Showing all posts by Satyr Magos

In witchcraft

Road-opening Ritual for Clearing Obstacles and Creating Opportunities

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Today I offer a second ritual meant to clear obstacles and create opportunities. My last post was a ritual specifically designed for someone working within the idiosyncratic framework of the Bell, Book, and Blade. This one is similar, but more universal: intended for anyone who practices witchcraft at an altar.

I have recently come to understand that the common name for this sort of ritual – “road opener” – has its origins in Santeria and Hoodoo, as does nearly everything modern witchcraft knows about candle magic. The component parts of the ritual below come to me by various and circuitous means, including the instructions of my familiar spirits, and I promise that, in the future, I will write about or provide references to the deeper history of rituals such as these.

As with my cleansing bath recipe, I am writing and publishing this in large part because, when I needed inspiration for my own first road-opening rituals, I found far more professional spell-slingers selling services than I found ritual scripts that I could pillage for inspiration, and too many of those scripts I did find various Psalms. So, being the change I want to see in the world, here is a road-opening ritual which I hope that other modern neo-Pagan witches will find useful and inspiring.

Preparation

Timing

The good time for this ritual would be in the first days after the full moon, or the last days before the new. A day and hour of Mercury, or Saturn, would also be good. An ideal time would combine both lunar phase and astrological day and hour: the Wednesday or Saturday immediately following the Full Moon or immediately preceding the New.

But needs like this do not always arise at the opportune moment. Strike while the iron is hot.

Supplies

  • Bowl and/or holder (something firesafe to hold the candle and other materia)
  • Cencer or brazier with appropriate charcoal (for burning some of the myrrh and abre camino)
  • Sand or salt (as a base and heat-sink)
  • Candle (red, orange, black, or white according to your taste or tradition)
  • Abre camino root
  • Myrrh
  • Dirt from a crossroads (next to a highway or cemetery is great, but where your driveway meets the road will work just fine)
  • A stick or cone of incense.
  • Oil for the candle (road opener oil is great, olive oil consecrated just for the ritual is also fine)
  • Pin, needle, small knife, or candle scribe

The Altar

You will need a flat space with room for all the materia, relatively firesafe, and which can be left out (at a minimum) for the time it takes the candle to burn.

Arrange your materials in a way that feels easy and holy and powerful to you, and where you can reach them all without knocking anything over. In particular, set them up so that you can suffumigate each component as you go.

The Ritual

Opening

Cleanse and purify yourself and your space in accordance with your traditions.

Cast your circle in accordance with your traditions, but emphasizing especially the powers of the quarters and the crossroads nature of the circle: the place where the worlds meet, be they mortal and divine; above, below, and between; however you arrange your cosmos.

Body

Stand or sit at your altar.

Take up your incense. In the name of the powers you honor, consecrate then light the incense. “O you creature of earth and fire, I call upon you to cleanse, purify, and empower these materials to aid in my work, to create opportunities for me and remove the obstacles that stand in my way, to open the roads, to make clear the ways.”

Take up your brazier or censer. Light your charcoal in the brazier, and suffumigate them together in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the brazier: “O you creature of fire, smoking brazier, I call upon you to serve as emisary, delivering my offerings to the gods, so that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.

Pick up the empty bowl and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the bowl: “O you creature of earth, brazen bowl, I call upon you to serve as vessel for my work, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.”

Pick up your salt (or sand) and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the salt: “O you creature of earth, pure and potent salt, I call upon you to serve as a strong foundation for my work, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Cover the bottom of the bowl in salt.

Pick up your crossroads dirt and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the dirt: “O you creature of earth, you earth of a place which is no place, I call upon you to bridge the gap between this place and all others, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Cover the salt with graveyard dirt.

Pick up your abre camino root and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the root: “O you creature of earth, I call upon you to serve as symbol and agent of my need, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Sprinkle a good quantity of the root on top of the dirt and salt, leaving enough to burn throughout the ritual.

Pick up your myrrh and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the myrrh: “O you creature of earth, I call upon you to bring divine power, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Sprinkle a good quantity of myrrh on top of the dirt and salt, leaving enough to burn throughout the ritual.

Pick up your oil and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the oil: “O you creature of water, I call upon you to bring divine power, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.” Set the oil aside for the moment.

