Book Advice: Writing a Better Grimoire

I’m putting together a list of recommended titles that I’ll be posting on a separate page. Hopefully I’ll have that list up by the end of the month. Basically I’ve been going through my personal collection and other books I’ve read and I’m figuring out which books were either a great source of new ideas and inspiration the first time I read them, or books I’ve gone back to again and again as a reference.

Doing this, I’ve gotten a better idea of what I like in an esoteric book, what makes them valuable and worth the price, and also the books I don’t ever use. Since there are quite a few low price to free small press, self publishing, and POD options available, there are a lot more writers on the market, and really anyone can do it. They’re also flooding the market with books few people actually want and find valuable. Anyways here some things that I think really make a book stand out:

1. Keep it Short - This is the number one rule, granted there are some exceptions. If you’re doing a book on a very detailed in depth subject like tarot or astrology, or if you’re doing a compilation or overview, if it’s well organized you can have 300 or more pages. Generally though I’d say between 30-150 pages would be ideal for an esoteric book.

I mean, has anyone here actually read The Secret Doctrine cover to cover. A major work and a major influence on many of the authors who came after it, it has a strong reputation, and it’s in the public domain so it’s free, so it should be a lot stronger than a lot of new books by new and even established authors on the market. But no one reads it because it’s over a thousand pages long! At best, it maybe gets skimmed, sometimes. And it doesn’t mean that a reader is not devoted to their spirituality or lazy because they won’t read a 1200+ page book. It just means they have better things to do with their time and they’ll get the information somewhere else.

Books that are lean and concise, full of useful information, and which can be quickly read and added to ones accumulated knowledge are very attractive to a lot of practitioners, especially ones who may have money to buy books but not a lot of time to read them. And number two will help with this too.

2. Pick a specific subject and work with it - It’s a common complaint that everything on the market is magick or wicca 101. The problem is most of these books try to cover everything, and even in 500 pages we’re talking a few pages devoted to each subject, just enough space to give a cursory overview and not enough space to get in depth. But a book dedicated to a specific subject, like evocations or astral projection, can usually cover the subject completely, covering basic information and in depth information.

3. Completions and overviews can be useful - I’m adding this because a few of the books that made my list are very long overviews of magick in general and completions of materials from other books. Done correctly, these can be wonderful collections of information. They’re great for exposing a beginner to a lot of different information, and they’re great as a single reference of many works for a more experienced practitioner. Unfortunately, due to modern copyright law, they’re very difficult to put together, unless you manage to work for a major publisher who is willing to allow the best parts of all their works to be compiled into a single volume.

4. Keep it separate and organized – You don’t want a narrative flow within your work. You don’t want a work that starts with a few ideas, and builds on them chapter to chapter, until the reader reaches a point of understanding at the end. Readers usually don’t like that book, or if they do they’re forgiving it its shortcomings. Readers will get a lot more use out of a book when they can easily turn to the information they want out of it right now. Books that can be used as a reference are a lot better than books that can’t. Some people will only want a book for one or two chapters. An experienced or even well read practitioner may already be familiar with the basic information you’re supplying and only want the book for the advanced material. To them, it’s important that they can skip to the best part of the book. When a person first sees a book, nine out of ten will go right to the table of contents and see how many chapters look interesting. Then they’ll pick a couple of interesting chapters and see if they have anything worthwhile in them.

5. Be original and speak from experience - Too many books just reiterate the information from other books. This is a common complaint from many readers. Before you even start writing a book, you should really ask yourself if you have anything new or original to add to the subject matter, or a new way of presenting it. Remember all of these subjects have already been covered by other authors, authors who are better established and more well known, and whose books have been out longer (so there’s a good chance someone interested in the subject matter has already bought their book).

6. Be positive, not negative - This is something that I see more and more with new self-published authors as opposed to established names. They’re negative. They talk about groups of people they don’t like, they talk about authors they don’t like, and they talk about how people are stupid. It looks unprofessional for one. It also alienates potential readers. No matter how good your book is, if your opening chapter dismisses Wiccans, or New Agers, or any other major group, any devoted follower of that ideology is going to put the book down and never come back. Also an established author will have a fan base, and when you bash that author, you turn his or her fanbase away from your work. A lot of times this comes down to nothing more than an author being petty or jealous of someone or some other group’s success. And this isn’t an attractive image to project. You’re supposed to be knowledgable and an enlightened guru of sorts, not someone partial to petty drama and full of teenage angst.

Instead be positive. Don’t talk about how horrible someone elses information is. Talk about how great your information is. Talk about how once the reader finishes your book, they’ll be able to practice the subject matter much better than they could before. Focus on how great your book is and what it can offer to the reader, because in the end this is what matters to someone buying your book, not how the market is overflooded with inferior work or how everything by author or group X is pure crap.

And remember, there’s nothing wrong with ignorance. If it wasn’t for ignorance, no one would need your book. If your book fails to alleviate ignorance, it’s not the fault of your readers or potential audience either. It’s because you failed as a teacher, or as an author, or in correctly marketing your work.

7. Have spells, rituals, or exercises included in your work – Depending on what your writing, one or more of these may be appropriate. A book on general magical practices will probably be partial to spells. A book that is an introduction to a new or established religion will probably be partial to rituals. Things like astral projection and remote viewing usually are more geared towards general exercises as opposed to formal ritual work. But these are all practical information.

Practical information makes these books useful. They give the reader something they can do or try to better themselves. It’s something that makes a book valuable even after its been read. It’s something that most readers really want out of a book, and it’s usually the part of the book they value the most. Meanwhile if you don’t have any practical information, I can only assume that you don’t know enough to create it. You can’t write a spell, or ritual, or figure out exercises to help me improve a skill; and if you’re not at a level where you can do that, why should I buy anything you write?

8. Expand without fluffing - Suppose you pick a subject, let’s say astral projection. You write your little book and say everything you want to say, and you only have twenty pages. You could, at this point, publish a twenty page book (and some have). What most people do though is try to expand the twenty pages into sixty or a hundred. They don’t add any valuable information, what they do is reorganize it and go more in depth on various subjects and try to expand each section as much as they can. What they end up with is the same twenty pages worth of material, only now it takes up five times as many pages.

The fluff is usually non-valuable and useless, and there’s no reason for it. Instead try to find more useful information to add into the work. This may mean expanding the subject of the book into related topics. For instance, lucid dreaming and meditation would be closely related to astral projection, and chapters on these subjects would easily fit into a book on astral projection. Now your core information is still just twenty short pages, you haven’t fluffed it up any. Instead you’ve added new information about related subjects which will make your book even more valuable to a potential reader.

9. Mention other authors and books you like - You can do this in a few different ways. You can mention them directly in the text. Or you can have a recommended reading list. Or you can have a works referenced page at the end of your book. It really doesn’t matter, but I’m not talking about a list of other books you’ve written or a page or advertisement for other books by your publisher. This won’t so much help you sell your book, but it’s a good practice. It informs readers who like your work of other works they may enjoy. It helps promote other authors in the same field. It helps you direct people towards the good books and helps you make sure that people are spending their book buying money on good purchases, and not buying the crap books you’re not supposed to talk about according to #6. A while back this was a standard practice in esoteric works. It’s kind of fallen out of vogue (and the reason why probably has something to do with certain publishing houses too), but it was a good practice that should really be revived.

10. Concluding thoughts (time and value) - Most of what I’ve written here about good books comes down to two words, time and value. I know I don’t have time to be reading books all day long. I assume most people don’t either. Most people have a job they have to go to, they have families they have to take care of, and they have significant others they want to do fun things with. They also want leisure time to relax and watch TV, or a movie, or keep up with the internet, or whatever. And spiritual people also have to have time to practice their spirituality and deal with groups and meet-ups and rituals and what-not. It’s not that people are lazy or don’t want to read or better themselves, it’s just that they don’t have the time to wade through forty pages of crap to get two pages of something interesting. People value their time, and as a writer you should too. You should make it easy for someone to get exactly what they want out of your book as quickly as possible.

The other word is value. What is the value of your book? A lot of authors have tried to use number of pages or word count to value their work. But more often than not the smaller books are the more valuable ones, if for no other reason than the fact that they’re more accessible. The information in the book is what makes it valuable. And what may make a book worth anywhere from $5 to up to $500 in the case of some rare OOP books for someone might not be any more than a few pages or even sentences. Fill your book with new information that people will actually want and find useful and practical information and a lot more people will find it worth buying.

Info on Psychic Vampires from the Black Grimoire

What I call the Black Grimoire is a hand-written notebook by some unknown magician named as such because it had an imitation black leather cover. The book was probably last sighted in the 20s, and I have no idea if it still exists or if it has been lost or destroyed. The book itself seems to be personal spiritual notes concerning a quest for immortality. The first section, which I’m reprinting here, is about vampiric entities and has some very interesting information about them and particularly their origins. In no way is this post meant to condone physically attacking what the grimoire terms mortal vampires, I am only repeating the original text for educational purposes, and as always readers should be aware of and respect their local laws.

