Behold the Way

Class in Session: Road Opener, continued

My preparation of my magickal oil goes on, as does my research into the craft of Road Opening! Best way to learn potioncraft, and everything else, is hands-on!

Making a new recipe, a completely custom potion, is one thing: The field is wide open, and freedom reigns. But when adapting an old or existing recipe, there is the urge to conpare our product to others, to hedge for maximum effectiveness and "authenticity". Even, and perhaps especially, in magick, which is technically powered by intent, but which has so much inherent mystique and where the results may not be scientifically provable or even visible.

Naturally, I'm constantly asking myself: "Did I do this right? Am I close enough to the real hoodoo/Gypsy/alchemical/Druidic etc., etc. recipe? What can I put in this to make it more potent? What am I missing, if anything?" I have to remind myself to relax: If the faith and magick are there, they're there!

Gearing up: Abre Camino herbs and additional stuff

Late on the night of the 17th, I added some more stuff. I put in a lodestone, my extra oils from the store, and some of my own blood essence since, conveniently, I'd just gotten my moon and wanted to personalize the oil. I put in a few drops of the Road Opener oil I bought, to further "authenticate" my own oil, while thinking: "Hmm, mine smells different. This other oil smells like pure magic temple and hoodoo. What am I missing? More sandalwood. More vanilla."

But perhaps most importantly, I put in a bit of each of the sacred leaves and herbs from the Abre Camino bath mixture I bought. That certainly seems as genuine as I can get right now. I needn't a lot --- just a sample of each, to get the essence in the oil. I enchanted the pieces and put them in, then stirred.

In summary:

Besides base oil, Tangerine, Lemongrass and Camphor essential oils, a couple of added ingredients:
• A few grains of Instant Bliss (condensed cotton candy)
• My own menses, powdered
• Added oils from store:
 - Jasmine
 - Sandalwood
 - Black Pepper
 - Vanilla
 - Grapefruit
 - Clove
--- approximately 3 drops of each.
• A few drops professional blend Road Opener oil
• Abre Camino herbs
• Lodestone
• Old used key.

And I still don't feel finished!

I've been toying with the idea of putting in some special kind of dirt. Something to do with roads. As it turned out, only a few days ago, there was a patch of street marked off near my workplace: I don't know how it happened, but something dug or blew a little hole right through the pavement. It went at least a foot deep, and felt rather hot inside when I cautiously poked my hand in (hoping it wouldn't get blown off!). My fingers came up with a chunk of melted black road asphalt and some age-old dead leaves. I checked my photo files --- this was on Friday the 13th, last week.

A hole in the road!

 My first thought was: "A portal to another place." Rabbit holes. Wormholes. Manhole covers that conceal a tunnel between Andalasia and New York.

 My second thought was of the Underworld, a scary thought. But an under-place needn't be bad, in the vein of Faust or Hades. It could be simply an alternate or parallel state of consciousness. A Disneylike world parallel to our dreary regular one; the realm of magick, second sight, the Faery.

 What I did find indisputable is: This, be what it may, is a powerful force. Powerful enough to literally dig or blow a street open!
 Besides the above, this could embody a much-needed disruption to the well-worn streets and pathways I've traveled for years, a new tangent off of old familiar terrain. Even if it was only time, wearing away at a small pocket already there, that timing was right. And on Friday the 13th, too! A crazy little hole on a magick day!
 Take some, it seemed to whisper. Take some of this medicine from inside the opened road. And I, with a new eye for ingredients, did.
 In this world, intention and ascribed meaning is everything.

 Riding home with a few paper towels loaded with chunks of broken street in your lunch bag, is, well ... kinda weird. If I didn't know before, I'm finding it's all just part of being a witch:

Less than a week later, a crew filled the little hole with fresh asphalt. That oddity, and that magickal pathway if you will, is no longer open. So, this last meaning of the road hole is equally pertinent: opportunity. Just because a road somehow gets opened doesn't mean it will stay open! I don't know exactly why or how yet, but I feel this is good "medicine" for this critical planetary juncture in my life and the world scene. How can I not incorporate this odd type of magickal dirt, offered me in such a curious and timely fashion, into my working?

I haven't added in the Road Hole dirt to my oil yet. But I, ever the diligent researcher, checked out two YouTubes later that night after snuggling down into bed (as that's the sort of mage I am), in which other practitioners demonstrated their methods and recipes for making this type of oil. I got ideas for other types of crystals and herbs to add, should I choose. Things like Citrine quartz, and good ol' crossroads dirt, sacred to Road Opener divinities like Hekate and Papa Legba.