Pick up your candle and suffumigate it in the smoke of the incense. In the name of the powers you honor, bless and consecrate the candle: “O you creature of fire, I call upon you to serve as a the focus and agent for my work, that together we may create opportunities, remove obstacles, open the roads, and make clear the ways.””Hail Hekate, hail Hermes, hail unto you gods of the roads and the crossroads, of the below and the above, of the wide ways and of the secret ones also.” Keep your candle in hand.

Measure a bit of the myrrh and the abre camino root onto the brazier. Keep the smoke as thick as you can stand throughout the ritual.

Inscribe your candle with a crossroads sigil and/or a sigil representing your needs, then anoint your candle with the oil. Embue the candle with your power and your need. As you do so, invoke the powers you honor:

I call upon you gods and powers of the croassroads!

I call upon you keepers of the wide roads and the secret paths!

Open the roads before me and make clear the ways!

Remove the obstacles that stand between me and my desires and my ambitions!

Open the roads, make clear the ways!

Open the roads, make clear the ways!

Open the roads, make clear the ways!

Repeat the prayer at least three times. If there is a specific path you want opened, name it. If there is a specific obstacle you want removed, name it.

Closing

When the ritual is done, you will feel it. If you can, walk away from your altar without looking back, and do not clear away the detritus until the sun has set (if you performed the rite during the day) or risen (if you performed the rite at night).

Dispose of the materia by burning or burial, ideally at a crossroads, leaving three dimes as offerings.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In sorcerer's workbench

From the Sorcerer’s Workbench: Dread Queen Persephone

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Coming the first of October – or possibly a few days before, to catch that full moon energetic boost – I’ll be launching my first annual Samhain line. This year’s line will feature six new stock designs and three unique, one-of-a-kind pieces.

The flagship of my Samhain 2023 line is this devotional image of the Dread Queen Persephone.

This image was given to me by the Dread Queen, herself, during an oracular session where my friend Juniper served as her vessel. I asked for an image of her that I could use as the basis for devotional jewelry. I don’t remember the exact words, now – death and life and something about the mycelium – but this image is what appeared in my head, and flowed into my wax, culminating in the most technically excellent wax carving I have done to date. As an interesting note, one of the other suppliants at the oracular session had a near-identical vision on hearing those words.

Persephone is the goddess of spring and flowers, yes. And she was one of the Two (with her mother, Demeter), who oversaw the immortalizing Eleusinian Mysteries. And she was also the Dread Queen, the much-feared wife of Hades. In this image, I attempt to honor all three aspects of the goddess: the skull of death; the mushrooms that might induce visions, sustain life, or destroy it; the growing vines and flowers of spring.

If you’d like to pre-order one of these designs in silver ($171) or bronze ($125), please reach out to me to make payment arrangements and I can get it cast in advance and ship the day of the launch. Patreon supporters can reach out to me and buy their copy today.

In witchcraft

Book, Bell, and Blade: A Road Opening Ritual

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

This post is part of a series, though it need not be read in whole or in order. You can read the first post here. You can find the rest of the posts here.

There are times when the ways seem closed, when you feel that all your efforts are blocked, your vision obscured. You may know what is holding you back, but can see no clear way around, over, or through. Or you may not know what it is that stands between you and your desires and ambitions.

At those times, kneel before your altar and open your book to the appointed pages.

Road Opening / Crossroads Pages

The first time you do this rite, you will need to create your pages. The pages that you use to commune with your familiar spirits will suffice until you perfect your design.

At the center, draw your magic circle: the place where all worlds meet, this is the greatest of all crossroads. To each side, make a place for a candle. Within the magic circle, draw a crossroads sigil where your brazier can be set above it.

Preparations

Collect two candles – red or orange or white or black or whatever color is called for in the traditions of your origin. Collect oil to consecrate your candles – road opener or abramelin or whatever you can consecrate in the moment. Collect charcoal for your brazier and herbs associated with the work: abre camino root, herbs and resins of the Moon or of Mercury or of Saturn, or sacred to Hermes or Hekate, or to the gods on whom you will call.

Set up the space where you will do the ritual: your home altar, a crossroads in the forest, the onramp of an empty highway, the room of the conference hotel where you are struggling to make connections. Set up a candle on each page of the book, just outside the circle you have drawn, and set up your brazier in the center of the circle. Light your charcoal before you begin.

