Sacred and Religious Potions

Potions come in all types, from the most practical of "low" magical blends like Money-drawing or "Get the heck off my lawn", to more spiritually-oriented or so-called Theurgical drinks for connecting to a god or goddess, the moon, faeries, or your highest wisdom. Any drink, fluid, powder or unguent, if empowered with blessing, meaning or magical intention, is technically a potion . . . even if it's not referred to as such.

One of the most common sacred potions, I realized today, is the wine found in the Christian Eucharist.

Spiritual classes at Trinity finished up for the summer this Wednesday, and the one I chose to attend was the last of Canon Michael's series on the mystical meaning of the Eucharist, called "Elements of Soul".

It's always a good feeling when you hear someone else speaking on a level you understand, and I was immediately engaged. We watched a video featuring one Ken Wilbur, on mysticism and the stages of human development as related to the Eucharist.

Of these Stages of Human Development, there are six:

• Archaic. -- "You are what you eat." First stage. Most fundamental, literal level. Not without some truth, either: eat GMOs, become toxic. Extends to: Eat a lion, gain a lion's strength. God, become God.
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It may sound odd to be addressing any aspect of organized religion on this blog. A lot of witches and pagans who "revert" from organized patriarchal religion, as I did from Episcopalianism at age nine, virulently reject their faith, its dogma, and anything to do with Jesus, out of a need to reform their identity and find out what their souls need. Often they replace one form with another: Wicca is a religion too, albeit a less rigid one, as is Buddism, etc.

But as I see it, one of the milestones toward being a true mage, or mystic, is precisely the ability to see above the cubicle walls of dogma and religion that people tend to build around themselves for protection. It means being able to see the Greater Truth underlying people's behavior, beliefs, adherence to certain habits and rituals, and loyalty to various diety-forms (or not). It also means being able to embrace that greater wisdom as found in each faith, pattern or modality you encounter.

In more earthy terms: A mage knows how to sort the treasure from the bullshit, and toss out the latter.

This is the state I've reached today, where I can discard or look through much of the language and squabbling forms of religion to see the commonalities among them, and the greater meaning in each. I reverted at a young enough age, I've had time to make some progress since; I've been up the spiral enough times to view Jesus, what he stands for, and human nature itself with what I feel are clearer inner eyes. I do my best to adhere to many of those basic principles, too, such as nonviolent action, community and mitigation. In a way, I suppose that makes me a Christian!

But what I've learned is, the majority of most Christians aren't There yet --- they don't have a view that expansive, and still believe in the narrow path of either/or, of being one of them or not. (The very fact I have to use the words "them" and "they" indicates a forced separation, and a realization that I have an ego, too!) I do not only adhere to traditional dogmatic church teachings in my quest for wisdom --- and that only is a big hangup for lots of people, like an invisible wall. Because I also embrace things like magic, hoodoo and quantum physics, I describe myself by the word "mage".

The Eucharist is to me a good example of this. The symbolism of the wine is that of blood, specifically the blood of the Christian founder, which in a literal sense has a startlingly primitive, pagan, even zombie-esque feel to it: Does the nice old lady next to me in the pew really imagine herself to be drinking blood? Blood has of course been viewed since the dawn of humanity as not only a symbol, but the very stuff of life, so this makes sense. But then there's the bread.

The greater truth here, then, is even more important: The Eucharist affirms, first, that despite our quibbles and differences and the illusion of our separate forms, we as humans are united in common life, energy and soul by a need and gift shared by all --- food and drink, and food and drink are the substance of the Divine. To me, to accept the Eucharist means to willingly see the dude next to you as being made of the same stardust you are, and as literally Divine; and, here's the hard part, not separate from you at all. (I didn't say it was easy, and it ain't, because there are people I really don't like in that church!)

Second, it suggests that sacrifice is in fact necessary, but we can approach this by discarding the baggage of guilt and sin altogether: It's as simple as, Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes form; so to maintain a form, you have to consume, and so other forms must die. Forget the "fallen" crap. We're not all evil, cursed beings, and Earth isn't fallen or cursed, either. But, we are trapped in a world of illusion, duality, push-and-pull, live-and-die, and conflicting forms, until we make our way back to Unity. At the highest level of meaning, Yeshua bin Josef --- Jesus --- was attempting to lead people to a state of Unity, of non-conflict, while they were still here on Earth in material forms.

