Bonus Post - Oils, Powders, Inks & Wanderings

Magic spells, the tool of the witch. The way to harness energies, shape them, and direct them to "do our bidding". The words "Magic Spell" conjure up images of a crone, dressed all in black complete with pointy hat, stirring a large cauldron over an open fire (or hearth fire) while mumbling to herself and adding any number of archaic, scary sounding ingredients to the boiling pot...

OK, how many witches do you think can actually afford that big wonderful cauldron, to start with..? Have you priced those things lately..? A not-so-big one is being sold on Ebay - 17" tall, 26" diameter for $150. Or you can go here and purchase a 45 gallon capacity one for $850 - plus "special truck shipping". That size is a bit closer to the cauldron usually depicted as being used by witches to brew up their potions and create the necessary ingredients for their spells. Did you read that..?

$850

Now maybe you can afford to spend $850 on a tool (and if you can, are you in need of someone to adopt..?) but I think it's a safe assumption, that based on just that information, you aren't going to find many witches standing around one of these in today's world.

Much like the above mentioned cauldron, many of the ingredients called for in spells seem (to the beginner or uninitiated) to also be out of reach. But this isn't so. Yes, they have scary or creepy or unusual names, seeming to be stuff out a fairy tale, but these ingredients are usually listed using their "folk name". Names like "Devil's Dung" (asafetida), "Witches' Herb" (basil), and "Little Dragon" (Tarragon) can be a bit intimidating when reading a spell you wish to adapt to your use. Where in the world would one find "Tree of Enchantment"  (Willow) if it wasn't known as willow?

There's actually an awesome website called Herbal Cross Reference where you can go for many interpretations.

Ok, so, on to my point (yes, I actually have one here somewhere...) A lot of spells also call for ingredients like Four Thieves Oil or Graveyard Dirt. Or require the intent be written in a special ink, like Dragon's Blood Ink, or Dove's Blood Ink. Much like herbs, the names for these "concoctions" can be a bit misleading - you don't (usually) need dirt from a graveyard when "Graveyard Dirt" is called for, nor do you need an oil made by melting down four thieves (although....) when "Four Thieves Oil" is called for.  Also, if you do happen to find yourself in the company of a dragon, I wouldn't recommend causing him or her to bleed just so you have a liquid to use as ink - that might be a bit detrimental to one's health...

"A long history exists of using animal names as a code for various plant substances. Among the reasons for this practice was the desire to maintain secret formulas. Unfortunately, when the formulas are obtained without understanding or even knowing of the existence of the code, all sorts of misunderstandings and tragedy may follow..."
The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Magic Spells

What I am going to do here today is give a few recipes for the most frequently called for ingredients that you could probably buy somewhere, but you really should make yourself if you intend to use them. I know there are many legitimate retailers of magical items available, but how do you know which is witch (I made a funny...)? Because the website is pretty? Oh it has a pentacle on it so it must be legit. Did you go in that store..? The smell was wonderful, and all those magic books - they must be legit! Even if it is, what do you know about the witch that prepared these items? What kind of energy did they infuse them with? Were they fighting with the hubby so full of simmering resentment when they made that love oil..? What kind of love relationship will you find when you use it in your spell..? How about that Uncrossing Oil? Will you find that it has been infused with energies that may cause your result to be far different from your intent..? It is ALWAYS the better option to delay a bit (if you haven't planned ahead) and make your own, charging them with YOUR energy and YOUR intent than it is to just go buy the stuff and hope that a) it really is what it claims to be, not just scented/colored water/oil, and b) it has the correct energies & intents to accomplish what YOU are wanting do, as opposed to what the person who made it thinks it should do...

Keep in mind these are NOT the only possible recipes for these oils/powders, just the ones that I have...

Oils

Banishing Oil

Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Cinnamon
Sea Salt
Sulfur

Grind all ingredients to a fine powder using a pestle & mortar. Be sure to cleanse your tools between uses. Much like you don't want last night's dinner still in the pan when you cook tonight's, you don't want the last spell's energy to infuse the current working...

To make a banishing oil, cover the powder with castor oil and shake vigorously. (If the castor oil is too thick to "flow" well, add some Jojoba oil to thin it to the desired consistency)

Uncrossing Oil

Essential Oil of hyssop
Essential Oil of angelica
Essential Oil of frankincense
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Sprig of rue
Sliver of fresh garlic
A section of broken chain (from a key chain or necklace)

Add the ingredients to a jar filled with a castor oil and jojoba oil mixture (virgin olive oil also works as the base for a magical oil) The crucial ingredients are the hyssop and the chain. Add the other ingredients as desired (if you apply this mixture to yourself as part of your working, avoid exposure to excessive sunlight or tanning beds as the angelica oil will make you sensitive and likely to burn)

Magnet (or Lodestone) Oil

Place either seven or nine lodestones in a mason jar. Sprinkle them with magnetic sand. Cover the lodestones with a blend of sweet almond and jojoba oils. Close the jar and let the lodestones rest for seven days, exposed to sunlight & moonlight. Swirl the contents once a day. After seven days, strain the oil and it is ready for use (place in smaller jars for storage) 
**Feed the lodestones with magnetic sand, and they can be used to make more oil.

