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Lesson 3: Tools and Props

No study of Ceremonial Magick would be complete without studying the tools used. Ceremonial Magick in particular is dependant on tools to be more than just "stage props". These tools are required and certain things must be done to empower them enabling them to perform their function.

For example, in most Low Magick usage, any Incense will do. The criterion for choosing it seems to be how it smells. You go out and buy something off the shelf and put it on your altar. Many practitioners of "Low Magic" don't even bother with buying a tray for the incense sticks, and stab it into a hole in the altar (in the case of stick incense) or into some other naturally occurring holder (such as a pine cone or rock). Very few people tend to bless and consecrate the Incense, since it's only going to be burned up anyway.

Despite the flip tone used above, for Low Magic users, the question remains: How do you consecrate the already sacred? Fire and Air in the form of incense is used to consecrate the implements and area you will work in and with... how do you make it more sacred? Why would you think you had to, and why would you want to try? Something can't be a little bit sacred any more that someone can be a little bit pregnant.

In Ceremonial magick that changes radically. Here is an excerpt from the Key of Solomon:

THE EXORCISM OF INCENSE.

O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, deign to bless this odoriferous Incense so that it may receive strength, virtue, and power to attract the Good Spirits, and to banish and cause to retire all hostile Phantoms. Through Thee, O Most Holy Adonai, Who livest and reignest unto the Ages of the Ages. Amen.

I exorcise thee, O Spirit impure and unclean, thou who art a hostile Phantom, in the Name of God, that thou quit this Incense, thou and all thy deceits, that it may be consecrated and sanctified in the name of God Almighty. May the Holy Spirit of God grant protection and virtue unto those who use Incense and may the hostile and Evil Spirit and Phantom never be able to enter therein, through the Ineffable Name of God Almighty. Amen.

O Lord, deign to bless and to sanctify this Sacred Incense so that it may be a remedy unto mankind for the health of body and of soul, through the Invocation of Thy Holy Name. May all Creatures who receive the odour of this Incense and of these spices receive health of body and of soul, through Him who hath formed the Ages. Amen.

After this thou shalt sprinkle the various Spices with the Water of the Art, and thou shalt place them aside in a piece of silk as in other cases, or in a box destined for the purpose, so that thou mayest have them ready prepared for use when necessary. When thou wishest to use the Incense, thou shalt kindle a fire of fresh Incense, in an Incense Burner, and the Incense being lighted thou shalt say over it as follows, before putting the Spices beside the Incense Burner:

THE EXORCISM OF THE FIRE.

I exorcise thee, O Creature of Fire, by Him through Whom all things have been made, so that every kind of Phantasm may retire from thee, and be unable to harm or deceive in any way, through the Invocation of the Most High Creator of all. Amen.

Bless, O Lord All-Powerful, and All-Merciful, this Creature of Fire, so that being blessed by Thee, it may be for the honour and glory of Thy Most Holy Name, so that it may work no hindrance or evil unto those who use it. Through Thee, O Eternal and Almighty Lord, and through Thy Most Holy Name. Amen.

This being done, thou shalt put the Spices upon the Fire, and make what perfumes and suffumigations thou requirest.

Over Fumigations of evil odour thou shalt say: ADONAI, LAZAI, DALMAI, AIMA, ELOHI, O Holy Father, grant unto us succour, favour, and grace, by the Invocation of thy Holy Name, so that these things may serve us for aid in all that we wish to perform therewith, that all deceit may quit them, and that they may be blessed and sanctified through Thy Name. Amen.

This is an entire rite in and of itself, and the Holy Circle has to be cast specifically so that one can bless the Incense before using it to summon a spirit.

As you have probably guessed from the above, one must have properly consecrated incense in order to cast the circle (working area in this definition) in order to consecrate the Incense. It can get somewhat confusing, and I would imagine that one could cast the circle, consecrate the Incense, and THEN call up any spirits that one was wanting to work with. Alternatively this suggests that in High Magic there is an unbroken line of Teachers/pupils so that the teacher supplies already consecrated incense, although this gets into a chicken and the egg argument, and you still have the problem of how the first batch got consecrated.

