I felt incredible this morning after waking up.
My bed smelled of potent and spicy galangal and vetiver, pine and cinnamon, and no-nonsense, "greet the world with an unashamed leap" sulfur. And my body and energy felt . . . clean. Clean and golden.
Which was the whole point, of course. Yesterday, July 11th, I wanted to make into a preparatory day for today --- which is not only the Dark Moon in Cancer at 7-something p.m., but a Solar eclipse! Jupiter also came out of retrograde yesterday, having been bass-ackwards since March 19th, which explains how I've felt hogtied with this house business and travel plans, and all the rest. It's like I finally feel good things coming, and old shadows falling by the wayside. And tomorrow? It's a fresh sliver of waxing moon --- and Friday the 13th!!
With my focus on road opening at the moment, I want to make this whole chunk of celestial cycling into one great ritual --- a traditional nine-day intensive of transformation. That includes the banishing work I didn't do every day of this past waning moon period! But the important thing is, I have acknowledged it and worked on it magickally, even if for a mere couple of days. (In living, rather than ritual, I have a feeling I've done a lot more as well, toward getting back to my soul's calling and true essence.) By doing a cleansing and banishing of old garbage, I'll be going in fresh for opening myself to the new phase.
That's the idea, anyway.
Stinky underworld ingredients and powerful resins combined with both cooling and fiery transformative essences in this golden Cleansing and Banishing annointing oil
And what better way to spark off a cleansing than with a deliciously piquant-scented, potent potion?
I've fallen in love with natural and scented oils lately, which is a dangerous thing, because pure, high-quality essential oils are expennn-sive. Or can be, so that I'm able to buy only Helichrysum ($20), Frankincense ($12) and Myrrh ($11) one week, as I did yesterday, and have to leave others for another week after making another meagre paycheck. Fortunately, while I don't have a distilling mechanism (yet), I can mix new scents with the essential oils I already have . . . and I can also make scented infused oils by taking a carrier oil (or two) and adding dried or wilted herbs.
Ever since harvesting the wonderful, resinous herbs from Frank's garden on the 4th, I've been planning to make infused oils. Oh, to capture the acrid, thujonic slice of Russian Sage, or the sweet exotic warmth of Curry Plant's aroma, in an oil! Severus Snape would sneer at the idea of perfumery and mere floral scent-play for its own sake, but I have a feeling he would most definitely not turn up a hooked nose at the power certain scents wield over a human mind, and their potential in magic. This, of course, is my main interest as well, since I am a more practical rather than romantic creature (at least for me, the two must go hand in hand). The idea of being able to influence someone's mind by scent, to cast a scent-based spell if you will, is entirely too enticing.
Before getting into rituals, I spent the evening blending the first three of what I hope will be a number of scented, infused oils, using those herbs I gathered: in this case, Perovskia (one of my faves), Curry Plant (a brand new treat to me), and Golden Santolina (love it).
But first, the base! Or, carrier. You want a long-lasting oil, especially if you're as frugal and preserver-minded as I am: With a Geology degree and a family lineage back to 1066, heck, I think in terms of centuries! Indeed, some rare perfumes are tracked down 80 or so years later. I used what I had --- I'd bought a bottle of Sweet Almond Oil to experiment with, and it has a shelf life of at least a year; Jojoba is up to five years, but it's quite pricey, too. But I also have some virgin Coconut Oil, with a range of up to four years (fractionated Coconut lasts indefinitely, or so they say).
So, I mixed a big dollop of Coconut into Sweet Almond, in a ratio of about 1:2 or 1:3, to extend the oils' life. But, it just means I'll have to infuse more and longer to cover the scent of Coconut! Then, in went the herbs. I capped them and stuck them beneath my skylight, to infuse in the sun. I plan to let them steep for at least two weeks, then press them out and add fresh herbs, going for as strong a scent as possible. It's what you do when you haven't got a distillation setup!
Afterward, late into the night, I got into my magick.
Earlier that day I'd picked up a few candles (chime candles: black, purple, green) and herbs at Clary Sage Herbarium, the latter being Frankincense, Ashwagandha and Bocopa (those names --- how I love them!).
For this Banishing Oil, I didn't have time to do a rhyme for each ingredient, so I just tried to be present in intention with each. Also irksome is the fact that my pestles are packed! So I had to grind my ingredients with a silver spoon in a heating Bunsen pan. In went tiny pinches of this and that, according to planetary influences --- especially Jupiter coming out of retrograde --- and instinct. I poured the powder into a tiny phial, then added appropriate essential oils. Finally, I topped it off with a base of Sweet Almond oil. Then, mix!
My idea was to cleanse myself and banish ill resonances and negative vibrations from my aura in preparation for a greater act of "road opening" or life-obstacle remover. That is, work starting from inside yourself, outward into the larger world.
So I lit my pilot Brigid candle, centered, sitting skyclad (appropriate for this all-over annointing, and besides, Snape robes in this heat?), then took the new black candle and inscribed a cleansing and banishing, planetary glyph on it. As the candle burned, I annointed myself with the golden, sulfurous oil from the feet up, legs, chakras, arms and hands, and features like eyes, appealing all the while to Hekate in a kind of self purification. By the time I'd finished my rite, I felt peaceful, rather empowered, and certainly smelling good --- in a kind of Jovian storm, solar brimstone sort of way!
After magick like that, and so late, I typically go right to bed. I feel this allows it to "marinate" and work overnight. I definitely felt it the next morning! Even knowing I had to work the coming evening, I felt refreshed and strong. I have a mind to do this type of spell more often!
The candle as of then was only half burnt, due to time, so the magick will carry on later.
Banishing Oil in use during candle spell, for a full-body and aura cleansing, banishing old ties and blockages in chakras, meridians, hands and feet
Banishing, Cleansing, Empowering Oil
Ingredients:
• Opoponax, few grains, crushed
• Galangal, pinch, mashed (as possible)
• Frankincense, one drop, crushed
• Sulfur (brimstone powder), pinch
• Asafoetida, powder, pinch
• 3 drops Vetiver essential oil
• 2 drops Cinnamon e.o.
• 1 drop Pine e.o.
• 1 drop Camphor e.o.
• Carrier oil, Sweet Almond
Directions:
Grind or mash dry ingredients together, ideally with mortar and pestle (I would, but mine is packed, so I mashed them in a metal flame-tray with a silver spoon). Add to (very, i.e. 1-2 dram) small phial. Add drops of essential oils. Fill partway up with carrier oil. Turn phial round and round to mix ingredients. Cap.
Again ideally, let sit to mature for awhile. This, however, was used on the spot.
This is definitely an oil I want to make in a larger batch!
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