Lux Lucis Quod Umbra

There’s a great post over on Jason Miller’s Take Back Your Mind blog about meditation. I’ve actually been struggling to maintain a basic daily meditation practice, so it’s very appropriate to what I’ve been dealing with. I basically haven’t been at it long and literally just catch mental distractions and try to return to my focus. Continuously. As in that’s ALL I DO. It was good to read that this is completely normal and is one of the points of the practice. On an intellectual level I already knew this, but it’s always nice to see somebody else with more experience confirm it.

Take Back Your Mind: You Cannot Suck At Meditation

I now have all of the plants I wanted to get growing this summer for my Solomonic garden planted. I grabbed an Italian Sweet Basil plant from my local grocery store, so I now have all the herbs for an Aspergillum growing, as well as two Hazel saplings that will become the shaft of the Aspergillum and a wand, and an Almond sapling that will also become a wand. I’m hoping the saplings will be large enough to harvest by the end of the summer.

I’ve almost got everything I wanted to get planted growing now. Two Hazel trees, one to become a wand and one an aspergillum, check. One Almond tree to become a wand ala Abarmelin, check. Vervain, Fennel, Lavender, Sage, Valerian, Oregano, and Rosemary: check, check, check, check, check, check, and check. The only thing I still need to track down is Basil. We’ve got some Thai Basil, but I think something along the lines of Italian Sweet Basil would be more appropriate.

In addition as part of our normal plants in flower beds / around the house we have Periwinkle, St. John’s Wart, and Violets (the last were an unexpected bonus, as we had some growing in pots last year but the seeds must have blown around as we have a bunch of them coming up in various places on their own).

I’ll probably go out and spend an hour or so this evening weeding and mulching as we still have a lot to get done.

It’s official, the second edition of Howlings is now available for order. More information here:

Scarlet Imprint: Howlings now available

Hopefully my copy will show up in the next week or so, as I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Just a note that Scarlet Imprint is putting out a second edition of Howlings, a collection of essays on working with the grimoires. I missed the first edition and am looking forward to getting a copy of the second edition to read. It’s worth noting that if you subscribe to their mailing list you can pre-order a copy now as opposed to waiting for the actual release. More information on the volume can be found here:

Scarlet Imprint: Howlings Reborn

I finished making two Alkaid talismans a short bit ago using the previously posted elections. One talisman is for home and the other is a portable version that will fit easily in a pocket but still contains all the ingredients from The Book of Hermes on the 15 Fixed Stars. Given that I still feel like crap I think everything went well. I just refused to miss this election due to illness.

I’ll post more details when I’m feeling a bit better. Apparently the new rule for doctors is if you haven’t been sick for AT LEAST 7 days they don’t give you antibiotics. Even when you have 4 other people in your family with identical symptomology that have all gotten better immediately after being give a course of antibiotics at stages ranging from day 4 to day 10. And they say magicians aren’t logical…

The good news is my Hazel trees arrived today and are planted in a temporary pot until I can get two larger containers for them.

The bad news is I’m fighting a sinus infection and feel like crap, so the candle consecration work I had planned for this afternoon is not going to happen. I need to kick this thing soon as I’ve also got prep work I want to do for the upcoming Alkaid election. I’m headed to the doctor this afternoon to hopefully get some of that potent magic, antibiotics

Yes I know I’m a mage, healing ritual etc etc, unfortunately I’ve learned the hard way in the past working magic while sick is generally a BAD idea.

I’ve started and am making good progress with a Solomonic herb garden (ok, so it’s more like a Solomonic collection of planter boxes, but there ARE live plants growing ;)). I’m basically planting and growing the 8 herbs needed for the Solomonic Aspergillum. These herbs are Vervain, Fennel, Lavender, Sage, Valerian, Oregano, Basil, and Rosemary. I’ve got everything planted except for Vervain, Valerian, and Basil. I’ve ordered live Vervain and Valerian plants and am still looking for a european indigenous variety of Basil locally.