I also picked up on a trend: Both these recipes use negativity-banishing and even explosive ingredients, namely saltpetre and sulfur. These are forceful magicks; they're like Road Opener combined with my delicious-smelling Banishing oil! It seems this time, I'm using two or more formulae in tandem, but it's possible to combine them in one.

As with so many other aspects of magick, there are nearly as many recipes for this stuff as there are practitioners. For each of us, the Path --- the Road --- is unique.

Road Opener or Obstacle Remover Oil Recipes

~ ~ Recipe No. 1: ~ ~
-- For this recipe, be ready to gear up on ingredients and fill a standard marmalade jar.

• Herbs:
 1 spoonful (spn.) Orange powder
 1 piece Orange peel
 1 spn. Catmint
 1 spn. Mugwort
 1 spn. Lemongrass
 1 spn. Sandalwood
 1 Cinnamon stick
 1 small sprig Pine needles
 Couple scales of Pinecone
 1 sprig White sage
 1 spn. Ginger powder
• Other Dry Goods:
 1 spn. Dragons Blood pwd. (if it's a resinous lump, pestle some off into a powder)
 1 pinch Sulfur
 1 pinch Saltpetre
 1 Palo Santo stick
   { 1 broken Camphor tablet  }
   { 2 spns. Sea Salt                    }
    -- Mix these last two ingredients well in a mortar and pestle before adding to jar.
• Essential Oils:
 20 drops (dps.) Orange essential oil (e.o.)
 10 dps. Lemongrass e.o.
 10 dps. Sandalwood e.o.
 10 dps. Pine e.o.
 10 dps. Cinnamon e.o.
 10 dps. Sage e.o.
 10 dps. Citronella e.o.
 10 dps. Lime e.o.
 10 dps. Lemon e.o.
 10 dps. Grapefruit e.o.
 5 dps. Geranium e.o.
• Base Oils:
 Fill half the jar with Sunflower oil.
 Top off rest of jar with green Olive oil.
• Other Ingredients:
 1 Key, used, preferably old
 1 piece Snakeskin sheddings
 1 pinch Crossroads Dirt

--- To Finish: Seal with wax and hang a key on the jar to charge this Road Opener blend. For the spell, this fellow uses a candle combination of green, white and orange.

See how complicated such an oil recipe can be, and how tailored to the individual practitioner's tastes!

Ready to open some road?

~ ~ Recipe No. 2: ~ ~
-- While making up this recipe, the practitioner beautifully enchanted the bottle of oil after adding each ingredient, transferring energy to it with Reiki-like gestures of the hands. This version of Road Opener was tailored for a specific focus of "opening", i.e. psychic work.

• Cleanse: Sage bottle or jar to cleanse it, by inverting it and letting smoke swirl up in.
• Add Ingredients: -- may choose to add with special spoon for potion use.
 - 1 small spn. Saltpetre -- burst of energy
 - 1 spn. Eyebright -- psychic ability
 - 1 spn. Mint -- obstacle remover, sickness healing, cleansing, money
 - 1 spn. Sulfur -- banish negativity and obstacles, cleansing
 - 1 spn. Salt -- for cleansing Self, your own purification. Black Salt is good for this.
 - 1 spn. Dragons Blood -- cleanse, protect, love, money (again, use pestle if it's a big lump)
 - 1 used key --used is important. Or, use key dust, i.e. from a hardware store
 - 1 pinch Crossroads dirt -- may or may not be from a cemetery crossroads. If psychic or working with spirits, latter may be ideal.
 - Chosen Base oil. Fill jar.
 - A hair from your head -- could also use blood, nail clippings, etc.
• Mix: Shake, with intention.
• Charge: Seal bottle or jar with black wax, and hang a key on it.

-- This practitioner also likes to use a blend of Sulfur, Birdseed and Salt for protection, cleansing, etc. Very multi-use, family recipe.

Open the route; embrace the Way.

So, we have a more herbal approach here, and a less herbal but no-less-symbolic approach. And either way, it's clear we have endless room to custom-make a "road opener" or obstacle remover formula.