Needless to say, this takes time and energy. Add to that the fact that this kind of ceremonial magick also requires 4 other people, a plethora of other tools (I counted over 20) and long speeches to call up the spirits you wish to deal with, one can instantly understand why this is called "Ceremonial" magick.

I'm not going to look at all the tools that can be used in Ceremonial Magic in this lesson; rather I will look at and discuss some of the most common tools that are used in ceremonial and religo-magick.

Candles: They represent Illumination (duh) and Fire, or the Holy Flame of the Gods. From my observation of different ceremonies and rituals, High Magick or Low, pure religion or spell, these are probably the most common. I cannot think of one ritual school that does not use candles at one point or another. The Catholic Church uses candles in ways many Pagans would recognize but that many Catholics don't understand or acknowledge. For example the ceremony of making more Holy Water right around Easter in which a lit candle is plunged multiple times into a cauldron of water while prayers are said and incense is used to consecrate the water; or the blessing of the candles for the coming year in the Church on February third, near Candlemas or Imbolc, the Feast of Lights.

Not having been Catholic myself, I can only imagine the symbolism they ascribe to these candles as they are consecrated and put out.

I do know that there are many traditions that specify particular types of candles, i.e. beeswax, paraffin or no paraffin, no animal matter, etc., be used for certain things. In candle magick, for instance, specific colors MUST be used to represent different things, or else the spell will have a lessened effect. Catholicism specifies that the candles must be made out of virgin beeswax, and many traditions of witchcraft feel a need to have candles of specific substances, colors, and materials. Several styles of Ceremonial Magick have an entire production for the consecration of the candles. Thankfully I have not seen a ceremony to make the candles yet, but I'm sure that someone will be writing one in the future if it hasn't been done already.

One thing that I realized while I was doing some research, no matter what faith we follow in America, all of us have done a candle ritual at one time or another in our lives. Remember sitting at the table when you had just turned 4 or so, having the lights darken, as that golden glow came out of the kitchen, hovering over a cake carried to you, everyone's attention on you? Everyone is singing a silly song to you, but your eyes are riveted on that cake. The cake is placed before you; you take a deep breath and make your wish. You blow as hard as you can, blowing all the candles out, to the cheering of your friends. They ask you what you wished for, but your parent tells you not to tell because you won't get it. Remember that time?

Congratulations, you just did a candle spell! The principal in which you psyche yourself up for a specific action to occur during spell casting is exactly the same force you used when you blew out the candles and asked for that pony you wanted. What was missing was the discipline behind the will it to drive the spell.

Now that you know that you have been doing candle magick all your life, we will examine candle magick closer in later lessons.

Athame: The Ritual Knife. It is your main magickal tool. You will use this for almost everything, including stirring things, and threatening to kill someone with it. Don't worry; you probably won't have to follow through.

This tool is probably the second most common throughout the different magickal traditions. I have seen it in most rituals, with the sole exception being Christian Magickal traditions. I have considered the idea that some of Christianity's problem with Paganism stems from a difference of opinion on this matter.

Sword: This is the Howitzer version of the Athame's popgun. It is simply an Athame for a group of pagans, usually a Coven. It is normally handed down to the next generation of Pagans when the original wielders pass on, and thus the power in it grows. Usually the passing of a sword within the same ritual group or tradition does not require the sword to be rededicated or reconsecrated.

If, for example, you were acquiring a sword from another source that you know has been used for any reason what so ever, it would be wise to cleanse a sword of negative energies when it comes into your possession. Unless you wish to melt the used sword down and reforge it, it is almost impossible to remove all energies from a sword or knife. With a brand new sword you simply need to consecrate it. Whether a particular sword is one that has been used in a Coven for the last 50 years, or a Samurai Katana used to behead people in WWII is immaterial. Those energies will leave a mark on the weapon.

