starry path

Feb

2019

Starry Path: Circle of Descent

Recapping: The foundation has been laid, the primary god figures have been introduced, as well as some of the spirits, explanations on tapping into the general energy of Star Fire, and the creation of two of the most basic materia on the Path.

Now it is time to bring this together with some very basic magick.

There are several methods of creating sacred space on the Path, a simple method follows, more complex ones will be discussed later. Different ways of creating sacred space exist for different purposes and situations.

This method of creating sacred space is geared towards spirit communication, manifestation, rooting the energetic in the material, the descent of spirit into matter. It creates a space where the flow of Spirit Descending into matter is strengthened, allowing spirits to manifest more strongly. This is a space for this type of magick, but it is not a protective or banishing working.

To create sacred space appropriate for spirit communication you’ll need your Salt of Star Fire.

Do whatever preliminary practice you feel is necessary; meditate, pillars, ground and centre, align the three souls, whatever you feel is necessary.

Orient yourself facing north. If you do not know which direction is north while not ideal you can always just pick a direction. North is generally the direction our circles are drawn from, but sometimes another direction might make more sense. For instance different stellar spirits might be called opening the circle in another direction, or if you’re working with the spirit of a place, and they are centered on a specific point, a tree, a statue, etc., then you can start facing that direction instead. If you’re working with spirits more generally and less geographically/spatially oriented then face north. (Despite asking, I’ve not been told if the circle should be cast from the south in the southern hemisphere, or if north remains the appropriate direction. If anyone on that side of the equator wants to experiment I would love to know.)

Facing north breathe in Star Fire until you feel you have a good amount of the energy in your system. Breathe the fire out onto your Salt of Star Fire and your hands, see the white flames subtly dancing on the surface.

Take the Salt and shake, sprinkle, or toss it loosely around you in a circle, starting in the north and moving clockwise. See how the Salt grounds the Star Fire physically and makes a glowing ring of Star Fire on the ground.

When the circle is complete put down the Salt. Raise your hands straight up and breathe in Star Fire again from the Heavens. Once the energy begins to flow into you lower your arms until your hands are pointing towards the ring of Salt. Let Starfire descend around you and through you into the ring, falling like a gentle rain.

The point is not to create an energetic wall of this energy, but rather to create the flow of the energy from Above to Below. This is not so much like a protective circle, but rather a point in space where the subtle energy flows down into the physical reality. Essentially this is a space were spirits and energy can manifest a bit easier because it’s a space where Spirit is descending into Matter.

Still facing north breathe in Star Fire again and blow it onto your dominant hand. Reach your dominant hand out, wreathed in flames, fingers up and palm out, like the “Stop” gesture. Spread your fingers out as far as you comfortably can. If the circle is small enough put your hand against the boundary above the circle of Salt. If the circle is too big for that, when you extend your hand and reach as far as you can go, the flaming image of your hand continues forward until it reaches the edge of the space where it rests. Either way leave a flaming palm print in the air at the edge of the circle.

Do the same with the other directions going clockwise. Depending on how much of the energy you brought in initially and how much you sent out you might need to breathe down Star Fire again to have enough. After this is done in the four directions do the same upwards, but instead of stopping at the edge of your space the flaming hand continues upwards until it is a shining star above you. Then draw Star Fire down and place your palm on the ground to send the handprint down into the earth, it stops in the core of the planet.

Stand up, and address the spirits of the Path.

“Fires of Heaven walking the Earth,

Open the Ways of Form.

Take my hands and guide Spirit into our world.”

The hands you are referring to are not your actual hands, but the flaming handprints you’ve left in space. In this form of the circle you might get general spirits of the Path, or possibly the directional guardians who will be addressed later. They clasp your handprints and help to continue the bridging flow of Spirit into Matter.

At this point the space has been made, and you can call upon and address spirits however you see fit. I will say again though, this is not a protective circle, but a space where Spirit Descends more easily allowing spirits to manifest more clearly. The spirits of the Path around the circle are not there for protection, but are pillars or conduits. Because it’s not a protective circle this is the space where you would call upon allies, ancestors, spirits you are on good terms with, or even spirits that are neutral with you. If you are not sure of the spirit’s nature or intent, this is not the circle to use with them.

When you are done the circle is fairly easy to take down. Put your hand, palm out, in front of you, and see light from all the handprints flowing into your hand, threads of light from all the handprints. With a turning motion turn your palm in and close your fist, and the fist closes it pulls in all the energy from your handprints. Without the hands or spirits to hold the space it will fade out on its own. If you want it closed faster, you can reach your hands towards the edge of the circle and breathe the Star Fire ring back into yourself.

Depending on ability and preference you can keep that Star Fire energy within yourself, breathe it back into container of Salt of Star Fire, or tilt your head back and with a forceful breath send it back to the sky, or any other reservoir you might want to use.

Jan

2019

Starry Path: Purpose, Path, and Goals

Since I’ve had a few good questions about the Starry Path, I figured it was worth having another “about” post going into more detail around the Path.

What is the purpose of the Starry Path, and my purpose in exploring and sharing it?

I’m not sure it’s fair to assume there is a major teleological element to the Starry Path. That would feel too religious to me. Sure, there is a purpose to the Path, like any magickal path it’s about opening ourselves up, to perceive reality in a deeper, more complex way, and to understand that reality, and our ability to influence it. The Path is about studying, and embracing magick and spirit, but not necessarily with some clear end goal, like a favourable afterlife or reincarnation.

My “purpose” in exploring it is just that, to learn more about magick and spirit, the Cosmos and my place within it. Purpose may not apply here either, because as much as this is a path that I’m exploring, there are definitely times when it feels like I don’t have much of a choice. The spirits have made themselves known, and my options are either ignore them, or go with them. Parts of the Path are intentionally explored, other areas I’m tossed into by the spirits.

