Spells

 

Lately, I have been feeling so much heavy stuff. I’ve been getting messages from so many out in the world that have just left me shocked, then angry, then feeling hurt and hopeless. From our president making friends with fascist dictators and coming home to, well, behave like a fascist dictator, letting us immigrants know that we are, in his eyes, less than human; to the Pope, who has again affirmed the Church’s policy of excluding women and gays from Holy Orders. I’ve also encountered harsh opinions in traditions closer to my own, a Nigerian babalawo held in high regard saying things like “lesbianism is futility.” I’ve just felt hate, disdain and judgment on all sides these days.    And I’ve begun to actually feel that there may indeed be something wrong with me. Part of me keeps thinking. All these opinions come with an implied disclaimer, “It’s not my fault, not my opinion really, it’s just the way things are.” God, Nature, reality, Ifa, Orisha, Dharma…but not me, not my fault that you are a lesser being and thus I don’t have to accord you equal consideration, or any consideration. Not to be arrogant I let myself wonder, perhaps I am something lesser, a spiritual being who either by predestined choice before birth, poor choices in the here and now, or by supernatural disdain by mighty gods, is not equal to other, better, more healthy or holy souls out there. Maybe some souls really are just bad…our beings botched, lame, or defective.

Then a voice: “Spiritual racism.” She says. “Don’t be fooled.” She is little more than a pause in this line of thinking, a disruption, a questioning.

Suddenly, I am grateful to be botched. Son of an immigrant, mixed racially, impure not just genetically but also because of my sexuality that, according to so many spiritual leaders, is nothing but “futility,” I am destined to be a lonely soul wandering the afterlife in a bleak otherworld. I shall come to haunt the righteous. A hungry ghost, a creature from the bush bringing blighted crops, miscarriages and the misery upon the righteous citizens of New Gilead, New Yorubaland, or New Whatever-the-Fuck-land. Demonic. I am suddenly grateful that I never quite fit into any of the “Holy Orders” I love and to which I’ve dedicated myself. Not a perfect, 100% Orisha devotee (not Black enough, not strait enough, not born-and-raised-in-the-tradition enough, not initiated enough, etc. etc.), not a perfect Christian, (an unrepentant homosexual, a holder of heretical beliefs), not a perfect Buddhist, (eat meat, refuse to believe bad things happen to bad people for good reasons), and a bad gay, (I stay at home typing up rants about Voodoo when I should be out getting drunk waving a rainbow flag on this Gay Pride weekend.) 

I see that I can choose to stand in a crossroads alongside an army of trickster souls, each of us rejected by dogmas, and each of us able to reject dogma that eats at our human dignity and drains life from the people through mystifications of the mystical that let certain humans enjoy life at the expense of others. I stand in a tradition of faggot sorcerers who have now for millennia stood as part of larger spiritual traditions and also at their margins. I realize that I love these margins, these nooks and crannies in which for centuries queer spiritual people have moved. For in Magic the margin is often the Center. The places where the abject is pushed, the No Man’s Land is filled with Not Men; the fearful Others of an ill society are not only the nagging Shadows of what’s “wrong with things these days”…they are, we are, also, potentially, the medicine for its recovery. Bush doctors, herbalists, alchemists, all know this principle of the Work. Witch. Lesbian. Shrew. Hag. Pervert. Abortionist. Punk. Faggot. Brujo. Sorcerer. Snake oil salesman. Conjure con man. Whore. Heretic. Fake. We all share a certain somethin’. We sometimes hit upon a knowledge the Muggles and Normies never seem to know. Not always, but sometimes.

I am grateful to have at least a wee connection to That Place. I realize that I’m here to make magic. So to celebrate this Pride weekend I will teach here little bits of what I’ve been taught, from the wide range of my many teachers in many traditions and also by my spirit guides. Hopefully, something mentioned here will make someone happy and, well, make someone else unhappy. “I DON’T CARE DO U?” That’s just how it is…at least according to the spiritual and unspiritual leaders of our day.

For Work:

An Appeal to Divine Providence

Take a red brick and wrap it in tinfoil or some other shiny, reflective metallic paper, settle it upon the floor somewhere near your front door where it will be safe to leave a candle burning. Upon the wrapped brick place a small white plate or saucer, then take a dark blue candle and rub it down with your favorite lotion or perfume, one you use daily, then roll the candle in sugar so that it’s completely covered. Place the candle in the center of the white plate. Around the base of the candle put four quarters, each face up. On each of the quarters put a pinch of salt. On a Monday morning, during rush hour, light the candle and pray to Divine Providence to help you find work worth working.

This is how the spell was taught to me. When I’ve done it for myself, however, I swapped out Divine Providence and prayed to Ogun, the Yoruba orisha of iron, labor, battles and overcoming. It has never failed to produce results.

Prayer to Wandering Souls for a Robust Clientele 

For those of you who run a business dependent upon having a good pool of clients use this prayer with “as almas caminheiras,” the “walking souls” to help keep folks walking in.

