The Magic of Water

  The highest good is like water. 
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive. 
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land. 
In meditation, go deep in the heart. 
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. 
In speech, be true. 
In ruling, be just. 
In business, be competent. 
In action, watch the timing.

~ Tao Te Ching ~

Does your potion have a base of water?

Most of mine do. Any herbal infusion or decoction is just water, imbued with the juices, fibers and properties of plants. Even tinctures, unless they are 100 percent alcohol (or glycerin), contain a fraction of H2O. Since water lurks thickly in our atmosphere, even supposedly pure solutions likely contain that sneaky "Dihydrogen monoxide" . . . which may not be a bad thing.

When you program a water-based (any, really, but we'll focus on water here) brew with a magic intention, there may be a lot more to the process than meets the unaided eye. Physics suggests that everything is energy, even our thoughts and ideas. Thus, what we imagine, or dwell upon, may influence on our surroundings. Thanks to some interesting studies, we might now have serious evidence to back up our desires and hunches when it comes to the mystical.

Water is deceptively simple-looking. It's a cute little molecule, with two hydrogen atoms hanging on to a single atom of oxygen at an angle of 20 degrees, like mouse ears. Made of the commonest elements, water itself is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget what a miracle it is.

The structure and behavior of water involves not only atomic chemical bonds, but a weaker type of attraction, called a hydrogen bond. These bonds allow water to move and crystallize in the manner it does, at the temperature range it does, because they influence how water molecules move around and grip one another. Hydrogen bonds are thus considered to be critical in the support of life --- or at least, Earth's water-based life as we know it.

I won't go too deeply into the science here, but one of these life-promoting properties of water is its broad liquid temperature range. For comparison, neon, another element, stays liquid for only two degrees; it basically goes straight from "ice" into "steam", so would be unable to harbor oceans of life. Additionally, water's bonding system enables it to be an excellent solvent, breaking down materials, carrying minerals, and other interactions most other compounds would find difficult to impossible.

The only difference between a solid and a liquid is of course heat, which is simply a measurement of how much vibration is in a material. Water molecules are attracted to each other, so when water is cooled so that its vibrations slow, the molecules are able to link electronic "hands" in a spacious crystal lattice, forming ice. This open crystal structure, versus the more compact nature of jumbled molecules in liquid water, causes ice to float, which is a third aspect of water's ability to support life.

One thing I'll point out, here: Forget about eight-sided snowflakes! Thanks to the molecule's mouse-eared shape, with that 120-degree angle, water thinks in six. This produces the classic, geometric crystals like the one above. Eight-pointed snowflakes do exist, but as aberrations based on the geometry of six --- see below for more.

Water is an abundant, essential, and often (to us) beautiful element of the world we live in. It also makes up sixty to eighty percent of our bodies. It stands to reason, then, that the vibrations and forces that influence water, such as the tides of sun, moon and planets, also exert an influence on us.

Despite knowing that all heat is vibration, we also know not all vibrations are the same. Anybody who is sensitive enough can tell that heating a cup of water on a stovetop and heating it in a microwave yield superficially comparable results, but the quality isn't the same: Both may end up 180 degrees, yet I find the microwaved cup cools quicker, and also feels and tastes . . . different. My mom could sense it, too.

Our scientific understanding is just beginning to scratch the more subtle interactions of materials in the Universe. By now, we're pretty sure certain vibrations persist in materials that permit a resonance to occur, as in a tuning fork. But our ability to measure such behavior only goes so far, and measuring accurately with repeatable results is crucial to proper science.

Such is the case with the more subtle vibrations that are carried in a material like water. The questions, and implications, are huge: If water can store vibrations from forces as subtle as sound, nearby electric fields, or thoughts, then how much do these forces influence our well-being because so much of our bodies and environment is made of water, and in what ways does that effect show up?

One who set out to answer questions like these was Dr. Masaru Emoto. I heard of his work over a decade ago, via a movie, and while I didn't like the movie, I was captivated by the possible implications of Dr. Emoto's findings.

Dr. Emoto carried out a series of experiments on water, during which he, with the help of sometimes hundreds of volunteers, infused quantities of water with different "vibrations". These included thoughts and intentions, both positive and negative, and different types of music.

Sometimes these intentions were delivered via prayer, other times by labeling the water. The water was then cooled until it froze, and the shapes of the crystals observed.

