Fitness - Road Opening, part 2

In my last couple of posts, I talked about my fitness goal, where I am with it, and where I want to be. I also described some of the issues and obstacles related to this. The specific magical work that I decided on was a road opening candle working. Simple enough.

Before doing this working, there were some things to consider. First, in Gordon's post on Road Openers, he discusses how road opening work can apply to almost any kind of enchantment. I agree with this notion because road opening helps to remove obstacles and, if you've decided to use magic towards attaining some goal, then one could argue that you are dealing with obstacles. This isn't always the case, and by no means am I making an argument in favor of emergency or last-resort magic. But isn't the point of practical magic to get around and overcome the difficulties and blockages encountered in life?

In Strategic Sorcery, there are macro-enchantments (general, overarching enchantment), and micro-enchantments (spells hitting the many smaller details of the goal). Going by this, road opening would be considered a macro-enchantment because it actually applies to the overall goal. It could be worked as a micro-enchantment by applying it to the smaller details...but I just don't see the use in that because it would be more work when you could just apply it to the overall efforts and move on. These things considered, road opening spells make a fantastic first or second enchantment toward any goal.

With that said, Gordon ends his Road Opener post by outlining how road opening spells can take care of a large chunk of practical enchantment, paraphrased:

1. Make sure you are able to pursue the goal.
2. Make sure there are avenues through which you can pursue the goal.
3. Open the avenues.

With this in mind, I considered my ability to work toward weight loss and came up with the following factors:

• My health metrics that can impact my ability to exercise (blood pressure, stamina, mobility, etc) are OK.
• I can currently afford healthier food.
• I am totally willing to do the hard work and exercise the discipline needed to do this.

What about avenues?

• I have access to several resources, offline and online, through which I can find accurate and helpful information and knowledge to help me make the right choices.
• I have a membership to a gym that's basically around the corner from my home.
• I have miscellaneous stuff that supports my efforts (appropriate gym clothes, a scale to measure progress, tracking tools, etc).

Now, I think it's also important to know the factors stacked against me:

• The fact that I often suffer depression which can contribute to me neglecting to workout.
• Issues from my past dealing with people who were either emotionally abusive about the topic of my weight, or were overly enabling of my weight, lending to avoidance of the topic on my part (mostly overcome at this point).
• Being in social circles where, often, being overweight or obese seems to be considered OK (and in rare cases can even seem to be encouraged, but like I said that's rare).
• Temptation to overeat and dealing with it when it comes up.

After considering all of this, I performed a divination questioning how beneficial a road-opening spell for fitness would be and received positive signs. With that done, I went about the work.

NOTE: If you've read much of this blog, you'll know my practices are somewhat eclectic and, overall, pretty syncretic. Cultural misappropriation warriors may find many parts of what I describe distasteful. I try to be respectful, but so far this has been my path and it has worked for me.

Ocean Delano's Road Opening Spell for Fitness

The spells I do tend to draw from Hermeticism, Strategic Sorcery, and various forms of folk magic, such as Rootwork. This spell especially derives from the latter. I started by gathering the following:

• 1 orange 7-day vigil candle
• Road Opener or VanVan oil
• Road Opener, VanVan or Frankincense & Myrrh incense
• Lightly-ground road-opening and clearance herbs such as lemongrass, abre camino, lamon balm, camphor, and others.
• Road Opener or VanVan bath crystals.
• A printed label for the candle depicting a winding road and open sky, captioned with the words "Open Roads". The awesome, sexy guys at The Vodou Store sell such labels for cheap, although I made this one myself.
• Spray adhesive.
• A pen.

I went with the VanVan products across the board, as it's what I had at the time.

Preparation

On the day of the working, an hour before sunrise, I fixed a pitcher of VanVan bath using some bath crystals I made, although you could also brew the relevant herbs into a tea and dilute it. I got in the shower, stoppered the tub, drew water from the tap until it was ankle deep, and then poured in the bath infusion. I bathed Hoodoo-style, pouring the water over me 9 times. While doing all of this, I repeated a prayer made from Psalms 16:11, 119:35, 119:105, and 25:4 respectively:



Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore; Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight; Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path; Show me thy ways; teach me thy paths.

In the process I also thought about my goal, where I want to be on it and where I am now, as well as all the obstacles that I knew of. I gathered up a small portion of the used bathwater and, once I let myself air dry, I got dressed and headed to a nearby crossroads off the property of my apartment complex. I dumped the used water toward the east, reciting the prayer again. Then I headed back home without looking back.

