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.
I know that you are most curious about The Book, but my work with the book cannot be separated from the bell and blade that accompany it. Nor, in truth, can I separate out the brass bowls, or the incense, or the candles, or the libations, or any of the other tools that have brought forward from the practices that preceded the book, nor the other tools that have accreted around it. You will bring your own practices with you, and find accretions of your own, but I suggest that you consider – at least for one day – starting fresh with just these few.
The Book
Find a book that is beautiful and empty. Let it be large enough to draw a triangle of conjuration on a single open face. Let the pages be of a quality and texture that you can work with in your preferred medium, be that pencil, pen, or paint. Let it be heavy and well made, so that you can carry it with you. Let it be something that you can love, because if you do not love it, you will not use it.
Once you have found your book, once you have decided to love it, hold it in your hands and understand from the beginning that it will NOT be perfect and that you WILL destroy it. Wax will spill. Wine will splatter. Your pen will slip. There might even be fire. Lines, pages, even whole folios may be ruined. Dozens, maybe hundreds of hours of labor will go into pages that are just not as pretty as you wanted them to be and which, some day, will be utterly irrelevant or even anathema to the direction that your work takes. In time, the whole book will be destroyed – perhaps by accident, or by the vagaries of time, or even by the demands of your gods.
Love the book. Know that it is mortal, like you. Know that that is what makes the book precious, and the work powerful.
When you have chosen your book, when you have decided to love it, when you have fully understood that it will be damaged or even destroyed, write in it immediately. If you wait, you may never have the courage. If you wait, it may become “too good to write in” and therefore be wasted, which is worse than ruined.
Do not waste your time and risk failure by choosing a ritual with which to dedicate it. Write immediately. Write carelessly. Draw on one page some symbol, such as an eye, and some words that have meaning for you. If you cannot find any that have sufficient meaning for you, Proclus’ Hymn to the Gods:
“Hear me, O Gods, you who hold the rudder of sacred wisdom. Lead us mortals back among the immortals as you light in our souls the flame of return. May the ineffable initiations of your hymns give us the power to escape the dark cave of our lives and purify ourselves.
Hearken, powerful liberators! Dispel the surrounding obscurity, and grant me the power to understand the holy books; replace the darkness with a pure and holy light. Thus may I truly know the incorruptible God that I am.
May a wicked spirit never keep me, overwhelmed by ills, submerged in the waters of forgetfulness and far away from the Gods and Goddesses.
May my soul not be fettered in the jails of life where I am left to suffer a terrifying atonement in the icy cycles of generation. I do not want to wander anymore.
O you, sovereign Gods of radiant wisdom, hear me! Reveal to one who hastens on the Path of Return the holy ecstasies and the initiations held in the depth of your sacred words!”
Or these, which I borrowed from my novel for the aesthetic:
“These things I have done with mirrors. These things I have seen beyond the Veil.”
Now place the book on your altar, where it can lay open with your working tools on and around it.
The Bell
Find a bell – silver, gold, or brass, steel or bronze or glass, it doesn’t matter. Let it be one that rings clearly and cleanly in your ears. Let it be one that fits nicely in your hand. Let it be one that stands on its own, and fits on or beside your book on your altar. If it does not sound good to your ears, if it does not fit well in your hand, if it does not fit well in your working space, you will not use it, and it is wasted.
When you have found your bell, let it ring in your sacred places. Ring it loud in each of the four directions.
Keep it with your book, where it will be ready when the time comes to ring it in earnest.
The Blade
Find a knife, one that feels good in your hand and that will hold an edge to cut. No athame is this, to cut only aether, but a tool with which you might cut equally the veil between worlds, the cords that bind you to your enemies, the herbs for your spells, or even a ruined page from you book. Let it be of a size with which you can travel, as needed. Fixed blade or folding, whatever is of the most use to you. Let it be a thing of sufficient beauty that you can love it.
The Bowls
You may need countless bowls for your practice, but for this work in particular you will need three. Two will need to be fireproof – brass or copper or steel, or whatever suits your style and practice and pocket best. Fill one with enough salt to hold incense upright, or gravel upon which to place a charcoal disk. Leave the other empty for the candles you will burn within it. The third can match the first two if it pleases you, but need only be suitable for libations and to that end must be easy to clean.
When your incense bowl is full of ash, store the ash and salt for use in other magics. When your candle bowl is full of wax, melt it down to make more offering candles from. When your libation bowl is full, pour it out at the crossroads, and clean it as often as is needful.
Other Tools
You will need other things, of course.
You will need pens and pencils and paints and brushes for filling the book. You may buy new ones to use exclusively if it pleases you, but if you are an artist, your tools are already sacred. Have no fear that they will profane your witchcraft.
You will need whetstones to maintain your blade. You may buy new ones to use exclusively if it pleases you, but if you use the same stones to sharpen the knives in your kitchen, they are already sacred. Have no fear that they will profane your witchcraft.
You will need candles and incense and libations by the tonne. Consecrate these when you are ready to use them. If they are good enough for you, they are good enough for the gods.
You will need the tools that you need. Your practice is your own. As you begin this work, use it as an opportunity to start fresh, and let go of tools and practices that no longer serve you, but do not fear to bring forward that which you love. Consider only, “Will this fit within arm’s reach as I sit before the book?” and, “When I travel, will this fit safely and securely with or within the book?”
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