Courage Oil

Cinquefoil (Five-finger grass)
Gardenia Petals
Rosemary leaves

Grind together into a fine powder using pestle & mortar. Add to a blend of sunflower & jojoba oils. (You may also add High John the Conqueror root to the powder mix, or a piece of root to the oil)

Confusion Oil

Black poppy seeds
Black pepper
Asafetida
Sulfur (this can be obtained by buying wooden kitchen matches, breaking the heads off, and grinding, them removing the wood)

Grind the above into a fine powder and add to a blend of castor & jojoba oil. For malevolent spells (undertaken at your own risk and hopefully after much consideration) use baby oil or mineral oil

Attraction Oil

Grated lemon zest
Lovage
Vervain
Essential oil of lemon petigrain, melissa, may chang, or lemon verbena
Rose attar

Grind the first three ingredients using your mortar & pestle, then place them in a bottle with a lodestone chip. Cover this with sweet almond oil, the ass the essential oils drop by drop until you achieve a scent that pleases you.

Commanding Oil

For a powerful formula, combine sweet flag (calamus) and licorice to form a powder to be added to a blend of castor oil and jojoba oil. Other ingredient  combinations can be used as well... Vetiver & essential oil of bergamot. for a situation involving finances. (Oil of bergamot can cause serious pigmentation issues if applied to the skin then exposed to the sun or a tanning bed) 

Powders

Banishing Powder

Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Cinnamon
Sea Salt
Sulfur

Sprinkle the powder on clothing, especially shoes of anyone you want "gone", it can also be sprinkled on the ground where your target will be forced to step in or over it. You would also sprinkle this in your working area and over the candles when performing a banishing spell.

Drawing Powder

(LOL) Confectioner's Sugar

Graveyard Dust

Sometimes a rose is a rose, and Graveyard Dust is just what is says - dust (or dirt) from a graveyard. More often though, when Graveyard Dust is referred to as an ingredient in a spell, the following powder is what is being called for. For which spells do you use one and not the other? Well quite frankly, if you can't make that determination based on other spell requirements and the intention of the spell, it's time to put up the cauldron and candles and either seek out a LEGITIMATE mentor, go back to the books, or just give it up as you are going to hurt yourself or someone else if you continue trying to perform magic and harness energies without the proper knowledge...

Valerian
Patchouli
Mullein

Grind all ingredients together to form a fine powder, and use this mixture when Graveyard Dust (or Dirt) is called for.

Inks

I am including here recipes to create your own ink base, found at Make Stuff. Again, as with anything else magic related, what you put in has a big effect on what you get out. You can buy ink at most craft or hobby stores - probably even at Wal-mart or K-Mart in the office supply section, but you won't know what energies you'll be bringing to bear on you workings. No one ever said working magic was the easy way. In fact, if you want to do it "right" and be in full control of what you're doing, there is actually a lot of work involved, and you may find the more mundane options to be much easier...

Basic Permanent Black Ink:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp gum arabic
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp lamp black (buy in a tube or make by holding a plate over a lit candle)

Mix egg yolk, gum arabic and honey in a small bowl. Add lamp black to make a thick paste. Store in a jar. To use, mix a little paste with a little water to make a fluid.

Prussian Blue Ink:

Dissolve Prussian Blue (available as laundry bluing) in water. Makes a rich blue ink.

Brown Ink:

• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 4-5 teabags (or 4 tsp of loose tea)
• 1 tsp gum arabic

Pour boiling water over the tea bags in a large bowl, add gum arabic. Steep for 15 minutes. Squeeze tea bags to extract as much tannic acid as possible. Strain and allow to cool before bottling. Use with a paintbrush or quill pen, etc.

Magic inks are created by adding certain ingredients to ink. I will list here the necessary ingredients, and if relevant quantities.

Raven's Feather Ink

Burn one black feather, freely given (by a bird, not your buddy who went and plucked it), and add the ashes to ink.