The ideal timing of this ritual is the shortly before the new moon on a day of Mercury or Saturn in an hour of Saturn or Mercury. The first day of a calendar month is also good, as is the 31st of December.

The Opening

Wash your hands with cinnamon.

Ring your bell to the four quarters to purify your space.

Draw your blade in a circle around your space to cast the circle and define or affirm the temple.

Light a candle to illuminate the temple.

Burn incense to consecrate the temple.

Make your offerings to the keepers of the quarters and the dwellers on the threshold, to the gods and spirits of the land, to your guides and allies and familiar spirits.

Stop and take a deep breath. Wait for your charcoal to be ready, focusing on gathering your power as you do.

The Invocation

Put the road opening herbs on the charcoal. Keep the smoke as thick as you can throughout the ritual.

Anoint your candles with oil. As you do so, focus on imbuing each candle with power. Pray in your own words if you can find them. If you cannot, something like the following will suffice: “I consecrate this candle to open the roads and illuminate the paths to my ambition.” or “Open the roads before me; make clear the ways.”

Call to your gods of the crossroads, to the psychopomps and saviors to whom you make offerings.

Hail unto you O you Keepers of the Quarters and Dwellers on the Threshold!

Hail unto you O Hekate; Hail unto you O Hermes; Hail unto you O Hermekate,

Hail unto you, O you gods of roads and crossroads, of the highways and the byways and the hidden places in between!

I call upon you gods and powers, friends and allies, guides and familiars. Open the roads before me and make clear the ways! Remove the obstacles that stand between me and my desires and my ambitions!

Redouble the road opening incense and light the candles.

Repeat the prayer at least three times. If there is a specific path you want opened, name it. If there is a specific obstacle you want removed, name it.

Open the roads, make clear the ways!

Open the roads, make clear the ways!

Open the roads, make clear the ways!

The Closing

When you are exhausted, when the candles burn low, or when you feel that the work is done, stop and sit quietly for a moment. Be open to omens and visions. Throw one last round of incense on the charcoal and thank the gods, your allies, your friends and familiars. Close the circle in accordance with your tradition. Turn your back on your altar and walk away. Do not clear away the detritus until the sun has set (if you performed the rite during the day) or risen (if you performed the rite at night).

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

Book, Bell, and Blade: Adding Pages

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

This post is part of a series, though it need not be read in whole or in order. You can read the first post here. You can find the rest of the posts here.

The first pages of your book obviously and inevitably represent a highly idealized vision of your practice. For me that was the Stele of Jeu, followed by a triangle of art for each of the seven traditional planets. What followed were a handful of rituals that I had done and more that I wanted to do: the prayer for a vision from the Serpent-Faced God(dess), aTyphonic Initiation, a pair of scrying spells, and a handful of herb-gathering rituals, all from the Greek Magical Papyri.

No matter how settled you are in your practice when you begin the work of the Book, Bell, and Blade, no matter how confident you are in your organization of those first pages, a time will come when you need to add more. If you have anticipated the particular need that arises – as I anticipated that I would need room for new circles and other images beyond my initial planetary circles – so much the better. Eventually, a need will arise for which you have not prepared. For me, most recently, that has been road-opening magic.

I’ve done road openers a few times over the years, of course. (We all have, haven’t we?) But my familiars recently informed me that I should be doing it more often – specifically, at the beginning of each calendar month. For the first round (July), I got my Lunar Shenanigans Crew involved, and we devoted a whole moon ritual to removing obstacles and making opportunities for ourselves. The second round (August), I brought my Book to bear, using the same pages as I use for my daily offerings. It was very free-form, but it was also very effective. I wish that I’d taken better notes.

For this month (September), I sat down and added a new pair of pages for the work, which I will be doing … if not literally every month, probably more than not. I started with the pair of circles on the outside (each around one of the burn marks from my altar fire at the beginning of the year, and the Circle of Art/Triangle of Conjuration just a little up from center for a nice visual balance. I wanted to cover the page in seals and sigils, but in that moment I wasn’t sure what was called for.

After the ritual (which gets its own post), I was given a crossroads sigil to add to the circle.