The Main Work

Later that day, I began the spell proper. At this point you would do your typical centering and self-empowering exercises. In my case, I began by reciting the Prayer of the Design followed by establishing the Pillar, opening my Spheres, and then performing the Universal Centering (the latter three a la TSS). After this, I created a zone by casting a basic protective circle and calling the four directions using a compass-laying technique taught by Jason in the Strategic Sorcery course.

I cleansed the candle with florida water. Then I made the candle label into a petition paper by writing the following statement of intent on the back of it, in the center so it took a few lines:

Open for me the roads that lead to success in losing weight and improving my physical fitness.

With that written I turned the paper 90-degrees counterclockwise and wrote my name over it 9 times to symbolize my dominance of the situation. After five-spotting it with the oil (see above on the materials gathered), I sprayed a little adhesive onto it and placed it on the candle, label-side out.

With the petition ready, I prepped the candle itself. Using an awl (you can use that or a toothpick, needle, or other pointy, scribey tool) I inscribed my first and last name into the wax at the top of the candle, then turned the candle 90-degreen counterclockwise and inscribed "open roads" in the wax. Using a spare drillbit I have, I put four holes in the wax, one in each "quarter" of wax created by the name and goal inscription. Using a dropper, I filled each hole with the oil. At this point I will tell you that you don't want to do what I did next: I sprinkled a pinch of VanVan powder over the top of the candle. I'll explain why you should not do this in my next post; instead, sprinkle maybe a pinch of the lightly-ground road-opening herbs over the top of the candle. Or, you know, you could just leave them out.

Alternatively, you could put a bit of the herbs in each hole, then fill them the rest of the way with the oil.

With the candle physically prepared, I built up power using a special mantra taught by Jason called the Song of the Serpent. Alternatively, you could use the above prayer made from multiple psalms to help build power. Once I felt I had built up enough power, I built up just a little more. Then, using will and imagination, I patterned that power with the statement of intent from the petition, also concentrating on the goal and the path to it. After this, I channeled the power into the candle using the Triangle of Manifestation gesture.

Then I laid my hands on either side of the candle and mentally reached out, reciting the following prayer (based on one found here):

By the Logos within me I call upon the forces of the earth and the sky, and mighty Hekate if she is willing, to smooth over any and all difficulties and obstacles which stand in my path. I invoke the divine name IAO, so that my work and effort toward losing bodyfat and attaining better physical fitness will bring forth the results I so earnestly long for. O great hidden powers, hear me for I implore your supreme majesty: send me a message of good luck from divine providence, separate me from danger and lead me from temptation at the precise moment, illumine my way with the light of fortune. O mighty Hekate, open the roads to my success. Forces of the earth and sky, show me the path and light my way. By the power of IAO, it shall be done.

With that, I lit the candle and continued chanting the "psalm prayer" from earlier for a few minutes before releasing the compass and the circle.

There are certain difficulties which occurred that will be covered in my next post, but for the rest of the time the candle was burning, I took a moment once per day to repeat the "psalm prayer" a few times before the candle.

Once it eventually burned out, I peeled off the label, bundled it with other remnants in a paper towel, and discarded them at the crossroads away from my home.

The Results?

Within a few days I received a couple of omens that told me the work was, well...working! Then suddenly, I came across new information regarding the topic of weight loss which pointed to corrections I needed to make in my workouts and dieting. Social support started coming together and detractors became completely silent on the topic. It became easier to go to the gym, and I've gone three times per week consistently for a month. Well, except for two weeks where I went twice...but ended up doing hard, physically exerting labor on what would have been the third day each of those weeks! The issues are not gone, per se, but it's either like none of it matters, or it just doesn't stick.

And whereas before, I saw no weight loss (even after two weeks)...I've dropped about 5lbs in the last week and a half. :)

So far, I'm calling this one effective!

Fitness - Road Opening, part 1

In my last post, I talked about embarking on a fitness goal. Like many people, this is a goal toward which I've worked multiple times...and fell off the wagon multiple times. When I made my post, I was still putting together my full strategy to give myself the highest possible chance of success. I started by sitting down and getting an overall picture of my health, including where I am now with my weight, where I want to be in the end, and where I want to be in the relatively near future.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm morbidly obese. The number of ways in which this negatively affects my life and happiness FAR outweigh any and all excuses for not losing that weight. In my case, the silver lining is that many of my other health metrics (like blood pressure, cholesterol, heart health, physical stamina, strength) are healthy. This puts me at an advantage for weight loss efforts because I can do most exercise without endangering myself, and I can choose the healthier foods I eat and don't have to take on a special diet (read: Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Primal, etc.) if I don't want to. Additionally, I found a gym with cheap membership rates right around the corner from where I live (and I admit I've been a member since July of last year [and yes, I have gone many times]). On top of all that I've lost weight before, so I'm no stranger to it, I have a clue how it works and can roughly do good nutrition.