Still other samples were taken of either clean or polluted water sources, and noting the crystal formation prior to and after applying tone or intent. Many of the results were striking, and even quite sublime.

Since I am a science major myself (double major, nearly, if you count five-plus years with all the extra physics and so on), I have a reasonable sense of where the line lies between testable hypotheses and proven results by experimentation, and straight-sideways woo woo. However, quantum physics, with its ideas of subatomic particles and String Theory, is doing its best to blur those lines. For many eras, mystics and shamans have proclaimed that "we're all one," while our modern science is finally on the verge of arriving at the same conclusion.

Yet the balancing act is a delicate one. Science, I've learned, is at the mercy of the same two forces that govern human nature that I recently explored in my pendulum blog post --- the Expansive, and the Contractive. Love, peace, openness, and "Big Self" thinking expand. Fear, preservation, and "small self" or ego-thinking contract. Scientists fall prey to ego-thinking as easily as anyone, and more readily than many! When they do, Science itself becomes ineffectively stagnant --- or worse, regressive, even degeneratively destructive (and the science in question need not be mad). Whereas, in my understanding, truly genuine and progressive science all but mandates a certain openness of mind.

Critics were quick to pounce on Emoto's work, whether out of self-preservation for their own studies, fear of the staggering implications, or simply because it's their job. Likewise, both scientists and anti-religious interests derided his theory that prayer and its effects had any place in legitimate experimental considerations.

My own scientifically-trained mind can run through a series of legitimate points to make in criticism:
  Can you replicate these results? Were crystals consistent in their formation (or deformation), and if not, how did you select them for example and display? If a crystal is "beautiful" or "ugly", what are the criterion for labeling it thus? If an irregular crystal seems to correspond to a chaotic or negative energy, and a "pure" or blessed vibration a regular crystal, is this always the case?
. . . and so on.

Others found they were unable to replicate exactly the methods and results Emoto used. (I think it'd be fun to try.) Therefore, this group of experiments straddles the boundary between science and metascience, between condensed fact and flung-wide speculation. Faith in the validity of Emoto's work, and of quantum nature in general, requires an almost Lovegood-esque way of thinking about the world. Instead of a doubtful, "Can you prove that it is so?", our mantra becomes, "Prove to me that it is not!" For until an idea is disproven, that possibility remains. Until Emoto's theory is fully and incontrovertibly debunked, we must not rule out the delicious, mysterious, lurking chance that our thoughts, intentions, and overall vibrations as entities really do have an effect on, not just our bodies or families or cups of coffee, but the globe . . . and even the Universe itself.

As I see it, the significance of Emoto's work, and of quantum study in general, for the practice of magic and the making of potions is notable. While the pharmaceutical industry would have us believe that subtle, energy-based methods of healing are ineffective, Asian medicine begs to differ, as do many people who use such healing methods. We also see that Bach flower essences, homeopathy and gemstone essences already rely on the ability of water to carry vibration. We've discovered, sometimes at the cost of the health and sanity of whales and other beings, how far sound can travel in water. Finally, we see how a person's state of mind --- the health, so to speak, of their very thoughts --- can lift them from the brink of a terminal illness, or cause them to sicken and perish in a matter of days, depending.

Another way to view it is thus:
  Take a drop of your blood. That one drop contains --- give or take a couple --- 250 million red blood cells. Blood is also 98% water. The number of water molecules, far tinier than cells, in that drop will be greater by magnitudes. Now take, not a drop, but a gallon. A human-sized vessel, an ocean-sized vessel. With water being so responsive to sound and electric impulses, that is a lot of wiggle room for at least a fraction of those vastly many molecules to organize themselves.

Nor must we forget the experiments of Nikola Tesla (another fantastically powerful, and meta-inclined, scientific mind, who I got acquainted with during that same period of burgeonimg spiritual growth). He stuck a tiny resonator on the side of a building, then tuned it until he discovered the correct resonant frequency of the structure. Like in a tuning fork or wineglass, the resonance built up, and nearly brought the building down! Workers clung, terrified, to the swaying structure. With this same principle, Tesla dreamed of sending electricity to every part of the world, via resonance frequencies (I personally would aim for a frequency mosy harmless to biology, unlike 120 Hz!). But his dreams were thwarted by the powerful interests who were funding him: In their words, there was "nowhere to put the meter." (Big Money doesn't like giving out freebies.) Satisfied, Tesla retrieved his resonator and quietly scuttled from the site.

