Childhood Nonsense ?

I was watching The Neverending Story this weekend, and I began to think how sad it was that ‘The Nothing’ is being actively propagated and developed in children of a continually younger age. The destruction of Fantasia by ‘The Nothing’ is sadly inevitable for all of us, but the Ivory Tower is not destroyed, at least not for the majority. The Ivory Tower’s existence is that small piece of childhood that none of us should ever loose and should look to as the foundation for rebuilding Fantasia. Why should we want to rebuild Fantasia ? Well, apart from to help us get through adult life, the answer came to me when studying a book on magical entity creation and the following comment from one of my favorite magazines:
“Kids – confuse the hell out of soft toys by pretending to be their best friend for eight years before suddenly deciding overnight to put them in a plastic bag and give them to a charity shop.  Scruffy the Lion August 2011”
How many of you had cuddly or soft toys ? How many of you wouldn’t go to bed without teddy, or your favorite ? Quite a few of you I bet. I had a cuddly Loch Ness Monster back in the 70’s. My Gran and myself made it together out of an old curtain I think (either that or an old dress). What started as an idea in my head (at the age of 5) came to reality a few hours later. ‘Nessie’ never left my side or bed, and went every where with me. Holidays, school, hospital. You name it, she came with me. The power that the soft toy had for me was incredible. She could scare off the monsters under the bed and in the wardrobe, keep me company at night when I was on my own and was essentially my very best friend. She was real enough to me and had feelings to go with it. In the winter she had a scarf to keep her warm, and a hat. If I was ill, I had Nessie to keep me company and I immediately felt 100 times better.
Our soft toys we had when we were children were far more than simply soft toys. They were our friends. As such we gave them a life force and the ability to do what we wanted them to do (frighten monsters under the bed etc). We didn’t think twice about it – it was a simple process.
The book I am reading, although making magical entity creation possible, is still quite difficult. Why is it so dificult now, when it was so easy to do when you were a child ?
Sadly, I fell into the trap of growing up, and all but three or four of my childhood cuddly friends ended up being given away to hospitals or binned. My wife is eager that I get rid of what I have left (after all,  I am forty five). No. My friends stay with me. I have many new friends as well (being a total sucker for Bear Workshop) and generally have a new one each Christmas. I have a little Jaguar I picked up from Singapore Zoo. He is my panic buddy – I suffer from panic attacks, depression and anxiety – he knows what to do.

Why am I saying all this ? I think that the essence of magic exists in childhood, at a time when the materialistic world has not had time to blinker your thoughts and beliefs.
Let your imagination go. Throw off the shackles of ‘resonsible adulthood’. Search your minds for the remains of your Fantasia, find your Ivory Tower and rebuild Fantasia (giving the Princess a new name if you want !). Visualisation is the key to magic and entity creation. Rebuilding your Fantasia will take your visualisation and imagination to a whole new level. You might even decide to go to Bear Workshop and get yourself a new friend. It worked for you during childhood – there is no reason apart from yourself to stop it working now.

Autumn Cranberry-Apple Cobbler – Demoness Style

After invoking your favorite divine feminine earthy godform into your kitchen (Unsere and Hecate come to mind for me), whip up this recipe the whole coven will enjoy.

Ingredients

  •                     5 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples
  •                     1 1/4 cups sugar
  •                     1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
  •                     3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
  •                     1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  •                     1 cup water
  •                     2 tablespoons butter or margarine

TOPPING:

  •                     3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  •                     2 tablespoons sugar
  •                     1 teaspoon baking powder
  •                     1/8 teaspoon salt
  •                     1/4 cup cold butter or margarine
  •                     1/4 cup milk

Directions

  1.                     In a large saucepan mix the apples, sugar, cranberries, tapioca, cinnamon and water. Let it stand for 5 about minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Cook and stir 3 minutes longer. Pour into a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Dot with butter.
  2.                     In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in milk to form a soft dough. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls over hot apple mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into topping comes out clean.

