and often use the oil to anoint/bless objects.  I’ve also been known to wear the essential oil as a perfume when I’ve needed a little extra shielding.  I most commonly combine dragon’s blood with frankincense, myrrh, and a little sea salt to make fiery wall of protection powder or oil (depending on if I’m working with the resins or the oils).  Though the high quality oils can be a bit spendy their potency is more than worth it, particularly because you only need use a drop or two at a time.  The powdered version of fiery wall of protection is handy because you can always keep a vial or two on hand and sprinkle it around you when you need a little extra protection.  It’s also great when working with clients requesting protection because it’s both incredibly potent and “looks suitable magickal” for a muggle to think you’re actually doing as much as you say you’re doing (I’ll go into working with non-magick folks another time).

I like to get my dragon’s blood at The Vajra, a wonderful shop here in Seattle that has some of the highest qualities oils I’ve found.  You can also find good quality dragon’s blood online if  you go to reputable sources.  One of my favorites is Mountain Rose Herbs.

Resources
Scott Cunningham. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.
Paul Beyerl. The Master Book of Herbs.
“Dragon’s Blood.” A Modern Herbal.  http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/d/dragon20.html
“Dragon’s Blood.” http://dherbs.com/articles/dragons-blood-394.html

I Hate Politics

Yes, I know.  Everyone hates politics these days and for good reason.  As someone who has studied things like logic, rhetoric, and persuasion I find the entire American political process pretty disgusting - and no side is better than any other.  When someone I disagree with uses some horrendous fallacy to make an argument I shake my head and pity the fools that believe it.  Then of course I see someone I do agree with using the same twisted illogic and realize that "my side" is no better.

In reality we're all just people trying to live our lives as best we can.  I'm a firm misanthrope but even I don't hate people enough to buy into the viscous rhetoric that's being thrown around these days.  I don't even hate the people that hate me enough to wish upon them what they wish upon me - and I really hate people most of the time.  I generally think people are stupid, petty, and easily led but that doesn't mean I want to outlaw their way of life and see them strung up by their ears - perhaps publicly flogged for idiocy, but not destroyed.

As a shadow worker I spend a lot of time looking at the cracks and fissures in my own psyche so I have a fair amount of empathy for the gaping holes most people have in their souls.  The other day I was driving back home from a trip to Portland and on the drive up there's this awful billboard.  This billboard has been there for years and it is always covered with the most hate filled hogwash.  It makes me queasy every time I see what new message of ignorance and intolerance is on it, so much so that I actually avert my eyes to avoid reading it.  I seriously have to go to my happy place to shield myself.  It used to make me so angry but now it just makes me sad.  What kind of awful terror filled life would make someone think that essentially shouting hate at every car driving up I-5 was the right thing to do?  How sad and insecure must you be to find the happiness of others offensive and threatening?

I hate politics.  It clearly shows America's shadow self at its very worst: fearful, vengeful, spiteful, rigid, and intolerant.  Wake up America, your shadow is showing.

Check out a recent article from the Wild Hunt talking about fear and intolerance in politics: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2012/08/the-problem-with-mount-carmel-moments.html

Tarot at Crescent Moon Gifts Tomorrow!

Tomorrow from 1-4pm I'll be doing tarot at Crescent Moon Gifts in Tacoma as part of the PPD fundraiser. Stop in and see me! There will also be other readers and a bake sale. Should be a lot of fun.

Do Ghosts Eat?

I've seen ghosts for as long as I can remember.  When I was little they scared the hell out of me.  I was brought up to think that anything metaphysical was evil, and therefore ghosts must be out to get me.  As I got older my experience taught me differently, that ghosts were definitely something "else," but that they weren't generally all that bad.  As I got over the bone-breaking terror I started actually listening to the ghosts instead of covering my head with a pillow and hoping they would go away.  I learned that ghosts are actually pretty interesting and a lot of them are very nice, if a little morose - but hey, I'm a little morose so no harm there.  I've been actively working with ghosts for about fifteen years now and have had a lot of chances to observe and study them. 