I will point out one thing, here. The shadow side of this mode of operating is the idea that it solves all problems, and that we are instantly sanctified by adopting it. When a genuine tragedy occurs, it is all too easy --- and self-gratifying --- to offer "thoughts and prayers", when what is needed is action. Government is especially prone to this shirking of responsibility. In times of emergency and immediacy, we must not rely on a gradual, faith-driven paradigm shift alone, for it may cause our help to arrive too late.

But perhaps it's not far-fetched to assert that a simple mental Thank You, repeated throughout the day, would have a cumulative effect on your mind and body a lot greater than one little snowflake. While I don't know the average resonating time for a water molecule to carry a frequency, tuning-fork style, will I rule out the possibility of their impact in such huge, coordinated numbers?
  Not at all. I would be a fool to do so.

Likewise, we would be dunderheaded indeed to ignore our potential to alter the vibration of the world, especially in a collective sense, with our thinking and intentions. Magic, after all, is about manifesting on the material level what originated on the energetic level.

Perhaps, then, that is our great task: to become aware of that power, at every moment, and to engage it with intention and grace.

Small order, I know.

A couple days after beginning this article, I mentioned my potion hobby to a woman I know who works at Trader Joes, regarding a drink they were discontinuing.
 "What do you mean by potions?"
I told her about intention, and how and why it makes any drink a 'potion'. She asked if I'd seen that movie.
 "I didn't really like it, but have you heard of Masaru Emoto and the studies with water?"
 "I didn't like the movie either, but I loved that sequence!" she told me happily.
  This isn't exactly a subject that comes up every day in my grocery store conversations, mind you. Especially not as a result of a throw-out-there topic like potions. (I mention that, I'm more likely to get stupid Harry Potter jokes.) When several similar things happen close together, uncannily as though somehow connected, we mystics don't call it coincidence, but synchronicity.
  The phenomenon of synchronicity --- a term coined by Carl Jung --- is on the same sort of level as this vibrational stuff: Not fully explainable by science, but mysteriously, undeniably there. At work, like the quantum forces, in the oft-unseen fabric that weaves our lives.

Technique: Making Gem Elixirs

While I'm on the topic of subtle energies, I feel it's a good time to discuss a useful art that can be used alone, or as a compliment or initial stage to more intricate formulae.

In addition to placing gems and crystals in a brew whole, for the purpose of charging, or adding to the mixture in powdered form, you can also make a gem elixir or crystal essence. These potions have more in common with other vibrational medicines like Bach Flower Essences or homeopathy than herbal tea, and impart their energies on a very subtle level. The following is gathered from online.

"Gem elixirs, also called crystal essences or crystal waters, have been used by many throughout the ages. They are a convenient way to use the vibrational energies of the crystals for crystal healing, magick, and more. They are easy to make and can be stored for later use.

You can use either one crystal or several different types to make a gem elixir. Using multiple crystals creates a synergy blend, which is useful for bringing together the vibrations of several stones as more than the sum of the parts, so to speak.

I recommend creating gem elixirs using what is called the indirect method, and I outline it below. This method is the safest for all crystal types, because the elixir waters do not come in direct contact with the stones used.

The direct method — where the stones are placed directly in the water — can be potentially dangerous if the stones used have components that may be toxic. Personally, I prefer to avoid creating potential health issues by using only the indirect method, as it seems contrary to the point of bringing in beneficial energies.

To prepare, you will need:

• The crystal(s) whose energies you want to imbue the elixir with
• Optionally, additional crystals of the same type(s( or quartz crystals to assist with charging the elixir
• Two clean glass or food-safe glazed ceramic containers that fit one inside the other with some room between the smaller container and the larger one (A glass bowl and a smaller sealable glass bottle or jar that will hold the crystals work well.)
• Two clean, dark colored glass bottles, dark blue or brown work well. one larger and one smaller for the finished crystal essence
• A clean glass dropper – Either to fit the smaller bottle, or it can be separate.)
Spring water or distilled water. Some prefer rain water they have collected.
• Vodka (80 proof or higher) or vinegar (any variety) as a preservative and to “fix” the crystal vibrations
• A calm, centered state of mind
Sunlight, moonlight or a dedicated sacred space – This may be outdoors or in a window that gets sun or moon light, or it may be on your personal altar or other sacred space.

