spirits

26
Sep
2019

Madison Seminary Ghost Investigation (Part I – Intro)

The show Ghost Hunters just released an episode where they investigate Madison Seminary. (I haven’t seen it yet) I was lucky enough to actually investigate Madison Seminary a few months ago, and while I wrote up my experiences I never got around to posting them. This is just a copy of what I wrote for my journal the next day, only edited to protect identities. It was a long night so this will be split across a few entries. Also because it’s just a journal entry the splits might seem odd or sudden, but there isn’t a good way to chop up a long night’s narrative.

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A friend of mine recently won a night at Madison Seminary, “the most haunted place in Northeast Ohio.” I guess that says all you need to know about my friends: they’re awesome.  The prize was a night at Madison Seminary for her and several friends, of which I was fortunate enough to be among. Madison Seminary is available for private investigation for ghost hunters. Not as common as ghost hunters, but sometimes a group like ours attends; people who are perceptive, sensitive, psychic, or at least open to that type of personal experience.

What follows is my experience from that night, along with the history of Madison Seminary.

If you think you’d ever like to explore it as a sensitive and don’t want your perceptions influenced, I’d skip this series of posts.

Because I take it seriously, let me say it again: If you’d like to go to the Seminary as a psychic, and don’t want your perceptions influenced don’t read these entries, as I’ll talk both about the history of the place, and experiences of myself and my friends.

Though Madison Seminary seems to cater more to ghost hunters, in the sense of people with their gadgets talking to ghosts and trying to get some responses on film, they are also familiar with sensitive folks and accommodating for the desire to have less information to prevent front-loading. When you arrive you will get a tour of the seminary which includes the history, and discussion of haunting phenomena, we asked to keep that to a minimum, we’d rather go in without foreknowledge so we can better trust our perceptions. Admittedly, our tour guide did tell us more than I would have liked, but it was good that we were given the option.

Madison Seminary has had an interesting history. Sometimes on a ghost hunting show when someone explains the long horrible history of a place, it can be hard to believe… Madison Seminary is one of those places. The history seems unbelievable, like it was designed for a horror movie. It started off as a school in 1847, since then it has also been, in no real order, a hospital in the American Civil War, a police station and prison, a mental asylum, and a home for “indignant mothers” (I believe that’s essentially “unwed mothers”) and widows. To make this “worse” it was not just all of these places, it seemed like every iteration of Madison Seminary had negative events. (It makes me wonder about the history of the land before the Seminary) Schools in the 1840s weren’t exactly how we think of them now, and there are records and stories of a great many abuses against the teens and young adults attending. When it was a hospital and asylum there was a history of abuse/torture by at least one doctor. As a home for indignant mothers and widows, there was a murder, along with several types of child abuse. The air of Madison Seminary is thick with the history bleeding through. That’s not just hyperbole, I have only felt such overwhelming presence a handful of times.

Our tour starts in the oldest part of Madison Seminary. Our tour guides give us general history, and telling us about hot spots of activity, along with telling us about these hot spots, they also indicate places could trick us, such as a hallway which causes EMF detectors to go off because of the fire alarm system being centred there. I was grateful for letting us know about these false negatives.

It was at the beginning of the tour that I first started to perceive her, an elderly woman, quite literally crazy and babbling, who was trying to get my attention. Now, this is one of those places where psychic phenomena get fuzzy. I wasn’t sensing her ghost, perceiving her in a haunted sense, but I was for lack of a better explanation psychically perceiving our interaction. This is something I’ve had happen a lot in situations like this where I’m investigating something. I was not perceiving her ghost, I was perceiving a future interaction with her, seeing in the future that “this is the ghost you’re going to meet.” It’s the odd place where precognition and other perceptions collide. I don’t know if this is just a quirk I experience, or if other folks get that too, or if my explanation just sounds like babbling.

We moved into the new building, and I started sensing her more. It was still that type of future perception, but I could also feel that we were getting into closer proximity.

I’m not someone easily creeped out or frightened by these things, but Madison Seminary really creeped me out. I realized the next day that part of that at least could have been picking up emotions from investigators and people who might not have as much experience/confidence with these things. I can be downright reckless in these matters, but I said that no one goes anywhere alone, there was just too much activity and too much malicious energy. That wasn’t like me, but I think says a lot about the atmosphere of the place.

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Stay tuned as the next post gets more into the experiences of the night.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
31
May
2019

Tools of the Trade: Focus, Power, and Homes

“The power isn’t in the tool, the tool is the focus, the power is in you.”

We’ve all heard people say this. Don’t get dependant on your tools, they’re not the source of your power. You don’t need the tools to do the work. Tools are crutches of undeveloped sorcerers. Blah blah blah. It’s a very common concept in Western magicks, and while I can agree with a large chunk of the sentiment, I can’t help think it’s missing the target more than it is hitting it. I think it’s a great concept to teach when people are new to magick, but like a lot of beginner concepts, it is something that lacks nuance and needs to be evaluated as you develop.

Now before going forward, I’ll be clear I do have several magickal tools that are purely foci, and any power in them is just incidental from use at the moment. I won’t say a tool can’t only be a focus, but to say tools are only a focus loses something.

While not the major issue with the concept, I think the issue of storage is the easiest one to address. How many of us have a consecrated tool of somesort, our swords or wands or talismans? Now how many of us have energy stored within them? It’s not just that the sword directs energy, but it’s been programmed with a specific energy and used as a battery for energy. A talisman isn’t just a focus, a lot of talismans require reconsecration because over time the energy stored in them is used up. If it was just a focus it wouldn’t need to be reconsecrated, because every use would be a reconsecration.  

