Personal Account: Pandora Boxes

Usually I don’t post personal experiences for a variety of reasons. Every so often though I find myself with no other way to express the information. This information comes from a past life regression, and I can’t think of any other way to preserve and publish this information. I also know that in the past life, I had somehow come across this information on my own. I’m assuming someone or some group actually has information on this stuff, so maybe this post will shake some more information loose.

Background

This regression is from my most recent past life. I’ve practiced magic in several of my past lives, including this one, and those past lives usually tend to have a stronger influence on me.

In this particular past life I was a woman, and judging by fashions and interior design I’d say I was a teenager sometime in the fifties, and that I lived in what was probably an English speaking country, most likely the United States or Canada. I died sometime in the seventies, probably closer to the end than the beginning. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Beyond that I had quite a bit of family money and was rather opinionated. I never married and never had children. I lived in a very large home as a child, moved out into my own home, a much smaller one, for a while, and eventually moved back into the family home (I’m assuming this followed the death of my parents). I don’t believe I ever worked a real job or ever actually earned money.

I remembered hiding spiritual books in my bedroom as a teenager, and through hypnosis I was able to discover where I was exposed to magic. A neighbor was a sickly old woman, and she taught me some things at a very young age. Around the time I was twelve she died, and I stole some of her books from her house following her death. Those were the books I was hiding in my house.

Death

My first ever past life regression was of a death, and whenever I find a new past life, the first thing I try to discover is how I died. I usually die young, and quite a few of those deaths are violent, with the remaining ones being accidents. There’s probably a lesson I’m refusing to learn hidden in there somewhere.

Anyways the first time I regressed this past life’s death, it was strange but I was satisfied. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that I was missing big holes.

In the regression I was a bit older, and as I said it seemed to take place in the seventies, which would put this death shortly before my birth. I was in a home, and I can’t say for certain what country it was in, but judging by the place I’d say it was a western nation. The place was a two story, and I was upstairs, and the whole place looked cheap. The walls were painted a light blue, and it looked like it was lit by track lighting, or maybe an uncovered lamp. I was in one of those upstairs areas that isn’t really a room, but just an open area upstairs. I’m not sure what they’re called.

The house looked cheap, so it definitely wasn’t mine. It also wasn’t very well furnished. There wasn’t much furniture, and there wasn’t much on the walls. It looked like the sort of place a bunch of guys in their early twenties might own if they were really clean.

Anyways there was some blood on the wall. I was speaking to a spirit. I remember saying, “Do you know what I am,” while all poised for attack, and then something slashed me across the chest. In one swipe three cuts tore up my shirt and cut deeply into my breast. And that was how I died.

I assumed a few things from this. I knew the house wasn’t mine, so I assumed I was there to clean it and get rid of some hostile spirit. Much like I do in this lifetime, I just assumed I’d be able to handle this spirit. Unfortunately this spirit turned out to be a lot more powerful than I thought it would be, I got in over my head, and those slashes across my chest were enough to kill me.

I was happy with that explanation, but I was wrong about everything, and I figured that out when I regressed the missing pieces.

What Really Happened

As I said I had a second regression, and I remembered all the missing pieces, and now what happened makes much more sense. The most important part of the regression though is what I learned about the pandora boxes.

A pandora box was why I was at the house. I had no intention of cleaning the place, and I wasn’t even invited in. When I arrived the front door was unlocked. What I wanted was inside, and so I went in.

If you’re not aware of how regressions work, at its most intense you have access to the thoughts that were swimming in your head during the regression. It’s like you’re rethinking them. That’s why remembering something like you’re name can be so difficult, because we usually don’t think of our names. I’m sure there’s a lot of other information I knew then that I can’t remember now, because I wasn’t thinking of the back story shortly before I died.

I’m not sure where the name pandora box comes from. I don’t know if it was a name I gave the thing, or if it was a name I learned from someone else. I also have no clue where I learned about these things or how I even knew they existed. I don’t know why I was looking for one either, but if I knew where one was today, I’d probably go looking for it now just because. I do know that the idea of pandora boxes was in my head, in the sense that what I was looking for was one of several such things. Which means there should still be others like it which are still intact.

To describe this thing, it was a wooden box which was probably about a foot and a half to three feet long. The base had a rectangular shape, but the top was more slanted downward, like the roof of a house, and the ends actually came out further than the base. There were a set of circular indentations across the tops of the long sides. These pushed into the base, and the top was curved around them. It would provide a way for it to be set upon rods or carried with them, although I have no idea if this is their purpose.

The box itself was beautiful. Everything about it was a masterful work of art. You’d have to see this thing to appreciate it, but it’s one of the most beautiful creations I’d ever seen, and made entirely out of wood and paint. There were several different colors, including quite a bit of light blue and several shades of white. However most of the box was painted a color that I can clearly see in my head when I think about it, but which I can’t identify. I’m colorblind though, so it’s very possible this is one of the colors I can’t see, like green or purple.

I know in my head that these boxes are very, very old. They are thousands and thousands of years old. I don’t know the exact age. I’d say anywhere between four thousand and fifteen thousand years old. Looking at it though, it was in pristine condition. There was not a dent or a chip on it, not even a loose splinter. The paint wasn’t even faded. The paint literally looked like it had just finished drying. The thing didn’t even collect dust. It’s either craftsmanship far beyond any techniques known today, or very powerful magic.

The other thing about these boxes, they also have a very strong invisibility spell on them. One of these things could be sitting in front of your computer monitor right now, and you’d never know it. You can’t see it with your eyes, and you can’t remote view it with your astral body. It contains a tremendous amount of energy, but you’d never be able to feel it. You wouldn’t feel it if you touched it, and you moved towards it, you would walk around it without even noticing. You wouldn’t even notice the absence of something there. It would seem just like an empty space in the room. I’m pretty certain that photographs and video tapes wouldn’t work either. There is no way you could locate or sense the thing, physically or metaphysically.

You’re probably wondering how I found the thing then. I’m not sure how I located it, but I know how I finally got to see it. No spell is foolproof, there’s always a work around if you’re smart enough to figure it out. But let me get back to the regression.

So I let myself in to the house, entering through the front door. I already knew where I was going in the house too, because I made a beeline right for the room I needed to be in. Right away I went up the stairs, entering that open area I talked about earlier. The place seemed deserted, and there was some blood on the walls. I should’ve guessed something was wrong. I think I was just too obsessed and excited to see the warning signs.

