The Story of Elektra, My Cat

I'd never been a "pet" person growing up, mostly because we never had any long-term pets.  Most of our pets, whether cat or dog, were removed from our home within 4-6 weeks of them arriving, usually because my stepfather got tired of us not cleaning up after them.   He'd "take them for a drive", which meant he'd take them to the park nearby our home, let them out of the car, and drive home without them.

This made it so that none of us ever had the chance to really bond with those animals.  As an adult, I'd always felt like I'd missed out on being a pet "owner" (I have issues with the idea of "owning" animals - how exactly does one "own" another living thing?) when I spoke with peers who'd had pet family members while I had not.

I was introduced to the idea of adopting a pet long-term as a result of a relationship I was involved in, and we adopted a dog whose previous owner was terminally ill.  I kept that dog even after the relationship with my ex was over, mostly because I'd gotten so used to him being around, and I didn't want to take the chance of him being re-adopted by owners who might abuse him.  I couldn't have asked for a better dog, and may he rest in peace.

At any rate, last summer I was going through some severe financial turmoil as a result of job loss.  I was requesting aid from any spirit or deity to help me find work and reverse an imminent foreclosure on my home.  At one point I prayed to Sekhmet and asked for her aid in helping me to keep my home.  She responded by saying she would help me if I provided a home for a homeless cat, and she indicated that she wanted me to adopt one from a homeless shelter.  Then I saw the cat in a vision: it was a grey cat with bluish or greenish eyes.

So I set out to find a cat to adopt.  After looking online for a suitable feline and having no luck, my daughter and I decided to take a trip to the humane society to see what animals they had available.  There was a small grey cat there which resembled the vision I'd seen, but she was smaller in reality than the cat I'd seen in the vision.  We both played with her and she seemed to have a good personality, so we decided that was the one and took her home.  My daughter named her Elektra, being the Greek word for electricity.  I still don't know why she chose that name personally, but so be it.

Not long after that, I was able to secure employment with a growing company, and thereby save my home.  I was so grateful to Sekhmet for keeping her word to me, and I set out to make sure Elektra was comfortable here and as well-fed as possible.  In the 6 months since then, she has gained almost 7 pounds, topping out at close to 15 lbs., so I'd say she's definitely well-fed!  (I've since cut back on how much she's fed because I don't want her to become diabetic.)


I'm not proud of the next part of the story, but I'm going to relate it anyway because it's fairly remarkable in my opinion, and serves to show how active the gods can be in our daily lives, even when we don't see it.


One day, while fretting about financial issues, I let my temper get a bit short.  (I've always had anger issues, and it is something I'm actively working on with daily meditation, Reiki, etc.)  Anyone who has a cat as a family member knows that they love to hang out on windowsills.  In my home, I have a number of houseplants set on my windowsills so that they can receive their daily sunlight.  My cat was probably chasing a bug and jumped up on the windowsill to get it, and subsequently knocked over two of my plants onto the floor.  There was soil everywhere for me to clean up, and I had just watered them, so the soil was pretty muddy and was now all over my hardwood floor which I'd just swept.

I responded by first seeing red and then throwing a plastic cup in the cat's direction out of anger, not to hurt her (I missed her intentionally), but to scare her from getting back up onto my windowsills again as this wasn't the first time this had happened.  The hard plastic cup shattered when it impacted the floor, and pieces flew everywhere.  The cat scattered away frightened.  I picked up the pieces of plastic, but was still very angry at the cat who was now on the landing of the stairs.  I found another piece of the cup, and threw it in her general direction, again not to hurt her, but to scare her which it did as she scampered upstairs and away from me in my state of anger.

Later that afternoon, I was on my way to two appointments with potential new clients.  On my way to the one client's house, I was pulled over for speeding and given a ticket.  That client wasn't even home when I finally got to their home, so I basically got the ticket for nothing.  Frustrated, I made my way to the second client's home, who also wasn't home.  While leaving there, I was pulled over a second time by a different cop who towed my car for some miscellaneous violation, leaving me stranded and needing a lift back home.  What a frustrating day it had turned out to be!

Once I finally arrived back home, I figured that I must have made someone upset with me because I never have bad luck like that to be pulled over twice in the same afternoon and then to get my car towed on top of it.  So I began to meditate, and it came to me that the goddess was not happy about how I'd treated Elektra earlier that day.  So she'd apparently removed her protection and allowed me to be accosted by the police twice, once for each time I'd thrown something at Elektra.  Lesson learned!

As an aside, it's notable that Sekhmet let me know in no uncertain terms that she was displeased with my treatment of Elektra.  I think many people expect this type of protection from their gods, and are disillusioned when it isn't there, especially in cases of the abuse of children by trusted clergy when nothing happens to the guilty, or when the crime is successfully covered up.  It makes me feel much more secure in knowing that not only am I actively protected, but that the Goddess's protection also includes animals.

Anyway, it occurred to me that I needed to do some sort of apologetic ritual to placate the goddess somehow, because obviously you never want a goddess as powerful as Sekhmet to remain angry.  I set my phone alarm to an astrologically opportune time to perform this apology ritual, but when my alarm went off, I was watching something on television and didn't want to turn it off right at that moment, so I decided I'd do the ritual as soon as my program was over.