When the tool is seen as a focus, we lose that. This begins to limit us within this belief, because now all the power of the ritual is dependant on what you can generate, which might be fine for many rituals, but for others it will drain us, or even not have enough.

Another take on the tool as focus concept is empty-handed magick; performing magick without tools because your mind can create the tools as you go. For some people it’s as literal as creating mental/energetic constructs of the tool as you go along. In fact some of my initial training dealt with that. Performing a ritual and need to set up a boundary? Take a moment to visualize a sword, make it real in your mind, and use that. It works in some cases, but again it has limitations. This style of empty-handed magick encounters issues when dealing with more complex or long rituals, and misses some of the reality of magickal encounters.

Most sorcerers can probably visualize a sword or wand well enough to cast their space. What about something more than that though? What about Solomonic magick for instance? You have to visualize the circle with the appropriate names and symbols around it, you have to visualize the triangle and the seal of the spirit, you have to visualize the candles, you have to visualize the incense, you have to visualize your sword, you have to visualize the wand, you have to visualize the lamen, you have to visualize the ring, and even more depending on what you’re doing. Sure most of us can visualize a sword well enough to use it, but how many of us can visualize all the required tools* well enough to use them, let alone do all that and perform the ritual.

*You can argue how many of the tools are required in this case, but that’s not really the point.

Now take that a step farther, even if you can hold all of those in your mind, what happens when the spirit acts up? All your will and focus is on the tools, and now you have to constrain a spirit? You have to increase your focus/energy on the boundary, and the triangle, and whatever tool you’re using to compel. If you couldn’t do it before they acted up, why do you think you can now? What if the spirit overpowers you? What if the spirit startles you and you lose focus? What if the spirit affects your thoughts? If all the power in the tools is your focus, then any difficult spirit encounter purely becomes a battle of will and energy, and a lot of spirits have far more experience and resources in that realm than we do, that is why we call them after all.

A focus can be helpful, but it also has a limitation. Now compare tools to people in group rituals, sometimes group rituals you have tasks split up, these people hold the quarters, this person is the herald, this person directs the energy, etc. Now obviously no one would look at this ritual setting and say “You see Gregg who is holding the West? He’s just a focus for Geetika, she’s the real power.” Now obviously people aren’t tools (well…maybe some…) but I think the analogy loosely stands. These people have roles in ritual so the person(s) leading the ritual don’t have to concern themselves with the other parts of the ritual. Tools do the same, sure you can do things empty-handed with mental constructs, but that’s energy and processing power you’re putting towards it rather than the rest of the ritual, but if you’ve outsourced the basic tasks to tools you’re free of that distraction.

There is another important aspect lost when we think of tools as focus, and that’s spirit allies. While Western magick doesn’t address it as much when you look at magick globally and look at the tools people use they’re rarely “just tools.” In a lot of cultures your tools are houses for spirit allies. Your blade has a spirit in it, your talisman has a spirit in it, your mirror has a spirit in it, etc. If tools are just physical objects to focus us we lose that. I can tell you personally there are several ritual tasks that I would not want to perform without the spirits I have residing in the related tools. You can argue about how “powerful” a spirit that lives in a tool is, but the point isn’t necessarily brute power, but skills and aid.

The sadder part is sometimes people’s tools do have spirits in them, but the person isn’t aware or doesn’t acknowledge them. These can be gifted/inherited tools, even purchased, or it could be a spirit took up residence on their own (one of my ritual knives was suddenly “full” one day when I went to use it) or a ritual called the spirit in but the practitioner didn’t realize or assumed it was all just energy. It hasn’t happened much, but there have been a few times when I’m playing “show and tell” with a sorcerer, and they hand me an item with someone in it. “Oh who is it?” “What? It’s just a chalice for skrying.”

Tools can be a focus, but they can be so much more. Honestly if people want to work with “haunted items” or not is no concern of mine, but I think we people continue to think and repeat the idea that “Tools are tools, you are the power” it limits them, it disenchants the world and practice, and something is lost.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
13
May
2019

Field Report: Haunting of the Estranged Sister

I’ve decided to try out some more field report style blog entries. A lot of my blog is sharing ideas and speculating, but I don’t talk enough about the lived experience of these things. I’m going to try writing about things just as experiences, not necessarily sharing the sum of my experiences, such as I am with the Starry Path material, but just the experience as it is. Since these are just the experience don’t expect anything overarching or lessons learned, just “This was my Tuesday.”

I got a request from a friend of mine to look into a haunting, it had been a while since anyone had called me in for that. I like investigating hauntings, while I wouldn’t call myself a medium, I can get info from/about spirits and work with that. Often I’m called in for an exorcism/banishing, despite the fact that’s very rarely needed or appropriate. Sometimes people are a bit let down that I’m not running around with a cross yelling about the “Power of Christ” but in the end folks are happy with the results, even if it has a lot less sparklebang than they were hoping.

This haunting investigation got my interest for two reasons; it was from my friend’s sister who had essentially disowned her due to her spiritual beliefs, and the sister was a material atheist. You know a haunting has to be bad when a material atheist is willing to turn to the occult to handle it. The day I was originally supposed to go in to look at it there was a major snowstorm, and we postponed almost a month.