Anyways I went into the hallway and entered a room which was sort of like a den. There was a lot of different things piled up on the shelves and on the desk that was in the room. Anyways I  was in this room with a spirit friend of mine, and this is how I saw the box. I’m not sure exactly what kind of spirit this was, but for whatever reason the invisibility spell didn’t work on him. I had him come with me because I knew it wouldn’t work on him, and he was my way to get the box. How I knew this, I don’t know.

Anyways I stepped out of myself a bit, and I let myself see through the eyes of this spirit. I was in front of the doorway still, and the spirit was across the room on the other side. When I saw through his eyes, I saw myself standing on the other side. Quickly I scanned the room, and there was the box I was searching for laying on the desk. And it was open. And I was overcome with terror.

I popped into my own eyes, turned around, and tried to leave that house as quickly as I could, not even bothering with the box. When I got into the open room, I saw it in the hall, the thing that used to be in the box. Judging by my reaction earlier, I’d say that I knew that something really bad was in that box, but I’m not sure if I knew it was this.

This thing was like a tall anamorphic feline almost, and it had breasts so I’m thinking it was female. It had bright white fur. Maybe there was a darker color in the back, but the front of her was definitely bright white. And she had spots, but weird spots. They were black, and they were square, not round. And they were white in the middle. They were like square donuts.

And the power. The energy I felt pouring off that thing was immense. In this lifetime, I’ve never seen a spirit that powerful in this world. I’ve never seen one that was even close to that powerful in this world. It wasn’t stronger than a god, but I can’t think of anything else that comes close to it. And this is just based on the energy pouring off the thing that was so strong I couldn’t help but feel it. There’s no telling how much power was inside of that thing.

The energy was very animalistic, very violent, and very twisted and evil. The thing was intelligent though. I can’t imagine anything being that powerful and not being very intelligent.

The energy was so strong, I can almost feel what it was right now. It was so strong that when I think about the thing or talk about it, a bit of its energy taints me, and its enough to be noticeable. I’ve also noticed that certain primals tend to be drawn towards that energy, and I’ve been approached by them because I carried it. The primals are surprisingly civil, and even a bit obedient, when they sense that energy. What that means, I don’t know. It doesn’t last very long now, years after the regression. After I experienced the full force of the regression though I carried that energy with me for almost a month before it fully dissipated. Nothing I tried did much to get rid of it, and in the end I had to wait for it to dissipate on its own.

I just want to give some sense of how strong this thing was, but it’s hard to do, because I can’t find anything approximate to relate it to. But I’ve fought a lot of spirits, including a lot of very powerful ones, and I’ve met quite a few more than I’ve fought. I’m not exaggerating because I’m inexperienced with spirits. Things as strong as this are pretty much unheard of in this world.

The thing was definitely far stronger and far faster than me. It didn’t seem to like me, and it was getting ready to attack. I figured I was screwed, so I tried bluffing. I didn’t really have any other options, and it wasn’t like I was going to make my situation any worse than it already was.

So that’s where you get the ‘Do you know what I am… blah blah blah… power power power… I could crush you with a thought, ect. It came at me, swiped once with its claw, ripped up my shirt, and put three gapping slash marks across my breast. Deep wounds like that into a woman’s breast hurt a lot, but they’re not usually fatal, at least not right away. I was still alive, and still managing to stand, and what I did next was truly impressive. I picked up the spirit and through it down the hall, through a doorway, and into a bedroom at the end of the hall.

Picking up a spirit and throwing it across a room is a fairly simple psionic attack. It usually doesn’t do much either, besides maybe roughing the spirit up a little and possibly opening up some room between you. What’s impressive is that I was able to do it to something that powerful. I couldn’t do that today. Even well rested and my energy peaked, tapping into all my reserves, even if I used enough energy to kill myself, I couldn’t manage to throw something that powerful. I’m not as powerful now as I was then.

The throw cost me just about every ounce of energy I had left. I had nothing left to defend myself with, and I could barely move. It didn’t even buy me a second. The spirit got right back on its feet, and rushed towards me, and at that point I met my end in a bloody mess. I don’t remember much of it. I suppose I either lost consciousness, or my soul was pulled out before I finished dying. That is how I came to my end.

Theories on the aftermath

I’ve been trying to find this scene for quite sometime. It was a gruesome murder, and I was a rich socialite in a place I wasn’t supposed to be in. If I could find an account of the crime, I could probably find out what my name was and find out more about that pastlife.

But it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. I’m looking for a single murder that happened in the 1970s. There were over fifteen thousand murders every year during that period for just the United States. Which, another issue, I’m not sure what country this happened in. And this is in the pre-internet, pre-electronic archive, pre-search engine days.

That also assumes a body turned up. What if that thing ate the body or otherwise disposed of it. Then I’d just be a missing person. I had money, so I’m assuming at some point someone had me declared dead, but I’m wondering if anyone really cared that I was missing. I had no husband, or children, and my parents were dead. I don’t think I had any siblings or other close relations, and I don’t many of the people I knew cared all that much for me. I was probably just some eccentric old maid that took off one day, and when I didn’t come back I doubt anyone really went looking for me.

I’ve also thought that maybe the whole house is still hidden. When I got into the house, that spirit was still in it. Maybe the box had a failsafe. When it was opened, it just made a bigger box around the house. The spirit got trapped inside and can never leave, and the lot just disappeared from existence. No one notices that it isn’t there, and no one seems to see it when they pass by it. It’s a nice theory, but it doesn’t explain how I found the house, or why I didn’t notice the huge invisibility spell around the house, which would have been a sign that something had gone horribly wrong. The only way this works is if the box was opened after I had already gotten onto the property.

Other Theories

Someone pointed out to me that what I described was similar to some descriptions they had heard of the ark of the covenant, except smaller. I don’t know what descriptions they were talking about.

Someone also told me that they heard of similar boxes being made in an ancient civilization, they thought maybe Babylon. They were very old and powerful and evil spirits that couldn’t be allowed to walk the earth. Instead of destroying them, powerful magicians trapped them in these boxes. That way their power could be sucked out of the boxes and utilized. However failsafes were put into the boxes to try to prevent them from ever being opened so that these things would never walk the earth again. Over time the boxes were lost and scattered.