The very moment I made that decision, my television shut off on its own!  My television had never done this before, and has always worked perfectly before and since.  So, at the time,  knowing that this had to have been the goddess's doing, I promptly went up to my altar room and made my apologies to both Sekhmet and to Bastet for losing my temper with my cat earlier that day.

Things calmed down between us a lot after that. Since then, Elektra rarely jumps up on the windowsill anymore, and her behavior has modified to the point where I am almost never annoyed by her antics anymore.  I truly believe Sekhmet modified Elektra's natural behavior so that the two of us would get along better.   She also comes when I call her, and will listen when I tell her to do something.  Everyone who has seen this, especially those who have had cats of their own, says that cats never listen to anyone and they are amazed by my bond with my cat.  I've never had a cat before, so I have to take their word for how cats "usually" are.

Elektra is evidently a very special cat, both to me and to Sekhmet, and I am grateful that she has come to live with me.  Even more than that, I am glad to have seen that Sekhmet is indeed active in my life, and my cat is a token that reminds me of that fact.  People now think I'm a "cat person", but it's so much deeper than that, not that I could really explain the entire situation to the uninitiated! 

Unto Sekhmet, thank you for being present in my life to the degree that you are.  May your name be praised forever.

The Difference between Motivation and Will

"Do or do not...there is no try" - Yoda

Well, here we are...in the year 2013!  Many people didn't think we'd make it to see this year, mostly because of Hollywood and the Mayan prophecies, etc., but I'm glad the "doom-and-gloomers" were wrong.

Being that this is my first post of the year, I wanted to talk about motivation and will, hopefully to flesh out the contrasts between them so that people don't continue to confuse the two.  Inasmuch as New Years resolutions are fairly ubiquitous, and unfortunately are rarely maintained, I think this post may prove timely, especially since most New Years resolutions almost never last beyond February.

Also, since this is primarily a magickal blog, and in light of the Powers of the Sphinx (To Know, To Will, To Dare, To Be Silent), a more workable grasp and definition of the concept of Will is in order.


When humans are making decisions, it is usually in response to a stressor that has occurred prior to the making of that decision.  This stressor is the catalyst that creates the conditions required for a decision to be made.  Hunger, loneliness/horny-ness, and financial instability are some of the more common stressors, but there are many others which are as varied as the situations within which they arise.

After encountering a stressor, humans form intentions designed to neutralize that stressor.  Decisions are then made, and action flows from those decisions.

If no action flows from those decisions, then they really aren't decisions, they're still just intentions.  One can have every iota of intent that exists, but can take no real action until he decides to do something - and then visualizes exactly what he plans to do.

Sometimes this entire process occurs very quickly, and other times more slowly, depending upon the nature of the stressor, the degree of stress perceived, and upon the capabilities, temperament, and resources of the person involved.


To illustrate, let's create a basic flow chart of the process of development of all human actions:

Stressor ---> Intention ---> Decision ---> Countering Actions

Now let's modify the terms used:

Motivator (or motivation) ---> Visualized Intention ---> Will ---> Countering Actions

Using this flow chart, we can see that the motivator/motivation comes two steps *before* the will to do something about it, not after.  This distinction is important for making the overall point, which I'll get to next.

Motivation is largely an emotional response to a stressor, but people who don't really understand the concept of will usually use motivation as their fuel for empowering whatever actions they intend to take.  Since motivation is more of an emotional response, and all emotions are based around possibly biased or flawed perceptions of one's environment (along with the people in it), motivation is an inferior fuel for action when compared to will.

Will is the ability to stick to a decision made, and therefore perform all countering actions to neutralize stressors, completely regardless of the emotional environment.  It is a "child" of motivation, but it is also more powerful than motivation simply because it is unemotional.  Will is mental, not emotional.  In terms of dimensions, will occupies the mental domain, but not the astral, material, or emotional domains.  You cannot "feel" will (emotional), you cannot "sense" will (astral), and you cannot "touch" will (material), yet it exists because it is made apparent through the presence and performance of action.

The ancient Egyptian myth of the war between Horus and Set brings some of this to light.  Horus defeated Set once he (with the help of Thoth), became "thought itself" (will) and couldn't be affected by the attacks of Set (stressors) any longer.


Anyway, I believe the reason that many people's New Year's resolutions don't usually stick past February is because they've conflated will with motivation.

When a person fails to perform actions that they have intended to perform, it's usually because something in their environment has affected their motivation.  They'll usually say or think things like "I don't feel like doing X right now", and then they allow that emotional response to cripple their will.

But, the emotional component (motivation) has already played its role once a decision has been made, and need not be recalled, nor should it be if one intends to effectively train their will by maintaining consistent action.  If one only uses motivation to perform action, their actions will be as inconsistent as the emotional component that drives them.

True will (not necessarily in the Thelemic sense of the phrase) is always absolute and consistent.  Motivation, by its very nature, is neither absolute nor consistent.

Once a decision is made, or the will is formed, and as that will manifests as action, that will doesn't (or shouldn't) need motivation anymore, so to wait for or to require motivation is an inferior response, is out of the proper sequence of the manifestation of action, and will eventually lead to the failure to take action (and the abandonment of the resolution).

So, if one is to learn how to develop the will, one must first learn to perform action for neutralizing stressors regardless of the presence of motivation (or emotion).  Obviously this is easier said than done, but if one (especially if that one is a magician) intends to "conquer" his life, this lesson is vital.