The book itself was channeled. At times only ideas and translations could be gotten, at other times I was able to get pages word for word out of the original text. Even in these instances I’ve gone back and corrected grammar and spelling errors. Unfortunately I can’t draw, and so I’ve taken to describing the illustrations from the book as I saw them.

pg1. The question being, from where does the vampire originate. There is no realm, above or below, to which these anomalies belong. They have no providence among the divine and no proper place within the universe. The existence of the vampire is a testament to the beauty and genius of mankind. They are an anomaly and a magical creation, but one that is not a mere manipulation of the physical laws, they are a creation that follows the physical laws but in doing so extends beyond the perceived limitations of the medium. A vampire is evidence that the imagination of man has evolved beyond the imagination of the universe at creation.

pg2. A feeder is the most basic of vampires. Such a thing can be made much more complicated, but the efficiency of a feeder lies in its simplicity. Greater complexity requires greater energy, which must be consumed, which in turn places a greater limit on the lifespan of the vampire.

pg3. Feeders follow a simple design, that although variable, is typically similar. The most basic variant is that of a worm, roughly the size of a forearm. It is best the worm have a mouth to feed, although experienced magicians can get away without adding mouth. It may need some form of navigation. A single eye would work. It needs a simple brain to think and follow orders too. Feeders can be created and not given orders or instincts, but they are useless when created like this.

Illustration 1: A feeder vampire. It has an hourglass type figure, with a single eye, a large mouth and teeth on the front end, and nothing on the tail. Its body seems smooth and it is lightly shaded.

pg4. A feeder, as all original vampires, are just thought forms. Thought forms have no soul or freewill. They make no energy, and when they run out of energy they cease to be. A vampire, however, is a thought form that can feed, and thus survive indefinitely. Such a thing could even be given the ability to grow and evolve over time. A growing, expanding, thought form without a definitive lifespan or divine connection.

pg5. And such things are easily created. Just think them, and they are.

pg6. Feeders are the first and most basic type of vampiric being, that which is created for the singular act of attacking ones enemies. A feeder exists only to cause pain and death, and work best when unleashed enmass against ones target.

Illustration 2: On the bottom of the page a classical wizard with cloak, beard, and pointy hat stands over a cauldron. A swarm of feeders (as in illustration 1) emerge from the cauldron and fly upward along the side of the page next to the text.

Pg7. Leechers are an extension of the feeder model, except they are created for a beneficial, albeit immoral, instead of malicious intent. Leechers choose victims to feed off of, but afterward feed this energy into their creator, who in turn sustains the leecher (or in more evolved states the leecher may feed itself and then turn over what remains to its creator). Most leechers resemble extra appendages attached to their creator, although some are independent of their creator and can feed and then return to their creator. In its most basic form the leecher will attack anything it comes into contact with to drain it of energy, but more evolved forms may seek out certain types of victims.

Illustration: A man, dressed in a black suit with black glasses. Black tentacle shaped appendages are coming out of his back.

Pg8. The vampire kings are a byproduct of the supreme arrogance of man. In some instances they may have originally been intended to serve and benefit their creator, but most were created only to prove that they could be created.

Pg9. A vampire king is a complex thought form initially created with a large amount of power and sustainability. Vampire kings are intelligent, can learn and evolve, can sustain themselves indefinitely, can reproduce, and even exhibit freewill. They do all of this without any higher connection, being restrained to the physical realms in which they were created.

Illustration: A hovering being consisting of a skull, and behind the skull the rest of the body made up of various bones and bits of flesh that are tied together with straps. There is a ghostly aura around the being, suggesting that it is non-corporeal.

Pg10. Vampire kings are malicious, destructive, and evil beings. They lack any sort of divine connection. Vampire kings are dependent on the lifeforce of others not only to sustain themselves, but also to perform any other act. The vampire king is created with a finite amount of energy. Energy is lost to a degree on even the most miniscule and effortless of acts, and energy can only be regained by feeding. When all energy is lost, the vampire king will cease to be. Vampire kings tend to value all energy as precious, and every act they perform is a great loss, and a great gift if done for another.

Pg11. King spawns are the children of vampire kings. Although vampire kings are capable of reproducing by recreating themselves, this act requires a great deal of energy and is seldom ever performed. Typically vampire kings reproduce king spawns for utilitarian purposes. In many ways these act like vampire kings, being able to learn and evolve and requiring energy to live. However these entities also tend to be much less powerful and much less intelligent. The relationship and inequality between a vampire king and its spawn would be similar of that to a man and a work animal.

Illustration: A man-beast type entity with spikes or hair around its body and a ghostly aura is keeled over. Three small balls are shooting from its back, this being smaller versions of itself.

Pg12. King spawns are often sent out to acquire energy, to find new hosts, and to watch over already acquired hosts.

Pg13. Vampire kings have no access to higher realms and powers, and at the same time their own powers and abilities are limited by their finite nature. They also have very limited access to the physical realms due to the large amounts of energy required to manifest therein. To resolve this issue vampire kings typically recruit human hosts, known as mortal vampires.

Pg14. Mortal vampires are enticed by special powers inferred upon them by vampire kings. Mortal vampires are taught how to vampircally drain others, and initially a large amount of this energy is used to feed the vampire king, who will routinely use some of this energy to empower the mortal vampire. Although the mortal vampire initially has access to higher realms, thus giving the vampire king access to the higher realms, this access is closed more and more through vampiric acts and associations and mergings with the vampire king, eventually leaving the mortal vampire with little or no access to the higher realms or ability to naturally produce energy. This restriction on the ability to produce energy coupled with the feeding habits of the vampire king routinely leaves the mortal vampire with less energy than necessary for their survival, typically resulting in an accelerated, not decelerated, state of bodily aging and decay.

Pg15. A mortal vampire can survive death for a while, even during advanced stages of decomposition, through feeding and sustaining themselves with life energy.

Pg16. More powerful vampire kings require a large amount of energy to both sustain themselves and their actions. These kings will generally have several different groups of hosts, and a large number of kingspawn will be utilized to control and manipulate these groups (requiring larger amounts of energy).

pg17. For mortal vampires to sustain themselves at a decelerated rate of aging and decay they must adopt a methodology that mirrors that of the king vampires. This involves recruiting their own group of mortal vampire subordinates to feed off of. It also involves a restriction and limitation on the amount of energy being expended, and also regulating actions to their subordinates in order to conserve their own energy. At times certain mortal vampires are favored by the vampire kings that lord over them, and are usually not fed from, or at least not fed from in large amounts. Those mortal vampires that themselves lord over several others that the king can feed from are most often the ones who are favored.

pg18. Some mortal vampires surpass the vampire king that lords over them, and these individuals are afforded far more power and energy, and often become as a mortal vampire kings.

pg19. Small feeder type vampires often die not long after creation. Such things can easily be destroyed by performing a draining or vampiric attack against them to take away whatever energy is sustaining them.

pg20. Leecher type entities are generally deeply dependent on their creator. After the death of their creator, their existence becomes aimless and pointless. When this happens they can be uncreated by the same methodology used to uncreate feeder types. They can sometimes be uncreated in this manner while their creator is still alive (although this is pointless since they will just be recreated). An attempt to destroy a leecher type through a draining attack while their creator still lives may unintentionally lead to the death of their creator.

pg21. Vampire kings are difficult to effectively destroy. Like any vampire, they desperately need energy to survive and without it will cease to exist. Some were created without much power or proper thought put into them, and have failed to adequately grow while in the universe, and these kings may be destroyed with some ease, but this is not true of the majority. A vampire king may have acquired a very large stable of hosts from which to feed within its lifetime, and when threatened the king will drain each of these hosts until they are dead to sustain itself. It will also drain each of its king spawns until they cease to exist. This can result in a very large amount of energy that must be dealt with. The vampire king meanwhile will not just use this energy for sustenance, but will also use it to formulate counter-attacks.

pg22. The best methodology for attacking a vampire king is to systematically go after its power structure, if possible. Each spawn which is destroyed constitutes a loss of energy and power. Each host lost, on its own, is a crippling blow to a vampire king. As its power structure weakens so too does the vampire king, better positioning its enemies. An effective secondary strategy is to trick or force the vampire king to expel energy for little or no gain. It should be noted that a vampire king’s energy is finite, where as a normal person’s energy is potentially limitless and regenerative in nature.

pg23. A mortal vampire is a physical incarnation, and thus subject to the normal limitations of mortality. Many may be killed in the same varied methods to kill men, however more powerful mortal vampires, and those sustained by outside forces such as vampire kings and king spawns, may be able to survive a bodily death and decelerate post-mortem decay, becoming a living corpse.

pg24. The best method to destroy a mortal vampire, and be assured of its destruction, is to decapitate the vampire, severing its neck from its body and completely immobilizing it. Then all of the remains should be completely cremated.

pg25. Another historical method is, after killing the vampire, restrain its body within a coffin so it cannot escape. Then bury the coffin deep in the ground so it cannot feed. In time, without a source of energy, the vampire will die.