Dragon's Blood Ink

Dragon's Blood (Dragon's blood, obviously, is not the actual blood of a dragon...rather, is is a plant resin and can be purchased any number of places both online & in magic stores. Mind you, for this, and most magical purposes, you want the RESIN, not an incense or other already processed form of the product.)
Alcohol (to dissolve the resin, it is not water soluble)
Essential Oil of Cinnamon

Bat's Blood Ink

Dragon's Blood
Alcohol
Essential Oil of Cinnamon
Essential Oil of Myrrh

Dove's Blood Ink

Dragon's Blood
Alcohol
Essential Oil of Bay Laurel
Essential Oil of Cinnamon
Essential Oil of Rose

Ok, I hope that cleared things up a bit for you. Being a witch and performing magic, REAL magic, not rabbit-out-of-a-hat magic is a way of life. It can be a very rewarding and fulfilling lifestyle if you have chosen to follow this path, but as I said earlier, it's not easy. There are a plethora of books, websites, groups & people that can offer you information on this subject, and very few of them agree. That doesn't mean any or all of them are wrong, just different from each other.

To follow a magical path requires effort, dedication, and a willingness to be open to all (in my opinion, anyways) in an effort to find what is right for YOU. What works for one, or even several, may not work for you. Nothing magical is set in stone. Associations vary  with situations, and what you associate with a particular thing - color, herb, stone - may be very different from what is generally accepted. That, again, doesn't make it wrong (and don't let anyone tell you it does). If you associate the color orange with peacefulness & serenity, then use of the generally accepted pink in a working you perform will not be as effective as it would if you used orange. Many people associate green with healing, but for me personally, when I envision healing energy, it is oftentimes more blue than green. That's what works for me. One of the major differences in MY workings involves the directional associations. The generally accepted associations are:

North - Earth
East - Air
South - Fire
West - Water

That makes your "set-up" look something like this:

In my head that makes no sense. With this "layout" you have elements counteracting each other rather than complimenting each other. When you are camping, and taking down your site for the last time, in an effort to make sure you leave no sparks of FIRE unattended, you bury your ashes with EARTH. Because EARTH smothers FIRE. When you are doing laundry, and your dryer is broken, you hang your wet clothes outside on a clothesline so the wind will hasten drying. Because AIR evaporates WATER.

In my head (which can actually be a bit of a scary place sometimes...) it makes much more logical sense to switch the locations of Earth and Air. Then you have a "set -up" like this:

Looking at this in a logical manner, we now make sense - back at your campsite, when you were first building your campfire, you piled a bunch of kindling into a pile, applied a spark, then gently blew on it (unless you are my hunny, then you just lit the portable torch, and held to a pile of wood until it caught...). Because AIR feeds FIRE. Without air, there is no fire. When Spring rolls around and it's time to plant the garden, you hoe the earth to soften it, place your seeds in the locations you've chosen, then water it. Because WATER feeds EARTH. Without water, the earth is barren and sere.

It seems to me that if you work your magic following the generally accepted principles in this area, you are causing friction amongst the very elements you are requesting assistance from. My magic has been much more effective since I have started using the associations that work for me which puts the elements into an arrangement where they are complimenting one another rather than working against each other...

Oh my, I do ramble on...and tend to take twists and turns I had no idea were even options when I started out...LOL. But, I'll be done for now. I hope this has helped more than hindered. I apologize for the rambling, but the elemental associations are a subject near & dear to me, and once I start, I tend to just keep going....

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader's personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

 

 

Sunday Surprise - Where Do Magic Spells Come From?

This post is taken in entirety from The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells by Judika Illes

According to the author, folklorist and scholar of magic, Zora Neale Hurston, "magic is older than writing. So nobody knows how it started." Very true, but what we do know is that magic comes from all over the globe. There is not a people or culture on Earth that did not at one time possess a magical tradition, whether they recall it today or whether or not they still use it. Some cultures and religions revel in their magical traditions. Others are ashamed of them or deny that the traditions ever existed. Some ethnic groups like to point the finger and suggest that magic comes from other people, not them, oh no, never - any practices of their own are only isolated bad habits picked up from disreputable magical wanderers or neighbors.

When a large cache of papyri from Alexandria in Egypt was found to be largely devoted to magic, scholars exulted. Not because they were neces-sarily so interested in magic, although some were, but because magic spells reveal a tremendous amount about a culture and its circumstances. Read between the lines of a spell and you will discover important details about people's expectations of life and death, their daily problems, the materials that they cherish, their spiritual outlook. For example, recently published books intended for the urban magical practitioner attempt to minimize or even eliminate the need for botanicals. Beyond their value to their intended audience, these books also transmit a crucial message to all of us regarding the state of our environment. As another example, only cultures that possess a belief in the possibility of legal justice, however remote, produce court case spells. Love spells reveal cultural sexual dynamics. So you see, magic spells have tremendous value as history, anthropology, and sociology way beyond their practical value to the spell- caster.

Translations of the Alexandrian papyri, now known as the Magical Papyri, were eagerly awaited. Stemming mainly from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE, they span a crucial, fascinating period of history: the times of Cleopatra, Jesus, the rise of Rome, the fall of Jerusalem, and the emergence of Christianity as a cohesive faith and world power.