Clay As A Magickal Tool

Or more appropriately – don’t be afraid of the Sculpey.

Oven bake clay is one of those things that, for about the last ten years, has been a part of my magickal tool box. Why? Because you can get the exact talisman, amulet or tablet you need for any operation without having to spend  a lot of money and time finding something pre-made or  someone else to make it. Clay is also more permenant than paper, not as permenant as metal or stone, and still cheap enough and non-toxic enough to use for offerings that you might choose to bury in the earth or offer to the water.

The beauty of Sculpey is that it’s so versatile. You simply form the clay into the shape you want, carve the sigils or appropriate symbols or letters in it, then bake according to the instructions, let cool, paint, allow to dry, and you’re done.

There is power in the making of an amulet or talisman (or even a tablet). I like to vibrate enns or chant while kneading the clay (sometimes kneading a drop or two of my blood into it), giving it shape, and carving the symbols. I may even run it through smoke and bless it with oleum before baking it. I sometimes add stones to imbue the clay with additional properties. Since the clay comes in many colors it’s really easy to get the colors you want. You just need an oven.

Here are some pictures of the magickal items friends and I have made with oven-bake clay to give you an idea of what you can do.

 Daemon Sigil Rune Stones and small clay sigils used for ritual.

  

Here are a variety of amulets created using clay, paint and stones. When sticking stones into your amulets or lamens, push the stone into the clay first, take it out, then bake the amulet, then, once cooled, hot glue the stone into place. If you just shove the stone in there and bake it, the stone will fall out upon cooling.

 

Some other ideas for use of Sculpey in magick include clay altar pattens, wall sculptures, magickal rings, stick incense holders, oleum-blood bowls, salt holders, place markers, altar bookmarks, elemental tiles, figurines for sympathetic magick, deity sculptures, offering plates/bowls, etc…   Oven bake clay can be found at most craft stores. Enjoy the process of creation with your magick and may the Daemonic Divine guide you!

Threshold..

What I say today in this post is just my opinion…

In today’s world of magick, many magick users tend to want to conduct quick rituals and instant results..  With Threshold magick, it is not quick and the results are unseen. Long time students of magick, they avoid true Threshold magick and do simple cleansing of a room because it is faster.  Sometimes speed and simple is good, but should not be the norm in your arsenal.  Threshold magick should not be overlooked, it should be a common practice for all.   Unlike cleansing and warding, Threshold magick should be more permeant and a long term practice to maintain it and strengthen it, one should give their all when they do it (blood and time). If you fail to strengthen it, it’ll fade away ( not unless you are in a ancestral home). But most of us is not lucky in living in their great great grandparent’s home, most are in apartments.

Threshold magick is your front line of defense in protecting your home and yourself, when you are away and when you are sleep. Also can limit how often you need to cleanse a place also you can tap into it for your magick.

My discription of the task seems simple, but its not. I am not going to give out my version, but you can fill in the blanks and adapt it to your own beliefs.

First off there are different versions. Some say you can just do hand gestures at a doorway to complete it, which I don’t like… Some say you can draw your sigils and symbols on paper or curtains and hang them at your doorways, this is good if your a nomad and not planning to stick around for long (but this is not a healthy solution, since the magick requires direct contact with the threshold, but I’m sure you can work around it if you need too). My prefer method is direct writing, painting, drawing of the sigils and symbols right on the doorway.

There isn’t any solid written rules on what symbols or sigils one need to draw. I have friends who use German runes, Chinese symbols, Celtic knots.. It shows that Threshold Magick is old and found worldwide in any belief system.

Use symbols you can relate to for protection, charge them with your blood and oil. Say an incantation to protect you on the physical, mental, and spiritual plane from all negative energies and actions that may harm you and your home.  Again it sounds simple, but it can take awhile to complete. I know some that it taken a week to complete, it’ll test your skills in magick, be it a first time learner to even active practitioner.. It is good to do it over and over to practice and refrain the Threshold with your new skills and understanding.  Your version of Threshold magick will  change and evolve over your life time..