The Eucharist then, as I see it, is a sacred act of acknowledging, and literally becoming, Unity. Becoming God, or the Divine State. We're all made of the same stuff. Eat the same stuff. Eat each other's stuff, while trying to survive. Eat, even, each other. To remember this underlying Unity, despite the tumbled chaos of our material-form dance, is to recall our sacredness --- and hopefully to act in the world with more respect because of that remembrance. People get caught up in dogma, and start throwing the word "sin" at other people, usually out of fear, and without looking in a mirror first. But what, if it exists at all, is sin?
Sin is acting purely out of illusion of being separate.

Take a Monsanto executive. He knows he has to eat to survive. (Toilet paper is nice, too.) Nothing wrong there, that's just life. Maybe he even eats with respect, or says grace at dinner. Maybe he recycles yoghurt containers. But does he remember, is he aware, or does he care, that the food on his plate is the same stardust as the food on people's plates in the low-rent district, and that it's all sacred? His job all but mandates that he continue to poison millions of people, plants, animals, acres of dirtand waterways, in the illusion of separation of his actions and their consequences from everything else. The idea of separation, and making choices based on it, is the sin. The state of sin is one in which fear and control obscure the greater Unity of us all and, ultimately, love.

And we all do it, because the illusion of these material bodies and the challenge of daily survival is very convincing and very distracting.

By remembering our common Unity, Jesus suggests, and following his footsteps and tips, the most fear-plagued tax collector may be whole again.
"Come to the table."

Vh

Power Signs at Work

Sigils are one of those forms of magick I keep meaning to explore, but keep forgetting to do so. This easy-to-access practice can be used for so many things, however, and such power is inherent in symbols and words (for which I already have a fondness anyway!), that I have no excuse for not delving into them more often. Having learned two sets of runes and Morse Code as a child, never mind my talent for art, it strikes me as odd that my work with sigils has been so lacking.

At work early this morning --- and I mean early, as in, one or two a.m. --- I begun playing about with making a sigil. Perhaps empowered by my recent, rather charged crafting and laying of a genuine "trick" potion or magickal conjure formula, I felt a bit energized, and had potions and other forms of magick on my mind. I also researched a bit on Brujeria this same night, having somehow gotten on that tack, thinking this powerful form of anywhere-from-white-to-black South American witchcraft might yield some useful potion recipes.

There's no shortage of scrap paper at work, and there's also a hot glue pit on the box-making machine. Using some card, I made an experimental amulet by dipping it in the glue (fearfully hot! 350°F). But most importantly, I made the sigil, which I figure can be used to empower any number of objects, especially drinks and potions.

Sigils are a kind of "distillation" of ideas and symbols, where a group of glyphs, words, and their attendant meanings are combined, trimmed of all excess, and encapsulated in a single symbol of power. For the sigil above, I focused first --- almost without conscious thought --- on three things I want to combine: a flask, for my magick and especially potistry work; a heart, for (obviously!) my soul calling; and a dollar sign, for wealth and success. I reasoned that lining those up is never a bad idea. Next, other symbols crept in: glyphs for the sun, earth, and a waxing quarter moon for growth. The progress of the sigil's formation is obvious on this piece of scratch paper.

Finally, I put in symbols for the planet Uranus and for Taurus. Not only am I a double Taurus, but Uranus transiting into Taurus is one of the big astrological events this year, which just occurred --- along with the Dark Moon! --- on May 15th. Uranus in Taurus means a shaking and awakening of some long-stagnant fields (literally and metaphorically!), and, as I see it, a great opportunity. More about this later.

Being at work, I couldn't devote full intention to actually empowering the sigil on anything. I look forward to trying this in future spells and projects, and see what happens!

Class in Session: "Begone!" A Pinch in a Pinch

A confession here: I'm one of those lazy witches.

I suppose that makes me something of a lazy potist, too. I also must presume a bit of that laziness stems from fear, which is the primary root cause of procrastination. Us skeptics and scientists and pragmatists, especially, can really fall into the trap of putting our heads down and thinking, "Bah . . . magic? Might not do a damn bit of good. Just wishful hocus-pocus and pipe-dreaming. I'd better stick with plain old hard work. . . ."

