My Evocation Opinions: A Response

On the weekend I posted an article outlining what I feel as the pre-requisites to taking on the practice of evocation. The response has been mostly positive, from such lovely practitioners as Kenaz and Galina, with some predictable critiques from others such as Frater RO who favor a different style of working. This, in turn, has resulted a bit of lively back-and-forth between St. Balthazar and Frater RO.

I would summarize all those posts for you here, but I'm feeling lazy since we spent the better part of last night managing an allergic reaction that our Boston Terrier had to what has best been guessed was a spider bite. His face swelled up such that he looked like a sharpei with mumps, and when Benadryl didn't calm the reaction we had to take him to the veterinary ER. He's fine now, by the way. But, all this means that you'll just have to take a few minutes and read through those posts yourself. It shouldn't take too long and there are some good points and perspectives presented.

I just felt it appropriate to write a small response here, which is more or less a summary of my responses on those blogs with a bit of further explanation.

I will agree that my use of the word "mastery" was a bit off the mark in regards to all the different skills one should acquire before moving into an evocational practice. What I was actually trying to communicate was much closer to competency. I absolutely stand by my perspective that cultivating competency in these skills will ensure a safe and effective evocational practice.

I would be remiss in falsely communicating that I feel that I am a master of all of those arts. I do not, and I am the first person to admit that I am not an occult master. I am competent in a good variety of magical skills, and certainly the ones which I speak of in the post. By becoming competent in those skills - some of which I procrastinated against for a good long while in my magical career because they didn't come as easily to me as other skills did - my practice reached a new level, and many spiritual doors opened for me. My spellwork and spirit work become very reliable and nearly always garnered positive results. When it did not, I was able to figure out what went wrong, and remedy it.

One of the main critiques from RO of the plan of study which I outlined was that it requires too much time, and students will become frustrated thinking that they MUST gain all those skills before venturing into spirit work. I can see that point, although my personal perspective is that if one wants good results then you're going to have to WORK for it. We live in a very instant gratification-oriented society in which people want everything for next to nothing. This goes hand in hand with a sense of entitlement which runs rampant in the West. So many people are simply handed good things, that they develop an arrogance about that that communicates that they feel that they deserve all these good things simply by being who they are. The true work of EARNING good things becomes more and more a foreign concept for many. This attitude flows over into the magical world, just as it does the more mundane areas of our society.

Now, I am in *no way* saying that every occultist or every aspiring occultist has such an attitude. Nor I am implying that those practitioners who look for more efficient ways of achieving magical ends are guilty of trying to get something for nothing. I personally LOVE finding new expedient ways to do complex magics. However, I do feel that if you approach your magical training and practice with shortcuts as a priority and general laziness as your modus operandi, well, then, just keep in mind the programming axiom 'garbage in, garbage out'. My evocation article was actually written in response to a question online from someone displaying the arrogant entitlement that really grinds my gears, and I was trying to drive home the point that evocation is not like playing D&D, and you don't get something for nothing.

RO knows and understands this - he is a very hard working magician. His personal magical path just functions very differently than many other people's, and so my article was not geared towards those who are already working hard within a system that works well for them.

St. Balthazar says that perhaps my outline is a "tad overcautious". I can agree with that assessment. It is my nature to be overcautious. I've always been like that in all my endevours, whether mundane or spiritual. If you'd look at my astrology chart, it would be pretty clear. I'm Virgo-Virgo rising, and all my other planets are in Air. I like to gather hoards of information in preparation before making any moves. I not only want academic info, I want to hear anecdotal experiences from others (both failures and successes) that I can glean tidbits from that are often absent from instructive texts. I like to be as prepared as possible for any extenuating circumstances, so that should something unexpected occur, I will be capable of handling it. I like to have experiences under my belt that draw from the same skill-set, so that I feel confident that I have proven my ability to do certain operations when facing a situation that may be more of a challenge. Generally, I like to have all my bases covered. Can I still be surprised, and still make mistakes? Certainly!

Yes, I am pretty anal retentive in that department, and while I have learned to be a lot more flexible in my mundane life, I prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to spirits.

I fully acknowledge that most people aren't exactly like me in this respect. One of the most amazing magical practitioners that I know is pretty much my polar opposite. He likes to have the practical hands-on experiences first, because that then makes the academic information make sense to him. His stories often leave me with my jaw on the ground when he tells of the ritual operations he just jumped into with practically no preparation or foreknowledge of possible outcomes - and yet he is a fantastic magician. He's also one of the most, if not THE most naturally gifted magicians I've ever run into. I imagine that this plays an extremely large role in his successes. He was born seeing and interacting with spirits, having a strong connection with the Divine and with protective spirits, and with amazing divination skills. His life-path resulted in him learning to be self-observatory early on. Basically he was born ready to Work - and when he finally came to form magical practice as an adult, it was all second nature to him. Most have to do go to school for a while first to get to where he was starting from. My article was intended for those who wish to have a really solid idea of what skill will help them safely and effectively embark on evocations. I don't think anyone can argue that the skill that I listed would NOT be helpful.