Daemonic Communication For Rituals

Infernal Greetings to all,

For this month I decided to share a little project I have been working on. I know that for most people a full physical manifestation does not usually occur with each Ritual. This made me start wondering if there could be “subtle” influences during my Rituals that I am not aware of. I
decided to try and find various parts of my Rituals that could be controlled by the Daemon I was working with. I have actually been doing this for several months and keeping a detailed record of what I discovered.  I would like to post all of it here but much of my Ritual work is very private and I feel that disclosing too much would betray the Daemon’s trust.

Here though are some examples of what I have incorporated so far.

Using regular 6-sided dice (up to 4) I pose questions and allow any presence other than myself to effect the outcome. For example,

Select 6 different colored candles and allow the dice to choose which will be used in the Ritual.

Select 6 music cd’s and allow the dice to select the music for the Ritual.

Select 3 different incense types and roll the dice. For example 1 or 2 for the first one 3 or 4 for the second etc …

For divination I select several items like a Ouija Board, Tarot, Scrying mirror, or Norse Ruins and let the dice decide.

For the actual Ritual I have several documents all with the same theme but various different components (such as the language and specific wording) and I let the dice decide which one to use.

I think the basic idea is clear now.

Some of the other options I have been using are, lights on or just candlelight, what room the Ritual will occur in, day or night, fasting, meditation, robes or casual, writing in my journal during or after the Ritual, and legal mood enhancing substances.

Now I know some people will just assume that I am using divination and that none of this is new. But I don’t agree since divination is more for hidden knowledge and what I am attempting to do is find a new way to communicate with the Daemonic. I also hope nobody thinks that I am creating some sort of psychology test or Daemonic quiz to be part of my Rituals. I have the very utmost respect for the Daemons I work with and I would never have attempted any of this had I felt it would be demeaning or insulting to those Daemons. I actually meditated for several months before trying these things and always felt a positive energy.

Thank You again for your time and reading what I have to offer this month.

See you again in October.

In Darkness We are United …

Devin

Crossing Da’ath Without Drowning

Many years ago I attempted to keep a blog. I procrastinate too much so it didn’t work out. However, one thing I did discuss at some length was whether or not the magician needed to be deconstructed while crossing Da’ath.  I know this is a point with a lot of magicians. Some believe that the only way to cross the Great Abyss is through turmoil, trial, and tribulation. I am of a different line of thinking.

I believe the magician can cross Da’ath without being deconstructed or having their lives filled with constant chaos. I think it really depends on the type of person you are. Let me be blunt. If you’re a fuck-up, or rather you think you’re a fuck-up, your path through the Abyss is going to be rougher than someone who has a strong self-esteem. I think the biggest problem I see with a lot of magicians is they lack self-esteem. That’s why some of them became magicians to begin with. They saw magic as a quick fix to feeling powerless and unable to succeed on their own merit. I view being a fuck-up as the symptom of low self-esteem rather than a problem by itself. So maybe you’re not really a fuck-up if you can’t get your shit together. Maybe you’re just really down on yourself and constantly telling yourself you can’t do this or that.

Maybe others have told you that you can’t do something or that you’re worthless. Somewhere along the line you’ve believed what you and others have told you. It’s a self-fulfilled prophecy. As a result, you never take chances, you may fear success because after all if you succeed then people will take notice and they’ll see you’re the fuck-up you believe you are.