Alexandria, although it became Egypt's capital, is not an ancient pharaonic city. It was founded by the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, one of several cities he named in his own honor. Its orientation is the Mediter-ranean, not the Nile, Like other older Egyptian cities. At various periods, indigenous Egyptians were not even permitted to live within Alexandria's boundaries. It was a Greek outpost in Egypt, with Greeks as the elite citi-zenry. Cleopatra, descendant of one of Alexander the Great's generals and the last of her dynasty, was the only one of her lineage who troubled to learn the Egyptian language.

The city achieved a reputation as a world-capital of magic. Alexandria supported a sizeable population of magic practitioners of all kinds - di-viners, dream interpreters, professional spell-casters - all presumably serving the needs of their specific communities rather than Alexandria as a whole, because Alexandria was a rigidly divided city. Although Alex-andria, like many cities of its time, was divided into quarters, true div-isions, like many a modern city, were cast along ethnic lines. Two of Alex-andria's quarters were Greek; one was Egyptian (the only area in which they were permitted to reside), and the fourth housed a sizeable Jewish community.

Divisions between the quarters were distinct, reflecting hostility between these communities, which periodically bubbled over into rioting and vio-lence. It was a turbulent, volatile city, demonstrating ethnic tensions only too familiar today. This may be ancient history but it's a familiar land-scape to many contemporary urban dwellers or anyone who reads a cur-rent newspaper. It was precisely the cities divisions and its multi-ethnic population and varied religious and spiritual traditions (Alexandria was also the birthplace of Gnosticism) that so excited the archeologists and scholars - it provided the potential for something like historical "control groups."

Expectation was that the orientation of the papyri would be largely Greek. In Athens, there was a tendency to associate magic with out-of-towners - Thracians or Thessalians. Would this practice continue? Would there be completely Greek magic, or would the Alexandrians transfer the outsider role to the native Egyptians? Would the Greeks, traditionally impressed by Egyptian mysticism (Pythagoras studied in Egypt) adopt some of their host country's practices? Would it be possible to clearly trace the emergence of Gnosticism as well as Pagan reactions to Christianity? Answers to these crucial questions were anticipated with baited breath as translation of the papyri progressed.

What was uncovered is a mess. The spells, on the whole, are neither clear-ly nor even mostly Greek, or Egyptian, or that third ethnic group, Judaic, but a scrambled jumble of all three, with a healthy dose of Pagan and Christian Gnosticism, together with a sprinkling of influences from other parts of the Greek and Roman empires. Any individual spell may incorp-orate the God of Israel, assorted angels, Egyptian gods, Mesopotamian gods, Greek gods, Nubian gods, Jesus Christ and Christian spirituality, bo-tanical magic, divination, names of mysterious things we have no way of presently identifying, some or all of the above, and definitely not neces-sarily in that order.

What was a poor scholar to do? How to interpret and sort this material, determine who wrote it, and to whom it truly belongs and applies?

None of the information in the papyri is mundane everyday material that you might say any individual on the street was bound to know. The spells and incantations are the height of occult knowledge. The Magical Papyri are the descendants of highly guarded spiritual secrets, the ancestors of high ritual magic. Alexandria was an intensely urban community. These spells don't reflect the knowledge common to any village wise-woman or cunning man but are highly detailed and specialized, occult in every sense, the stuff of initiates and adepts. Who wrote them? The information con-tained in them defies all attempts to pigeonhole these spells.

They derive from over centuries and so can't be attributed to one person, not even the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. Nothing in Alexandria's his-tory indicates a mingling of cultures that would provide a general inter-cultural exchange like this - quite the opposite. Furthermore, although Greek was Alexandria's lingua franca and many Jews, for instance, spoke that language rather than their own, spiritual secrets were still recorded in each community's distinct tongue. Sacred, secret spiritual texts in each possible tradition were maintained in the most obscure version possible specifically so that profane eyes could not access them. Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew aren't even written with the same alphabets. Who had access to all this vast information? How was it transmitted?

Intense debate ensued regarding who compiled these spells and who act-ually cast them. Were they Greeks, as had originally been anticipated, or were they Egyptians? Were they Greeks gone native? Controlled attempts had been made to combine aspects of Greek and Egyptian religion, culmin-ating in the cult of Serapis. But then, why the Jewish reference? Were they Egyptians striving to Hellenize? But then why the Christian refer-ences? Maybe the spells were compiled by unemployed wizard-priests trying to find a new professional niche market, but then why don't they hew more faithfully to centuries of conservative Egyptian tradition? They couldn't be Jews, because, of course, Jews are monotheistic and don't participate in this kind of thing, but then, if not, how did the spell-casters learn all those obscure Hebrew names of power, names extremely difficult to access even within the Jewish community? But if they were Jews. what were they doing invoking Hecate, Hathor and Hermes? They couldn't be Christians because Christians forbade magic in general, because Alexandria was home to a particularly militant branch of Christianity and because the rift be-tween Christians and Pagans was especially violent and bitter in Alex-andria. But if they were not Christians, why all the references to Jesus Christ? These mysteries were not the ones that scholars had so eagerly anticipated investigating and debating.