In a response to one of my comments RO says that I should stand by my opinions, no matter who disagrees with them. I absolutely do stand by them. I'm not wavering on my advice. I am saying that competence is the key in the skills listed, not "mastery" as I did write; there is a difference and I acknowledge it. While I don't wish to discourage earnest people from working evocations with my very conservative perspective, I wouldn't be upset with discouraging inexperienced-yet-entitled people who really had no business doing that kind of work from doing it if they feel that it's too much work to prepare. Fine by me. Having those skills will only help you and ensure that you have the best possible chance at success. Really, in my view, if you're going to be working with spirits which Kenaz would call "hot", being over-prepared is miles better than being under-prepared. Though, as St. Balthazar says mistakes are fantastic teachers, as well. I, however, would still rather avoid having my life turned upside down by a spirit if I could!

Finally, why did I choose to use a picture of an 80's sitcom to head this post? I was just feeling cheeky.

When White Will Do, Why Bother With Colored Candles?

On one of the forums which I frequent a question was asked which brings up a good point that somehow gets lost in translation today in much of the occult materials that one encounters.

The specific question was about the use of colored candles for spellwork, but the same idea extends to any spell ingredients that one uses - herbs, oils, curios, etc.

The question was basically if a white candle can be used for any purpose, then why bother using colored candles of traditional magical associations? Isn't it simply aesthetics since all the power ultimately comes from the practitioner?

The answer is NO, it is not just aesthetics, there are real reasons behind different colors being used for specific purposes. And all the power does NOT ultimately come from the practitioner, otherwise why would you be using any one object over another? In folk magic all the herbs, roots, etc are believed to have divinely innate powers that skilled practitioners can tap into and direct to their needs. The practitioner doesn't create that power, they simply set it working for a specific task. I talked more about this principal in my entry on Making Mojo Bags.

Spellwork is all about building up a large amount of energy resonating/vibrating with that of your intent. Every symbol, every appropriate herb, oil and root, every prayer, every candle, every powder, etc all creates a strong harmonious "picture" of what you are looking to manifest. Like-attracts-like, so if you can create an altar that just pours forth and seethes with the energy that you are trying to attract to yourself, it will be an astral magnet for those same forces.

Colored candles burn with a specific vibration, dictated in large part by the color of the wax (the coloring changes the vibration of the wax, hence why you see one color and not another - it has been changed to fit within a certain vibrational spectrum). So you can pick a candle that adds an extra layer of energy/vibration resonant with your intent. It adds an extra bit of push.

You can also work with white, because white contains all colors, and so it will not detract away from your work in any way, and can aid in any type of work due to it's flexibility. However, a colored candle is a bit more fine-tuned. So if you are able to use that extra bit of tuning - great! If you cannot, then you will not detract from your work by using a plain white candle.

And this doesn't even start to get into the topic of color psychology and how looking at a colored burning candle triggers different emotional/mental/spiritual effects within your brain. Colors affect your physiological make up and can alter your brain waves. Using certain colors for certain magical acts helps to tune your MIND-BODY-SPIRIT into what you are doing, too.

SO - Is the dye important?

Yes. It has changed the candle to hold a certain vibrational pattern.

Yes. It changes your brain waves and primes your mind-body-spirit to hold a certain energy.

Can you do without it?

Yes. Use white as it is neutral. However, you can always use all the help you can get.

Every little bit helps!

Learning a Form of Divination - Pendulums

I very often mention using a form of divination to check in before starting on a course of magical work, or in choosing which condition formulas or herbs and curios would be best for a particular spell. Divination is one of the topics that seems very daunting to many just beginning to practice, and even to some who have been practicing for a while.

The tarot can seem overwhelming with its seemingly endless layers of complex symbolism. The I Ching can seem confusing with all its yarrow sticks or coins and determining whether a line is open or closed. Geomancy is likewise complicated, and astrology has so much going on. It can seem very daunting to learn a system to serve you in your magical practice.

As amazing as those forms of divination can be, you don't have to learn one of those, especially if it seems that you may not be all that gifted as a diviner. But that doesn't mean that you are stuck always shooting somewhat blind when doing spellwork, or that you are stuck relying on other practitioners to do divinations on your behalf. Finding a yes/no-type oracle can be very simple, and pendulums fit the bill!

I will admit to being a bit of a late bloomer on the divination front due to the math and statistic-type feel of many divination systems (it's just the one area of my brain that is very weak - so numbers, degrees, etc just hit a 'dead spot' in my melon), and with getting caught up in the Qabalistic and astrologic and Jungian symbolisms within the Tarot which for a long time kept my intuition from being able to access the cards. Having a yes/no oracle was a real boon during that time, and once I started using one my success rate on spellwork went through the roof! While I read tarot without issue now, I still use my pendulum almost every time I'm picking ingredients for an oil or herb blend, or when choosing ingredients to go into a bottle spell or mojo bag. It's quick, easy, and accurate.