This month’s blog was supposed to be a how-to so with some inspiration from Murmur, my how-to is actually a challenge to those of you with low self esteems. Don’t worry, no one will know if you follow my direction or not, it’s between you and your Demons. I challenge you to tell yourself every day this month that you are not a fuck-up. I dare you to tell yourself you do deserve a better paying job, you can do something you didn’t think you can do, and that you will have a better house. Start behaving like the person you wish you were. Adopt your alter-ego for an hour a day. Better yet, start every morning with an invocation to  the Demons who embody attributes you find attractive. Evoke those Demonic aspects from within the self. This is easily done by using appropriate enns and speaking with the Demon. An example: “I call on you Focalor, give me the wisdom to find your strength within myself.”

I want you to journal your affirmations and progress each day and at the end of the month you should see manifested results no matter how slight. You may feel better about yourself. You may find yourself filled with confidence. You may even find you actually applied for that job that, a month ago, you would have never applied for.

Keep doing this, one day at a time, and I believe you actually can cross Da’ath without the devastating deconstruction so many magicians seem to experience.

Remember – just because aren’t suffering doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong as some magicians seem to think.  I rather think if a magician isn’t at least living comfortably, whatever his definition of comfort is, then he isn’t doing it right.

September How-To

Welcome to September friends! This month our bloggers were asked to share their favorite Demonolatry based projects with readers. With any luck we’ll all leave the month with some excellent project ideas for the coming autumn.

In DB Publishing news there are two months left to submit for the Legion Project. In other news,  while many of our titles are available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, certain titles are only available electronically from certain sources. As of September, Lulu will stop carrying both Daemonolatry Hymns for Ritual & Meditation and the DVD of Daemonolatry on the Tube.  This means the only place you can get both of these is now directly from S. Connolly herself. MP3 downloads are also available. She also carries exclusive electronic editions of Kasdeya Rite of Ba’al. So if you want that for Kindle or Nook, you also have to get that directly from her.

eBook copies of The Complete Book of Demonolatry and The Daemonolater’s Guide to Daemonic Magick are available exclusively from Faeries Myst online occult shop.

I’ve also heard lots of rumors about new books coming, but nothing definitive. You’ll have to wait and see I suppose.

Without further ado, I give you September’s How-To blogs.

Frank F. Domovoi

Priorities

I realise that this may not seem to have much to do with demonolatry, and for that I apologise but I believe that if I can get people thinking then my job is done..

For some reason I have been contemplating a lot about the current state of the human cause and its obsession with money and material possessions at the expense of required basics, and the apparent ignorance of what is happening around us.
Gold is now at US$1900 an ounce. Should there be a food shortage, what is now the more important, gold or food ? You can’t eat gold and on
the other hand no one with food would want to exchange their food with your gold.
The London Riots. Nothing acheived at all. No reason apart from breaking into shops and thieving designer goods and plasma tellys.
The planet is changing. Last night we had an 5.9 earthquake in Virginia USA. That is unusual. Approximately 12 or so hours earlier, we
had a 5.3 in Southern Colorado. Also unusual.The worlds weather patterns are not what they should be.The UK has suddenly suffered from 3 cold winters in a row, with no prior warning signs ?The US has suffered one of if not the worse tornado and severe storm seaon in history. Something is not right, and most people have thoughts to this extent, but these are quickly brushed the mat by reassurances that all is well.
We are told that Global Warming is something to be very concerned about. The governments bring in Carbon Footprint taxes to offset Global Warming. How can money offset global warming ? Besides which, Geological records suggest that the earth is cooling, not warming, but this is conveniently sidelined, and money begins to pour in to the government coffers.

I watched a video on youtube recently. The link is below. Watch it and think about what is being said. I would be interested in your thoughts.

Meditating the Temple Set-Up

I change the temple twice a year in January and August. I will go out to the old barn where we have our temple set up, open all the doors and windows, wipe down any webs, and then sit in the center of the room and meditate on the space.  Now with a smaller space like our private family temple in the house, it’s a lot easier to figure out how to redecorate. I’ll move altars, change each one with new candle holders, candles, statuary, or symbolic offerings based on whim. I change the private temple monthly only because I don’t like stagnation in the temple. I want a flow of constant change so that going into the temple never seems stale or boring for myself, my husband, or our children.