Translation of the Magical Papyri occurred only recently. Perhaps more information will be uncovered. Volume one of The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells was first published in 1986. Egyptologists, anthropologists, historians, linguists, and other schol-ars continue to discuss their origin and broad scope. The only experts, I suspect, who have not been consulted are contemporary urban magical practitioners, for whom the entangled ethnic and spiritual roots of the Magical Papyri's spells would come as no surprise.

When historians counted Alexandria's four quarters, they neglected a fifth community, who quite obviously rejected, transcended, and ignored those boundaries: Alexandria's vast community of magical practitioners, a quar-ter unto themselves. Where other residents of Alexandria found divisions, these magical practitioners discovered a crossroads. Magic thrives where roads meet. What the Magical Papyri manifests is the birth of modern magic.

If you were an up-and-coming metaphysical seeker or magical practitioner back then, Alexandria was the place to go. Why? Not just to make money; you'd retain more of a monopoly by staying home as a big fish in small pond. No, you'd go to Alexandria to meet other practitioners, learn what they had to teach and share some secrets of your own. The spells of the Magical Papyri demonstrate what happens at those crossroads.

Where others obeyed the rules and kept to their own kind, magical practi-tioners went wandering, with magic as the lingua franca, the common tongue, exploring each other's secrets, deconstructing them and putting them back together in whole new confabulations. This mixing is not neces-sarily about improvement; spells that hew faithfully to one tradition work just as powerfully as blended spells. Instead it's about experimentation and the desire (common to all practitioners), to adapt something of power to one's own needs. (This process is not always a happy one. One person's sharing is another person's appropriation. The Egyptians, for example, were appalled when they learned that Greeks had discovered aphrodisiac properties in their sacred temple incense, kyphi.)

Alexandria presaged the modern city, filled with immigrants from Earth's different coroners. Previously, opportunities to meet other practitioners probably came from your own family; everyone shared the same knowledge and repertoire of tools and materials. Sure, there was the occasional wan-dering stranger, but nothing like the vast landscape of Alexandria, where practitioners from so many traditions could sit and share secrets. Magic, back then as it does today, transcends and defies boundaries of language, ethnicity, race, gender or religion to form its own community.

When I first read the Magical Papyri my immediate reaction was recog-nition: all those mixed-up, boundary-jumping spells resembled, in nature if not in specific detail, the culturally diverse magic that I learned in my own hometown, that crossroads of the modern world, New York City. New York, like Alexandria, has had its moments of tense ethnic division, but you wouldn't know it from the metaphysical community. Fearing the law, fearing ridicule, people may hold themselves aloof, at least until genuine magical credentials, knowledge, respect and curiosity are demonstrated, but then the walls come down.

One thing magical practitioners have in common all around the world is curiosity, the quest for knowledge. We are the original enquiring minds who wish to know. Obstacles to knowledge are bitterly resented and are persistently undermined. Magicians always wish to expand their power and increase their knowledge and repertoire. There is a reason that so many of the earliest books printed were grimoires, or books of magic - the same reason that Lord Thoth is patron both of scribes and magicians. Providing that a society is at all literate, magical practitioners, on the whole, are great readers, from ancient Egypt's Houses of Life to the Voodoo queens of New Orleans.

There is only one thing better than learning from a book and that's learn-ing from each other. Magical practitioners are, in general, an open-minded bunch. Put a few in a room together and fairly quickly tools will be com-pared, secrets shared, and demands for knowledge made.

Spells are constantly evolving to suit changing needs. This is particularly true where cultures live closely alongside each other. Nothing crosses bor-ders faster than a magic spell. For instance it can be almost impossible to separate totally the intermingled strands of various European magical traditions. Because certain methods, materials and styles are more popular and prevalent in one area than another doesn't necessarily mean that they originated there or, at least, not in isolation. Even the most sedentary, isolated communities received periodic magical cross-pollination from Jews, Romany, tinkers, and assorted wanderers.

These entwined traditions become even more complex in the magical and spiritual traditions of America and the Western Hemisphere.

During the height of the slave trade, people were kidnapped from, all over Africa. What were originally distinct cultures, each with specific spiritual and magical traditions, found themselves thrown together in dire circum-stances, the type of circumstances in which many reach for magic. In Haiti, the traditions of the Fon people of Dahomey were dominant and evolved into Vodoun, although not in isolation. These traditions evolved, adding components of indigenous Taino magic, diverse other African tra-ditions, French, and Spanish magic, thus also transmitting Basque, Jewish, Moorish, and Romany influences and last but not least, Freemasonry. You think this is beginning to make Alexandria look simple? Just wait.