But what are these oils good for? According to the second practitioner, a recipe for road opening, "block busting" or obstacle-removing magick can have lots of uses, including:
• Finance and business. For example, use a dropper to put oil in the shape of an arrow to your business's doorway. Or, annoint a candle and burn it on top of financial stuff, papers, check stubs, letters, and so on.
• Money spinning, or optimum use of a budget.
• Changing a negative mindset to a positive one.
• Open yourself to love.
• Open yourself to trust others or the "process", especially after you've been burned in the past, and it's thus hard to trust. (Yup, I'm there. Why do you think I stayed at the beer factory.)
• Get a raise, recognition, opportunities at work.
• Get past that obstacle of a boss!
• Artists' block.
• Writers' block.
• Psychic block! Trouble reading Tarot cards? Annoint your cards, tools, space, and so on.
• Trouble connecting to your deities.
• Evil eye, or if you get bad jujus from somebody else.
• Feeling stagnated. In anything.
• Good to use when you're not sure what you want. Annoint your temples to help you find direction, and the next step.

 All too often this past decade, I've been in the last category of, "What do I even want?" It seems so easy for some women: They're corporate climbers in one single company, or they get married and knocked up and that's that. But where am I, and what do I want? Clearly, I'm an independent soul, a wanderer, with very fluctuent states of growth, even when not much seems to happen on the outside.
 The Magician card popping up a lot seems to suggest that maybe all that internal work is panning out, enough for me to choose a direction and manifest big results with it. It's hard to take a step when you can't decide which way the hell to go, or you're doing a lot of practice drives to prep for a huge step. I keep coming back to when I first began to talk. I was three --- and I went right to three-syllable words. I waited, until I knew.
 I guess I'm just one of those folks who piddles about on back roads for years, not very impressive, practicing my moves in secret, finding what I really, really want, until that day comes when I punch it cross-country on the Interstate and head right fucking there --- fully planned itinerary, all the right parts in stock, and no quibbling about gas prices.
 I look forward, too, to incorporating all this new road magick into my tale of Johnny Velton, a young chap whose road of life seems destined to start and end at a small-town (what town?) Southern gas station, until fate lands him on the doorstep of the notorious Slick 66, veteran whore and roadtrip sister extraordinaire, saint of the Old Mother Route --- and witch.


Now for some inspiring photos, because . . .
Oh those crazy roads!!! I may not drive much at the moment, but I love awesome road pics.

Aiming high, sneaking around, or shortest route across.

Jiggery pokery! Squiggly wiggly! Scenic routes and loopy mountain roads from around the globe, Romania to India

Where there's a will, there's a way: Be it over, around or straight through, there's no terrain too steep, too high, or too generally impassably im-effing-possible.

Happy trails . . .

Door County, WI

a la Victime de Bastille: Powder, Parfum, Party!

What a day was the 14th of July!

In preparation for two things, I ran all around town, gathering bits. First, I sought a few ingredients for the larger-than-usual magick working I'm doing lately, for the eclipse month weeks of the waxing moon. Secondly, I needed a few items for a costume to wear to a friend's birthday --- a night of revelry and debauchery, in the vein of France's Bastille Day!

So, it's back to Marie Antoinette again --- except, not quite, for this party focused on the era shortly after Marie's execution by guillotine, post-French Revolution. Fortunately for us in our current 90-plus-degree heat, white cotton was all the rage then! I got my costume bits first: a little white embroidered shirt, and a cloth drawstring cosy that may have held a bottle of liqueur, which I decided would make an ideal cap. Along with a load of potion bottles. I really am the worst at a thrift store.

Next, I went after my other goal. Top of my list? Road Opener --- as genuine as I could get --- for my spell and handmade annointing oil. Real Road Opener oil is supposed to contain Abre Camino herb, known also as Eupatorium villosum, but I didn't know if I'd have time to get it by mail.

Product I ended up purchasing

Plus, I was itching to visit a place way out on ghetto East 181st Street: Botanica Brillante, which is basically a Latino and Hoodoo magick shop.

The idea struck me a couple days ago, when I considered that Moonshadow might stock Abre Camino, even if her Jezebel root was false. Then I thought: Portland has a big Latin population! Surely they have their own potion joint around here somewhere, just as the Chinese population has theirs?
And, they do.

Above and below: Magickal and hoodoo condition oils, sacred and spiritual waters, inks and powders available at Botanica Brillante.

