Why Aren't You Changing the World Right Now?

"Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else."
~George Halas

I woke up this morning to a cup of hot coffee and madness trying to get my kiddos to school.  Once the madness was over and I had a little time to relax outside in our breezeway with the now slightly warm coffee I started thinking.  "I've got to write the next blog in the series this morning before I get on to the real work," I told myself, but I really just couldn't get motivated to do it.  So I decided not to.  I started thinking, as I often do when the wife and youngsters were still sleeping and the boyos were at school.

I decided to change the world this morning. I decided that I needed to follow my heart and become the person that I'm made to be.  I've thought of doing this for a long time, and finally the time has come to move toward it.  Never straight, but ever onward as they say.

My goal in life is to create a world that is exactly what I want for myself and my children.  It's possible because it has to be possible.  The world is turning and it's time for the most significant change since science took hold.  Science and magick will be recombining in my lifetime and will be one and the same within my children's lifetime.  That's a definite.  Quantum physics is moving that way already and there is no one on the magickal end pushing for it.  Well we need someone to push for it.  I'd like to be that guy.

I am motivated by two things:  money and emotions.  That's it.  Pretty simple isn't it?  Well, emotions are the driving force in my life.  I make enough money to do what I want in life.  It isn't enough to live in a mansion or quit my job, but it's enough to put food on the table and keep my car insured.  My emotions are taking a hit though.  I work far too much and see my family far too little without anything that I would consider success.  I'm not changing the world into what I want my children to grow up in.  So I must keep my job and still work at changing the world.  It's a tall order, but it's something I'm prepared to do.

I do not have the funding currently to pay people what they deserve to be paid.  In truth, I can't pay anything at all.  That's the problem with starting something that is unheard of.  No one will help to fund something like that because investment in madness is madness.  So I ask you, if no one is crazy enough to be the change they need to see in the world, when will the world change?  Why aren't you one of the people who should change the world?  Politicians don't change anything.  Look at the current state of affairs.  This is after a campaign completely designed around change.  The rich don't want anything to change.  They've made their money from the current world.

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.  In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
~Margaret Mead

So why shouldn't you be the one to make the world into the place you want your children to live?  Why aren't you the one who should pick up the sword or pen and change it any way you can?  It's not enough for me to simply stand by and talk to someone about how things should be.  We will never live in the world we desire if all we do is talk about things.  We need action.  We need motion.  We need progress.

Today is the day to start.  Even if it's just planning because even if we move a single step forward, that's a step that we won't have to take later.

So I ask you again.  Why aren't you changing the world today?

Dark Magick Part 1: An Introduction

I've written about darkness before, in Reflections on Darkness and Dark Magic-The Origins of Light, but I've never truly written about the techniques and ideas used to access the powers hidden away behind the veil of cultural acceptance.  I enjoyed writing my last series and the depth that I could go into on each subject, so I've decided to do the same with another important concept in all magician's repertoires.  Dark magick is important in all of our educations because whether we want to embrace it or not, it is out there and we need to understand the basics.

I've always tended to walk a more left-handed path, but acknowledge that it's not for everyone.  In my last posts I wrote about defensive magick which I could never have understood completely without having to use it while dealing with the darker aspects of magick.  Every creator of magickal theory from Gerald Gardner to Aleister Crowley to Cornelius Agrippa has at least shortly dabbled in the darkness, and most have done a lot more than dabble.

Let's get down to it then.  My definition of dark magick is simply anything that is considered taboo within the general magickal culture.  This could range from sacrifices to evocations to ritualized sex.  Many people touch upon the majority of these topics at least in part during their practices, but most do not fully embrace them.  The typical practice is fine for most, but there are those out there that feel the pull to do more than simply brush up against it and I'd like to explain my views and experiences so that those who tend to follow a more left-handed path can learn a few things from my hard won wisdom and maybe give me a few tidbits of their own.