It’s simple -bordering on bitch basic – but that’s alright. A crossroads sigil probably should be simple. I also suspect that I will add to it after future rituals. I also suspect that I will be adding other seals and sigils in and around the Circle of Art (itself a crossroads of sorts): keys and torches of Hekate; Hermes’ messenger wand; the road-opening sigil from Aidan Wachter’s Weaving Fate; some weird shit I chanel in the moment.

I don’t know, exactly, what I will next be adding to my Book. There are a few candidates, half-formed visions of rituals that I need to flesh out and then write down. Protection sigils. A consecration spell. The care and feeding of a Third Lunar Mansion talisman. But I know that, in time, a new need will arise, and I will have the tools to fulfill it.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

A Group Ritual for Clarifying Visions

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Over the last couple months, several of my friends and I were struggling with divination. We were getting answers, but they weren’t making sense. So, for the last dark moon esbat (we try to celebrate on the last day before the new moon, which I recognize is a very 21st century sort of timing, but I like it) I wrote a ritual that I hoped would help us all out.

Like some rituals we’ve done before, each of us took a turn as the passive center of attention while the rest of our group worked on their behalf. In this instance, we each took a turn articulating our question that we were struggling with, then sat and waited while the others performed their divinations.

The writeup below is nearly identical to the outline that I provided for my ritual crew. I have changed the pronouns (we -> you), and turned some of the outline into complete sentences, but have left most of the idiosyncrasies intact for your amusement. Honestly, I feel like too many people idealize their ritual scripts when sharing them, and while I definitely do that sometimes, too – because the high dramatic language is entertaining to write as well as read – that’s not the vibe I’ve chosen for this particular post.

For our vision oil, I added a few drops of Quadrivium’s Revel Oil to a jojoba base. You could use anything, including plain olive oil or baby oil. Just be sure it’s skin safe and/or cosmetic grade, particularly if you intend to anoint your eyelids.

The clarity of the oracular chorus will wax and wane. Ideally, each oracle will be on their own wave and each suppliant will have enough oracles on point to have their question answered, but it’s very likely that the first suppliant will get the weakest answers.

Dark Moon Shenanigans Clarity of Vision Ritual

n-1. Pre-prep

Dinner & touch base. (Our lunar rituals always start with dinner. Your group rituals should, too, unless you’re fasting for a reason.)

Confirm that each of you have a set of divination tools and a question that you haven’t been able to answer for yourselves.

Decide on order of divinations in advance. This will save you stress and chaos in the ritual. The order in which you are seated is perfectly adequate.

0. Preperation

Finish setting up temple room, and make sure there are seats for everyone plus the “hot seat”. (Because, between making dinner and cleaning house, I can’t get this done before people arrive. Kudos if you can.) Ideally, everyone will be within arm’s reach of the altar.

Finish setting up the altar. (I drew an ouroboros on a mirror and put the vision oil in the center between two candles.)

Start playlist (I have been using a generic witchcraft music playlist for most of my workings for the last month.)

Exit temple room for purification.

I. Opening

Purification and procession into temple room. Everyone washes their hands in cinnamon and lustral waters. Have a towel handy.

With everyone standing around the altar, invoke your oracular gods and spirits (let people freeverse for a minute), and make offerings of incense and whatever else your tradition demands.

Mix and consecrate your vision oil, telling it “each of us shall approach you and offer up a secret; in return you shall grant all of us clear visions with which to answer our compatriots’ questions.”

Everyone takes their seat.

II. Body

The first suppliant kneels before the altar, whispers a secret truth to the oracular oil, and takes the hot seat.

The oracular chorus anoints themselves with vision oil.

The suppliant speaks briefly on their troubles and asks their question.

The oracular chorus performs their divinations singly and together, answering the suppliant’s question. Tarot. Runes. Scrying. Whatever.

The suppliant thanks chorus, and the gods and spirits, then steps down from the hot seat and purifies themselves before (re)joining the chorus.

Next suppliant steps out of chorus and everyone repeats above steps until everyone has had their turn in the hot seat.

III. Closing

After last suppliant has purified themselves, oracular chorus kneels around vessel of vision oil.

Everyone thanks the oracular gods and spirits for their aid.

Final offerings are made.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In sorcerer's workbench

From the Sorcerer’s Workbench: 2023 Saturn in Aquarius Consecrated Talismans

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

At the end of February, I had the opportunity to catch one of the last talismanic elections for Saturn in Aquarius.