pg26. All vampiric beings are an affront to the divine, and a natural enemy of the divine. That which is divine will harm them.

pg27. The vampire gods are the byproduct of the supreme arrogance of man. Unhappy with simply creating life in his image, or even as to his imagination, man attempted to recreate the divine as to his imagination. Through powerful and massive rituals man has succeeded in creating his own sort of gods, the vampire gods, entities that exist only in the astral-physical realm and sustain themselves through vampiric feeding.

pg28. Vampire gods utilize an advanced power structure consisting of a multitude of vampire kings, kingspawns, mortal vampires, and even their own spawns. Although still dependent on energy, and ceasing to exist without it, vampire gods have access to enough energy to make their supply near limitless. Vampire gods are also rarely seen and typically hidden, acting niggardly with their power and never expending more than is absolutely necessary. Such beings tend to be so powerful that they can not be killed, save by divine intervention, or a supreme act of some mythical hero.

pg29. The final vampiric form is that of the symbiote. A person of exceptional power and ability could, conceivably, sustain a vampire king on his own regenerative energy and still manage to sustain himself. Such a person could, if he chose to, take a vampire king into himself and sustain it in a symbiotic relationship. A vampire king would have to be highly evolved and very powerful to have the inclination to agree to such a relationship. Due to the non-vampiric nature of the relationship the person will sustain their connection to the higher planes and retain their renewable energy. The vampire meanwhile will cease to be vampiric and evolve into a new and higher state with access to higher realms and self-sustenance. The two will become a dual creature which will have evolved into something beyond the scope and limitation and even imagination of the universe. The symbiote is an evolution of man, an evolution of existence, and an evolution of creation itself.

Pg30. Ultimately it must be concluded that vampric energy brings only the decay of death, not life. The vampire is more mortal a creature than ourselves, for when we die, some vestige of ourselves carry on into immortality, where as when they die, they are no more.

The Gospel Of…?

Okay, I feel somewhat ashamed by this.  I channeled this work about a month ago. It was something’s gospel, and it gave it to me, and it is an interesting read full of interesting thoughts. Although I wrote down the gospel word for word, I didn’t write down the name of the entity that it belonged to. I was also tired after I did this and I set it aside to reread it later before posting it and its taken me this long to remember I had it and get around to getting it up. If I remember the name of the original author, or better yet if I can reestablish the initial channel and contact him, I’ll change the title of the post to reflect this and give credit where it is due.

Time moves against us, forward and backward, like the current.

It is a fool who glances past the initial illusion of time and supposes he has found some great truth, when all he has found is another illusion. And so all wisemen are fools.

It is a fool who glances upon the illusion set before him and supposes that it must hold some truth. And so all fools are wisemen.

Time ebbs and flows backwards and forwards. Its shape is malleable, its form in constant flux. Because it exists as a matter of perspective learned men consider it a construct of perspective. A thing that is naught, except that we have named it, to explain away the physical laws.

And yet an ocean, perceived correctly, is naught but a trillion tiny drops of water, with a shape no less malleable and a form no less in flux then time itself. No boundary exists between ocean and ocean, besides that which man has named, and no boundary exists between drop of water and drop of water, except that which we has been perceived. But do we suppose an ocean is naught because it is only a perception? Does the nature or form of the ocean change when seen only as a trillion tiny drops?

The All of the universe is infinite in all directions. When we search for the beginning, where all things begin, we circumvent one obstacle, peel back one layer, only to find another layer and another obstacle without end. When we look ahead to see the ending of all things, we see only continuity and new beginnings.

The first spark that began the universe occurred prior to the creation of time, and so all things where created at once. The first spark occurred, and all of creation came into being.

And the ending of all things should have occurred at that moment, except that there is no ending, because the All is infinite in all directions, and so all things lingered on, and from this the ocean time was born.

The first spark that began the universe occurred prior to the creation of time, and so all things where created at once.

But they were also created in order. There was that which came first, and that which came last, and that which came in between. For if there was no order then nothing could linger and there would be no infinity.

And so there was order, and there was chronology, and time existed before its existence.

The first spark that began the universe occurred prior to the creation of time, and so all things where created at once. The first spark occurred, and all of creation came into being.

But the few learned among us knows that the universe did not begin at the first spark, that there was that which existed before the first spark, and so there is no true beginning.

The beginning is a matter of perspective.

All things are forever because the All is infinite in all directions. We are and will always be, and so there is no change, no point in choosing one path over another.

Some learned men see cycles. All things infinitely repeat. All that happens will happen again.

We are all just fallen embers from the first spark. We are all just pieces of driftwood cast in the ocean of time. Insignificant, pointless, meaningless, and our destiny dependent on the motions of supreme powers.

But if we can perceive a beginning, we can percieve an ending. And between a beginning and an ending we can change, evolve, and become.

But the All is infinite in all directions, and so if we mark an ending, we must also concede that a beginning is birthed. And so we move between beginings and endings, over and over, some marked by time, some by age, and some by virtue of accomplishment. We become creatures of eternal struggle and hardship who never know the peace and tranquility of a piece of driftwood moving where the current takes it.

When we mark an ending, we sit on the precipice of a new destiny. No longer are we constrained to the fate gifted to us by some external power. No longer is our existence pointless. We have a purpose. We can shape universes. We are no longer a fallen ember, but a new first spark.

Tools: Knives, Athames, and Swords; and The Qualities of Different Metals

For anyone who doesn’t know, an athame is just another name for a double-edged knife, and in practice a single edged knife can just as easily be used for the same purpose. For the sake of this article I’m making no distinction in use between an athame and a knife. Anything that’s too small to be a sword is a knife, and anything too big to be a knife is a sword.

There are knives made out of glass, ivory, bone, and other materials, but for the scope of this article we’re talking about knives and swords with blades made out of metal, typically steel.

Knives and swords are elemental tools, this time the element of air. Air, like fire (wands and staves), is a masculine element, and our masculine elemental tools are tools of action. Some people are under the mistaken belief that wands and staves represent air and knives and swords represent fire. This is a stupid, idiotic, belief based on the fact that fire, like swords, hurts with no actual understanding of the properties of the various elements. Fire is the element of passion, fury, and pure force, and staves, which are naturally occurring in nature, hurt people through blunt force trauma. The metal in swords and knives is man made and thus evidence of the ingenuity of man. They are weapons of skill and precision, not purely brute force and strength. Air is the element of intelligence, science, imagination, and swiftness. If you swing a sword it moves and cuts through the air as if it were becoming part of it. Wands and staves can be set on fire.

What to look for in a sword or knife.

With knives and swords it’s important to have decent tools. Prices vary widely from store to store, but there’s no need to spend a fortune on these tools for most magical work. However a lot of what’s out there is flimsy and made for decoration, not actual use, and this won’t do at all. For starters, knives and swords are weapons that cut. A lot of their symbolism and use is tied up in this. Any knife or sword used for magical practice should have a sharp point and a sharp edge. You want decent quality metal for the blade (personally the lowest quality I would use would be 440 stainless steel). Lastly you want to make sure that the quality of the hilt is good and that the blade is securely attached to it. The last thing you want is to be waving around your sword or knife in ritual and have the blade suddenly detach and go flying across the room or into you.

For the most part knives and swords serve the same purpose in magical work. However because of mundane reasons knives are usually far more useful. Swords require a lot more space to work with than knives, and so they aren’t suited for small enclosed ritual spaces Knives are also easier to conceal on your person, and in many areas even legal to carry on you, where as swords are more difficult to hide and more commonly illegal to have in public.

Size does matter, a lot. All other things being equal, a larger blade will be able to both hold and work with larger amounts of energy. For most acts a large knife will be good enough. Smaller knives, about the size of your hand, are not as useful in magical work, and should be used for more mundane magical purposes like cutting herbs, drawing blood, or carving symbols into candles. Swords are useful for directing very large amounts of energy. Sometimes a large knife is enough to seal an entity, but with larger entities a sword may be preferable. Due to the large amount of energy they can hold swords are preferable as sentient objects. Very large swords can utilize massive amounts of energy.

Remember swords and knives are airy objects. They’re a representation of intelligence and craftsmanship. Because of this better crafted swords tend to work better. This is true of both the quality of the blade, and of the art that may decorate it (such as symbols on the blade or the beauty of the hilt). A very expensive, well made, hand-crafted sword would be best, but unfortunately most of us are going to find that out of our price range. We can still get good swords and knives at decent prices (expect to pay between $60-300 for a good sword, considerably less for a good knife if you shop intelligently). As a general rule, better technologies used in the bladework, such as with Japanese swords or the smaller, later era European swords, are going to work better. However blades that are made with technologies meant to lower the cost of the blade by sacrificing quality, such as putting a hole through the center, will be detrimental.

The typical use of the type of sword will also lend some bearing to its use in ritual. For this reason dull, purely decorative swords and knives are not very useful in ritual. By their nature they are inactive, and this is even worse with swords which represent the most active element. As another example, the tanto was traditional used to commit ritual suicide, and so tanto knives tend to be more adept at dealing with death energy and people who have been suicidal, especially those who have survived attempts, usually find themselves very compatible with the knife.