Someone also told me heard of spirits like this in an unpublished French grimoire, and while trying to translate the grimoire his pet was brutally torn to pieces, after which he stopped working with it and destroyed his copy of the manuscript.

I’ve also seen some theorize that these things were worshipped, like gods, by the primals. It’s also thought that these things are what most people are looking for when they go after the primals, and somehow the two have gotten mixed up. Primals are strong relative to your average spirits, but they aren’t that strong, and they aren’t usually that bright either. It’s not the sort of stuff most people would equate with the Lovecraftian mythos.

Obsession and BS

Obsession is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the magical community. It’s used a lot by Ceremonial Magicians and Pagans, and is often times the reason for not working with spirits or using extreme caution when doing so. So it’s surprising that the theory of Obsession was developed completely outside of the Ceremonial and Pagan communities.

Obsession has its origins in Spiritism. If you didn’t know, Spiritism is a fairly modern belief system developed in France that is very similar to the American and British developed Spiritualism. Spiritualism predates Spiritism, but not by much, and the two belief systems have a huge cross-influence. So much so that there are only a few minor distinguishing differences between them.

Although cross-influences are common throughout the metaphysical community, the fact that obsession has gained such high regard in Western ritual magic systems is, at the very least, confusing. The idea of obsession runs counter to the practices of the founders of modern Ceremonial Magic who were active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it runs counter to the practices of the Pagan founders who were active in the 50s and 60s, and it runs counter to the practices of the Medieval European magicians that these systems are largely based in.

There’s also a lot of confusion about what the definition of obsession is. Very few magicians can give you a clear definition that would help determine the difference between an obsessed individual and your normal practicing magician. However when the term first appeared in Spiritism, it was adequately defined.

Obsession simply means that your actions or personality have to some extent been influenced by a spirit. On the surface this may seem like a bad thing, but the definition is actually overly broad, and note that nowhere does it mention manipulation or control.

If, for instance, a spirit came to you and told you that in the next week you would be in a horrible car accident, and because of that warning you started wearing a seatbelt, you suffer from obsession. If a spirit comes to you and tells you there’s a great sushi restaurant down the street that you didn’t know about, and you go to eat there, you suffer from obsession. In both instances your actions have been influenced by a spirit.

The idea of obsession was developed by early Spiritists because they saw it as a real danger. A good deal of Spiritists and Spiritualists are not magicians themselves, but use magicians, in there case mediums, to facilitate their magic. The average adherent lacks the methods of protection and spiritual attack which are available to a person with a background in ritual magic. It’s also less likely that the average adherent will have taken time to develop skills in self-awareness, mental focus, and energy manipulation, all of which help prevent spiritual manipulation.

Meanwhile Western ritual magicians have always worked with spirits. We constantly communicate with spirits for information, we summon them forth, we revere and worship them, we fight with them, and we use them to achieve our goals. We have always surrounded ourselves with the spirits and allowed them access to our lives. And yes, you can practice a form of Ceremonial Magic or Paganism that doesn’t directly utilize spirits, but even so the act of doing magic will draw spirits towards you, so eventually you’ll get to a point in your practice where you have to deal with them.

As you can see, the idea of obsession as it was originally defined when viewed through the perspective of a ritual magician is absurd. Some people do hold true to this definition though. By associating with, talking to, and working with spirits they believe a person risks seriously harming themselves through obsession.

Because they don’t know the true definition of the term or its origins, many ritual magicians try to determine what the term actually means, which leads to all sorts of fanciful ideas. It doesn’t help that besides the Spiritist definition, there has never been a clear definition of what obsession is. All that is ever given are aspects of what obsession is. It involves working with spirits and becoming obsessed with them.

An idea has emerged that working with a particular spirit or spirits in general causes one to eventually become obsessed. This has nothing to do with the nature or type of spirit being worked with, it is simply a byproduct of working with spirits. There is also never a clear indication in the definition of when or under what circumstances a magician will cease to work with spirits in a healthy and productive way and become obsessed. There is never even much of an explanation as to why this would occur. It seems to be nothing more than a fanciful idea without any reason or evidence attached to it.

Certain spirits can be manipulative in their nature. There are too many stories to deny that this happens. Manipulation can be something as simple as a lie or as mystical as a thought suggestion or even outright possession. Whether or not a person is manipulated, and how badly they are manipulated, is going to be dependent both on the nature and power of the spirit and on the magician. It’s a danger, it happens. However it won’t inevitably happen just because someone works with spirits.

Sometimes we also see personality changes. These can be a lot harder to pinpoint as spiritual manipulation though. Anyone who is actively exploring their spirituality, such as through seances and evocations, would be experiencing personal growth, and this in turn can lead to changes in their personality. Connecting into spirits and becoming possessed by them can also modify a person’s personality, sometimes permanently. Often times magicians willingly allow spirits to do this to them in order to help them grow spiritually. Some spirits may also do this with the best of intentions, wanting to help the magician, but without permission. In either case there are a lot of pros and cons that must be weighed before we can even determine if what happened was a good thing or a bad thing.

These personality changes are also not as drastic as many like to believe. Often times spirits just work to nudge a person into a particular direction they were already swaying towards, or pull some aspect of their personality to the surface that they usually repress, or simply offer them a temptation that makes them do something they wouldn’t have done for free.

Lastly some people do have obsessive problems with magic in general. Most of us who have profound and surreal spiritual experiences will go through a phase where we give up on reality and immerse ourselves in our spiritual life. For most of us though that is just a phase, and we eventually come to some realizations and ultimately find a balance between the spiritual and mundane aspects of our life. There is a small number of people who never even try to achieve that balance, and instead just immerse themselves more and more into the spiritual aspect of their life as the rest of their life is left to deteriorate.

Although spirit contact may be involved, this has nothing to do with spirits. It has to do with practicing magic. Many of the people who fall into this trap have serious mental problems to begin with, everything from severe depression to schizophrenia, and instead of helping with their mental issues their spiritual path just exasperates them.

We also have to note that when we practice magic and allow spirits into our lives, they’re going to effect us in some way. If you joined some new club next week, started hanging out with the people in the club, making friends, seeing them all the time, it would have some sort of effect on your life. Your world views would change a bit. You might find yourself trying new activities. You would have new people in your life who would be calling you up because they need rides to the airport or someone to help them move. When you work with spirits you’re letting something new into your life, and your life is going to change because of it, and yes sometimes they’re going to do things to your life, and it won’t always be pleasant things.