However, when it comes to the bigger space, the temple in the barn that we use for group gatherings, that’s a different story. We use it once a month and it must accommodate and serve groups of twenty to seventy-five during these monthly rituals. Therefore meditating on the space and setting it up for efficiency is key. While we do use the station method, a method by which altars are set up for procession from one station to the next such as blood-letting, request burning, abyssal communion, magick working, we also have elemental and keeper altars at the ready based on ritual. This means that we may change the set up month to month based on the needs of the ritual being worked but for six months out of the year, all our group altars stay decorated with the same decor.

Elemental altars are no brainers. A beautiful vase filled with sand, rocks, and flowers currently sits on my earth altar. But I’ve also chosen statues of the Baphomet, bowls of garden soil, houseplants,  bowls of fruits or vegetables and even beautiful rocks as altar centerpieces. For water I’ve used fountains, ornate cups and chalices, sand and sea shells, a goldfish in a bowl, and one summer our water altar held a lava lamp. For fire I generally create beautiful candle displays or we simply use a fire pit since our south quarter is where the doors of the barn are. This means we can put the fire pit just outside the doors. We’ve been able to do some creative ritual with this set up.  We’ve also used torches. For Air altars we’ve used birds in cages to large incense burners. One summer, when our air conditioner was out for two weeks, my daughter put a fan on the air altar. The only limitation to your altars is your imagination.

When I set up the ritual space I don’t just think about the decor, but I also meditate on how it will be used and how many people it must accommodate. There must be a flow to the space so that participants can move through the space in a way that they’re not running into each other and everything proceeds in an uninterrupted order for maximum efficiency. I take into account the robes participants wear because that determines the space required between the center  of the ritual space and the outside altars and the space between altars. We don’t want to catch anyone’s robes on fire.

For those of you who are solitary or who live with roommates who are uncomfortable or unaware of your spiritual practices, consider temple spaces and altars that are disguised as regular home decor. A beautiful vase of flowers, a lovely incense burner, candle displays and a container of sand and shells can look classy and function as elemental altars. Your dining room table can serve as an offering altar with a new centerpiece month-to-month.  No one need know what it is if you’re creative enough.

Happy temple and altar creation!

Brid

The Relaxing Quality of Clouds

Are you high-strung? Stressed out? Feeling a bit anxious? In this fast-paced deadline driven world we live in, some of us (those of us who live our lives on a deadline) need to remember to take a minute to relax.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to do this is to sit back and watch clouds. In recent years my DH and I did some renovations to the outside of our house so we would spend more time outdoors. It was a good investment of our time because I find myself using the space more frequently now. I like going out by myself around seven at night just to watch the sky. This year, with all the weather, its been both beautiful and dangerous. The sky, in the splendor of Lucifer rising, gives us the most beautiful nature shows accompanied by a soundtrack of bird-song.

What a wonderous thing the sky is; always changing. It moves slowly, taking its time. Clouds rolling over clouds. The sky is entrancing. Some of my most moving meditations happen as I watch those clouds. This is my air meditation, different from earth, fire and water.

For contrast: Earth meditation is solid and focused. It happens when my hands are buried wrist deep in soil and I’m working with my plants. Or raking autumn leaves off the lawn. I am focused on the doing and connecting with the solid foundation of my physical form. Water meditation is moving, flowing. I walk, I think. My creativity flows free. The movement loosens all those things holding me back. Fire meditation is closed and self-focused on sensation. The warmth of the sun against my skin.

It’s only the air meditation that is a visual delight whether those clouds bring shade, rain, thunder or lightening. I stare up at them and just watch. I’m in the moment, entranced by their resplendent beauty. During that meditation all is right with the world and I am a part of all that is. And when I disconnect – I am me again and I take with me, into me, all that is Lucifer.