So I have a lot stacked in my favor...and yet there have been a lot of obstacles to deal with. This has included the usual suspects like willpower, distractions, time management, and maybe others. Many of these are under individual control, but life itself seems to love throwing curveballs at you when you are trying to make a positive change (even if you aren't crossed). But out of all the possible distractions and sources of "sabotage" in weight loss efforts, there is one I expected the least: friends and family.

See, I'm one of those fat guys who grew up with everyone and their sister telling him that he's not fat (I've literally been told the Southpark line "You're not fat, you're just big-boned"), that he's just a "big guy", that he's not "meant" to be "thin" or, even worse, that he would look weird if he lost weight. Enabling behavior and words from well-meaning people have been far more of an obstacle than I ever imagined it would be. If the voices of any enablers are internalized, combined with a person's own struggle with their own willpower, those other voices can be devastating. By no means am I blaming others for my failure to lose weight; honestly, I carry that burden myself!

But if you're like me, these things can join in the giant cacophony of things that get in your way. At the very least, they don't help with preventing excuses. And let's face it: when pursuing a major goal that changes your life...sometimes, having a good support base can make a huge difference! And I should clarify: what I mean by 'support' can be as simple as not voicing discouragement. Given the nature of my in-person social circles (mentioned in my last post), it's been a struggle getting some folks to give me that support (or lack of discouragement).

So in light of all that, I decided to begin the magical side of my weight loss efforts with a Road Opening spell, which will be detailed in my next post!


NOTE: Admittedly, this is a highly sensitive topic. In fact, I was in a Facebook group where me and another guy got into a pretty nasty exchange after I ranted about the influence of friends and family in relation to this. He actually blocked me because of that exchange. I've come to understand his POV on it, so I would like to say: by no means do I blame my friends and family for my failure to lose weight. In the end, that is on me and I take responsibility for it. I do have my own take on the usual statement spoken to help one feel better, and I have my criticisms of such things. But in the end, it's a path I alone must walk. Supports are like people on the sidelines cheering you on, but nothing more.

Fitness - A Beginning

Among life's ups and downs, I've recently decided to take on a somewhat large series of goals. These could be considered a combination of self-improvement and external change for the better. The first part that I'm going to concentrate on at this time...is also something that, as part of these goals, I've decided to mostly stop talking about.

Weight loss and fitness has seemingly become one of those topics that you just don't talk about in mixed company, kind of like religion and politics. Among the company that I keep, one cannot talk about weight loss in the same breath one mentiones concerns over attractiveness. In light of this and the hard lessons recently re-learned on the virtues of silence, the topic of fitness is off the table for me in normal conversation. My posts about it to this blog will be solely for magical tracking purposes and examination of magical technique toward such goals, since I normally never see this covered.

My main fitness goal itself is to Improve my physical fitness until my bodyfat percentage is 30% or less, with at least a 5% muscle gain across my whole body. Of course, this consists of multiple component goals, and all of them can be targeted by sorcery.

For example, several of the sub-goals target things like temptations, saboteurs, and even situations in life that arise and can pull me away from my efforts.

A road-opening spell can massively help to tackle several of these. This category of spells, discussed by the amazing Gordon, does several things. It clears and smooths obstacles, cleanses the influence of sabotaging situations and people, and can even provide guidance and turn luck around. For these reasons, that is what I plan on doing first. For the most part I have the working put together, using VanVan products (oil, incense, powder, bath) as a major material component in a 7-day candle spell.

The working is scheduled this Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it. As I go through this list of goals, I will illustrate the steps, both mundane and magical, that I am taking.

The Great Work

One of the Occult Blog-o-Sphere's favorite pet topics has come up again: The Great Work.

First, Rufus Opus made a post which, given that this is the internet and everyone misinterprets tone and meaning easier than they breathe, has had some thinking he has lost his mind. "YEYS-ah GOOD PEOPLE, AH HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT-ah, YE ARE ALL GODS-ah, YE ARE ALL KINGS-ah, GO FORTH-ah, and CLAIM THY KINGDOMS-ah!" With a lot of "fuck" and Thelema thrown in. Honestly, I personally never thought he's lost his mind; he's just ecstatic. Considering the changes in life that he has talked about, it's easy to see why.

And then we jump over to Jason, who talked about the Great Work in terms of achievement of full human potential. His post, in comparison to RO's is a breath of fresh air given the more mellow tone and the more sensible message.

And then Frater MC posted, giving his opinion on it which, as he put it, lines up with the Golden Dawn definition of the Great Work, "To Become More Than Human". But he gives caveats to this in the form of explaining how he defines aspects of it.