If you’re wondering where I got the herb list, it’s from The Key of Solomon, Book 2 Chapter XI: Of the Water and of the Hyssop. The version at Twilit Grotto is particularly useful as it provides notes on the manuscripts Mathers used to derive his version. This provides some valuable insights, such as that what is commonly put forth as mint is actually Mint Majorum. A little research shows that Mint Majorum is Oregano, not a variety of mint. I’ve also included Rosemary and excluded Hyssop from the Mathers list as current scholarship suggests that biblical Hyssop was in fact Rosemary.

I’ve also ordered two European Hazelnut trees and an Almond tree. The Hazelnut trees will be cut when they’re an appropriate size for the shaft of the aspergillum and the Solomonic wand. The Almond tree will be used for a wand ala Abramelin. While I have no intention of performing Abramelin in the immediate future, I figure I’d cover that base as well while I’m growing and harvesting plants.

The European Hazelnut trees were ordered from the Sandusky Valley Plant Nursery while the Almond tree is coming from the Autumn Ridge Nursery. I’ll post when the trees arrive, as well as tracking how well they grow for those that might be looking for a source of these.

This election is from Christopher Warnock’s Spiritus Mundi Yahoo Group. The timing has been adjusted for my location.

The election if for Pittsburgh PA on Sunday May 31st, 2009 from 2:22PM - 2:32PM EDT. This election is also a bit interesting as while the Moon is separating from the Ascendant as it has already risen, it is applying to the conjunction of Alkeid and the Ascendant. Chris Warnock has a blog post about how this works here: Primary versus Zodiacal Motion: An Example

“Under the tail of Ursa Major they made the image of a pensive Man, or of a Bull, or the Figure of a Calf; it availeth against incantations, and maketh him who carrieth it secure in his travels”
- Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy Bk. II, Chapter 47

“One part succory with artemisia and periwinkle flowers placed as aforesaid is strong against incantations and against assassins and gives security from them, and if with this is placed the tooth of a wolf it protects also from robbers and thieves.”
- The Book of Hermes on the 15 Fixed Stars

I’ll be doing a simple wooden box for my talisman. The box will contain a magnet with the symbol of Alkaid engraved on it, succory, artemisia, periwinkle flowers, and a wolf tooth. The ingredients require a bit of thought to decode, as some of the names aren’t straight forward. Succory is another name for Chickory. Artemisia refers to either Mandrake or Wormwood, but since Mandrake is referred to elsewhere in The Book of Hermes on the 15 Fixed Stars by name, I’m going with Wormwood.

Since the appropriate conditions are present today I thought I’d talk about consecrating candles. I consecrate all candles I use in ritual, including those used for offerings and talisman charging rituals. The ritual I use is derived from the Key of Solomon, Chapter XII: OF THE LIGHT, AND OF THE FIRE which specifies the preparation and blessing of the candle for use in the lantern.

This is a general-purpose purification. Additional rituals may be used to dedicate a candle to a specific purpose. To use the Spica offering I’ve been talking about as an example, those candles would be anointed with Sage essential oil and dedicated with a brief prayer during the anointing to dedicate them as an offering to Spica. This could be part of the offering ritual, or done in preparation beforehand. I tend to do the anointing and setting up of the candles before the actual offering ritual.

The consecration should be done in the day and hour of Mercury when the Moon is waxing.

Recite the following psalms over the candles:

Psalm 150
Psalm 103
Psalm 117

Then recite the following over the candles:

O Lord God, who governest all things by thine almighty power, give unto me, a poor sinner, understanding and knowledge to do only that which is agreeable unto thee; grant unto me to fear, adore, love, praise, and give thanks unto thee with true and sincere faith and perfect charity. Grant, O Lord, before I die, and descend into the realms beneath, and before the fiery flame shall devour me, that thy grace may not leave me, O Lord of my soul. Amen.

I exorcise thee, O creature of wax, by him who alone hath created all things by his Word, and by the virtue of him who is pure truth, that thou cast out from thee every phantasm, perversion, and deceit of the enemy, and may the virtue and power of God enter into thee, so that thou mayest give us light, and chase far from us all fear or terror.

Then sprinkle them with the blessed water and fumigate them with incense.

This consecration is saved as a page here: Candle Consecration