While most of the energy can be transmuted to another "feeling", it will be almost impossible to remove all of the energy from a given object. That is why psychometry (readings done from objects) is possible.

As far as Wiccan Magick is concerned, the following comments are relevant. While they are NOT true for most types of ceremonial magick, where the form and function are critical, for various forms of Low Magick, these statements are true in most cases.

Athame, Sword and Wand: As far as rituals are concerned, these are interchangeable. It does not matter which you choose to use, for they all do the same thing, channel energy from you to somewhere else. Different are symbolic of different things, and that is the only distinction.

Working in a group setting, one would use the Sword for energy channeling when everyone is focused on the same goal. However, in that same setting, if you were doing energy work for a personal reason by yourself, you might choose to use your Athame to channel that energy. The wand (in my experience) is only used in specific rituals to represent the Phallus. This does not mean that one cannot use the wand for the same purpose as an athame. The wand is just a capable of defining the circle and directing group energy as the sword. It's role may be limited in modern times by modern perceptions, thoughts and glamour.

Specifically, the Sword and the Athame should be double-edged. This dual cutting edge represents the fact that they can be used to harm or heal. One edge is used to destroy; yet the same knife can cut out a cancer. In Dune, Frank Herbert brings up the "Philosophy of the Knife": "Cutting off that which is useless and declaring 'now it is complete, because it ends here'". That is what the double edge represents.

Some schools of thought specify that an athame should be dull, while the White-handled knife should be sharp. Other philosophies demand that the athame be razor sharp. One explanation offered is the athame should be dull so that it can cut on the Spirit planes, specifically the beings and astral creations that exist there. Also one does not have to have a sharp knife to channel energy from here to there.

My advice in this matter is simple. If your tradition dictates that you have both an athame and a white handled or use knife, keep the athame dull. However, if the athame is being used to scribe other items for your rituals as well, then it should be sharp. Follow the tradition you are learning on this matter. One non-magickal school, although it can be argued that any philosophy is a magickal school, is Buddhism. In it, they have a knife called a "purbah", which has a triangular shaped blade with a face carved in the hilt. You may have seen it in a movie called "The Shadow" in recent years, and it can be found at http://www.ourpeak.com/gibson/u-820.jpg (please note, this is only a picture. The original link to the manufacturer seems to have disappeared. They no longer carry this weapon.). It is a brass knife, deliberately left dull, designed for attacking and harming spirits only, it was not intended for use on this plane.

I could write a lesson all on it's own about the Athame, Sword and all the other "necessary" sharpened instruments of Magick and ritual, but that would be a waste of your time and mine. Suffice it to say that in the end, the athame, sword, poniard, kerfan, scimitar, sickle, burin, black or white handled knife, and about 20 other tools I could name such as the switch, staff, rod and the wand, are interchangeable as far as their use in a low magick setting is concerned. All of them are used to do one of several different things, channel energy from the holder to the target, take energy from the target to the magickian, define the area to be worked in magickally (usually by pushing energy from the practitioner to the Circle) and/or to menace or cut things on the Astral Plane in the case of "bladed" tools.

Incense: Smells good, and represents Air. Carries the prayers up to the Gods in some Traditions. It is used as a sacrifice to the beings that exist on the Astral Plane in many schools, because the smoke and scent are something so ethereal and non-defined. It is used primarily, in my experience, to evoke a specific state of mind.

Think about this for a few moments. Think about smells you may know. What is the first thing you think of when you smell burning rubber? Call up the memory of that smell in your mind and smell it again. What do you think of when you smell it? Most people think about danger of some sort. If rubber is burning, then the car is messed up or you have a problem with the electrical wiring of the house. What do you think of when you smell flowers? Spring time, new growth, and renewal normally. What about cordite (burnt gunpowder)? Do you think about something getting shot or being hunted? How about the smell of cooking food? What about sulphur (lighted match)?