I'm sure there are others out there who have posted about this that I don't immediately recall, but suffice to say that The Great Work has been showing up left and right on my blog feed lately. Reading through the posts above, as well as any others, I've noticed something:

Each of them boils down to similar things!

Reading through their takes on The Great Work, certain things stand out to me. These are themes that I've seen run through the concept ever since I first became aware of it many moons ago. It's even backed up in a quote by Eliphas Levi:

The Great Work is, before all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will.

So what does this say to you? To me, it comes down to this...

A. Personal Sovereignty

Your life is your own. You do with it what you will. You are an independent being who, in the end, is responsible for your life. In times of need, you can assist others, and others can assist you; but that is, and should be, your choice. It's not always easy, in fact it can be hard and painful as hell. But maintaining your sovereignty is important.

B. Autonomy

Your life is yours to do with what you will. It is up to you to know what that will is. You have the right to choose what you will do. There are consequences to every choice, however, and personally I believe we are responsible for our decisions in life.

C. Evolution & The Pursuit of Bliss

It is my opinion that existence is not meant to be static. Even in occultism there is a popular reference to the way in which almost all the cells in your body are not ones you were born with, or were there when you were ten years old. Change and evolution are part of existence. The Great Work entails evolution, and combined with the pursuit of happiness, this entails evolving to transcend what you are now by becoming better, more skillful, more aware. There are things about us, things about life, that we don't like and which do not evolve us for the better. We seek to overcome these and make room for bliss.

D. Clarity

I didn't exactly know how to head this part of it, but taking cue from Jason, I've come to see an integral part of the Great Work as the cultivation of clarity. As termed here, however, that clarity is kind of loaded. This refers to clarity of mind, uncovering your will (and Will), and also clarifying your relationship to all things. The assumption here is that the degree of clarity implied would lead to truly seeing things for what they are. Thus, the stuff that is actually meaningless is shown for just that, and your own baggage and assumptions fall away from your relationships and you can value them for themselves instead of for your own insecurities. This also leads to honest analysis of yourself and your life, to see where you wish to evolve next and what you wish to transcend.

As you can see, these all mix and match all over the place, but in the end, I think this sums up what the Great Work is to me. Granted, there is good reason for the 'Work' part of it. It is an ongoing process that, frankly, most people will never truly complete. Frater RO, when he says he has accomplished the Great Work...well, sure he has. He has done it and achieved a degree of it. That's an accomplishment. But has he completed it?

If he says yes, then I call bullshit.

Because, here's the thing. To me, the Great Work is a human construction born from our imperative to always evolve, to always change, and also from our efforts to deal with the problems of existing. It's the same reason that we have the self-help and self-improvement genres of literature and media, and the same reason that practical magic even exists. To actively engage with it on any level is to accelerate its process. For these reasons, the Great Work is the Human Work, and it won't stop until We do.

You can be lazy. You can decide to call it quits and just not improve anything. Doesn't matter: the Great Work will be there, and like it or not, you will evolve and change.

Now, does anyone else hear the countdown to another one of the Occult Blog-o-Sphere's favorite worn-out pet topics? I hear the HGA coming...tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

The Negativity of "Positive" People

So..."negative people".

I'm sure most, if not all, of us have at least one person on social networks who tends to talk about removing negative people from their life and letting go of the negative energy. Personally, I've known so many pagans and witches who talk about this that I consider it a cliche. And I have a HUGE problem with it.

For one, where is the line drawn? What, exactly, constitutes "negative people"? What is interpreted as "negative". Why is there the need to go on and on, making blanket statements about this evil, villainous subset of people? And why does dealing with them have to be an advertised, explicitly defined and announced event instead of being part of the process of life and dealing with the other people you come across.

I never see anyone talk about, for example, praising and focusing on spending more time with the amazing people they know. I never see anyone have their New Years Resolution that they're going to focus on spending more time with awesome people.

And again, where is the line drawn? Is that "negative person" that you feel so negatively toward simply depressed and doesn't have good coping mechanisms? Is the person trying to find support and a connection from others? Are you condemning someone who really just needs help? I've been that person, and so I've known the long-lasting scars that can be left from people who are trying to "be positive".

"Negative people" and "energy", the two most irritating and overused terms and concepts in modern esoterica.

I've Been Thinkin' 'Bout My Own Protection

December has not been pleasant for me. Granted it could have been much worse, but the amount of stress and anxiety eclipsed all the good that has happened lately. For some time it just seemed like things all around were going nuts. With my vehicle issues and the several fights that have come up, it felt like I was under some kind of weird assault.