To make the elixir:

• Clear the crystals you will be using. You may also charge them if you wish.
• Take your prepared crystals and other items to the place you will make the elixir.
• Center yourself and clear your mind of concerns as much as possible. Prayer, breath techniques or meditation can help with this.
• State your intent for the elixir out loud. Ask the Divine and the crystals themselves for assistance with making this elixir for the highest good of all concerned.

• Place the larger container you will be using to charge the water with the crystal energy where you will be creating the gem elixir.
• Place the crystal(s) in the smaller glass container. Seal it if possible. (Alternately, the larger container can hold the crystals and the smaller container the elixir — just reverse the instructions about the containers below if you wish to do it that way.)
• Place the smaller container in the larger container. Be sure the smaller container is stable and will not fall over.

• Carefully pour as much water into the larger container s you can without allowing any of the water to get into the smaller container.
• Optional: Arrange the additional crystals or quartz crystals around the outside of the container, pointing in toward the container.
State your intent and ask for divine guidance and crystal assistance again, for the highest good of all concerned.
• Leave the containers in the sunlight, moonlight or sacred space for four or more hours.

• Afterward, remove the inner container and carefully pour the charged water from the larger container, called stock or mother essence of the gem elixir, into the larger of your bottles, filling it halfway.
• Fill the bottle the rest of the way with the vodka or vinegar for preservative and seal it.
• Add a small portion of the preserved mother essence gem elixir to the smaller bottle for immediate use. You can use using  spring or distilled water if desired to dilute it or you may use it straight.

• Thank the Divine and the crystal(s) for helping create this elixir.
• Clean everything used and store safely for future use. You may dispose of the water the crystals were in using any safe method.

 Crystal waters can be made the same way: for immediate use only, with only one bottle for storage, and do not add the preservative. These crystal essences can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator in a sealed container, but should be used quickly.  You may also charge the waters with Reiki or Seichim energy for healing, if you wish.

Soft stones (Calcite, Halite, and Selenite are examples) should not be placed in water, as they may dissolve or “melt”. Anything with a Mohs hardness of 4 is likely to dissolve. You can check regarding the hardness of the stones you wish to use by looking them up at mindat.org or gemdat.org. For softer stones, rather than using water to hold them, you may tape them to the container where the stock or mother water is being made, or you may put them inside a bowl or container the mother water container is put in."

Other methods for making crystal essences, of course, do call for the stone to be fully immersed in purified or intention-blessed water. The stones I used in my Fresh Start Brew on Jan. 3rd were all stones I knew to be able to withstand immersion in water with no ill effects or dissolution.

Once complete, gem elixirs can be taken alone as spiritual and emotional healing remedies, as with flower essences, or added to potions alongside other ingredients. A typical formula for subtle healing can include herbal tinctures, flower essences, and gem elixirs all in balance together.

Further enhancement of the brew is possible if you create it during certain planetary aspects and phases of the moon. Also, as an alternative to charging the elixir in sunlight, a gem essence can be made by placing it in the light of the moon itself, preferably full. Solar and lunar waters take on further vibrations with the addition of crystals and minerals.

With recent celestial and earthly events, I could even see potential in employing the light of a lunar or solar eclipse! (Last summer on Aug. 21, I even made solar eclipse water, using a couple quartz crystals to boost the energy level.)

This is definitely an area I'd like to explore. Most likely I'll combine my work with the pendulum, since I'm quite a "grounded" person who has trouble at times sensing subtle energies without aid.

The Pendulum as Potent Tool

"You're trying to tell me a stinking rock hanging on a chain tells you all that? Look, just leave me alone, will you? Think you're so smart, with your freaky wizard toys . . ."
-- Damian, to Isaac

  I can't help but wonder how much trouble Ron, Harry, and even Snape could have avoided if they'd just had use of a tool as basic as a pendulum. It's not about telling the future, as in the hazy art of divination; it's about homing in on energies here and now, to which you otherwise would not be sensitive. Especially if you're acting like a damn monkey waving an exploding stick.
  (I'm actually really glad I didn't go to Hogwarts. How did those idiotic little buggers ever learn anything? And with no Latin class or Ethics class?! Please. Not to mention the overly meaty food, bullies in every hallway, and let's not forget the really nasty chemistry teacher you're torn between hating with every fiber of your being and wanting to, well, f----.)
  Ron: "Should I drink this?" (Pendulum: "No, you complete dolt.")