So yes there are dangers when working with spirits. They aren’t really as big or common as the idea of obsession makes them out to be. It’s really similar to the dangers you experience whenever you work with magic. And the best defense is actually to practice magic. The more practical experience you have working with magic and dealing with spirits, and the more you grow spiritually, the stronger you will be and the less dangerous magic will be. On the other hand stronger magicians tend to pull stronger spritis and bigger problems towards themselves, so you never actually get to be safe.

The idea of obsession meanwhile is largely bullshit. It’s based largely off anecdotal evidence of a handful of people who had very bad experiences working with spirits. It’s being perpetuated by people who are, for the most part, novice practitioners and armchair magicians. These are not people who know about obsession because they have experience working with spirits and have been obsessed. These are the people who have never worked with spirits or only work with spirits while following strict guidelines for protection because they believe it is dangerous. That’s why the information on obsession is largely unclear, indefinite, and doesn’t follow logical reasoning. It is derived entirely from speculation and secondary sources, not from the practical experience of people who have actually worked with spirits.

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.

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.

Walk-ins

What is a walk-in

A walk-in is an entity which has come to gain control over a physical body other than the one it was originally incarnated into. A walk-in differs from a possession. With a possession a second entity inhabits the body with the original incarnate person, and this second entity sometimes becomes the dominant personality and takes control of the body. With a walk-in the original incarnate person has left their body and is effectively dead and the walk-in is the only entity inhabiting the body. A walk-in can be another human being who has died or otherwise become detached from their original body. A walk-in may also be another entity, typically a lower realm entity that is unable to incarnate on this plane of existence.

Rules regarding Walk-Ins

1. In theory a walk-in could enter a body after a person has died (defined as the astral body being detached from the physical body). In most cases this is obviously counter-productive because the host body won’t be usable for long by the time the host astral body is disconnected. If the astral body were to be destroyed though the host body would be free and undamaged. However I’ve never seen nor heard of a walk-in trying to kill the astral body to get at the physical body, even when the walk-in has been powerful enough to do so, making me believe that for some reason that eludes me at the moment this method is not possible.

2. Walk-Ins generally enter into bodies of suicidal people, helping the person within the host body disconnect from it so that they can inhabit it.

3. Walk-ins do not find suicidal people to switch with. Instead they find suitable hosts and then attack them psychologically, systematically driving them into depression and sometimes insanity, eventually leading to suicide. The entire process can sometimes take years. Even if the walk-in is eventually removed before inhabiting the body the psychological damage they do can be severe and possibly permanent.

4. Once a walk-in comes to inhabit a body the person originally inhabiting the body is effectively dead. As far as I know, there is no way to bring this person back.

5. Physical bodies are made to house specific astral bodies. Housing a foreign astral body inside of a physical body (as is the case with walk-ins) requires excess energy besides what the body is designed to provide. In order to keep the body the walk-in will have to feed off of the lifeforce of the body, which will in time age and structurally damage the body. The more different the astral body is from the physical body it inhabits the more energy it needs to sustain itself. For example an ascended master would ideally want to inhabit the body of a person with magical aptitude of the same gender (in this case the body would probably last for close to its normal lifespan). If, as a counter-example, a very non-human lower realm creature were to take over that same body, it would eat through it very quickly. Sometimes the body won’t even last days.

6. A walk-in requires consent to take a body. This consent is generally given in exchange for the original incarnate person being detached from the body. A walk-in can never just take a body (even if a person is astrally projecting).

7. Some walk-ins are able to access the memories and knowledge located in the host body’s brain. At the same time, lacking a biological brain of their own prior to entering the body, the walk-in must house their knowledge in their astral and mental bodies and then attempt to transfer it to the host body (which, as one can imagine, can cause much fogginess). The resulting personality, knowledge, and even sense of identity of the walk-in after entering the host body varies.

8. Some walk-ins have a very limited understanding of general human behavior. They may not understand how to act in a socially acceptable way or understand many subtilties that we know from a young age. For example, I know of a walk-in that was aware that he was supposed to wear clothes, but was unaware of the fact that people generally change clothes in private, and saw nothing odd about stripping naked in the middle of the street and changing clothes.

9. An old immortality trick is for a magician to find a powerful item and infuse a bit of their essence into it. At death, they then literally possess the item and remain in it for years, decades, even centuries in some cases. Possessing the item they manage to direct its course, to a degree, seeking out a suitable host. Typically they find and present themselves to a beginning practitioner who finds the item and is happy to have found a strong magical object. The practitioner then begins using the object during which time the magician becomes a walk-in and attempts to systematically attack and destroy the host before entering once they become suicidal (Note, not all possessed objects are magicians seeking host bodies for immortality. The vast majority are simply possessed objects and can be invaluable aids in ones spiritual progression and magickal advancement).

10. Walk-ins are typically dark and evil creatures, and thus their energy is usually offensive.

11. Typical traits possessed by people who become targets for walk-ins:
a. Magickal aptitude
b. Emotional and/or psychological issues (especially depression); emotionally imbalanced
c. Loners with no or very limited support groups
d. Suffers from anxiety issues (including panic attacks) or is easily scared.

11. Signs that a person might be a walk-in (note, all of these signs could be caused by other factors):
a. Drastic change in personality overnight
b. Was recently suicidal/seriously depressed but isn’t anymore
c. Missing large chunks of memories they recently possessed/possessing new memories they didn’t have before.
d. Offensive and/or dark energy, especially when it contrasts their previous energy signature.
e. Major and drastic changes in their life direction without prior warning.
f. Strange and atypical behavior that wasn’t present before.
g. They admit to being a walk-in.

12. Entities that exist as walk-in spirits can be very good at what they do, even if they do seem less than intelligent in other areas. Most can find the chinks in the psychological armor of the best of us, and even a trained adept can become emotionally unhinged if they are not careful.

13. Do note that in all legal and mundane matters a walk-in is considered to be its host body, and that the actions of the walk-in may be immoral, but they are not illegal. However action taken against the walk-in, specifically against the host body, may be illegal. The information provided here is for educational purposes concerning walk-ins, and in no way is meant to condone or encourage any illegal action.

14. That being said, I am of the opinion that walk-ins need to be dealt with prior to taking over the host body while they are still incorporeal (and thus have no rights under the law). After they have managed to take over the host body there’s really no point to stopping them.