As for sharing it, that is a bit harder to explain. The Starry Path is my experience, I’m not sharing it as a religious concept for others, or a path for others to follow whole-cloth, but as a record of my experience, an example of what can happen, and yes, as a system of arcana I hope others can explore too.

In fact, the purpose in sharing is something I think I didn’t make clear enough in the past. I mentioned the Path is ecstatic and gnostic, but inseparable from that the Starry Path is at its core a tutelary Path. Something that doesn’t get talked about enough in magick is the fact that most traditions seem like they are meant to be tutelary paths, not something to be slavishly followed. It seems though as trads spread and age, things become codified, and people think of that path as only what is presented to them. I love my encounters with these spirits, what they have shown and done for me, and I love hearing from people who have tried things from the Path…but if I ever meet anyone who is following my instructions/explanations on the Starry Path and that’s it, they haven’t moved beyond that, then they are doing the Path wrong.

The spirits I introduce aren’t meant to be merely summoned for a task and sent off, they are the teachers of the Path. Part of the Starry Path is accepting the spirits as teachers and guides. They know far more about it than I ever will. The Starry Path is meant to establish connection, and give a Path to walk, but it’s to be a guide. To paraphrase Chumbley “Confuse not the Path, with what I have written on it.” If you’re trying out stuff that I post, and not learning directly from the spirits as you go, then you need to slow down and engage them. It’s a tutelary path, learn from the spirits, innovate, and explore, do not just follow what you hear from me or others.

Are these new spirits? Why do we need new gods and spirits?

They’re not new at all. It is only my exploration of the Path that is new. They have always been here, they appear across time and spirit in many traditions, only my engagement with them is new. Some of the spirits on the Path are directly in other traditions and mythologies, others are more like resonant figures, perhaps the seed of myth that has been codified. They are not new, but I’m looking at a different facet of their complex being.

As for why do we “need” these “new” spirits, that’s an individual thing. Above I mentioned how a lot of paths start off tutelary, but over time become ossified and strict. Reality bleeds into myth, and legend, experiences become “fact” and ideas become gospel. The spirits of the Path appear across the world in different times and cultures, some of the magick they teach appears in other traditions. The Starry Path was borne out of a need and desire to experience things as they are. That is where the Path being ecstatic, gnostic, and tutelary comes in. It’s an attempt to engage this magick unadulterated by mythology and culture.

Of course, there will always be contamination based on the person, and culture experiencing, but it is hoped that those are less because it’s more direct, not over long stretches of time. I won’t deny that my explanations and explorations of the Starry Path are filtered through me. But like a game of telephone, the less people it passes through, the clearer it will be.

A parallel for this is the terma tradition in Vajrayana Buddhism. In Vajrayana Buddhism it’s very important to have a lineage. For many of my major empowerments, I can track it backwards in time, from me, to Rinpoche, to his teacher, to his teacher’s teacher, and so on back to some famous Buddha or saint. Despite this emphasis on lineage though, it’s understood that overtime teachings shift, get corrupted, misunderstood, and change. A terma is a revealed teaching. It’s believed that great masters (generally Padmasambhava, but termas from other figures exist) have left behind their teachings, hidden, to be discovered later. Padmasambhava for instance taught in the 8th century, that is a long time to assume that no teacher or student has misunderstood his teachings, no one has been confused in passing it on, nothing has been lost. Foreseeing this as a problem it’s believed that Guru Padmasambhava hid teachings, termas, so that centuries later someone would find them, and “refresh” the tradition with more accurate knowledge. A few centuries pass, things shift, and someone finds a terma text, and suddenly we know how things have been misunderstood for a few centuries, and we can correct that. We’re going back to the source, rather than trusting in a centuries long game of broken telephone. Terma exist as both physical scrolls that are found, and also Mind/Space terma, which are more of a vision/revelation of the information.

In that way I think on a basic level you could compare the Starry Path to terma. It’s an attempt to look past the myths, past the ideas and opinions, past ossified concepts, and to see what was at the base of it, and bring that back out. So yes, these spirits are probably in various myths, some directly, others are vague inspirations lost in the mists of time, but with the Starry Path I’m asking them to teach me directly outside of the religion/culture that has codified them over centuries.

Is X spirit, really Y spirit?

You’ll have to ask them. In some cases there is a one-for-one link between spirits on the Path and spirit in another tradition. Sometimes one spirit was divided in myth into two or more, and sometimes two or more spirits were combined under the same name. Other times it’s a general echo, X spirit might not be Y, but stories of X may have inspired the myths of Y down the line. The webs of history and myth are subtle and abstract. Because the tradition is gnostic/tutelary, I’m not going to say who is whom in my experiences, at least not yet.

Do you have to follow these rituals in order, contact spirits in order?

Yes and no. I certainly didn’t follow the order I’m writing in. Hell I’m still sorting out experiences in the last decade that I didn’t realize where connected to the Starry Path, or experiences I thought were connected but aren’t. A few of the practices have an order they need to follow. That’s why I’m introducing the Star Fire variations first in order. You can’t create Red or Blue Salt of Star Fire, without normal Salt of Star Fire, that’s just how it works out. Put unless I specifically mention that one thing has to precede another, feel free to jump around my writings in whatever order you want. Part of what makes this difficult to write about is my experiences have not been clean and orderly over the last decade, so I was never given a “This is where you start, this is what’s next.” So I’m going back through notes and thinking things over trying to reorder my experiences and information in a way that is easier for people to pick up and follow.

Are you just going to blather on this, or actually give us some magick to do?

Don’t worry, the base is more or less laid, so soon we’ll actually be doing stuff with the Path.

Dec

2018

Starry Path: Tzotzora, Salt of Red Fire, Watcher of the Ways

[I can’t believe it’s been a month since I posted. I held off posting this as Tzotzora was not happy with the post and needed to correct me, and as those on my twitter/facebook know my boyfriend just moved in so it’s been a hectic month. Without further ado here is the post, and Tzotzora hasn’t complained about this one, so hopefully I’ve made no mistakes.]

