hoodoo

Jul

2012

Maybe Black Misa? That Was A Joke – Conversations with Dead People

I haven’t spoken to a friend in eleven months, nothing happened, it’s just we’ve been busy. Suddenly I get a facebook message “I’m holding a misa. Want to come talk to dead people with me?” Now if you don’t know what a misa is (which I didn’t before I was invited) to simplify it, it is a séance of sorts in the spiritualism/espiritismo tradition, and used and performed by people in the Santeria community. Said friend is a priestess in Lukumi and was running the event, so getting to talk to dead people and getting to try something new, of course I was game.
Being part of the spiritualism tradition it was fairly Catholic, so I ended up saying my first Hail Mary ever…about 30 times over the evening. When trying to decide where to sit my friend says “I know, sit at the other end of the table, you can be the anchor.” “The anchor?” “Yes, if the spirits are going to come through or possess anyone it will be the anchor.” We smirked and I took the position, unfortunately no possessions occured. After a long period of prayers to angels, guides, relatives, and whatever else we sat there silently waiting for messages to come through.
Slowly I got the sensation of communication, weaker than when I talk with things in most ways, but more visual than I get unless I’m skrying. Then the fun and annoyance happened. It was largely going to be my friend and my self talking to the spirits, they might communicate with others, but we were more of the focus point. My friend started talking, and internally I started cringing because she sounded like a TV medium “I’m getting the sense of an Aunt, or a Great-Aunt, some relationship like that. She says…” I didn’t know if my friend was cold-reading (which isn’t her style), making it up (which is possible for anyone on accident), or actually communicating with something.
Unfortunately my communications came through similar in the beginning, names that shifted in my head, messages vague enough to apply to six different things, so I was very reluctant to talk about what I saw/heard because it all sounded like a vague medium scam. But after the first two or three, I was in the space, as was my friend and stuff started coming through clear. It was an interesting experience; I talked with, delivered messages from, and accurately described people’s family members, or known spiritual companions. Part of it still had that TV medium feel as we pass what information we can back and forth trying to figure out who the spirit is. That’s something I’d love to figure out how to navigate better.
It was weird for me. I work with the dead, and I talk with the dead, but I’ve rarely talk to the dead for someone else, and it was awkward at times. Both feeling what the spirit is trying to relay emotionally, and in one case describing the one spirit who I could only describe as “a stereotypically sassy black older lady” which felt so odd to see and describe, but she gave me her name, and the person knew exactly who she was. She also said this person really was that stereotypical. Usually my confirmation of talking with the dead involves research and such afterwards, but it was nice to be able to talk with someone, describe the spirit, say the name, and have them know exactly who it was. Also everyone else at the misa is involved with Santeria, except for me, so their spirits are often from that tradition. What surprised me was a few times I would relay something a spirit had said to me, which made no sense to me, linguistically or spiritually in different cases, but apparently made perfect sense in the Santeria system. Instructions that felt silly or bizarre to me, turned out to be real practices.
Not surprising to me in the slightest, but none of “my spirits” came through, which surprised my friend. All in all it was an interesting evening, and I liked the chance to try my hand at working with the dead in another system. It might not be a method I’d use on my own but I’m glad to have a chance to try it, and another opportunity to flex those psychic muscles. If you’ve never been to a misa and are invited, I’d suggest checking them out. I doubt they’d change your world, but they are an interesting experience if stuff is actually happening.