In conclusion, if you intend to lose weight, to stop smoking, to spend more time with your kids, or whatever your resolutions have been, once you make the decision to do that, let that decision be enough to continue to do it.  Focus on the advantages that all corresponding actions will grant you. 

Working with High John the Conqueror

High John the Conqueror is known as a African-American folk hero who allegedly lived during the time of American slavery.  Whether he actually lived on earth in the mundane world at all is a mystery.  You can find out a lot of information about him on the Lucky Mojo website here.

In conjure, and in traditional witchcraft, the roots that are named after High John include: High John the Conqueror root, Little John to Chew root, and Low John root.  These are all used for various purposes, but for this blog entry I will only document my experiences with the High John the Conqueror root and the spirit of High John himself.

Many practitioners, previously including myself, had no idea that High John is a powerful spirit that can be petitioned and worked with.  I was made aware of this possibility by a blog entry over at Crossroads of Sorcery, so I decided to see how I could petition High John's work for myself.

First, I found a recipe for High John oil in the classic book by Judika Iles entitled "The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells" which is seriously a must-have for any practitioner.  In the recipe, you take some chips of High John root and place them in a dish and then pour almond oil or jojoba oil over them.  Then you expose the dish to sunlight for 7 days. 

I took it a step further (as usual), and set up a simple ritual to call down the spirit of High John and asked him to empower the oil personally in exchange for an offering.  This was done before I set the dish of oil in the sunlight.  I'm glad I did it that way because I could sense many positive changes in my personal life while the oil was "brewing" in the sun, so I figured it was probably High John's influences at work already.

A couple of days before the oil was ready, I got a call from a client that I'd recently signed a contract with who expressed an interest in cancelling that contract.  The deal we signed would net me a very nice commission, so obviously I wasn't interested in him cancelling.  But I was able to hold him off to the last day before his 3-day right of rescission had expired.  However, my High John oil would be ready the night before I was scheduled to meet with this client to cancel the deal.

I bottled up the High John oil and the root chips from the dish, and with the last bit of oil left in the dish I dressed a green candle and inscribed an appropriate Nordic rune on the candle.  Feeling High John to be a Mercurial spirit (some would say Jupiterian, but that wasn't my impression), I used some sandalwood incense to attract his presence - some people use sandalwood for either Jupiter or Mercury depending on who you ask.  Then I prayed to High John and asked him to save my deal.  I didn't use any sigils or any long-drawn out rituals or anything, just a simple prayer.

Then I went to bed, and the next morning before I met with the client I applied some HJ oil on my hands as I knew I'd shake the client's hand when I met with him.  My intention was to extend High John's influences to the client through the handshake. 

After about 10 minutes of meeting with the client and his wife, I was pretty sure that I would be able to keep the deal.  It turned out that a competitor had badmouthed our company to this client in an attempt to steal my deal, and it made the client apprehensive about working with us.  Once I provided about 6 satisfied customer references to this client and his wife (the wife was onboard the whole time), he decided to go ahead and use our company.

Some takeaways from the whole situation:  

1) Magickal actions must always be followed up by mundane actions to increase the chances for success.  Had I not provided my hastily typed-up references list for this client, I doubt I would have kept this deal. 
2) Trust is key in sales.  If you can't make people trust your word, then you shouldn't ever be in sales.
3) Wives overrule husbands 3.5 times out of every 4 when it comes to purchasing or remodeling a home.  In this case, the couple had been married for over 40 years and were in their 80s.  If you can sell the wife, the husband will usually fall in line.
4) High John oil rocks!

My thanks and honor to High John the Conqueror for his help in this situation.  I look forward to working with him again.

"God Is Becoming Itself" (and we get to help!)

I've been thinking about time, or specifically the nature of time.  This pondering may have something to do with the predicted "shift" that is allegedly supposed to take place around the end of this year.  I won't get into that too much in this post however, but you can read more about that on other websites or blogs with a little research.

Because we (think we) live within a 3D world, we view matter itself as being static when in fact it is not.  As postulated by many philosophical thinkers and even physicists such as Einstein, all matter is essentially congealed energy that has taken on a particular form.  Additionally, ideas regarding the perceived philosophical duality between force and form, or yin and yang come to mind.

But that's looking at matter in its entirety as a "noun", for lack of a better analogy.  If we think of matter as a process (verb), then the nature of time itself comes into focus. All things "become", so they are never static.  Even God Himself, when introducing himself to Moses in the book of Exodus, gave Himself the name "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" which can be translated as either "I am that I am", or more accurately "I will be what I will be".  God (speaking in terms of God as "the embodiment of all things along with their interrelationships"), is constantly becoming more of whatever He/it is.  In essence, God is "becoming" itself over time.  This is also displayed in the fact that the universe itself is expanding as all things within it become more complex.

For a simple example, a "person" is usually thought of as a noun, or an archetype.  But in the 3D reality that person is never actually static, as a "noun" would be.  People are always either moving, or developing, or even decaying as in during advancing age or after physical death.  At no point is anything ever static, because at the very least it is vibrating within its own frequency range.  In fact even the word "is" makes no sense at all, which is the main idea behind language techniques such as "E-prime".

Nouns are more like mental archetypes, meaning they don't change, but in a 3D world all things change (or more accurately "become"), so nouns do not exist within time, they exist within the mind only, or outside of time because nothing within the realm of time stays the same.