I realize looking at my notes, that I haven’t yet talked about the Twin of the Star Goddess. (My apologies, over the years this information has not necessarily come to me linear, so my notes or way of thinking about it may jump around.)

In a mild paradox the Star Goddess is Their own twin. This is nothing too unusual to anyone who has been on a mystical path for a while.

Twin Queen of the Underworld. Goddess of the Deep Below. Lady of the Great Earth. Mother of the Stars Within the Earth. While They have many names, no single name has rung as clear for Them as “Star Goddess” has for the other form. Personally though I’m partial to Mother of the Stars Within the Earth, unfortunately that is a bit wordy.

While the Star Goddess is represented by the starry night sky, Their twin form is the ultimate pitch of darkness. Space where no light is cast, deep beneath the earth and far above it. While the Star Goddess is the Creator of All, as Their twin They are the End of All. Star Goddess is the Womb, Goddess of the Deep Below is the Tomb.

You see more generative and peaceful Star/Dark/Night deities in a lot of mythology, but there are also the more destructive and forceful ones. In Greek mythology Zeus himself was afraid of Nyx. Hine-nui-te-pō is goddess of night and death. There are many cases of overlap of night/dark deities and death and destruction. Star Goddess is no different. They are all things, and thus They hold this paradox within Themselves. I think in this case the more I elaborate, the farther we go from the reality of the matter, that every description moves us farther from what is being described. Most people I believe have some intuitive understanding of this link and paradox, and working with such spirits it will become clearer. I had to introduce this aspect here, because the next spirit I’ll introduce, Tzotzora, has a connection to the Mother of the Stars Within the Earth, and working with him involves some work with Them in that form, albeit very basically.

Tzotzora seems to be the spirit of Algol and Red Fire, one of the variations on Star Fire, and a Triplet. At first I thought he was Zoriyah’s triplet, but I’ve been told that’s not the case. The Triplet nature has not yet been made clear to me, other than the fact that Algol is a trinary star system. There are three main aspects of Star Fire, I suspect each triplet is connected to one of them, but that’s just inference and theorizing, the spirits have not confirmed or denied this yet.

Tzotzora appears as an old man, so gaunt and pale that it is impossible to place a racial descent, he almost looks like he is on the verge of mummification. He wears grey robes, but they have the appearance of being white in the past, but time and dust have changed them. I will let Tzotzora explain who he is. What follows is an example of the more grimoire style of information from the Starry Path. When I first encountered Tzotzora I asked about who he was, and he dictated the following. (I often have an audio recorder running during spirit communication, so I can repeat what they’re saying so I can properly record it, and have a record of their actual words.)

When we Fell we were smothered by the weight of the world, the crushing air slowing our movement.

After taking our forms we learned that our bodies were mortal. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, went mad and ran off into the night, lost to us. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, went mad and fled into the day, lost to us. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, threw themselves deeper into the flesh, to embrace the joys of the flesh to ignore the terror of mortality. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, returned their gaze to the heavens from which we came and began to seek the spirit. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand our mortality, decided to accept mortality, and explore the unique world this opened.

Of all my siblings, I was the first to trace the paths of spirit. Age couldn’t claim us, but injury and magick could. I sat with the dying, seeking understanding of death, the experience, the process, and the result. I sat with the dying, watching their spirit pull away from the world. I sat with the dying, being shown the paths of spirit.

As they died I watched the spirits, freed from matter, flow out of their form. They opened cracks in the walls of the world. Rifts that they would step through, from this world to another, rifts that flitted close behind them like a sheer drape.

With each death I better learned the roads between here and Eternity, the ways of walking from the flesh into the spirit, the bridge of the worlds.

Through the cracks in the walls of the world I could hear the Song beyond. I sang in harmony with that Song, and sang the names of the dying and dead, thus I called them to stay in this world, and take up new flesh, for we could not leave. This migration of bodies fully completing the fall into matter.

I guard the gate of spirit, I watch the ways, I keep out those who would harm, invite those who would be allies, I open the path of spirit, the bridge of worlds.

Salt of Red Fire

Tzotzora is connected to Red Fire or Red Star Fire. Much like with Star Fire in general, this post includes how to connect to the energy, as well as how to Earth it into salt so you have it as a materia. Salt of Red Fire involves two main steps that can be done separately or together. One is embracing the Red Fire, the second is channeling the Red Fire into salt.

Required:

Salt of Star Fire
Black or red candle
Mirror
Charcoal
Incense
- Amber (1 part)
- Cinnamon (1 part)
- Myrrh (1 part)
- Dragon’s Blood (2 part)
Knowledge of Algol’s position in the sky (or an app which can locate it for you)

Light the charcoal and put the incense on it when ready, leave some incense unburnt for later.

Put the Salt of Star Fire between yourself and the mirror, where you can see your reflection. Light the candle and call to the Star Goddess to bless you with the fire of stars. Perform the four fold breath while filing yourself with the Star Fire until it fills you and dances across your skin. Look at your reflection, see the white flame around yourself mirrored in the candle.

Call to the Star Goddess. “Queen of Heaven, Twin Queen of the Underworld, may your light guide our paths.”

Looking at the fire and its reflection in the mirror, blow out the candle. In that moment of sudden darkness feel the fire around yourself turn black, subtle, and nearly impossible to see, then red. (It is like turning out a light in a room, there is momentary darkness, and then your eyes will pick up dim light, like the light on the power button of your tv) It will fade out quickly without the candle. With a deep breath and force of will breathe in the red fire, draw it into yourself before it can fade. Square breathe as you pull in the last of the Red Fire, then Square breathe like a bellows, fanning the red fire.