  I've known how to divine with a pendulum for probably six or seven years. Since the old apartment, when a friendly black girl showed me how. I haven't nearly explored it to its potential, and mostly used it for such mundane questions as, "Will this food make me sick? How safe is it?" I picked up "Yes" and "No" quickly, followed by "Maybe", and have since worked out movements for "More", "Less", and percentages. I recorded my earliest experiments in Potus, fortunately. But there's still so much more to learn!

  The resurgence of magickal inclination sparked by life in the 19th Street house also spurred a bit of advanced pendulum research, via the Internet, beginning December 2nd. (Another backlog entry!)
  This research kind of exploded in my mind. More than anything else recently, it reminded me of the Physics truth that everything is energy. Literally everything has a vibration, from the hum of a tuning fork or the rumble of elephants and volcanoes, to the 750Hz of UV radiation or the B-flat of frigid outer space. So, then, do our bodies. So do different foods, types and purities of water, and even thoughts.

  Mathematicians often like numbers because of the way they can be used to describe the quantity, movement and nature of just about everything. Despite the complexity of the Universe, there's a purity and simplicity to numbers, which allows a person to wrap their mind around their world, to measure it --- and, dare I say, to better appreciate its beauty.

  Numbers can also, of course, be used in comparison and to measure progress. To measure change. Science itself relies heavily on the ability to do this. It is our urge, as cerebral, analytical and self-reflective creatures with more than a mere amygdala (reptile brain etc.), to try to describe ourselves and the Universe.

So: What if everything could be described in, and compared with, numbers? Specifically, numbers correlating to the same quality . . . like, for instance, frequency? Physics suggests that this is indeed possible. Thanks to the Internet, I discovered lists of frequencies, emotional states, and techniques on how to determine the frequency of nearly anything using a pendulum. It's amazing!

  To me, the most exciting prospect of this is measuring self-progress, states of being in myself and others, and various energies around me. If a person is seeking to "raise their energy", improve their mindset or spiritual vibration, then intuition and gut sensations are all very well. Trouble is, a path like this can easily wander into the realms of woo-woo, where your head gets stuck in the clouds of theory (or, sometimes even more dangerously, the "focus on the light" mentality, with its risk of blindness, arrogance and denial), and means of self-analysis and accurate measurement of mental and spiritual progress shift like the clouds themselves.

  What if you had a concrete number for any given state, a way to test your energy field in the moment? With a system that tests out time and again, you no longer have to feel your way forward in the dark. Well, technically you do --- that's why the ultimate goal is called "enlightenment", perhaps --- but the Dark is no longer an enemy or shapeless void, merely a strange territory with little handholds to grip along the way.

  The more I read, the more incredible it sounded. I already knew logically that slower, heavier energies tend to contract, manifest on the material plane, and bind physical matter to the material plane. Whereas, higher-frequency energies tend to expand, liberate, "vaporizing" something (or someone!) into a less dense state, like ice into water and then steam. I knew that thoughts and emotional states, like the energy of sound or light waves, had vibration.
  But this was the first time I'd ever seen them listed in order of density. Others before me had found that slower vibrations of thought and emotion made a person "heavy", more stuck, binding them body, mind and soul to material form. Progressively higher-frequency states of soul, this suggests, make the spirit so "light" that it has no need, desire, or ability to remain on Earth in a material form: The concept of "Dissolve into love and light" becomes their reality.

  Hence, the stories of certain enlightened Masters and monks simply disapparating upon their death, dissolving into pure energy, leaving no or very little bodily remains behind. Yet perhaps this amazing phenomenon isn't yet the end of spiritual progress. Perhaps there are further levels of enlightenment and learning beyond, on etheric planes of existence!

  Back here on Earth, the idea that I could test anything, from food and drink to objects in my house and even thoughts, and see how they either raised or lowered my energy was --- and is --- very exciting to me. I had one pendulum already, years old, with a very long chain I decided to leave thus in case certain energies could be detected easier with a longer chain, and I also finally fitted out a wire-wrapped amethyst I'd owned for years with its own chain, replacing its original string (I love the energy of this particular crystal).