My memory of the ritual is, at this point, a little vague. The preverb vibes were raucous. I barely slept the night before, and in the process of not-sleeping an intense vision of the Saturnian spirits coming toward me and my temple in a crackling storm cloud. When the spirits came through, it was in a rush.

Then I cocked up an unrelated ritual the next day, and it took me a while before I felt sufficiently fortified and clear to finish processing those talismans: cleaning up the sprues and divining their names and sigils and purposes.

But, at last, with Saturn all the way into Pisces, I have done that final work. Of the nine talismans, two failed to cast and one I kept for myself. The rest of the spirits are ready and available for purchase.

These talismans are all cast in lead in my home studio. Most of them are my original Picatrix Saturn design. One is my new triangular talisman. For the moment I have chosen to include exemplars, rather than pictures of the individual talismans.

The first spirit is a round pendant. She teaches secrecy and discretion.

The second spirit is a round pendant. He says that he, “holds fast the door”.

The third spirit is a round pendant. He grants the favor of kings and judges.

The fourth spirit is a round pendant with a famous name. He cultivates the wealth of and for generations.

The fifth Spirit is a triangle pendant. She offers the favor of Saturn. Sold.

After six months of working with my own talisman, I can offer this advice: these talismans promise and deliver much, but they require clear communication on your part and demand that you meet the terms of your agreements.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

Book, Bell, and Blade: Keepers of the Quarters and Dwellers on the Threshold

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

In my magical youth I was taught to call the quarters by element: Fire and Water, Earth and Air. There was some … disagreement as to which came from which direction. I quickly learned that, though some people would protest when you didn’t do it their way, every element would answer from every direction. I even learned – for the joy of argument – to invent a rationale for every possible attribution.

As my magical education improved, I learned that before modern witches called elements to watch the edges of their circles, others had called upon archangels. There was not much better agreement of which archangel ruled each direction than there was which element, but one could see certain similarities between the two, and how the one had clearly grown out of the other.

And then I learned that before certain magicians, too “pure” (or too afraid) to sully their circles with anything less, called angels to watch over their rites, their predecessors had called upon four demon kings. And these kings had no elemental associations – though that did come later. No, they were rulers of the sublunary world, each believed to have dominion over certain regions of the earth. One – Oriens – did not even have a proper name, just a foreign word for “East”.

From there, it seems clear to me how the evolution had happened: how we came from demon-kings to elemental gates. And, at every step of the path, it all worked. And, because it all works, tracing the lineages is a matter of academic passion, and I will leave you to do so if and only if it amuses you.

Today, I still sometimes call upon the elements for certain rituals. For others, I call upon certain stars which relate to the directions relative to where I stand. But, for the most part, I simply call upon those who keep the quarters without names:

“Hail unto you, O you keepers of the quarters and dwellers on the threshold.”

I cannot tell you who it is that rules the quarters in the part of the world (both physical or magical) where I have erected my temple. I have, once or twice, called upon them to reveal themselves to me. I have seen hints of faces – human, animal, other – but nothing clear. Not yet. Some day soon, it will be time to call upon them one by one, learn their names and their seals.

The dwellers on the threshold are more mysterious. It was a Theosophist who first wrote of the Guardian of the Threshold. I think that I read of it – of them – in some work of the Golden Dawn.

They are best known for hovering at the edge of the circle, and for looming in the face of the practitioner as they prepare to step into the unknown. They are the spiritual embodiment of the question, “Are you ready?” And when you tell them, “yes, I am ready”, and they believe you, they step aside.

There are those who say that the question they pose is, “Are you afraid?” And to the fearful and unready, those questions are the same. But fear can be rational. Fear can by holy. You can be ready and still be afraid.

I call on these powers at the start of each day because I … feel that it is appropriate.

I do not know, precisely, who they are. I know that I have had visions in which Lucifer has claimed the title of Dweller on the Threshold (the image of which I have included above). But I suspect that he is not the only one to bear that title.

Beyond Lucifer, himself, I have as yet made no effort to contact these powers more directly. Perhaps I will, some day, but – for the moment, at least – that does not seem to be their role. For now, I acknowledge their place and their power: the edge of the circle, keeping me from stepping out into unknowns for which I, on some level, know that I am not ready.