Sphinxes

Sphinxes, sometimes given a proper name as a Phix, are horrid and powerful creatures. Similar creatures appear in many mythologies through out Europe, the Middle-East, and Asia, although it was named by the Greeks, whose myth seems a proper depiction, although the thing is not a god nor is it a single being, but like fae and dragons and djinn is a type. The lion headed depictions of the Egyptians may not have been depictions of the Sphinx at all, but rather depictions of their ruling class being associative with Sehkmet.

A Sphinx would often times be used as a guardian. The creatures are naturally guardians, tend to stay in one place, and are strong enough to make good guardians of things, especially tombs and other places where folks and animals don’t normally go. They also may be associative with power in the Greek magickal traditions. Mastery of a Sphinx, as per the feat of Oedipus, would be something only a very powerful magician would be capable of, and as such Sphinxes could be seen as guardians of the sacred mysteries, only allowing access to those of such great power as to tame them.

For the most part, Sphinxes are no longer allowed into this world. Fortunately the current laws and rules surrounding this plane of existence bar them from coming here. They can’t even reach the realm of dreams, for the most part, without great effort on their part, and it’s very difficult for them to sustain a presence there for long.

Sphinxes come from the depths of the hell planes. They are a lower realm equivalent to a realm guardian, essentially a type of angel to that place, however they would exceed even an archangel’s power, at least in their realm of origin, and would be somewhat equivelent to the angelic energy bodies of the heavenly planes.

I would assume that, when encountered in higher planes, a good deal of their energy and power is devoted to just sustaining their presence, and within their own realm of origin they would be far more powerful, although it is also possible that the ones able to still reach higher realms like the dreaming are also the more powerful of their ilk, and that most in their natural realm of origin are much weaker (I’ve never seen one in its realm of origin, and I don’t think I want to either).

A Sphinx constantly masturbates, sort of. It doesn’t really play with itself, it just sort of orgasms and ejaculates again and again on a constant (granted I’ve only seen males, females, if they exist, may be a bit different). When it orgasms, very strong sexually predatory energy flows out of it and into the nearby area in waves. Anything that is not able to quickly produce a very strong psychic shield (which even among practitioners, many can’t) will be raped by it. And the rape will happen repeatedly until the creature becomes so worn out from it that it kills them. Small creatures tend to last seconds. Larger creatures like cats and dogs may get a minute or two, a human maybe a few minutes. Even with a strong shield the energy is so intense, and on a constant, that it will tear down the shield very quickly.

This masturbation is not an attack, it lacks any direction or purpose, it is just a side-effect of the Sphinx existing in a place. It only represents a fraction of the Sphinxes power. The Sphinx overflows with power, it drips off it, so much so it can be clearly seen as a beacon amidst it’s sexual waves, and is many times stronger than it’s masturbation, even when the Sphinx is calm and at ease.

The energy of the Sphinx is such that most will find it offensive and gross, and also completely horrifying. Not just the nature of it’s evil, but also the power and intensity behind it. Among angelics and those with an angelic connection it will most likely awaken a primal need to combat and expel it, although most angelics even will approach such a beast with caution.

The Sphinx originates in the Qlippothic version of the middle triad, and as such is a further physical complication from this plane, and so he has a physicality that is evolved beyond what is typically allowed into this world. He also has a realm guardian status, so we can presume that, like the realm guardians of this world, he may be atypical of his plane of existence in his manifestation of physicality and the laws that apply to him.

Also, like any realm guardian, he guards, ferociously and viciously, and is a natural warrior. I’m not sure the actual intelligence of such a beast, as I’ve never attempted to talk to one. Their energy does seem very violent and animalistic, but this is not rare among realm guardian types. It would be odd, even among a realm as low as his, for something to be of such vast power and lack intelligence.

Notes on Spirit Animals

A spirit animal is a guardian spirit tied directly to oneself. They guide us and aid us through out our lifetimes, and act as a reflection of our true selves. It’s possible for a person to have more than one spirit animal. It’s also possible for a person to have only one spirit animal. Everybody and everything has at least one spirit animal. Animals have spirit animals, and so do incorporeal beings like angels and dragons. A spirit animal reflects the soul, and everything with a soul must have a spirit animal.

Our spirit animals are given to us at birth, they stay with us our entire life, and they never change. A person does not get to pick their spirit animal during their lifetime, no matter how much they may want to.

Spirit animals have a direct relationship to the world in which a person is incarnate. Because of this, all spirit animals are real animals existing in that world. Imaginary animals and extra-planer beings are never spirit animals (dragons, unicorns, manticores, chimeras, ect.), although extra-planer beings may be tied to an individual as a different type of guardian spirit.

Sometimes, though rarely, a person has a spirit animal which is extinct. A long extinct spirit animal may point to a person that is an old soul, in other words has been incarnate on this world for a very long time, although this isn’t always the case.

Spirit animals are specific animals. For example, no one has a canine spirit animal. They may have a dog spirit animal, or a coyote spirit animal, or a wolf spirit animal.

Our spirit animals are an extension of our true selves, the essence of our souls. They represent our true personality in a purity, untied from the physical plane, and as it was at our birth. By studying our spirit animals we can learn about ourselves.

When studying spirit animals, take into account everything typical of the animal, and then look at what unique or atypical qualities the animal may have, and then look at what the animal is known for, and then what it may be symbolic of and how it appears in mythology.

Typically a person will keep the same spirit animals from lifetime to lifetime. Sometimes though it happens that the nature of a person’s soul changes, sometimes dramatically, and when that occurs their spirit animals also change (at the time of their next birth). A person in this situation doesn’t completely lose their older spirit animals though. New spirit animals are assigned who act as the spirit animals of the soul in its current state, but the old spirit animals remain as the past spirit animals belonging to what the soul was. What the soul has become is built upon what it was, and so it will always be tied to its past self, and thus always tied to its past spirit animals. Past spirit animals don’t serve the same purpose as current spirit animals, and for the most part don’t have as much influence or impact as current spirit animals do.

Examples of spirit animal studies:

Dog – Dogs have the strongest and longest symbiotic relationship with humans out of all animals, and they’re almost entirely dependent on them. They’re also loving and loyal, if simple, creatures. People with dog spirit animals tend to be full of love and shower their affection on the people closest to them. They tend to be very loyal and often times have codependency issues. They are however generally happy and easily amused. They’re also the type to wear their emotions on their sleeve, and usually what they say is pretty close to what they’re thinking.