Following later political turbulence, many Haitian refugees fled to New Orleans, where Vodoun evolved once more, retaining its frame but picking up new influences, this time from the local black population, whose own magic derived from Congolese sources rather than Fon, and also British, Italian and Native American magical traditions. New Orleans, the Crescent City, became known as the capital of American magic. Its traditions would soon be incorporated into what might be called mainstream magic, that magic most accessible to the population at large. This magic would eventu-ally be transmitted to Europe where, who knows? Maybe it's now been picked up by African emigrants to evolve and transform once more.

After extended contact, New Orleans Voodoo can be hard to distinguish from Hoodoo. Hoodoo's basic framework also derives from Africa, mainly from Congolese traditions, but again not in isolation. Deprived of the botanicals with which they had been familiar in Africa, their materia magica, enslaved African magical practitioners consulted with Native American and acquired a whole new botanical tradition, sharing magical and spiritual secrets as well. These Hoodoo doctors typify the proverbial questing, intellectually curious magicians. In addition to Native American, West and Central African roots, their tradition soon incorporated European folk magic, the Egyptian mysteries, Freemasonry and Kabbalah. The great grimoires became available to all. Transmission was cross-cultural. With the exception of a very few isolated mountain pockets, American magic in general demonstrates tremendous African influence.

Further north, Pow-Wow is the magic of German immigrants to Pennsyl-vania, the Pennsylvania Dutch (a corruption of Deutsch.) The basic frame-work is, of course, the German magic the migrants carried with them, both high ritual and folk magic, which incorporated a healthy dose of Jewish and Romany influence as well as those of neighboring European people. In America, strong further influence (and the tradition's name) came from Native Americans, especially the Iroquois, and from the Chikkeners, the so-called Black Dutch: Romany (Zigeuners) forcibly de-ported from Europe who, separated from clan and family, found discreet safety among the Pow-Wow artists.

In 1819 or 1820, dates vary, Pow-Wow artist and hexenmeister, John George Hohman compiled a canon of Pow-Wow wisdom and published it under the title The Book of Pow-Wows: The Long Lost Friend. This book, still in print, traveled to the cities of the South, carried largely by Jewish merchants, who sold it to Voodoo and Hoodoo practitioners, who incorporated it into their already multi-cultural blend of magic and, no doubt, sent some equally valuable information up North with the returning merchant, who were learning from everybody and spreading the news.

There is an important exception to this magic melting pot, of course. Very isolated areas, places where people have historically had little or no con-tact with others, maintain extremely pristine, ancient magical traditions. Like the unique creatures of the Galapagos Islands, their traditions devel-oped in isolation and thus may have very unique, easily identifiable char-acteristics. It's much easier to clearly identify a spell from Papua New Guinea, for instance, than it is to distinguish between French, German, or Swiss spells. Because these traditions are so unique and because one can identify the spells origins, it's very tempting to constantly point out which spell came from which isolated culture. The danger is that this creates a lopsided effect, akin to those old-school anthropologists who were so quick to note the curious habits of the "Natives" while failing to remark on sim-ilar practices, parallels and traditions back home.

I can't emphasize more that every distinct people, every culture, every na-tion, every religion and spiritual tradition has, at one time or another, incorporated, developed, and created magic spells. Each one of us has a ma-gical history somewhere along the line. Loss and abandonment of these traditions tends to accompany loss of cultural or religious autonomy. These spells, therefore, are our shared human heritage, not isolated odd things engaged in only by strange other people, very different from us.

In some cases, in this book, I have pointed out where spells come from and which traditions they represent, especially if there's some interesting factoid associated with it or if that knowledge may help you cast the spell, or sometimes just to give credit where credit is due for a partic-ularly beautiful spell. However, I have not done so in every case. Some-times I did not wish to keep emphasizing one culture, as if they were Earth's only magical ones, especially those cultures whose vast magical repertoire has stimulated others to vilify, stereotype and persecute them. In other cases, the roots were too tangled to identify their origins honestly.

Although many of the spells in this book are meant for use, others are included purely for historic value and perspective, so that we may remember and learn from them.

Taken in entirety from The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells by Judika Illes

Disclaimer: No one involved in this blog or its contents may be held responsible for any adverse reactions arising from following any of the instructions/recipes on this list. It is the reader's personal responsibility to exercise all precautions and use his or her own discretion if following any instructions or advice from this blog.

Sunday Surprise - Is Magic Evil? A (Very Abridged) Secret History of Magic

You think you'd like to cast a spell, but you're afraid . . . Is practicing magic evil?