I’ve already shared all I knew when I was heading to the haunting. The house was about fifteen minutes from the subway, and it was a surprisingly nice day so I walked it. En route I started picking stuff up. Apparently this is not that uncommon, some people think it’s actually the spirits communicating before you arrive, personally I think it’s more psychic perception and precognition. The spirits aren’t coming to me, I’m picking up instances that will occur, or perhaps part of my mind has jumped ahead and is in contact with the location before my body arrives.

As I’m walking I’m getting impressions of an old woman, her hair is still dark, short in stature, and I’m not sure if she can speak English or not, but she’s definitely of Eastern European descent. I presume she’s related to the haunting I’m approaching. She seems to be a mix between sad, frustrated, and angry. She doesn’t really say anything, that’s rarely how I perceive spirits, but I can tell that a lot of her emotions are due to being ignored, but she’s not taking it personally, it isn’t about her, though that doesn’t make sense.

I get to the house, meet my friend and her sister and enjoy the wonderfully awkward and strained vibe between them. I quickly pick up a few things, the woman is definitely from this house, and the wall is covered with icons from an Eastern Orthodox tradition. I don’t mean that any of them were currently up, but even looking at the nature scene paintings around the room I was aware of icons hanging all around in the past, in the house as the old woman knew it.

The old woman doesn’t strike me as the type to require calling someone in for a haunting, but she does have her temper, so I could be wrong.

Due to the nature of the haunting, and my friend’s request for her sister, we performed a chöd ritual. This ritual was offered to the spirits of the area, the old woman, but really any spirit that wandered by could join the feast.

As we perform I become aware of the old woman, leaning against the door frame into the dining room, a dishtowel on her shoulder, just watching and smiling. Again she just does not seem like the troublesome haunting type, nor did any of the small random spirits that popped in.

Reaching out I struggle to find what the haunting could be, maybe the sister was wrong? I don’t know how to describe the next perception that well, but essentially I “rewound” the perception of the space. It’s even more murky than my normal perceptions, but can give me a sense of if something had happened, and it had, but I was no closer to knowing what.

After the ritual the sister begins to explain some of the backstory; she’s lived in the house for a decade and while there have always been little things, she could ignore and rationalize them. Then her husband died, a few weeks before the initial investigation was scheduled. Her husband died and activity spiked. She didn’t think the activity was her husband though, she said it didn’t feel like him, and was often too aggressive. Since there was always activity in the house though she was worried that something might have been happening with her husband and the spirit(s) that haunt the place, a type of struggle between them perhaps.

Again, it doesn’t seem to be the type of thing this old woman would do. I mention my perception of the woman, and that she doesn’t seem the type to do this. This was apparently correct, the person they bought the house from had explained that she lived in the house for a few years after inheriting it from her aunt, who was a short, devout, Ukrainian woman. This all fit my perceptions, but still left the problem open of what was this haunting? Was it really just this aunt moving minor things and the current owner overreacting? Where did the dead husband fit into the picture?

As I pondered I suddenly “got it,” the type of knowledge download where everything clicks. I explain this to the owner. She has cultivated the ability to ignore what is happening for years. Unfortunately that meant when her husband passed she did not pick up on the times where he tried to contact her. It seems like he was a fleeting presence, just a day or two trying to say good-bye, but unable to do much.

That’s where the dead aunt comes in. She was livid about this: how dare this woman ignore her husband? He’s trying to say good-bye, the least she could do was listen!

The increased activity was originally this woman trying to get the owner’s attention, and then was her annoyance that the owner didn’t listen when she had the chance.

Insert a period of discussion and crying between my friend and her sister about missing her chance to say good-bye. (Call me to handle the dead people, don’t expect me to deal with emotions)

Finally we closed with a discussion about the woman, and how to be accommodating with her. She’s just a friendly old aunt lady, who happens to lack a physical body. I’m sure I’ve said it here before, but I’m not a fan of the whole exorcise and banish at the drop of a hat. Most spirits are decent enough, and the majority of hauntings I’ve dealt with can be addressed by clear boundaries, and sharing the space. This was no different. It boiled down to asking the dead woman to not be disruptive (though again, she really never was until the husband died), but also finding a space and item to offer to the woman as something that is hers in the home. I gave a few suggestions, but don’t know what the owner decided on.

My friend has not reported back with any continued haunting, so hopefully the issues have been addressed.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
04
Sep
2018

Revisiting Spirits of Place


 

This is my second last post reblogging of older popular posts.

This isn’t a single post, but a series I did. Local spirits are something I work with a lot, and find they’re overlooked too often. So I wrote up a series of five posts going from what are local spirits, what aren’t, and how to work with them.

Local Spirits: Categories and Classifications. Common types of spirits that get lumped as local spirits, but aren’t necessarily such in my understanding.

Local Spirits: Clarifying Sadak and Shidak Explanation of the sadak and shidak, and the nature of local spirits proper.

Local Spirits: Reasons of Engagement Why you should work with local spirits, what they can do for you.

Local Spirits: Offerings and Engagement How to make offerings and how to sense and work with the shidak.

Local Spirits: Sensing and Structures More on sensing shidak, as well as how they seem to be structured and operate.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
30
Aug
2018

Review: The Witch’s Book of Spirits, by Devin Hunter

The Witch’s Book of Spirits – Devin Hunter

Llewellyn, 2017, 9780738751948, 306pp

The Witch’s Book of Spirits is a refreshing book on spirit work and magick. Devin Hunter leads you through a theoretical tour of spirit realms, introduces you to spirits along the way, and teaches you how to work with them.