Dowsing using a pendulum can start off as easy as learning a "yes" and "no" swing, which can be invaluable in occult practice. Pendulums are also very flexible and can easily be tuned to doing much more complex work, while still using the extremely simple back and forth swing as an indicator, rather than relying on layers of symbols.

Rather than going into all the details here as to how to get started using a pendulum, I will point you to a truly excellent resource that is quick and easy to read, extremely thorough, and provides simple exercises to get you started, as well as more intermediate and advanced lessons and sample pendulum charts for moving forward. You could easily be skilled enough to divine on the outcomes of your ritual and spellwork within just a few day...rather than weeks or months (or years) spent mastering a more layered system such as the Tarot.

The Letter to Robin is an amazing site that you can read online or print out as a PDF to work with at your leisure. It was written by a professional dowser in answer to some of the most common and basic questions about getting started with using a pendulum. I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn pendulum dowsing.

Now - I am in no way saying that a yes/no oracle replaces divination methods such as the Tarot or I Ching, but it is a truly excellent option for those who wish to become skilled at basic divination in short order. And if you enjoy the pendulum, you can certainly learn to do MUCH more with it over time. The Letter to Robin can help you through it.

Shortcuts to Evocation? Yes and No.

On the various internet groups and forums of which I am a member, I often see people ask things similar to the following:

"I've been practicing magic for [insert a very small amount of time here], and I want to start doing evocations and summoning spirits and such. I don't like any of the traditional schools of magic, and I don't have any interest in using the long complicated rituals in the grimoires, so I am wondering how I can go about summoning spirits and daemons in a quick and easy manner that involves as little effort on my part as possible?"

In brief, my response to these kinds of questions usually goes something like this...

There are *MANY* different ways to summon a spirit. Once you are a proficient magician, you can certainly dispense with the long rituals and need for many tools. I don't use the big long rituals, or any of the ritual tools, and I am nearly always successful in my evocations.

The fact that you have to ask these questions, though, shows that you are not yet ready to undertake the kind of evocation that you are speaking about in your query and have a somewhat immature grasp of the magical arts. Summoning is not an art for the novice practitioner in any way, shape, or form. You need to have mastered a good amount of foundation skills in order to be able to attempt it with any hope for results, and while remaining safe.

Here are some things you need to have pretty much mastered before thinking about stepping into evocation work:

1) Some form of psychic seership - meaning you have developed the ability to sense, see, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of spirits in a reliable manner. This takes time, and everyone will have slightly different abilities in this area. Some use scrying, some use divination, some are simply able to do it through their 6 senses without any tools or other props. You need to learn what psychic gifts you have and develop them until they are at least 85% reliable.

2) Cultivate reliable skill at some form of self-observatory and present-moment consciousness meditation. Mindfulness meditation works wonders for this. These forms of meditation teach you how to observe yourself and your thoughts without judgement and without the compulsion to get caught up in the drama through mindless reactions. This will not only help develop your powers of concentration, which are invaluable to occult practice, but will also make sure you are intimately familiar with all the junk and thoughts that YOUR mind regularly produces. That way, when you begin working with spirits, you will be able to easily tell if the information is coming from a spirit, or from your imagination. Also, should a spirit start to work on you in a negative way, you will be extremely in-tune and used to observing yourself, and will notice right away if you start thinking or acting in a way that is out of character for you.

3) Work on your analytical skills, especially as it applies to determining the possible outcomes and consequences of certain actions. You need to be able to work out, ahead of time, very detailed plans for goals you wish to achieve with the help of the spirits, and you need to be able to think around corners. Spirits think in a VERY different way than humans, so you need to be able and *try* and make sure that what you are asking for will likely get you what you want in the way that you want it. You may even wish to look into basic contract law. I'm serious. Learn how the legal community writes out contracts in such as way that there is little to no wiggle room in how a certain thing is to go down. You will use those skills when making negotiations with spirits. It will also be helpful in any form of spellcraft that you may practice.

4). Get skilled at at least one form of divination. A pendulum is a very easy thing to learn to do well, though you can certainly use tarot, or I Ching, or anything else that appeals to you and to which you are drawn. You will need to be able to ask for guidance with whether it is wise to summon a particular spirit for your task. Sometimes you think that one spirit may be who you need, and it turns out that another one would be better suited, or that you don't need a spirit at all for a certain task. This helps you cut down on mistakes and failed operations, so you will increase your spellwork and evocation success rate right from the get-go.

5) MASTER SPIRITUAL CLEANSING, PSYCHIC PROTECTION, AND RITUAL BANISHING!!!! Seriously. This one is HUGE. I cannot stress how important this will be for your occult practice in general, and especially with spirit work. If you cannot perform these tasks with near 100% reliability, then you are NOT ready for spirit summoning. Learn how to maintain a spiritual pristine environment, and not just of your ritual space, but of your entire home, and of everywhere where you spend any amount of time.