According to general worldwide metaphysical wisdom, magic is a source of power. Power may be used benevolently or selfishly, with varying degrees of mal intent. Thus it isn't the abstract practice of magic that is either good or bad; it's what each practitioner chooses to do with it. Responsibility for one's actions and the consequences that stem from them rest securely on the individual practitioner's shoulders. Have evil people ever abused magic power? Sure. Just take a look at some of the hexes in this book, Is magic the only power capable of being a-bused? Of course not. How about financial power, political power, brute strength, nuclear power, and so on and so forth?

There is a general rule, accepted across the board, that magicians reap what they sow. Cast an evil spell - ultimately receive evil back. Negative efforts attract neg-ative returns, at a return rate of three-, seven-, or nine-fold. The standard rule of witchcraft is do what thou will, but harm none. Many modern witches are abso-lutely terrified of transgressing that rule.

So then, why magic's bad reputation?

Yes, there are legends of wicked sorcerers using their skills to hold others in thrall. However, if one examines these legends closely, it's usually revealed that the ma-gical aspect is but a smoke screen for more reliable, conventional methods of co-ercion, like brute force and access to greater wealth, although I suppose one could argue that magical prowess enabled their acquisition. Suffice to say that any po-sition of power in any profession, is vulnerable to corruption and temptation. Let's talk about the average working magical practitioner.

Magic is concerned with the immediate needs and desires of the practitioner in the here and now, or at least in the immediately foreseeable future. It is not about "pie in the sky." The average magician doesn't want to wait for the possible rewards of the sweet hereafter. Magic is not for the passive; if you're willing to passively ac-cede to your fate, the destiny others decide for you, whatever it is, why waste time, effort or money casting a spell?

Magic recognizes that Earth is full of gifts and the practitioner wants his or her share now. Magic is not the same as religion, although many religions have histor-ically incorporated magic into their practice, and still do. To put it mildly, magic is mot an inherently reverential system. Magic demands that my will be done, not  necessarily thine - or at least, let's find a compromise. It is not a humble art. Ma-gic possesses an intensely powerful independent, egalitarian streak.

An infinite quantity of magic power exists in the world, enough for everyone, It's not like a scarce commodity, where if I have it, you don't. Magic power is con-stantly being generated, although various modern practices, especially those that affect the natural environment, have diminished present quantities drastically. Similar to Pullman's His Dark Materials dust, the energy that each individual gen-erates enters the universe where it affects, and may be drawn upon by, others. It is to everyone's benefit (except perhaps for that elite few already achieving their heaven on Earth at the expense of others) that every individual, creature or thing, maximizes its potential for power.

Furthermore, not all powers on Earth are positive: intense extended misery, suf-fering and oppression generate a negative energy that ultimately affects everyone badly, diminishes baraka, obstructs magic power and limits everyone's access to it. In addition, the extinction of Earth's life forms - the loss of plant and animal spe-cies - eliminates every practitioner's potential access to their unique powers. Thus general oppression and certain policies affecting the environment, beyond any  ethical considerations of right or wrong, hamper the magician's ability to maximize personal power and the power of their spells.

There is an inherent tension between the individual practitioner seeking power, and authority of all kinds, most especially religious authority, which seeks to maintain its authority by retaining and controlling access to the divine, as well as to tools, theology and ritual. Religion frequently seeks to establish rules and boundaries about who has direct access to the divine, and who bestows that access and the proper channels. Correct methods of worship and spiritual communication are prescribed, including what is permitted and what is not.

If something has power, magicians usually want to try it out, regardless of whose tradition or faith it comes from, regardless of whether some authority says use is forbidden. Although magic is a conservative force in ways, harking back to hu-manity's most primal arts, it also evolves endlessly, adapting new material, new traditions and new methods as they appear. It is fluid and defiant and resists control.

Fundamentalists of all kinds are inevitably opposed to magic, but this tension exists even among liberal faiths that prize their magical traditions - so-called magical religions. Here, inevitably, religious tradition stipulates a right way to practice magic. Knowledge may be reserved for the few, with methods reserved for those going through the proper, authorized channels. Tension will exist between the officially initiated and independent practitioners.

That tension between authority and magical practitioner is, I suspect, the real reason why secular rulers and religious authorities (frequently in conjunction with each other) attempt to brand magic and its practitioners as evil influences, a cancer among the submissive. Lack of obedience rather than lack of morality is what really draws down the wrath of authority.

It is no accident that the Bible records that Israel's diviners, shamans and necro-mancers were "put away" during the reign of its very first king, Saul. When the prophet Samuel warned the children of Israel that choosing a king would mean losing sons, daughters, land and livestock, he neglected to mention that they would also lose their previous access to professional magical advice. Or perhaps he didn't bother to mention it because he was aware, as apparently was the king, that those magical services are so crucial that they are never entirely suppressed. In fact, King Saul himself is very soon shown, in his hour of need, searching out one of those prescribed, forbidden bone-conjurers for a private consultation.