Red Fire does not exist in the same way as the red of a normal fire. It is a fire of transmutation. It exists in that brief moment right as a flame is extinguished. Red Fire is the transition of matter to spirit, whereas Star Fire is spirit descending into matter.

After building up sufficient Red Fire breathe it into the Salt of the Star Fire, still in the dark. See it burning the salt and changing the Star Fire, extinguishing it and seizing the Red Fire. Take some of the incense, the ash and the unburnt incense, and mix it in with the salt, just a pinch is needed, but you can add more.

Red Fire is useful as a transition. Casting it in circles around you allows it to bridge the subtle and the solid. Make the physical and spiritual levels of a place more connected.

The second part of this ritual requires the Salt of Red Fire you are working on, and a cemetery with two exits.

Walk into the cemetery, open yourself up, enter a light trance, whatever you do to prepare for magick. Half way through the cemetery begin to call on the Star Goddess in Their form as Their own twin, the Dark Goddess Below. As you walk talk to Them, tell Them you walk Their paths, the ways of spirit that run through matter, the egress of form. They open the path before you as you walk, inviting you deeper, out of this physical space, but into a spiritual place.

Then begin to call to Tzotzora, asking him to show you the ways of matter ascending to spirit, to show you the cracks in the world that open to the more subtle realms. He might answer your call indirectly, or he may even show up to walk and work with you.

Pinch some salt and throw it in a circle around you, swinging your arm over your head. Starting in the North and going counter clockwise (you can also orient the “North” as whatever direction is in front of you as you walk). See trails of red fire follow the salt, forming both a circle where you drew it stationary on the ground, and one that stays surrounding you even as you move, as you walk out of the circle that stays where it was cast you step deeper into spirit. Perform this salt circle twice more as you walk. Surrounded by the red fire breathe it in with a square breath, and then breathe it into the remaining salt, burning it red with flame wisps of blue and white.

Hold the salt towards the star Algol (there are many free smartphone apps that will help you locate specific stars, while Algol doesn’t need to be visible above the horizon, if possible I think that’s better), and thank the Guardian of the Gate for opening the way and blessing the salt.

Keep walking out of the cemetery. One you have left the cemetery you can let your focus on the red fire circles lift, and let the energies dissipate as you walk.

Nov

2018

Starry Path: Star Fire and Star Water

After working with Zoriyah in the last post you’ve connected to Star Fire and it is easy to call with or without the Salt of Star Fire. Honestly it isn’t much different from any other energy you’ve learned to tap in your sorcerous career.

Here is a method of calling on Star Fire, it can be used in general to gather the energy for a magickal purpose, it can also be used to reconnect or strengthen your connection with the energy. Even though Zoriyah puts you in contact with the energy, it’s recommended to do this practice as well to solidify that connection.

Breathing Down Star Fire

Far above your head picture a brilliant pure white star, brighter than any star or planet in the sky (even if you cannot see the sky). If you prefer, if you’re out at night, you can focus on a specific star for this instead, but make sure you are focusing on Star Fire, many stars have their own “flavours” and traits which are useful for other magick, but for now you just want that basic primordial Star Fire.

Breathe out as much as you can. Hold your breath while your lungs are empty. Feel the empty pressure in your lungs, waiting to be filled. When you take a deep, full breath in a thin pillar of white Star Fire descends from the star above you, runs down through your body, your spine or central channel, and into the ground. The pillar is about the width of a finger, keep that energy running. Hold your breath for a moment. Breathe out fully again. If you’re performing this with Salt of Star Fire, a little bit in your palms as you rub your hands together and then place a little pinch on the crown of your head and rub that in a little bit, this helps you establish the connection easier. This is useful if you feel blocked, or out of practice. If you have trouble, you can all chant Zoriyah’s name slowly, and every few recitations say something to the effect of “Zoriyah, send to me Star Fire.”

When you breathe in this time, stop the Star Fire in the energy centre a few finger widths below your navel. It helps to stop the energy in that centre if you draw up the pelvic floor when you breathe in. (If you don’t know how to do this, go to the bathroom, and part way through stop the flow of urine, that muscle set you tightened to do that, that draws up the pelvic floor)

Once you have stopped the flow of energy at your navel, switch to Square Breathing or Fourfold Breath. If you’re unfamiliar with this technique it’s very simple, and useful in general so it’s worth learning. Essentially the process of breathing is broken down into four stages: breathing in, holding your breath, breathing out, holding your breath exhaled. With square breathing you even out these four stages, so each step takes the same amount of time. It’s helpful when learning to count it out, breathe in 1,2,3,4, hold your breath 1,2,3,4, exhale 1,2,3,4, hold your breath 1,2,3,4.

Breathe in drawing the energy into your belly, hold your breath letting the energy you breathed in merge with what is in your belly, breathe out leaving the energy in your belly. Take as many breaths as you need to fill your belly with Star Fire. When you have enough you hold your breath, and let the white pillar dissipate. Once the pillar is gone (usually a second or two) you can resume breathing normally. From here you can manipulate the Star Fire energy in the way you might any other energy. You can run it through your system, you can exhale it on the breath, send it out your eyes or your hands or through your pores. As previously mentioned Star Fire is the most “neutral” energy on the Path, so you can use it in place of most energies used generally, to cleanse, to empower, to create forms, etc.

The only thing I would not recommend is running it intentionally down channels or through blockages. It can be used for that, but I would wait until you’ve worked with it a bit more to avoid straining your energetic system.

When you are done with the energy you can either send it down into the earth with another white pillar, or gather it into the navel and leave it there. It will naturally disperse throughout your energy system from the navel over the next while, how long depends on a variety of factors, but generally several minutes to an hour.

The more you work with Star Fire, the easier it is to connect to and use. After enough practice breathing it in this way, you can fill your entire form with Star Fire in the space of a single breath, drawing the Star Fire from within and without.