Spirit work is the cornerstone of most witchcraft traditions, but what Hunter presents is both applicable to most magickal traditions, but also distinct in and of itself. That’s one of the main things I appreciated, Hunter’s system is its own thing, it’s fresh and new, not a rehash of older grimoires or Books of Shadows.

The book starts with a look at the history of spirits and magick, the importance of spirit allies, and explaining the spirit realms. The book felt almost like a spiral, rather than a linear book. Instead of being a straight progression from topic to topic, it felt like topics were introduced, explored, and returned to a while later with greater understanding. From a teaching perspective this is a great way to keep the information fresh and relevant in the reader’s mind.

The book spirals out, looking at familiars, protections, spiritual flight, returning to the various spirit realms, and methods of conjurations. While I might disagree with some of Hunter’s delineations of spirits and realms, they do make a useful model to work from. If the worst thing I can say is that I disagree with some definitions, then I’d say that this makes this a fairly solid book on spirit work.

It’s the last half of the book that really shines in my opinion. Hunter gives us nine “Keys of Hecate” which are a combination of sigils and energy work. These Keys are symbols of power, each one with a different purpose and method of use ranging from establishing authority and protection to helping spirits manifest on our level. I found these really interesting because while the origins and symbols are different, the underlying principle and method is very similar to work I’ve had revealed to me by my spirits, just as these Keys were revealed by Hunter’s work with Hecate.

Now that the reader is equipped with the Keys to handle spirits the book spirals back into a deeper look at the classification of spirits, from angels and demons to the dead and the fae. The book ends with a grimoire of 33 spirits, spirits of the Vexna-Kari. They’re an interesting mishmash of spirits of different types and different origins. Several apparently were spirit familiars to witches in the past, but for whatever reason even after their witch died the spirits remained, brought back into the fold by the Vexna-Kari. The abilities or domains of the spirits are the standard fair: help learning, drawing love, protection, financial aid and so on. The head of the spirits, the Vexna-Kari, are three spirits, progenitors of witchblood, angels who walked the Earth. This section, like the Keys, had a few eerie similarities to my own work, and considering much of that comes from spirits who also claim themselves as bloodline progenitors and angels on the Earth I think it’s good confirmation having similarities arise. I suspect those who follow paths connected to the Crooked Path, Sabbatic Craft, TradCraft will probably find Hunter’s work very resonant with their own.

While I would recommend the book in general, for anyone wanting to improve the connection and work with spirits, I will say it probably will have an extra “layer” to those who walk paths connected with Hecate, the Bene Ha Elohim, and TradCraft. Even if you’re fairly developed in your spirit work, I would recommend the book for the Keys of Hecate and the Vexna-Kari grimoire.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
21
Nov
2015

Spirit Allies: Relationships Over Collections

Minor Rant
I need to repaint my living room, and I could ask friends or family to help. They’re not professional painters, but they’d get the job done. It’s easier to ask them then it is to hire professionals, or befriend a professional in hopes of getting them to help as a favour.
It’s a sloppy analogy, but I see it all the time in magick.
“My mother just broke her hip, and I want to help heal her, what god should I work with and how?”
“I bought a new house and want to banish it thoroughly before moving in, what god would be a good choice?”
“I’m trying to find a job, which Buddha should I petition?”
Here is my answer: if you have to ask, you shouldn’t be working with them. Aside from an issue with how people collect and toss gods for favours in a manner I find ridiculous and disrespectful, it’s also not an efficient way to handle it.
Our relationships with spirits and gods are just that, relationships, not matters of convenience. Yet what type of relationship can you build quickly for that one goal.
Now before I go on, I’d like to clarify two points. First, I’m obviously not against working with spirits, but when I’ve discussed this before I’ve had people assume I’m anti-spirit work or something. Far from the case, but I’m against inefficient (and perhaps rude) spirit work. Second, we need to draw a distinction between short-term singular goals, and long term goals. There is a difference between being sick, and being chronically ill, or between being unemployed, and perpetually low on funds.
So what’s my issue here? Why do the spirits help us? People claim lots of reasons; altruism, their nature, compulsion, whatever. Yet even if you have a friendly neighbour who would help you do your garden, if you’ve never talked to them, and suddenly pop over and ask for them to help out for a few hours, it’s weird, and kinda rude.
Yet people do that with spirits all the time, they have a goal, and they begin working with a new spirit. This ignores the fact that our spirit allies are far more complicated than many people give them credit for, and this perhaps belies the lack of relationship people have. Why are you trying to build relationships, that you won’t maintain, will promptly forget, just to get a goal, especially when chances are you already have allies who can help.
Again, think of them like real people. I’m not a professional mover, nor am I super strong (but stronger than I look), but if you need help moving something, I can do just that. I’m not a repair person, but I’m smart and good with google, so if your tv isn’t working we could sit down with a computer, and possibly get it up and running. Yet if I were to write a description of my skills I would never think to include “Helps move heavy shit” “Can tinker like a mo-fo” or such, because they’re not my focus…but they’re there. Most spirits are like that, more so the “bigger” they get. Okay, perhaps something like a Goetic spirit is more limited in what it can do (though trust me, some of them are a lot broader than the paragraph says), but when you work with higher order angels, or gods, saints, Buddhas, why act as if they can’t help?
They might not be “experts” in the field, but they can probably help, and more importantly you already have a connection with them, a relationship. If you need an expert, find one, but why go through that effort until it’s actually needed? Your patron might not be listed under “Job magick” in some witchy-cookbook, but there is probably something they can do to help, either directly, or indirectly.
To make another, geekier, analogy think Pokemon. In Pokemon some pokemon are good at somethings, but not others. Fire pokemon are good against Grass, but not against Water. Grass pokemon are good against Water, but not against Fire. Water pokemon are good against Fire, but not against Grass. The trouble is you can only train six pokemon at once. So sometimes you’ll being raising Fire pokemon and you encounter a Water pokemon. Normally your Fire pokemon would be weak against them, but because you’ve been working with them, they’re strong, and if you switched to a Grass pokemon you’ve never used, sure it is technically strong against Water, but it’s so much weaker than your Fire pokemon that it isn’t useful. So even though the Fire pokemon isn’t the best designed for the situation in terms of strengths, it’s still the best choice you have.
I hate to say our spirit allies are pokemon, but I think it’s an accurate comparison here. It’s not so much that working with us makes them more powerful, but perhaps more connected and precise. A spirit that you’re really bound to can influence your world to a far greater extent than most newly contacted spirits. That link draws them into our lives, into this level of reality.
Don’t be afraid to ask your spirits for help, even if it doesn’t seem connected to their abilities. If you’re looking for a job and Thor is your go-to for everything, ask him, the worst case is he’ll tell you he can’t help. Aphrodite might not be the first choice to get you out of debt, but if she’s been with you for years, ask her, again the worst that can happen is she’ll hand you off to someone else. Manjushri might not be about healing, but if you ask he’d do his best.
Perhaps I take my relationships too seriously, but I would rather not engage with someone new for the sake of a task, when I could work with a friend.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
01
Nov
2015