  I still have a lot of work to do yet. One distinct risk of using pendulum techniques to measure mental or spiritual progress is what I'd call the "Weight Watchers" phenomenon, where you get obsessed over vibe-testing each little thing, or monitoring your enlightenment level every five minutes. I don't need to use my pendulum once to know that this is how games, spiritual paths and other exploratory activities become a trap: The focus goes from fun and curiosity, to fear --- and fear is one of the dense energy states you're trying to release! Worse, it gets awkward, since there you are attracting stares on the street by dangling a crystal in front of you all day.

  A better use of the technique in my opinion is to, say, test your energy state before and after meditation or prayer, so as to positively affirm your life changes and goals. Negative thoughts are a trap, so can you use the pendulum to "catch" yourself during a brooding, grumpy moment, thus catching your mind in the act of dragging your vibration down and reroute it, sort of like biofeedback? Then there's your surroundings: I tend to hold onto stuff, so maybe I could test the vibration of an object (and/or my own response to it), and if it has a particularly low vibratory number, let it go.

  There's also a reluctance, I've found, to finding your number. It's like when you step on a scale (What the heck? I'm not fat, but I've gained 14 lbs. since college?!), except in reverse, where the goal is a high number. I'm not perfect. I think icky thoughts. I hate on people who left me with loads of emotional stress and shame in the past, through which I'm still working. All that will bring me down. The trick is knowing I'm not stuck there, that it's a temporary state, and I can learn from it. It's not a matter of forcing, it seems, but more a matter of letting: Letting yourself play, letting yourself love, letting go.
  Not long ago, I tested my number, and got something like 560. Well, not bad! I'm not Buddha, but I'm not a total hating grinch or recovering Fundaholic, either. Most likely, I'm where a lot of other folks are.

  Besides the many variations of emotional states, pendulums can also be used to determine the health or energy level of various organs, and also of the body's main energy gates or chakras. Each chakra influences its own set of emotions, body parts, needs, and states of being, and a person displays different characteristics and/or feels certain things depending on which chakras are well balanced or poorly functioning.

  Again, I have a lot more work to do here. Ideally, this type of work is best made a daily or at least weekly practice in order to reach mastery. (If I could, see, I simply wouldn't work. I'd just study esoterica, brew potions, make art and write all the time. Until then, the next best thing is being able to study and blog while at work, which I'm in fact doing.)

  One of my most stunning revelations, and certainly feelings of validation, came when I was perusing my new book on Alchemy and Mysticism, from the Paxton Gate store. It described one idea harkening back to at least the 1600s, which imagines the whole Universe as a vibrating instrument full of different frequencies --- a metaphor known as the "Music of the Spheres". These many frequencies, and how they interact, are literally what cause us and our world to manifest as it does, in various forms.

  So too does the harmonic dance cause one form to continually change into the next. The set of frequencies that brought me into existence bodily, for example, may fade in resonance eventually, so that my body "vibrates apart", collapsing from harmony into dissonance, and can no longer sustain itself as a housing for my soul; yet not only will my body become something else, but I have no reason to doubt that my soul will take its vibration off to parts unknown and assume a new form, too. Either way, it merits far less fear than the hyper-religious view of heaven and hell and a great punisher --- and won't we all Get There quicker with less fear!
  "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." (Dumbledore)

  What amazed me the most was how this early model contained a very similar concept of two frequency dynamics, as compared to the modern charts I found: an upward-pulling, elevating, or enlightening set of frequencies, and a downward-pulling, grounding, or manifesting set of frequencies. Once initiated, the upper, lighter harmonics tend to keep expanding, while the lower, denser ones tend to keep contracting, in progressive upward or downward spirals.
  Another big surprise of the Scale of Consciousness was that fear is not at the bottom, not the densest frequency there is; it's actually midway down the contractive levels. No, that dubious honor goes to shame. (Also a surprise, love as we humans know it is not at the top!)

  Finally, I've learned that use of a pendulum only clarifies, to the number or percentage, what I already feel. When I run into cheesy marketing copy, a sales ad, a snarky meme, or a dark-humor cartoon, I can feel my vibration lower. I feel the density contract, like a gathering darkness of matter. Ads, and money devices, are based on dense frequencies --- geared at survival, folks. If you're both media-literate and weighing pennies in your pocket, like me, you'll taste the dense pinch of a sales ploy right away. (Why do you think Internet marketers actually call a time-sensitive sales site a squeeze page? ...!)
  One exception I can think of would be where you love what you're doing so much, you aren't thinking about money much at all . . . and as a result of this inate love and abundance, the money comes to you. I think that would be the best course of action of all.

