Pretty, Pretty, Petition

photo by gnuckx

"Action is eloquence."--William Shakespeare

I will be off line for most of the day working on a couple of BIG projects (all will be revealed in due time) However, I leave you with a pretty image, a great quote and instructions on making your very own magical petition papers.

Magical petitions are one of the oldest forms of magical work--they are featured in the Holy Bible and the Tanakh. The idea of applying pen to paper to manifest magical intention has a simple elegance to it that makes many people feel like more is needed for a true ritual or spell to occur. While roots, herbs, oils, incenses, and brews are all delightful additions to ritual work, a well crafted petition can absolutely serve as the working's solid foundation. So how do you do it? Below I give you 3 forms of petitions commonly used in Conjure and Hoodoo. The first-a petition for dominance:

This is the petition that you use when you need someone to do it your way, see things from your perspective, pay attention to you, listen to you, or in some way, shape or form, be influenced by you:

--get a piece of paper the size of a post-it note and write your target's full name on it 3 times in pencil.
--turn the paper clockwise 90 degrees so that you now read the name up and down instead of left to right.
--write your name on top of the target's name in permanent ink. I recommend the color red for issues dealing with straight up power and/or love and romance, blue for healing or peace, brown for legal issues, purple for success and mastery and green for financial matters.
--embellish your petition with designs and symbols that are relevant to your case. If you want someone to shut up you might draw a mouth with an X on it. If you are making the petition for someone who owes you money you might draw dollar bills or money bags.
--anoint the petition with oil in a 5 spot pattern-4 corners and center.
--if the petition has been made to draw something or someone closer to you then fold it towards you, turn it 90 degrees clockwise and fold it again. If it has been crafted to get rid of someone then fold it away from yourself.

Next we have the type of petition that is commonly used in ritual work involving magical containers like honey jars:

--get a piece of paper the size of a post-it note and write your target's full name on it 3 times in pencil.
--turn the paper clockwise 90 degrees so that you now read the name up and down instead of left to right.
--write your name on top of the target's name in permanent ink. For honey jars the most common colors used are red, blue, purple, brown, and green.
--the tricky part: you must inscribe a circle around the names you have written WITHOUT raising your pen. So choose a prayer, command, or mantra that is short and sweet and easy to write. For a love drawing honey jar the command to: love me, come to me, want me-is perfectly acceptable.
--anoint your petition in a 5 spot pattern
--embellish your petition with images and symbols appropriate to the case.

And finally, a Break Apart or Separation petition:

--if you have a picture of the couple you want to break up then use that--if not get a single piece of paper the size of a post-it note and with a pencil make a line down the middle of the paper so that its divided into 2 columns. Write the full name of one half of the couple over their picture or in one column and write the other person's name over their picture or in their column. Whether you are using a picture or a plain piece of paper you should have 2 columns with a name in each written 3 times.
--cross each name with red ink and your petition that they break up and separate.
--anoint the paper or picture with break up oil
--tear the paper in half-symbolizing the rent in the fabric of their relationship

A note on personal concerns in petitions: when I use personal concerns I like to fold them within the petition. There are different schools of thought on this but I like the have my target being influenced at every possible level-that begins with my written prayers or commands. As I wrote earlier, petitions have been worked with forever-so there is no one way. These are three traditional ways I was taught and it is my hope that they will be of use to you!

Dedicating the merits of your practice

This one goes out to all the yogis and wannabe yogis and folks who feel ridiculously blessed (or challenged which is also a form of blessing) and simply don't know what to do with themselves.  There is a practice in many 21st century American yoga studios of "dedicating the merits of your practice."  You can dedicate merits to someone, a cause, an affirmation, even a Deity.  As best I can tell, this idea comes out of the Hindu practice of asceticism (and it was picked up by Buddhists later in a very similar manner).  Ascetics--usually of the Brahmin class but not necessarily so--were individuals who dedicated themselves to doing tasks of great difficulty.  Often these tasks were physical in nature, for instance, the Goddess Uma seduced and captivated Lord Shiva by standing on one toe and surviving on nothing but dried leaves for over a year--how's that for unconditional devotion?!  Occasionally the tasks were more specific and intellectual or spiritual in nature--chastity for eons was another popular form of ascetic practice.

Behind these traditions lie two powerful principles: the first is that the physical body and the sensations it experiences are largely illusory and the second is that through an understanding of the first principle an individual can pierce through the veil of the unreal and discover powers within him or herself that have the ability to manifest real change in the physical realm.  Now, on some level if you have ever exercised in your life to lose weight, increase muscle tone, or repair an injury you already believe these things because your physical self imposed some kind of limitation (impossible weight gain or an injury), you agreed that through effort and work you could positively impact that limitation, pierce through it and go beyond it, and once successful you discovered that your efforts did indeed cause physical change.  In traditional Hindu parlance the act of effort is known as karma--yes, karma comes from the sanskrit root kr which means to "act or do" and it is where we get such words as create, and what is generated by this effort is tapas or heat.  Again, physical exercise is a really great place to look at this because it is grounded and we have all experienced it--what happens when you make a physical effort?  You get hot and sweaty.  Well, as it turns out most major religions believe that a similar phenomena happens on a spiritual/energetic/soul level when you engage in certain ascetic or devotional practices.  This tapas in turn creates a kind of merit--in our words today it says that you give a damn about something greater than yourself, and this merit in turn carries a kind of power.  And, as a favorite comic book hero was told, Power can be used for good or evil.