Mintfalls

Taking a break from my normal schedule, I was asked to write a post about a construct of mine on a forum. They were discussing uses for bottles, and I mentioned one ongoing working I had involving a bottle and was asked to discuss it more.
Around seven or eight years ago I created a construct, Mintfalls, who by their titles is my Genie of Finances and my Guardian of Financial Stability. Their purpose is more around stability and keeping things from getting bad, rather than drawing money or making me wealthy. They’re the stable income and emergency stash rather than the increasing bank balance.
Their creation was fairly simple. I used the standard method of taking a Statement of Intent, and reducing the letters. I was left with some combination resembling Mintfalls, so decided on that name, and made a sigil based on the name using two methods; the popular Chaos Magick letter smash, and the Qamea. As I fed the energy into the sigil I kept “folding” it back in, so rather than letting it go off to accomplish something, I kept drawing it back into the sigil. Eventually this turned into a 3D image of the sigil, the skeleton of the construct, and by putting energy in, eventually this settled into a construct. (For sake of brevity I’m leaving it at that)

The oldest "body" of Mintfalls currently

The oldest “body” of Mintfalls currently

After Mintfalls’s creation I created a bottle to be their vessel, I pick, whenever possible, an orange bottle, and I paint the sigils on the bottle in blue; this is to connect them to the flows of Mercury and Jupiter. The top of the bottle is capped with a blue candle, and some Wealth Drawing Oil is poured in. Their vessel is where I leave my offerings for Mintfalls, which is my spare change, generally any change less than a dollar I have at the end of the day goes to Mintfalls.
While I can make the offerings any time, I often do it weekly now, just tossing the coins around the bottle until it’s time to actually work with them. I give the offerings, coin by coin, with a prayer that has developed over time. Below is the prayer, whenever you see an asterisk (*) that is when I would toss in a coin. I repeat the prayer until I’ve run out of coins.
Hail to thee Mintfalls*
My Genie of Finances*
And Guardian of Financial Stability*
As you feed me * so I feed you *
As I support you * so you support me *
Keep my finances stable, abundant, and ever increasing *
Hail to thee Mintfalls*
My Genie of Finances*
And Guardian of Financial Stability*
As you support me * so I support you *
As I feed you * so you feed me *
Keep my finances stable, abundant, and ever increasing *
(Note the third and fourth lines of both set are mirrored versions of the other verse)
After I’ve run out of coins and finish the prayer I gather my energy in my navel centre, and then in a long slow outbreath pour it into Mintfalls’s bottle.
When a bottle is full I add more Wealth Drawing oil, and light the candle on top until it melts and seals the bottle. (I have to extinguish it before it is done, otherwise the wick and flame can fall into the coins as the wax melts, leaving the bottle top open.)
Part of the construction of Mintfalls included the detailing of the procedure of keeping the bottles. I’m allowed to keep four bottles, being the number of Jupiter. When I start the fifth bottle, the oldest of the bottles is destroyed. That money is either donated, or spent on lottery tickets. With regards to the lottery ticket, it’s not about winning, in fact, in the years I’ve worked with Mintfalls, I don’t think the lottery tickets purchased through them have done more than get a free play, the point is to return their money into the flow of things, specifically to unexpected gains. So while I won’t win the lottery, it does suddenly add to someone else’s wealth, giving so that a return flux is possible. I had asked about putting it into a savings account, as that seems more intuitively appropriate, but I was told at that point the coins are consecrated and need to be moving around fast, not symbolically sitting in a bank.
Another aspect of Mintfalls’s duty is as emergency funding. They know that if times are ever really rough I can destroy the oldest active bottle, in case of emergency break glass I guess. Though I’ve had some close calls, I’ve never had to destroy their form prematurely. When things were really bad, and I would give them their offering, I’d casually mention that if things don’t change soon, I’ll have to break one of their bottles, and it is as if that reminder gets them going again, and things start to pick up.
If I was going to make another construct like Mintfalls, now I feel that I’d add in some Saturn, for stability and form, rather than just Mercury and Jupiter for different aspects of wealth and luck and movement. The problem with a construct like Mintfalls, is it is a lot harder than most to prove they’re doing their job. My finances have been roughly stable, and things have never gotten too bad, despite some close calls. So their “success” is more or less judged on the fact I haven’t financially failed in that time, so while I can’t say they’re a successful construct with complete confidence, I can say I have no reason to believe they’re not unsuccessful at least. They seem to have worked, they’re responsive, and my finances have been more or less stable in their career, so I’m wiling to hedge my bets toward their success.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
13
Oct
2015