A person develops over time, so that person is a fertilized ovum, a child, an adult, and even deceased and transcendent all at once.  Simply put, a person is a process over time, dependent (genetically-speaking) upon the ancestry of that person, and upon their ancestry along with their living environment, and peer influences, etc.  Same thing with a tree; it's an acorn, a tree, and perhaps paper or furniture or a house all at once.  Of course, one has to remove himself from the mental bounds of time in order to see this truth. 

So it follows that if all things are processes and are thereby dynamic (as opposed to static), then the probability of any particular thing occurring or developing into whatever that thing can become, are dictated by the intrinsic nature of that thing.  For example, an acorn cannot become a person because acorns just don't do that.  Neither can a fertilized human ovum become a tree over time, for the same reason.  Sounds obvious but stay with me.

With regard to probability engineering (another word for magick), what practitioners do when casting spells is to consciously intersect the probability of any particular process and nudge it one way or another according to their individual will.  But the intrinsic nature of a thing must be allowed for, especially for successful spell-casting.  If one is attempting to understand the intrinsic nature of a thing, one has only to look at typical (or rather "habitual") outcomes for that thing.  A person-process usually only lives to be 120 years old or less because that is the typical outcome for a person.  A tornado-process usually only occurs when weather patterns are conducive for it to manifest, because that is typically how they form.

Ok, so taking that previous idea a step further, for a person, or a tornado, or even a mountain to form, necessary conditions for it to form must be present and observed.  These necessary conditions are themselves processes, so now we can see the interrelationship between processes having a lot to do with any process.  All things (processes) are connected.

If process A is dependent upon process B which is dependent upon process C, then process A is directly dependent upon process C to some degree.  This would also mean that process C must occur in order for processes B and A to also occur.  Process C could then be considered the critical factor.  So if a practitioner enchants for process C to occur, he should also enchant for process B to occur, so that process A can occur naturally.  This is the thought process behind such concepts as sigil shoaling and Strategic Sorcery, i.e. multiple targeted enchantments or spells, such that process A (the overall intention) can occur.

Sometimes the interrelationship between these processes is occulted, or not obvious, which is why divination before any spellwork is one of the most important steps in any magickal campaign.  The use of Venn diagrams can be very helpful to visually see the critical factors that must occur for the intended result to manifest.  If all of these critical factors are addressed by the use of magickal or mundane means, such that the probabilities of each of the independent  processes surrounding an intention are nudged enough, the intended result should manifest on its own.

Now back to the original thought.  When God becomes, and I'm speaking of God as being all things, the intelligent becoming is perfected by the presence of the will of consciousness itself.  This consciousness is perfect awareness of all related and interrelated processes surrounding the intended process.  These processes are automatically accounted for by the design of the matrix itself.  So any conscious being who allows for and is aware of these surrounding processes, can indeed "hack" the outcome of an intended process so long as the requisite knowledge and skill is in place.

These conscious beings, herein thought of as magickal practitioners, operate as movers (not prime movers) of processes, and developers of new phenomena in accordance with their roles as operating as God Himself as we were designed to do in this life.  God, as all things, wants to become and to expand itself and we practitioners help Him do just that.  As Marduk (the Babylonian/Sumerian version of Ra/Zeus/Jehovah) used His magick to create order within the primordial chaos of Tiamat, we also use our magick to create our version of order within the chaos of our own spheres of influence.  We operate as God on a smaller scale, in order to help God "become".

In my mind at least, there is no higher calling.

Working with St. Expedite

It's been a while since I've posted (again).  I've been pretty busy with work, which is a good thing because a month ago I had no job at all.  As a matter of fact, today marks one month to the day of being employed after being out of work since March of 2010.  During most of that time I was in graduate business school, so it's not like I was completely idle.  But it's nice to get a paycheck again after being on a fixed income (unemployment) for a couple of years.

At any rate, I recently became acquainted with St. Expedite due to my association with a professional rootworker who has been helping me get my life back on track.  I was facing financial ruin and homelessness, and it seemed that no matter what I tried, nothing was working as well or as quickly as I needed.  That's where hoodoo has made a big difference.

After a series of spiritual baths of various types, and a fairly thorough spiritual house cleansing, I got a job.  Let me rephrase that; I got a very good job, one that has the potential to get me out of a huge financial hole fairly quickly.  Problem was, getting started in my line of work can be expensive since I am only paid when I sell something and selling what I sell requires a lot of driving around.  You've probably noticed the gas prices lately?

My rootworker advised me to do a number of things, all of which were effective in turning around my plight, but one of the things that has had a great impact was to establish a relationship with St. Expedite.

For those who are unfamiliar with this saint, he is the patron saint of speedy results, and he is known for working very quickly.  In most magickal work, one can expect results in terms of three(s), as in 3 days for a sign, 3 weeks for real movement, and 3 months for a final outcome.  This saint doesn't work like that, you can see results the same day you petition him or the next day as I have.  I wasn't expecting the dramatic nature of his work either.  He can provide the types of dramatic results that many Goetic practitioners find typical in their work, but the nice thing is that you don't need the Solomonic triangle, sword, etc. that they use, and you certainly don't need to speak rudely or threaten with curses and all that jazz.

What I did was to type out my request, print it out, and surround the petition with a picture of the saint, a glass of water, and a red candle in a triangle formation.  The picture was at the bottom right corner of the triangle, the glass of water at the bottom left, and the candle at the top.  Then I prayed to Ganesha to "open the way" for me to speak with St. Expedite.