Divinations did not reveal any crossed conditions, and I had no indication of such otherwise. So...what was the problem? Was I making mountains out of molehills? Was a reading into things too much? I didn't think I was, all things considered.

Then I went through another re-read of The Book of Abrasax, and something Frater MC talked about in the chapter of protective magic stood out. Admittedly, I've been light on the protective magic since early 2011 and dealing with the crossed condition I was under...and that's probably been to my detriment, quite frankly. Part of that was some limited thinking on my part regarding the utility and application of protective magic. Upon doing some introspection, I found my attitude was that I didn't need much protective magic beyond occasional anointing with a protective oil. Frater MC, on the other hand, talks about magical protection as being about more than safeguarding against spiritual assault. When you get down to it, it's really about protection from life's ills.

After all, that's part of what it's about, isn't it? Magic is about enhancing your life, using a backdoor to make one's efforts in life easier or more effective. And what is protective magic but making it so that life's ills don't gang up on you and beat your ass all the time?

With that in mind, I decided it was time to create a good protective amulet to carry with me. Since there are so many fine examples of this in The Book of Abrasax, I decided to go with one of those. I went with the "Preliminary Protection Rite" and the amulet MC made for it initially. But then I did a divination about it.

Somewhere along the way I found a fantastic article by Devi Spring on Witches & Pagans about using Tarot to choose the best rootwork approach, and I decided to try it out with this. So, asking about the aforementioned protective amulet from The Book of Abrasax, I pulled a card. It was The Moon! I found that very interesting, because of the things which jumped out at me. To sum up what I took from it:

• Possible need for obscuring or "invisibility" work or added element in the amulet.
• A need to influence emotions.
• Work with Hekate.

Of these, #3 stood out the most among the impressions, especially since I recently made a place for her in my life as a mentor and created a small shrine to her in my home. So I figured I would switch to one of the many Hekate-based protection spells in Jason's "Protection & Reversal Magic". I decided to pull another card to clarification, and I got the 3 of Cups. The deck I was using is the Robin Wood Tarot, and the 3 of Cups in that deck is pictured to the right. The impression I got was as follows:

• Hekate-based protective work from Jason's book: Yes!
• Work with triple-formed female spirits.

Anyone who has read "Protection & Reversal Magic" will know that this points mostly to one thing: The Wheel of Hekate (pictured left).

I took a 2.5" x 2.5" piece of parchment paper and drew the Wheel of Hekate on it using dragon's blood ink. I wanted to be able to roll it up and store it in a vial of some sort. None of the cleaned-out oil vials I have felt right for this, so I took an old mechanical pencil lead holder, stripped it of its labeling and cleaned it out with Florida water.

In order to empower it, I used the following procedure:

1. Use typical personal purification methods. I used spiritual bathing similar to how they do it in Hoodoo.
2. Recite the Prayer of the Design.
3. Ground and center. I established the Pillar and then performed the Universal Centering.
4. Gave an offering to the spirits of the area and then banished and performed the Sphere of Hekas.
5. Empowered the seal using Jason's instructions in "Protection & Reversal Magic", invoking the Morae, the Furies, the Gorgons, and the Graces in the name of Hekate.
6. Five-spotted the seal with some Hekate Oil that I made (contains myrrh and mint in a base of sesame oil), rolled it up and put it in the pencil lead holder. Anointed the holder itself with the oil too.

The feeling of calm and security afterward was unmistakable, and has continued to be in the background since then.

What I find interesting about this is that there are others who have been feeling the same need for protection lately. Among them Skyllaros and other commenters on his recent post where he used the Wheel of Hekate to make a Hekate-based protective amulet similar to an amparo.

A Long-Needed Update

(NOTE: This is kind of a re-post, because when I initially made it, Blogger wouldn't show it on my list of posts, nor on my blog site on either my laptop nor my phone, so I thought it hadn't posted...until I saw it after posting THIS version. *sigh* Technology, sometimes...)

Now is as good a time as any to admit that the reason I've barely posted for 6 months is because...well, I haven't really felt like writing, and I haven't felt like I have anything to talk about that's related to effective sorcery until recently. As I've likely said before, this does not mean life's been easy or that I haven't been working on things on the mundane level. A few things that have transpired are...

• Got sick for a month with a Mystery Bug.
• Went through the process of having something done about a long-standing sleep problem. I've slept better in the past few months than I have in many years.
• Multiple vehicle problems, recently culminating in me trading in my old vehicle and buying another, newer one.
• Was hired on as a permanent employee where I was working as a contractor. This came with a big raise!
• Had a death in the family.