All these smells bring up specific and exact associations within your psyche. A lit match smell may remind you of the candles you lit with a match last week, and those roses may remind you of that time you spent in the garden weeding and pruning rosebushes. That is why smells are normally used for triggers.

So if this is true, can smells be used to enhance magick? Of course they can. Take, for example, a spell to heal a loved one. Now, what smells can one associate with healing? Lysol perhaps for that antiseptic smell? Possibly the smell one gets when one goes to the doctor's office of strong chemical cleaners along with cotton cloth? So, maybe opening a bottle of Lysol can help put your mind on what you are trying to do when you DO cast that healing spell? In addition there is the belief that the smell of a scent can carry your wishes up to the heavens to the Gods or whomever you honor in this case.

This is how specific smells and scents became associated with certain rituals and deities. My wife falls into a reverent mindset at the smell of burning beeswax, frankincense and myrrh mainly because this is the scent she knows from years of being Catholic.

Sounds can also be classed in the same category as scent, just as incense and bells can do the same thing. Hearing a pipe organ or choir music puts one in a distinctly different mindset than listening to Motley Crüe. Part of your job is to discover the scents and sounds that put you into specific mindsets and use them. You can make a list if you wish, but most often if you sit and think about it for a few moments before setting up for the ritual or spell you wish to cast, the associations will become plain to you.

Chalice: also Goblet, Horn, other names. A drinking glass for toasting the Gods.

It has been my experience that many traditions of Magick use this in one form or another. Most often, the chalice is used to hold different liquids for use during the rituals. In Wiccan practice, it can be used to hold the water for the water/salt combination as well as the wine for the Cakes and Ale portion of the rite, and also any other liquids needed.

This does not always have to be a goblet or chalice. In this case, any cup or bowl specifically to hold liquids qualifies, which includes many common symbols from a multitude of traditions. Most often they call it a goblet or chalice, but they don't have to. I believe there is one type of witchcraft (based around the Arthurian myths) that calls this tool a Grail.

Pentacle: This is usually just a pentagram (a five-pointed star with a circle around it). I use mine as a paperweight (comes in handy on windy nights) others use it for various reasons. Mostly it's there to represent all the elements.

I wrote the above section a long time ago in a class called "Pagan Basics" intended to introduce those who were role playing pagan characters to some of the basics of Paganism, so their characters could be convincing. I didn't know as much then as I know now.

I have since discovered that while what I have above is true, it does not go far enough. There are all kinds of "pentacles" that exist, most often in Ceremonial Magick, which are not used to represent all the elements. Things like the famous "Seal of Solomon" which is actually about 150 different seals, intended to control the spirits that are summoned up by his spells. None of these have any elemental association, unless the spirit has an elemental association, but instead are used as a "seal" on a document, intended to keep the spirit in it's plane, rather than giving it access to this plane.

The illustrations of these different pentacles and seals are many and various. These are a few examples: http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/l1202f2.gif
http://www.esotericarchives.com/gifs/ksol1.gif
http://www.esotericarchives.com/gifs/g78.gif
http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/o35a.gif
http://www.esotericarchives.com/gifs/g76.gif

and so on. I think you get the picture. There is (thankfully) a full list of all these seals in the Key of Solomon, which we will be studying later.

Other than the Keys and Witchcraft, I can think of no other traditions that use pentacles or seals extensively. I'm sure there are some, but I am not sufficiently familiar with those traditions to be confident in saying just what they are or are not.

Ritual book: This is the book that most Pagans write the ceremonies down in, also spells, thoughts, feelings, insights. Also called a Book of Shadows, The Tree, and other names.