Defensive Magick: Emergency Protection

My previous posts on defensive magick allow you time to think about them for a while.  They give you insights for you to play around with.  Daily defensive magick generally is something that you can tweak each day until you feel like you've got it just right, and protection for your spellwork is something that definitely depends on the type of ritual you're doing and your preferences.  These are all things that you can research and tweak as you go. Emergency defensive magick is definitely not something you want to plan to tweak on the fly.  It's something that you want to research as much as possible and prepare in advance in case you need it.

My typical emergency deals with spirits or entities of some sort, and I'm really having a lot of trouble coming up with anything else, so I'll focus on the entity issues and some basic ways to get rid of whatever is troubling you.

The first thing that you must do is to try to figure out anything you can about the entity.

• How has the temperature changed?  If it's warmer, the entity is probably more of fire based entity while if it's gotten colder, it's probably more air or water.  
• Is there a certain smell?  The entity is probably in some part related to that smell or at least what that smell means to you.  
• How do you feel?  Is it dread that you're feeling because of what's happening or is it something entirely based on your feeling about the entity.  
• Do you have a strange yearning for something?  Most of us were either born with or have trained our intuition to some degree.  It's important to listen to what it's telling us, and most of the time this is our best guess at what we should do.  At one time, we had something coming into our home through our closet.  For some reason my wife had an almost compulsive desire for the smell of lilac.  We looked everywhere and when we finally found some lilac water the next day it became our best tool in dealing with the entity which had plagued us for several days.
• Most importantly, why is the spirit there?  Did you call a spirit without proper protective measures in place?  Did you piss something off?  Do you already know what or who the spirit is?

All of these should play a part in how you deal with it.  There are of course things you should do in nearly every situation though.

1. First and foremost, stop being scared.  It's not time to be scared.  You're in the magickal world, and this is what you've opened yourself up to.  Step up and remember that they're in YOUR house and you control who comes and goes through it.
2. Eliminate openings to your home.  That means, close windows, doors, and fireplace flues.  Turn off your computer (electrical wires are a very common pathway for spirits to travel through), turn off your A/C (your A/C or heater is pulling air from outside the house), turn off cell phones, and if possible hit the breakers.
3. Break out the candles.  Candlelight is the best way to actually see the spirits that you're dealing with.  Oftentimes, things that you won't see will be visible under candle light, and if this isn't true in your instance, it will at least bring you closer to the magickal being that you are which should in turn bring you more usable power.  Make sure to keep that lighter on you though in case the candles go out (lights go out as well so it's not making things worse for you).
4. Light some incense.  I would suggest some foul smelling stuff with Frankincense in it if possible.  I've included a recipe for a good one that's worked many times for me.  You're doing this for two reasons, smoke also helps bring the creepy crawlies out into the open and many scents are crippling for them.  I say to forget the sage completely.  It may work on some things, but people use it too much for it to be much use against anything that's been around for long.  The same goes with salt.  That trick got played out a long time ago.  They're good for cleansing, but not much use for entities.
5. Optional: Grab a bit of liquor from the cabinet.  It may sound stupid, but sometimes that little bit of liquid courage really helps to remind yourself that you're in control.  It works for me, but not my wife so use it if you feel like it'd help.
6. Now, it's time to make a decision.  Are you ready to deal with the entity once and for all?  If yes, then you need to get ready to pit your will and magickal ability against the entity.  If not, then your goal is to kick it out of your house.  

Procedure for Removing an Entity

1. Make a circle.  This time it's to protect yourself rather than the spell.  Whatever you're dealing with is probably going to get very pissed off very quickly and you'll want some protection.  The same ideas are used but the purpose is a little different.  After you do this, you should start to feel a lot safer.  The most important part of winning any kind of battle with an entity is regaining confidence.  If you're scared, you're going to lose.
2. Now, call on any kind of spirits that you think will help you.
3. Force the spirit out.  Use visualizations, but speak your will out loud.  Tell the spirit or entity to leave now and to never come back.  Feel your power seeping into every inch of the house and burning everything that is not yours.  This won't always work forever, but it will more than likely make the spirit leave for a while.
4. If this doesn't work, feel your circle expanding and continue to speak your will.  Your circle should continue to expand until it covers the entire area.  Light some more incense and continue speaking.  Feel your power flow from your voice into the area.  Your voice is what will make the entity leave.
5. After the entity is gone, make sure to thank all of your helping spirits (you'll need them again later) and close the circle just like always.
6. Now it's time to think about how to get rid of the entity once and for all if it comes back.