Except, a life of all pragmatism and no wonder leaves a bit to be desired. I think there's a danger of aging too quickly that way, by losing touch with the magic and synchronicity of the Universe, never mind a sense of childlike play. We also know very well by now that accomplishment, manifestation and creative projects begin with a vision, and that process is the backbone of true magic.

There's another side to the use of magic, though. What if you've done all you can on the material plane under your own steam, and it still isn't enough? What if you find your "arse in a crack", are disenfranchised, ripped off, or simply want a bit more "rightness" to a situation? And you've heard that just maybe, if you try these rather non-scientific methods, the Universe might nonetheless respond to your plight and help? That's when some people resort to prayer if they're Judaeochristian, and prayer plus spells, potions and hoodoo if they're Pagan, Wiccan, Witches and/or Magi (though the line is blurred, and some Judaeochristians also use hoodoo).

Two nights ago, I'd pulled a 10-to-6 graveyard shift. After I come home and bathe, I go one place, and that's bed. So I didn't see the already less-than-24-hour notice of a potential buyer showing by our real estate agent. I had to pack my butt out of that house in one hour, for an hour!
  "Is that going to be okay for you guys?"
  "It's just that the buyer has to fly out tomorrow. . . ."
  "She (me) must be exhausted, poor thing!"

Why, yes I am, you rich, falsely sympathetic little snot of a real estate agent, and I do not appreciate this crap. ("It's impossible to like somebody like that," my friend Allison consoled me.)

If I had used any hoodoo-type formula, such as Hot-Foot Powder or Banishing Oil, it had been a looong time --- so long, I couldn't recall when. But the beauty of hoodoo and folk magic, besides its availability to anyone, is the ease of its use. It works on conviction and the Doctrine of Signatures, so it doesn't require the use of three circles, twelve candles, or a two-hour theurgical ritual. A simple mixture, a quick sprinkle of powder, and off you go.

Not only was I resentful of being turfed, and so very suddenly ("Well, I guess we'll just have to accommodate them. . . ."), but I didn't want the house to sell hastily, or to any but the very most worthy buyer. I recall a man back home who complained he couldn't get decent trade-workers to repair his homes where I grew up. "Well," barked my father, "that's because of filthy-rich guys like you buying their fourth house out there sight-unseen, and driving the cost of living up so much that tradespeople can't afford to live out there!" That shut the man up. Dad always was one to fight for the underdog, knowing how it feels to be one.

I wanted to fight for my house. To keep the threat at bay. To discourage the unworthy. After all, I'm a witch. For once not in the mood to take life lying down and ass-kissing, I thought: Hot-Foot Powder!

What did I have on hand, in a literal pinch? Red pepper and black pepper are both used in Hot-Foot, protective and repellent blends. But I didn't just want the person to not stick around on premises. I wanted them to look around, and go, ". . . .Meh. Not for me." And move on. As per the Doctrine of Signatures, what had the energy of "meh", of distaste, flatness and lack of enthusiasm? Ashes! And ashes we had --- downstairs in the fireplace.

Another ingredient came to me in a brilliant stroke of inspiration. One of the only things I didn't like about living in this location was its invasion of tiny sugar ants. They invaded my Fig Newtons. They invaded my potion ampoules. And most recently, a whole swarm of them invaded, of all things, my snowboard boot! And the little bastards smell horrible when you squish them, a veritable scream of alarm pheromones. In the case of the boot, I went nearly mad and squished dozens of them before moving the offending boot outside. Dead ants --- a perfect ingredient in a "Yuk, don't move here" potion!

Finally, vinegar is a good ingredient for formulae used to "sour" a person on an option, relationship or anything else. No Balsamic here; I had plain old, nose-hair-puckering white vinegar in the cabinet.

I had just minutes to compose this thing, before I ran out the flippin' door. I grabbed my dirtiest little spare bottle. Heading downstairs, in went some dead ants off the carpet. Over to the fireplace for ashes. Then some red and black pepper. I meant to put in just a drop of vinegar for a powder, hoodoo-style, but slop! In went too much vinegar, so it became a potion. Nothing exact --- a "pinch o' dis and a dash o' dat" is quite common practice in hoodoo and kitchen witch mixtures.

Next, it was, shake that mutha up!

". . . Barring all those dear to me,
take one look inside and flee,
get back on your plane and stay
far, far away!"

I don't recall the entire rhyme I spoke to enchant the potion (whilst shaking the heck out of it), but spur-of-the-moment magick is like that: for, and of, the moment. The important thing is, it felt good, came from a place of passion and raw spontenaity, and served my needs.