Before I continue, I should point out a personal observation.  Ganesha seems to be somewhat related to St. Expedite, possibly as aspects of the same intelligent (Mercurial) force.  This would make them both related to Hermes/Mercury as well.  Some say he is also related to Papa Legba (or Eleggua) of ATR lore.  As a Mercurial entity, he is very quick in his work but also can be a trickster.

The names and traditions by which we access this entity probably qualify the mode by which it works on your request.  In other words, if I address this entity by the name Ganesha or Hermes I don't find nearly as many of the trickster-ish tendencies to take place as when I address it by the name St. Expedite.  I can't say that I'm sure that these entities are the same, but I can say that they appear to be of the same archetype of consciousness (similarly to the "goddess of love" archetype that Hathor, Aphrodite, Inanna, and other love goddesses arise from).  I've been a longtime devotee of Ganesha, so believe me when I say he works just as regularly and as beneficially as St. Expedite does.  However, there is a lot more anecdotal information to go by about working with his St. Expedite aspect than there is about working with the Ganesha aspect.  My work with Ganesha has been mostly intuitive, as I've never had much to go on anecdotally.  Long story short, this is a very powerful spirit however you decide to address him, and my results have been nothing less than dramatic.

One opinion that is almost universal about St. Expedite is that he is better called when there is something that you truly need.  If it is just something that would be nice to have, you may have better results petitioning a different saint for it, or just doing basic candle magick or runework, etc.

Okay, back to the story.  Once I felt that the way was open for me to speak to St. Expedite, I outlined the terms of my request complete with what I would pay (Sara Lee pound cake and flowers are traditional) and how long he had to do the work.  I closed the ritual and then I waited, but I didn't have to wait long.  The very next day, I met a guy who has been very helpful in getting my work off the ground.  Since then, I've gotten everything I needed from this spell, and as a result I'll probably earn somewhere in the vicinity of $6K for the month.  On unemployment, I got less than a third of that, so yeah....big difference!

So yesterday, I ended the month long working with a big bouquet of orange mums (orange for Mercury), and 8 slices of pound cake (8 is the number of Hod), along with profound thanks for his work.  This blog entry is also a part of my payment, and I'm glad to write it.

Incidentally, whenever I work with an entity and feel like I may want to cultivate a relationship with it for future needs, I always specify that.  I hope that I'm never in the type of situation where I really need help like that again, but I'm glad to have a go-to entity in case I do.  I highly recommend St. Expedite to those who have pressing concerns.  He's truly a miracle worker!

13 Herb Bath Booster

One thing I like about the 13-herb bath is its convenience, along with its quick effectiveness.  Many practitioners have their own formulas for the herbs, and there are usually some similarities between them.  Books such as Judika Iles "Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells" are full of herbal recipes as well, and most are traditional.  The recipe that I use is one that I actually borrowed from another blogger, but I'd like to share my own spin on it also.  The herbal formula that she shared is here.  My thanks to the author.

The herbs I use are: Agrimony, Angelica, Burdock, Devil's Shoestrings, Dill, Fern, Five Finger Grass, Hyssop, Mint, White Oak Bark, Goat's Rue (or Patchouli, if you have sensitive skin), Solomon's Seal, and Blue Vervain.

At any rate, after I began using this formula, I was able to quit smoking to the point where I can't even be around smoke anymore (which can wreak havoc on one's social life here in Pittsburgh, as it seems that most nightlife places still allow smoking indoors!) and that was before using the booster that I'm about to share.  It's good for many other addictions as well, but long-standing addictions may require multiple baths.  You'll know that it has worked when addictions that you used to find enjoyable start to turn your stomach at just the thought of them.

My idea for using this bath consists of targeting particular chakras where one may need some cleansing.  I'm not going to go into which chakras are for what conditions, because that information is freely available on the web by authors who are much more descriptive than I have the inclination to be during this post.  But if you would like to find out which of your chakras need attention, you could go here.


OK, now that the preliminaries are out of the way, my technique for boosting the effectiveness of the rite is the following.

1. Mix the herbs in equal proportions.  I tend to use a half gram of each herb per bath, but you could do a pendulum divination to determine the proportions of each that are right for your particular situation.
2. Boil some water in a pan on the stove, and then set the pan on a different burner after adding your herbs.  You don't want to boil the herbs, you only want them to steep.  Steep them for at least 13 minutes.  While they steep, verbally tell the "spirits" of the herbs what you want them to do. 
3. Use Google Translate to determine the Hebrew phrase for your intention (such as "clear and balance my navel chakra").  Transfer that phrase in Hebrew to a piece of paper, and cut it out.  It should look kind of like a slip from a fortune cookie.
4. Place the slip of paper with the written Hebrew intention into the water while the herbs steep.  That way the intention is both verbally, and literally, infused into the water, programming it and the herbs with your intention.
5. Take a Sun magick square and cut it out from a piece of paper (MS Word is good for this, or Excel).  You should use whichever magick square corresponds to the chakra that you're targeting, so for the throat chakra you'd use a Mercury square, for the heart chakra a Venus square, etc.  