First, blend together 7 bay leaves, a hand full of myrrh, and a big pinch of rosemary. On a Monday night burn this mixture over a live coal. Let this smoke infuse your place of business. Light 7 simple white candles. (I use Jewish shabbat candles found in the “ethnic foods” section of most supermarkets, they are cheap and the right size.) After lighting the candles pray to the dead whose souls still wander the earth and  in the otherworld that they might find their peace. Ask also that they might guide those needing your help to be able to cease their wandering and find what they need in your services. Say:

     O gentle Heart of Jesus, ever present in the Blessed Sacrament, ever consumed with burning love for the souls of the dead who wander lost, have mercy on them.

     Be not severe in Your judgments, but let your loving eyes become a beacon for them, and, Merciful Savior, send Your angels to conduct them to a place of refreshment, light and peace.

     Amen.

After reciting this prayer, ask the wandering souls to aide the living into wandering in to see you. I learned this work from my beloved iyalorixá Marinete Martins de Souza in Rio de Janeiro. Spells like these come from the immense Portuguese heritage of “folk magic” based in ancient pagan traditions of the Iberian peninsula which over time were reconfigured to fit the dogmas of the Catholic Church. While God in Heaven is prayed to for one’s soul’s salvation, saints are beseeched for noble and righteous causes; the souls in Purgatory, however, are enlisted to aide one in more mundane, often selfish needs. (Soul’s in Hell, as well as demons and even Satan himself, of course, are reserved for one’s needs no one else will get behind.) Wandering this earth, between heaven and hell, the souls of Purgatory remain a ready and perpetual resource for the daily needs of the people.

To Attract Men:

Hot Mojo Bag 

In order to become more sexually attractive to men find a small, red flannel bag  and in it place the following:

–7 cardamom seeds,

–7 grains of paradise,

–aloes wood (oudh) powder or a small piece it,

-a chunk of dragon’s blood,

-a pinch of vetiver,

-a pinch of patchouli leaves,

-and a small lodestone.

If you’re a woman use a few drops of your urine or some of your menstrual blood as well as Come To Me Oil to anoint the bag. If you’re a man, use a few drops of your urine or semen and 7 Machos Oil or oudh oil to anoint it. Put this together on a Thursday when the Moon is waxing. Light a candle and face East and invoke your desire by burning aloes wood, dragon’s blood, and cardamom over a live coal. Hold the loaded bag in the smoke as you call out your desires and wave it in and out of the flame of the candle 7 times. Wear either aloes wood oil, 7 Machos Oil (if male), or Come To Me Oil. Carry the bag with you at all times. Chew cardamom seeds and/or grains of paradise whenever you are speaking with men you’d like to attract to you.

A friend recommends swapping out at least one of the ingredients listed above, (other than the loadstone), with something “softer, more feminine” to “balance the alchemy,” this being important “especially for the girls. But the boys would be smart to think about it too.” Sandalwood, jasmine, rose, gardenia, ylang-ylang. “Also, try to enjoy the men you attract. For goodness’s sake!”

Bath of Attraction

Take a large amount of orange tree leaves and blossoms and in a large basin of pure water shred them up so that the scent is released. As you macerate the leaves, concentrate and talk out loud your desires. Take the water, leaves, and flowers, pour it all over your head and, soaking your entire body, then rub the leaves and flowers all over yourself leaving no part unwashed. Again, concentrate and talk out loud your desires. Do not towel dry, let the water dry on the skin. Do this when the Moon is waxing.

Care must be taken to not let the flowers and leaves clog the drain of your bathtub. If possible, this bath is best done outdoors letting the water and leaves to flow off where they will. If you bathe in a tub, gather up the leaves after the bath and put them in a paper bag and throw them out into the bushes somewhere. When you toss the bag, concentrate and talk out loud your desires.

To Remove a Tyrant:

Make a Vow with Thunder and Lightening

Procure a red ribbon. Go to a tall tree or some other place likely to be struck by lightening, a hillside, a bell tower or cathedral tower, and find a place there where you can tie the ribbon. You can choose some spirit to help you: Shango, Thor, Saint Barbara, Oyá, Jupiter or Zeus, or Xevioso, Athena or even Hekate, Shiva, Kali…or some other heavy hitter.

Call your chosen spirit to mind and then say:

God, give me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the Wisdom to know the difference.

Or, if you don’t like the 12 Step, Christian vibe the “Serenity Prayer” can bring up, recite the words of the pagan philosopher Epictetus:

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions—in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing.

After reciting the prayer or Epictetus tie the ribbon onto the tree. Vow, in words spoken aloud, that each day, until your tyrant be overthrown, you shall find 1 thing every day that is within your power to work towards the removal of tyranny from your life and the lives of others. Vow that if you should forget your vow, upon remembering it, you shall simply begin again, not ceasing until freedom comes. Know that the Masters of the world may control all things, take all things from you, maybe even own the truth, but they can never take one thing from you. Remember that one thing, it is all that matters.