  There is, of course, a neutral point in between. And here lies the great mystery and secret of life on earth in a material body: Balance. If you wish to survive physically, and use this lifetime for doing works on earth, a certain amount of dense frequencies like fear, courage, and even shame may be necessary, mostly to deal with proximity to other people in a social context. At the very least to keep a roof over your head, and buy food and toilet paper. But to let yourself contract into a dense lump makes it harder to release into lighter, more peaceful planes of being, once you've decided --- in a hundred lifetimes or so --- you've done enough in the way of earthly pursuits, and wish to move on (and up). The best plan I can think of is to slowly but steadily move up and up, over the course of life/lives, until I reach a point of, "Okay, I'm ready . . . next!"

  But, to come back to earth:
  This Music of the Spheres stuff is amazing, but how do we conect to this vast Universal picture on a daily basis? How can we use a pendulum for that?
  Life is all the little things we do on this plane, which add up to our current equation. It's the food and drink, the crafts and exercise, the meditation and Tarot and crystals.
  And potions.
  I can think of so many ways I might use a pendulum to create potions that keep my vibration in balance. Am I too spaced-out, unable to focus on work? A grounding Saturn brew, heavy on the practical, productive energy of Capricorn, might help. If I feel burdened with past grudges, worries or regrets, I'd aim more at a formula that lifts me up, into joy and peace. This could be done ingredient by ingredient, via questions like:

• Is my frequency -------- i.e. 400 at the moment? More or less? Is it 450? etc.
• What is the frequency of this potion? Of this recipe?
• Will imbibing this potion raise my energy? Lower it? How much?
• Is this substance what I need right now? Is it helpful to balance me right now?
• How much of this ingredient should I use in this brew to achieve the intent, or balance, that I seek? One teaspoon? More? Less?
• My heart chakra needs a boost. Will this potion help? How much should I take? More, less? Will this ingredient raise and balance the frequency? etc.
  . . . .and so on.

  It's quickly apparent that the possibilities here are pretty much endless. This craft could be honed, and honed some more. I think most importantly, if the attitude toward it remains one of openness and joy (see that high vibration!), then the use of a pendulum --- and Potistry, too --- comes closer than ever to a spiritual practice. A complete art of healing, for body, mind and soul.
  Or, if you want to go the other way, for hexing.
  I'm not sure you'd find this type of subtlety in Advanced Potion Making, either --- sorry, kids. This is more like Graduate Dynamic Formulating 302.

  I can't help but notice that the little world in which Professor Snape lives is fairly dense. All those petty emotions flying about, competition and fear, family pride and far worse. Yuck. I remember reading those first books long ago and thinking, Geez, what's wrong with these people? They're all so mean. And so damn impatient, and stupid, I wouldn't hold out for many to learn self-analysis with a pendulum! (Perhaps Luna could get it.)

  Out of all the spirits running around in that big castle, I have no doubt Snape's is the densest, most contracted of all. Severus is so weighed down by anger and guilt, and above all, shame, I'm surprised he's not pressed face-flat on the floor, like a snake. And there's another dense frequency, too: pride --- so much pride that he can't stand pity, and would totally slam me for saying this, but . . . poor Severus!
  No potion of enlightenment in the world would free his soul in one dose. Except, perhaps, one:
  "The only thing stronger than shame is grace."
  However, if you want to wager on survival? I'll take that bet. No one else in that world handled the crushing density of pure evil, serving to destroy it without being consumed by it, for as long as Severus did; and while it finally took his body, love kept his soul intact --- suffering, but intact. The greatest lesson of that entire series is the integrity of the soul, beyond material death. Don't trade it in, don't break it apart
. . . don't fuck it up.

A note here on pendulum charts:
  These grids and wheels abound on the Internet. I have little experience with them, so this is yet another thing to play with. I'm a bit dubious, since my "Yes" and "No" are consistently contrary to some charts; I'm more inclined to develop my own chart based on my body's own interactions with the pendulum, even for letters and percentages. But I'll try anything once, too, so we shall see.