The Sun square looks like this:

  6.   Draw a sigil on the square of the archangel that rules that planetary influence, using the color of ink that also corresponds.  Since Archangel Raphael is the Divine Healer, you can use his influence for most any of them.  You'd draw his sigil in yellow.  If you're unsure of how to draw a sigil to represent an Archangel, you simply convert his name from Hebrew letters to a numeric form and then trace it.  Archangel Raphael's sigil on the square (which I won't draw here) traces this way: #20 to #8 to #1 to #3.  Those numerals correspond to the numeric values of the letters in his name in the Hebrew language.  There are many resources online where you can find out how to draw angelic sigils if you're unsure, but I personally think it's irresponsible and somewhat disrespectful to him to just willy-nilly have his name all over the place, especially if you aren't calling on his aid at that exact moment.  You can message me and request a Word document that has all of the angelic sigils displayed on it, and I'll be happy to send it to you.

If you are targeting your root chakra, you could also petition the Archangel Samael (or Khamael, if that angel resonates better with your consciousness) for Mars using red ink or better yet, Dragon's Blood ink.  You could draw the sigil for Archangel Tzaphkiel in black ink on a Saturn square.  I think it's a good idea to petition Archangel Raphael primarily, regardless of whomever else you call, because his office is that of a healer.  You could use two prepared squares if you want, so that the Archangels work together, but you will probably want to include Archangel Raphael either way.

7.   Write your prayer on the back of the magick square(s) that you're using, but don't steep the square.  You don't want to "boil" the Archangel's influence, but you do want it in the bath water.  Set the prepared magick square aside for the time being.

8.  After you've run your bath water and the tub is at least ankle deep, strain in the herbs that you've steeped, and then invoke the presence of the Archangel.  Then place the prepared magick square into the water.

9.  Stir the water clockwise with your writing hand (or counterclockwise depending on how you feel about it), while speaking to the water to tell it what you want it to do.  When you can feel the presence of the Archangel(s) you've petitioned, you can stop stirring.  Even if you can't feel their presence, that's OK.  Just stir it until you feel that you can stop.

10.  Invoke the presence of your Goddess.  I invoke Auset (Isis) for this, and inscribe either an ankh (or the symbol for Venus) on two tea lights, and then add a drop of Van Van oil and smear it clockwise around the tea lights while telling them what they're supposed to do.  Place one candle on either side of the tub on the side where you will enter the tub, so that when you enter the bath you're passing between them, sort of like a gateway or doorway.  Light the candles.  I like to say "When I return through this gateway, I will not be the same as when I first went in."

11.  You may want to light some sage incense in the bathroom also, to remove negative influences, but that's up to you.  I also add 13 drops of Van Van oil to the bath, with the intention of boosting the overall effectiveness of the spell, but that's optional.

12.  Aside from that, you'll want to go with the traditional way of doing your bath, reading Psalm 37 (known as the "Uncrossing Psalm"), and then pouring the water over your head and body 13 times, and then scrubbing your body "downward" to remove any negativity.  You can find out the step-by-step "traditional" method of performing a 13-herb bath on sites such as Lucky Mojo with a Google search.  (Gotta love Lucky Mojo!)

13.  After your bath, you can take some of the water to a crossroads that you don't travel to very often or at all, and throw the water over your left shoulder into the center of it.  I like to verbally invoke a god of the crossroads while throwing the water over my shoulder, and prefer to invoke Tahuti (Thoth) (I might say "In the Name of Tahuti, let this spell be completed!"), but whichever god your tradition deems appropriate, or who you have a good relationship with for that is fine.  Don't skip this step; it seals the work.  And if bystanders see you doing all this, so what?  You don't need them, nor should you expect them, to understand what you're doing.  In the big scheme of things, it's perfectly OK if they think you're nuts.  But if you care then it's best to use a crossroads where you aren't likely to run into anyone you know at that time in the morning.  This last step should be done before or near sunrise.  The idea is that the sun's travel across the sky boosts the effectiveness of the spell as the day progresses.  That means you're going to have to know when the sun will rise that morning, and start your bath probably 2-3 hours before that.  The bath can take 90 minutes or more to do.

Finally, just drive away and don't look back, making sure that you take a different route home than the one you took to get there. 


Incidentally, I've had good success with this on or after a full moon, or during a waxing moon cycle near the new moon.  Play around with your timing, and see what works best for you depending on the work.

I imagine you can also use this magick square/Hebrew phrase technique to draw things toward you, during a waxing moon cycle and with different herbs depending on what you're doing.  The only differences in that case, would probably be using a different Psalm (or other sacred written passage), and to scrub upward from feet-to-head to draw it toward you.   If you prefer to use runes, or Latin, or any other magickal language for your slip of paper, that's fine.  You could probably even use a chaos magick styled sigil.  Just use what you're comfortable with.


Keep in mind that when you invoke an Archangel with a magick square for this, with their sigil drawn upon it, and have a sincere heart, they will perform their work perfectly.  That's their office and specialty, and they've been at their work for countless generations.  You have to be OK with the end result of the bath, because the Archangels are going to do exactly what you've asked, especially if it's in your highest and best interest.  For example, if you're trying to quit smoking, and your significant other or roommate smokes (and doesn't want to quit or smoke outside), you may have to deal with that whole situation a bit differently afterward once you lose the desire to smoke.  I know that last part from experience, lol!


Bottom Line: Know what you're asking for, and be OK with the end result.  Better yet know what the end result will be by doing a divination beforehand, and then get ready to see some real Angelic power at work!