Finally, I went down the front walk and, behind me, poured the potion in a line cross the pavers below the front step. It would act on whoever crossed that line, who was not housemate Debbie, a relative, or a friend of either of us --- and they'd have to cross that line to get to the front door, through which an agent would most certainly introduce them properly to the house! Then I went and had French onion soup and lemon chocolate cube cake at La Petite Provence . . . giving the waiter an extra tip, because, well, he was a delicious baritone with a good sarcastic wit.

The house didn't sell.

As an update on June 5th:
The house still hasn't sold, but this may be due to the intimidation factor of the amazing, cutting-edge aquaponic greenhouse and its necessary learning curve and maintenance, more than my potion. What hasn't changed is that I want this house to go to the best buyer possible. In light of that, I may be making another potion in the coming days, and appealing to various saints . . . this time to encourage a timely, and appropriate, house sale!

This potion, and many of its hoodooish cousins, can be considered by some to be "grey magick": It has active, controlling influence on other people, and not purely benign; i.e. it has a denser vibration than, say, herbal medicine tea or moon water. In making it, I felt the heady sense of power that comes with responsibility. A passionate curse potion can really kink a person out, so I'm not one to dribble them about lightly --- indeed, my following week was full of drama! (Although, it was unconnected to the house, and may have just been Uranus moving into Taurus).

But in making and utilizing this potion so quickly, I was also inspired. I felt suddenly qualified as the resourceful, practical, and imminently powerful gutter-type mage represented by Snape, who can use anything around him to meet his ends. I felt close to the hearth heritage of our own American rootwork, folk magick and hoodoo traditions, who have "a powder for that", and a huge range of blends and spells for just about any need. I reveled in a kind of magick that felt more raw, practical, rough-and-ready than some of the light-focused, uber-spiritual types of work espoused by New Age and Wiccan groups these days, who seem afraid to get their hands dirty (even while their exes are trouncing them, and people in power are getting away with murder!).

I felt inspired at being reminded how Potistry doesn't have to be this great, intimidating thing that takes three hours or a certain moon phase: It can also be immediate, and simple, a perfect mix of the calculating mind and passionate spirit . . . and on top of this, it can be fearlessly, shamelessly bitchin'.

Oh, Severus! May this be only the start of a new and wonderful phase of my regular practice, one that invites courage and action; yet may I also not abuse such power.

'Cause, you know. I really do want our home to go to a good home.

Fun fact: Some say that if you see a purple door, it means a witch lives there. This may or may not be true, but I'm seeing a lot of purple doors posted in my online witch groups, and it's obvious some witches are reclaiming power and identity by painting their doors (among many other things!). One day when I have my own house, I wouldn't mind having a purple door!

Class in Session: Floral Potions

Fjfjg

Ggg

Ggg

Ggg

Ggg

Ffg

Ggg

Class in Session: Spagyric Shrooms, concluded

Fjfjf

Fjfj

Cixjd

Djcjf

Djfj

Fjfj

Djf

Cjc

Xjc

An Educational Birthday

Cycle's End

In numerology, One carries the energy of the beginning of a cycle. Nine wraps up the end of it. In my Nine years in terms of age, big things have tended to happen. Such as: 9 = began making own religious choices; 18 = college transition; 27 = last year with Mom. The end of one cycle, more or less a few months, and the start of another.

Today marks the end of another Nine year: my last day of being 36.

Tomorrow, our house was slated to go on the market; that's been bumped to the 4th instead. This past week has been an insane odyssey of stuffing, transporting, and hiding boxes of possessions to allow a photographer to take pictures worthy of a real estate listing. My current way of life, like it or not, is slowly crumbling. I'll be there another month, so I refused to take out all my stuff --- including some of my books and potions. I didn't want to live, as I told my friends, in Ma Hubbard's cupboard. But the urgency of completing old projects, mailing off old business, and weeding out old junk (up to and including "this old rat" as it were!) is strong in the air.

All I need is a portrait of Severus for it to be an altar.

Moving is nothing new. The past nine years have been full of unemployment, partial employment, employment at piddly jobs that turned out not to work out, and particularly in the past few years, being shunted from one living situation to the next. In short: I'm getting tired of this town. I've learned a lot, but I need a change of scene and routine, too. And I've long since gotten sick of this phase.