Spiritual Cleansing: Learn about spiritual floor washes, learn about the spiritual cleansing effects of different herbs and resins you can burn, learn about spiritually cleansing baths. Try and develop a real playbook of these that you can go to for any number of situations. Begin implementing a *very regular spiritual cleansing routine*. This is not just a 'as-you-need-it' thing. If you are going to be doing occult work on a regular basis, and especially spirit summoning, then you need to have a regular routine that you keep up religiously. This means a little something daily, a bigger something weekly, and a very thorough something monthly.

Psychic Protection: Learn where you are energetically weak, and fortify it. Work on developing strength and health in that area. Work on keeping your energy bodies in very good working order, because this will help form your first line of defense. Then master several forms of psychic shielding. SEVERAL that can work under different circumstances, and with varying strengths. Learn how to ward your home and property. Also learn about the various forms of protective amulets that there are out there. Obtain a few. Experiment with them and see which one feels most effective for your needs, and then wear it always.

Ritual Banishings: Before you EVER call anything up, you need to KNOW that you have the capability to banish it. You need to get really good at ritual banishings. It doesn't have to be any particular one, although working with the LBRP & BRH will help you develop this skill. I suggest working with learning banishings daily for *at least* a year before doing any evocation work. It takes that long to adjust and really tune into the energy and figure out what's going on energetically around you when you do this. Experiment with other banishings that you find, seeing how they differ in intent and style. Find one that works for you and then stick with it for a good long while. Study all the banishings that you can find to see what is at work in them. Get REEEAAALLLY good and VEEERRRY confident in your ability to banish before moving into evocation.

6) Develop a very close relationship with the Divine. What form of divinity is completely up to you, but you need to have a very good link with Divinity before you begin working with spirits. Again, this is very important. If you are an agnostic or atheist practitioner, then whatever is the Highest Ideal for you, such as Morality, or Compassion, or Unconditional Love. Whatever it is work diligently at developing a close connection to this Source. This is also strongly protective, and will help you in your work. It will also help you develop and earn spiritual authority, which you will need when summoning spirits (and I don't just mean in the context of ceremonial evocations where you are commanding the spirit and threatening it, etc - I don't work that kind of evocation, but it is still important to have *REAL* spiritual competence and authority; not arrogance or entitlement. That will get you smacked down hard by the spirits real quick).

7) Develop a relationship with a protective being. Archangel Michael is a very good one, but there are entities from every pantheon or religious system which fulfill a protective role. *Your ancestral spirits are also an extremely good place to start.* Work to get into the good graces with one of them. Make a little altar where you can offer incense, candles, and your prayers. Spend a little time there each day. Do this faithfully until you can really sense an energy dwelling there. This can take several weeks to several months. Once you feel their protective presence there strongly, you can start petitioning for their aid. This will be a powerful ally in your magical work and in your evocations.

8) Study the 'whys' and 'hows' of traditional summonings. Those rituals are there for a VERY GOOD reason. Do you understand why? Until you understand how they work, you will not be able to make intelligent abbreviations or shortcuts. Don't even try to make those shortcuts in evocation until you understand the metaphysics and theology and cosmology behind the traditional rituals. (You need to understand ritual in general before you can go deciding what to and what not to include in your rites. So, while you may be making your own system as you go along, it would well behoove you to master at least some form of traditional ritual structure, before trying to simplfy and make up your own.

Until you manage to do all of the above, I would stick to using more folk magic methods for getting what you need. Praying or otherwise communicating your needs while rubbing an oil into a candle and then lighting it is extremely powerful and effective. I enjoy the methods of conjure, and you can find nearly endless info on those ways on the various pages at http://www.luckymojo.com.

Books you should really read before you begin:

"Communing with the Spirits" by Martin Coleman
"Spiritual Cleansing" by Draja Mickaharic
"Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires" by Aaron Leitch
"Sorcerer's Secrets" by Jason Miller
"Summoning Spirits" by Konstantinos
"Psychic Shield" by Caitlan Matthews
"The Art of Psychic Protection" by Judy Hall
"The Mindful Way Through Depression" by John Kabat-Zinn (don't let the title fool you, this is an amazing crash course in cultivating serious skill at mindfulness meditation

9) When you honestly feel ready to begin attempting evocation, then do yourself a favor and *don't* start with the biggest, baddest spirit that you read about in the grimoires. Start with a spirit that is known for being easy to work with. The experiences that you gained through working with your ancestors &/or a protective being will help you navigate your first forays into evocation. Some practitioners suggest starting by working with the angelic sphere, since they tend not to have vengeful proclivities or be quite as easily annoyed as other classes of spirits. For your own sake, don't bite off more than you can chew.

10) Be an intelligent evocationist. Don't forget to do your divinations first to figure out if this is the right spirit for you at that time. Learn all you can about a spirit, the type of work it does, the way it goes about doing its work, along with its likes and dislikes. This will help you know how to prepare for the spirit, and how to work with it in the most effective manner.