That's it!  I hope this technique works well for you if you choose to use it.

My great thanks and honor to Archangel Raphael for what he has done for me while using this technique.

Making Peace with Jesus

"Jesus called and said he wants his religion back" - seen on a bumper sticker

I grew up in a Pentecostal church.  My stepfather was an assistant pastor, and I was involved with the church at a very young age in different capacities.  The church that I went to even had an elementary school that I went to, and later a high school that I graduated from.  We were taught about the Holy Ghost, and the "reception" of the Holy Ghost was something that all of us ascribed to, no matter how young or old.  Once a person had received the infilling of the Holy Ghost (indicated by "speaking in tongues", or glossolalia), he was considered a full member of the church, and received a certain status within it. 

I used to "tarry" almost every Saturday morning with a couple of my mother's friends in the church's prayer room in lieu of watching Saturday morning cartoons, but to no avail.  It took until I was 16 years old although I had been trying to "get the Holy Ghost" off and on since I was around 6-7 years old.

Once I'd received the Holy Ghost, it seemed almost anti-climactic in a way because I had nothing else to strive for afterwards, and also because others who'd had the same experience seemed lacking in something that I felt should be there.  No one could cast out demons, or make water into wine.  There were almost no healings performed, and most of the stuff that was talked about that we'd be able to do once the Holy Ghost had come upon us never happened like it did in the Bible for Jesus or the apostles.  The church ended up being like a fashion show, only they wanted 10% of what you'd earned for attending.


During my childhood, my assistant pastor stepfather was both verbally and physically abusive to me, but not so much to his biological offspring (my brother and sisters).  He would quote scriptures (like the one about the "rod of correction") to me before he would beat me for whatever my "offense of the week" was.  (I was beaten almost every week for something or another - mostly on Wednesdays for some odd reason.)

At some point, I guess I mentally associated all of this unfair treatment with the church itself, and by extension, Jesus.  My mother was mostly silent about the physical abuse although to my knowledge she had never experienced it.   And my father, although I saw him at least twice a month, didn't do much either.  I never had anyone to do much to help me, so I eventually felt as though I wasn't enough of a priority for anyone to care about.

I couldn't figure out why such a loving God (or Jesus, as I knew him to be) would have this asshole working for him in the church while he was doing all this stuff to me.  Why did he have this 135-lb. bully in his pulpit, and why was it allowed to continue for so long?  What had I really done to deserve being treated this way?  I couldn't figure it out, so in my young mind I decided that I was apparently sinful and bad, and that I was being punished for it.

I moved out of my house after a fistfight with my stepfather at the age of 16.  I'd just gotten tired of his abuse and overbearing ways, and I wasn't going to take it anymore, so I had to leave afterwards.  I moved in with my grandmother who lived about a mile away, and rarely if ever visited my old home.  I still went to that church though, because it had been my whole life since I was about 5 years old.


My first job after receiving the Holy Ghost, was as an administrative assistant for our main pastor.  I liked having a job and learning new things.  I liked the status and the perks, especially since I'd grown up poor in a small house with 4 children and one breadwinner.  In my new role, I traveled a lot and met many important people and even a few celebrities.  I rode in a limousine most weeks with my pastor, who had become a surrogate father.  He taught me how to drive a car, how to dress, and how to deal with people on a level that I would never have learned otherwise.  He bought me a car, and even paid for me to go to college.  I loved him like a father, and his wife and kids like family.  It all went well at first.

Until he began to make "passes" at me, that is.

After rebuffing his advances for a while, I grew extremely tired of explaining how I "wasn't like that".  I'd never been approached by a man before, let alone a father figure, so I didn't know exactly what to think.  I still respected and loved him too much to punch him in the mouth (plus he was my freakin' boss) so I did the next best thing - I lost my virginity to an older woman.  That's when all hell broke loose.

My pastor retaliated by calling me up to the pulpit and publicly stripping me of all of my church duties during a church service on a Friday night.  He even told them all what I'd done, and there were at least 500 people in attendance.  The guilt of betraying my beliefs, and the shame it caused were already almost unbearable, but then to lose my job on top of it all was almost like the end of the world for me.  I wasn't even 20 years old yet when this occurred.  I'd given everything I could to my church up until that point.  What would I do now?

How was it wrong for me to do what my body was designed to do with a woman, but not wrong for him to try to do what he wanted to do with me?  He'd even quoted scriptures to me in order to try and convince me that what he wanted me to do was okay with the Lord, but it never seemed to matter that it wasn't okay with me.  He apparently felt as though I owed him for all he'd done for me and given to me, and I couldn't rationalize any of it because up until then, I'd believed he was just doing it out of the "goodness of his heart".  He used to always say "I gave you too much too soon", and I never knew what that meant at the time, but I do now.  At that age, I just wasn't equipped to handle any of it, or the fallout from it, so I left the church and eventually my home town just to get away from it all.


Unbeknownst to me consciously, my pastor's horrific behavior, along with the years I'd lived under my stepfather's abuse, had set the stage for a very long and intensely rebellious period during my adult life.  I'd tried to be as "good" as possible all throughout my life, but hadn't gotten the recognition for it, and was abused by those I trusted the most, most of whom were church people, so I gave up being good and explored my darker side.