Some Pagans split the Journal part of their BOS and the Ritual and ceremony part into different books. The journal part is then called (in my experience) the Book of Mirrors, to reflect the soul. This is what (ultimately) your notebook will become. In this will be poems, thoughts and so on that you feel are special. Many argue that these books should be hand-written, but I feel that it is all right if they are digital too. Just so long as the information is preserved for you, if no one else.

This can also be the workbook you are using for a current spell. I can't imagine trying to memorize the complex spells and rites in the Keys of Solomon and recite them from memory. Thankfully instructions in various traditions for making tools are extremely explicit. In addition the tradition will spell out instructions on making a ritual book to allow the practitioner to read the spell out loud. This would, of course, have to be consecrated as well.

It's interesting to note, that in Christian Magick, the Bible can be considered their Ritual book, with the Torah and Talmud in Kabalistic Magick and the Koran for Islamic Ritual. It, in short, is any book that is read from during the rite or ceremony. An alternative is a book in which rituals are written down for later use. Thus, your notebook(s) could be seen as being a ritual book, as well as the three ring binder you index your information in for use in the Circle.

I'm going to end the litany of tools here, and say that it is possible for this list to go on for quite some time. I could add things like the salt, libation dish, amulets, candelabra and so on, but these are mostly individual to the tradition itself.

Ritualistic or Ceremonial traditions will provide you with a list of the necessary tools for that tradition, along with the means of consecrating them and dedicating them in the specific magickal tradition. I would advise reading the instructions regarding the making or acquiring of these tools, and following them exactly.

I mean this statement. If your esoteric tradition demands that you make a book by hand out of virgin parchment bound in kid leather for your ritual book, you better start studying bookbindery and secure a supply of parchment. These instructions are not written down randomly, they are there for a specific purpose, and most often it is because other methods have been tried and failed for one reason or another. Trial and error in most of these Ceremonial Traditions has already been done, and the processes described are not open to modification.

However, if the tradition does not specifically state that you MUST make the tools out of new materials, then some improvisation is allowed. So, let's discuss how to modify a tool to be used in a current tradition.

One thing I want to stress is that I'm not a huge proponent of recycling tools. If a sword was used in a Druidic tradition, then it has been consecrated and dedicated for that tradition, and should ultimately stay with that tradition. However, if the practitioner needs to use that sword from that Druidic tradition, then some common sense precautions need to be stated.

First and foremost, if the tool you are using was used for blood sacrifice (even if it's as benign as slitting open the user's vein for some bloodletting) then I personally believe that it can never be cleansed of that influence. It is my experience that it must from then on be used only for blood sacrifice.

The reason I state this is simple. There is a tradition that has been explored somewhat in fantasy works that (as far as I know) is not practiced in reality anywhere in the world. It is called "Blood magick". The human creature has a tremendous amount of energy in the body, spiritually speaking. Should that creature die for one reason or another, that energy can be ripped from the person at the moment of death and used for another purpose. It is one reason that death-curses are so potent. If, as I die, I cast a curse on someone, and channel my life force into it, that curse can persist long after the target of the curse is dead. It's one reason that the story of the curse of the Hope Diamond is still around.

Using a tool that has been exposed to blood magic energy contaminates it rather quickly. Plus, you have to be a stone cold killer to murder someone just to power a spell. There are all kinds of factors that could contaminate a tool of this nature, and these are only a couple. The hate energy, the fear of the victim, the malice of the practitioner and so on all combine to make the tool "dark" and ensure that it cannot be cleansed.

I know that there are some traditions (like Voodoo and Santeria) that use animal sacrifice as part of their rites, and use the death energy from that to fuel their spells. While I can understand that usage, I still cannot see a ritual knife used by a houngan (Voodoo priest) that has killed thousands of chickens in the process of his worship being used by a Witch (even after cleansing) without some real problems occurring.

This is another of those hotly contested debates in the Pagan community. There are those who believe that any tool can be cleaned of all energy, and just as many who think that while the majority of the energy can be cleaned, not all of it can be as I said previously.