Sorcerer's Plant: Care, Feeding, and Consecration

Before I continue the post proper I wanted to address a question I got and can’t easily work into the post.
“Why do you suggest big blade aloe plants?”
There are two reasons. The first is when the angel(s) gave me the image it was the large bladed type of aloe vera, and I have kept my plants as close as possible to their vision and instruction. The second reason is because you can actually cut off a blade to use in certain rituals, but the plant is an ally, so the destruction of part of its body should be a sacrifice. If it’s dozens of small blades one removed will not contain much power, and will not be noticed, but a larger blade will make you think twice before using it.
Previously I spoke a bit about the uses of the plant, and the type of plant selected and the basic preparation, now let’s shift to the methods of consecration.
There are two elements of the consecration, a regular routine one, and an irregular one.
I mentioned that the plant is a connection to places and spirits you work with, this is part of the irregular consecration.
I’ve talked before about collecting dirt, here and here. This is how you connect the plant to different places. Follow the method I mentioned (or something similar) where you are not just grabbing dirt, but making an offering for it, gather the essence of the place into it, and then collect the dirt.
Gather Nest dirt, which I mentioned but didn’t describe in those posts, but to reiterate a Nest is a power place, often conceptualized in the West as a Nexus point, a crisscrossing of Ley Lines or flows of nature energy. But a Nest doesn’t have to be such a crisscrossing (or rather my tradition claims that some lines are far beneath the Earth and only rear their Head in certain areas), sometimes there is a place of power disconnected for the area around. Gather dirt that is important to your practice. Power places, temples, graves that are relevant to your work, holy places, whatever.

Now if you don't have soil samples from various graves, power points, and dragon's nests, then store bought is fine...actually, no it's not.

Now if you don’t have soil samples from various graves, power points, and dragon’s nests, then store bought is fine…actually, no it’s not.

When you have the dirt I recommend sterilizing it. You don’t have to, but dirt can contain harmful microorganisms which can be damaging to plants, and if you’re using it to detect magickal attacks you want to avoid any confusion if it starts wilting. To sterilize soil you bake it believe it or not. Put the soil in an oven safe container, I find mini-cupcake pans are the perfect size for my soil samples. The soil should be slightly damp. Cover the container with tin foil and pop in the oven at 90C (200F), once the dirt reaches around 82C (180F) keep it at that temperature for half an hour. Don’t let it go much higher than that, because that can actually produce (so the gardening sites claim) toxins in the soil. After half an hour take it out, and let it cool. You now have sterilized dirt that is free of damaging organisms for your plant.
My plant has soil from the various Nests near me. Places along the shore where I communicate with the spirits of Lake Ontario, places on the Bluffs, a crypt that has been a focus of my magickal work for 12 years, places like that. It also has dirt from the Blue Hole in the Pine Barrens, and sand from the Atlantic ocean, Graveyard dirt from the focal points of the various Lords of the Dead in different cemeteries I’ve visited in Canada and the US, and even stuff as far reaching as dirt from the roots of the (supposed) Bodhi Tree, and sand from the shore of Lake Rakshastal in the Himalayas (a lake of special importance to me). Think about the places that are important and powerful to you, and the places you have spirit allies. Take dirt from there.
Adding the dirt to the plant is something that I do non-ceremoniously, though I only do it when I water the plant. Before I start I hold the dirt, and use it as a link to the spirit or place, and reach out and connect it, then I speak to the spirit and place and plant, and explain that I’m giving it the dirt to connect them, so they become linked. So that offerings to the plant are offerings to these spirits, so that the plant becomes a place where I can easily speak to those far away and draw on their forces. You don’t need to add much, and if you’re like me, you don’t want to use too much, because pretty soon your pot will be overflowing. I use maybe a teaspoon each time.
(As a sidenote: I mentioned that my last plant died. I took the soil from that pot, from the edge away from the roots, just in case they started to rot, and I sterilized that dirt and reused it with my new plant. That way it kept some of the energy of the plant, and the connections I had already established. It felt like they broke, but the guidelines are there, so it’s just a matter of charging this plant back up to connect.)
Now for the part of the regular consecration, this is what helps connect the plant to you, and helps it stand in as you during magickal attacks. It also, I believe, it was largely gives it the power to become something more than just a plant, but a more conscious spirit.
It is to be watered every New Moon, and every Full Moon. (Water in between if it needs it, but not a full watering)I use rain water (or melted snow in the winter), I wasn’t told to, but it just seems right. Every Full Moon it’s not just water I feed my sorcerer’s plant, but my blood as well. *insert people suddenly being squeamish for no good reason* It doesn’t have to be much, I usually only include three drops for a symbolic reasoning. I mix the blood in with the water, and give it to the plant. As usual it’s less ceremony and more altered state chatting with the plant, reminding it that I share my blood with its water, so that I may become part of the plant, and that the plant is part of me, to bind us together and to enliven the plant. On the New Moon I offer my plant water and semen. (Those who didn’t know my sex or gender, you at least know I have functioning testicles) I cannot speak for those without the ability to produce semen, either due to medical issues or have different gonads/genitals, though I suppose other sexual secretions would work, or a second serving of blood. When I water the plant this time it is much the same, just explaining and reinforcing our connection.
(Feeding the plant my blood and semen is why my sorcerer’s plant has earned the endearing, but inaccurate, nickname of being a cum-guzzling cannibal cactus.)
This really gives the plant its own presence, and as mentioned helps it become a sort of astral double that works well as a stand in for a lot of malefic magick. There is nothing done to make it stand in, it just seems to be a nature of the plant, a natural occurrence after it builds up enough force.
Now that the plant is active and developing, you can use it essentially as a remote altar. If you need to connect to a distant spirit or place, treat the plant as you would an image or statue on an altar. Reach through it, make the offerings to it, connect to it, and speak through/to it.
I mentioned cutting off the blades. When I find I really need a boost in a ritual, I need access to more force/energy than I can easily tap, or I want to be empowered by distant allies I cut off a blade, split it lengthwise down the centre and use its gel as an anointing oil. My forehead, temples, wrists, and any other appropriate power point is wiped with the gel and I find that really sends me up and out into the ritual. Also I’ve used it as a stand in for my own blood in other rituals when I’ve not been comfortable using my own blood.
The sorcerer’s plant has inspired other such botanical familiars in my work, and I’ve come across similar ideas since then, but this post is long enough as is, so I will leave it here.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
09
Oct
2015