Thank you for reading Journey Through the Obsidian Dream.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

Working the Hekataeon: Book Two: White Flame

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Coming to the Book of White Flame after The Call was a bit of a shock. Every move in the first book had come with a ritual: the first nine nights were strictly prescribed, and if the second nine were a little more of a waiting game, there was a chant to go with each stage of the iynx ritual. The Book of White Flame is more of a litany culminating in a ritual. Aradia and I needed more structure than that.

Our solution was to bring the general ritual format of The Call forward. That was four years ago, now, so of course my memories of the details are a little vague. But I remember that each night when we sat down to do the work, we washed our hands with lustral waters and cinnamon, lit a candle and incense, and sang the consecration song. We then drew two versions of the sigil: one on a small slip of paper that we burned at the end of the ritual, as with the crossroads sigil in The Call; and one in a notebook which we mediated on and colored over as we tried to memorize the sigil and its uses.

Throughout the month, I gathered supplies to make our Ladders. I was broke as shit, then, and had to cheep out: using thinner wire and much thinner chain than was ideal. But I was able to cast up silver talismans for use as the central “coin”, some of the first exemplars of my Eye and Six Hands devotional talisman. In the last days of the sigil-study, I brough Aradia and Chirotus (who was working the Hekataeon at the same time) together and showed them how to string the beads on wire to form the chain.

In preparation for the rite, we made a special trip out to a sacred site where we knew that we could find a honey locust tree with exceptionally savage thorns. We took garlic from our farm share for our cloves, and raided our stash of local honey that I had originally purchased to make into mead.

When we had finished our study of the sigils, and the moon waxed to full, Aradia and I went to Alvianna’s property, where we could perform the ritual at a crossroads without fear of attracting police attentions. We had made arrangements in advance, so that we could come, and do what prep needed to be done there, without breaking the silence that preceds the ritual.

The consecration was an ordeal. Keeping silent for the hours preceding the ritual. Kneeling on the concrete. Holding the ladder in our mouths while we performed the ritual. Releasing the ladder slowly when the time came, not just vomiting it out.

There’s a lot I don’t remember about the night. Partly, that’s because it was almost four years ago, now. Partly that’s because I was so deeply entranced. What I do remember is that the Ladder felt alive and powerful almost immediately, and that the garlic cloves all sprouted while we were performing our rituals.

Then I went on an epic road trip. In the midst of searching for appropriate skulls with which to begin the Book of the Red Blade, we lost track of the work. I even forgot the names I had given to both my (original) iynx and my Ladder, and lost wherever I had written them down.

Then, one day in 2020, while I was doing my daily work with my other familiar spirits, the name – or, at least A name – of my Ladder came back to me. I began working with it more extensively. And, like all my familiars, what the spirit wanted was not just offerings but work to do. So, when something was not clearly in the purview of one of my other familiars, or when I wanted Hekate’s backing for a thing, I turned to the Ladder spirit and rite. It also offered its services in other means: speciffically, it offered to aid my work with Aidan Wachter’s Black Book, as I was struggling to resume that after having stopped and started. As such, it has become a familiar spirit somewhat greater in scope and intimacy than it was intended to be, and – as I am finally incorporating the Black Book into habitual ritual practice, I am working with my Ladder spirit almost daily.

As such, I can call my Hekate’s Ladder my greatest success with the work of the Hekataeon so far.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

To Work the Hekataeon: Book Two: White Flame

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

The second book of the Hekataeon is a month-long study of the epithets of Hekate, each with an associated sigil and ritual with the Devotee is now authorised and empowered to use. Once that month of study has been completed, the Devotee constructs and, on a night of the full mooon, ensouls a second ally: a set of prayer beads called Hekate’s Ladder. At the end of this work, the Devotee is awarded the title of Adept.

The Book of White Flame

The Book of White flame does not give any guidance for how to approach the study of the twenty-seven sigils.

When we did the work, Aradia and I pulled forward the ritual frame from The Call: each night we sat down to do the work, washed our hands with lustral waters and cinnamon, lit a candle and incense, and sang the consecration song. We then drew two versions of the sigil: one on a small slip of paper that we burned at the end of the ritual, as with the crossroads sigil in The Call; and one in a notebook which we mediated on and colored over as we tried to memorize the sigil and its uses.