While I don’t want to muddy the waters with too much at once, both breathing Star Fire and creating Star Water are short and simple so it makes more sense to group them rather than to drag out the posts.

Star Water is essentially holy water on the Starry Path, and it can be used more or less in any way you might use consecrated water. It has some specialized uses I’ll touch on later. Once the water is consecrated it can be used to enhance any working on the Path. When contacting a spirit you can anoint your throat and your third eye, so you may communicate and perceive. Anoint door frames and windows, and asperge each wall to bless and seal a home. Sprinkle around you in a circle to help create space. Cleanse items, and self purification. I’ll explain the Sea of Stars in another post.

Star Water

Required:

Salt of Star Fire
Glass jar with lid
Small mirror (small enough to fit flat on the bottom of the jar)
Purified water

Put the mirror facing up in the jar and fill with water. Take the jar outside with some salt. This can also be done inside as long as the night sky is visible and it is not a full moon, but outside is preferable.

Place the jar on the ground and sit beside it. Breathe in Star Fire. Breathe in and call up all the sensations of Star Fire, call it down from the Heavens and out from your Core. Let it fill your body, as though you’re an empty crystal container, and the fire fills you and dances on the surface of your skin. When you have flickering fire all around you breathe into the jar, and sprinkle in some Salt of Star Fire. Let Salt, and water, and Star Fire, and breath become one. The water may take upon the appearance of having many small lights drifting inside of it.

“I open up the Waters of the Way, I open up the Waters of the Heavens, I open up the Sea of Stars. May the Light of the Stars and their Fire Fall into these Waters, imbuing it with their light and power.”

Let the energy settle in the water, the Star Water. Once the water is filled with Star Fire, dip your ring finger of your non-dominant hand into the Star Water, trace a star over your third eye. Dip your finger in the water again and flick it upward, if possible perceive the water breaking up into stars that hang in space for a moment.

That is all you need do for Star Water, at this point you can seal the jar and put it somewhere safe, preferably where it won’t get direct sunlight, until you need it.

There is a semi-complicated system of when the best nights to collect Star Light in Star Water. A general guideline is the darker the night the better. The closer to the new moon, the better. A lunar eclipse is even more powerful. The most powerful is actually during the day of a Solar Eclipse. The Star Light in weakened in sunlight, so it is preferable to bring the jar inside before dawn, or at least as soon as possible. If during a Solar Eclipse only take it out during the eclipse.

There is also an astrological component, which is where it gets a bit more complicated. There are two (at least) “power positions” in the sky. The closer the new moon’s position to these spots, but before them, the better.

21 degrees of Taurus (Sidereal, or 16 degrees of Gemini for Tropical Astrology), and 20 degrees Libra (Sidereal, or 15 degrees of Virgo for Tropical Astrology). There might be other “power positions” but so far this is what I’ve been given.

Well charged Star Water only needs to be recharged once a year if it lasts that long, the last new moon before either of the locations above would be the best choice.

Next post I’ll introduce another spirit, and also include a section of the more grimoire/scripture styled writing as that spirit actually dictated/channel their history.

Oct

2018

Starry Path: Zoriyah, and Star Fire

The first of the children of Cosmos and Star Goddess I want to introduce is Zoriyah. He is not necessarily the most important or the most powerful among them, but he is the Steward of the Star Fire, and as such is the initiator of the Path and the transmitter of the power.

Zoriyah is the Steward of the Star Fire. He rejoices in bringing the Fires of Heaven to those below, but he is not interested in challenging journeys. He enjoys introducing magick, but not the long process of teaching. After lighting the Fire of Passion he often moves on. He plays other roles as the Steward, but this is the main one we need to focus on for now.

Zoriyah (צריעיה) appears as a tall lean man of African descent, but his dark skin glows with a soft golden sheen from within. He wears flowing robes and scarves of bright white with faint blue tips, they always seem to drift around him, as if they weigh almost nothing and are dancing on a gentle breeze. Star Fire is one of the most basic and versatile magickal energies on the Starry Path. As a simple and powerful energy it is something Zoriyah enjoys, for it is easy to teach enough for someone to feel magick, and then he can move on.

((To clarify, I included the name spelt in Hebrew not because these spirits are Hebrew/Jewish/Middle Eastern in any way, but as someone with a ceremonial background I do find Hebrew useful.))

Star Fire is a type of energy, a specific frequency, that is used on the Starry Path, one of several. Star Fire represents, not surprisingly, the fire of stars, which on the Starry Path is also the fire of the very spirits we work with, even if they are now (mostly) earthbound. It is also the most general or neutral of the energies on the Path, which is why it’s a great place to start. The introduction to Star Fire is also connected to the creation of the Salt of Star Fire, one of the most commonly used materia on the Starry Path.

Salt of Star Fire is an important ingredient to a lot of Starry Path work, but just as important is the process of connecting to the Star Fire. Salt of Star Fire is an Earthing of this Energy, grounding it into the physical realm. As you call it into the physical realm you experience the feel of Star Fire. The colours, the bright white yellows and wispy blue curls, the swirling flutter of movement, the gentle hiss and pop of the fire. In this process you connect with the Star Fire, which will allow you to call upon it without the use of salt or flame. I will include a working in the next post that is another way to connect to Star Fire if you feel that you need a separate refresher or a deeper connection.

Follow the ingredients as they are here, Zoriyah was adamant about natron, and a drinkable alcohol. The rest of the ingredients are more flexible. For instance if you don’t have cedar, another sweet wood works.