So…back to dedicating the merits of your practice.  Now in today's world most of us are not standing on one toe and eating dried leaves BUT I talk to people all day who are willing to follow the example of the Hanged Man tarot card and make efforts to secure what they want/need/desire.  Not spending money can be an effort, not eating the cookie can be an effort, being nice to your brother when he is super difficult can be an effort.  Yoga teachers talk about dedicating the merit of your practice because yoga is an effort--on multiple levels at the same time.  If you are feeling blessed, loved and illuminated by the universe then give back--to your family and friends, to your favorite charity, to strangers you have never met. Blessings are meant to be shared, not clutched close to your vest in miserly desperation.  If you are feeling stuck or challenged ask yourself: am I making an effort here?  Be honest.  Can you make more of an effort?  Be honest.   What is your practice around the people, situations, and life areas that cause you the most difficulty, pain, anger, and stress?  What might a sustainable practice that could improve these feelings look like? And then, don't make the effort with the expectation of the reward.  Make the effort because you care about more than your own situation--dedicate the merits of your efforts to someone or something that really needs it.  All I can say is that you'll be surprised at the results and it worked for child birth--but that's another story.

Why I use the word "ritual"

There are spells and then there are rituals.  What's the difference?  Using the word spell is highly descriptive and straightforward, ritual has a more mysterious quality to it, but it also implies more in the way of the sacred.  Some people perform magical workings without any religious or spiritual framework--I have spoken to atheists interested in learning the basics of candle magic on many occasions. But for me and the type of work that I do--every component is heavily based upon my understanding of the Sacred.  Ritual does not have to be fancy or formal--the act of simply lighting a stick of incense or arranging flowers can be imbued with a sense of ritual, but there is a discernment, precision, and impeccability captured by the word ritual that spell just does not articulate.  I have described the ritual work that I do on many occasions as being a form of moving prayer or prayer with props.  My understand of the nature of the work that I am honored to perform on behalf of others is that of the petitioner.  I petition a higher power for aid, assistance, and succor in a specific individual's life usually for a specific situation.  The connection with the Source is the most crucial aspect of what I do, the herbs, oils, roots, incense, baths, washes, and curios that I work with during this moving prayer are also essential but they are absolutely secondary to that connection.  Furthermore, all of my working have a beginning (invocation), middle, and end.  They are performed in sacred space and time with a heart full of devotion and a mind fixed on what is eternal, unchanging, absolute, and divine in each of us.  To me, this describes a ritual mind set and goes beyond the scope imagined by the word spell.

Got Purpose?

Got Purpose?

Have you ever met someone and watched in awe as their life just seemingly fell into place?  The right job came along, the right living arrangement, the right partner, the right child, the right opportunity to rock it?  Some people describe this as being "in the flow" and some people describe it as being "damn lucky."  Most of us have had glimpses of what life can be like when it unfolds this way but that's it--a glimpse and then its gone and it feels like we are back to trudging uphill, knocking on a closed door, shouting always louder and still never being heard.  I don't think that flow or luck have much to do with this phenomena of rightness--in my experience a beautiful life takes blood, sweat, tears and a lot of hands on, do it yourself work. The people around me who objectively have the best lives revel in their lives--they love life and they love the way that they live it.  There is a word for that feeling--purpose.  Living in a world undergirded by ritual and a belief in the unseen (as I do), it is common and easy to chalk up frustration to bad juju, crossed conditions, jinxes, and bad luck.  I believe in those things more than most--I have seen first hand how they can screw things up BUT I see and talk to more people suffering from a lack of purpose and experiencing frustrations, blocks, and obstacles because of that as opposed to bad juju.  A friend of mine who is a reader herself and I were talking several weeks ago--she posed the question--how do you know that you are on the right path, that you are doing the right work?  Then she answered her question--because your life works for you!  If you feel like your life is working against you and you have prayed, cleansed, fasted, and prayed some more but don't feel improvement then what you may be looking for is your purpose.  I believe that each and every soul on this planet is unique and uniquely gifted.  You can do something with more grace, beauty and perfection than anyone else can--your job is to figure out what that something is and nail it.  And this doesn't mean that you quit your day job so that you can go find yourself--it means that you look at your job, your work, your family and ask yourself--what am I bringing to the table here?  What are the people around me bringing to the table?  Is this the best that we can do?  Is it the best I can do?  Then be honest with yourself.  If you are doing your best and your life still isn't working something needs to change.  Confucius and Jesus both recommended when making changes that individuals begin with themselves--only after your own house is in order should you go around trying to mess with other people's houses.  What do you need to do to put your house in order?  If you are not doing your best--then why?  Is it because your lazy?  You don't care?  You are trying but somehow not getting there?  You need support?  Inspiration?  Satisfaction?  Accolades?  These are the questions that can help you point yourself in the right direction, the direction of YOUR work and YOUR purpose--the work you are supposed to do and the reason why you are here, on the planet, right now.

Fabulous new altar material

Picked up some chalk cloth for the altars today, it is cloth that you can write on:

Drawing signs and symbols on the altar space before commencing with work has a very, very long tradition in various spiritual practices.  And if you have ever purchased a spell kit from lucky mojo you know that its one of the things we do in Hoodoo.  This cloth makes it really easy (and fun!)