I was nervous heading out there. I didn't know who'd be running the shop, or how they'd react to a Caucasian woman walking in there. Among my crowd, anything east of the notorious 82nd Avenue is getting sketchy --- and not to sound classist or racist, but sensible, as in, Whoever you are, watch your back; though it's more a problem at night, as it always is. It turned out to be a tiny shop, smaller than I'd expected, containing a silent Latino man and a small boy watching TV, and a bored teenage boy working the counter --- and a wealth of variety in amazing products from our more southerly American magickal traditions: Brujeria, Santeria, and hoodoo.

Shyly, in a bastard mix of English and Spanish, I requested Road Opener powder. The teen was Anglofluent, so I stayed with English. But they were out! He looked around, then out of the back came a middle-aged woman, friendlier-looking and sounding. Yup, she said, they were out, but would have a new shipment and more Polvo de Abre Camino in on Monday. I thanked her and went with a Road Opener "aromatic bath" instead, composed of garishly-coloured and equally garish-smelling plant parts. My reasoning was, maybe at least one of the herbs therein was Abre Camino herb itself, which I know I can get online, but would take longer to get. To be safe, I would use a bit of each herb type. And if not? Well, adding it in couldn't hurt my spell anyway. Plus, I was keeping a little local place, probably family-owned, in business.

Above: Cauldrons, bells and other ritual paraphernalia for sale.

I also wanted to buy an oil or two, and did so in a manner I hoped would convey a bit more confidence. There are dozens of them, with their Spanish labels --- which to pick? I've learned that one of my most feared and loathed states is feeling "stuck", stagnant, in a situation that suffocates me (especially spiritually) and no longer serves. So, I first and boldly picked "Unstuck" blend, guiding the counter boy to choose the right one amid a few wrong turns and nervous giggles. Then I picked "Quita Brujeria", for I knew Brujeria means witchcraft. A deep green oil, and a deep purple one. They're beautiful, but I couldn't discern their ingredients by smell.

It was only back in the 95-degree heat on the light-rail corridor, I learned "Quita Brujeria" means to remove or destroy witchcraft! The hazards of partial and/or mis-translation! Ah, no, I thought, I AM a witch! But I'd still been drawn to that one, and it occurred to me it could still be very useful. I live a low-drama, reclusive, and yes, blandly white life up near Alberta Street: I'm not likely to be targeted by any overly eyeshadowed, angry Latina witch-bitch any time soon, whether for stealing her hombre or any other reason. I'm not the type of gal to threaten that or any sort of woman, off the cuff; not unless it's personal defense, really.
  So:
What kind of bad magick do I have to ward off?
• Negative thought-forms, especially the looping kind that keep plaguing you, stabbing at your confidence and enjoyment of the present moment.
• Icky energies and emotions from other people, because a sensitive or empathic person can and will pick them up regularly.
• Bad memories, past wounds, anger and desire for vengeance against people that were shitty to me in the past. 'Cuz, you know, it's in the past. Usually they aren't worth the effort.
• Envy and resentment, born out of the urge of comparison to others.
  These, more than anything, are what I find to be my greatest enemies. Rather than lack of money or the other factors in being physically stuck, these energetic patterns are what keep a person psychologically and spiritually stuck. So, I've ended up with a potentially very potent and useful pair of oils that, if used with faith and intent, could free up "stuckness" on multiple levels.

Finally, I'll lay it out there: Yes, I am a "gray witch". I poke about the Dark edge, just like Severus, and am not above heavy action, though it's usually of a justice-seeking or, "fuck off, asshole"-type action rather than pure malice. Having the "Quita Brujeria", a cleansing and banishing agent to use against other witches' retaliation, misinterpreted angst or whatever else they could hurl at me, might not be such a bad idea. As one of my granfather R.B.'s earthier sayings went (although they were all pretty earthy!), "It's good to have an ace in the hole . . . so you don't get your ass in a crack!"

After the Botanica, I had time to take the No. 75 to Moonshadow before they closed. The old woman, Deborah, was sweet, funny and helpful and we had a good chat. I got several lodestones (magnetites) for my oils, some blue apatites, Orris Root (used in a lot of hoodoo formulas and perfumes), and a tiny vial of . . . Road Opener oil. She had to dig it out of the back, and was even nice enough to jot down a couple of extra recipes for me. "It's all in the intention," she said.

So what I've ended up with, then, is a lot of various bits and ingredients, different types of "ammo" all related to one goal that, if combined, may help me hit my target that much more effectively. After all, for a big, multi-day working, why skimp? My task is now to combine them with the proper intent. What a Road Opener potion this will be!