Sorcerer's Plant

For well over a year I cultivated my sorcerer’s plant, and in that time it was a good focus and tool, and in the end it proved to be a great ally. Two weeks a good I began the process of consecrating and ensorcerelling a new one. Since people asked me about it, I asked the spirits who helped guide me to the plant, and I have a green light to talk about it. (I figured since it was part of a tradition of sorts, I needed permission to discuss it exactly, rather than in broad strokes)
So to start, just what is a sorcerer’s plant? It’s a hard question to answer, but most simply it’s a living (literally) talisman. Now a lot of us magickal folks (myself included) see some of our talismans and objects as alive, but this literally is alive on a biological level. A sorcerer’s plant has several purposes. It’s a focal point of power, it’s a very lively plant, and can be used to draw energy from, far more than you could from a regular plant, but it’s more than a battery, because it’s a focal point of different entities, and nests, and sacred places. (Nest in this tradition refers to a Dragon’s Nest, what most people would understand/call a nexus point of Ley Lines, a point of convergence of flows of power across the land) Through the plant you can access, if in a limited way, places and entities that are distant. (The spirits who set me about working on the plant told me that a long-lived and powerful sorcerer’s plant would eventually shift the flows around it to become a nest of its own. I don’t know if I believe that, or if it’s true, they might have been speaking out of their ass-trals.) It also has a more active plant genus attached to it, a more conscious spirit.
The plant also becomes an early warning system. The method of consecration causes a type of mirroring or interference between you and the plant, so a lot of stuff directed at you runs through the plant. In the case of attacks or malefic magick, this means the plant can absorb it, and it will affect the plant instead or first. Also the way it’s powered and connected makes it a great ritual ingredient for heightening trance states and the like. There is more to it, but any competent magickal folk will also start figuring out their own uses to it, and potentially tweaking it.
Regarding the early warning system, that is why I’m consecrating my second plant. I was recently a target of some malefic magick (since dealt with) which involved some pretty impressive signs. A dead mouse beside my offering dish, and the wards I drew on my walls before painting literally bled through the paint, and my healthy and living plant became mush. It didn’t just die or whither, it was suddenly a pile of goo held together by its skin. I don’t know what would have happened without it, but to turn a plant to mush, I’m pretty sure it took the brunt of it. I had found it useful before this, but this really drove it home.

Larger, fewer blades

Larger, fewer blades

So first one must acquire a plant to become the receptacle. I was told to acquire “the plant of immortality,” and my first thought was the Epic of Gilgamesh, but it was accompanied by a mental image of an aloe vera plant. Now supposedly (internet says) the Khemetic people called aloe vera the plant of immortality, but regardless it matches up, and makes sense to use aloe because of its gel (more on that next post). There are a couple of species of aloe vera, I personally recommend one with fewer larger blades, rather than many small ones. If you’ve never grown an aloe before, I recommend googling how to, they can be tricky plants, especially if you’re used to “normal” house plants, not succulents.
Too many small blades. Also avoid the more squat bladed species.

Too many small blades. Also avoid the more squat bladed species.