Below is the ritual for both connecting to Star Fire and creating Salt of Star Fire

Calling Zoriyah and Star Fire

Required:

Metal fireproof bowl with trivet (if performed inside)
Glass fireproof bowl (blue glass is preferred)
Candles (1 black Star Goddess candle, 5 white tealights)
Natron* (See how to make below the required materials)
Vodka (or another high alcoholic content drinkable alcohol)
Matchs (Either long matches or a pair of tongs is required)
Self-igniting Charcoal for incense
Incense holder
Incense (1 part myrrh, 1 part red sanders, 1 part cedar, 1 part mastic)

*Natron is a naturally forming salt mixture on the shores of saline bodies of water. It is easy enough to make your own, and I don’t know of any spirit who complains about homemade natron. Mix 1 part table salt with 1 part baking soda. Mix this up, and then add in water until you get a thick paste you can spread. (Some instructions say to boil the mixture, I’ve tried both ways and found little to no difference) Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and put in the oven at 150C (300F) to dry it out. Once the water is evaporated you’re left with sheets of natron, you can then crumble it up and store it in containers until you need it.

The glass fireproof bowl should be small enough to fit in the metal fireproof bowl. If performed inside using both bowls and small amounts make it relatively safe (but always act with caution if working with fire indoors), if performed outside the outer metal bowl isn’t required and you can use larger amounts, just make sure you the fire isn’t near anything that could catch fire.

Light the charcoal puck, it will take some time to heat up all the way through. Have the matches on hand and know roughly where the black Star Goddess candle is. If you’re inside turn off all the lights you can, if outside this is best performed at night, even better at the New Moon and never on the Full Moon.

In darkness pray to the Star Goddess, and light the black candle. Pray for Their guidance and Their presence, pray adoration for Their Beauty, the Majesty of all reality.

Pray to the Star Goddess who birthed all, then pray to the first of Their children, the early stars. Pray for their light, their guidance and presence. Light a tealight from the Star Goddess candle. Pray to solar systems in the same way and light another tealight from the last one. Pray to galaxies in the same way and light another tealight from the last one. Pray to galactic clusters in the same way and light another tealight from the last one. Pray out to all the Cosmos and light the last tea light.

(Praying to solar systems, galaxies, and clusters might seem unusual but understand that these spirits literally identify themselves with stars, so you’re praying to spirits and legions and groups of them)

Put the incense on the charcoal. “From Resinous Earth, to Watery Melt, to Fiery Force, and Smoke filled Air, drift into the Aethyr and call down the Spirits, the first ones, the shining ones, those who descended from the heights to teach humanity.

Put two parts natron inside the glass container, add one part vodka, and mix.

Slowly chant Zoriyah’s name, calling him down. See his Seal over the container of natron. As you chant his name, see a thin tendril of white fire from the heavens flow into the container of natron. “Zoriyah, Steward of Star Fire. He who lights the fires of humanity. Torch bearer. Come here and bless this vessel with your Star Fire.”

Place one hand over the natron container, see the Seal going through the natron and your hand, and guide him to place one hand into the natron, the other reaching up towards the stars. White fire tendrils from the heavens wrapping around Zoriyah’s form down his arm into the container through your hand. As his fire begins to enter the container remove your hand, light a match and light the natron on fire. Natron, alcohol, flame, and scent or earth, water, fire, air. Pray to Zoriyah, pray that the Star Fire and alcohol fire are one, that the fire purifies the natron. This physical fire becomes the embodiment of the magickal Star Fire. The Natron is the Earthing of Star Fire, the physical receptical. As such it lies between the worlds, and can be used to open the ways.

When the fire goes out mix up the natron again, and try lighting on fire, there is usually a little more alcohol to burn. Feel the sensation of Star Fire flowing through Zoriyah, feel the Fire in the container. Learn the feel of this fire, the sights and smells, and sounds and sensations. Using these you can now call on the Star Fire yourself when needed. It might not be as physically oriented as the Salt will be, but it will be a powerful and dynamic energy to work with.

When the fire goes out thank Zoriyah for giving you the Salt of Star Fire. You can use this for a variety of things on the Starry Path, but the first and perhaps most important is the Star Water, used for protection, cleaning, and most crucially spiritual sight and flight. I’ll discuss the Star Water in another post soon.

Oct

2018

Starry Path: Cosmos, and Star Goddess

There is a lot to explore on the Starry Path, but it’s hard to know where to start. I will start with some basic introductions to two figures of the Path, and then shift into some actual work next time.

The Starry Path is either pantheistic, or panentheistic, that has not been made clear to me yet but on a practical level it does not matter, and it is polytheistic. While it has its own “gods” the focus is far more on the intermediary spirits, their children. There are two main deities, Cosmos and the Star Goddess. These are not new deities or anything like that. They’re universal concepts, universal beings, appearing in mythology from all over the world in archetypal forms. Cosmos and the Star Goddess are not new, but they are an exploration of those forces removed from the cultural contexts of the older myths. So far they have had no names revealed to me, several of the spirits have not provided names, they prefer expressive titles of who and what they are, rather than a name. So while They might have a name, They might have many names, the Star Goddess just wants to be known as the Star Goddess because of the image that conjures, it establishes who They are.

If the Path had a primary deity, it would probably be Cosmos. To quote St. Carl of Sagan “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.” Cosmos is an impersonal deity. They are beyond all conception and relation. Cosmos is everything, everywhere, everytime. Cosmos is the basis of all reality, inseparable from all things and no thing. As such they are an impersonal deity, which means they cannot be approached as a person or entity, they just are, they’re only really approached in a sense of reverence and communion.

The other main deity is the Star Goddess. In general I’m not a fan of the idea that all the gods are the same gods in different masks, for a variety of reasons. The Star Goddess is one of the few places where I think the idea is totally valid. There is a certain feel, almost a spiritual cadence to deities of the night and the stars, some of them touching on something primordial. Asteria, Nut, Nuit (Thelemic), the Black God, Nyx, Erebus, Ratri, Citlālicue, Sah, Hine-nui-te-pō, the Star Goddess of Feri, dozens of others, they have a feel a sense to them of commonality. If any deity would appear to humanity in many guises, it would be the primordial god of stars and the night. Regardless of Their identity, if any, in other traditions They are god/dess, beyond notions of masculine or feminine, yet often appears in a more femme-leaning form. Most often They appears as a figure of purest pitch black, but within Their form you have slowly shifting stars and nebulae.