As a personal note, I would recommend against buying reproductions of famous swords from movies and video games for ritual use. The swords are generally made for decoration, not for use, and in almost every case I’ve noticed the swords are inferior to other equally priced swords. You’re paying extra for the product branding.

Cool stuff to do with a blade.

Physical Self Defense - Swords and knives were meant to hurt and kill, and so long as they’re sharp they do it well. Killing is also one area where a sword far exceeds the capabilities of a knife, and for this reason, at least traditionally, swords were present at most dangerous ceremonial rituals. On the off chance you manage to physically manifest a hostile creature during a ritual (or one manifests during something like a house cleaning), a sword will be able to hurt and maybe kill anything that has a physicality. A more common use though would be defending yourself against someone who has become possessed and violent during a ritual. Note that I would recommend doing everything possible not to hurt someone during a ritual, and that local laws concerning what constitutes self-defense and justified force vary and you should be familiar with those laws before using a sword or knife in this manner. However I’ve also been shot by a medium who accidentally became possessed during an evocation, so I can understand the need to be able to defend yourself.

Battery - This is probably the first thing most practitioners do when they get their first knife. Metal doesn’t absorb energy as easily as wood, but it does hold on to it much better. Although any energy can be used, typically practitioners will enchant the knife with their own energy when they are in a calm and balanced mood. For many practitioners, the knife they use as their battery is an essential ritual tool. It acts as an emergency failsafe should something go wrong. If a practitioner ends up completely exhausting themselves during a ritual and then finds they need more energy, like if for instance they were attacked in their weakened state, the blade is a reserve of energy they can use. If they are bound by another practitioner, they can use the energy in the blade to cast an unbinding. If they’re psychologically attacked or otherwise become emotionally unstable during ritual, they can use the energy in the blade to balance out their own energy.

The metal will not absorb energy as easily as the wood in a wand will. Because of that it often times isn’t enough just to leave a blade on an altar or to take it with you to rituals in order to make a battery. More often than not a practitioner will have to specifically charge the blade with energy. The first time you charge a blade with energy, it could take hours. However you’ll notice the metal will hold the charge very well and the blade will lose very little energy over time without use. Because of this you only have to replenish the blade after you’ve used it, and not much more than what you’ve taken out of it. After doing this several times you may even find that the blade begins to replenish itself after use.

To charge the blade, first make sure that you are in a calm, balanced, and strong state. Hold the knife or sword by the hilt and move energy through your hand, into the hilt, and then into the blade itself. You may wish to meditate or otherwise achieve trance in order to make this process easier. As I said it could take several hours to do this properly depending on how good you are at it. You can also try singing with the sword in your hand, and pushing the energy out of your mouth with the words to the song and into the blade through your hand. You can also try something similar involving dancing, and these two methods can be combined. I don’t know if this is a better method, but it’s definitely more fun than just sitting there with your sword. You can also try doing other tasks like watching TV while doing this, but the entire process will take longer. Also, if you need to you can split this ritual up over several days.

Energy Manipulation - Blades manipulate energy differently than wooden wands. Where as wands move very large amounts of energy, blades move energy in much smaller amounts. For the trade off though, blades are able to manipulate energy in a much finer manner. For instance the smaller amount of energy used by a sword can form a far more devastating attack than a wand could because the energy can be directed at a small, single, specific point. The sword is also going to be better at directing energy at a specific point rather than just pointing a large amount into a single direction hitting everything. For example if you had a barrier around your working area and someone or something wished to enter, you could use your wand to throw a massive amount of energy at the barrier knocking it down. Or you could use your sword to cut a small and specific place for someone to enter and then repair the damage afterwards.

Sealing Entities - You can seal entities into blades. You might want to do this for a variety of reasons. You may want the entity in the blade so that it would aid you in battle. You may want it in there so you can access its power during magical rituals, or to empower it with a physical form so that it can act in this world and somehow help you, or to keep it in one place so it is there to do what you need when you need it. Or you could just seal an entity in there to get rid of it and then throw the blade into the back of some closet.

Some entities will willingly enter the blade because they want to be inside it. If they cannot do this on their own, you may have to develop a method to help them in. If an entity is unwilling to enter the blade, then you would need to grab it and push it in there, like you would with energy, and then seal the blade so it cannot escape. A basic seal would be a small amount of energy entered into the blade, possibly in the formation of a sigil denoting no entry or exit or a lock or something being closed, empowered with the intent not to let anything escape. A stronger seal would be to charge wax and melt it on top of the sword and sheath in order to seal the two together. Done correctly the entity will only be able to come out and effect the physical world when the wax seal is broken.

Bigger entities are going to require bigger blades. Large knives will usually be big enough to seal most entities you’ll find, but swords are always better for sealings, especially with larger more powerful entities. Some entities, like say gods, are just going to be too big and can’t possibly be sealed into a sword (and they’d probably destroy you if you made a serious attempt at doing this).

Living Blades - Better than sealing in an entity is a living blade. Some blades do become sentient over time because of energy constantly being passed through them, although this doesn’t happen too often accidentally and is much more difficult and rarer than with wood. However, in the instance of a handcrafted blade, if the craftsman puts enough time, devotion, and enough of himself into the blade there is a chance the blade will be born as a sentient and living object. There will happen a lot more often with swords than with knives, mainly because swords take a lot more time to make and require a lot more skill. A living blade will have a personality all its own, and will have some power to act within this world. If the craftsman knows what he’s doing, he can do various things like continually charging the object during creation, casting certain spells while making it, and writing certain symbols and ruins on the sword in order to further empower it.

Sword Memory – Living swords will naturally remember the people who have wielded them, their fighting techniques, the battles they’ve fought in and the rituals they’ve been used in. They can then, to some extent, impart this past knowledge and these abilities to whoever is currently wielding them, and even use these abilities themselves in some instances. A non-living blade can also be made to hold a memory (and by non-living I also mean nothing is sealed in it). This isn’t usually an effortless process though, and the practitioner needs to make a special effort to place the image and memory of what has occurred into the blade.

Soul Holding - This is far more effective when done with a living sword. In that instance you would merge your soul together with that of the sword, each taking a piece of the others soul, and this would create a closer bond between you and the sword and also allow you to act at times like you were a single entity. You can also do this with a non-living blade, and the purpose in this instance is to leave a small part of your soul behind with the intent that, after death, most or all of your remaining soul will seek that piece out and also enter into the blade. From there you can continue to live on and affect the world as a blade, but the typical intent is to find a suitable host and draw them to the sword, and then over time to work your way either into possessing them or being a true walk-in, effectively achieving immortality.

Astral attacks - Finally any of the above blade can be used for an astral type attack, so long as it has some sort of energy charge to it. In this instance you would literally attack a non-corporeal entity with the sword or knife and the blade would cut through them hurting and possibly even killing them. Living swords and swords with sealed entities will do this of their own volition. You might need to tell the sword that you need it to attack astrally, or the sword may be able to figure it out on its own. A sword which is holding a piece of your soul may be strong enough to attack astrally just because you want it to, but you might also need to treat it as if it were a battery. With a battery, the energy is already in the blade and will go through what you are hitting, but it won’t actually hurt your victim. You need to access the energy in the blade and attune it with aggression, or possibly pain, and give it an intent to hurt. So long as you’ve attuned the energy correctly and keep it that way, once you move the sword through the area where the entity is it will hit it the same as if you were cutting through a physical person. This would also hurt a physical person if you were moving the blade through them, but then so would the blade.

Sheaths

For the most part, the sheath is going to be the least important part of the sword. To cut costs, many swords out there come with very cheap sheaths. If you want to do something special with the sheath, you can always buy a better one to fit over the sword. If you just want it for a utilitarian purpose, you’re probably fine with the one you got with the sword.

If you’re planning to seal something with wax, ideally you’d want a metal sheath and a metal hilt on the blade. You’re going to want to buy this with the blade because metal sheaths have to be kind of exact. A wooden sheath would be the second best choice, especially if it had a coat of pain or some fabric covering it. Plastic sheaths are going to be useless for this. In fact, plastic sheaths are completely useless for any magical work.

If you want to put an enchantment of some sort on the sheath, a wooden sheath is the best choice. You’d ideally want a wooden sheath that looked nice, that was a work of art in its own right. You might also want to put gemstones on the sheath.

The Qualities of Some Common Metals

Steel – Steel is a masculine metal, representing air. Steel is the crystal of the metal world. It doesn’t amplify, but the metal is largely blank and can be given a wide variety of different enchantments. The only actual attributes found in steel are its strength and durability, and maybe to some extent beauty (but in a very specific way). Considering what we usually use metal for in ritual, it’s unlikely any of these attributes would run counter to our goals. It’s also purity, but only to the extent that it is pure and anything can be written on to it. Most swords and knives are going to be some kind of steel. Steel rings are also very affordable and are suitable for general enchantments and magical experiments (although if you want a very powerful ring, you may want to spring for a more expensive metal with a gemstone attached).