Several of our compatriots who have joined us in the work combined their study of the epithets with their construction of the ladder: adding a bead each night as they mediated on the relevant sigil.

Hekate’s Ladder

Constructing your Hekate’s Ladder requires a few tools in addition to its raw materials. You will need:

  • two pairs of flat plyers – I prefer chain-nose for this task, but that’s extra finnicky of me
  • one pair of round nose or round-flat plyers
  • one pair of end-cutter plyers
  • 28-36 inches of wire (depending on how finely you work and what size of beads you choose
  • one standard strand of beads – I recommend 8mm in size
  • 6 rattlesnake vertebrae – I recommend 8mm to 12mm in size (these are increasingly difficult to come by)
  • one bell flower between 20mm and 30mm (you fill find these most easily by searching for “tassel caps”)
  • one key (antiques are stylish but not required)

The materials for the ritual are much simpler:

  • three cloves of garlic
  • three thorns large enough to pierce a clove of garlic
  • sandalwood incense (cones or powder and a charcoal briquette)
  • honey
  • spring water
  • a crossroads where you can work uninterrupted and with dirt to which you can pin the cloves of garlic
  • your assembled Hekate’s Ladder

As you chose and gather your materials, always keep in mind that they are going into your mouth. They are going to be in your mouth for longer than you think. It’s going to be weird. It may be gross. It’s going to be more of a challenge than you anticipate. Make sure they’re small enough to go into your mouth, but still big enough to work with.

The Ladder is consecrated on “a night of the full moon” (a phrase I usually take to meen “the night when the sun-moon oposition is perfected, the night before, and the night after”.), with no more speciffic timing given. It would be very easy to plan one’s progression through the Book of White Flame so that they consecrate their ladder on the twenty-ninth night, but it is also not necessary.

Even more than in constructing the iynx, you must plan ahead for this ritual: chose a time and a place where you can work without interruption and without speaking aloud. Figure out how you are going to fit the Ladder in your mouth and hold it there while you do the ritual. It is harder than it sounds like. If you have any taste/texture aversions, this will almost certainly set them off.

The consecration of your Hekate’s Ladder is an ordeal rite.

It is also, even more explicitly than the iynx, a birth. Sit with that for a while before hand and decide how much you want to lean into that metaphor. Even if the answer is “none”, the Ladder and its spirit are still a living, named entity that you and Hekate have made together.

On Acquiring the Materials

Barebones sets of jeweler’s or craft plyers can be found at almost any craft store or big box retailer. Nicer tools exist, but unless you’re going into professional jewelry there is no need to pay $25-$50 per plyer when you could pay $10-$20 for a set that contains all you need and more.

The bead sizes that I recommend are a compromise between “large enough to hold and work with easily, both during construction and use” and “small enough to fit in your mouth when you consecrate the piece”. The same logic should apply to your choice of key. Etsy is probably your best source of beads, if you know how to tell fake from real by the listing. If you can’t tell, I recommend finding a jeweler you trust, not going to a bead or craft store.

The example photo in the Hekataeon looks like unbleached rattlesnake vertebrae and bleached “generic” (read: bovine) bone. I use bleached rattlesnake vertebrae and black volanic rock beads for most of my Ladders, but have used a wide assortment of other materials to good effect. At the time of this writing, genuine rattlesnake vertebrae of a reasonable size are very difficult to find. As the text suggests that even a rope of knots would be a suitable substitute if the Devotee is unable to construct the ladder as written, any bead substitution would be acceptable.

If you would like to be able to wear your Hekate’s Ladder as a necklace, unless you have an extremely small head and neck, you will need to add at least four inches of spacer beads and probably a clasp.

I sell Hekate devotional talismans and cast replicas of rattlesnake vertebrae suitable for this work, as well as fully constructed but un-consecrated Ladders, at The Sorcerer’s Workbench.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.

In witchcraft

Working the Hekataeon: A Cacaphony of Gods

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

There are seven gods who receive daily offerings in my house. (Though I only speak of six with any regularity, there is also the Serpent Faced God of PGM XII 153-60.) As I have said before, I have no impulse toward exclusive worship – not henotheism, not monotheism, not even monism – so I had no notion of suspending those offerings when I sat down to resume the work of the Hekataeon. But it had been my intention to devote my active attention to Hekate alone. The gods, it seemed, had other plans.