After grabbing some wine, juice and port at Trader Joe's, it was time for some party prep: My friend Hide invited me to her Bastille Day themed, costume birthday bash! No way was I saying no; I'd repeatedly warned my place of work I'd need today off to make sure I could come.

With sublime and grim majesty, my friend's guillotine birthday cake begins to sag in the 90 degree heat of its own accord, until its "head" at last sluffs off in a gory slide of Red Velvet innards and rose-stained icing slop.

Vive les Victimes de Revolucion!

Happy Bastille Day!

The remains of the cake, properly executed and butchered without due ceremony. Decadently delicious!

It took me a little while, making me late, but everything was perfect. I assembled my outfit and covered it with little red ribbons, in the fashion of the era suggested by the party theme. I also took my bike, knowing I'd get loaded and not wishing to drive.

The dimmed lamp and squishy cushions

. . . a night of mischief and debauchery awaits.

Above and below: While tea-leaf reading and crystal-ball scrying are both within my capacity, one aspect of traditional witchery and priestessing is sadly lacking in my experience: The art of the Seance! I've never led or taken part in one, though I hear at one time they were all the rage. I did make contact with a spirit once, but it was via a pendulum, not the Ouija.

Lovely scene arrangement at the party.

Well, it was perfect. The decorations were exquisite. A Goth-electronic band, Seven Cake Candy, played a set downstairs. I saw a number of my friends, including John Litster, who'd given me water from the Chalice Well, Alyssa, Maxine Miller the artist, and others. The food was scrumptuous, of course, and I needn't worry about being hungry: lace cookies, crackers, dips, veggies, chips, grapes, and cake. Washed down with a nice rose wine. Wheeeeeee!

And I in my thrift store jewelry regalia and beribboned white cotton --- yes, a number of us ladies were very glad white cotton was the chosen fashion for this stuffy summer night --- felt quite the "it" girl, and had a totally drunk and chatty time of it. But I have, thankfully, always known when to stop drinking. Be it food, medicine or alterant, alcohol is like anything else: The dose makes the poison!

Fashion á la victime! I based my simple outfit on these historical illustrations.

When what remained of the nobility of France got their estates returned after the end of the French Revolution, they were still dealing psychologically with the horrors that occurred, including the gruesome, visceral reality of the guillotine, loss of family members, and fear for survival. Like zombies or dystopian imagery today, these cultural monsters became a part of fashion, discussion and even dark humor (guillotine-shaped earrings?!) for a certain class of the French.

What a sweet image this one is!

Legend says these remaining elites held exclusive events, called Bals des Victimes ("Victims' Balls") open only to those who had lost a close relative specifically to the Great Blade --- guillotine only, death in prison didn't count! They greeted each other with peculiar, macabre flops of the head instead of bows (I did this, to general amusement, at the party). In dress, thin red ribbons or red beads were worn around the neck to imitate the slice from the guillotine.

Men and women also cut their hair short, or at least in the case of women sported a modest little bonnet or cap, because the hair of a condemned person was likewise shorn off --- to expose the neck! --- and covered by a tied cap.

So too was a prisoner bound for execution clad in simple garb such as white cotton, and finally trussed up in bindings, and these latter restraints were imitated by crossed red ribbons or lacing as part of the dress. It's worth noting that white cotton was already at large, for Marie Antoinette herself favored the simple loose, white, simple clothing of a shepherdess in the years before her capture and trial.

My final rendition below, with cross-straps on the back, neck ribbons, and the modest cap. But damned if it's not too hot to wear anything at all, especially nothing that tight!

But in prepping for this event, one thing remained --- an attempt I couldn't pass up. Fearing my outfit would be too cheap or plain (it wasn't)
 . . . I composed a scent!

I'd wanted to make a scent for awhile now, especially ever since my thrilling dive into the world of perfume again on Friday the 13th. But how to do it? No better way than to collect a few favored oils for scent notes, and try my best. I'd start with sweet, but aged, musky. Helichrysum (Everlasting)? Then, some florals, for the romance of the nobility. And finally, an essence of the Bastille --- smoke: The smoke of explosive battle and victory. Topped off with an alcohol medium of brandy.

Carefully I mixed the essential oils, Wright's Liquid Smoke and brandy. Already running late, I spilled the bottle and had to start over. I capped it and shook it, dabbed a bit on, and here went nothing!