11) Be respectful when you call and when you communicate with it. Remember that you can always terminate a contact if you don't feel right about it, and you can always say "no" to any demands a spirit may make. And certainly keep up your end of the bargain!

Since other practitioners have written whole books in this subject, I won't reinvent the wheel here. What I'm mostly concerned with is how so many people seem completely willing to summon up daemons, without having any real foundation skills under their belts. Preparation is key, and having the right skills will make everything go much smoother and safer. Yes, it means that you'll actually have to do quite a bit of work before you get into what seems to you to be the meat and potatoes. *Gasp!* But taking shortcuts with your prepatory training is simply not all that bright. So...if you jump into the deep end before you can swim, just don't be surprised if magical natural selection takes a swipe at you!

The Mojo Bag - Powerful Spiritual Ally!

Mojo bags are a potent form of folk magic that can be carried on your person in a pocket, bra, purse, briefcase, or anywhere else... bringing the magic with you everywhere you go! They are discreet and extremely effective, which is why they have become such a fabled staple of North American folk practices, and do have parallels in other traditions around the world (think of the medicine bag of the Native peoples, and the charm bag of European traditions).

Mojo bags are usually made of cotton flannel, and then fixed with herbs, roots, and curios which compliment the type of effect that one is trying to manifest. Using time honored methods and prayers, the conjure practitioner then joins the energies of each of the mojo bag ingredients into a powerful whole working towards the goal of the intended wearer. This is akin to taking lone soldiers, and combining their forces to make one formidable army fighting for a unified cause. The mojo is then passed through the smoke of incense, and provided with some whiskey or condition oils to lend it additional strength. In some cases candles may be burned on the mojo to help "heat it up" - putting some gas on its magical fire. In this way the spirit of the mojo bag is born!

Because the mojo bag is considered to literally be alive, it must be fed just like any other living thing in order to keep it working strongly. Mojo bags are fed by dressing them once a week with a few drops of whiskey, or a condition oil that is related to the job the mojo bag is doing. From time to time a mojo owner may intuitive feel that the spirit of the bag requests additional attention - such as passing it through incense again, or providing a different liquid to feed it with. Many mojo owners develop real lasting relationships with their mojo, and it becomes an important partner in their life's work!

Because many people will keep a working mojo with them for years and years on end, maintaining the mojo becomes part of the process of working it over time. Most conjure practitioners suggest having your mojo "refreshed" once a year. When one is carrying a mojo bag in their pocket or in their purse day in and day out, the cotton flannel can easily wear out and soft ingredients like dried herbs can be pulverized into dust. People whose mojo's are becoming a bit raggedy can take them to their maker and have them "refreshed", with the hard ingredients being placed into a new flannel bag, and the herbs being replaced with new ones. The bag is then dressed and smoked and may continue it's work!

Mojo bags are a secret kind of personal empowerment tool, meaning that no one is EVER supposed to see, and certainly must NEVER touch a mojo bag. Many believe that once a mojo bag has been seen (in the case of the Nation Sack mojo which is used to tie a man to you for life), or touched (as is generally the case) that the mojo is effectively killed! Some practitioners may be able to revive a mojo by basically taking the hard ingredients, such as roots or minerals, replacing the herbs, and basically re-building it around the original ingredients. Others simply bury a mojo once it has been found or touched, and will start a new one.

There's much more to know about this simple, but powerful piece of magic then I can get into here. Please feel free to surf on over to Lucky Mojo Curio Company's fantastic page - Mojo Hand and Root Bag - on the history and usage of the mojo bags in North American folk magic.

How do you choose what herbs/roots/curios/etc are best to add to a mojo?

Firstly, having a good working knowledge of the various herbs and such that are used in folk magic is the best place to start. You will have the knowledge of what items are generally used for a specific purpose at the forefront of your mind. But let’s say that you have a short-list of items that all correspond to your goal, but you’re unsure which ones might be better suited to your case than the others. That’s where intuition and divination come in.

Hopefully you were able to use your intuition to create the short-list of items, being able to pick out a handful of items that not only corresponded correctly, but strongly “felt” right to include in the bunch. You can then confirm if they are best by using divination. Depending on what divination method you are most comfortable with and skilled at, how you divine will change. I personally use tarot most often, and will concentrate on an item, visualize its properties in relation to my case, and then draw one card – interpreting the card as the answer. Many practitioners may use a pendulum to get yes/no answers about items. The possibilities are endless. Once you’ve eliminated all the “nos” from your list, then divine once again to determine that the ingredients you’ve got are the entire lot that you will need. If no, then go through the process again until you reach a final conclusion.

Once you have all your ingredients sussed out, you can then start the magic of bringing that mojo to life and working for you (or whoever you may be making it for).

What does it mean that a mojo bag is “alive”?

In conjure everything is believed and experienced as having a spirit. The herbs have a spirit. The curios have a spirit. Conjure is tapping into those spirits and getting them to work for you.