Before one goes to bed, one has to pack all the laboratory equipment currently occupying the bed. What a mess this whole process was! Still, there's a therapeutic quality to it.

I came to Portland with the intent to just "live and work for awhile" and see what came of it. Now that I see what did come from my sometimes aimless-feeling wanderings, I can ask: What's next? Better yet, I can better define what I want "next" to look and feel like.

With my passport coming in the mail, I don't know where I'll end up during this next cycle. I do know that I've put both conscious and unconscious tendrils out to the Universe that I'm ready for something new, to cram my stuff in storage and jump ship while I have the money and will and time to do it. No obligations, no family. Just desire. My current plea, then, is that the Powers aid me in steamrolling through fear and second-guessing, and in true Saturnian fashion, into doing the necessary prep-work step by step before I jump.

"Home is where your junk is." However little of it, but including your bed.

Lots of stuff happening in the stars seems to suggest this is a good time for wrapping up old business and making new beginnings. I find it all too much to keep track of, not being a professional starwatcher, so it's fortunate we have an abundance of people who are, as well as the Internet to connect us all.

Bairavee says:

"Over the past few days, the skies have been flooded with intense astrological alignments – one after the other. : Sun trined Saturn, Scorpio Full Moon, Mars squared Eris, Sun squared North Node (conjunct Ceres) and South Node - and so on. All within the slower-moving (and farther reaching) influence of Chiron´s entry into Aries.
There´s just been a lot happening.
But truthfully - these are the smaller rumbles - the stepping-stones that build up to a far more powerful shift, namely: Uranus´ entry into Taurus on May 15, 2018.
Now there´ll be some back and forth on this as Mars, Venus, Chiron, Uranus (and other bodies) retrograde. The energy of Chiron in Aries and Uranus in Taurus will only settle down in February-March 2019.
We´ve all been preparing for this time. And it´s important to keep the larger astrological picture in mind.
Change is afoot. It´s best not to obsess over the minutiae as the more anxiety we contribute to the collective adds to the very pressure we´re anxious about.
It´s also why I haven´t been writing as much. Only when guided to do so.
Stick to the basics:
Practice self-care. Uranus at 29 Aries is not going to leave without a fight – or at the very least – not before imparting valuable lessons in self-awareness.
Pay attention.
Pursue your goals steadfastly (especially with Saturn and Mars in Capricorn). Keep at it day by day even if there´s a feeling of inertia (or stuckness) present. It´s especially important to keep going then, even if a little progress is all you can manage. Just be consistent.
Ungrounded individuals are likely to behave in erratic ways. They are more likely to feel and express these shifts in a volatile manner. Ensure that you have done nothing to add fuel to the fire, and remember to not take it personally.
Stability is key right now, especially as we sit at the threshold of change.
You can be sure that more is coming.
So do what you can, and let the planets do the rest. Things will feel different after May 15.
Blessings."

Indeed.

Late tonight, I held a ritual to celebrate the transition of both my year and current cycles. (I'm also on my moon, so let's count it all in!) For the first time in years, I recited some lines from my own handwritten Severan Litany --- having finally found the papers. I also cleaned my auric field of energy connections; I'm already aware this is a practice that needs to be repeated, since old grudges die hard. And I annointed myself with an essential oil I felt would be in line magically with the goals I hope to accomplish in the coming days:

 Vetiver –
 Helps to ground and replenish the energy field, and release negative or excess energy from the body. Helps to break old patterns, so that you can create positive change and learn the important lessons in soul growth that The Universe has been bringing to you, that you may have been overlooking, Promotes a connection between you and Nature.
--- Sourced from:
 http://draly.life/metaphysical-properties-essential-oils/

Knowledge of essential oils, if not by heart then by book and in practice, is a good tool for a modern potist.

The last thing before I went to sleep was taking another crack at reading my new crystal ball, which I rarely do. "Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art . . ." That, Sybil, it most definitely is. I didn't anticipate being able to see, but for the first notable time I got not only mist but a few shapes forming within, before dissipating back into oblivion. The one that lingered most in my mind was the form of a winged dart, which I took to mean I should stay focused on my aspirations in the next few weeks, come what may --- including fear, doubt, house-sales, and whatever insane fun Uranus in Taurus throws at us on May 15th.

All we can do is our best right?