Silver - Silver represents the feminine aspect of metal specifically water. Silver is a purifier. This is why, in folklore, silver weapons are ideal for fighting things which are an abomination to nature, such as vampires and werewolves. Silver is also very good at hiding things. It would be typical for a silver tool to not seem like much but actually hold a great deal of power. Something sealed into silver could also be very difficult to detect or hard to quantify. Silver is also useful with spells concerning invisibility. As for our tools, we usually see silver in jewelry (such as rings and necklaces). Some people do have silver chalices (and due to its feminine aspect silver is ideal), silver framed mirrors, and silver candle holders, but more often than not these items aren’t sterling silver but just have a coat of silver on top (be very careful, a lot of manufacturers list items with a topcoat of sterling silver as being sterling silver. Large sterling silver items are rather expensive. If you paid $20 or $40 for it, it isn’t completely silver). Due to its high cost, they don’t make silver swords, and its very rare to see a good sized silver knife (although they do exist, but they are pretty pricey). A large silver knife is a very cool tool to have though, especially if you want something for general metaphysical combat or cleaning houses.

Gold - Gold represents the masculine aspect of metal, specifically fire. Gold is good at amplifying things, and because of this it is most often used in spells to amplify wealth. It also tends to draw attention to itself, which makes it ideal for glamours and other spells which are meant to get you noticed. Whatever kind of energy, or entity, is sealed into a gold item tends to be amplified outward and is easily detectable. Because of its high cost, gold tools are usually limited to small jewelry. Smaller gold-alloy cooking knives do exist, although they are still fairly expensive. Gold is generally used sparingly for decoration on hilts and sheaths. Solid gold knives do exist, but you need to be rich (not just well-off and not Pagan rich, like Forbes rich) to afford these.

Platinum - Platinum is a feminine metal which represents the element of Earth. It’s generally associated with stability, resistance, and endurance. It’s also good for spellwork which is meant to attract physical pleasures such as sex and sexual contact, wealth, and food. Because of its high price, the fact that it is not as vibrant as gold (which is cheaper), and that it actually resembles silver (which is way cheaper), you’re not really going to see any tools made out of platinum except for jewelry.

Lead – Lead also has an Earth association. It represents stability, durability, and resistance. It’s also considered an ancient metal and represents age. Out of all metals, lead is the most protective and also is the best at keeping things sealed inside. Due to the fact that it is poisonous, you don’t typically see magical tools made out of lead.

Tin - Tin is masculine and represents strength, particularly increasing strength.

Copper - Copper is a feminine metal and is associated with love, beauty, desire, sex, fragility, and impermanence. It is ideal for casting glamours and love spells. It can also be used to cast spells meant to end things, promote decay, or for spells concerning general destruction.

Bronze - Bronze is associated with love, beauty and desire, strength, and permanence. Used as an enchanted weapon, it can attack with the destructive powers of beauty and love (properly channeled love energy is very destructive). Bronze weapons are sometimes seen as the weapons of the righteous warrior in battle. Bronze jewelry still exists today and is not very expensive. For centuries now steel has been universally used for weapons instead of bronze because it is both cheaper and makes a better blade. However prior to the discovery of steel, bronze was a common metal used in blades and recreations of copper knives and swords are still on the market, although they tend to cost a bit more than their steel counterparts (but not by much).

Planetary Associations of Metals

Sun –> Gold
Moon –> Silver
Mercury –> Mercury
Mars –> Iron (Steel)
Venus –> Copper (Brass, Bronze)
Jupiter –> Tin (Bronze)
Saturn –> Lead

New Goetic Daimon

If you truly work with the Goetia, and you actually respect and talk to and befriend the entities within, as opposed to trying to trap, torture, or command them (as is outlined in Goetia), you’ll probably discover that there are a lot more than 72 names. Several hundred in the Goetia catalog, and many other catalogs too. Me and a friend have been working on completing the Goetia catalog for some time. We have, as of now, over a hundred names, which way may or may not publish at some point.

Anyways tonight we came across one who wishes to be remembered. As promised I’m publishing his information here, right now, so anyone who wants to can use it and some people will know who he is. Note I spell things in a way that the pronunciation makes sense to me.

Dethieos – pronounced death+e+o+s – He is a teacher of archery and sword fighting. He has blessed many great heroes in the past. The last person he blessed was Gilgamesh. The last time he was evoked on this world prior to tonight was in 30 BC. He also knows of all weapons and their current location.

Tools: Wooden Wands, Staves, and the Qualities of Different Woods

Section 1: Deals with how to use wands and staves in magical practices, and is meant to aid those who don’t know what a wand does or how to use it.
Section 2: Deals with the different qualities of various common woods, and is meant to aid those who want the correspondences of different woods.

Types of Wands

There are basically three types of wands that are of use to us as magicians. The first type, and the most important, are wooden wands, which will be dealt with in this article. There is a second type which is a piece of crystal in the shape of a wand, known as a crystal wand or energy wand. These are generally associated with the new age movement and are very useful. Lastly there’s a type of wand that is hand made by putting gemstones and herbs inside of a hollow pipe. I’ll discuss these types of wands in future articles. There are other types of wands, most notably a metal wand, which some stores are now selling. These things are next to useless and a waste of money. You’re better off with either a wooden wand or a knife.

How to Use a Wand

Wands are one of the magician’s five elemental tools and are fire associative. Wood is great at quickly absorbing and easily working with large amounts of energy, and so wands are used to manipulate large amounts of energy easily. Note the following exercises assume at least a passing understanding of how to manipulate energy. Without this understanding your results will not be as impressive.

Soak and Radiate: This is not really an exercise. Just a comment about the nature of a wand. If you watch a wand you’ll notice that, all on its own, it will very easily soak up some of the energy around it. You’ll also notice that the wood will radiate this energy from it, as if it is slowly leaking out. This is the nature of wood and how it reacts with energy and why it is so good at manipulating energy as it does.

Moving Energy: Moving energy is easy enough. If you can find it in the room you can easily wave your hand to move it, or swirl it around, or whatever (you don’t even need a hand, but these things are always easier with physical aids). Now try these same exercises with your wand. You’ll notice you’re moving a much larger amount of energy around, and you’ll be doing it a lot easier than if you just used your hand.

Pulling Energy into the Wand: Put each hand on opposite ends of the wand and hold it horizontally at chest level. Now concentrate on pulling nearby energy towards yourself and into the wand. You should notice the wand works kind of like a magnet pulling in whatever stray energy may be around.

Raising Energy (Method One): This is the same as the previous method, except this time try to pull energy from more than just the surrounding area. You can also try pulling energy from out of the ground. You’ll notice you’ll pull a lot of energy into the area very quickly.

Raising Energy (Method Two): Pretty much the same as the last method, except instead you hold the wand in one hand and move the wand in an upward motion. This is typically the preferred method for raising energy from the ground. You can also prance around the room doing this because, um, some people like that sort of stuff. Not me! But some people.

Energizing (Screw Method): Swirl the wand over an object or person in a clockwise motion to push the nearby energy into it. Swirl counterclockwise to drain.

Directing energy: This is pretty much the same as moving energy. Hold the wand vertically and move your arm down until it is at a ninety degree angle with your body. All free energy should now rush towards whatever is being pointed at. Unless the energy is specifically charged for an act, this is generally an attack. You throw enough energy at a barrier and it will break. You throw enough energy at something living and you will kill it. It helps if the energy is aggressive and malicious, but an aggressive and malicious intent is usually enough to do it.

All of these methods are more dependent on will and intent than anything else. The motions are only meant to help focus the mind and one’s intent through physical action.

Staves

Staves work much the same as wands. They’re pretty much just really big wands. Anything you can do with a wand, you can do with a staff. The advantage of having a wand is that it is easier to carry around to rituals, it’s easier to store several of them, they’re easier to charge on an alter, they are cheaper and easier to make, and some woods can not be made into staves.

Staves have several advantages. For starters, they’re more inconspicuous, if you have a small, modest staff. If you have a ten foot tall staff with feathers and bells hanging off it, no it’s not inconspicuous. If you have a cane-like walking stick, you just use a cane to walk.

Staves are also bigger. Technically this means, all things being equal in regards to wood types and enchantments, they should be able to move larger amounts of energy. It’d be very rare though, with a properly enchanted wand, to hit a point where you felt you needed more and a staff would make much of a difference.

Also, being bigger, staves can hold larger charge for longer. This is actually the biggest advantage the staff has. Wood radiates energy, and so the charge is always disappearing. The more energy that enters a piece of wood, the quicker it will radiate out. A staff can hold a lot more energy though, so a staff will keep its charge much longer.

Because of this, and the ease of carrying it around as a walking stick, many people like to take staves to places with large amounts or unique energy in order to charge them. Properly done, this can result in a very powerful and highly charged tool when used in ritual.