Spirit Houses and Shitty Weather

One of the things I've been itching to write about is actually something I haven't completed yet. I've been planning a Jupiterian spirit bottle housing Hismael since May. Unfortunately, one thing that has always happened with me is that I'll end up finally getting the inspiration and motivation to work magic and create magical things during the time the astrological conditions are at their worst! Well, it happened the same way with the spirit bottle: Right when I finally got the ideas and means to put it together, Jupiter went into retrograde. Of course, this was on top of the fact that Jupiter is in the sign of Gemini, which puts the planet at its weakest anyway.

The good thing is that I've since made further preparations and will be consecrating the bottle this Thursday, in the hour of Jupiter. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Jupiter can be considered in Mutual Reception with Mercury, as they are each in the sign the other rules. In this case it makes both strong by proxy, apparently. Again, that's if I'm not mistaken. If any readers are more versed in astrology than me, feel free to confirm or correct the above statement.

Shoaling the Hard Shit

Remember where I mentioned my job status change and my vehicle problems above? Well, in late November I found out they were bringing me on fulltime, and as such I had to go through all the hoops of employment onboarding again. This included credit checks, drug tests, background checks, etc. For reasons of my own I was afraid of not passing at least one of those checks.

Enter Gordon White's Sigil Shoaling Technique!

It had been a while since I did any sigil magic, and this seemed a perfect time to do it, especially since I've heard nothing but good things about it. Click on the link above and read the post. Yes, it's a little long but it is VERY much worth it. Make sure and read the technique itself (it's down the page a bit), otherwise the following won't make complete sense!

Basically, I made individual sigils for passing each test or check, then one for being successfully onboarded...and then one for having a job period. That last one was my "robofish" sigil; essentially it's a sigil made for something you've already achieved. I really like this idea because I see it as a way of grounding the rest of the magical effects into material reality. Using Jason Miller's 3-level model, I see this as a way of grounding levels 1 and 2 into level 3.

And you can guess what happened. I got the job, things went without a hitch, and I'm working my buns off in my new permanent status with an awesome raise (and less expensive benefits).

Now, when my truck turned into a soap opera of vehicle repairs recently (specifically regarding the brakes), I decided to do another sigil shoal. I did individual sigils for successful and less expensive repair of the individual parts involved. For the robofish sigil I simply made it for owning a pickup truck of my truck's description.

A Little Influence At The Dealership

The truck ended up being a bust anyway. I found out the rear differential was starting to go bad, and said "Fuck it!" That truck turned into a real money-pit, and I was sick to death of worrying about it, so I decided to shop around and buy another vehicle.

I started looking around at cars online, and then worked some macro enchantment before putting forth serious efforts into my search. I conjured Raphael of Mercury and asked him to bless my vehicle search and purchase efforts.

Quickly, information came together and feedback on cars, dealerships, and negotiation tactics came together. At the dealership, I parked my truck. Before going in I used a favorite piece of field magic: I put a dab of Commanding and Crown of Success oils on my hands and rubbed them in. Shook the salesman's hand, and deployed the influencing magic. At the dealership, they were amiable to my needs, and went out of their way to accommodate me on the financing. I though I was going to get a 14.9% interest rate due to my credit history, but came away with 12.1%. In short:

I got my 2005, 1-owner, 86K miles Toyota for less than $9000 with a lower interest rate and monthly payment than I initially aimed for! Needless to say, I'm pleased.

More to come!

Uses of IAO, part 1

Before picking up my copy of Jason Miller's "The Sorcerer's Secrets", I had previously heard of IAO, the gnostic version of the Tetragrammaton, consisting of the Greek letters Iota, Alpha, and Omega.  Frater U:.D:.'s "High Magic" contains a discussion of some uses of the IAO formula as a centering exercise and in the creation of mantric sigils.  Even then I found it pretty interesting, and for a short time I experimented with the centering exercise version as an alternative to the Qabalistic Cross.  The name IAO, to me, has always felt less specific to one particular deity or culture, despite the fact that it's derived from YHVH.  Typically it has had the sense of a general source of power and authority.

Since learning from Jason through TSS and Strategic Sorcery, I've included IAO in my regular practices and in numerous workings through various permutations.  Beyond those things I adapted from Jason's material, though, I hadn't explored it much further until recently.  To an extent, that changed when I read the little chapbook called "The Lunar Formula of IAO" by Derik Richards.  He treats the IAO formula a as belonging on a "lower" arc than I normally work with it on, yet there was still some things I gleaned from it that have proven useful.