Dec

2011

Divining Direction: Planning Magick

Recently I’ve been talking with an occultist from the city; he asked me about my “occult odd-jobs” as mentioned on my About page. He asked me hypothetically what I’d do for someone asking about wealth magick. There are two “levels” of service I provide. One is a very simple one size fits all; granted what it is changes from time to time but it’s usually a charm and a short petition, no real depth or detail. The other is more in depth, rather than just tossing wealth magick at someone I investigate the source of the issue and work out how to solve this case specifically. More time intensive, but I prefer it. So I couldn’t really answer…until about a week and a half after that someone contacted me for some financial work. With her permission I’m going to talk about the process of the investigation and how I decided what to do. For people who are used to just tossing magick blindly at problems hopefully this will show a bit more about narrowing down and focusing the aims. Sometimes it is a very narrow and clear cut process, sometimes like this it is a bit more intuitive and open-ended.
To start off with I generally use a Mo divination. It is very clear in regards to what is causing a problem and how to solve it. So I cast the die and received Ah Tsa – The Bright Star. This lists the various types of wealth coming your way. I was actually very confused by this, the person is having financial problems and the first step of the divination essentially said “Don’t worry about it, money is on the way.”
I then turn the tarot, but usually I have a clear direction in mind thanks to the Mo, this time I didn’t. Using the Watcher Angel Tarot I began my spread. “What do I need to know to improve “Moni”’s finances over the next month?” XXI – The World – Metatron. Everything must be pulled together magick-wise, the answer will come from everything I’ve learnt. This wasn’t going to be easy, it’s a card about magick, but it’s about the completion, everything used along the way, whatever my method was to be it wasn’t going to be simple.
Understanding the cause is important in planning. If Moni was unemployed, just divorced, or recently robbed, each would require a different magickal path to help best. So what is the cause of the financial problems? IV – The Emperor – Azazel. The Emperor is a sign of the system, so I’m pretty sure the money problem is the government’s fault. Another problem would likely be giving others control and not being active enough.
How can the issues of the Emperor be overcome? Nine of Pentacles. Create, art projects, produce, accept the windfall that is coming and charge into it. I didn’t know what this meant.
After the first stage of divination was done I contacted Moni with the results and asked for more details. It felt very odd, I’ve never had to say “You want me to do some financial magick, but apparently money is already on the way.” Anyways, I got my clarification one of the main issues is the government recently recalculated her deceased husband’s pension and started sending her almost half what they used to. So it was a government issue, another smaller part of it, was Moni runs a hobby jewellery business on the weekends and in fighting with the government over the benefits she’s been too stressed to keep it up, even though it wasn’t a major loss it started to add up. I asked since apparently money was on its way if she wanted my services still, she decided even if it looks like it is improving she’d like some help so we began looking at this as financial maintenance magick.
Continuing the divination: What can I do magickally? Two of Swords – Stalemate. This just gets better and better. I wasn’t sure what to think about this, tossed around a few ideas in my head and none clicked, so I turned to the book and read “Opposing forces are locked in balance, for the moment.” That clicked. Mercury is Retrograde and turning stationary tomorrow. That’s the “for the moment.”
What can I do after Mercury goes Direct? VIII – Strength – Turiel. Okay maybe there was a bit of bias using the Watcher Angel Tarot, but aside from the meaning of the card I felt it was pretty clear it was to be an Angelic working. Strength is always about a subtle power to me, coercion, and grace, so this is going to be a gentle working. Not a strong evocation, but something gentle. I’ve sent Moni an Angelic Seal to use and she is to offer it water, bread, and a tealight candle each day along with a two sentence prayer. I’m doing the same thing on my end, except the Angel is receiving an eight-fold offering (a Buddhist practice) each day with a longer prayer and petition and a specially crafted honey jar filled with the usual things and a few offering ingredients specific to this angel. This will be done until at least January first, when Mercury it out of its shadow. Moni can continue it after that point, but until then is the only obligation on our part.
While checking the astrology of the situation I realized Jupiter is also Retrograde (people only complain about Mercury) and while not horribly transiting her chart, it could be better, but it’s almost over. So I asked what I could do once Jupiter goes Direct? King of Wands. This is a card about passion and strength, the ability to forge ahead, to pick a goal and trample over anything to get it. Don’t be deceived by how the King is lounging, he only looks so relaxed because he is so confident. King of Wands is also Fire of Fire. So lots of Fire and trampling obstacles, to me it was a pretty clear choice. Once Jupiter is Direct I’ll perform a Riwo sangchö (ri bo bsang mchod), a type of smoke and fire offering. Along with the traditional ingredients in the offering I’ll include several with Jovial attributes. This offering is accompanied by a ritual, in this case the offering will be dedicated primarily to Jovial forces, to help pick them up in Moni’s life as Jupiter comes out of Retrograde, to feed and prime these attributes, as well as to clear obstacles from Moni’s path. Also a request that Jupiter keep the path open, and an evocation to a Jovial spirit with the aim that Moni continues to get her benefits and the government doesn’t try to cut out any more.
So Moni is getting a variety of services, like the World indicated. Some Ceremonial Magick, some Hoodoo, some Buddhist rituals. As her problem apparently is taking care of itself this became more of a financial magick tune-up, rather than a rescue, which is unusual, but not a bad idea. Some work on keeping what is functioning working well, as well as work to try to call in some new life to these matters.
Mayhaps from time to time I’ll post these type of reports, just to show a little bit of what can be done about narrowing down your magick. As this was a tune-up it didn’t get as precise as I often would, but I think serves as an example of the process of figuring out what is to be done.