When you create something like a mojo it's like you are creating a new spirit from the combination of the herb/curio spirits. Like a spirit collective with a single purpose - your intent. It's like when you refer to a group of players on the same team by their team name, The Bears, instead of naming them all individually. When they are playing towards the same goal, winning the game, they become The Bears. Get it? So your mojo spirit is your spirit-team for that intent.

If you don't do a good job of getting all the spirits to work towards the same goal, which is what you are doing when you are making and fixing a mojo, then you end up with a flannel bag full of random items. They are not a team. You have to coax them into being a team. The ability to communicate with and work with these spirits is one of the skills that is vital to the conjure doctor.

Of course in modern magic there are plenty of schools of thoughts that reject the animist perspective for something more scientifically or psychologically based. If you are one of these people, you can still work effective conjure (though you will be stepping outside the traditional paradigm by doing so). If you don't like thinking of them as spirits, you can think of them as holding certain energetic potentials. You need to be able to get all the potentials resonating with one another so that they are vibrating on the same frequency, and becoming a like-attracts-like generator for your intent. Your Will and power of energetic manipulation/direction, as well as ability to strongly visualize (or otherwise crystallize your intent), help create an astral pattern that will be reinforced by the constant feeding/working of the mojo, until that mojo-blueprint manifests.

Anyway you look at it, you end up with a powerful spiritual presence that will need to be maintained in order to keep working strongly. This is done by feeding the mojo. This provides the spirit with energy from which to replenish itself, and draw from to aid it in manifesting your goal. Whiskey is sometimes called the “water of life” and so it is a common fluid used to feed a mojo. Some colognes, such as Hoyt's Cologne, also have a history as a dressing and feeding for mojo bags. Condition oils, which are made from the oils of a combination of herbs and roots which correspond to a particular cause, and which have been prayed over to enliven its spirit, are another very popular method of feeding a mojo bag. This provides the mojo bag spirit with energy that is specifically in resonance with its work, and also adds its own extra layer of influence to the matter, helping to amplify the effect.

How the bag is fed changes depending on the work the bag is created to do, or circumstances which may require additional energy from the mojo. For example, some gambling mojos require the user to urinate on it to quicken its effects while gaming. Learning to listen to what the spirit of your mojo bag might be asking for is a natural process of working one’s mojo bag. If a mojo has been working extra hard, you may find you feel it needs to be fed more often than the prescribed once a week. So keep your mind open to any impressions you may receive from your mojo. I generally feed mine with condition oil, but which oil it wants can change from week to week…and sometimes it wants whiskey. When I intuitive “feel” that a different feeding is appropriate I do that. It all has to do with developing a symbiotic relationship with the spirit of the mojo!

So how do you get the various herb, root, curio, etc spirits to work for your goal?

Different people will work with the spirits different ways - there's no one way to do it. If I sat here and wrote a stereo-manual for how I work with spirits, it could have 0% to do with how YOU would work with spirits. Some may actually be able to see them and interact with them directly in that way, others may sense them in a more abstract way and be able to communicate on a more subtle level. Each person will learn to sense and speak with spirits in a slightly different way that reflects their own individual intuitive gifts.

This is part of where the notion of a person being “gifted for the work” that if often referred to in folk magic comes in. The gift has a lot to do with this natural ability for working and communicating intent to spirits, as well as sensing subtle spiritual energies and being able to manipulate them in one way or another. Just like some are born with a natural aptitude for math or science, while others will struggle with it. Magical ability is no different. These talents can be learned to a certain extent, but there’s no denying that some people are simply born with that talent very strongly represented in their make-up. Others will need to work very hard to acquire even a marginal skill. But the secret is opening exploring what intuitive talents you have, and learning to exploit them to the best of your ability.

One thing that spirit work definitely is not, however, is forcing our will upon the spirits. Many people coming from a more modern magical perspective are very married to the ideas of “programming” and “charging” and “empowering” – a bit of an imperialistic approach, really, stemming from the proliferation of ceremonialist-inspired practices popular today. There is this idea that magical items are useless until the magician comes along and empowers them, or charges them. I wouldn't say that you "charge herbs/roots/etc with intent". We're not enforcing our will upon the plant spirits like they are our slaves or something. In conjure each item is believed to already be divinely powerful in a specific way – otherwise why would you use one object over another? We're helping to tune in all the spirits and their individual innate power to the same work. Part of that is having your intent and your desire very strongly available, but I consider it more of a communication process, then some sort of "programming" or something.

Speaking to the items as if they were individual people is one common way that a conjurer will approach this. They communicate what job they wish the herb/root to do for the specific case the mojo is being prepared for. For instance, cinnamon can be used in love or money work, so when adding the cinnamon to a love mojo bag, the conjurer might say “cinnamon, I want you to take your spicy heat, and make the passion between N and NN grow likewise fiery and delicious – in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so be it”. This has communicated what specific energy the practitioner wishes that herb to contribute to the work at hand. Other workers may approach it entirely different depending on their personal style of spirit work, and their personal religio-spiritual preferences.