Coyote – In nature coyotes are scavengers, and people with a coyote spirit animal tend to be scavengers themselves. Not only do they love to find treasure, but their definition of treasure often times includes junk. A lot times they see other people’s garbage as treasure, and a lot of times they may not care how old, outdated, damaged, or broken something they like is. When they see a ‘treasure’ they’re often under the impression they may be able to fix it or otherwise use it (such as for spare parts or in a craft project), and they never pay attention to the amount of time or money it may take to repair the object. The impulse to scavenge when they find treasure is so strong it’s often hard for them to resist even when they know they’ll never get around to fixing it, or it will be a hassle to do so, or it will be difficult to get home. In myth coyotes are also known as tricksters, and people with coyote spirit animals also tend to be tricksters, typically having a good sense of humor and a love of practical jokes.

House cat – Unlike their larger cousins, house cats are not very ferocious. They are very agile and limber though, and people with house cat spirit animals are typically by their nature agile, but tend not to be very strong fighters or warriors. House cats, along with most other felines, are known to be psychic animals connected into the spiritual realm. People with feline spirit animals not only have a natural talent for magick and innate psychic abilities, but it almost always means that the person has an otherkin pastlife (although it would be perfectly normal for an otherkin not to have a feline spirit animal).

Ghouls

Oddly enough there isn’t much available information on ghouls, or their potential danger, despite that they are not only prevalent in some areas but are also one of the more physical manifestations in magick. Some knowledgeable authors may shy away from the subject matter considering the human nature of ghouls and potential liabilities in instances where someone may try to hunt or defend themselves against ghouls or those perceived to be ghouls. In that regard, I’m making a very clear statement right here that this article is meant only to inform and educate the reader on ghouls, their biology, and their behavior, and to provide basic means to keep oneself safe from such creatures and for self-defense. It should be noted that legally a ghoul may be considered a human with all rights and privileges, and a practitioner should be cautious to respect all local laws regarding humans should they physically attack a ghoul.

To start, the term ghoul must be clearly defined as it is used in magick, because the modern term differs from its original origin, and the term has been redefined many times over in fantasy fiction and role-playing games. The term originates from Persian myths where they were creatures with distorted faces that lived in the dessert and ate human flesh (this description, as given here, very well may be the same thing we are about to discuss). The creature was also associated with the Jinn.

From our perspective though, a ghoul is essentially an animate, decaying corpse. If you see one, they look like what you would expect a zombie to look like (Night of the Living Dead type, not a drugged Haitian). Basically it’s a walking corpse. Blood flow has stopped which causes discoloration in the skin. Their eyes are screwed up. Their flesh is decaying, parts may have fallen off, and there may be large patches of skin that are missing with exposed bone.

Ghouls are a byproduct of psionic vampirism. They were, at one point, a psionic vampire. They died, and yet remained attached to their body, and by utilizing psionic feeding techniques they are able to pull enough energy to animate their corpse, although not enough to fight natural decay.

Intellectually ghouls are mostly animalistic and work off of instincts. They do have some access to their human thoughts and memories, although these are limited and deteriorate moreso as time passes (no doubt due largely to the fact that their brain is dead and deteriorating). Their energy skills are also more limited than they were in life, and they are unable to feed as easily as they could before, eventually being forced to directly eat the victim in order to feed. Some can talk, but generally mutter insanities.

I’ve seen an early stage ghoul walk through a crowd of people unnoticed, which leads me to believe that they may have some sort of natural glamor or invisibility which allows them to blend in, although I don’t have enough information to conclude exactly what was going on.

From second hand reports I’ve heard that psionic vampires may have some control over ghouls, and that ghouls may be naturally attracted to them. The specifics concerning the creation of ghouls, how specifically it happens, and what percentage of psionic vampires end up as ghouls is, unfortunately, unknown to me.

A ghoul’s energy has a strong sense of death and decay to it. It is not the same as what you would expect from a ghost, rather it feels as if you’re tapping into a dead body. They also have a slight human feeling to them, and also a psionic vampire’s taint, although this is much weaker than that of a vampire. A ghouls energy signature is comparatively weak.

Ghouls tend to gravitate towards cities as opposed to small communities and rural areas, which isn’t surprising considering psionic vampires tend to be attracted towards cities too as it offers them a greater opportunity to blend. They tend to be forced into areas where they can either blend as homeless persons or can live and hunt in relative seclusion. Poorer areas of town, ghettos, allow Ghouls to be mistaken as homeless and also provide a larger number of small animals (such as stray pets and rodents) that can be hunted than more well to do areas. They can also be found in more secluded areas such as storm drains, sewer systems, and in the woods, and they also are known to sometimes frequent graveyards at night. Ghouls will generally move out of seclusion to hunt in the night time and sightings are therefor more prevalent then. Also weather or other phenomena may temporarily force them from their natural habitats increasing sightings in places they usually stay out of.

Foodwise ghouls will bite into and eat raw flesh. Alone they will generally go towards smaller animals. Often times they will hunt in packs though in order to take down larger prey, and have been known to even eat men. Slow moving and physically weak, they generally hide in wait and pounce at the proper moment or go after their prey while they’re sleeping or otherwise incapacitated.

The average lifespan of a ghoul is largely limited by their environment. The sack of meat they use as a body is quickly decaying and will one day become unusable. Under the best of conditions a body may last a few years, under the worst of conditions maybe a few months or less. One would assume if a ghoul could not effectively hunt for whatever reason they would run out of energy and no longer be able to sustain animating the corpse.

Never having killed a ghoul or heard of one dying from unnatural causes, I can only speculate as to what may or may not be fatal to them. They are not dependent on any major organ or body part, and they will survive having limbs cut off (in fact they fall off normally). Significant cuts or harming major organs (lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, ect) wouldn’t be enough, although decapitation might theoretically kill them. Anything that would completely destroy the body would, of course, kill a ghoul as the body would no longer be available.