How to Bind a Spirit

There are two ways to keep an entity from every coming back is to either destroy it (very very difficult) or to bind it to something and then make sure that no one touches that item (not so difficult).  So this will be a guide to binding the spirit properly so that you don't have to deal with it again.

1. Make two circle--one around you and one around the entire area.  The tricky part here is that you have to make the one around the area a backwards circle that keeps things from leaving.  I would position crystals or something similar around the area as "foundation points" to hold the circle strongly.  The first circle (the one around you) needs to be a normal one to protect yourself.
2. You will need a container and something that will absorb energy to put inside of it.  A good example would be an iron or steel "tin" box with salt and silver coins inside of it.  The iron keeps things from leaving and the silver and salt will hold the energy inside of it.
3. Now, you will want to light incense to weaken the entity.  If you know of any other weaknesses it has from your research this would be the time to utilize them.  Call for help from any spirits or entities that you believe would help you.  The purpose is to weaken the entity as much as possible without overextending yourself.  This is the part where you break down its shields so that you can control it.
4. You need to verbally speak down to the entity.  You need to turn the tables on it so that you scare it.  You want it to be trying to run with no where to go.  Tell it things like "This is the last time you'll torment me again."  You have to show your power because entities work just like people.  When they start to get scared, you start to gain power over them.
5. Be ready for it to start acting like it's cornered.  Wild animals will strike viciously when cornered and entities will do the same.  That means, things like candles going out suddenly.  Items flying in the room.  Loud noises and physical pains.  The main thing to remember is that you cannot get scared and you cannot lose focus.
6. Push the container out of your inner circle and visualize the entity being pulled into the vortex inside of the container.  If you have a wand or athame or any other focusing item, this would be the part where you utilize it.  Again, force the entity into the container with your voice.  Remember that sound is a very powerful tool, and it's one that most entities cannot utilize.
7. You have to get the entity into the container.  As soon as you feel like you've successfully done this, hurry and close the lid.  You must NOT open the container again.
8. Now, you must dispose of the container in a way that it won't be touched again for a very long time.  That could mean putting it into a lake, burying it in some random pasture, or actually visiting a dump and putting it there.  Don't throw it away because the trash truck compacts the trash and will more than likely open it in the process, effectively letting the entity out to torment you again.

As I promised, here is the rather simple incense that I use regularly.  I got the recipe from The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews by Scott Cunningham.  It has tons of other incense recipes as well which you could try out.

Clearing Incense
3 parts Frankincense
3 parts Copal
2 parts Myrrh
1 part Sandalwood

Remember, this isn't a good one for making your house smell good by any means, but it's definitely harsh on the entity's senses.  And a little bit goes a long way.  You don't want to be coughing up a lung while you're trying to get rid of a nasty spirit.

Hopefully this was a good primer on emergency defensive magick and that it helped you gain a better understanding of what to do in the case of an entity arriving inside your door without your permission.  If you've got other ideas or questions, feel free to post a comment.  And remember to subscribe to get updates whenever I post another blog!

Defensive Magick: Spell Protection

When are you most vulnerable? When are you most open? When you're chopping veggies for that stew? Definitely not. It's when you open yourself up and release all of that power for the world to use. Rituals. Healing. Calling down a spirit.

This is what brings us to the current topic: how to defend yourself when you're most open.

The most important part is to remember that the goal is first and foremost to protect yourself and your spellwork from influence. The spellwork always comes after this because if it's been influenced or you've been influenced, the spellwork will either be worthless or may even be altered to something that you really don't want.

A few examples of spellwork protection are the Magickal Circle, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and the Greater Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram. There are many variations of course, but they all follow a basic system.