One of the great mysteries of metaphysics is why ghosts do what they do.  Some ghosts hang out in the places where they lived, others follow people, yet others drift from place to place, etc.  One of the things I've noticed over the years is that certainly places are a lot more likely to have ghosts than others.  Any place that sees regular intense emotion is more likely to have a ghost in it than a place that doesn't often see people emoting.  Ever notice how places like schools, clubs, arenas, and parks are incredibly eerie when they're deserted?  It's not just that they're so different without people, it's that the energy of thousands of screaming people is soaked into the concrete, literally bouncing off the walls and flying through the air.  That amount of energy is quite palpable to anyone bothering to pay attention and it acts like a beacon to the metaphysical.

Places like that seem to swarm with metaphysical entities, particularly ghosts.  Why should that be?  I've noticed that a lot of the ghosts in places like that don't really seem to belong there.  Yeah, someone murdered right after going to a club might haunt the place, but what about ghosts flitting around an elementary school?  My theory is that places that are that flooded with energy are essentially a free buffet for spirits. 

Ghosts are made of energy.  They are, essentially, big blobs of a finite amount of energy vibrating at a particular frequency.  Just like the living, everything ghosts do expends energy (appearing, speaking, moving objects, etc.).  When people spend enough of their energy they eat food and turn that food into more energy.  Ghosts don't eat they way they we do, but they must replace the energy they spend somehow.  When ghosts are around it's quite common for people to experience a sudden drop in the temperature of the room, feel a bout of vertigo, etc., and it's theorized that this is the ghost feeding on the energy around them in order to manifest in some way.  Feeding on ambient energy in that way is a lot like gleaning for berries in the woods - it takes a fair amount of work to get enough to make a meal.  Places like sports arenas have so much extra energy just hanging around it's a lot more like sitting in a chair while your grandmother heaps your plate with more food than you could ever possibly consume - it's a hell of a lot less work.  If I was a ghost I'd probably make an occasional stop at the local energy smorgasbord when I was getting peckish. 

I think places that have been filled with intense emotions tend to be equally filled with ghosts because it's easy for ghosts to exist there with so much free energy floating around.  Why work for your meal if you don't have to?

It is wrong...

that I really enjoy blowing peoples expectations?

On the Radio Tonight!

Hey folks, tune in to the Grand Dark Conspiracy tonight at 10pm edt/7pm pdt to hear me talk about shadow work, things that go bump in the night, and the meaning of evil.  I had a fabulous time the last time I was on this show and am really looking forward to it.  I hope you'll join me :)

Shadow in Nature

There was a wonderful article written a month or so back on the prevalence of Pagans of various flavors to idealize nature as being benign, pure, and good (I cannot find it for the life of me, so if you can please put a link in the comments).  In reality, nature - I'm talking real nature, not your local park - is glorious but brutal.  Nature is not a wholesome sanctuary where we can retreat from our hectic lives to find peace and safety.  Nature is a place of harsh extremes, survival of the fittest, and literally awesome vistas.  There is no better place to explore the balance of light and shadow than in nature.

I spent today steeped in the extremes that nature offers us.  I went to Mount Saint Helens and hiked the South Coldwater Trail to Coldwater Saddle.  For those of you not familiar with this mountain, it blew up rather spectacularly in 1980.  The picture above was taken this afternoon and you can see the acres of trees that are still blasted to this day.  In a place like that you can see both unparalleled beauty and incredible harshness.

To have both the stunning views of Coldwater Lake and its surroundings and views of the twisted metal of construction equipment caught in the blast, Mt. St. Helens is a reminder that nature is not a happy shiny place where people can frolic in edenic bliss.  Nature is awesome and terrible.  She deserves our reverence and respect because she will give until it hurts and then, when we think we've got it all figured out, she'll whollup us but good.