Eventually, I developed trust issues, and corresponding relationship problems, along with substance abuse issues, which is typical for victims of long-term abuse.  I also blamed myself for all of it, although now I've learned to place the blame squarely where it belonged in the first place.  I no longer blame my mother for any of it, because she was as much or more of a victim than I was.  She couldn't leave my stepfather, because she couldn't support 4 kids on her own and didn't want us all to grow up in the "projects".  So she had to watch my stepfather abuse me and be the good little Christian pastor's wife that she was expected to be.



As a middle-aged adult, I continued to deal poorly with the issues that plagued my emotional self, and tried to numb the pain that I couldn't yet express, first with alcohol and then drugs.  I never knew why I needed to drink so much, or why I always needed to be high on something.  I never knew why I needed to sleep with every female I could find, whether I actually liked them or not.  Strippers became my drug of choice, along with the actual drugs.  I saw many therapists over the years to deal with the anger, none of whom were of much help, so I eventually gave up on that.


Some years later, near my lowest point in life and while stuck in a jail cell for the umpteenth time, I discovered Hermetic magic as a means for self-analysis and psychotherapy, and began to really dig into my subconscious/unconscious mind to uproot these issues and thereby heal myself.  I wanted to become the person that I would have been if none of these forms of abuse had happened to me.  I wanted to not be damaged.

Magickally speaking, I performed a series of 13-herb baths and prayers to uncross myself from all the muck that I'd accumulated over those years.  Energetically speaking, I had to do a lot of work on my solar plexus chakra.  Psychologically speaking, I learned not to blame myself.  I was a child, in mind as well as body when it all happened, and I realize that now.

I've since made peace with it all, and that's why I can talk and write about it openly now.   Both of these men who had done so much damage to me, and caused me so much hurt as a child are now dead.


But there remained the "Jesus" problem.  I know the church does many good things for people around the world, but it also hides many evil things and conceals many evil people.  I began to hate the church for that, and Jesus right along with it.  I used the internet and social media to verbally assault people's beliefs in the church, and in religion in general.

I'm still anti-religion, but I'm no longer anti-Jesus (or Allah or anybody else).  In order to get to this place, I've done many things, but the most important one was to separate my ideas about Jesus Christ from my impressions of the church itself.  The church is not Jesus, and Jesus is not the church.  I don't even think the church even represents Jesus anymore, like they say they do, because it's become so political that the beauty of his message has been all but lost.


To illustrate my new mindset, I'll include a passage from the 2nd Rosicrucian Manifesto (Confessio Fraternitatis - 1615):

"What think you, loving people, and how seem you affected, seeing that you now understand and know, that we acknowledge ourselves truly and sincerely to profess Christ, condemn the Pope, addict ourselves to the true Philosophy, lead a Christian life, and daily call, entreat and invite many more unto our Fraternity, unto whom the same Light of God likewise appeareth?"

Could this be why the Rosicrucians and others who study the original philosophies of Christ (and other ascended masters) have been persecuted and driven underground by the church?

In my mind, even if Jesus was not a historical figure as many postulate, he is still a vital reservoir of goodness and grace, and more importantly, an example of the fully-realized human, or Adam Qadmon.  If he was actually modeled from historical stories of Appolonius of Tyana as some say, then he couldn't be all bad because Appolonius represents a high standard for any magickal practitioners to strive for.  If Jesus was modeled from stories of Osiris/Horus as others say, then how could he be all bad, especially since Osiris was/is known as a "Savior God"?

If Jesus was actually Master Yeshua as some say, a rebel sage very unlike the mild, mannered figure that we have all been trained to believe he that was, and even if at the Council of Nicaea Jesus'/Yeshua's story was twisted and cobbled together from many older myths, is their version of his message totally wrong?  Of course not.  How could "loving your neighbor as yourself", and the "Golden Rule" be wrong?

"Whom do men say that I am" indeed!

So, here's where I stand on the whole issue presently.  The church is 100% dead wrong for allowing and/or covering up the crimes against children that have occurred within it (and which I witnessed with many of my school classmates, and almost with myself).  The church is 100% dead wrong for imposing it's doctrines and beliefs on others by force or manipulation - as in the Inquisition/Crusades.  The church is 100% dead wrong for the admonitions against paranormal/metaphysical explorations of consciousness.   The church is 100% dead wrong for the restriction of the sexual urge by the use of guilt complexes, because these complexes insidiously attach to and twist (or cross) the root and sacral chakra energies, perverting their natural expression.  And let me be clear: I make absolutely no apologies to anyone offended by this paragraph, or by my accusations because:

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be." - P.C. Hodgell

But even though these things occur, Jesus hasn't done them, most assuredly doesn't condone them, and if church people all actually practiced what his original message entailed, these things would never have happened at all.

Long story short, I don't have a problem with Jesus anymore.  I may not worship Jesus as God like I used to, but I can actually see stepping foot inside of a church now, whereas not too terribly long ago, I would only have shown up for a funeral or possibly a wedding

It took a long time to get to this point.  But I feel much better about it all now than I had in my early adult years.  I no longer have the need to get as drunk or as high as possible, and feel much more centered in my being than I ever thought I could.  I can now also sustain a relationship faithfully, and for years at a time.  That alone is more of a milestone for me than I can say.

What this development or evolution may mean for my future is unknown to me, but at least now I can hear someone mention Jesus' name without a scowl forming on my face.