• Creating a sphere of protection
• Calling other entities/powers to hold the protection
• Rules within the sphere of protection

Creating a Sphere of Protection

The first step is creating and naming the area that you wish protected.  This should encompass the entire area that you will be working within.  There will be entities and unwanted energy around if you are doing magick with large amounts of energy, and so every tool, person, and candle should be within the sphere.  I call this a sphere rather than a circle for a reason.  It should have both a height above you and a depth below you both to limit the expenditure of energy and to be clear about how the space is defined.

The way that you create the space is not all that important and all paths vary in how they do it to some degree.  Oftentimes it is through visualization of a circle starting at one point and encircling the participants.  It then will dome over and under them to finish the sphere.  Others use physical circles through a circle of candles, salt (I don't recommend this, refer to my post on Salt), or just chalk drawing on the floor.  Still others will use reference points such as candles, statues, or people and visualize the circle connecting them.  It's really up to you as to how you do it.

Naming the space is as simple as simply saying that this space is sacred and using words to again create the space.  Saying something as simple as "This space is sacred and we will not allow any outside influences inside" is often good enough.  The verbal part is very important because it cements your intentions into place.  While speaking, be very aware of the moment and let power flow through your words to hold the sphere in place.

Calling Powers to Hold the Protection

You're doing some pretty heavy magick.  You want to create a change in the universe regardless of whether everyone else in the world thinks it's impossible.  You are suspending your belief in the laws that society has imprinted on you from birth.  You're healing a person who modern medicine says can't be healed.  This is something that you've got to focus on completely, but you're worried about holding the circle together as well.  How do you do this?  Well you delegate of course.

You can delegate a member of the participants to hold the sphere.  This is very common in group settings, but I and the majority of Pagans do most of the spellwork solo.  This is where calling the watchtowers or elements or gods or goddesses or whatever comes in.  You call for beings or powers to hold the circle for you.  This is something you should think about pretty seriously if you're new because you can't just call Athena or Thor to hold the circle for you if you have no relationship with them.  That's why most traditions call elements or some power source rather than a deity.  I would look into some of the more commonly used systems before going off on your own.

The Rules While Within the Space

The rules are whatever you make them as long as they're intelligent rules.  Everyone has their accepted rules, but those rules are strictly upheld.  These are to protect the participants in the case of something unexpected happening.  Once a rule is set, it is imperative that it not be broken under any circumstance.  A couple of the important ones that are common are:

• Don't leave the space.  This is to make sure that the sphere isn't broken by you crossing the boundary.  This means that if you have to pee and the choice is either to leave the circle to pee or pee your pants, you should probably pee your pants.  Remember that the reason for the protection is to protect in a worst case scenario, and a worst case scenario could be that there is an entity outside the sphere that is manipulating you.
• No inviting entities into the space.  This is because once an entity is in the space, you have absolutely no protection from them.  This process also gives an opening for others to enter.  The proper way to invite entities to the space is to have a specified space outside the protected area for them to interact with the participants.  Some traditions (especially Wiccan traditions) invoke spirits while all participants are still in the circle, but I personally disagree with this practice.

There are plenty of other rules that people use, and if you've got one please post it as a comment.  I'd love to have a few new ideas for my ritual protection, so any kind of ideas on defensive magick and spell protection would be very appreciated.

Defensive Magick: Daily Protection

Every day you walk through a world that is filled to the brim with emotions and energy--energy that you really don't need any part of.  Your neighbors had a fight.  Your boss is pissed at not getting the promotion.  The girl in front of you at the grocery store just broke up with her boyfriend.  These are all negative energies that are mixing and mingling with your perfectly happy and excited energy giving you all sorts of random emotions that don't make sense.  This is the reason to do daily protections to keep you happier and free of all of the swirling negativity in the world.  This is the simplest and oftentimes, one of the most neglected types of defensive magick.

The simplest way to do a daily protection is to simply stand in front of the mirror and visualize something that covers your entire body.  I've heard all sorts of things ranging from a cloak to a force-field like shield surrounding them.  Feel it harden into place and any time you think about it, reinforce that shield.

The next addition that you probably want to do is the purification step.  This will cleanse yourself of the negativity that has built up throughout the night (and maybe the day before if you forgot yesterday's protection).  The easiest way to do this is to simply take a bath and feel the water cleansing you.  The key to this step is being in the moment and really feeling the negativity and stress wash away from you.  Bonus points if you're using a cleansing and purifying essential oil or scent in your soap (double bonus points for homemade soap specifically designed for this purpose).