Adding Gemstones to Your Wand

A lot of people like to attach gemstones to a wooden wand. Whether or not to do this is up to the practitioner and largely a matter of preference. A gemstone will hold a charge much better than wood, and so it can be used as a battery for the wand. Gemstones also amplify energy (meaning the energy coming off the wand will be increased). A gemstone may make it easier to manipulate and shape energy in a finer, less broad, way. And finally a gemstone will taint the wands energy to that of the gemstone. The exact taint is dependent on the type of gemstone used, and is beyond the scope of this article.

On the downside the gemstone will have its own personality (which you much be compatible with, in addition to that of the wood), and a gemstone will have a particular taint on the wand’s energy (which the wand ideally should be compatible with).

The Personality of Wood

Remember that wood was once a living thing, and as such each plant had its own personality, and that personality is going to carry on to the wood itself. That’s why it’s important to be sure that you are compatible with a particular wand or staff.

The Qualities of Wood

Broadly speaking, different types of wood have certain inherent qualities, and these will effect how any wooden magical tools made from them operate. Listed below are some of the most common, and also some of the most useful, types of wood you’ll find in magical tools and their general qualities:

Apple – Apple is associated with love and fertility, and is good for utilizing love and sexual energies. It works well with all sorts of love spells, lust spells, marriage spells, and fertility spells. Apple is compatible with deities of love, sex, desire, and courtship.

Ash – Ash is fire associative. All wands are fire associative, but ash is doubly so. Ash makes a very good battle wand. Its best use is for direct attacks against people and entities. It also does pretty well with death curses and with destroying crops (not really that useful in this day and age though). Because of its combative nature, it’s also good at most kinds of protection magick, like casting wards and barriers. Properly enchanted, ash can also do well in aiding all kinds of creativity. Ash is compatible to deities who are fire associative and deities of warriors and battle (Mars, Aries, Athena, Tyr).

Bay Laurel – The bay laurel is sacred to Apollo and is generally associated with immortality, eternal youth, the regeneration of youth, and healing.

Elder - Elder wood is very good at finding and absorbing negative energies. For this reason most people will find Elder, at best, difficult to work with in any kind of magick that doesn’t involve harm, vengeance, or cursing. Elder is also a very alive and vengeful type of tree, and Elder wood should never be taken off of a tree without permission from the tree, otherwise you may have to deal with the wrath of the tree. Elder wood will often work as a ward by itself, either because entities fear the elder wood, or because they fear that which is powerful enough to control the elder wood.

Elm – Earth associative, Elm is the opposite of Ash.

Hawthorn – A fae associative wood (and surprise, you can make alcohol from it). Like oak, this is an otherworldly wood, which makes it somewhat useful for evocations, but keep in mind that it comes from fae realms and generally connects to fae realms. Hawthorn is best for magick dealing directly with fae. Fae-kin may also find the wand very compatible. The wood’s nature may also make it a good choice for fae-like endeavours. Cutting down or otherwise destroying a Hawthorn tree that fae have laid claim to will often times make them angry and vengeful.

Hazel – Air associative. Hazel is a wood of wisdom and intelligence. Because of this, in spiritual work, many see hazel wands as a general good all-purpose wand.

Holly – Holly is associated with order and is sacred to Saturn. Generally holly won’t make a very good wand or staff. It tends to work against most magick since it is geared for balancing things, setting things right, and putting things in the boundaries that they are meant to be in. People who have strong ties to Saturn and are used to utilizing order magick might be able to find some value in a holly wand, but most people won’t get much use out of it. It would do very well for binding spells, closing portals, de-enchanting an area, and cleaning up magical messes. Items made out of holly can be very useful, especially when properly enchanted. They can help with achieving balance and order. If you find your life is in disarray, if you’re emotionally unhinged, or if you have major metaphysical issues in your home, holly can help to fix this. It can also help protect against certain kinds of spells and supernatural threats. Fae also don’t like holly and sometimes they can be driven away by it. Generally holly will try to push things out of an atypical, metaphysical, imbalanced or chaotic situation and move it towards a typical, mundane, balanced, and ordered situation. It promotes calm and peace.

Maple - Generally a wood of protection.

Oak - Oak is an ancient tree, the species is older than this world. Oak does not originate here, it originates in other worlds, and as such it acts as a sort of anchor to these worlds and their magicks. Because of this oak is a very powerful magical wood. Groves of oak trees are a preferred place for ritual because the area is anchored into other worlds. Oak also works very well when used to move through worlds (either going out via astral projection, shadowwalking, or dreaming) or bringing things in through evocation. Oak is also associated with lightning and is sacred to all lightning associated gods (Zeus, Thor).

Pine - A good wood for spells involving youth, the slowing of age and decay, immortality, and strength (when defined as resistance). Also a good all purpose wand for spells involving practical matters.

Poplar - Some confusingly think that poplar is good for protection spells, when in fact it’s that items made from the wood make excellent guardians. Your poplar wand isn’t so much going to be good at casting protection spells as it is going to be good at protecting you from attacks while you carry it.

Rowan - Rowan is an excellent absorber of energy. This makes the wood superior in all kinds of protection spells. In fact just having Rowan wood on your person may be enough to completely absorb all of the energy from a hostile spell. Likewise Rowan can absorb the radiant energy from the area and from dead spirits and stray entities, rendering them harmless and invisible. Properly enchanting and using Rowan wood will magnify (and if done right filter) its absorption abilities making it more effective in these endeavors. Also due to its very high sensitivity in regards to absorbing energy they make superior dowsing rods.

Sandalwood – Sandalwood is a divine wood. It is associated with divinity, the gods, and all matters of a higher spiritual nature. Sandalwood is also an endangered and protected species, and there is a much greater demand for the wood than supply. Because of this most sandalwood is not true sandalwood, but of a related species.

Walnut – Walnut is another fire associative wood. It’s a strong wood and it’s associated with destruction. Because of this it makes a good battle wand. It differs a bit from ash though. Ash is actually associated with the battle and is good for fighting, preferable to walnut in that regard. Walnut just destroys things really well, which is always good in a fight. If you just want to destroy your enemies and leave a path of massive destruction in your wake, go with walnut. It would also work well with spells of mass destruction and death. I believe walnut may also be useful with glamour spells, and a wand used for that would be very interesting.

Willow – Willow is water associative. It’s good for both healing spells and cleansing spells. It’s also good for exorcising spirits (which is technically a cleansing spell). This makes Willow an excellent choice for besoms and brooms. In actuality what Willow is good at is washing away that which is bad, improper, or old and bringing forth that which is new or a renewal. It is because of this that willow is sometimes associated with bringing the dead to their final resting place, however willow’s association is with exercising the dead and the resulting renewal, not with the land of the dead or with death energy. Willow can also work well with death spells under very limited circumstances. Due to willow’s nature of getting rid of that which is bad, improper, or old there are some legends that the tree will uproot itself and seek out and kill travelers.

(European) Yew – First off, make sure you get European Yew and not Pacific Yew (which is more common in North America). Yew is associated with the dead and the land of the dead. Yew is very good at utilizing death energy (this is the energy of the dead, not energy that kills). It’s also good for bringing forth and controlling the dead. Yew is compatible with most Chthonic deities.

Contacting the Divine

This is basically a rehash of the information I supplied in my earlier post, summoning Baal quick and dirty like. The reason for this is to eliminate some confusion. This is not an evocation method. It doesn’t really evoke. It’s meant for communion. In fact, it’s generally used for divine communion, and that’s how I was originally taught it, although you could do it with anything. Anyways here’s the method, as taught to me, with some paraphrasing and minor tweaking.

1. Figure out which deity you would like to contact. Remember not everything that’s ever been listed as a god or deity or whatever really is one. When first starting, it’s better to pick a big name that is tried and true. It’s also best to pick a god or goddess you feel a personal connection to or compelled to contact. I’d recommend against using this method with the Judeo-Christian god (yes he exists, however there’s a reason why I recommend this and it deals with the nature of what he is, and I’m not opening that can of worms here). I’d also recommend against trying to contact a supposedly all encompassing deity (I’m talking about the Wiccan Goddess). Also remember that sometimes deities are incorrectly associated as the same deity, and other times they have multiple names. Figuring out exactly who you want to talk to may require some research. For instance, Venus is not Aphrodite and Jupiter is not Zues, Pluto is the same as Hades and Dionysus, Bacchus, and Iacchus are all the same deity.

2. Do some additional research on the deity to get an idea of who you’re trying to contact. Read the mythologies concerning them. Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Mythica are good places to start. The information may not be the best there, but at the same time remember that a lot of the myths out there are long bastardized and misunderstood, to the point that you usually can’t decide anything for certain about a deity until you’ve met them.

3. Next you need an altar. You can build a very nice permanent altar, but for now we’ll just use a makeshift altar. I have a whole FAQ on altars. Basically it’s just a space we set aside for an entity, in this case a deity. All we need for an altar is a representation. We can easily go online and find a picture and turn our computer monitor and surrounding area into a temporary altar. The altar is not essential, this can be done entirely mentally, but it’s easier with an altar early on.