A limited edition "indie" scent, no longer made, in this case by a local company named Arcana, can fetch $50 on eBay. I wish I had that kind of money!

Over the course of the night, a few people told me the scent was nice when I held the bottle to their noses. One said, "strong!" Personally, I like the scent, but would choose more florals and less woodiness, yet keep the smoke, for this theme.

The most valuable experience came from my friend Katinka, who really liked it, but "like" was only the beginning.
  "It smells like a new racetrack, where I used to work, but without the horse smell . . . just new wood, like pine, fresh dirt and leather, and . . . It's like, before the show. Call it 'Before the Show.' Or, 'Fresh Tracks.'"
  Which I may not; but the experience was priceless, and I achieved what I feel is a big landmark in the realm of perfumes and scent-based potions: To tell a story, or convey a scene or memory, capture an entire state of mind, with a scent!

Tink then went on about another perfume experience, a most favourite scent she'd made, and rattled off its approximate formula. It surprised me, and also validated my idea of using interesting ingredients (like Liquid Smoke!) besides essential oils in making scents. It was a delightful, enriching conversation, and, I must say, a rewarding end to my day.

Below are both formulas of my "scentsory" adventure for the evening!

My resulting little bottle of funny, not-quite-polished scent.

Parfum á la Victime de le Bastille No. 1

5 drops Ylang Ylang
5 drops Helichrysum
5 drops Liquid Smoke
3 drops Geranium
1 drop Rosemary
1 drop Greek Oregano
1 drop Meditation
Base: Brandy, rest of 0.5 mL vial
   Shake to blend.

Katinka: Industrial Romance

16 drops Jasmine
6 drops Black Cherry tincture in vodka, steeped a couple weeks and then distilled
5 drops Geranium
3 drops pure ethyl gasoline
  *Note: Katinka told me this recipe at least twice, each time it was ever so slightly different, so this will require dicking about with until the proper scent is achieved. Then again, so will the other one!

Friday the 13th: Fresh Infusion

Friday the 13th is such a powerful day for mages and witches, you pretty much have to do something magickal on that day. Even though my mother passed between two Friday the 13ths, I still consider it a blessed day and always will.

With our powerful Dark Moon in Cancer coupled with a solar eclipse and Jupiter going direct a couple days ago, this was a great day to continue work on the magick I'd already begun --- namely cleansing and clearing, prosperity work, and road opening. It was a great day all around, full of ideas, magick, and a fresh infusion of energy. So of course I made, or rather began to make, two potions.

Most of my work has been with alcohol-based potions or teas, but this time I indulged my newfound interest in both hoodoo "condition" oils and perfumes. Especially with commercial oils, well, you never know what's in 'em. I'm big on finding the best formula I can for something, then making it myself, tweaking it if necessary. (I don't yet do it for sale --- in such a case, I feel it all but mandatory that you tweak a recipe to make it your own.)

These two oils aren't finished. This is more like a good start to a bigger working, one that will grow with the waxing moon. Also, I know there are more ingredients I want to add to both blends!

Road Opener oil, and use.

1. Annoint old skeleton key with sweet money / road opener fragrance oil (gotten at neighborhood festival).
2. To bottle, add:
• 9 drops tangerine
• 9 drops lemongrass
• 9 drops camphor.
• 3 grains of Instant Bliss (condensed cotton candy).
3. Fill partway up with Sweet Almond oil.
4. Put in key upright, swirl to mix.

Added steps I plan to take to complete oil:

• Add odd number of sacred herbs, including herbs from Abre Camino bath.
• Add lodestone(s).
• Add three drops of bought road opener oil. • Add other essential oils, from store if need be.
• Swirl to blend.

For the magick working, itself:

• Create and empower a sigil, put it on candle.
• Annoint candle with Road Opener.
• Light candle.
• Annoint self while meditating.
• Burn candle for 9 nights, imaging (on removing obstacles, and the way forward being shown to you) each time.

Money Oil, and use.

1. Put 13 coins in a jar. Originally this was pennies, and I also did a penny money spell tonight. But for this oil, I put in 13 coins from international sources, embodying my willingness to travel and to receive money from any direction.
2. Fill jar partway up with Olive oil. Olives and/or olive branches are a symbol of both victory and wealth.
To jar, now add:
• 1 Bay leaf.
• 3 resin-drops of Frankincense.
• 9 drops of Pine essential oil.
• 9 drops Cinnamon e.o.
• 9 drops Myrrh e.o.
• 1 pinch of gold dust or fine gilt powder.
3. Swirl jar carefully to blend.

