The Tattooed Alchemist

Posts for Tag: Magick

Like To The Tail Of A Peacock

For PantheaCon20 we had a full moon, Mercury was in retrograde, the first two days were alchemically aligned with digestion and the last two were with dissolution.  From what I experienced, it was a great con with a lot of old stuff and new stuff, and my balancing act of all that and taking care of myself worked.  I had really good friends at the con with me, and I felt our room situation was utterly drama free this year.  I felt like I got really good quality one-on-one time with each of my three close friends at the con, and I also managed to get alone time when I needed it too.  

I didn't think I'd be dyeing my hair peacock before I went, but I did.  I didn't think I'd run into other people who seemed to have the same idea and who did peacock hair that didn't look anything like mine and yet was totally recognizable as also being peacock hair, but I ran into two of them.  And one had formerly had flame hair which I did last August.  And that's just three heads out of an entire con.  I was wearing my Gojira slippers when I encountered a furry.  I mesmerized a lady's baby with my Minion.  I got to use my first gender neutral pronoun in a group discussion.  I did not endlessly snack on sugar.  Despite staying up nearly every night until 1:30am, I did jump right out of bed at eight the next morning and was out the door anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes later to do something starting at 9am. 

"Govern all things with a great deal of discretion until there appear colors like to the tail of a peacock."

from The Art of Distillation - Book VI by John French

I attended two rituals that were closely adapted from original material created in the late 1800s.  I'll take that as a sign to look more closely at the material I have which deals with the same time period.  Undoubtedly this will relate back somehow to the photographic material I have from Notre Dame and the writing of Fulcanelli.  I can tell already.  I created two charms as part of two classes.  The first was in one of those two Victorianesque rituals, the other was in Kalla's pop magick class.  One is a stone which was soaked in wine and charged by placing it under my tongue and reciting a long spell.  The other is a slight-imperfect 12-sided die which looks kinda flamey and which is now connected to an energetic thought-form, otherwise known as Agent Fox Mulder.  I really left my mind open to see if any of the characters I've obsessed over or put energy into over the years wanted to step up when it came to that ritual, and that's who did.  I have to craft a new mojo bag that can be tucked into my everyday bag and which will hold a few more things than the one I have now.

I will be exploring and playing with all my ideas and self-created roadblocks around the concept of daily practice for a bit.  Or maybe I'll be bugging myself about just thinking about it and not doing much.  Suffice to say, I got to hear some stuff I needed to hear again in that class and we'll see how I do with it.  I got a physical, jewelry-style charm at the con too, from the vendor Amber Moon, who made my walrus ouroborus.  It's a tiny magickal cottage, and I'm going to charge it up to help me manifest Right Home, in whatever form that is best for Me and my Found Family. 

I had not done any sort of sacred/bdsm scene at the con in years, and I have to say I had one hell of an efficient and yummy one this year.  I tried to keep it simple but allow the involved humans to get a deeper experience, and make the entrie exchange more sacred.  It worked alright, almost to the point where I was a little amazed myself at what had happened.  One of those instances where I found myself durings bits of it watching my hands and then I'd reconnect that they were mine.  Those freakin' Gojira slippers were ridiculous, extremely comfortable and unexpectedly grounding.  It made it much eaiser for me to draw energy up and into my various arm actions.  I just know one of my mentors all those years ago would have been proud of the silly slippers.

And now we look ahead, to March.  Ahead of us is wind, the equinox and Separatio. 

Secrets, Which Are Revealed In Magicians Writings

With Imbolc, we mark the phase of Dissolution in the larger alchemical process of the year.  In the Pacific Northwest, Chinese medicine teaches that predominant health issues in this region will traditionally express themselves as issues of too much cool moisture.  So while it might be appropriate for alchemist's doing personal work in some areas to need to find ways to add liquids to their inner process at this time, I'm finding that a removal of some excess moisture is better suited to where I live as well as my present work.  Different areas have been reviewed and thinned out.  Items have gone to recycling, the trash and been donated.  I'm working to remove an excess of those fluid elements of life which can too easily flood us.  A big pile got picked up yesterday morning, yay!

Surveying what's growing in the house and yard, I've got a near-complete list of potentials for crafting my first homemade set of seven essentials.  Some herbs are in very short supply, others are much more generously available.  We have a few things on hand

  • Saffron - Sun
  • Mugwort - Moon
  • Lavender - Mercury
  • Jerusalem Artichoke - Venus
  • Aloe - Mars
  • Sage - Jupiter

We have a few things on hand which correspond to Saturn, however, they are all also toxic/poisonous in nature.  Not really where I should working at this time.  One Saturnian option is cannabis.  I'll have to consult my various oracles to see if that's appropriate.  Or where my poppy plants might correspond, and again if that would be appropriate.  Another option would be to pick a plant and grow it to harvest the material.  We're about to rip out our sage this spring, so I have to remember to let my housemate know I want the plant when it goes.  I'll have to read up on if I can pick Jerusalem artichokes whenever or if they do better with a certain season.  Our roots are a few years old, so there should be plenty to harvest. 