4. Next we want to prepare ourselves for divine communion. What different gods will find acceptable and offensive varies. In emergencies, this step can be skipped, and most deities will understand. It’s best to take a shower or bath beforehand, especially if it’s needed, and a short cleansing ritual while you’re in there won’t hurt. Clothing will vary considerably based on personal taste and deity. At the very least you’ll want to have descent, clean clothes. Formal is more respectable, but black tie is usually going way too far. Naked is actually sacred and as formal as you can get (plus it will help with the later steps). When in doubt, wear nothing. Also make sure the area around the makeshift altar is clean and dusted and free of garbage or crap to show proper respect.

5. To begin the communion meditate in front of the altar, hopefully reaching a state of trance (although this isn’t mandatory). I’ve also written an FAQ on this. Once you’re relaxed, you need to direct energy towards the representation. This is simple energy manipulation. If you can’t do this, you can try directing thoughts or focusing on the representation, although this won’t be as successful. Direct the energy at the representation with the intent of it reaching the deity (this is important. Ultimately the representation doesn’t really matter, it’s the intent of where the energy is sent).  Also try to keep your shields, filters, wards, and barriers as low as possible and be open to receiving foreign energy.

6. After a time you should hopefully feel divine energy sent back at you. If you’ve never felt divine energy before, don’t worry, you’ll know it when you feel it. The first time it is thousands of times stronger than what you’re used to and literally rips right through you. Once you get used to dealing with divine energy this will ease up a bit. You shouldn’t do this around bedtime, at least at first, because you’ll be wired for a long time.

7. Once you feel the energy coming back at you, you’ve successfully achieved communion. You can now direct the energy coming into you back to the deity, creating a cycle. You can also bury thoughts into the energy to communicate, and stuff will come back in the energy sent to you. Sometimes this might be a direct worded answer. Other times it may be more detailed and beyond words, and it may be buried in the energy and not fully manifest for hours. Divine energy also tends to try to create a purity, although the definition of what constitutes a purity varies between gods. Jupiter, for instance, defines purity as being larger and stronger, and Jupiterian energy tends to make people stronger and helps them to build muscle.

8. After ending the communion it’s important to keep the divine energy and not cleanse or ground until it’s worked its way out of you, unless it’s a dire emergency. Divine energy is a divine gift, and intentionally expelling it is disrespectful. Also information may be buried in the energy to answer your questions and offer guidance.

9. Not everything that can be contacted with this method, and not everything listed as a god, is a god. From my experiences no real god will get upset if they are asked to prove that they are in fact a god (at least by their own methods, in other words don’t try asking gods to prove themselves by winning you the lottery. That actually can get you in trouble if you ask the wrong one). Anything that says its a god and wants to treated as such will see nothing wrong with proving this unless it isn’t a god. I’ve also found that deities don’t mind being questioned about their advice or about their nature. There usually isn’t anything wrong with asking why.

10. Objects can also be blessed by a deity while doing this through various methods. If you have something you want blessed, have it ready and ask the deity if they’ll do it during the communion. Usually, if they’re willing, they’ll give instructions of what needs to be done.

11. One of the worst things you can do is utilize a deity’s energy for a purpose that you don’t have permission to utilize it for (especially if it’s something the deity wouldn’t give you permission to do). It’s always best to ask first and to respect their wishes.

12. The gods understand that we are only human. They also understand our nature and all our emotions. They do forgive honest mistakes and know that we’re all far from perfect. They also are there to guide us and help us with our lives and our spiritual paths.

Bogey Men

I’m going to do a quick summary on one of the least horrific of all monsters one is likely to face, the bogey men. Bogey men are actually enjoyable creatures that are so pathetic that they are funny to anyone with a sense of humor (and who can get over their want to eat people). Bogey men are so inept that I doubt they can frighten anyone who isn’t a very young child.

To start, bogey men like to eat people. Or at least they think they do. I’m very skeptical that a bogey man could actually eat a person. Even under the unlikely scenario where they manage to get ahold of a person (and this is very unlikely considering a four year old is both physically stronger and mentally smarter than a bogey man), I’ve never seen any evidence that they have the power or means to physically injure a person in anyway.

They don’t just prey on children either. There’s a good chance that at some point in your life there’s been a bogey man trying to eat you. If you haven’t developed the ability to see things though you probably wouldn’t even notice the bogey man. They can’t do much, and their energy signature is so weak it makes it difficult to sense them. Typically bogey men sightings are by very young children because of their innate ability to see and sense otherworldly creatures.

They are equipped to project thoughts in order to communicate, although they haven’t developed the ability well enough to think silently, and so all of their thoughts are projected (and the bogey men are usually ignorant of this). Their communication skills are at the same level as a small child.

Direct exposure to light will hurt and even kill bogey men. Because of this they hide in shaded places, such as under beds or in closets, and only come out when the lights are off. While the lights are on, they may try to lure prey to their area. They may claim to be sad or lonely or offer to play in order to get someone into the shaded area. Bogey men are harmless, even fun, creatures and their usually isn’t a reason to hurt them.

Bogey men are beloved by certain types of fae creatures, and their energy signature is very compatible. Bogey men and fae also tend to be drawn towards similar types of energy. However bogey men are far rarer than fae. And so having fae doesn’t necessarily mean a bogey man is present, but a bogey man almost always means that there is also fae.

Magick 101: Matter and Energy

Update: I’ve added some additional entries to this list, so I bumped it back up on top.

A short overview of the different types of matter and how they effect energy.

Wood - Wood naturally absorbs nearby energy and tends to charge itself rather effectively. Wooden altars for spellwork are preferable in some traditions because the wood of the altar will absorb some of the energy from every working turning it into an enchanted object and energy battery that can aid in spellwork. For much the same reason, seance tables and spirit boards are most effective when they’re made out of wood. Wooden objects that are frequently present during spell and ritual work or are left on altars may end up enchanted and even sentient with no effort or even want on the part of the practitioner. Some practitioners and traditions prefer not to do ritual and spellwork over a hardwood floor because of the tendency of the wood to absorb the energy and become enchanted (many times it doesn’t take much effort to throw away a working altar because it’s becoming a problem, but tearing apart your living room floor…). In the form of a magickal tool wood is best used to broadly manipulate energy in general ways, such as absorbing it, raising it, and moving it around. Different types of wood each have their own small nuances and abilities, and may also taint the energy or be more effective when working with specific types of energy. Additionally the nature of the tree or vine the wood originates from may have some effect on the metaphysical qualities of the wood.

Metal - Metal is man made, and it’s very good at both sealing energy and manipulating it in finer more specific ways. Metal is very good at holding energy, even better than wood because much less energy dissipates from a metal object than a wooden one. However metal objects don’t naturally absorb energy nearly as well as wooden objects do, and so it is often up to the practitioner to personally charge the item or create a method in which the item can be charged. This isn’t to say that metal objects won’t absorb energy on their own, they will, just not to the degree wood will. As a magickal tool metal makes a good battery holding an available charge for the practitioner (as previously discussed). Also it may be used in general energy manipulation, however metal is considerably weaker than wood in terms of broad applications of energy manipulation, such as pushing energy and raising it, so much so that metal is nearly useless in this regard so long as a wooden alternative is available. However metal excels at the finer acts of energy manipulation such as opening portals and pinpoint attacks. As an example, if a practitioner were faced with an energy wall, they could use a wooden staff to raise a large amount of energy and then direct it towards the wall hitting it hard enough to knock it down by sheer force, or they could use a metal knife and, utilizing a much smaller amount of energy, slice a hole in the wall the practitioner could act through. Also because of its ability to be sealed, metal is good as an enchanted magickal object, and also as an object into which an entity is sealed. Much like wood, the various types of metal each have their own nuances and abilities, however unlike wood individual pieces of metal tend not to have specific personalities, at least not before they’ve been charged or enchanted, so a practitioner is able to simply take a specific piece of metal off the shelf rather than looking for the particular one that calls out to them.

Stone - Stones are energy manipulators. They’re almost as good as metal as far as sealing energy in goes, and they too are very effective as a battery, as an enchanted object, or for sealing an entity inside of it. They also act as energy amplifiers making energy stronger as it passes through. They can self-absorb energy, although not to the degree wood can, and they also tend to produce a lot of energy on their own. Different types of stones have different qualities to them, however, and how effective a particular stone is at any of the above abilities varies based on its type. Also stones have a taint to their energy based on the type they are with different types of stones tainting energy in different ways. For example turquoise stones tend to be tainted with dream energy, which makes turquoise very effective when it is being used as an aid for such tasks as lucid dreaming, dreamwalking, or keeping nightmares away. Stones tend to have very distinct personalities which can effect their overall compatibility with a particular practitioner, and so some care should be taken in choosing the right stone.