How to defend yourself against a ghoul

A ghoul encounter can be very scary, even for an experienced practitioner, as it represents a physical monster as opposed to something incorporeal. Even though a ghoul may seem scary when you first meet them, don’t panic. They’re slow moving, dim-witted, and physically weak. Once you’ve identified a ghoul, most times you’ll be able to simply run away and survive the encounter unscathed. If possible, head towards your automobile, get in as quickly as possible, lock the doors, and drive away. If you don’t have an automobile available, head towards a crowded, preferably well lit, area. Ghouls typically won’t follow into these areas, and even if they do, it’s unlikely that even a pack would attack a large group of people. Never initiate eye contact with a ghoul as this may provoke it to attack even against a stronger opponent.

Magickaly, you have a lot of options dealing with a ghoul. If you’re good at invisibility magick it does seem rather effective against them. You could also try completely concealing your signature (if you’re able to) or otherwise blending it into the area as ghouls may be physically blind and dependent upon extrasensory abilities in order to hunt and navigate (this could, however, prove disastrous if you only manage to weaken your signature enough to be mistaken for something that can easily be eaten). Ghouls are also very sensitive to psionic attacks and they can easily be used to both hurt them and force them out of the area.

Outside of magick, physical attacks are very effective. However modern day non-lethal weapons, such as tazers, stun guns, and pepperspray, are useless against ghouls. They tend to have an immunity to electricity so they can’t be tazed. Pepperspray may cause some irritation, but not nearly as much as it would a live person.

Considering that ghouls are slow and physically weak, punching is quite effective, and they can feel pain and it is a deterrent. If you are in a fist fight with a ghoul, be very careful about being bitten since ghouls will attempt to attack in this manner. Considering human bites are one of the worst you can get in terms of disease and infection, I can only imagine what it would be like if you coupled that with the bite being performed from a dead body that routinely bites into raw flesh.

If you do end up in a fight with a ghoul, attempt to disable or force a retreat as quickly as possible and then run to your car or a safer area. Ghouls frequently hunt in packs and you may find yourself dangerously outnumbered if you don’t leave the area quickly.

The best defense, though, is to be prepared if you’re going to an area that you suspect ghouls may frequent. Wear scarfs, long sleeve shirts, and (preferably leather) jackets to offer some added protection against a bite. Have several possible escape routes in mind. If at all possible go with a large group as this alone will often times scare away ghouls. And be attentive to your surroundings and pay careful attention to anyone that may be a ghoul (sure it probably is just a drunken hobo, but you’re best off cloaking yourself and watching it’s behavior than assuming it must be). If you identify a ghoul quick enough you can usually get away before it ever notices you.

If you’ve had a personal experience with a ghoul, feel free to share in the comment section as I’m sure others would be interested in what happened and your thoughts on the creatures.

Helping Ghosts Pass Over

This was a reply I wrote on a webboard a while back. It was in response to a question regarding saving the various ghosts that the original poster came across, and how to go about doing such a thing.

If you go around trying to save every ghostie you find, you’ll never get any peace. Most times you just have to leave these things be.

It’s important to remember that a person’s spiritual path doesn’t end with their death. Being a dead disincarnate spirit may not be the best situation to end up in, but the ghost is still spiritually evolving and eventually they’ll end up where they need to be, it will just take them a while. Most ghosts don’t last more than a few years. Although there are a lot of ghosts that are several decades old, they constitute a small number of all of the people who have died. Century old ghosts are really hard to come by, and I’ve never heard of one that was more than a few hundred years old. It’s because things don’t stay ghosts for that long, and on an infinite timeline even a few hundred years disincarnate isn’t a very long time.

Also ghosts are rarely sane and logical. Some are very insane and delusional. Some were crazy in life, and being dead just seems to amplify that. Many don’t believe they’re dead. A lot exist in a somewhat delusional state that may move between being somewhat lucid and being almost entirely caught in a dream-like state where they fall back on patterns they followed in life.

Even if you try to save something like that, there’s a good chance it won’t work. Many of them don’t follow normal human logic and they’re difficult to reason with on a human level.

And saving a ghost is rarely just a matter of getting that one final key to setting them free. It’s a process, and just like a person it can take an investment of months or even years and in the end still might not pay off.

You shouldn’t feel guilty about not helping. The ghosts are getting where they need to go, and there are forces out there that are designed specifically to aid them in that process. For the most part saving ghosts isn’t the spiritual path of incarnate people, and if you help every single one you meet you’ll never have enough time for yourself and probably end up neglecting your own spiritual path, which isn’t fair to you.

Magick 101: Altars – An FAQ

What is an Altar?

An altar is a space that we dedicate to a specific entity or entities.

What is the purpose of an altar?

By putting up an altar we’re inviting the entity or entities into the structure (be it a home or otherwise) or general area and putting forth a sort of beacon to summon them into that spot. At the same time we’re giving the entity or entities a place within the structure or area that is their own to inhabit.

What can an altar be made to?

In western magick altars are most often made to specific deities. In Eastern cultures altars to dead spirits are also common, a practice which is also still practiced in Mexico on the day of the dead as a hold-over from pre-Christian Mexican beliefs. Additionally though altars can be made to just about anything. Sometimes altars are made to a general type of entity, such as fae or dragons, rather than something specific in order to summon them forth. Other times altars are made to specific angels, daemons/demons, or primal entities.

What do I need to make an altar?

To create an altar you only need two things, a space to dedicate and a representation.

Sometimes a specific piece of furniture is purchased for the altar, either a small table, a pillar, or a ledge that attaches to the wall (good for areas with limited space). However just about any flat surface will do, including counter-tops, end tables, cabinets, and the tops of bookshelves, entertainment centers, and computer desks. Generally you don’t want altars on the floor because of the tendency for them to be disturbed by people and animals tripping over them, and also for safety reasons when candles are lit on them, but this isn’t an issue with very large statuary (although these tend to be out of the price range most can afford).

As for a representation, statuary is the most common. Plaster statues are very affordable with statues selling for less than $10 a foot, although there’s a somewhat limited selection with plaster. Higher quality statues made of bronze or with a marble finish are also available, many of which are over a foot in height and can be purchased for under $100, and there is a much wider selection available, especially in regards to the Greek and Roman traditions. Wooden statues are also available and a bit cheaper and offer an even wider variety in the Nordic and Eastern pantheons. For things like fae and dragons there are a wide variety of statuesque options available. Custom statues can also be made, although this can get pricey.

Vases and urns also make good, though less common, representations. There are a wide variety of recreations available for the Greek pantheon. Urns with ashes (of the specific dead person) in them are also good for altars devoted to a dead spirit. Vases tend to be a bit more expensive though so aren’t used as much.