Once all the herbs have been added and their roles in the work communicated clearly, a personal concern from the person for whom it is being created &/or a petition paper onto which the overall intent of the mojo has been written, will be added into the bag. (Hair or fingernails are very common, in love or sex mojos a pubic hair or sexual fluids from the target are ideal - when a bodily concern is not obtainable, photos can work as well.) Again the conjurer will communicate with the mojo, letting the spirits of all the items know the larger plan of action of which they are a part. The personal concern helps the energy of the items target where to lay their effects. At this point, the practitioner will finish the work often breathe into the bag, giving it the “breath of life”, and then tying the bag shut. The finished mojo is then passed through incense smoke, and fed in some manner. The breath, smoking, and feeding are the final key actions that solidify the mojo as a unified working spiritual entity.

I’m sure you can now see why the mojo bag is such a powerful magical tool! It’s fairly simple to construct an incredibly potent item, and the fact that it utilizes nothing more complicated in many cases than easily obtainable herbs and roots makes it accessible to nearly anyone, and customizable for nearly any life situation that one may face.

Custom Mojo Bags Creation services and DIY Mojo Bag Kits from Queen of Pentacles Conjure Shop & Village Witchery

Here at Queen of Pentacles Conjure Shop & Village Witchery we're happy to create a custom mojo bag for your specific needs. We offer a standard Custom Mojo service, and a Deluxe Custom Mojo & Triple Fixed Vigil Candle Empowerment services, which you can order through our Etsy Conjure Shop.

We offer these options as stand-alone services for those who wish to obtain a personalized mojo bag, but don't feel the need to have a full magical consultation on their situation. In other words - they know what they want! Of course if you’re not sure what you need, feel free to book a consultation to read your situation, and develop a plan of action that includes a custom mojo bag.

I am happy to make mojos for nearly any positive purpose, but I will *NOT* craft double-cross, sexually or emotionally binding, or aggressively coercive mojos. If you are unsure if I will craft the type of mojo that you are looking for, please contact me directly to inquire.

Our Custom Mojo Bag creation services offer a mojo bag created and fixed specifically for your personal needs by an experienced hoodoo practitioner, using traditional conjure/rootwork techniques. It includes a mini-reading on your situation, and a 3mL bottle of custom blended condition oil to feed the mojo bag.

To determine the best ingredients for your mojo bag, a detailed background of your situation will be requested, and a mini 3 card reading will be performed to see what currents are most strongly at play, and what herbs, roots, and curios would be most appropriate for obtaining your intent.

After the proper ingredients are ascertained for your mojo hand, the hand will be fixed on the appropriate planetary day and hour. A small candle dressed for your intents will be burned on the mojo to help awaken and "heat" it up.

For those that purchase the Deluxe Custom Mojo & Triple Fixed Candle Empowerment service, the mojo is prepared the same as above, however as part of the mojo creation process, three vigil lights will be dressed for the client's specific situation. They do not all need to be dressed the same, and may support various aspects of the work at hand. A petition paper for the intents of the client will be placed underneath each candle.

The mojo is placed within a triangular formation made by the three lights, which is a sacred geometrical shape that encourages manifestation, and the lights set working. Over the course of their burn (which averages about 5 days), prayer will be said for the intents of the clients, and a watch kept for any divinatory signs that the candles may produce. The mojo is bathed in the energy of the three candles for the entire duration of the burn, gathering strength.

At the conclusion of the vigil lights burn, the petition paper will be loaded into the mojo, and the mojo tied shut and fed. It will then be shipped to the client, along with a report of how the candles burned.

All clients wishing to have a custom mojo bag created for them must be able to supply at least some kind of personal concern. They must also commit to feeding the mojo weekly in order to keep it working strongly.

For the more thrift-minded or independent practitioners, we also have some do-it-yourself Mojo Bag Kits! We have Money-Drawing, Love-Drawing, and Luck-Drawing Kits available through our Etsy Conjure Shop.

I hope this article has helped inspire you to try bringing some mojo into your life! It is certainly a fantastic magical tool to have on your side working for you.

Hallucinatory Hypnagogic Sleep Phenomenon

Hypnogogic (when falling asleep) and hypnopompic (upon awakening from sleep) hallucinations are another sleep phenomenon that I've experienced very frequently throughout my life. These are defined as a variety of sensory experiences that are had in the liminal states of consciousness that occur when transitioning into or out of sleep. They are classified as hallucinations due to the fact that is no objectively "real" source of these experiences, as they are believed to arise from the mind itself.