Quartz Crystal - Technically quartz crystal is classified as a type of stone, and it fits the above description of stone, but it has some unique qualities that make it preferable to any other stone in many situations. To start, quartz crystal is very good at amplifying energy, probably the very best stone at this particular task, and it’s also very good at effecting energy and moving it, once again probably the very best stone for this task. They’re also very good at absorbing energy and okay for sealing purposes (which in combination with their amplification abilities makes them a very good battery). And quartz crystal does not taint energy, an ability which is unique to it. They’re the blank page of stones. If a crystal has a significant taint to it, it’s because someone put something into it that made it like that. A crystal is only going to be what you make it. However, like other stones, crystals do have distinct personalities, and this can result in a small, although not very significant, taint, and so a practitioner should, as in other instances, take care in picking out the right quartz crystal.

Water – Water (and many water based liquids) have two very distinct and opposing qualities, it both absorbs and dissipates energy. As for its absorption quality, water will drain energy out of anything it comes into contact with, or even anything it’s near. Water is typically used in cleansings because of its ability to draw out energy, which may be negative energy or may simply be unwanted energy. Vampires typically have issues crossing bodies of water because of their hypersensitivity to vampiric like attacks and its strong draining ability. At the same time though water tends to shoot out the energy it collects on a constant. So even though water is used to cleanse, it can also be used for the exact opposite effect, to charge. One good way to do this is to have a container of water out during a ritual. The water will absorb the energy of the ritual, and afterwards an object can be put into the water in order for it to be charged with the ritual’s energy. Water’s dissipation effect also means that large stagnant bodies of water can develop into paranormal hotspots because they are constantly absorbing and spitting out large amounts of energy (an example being the Devil’s Hole in Nevada). Water is also very good at pulling in emotional energy although it will lose the charge very quickly. Because of its ability to both give and take water is also seen as a unifier and bonding agent that can bring two things together.

Synthetics – Various synthetic material such as cement, plastic, and man-made bricks do not hold a charge at all, and because of this can not really be used for any effect. Some practitioners and traditions prefer to do their rituals on a cement floor because the floor will not absorb the energy or become enchanted by the ritual. Although synthetics don’t hold energy they don’t block it either, and energy can pass through them as easily as it passes through air, and without acquiring any kind of taint. Synthetic tools are useless and offer the practitioner no benefit beyond their own natural ability. Some entities, given permission to do so, may be able to enter into and manipulate synthetic objects, although it isn’t possible (at least not without great difficulty) to seal them into the object to prevent their escape, or to aid them in staying inside of it.

Glass – For most purposes, glass is a poor man’s quartz crystal. Glass is very similar in its makeup to quartz crystal, and so it also shares a lot of the same qualities. Glass tends to be blank and without taint. It also tends to lack the distinct personalities of quartz crystals (which may be a benefit). It can hold some energy, thought not as well as quartz crystal, and it isn’t really that great of an amplifier. With magickal work the major drawback of glass tools is that they are fragile, and they tend to break if you put too much energy through them. Glass is usually used to make crystal balls, mirrors, and candle-holders, and the last one tends to break quite a bit with stronger candle magick spells (which is why I’d suggest using a metal holder). The one great, and somewhat unique, quality of glass is its reflective ability. To begin with, this obviously makes it good for scrying. The reflectiveness also makes it good for opening portals, banishing things from this world, and sealing entities into pocket dimensions.

Bone or Ivory – Bone and ivory are similar enough that they are almost exactly alike. Bone is unique because it is a piece of a dead animal, or even better a dead human if you can get one. It’s usually the bone of a dead whatever, and so a lot of people tend to use bone magickaly in order to access and manipulate death energy. This works, but there are better ways of going about getting death energy, and bone has a much better use, it tends to generate life energy. This in turn makes bone very effective in holding, sealing, and manipulating the souls of the dead. Sometimes the soul of the dead person or animal will still be bound to the bones, making it instantly enchanted with a dead soul. A lot of the times even if the original soul isn’t attached to the bones, there are ways to call it back into the bones. Bones also allow the dead greater power in performing actions on this plane.

Cloth – Cloth will absorb and hold energy. It’s not great at doing this, but it’s unique in the way that it is typically used. We wear are clothes all day. We shed skin and hair and fluids into our clothes. Because of this our clothes are very connected to us. Wearing someone’s dirty clothes gives a very strong connection to them, especially to an empath. Washing helps, but it usually doesn’t do enough. Cloth is also good at absorbing perfumes and incense and other smells, which in turn means cloth usually keeps a good memory of where it’s been. It’s a good idea to throw clothes away rather than giving them away or selling them, and it’s usually a good idea to buy all clothes new rather than used. The materials used in clothes are varied, and each is actually unique in its abilities, but most materials will also follow the general rules listed above. In my experiences I’ve found that leather (real leather) in particular is very good at absorbing energy, holding it, amplifying it, and projecting it outward. Leather things make great enchanted objects.

The Sigils of Thomas Pendragon

This is a heads up that my friend Tom has been working on channeling and transcribing a series of 84 sigils (28 sigils of the Ether, 28 of the Abyss, and 28 of Earth), these are not only beautiful, but full of symbolic meaning (some of it which is hidden and has never been published) and they’re all very powerful. Right now Tom is printing them for everyone to see and hopes to eventually publish them with some sort of scheme that will allow others to use and expand upon the work in their own publications. He’s also working on commentary for all the sigils which will incorporate his own work and experiences with them.

The binding sigil was one that really struck me because it contained a symbol which I routinely use as part of a binding spell (now that it is given away, I’ll be posting it shortly). I’ve never actually told anyone the methodology of the spell, especially Tom since I use it against him when he tries to get in magical shenanigans when I’m driving him places.

The Short History of the Sigils

Part One: Alagon.

Sometime before I met Tom, while he was living in Florida, he managed to open a lot of stuff up at once and happened upon an entity which called itself Alagon that took an interest in him. Tom began channeling the gospel of Alagon and distributing it to others. He managed to find several other people who knew of Alagon and his work. Alagon meanwhile was causing Tom headaches and some bleeding from his head. Others who worked with Alagon had the same problems, and some apparently died of aneurysm. At the time the true nature of Alagon wasn’t known. Tom was still in contact with Alagon when he moved to Las Vegas, and a local magician, Bon Necron, managed to break Alagon from Tom and partially bind him. Later Tom would give me some of Alagon’s gospel to look over, and reading it I did come into contact with Alagon and suffered a severe headache from it. The true nature of Alagon wouldn’t be known for some time.

Part Two: Adiemus

Adiemus was the magical name of a practitioner, who is sometimes also referred to as the Baron, who was active up until his death somewhere around 1920. He was a very powerful practitioner who had access to quite a bit of information and claims to have known and disliked Allister Crowley. Since his death he’s been in contact with prospective students, although his brutal and violent teaching methods typically lead his students to a gory death if they advance too far into his studies. Some of his knowledge and teachings are openly traded within some circles of the community, and stories of his unfortunate past students are out there. Adiemus had a very strong connection to Persephone and had dealt largely with interdimensional travel, astral projection, and dream walking. Tom had come across some pieces of information on Adiemus throughout his travels.

Tom eventually gave me the information he had concerning Adiemus as a curiosity to work with. I don’t intend to speak for Adiemus, and to be honest I think he might be a little off-put by me, but he has taken an interest of sorts in me. Like him a have a very strong connection to Persephone, so that may have something to do with it. Over the years I’ve gained information from Adiemus, and that is where I first learned of the gates and what Alagon, like Adiemus, truly was.

From Adiemus I learned that there were 28 gates of this world. The gates had long ago been sealed, and each gate belonged to some god. However it was an impossibility to close the gates since things must be allowed to pass through for the survivability of the world, and so unto each gate was given a guardian. This guardian, when they ascended into the gate, would gain all of the knowledge and power of the gate, and all those who had been a part of it before them. But this was only a temporary, and detestable, job. Each guardian had the power to seek out there successor, so they could move on, although in doing so they give up the knowledge and power of the gate.

In order to take a gate, a person needs to have a strong connection to the god to which the gate belongs. They also need to seek out the current guardian and undergo their trials and prove themselves worthy of the gate. Finally they need to be fully informed about what the gate is, what guardianship entails, and that it is a trap, and then still choose of their own will to take the gate.

Adiemus is the last person to take his gate, the gate of Persephone. Alagon is the name of the an older entity which guarded its gate, although it has now gone through seven or eight guardians since, but it regards itself as being all that has come before it.

Part III: Phillip

Several weeks ago after a failed magical experiment me and Tom were screwing around with automatic writing when Tom happened upon a magician known has Phillip who had some cool sigils. After talking to him for some time, Phillip claimed to know about several more sigils (the 28 sigils of the ether) and agreed to show them to Tom. Very quickly Tom managed to figure out how to retrieve the sigils without Phillip’s aid. He also happened upon knowledge of other sigils. First the 28 sigils of the Abyss. And then the 28 sigils of Earth, which he reckoned to be the gates that Adiemus and Alagon are connected into.

For a couple of weeks now Tom has been feverishly working on completing the ether sigils and his commentary on them. He then hopes to do the Abyss and Earth sigils.