Then you need a pot, it doesn’t have to be a fancy pot, but large enough for the plant (again google what type of pots and setups are best for aloe), and preferably a touch deeper than needed. The most vague part of the instructions I was given was “make the pot magickal.” So I repeat that to you. I did it by using food colouring to paint the seals of some of my planetary angels on the inside of the pot and a few personal symbols related to the tradition. I used food colouring because it’s a terra cotta pot, so it absorbs well, and I didn’t want to use something like paint that would potentially be harmful to the plant.
Now plant the aloe into the pot, don’t fill it with dirt all the way to the top though. Leave some room. Almost to the top.
In most cases an aloe vera plant can be watered every two weeks, which just happens to sync up pretty excellently with the lunar cycle. I was told to water the plant on the New Moon and the Full Moon. Every once and a while in a really dry period I might need to give it a bit more in between, but save the full watering for the New and Full moons.
Next time I’ll discuss more on how it’s consecrated, nurtured, and worked with.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
08
Jun
2015

Ancestor Work: Categories of Dead Folks


Last week I talked about starting ancestor work, and a few people in the comments already jumped ahead to what I wanted to talk about this week, which is the different categories of the dead and ancestors.
The tradition I ended up working with included a few categories of the dead, and that has been tweaked a bit by me based on my cosmology.
The first is the Beloved Dead. The Beloved Dead are the family you knew. If they were alive at the same time as you, if you knew them, then they’re in the Beloved Dead category. This is the primary group most people work with, and in a lot of ways it’s the most accessible.
The second would be the Faceless Dead. The Faceless Dead are the family you didn’t know. The great-great grandparents who died before you were born, all those you never got to meet but whom you are a descendant of are the Faceless Dead. They’re still an easily accessed and immediate presence in ancestor work despite the distance.
Some people wonder why or how someone you never knew would work with you, even if you are a descendant. There are several reasons, the first, as cheesy as it sounds is the love of family. How many of us have had someone born into the family, a child, a niece or nephew, a cousin, whatever. Right away we probably love them. We have no idea who they’ll grow up to be, but there is this immediate bond, they’re family, they’re our kid, or our sibling’s kid, or someone else’s, but we love the parent, and that transfers to the child.
Another reason, which is harder to explain, is the continuation of self. There is a saying that children make us immortal, because our genes and values will continue through them. (Technically with that logic, it just means you’re long-lived, cause all of humanity will die eventually.) We’re a physical emanation of those who went before us, we’re connected to them, and in many ways a part of them, so it’s in their best interest to work with us. We’re a continuation or extension of them, it is natural to seek to benefit that which is connected to us.
Note: Some groups and lineages refer to this category as the Nameless Dead. For me that doesn’t work, first off I’m my family geneaologist, I know names of my family going back before the Battle of Hastings. Secondly Nameless has a very specific connotation in my spiritual background which clashes with this understanding, so I switched it to Faceless. For the most part there are no visual representations, so they are Faceless to me.
Those two categories are the two “proper” categories of ancestors we have to work with. The next two are not quite ancestors properly, but interact with us in a similar way.
The first of these is the Lunar Dead. The Lunar Dead could be seen as our adopted family. They are our friends, teachers, and people we had close ties to. Your best friend, or even your best friend’s mother depending on your relationship, might come through as a Lunar Dead in your life. If you’re part of a spiritual tradition, the teachers before you can be part of the Lunar Dead, and much like the Faceless Dead, this can include those you’ve never met. In my case my lama’s lama, who died a few years before I got into Buddhism, has made his presence felt with the Lunar Dead. If they were the type of person who would help you out, no matter what in life, then chances are they’ll fall under the Lunar Dead.
The second group in this set is, as some might have guessed, the Solar Dead. The Solar Dead is a very broad category. It includes anyone who could be in the previous categories, but from a past life. You might still have some connection, however subtle, to family members from another life, to friends and teachers who knew you before you took this birth. The Solar Dead can even potentially contain other forms of your self from the past. I have a very loving woman who occasionally shows up, and I get the sense she was a nanny of some sort for a life I spent in India, where she was closer to me than my mother was. Basically though the Solar Dead is any type of connection with a deceased spirit from a life before this one. I don’t know how far back the Solar Dead can go, I assume it’s more based on how long the connection has been dormant, how strong it was, and how connected you are to it now, but that’s just what seems right to me, and might not be the case.
The last category of the dead is not really an ancestor in any sense of the word (though there could be overlap), and that would be the Mighty Dead. The Mighty Dead are the powerful, fascinating, and unique historical figures out there. They’re people that made a huge difference in the world, the people who will be remembered by many not related to them. This could be famous political figures, Ghandi or J.F.K., warlords like Napoleon, great minds like Sagan and Einstein, even great sorcerers like John Dee, or Crowley. If they’re a figure famous for their work in some regard, they can be included in the Mighty Dead.
I know some people work regularly with the Mighty Dead, giving frequent offerings, much as they would with their ancestors. Personally I don’t, I don’t have a connection with any of them that I feels warrants it, but if I need to work with one of them, I can create such a relationship, but I don’t keep one going on standby just in case.
For me these extra categories slowly developed as I worked with my ancestors. My Great-Grandpa who died before I was born showed up after a while, and I felt I couldn’t exclude him, just because I never knew him. So I included him on the offerings, and then another family member I had never met made their presence known, and over time I realized there was a group, so I gave them their own category and set of offerings.
I find every once and a while I get a few new Faceless Dead, as if my work with the rest of them is slowly calling them, or awakening them, or perhaps the dead communicate and tell their parents and family “Hey, someone is actually acknowledging us, come get a meal.”
My Solar Dead showed up before I began ancestor work, but it was my ancestor work that gave me a format to work with them, rather than just having them occasionally around.
No Lunar Dead showed up before I began to call them, it is a category I created out of utility, as I worked with the dead I made a point of acknowledging some friends who had been murdered, and felt that whatever was out there of those who I knew, but was not related to, could still benefit from some offerings.
Once a week I make my offerings to the various groups. My Beloved Dead and Faceless Dead receive incense, candles, and water or tea. My Lunar Dead and Solar Dead receive bread. Perhaps more importantly though, they all receive my attention, which from my conversations with them, sounds like most of them almost never get.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick