Introduction to Ritual

The understanding of ritual is the understanding of a spiderweb. The easiest way to put it, is to say one is using a myriad of symbols to create a message that is sent to the subconscious. The subconscious then modifies either the energies in the environment, the actions of the caster, or both in order to bring about the desired results. The myriad of symbols used are those things which excites certain responses in the mentality through sensual suggestion. The most basic of these suggestions, and probably one of the most dominant for humans, is using the sense of sight, specifically color, to trigger certain ideas. A common example is using the color green, such as a green candle or green cloth, to trigger ideas such as luck and money. Different people however, may use different colors for different things. A good example is the color black which, in the western world anyway, often signifies negativity. Due to this association it is often used for working with negativity, especially absorbing negative energies in an area. By contrast, the orient has a completely different set of ideas about the color. In Korea black signifies knowledge, more specifically a kind of complete knowledge. This is true also in the martial arts where one seeks to attain the black belt. In china and japan black signifies the idea of a feminine, yielding, receptive idea in black's association with yin. Even two people from the same hemisphere may have different ideas. Earlier it was mentioned the green was commonly used to represent luck and money. Some people, on the other hand, prefer to use purple for money, wealth, and success because in history the color of royalty was a deep purple. Still others associate purple with ideas of nobility and honor rather than wealth and money for similar reasons. Therefore, it is often best to figure out what different colors means to the caster rather than working off of the ideals of someone else. Generally there are 8 colors which should probably be considered, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, and of course White. Brown, Grey, and Pink are often used in many spells as well, so too many people use light blue and dark blue in different ways. It may be best to consider, for each spell, what ideas you want to represented and what color or colors you associate with those ideas. It might also be a good idea to keep a journal of what you've associated with each color. Be careful though as a person's associations often change throughout life and while you once used green for money you may develop a closer link of purple, silver or even gold or yellow which will serve you better where you once used green. Aside from simple colors, images and symbols can be used to trigger the same ideas. An octagon to many people reminds them of a stop sign and may be used as such to halt or slow down events in motion. Other people may think of the 8 directions of a compass rose, the 8 fold path of enlightenment of Buddhism, or any of a number of other ideas. Again it is best to consider for each spell what images one wants to use. Moving beyond sight, hearing can be a strong inducer of thoughts and emotions helping the caster focus more and more on the spell. Things such as music, chants, and drum beats are all effective mind triggers to use in ritual work. Smell and taste can be incorporated into incenses, sachets, foods, and drinks to help with the practitioner's focus. A rich meal by candle light using green candles and listening to Mozart may trigger ideas of high society living to help with a money spell. If one then changes the green candles for red, mozart for something romantic, and the meal replaced by chocolate covered strawberries; throw in a little perfume or cologne and you have a good start to an excellent spell to attract love or at least a little romance. Using the senses to trigger emotions and excite the subconscious to action is only the bare surface of a ritual. While rituals based only on these ideas might work they will not be as affective as they could be with the proper study and information. There are many added benefits that one can include in craft-work that can help to enhance the effectiveness, power, and precision of one's spell work. Understanding the uses of herbs, stones, runes, sigils, numerology, and zodiacal influence can all come into play to either help or hurt the effectiveness of spell-work. Perhaps the first among these are certain ideas which have collectively been called the Law's of Magic.

These laws are less like actual laws and more like ideas that can be used to help create the desired affect and expand one's awareness of spiritual truths. They come from a variety of sources and inspirations including, modern science, philosophy, psychology and anthropology. Perhaps the most important laws relative to ritual are the Laws of Contagion and Similarity. Together they or the primary Laws of Association. These laws are anthropological laws first proposed by George Frazer in his book “The Golden Bough.” These laws are primarily used by anthropologists to understand ceremonies and rituals of various religions and the symbols behind the actions and tools used in those ceremonies. Using these laws as a frame of reference is invaluable in studying other ritual workings, while applying the ideas within these Laws to one's own spells can help increase the influence of a spell. The Law of Contagion states that any two objects or person's which have been in contact with one another continue to have influence over one another unless that link is specifically broken. Furthermore the longer and more intense the contact between the two objects the stronger the link between them and the stronger the influence. From the law of contagion we get the ideas of using things linked with a specific person to cast spells on or around that person. A lock of hair, a drop of blood, a locket or ring special to that person are all examples of objects that can be used to affect the person. It is also said that the longer or more intimate the contact between the person and the object the greater the influence. Let's say for example that a person has a wedding ring they have worn for 10 years and a necklace they recently got from a friend. The wedding ring used in a spell has a stronger connection and therefore a greater influence over the person than the necklace would. We can also take this further and apply it to things like hair, which isn't just an adornment but was previously part of them, or even blood, fingernails, etc. All of these have a extremely close contact and allow for a greater influence over the person. The law of similarity on the other hand says that two objects which resemble one another can be influenced to affect one another. This is extended by the axiom, “results resemble causes.” Its from this law or this line of thinking that we get the ritual of the classic voodoo doll. A doll often made of wax, dough or clay is made and and used to affect the person or object in question. Often times these dolls have things attached to them which represent the person such as a picture, but they can also be in contact with things that have been in contact with the person such as a locket, or the hair of the doll being made from the hair of the person the caster wants to affect. This latter example, however, in incorporating the Law of Contagion into the ritual. Combining the two laws into a single ritual is preferred when ever possible. Beyond the idea of imagery such as dolls and photos for similarity actions can be a similarity as well. Throwing water into the air and letting it fall like rain can be effective for causing rain. In bygone ages people would run through freshly planted corn rows jumping as high as they could in order to get the corn to grow higher and produce better. One modern example listed in The Witch's Magical Handbook by the Frosts, is a witch who wanted to to get a little closer to one of her coworkers. In order to do this she used two candles one which represented her and one which represented her coworker. She placed the candles in opposite corners of the room and each day she would perform a ceremony where she would draw the candles a little closer together until they were side by side. At this point she bound them with a string and let melt together until they burned out. This example is valuable for a multitude of reasons. While it displays the ideas of actions as similarity it also shows that we need to be careful when planning the actions. While the spell worked and she did get involved in a long relationship with her coworker, the relationship quickly went downhill and became a very negative influence in both her life and the life of the coworker. She had made the mistake of letting the candles melt together and burn out which means the spell would have been very difficult if not impossible to undo and she had to wait until the spell had ran its course which put her through several years of misery.

The next Law that should be included here is the Law of Knowledge. Put simply, the greater the knowledge one has over an entity or situation the greater control one has over it. This means understanding not only the person or events your trying to manipulate, but understanding the motivations, causes, and effects, or in the case of a person the drives and fears of not only them but the people around them. The greater the understanding the greater the affinity and greater the influence. It might also be said the more you understand the less you need to do in order to get the affects you want instead of a big shove it may only take a little nudge to get things headed in the direction you want them to go. Magic is about manipulating the forces of nature in conformance with one's will and desire. Going beyond the basics there are other ideas which act as catalysts to these manipulations. Herbs are one of the most common catalysts one can use with spells but the knowledge of herbalism is not a simple thing. Its not as simple as tossing a plant leaf into a spell or even using an oil extract. Each herb has its own powers, alignments, and resonances that come into play. Hollyhocks, for example, are good to use when calling upon spirits for assistance. However, one must understand that hollyhocks have a resonance with the powers attributed to Venus. While it is not necessary to go into the ideologies of planets and their meanings here, it is enough to say that hollyhocks, while helpful for summoning any type of spirits are more likely to summon spirits associated with the powers of Venus such as love, lust, and beauty, and feminine spirits such as dryads, naiads, and nymphs. Hollyhock then is not likely to be very helpful when calling on spirits of ancient warriors (except in cases such as the amazons and even then there are better ones). Another example of a widely used herb is mugwort which is used for protection. The nature of mugwort however is related to the element earth, making in a solid unyielding element good for protections, but it is also feminine which means it may not work well against presently active intrusions but rather keep energies from trying to intrude into one's life in the first place. Once an energy starts trying to intrude the feminine side of mugwort may make it too yielding to be an effective protection. Given this information we then begin the study of potions and incenses made from a variety of herbs which blend together towards a single purpose. Give the example of mugwort above we might combine mugwort with frankincense which is characterized as having a fiery disposition and a masculine manner. It is active and projective but it is also used for protection and it would be a good use for a protection that actively repels present would-be intrusions. Mixing mugwort and frankincense in equal parts then results in a potion, incense, or oil which has the properties of earth and fire but is energetically neutral the feminine of mugwort and the masculine of frankincense. It also has the protective energies and associations of both items. This spell can be further expanded to include air, and water elements to bring about an ideal balance which is good for a protection spell. On the other hand not all spells should be balanced. A spell for money one would probably want to be balanced towards earth. This does not mean you can only use one earth herb and be done with it. Mugwort, while being used for protection is also used for wealth and money. How then do the energies we assemble key in to the ideas we wish. By balancing the equation. Using mugwort to give us a money use with an earthy element is a good start. Using another herb that maybe fire oriented and still another that is water helps cancel the elements of fire and water out (or combines them into a neutral form depending on how you want to look at it) leaves only the earth behind. If the fiery herb is used for protection and money and the water herb is used for money and love then we have the idea of money or wealth keying in from all three with the earth being the only element not neutralized. The resulting mixture is then keyed towards our purposes and our ideal elements. Using the formula above seems to reduce magical potion making to an act of mathematics. You can reduce a cake recipe in the same way but somehow, even if you follow the recipe, the cake is never quite as good as what your grandmother or mother used to make. “Why?” You may ask. The ingredients are the same, the timing, the temperature why isn't it the same? The problem comes in a couple of factors. In the case of magical potions, knowing the associations of an herb from a book and

understanding the nature of the herb from familiarity are two entirely different things. True the herbs will still perform as intended but a person who has an intimate familiarity with the herbs will be able to coax a greater effect out of them. For this reason many practitioners tend to have a selection of a very few herbs they use regularly and even grow themselves in order to have that level of understanding with the herb. Other practitioners prefer to experiment with new herbs all the time trying to find the combination that grants the best results. Stones, like herbs, each have their own meanings and alignments. There is virtually no difference between stones and herbs in their magical abilities, only in how their used. Stones usually do not readily mix into potions, but the presence of stones during a spell and focusing on those stones and their properties can coax energies out of the stones in the same way one uses the energies inherent within herbs. Furthermore while herbs are usually mixed into an incense or oil, stones are usually used as more permanent decoration and decorated themselves with runes and sigils. Since we mentioned runes and sigils, they are also the next level of magical application. While plants and stones have an inherent power and inherent sympathies based upon things like structure and the like, runes have developed their power over centuries of people pouring belief into their special abilities. These are the classical runes, ideograms, alphabets, and glyphs from the ancient world. Perhaps the most well known among practitioners is the Elder Futhark, while the most well known among lay people is usually Egyptian hieroglyphs. In either case each rune or glyph has its own symbolism and unlike our alphabet today, can not only represent a letter or syllable but an entire complex set of ideas that is associated with it. For example the rune of Fehu is the Norse letter F. Beyond that the name of the rune, “fehu,” translates to literally mean cattle. But in the minds of the Norse and many generations since up until quite recently cattle also stood for wealth, prosperity, ownership and property. The rune kennaz is the Norse K and literally translates as torch, but it also translates as the verb, “to know.” From this we can glean the kennaz doesn't necessarily simply mean torch but enlightenment, wisdom, illumination and foresight. Indeed each of the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark can similarly be expanded. Furthermore the runes are divided into 3 groups of eight letters known as aetts. Each aett is presided over by a rune whose symbolism bleeds through each of the 8 letters in its house. One of the groups is known as Tyr's aett for example. Tyr was a sky god and god of victory especially in battle. Can you consider what affect this might have on the meanings of the runes under Tyr's aett? Beyond the Elder Futhark are a myriad of meaning in other runic systems as well. From the Elder Futhark we get the Younger Futhark containing only 16 runes and the Anglo-Saxon Futhark which contains upwards of 35 letters each with their own meanings. The Irish Ogham is similar. These runes as well as glyphs in several other languages have developed a power all their own over the centuries. Many practitioner’s find themselves drawn to a particular set of glyphs whether its the European runes, the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Hebrew davidic scripts, or the ancient cuneiform writings. Much like herbs each glyph will perform for a practitioner and some practitioners are driven to understand each system to some extent to find the one post potent for each practice. Such a practitioner might use Egyptian for spells relating to knowledge and wisdom especially in mathematics or healing as the Egyptians had no shortage of specialty on both in the ancient world. They might then turn to the elder Futhark for affecting the physical world especially in contests either of legal natures or sports as the vikings were known for the strength in battle. And then turn to the Hebrew system of character's to help them transcend this world in astral projection through the qabbalistic tree of life. Another practitioner may stick with a single system and like the herbalist who sticks with a certain set of herbs all the time will develop the ability to coax more out of their set than the broader practitioner will out of the same set. Still all in all they generally balance out. Understanding the runes or glyphs themselves are only the beginning of such image magic. From the runes we then evolve into sigil magic. Complex symbols incorporating multiple glyphs into a single symbol keyed to a whole idea. In this respect it might be thought of as each rune being a single

herb and the combination of runes into a sigil develops into a true potion. Some sigils far more complex than others but generally they have many of the same elements. Here the Author see's fit to divide sigils into three hierarchies; bind runes, cartouche's and sigils. These three categories are not recognized by any literature known to the author but breaking them down seems to be a way of making the whole process simpler for the student. Bind Runes being the first and simplest to make are a combination of 2 glyphs overlaying one another to form a single character. A good example would by the Latin capital letters A and E when placed side by side form Æ which is a singular complex symbol a binding. One could easily expand this by using the letter M between the two so it would be binding the letters AME into a single idea. Such art is often used in modern logos for companies or organizations. Bind runes on the other hand are not about binding sounds together or images but ideas. Fehu is the symbol for wealth, Isa is the symbol for ice in elder Futhark which rune-masters have come to relate to unchanging ideas. So a person with wealth or a person whose wealth is threatened might protect it by binding Isa and Fehu together. On the other hand Hagalaz is the symbol for hail and generally signifies destructive forces Isa bound with Hagalaz may mean something about eternal disasters or inscribed differently Isa may form a barrier between the practitioner and impending doom. Creating bind-runes is generally limited only to the elder Futhark and its derivatives the Anglosaxon and younger Futhark This does not mean that a practitioner must limit themselves thus. The Egyptians were known on occasion to overlay one hieroglyph with another to create a new glyph with an entirely new meaning and an entirely new power derived from the meanings of the separate glyphs. While the classification is bind runes, the subject matter can be virtually anything including incorporating planetary signs with the zodiac signs. Overlaying the sign of Venus over an elder Futhark rune may create the perfect idea one wants to convey and bring the influences of both signs into play. The 2nd category of sigils is the cartouche. Named for its Egyptian counterpart the cartouche does not overlay symbols but stacks them in a prearranged pattern. For example creating a box and dividing it into four sections with a different symbol in each section that leads to a working idea is a cartouche. More importantly this allows the inclusion of another symbol. For example one method that has been used for a cartouche incorporates a bind-rune in it as well. Take for example the pentagram. The 5 pointed star is commonly thought of as a symbol of Satan worship. Wiccans however, will say that it is a sign of protection and balance among the five elements (earth, air, fire, water, and spirit) but the most ancient use for the 5 pointed star is a representation of Venus This definition, going back some 6 thousand years makes the 5 points star perfect to use in love rituals. You can take various symbols of love, lust, fertility, potency, and fidelity and place one in each of the point. The phallus for potency, the alchemical sign of Venus for love, etc and over lay them to create a bind well defined bind rune in the center. This is a transition phase that is almost enough to be considered a sigil but the format is still that of a cartouche. If runes are words, then bind-runes are sentences and cartouches are paragraphs then sigils can be made into entire books. Sigils can use virtually anything to give them power from the standard rune up to the cartouche. Some sigils are actually multiple sigils united in some way to make a more complex form. Simple sigils, however, are made with some certain guidelines. Like a cartouche a sigil usually has a boundary an edge. Most often this is a circle, although squares, diamonds, and ovals are often found as well. In the sigils created during the middle ages and early renaissance these sigils were divided into sections so that you had a double ring around the outside. Within that ring was often inscribed various symbols, usually zodiacal in origin, or quotes from biblical sources usually the old testament. Within the double ring was often an image with its own associations, an old man for wisdom, a unicorn for love, etc, and more symbols were added into these. In the case of one grimoire the center of several sigils had a table that was 4x4 or 5x5 or some such and in it was inscribed magical names or words of power one letter to each box of the table. The table itself forms a glyph set within a

circle around which is a corresponding verse from the old testament. One of the most notoriously complex sigils of the renaissance was inscribed by Dr. John Dee in the early part of the 1600s. Dee took the sigil from an older 12th century manuscript and modified it making more complex than its original. The whole of the diagrams is a double circle around which is inscribed runes based on the Hebrew alphabet. The runes are placed in such as way as to create a cypher of various angelic names. Within the outer circle is a 7 sided figure with further names inscribed in Latin Within the 7 sided figure is a 7 sided star this also done in a double line so that between the lines are 7 sacred names. Within each point are more names. In the center of the star is another heptagon with still more names and in the middle of that a cartouche of a pentagram with names forming a circle around it. Within this single sigil you have another sigil, the heptagon within the circle within until you eventually reach a cartouche in the very center of the star. This sigil, known as the Sigillum Dei Aameth is one of the most complex, and most mysterious to come out of the western occult tradition. Sigils, bind runes, and cartouches have a variety of purposes. In one system Hebrew based cartouches are placed under each of the legs of a table to separate it from the earth and prevent other forces from interfering with the ritual on the table. Larger sigils such as summoning circles are used to protect the practitioner(s) or to imprison a dangerous spirit. Individual runes have been used for generations to impart their power on a variety of objects from having the full set of 24 runes engraved on a blade in the Norse lands, to having prayer scrolls encased in a necklace as a talisman or charm. Each of these uses of image magic adds a new level of power, focus, control, and precision in the practitioner’s casting. Number's play an important role in magic. Magicians understood early on that numbers were the key to unlocking the universe, but rather than concentrating on the mathematics, they concentrated on similarities between numbers and the universe around us. The number 4 is often important in the magic of the western hemisphere for according to the ancients there are 4 directions; north south east and west; 4 elements, earth, air, fire, and water; 4 seasons winter, spring, summer, and fall; in fact the ancients had a long list of associations with the number 4. Understanding and generalizing these associations became an entire branch of study in occultism. 5 another important number 5 points to the pentacle representing Venus, balance, or protection, depending on which age you want to look at. 5 senses to the body, sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Further more as is noted by Davinci's figures there are 5 protrusions from the center mass of the body of a man 2 legs, two arms, and a head. We could go on 6 is a number often symbolizing balance, the hexagram, also called the star of David, is often related to the eastern yin-yang symbolizing the union of opposites such as masculine and feminine, active and passive, etc. The list of numbers and their symbols continues on up the list. It doesn't simply stop at whole number's either. The golden ratio is approximately 1:1.16 and has been considered sacred for much of man's history. It appears everywhere, in the spiral of the universe to the spiral of a conch shell. It occurred in ancient constructions pretty regularly too. Many of the ancient marvels from central America to china to the middle east are built according to the golden ratio. Pi is another example of a number the ancients were aware of and considered sacred. Many people only attempt to incorporate numerology in their sigils but the Norse incorporated it into their chance. The few pre-christian magical spells we have from the Norse are chants that are composed in 7 or 9 syllables per line for example. Astrology in another major interest in the occult world. Astrology is the study of the heavens and the positions and courses of planets, constellations and other heavenly bodies and relating these celestial events to terrestrial ones. True astrology is far beyond what most people think of today. Many know their sign, which is actually only their sun sign. That is to say what zodiac constellation the sun rose in on the day of their birth. But so much more comes into play, depending on this further information all things from the sun sign may be completely negated even though it is the most

prominent of all the symbols. Among these other symbols is the moon sign, the position of the planets and their relationships to each other and to the zodiac. For example one may have the sun sign of Scorpio, but if the moon is in Leo many of the aspects of Scorpio are seriously weakened and if mars resides with Gemini they are weakened even further. Astrology isn't just about where things are at your birth, that only creates a picture of you, with an astrological chart we place this “picture” within the environment of where the stars are or will be today and that gives us interactions which help astrologists to predict things a person may want to avoid and other things a person may want to seek out. But this is only natal astrology. In occult astrology, or the astrology that is most often practiced within magic the same influences with roughly the same meanings come into play. But we are looking for where these events cause the energies in the earth to align with what we wish. If we want a love spell having we may want Venus in ascension. On the other hand if we want a spell of victory for a court case we may want mars and Jupiter to be influenced by Leo or Taurus before we cast our spell. By the time you pull together the basic mind triggers, combined with potions to anoint any candles or objects you may be using, incorporated the laws of similarity and contagion, included any runes or sigils and calculated the correct time to cast the spell, one has put in a lot of work into it. Understand that simply coming up with the ideas of the spell, putting them together and going through the motions isn't enough. Native Americans, at least in the past, had a religion that is totally foreign to us today in many ways. To us religion, faith, and spirituality is a sometimes thing. It's a Sunday thing, its a sabbath thing, its a thing when we need or want something. For the native Americans it was an all the time thing. The men went out and hunted, they began the hunt with a prayer for a good hunt, when they hunted every step they took as the traveled through the grass or forest was a step on the path of the sacred. When they took game such as a deer or rabbit they thanked the rabbit for sacrificing its life so they could eat. The traveled home and celebrated and gave thanks for a good hunt to their spirits. The rabbit was skinned and dressed, this act was an act performed as if every pass of the skinning knife had to be done properly and mindful of the spirit of the rabbit and the spirits of the ancestors to see that it was done correctly. Every act in the tribal life was an act of their religion. Orthodox Jews today sometimes have just as much religion. And to many of us it is alien and sometimes even funny. Many of us may give thanks for a meal or pray for a win at the big game. The Jews have a prayer to thank god for giving us holes in our bodies so that we can urinate. Think about what would happen if we didn't have those holes in our bodies? While the author here is not necessarily suggesting that you have to live all life in a religion manner such as the native or go around praying for everything such as the Jew; At least when you working on a spell, writing it, drawing the runes, mixing the potions, anointing the candle even if your not actually casting the spell, only doing the preparations for the spell it would be good to approach these acts as the natives approached skinning the rabbit. Every herb is sacred, and should be handled that way. Every candle is sacred and the anointed oil is sacred and should be handled that way when anointing them. Before using a pencil to inscribe runes onto a sheet of paper use a quick blessing and purification on the pencil and treat it, and the act of drawing as sacred, as though if you fail to make the perfect circle, then you fail not only the spell, but the spirits around you. That is not to say the circle or rune has to be perfect, but it should be your best. When you treat the act as sacred then you impart energy into the act. The longer you work on designing and constructing the spell the more energy you put into the spell. It like winding a spring tighter and tighter with each new act of preparation then the spell itself releases the spring. The tighter you've wound it the more energy that is released.

Another aspect of magic which many people don't consider when writing their ceremonies and rituals is the model of magic they use. As far as the author herein can tell the only person which has created this structuralist view of magic is a german magician called U:D: Frater. This is not his real name as far as I can tell but more a title. Many years ago I found a document creating a structuralist view of the history of magic attributed to him. Whether or not he was the one to actually write it, I have never been able to verify, but its ideas have been invaluable in my studies. Most of the next pages will be paraphrases and summarizations from this excerpt. The models of magic are an attempt at classifying magic into various groups to work with based on the practitioner's understanding on how magic works. Frater presents 5 models, they are the spirit model, the energy model, the psychological model, the information model, and the meta model. Each of these models have a different perspective of magic and how it works. By considering one's own belief system one can attribute themselves to one model or another, although most practitioners fall, ultimately, in the metamodel. By understanding the different aspects of each model one can then better write spells to work with their systems. The Spirit Model is perhaps the oldest form of magic and still a very powerful system. In the Spirit Model all things which occur occur because of spirits, whether those spirits are physically manifest such as humans and animals, astral projections such as dryads which are the projections of trees, or completely unmanifest such as ghosts and faeries. Disease, which we know today to be caused by micro-organisms such as germs, viruses, and bateria, was once thought to be caused by disease spirits. In a more modern outlook both systems may still be taken as true. The microbs, being unintelligent as we define the word, are manifested and controlled by the spirit of the disease. Luck, inspiration, wisdom, knowledge, and love are all worldly manifestations of a spirit. The greeks believed love to be a manifestation of aphrodite and/or Eros (venus and cupid in roman). Inspiration, depending on the form may be the result of contact with a daemon or genius which are two classifcations of ancient spirits whose names have survived with different meanings into the modern world. When a person demonstrated in the hellenistic or roman world that he was gifted with science or mathematics he had a genius. Poets were inspired by the more well known muses. Many tribal societies today work their magic based on the spirit model. The Native Americans, Africans, and Aboriginees all work magic in much the same way. Their shaman has contact with good spirits and evil, helpful and harmful spirits. When a person comes down with a sickness it is the shamans job to get rid of the disease spirit residing within them. The shaman does this through rituals wherein they demand the name of the disease spirit inhabiting the victim. If the shaman already knows the name of the spirit then he uses the name to control the spirit through a combination of force of will and the power of the possessing spirits true name. Their are several ways a shamans ceremony might work. Among the Lakota (sioux) tribes of the United States, a crow or raven is often brought in and as the shaman demands the spirit leave the crow is set free. There are a number of examples of birds being used in healing in the spirit model systems. The intended purpose of the bird is somewhat different depending on the civilization, for example in one culture the bird is supposed to inspire the disease spirit to take flight as the bird takes flight leaving the victim. In another culture the spirit is driven into the bird, or into the bird's grasp who then carries the offending spirit away. If the shaman does not know and cannot obtain the true name from the spirit the shaman will have lists of names of other entities which he may use to combat the possessing spirit and drive it out. Aside from using these names the ritual is further enhanced by the uses of burning herbs and oils. Again different cultures use the herbs, incense, and oils in different ways. In the hebrew traditions the herbs were often burned on the belief that the disease spirit cannot, for some reason, stand the smell and will be driven out by the burning of certain herbs. Among other however, the spirit is not looked on as malevolent so much as a spirit is exacting justice for a crime comitted by the person. In this case herbs are burned as offerings to placate the attacking spirit so that it will become peaceful again.

Shamanic rituals often make greater use of music, not simply chanting but musical songs intended to contact the spirits and placate them. Shamanic rituals use herbs heavily but often only a few types local to the area in which the shaman works. The true names of spirits the shaman knows is usually learned in a long apprenticeship to another shaman and often remain very secretive. For this reason much spirit model magic has been lost over the years. Still many names are available in books from around the world but it may take much hunting and seeking to locate them. Otherwise it would probably be best to enter into an apprenticeship under a shaman to learn them, or at least some of them. While these shamanic rituals sound like a wonderfully natural system to use for spells there is a darker side to them as well. That darker side reached its height around the 1600s or so when the entirety of europe was fascinated with all things spiritual, including demons and the power to summon them and control them. The grimoires of the middle ages and renaissance are pact with spells and rituals to summon demons and constrain them to the practitioner's will whether or not the demon was willing. This magnificent feat of magic was accomplished through using symbols and sigils and true names not only of the demon but sacred names of the Christian god. The basic format of the ritual involved spending days, months, or years, purifying oneself and praying to god for forgiveness and favor. Many included ritual fasting or abstaining from sexual intercourse to purify the mind and the body. Once this lengthy portion of the ritual was complete the supplicant or magician would enter into a specially prepared place inscribed with complex sigils like the one by john dee described earlier. The sigils were meant to serve as a protection for the practitioner. He would then, using other instruments, have many prayers for god. After these prayers he would command a demon “by the power of god and thy true name.” to manifest itself. After the incantation adjuring the demon to manifest itself the practitioner would again pray to god using many sacred names such as Jehova, Adonai, Elohim etc. And again command the demon or on occasion spirit to come forth and make its presence known. This darker side of the spirit model was powerful in an age when people didn't understand the power of it. Simply forcing a spirit or demon to appear against its will often angered the spirit. In these cases things could go terribly wrong if the protection sigil was not good enough. They could also go wrong later after the magician released the spirit the spirit may come back for revenge on the practioner or his friends or family. As such this form of summoning spirits rather than asking them for aid is often considered to be the darker side of magic and best to be avoided, at least until one has become knowledgeable and practiced in the lighter arts. A third version of the spirit model involves a type of impersonation. It is well documented among the greco-egyptian magical papyrii that magicians would, during a ceremony claim to be a god. “I poseidon do command you,” or some such. This wasn't simply an impersonation or attempting to trick a spirit into doing what the practitioner said, no. This was a way for magicians to channel divine energy. The ritual itself began much as those from the middle ages with fasting and prayer and abstaining from a variety of things. During the final ritual however, the magician recited long complex incantations that included secret sacred names of a god and recited the stories of that god according to certain formula. The idea was to identify one's self with the god. To truly, at least for a moment become the god by uniting with the deity in a spiritual union which imparts part of the deities authority to the practitioner allowing the practitioner to command the various spirits the deity normally would. Poseidon for making a sea voyage safe, aphrodite for invoking love, Zeus to provide wisdom etc. Of course in order to invoke a deity like this one must first believe the deity exists and has the power to do what the practitioner wants to do. The Energy Model of magic is second in age only to the spirit model and even that is somewhat in question. In the orient the energy model seems to have grown into existance along side the spirit model with practices such as Chi Gong and Tai Chi Chuan. Also the oriented started with a very early understanding of elements and the ideas of Yin and Yang. In the western hemisphere the idea of the

energy model didn't begin to develop until around the 17th century and still didn't really take hold until the 1800s nearly two centuries later. The pure form of the energy model of magic states that all things happen as a result of interacting energies. The power of will is in and of itself a form of energy and this energy can be used to affect other energies. In Chi Gong one learns to use the powers of focus and will to manipulate one's own chi or life energy. One can then use this energy to create spectacular effects. On the other hand chi is an energy constantly flowing through the body and if that flow is interupted it can manifest itself in less desirable ways such as bad luck, clumsiness, insanity, or disease. To continue along the comparison line we will use disease as the example here again. The practitioner of the energy model would not see a possessing spirit but a negative energy, nothing with will or intention but simply an imbalance caused by an influx of too much of some type of energy which then must be syphoned off or a lack of a certain type or type(s) of energy which must be boosted in order to restore the body to its naturally functioning state. Other forms of disease are caused by blocking the flow of energy and in this case the blockage itself must be removed in order to cure the patient. Traditions such as Reiki and Acupuncture from the ease specialize in this form of manipulation and have massive volumes of books dedicated to understanding the flows of energy through the meridians (kind of like veins and artery's for spirit energy) through the body. They then use needs, herbs, and rituals to work out and restore balance to the body allowing it to return to its natural functions. The Energy Model is probably the most accepted model of practitioners today. Most likely because we cannot envision a life so ruled by other intelligences as that of the spirit model. Also because the energy model seems more scientific and logical while still satisfying humanities need for the mysterious and mystic. Energy model practitioners are often the types that are eager to experiment with new resources such as new herbs, stones, and sigils and runes that can help them get the most out of each spell. What energy is being used in this the energy model is a question of debate between various schools of magic. Helena Blavatsky coined the term “luminous ether.” In her day this was a theorized semi-fluid semi gaseous substance that filled all of the universe. This ether was theorized to be reactive to mental processes such as imagination and will. Later on it was theorized that will could directly affect electro-magnetism. The orient has its own name for the energy worked with that of Chi. According to oriental practitioners chi is a kind of vital essence that all things possess animals, trees, rocks, water, people and the like. Through meditation and discipline one can learn to focus one's chi and use it to create affects. Discipline's such as Chi Gong Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan specialize in the manipulation of this chi. Today there are many theories of what type of energy is being manipulated by a practitioner of this model. Some of the names it goes by include Orgone, Animal Magmetism, and Odic Force. Other practitioners say there are many forms of this energy and usually associated it with the 4 basic elements (although some schools have more than 4). The Psychological model works less with what magic is and more with how it is performed. The model is based on the work of Carl Jung. According to young the people of this planet have what he referred to as a “collective unconscious.” A kind of thinking system that is created from the subconscious ideas of the entire race. From this unconscious people derive certain ideas and beliefs. This was Jung's explanation for similarities between cultures that had no contact with one another. Jung developed a series of “archetypes” general sets of attributes that reappear personified in every culture. For exampled Jung's archetype of the trickster surfaces as anansi, coyote, and crow in native cultures and appears as loki, lugh, and hermes in european cultures. Beyond these spirit figures certain symbols reappear with similar meanings across the world. Pyramids, stone circles, and star shapes occur with similar meanings.

The psychology model uses these archetypal figures as guidelines to creating their spell work. While spirit practitioners believe their true names forces of influences a spiritual entity and the energy manipulator believes they are influencing lines or forces of energy, the psychology model says they are not doing so directly. Instead the pscyhology model says they are using symbolism in their spells to create a letter to the subconscious. The subconscious then draws upon the knowledge and resources of the collective unconscious to guide the practitioner, and the people in the practitioner's environment towards his or her goal. For example in the psychology model when the practitioner casts a spell of healing his ritual triggers the unconscious which then access's the collective unconscious the desired result is then in the collective unconscious and is transmitted to the sick person. The subconscious of the sick person then boosts the immune system to get rid of a disease healing the sick person. Frater, in his essay includes very little functional information on the information model. I have been unable to draw out any further information that what is presented in the article by Frater. Because this is an area with so little information I find in necessary to simply reproduce his entire article on the information model for what it's worth as follows; The information model of magic is being developed since about 1987 and there is still considerable debate about the direction it shall ultimately take. Its basic premises to date are as follows: a) Energy as such is "dumb": it needs information on what to do; this can be so called laws of nature or direct commands. b) Information does not have mass or energy. Thus, it is faster than light and not bound by the restrictions of the Einsteinian spacetime continuum. It can therefore be transmitted or tapped at all times and at all places. In analogy (but of course only as such!) it may be likened to quantum phenomena rather than relativistic mass-energy. It can, however, attach itself to a medium e.g. an organism or any other memory storage device. At the start of the theoretical debate it was still believed that the postulation of morphic (or, more precisely, morphogenetic) fields as hypothesized by Rupert Sheldrake had to be an essential factor by way of explaining the mode of actual information transmittance. This, however, while still being discussed, does not appear to be strictly prerogative though it cannot be not ruled out that an act of information magic may create such fields. It does seem more probable, though, that the concept of information matrices will prove to be the most promising theory in the long run. The application of the as yet evolving information model has led to the discipline I have termed Cybermagic (from "cybernetics" or the "science of control systems"). Contrary to the other models described above, Cybermagic does not rely on magical trance to achieve its effects. Rather, the Cybermagician activates either his own main memory banks, namely brain and spine (the Golf-club chakra, so-called because of its shape reminiscent of a golf-club) or those of the target person. The desired information is then called up and transmitted quite similarly to a copy command on an MS-DOS computer. The copy command analogy holds good insofar as the information (not having mass) is not actually "lost" in the process (as energy would be) but rather is duplicated. This is an important point as it allows for the magician to perform his magic even in a state of very low physical power, possibly even when almost completely intoxicated, as long as his basic "life support systems" are still functional and the command syntax is

employed correctly. It is, however, obvious that this technique demands a fair control of what used to be termed kundalini effects and practice has shown ever and again that a good amount of Yoga and meditation experience is a great help in achieving to Cybermagic. Unfortunately, the full theory and practice of Cybermagic cannot be described here due to lack of space and will thus have to be the subject of a separate article to be published later. To date the main experimental research work is being done within the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) and some quite astounding results have already been achieved, especially in the field of language and knowledge transfer as well as magical healing. In spite of its very modern, untraditionalist outlook the basic principles of Cybermagic may in truth well be the oldest form of magic extant. For we can, for example, find a number of reports in the East to the effect of a guru transferring all his knowledge to his successor before his death, which is usually achieved by an act of long, mutual meditation. This goes to show that magic as a whole has always existed in many, coexisting models. What has changed, however, is the stress laid on one model or the other in the course of time.” Frater's Meta-Model is probably the most widley used form of magic today. But it is, in and of itself, not a true model of magic but rather a cheat. Those who follow the meta-model are perhaps best described as eclectics of the previous model. In the meta model a magician may work with both the spirits and the energy, he or she may give favor to either one a good example would be a meta description of a summoning. In the case of the meta-model a summoning might be understood thus. The magician uses jung's theories of archetypes to create a ritual effectively sending a letter to his subconscious, but instead of contacting the collective unconscious the subconscious directly percieves energy which it manipulated to create a kind of lasso. It then uses this lasso to rope in the creature and bring it before the magician. In this case the ritual is based on the psychology model, the lasso is the energy model and the intelligence that is brought before the magician is the spirit model all used in a single spell. Another way of looking at the meta-model would be through invocations. A practitioner again using young's model, attempts to summon an archetype. But rather than summoning the archetype from somewhere else uses his own energy (energy model) to create the archetype from within (hence the term Invocation) as he or she perceives it. This collection of energy reacts as a spirit and is formed by the ideas of the practitioner and his or her envisionment and personal associations with the archetype summoned. It reacts as a spirit but it is in reality an extension of the practitioner. Some practitioners put more emphasis on spirit, some on energy, some on psychology. Some focus entirely on psycholgy and energy and ignore spirit. But in the end the meta-model is “what you believe in exists for you and that's all that matters.” At this point the Author would like to clarify that he uses the meta-model extensively. The influence of the psychological model should be evident in the initial explanation of the ritual triggers and colors. The Author puts a great emphasis on the energy model but also believes in the existence of spirits which may aid or harm the practitioner. These spirits have their own classifications and categories and need not be discussed here. Beyond the models of magic the laws of magic and a serious understanding of these laws can assist

both with the creation and performance of the ritual. A few of these laws were discussed in brief earlier we will now go into a little more depth on those and more laws. The Law of Cause and Effect The same actions under the same circumstances produce the same results. This law sounds simple enough. If you cast a spell and it works then you cast it again then the same thing should happen. The problem is exactitude. Within magic exactitude is a problem and there are many influences that come into play that are hard to reproduce with precision. The easiest example is the position of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. They have an affect on us, especially the sun and moon. If you get everything else right but the moon is in a different position then the spell will not work in exactly the same way. Conversely, most spells will work in roughly the same way though they may be more or less effective based on the influence of the heavens. Different positions may work to weaken some spells and strengthen others. Besides the heavenly influence, the state of mind of the operator comes into play. If your mind isn't thinking the same way this time, isn't as focused, isn't in as deep a trance or some such then it will weaken the spell. By the same token if your more focused, also if the spell worked previously you may have more confidence in the spell which will strengthen it. As such The Law of Cause and Effect applies to magic but one must understand the exactitude necessary for it to be precisely correct. Generally however, if you cast a spell that works once it will work again whether or not that is to the same degree as previously may be in doubt but it will work. The Law of Knowledge “Greater understanding produces greater influence through greater affinity.” The Law of Knowledge may be the most powerful law of magic. In magic and the occult knowledge translates directly into power. The knowledge of runes, numerology, zodiac obviously lends to power in this realm. But so too the knowledge of biology, physics, and psychology. Knowing what happens when a person is attracted to another on a chemical basis can help you influence those chemicals in a love spell, knowing the psychological state of two people who are angry with each other can help you calm the situation. The law of knowledge is the foundation of esoteric and occult study. The entire point of magic is to learn to understand the hidden laws of the natural and spiritual worlds and to apply that knowledge. Some would add for the betterment of mankind, but knowledge in and of itself is neutral, so is magic. Its how one uses it that creates good or evil. This Author will leave the questions of good and evil to the philosophers, or at least not include his opinions of such in this article. The Law of Self Knowledge “Greater understanding of self leads to greater control through greater affinity” The law is fairly self explanatory. Its uses are not. In short this law advises the practioner to “know thyself.” This means understanding of one's thoughts, ideas, philosophies and ethics. One must be careful when doing this however. There are many times when we consider ourselves one thing and show ourselves to be different. “I'm an honest person who doesn't lie or cheat and I pay my debts.” “even if he leaves me I love him and i'll always let him see his kid and I won't file for child support.” How often have I heard those words or something like them only to have the speaker prove themselves wrong weeks, months, or years later. When questioned on it somehow calling in sick to work when we want to go play or get some extra sleep doesn't count against our honesty. And for some reason while we pay our debts to our friends, we forget the electric bill because its a big company and they have the money to afford to wait. And now that the lover has flown the next they have cheated and wronged

them and they deserve it. Looking at unpleasant truths about oneself and finding out one is not as honest or as good as one believes is a difficult task indeed! Yet, when it comes to self knowledge these are exactly the truths we need to look at and understand. Once this self knowledge is gained one understand's their strengths and weaknesses. In the magical field “i'm creative, but I can't stay focused for more than 3 minutes.” tells us we need to work on meditating and disciplining our mind to focus. If the opposite is true then perhaps the magician needs to spend more time releasing the mind in artistic mediation or brainstorming activities. Aside from a self improvement tool, applying this self knowledge has other affects in other forms of magic. A understanding of self, leads to a greater confidence in one's own identity which leads to a stronger will which applies to magic greatly. Furthermore, in many ancient systems of magic the magician would actually create a temporary change in their identity to achieve a specific result. When such changes occur only a strong sense of self and identity may lead the practitioner of these dangerous arts back to humanity. True also the sense of self identity helps when traveling in astral form, this sense of identity helps prevent one's spirit from being lost in the various worlds of consciousness and spirit. Law of True Names “Having greater knowledge of an entity's true and complete name leads to greater control through greater affinity.” Also known as the law of true names or barborous names, this is one of the most ancient laws of magic. To paraphrase would be to say that knowing a things true name is to have a kind of power over the thing. Now this branches out in many directions from here. There are many ideas of what constitutes a true name. Some say it is a secret name which every thing has unique to itself. This often applied to mystic beings. The Judeo-Christian god for example has a whole list of these “true” or “sacred” names which in ancient traditions must be invoked in order to truly get his attention. One of these above all the tetragrammaton a combination of 4 hebrew letters but the pronunciation of which was lost many centuries ago and semitic languages didn't record vowel sounds until much later. Beyond the tetragrammaton the word ba'al has an interesting history. In modern day ba'al is the name of a christian demon written about in many grimoires and texts. The word ba'al however, is not a name, its a title. In ancient semitic regions a deity's name was a sacred thing, to sacred to pronounce regularly in public. Instead they would replace this name with a title, in this case ba'al meant master similar to the way modern christians use the term lord. Be'lial is another example and is actualy a conjunction between the word ba''al and Zebub turned into beelzebub which would show up prominently in the new testament. So far we have only discussed true names in one form. In the above statements the true name exists in the form of a secret or hidden name that all things possess, and having access or knowledge of that name gives you power of a kind over them. There is, however, another classification for true names. The Author has dubbed this The Descriptive Name and it is a sub category of the Law of Knowledge. The Descriptive Name is a name which, instead of being a proper name for a being is a name which describes the being as closely as possible. Instead of saying “so and so's true name is Paul.” we say the person born on such and such date, a male, to the parents of so and so. We go on in greater detail which may include a family line in the description, the person's physical characteristics such as height, weight, eye and hair color, perhaps distinguishing marks so that the description limits the identification to only a single person in all of history past, present and future. Having the detailed level of knowledge of a person required for a complete descriptive name is impossible, but one can come

close enough to limit possibilities in the universe to the intended person, place, thing, or event. Having a piece of the person's biology, especially blood, contains that person's DNA which is almost a true name on a biological scale and in this manner would relate the descriptive true name to the law of contagion as well. The descriptive true name is a powerful thing and can be used to control a set of events as well as the secret true name, especially since the secret true name is, well, a secret and therefore hard to come by. Law of Word of Power “Having Greater knowledge of words of power leads to greater affinity and influence.” This is on the surface related to the ideas of the secret true name described above. Often times the ancient words of power seem unpronounceable, or meaningless assemblies of syllables and their meaning is impossible to trace. One of the most famous words of power Abracadabra's meaning is mostly lost to us at this point though several people have related to many early languages. One of these etymologies states that its a twisted form of an old phrase meaning “I bless the dead.” however its usage for the last thousand years or so has been as a form of protection especially from sickness. Word of power however are less about secret names and more about the sound of the word itself. In hindu belief different sounds produced in different ways create a kind of resonance with both the physical and spiritual worlds. The most widley known resonance from Hindu is Om. According to many religions with their origins in the indian subcontinent the sound created as Ohm and said “for the time it takes to say three syllables,” is the sound which first manifested to create the rest of the universe. As such the om sound is an excellent sound to use in a chant or mantra designed to manifest something. Many other words of power exist throughout the ancient world, some of which are simple to say but not simple to truly use because of the focus and meditation that goes into their use. Others are simple to use, the simple sounds producing a resonance or serious of resonances towards and ideal. Unfortunately the actual pronunciation of many of these western complex words of power has been lost and only through experimentation and meditation can one discover their proper pronunciation. Or at least discover “a” proper pronunciation. Laws of Association “Greater common characteristics between 2 manifestations with greater knowledge of commonalities produces greater affinity and hence greater influence.” The Laws of association are a collection of laws that originate in anthropology through study of rituals and ceremonies of multipled cultures. To paraphrase the definition of the laws of association would be to say if two things have something in common then they have a type of link. A magician can use that link to use one thing to affect the other. Bell's theorem in quantum mechanics suggests that every particle in the Universe affects every other particle. There are two sublaws that come from this law which have already been discuss but will be covered again below. Law of Contagion “Two manifestations which have been in contact remain in contact” When we think of the word contagion we often think of a disease, and the law of contagion works something in the same way. If a person is sick with a contagious disease and comes into contact with another person, that person is likely to contract the disease. In much the same way if two things

come into contact with one another, a link if forged between them. That link can be manipulated from one end to affect the other. Earlier we used examples such as a piece of jewelry, hair, or blood to affect a person. But this applies for objects as well. One might keep a piece of jewelry in a bag with another object for a period of time creating a link, the longer the objects remain in contact with one another the stronger the link. After a period of time one might give one of the objects to someone else and then be able to send energies through the other object to the person, or vice versa draw energies from the person through the objects to one's self. The law of contagion also applies to ideas. A rock from a rainy area will have strong assocations with rain and can be transplanted to a new region and used to encourage rainfall. By the same token a branch of sunbleached wood from a dry desert might be used to help prevent flooding in an area. Law of Similiarity “Two manifestations which resemble one another have an affinity and influence over one another” Also “Effects resemble causes.” There are countless examples of this through the classical systems and the midevil period. Scott Cunningham, in his book Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, says that rice thrown into the air will help it rain. This is particularly logical in magical thinking since rice requires a great amount of water to mature and resembles rain drops when thrown into the air and left to fall. Hand Fasting rituals of modern pagans usually involve binding a couples hands one to the other to symbolize there bonds of love for one another. Other examples of the law of similarity include eating walnuts to strengthen the brain because of a walnuts similarity to the brain, and using phallic shaped objects to improve male potency, fertility, or create lust. Perhaps the most prolific use of the Law of Similiarity can be found in ancient egypt. There are countless stories in ancient egypt where skilled magician-priests were able to transform images into reality. One account talks about a magician who used a spell to turn the effigy of a crocodile, through images and prayers into a real crocodile, and a large one at that, who then ate an enemy of this priest. In ancient tribal societies and early forms of civilization writing was very sacred and often limited to the priest class because they believed that writing was a magical or sacred act. When one wrote or scribed the word for scorpion that word written on that paper or inscribed in that stone was considered to be just as dangerous as the animal itself. Handling it improperly may result in the person becoming sick as if stung by a scorpion. There are two major differences between a word inscribed back then and a word we write on a piece of paper today. The first is that we don't think anything of it, which means we don't pour energy into the word when we write it down and down activate it. The 2nd is that todays letters often don't resemble what they originally were made to represent and so no one creates the connection. Heiroglyphs from Egypt however may be quite different. Pictographs from earlier tribal cultures may also serve well to using image magic. The greeks, romans, even societys of the middle ages passed on the image of medusa as a powerful protective amulet until it could be seen as a charm against the evil eye as late as the early 20th century in Italy. If one were to inscribe the image, word, or runes with the intent and power and belief of the ancients those writings may very well have an energy or spirit about them that will cause good or harm to a person in their vicinity or directly handling them. Law of Identification “Complete knowledge equalst absolute affinity which equals identity.” Earlier we mentioned that in classical spells often times a magician would work to become a god. This applies under this law. Through study and understanding of an entity one can become the entity. The greco-egyptian magical papyrii have countless examples where a magician works to identify with a god or other supernatural being, while the native americans have a tradition called skin walking where one

changes their own identity to that of an animal. In each case the magician become an inheritor of the powers and personality of that creature. By altering your own thoughts, feelings, and views to the patterns of another entity you become that entity. The Law of Knowledge applies strongly to this Law as greater knowledge of the entity leads to stronger affinity. By the same token the law of self knowledge is used to help return the magician back to his own patterns. Law of Synthesis “two opposing views of reality, or two realities, engenders a thrid which is more real than either of the originals.” This is more of a principle which allows you to hold two seemingly contradictory ideas simultaneously. Reality is what it is, not how we concieve it and sometimes our views of reality imply two contradictory ideas are simultaneously true. A great example of this occurred through the 20th century in physics. For a significant part of the 20th century is was argued between two schools of though whether light was made of particles or waves. Several experiments were performed in order to rule out the other side. Some of these experiments proved that light was a wave, while other experiments proved it behaved as a particle rather than a wave. Yet up until this point nothing had simultaneously behaved as both. This lead to the revolutionary idea of particle-wave physics which assumed that light was a particle and a wave simultaneously since it seemed to be both. The details of this school of thought however, need not be discussed here. Suffice it to say that if you think something is true, and yet there is something out there which goes against what you think is true, then perhaps with the proper amount of research you can either rule one truth out, decide that one is the truth with certain exceptions of decide to synthesize the two like particle-wave physics. The law of synthesis is less a law of magic and more of a philosophy for research, learning, and understanding. Its use however, is invaluable to a magician because the philosophy's of the occult are many and varied and often contradictory or seemingly contradictory. A.E. Waite, creator of the modern tarot deck, once wrote “magic is the place where the circle is squared,” a contradictory idea in and of itself. Law of Polarity “Any Manifestation is divisible into two antithetical sets of attributes, each of which contained in the other.” Anything can be separated into two opposite parts with each part having its own existence. This law is essential to many mystical statements and arguments. Also, it is essential in denoting characteristics of objects. As such this law is important when createing descriptive names (see the law of true names) as according to plato, “a thing is what it is and is not what it is not” therefore one can create a descriptive true name by listing all the things which it is not. Law of Balance “Greater balance is required for greater affinity and influence” The law of balance has many meanings in many different contexts. In the original papers from which many of these laws are drawn it states that, “The Law of Balance is simply a statement for conserving personal energy and achieving the greatest proficiency. . . This energy level is best maintained by avoiding extremes in thinking and action. One must be open minded, able to consider all alternatives, but strong enough to determine one's personal course in life.” While this philosophical outlook on the law of balance is an excellent means of living, studying and understanding the Law of Balance also incorporates many other ideas. For example by walking the middle path one can understand sides better by contrasting them both from without and from within. Further more in can also be applied to the idea that when working with energy a certain balance must be maintained within the practitioner to ensure lack of harm and successful operations. If

the practitioner is too weak from fasting rituals then the mind tends to wander and the spell fails. If he is over stuffed the same thing happens. By the same token if a person concentrates too much on a single element and the ideas of that element then that element tends to invade one's life and later the person's thinking. Fire would probably make the person easily angered or sexually promiscuous, while air tends to make one highly reasonable but also very flighty. Earth makes one slow to act even when action is necessary and water tends to make one easily depressive. Within the realm of the practitioner the balance must be maintained for the best outlook, experience, understanding and performance. The Author would also like to put forth the personal opinion that this is what is wrong with many people's use of spirit or totem animals. In many of these cases the person becomes quite obsessed with an animal they have a preference for and often decorate with images of the animal and perhaps even take on certain mannerisms of said animal. This is not, however, the purpose of the spirit animal. A person's spirit animal is often unlike the person in many ways and the person is meant to learn from the actions of said animal. If one is too hesitant to take risks then it may be that the person's spirit animal will be an eagle to teach the person to soar or a squirrel to teach the person to leap sometimes even though the leap looks dangerous. Spirit animals often change especially as the person learns the lessons necessary for the spirit animals. Natural spiritualism like this centers around the balance and cycles of nature as such going to any extreme for one's spirit animal is taking it too far. Law of Infinite Data “The number of manifestations within the web of reality is infinite” This law is a reminder to us to be humble in many ways. There is no way to know everything and we always know less than what we do not know. It encourages us to never be satisfied to always expand, seek and learn because there is so much more to learn. Law of Infinite Universes “As there are infinite manifestations within the web possessed of infinite views of the universe so there are infinite universes.” Another law to remind us of what we do not know and a law which goes directly hand in hand with the law of identification. Manifestations in this law are not limited to people, but animals, plants, even rocks. Each of these is a manifestation within reality and has its own viewpoint (not necessarily intelligent but that depends on one's one point of view). Until we understand these viewpoints we cannot understand the universe or the things within it. Through the law of identification we are given an infinite number of universes to explore and an infinite amount of knowledge from each one. Law of Finite Senses “A manifestations ability to perceive limits its ability to know” There are many things in this universe we cannot perceive and thus we cannot know them. We can perceive heat, but we cannot perceive x-rays or UV rays directly. We know they exist through through machines which enable us to percieve them. By the same token we can train ourselves to percieve more than we normally can. I person who has lost a sense such as sight has other senses sharpen. Whether this is actually because the other senses become more powerful in someway, or simply because the person is more focused on them is arguable. Either way a blind person is able to perceive more through hearing than one who can see, and one who is deaf can perceive more through their sense of touch. On a magical side, magicians for ages have believed that humans can learn to perceive much more than our mundane physical senses tell us and several practices are designed to train our minds to extend our awareness and perceptions in new directions that we normally do not perceive. If we remain limited in our ability to perceive then we remain limited in our ability to know and understand the world around us. The Law of Finite senses encourages us to extend our awareness and senses

beyond that which we normally use. These are the basic laws of magic. Using them in one's study of other rituals, in one's creation of ceremonies, and in one's performance of those ceremonies will enhance the ceremonies and the experience of the practitioner performing them. This is by no means the limits of the laws but rather the beginning of them. In the previous pages we have discussed various elements that can be used in the construction of rituals and ceremonies from herbs and stones, to runes and sigils. We have discussed the different models of magic and what they mean to different practioners and we have discussed the laws of magic and how they are guidelines to help us learn more about the practice of magic and to expand our abilities and empower our rituals to greater heights than they previously could have gone. Knowledge and ritual is not, however, the only aspect of magic that a magician should dedicate himself to. Discipline is a very important part of magic. We have mentioned that allowing one's mind to wander or stray from the focus of a spell during a working can have negative consequences either sabotaging a spell and causing to fizzle and be useless or worse causing the spell to alter into a new and possibly harmful form that may harm the practitioner or the associates of the practitioner. There are many ways to develop the mental, and sometimes physical discipline required by the working of magic. It the old times purification rituals were meant to not only cleanse one of negative spirits but strengthen one's will through physical disciplines such as fasting and self punishment as well as meditation to discipline the mental faculties. Now many of the methods used by the ancients we know today to be quite harmful and dangerous, and this author does not recommend their use. Israel Reguardie, however, came up with several lesser disciplining techniques that teach much the same lessons of will power though they may take longer. In the middle ages catholic monks would fast for days, weeks, even months in self purification rituals. During this time they would live entirely on beer, wine, and water and have no solid food. This is an extremely dangerous purification to perform as, unless one takes great time to calculate the body's needs it may result in alcohol poisoning, or cessation of function of certain necessary body parts and can cause irreparable damage to the health of the practitioner. Today however, a month long fast occurs in the Islamic faith every year. During the month of Ramadan in the Islamic calender, muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. They eat a breakfast in the morning, and do not eat for as long as the sun is up. Since Ramadan is based on the islamic lunar callender and begins in the ninth month that usually places it somewhere in july when the days are long so a long period is necessary to go without food. While this form of fasting is still not the healthiest it is much better than that of the catholic monks of the middle ages. Note also that even in the islamic faith there are people who are exempt from ramadan, diabetics, pregenent women, the sick and ill etc. As such any practitioner who intends to perform this type of fasts should also make sure that it does not interfere with other aspects of their life. Fasting is, however, and excellent excersize in will power particularly during the long days of summer. In july of 2013 when the month of ramadan occurred the length of the day was between 14 and 15 hours and even for those of us who don't eat much that can be a long time to go without so much as a snack and exersizes the will in the process. Another form similar to fasting is to only swear off a certain type of food, generally something one has regularly and enjoys eating, for a given period of time. The affect, while more healthy and less drastic still exercises the will and helps to strengthen it. Exercising the will is the act of doing something one normally does not, or not doing something one normally does. Other classical examples of exercise other than fasting includes swearing off of alcohol for an extended period of time, abstaining from sex, or even taking a vow of silence for a day or week. Simpler ideas may be breaking a habit, good or bad whether its not shaving for a month or

resisting biting ones nails. Reguardie uses the example of crossing one's legs, something many people man and woman do regularly. Try not doing it for a month its harder than it seems. Meditation is a way to increase mental discipline and focus as well. There are many forms of meditation from around the world with many different purposes. Some meditations create a deep sense of relaxation, others improve muscle control, some increase focus, others creativity. There are even meditative practices that are designed to work magic without the use of any physical ritual. Many meditations can be dangerous to the practitioner if not guided by an expert while others anyone can attempt at home at any time. Below are several meditation that can aid a student in their quest for will power, understanding, discipline, and creativity. Relaxation and Breathing meditation These forms of meditation are perhaps the most basic and easiest forms of mediation. They are designed only to help center one's being and relax one's mind into a very light type of trance. These are the beginning points of almost every other mediation. Usually in the breathing part of the meditation one functions under a certain pattern of breathing. The way it was originally taught to me has two types of breath; normal and deep. A normal breath probably does not need defined, but a deep breath breaths in to the point just where you start to fill the strain of having full lungs. The deep breath is held for about 3 seconds then released slowly. The meditation follows a repetitive pattern that runs thus; start->normal->normal->normal->deep->normal->deep->normal->normal->normal->Deep-> At the end of the pattern one returns to the beginning. During this time one should attempt to clear the mind, relax, and focus only on the breathing. This is usuall performed in a sitting position with eyes closed. The most common position for this as I was taught was sitting with legs folded under you, if this is uncomfortable you might try it cross legged. In truth this meditation can be performed in any comfortable position even lying down before sleep at night. If it is continued to long however, one may actually fall asleep. The relaxation meditation usually follows immediately upon the breathing meditation. In the releaxation meditation, however, you focus on muscle groups instead of breathing though it is timed with breathing. You begin at the top of your head and work to relax every muscle in the body from the top of the head down. You know your getting somewhere when you feel areas around your temples on the side of your head relaxing. Generally this is timed with the breathing meditation so that every deep breath is a new wave of relaxation though the process of the deep breath may be lengthened out to acomidate the time. Remember that in both of these meditations the object is to focus on only one idea either breathing or relaxing muscles and to let no other thoughts intrude upon this process. If you start wondering how long you've been doing it that's an intrusive thought. If an image of an event or person from your day or even from years ago suddenly appears in your mind's eye, that's an intrusive thought and you must strive to let it go immediately. The object is to be able to focus on only one idea to the exclusion of all else just like you woud focus on only one idea when casting a spell. These two meditations ultimately lead to blank mind state. Eventually in the case of both of these one stops concentrating on the breath or the muscles and concentrates on keeping the mind blank and free of thought. There was once a children's game one could play where someone would describe something and then the children would see how long they could go without thinking about that thing. Using this type of technique along side the meditations is very usefull for increasing mental discipline and focus. The muscle and breath meditations also raise awareness of one's self and being.

There are a number of other ways that the blank mind state can be achieved. Many people use visualizations such as slowly descending stairs into darkness and with each step more of the world passes away and the mind is left more clear. Other people picture a starry sky and mentally pick out a place between stairs and “go” there. Perhaps my favorite method for achieving a blank mind is with music however. One picks out a song, usually something tribal a chant of some kind, preferrably in a language unspoken by the practitioner. This chant functions well if it is accompanies by drums and at least one other instrument. One sets the chant on repeat and sits down with eyes closed to focus on the chant. The first time or two through one focus's on the chant to the exclusion of all else, then eventually one drops away the voice and listens only to the melody of the instruments for a round or two. When it starts again one drops away all the instruments except the drums, and eventually shuts out the drum. This last step is often the hardest but it is very effective for many people. While I stated that the preferred song is in a foreign language, one of my favorite's is “Voodoo” by Godsmack, but Enya has a song called Ebudae, and that is the one I use to guide most beginners into the deeper levels of blank mind and trance. I have also known many people who use “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas and have used it myself on a regular basis. These meditations are all oriental in origin seeking to center the mind and the body. Those who inhabited Europe, the Middle East, and the northern coast of Africa have a very different form of meditation that is no less important to a practitioner. Dubbed “Western Meditation” from here on this meditation is almost the exact opposite of the blank mind meditations discussed previously, and yet it too has its similiarites. In western meditation, rather than trying to empty the mind, the object is to pick a subject, a thought, an idea and consider it to the exclusion of all else and follow the train of thoughts to all possible conclusions. Western Philosophers such as Plato and Des Cartes often used such meditations to guide them into their conclusions and arguments. As such I personally like to start a person on an “unanswerable question” and then sit them down to meditate on the subject. Other people I start with thinking about possibilities such as in chess. I will set up a board in a way that if a person moves “this piece to here” what are all the possibilities that follow move by move. The number of permutations is such that I don't believe anyone can come to all the conclusions given a certain number of pieces on the board but its an exersize to try and focus all of one's thoughts on those possibilities. Drawing more towards the occult I often ask people to meditate on the implications of the Spirit Model vs. the Energy Model and perhaps perform a meditation on some of the laws of magic. Even more towards the focus meditating on the runes is almost a requirement of rune magic in order to fully understand them. As was mentioned earlier the literal translation of a rune may be “torch,” or “cattle” or “mankind” but what does that meaning expand into? The same is true of the tarot cards that so many people use but only understand the very basic, “death means change not physical death.” Once a person has a good understanding of the runes or the tarot I will often lay a specific spread or pattern down and have the person meditate on the various possible meanings of these lays. While the blank mind meditation and western meditation are fundamental to the practice of magic there are many other meditations out there. Yoga, Tai Chi, and Tantric meditations are all meditation systems that lead to a variety of results whether they enhance self awareness, open the “third eye” that allows people to sense energy flows, increase mental or physical discipline nearly every meditation out there serves a key function for enhancing some aspect of the user towards a better affinity, control, and effectiveness in their magical castings.

Some meditations, however are more dangerous than others. They can have an effect on a person's psyche that can seriously harm or damage the person. Other meditations directly work with magical energies or spirits in the very act of the meditation, these too can be dangerous. This is why having a good strong grip on both the western meditation and the blank mind should be attained before even considering some of the following meditations. I usually recommend being able to attain blank mind without aid (no concentrating on breath, muscles, music, etc) and maintaining it for a least 10 minutes completely blank with no intrusive thoughts before attempting the following meditations. The Oneness The name of this meditation is somewhat misleading. There are many levels to this meditation and here we will only be discussing the first and arguably the hardest of them. This meditation is much like the muscle relaxation combined with certain aspects of my music method except its not the music that one is dropping away piece by piece. Generally one begins this meditation in a relaxed state preferrably with no part of the body touching any other part of the body. Sitting at a table, legs uncross, arms on the table leaning back in the chair would be a good example. So too would be sitting on a couch with arms extended loosely on either side and legs uncross either on the floor or on a stool or some such. Laying down with arms somewhat away from the sides and feet slightly spread also works. Remember, however, that one is likely to be in whatever position for some time and should assume a position that is comfortable. Once the position is chosen, one must clear the mind and relax the body so that one is beginning with a “blank slate.” Then one mentally chooses a single body part. Often the easiest first choice is one of the toes. One must then concentrate on that body part until what can feel its sensations above all else, focusing on how that part feels to the exclusion of all else much like focusing on one's breathing or a drumbeat in some of the previous meditations. And just as in the previous meditation once one has that focused on to the exclusion of all else, one then shuts it out, dropps it away so that it no longer exists in the mind. That toe is no longer and one cannot feel anything from something that does not exist. Now move on to the next toe, the feet, the hands, the lower legs etc. Often the head and torso are the last parts to go. Some people also hold on to breath or heartbeat and these too must be let go from consciousness. These are perhaps the most difficult ideas to let go and many may thing it dangerous, what if i'm so deep in trance that my heart actually stops? Or I suffocate without realizing because I stop breathing? First of all the heart is an involuntary muscle while we can train to speed it up or slow it down we cannot stop it permanently the body will continue to live in the physical world. Breathing is the same way, besides our goal is not to stop the heart or the breathing but remove them from our consciousness. The breath has been a difficult part for many of my students after concentrating on it for so long to let go of such a vital source of life has been known to trigger panic inducing sensations, the same with the heartbeat. When this happens one must return to a blank mind and try the process again from scratch. Throughout the ages many people throughout the world have come to the belief that the desires of the physical body, sensations such as lust, greed, anger, and pain, distract a person from the spiritual world. More aesthetic societies extend this to say hunger and thirst and even the need to use the restroom are all distractions from the spiritual world. Only by learning to ignore the senses and needs of the physical body can we truly achieve a state of pure spiritual awareness. Many of the societies over the ages have worked to achieve this through desensitization. In this process they would experience these distractions over and over and work to learn to ignore them and keep their minds on the spiritual path. Monks in the early days of christianity often fasted for this reason, and Siddartha Buddha (the original founder of buddhism) himself spent several years with a group of aesthics who

believe that the physical body was a distraction from the spiritual Legends say that Siddartha Buddha reached such a level of aesthetic practice that he could survive on one swallow of water per day and a single grain of rice. Such extreme practitioners of aesthetism still exist in india today, although not necessarily to the extent of what buddha practiced, and buddha is said to only have reached enlightenment after he left the path of the aesthetic. In the first stage of the oneness meditation we remove the awareness of the physical body in order to gain awareness of the spiritual body or mind. Once attained we must consider what physical existence and mental existence actually is. If that which is conscious exists after awareness of the physical realm has been lost what are we in truth. Know thyself before you ask who am I? Is a classic saying, the first step in the knowing is to know that one exists. Many other questions and ideas may come from this experience for when truly done properly it is an experience that cannot be described in words. Another meditation which has a number of names but which we will refer to as diamond mind as that is how it was first introduced to us, also has a number of levels of learning. While the oneness sought to raise spiritual connections through denial of the physical body, Diamond mind exists to raise awareness of the physical body in order to master it. This meditation however, is not for the faint hearted as there is much physical pain, though no permanent damage likely from meditation but a lot of muscle pain is acquired from in and eventually a lot of muscles will be strengthened from it. The initial way the exorcise was taught to me was to first accustom yourself to a particular stance. The stance is described as riding a horse with fee spread apart and knees bent. Then the knees are been further until they are parallel with the ground so that you could set a cup or something on the upper thigh and have it stay put. The back must remain straight up and the person should be faced forward not down. The hands should be in fists on the sides at about belt level. If this sounds like an uncomfortable way to stand that's because it is and those who are not accustomed to it will quickly develop pain in the while standing this way because of several muscles that are put into play. The first portion of this meditation is not a meditation but more of a physical exercise to strengthen these muscles until one can stand for an extended period of time usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 30minutes before collapsing. One warning, do not attempt to ignore the pain throughout this stage, instead focus on the pain. This will likely make it hurt more and reduce the amount of time one can stand, if one can stand for 30minutes while focusing on the pain one is ready to move on to the next step. The real meditation for diamond mind comes after the student is able to stand for an amount of time that will actually allow the meditation to proceed. At this point the student should close their eyes and picture their body from a third person point of view. This picture is usually best served in black and white standing as they are presently standing. Allow the mind to focus on the pain and assign it a color which then fills the area where they are presently experiencing pain. Focus on the picture and the pain to the exclusion of all else. This may have to be attempted several times before the student is able to maintain a good solid picture for more than a few seconds before becoming so distracted by the pain that the picture fails. One the picture is solid and grounded with the highlighted color spots of pain in the picture the student is to visualize the color moving into another portion of the body such as down into the calves which probably don't hurt nearly as bad as the upper legs. Up into the torso and the arms. Over the course of time and practice the student will actually be able to move the pain to different portions of the body. Note however that it still hurts it just hurts elsewhere. By cycling the pain through various parts the

student should immediately see a great increase in the amount of time they can stand. This ability should be mastered beyond all doubt under external distractions and so on before the next stage of diamond mind is attempted. Theoretically the effect of this diamond mind, the moving of pain from one location to another can be achieved with any sensation so that one can have a weight on their arm and move the sensation into their legs even though the weight on their arm causes no pain. The purpose of performing this meditation with pain is that pain is a solid sensation that is easy to focus on no matter how much we try to ignore it. Furthermore, while this particularly painful stance (at least in the beginning) is the old way of teaching it, there has been some success with less drastic methods such as using a clothespin on the arm to induce a single point of pain. It is however, strongly recommended that no method be utilized which carries a risk for bleeding of any kind (even a pin prick) or any permanent damage. From Diamond Mind we learn a greater awareness, understanding and influence of our physical body just as from the oneness we learn about our mind or spirit. Through the exorcises of diamond mind we develop a focus unequaled by previous meditations so that even pain cannot distract us from the appropriate casting of a spell and gain a greater control over our body that that induced by the muscle control learned from relaxation meditations. These tools help us to increase our general self awareness, control, focus, will power and even imagination through the picture we create while under stress of pain. The theatre screen is perhaps one of the most dangerous meditations one can attempt for a number of reasons. It has the ability to permanently influence the psyche in ways other meditations do not. Everyone has aspects of themselves and their personality they don't admit to and memories they have shut out because they prefer not to remember them. Not all of these memories are the serious trama one might expect, but rather simply uncomfortable situtations we prefer not do dwell on or deal with. Many times these unpleasant aspects of our personality may subetly influence our actions in today's world either in positive or negative ways. Understanding these influences and methods are a key point to understanding one's self. While understanding one's mind and performance is a valuable tool in magic, addressing those unpleasant ideas can often be very uncomfortable and the theatre screen meditation is designed to put a kind of buffer between you and those feelings, emotions, and ideas so that one can slowly come to terms with these situations and deal with them in a healthy manner. The theatre screen is a method of meditation that works directly with a persons subconscious allowing the subconscious to send messages in words, symbols and pictures of things that are prominent within the domain of the subconscious. Usually, even when one recieves these messages it still takes many hours or sometimes days or weeks to understand what the subconscious is trying to tell us. It is strongly advised that the practioner have a strong mastery of western meditation and the oneness in order to truly achieve the theatre screen, however dangerous things can happen to the psyche while performing this meditation and because of that mastery of the blank mind meditation is a requirement as a defense reaction to some of the events which occur. The actual use of the theatre screen is quite simply. Much like the starry night or stairway to darkness this meditation is strongly based on visualization. In it one simply imagines that one is sitting in an empty theatre, the big screen is lit up but there is nothing on the screen as if someone forgot to put a reel on the projector. Focus primarily on the screen as if its the most interesting move you've ever watched even though there is nothing there. Slowly and without your conscious effort images, shapes, and memories will appear on the screen, sometimes they simply flash for a moment and are gone to

fast to be recognized other times an entire even may play out from your memory. On a fairly regular bases the visualization actually triggers memories of trips to the theater and sections of movies will play out on the big screen. When this happens one should return the screen back to a blank state, this can be done simply by willing it to be so. Eventually the images that once flashed too fast will stay longer as the mind is more able to comprehend them. Once a point has been reached that several of these images can be recognized and remembered in the conscious mind then the meditation should be ended by willing the screen to go completely blank and then black. From here enter into a blank mind meditation for a few minutes. Afterwards record the images in a diary or some such so they can be remembered. At an appropriate time use the western meditation to consider the images and work on understanding the message that the subconscious is trying to send you. Not every set of messages can be translated but often time many of them can be though it may take a lot of time and consideration to understand them. Sometimes the messages are unpleasant reminders of the past, or unpleasant mirrors of our present behavior so make sure you are ready to look in the mirror and remember that all of this originates from within you. Do try to put images on the screen at any point simply let them appear of their own volition in order to obtain a true result. I stated in the beginning that this is one of the most dangerous forms of meditation. The obvious reason why is that it may force us to face things we are not ready to face, but the primary danger lays in that the theatre screen functions as a gateway between the subconscious and the conscious. There are ideas and personality traits in the subconscious that may gain access to the conscious mind through the theatre screen magnifying long buried parts of our personality that we don't want to come to the surface again. Those who have had problems with violence and addiction are perhaps the ones most at risk for this type of danger. The theatre screen does provide a buffer that allows us to prevent these personal demons from gaining a hold on the conscious mind however and there are key clues to when this is happening. Anytime something on the theater screen begins to show signs of awareness of the viewer a danger is beginning, also any time some symbol or image attempt or succeeds at separating itself from the theatre screen this is a most dangerous thing and one should immediately go into a blank mind to shut if off and prevent this aspect of our selves from becoming too strong in our consciousness. The theatre screen meditation should be avoided for a long period of time at least several months if something like this occurs. One former student of mine had just such an issue where the image of death suddenly went from being a figment on the screen to a three dimensional visual that proceed to craw up the screen and cross the ceiling. He was so frightened by the experience that he did not remember to blank out and the idea got a foothold in his consciousness. In the following months he fell into a spiral of depression that began to make him suicidal. I found out later that he had previously had issues with depression and had managed to over come them in the past. Over the course of time he was able to overcome this attack of depression again and, not being one to give up, attempted the theatre screen again. This time however when his personal demon began to come through he was able to remember the warnings and has not since had an issue, but let this be a word of caution to anyone who would attempt this without having a good mastery over their own minds. This former student had been training with me on various aspects of the occult for nearly 4 years before attempting the theatre screen the first time, so be cautious with this meditation. It was mentioned before that both the oneness and diamond mind had several levels too them. I will shortly address those levels in a very basic manner and leave the details to the practitioners own thinking and meditations. Western meditation will, if one will practice it for but a moment, lead us to the conclusion that all

things affect all other things. On a natural sense trees in the amazon and algae in the ocean provide oxygen for animals to breath. If was is diluted so also must the other be diluted. Wolves hunt deer and keep the population healthy, without the wolves the dear populations becomes to large and soon develops diseases. The moon creates tides that keep the oceans constantly cycling and changes the gravitation pull of the planet depending on its location and nearness to earth. These things are necessary for life on earth to continue existing. Science tells us that gravity becomes weaker the farther you get from an object, but its force extends into infinity as such the planets, sun, even the distant stars exert some gravitational pull on our little world and on eachother. All things in the universe are connected some connections are stronger than others. What all this really means is that we exist as individual beings in this cosmos, but it also means that we are a part of the cosmos and can affect it even as it affects us. We are at the same time separate and individual and part of a greater whole. This is no less true in the spiritual sense than in the physical sense. With the oneness we have shed our selves of our physical sense and connection and form this aspect of formlessness we can unite ourselves with the greater whole that is the universe. We can become one with all of creation simultaneously. True such “oneness” is dangerous for the individual for in such a river of existance it becomes easy to get lost. As such this attainment of oneness is probably the last stage a person should invoke but consideration of it should be in one's mind as one exists in this state. While in the oneness, not only can we become one with all, but we can clothe our minds with other skins. For example instead of simply dropping back into our body awareness we can reverse the process and create the sensation that comes from another type of awareness. Usually this is highly advised as something similar to the person such as an ape with arms and legs and hair and begin to see life through the eyes of an ape. A bear is another common first try as it is one of few other mammals that can walk on its hind legs. Seeing life through the eyes of other beings, bears, racoons, wolves, birds, even plants can expand our knowledge and awareness of these beings and so expand our knowledge of nature in and of itself. One thing to be careful of when performing such a meditation is to not fool one's self into humanizing the creature. A wolf is a carnivore, it does not look at a baby deer or lamb and think how cute it looks. If it is hungry it sees prey much the same way we see a cooked steak or a piece of fruit. It does not think like we do and during this process it is best to try to understand how it thinks rather than trying to put our thoughts into it. Such mistakes work against what the practitioner is attempting to do. Generally one should take as much time as possible to understand the creature one is turning into, understand their life cycle and what stage they are in at the time of the year and day you are currently performing the meditation. The Diamond mind meditation has several variations the next step however, is to move the pain outside of the body. Understand it is still pain, and it still hurts, it just doesn't hurt the body. Moving it outside the body should give you a clue on whats next pretty quickly. I mentioned earlier this can be done with a variety of sensations. A good western meditation on the subject should allow a plethora of possibilities to unfold for this and yes, this meditation does in fact lead to direct energy manipulation without the need for rituals, but the ritual is far more powerful. As you review this document you might want to consider how much of these meditations and other things mentioned are directly influenced by a variety of the laws and models of magic. The introductory paragraphs are obviously heavily influenced by the psychological model and the later stages of the oneness are obviously highly influenced by the law of identification. Understanding how the laws apply to each one and how heavily some of these laws come to influence one's magical ability can one to maximize their present potential and expand their abilities over what otherwise may have been limitations.

In the following pages I will list a number of “magical alphabets.” These are writing systems that have been in use for some time and have been used for magical purposes. While I am currently calling them all alphabets the actual term alphabet only applies to a few of them. The first ones I will be discussing are the Futhian alphabets which include the Elder Futhark, Anglo-Saxon Futhork, and the Younger Futhark. The name of a system of writing is derived from the first letters of the system. In the modern latin our first to letters are A and B or alpha and beta giving us the term alpha-bet. The Futhark's however start with the letters F, U, Th, A, R, and K, hence the term Futhark. Many writing systems have symbols that our basic 26 letter alphabet does not. For example the sound produced by th in our writing system has a character all its own in the futhian system. The opposite is also true as we have a c in our system that is not in existence in the futharks they have sowilo for S (soft c) and Kennaz for K (hard c just like our k). The Elder Futhark came into use somewhere around 200 ad and went out of use somewhere around 800 a.d. Elder Futhark is made up of 24 runes divided into 3 groups of 8 which are known as aetts. Each rune has a name, sound association and literal translation. With the literal translation comes a wealth of symbolic associations that come with the rune. It is far from the most pervasive of the futhian alphabets in history, but today it is the most commonly used among the various new age religions such as wicca and neopaganism.

f

Name: Fehu Sound: F Translation: Cattle

Fehu is the first rune of the Elder Futhark and translates as Cattle. One must understand however that in the period during which these runes were written cattle represented wealth. As such Fehu becomes a representation of wealth, money, and prosperity in general. Much of our knowledge of the symbols runes represent come from rune poems, and often times are based on rune poems created later than the elder futhark for other runic systems that derived from this system. In the case of Fehu, the later rune poems relate it as wealth but also speak of wealth as a source of discord amongst kin. The Anglo Saxon poem describes fehu as a comfort to all so long as it is given freely. We might then say that Fehu or wealth, is a two edged sword as long as one is generous one's prosperity is comforting but when we attempt to hord it and seek it at all costs can lead to strife and discord.

u

Name: Uram / Uruz Sound: U Translation: Water / Wild Ox

Uruz is a slightly more difficult rune to translate as noted by the fact that there are two possible translations. In some of the rune poems it translates as water from the old germanic urum while the other poems go back to uruz which is to say Ox. Most modern scholars believe ox to be the more likely translation and in this aspect it signifies a primal strength and vitality. The anglo-saxon rune poem talks about aurochs (an extinct species of wild ox) roaming the land and fighting with their great horns. In this way Uruz might be related also to physical competitions as well as strength. On the flip side icelandic rune poems relate it to water and rain and say it is “lamentation of the clouds and ruin of the hay harvest and abomination of the shepherd.” In this manner it may relate to sadness and loss. Most modern runemasters however stick too the wild ox definition.

x

Name: Thurisaz Sound: Th Translation: Giant

Thurisaz is named for the giants of old germanic and later norse mythology. According to most modern runemasters it represents the disruptive power of nature, opposition and primal uncontrolled energy. It seems that its uses are quite different between different runemasters however. Some use it as a directive rune to direct influences and energies while others call it a stopping rune that interupts other forces. The icelandic rune poem states “Giant is torture of women / and cliff-dweller / and husband of a giantess / Saturn's Thegn” While the implications of this seem obvious rune poems are often not as straight forward as they appear. Husband of a Giantess is often a kenning for the norse god Thor. Thor was the most giant like of the aesir (the good guys of norse mythology) and it was his job to guard the realm of the gods against the giants. He was a primal force of protection for the gods and so from this thurisaz might be seen to be a rune of protection against the primary destructive forces of nature.

a

Name: Ansuz Sound: A Translation: Odin

Ansuz is a reference to the god later known as the norse Odin. Odin was the supreme god of the norse people and was not only a god of the sky, but also of wisdom. It was Odin who brought the runes to men and was said to possess much knowledge of the future. In this respect the rune ansuz is a rune representing wisdom, foresight, and prophecy. The rune is also highly related to the element of the air and is associated with clear communication.

r

Name: Raido Sound: R Translation: ride, journey

Raido is strongly associated with long journey's and riding. The ancient rune poems are quick to point out that what is a joy to the rider is hard work for the horse. It has come to be associated with journey's but it is also associated with horses in this respect we might associated it with Odin's horse Sleipnir which provides us with a wealth of possibilities. Sleipnir was a horse with 8 legs and was the fastest and best of all horses. However, more to the point, Sleipnir was said to be a horse that could run on air and water as easily as land and could even take a rider to the norse underworld and the land of the dead. We might then consider the rune raido as a rune of passing between this land and the world of spirits and as such might be a good rune for communicating with those spirits.

k

Name: Kenaz Sound: K Translation: Torch, To know

Kenaz translates into torch so this rune associated with fire but in a specific sense. In this case the torch represents the controlled flame that illuminates the darkness and so it is associated with knowledge. Several words from the old languages also point to this idea, for example a “kenning” is a phrase used in poetry to remind someone of an aspect of someone else as was explained by the line “husband of a giantess under thurisaz. Kenaz, as a verb, simply means “to

know.” This rune this is a rune of knowledge and illumination differing slightly from ansuz which is a rune of wisdom.

g w h

Name: Gebo Sound: G Translation: Gift Gebo is associated with charity and giving but it is also associated with receiving gifts with partnerships and contracts. As such the rune is an excellent rune in business deals, marriages, hand fastings, and many other areas. Name: Wunjo Sound: W Translation: Joy Wunjo is a rune that represents joy and happiness, it also represents success and perfection. The anglo-saxon rune poem says of winjo “who uses it knows no pain, / sorrow nor anxiety, and he himself has / prosperity and bliss, and also enough shelter.” Name: Hagalaz Sound: H Translation: Hail

Hail is the meaning of hagalaz and in the old world hail was highly dangerous to the norse traveling in their ships. As such Hail has come to represent crisis, danger, and disruption. While thurisaz represented disruption as a protection hagalaz is representative of the dangers in the world and how they can disrupt one's life and environment. Hagalaz represents crisis as well as danger, and can easily be associated with the melodrama and chaos that occasionally invades one's life with ill effects.

n i

Name: Nauthiz Sound: N Translation: Need, Constraint, Distress Nauthiz is a rune with a dualistic nature. While it represents ideas such as need and oppression the anglo-saxons also noted that need is a source of help to those who heed it. Need is after all the mother of invention as the saying goes. Name: Isa Sound: I Translation: Ice

Ice, for the norse was a representation of winter. A time when nothing grew and the world was covered in unchanging glittering ice. They found themselves admiring the beauty of it but also aware that if it did not melt and spring did not return all would die. Isa is an anethma to change, it is stasis, cold unchanging ice. The icelandic rune poem says it is “destruction of the doom” and references the seas of ice in the northern portion of the world. Isis is stagnation in short and stagnation is unhealthy. Isa reminds us that we must continue to move, and grow and change in order to continue.

j

Name: Jera Sound: J Translation: Harvest or good year

j

Name: Eihwaz Sound: ae Translation: Yew tree

p

Name: Perthro Sound: P Translation: unknown

Jera corresponds to the harvest but in ancient times the harvest time was a time when the year changed. The celtic new year fell around harvest festival. As such jera corresponds not only to harvest but also to the year and the idea of time in general. It is also asscoiated with cycles and the ideas of death and rebirth. A good rune to use when one is beginning a new project especially if one is beginning from the ashes of an older project.

The yew tree is a famous type of european tree. From it was crafted the greatest european long bows, so much so that the yew tree was almost harvested to extinction. Because of the association with bows we can see that the rune eihwaz is easily associated with hunting. The anglo-saxon also associated it as a tree that was “hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots / a gardian of flame.” We see a strong association with foundations and the element of the earth and a strong association with fire bringing these two elements into harmony.

Perthro is the most mysterious of the elder futhark runes. Its meaning has never been reconstructed. A related rune in the anglo-saxon rune poem says it is “a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting hall” From this kenning many have assumed the perthro is a symbol for a game of some kind though the nature of the game is still a mystery. One of the most likely translations is that perthro is to represent a dicing cup turned on its side and hence perthro is a symbol of luck and chance. In many modern uses of the rune perthro has been used to represent mystery and things hidden and has often been associated with water and feminine aspects. Personally I use it for chance and luck.

z

Name: Algiz Sound: Z Translation: Elk, Elk-sedge

This rune is related to quite different ideas from different parts of europe and reconstructing its original name and meaning is a bit of a mystery. Most scholars and runemasters either relate the meaning to elk, or from the anglo saxon poem where the meaning was promoted as elk-sedge a type of plant. In either case the associations that come from it are approximately the same representing protection, defense. The elk sedge was a plant whose leaves were so sharp they could draw blood. Mother nature's own defenses.

s

Name: Sowilo Sound: S Translation: sun

Sowilo is the ultimate source of fire and the ancients also recognized it as the source of life and energy. It not only represents the source of life but the soul and individual life. The icelandi rune poems says it is “the shield of the clouds / and shining ray / and destroyer of ice.” From the sheild reference we can take sowilo to be a protective rune but its reference as a destroyer of ice may also mean that this rune counters isa or runs counter to the ideas of stagnation instead representing growth and positive changes. In this case it would be an excellent rune to use with Kennaz to enhance one's wisdom for example.

t

Name: Tiwaz Sound: T Translation: Tyr god of the sky

Tyr was the god of the sky in north mythology, he was also the god of victory and that is what this rune stands for; victory. It is a very competitive rune and can be used to aid in all competitions whether they are legal matters, athletic competitions, or any other form of competition. Modern Runemasters associate the rune with divine power, justice, confrontation, and courage.

b

Name: Berkanna Sound: B Translation: Birch

Berkanna is the birch tree and the rune poems all talk about how healthy the birch tree is. The anglo-saxons go as far as to say it can reproduce without seed. From this we can gather that the berkanna rune is a rune of fertility, health, and healing and is good to use in such cases. Modern rune masters specifically associate this rune with nurturing, shamanism and birthing. The rune is an excellent rune to use at the beginning of an undertaking as one gives birth to a new creation.

e

Name: Ehwaz Sound: E Translation: horse

This rune like that of raido is strongly associated with odin's eight legged horse Sleipnir, however rather than being associated with journey's it is associated with the partnership between sleipnir and odin. The rune poems talk about the horse being a joy to princes and a comfort to the restless. We might then glean that while raido is about journey's, both physical and spiritual, Ehwaz is about partnerships and unions. It brings harmony and strength to unions and is an excellent rune for marriages and hand fastings. It is also a good rune for business partnerships. On a more mystical basis, the rune can connect and bring elements which are normally counter to eachother into harmony working towards a common goal. Balancing elements such as fire and water, or earth and air, as well as balancing ideas such as order and chaos, this is particularly true if the rune is paired with Tiwaz whose justice has its own balancing aspects.

m

Name: Mannaz Sound: M Translation: Man

Not only including man but mankind hence all of humanity as well as the individual this rune is an good rune to begin with when casting on a specific person (especially if one is casting on one's self). Combined with other runes it can quickly form the basis of a descriptive true name (see law of true names). Modern runemasters relate this rune to ideas of social relations and community and can be used to influence such, but it also applies to ideas such as companionship and thus may be useful in calming a rocky partnership.

l

Name: Laguz Sound: L Translation: Water, Ocean

Depending on which rune poem one wants to refer to Laguz can refer to a waterfall, water in the idea of a stream or an ocean. In either case the rune of laguz is a symbol of sorcery and magic in general, but it is also a symbol of things hidden. In the ancient world the sea, and water in general, was a source of mystery in its depths and man kind fears what it does not understand. Because of this the anglo-saxon rune poem references the ocean's terrifying waves. The rune has also be associated with strength and intuition a prime source of magical awareness and ability.

q

Name: Ingwaz Sound: ng Translation: Son, or Frey

Originally Ingwaz was a title of the god frey and meant lord similar to how christians today use the word lord to refer to YHVH. Frey is a male fertility god usually depicted with a large erect penis as was common of male fertility gods of the ancients. We can see Ingwaz as being the other half of berkanna who is the female fertility god. Yin and Yang if you will. We can then associate Ingwaz with the ideas of fertility and growth. Berkana and Ingwaz are the creator's, berkana then produces, and ingwaz develops. While many would think of ingwaz solely as a male potentcy symbol it can also be used for crops and prosperity in general and as such is closely related to sowilu as well.a

o

Name: Othila Sound: O Translation: Ancestral Homeland

While Fehu is associated with wealth and cattle othila is associated with property, but deeper than that with an ancestral homeland, or ancestral property. Another associated version is inherited property or inherited titles such as inherited nobility. As such this rune is helpful in matters of inheritance, but also generally good for wealth in the form of property and may help with purchasing such. It might also be a good rune to signify one's ancestors and offspring in a spell-work. The 24 runes of the elder futhark are by far the most commonly used runes in today's systems of rune magic. Many of the names and translations of the runes are theoretical and perhaps not their true origin

but rather reconstructed versions based on other runic systems that evolved from the elder futhark, especially the Anglo-Saxon Futhork, and the Younger Futhark. The Younger Futhark, oddly enough is a system that is further symplified from the 24 runes of the elder futhark, to 16 runes. The anglo-saxon on the other hand has as many as 33 runes depending on what part of england you want to discuss. While we will not list here the runes of these two alphabets a studen of rune magic may want to look into them for further information. Ogham is another magical system of runic writing that was developed in Ireland. While there are many myths and legends surrounding the ogham script developed sometime around the 4th century for the irish language. There are many theories as to the cause of its invention but the associations it developed has made it useful in rune magic. Not only that but the rune system itself is designed in such a way to make it easy to put in plain sight without attracting attention. Technically the term for the system is Beth-Luis-Nin but ogham also works. The Ogham alphabet has 2 distinct traditions which somewhat argue with one another. One of them is fairly well documented and the method mostly used by neopagans today. The method dates to somewhere around the 10th century and assigns a tree or plant to each of the letters. Based on the mythology and lore around the plant the meanings of each of the letters is derived. The other method, which is far more difficult, is reconstructing the letters original names and translations. This method is attempting to reconstruct an older tradition possibly dating back to the 1st century b.c. However, the use of these translations are a bit more experimental. It's kind of like studying the elder futhark with only the literal translation and trying to gain knowledge and insight based on that. Ogham writing is a bit different from our modern english which is always written from right to left. Ogham, instead follows a line. The most pervalent use of ogham by the ancient gaelics was in the form of stone inscriptions. These stones, which were roughly box shaped and standing up, were inscribed starting on the bottom left hand corner, going up one edge, across the top and down the right hand corner. In the following prints o the ogham letters the solid line from which the ogham branches is meant to signify the corner itself rather than an independent line. In later manuscript form (after the tree assignments came into popularity) the the center line was drawn on the manuscript.

B,b

Name: Beith Tree: Birch Translation: Birch

Beith is the first letter of the ogham tract and in both the reconstructed form and the associated form it symbolizes the birch tree. Birch is one of the first trees to grow on bare soil and has come to symbolize fertility, healing and rebirth. The tree is highly associated with its protective abilities and its ability to ward off fairy folk and evil spirits. In the box is given both the vertical inscribed and horizontally inscribed versions.

L

Name: Luis Tree: Rowan Translation: flame or herb unsure

Like many of the reconstructions the tree associated with this letter is not the same as that of the associated tree. As a flame we might liken this symbol to the elder futhark kennaz for knowledge, so to

as an herb for it was the wise men and women who knew the uses of herbs. We might also associated this with fire and lust for the flame, but with earth and calm for the herb. Using reconstructed methods is very much up to the user. The later 10th century association of the rowan makes luis a very protective rune as the berries of the rowan tree have a pentacle on the bottom of them. It can aid in protection but also in turning away enchantments cast up a person and is good for countering bewitchments and hex's. In addition the rowan is associated with astral travel, vision and healing. It is also used to invoke spirits, familiers, spirit guides and all the elements. Unlike the previous Beith I have not included the horizontal version but the branches would be faced down as in beith. This patter will continue until otherwise noted.

N

Name: Fearn Tree: Alder Translation: Alder-tree

The alder tree is an unusual tree as it bring together the elements of fire and water and creates a harmony between them. The tree grows near water and is a water loving tree but it is easily combustible. Because of its fierce flame the tree has been called the warrier tree and symbolizes strength, tenacity, and determination.

F

Name: Sail Tree: Willow Translation: Willow

The willow tree has long been held sacred. Among trees it is often considered the ultimate symbol of the feminine and is closely associated with the moon and water. It is believed that the willow can be used to sooth sadness and depression and was strongly associated with love, healing, and inspiration. The willow tree is also a protrective tree and prevents enchantments from being laid on someone.

S

Name: Nion Tree: Ash Translation: Fork

perhaps one of the hardest runes in the ogham series to work with the translations and understandings of this rune are many and varies. According to one ancient source the translation itself would be fork or forked branch and may actually refer to all the letters as a collective as well as this one. Another ancient source refers to a roof or heaven with a general idea of loftiness. In the same source they nion is related to a weaver's loom and the traditions explain that “the weavers' beams were erected as signs of peace.” Ash trees on the other handed are notably associated with war as spears were made of ashwood and so in some ancient sources the rune is actually a representation of “destruction of peace” Still another noted scholar suggests that the word “forked branch” was applied to the olive branch, the shaking of which in irish tradition requested an interruption of a battle and may stand for a kind of temporary peace. No matter how one read's this rune however, it has its meaning in war and peace and would probably work well for either purpose. From war we see applications not only of battle, but of competition, legal matters, and overcoming obstacles. Peace can help bring us harmony and tranquilty.

H,h

The author would like to think that this rune reminds us that sometimes we have to go through the chaos of striving and fighting of day to day life in order to reach peace and tranquilty, but if we attempt to hold on too much to these tranquil moments we stagnate and fall from our lofty goals. Name: Tree: Translation:

Uath White-Thorn Horror or Fear

Uath begins the next section of the ogham tract, hence the demonstration of both vertical and horizontal writing. The reconstrunction of the meaning of the rune in the older form is that of fear and can be used in such aspects. We find in irish myth that uath was the name of a giant that challenged the legendary hero cuchulain. According to the myth the giant challenged others saying they could cut his head off if they would return the next day and allow him (uath) cut off the heroes head. Each time someone would cut off his head however, he would simply pick it back up and put it back on his shoulders. Eventually cuchulain took up the challenge and it was only he who returned the next day to allow the giant to behead him of all the heroes. Uath declared cuchulain the bravest of heroes and allowed him to live as a reward for his courage. In this myth, as it relates to the rune, uath is the personification of our fear and its is a fear we must face with courage and honor. This rune can be used in spells of self confidence and courage then helping us to face that which we fear the most.

D

As Whitethorn, also known as hawthorne, this rune symbolizes a completely different set of ideals. It is strongly associated with the faery folk and is said to stand at the doors to the other world and can often be found guarding cemeteries and holy places. It is closely associated with witchcraft, protection and fertility and often used in love or marriage spells. Name: Tree: Translation:

T

Dair Oak Oak

The oak tree is held sacred among nearly every society around the world. The gaelic people were no exception and oak may have been their most sacred tree. The lines referencing the rune dair in the tree associations talk of it being the highest of trees and handicraft of a craftsman. Oak is known for drawing inspiration and wisdom as well as imparting strength and power. Name: Tree: Translation:

Tinne Mistletoe Ingot

This mistletoe as a plant has many associations that seem at odds with eachother. It is strongly associated with cycles, especially the cycle of the year and as such is associated with death and rebirth and the summer winning over the winter. Because of its bright foliage and berries during the winter it is a symbol of hope for spring. These association allow this rune to be good for ideas of sleep the beginning of new projects, and for warding off depression and melancholy. Mistletoe is also described

as “one of three parts of a weapon.” and can be used for protection and combat, warding away evil spirits. The reconstructed translation of Tinne associates it with an ingot. An ingot is a bar or brick of metal formed after initial smelting in ancient metal smithing. The ingots were away of storing purified lumps of metal for further processing. One must understand that the metal smith of the ancients was strongly associated with magic and the occult arts. The black smith created everything from swords and spear heads for battle, arrow heads for hunting, as well as plow shears for planting. The metal smith is what brought us from the stone age into bronze and later iron age. The ingot has a number of representations. It is a product that represents the ultimate change of rock into useful metal, it is also the beginning point for the metal smith to create any of a number of tools of his trade. In this aspect tinne represents growth through change. It is the burning off of impurities to create something better and more pure than what one began with. Tinne is an excellent rune for purification, but it is also a rune of beginnings as the blacksmith took the ingot and forged it into a strong tool or weapon that could be used far more effectively than the stone tools of the past.

C

Q

Name: Coll Tree: Hazel Translation: Hazel The hazel tree has long been associated with mental and psychic powers. Its nuts are said to give “poetic wisdom” as well as aiding in divination and meditation. The hazelnut has also been used as part of a hallucinogenic brew to induce visions and spirit quests similar to those of the native americans. Name: Tree:

Ceirt Apple Translation:

Rag or bush

M,m

The apple tree has long been associated with beauty, immortality, and love. The kennings for Ceirt however relate the meaning in a more reconstuctionist manner saying “dregs of clothing.” Other sources get a little more detailed with one saying “substance of an insignificant person” and this might lead one to say that this rune represents the idea of void or need. In this case the rune may be likened to the elder futhark rune nauthiz and represent many of the same meanings. Name: Tree: Translation:

Muin Vine Neck, Ruse, Love

This rune has many and varied meanings. The vine, while not technically a tree, usually associated with this rune is the grapevine to be specific. And as a supplier of wine represents prophetic powers and the revealing of truths. The other three translations are a bit more difficult. In one kenning it is noted as the path of the voice and here represents neck, although some relate it more to breath. Another kenning relates it as “proverb of slaughter” while the third as “strongest in exertion” from these kennings the translations given above are the most likely based on a knowledge of gaelic poetry.

G Name: Tree: Translation:

Gort Ivy Field

Y

Associated with ivy makes this a rune of strength and tenacity. Ivy is able to grow in almost any environment. One modern scholar relates ivy by saying “it symbolizes the soul and its journeys both inner and outer on its search for nourishment.” The reconstructed translation of field however, may point to the ideas of property, wealth, and prosperity. The word comes from a gaelic word meaning garden or “enclosure.” and thus represents food supply and welfare. This is not entirely at odds with the association of ivy whose ability to spread and prosper in any area is well known. Name: Tree: Translation:

Getal broom “the act of wounding” or “to pierce”

Broom was used to sweep ritualistic areas to purify them and in this it makes an exellent purification and cleansing rune. Another good rune for making new starts or beginning new ventures. The translation however may imply and alternate use. The translation is somewhat difficult as it is a verb wrather than a known and can be translated as “slaying” “wounding” or “piercing.” In this sense we might consider Getal as being idea for offensive magics and hexes. Two of the three kennings associated with it remind us however of healing “raiment of physicians” and “sustenance of a leech” as leeches were once used to help avoid infections on open wounds. The third however is “beginning of slaying” and brings us back to the offensive ideas of attack and curses.

Z

R

Name: Straif Tree: blackthorn Translation: Sulphur

Sulphur has long been associated with magic and secrets. From sulphur the ancients made smoke powder (which later developed into gunpowder) and it was often used in dye. As such Straif is strongly associated with magic, energy, and the occult arts and can be used to add power to any spell. The tree associations connect straif with blackthorn and has been used for offensive magics, the plant itself has come to represent fate or outside influences that must be followed.

A

Name: Ruis Tree: Elder Translation: Red

Elder is a tree strongly associated with regeneration, healing, and reincarnation. It was said that witches resided in elder trees and it was able to bestow the gift of sight allowing one to see the faery folk. It is truly a neutral rune and can be used for bringing beginnings or endings and is the embodiment of both. The associations of the color red it today's societies are many. To the ancient irish it was a representative of the primal life force and blood. In this way it continues its association with the elder for it represents life and the end thereof as blood is drained away. Blood was also the essence of the soul to many ancient cultures. Name: Tree: Translation:

Ailm Pine or Elm (unknown)

The kennings do not allow a direct translation of this rune. They all refer to a sound, that of a sound. For example one says “beginning of a calling” while another “loudest groan.” the reasons for this is most likely that the word was loaned from another language and its meaning was not important. The only use of the word Ailm is after the invention of the tree associations and hence suspect As its associations with pine Ailm is associated with clear vision and far sight. It can also be associated with flexibility and the ability to change. A third possible association comes from the scottish gaelic. While the author of this paper has not been able to research the depths and strengths of this association, and hence cannot attest to any kind of accuracy or historical usage, the word Ailm in old irish gaelic has come to mean the tree Elm in modern scottish gaelic. The elm is strongly associated with death and dying and can be seen as a tree of transition and change. It is particularly useful when working with spirits of the dead and has also been used in healing spells especially on diseases such as colds and sore throates.

O

U

Name: Onn Tree: Furze Translation: Ash

Furze is used to sweep important areas and is seen as a purifier. It has also been said that it will calm the wind when burned. Ash on the other hand is often used in reference to the spears that were made of ash wood and is used in protection magic. The gaelic kennings refer to ash as being a “wounder of horses” and many scholars associate this with horse whips a common use for ash. Name: Tree: Translation:

Ur Heather clay, earth soil

This rune strongly represents earthy elements in both the tree assocation and the translation. Heather

was once used to make mats upon which were carried out rituals. In this respect heather represents a powerful shield and prevents all other energies or spirits from coming through it. It can be used to isolate a ritual area and insure that no outside influences can affect the ritual being carried out. As its association with earth it is strongly associated with life and death. One of the kennings speak of it as “propagation of plants” while another says “shroud of a lifeless one.” Earth is also well known as a protective element providing shelter from the rest of the elements.

E I

Name: Eadhad Tree: Aspen Translation: unknown

The actual translation of this rune is still a mistery but it is probably related to the letter Iodhadh which is next in the system. The kennings relate it to the aspen tree and name it as the “brother of birch.” In this respect we know that birch is useful in fertility and healing, so we might say the this one is related to male potency as well. The tree association of aspen also lends itself to the ideas of protection, durability, and even prophecy or divination.

7

Name: Iodhadh Tree: Yew Translation: unknown

We know much of the assocations of the yew tree from the elder futhark that are just as eaily applied to the ogham. As a maker of bows it is associated with hunting as well as probably protection. The original translation is unknown but it is probably strongly associated with Eadhad. The kennings relate Iodhad (also called Idad) as being the oldest tree and fairest of the ancients and energy of an infirm person. The associations may also associated the yew tree with ideas of longevity, health, and even immortality. While the above letters are the original 20 Irish Ogham letters, centuries after the peak of ogham's usage authors who still used ogham invented 5 major new signs known as the Forfeda. They have since become strongly associated with the ogham and have their own associations. Name: Tree: Translation:

Ebad Aspen unknown possibly “salmon”

Ebad is oddly enough associated with the aspen tree just as Eadhad was. Some modern ogham users separate the two out and use poplar (a species of aspen or vice versa) in place of aspen for Eadhad. They then associate ebad with the aspen's more notorious side saying it is used to commune with spirits of the other world, particularly dark forces and also protects against them.

9

The kennings point to a far different idea however. In the kenning ebad is strongly related to fish particularly the salmon. The Salmons' swim upstream each year has been the center of much magic and mythology for centuries. The salmon is considered a symbol of wisdom, prophecy, divination. In irish mythology there is a creature known as the salmon of knowledge and it is said the salmon will grant its knowledge and powers to whoever eats it. As such this rune is excellent for spells of wisdom and knowledge and can likely be helpful to induce prophetic dreams, visions, and while performing divinations.

0

Name: Oir Tree: Spindle-Tree or Ivy Translation: gold Most modern rune-masters of the ogham associate this with the spindle tree whose wood is bright and was used for exactly what it says to make spindles. We can easily associate this then with creative inspiration. The strong association with weaving has often also been associated with the ideas representing the stages of life and fate.

As a translation of gold the Oir rune represents honor and beauty. The kennings talk about it being the “most venerable substance” and “splendor of form” Gold has had many associations throughout the ages and while it is often associated with the ideas of wealth, it is also associated with fire, the sun, and with purity. Alchemists used the term for gold to represent perfection and purity and modern spiritual alchemy refers to gold as a desired state of the soul in its purest and most powerful form as a connection to the divine.

8

Name: Uilleann Tree: Honeysuckle Translation: Elbow

With the association of Honeysuckle this rune is associated with the ideas of beauty and attraction. One of the kennings mentions it as the most fragrant and it is often associated with bees who in ancient days were known as spirit messengers, in this respect it may be useful for communing with the spirits of nature. The other Kenning for it relates it to the elbow and the cubit an ancient form of measurement similar to our yard or meter and was approximately 24 inches. As a relation to the cubit we see a system of measurement and it may be used as a representation of space itself. Using cubits also required knowledge and mathematics and this may be then a symbol of knowledge. The spiral is a sacred symbol to the ancient irish resembling the ideas of reincarnation and enlightenment. Name: Tree: Translation:

Pin or Iphin Gooseberry or thorn or perhaps pine Spine/Thorn

6

The origins of this particular rune are somewhat hazy. The original sound associated with it is a “p” and under this sound it was known as pin and probably translated as thorne but may also have been translated as pine. Later when tradition decided that all 5 of the traditional forfeida's represented vowels its name was changed to Iphin and was associated with the gooseberry. Some modern practitioners of the ogham associating it with pine connect it to the ideas of clear thought and longevity. The associations that might have come from the gooseberry and what form of thorn have been long since lost.

Name: Tree: Translation:

Earnhancholl Twin-of-Hazel Twin of Hazel

Whether this rune has a tree association of its own or is simply associated as “twinned C” is somewhat arguable. As it association with hazel the the known meanings are much as those of the letter coll. Modern rune practitioners associated it with the ideas of cleansing by asbsorbing negativity and protection by absorbing attacks. Unfortunately different forms of this rune also exist. The particular font used for this paper makes this rune 3 lines by 3 lines while other forms notably older styles makes it 4 lines by 4 lines and thus a twin use of coll. Herein we have only given 2 major runic alphabets. Some others that might be noted and researched are the Anglo-Saxon Futhork, the Younger Futhark, and the Hebrew are all regularly used today. Egyptian Heiroglyphics and a system of writing known as theban have also come into modern use as magical alphabets. Other writing systems one may want to look at include Cuneiform, oriental writings such as the formal japanese, and perhaps vedic scripts might also be highly useful in any work one is look Aside from runes a number of other symbols have come to commonly be used in spellwork. Some of these symbols are listed below but the entire list is far to long to be included here. General Shapes Circle- The circle is one of the oldest glyphs known to man. It represents a number of things, the sun (often with a dot in the middle) and the source of fire and life. The circle also represents cycles because there is no beginnings or endings in the circle. It has long been a symbol of protection and while many magic users today are familiar with circles of protection drawn in salt or carved in wood in ancient days they were also known to use flour to create these circles of protection. Such circles can have a two fold purpose and while some are used to keep things out others are used to keep things in. The one is a shield and the other is a prison which is especially used in summoning magics. Triangle – The triangle has a number of variations. Most commonly used in magic are the equilater triangle which has all 3 sides the same length and the angles measure 60 degrees, and the isoscoles triangle which has two sides the same length with another length for the bottom. The isoscoles triangle is usually in direct purpotion to what is known as the golden ratio or 1:1.61. This ratio appears in a

number of things it is related to something known as the fibonacci sequence and is the purpotion of the spiral of the universe as well as that of the conche shell. The golden ratio shows up everywhere. In relation to the Isoscoles triangle the egyptian pyramids are built according to the golden ratio as are the mayan and aztec pyramids of south america. The Triangle also comes to represent the idea of the trinity but not only in christianity. Many religions have their trinities triple gods and goddesses. In neopagan lore the goddess is often a trinity made up of the maiden the mother, and the crone each having their own symbols. So to in hindu mythology where their male trinity is made of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. In hindu belief all creation comes from the destruction of something else. All things are created, preserved for a time, and destroyed in order to create something new. In these trinities the triangle used is usually the equilateral. The triangle has also become the basis for signs for masculine and feminine as well as the 4 elements and so it represents power and energy in all of its forms. Many people have looked at the hexagram (what today is often called the star of david) and saw the reversed triangles overlaying one another the ultimate symbol of masculine and feminine properties coexisting to make something greater.

The Square – The Greeks recognized 4 directions today's north south east and west, they were also the originators of the thought of four elements fire water wind and earth. The square is the ultimate symbol of perfect balance and harmony between these ideas. The 5 pointed star- a common symbol for wiccans and neopagans everywhere today it is perhaps the most convoluted of its meanings. The most ancient form dates back to the foundations of civilization when it was the symbol for the modern planet venus and can then be related to ideas of love, beauty, and fertility. Thousands of years later one of the most influential occultists of history used the star as part of a seal representing venus that was, if consecrated correctly, supposed to give control, or at least inspire lust in other. Over the centuries the star has developed many other significations, in the norse and icelandic areas the star is called the elf cross and is supposed to guard against elves, witches, and dark magics. This is the most likely source of many seeing it as a protection glyph today and it is often used as a symbol of protection by many. While modern wiccans see it as a protection it is also a symbol of harmony and balance with each point representing an aspect of the world, earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Inverted the symbol is often confused with devil worship and was in fact, adopted into satanism in the mid 20th century. A much older use for the inverted star however is as a sign for baphomet. Baphomet is a mysterious name that came about in the 1300s and has often been called a name for the devil. Modern linguists and religious scholars relate it to the ideas of knowledge and wisdom and strongly associate it with sophia (a jewish reference to the mystical feminine side of god as well as to the ideas of knowledge and wisdom. The modern world Philosophy is derived from Philo and Sophia and

roughly translates and love and wisdom from the greek). The pentagram, is often layed inside of a circle. Reinforcing the ideas of cycles and balance and protection creating a sigil our of two basic symbols.

Pentagram

Seal of Baphomet used by the church of Satan

Alternate Pentagram

Hexagram or 6 pointed star – the double triangle that forms the modern david's star and universal symbol of judaism has its own references. The upwards pointing triangle is often seen to represent masculine energies, projective and active forces while the downwards facing has come to represent femining ideas, receptive, and passive forces. The two intertwined with one another is often compared to the eastern symbol for yin and yang. Besides being associated with masculine and feminine ideas, the symbol is often associated with the elements. One of the classical symbols for fir is a triangle point up, air is the same but with a line through the triangle. Water is point down and earth is the inversion of air. In the hexagram then we see all 4 elements harmonized into two symbols.

Heptagram or 7 pointed star. There are 2 versions of this star one is the obtuse heptagram (left) and the other is the accute (right). Neither one is often used is magic in truth all though many people thing of the acute one as being the fairy star the fairy star is actually 9 points. The obtuse is also used rarely used. In symbolism the they are used to represent the 7 days of creation in the christian bible. In some pagan beliefs it is a symbol of pure power and in alchemy it is a symbol for the seven planets. (up until quite recently the only planets known about were mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, and saturn, and the sun and moon were also considered planets in the classical traditions). In one of the oldest christian based grimoires for summoning produced in the 1100s, Liber Juratus uses the heptagram as part of a very complex circle of protection During the late 1500s or early 1600s the famous occultist John Dee redesigned the sigil from liber juratus but still used an obtuse heptagram. These sigils are known as the sigillum dei aemeth or sigil of truth and are probably one of the most commplex sigils ever created.

a b c d e f

Astrology and Alchemy have an amazingly complex series of symbols that are quite overlapped. While astrology contains dozens of symbols, alchemy may contain hundreds. The symbols which are utilized in Astrology are primarily 19 in number the 12 zodiacs and the 7 classical planets of antiquity. The symbols for these and some of their alchemical association is listed below.

Aries This is the beginning of the zodiac. The symbol for Aries the Ram. According to modern practitioners aries assists with magic where military or law enforcement is concerned. Aries also helps in spells of courage and leadership, and can aid in healing problems associated with the head and brain. Aries is also an excellent sign to use to begin a project but will not give the determination to see it through. Aries is a common sign to use when charging or enchanting a weapon or protection amulets. Taurus The 2nd sign of the zodiac and the symbol for the bull. Taurus is a sign that is related to

g h i j k l

love and spending. Taurus is a useful symbol to draw the energies of taurus in to bless such things as purchasing realestate or investing in stocks or cd's anything that promotes long term stability. Useful also in the love life and in healing problems related to the throat, neck, and ears. Gemini Gemini or the twins are strongly associated with the ideas of divination and prophecy. They also represent luck and communication and education. A good sign to use to assist with a positive reception of a term paper or manuscript but it is a good symbol in relation to any project that deals with communication such as getting to lovers who are at odds to communicate with one another or working to get a group's ideas to combine to form new a better solutions. It can also aid in healing the shoulders, arms, hands, and problems with the lungs. (excellent for assisting someone with asthma or arthritus in the hands). Cancer Cancer is magically associated with domestic life, family, or the home. A good sign for blessings of the home and can aid well in protections and purifications of the home.

Leo The lion is a great sign for courage especially in the performing arts a good way to help someone overcome stage fright. It is also a sign of fertility and childbirth and is a good sign to use to aid in both causing pregnancy and in ensuring a healthy one. Leo helps in healing magic associated with problems of the spine, upper back, and heart. Virgo Virgo is a sign working with employment and can be useful when seeking such. It may also be a good symbol to use with anything dealing with financial money matters. It aids in healing the spine as well as problems related to the nervous system, abdomen or intestines. Libra Libra is strongly related to artistic expression and anything working with the judicial system. It can aid in partnerships, legal unions and balance. It aids in healing the kidneys and lower back.

Scorpio Scorpio is strongly related to the mind and can help with increasing psychic ability, spirituality. It aids also in magic related to exorcisms, and can relate to anyone who deals with the underworld, criminals, prisoners, enemies and so on. It is also a general aid to any magical spell and there is very little that scorpio cannot aid with in magic. Remember however that scorpio has a dark and minipulative side and unless one is careful things might not go as expected. Sagittarius Sagittarius is a very positive sign and can aid in proposals or asking favors such as a raise at work.

Sagitarius also aids in spells related to traveling and journey's and with logic and philosophy. It also aids in healing the Liver thights and pelvis.

Capricorn The sign of plenty capricorn relates to business, profit, and material goods. It aids in spells dealing with wealth, personal and politacl influences, and helps establish foundations for growth in such ventures. It is a general sign of prosperity and success. Capricorn is also a great healing aids for problems associated with the bones, teet, joints and skin problems such as acne and psoriasis. Aquarius Aquarius is the sign of invention and innovation. If there's a project you've been puzzling over aquarius may give you the inspiration to see how to fix it. Aquarius is also an excellent sign to aid in social causes such as charity work and can aid one in making friendships and influencing social gatherings. It also aids in healing the lower legs and blood disorders. Pisces Pisces aids in a number of things, mostly related to freedom and and dreaming. Like scorpio in can aid prisoners, psychic awareness and powers. It is strongly asociated with creative pursuits as well especially in music and dance. It aids in healing problems related to the feet.

-= [ ] C D

Aside from the initial definitions given in astrology, each of the symbols from the zodiac also correspond to an alchemical process. Alchemy is an ancient art that is two fold. The spiritual side of alchemy is to bring the soul to perfection through a number of rituals. The details of the alchemical rituals are complex and would take far more room than is intended in this writing to cover. The author would, however, encourage any student to study the rituals of spiritual alchemy. The zodiacs are not the only astrological signs. Each of the planets also has a sign. The classical systems of astrology only work with seven heavenly bodies, the others were not discovered until much later. While many modern astrologists have included the new planets (uranus, neptune, and pluto) they are not included in antiquity and are thus not included here. The use of the new planets are somewhat debatable for their meanings and correspondances, and any student seeking to study astrology should probably at least study these in some depth before deciding not to use them. Sun Gold The representation of the sun or sol is the representation of the ultimate source of fire, it is also the source of life. The sun has strong associations with gold for a number of reasons, most obviously its color. A good symbol to utilize in spells working with protection prosperity and wealth. It can be used to aid in healing prolems of the heart, circulatory system, spinal cord, and thymus gland. The sun rules the sign of Leo.

-= [ --

Moon Silver The moon has long been held sacred in magical writes and the symbol of the moon and silver can be used to aid in work related to agriculture, domestic matters, cycles of any kind and anything related to secrets. An excellent source of aid in wisdom and power where magic and its study is concerned. It rules the sign of cancer. Silver, the metal associated with the moon, is one of the most conductive metals known to man it conducts heat, electricity, and magical energy like no other and represents purification and consecration. Mercury Mercury(quicksilver) Mercury is named for the roman messenger god. It also represents the metal mercury or quicksilver the only common metal that is liquid at room temperature. As a planet mercury represents the principles of communication, mental abilities, reasoning. It is an excellent spell to use when seeking knowledge or education. It also strongly associated with physical dexterity since mercury was not only the messenger god but also the god of thieves. Mercury rules both the signs of gemini and virgo. Venus Copper Venus is associated with the ideas of love, passion, beauty, grace, and charm. The energies of venus are often used in love potions as well as healing magic and artistic magics. Venus rules the signs of Taurus and Libra.

= [ ] G

--=[]\

Mars Iron Mars is the war god in roman times. His energies rule ideas of courage, competition and battle and is invoked to aid in such things as legal victories and athletic competitions. Mars is also associated with confidence, aggression, male sexuality, strength, and ambition. In healing mars presides over the genitals, the muscular system, the gonads, and the adrenal glands. Iron is the source of steel and as such strongly associated with weapons. Iron is also said to be a strong counter magic and in the old days they often used iron in one fashion or another to ward magic and spirits away from the house. One of the most common ways to do this in antiquity was to drive iron nails into the windows sills. This was suppost to prevent spirits and demons from entering the house as well as the curse of the evil eye. Mars rules over the signs of aries and scorpio, though many modern astrologers using the new planets have assigned pluto to scorpio in

antiquity it was mars. Jupiter Tin Jupiter rules ideas of religion or faith, it also assists in legal matters, politics, and authority figures. Jupiter also influences ideas of growth and expansion as well as prosperity and luck. It represents power, fatherhood, and is a counter to saturns influences. In can aid in healing the liver, blood and circulatory system and is a great purifier. Jupiter rules the signs of sagittarius and pisces. Saturn Lead Saturn is associated with the principles of restrictions and boundaries. It is a practical sign and governs ambition, career, authority, and hierarchy. It is also associated with the ideas of duty and honor, discipline, and endurance. Saturn represents long term planning and is used to aid in healing the ear, the spleen the bladder, and the bones. Saturn rules the signs of capricorn and aquarius. This last alchemical sign to be presented is a sign known as “squaring the circle” and represents the ultimate ideas of alchemy, the philosopher's stone. Those who take alchemy literally say the philosophers stone has two abilities, the first is to change base metals into gold and the second is to produce the perfect medicine that can cure any disease, wound, ailment, and even old age. In modern alchemical process the philosopher's stone represents the ultimate achievement in purification and communing with the soul or divine spark within the man and allows the man to become one with the divine. The author has used this symbol extensively has purification and healing. Below is a table of several alphabets that have been used in magic. While I will not go into the details of these alphabets any modern practitioner might use them to spell out words and names in the alphabet to give a sign or sigil spiritual or occult significance. Often times when a practitioner uses a foreign alphabet in a sign sigil or spell it makes the sigil seem more sacred and helps the magician focus. Others, however, are distracted by such uses or feel them to be ridiculous and little better than added theatre. Such practitioners should probably not use foreign alphabets such as those below as it will detract from the focus and sacredness of the work. There are several other occult symbols used in rituals today. 3 common ones from ancient egypt are the Eye of Horus, the eye of Ra and the ankh.

The Eye of horus is a powerful symbol of protection. Reversed it becomes the eye of ra. The Eye of horus represents the moon, and the Eye of raw represents the sun. They are also symbols of divine power and good health and were often warn to ward away sickness, misfortune, and evil spells.

The Ankh represents eternal life, and many have used it as a symbol for health and healing. Its literal translation from the heiroglyphs is simply life. The ankh has since become strongly associated with Isis and the goddess of wicca and is used as an alternate symbol for her and for fertility.

The tripple moon is the most recognized symbol for modern wicca today after the pentagram. The triple moon represents the goddess in 3 forms. The maiden who bestows youth, beauty, and love. The Mother, fertility goddess of the hearth and home, and the wise old crone. The tree of life has far to many variations to present a picture here. Many of the modern celtic tree's of life are easily recognizable by the knotwork whereby the branches connect to the roots creating a circular symbol. In this aspect the tree represents cycles, balance, and harmony with nature. The Kabbalistic Tree of life doesn't look like a tree, but it represents different worlds or levels of awareness and in kabbalistic practice it is the purpose of the magician to raise their level of awareness or mentality to higher levels as they progress towards the divine. The study of the tree of life incorporates a whole system of belief, magic, and ritual and can easily be a life long trek. The Norse have their own tree of life called Yggdrasil or the world-tree. It is a representation of how the norse saw the cosmos and the different realms. One for the gods, one for the frost giants, one for man, for the dwarves, for the elves etc. nine realms in total.

Modern

Hebrew Celestial

Malachim Passing River

Enochian Theban

Alphabet of Magi

A

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

B

b

b

b

b

b

b

b

c

c

C D

d

d

d

d

d

d

d

E

e

e

e

e

e

e

e

F

f

f

f

f

f

F

f

G

g

g

g

g

g

g

g

H

h

h

h

h

h

h

h

I

i

i

i

i

i

i

i

J

j

j

K

k

k

k

k

k

k

k

L

l

l

l

l

L

l

l

M

m

m

m

m

m

m

m

N

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

o

o

o

O P

p

p

p

p

p

p

p

Q

q

q

q

q

q

q

q

R

r

r

r

r

r

r

r

S

s

s

s

s

s

s

s

T

f

t

t

t

t

t

t

U

v

v

v

v

v

u

u

V

v

v

v

v

v w

w

x

x

x

W X

v

Y

y

y

y

y

y

y

y

Z

z

z

z

z

z

z

z

CH

e

SH

C

S

S

S

TH

t

T

T

T

Aa

o

o

o

o

Tz

x

x

x

x

Stop character

.

Some common herbs and their associated powers are listed below. There are a number of sources for acquiring herbs in both their natural form and an extracted form. Many herbs used in cooking also have magical properties and one can acquire the herb from your local grocery store. Natural food stores often have herbs as well that are not carried by the larger grocery chains. There are a number of ways to make oils and tincture out of these herbs. Usually a person uses an oil or alcohol extract for annointing things with an herbal potion. Tinctures are the best extract and are made by soaking the raw parts of the herb in a water alcohol mix. Usually half water half alcohol and then as much herb as you can get into it. 100 proof vodka is the best way to do this. Once mixed the herbs are left to set for 6 weeks in the mixture in a cool dark place. After it has had time to set one then strains the liquid from the herbs and presses the herbs for more liquid. The liquid extract is then saved and often cooked for a long period of time on a slow simmer to burn off extra alcohol and water to leave behind a more pure extract. The liquid is then stored in a bottle, preferable brown glass never clear. And kept from the light. This extract can then be added to oils such as olive oil or linseed oil to make an oil for annointing. Alfalfa – prosperity Almond – Wand making Aloe – Protection, luck Amaranth – healing

Angelica – Protection, hex breaking Anise seed – protection from nightmares, meditations Anise, Star – Consecration, calling spirits

Apple – love, wisdom, immortality, fertility Ash tree – Healing, Protection from drowning Balm, Lemon – Healing, Love Bay – Prophecy, love, protection from thunderstorms, wishes Bean, Kidney – male virility Beech – calling elemental spirits, protection, Literary inspiration Birch – protection exorcism Blackberry – healing, protection Buckwheat – Protection circles Camphor-divination Caraway – Fidelity preventing theft Cedar – Purification and money Celery – mental abilities Chamomile – Success, sleep Cinnamon – Lust, success, aids rituals Clover – Fridnships Coriander – love Corn – Fertility, abundance, prosperity Cubeb- Lust Cumin – Protection, lust Damiana – lust Dandelion – wishes Dill – protections Dogwood – keeping secrets Dragon's Blood – adding power especially for offensive magics and sigil magics Elder – protection, healing, luck for couples, calling elementals. Eucalyptus – healing Eyebright – mental powers Fennel – protections Flax or linseed protection, power, Frankincense – meditation, purification Garlic – protection, absorbing negativity Gourds – turned into rattles and used in exorcisms Grapes – Fertility, prophecy Hawthorn – fertility Hazelnut – wisdom, divination (dowsing) Heather – binding a spell, protections Hemp- Love diviniation, love, mental & psychic powers Henna – Sigil magic on the body Holly-calming animals, protections Hollyhock – calling good spirits Honeysuckle – Spiritual sight Hops – Sleep and rest Horehound – protection, healing mental powers

horseradish – purification cleansing Hyacinth – love Ivy-fidelity, marriage Datura – Hex breaking Lavender – calm, serenity, purification, love, lust Lemon peel – love, lust Marigold - prophetic dreams Marjoram – love mint – protection, healing, rest, love, fertility, immortality, opening locks Mugwort – Consecration of divinatory tools, prophetic dreams, protection Mustard Seed – protections Myrrh – Consecration, power, meditation Oak- protection, fertility, health, luck, money, healing, divination Olive-peace, fertility, consecration, healing orange – love orchid – love, lust patchouli – lust, fertility peach-protection pennyroyal – soothing tempers pepper – fideltiy Periwinkle – love lust protection power pine – purification, exorcism, protection, healing potatoe – image magic, healing rice – fertility, fasting rose – love, healing rosemary – memory, love, protection, purification, healing, cleansing, attracting fay Rue – Hex breaking, protection, exorcism, cleansing Rye – love Sage – cleansing, immortality, wisdom, health and healing Sesame – lust, countering protections, exposing secrets Snapdragon – protection, invisibility Thyme – courage, love Tobacco, healing, visions, speaking with spirits, offerings to spirits Vervain – love, protection, purification, exorcism, visions quests, divination, immortality Violet- luck, love, sleep, peace, serenity Walnuts – Health, mental powers Wheat – Fertility, flour for protection circles Willow, Healing Wormwood – Psychic Powers, love, calling spirits Yucca – skinwalking, knot magic, weaving magics

The above is not an exhaustive list of herbs. Wrather it is a list which the author has regularly been able to find either at green houses to grow, in grocery markets to purchase, or in the wild all across north america. Some herbs may not be available everywhere, but I have tried to leave out some of the hardest to find ones such as mandrake, wolf's bane, and nightshade. After the uses list below are the elemental, astrological, and function lists for which herbs belong in which category. FIRE Amaranth damiana marigold rue angelica dill mustard sesame ash fennel oak snapdragon bay cedar olive tobacco cinnamon celery orange walnut coriander flax pennyroyal wormwood cubeb frankincense pepper yucca cumin garlic rosemary WATER Balm, lemon elder hemp peach birch eucalyptus hyacinth periwinkle blackberry gourd lemon rose camphor grape myrrh thyme chamomile heather orchid violet AIR Almond caraway hazel mint anise clover hops pine aspen dandelion lavender rice bean eyebright marjoram sage Alfalfa Buckwheat corn

honeysuckle horehound mugwort MASCULINE

almond angelica anise ash aspen bay bean caraway cedar celery chamomile cinnamon

EARTH patchouly potato rye clover coriander cubeb cumin damiana dandelion dill dragon's blood eyebright fennel frankincense garlic hawthorne

vervain wheat

holly honeysuckle hops horehound horseradish lavender marigold marjoram mint mustard oak olive orange pennyroyal pepper pine rice mugwort myrrh rosemary rue sage sesame snapdragon star anise tobacco walnut wormwood

alfalfa aloe amaranth apple Balm, Lemon Beech birch Blackberry camphor comfrey corn elder eucalyptus gourd heather hemp hyacinth lemon mugwort orchid peach periwinkle potato rose rye thyme vervain violet wheat willow

FEMININE Planetary Rulers Sun Moon

Mercury

Venus

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Angelica

Alo

Almond

Alfalfa

Coriander

Anise

Amaranth

Ash

Balm Lemon Aspen

Apple

Cubeb

Dandelion

Beech

Bay

Camphor

Bean

Birch

Cumin

Honeysuckle Comfrey

Cedar

Eucalyptus

Caraway

Blackberry

Curry

Sage

Chamomile

Gourd

Celery

Buckwheat

Damiana

Star Anise

Cinnamon

Grape

Clover

Corn

Dragon's Blood

Eyebright

Peach

Dill

Elder

Garlic

Frankincense Lemon

Fennel

Heather

Hawthorn

Hazel

Myrrh

Flax

Hyacinth

Holly

Marigold

Potato

Horehound

Willow

Hops

Oak

Willow

Lavender

Horseradish

Olive

Marjoram

Mustard

Orange

Mint

Pennyroyal

Rice

Pepper

Rosemary

Tobacco

Rue

Wormwood

Sesame

Yucca

Walnut After all of these tables and mentioning of masculine and feminine energies and the different elements It might be a good idea for me to expand on these systems a little more. The words “masculine” and “feminine” are a bit misleading and in some people's minds downright sexist. I have used the terms as other authors have but a better way to phrase them is Active and Passive, or Projective and Receptive. These ideas encapsulate how the energies within the herbs work. Receptive herbs draw in while active herbs extend there energies outwards. Some ideas are simply better when they are active for example, and active money spell would probably be better with seeking employment because one must actively work for that. On the other hand applying for aid, winning the lottery, or simply drawing lucky chances into your life are more passive. Love spells are another example and a good one to give an idea of what NOT to do. A passive love spell would help draw love into your life. Would bring people into your life. An active love spell is working more towards what we read in books where someone makes a specific person fall in love with them. Note however, that actively working to change a specific person's free will is dangerous, the universe doesn't like it and it is difficult. More to the point, messing with free will is dangerous and there tends to be consequences as the universe balances itself out. The different elements are associated with a number of different ideas. Fire is associated with lust, passion, desire, anger, athleticism, competition, and combat. Water is associated with love, sorrow, sadness, relationships with friends and family. Air is associated with reason, mentality, knowledge, but it easily changed (think ADD). Earth is associated with wealth, stabilty, and protection. All of the elements have the ability to cleanse but they do it in different ways. Fire burns away impurities but can also burn the wrong things if one isn't careful. Air can blast them away but only gets whats on the surface and can take the things that can't be burned. Water washes deeply and rips impurites away but often leaves behind others. Earth absorbs the impurities into itself. Each element also has the ability to protect and attack, to sheild and curse, to heal and harm. They simply do it in different ways. In the meditation section earlier western meditation was described. Using it to gain a deeper understanding of the elements and the ideas represented by them is a constant meditation that a practioner should use regularly throughout their life to better understand the ideas presented. Aside from the herbs, runes, sigils, chants, and colors that can be used in a spell. Timing can help to increase the effectiveness of a spell as well. The practice of astrology goes back to the dawn of civilization and has been used in nearly every form of magic in the western hemisphere. The zodiac signs divide the night sky into 12 sections. The current ruling sign is denoted by where the sun rises on a given date and this is known as the sun sign. The beginning of the zodiac is Aries and it traditionally starts on the first day after the autumn equinox. In our modern gregorian calendar this date falls on March 20th. In the most ancient systems of babylon and greece the sky was then divided into 12 equal sections marked by certain constellations. These contellations are given in the symbols series above.

Today there are 2 major schools of thought reguarding the zodiac and depending on which school one wants to follow the sun sign may change. The Procession of the Zodiac is a cycle which causes the zodiac constellations to change ever so slightly from year to year. This cycle means that the actual location of the the constellations change over the course of time. When the system of astrology was originally invented aries did fall on the first day after the equinox. Today however on the equinox the sun does not rise in the constellation of aries. Rather than going into explanations of why this is, it would instead be better to go into how this affects modern astrology. There are two primary schools of thought where the procession of the zodiac occurs. The traditionalist school keeps to the original definitions of when a sign occurs saying that the constellation has nothing to do with the influences of the zodiac, but rather its the time of year and placement of the sun in the sky but not relative to the constellations. The constellations themselves are only place markers and nothing more. This school of thought uses what is known as the tropical zodiac. The second school of thought uses the sidreal zodiac, and believes the constellations themselves to have an effect, as such the sidereal zodiac has its dates a bit different from the standard school. There is a 3rd school of thought however, this school takes the science of astronomy and applies it even more dramatically to the zodiac. This astronomical school is, by far, the least often used of the astrological methods. Like the Sidreal, they believe the constellations themselves have an affect, but they also recognize that not all of the constellations are the same size and so they account for the size of the constellation rather that equal portions. Below is a table giving the dates of the tropica, sidereal, and astronomical zodiac and the sun sign in each.

Tropical

Sidereal

IAU

a

Mar 21 – Apr 20

Apr 15 – May 15

April 19 – May 13

b

Apr 21 – May 21

May 15 – Jun 15

May 14 – June 19

c

May 22 – Jun 21

Jun 16 – Jul 15

June 20th – July 20

d

Jun 22 – July 22

Jul 16 – Aug 15

July 21 – August 9

e

July 23 – Aug 22

Aug 16 – sep 15th

August 10 – Sep 15

f

Aug 23 – Sep 23

Sep 16 – Oct 15

Sep 16 – Oct 30

g

Sep 24 – Oct 23

Oct 16 – Nov 15

Oct 31 – Nov 22

h

Oct- 24 – Nov 23

Nov 16 – Dec 15th

Nov 23 – Nov 29

i

Nov 23 – Dec 21

Dec 16 - Jan 14

Dec 18 – Jan 18

j

Dec 22 – Jan 20

Jan 15 – Feb 14

Jan 19 – Feb 15

k

Jan 21 – Feb 19

Feb 15 – March 14

Feb 16 – March 11

l

Feb 20 – March 20

March 15 – Apr 14

March 11 – April 18

One might notice that in the IAU system there is a gap stretching from November 29th to December 18 that is empty. The IAU counts a 13th zodiac known as ophichus, the healer, between them. This zodiac does not appear in any tradition before astronomic centers redefined and added it into the zodiac. While some modern astrologers use ophichus the greater majority do not and the gap is largely assigned to scorpio instead. Aside from these monthly associations there is also something called a moon sign and after the sun sign (where the sun rises on a day in the charts above) the moon sign is the next most important. Unfortunately the calculations of a moon sign for a specific date are quite complicated and most astrologers have forgotten that the moon sign even exists. Depending on one's geographic location and time of day, the planets may fall into different locations. Some planets such as mars are more dominant and have a greater influence when they happen to be in certain locations. For example if mars happens to reside in aries it is said to be more powerful in its influences, but if mars resides in aquarius its power is greatly diminished. Calculating all of these today is highly complex and requires a number of charts and tables and mathematics to do a full chart. In this aspect I would advise someone to use any number of sites online that will do the calculations for you, or obtain an astrological almanac that can help you calculate them. In antiquity we have seen how the various movements of the heavenly bodies are seen to affect life here on earth. The positions of the planets and stars and their relationship to one another and a good understanding of the energies present at a given point in time can help to give added power boosts to any spell work we do. In antiquity they also assigned planets to each hour of the day. And during that hour the given planet was supposed to have greater influences. Ideally when casting a love spell one would want to have venus in a proper position in the constellations with an appropriate sun sign in place at a specific time of day in order to cast the spell. All of these attributes almost never play out at the same time the chances are just to low, but one can pick the best of possible times to cast the spell if not the perfect time. Each day of the week is associated with a planet and so also is each hour of each day. The first hour of each day is considered the ruling influence for the rest of the day and so since sol or the sun is the first hour of sunday, the influences of the sun (see above) are stronger on sunday than on monday. During the first hour of sunday the sun has even greater influence because it is the day and hour of the sun. Understand however that the magical hours practiced by occultists in antiquity are not necessarily 60 minutes long (except on an equinox). The hours and days given in grimoires from the middle ages and renaissance are measured relative to the length of time the sun is in the sky. There are always 12 hours of the day and 12 hours of the night. On the summer solstice with the daylight hours are somewhere between 14 and 16 standard hours which makes the magical hours somewhere around 70 to 80 minutes. On the winter solstice they are much less. In this respect it might be easier to say that the first magical hour is not so much a 60 minute hour but 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset. Horse of the day *sunrise to sunset 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Hours of the night sunset to sunrise 10 11 12 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12

sun

A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C

mon

B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F

tue

E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D

wed

C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C C B

thu

F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A

fri

D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B

sat

G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E A D C B G F E

Now that we have some idea of all the aspects involved in a spell, the herbs, the sigils, the timing of year, day and hour, the colors and candles. We also have developed how to symbolize what we want in the spell through the laws of magic, and we have strengthened our minds, our imaginations, and our wills through various meditations we should probably look at some real rituals. Perhaps the best rituals to look at are those rituals that are used to make the tools used later in the art. In modern times neopagans have greatly reduced the number of ritual tools used. The most common are the blade or athame, and the chalice, many also use the wand in their rituals. Each tool has its own symbols and meanings. The blade signifies the male or projective energies. In wicca there are two gods, the goddess and the god, and the blade is one of the representations of the god. The chalice takes many forms, usually a cup or goblet but some use an actuall cauldron and this represents receptive or female forces and the goddess. They also have elemental representations, the blade represents fire, the wand air, the chalice water, and finally the paten which resembles earth. The paten is most often a disc inscribed with a magical system, and is used for blessing and consecrating the alter. While the modern forms of wicca take into account the 4 elements older systems often have much more complicated sets. The censor is often used in the older systems, a device in which blocks of incense are burned to fumigate and cleanse or energize the work area with the needed energies or as an offering to particular types of spirits. Modern wicca uses a knife or sword called an athame a word derived from a copy of the key of solomon where the word is arthame. Older systems often had several blades for various purposes. One author, inventor of the modern tarot deck, A.E. Waite, faithfully reproduces the methods from several older grimoirs for producing the tools of the art. In his book on cermonial magic he says “among the necessar properties mention by the . . . are the sword, the staff, the rod, the lancet, the arctave or hook, the bolline or sickle, the needle, the poiniard, the white handled knife, and another knife with a black handled used to describe the circle.” As we can see the requirements of the older forms of magic were a bit more complex, and these were probably more simplified versions of earlier temple operations. Each of these tools whether in modern neopagan rituals or renaissance theurgy, or ancient egyptian temples has its own uniques symbolism and use. While the author does not consider these tools to be necessary in the working of magic, the process of blessing and consecrating certain items towards magical use can help make ones spells stronger. For example and herbal tincture made in a standard cooking pot will not have the effectiveness of an herbal tincture made in a pot that has been blessed, consecrated, a fumigated and is only used for making magical tinctures and kept put away and never used for anything else. While the author does not take the time to make a pot dedicated to tincture (although I really should at some point) I do have specific pens that I use for sigil magic when I want to do a serious protection spell in runes. I do not have a ritual knife for “describing the circle.” but I do have a ritual knife that I have consecrated and blessed specifically for harvesting herbs. According to some of the older systems the ritual wand is supposed to be made of “virgin hazel” which is to say the length of the hazel that is to be used as a wand should have no offshoots on it naturally. Although another source defines virgin would as would that is no older than one year's growth. “they must be cut and trimmed on the day and in the hour of the sun.” Technically they should be engraved with one of the other magical instruments that was created prior to the creation of the wand. The wand would then be fumigated with smokes and treated with oils as well.

The making of the oils would follow a system similar to the catholic ritual for making holy water. The ritual as published in the Rituale Romanum (“the roman ritual”) is a process for making salt water and purifying it for sacred use. It begins with an exorcism of salt, “O salt, creature of God, I exorcise you by the living God, by the true God, by the holy God, by the God who ordered you to be poured into the water by Eliseus the Prophet so that its life-giving powers might be restored. I exorcise you so that you may become a means of salvation for believers, that you may bring health of soul and body to all who make use of you, arid that you may put flight and drive away from the places where you are sprinkled every apparaition, villainy, and turn of devilish deceit, and every unclean spirit, adjured by Him Who will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen” We can already see some of the laws of magic being put into this ritual. Most modern Christians have forgotten the name of god and replace this with titles such as “the living god,” “the true god,” and “him who will come to judge.” these are a form of using the law of true names describing the being the priest in invoking rather than actually naming him. We also see the mention of “who ordered you to be ppoured into the water by Eliseus the Prophet so that its life-giving powers might be restored,” and in this place it is make use of the laws of association. In other words, as it was before, so it shall be now. A common incarnation of the law of similarity. After the exorcism of the salt (which is not yet mixed with the water) a prayer is given, “Almighty and everlasting God, we humbly implore Thee, in Thy Immeasurable kindness and love, to bless + and sanctify + this salt which Though did create and give over to the use of mankind, so that it may become a source of health for the minds and bodies of all who make use of it, and may rid whatever it touches or sprinkles of all uncleanness and protect it from every assault of evil spirits. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with The in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen In this prayer one might notice the + sign inserted. This is a sign written into catholic rituals that tells the priest to make the sign of the cross. There are various ways in which to make the sign of the cross, most people are familiar for example with crossing them selves touching their forehead, navel, one shoulder then the other. The benediction cross, most likely the one to be used here requires the priest hold out his hand so that the first and middle finger are extended and the thumb extended under them to form the shape of an open ended box. This sign of benediction dates back more than a millenium and has been used in a number of religions. In this case the priest is crossing the sale rather than crossing himself. The next two steps are almost a rephrase of the previous two, an exorcism of the water followed by a prayer of blessing. Once this is finished the priest mixes a little salt into the water and says, “May a mixture of salt and water now be made in the name of the Fa + ther, and of the + Son, and of the Holy + Spirit. Afterwards another prayer is made to bless the mixture of the salt and the water. We can see here the basic format for the creation and consecration of almost any tool whether within the boundaries of christianity or within the realm of magic or another religion. In all the cases each of the parts must be cleansed and purified which will only leave behind the natural abilities inherant in the substance itself. After which the item is then enspelled or blessed either through the focused channeling of energy or by the calling of the elements and spirits to empower the item with the desired traits or by calling upon a deity for the same thing. At the end of the process a prayer of thanks or offering is given in some manner.

The complicated part of most neopagan and wiccan rituals is the ritual area and the inscribing of the circle. The circle and ritual area is no more than a space that has been cleansed and purified so that other energies or spirits are not present and protected by the circle so they cannot interfere with the work at hand. Many larger covens have the ability to create a ritual space and keep in cleansed and purified. Gardner's coven actually had a permanent circle inscribed on a floor and the inscribing of the circle was only reempowering it with each ritual. Many loan practioner's also reserve a space in their homes for rituals and keep it cleaned, both spiritually and physically, and make sure nothing bothers the area. For many of us however, a dedicated ritual area may not be easy. Many of us do our rituals in our living room using our coffee table as an alter (author raises hand, guilty), or go outside to a park or forest to perform the ritual. In these cases the circle should be inscribed for every major working. It may not be necessary for minor ones but anything the practitioner feels strongly about should include a ritual space, and the creation of the ritual space is the cleansing and exorcism of the area, the consecration of the space, and the protection of the space. (the order differs depending on who you talk to, the author tends to inscribe the circle, then cleanse, then bless). This creates an area wherein the practitioner can call magics, and enchant objects safely. Cutting of the wand from above may not be done within the circle, but cleaning the bark off, inscribing it with sigils, chants of blessing, fumigation of incense and the treating or annointing of it with oils would all take place within the circle. Sometimes one may not have the time to perform all of this in a single run. Thats what shrouds are for and the author has found them to be ultimately useful. A shroud is a piece of cloth usually silk, satin, or linen, that has been blessed, and often has runes of protection and sigils of protection to make it a portable circle so to speak. Its not big enough to work in but its big enough to wrap a wand in it in order to store it until the work can continue in the proper circle. So you might cut it and then take the bark of and cleanse it in one sitting, wrap it in the shroud until the next time to work on it, then you make the circle and unwrap the wand and inscribe the runes on it in the 2nd sitting. Put it away in the shroud for a week or two because you don't have time to work on it. Then make the circle again and use oils and fumigations to anoint and empower the wand. The catholic church has rituals to make its own form of circles. They bless and consecrate every building with a very complex ritual that turns the building into a permanent circle. For this reason the priests do not need to create a ritual area for making the holy water, they are inside of a permanent one instead. While the previous 60 some odd pages have contained a lot of information, enough to keep a dedicated practitioner busy for the rest of their lives. There is also many other forms of ritual, many other sigils and runes, many other methods for practicing magic. In the end this paper has been at best a poor introduction to the massive world of the occult sciences. And there are new theories and methods popping up all the time whether they are new inventions such as the information model mentioned earlier, or discoveries of ancient systems, there is always more to learn. A list of books below are excellent resources of learning many versions of magic. Some of these books date back centuries or millenia but modern translations are available if one wants to seek them out. Many of them are or have been considered holy book but they each have much to teach. Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magick John Michael Greer's The New Encyclopedia of the Occult The Magician's Tables The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures The Encyclopedia of Spirits Henrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy Israel Reguardie The Tree of Life

Israel Reguardie The Golden Dawn The Egyptian Papyrus of Ani (or the Egyptian Book of the Dead) The Tibetan Book of the Dead (not the timothy Leary Version) The Rituale Romanum Arcana Mundi Magic in the Greco-Egyptian Magical Papyrii Semitic Magic It's Origins and Developments The Zohar NOTE include the scarab Wadjet Ankh tree of life and goddess moons in the symbols section