Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Natural Magick Process

Why are my Natural Magick products superior? I don’t fudge or cheat, not on ingredients or in my process. You get high quality, natural products made according to strict traditional guidelines. Natural Magick takes cues directly from Nature and diligently researches literature and lore.

Here are the elements of traditional ritual production that are guaranteed in my products:

MAGICKAL TIMING
We take our cues from Nature. Some activities are favored by the New Moon, some by the Full Moon, others by the Dark Moon. Since Babylonian times, the days of the week have been said to be “ruled” by the seven visible planets: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. This is why we have seven days of the week, in fact! Although called by different names, the essential properties and powers of the planets have been understood to be the same all this time. Natural magicians have used this system since ancient times for everything from planting of crops to business decisions to creation of magic incenses, oils and brews.

Natural Magick strictly adheres to a combination of this planetary and lunar influence. For example, Success is ruled by the Sun, and is a state of fullness. Therefore, Success oil is made on the Sunday on or just before the Full Moon. Blessing is a function of the Moon, Venus, or the Sun, and it is a quality of freshness and newness, so Blessing incense is made on Monday, Friday, or Sunday on or just after the New Moon.

ELEMENTS
Earth, Air, Fire and Water are the classic alchemical “elements,” and this system of correspondence is also used in Natural Magick products. It governs the selection of ingredients, and even the direction I face while making the product. Protection is a function of the Fire element, so I choose fiery ingredients for this oil, and face the South as I blend it.

KNOWLEDGE OF INGREDIENTS
For some reason, I have always been interested in the names of plants. I started this path as a native plant botanist. Unfortunately, magical texts are fraught with the use of common names rather than scientific Latin names. I was frustrated by this, and so I have for over a dozen years looked at references and compared the ingredients. Also I just seem to care more about botanical accuracy than other folks in this tradition. If I say “Bay” you will know if I mean Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis), Bay “Rum” (a blend of Pimenta dioica “Bay” and other spices) Bayberry (any of several Myrica species) or Sweet Bay (Magnolia virginiana), to give one fairly confusing example! Although all of them can be used to season boiled crawfish, they all have different magical properties!

CORRESPONDENCES
Magical formularies are filled with tables of correspondence, generally based on the principal of “Doctrine of Signatures.” Where no correspondence information can be found in literature, I can figure it out. For example, what phase of the moon corresponds to the goddess Iris of the Rainbow? The answer is in the bow of the rainbow. It was dark during the storm, now it is light with the rainbow in the sky. Therefore Iris is made during the bow-shaped New Moon which follows the Dark Moon. The colors of the rainbow are used to make art; Venus rules the arts, therefore Iris is made on Fridays.

Here is another example of how I use correspondences and Doctrine of Signatures in my work. I have an Anacacho Orchid tree (Anacacho bauhinia) in my yard, which has sweetly smelling white flowers. Was it a Moon or Venus tree? Bearing white flowers is often a Moon signature, whereas Venus rules perfumery. The answer came one Full Moon night as I wandered through my tangled forest gardens. I stopped to enjoy the fragrance of the flowers, and there was none! This tree’s flowers are only fragrant in the daylight hours; therefore it must not be ruled by the Moon but by Venus, the Morning and Evening star. Then I looked at the leaves which are heart shaped, clearly a Venus signature and thought to myself, “Well, duh!”

Just the way things smell, their colors, or their common names, is often enough information. Chamomile essential oil is blue, as is yarrow, making them excellent choices for a Water element formulation. Cedar wood smells like a coffin, which is why I combine it with Blood Orange in the Vampyre oil. Money is made where? At a mint, and the herb mint is much associated with prosperity. I try my best to find these correspondences and use them for the most potent Natural Magick.

DEOSIL OR WIDDERSHINS?
Deosil, pronounced JESH-ul, means clockwise, and is the direction of the motion of the Sun. It is used for all purposes of creation, making, blessing, and increase. Widdershins, surprisingly pronounced the way it is spelled, is the counterclockwise direction, and is the direction for magic of unmaking, getting rid of, banishing, uncrossing and if you must, cursing. The direction of rotation is most important while grinding Natural Magick incenses. Exorcism is the only incense I grind widdershins. All the others are magics of increase and therefore they are ground deosil. Also, the mother stock of my oil blends is made into a round bottle, swirled in the appropriate direction.

NUMBERS
Early on, mathematics, science and magic were all one and the same study. For better or worse, science split from magic, but magical tradition retains a reverence for numbers. Threes nines, and thirteen are considered moon and goddess numbers, so I use three essential oils in multiples of thirteen for the dark goddess Hecate. Five is the pentacle, and the number of fingers on my hand, so it is used for purposes of protection and human power. Sevens is for luck and prosperity, and planetary favors.

When this Natural Magic system is used, the choice of ingredients becomes like choosing words, and the way those ingredients are put together becomes grammar and syntax. This is the language that Natural Magick uses to communicate our intentions to the Universe, reflecting the clues we find in Nature back to the Source. So Mote It Be!

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