In retrospect, this should not have come as a surprise.

Over the last two years, in particular, there have been times when my morning rituals have evoked intense visionary experiences. The visions that resulted in the triptych images of Baphomet, and the vision of Lucifer as the Dweller on the Threshold, were the most significant that I ever felt comfortable relating publicly. They were not, by any means, the most intense. I could feel the hands of the gods upon me, see their faces before my eyes, smell their headdy, uncanny musk.

But it seemed that I never had more than two or three visions of one god before other gods began appearing, as well. Already struggling to deal with the implications of the first visions, the addition of other powers to that mix was inevitably more than I could handle. I retreated from the experiences, and all the gods fell silent.

My friends who were raised with more religion than I was laugh at me when I wonder aloud if having been raised in a different environment would have better prepared me for these experiences. But I think they underestimate how alienated my upbringing was from divinity. In the same way I was raised vaguely aware that queer people existed, but with a strong implication that they were all far away and that I would never meet one, I was raised in a place where religion was just a social control mechanism, where people of strong convictions and intense experiences were alien and threatening. As a child, they were snake-handlers and madmen on television; as a teen, they were still that, and they were also Pat Robertson and the 700 Club: people who wanted me dead for being effeminate, for playing D&D, and for dabbling in witchcraft.

My earliest epiphanies were always of singular divinities, always months apart. They were also largely spontaneous: the presence of a god intruding on what had been intended to be some other sort of mystical experience. One of the earliest such was Rhea/Kybele appearing to demand I bring my then-friend Pasiphae to her. (I still wonder, sometimes, if that contact ever happened, or if Pasiphae’s commitment to a faceless generic Goddess was impenetrable to the real divine.)

Now, working my way through the first and then the second nine days of the Hekataeon, I am once more blessed/plagued by a cacophony of divinity. Baphomet shows me new faces every two or three days, revealing how the trinity/triptych aspects I have been shown unfold into seven (and nine) planetary epiphanies. Their Lunar aspect has much in common with the White Lady, and Saturnian Baphomet shares much with The Man in Black. Their Solar manifestation is Akephelos (Headless), and caries the Light of Creation, Phanes, like Eros. I have glimpsed their Martial aspect, bull-headed, armed and armored, which I so far call Korebantes, and that bull-headed vision gave way to another: a starry, mystical, Neptunian which I have (for lack of a better name so far) dubbed Asterion.

Aphrodite has blessed the photoshoot I did in her honor. Eros and Lucifer and Dionysos all loom large at their altars. My familiar spirits have begun speaking again on the regular, giving me practical advice for how to achieve my goals.

On days three and four and five and six of The Call, this was … unsettling. Distracting. Dissonant.

But, speaking with my compatriots at our regular New Moon Esbat, as we had all concluded our first round of The Call, those with more experience than I with the gods assured me that this was common. So, too, have a handful of people around the internet when I spoke of this problem. “Problem.”

So, even as I find the experience unsettling, I am reassured. As alien as this experience is to my upbringing and my expectations, it appears to be … typical. (As hurtful as that word is to us mystics and madmen.)

And so, as uncomfortable as it is, and as hard as it makes things from one day to the next, I am going to try to sit with that discomfort. To try to find the symphony in the cacophony.

After all, am I not a mystic? Am I not here for gnosis of the gods and the cosmos? Did I not tell Hekate, herself, that I am here to see where the road will take me? Did I not seek out each of these gods, too, even as I have sought out Hekate? Did I not seek out some of them – Dionysos, Baphomet – even before her?

This is the work. This is what I have come here to do. I have taken the names that I have taken. Each day I repeat them, both assertion and demand: I am [That Seer of Antiquity], I am [The Satyr Who Is a Magician], I am [The Sacred Companion]. I will live up to those ambitions. I will live up to those expectations.

When the gods speak, I will strive to listen.

If you want to get my posts a week before everyone else, to see the magical experiments that I don’t share with the public, to get first dibs on my elected talismans and fine art jewelry, or just want to support my work, you can do so through patreon. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, or don’t want to deal with all the non-occult content I post on patreon, I also have a ko-fi.