"Concerning those Secrets, which are revealed in Magicians writings, although they may contain some truth, yet in regard those very truths are enveloped with such a number of deceits, as it's not very easie to judge betwixt the truth and falshood, they ought all worthily to be rejected."

~ from Chapter 2, Of Charms, Figures, and their Use of Friar Bacon's HIS DISCOVERY OF THE MIRACLES, ART, OF NATURE, AND MAGICK, 1659.

I'm really feeling the pull to purple already this year.  I felt red for a few weeks before I shifted my hair back in the fall, but it's even stronger and earlier this switchover.  It might have something to do with my personal processes.  It might be connected to sifting through all my clothing storage recently.  It might be related to my new minion.  Who can say?  There's a good chance that after being red these past two years at P-con that I will use that event as my changeover point this season.  I just got a haircut (goodbye dry ends from winter and hello, super short hair) and it's time to do roots again.  The whole back of my head is brown and grey, with the remaining red just being in the front.  Very nearly a clean slate.  Time to hit eBay for hair dye.

Speaking of the con.... it's ALMOST PANTHEACON!  Already part of my mind is distracted with the task of planning what to bring for this year's hotel room altar.  Something about P-con really seems to demand festoonery in the room.  And what to wear.  As with any year, I can't wait to see what this year's con turns out to be.  While clearly related, they really do tend to turn out rather differently from one another.  I've got trusted roommates, we're on-site, C's coven has a suite, people are teaching, all pieces that go towards making a great event. 

As the Super Bowl fell on Imbolc this year, I and my friend K decided to do some prosperity work during the game and see if we could use the happy energy of millions of people.  We started on a solar hour for Sunday, and continued through until the next Sun correspondence.  During the Saturnian time, to break and let go of old habits and that which isn't serving me, I smashed a figurine I made of myself a few Pantheacons back.  It was an air-dry clay that had never been fired.  I felt it was a great representation of everything stuck, dried, inflexible and featureless in my life.  The ceramic was still so sharp-edged that it hacked up the tea towel that K gave me to wrap the bag I put the figurine into before hammering it.  There were candles burnt, oils annointed and I made a charm from a mix of found and precious items.  The outcome of the game seems to bode well for the magickal work....

Of Putrefaction And Nigredo

For most of the last three years, I made a weekly blog entry on the Grey School forums.  I was involved as both a student and as a faculty member.  I am no longer involved with that organization, but it's been a nice habit and a way of marking many magickal events and activities in my life.  I going to explore what it's like to make periodic entries of that sort here.    I don't yet know if I will stick with the weekly schedule or not.  

"Reason grounds the universe not only on a necrophilic intimacy but also in conformity with an undead machine imbued with the chemistry of putrefaction and nigredo."  ~ Reza Negarestani from The Corpse Bride: Thinking with Nigredo

One thing I really enjoyed about blogging about my magick and alchemy was that finding a quote each week to use as a title not only identified all manner of nuances in my own experience (there are no coincidences in alchemy) but it also kept me slowly but surely working my way through all manner of obscure and archaic texts.  I intend to continue that habit here as well.

December is shaping up interestingly.  Personally, some of the putrefactio has been expressing itself via a headcold.  Not enough to feel genuinely sick, enough to feel curtailed and forced to refocus.  That's not entirely bad as it's had me catching up on a variety of projects.  

I have my PantheaCon airline tickets all arranged for February.  The weekend after that is FaerieCon West and today I emailed them and asked about programming.  I'd like to offer a free workshop on repairing, fixing and improving fairy wings, called "A Wing and a Prayer."

I started my saffron spagyric, using the spice I grew and harvested myself in October.  It's just a few ounces in a minion bottle.  The grain alcohol turned yellow as soon as I added the ground saffron, and by day's end was already a deep orange.  

I placed a teeny order for some samples of new incenses from Mermade Magickal Arts the other night and they arrived today.  One is sandalwood and ambergris (beach-harvested in NZ), one is a complex blend described as a wet, balsamic forest and the third is named "Majoun Encens" and is an homage to the psychoactive Moroccan fruit paste.  The free sample included was a spruce-frankincense pastille.  Yummy stuff all around!

I have cordials filtering in the kitchen as I write this.  I want to add some vanilla to the blackberry, so I have fresh beans infusing in about an ounce of grain alcohol.  It's slowly turning golden from clear.  The elderberry tastes like it needs more sweetness.  Last year I made it in brandy so it had a completely different character.

Tomorrow I have my first training session to be a "minion" (aka volunteer) for the Emerald City Comic Con in March.  It's downtown in the evening.  I'm going to meet Kalla after she gets off work in the afternoon, then the two of us are going to catch a showing of FROZEN, and then some dinner.  She'll head home at that point and I'll go get trained.  I should bundle up well, as Seattle is having quite the snap freeze his week.  The ol' weather app says it's 28F outside right now.  Brrrrr.....