While Cosmos is everything, the Star Goddess made everything. Cosmos is the Ground of Being, the Eternal Source of All, but Cosmos is made manifest through the Star Goddess. It is They that brought the universe into being. They were born at the moment of Creation, and have always been. The two of them are a paradox. Both eternal and beyond time, but Cosmos was made manifest when the Star Goddess was born. Cosmos is all things, but it is the Star Goddess that made all things.

The Star Goddess is somewhere between an impersonal and personal deity. They do respond to petitions, but not as easily or freely as the spirits below Them. Like Cosmos most of the time They are included as a figure of reverence and communion, but by calling upon Them you call upon Their authority as well as the spirits beneath Them, mainly everyone. You can pray to Them, and They may send to you an appropriate spirit, but the Path already has a set of spirits, and most will introduce you to other spirits that you require, and that is often easier and faster than going directly through Them

The Star Goddess is the ancestor of all beings, but They are closest to Astral spirits, in the classic sense, spirits of stars and space. The higher spirits of the Starry Path are Their children, they are embodiments of stars and stellar phenomena. A lot of the work on the Starry Path deals with these spirits, or with their children.

Their children hold many roles, and many secrets, and can be called upon for their aid. Most of them are very easy to call too, the standard summoning ritual on the Path is very minimalist. Over the next while I’ll introduce some of these spirits, and what we can learn from them and do with them.

Oct

2018

Treading the Starry Path

The Starry Path is the system of magick or spiritual path I’ve been walking for several years. The earliest mention of it in this blog was six years ago, but I know it was a part of my life well before then, but I’d have to dig out old magickal diaries to be more specific. That will have to wait though, this is my time of year for rereading my Abramelin journals, though the visionary experiences during my Abramelin period are definitely part of the Starry Path.

The Starry Path is a system of magick that grows out of several different practices but has become its own path. It is a gnostic tradition in the sense that it relies on personal gnosis as much as it does on outside factors. It is an ecstatic path as it takes the ecstasy born from gnosis to transcend normal consciousness or reality. A path meant to open the mind to the unconstrained abstraction that is reality. That is such an awkward phrasing for something that seems impossible to put into words without experience. Opening the mind to an abstract shifting world of multiplicities and paradox, the strata of the world we know. That is of course more of the advanced goal and practice.

It is a path of gnosis and ecstasy, of the experiences and the ephemeral. That means that the path has the goal of mystical visions, but also a goal of removing the mental constraints we put upon our perception that limit our ability to understand and interact with reality.

The Starry Path has connections and resonances with Sabbatic Witchcraft, Feri Witchcraft, TradCraft, Qabalah, Vajrayana, Ezidi beliefs, Ceremonial magick, and Enochic magick. (Not Enochian, Enochic) But the Starry Path isn’t part of these paths, nor would it be correct to say it grew from them, or was based on them. The Path is not a combination of disparate practices, but a method of gnosis, a system of arcana that grew from their moments of clarity. But there are similarities and connections, resonances and echoes with these traditions, and others, these are just the ones I am most familiar with. I’m torn between saying it’s another facet of these currents or convergent evolution. In reality, it’s probably both, neither, and so much more. (This is where you get into the unconstrained abstractions I mentioned above)

I think that Andrew Chumbley said it well:

All currents of Magick flow from a single fountain…all currents are adapted by the channel through which they pass and my work has been influenced by many traditions and authorities of occultism, but nonetheless, in articulating such Magick as I have dreamt of, I am manifesting its Indivisible Unity as best as I am presently able.

ix, Azoetia: The Sethos Edition, 1992,2002

As a system of arcana that is being revealed to me over the years, I’ve often been reluctant to talk about it publicly. Over the years I’ve worked with and taught other people I know and trust about the path, but never anything public really. It feels egotistical in some ways to talk about a “new” system of magick you’re “creating.” Even if it is not new, nor is it being created, just revealed and codified. I’ve also been concerned about releasing things half-baked and half-understood, for fear of misleading others who look into it. The witchy urban legends of someone screwing up their life by using a bad translation, or an incomplete text, or whatever is really just a story, I know that, but yet I did worry about people using an incomplete path I showed them and stumbling.

Things have shifted over the years, my misconceptions about parts of it have dropped away, other things were expanded, and I was worried about someone trying something before it’s “perfected.” I see now (thanks to repeated Clue-by-fours from the spirits of the Path) that it is a living breathing system, and in many ways, it will never be complete.

As such I will begin blogging more about the Starry Path, and I invite those interested to explore the path with me.

So what is the Starry Path?

In broad strokes the Starry Path is nothing that unusual, it seems to draw on familiar and almost universal mythological themes: Beings of the heavens, descending to earth, to teach, to love, to live, and over time losing their way. What I’ve found interesting in my exploration though is the heavy stellar influence on the Path, it is called the Starry Path after all. While other resonate paths may emphasize the stars this Path really seems to put them in the centre in many ways. The spirits of the Path have intimated, or even outright said, where their story lies in myths, what is right, and wrong, and too subtle to be either right or wrong. The spirits of the Path, specifically the Elder spirits are Promethean beings, bringing the Fire of the Heavens down to Earth and giving it to humanity. The Path contains both those large abstract and subtle magicks that have been with humanity since our beginning, but like humanity, it has evolved. It has grown with humanity to keep relevant and applicable to us.

Currently, I would divide information on the Starry Path into three forms.

Some of the information is relayed in this almost poetic spiritual form. It has similar mouthfeels and rhythms to spells, myths, and hymns.

You do not need to be able to see our star, you only need to know where in the sky it is. This is why we taught you so much on how the heavens move, so that we could be tracked, so that you could find us, so that we could communicate and come down to bring you our fire.