I come down on the side of those who think that not all the energy can be cleaned out.

The next common sense rule of reusing tools is to try to use the tool for the same purpose it was consecrated for in the first place. If you have the same sword from the Druids (as mentioned above), try to use it as a sword, not an athame. You will get better results if you do.

Next is modification. It helps YOUR magick if you make some sort of modification to the tool you want to use. Using the same candlesticks that were used in a Civil War Chapel for your altar is a good thing, but you may want to inscribe a few runes on it to make the purpose of the candlestick more yours. Understand that after a while of being exposed to energy in a rite or ritual, especially magickal energy, the tool will start to pick that energy up and take it into the item.

(As an aside, I can hear the antiques freaks protesting and getting ready to lynch me. However, the same thing can be accomplished by tracing the runes/symbols with salt water or the holy water of the tradition, or anointing oil. These are magickally charged to "alert" the intelligence of the tool to the change in purpose, without marring the mundane value of the piece to collectors.)

This is what you want to happen. However, there is a flip side to this, and that is, the tool then develops a rudimentary intelligence. The candlestick will know that it is supposed to hold candles and that is its purpose. If you try to have that candlestick hold incense or something else, there will be a sense of "wrongness" to the entire ritual, until you either rededicate that tool to it's new purpose, or start using it as it was intended to be used.

This is animistic in origin, saying that these tools will have a "persona" and an awareness of what is going on, but remember; this is magick we are dealing with. This is the stuff that creates changes in the fabric of the universe and simple contamination (and sympathetic magick as well) will cause this to happen. It is a good thing for, as the tool knows its purpose, it can then cooperate with the magickian toward the goal of the ritual.

It is for this reason that most schools will demand that you make your own tools or that you have them made specifically for you. Many traditions will demand you make all the tools yourself, and while this is interesting, it may not be practical these days, especially given the amount of tools that are needed and the paucity of free time in the modern world.

When a craftsman makes an item, he puts part of himself into it. It does not matter if it is a nail or an intricately carved piece of wood, in fact, the more effort and attention that the craftsman puts into the piece, the more of his energy will be in that item. So, buying hand crafted knives for use in a ceremony, even if they are cleansed and consecrated, will have the contamination of the maker's energy.

In the case of mass-market items these days, this is not a problem. A machine can't really put its will and energy into an item you purchase. However, when dealing with items that have to be custom made or hand made, you have a whole different story.

It is due to these factors that the old magicians advised the practitioner to manufacture their own tools. Once the practitioner becomes adept in one particular style or tradition of magick, s/he can decide which rules can be bent and which can be broken.

After the tool to be recycled is cleaned of any extraneous energy, by taking all the energy contained in it, grounding that energy, and infusing it with your own energy, it can be used again for your rituals. If it had runes or symbols on it, I would buff them off and place my own on there.

Now, obviously, this is not intended to apply to those things that will be destroyed during their use. Things like candles and incense, water and salt, don't really need to be drained of energy and consecrated again, but if your traditions says that you must do this, then I would do it.

The reason I advocate following a particular tradition's teaching verbatim is because the teachers of that tradition know more than I do. If you feel a call to practice the Ceremonial Magick of the Rosicrucians once this class is done, go for it. But no matter how many degrees you have in other magickal traditions, or how much knowledge you have in these particular practices, nor how similar to Tradition X their magickal system is, IT IS NOT THE SAME THING. Practicing a particular school of magick's way automatically subjects the practitioner to the way they do things. Every single aspect of that tradition, from the ritual to the props to the hand motions and gestures to the words recited to the ethical structure and philosophy is necessary to that tradition. It is good if you have a grounding in other magickal systems, this will help you in understanding the underlying structure and reasons for the rules that are given. It is only when you become the "master" in that system of magick that you can start messing with those rules and trying different things.

As you get to know me, you will find out that I'm a Martial Artist from a LONG time ago. I will be using these analogies quite a lot in these lessons, so I want you to understand that up front so you can understand some of my analogies.

I stress the need to keep the traditions pure until you are completely familiar with them because if you don't you may find that something that should be working is not. It would be as if I were practicing Tae Kwan Do, with all the punches and kicks it has, and I was already adept in Judo. Now, they are both martial arts, both have punches and kicks, but the movements in Judo are completely different than those in Tae Kwan Do. If I am studying Tae Kwan Do and I try to use the punches and kicks from Judo, I will not only fail, but the instructor would be well within his rights to throw me out of his training hall for disrespect.

This is because while the basic movements look the same, the philosophy of the sport as well as some of the more subtle aspects of the movements are completely different. If I used the "use their energy against them" mode of Judo, I would not be able to understand or comprehend the direct "dodge or be hit" mode of Tae Kwan Do.

This is a long illustration for simply saying, pick a tradition and stick with it. If you start thinking that you know it all simply because some aspects of the discipline and the magick look similar, you may miss a LOT of the more subtle aspects of the practice. So, wait until you know why they do thus and so before you throw out that aspect of the practice.

Assignment:

I want your impressions of the Moon energy exercise. While I know that many of you already turned that information in in the Assignment for Lesson 2, I want any further thoughts or inspirations you have had in the meantime. If you shared this lesson with your spouse and his hematite ring blew up when he tried it, and so forth and so on, I would like to hear about it.

I am emphasizing the energy exercises, because you have to know what the energy moving feels like to you. Knowing how to draw and ground energy is a good thing, but if you don't know that for you, pulling energy gives you goose bumps (like it does me) then you will not know when you have the energy moving in the Circle. It is up to you to identify and articulate what the energy feels like when it is moving through you.

Toward that end, I am going to have you drawing from a different source again. I want you to increase the frequency of the Moon drawing and dumping exercise to a nightly schedule as you meditate. Simply decrease the time allotted for this to a few minutes. I want you to raise the energy from the moon and dump it into your chosen "battery". Starting this weekend, I want you to switch from drawing energy from the Moon to using the Wind for power.

Instead of visualizing the Moon, visualize the sky and the wind or the effect the wind has on the world around you. Visualize the waves of grass as the wind blows across the seed heads, the branches of the trees as they dance and sway to the silent music the wind brings to them. Tap into that force and start drawing from there. Once again, dump it into the battery you have set up.

Don't be too worried about the battery. In experiments I have done, an infinite amount of energy can be put into one atom of matter. Energy of this nature has a form, but no substance, so you can put as much as you want into as small a location as you want. You will have to be careful about fragile batteries like stone rings, but that is about the only thing you need to worry about. The energy you are storing in your battery will make fragile things more fragile, simply because the extra energy is exciting the atoms and making their bonds expand, thus causing it to become slightly more fragile. Most of the time you won't see the effect of this, but in some cases, it can be spectacular. I have shattered more carnelian rings and hematite rings than I care to count because of this resonance.

Keep meditating. Increase your time spent meditating to 20 minutes. This will probably be the upper limit of your meditations; most of what you need to work out will be able to be explored in depth in this time. Spend about 1/4 of the time in the energy manipulation practice with the Moon and Wind, the rest in introspection.

At this time I would like you to change the form of the meditation, and instead of simply being passive and thinking about whatever comes into your head, I would like you to pick an action you do habitually and track down the reason you do it. It can be something as simple as having to have a door opened or closed, or a fear of some insects, for example. I want this meditation to become more introspective and for now at least, focus more on searching out the roots of some of your problems.

We are going to keep these meditations on this level for about a month now, so you can look at multiple problems within that time period. At one point, and it's up to you to decide when, I want you to meditate for as long as you can. Make a note of the time when you decide to start and when you come back to yourself. My record is two and a half hours. I did that on September 12, cleaning up the mess left with all those dead souls that needed to be released.

Some of you have stated that you are experiencing a floating sensation or a disconnectedness to your body. This is good, since these are the first steps in achieving OOBE, but since this class is High Magick, I want you all to not go anyplace just yet. Those of you who are actually leaving your body and finding yourself in other realms don't panic; simply will yourself "home" to your own body. You are on the Astral Plane, and you can't loose your connection to your body. The next lesson is an exposition (reprised from the Astral Projection class) on meditation. There will be some slight modifications to the text.

Those of you who have met and spoken to people while meditating, don't be frightened; these are your Spirit Guides or Teachers or Guardian Angels as you choose to identify them. Basically they are a disembodied spirits whose job it is to educate you, guide you and take care of you in a metaphysical sense. They won't harm you. I will be showing you how to construct wards and shields later to protect from "things that go bump in the night." I'll leave it till then to go into all the aspects of meditation.

So, in the following order:

Now: Keep meditating and increase the time you meditate to about 20 minutes. Spend 5 minutes of that meditation transferring energy from the Moon to your battery.

This weekend: Switch from the Moon as a power source to the Wind as a power source. Use whatever visualization is comfortable for you. Put the Wind Energy into your battery just like you did with the Moon meditations.

Next Week: Turn in any significant entries from your journal. Also turn in a short essay on ONE tool from your favorite path of Magick. By now you should know what I mean by your favorite Path of Magick. Tell me what that tradition says about the tool you have chosen, as well as what it is used for, how it should be constructed, what materials it is made from and so on. Tell me why it is used over other tools that are similar in form (i.e. why do you use the white-handled knife rather than a burin or Kerfan, and instead of using the already dedicated athame?) and so on. Please try to be original in this and pick a "less popular" tool. Also make sure I understand just what your favorite Magickal tradition is. It does me no good to read a 5-page essay on why the scourge is used in your tradition if I don't know that your tradition is Catholic Magick.

Keep writing in your journals, this will become an important record of your progress. Just ask anyone on this list that habitually keeps a journal about the importance of their journals once they complete the course they are studying. I personally have gone back and re-read some of my original entries from my journal, and it's amazing just how much I have grown and matured.

After the assignment is turned in, and for your personal information (to share if you feel like it): Make a list of the tools you would demand if you were creating your own magickal tradition. What would be there, why and what use would it be used for? What kind of materials would it be made out of and why? Have these make sense, don't put a tool there just to have it there.

I'm asking you to do this because by the time you are done with this course, you will all effectively have your own magickal tradition, and this is the beginning. Deciding what you want as tools and props and more importantly why they are there. This is going to be a tradition that you will be practicing and one that you can potentially teach to others.

This list of tools is completely open to anything your heart desires. If you decide that your tradition needs a Sacred Clipboard, as long as it can be justified, then go for it.

Please note, the essay above is about your CURRENT tradition, not this one you are developing.

To Study: Yourself. I have no print reference for you to use right now, but I want you to understand yourself. As I said in the last lesson, the only person who can know why you did something is yourself. From here on in, I want you to meditate on aspects of yourself and determine what needs to be fixed, corrected, enhanced, where you need to learn more and so on. There will be specific magickal exercises and during your meditation you will be doing those as well, but if I don't tell you differently I want these meditations to be probes into your own mind. Some of it may be painful, but it is something that needs to be done.

Other than that, have fun and try to enjoy yourself and your life. I'm totally serious; it's one of the key reasons we don't go drifting off into the ethers. A good grounding in this life and the world around us is our bedrock. Don't be afraid to enjoy the birds singing or the fact that you just set the hem of your ritual robe on fire. In the words of some Bards I know called the "Eagles"... "Take it easy.... take it easy.... Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.... Lighten up while you still can, don't even try to understand, just find a place to make your stand and take it easy."

And to quote Robin Williams "Angels have wings because they take themselves lightly."

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