For example, an explanation of IAO from TSS goes into the Greek alphabet and their associations with the elements, the planets, and the zodiac.  Fitting since IAO is the Greek version of YHVH, this system of the Stoicheia associates I with Sol, A with Luna, and O with Saturn.  From a Neo-Platonic Hermetic standpoint, Jason's interpretation essentially places it as Sol ruling all things between Luna (the first sphere beyond those of the elements), and Saturn (the "highest" of the planetary spheres.  Thus it places Sol as ruling all things.  Taken this way, a practical use of it is as a way to draw the light of the divine (ie. power) down through the spheres.

With that said, a similar way this can be taken is I being a Solar, generating principle with A being the Lunar, transitioning and changing principle and  O being the Saturnine, stabilizing principle.  Of course this parallels the astrological concepts of cardinality, mutability and fixity. 

Thus, the way I utilize this oh, so nifty name in magical work is:

1. A key with which to draw forth raw, undifferentiated and yet balanced power.
2. A name of power with which to draw upon spiritual authority that can be applied to different types of work.

Following the logic of some of this, it's not perfect but so far it has worked rather well for me.  I have more to write about this topic, especially in relation to the elements.  Stay tuned!

Inspiring Blogger

Although it has been a whole month, just about to the day, since this happened, I've been meaning to post about it.

Skyllaros from The Crossroads Companion tapped yours truly as a Very Inspiring Blogger!  I totally didn't expect this, and am honoured, flattered and a bit humbled by it.  :)

There are certain rules to the Very Inspiring Blogger Award which I'll go ahead and run through before I continue:

1. Display the award certificate on your website.
2. Announce your win with a post and include a link to whomever presented your award.
3. Present seven awards to deserving bloggers.  Create a post linking to them and drop them a comment to tip them off.
4. Post seven interesting facts about yourself.

Thems the rules!  I've covered rules 1 and 2 already, so on to the rest!

Now, the problem with listing seven inspiring bloggers is that, in the case of the ones I have in mind, at least three of them have already gotten this award!  Off the top of my head, they are:

1. polyphanes at The Digital Ambler - A student of Rufus Opus, going through his blog it is obvious he approaches the Art with creativity, intelligence, and quite a bit of scholarly bent.  Highly recommended (of course, that's why he's in the blogroll to the right)!
2. Kalagni from Blue Flame Magick - Hey!  Hey!  Whaddya get when you cross a Tibetan Buddhist with a Ceremonial Magician???  Actually, you get a smart, nuanced and interesting practitioner going by Kalagni who presents some pretty awesome material on his blog.
3. Skyllaros from The Crossroads Companion - If you hear the call of Hekate, you will be led to Her devotees, and you will see and read some interesting stuff!  It's been fascinating seeing Skyllaros' journey from a very Chthonic path to one more Ouranic, and back to a balance between the two.  We sometimes seem to overlap, so I've found his material very interesting and inspiring (!) as well!

Those aside, here are my seven picks as Very Inspiring Bloggers:

1. Jason Miller at Strategic Sorcery - How could I not include this?  Jason's work has been the main influence responsible for completely reforming my magical practice from an inept and lost pseudo-magician to a practiced and solid sorcerer who gets results.
2. Rufus Opus at Head For The Red - If you read through Frater RO's blog from the first post to the latest, you're going to learn so much about Hermeticism and Neo-platonic influence in magical practice.  And that's aside from his e-books and courses!
3. Brother Moloch from Eye of the Sorcerer - Although he rarely posts, Brother Moloch was one of the influences that began the reformation of magical practice and led me to Jason.
4. de heer Balthazar at Conjure Gnosis - As I draw some of the more technical elements from Conjure, Balthazar has been an inspiration for techniques that I have used.
5. Gordon White at Rune Soup - Because, seriously?  Gordon's blog belongs on any inspiring blogger list.  Going through his blog posts, you'll find so much information.  Not just magical information, but more like things that can fill out, inform, and inspire magical knowledge.  And his sigil shoaling technique?  Fantastic.
6. Frater Acher at My Occult Circle - A fantastic blog from a magician who is knowledgeable and practiced.  His explorations of magical topics in his blog are in-depth and informative.  Two highlights to me were his series of Arbatel conjurations and his Everyday Path To The HGA posts.
7. Scott Foster from Exploring Thaumaturgy - I often find it interesting and inspiring when I see a magician who is forging their own system, especially when they have a solid foundation to build it from.  That's what I see with this blog, and while I naturally don't always agree with Scott's material, I do also find it interesting from a spellcrafting standpoint.