Sometimes a representative item may also be used on an altar. For instance Saturn is associated with the scythe, and so an altar to Saturn may include a scythe on it as Saturn’s representation.

Pictures may also be used as representation, and can provide a low cost method to making an altar when money is tight. All you need to do is find a picture of a statue or a drawing of what you want to represent, print it out, and put it in a picture frame (which can be bought for a few dollars if you look around). If you have some artistic ability, you may even draw the picture yourself, and this could have a much greater connection and significance to anything you could buy in a store.

Also, if space is getting tight, you could use wall reliefs or paintings as altars.

What is an active altar and how do I activate my altar?

An active altar is an altar in which whatever it is dedicated to is currently present. Many altars, when properly dedicated, will immediately become active. Often times lighting a candle on an altar as an offering is enough to activate the altar and make whatever it is dedicated to aware that you wish its presence, but if the candle doesn’t finish burning before being put out care should be taken to make sure the candle is only ever used as an offering to that specific altar and not used for other spellwork or on another altar. Incense, particluarly a type that is associated with what your altar is dedicated to, can work in much the same way. You can also try communicating with what the altar is dedicated to in order to activate it. At times altars will activate on their own, sometimes when the practitioner is in desperate need of it. It should be noted that as long as an altar remains up, whatever it is dedicated to rightfully owns the altar space, not the practitioner, and the altar may become active at any time.

How do I charge an item at an altar?

There is a general practice of charging an item on an active altar. Magical tools (such as knives and swords) and candles are the most common items. Typically the item is put upon the altar and left there for a period of time to soak up the energy. Care should be taken to make sure whatever the altar is dedicated to is okay with charging the item. The practitioner may wish to light candles, communicate, and perform rituals in order to activate the altar during the charging process.

What about putting other things on the altar?

Besides your representation and your surface you don’t need anything else for your altar. As discussed above you may wish to light candles or incense on your altar, and you may wish to charge objects on it. It’s fairly common to add specific candle holders or incense burners to an altar to be used only on that altar, although this isn’t necessary. You may also wish to add items that are either owned by or made as an offering to what the altar is dedicated to. You may also add magickal items that are associated with the altar and what it’s dedicated to. Other items may also be added to the altar to dress it up or for storage, but do see the next item.

What shouldn’t I put on my altar?

Care should be taken to make sure that anything added to an altar is approved by what the altar is dedicated to and isn’t offensive. Sometimes other deities can be added to one deity’s altar, other times this is strictly prohibited. Other times things just don’t mesh very well in ways that are hard to perceive without direct knowledge of the situation. For example, dragon imagery (unless it’s very silly or mocking) would be offensive and render a fae altar useless since dragons and fae don’t get along very well and don’t care too much for each other.

Also you need to remember that an altar is both a beacon and invitation for things to enter your house. Putting a representation on an altar, even if the altar is not dedicated to that representation, may draw it into your home. True story, a friend of mine acquired a stuffed animal of the Mothman and put it on an altar in his living room. Various negative Mothman-esque entities ended up being drawn to his home until the stuffed animal was removed from the altar.

What about dual purpose altars?

It’s typically easiest to have altars dedicated to one specific entity. Sometimes you can get away with a dual altar, the most common being an altar dedicated to two deities that are known as consorts of each other. Some deities will allow this, and even allow altars dedicated specifically to them to be used to commune with a consort. Other deities are very particular about this, and even though they may allow statuary that features another deity on their altar, won’t allow it to be used to commune with that deity.

What about a temporary altar?

Temporary makeshift altars are common and are useful when you want an altar set-up for just a specific spell or to aid in communion with a particular deity or entity, but don’t want to invest in something more permenant because of space or money concerns, or because the energy is unbecoming of the practitioner.

There are two easy ways to make such an altar. The first is using a computer monitor. Go online and find a picture to act as a representation, then download the pic and maximize it on the screen. On many desks there’s even enough space to light some candles in front of the monitor if you wish. This method is good if you just want to commune with something, although it may provide some distance and spatial issues if you need the altar for spellwork.

The second way is to print out a picture to act as a representation, put it in a frame, and place on a flat surface, any flat surface, and dedicate the space normally.

My Altars, for example:

Here are my altars to Ares (left) and Saturn (right) positioned on top of my entertainment center. The mirror in the middle is a sentient magickal item that needs a good central point and isn’t associated with either altar. Note that in addition to movies I store working tools beneath the altars, including my sword, candles, candle-holders, ect.

This is a close-up of the Aresian altar. I have two statues of Ares put up, one of Ares with Aphrodite which correctly associates him as a god of love, and one of Ares alone (when I have more space I’m going to split this into two altars). The candle I used as an offering to Ares is still at his altar so it isn’t used elsewhere by mistake.

Here’s a close-up of the Saturian altar. Since Saturn depictions are so very hard to find I’ve blown up a picture of Saturn to use as his representation and put it in a frame. It isn’t the best drawing, but it is a correct interpretation. Behind the picture is a clock, one of Saturn’s symbols.

Here’s my altar to Persephone, atop the bookshelf. The small statue is a reproduction of a Grecian tomb piece and probably the only good interpretation I’ve seen of Persephone for sale, although I have some issues with the company that makes it. The larger statue is the rape of Persephone, and an okay interpretation, but far from my favorite (though easily obtainable). The candlestick is a sentient piece given to me by a friend who acquired it at a thrift store. As far as we can tell, she initially came from a Persephonic altar, and she seems happy to be on one again. She also likes to have taper candles in her.

This is Fortuna’s altar on the left side of the computer desk. The candles are not Fortuna’s, they just ended up there after some recent ritual work. The luck frog and his coin have both been personally enchanted by me and Fortuna agreed to let them be put upon her altar when I needed a safe place for them. I actually had a vision of a similar looking prosperity Buddha in that spot so I went out and bought the closest thing I could find to put there. At times during spellwork Buddha gets removed to make room for candleholders or whatever else I may need up there.

Here’s my Venitian altar on the right side of the computer desk. The larger statue is a plaster statue purchased at the flea market for $15 and was my very first altar piece. I picked up the smaller marble statue when I had more money. My dragon incense burner is also there. The smoke comes out of his nostrils. It’s very cool and fae like. There are also two pieces of emerald on the altar that have been blessed by Venus.