Because the Bible has so often been used as an excuse to persecute and extermin-ate witches, it's significant to note how the Bible depicts the Witch of Endor act-ually accomplishing her task. She's not painted as a stranger with strange talents, or as a foreigner, but as a member of the community. Neither is she shown to be a fraud; she capably fulfills her royal client's request. Nor is she depicted as ma-levolent or evil, but as a good-hearted woman: having accomplished the unhappy task that every fortune teller dreads, of delivering really bad news, she comforts and feeds the distraught king, providing his last meal on Earth, at personal sac-rifice (she kills a calf to feed him) considering that he is responsible for her loss of profession and presumably income.

Fortune-tellers, readers and diviners hold an especially tense relationship with po-litical authority. Historically, rulers, particularly the all-powerful, very much like to have the future revealed. They also typically wish to retain exclusive control over this information. Because others may use a diviners skill to plot rebellion, histor-ically diviners have been imprisoned, or one is imprisoned for the ruler's private use, while others are killed. To make matters worse, rulers usually desire to hear only the future as they envision it; a diviner can only read what entrails, shoulder blades, or other tools reveal. You see the need sometimes to keep one's power secret. Although it frustrates us today, there's a very good reason Nostradamus recorded his prophesies in code.

Wherever efforts have been made either to subjugate or convert another country or people, among the first acts traditionally taken is the attempted subversion or elimination of native shamans and traditional magical practices and practitioners. This is inevitably perceived as necessity for the pacification of the masses. This is not purely paranoia on the part of those seeking to assert and retain authority.

Traditional shamans and magical practitioners are consistently in the forefront of resistance to oppressive authority. (Because winners write history, the con-ventional historical explanation for this phenomenon is that shamans attempt to impede the "path of progress." ) In the British West Indies, historical records show that Obeah men and women (the local shamans) led slave revolts or attempted to do so. The Haitian revolution, which ended slavery in that French colony and estab-lished the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere, was inaug-urated at a Vodoun ceremony dedicated to the Spirit of Iron, the material, with the sole exception of menstrual blood, singularly most charged with magical power - although as soon as native dictators proceeded to seize and consolidate power, not surprisingly, they too attempted to restrict or eliminate Vodoun.

This, not evil, power-hungry sorcerers is the hidden history of magic. In the United States, the prominent Voodooists Marie Laveau and Mary Ellen Pleasant rescued and redeemed slaves, with Pleasant providing funding for John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. (Their male counterpart, Dr John Montanet, was himself a freed slave, as was Pleasant.) Lest you think this association between magic and social justice is limited to African influence, Native American shamans were (and remain) in the forefront of resistance to white encroachment, and traditional practitioners led desperate resistance to Christian domination of Europe. Who knows what at-tempts to defy limitations on women's magical and spiritual traditions were de-stroyed in the flames of the craze of medieval witch-burning? Virtually all the re-cords that remain are filtered through the eyes of the torturers.

Although men suffer too, societies that suppress the magical arts will, as a rule, also limit women's voices and power, often with terrible brutality. Significantly, King Saul, in need of a necromancer, requested that his minions find him a conjuring woman. Although it's since taken many twists and turns, magic ultimately derives from women's mysteries and the mysteries of creation, and the history of magic's suppression cannot be separated from the history of women's oppression.

Is magic evil? Well, if your perception is that sex is inherently evil, Creation inher-ently tainted with sin, and that women constitute Earth's weakest link. then I  guess you'd better lump magic in there with the rest of these moral dilemmas.

If magic cannot be entirely divorced from religion, even less can it be separated from herbalism, the root of all traditional medicinal systems, systems that for mil-lennia have investigated botanical impact on health and (above all) on repro-duction. Magic is the primordial human art and science. It stems from awe inspired by all Earthly creation, but especially the mysteries of human creation. Every new human life is the ultimate act of magic. Conscious attempts at conception pro-bably constitute the first magic spells, especially if you consider that our remote ancestors didn't understand pregnancy in the detached, technical manner that we do today. Primordial religions venerated the divine in the form of human genitalia with joy, awe and respect, not prurience, recognizing their capacity for sacred generation and creation.

Although these symbols still survive in isolated pockets of official religion, magic remains suffused with sexual imagery, in ways that may surprise us today, in ef-forts to maximize the blessings inherent in the powers of anatomy, both male and female. However, magic stems from fascination, on the parts of both women and men, with women's mysteries : the capacity to produce life where it didn't exist before, magic blood that flows on schedule from no wound and then is myster-iously retained, the links between that blood, fertility, women, the moon and the sea. These were and remain conduits to the sacred for primordial magic and spirituality alike.

TAKEN IN ENTIRETY FROM THE ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF 5000 SPELLS BY JUDIKA ILLES      

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