They are often linked by science to various sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, or at least to times when over-exhaustion or stress is altering our sleep patterns. In my web-searches on the topic I've seen it said more than once that if one is experiencing these types of things outside of any evidence of a sleep disorder that it is very likely that they are experiencing psychotic episodes and should be medicated accordingly. (Personally, I think that's one of the most ridiculous statements out there from an institution that would love to pathologize every state of consciousness outside of slack-jawed docility. )

I've found all sorts of interesting things that people have seen and heard while in these states - bugs or other creepy-crawlies coming out the walls seems popular, as does humanoid figures of one variety or another. Auditory hallucinations are also common accompaniments to these events, and some also experience tactile ones as well. My own tend towards faces, and an occasional distant and fading figure, many times accompanied by voices that feel very much inside my mind (as opposed to perceiving them as having come from outside).

Many people find these experiences extremely frightening, and seek help thinking that they are losing their minds, or just looking for any way to avoid having to experience anything that bizzare again. I've never personally found them frightening. From time to time they can be a wee unsettling, but that is due to the particular way in which these manifest with me. I've asked others their opinions on the matter, and I've never talked to anyone - even within occult circles - that gave these any spiritual weight. I'm still personally on the fence with some of my experiences. Others, though, I dismiss as nothing but a strange sleep-state experience.

I would be interested in hearing about hypnopompic & hypnogogic hallucinations that others may experience, and what they make of them. I'll tell you a little more about my own.

I get these probably about 1/5 of the year. They will come in flaps, happening nightly for 3 days to 2 weeks, and then disappear for a few months, only to reoccur. What makes them puzzling to me is that during the flap the hallucination will always be the same, although every flap has a different repeating event. It is this persistent repetition during the onset of these incidents that really sets me to wondering about them.

Sometimes I will awake to see an inhuman face right up next to mine, which will fade as I awaken to full consciousness. If I drew these faces for you, I'm sure you'd find them horrible - but I've rarely ever gotten a bad feeling from them; and the few times that I did it was more a mild state of anxiety related to knowing I knew why that face was there, but had lost that understanding as I awoke.

Other times I will awaken with a set of numbers running through my head which I know hold a deep importance, but that info will fade as I awaken. Sometimes it's not numbers but a phrase or word or name that I feel strongly is somehow very important or that needs to be communicated or remembered or applied in some way, but again, as I awaken it fades into nothingness.

Once or twice during such a flap after a few nights of a repeating message, I had made sure that I had a pen and paper bedside so that I could write down that info as I awaken. I managed to actually get it written down on one occasion, but when I read the message once fully awake it was utter nonesense.

There have also been times when these recurring experiences also happen at the same time each night. I will look over at the clock as I'm waking and see the same time as the night before. This time-stamping doesn't occur very often with these, but it has happened on more than one occasion.

I've often wondered if there was some significance to these repetitive occurrences. I certainly do have these experiences where it is a one-off; just one event, one night. The one-off appearances tend to be of the seeing a figure as I awake. Those tend to be more angelic looking and much smaller, as if off in some astral distance, rather than right up in my grill like the other ones that come during longer flaps.

As I said, I've never been frightened by these experiences as others have. Though most everyone I've told about them thinks it's creepy as hell! (My husband gets a shiver and cringes whenever I tell him I saw another face upon waking.) I guess from being very used to lucid dreaming, and other non-ordinary dream-states and states of consciousness in general has made me somewhat immune to the sense of frightening High Strangeness that many encounter when having one of these experiences.

I just recently heard of another one of these phenomenon that has been classified as a rare sleep disorder, which I've experienced at least a dozen times or so in my life. It's called Exploding Head Syndrome, and involves being awakened by a huge crash or bang, only to find that there was no external sound, that it had been "dreamed". In some cases, though much less often than the loud noise occurs, the sound of a voice yelling is what awakens the person. Again, people report being terrified by this. I've experienced both the loud crash, and the voice shouting.

I admit that once I actually did get up and check to see what the bang was, as it had sounded like someone pounding on my front door, and that was one of the first times that that particular phenomenon had happened to me. Another time, it sounded as though my grandfather yelled my name. I knew this was a dream-phenomenon, but I called him to make sure he was ok as I had never experienced the awakening as a voice that I recognized previously. The times I've heard the voice it's usually been a deep, male voice exclaiming "AH!" or "HA!" seemingly right in the room near me.

Both the hypnagogia and the Exploding Head Syndrome are said to occur more frequently during periods of sleep-deprivation or exhaustion. I can't say that I've ever made that kind of connection between tiredness and these experiences, so I don't know if that is true for me or not.

So, what do I think is going on? I think the Exploding Head Syndrome is just one of those things, like when you jerk yourself awake as you're drifting off. (I always seem to dream that I'm walking down stairs and miss one, with the fall jerking me awake as you get that sick "falling" feeling in the pit of your stomach.) I think many of the hypnagogia is likewise your dream-brain just not turning off fast enough as you emerge into wakefulness. But what of the repeat appearances of the same face, or the same numbers, or the same phrase over many nights? That seems very odd to me. But maybe I'm just reading too much into things.

In any case, these are just more of the strange things that I experience. I would love to hear other people's stories - ESPECIALLY if you've also had identical hallucinations occur over a period of several days or weeks. Theories as to what is going on are also welcome.