With that said, in accord with the rules, here are some things about me:

1. I'm very tall (6'7"), but when I'm standing a distance away, I don't *seem* that tall.  It could be caused by me being overweight, but I've always noticed the same thing with my dad, and he's less overweight than me.
2. Males along the paternal line of my family have all had a natural talent with dowsing.  My dad has it, as did his father, and his father, etc.  Dad claims that he's always used L-shaped rods for it, but I think he can do it without tools, and there's a reason I think this.  All my life he has hunted Native American artifacts.  He has display case after display case full of arrowheads, cabinets showcasing axe and hatchet heads, and flint chisels.  He would literally go out into freshly-plowed fields and find these things, left by Native American tribes hundreds of years ago!  I always found his accuracy and luck with this uncanny.  When going out with him, me and my stepsister rarely found anything.  But he always did!  Despite his claims to using tools, there was one time he mentioned using his hands, and I think his ability helped him find those artifacts.
3. I don't know if it's a defect with my vision (despite my vision being very good), but I've always noticed this *thing* pervading everything.  The best way I have of describing the way it looks to me is like a transparent television static with smaller pixels, that flows along all things and just so happens to match flows of energy I've heard psychically sensitive friends of mine describe.  It's not dust, either, because dust looks different than this, and dust doesn't flow like this stuff does.  I've never known what to call it or think of it.
4. When I was a kid, my eyes were a rich brown, and ever since my late teens my eyes have changed to become more hazel.  I've repeatedly had people tell me that my eyes are pretty.
5. This is not something I often admit, but in my early days as a Wiccan, I was an almost classic "fluffy bunny".  I'm not proud of this, but it is something I've been reframing to see as just part of my development.
6. When I was a kid, up to age 7 or 8, there was a period of years where I had these nightmares involving me owning a mansion that gets invaded by monsters.  It always ended with me running from them.  When I was 7 or 8, I had the nightmare again, but this time I reached the end of it.  While running I tripped, fell, and the monsters caught me.  Oddly enough they were spiders of various (and I mean various) sizes who howled like wolves.  Meanwhile, in real life, I started screaming bloody murder, sat up in bed with eyes wide open clawing at myself, screaming to get them off me!  It was strange waking up beside my mother the next morning, as she wasn't there when I went to sleep!  But she reported what happened; apparently she had to wrestle me back down onto the bed, because I was totally losing my shit.  With my fascination with lucid dreaming, I've always wanted to enter a lucid dream and find a way back into that mansion, just to see what I find.
7. I've been in IT since 2006, but before that I tried to go into nursing, and before that I was in a major art school here in Indianapolis, IN.  Currently, I've been considering my options for going back to school for something non-IT (because, frankly, unless you're a software developer, IT tends to suck ass).

Thank you, Skyllaros, for the award!

Interesting Stuff This Week!

I've decided that, in between my normal posts (as few as they've been), it would be nice to do some signal boosting.  Therefore, on a semi-regular basis I will try to post articles and blog posts I found interesting and/or worthwhile for your enjoyment, dear readers.  :)  I might not include all the articles I found interesting, but these will be the highlights.

To start with, two magicians that I look up to in one way or another were interviewed on internet radio shows.  There was Gordon White from Rune Soup making a guest appearance on Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole.  Around the same time, there was my esteemed teacher of Strategic Sorcery, Jason Miller, over at Paranormal Palace Radio talking about Financial Sorcery.  I highly suggest going and listening to both.  There were a lot of interesting things discussed, and I for one enjoyed it immensely.

Speaking of Financial Sorcery, Brother Ash did a review of the book.  I say review, but he stated that it's more of a "Go out and buy this NOW!!!" statement.

Over at The Digital Ambler, polyphanes has some pretty awesome stuff going on.  If you're in the D.C. area, he is now teaching classes on a number of magical topics, centering around Hermetics and Geomancy.  In addition, he is providing readings at Sticks and Stones on a regular basis!  In addition, this week he took advantage of a Mercury election to empower some of his mercury-related talismans and gemstones.  The ritual he used is very interesting, as is the orgone generator he used to boost the whole thing.  I've always had a background interest in learning more about orgone generators, and after hearing about his results, I'm a bit closer to experimenting.

One area of interest I've always been drawn to is that of lucid dreaming.  I've never really been able to achieve much there because of the effects of obstructive sleep apnea on my REM sleep.  However, the solution to that is in the works.  But in the meantime, Karmaghna is looking into the use of dietary supplements to assist with lucid dreaming, and will be updating with his findings.

Thus far my favorite post, Skyllaros over at The Crossroads Companion posted about the Dimensional Sphere Sigil Technique.  Reading through it, I definitely want to try it!  The concept of not only firing off the sigil, but also filling your sphere with it and it moving your sphere closer to your goal...something in there strikes me as solid.

That's all I have for now, but the week isn't over yet.  ;)