We breathed the Black, we with Stars in our veins still hold the Night in our Hearts. When we Fell Into this world we enlivened bodies of our Fallen Family, living in transmuted corpses. Listen well as we stare into our Hearts, Listen well as we stare into the Night, slowly careening overhead our Family Sings us Home.

There is my “translation” of that. Sometimes there is no need to put that in more day-to-day language, other times, specifically with instructions, I expand and give my commentary, giving something that is easier to read and reread to know what you’re doing.

My post on The Sorcerer’s Plant is a great example. I was given a more poetic explanation, but I “translated” it into something that was easier to share and discuss.

The last division would be stuff that is solely my writing. Sometimes information is sung at me and through me, but sometimes it’s just a download, so while the information comes from the spirits it forms is purely my own.

The Black Mountain of Fire falls in that category. No poetic or wordy explanation was given. Just a vision and download of information that I then wrote out on my own.

In the future, I plan to share some of the poetic descriptions of the spirits, from the spirits, and how they are connected to the path. I will talk of the role of salt, fire, and stars, and introduce the spirits on this path.

This post has been sitting in my draft folder since before I shifted to my own domain. A recent conversation with Polyphanes about the Stars of Ursa Major nudged me again to share this. Since there was a connection between what the spirits of the Path have told me, and what he has worked out from the PGM.

Going forward I will try to write more about the Starry Path. Now the fun part is deciding where to start.

Nov

2015

Feast Day of Saint Carl of Sagan

On November 1st, the Feast of All Saints, Jason asked some of us “Who are your Saints?” and suggested people think of the “great Sorcerer Saints and Mystics that have come before, and upon whose shoulders we all stand.” I knew right away who one of my main saints is, despite not being a sorcerer, and by many perceptions of him, not a mystic or spiritual person at all.
For me today is a feast day, with an unconventional feast celebration, for an unconventional saint. Outside of a technical definition adhered to by Catholicism, it’s hard to define a saint. Catholicism has a complex system of slowly canonizing and investigating miracles to evaluate if a person could be a saint. (A modern idea within the Church, as many early saints were considered saints by the people, and essentially grandfathered in.) Within Buddhism we have a myriad of interesting saints, but no real structure into that definition. Exceptionally wise, and powerful tantric practitioners are called saints.
Crowley introduced the idea of the Gnostic Saints, people who, regardless of their background, seemed to in line with the spiritual path of Thelema, and his saints included people from different religions, poets, and mystics.
For me a saint is about the embodiment of understanding on a divine level, regardless of where it comes from. Like Crowley I have a list of Gnostic Saints, and while my own views are in line with Thelema, my Gnostic Saints are about gnosis, that radical understanding, regardless of source. It includes saints, and mystics, poets and artists, but also scientists and writers.
Probably my most important Gnostic Saint, is Carl Sagan. It might seem strange to have a saint that identified as agnostic (and by modern language might be more of an atheist), but to me there are very few people who embody a divine wisdom better than Carl. My path owes a great debt to saints, mystics, shamans, and sorcerers, but I cannot deny the debt it owes to scientists as well, especially those connected to the Cosmos the way Sagan was.
His show in the eighties, for which he is best known and served as my introduction to him, put forth some of the most beautiful expressions of cosmic interdependence from a scientific perspective, that it spoke to me, deeply. The line has become cliché and overused, but Sagan said it best “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
His vision of the Cosmos, all that is or was or ever will be, inspired me so much that when I did the Abramelin ritual I used Cosmos for the name of the ultimate divine. Every other word was either too loaded (god, vague, which one?), too culturally specific for my experiences (Brahma, Godhead), or too impersonal (Divine), but Cosmos…Cosmos suited. My path, named by a spirit years before the Abramelin, is known to me as the Starry Path, and the Cosmos, the literal physical universe has always been an important part of my path. As much as we might ascend the spheres of heaven on the astral to understand the universe, it is important to gaze into the heavens at the stars (same rootword as astral) to understand the universe.
I’ll let this introduction from his show speak for Sagan.

“There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”
I can’t help but feel a spiritual resonance with that idea. Far too many magick folk spend so much time focusing on the mystical subtle realms, that they don’t realize how astoundingly beautiful, complex, and divine the physical is. Sagan delves so deep into the wonders of the (material) universe that it becomes spiritual.
He understands the interconnection of all things, that we are literally made of molecules forged in stars, that the molecules in our bodies have all come from the same place, that all life on earth is connected in a vast family tree, and all phenomena in reality are part of a single entity, the Cosmos.
“And we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the Cosmos we’ve begun, at last, to wonder about our origins. Star stuff, contemplating the stars organized collections of 10 billion-billion-billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet Earth and perhaps, throughout the Cosmos.”
He contemplates the Oneness of everything to a degree that puts many spiritual folks I know to shame.
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.”
So every year on this day, his birthday, I hold his feast. The celebration is simple.
Turn on an episode of Cosmos, while they’re all amazing for the more spiritual bend I recommend episode 1 (The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean), 2 (One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue), 9 (The Lives of the Stars) or 10 (The Edge of Forever, in which Sagan actually quotes from the Vedas).

My image of Sagan on a shelf of my Saint altar, complete with feast.

While watching it eat the sacred foods of St. Carl of Sagan, a Cosmopolitan (I prefer the variation of using blue curacao, instead of Triple Sec. It tastes better and gives it a deep blue-indigo colour reminiscent of the night sky) and an apple pie (that you bought at a store or bakery, as one cannot make an apple pie from scratch, see episode 9 if that statement confuses you).
Lastly, go outside, find the darkest area within a reasonable distance, and look up at the sky. See our family slowly wandering above us. Remember was are starstuff, those lights are distant cousins. Reconnect to the Cosmos, remember we are in it, as much as it is within us.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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