Added steps to take:

• Add 3 Lodestones.
• Add other relevant essential oils or herbs.

Plan for use:

• Annoint a power number, i.e. nine, of large bills, i.e. $100s, with this oil in a spell of increase.
• Annoint self, purse, and tools with oil to draw wealth. Especially self --- for example, the temples, heart, and hands --- before engaging in an endeavor meant for career. (Temples for vision, heart for confidence, hands for skill and action)



 Today, Friday the 13th, was a day of unusual magick!
 I spent my down-hours at work researching online and falling in love with the new realm of the perfume world, which I'm only beginning to explore due to its cost. I found a number of beguiling books to read about the topic of perfume, and our unexplored faculty of scent. I also learned about an exciting possible road into perfumery: the Decant Circle, an arrangement led by a central enabling person known as a decanter.
 Decant circles are a way for folks to explore different scents without emptying their pocketbooks. Many perfume companies don't offer very small amounts of their stuff, and even a half-ounce could be a hundred dollars or more. The decanter will order, depending on interest, a certain quantity of a scent, then tap it off into smaller vials. These in turn will be shipped off to members of the circle when the decanter receives payment for these smaller amounts, thereby reimbursing the original cost throwdown.

Fine art by the $50 bottle: A limited-edition, no longer manufactured scent by Arcana spotted on a resale (not decant circle) site

I would like to join a decant circle --- Ajevie is one such decanter --- as a way to explore this field of study. I realize it's yet another dangerous way to spend too much money, yet the mystique of scent and its influence on the mind beckons like Severus's murmur in the dead of night. . . .

how can one resist

At the very least, it would make a fine story. A literally novel idea sprang into my mind as I scanned blogs, decant threads and webpages. . . .
 Who is Seron? Who else but the secret lead decanter of dozens of circles, fielding nearly as many pseudonyms, a scent enthusiast since young and now the possessor of thousands of samples in a secret underground vial library, able to recognize and remember a scent at one sniff . . . At once neither male nor female, Seron is a woman in thin-bearded, black-clad disguise; a partially autistic blend of pure intrigue, unwilling to relinquish control to any demands but especially of the unjust or unworthy; sensual yet resistant to the touch of others, including any who would try to court hir in their fascination . . . and a master of the Substance, of poisons, a deadly person to cross. And this is who would mastermind an underground resistance to a large-scale threat. . . .

 I don't know why I heard the name Seron (there's an accent on the 'o' but I can't do accents on this phone!), but I think the story will have to be told from hir point of view, which is so unique and strange. A character who insists on being blindfolded at one point so as to know a romantic partner better by scent, who knows the world by scent, the way a Sarkazo knows the world exquisitely well by an enhanced sense of taste, begs to be given a chance to speak. Obviously the character takes after a piece of my own heart, with her-his secret and somewhat warlockish, genderfucked ways, in a kind of extreme and powerful branch of my Complete Self just as is Slick 66.
 As soon as I work out the plot details, we are golden. Let the story spinning begin.


The day's surprises were yet more in number. Besides all this, first there was that odd little hole in the street, on my way to work. . . . more on that later.

Then, when I rode home, I made a quick instinctive stop at the free box --- and behold!

A Garden Weasel, iconic implement that my character Isaac Allokotos transforms into surely one of the most badass brooms ever, to me symbolizes progress, inspired creativity, and no-holds-barred magic. So much, that I "borrowed" my friend's Weasel to make one. But I can give hers back now. This is my very own Garden Weasel, not borrowed, not stolen fire, but found and earned. With its missing middle tine, it's perfect for a broomstick! I take it as a sign that I'm ready to rock --- to take off, in more ways than one.

Finally, we also have a deal on the house! A bunch of sweet people, led by a woman who owns nothing less than the free-box house itself, just down the street, has offered on it to start a community-living home. This makes me as happy as a forced move could, really. No more random viewings of my room, at the insistence of a prissy, too-perfect and too-rich little real estate agent; no threat of having the house and beautiful greenhouse torn down for Alberta-street-crazed developers. At least, I hope not. Instead, the land and its mini-farmstead would be cared for and loved. And Debbie and I have until the end of September --- far longer than I thought I'd have --- to prepare, enjoy the property and the season, and ease into the next curve of life's road.