Yes, these work and they work well.  On the other hand, these are things that are easy to forget.  If you have an action that you do every day, integrate that into the ritual.  The easiest for many people is to charge a piece of jewelry or an item you wear every day with shielding properties.  Cologne and perfume work as well (especially if you add a bit of protective essential oil to it).  I'm sure that deodorant would too, I just have an issue with putting plastic into a ritual setting.





In order to charge the object, sit down in a quiet place.  You can do whatever ritual stuff you deem important like adding candles, making a circle, etc.  Now, build up that shield visualization.  Feel the strength of it surrounding you.  Once you know that it's as strong as you can make it, push that shield into the item.  Now anytime you need to, just draw some energy/shield from it.  I'm a very big fan of the jewelry technique because the jewelry will add to the strength of it.  Some good types of jewelry would be anything that is gold, anything that has a red or yellow stone.  If possible it should be something that touches the skin because skin contact facilitates any kind of energetic work.

This is the simplest of the defensive magick techniques, but daily protection is a very important part of keeping your energy and emotions clean of any other influences.  Check back tomorrow for tips and ideas for how to effectively shield your magickal/spell work!

Defensive Magick: An Introduction

I've decided that in order to really have a complete magickal website I need to have a few sections that people can use as a reference tool.  One of the most important things that everyone new to the magickal world should begin to learn is defensive magick.  This should be done before you ever step inside a circle or open yourself up to the things that go bump in the night.

The most important parts to understand are the basics.  From this, you can create your own defensive techniques without using other people's ideas (though I still look at other people's ideas for inspiration).  Oftentimes there will be entities or energies that don't respond well to normal techniques so you'll have to use different ones that no one's thought of before but they'll still rely on the basics.

So why do you need to use defensive magick?  

Well, for those of you who are not that worried about entities or "curses" (negative energy), you will still need to insulate your spells and yourself from other energies.  This is basically the same as keeping the smell of a rotten egg away from your amazing chicken alfredo while you're eating it.  The rotten egg may not be actively touching the alfredo but the smell is ruining the experience and the taste.  Magick is easily influenced and so you have to make sure that there aren't any external forces playing with your intentions.

That's not even taking into consideration the simple fact that there is negativity influencing us all over.  We're a relatively negative culture and we're constantly bombarded by anger, grief, and envy. By keeping that negativity away from us we can keep our own energy clean.

There are also the entities that we all occasionally cross paths with (some more than others).  Entities are just like people, some will have bad intentions, others are just passing by, and others will try to help you.  The ones that have bad intentions are probably going to have to be forced from your space and a lot of these techniques will be of use.

The basic idea of all defensive magick is to put a shield around yourself and/or your space and to cleanse the area inside of that shield forcing everything else out.  The most commonly talked about defensive magick technique is that of a magickal or witch's circle if you're looking for an example.

The technique you use will depend on your purpose.  The three major purposes would be:

• Daily Protection
• Ritual/Spell Protection
• Emergency Protection

Daily Protection deals with keeping yourself cleansed of all the negativity in the world.  So you don't want to spend a lot of time each day on this, but it should be a part of your wake up routine every morning even if you aren't leaving the house. Part of it should be a purifying and immediately afterwards a shielding .  There probably isn't much in the way of tools when doing this.

Ritual/Spell Protection is the use of defensive magick to keep outside influences from interfering with spellwork and rituals.  This will be a much more intricate purifying process as well as a more ritualistic shielding process.  This is because energy and entities are drawn to energy sources, which you'll be a very significant one.  You have to keep everything else out while still being able to put energy into your spell purpose.  Oftentimes there will be a single person in charge of maintaining the circle during group rituals.  There will probably be a lot of tools used to help in creating and maintaining a space.

Emergency Protection is generally used when dealing with an entity that is not wanted.  This will be the sole purpose of your magickal work and therefore will use most of your energetic strength.  The key to emergency protection is deciding whether you want/can deal with the entity adequately at the moment.  If you decide that you can't, the purpose of the emergency protection is to get it away from you until you can deal with it.  If you can, then the purpose is to keep it there until you can make sure that it won't come back. Entities tend to know when to run away, so sometimes it is necessary to make that shield backwards keeping everything inside of it.

The next part will be over daily defensive magick.  Check back regularly or subscribe to find out more about how you can keep yourself from soaking up all the negativity in the world!

Magickal Inks

The pen and paper is the medium for making language physical.  It is the only way to turn this intangible into permanence, and through this process can turn the magick within the spoken word into a magickal item.  This can be done through sigil work, pictures, or through simple words.  We adorn our altars with specially anointed candles, home made athames, wands carved by our own hands, and all manner of spiritually meaningful items.  It is my belief that if we're doing all of this, then it only seems natural to want a handmade or spiritually meaningful ink to be the medium for converting the power of the spoken word into a tangible item to be used in our spellwork.


There are a few ways to make your own inks and I'm not going to go into all of them mainly because there's just wayyy too many possible ways to do it.  I will give you a few ideas that are easy for the normal person to do and don't require you to special order some nonsense from a small village in western Siberia.


India Ink
1 part lampblack
1 part gum arabic
10-15 parts alcohol (depending on how thick you want your ink)


This is the classic ink that we've heard of in history books and in movies.  Lampblack is simply the carbon (soot) that comes off of a candle in the smoke.  To "catch" it, simply hold a spoon over the candle and let the smoke hit it.  Every so often, you have to "scrape" the spoon clean.  I would suggest using two spoons or a spoon and a fork (wow this sounds like some kind of messed up instructions on eating lunch), one spoon for catching and the other for scraping the lampblack into the container you're going to use.  Once you have a good amount of lampblack, just add the alcohol and then the gum arabic.  Gum arabic is a thickening agent sold at Hobby Lobby and pretty much any craft stores (look for it near the paint section).  


You can also crush up berries or boil them and use this as an ink, or you can use the ink sacs from squid or cuttlefish.  Add a little gum arabic to thicken these up if you need it thicker for your writing utensil.


Currently, there are only three regularly referenced "magickal inks":  bat's blood ink, dove's blood ink, and dragon's blood ink.  Here are the recipes for them if you're interested.


Bat's Blood Ink
2 parts dragon's blood resin
1/2 part myrrh resin
2 drops indigo color
2 drops cinnamon oil
12 parts alcohol
1/2 part gum arabic


One tip on the creation of this ink is to make sure to dissolve the resins in the alcohol first.  This takes a lot less time than waiting for them to dissolve once you have the rest of the ingredients in.


This ink is supposed to push for chaos, discord and all things not so pleasant.  I'm not sure how useful it is since I've never made it.  


Dragon's Blood Ink
1 part dragon's blood resin
15 parts alcohol
1 part gum arabic


This one is for power and strength in spellwork.


Dove's Blood Ink
1 part dragon's blood resin
2 drops cinnamon oil
10 parts alcohol
2 drops bay oil
1 part gum arabic
2 drops rose oil


This ink is used for love, giving thanks, and all things that come from the heart or are born from a place of innocence.


Now onto my personal spin (you knew it was coming, didn't you?).  I typically don't used any of the marketed inks, but that's simply because I like the process of creating something of my own.  You can put any kinds of incense, oils, or gemstones in the ink.  One unique way that I add my own touch is to crush up actual herbs or gemstones and put them into the ink.  Granted that these will not be suspended or put onto paper, but you put bay leaves in a stew even though no one actually wants to eat them.  The idea's the same.  More than likely these inks will sit for a while and their "tastes" will intermingle.  In truth, simply adding these personal touches to a craft store bought ink is better than using the ink by itself if for no other reason than because when we create something, a part of ourselves is put into our creation.


Also, if you want to a bit more power to it, you can always put a drop or two of blood into it.  There are some things you might want to think about before you do that though.  Check out a few of my precautions in Blood, Power and Magick and Blood, Power and Magick Pt. II.