Son of Maia,

Messenger of the Gods,

Friend of Humanity

Loquacious Lord of Larceny

You who announce your presence

breaking sudden silence in lively conversation,

You who consort with

mortals,

muses,

and miracles

You who transcend

the boundaries

of Liminality

of Reality

of Nationality

Hermes

I offer you

words instead of wines

verses in lieu of votives

ideas in place of idols

I build your temple,

Son of Maia

with sacred skipping stones

salvaged from the seven seas

& fountains of fonts

Flowing into forever

I build your altar Lord of Language

with swirling synonyms

and Homeric homonyms

knowing that on

your silver tongue,

they shape

fate,

fame,

& fortune

May my luck hold fast

May I find what I need &

the wisdom to recognize it.

May I navigate this cursed labyrinth

to find safe harbor.

May our hosts always be

as generous as we are,

& may the strength of our community,

be the strength of our friendship,

Son of Maia

So, you want to work a curse against the administration/ICE, but have been told political magic doesn't work?

Yes, it is true that it is more difficult to curse big political figures like kings and presidents and emperors. Why? Because they're protected by the power of the office they hold, and their supporters who pray for their health and safety. That's a lot of shielding to get through. And you can be certain that there are sorcerers who are working spells for the current administration to succeed.

Instead, think smaller and be strategic. Go for the roots. Look how you can curse or bless your local, every day government. How can you support your local community with witchcraft? Witches have often come together to work magic as a group to overthrow oppressive regimes. Are there others you can work with?

We've been through this last time. I remember all the public cursing, and the people claiming it didn't work, but think about trump's last term. Fraught with scandal, many of his inner circle fired or resigned or disgraced, and importantly he didn't win a consecutive term. And this time? He's more unpopular than ever, not only here, but abroad. And his health is swiftly declining. His health is swiftly declining.

These are the death throes. The last desperate gasps of powers trying to establish an authoritarian government in the States before their leader passes. So, we have to aim around him, and bolster our local government. Not to return to the old, but to take this opportunity to establish something better. Revolution is coming, is happening now, and it is up to us to decide which way we revolve.

And of course, keep an image of trump somewhere where he can be stepped on, shat on, pissed on, and generally fucked with. Even if your power doesn't reach him, it surely will make you feel good. And that is just as important: to keep joy alive in the face of growing evil. And may your power reach him.

Take this as your reminder to first of all, spend time with your spirits, without expecting anything in return. Heavy on that last part. You don't make and maintain a genuine connection with someone just by showing up to their doorstep every time you need something from them. Treat them as people because they are. Your people. You should care for them as much as they care for you.

Be it ancestors (specifically direct blood lineage or adoptive family, any deceased human relative) or ancestral spirits (in general, that is, all ancestral allies and hereditary connections not just your ancestors). Just make time to hang out. Walk up to their space, a cup of your favorite drink in hand, give them their preferred drink and just chat. Don't ask anything in return. If you have an altar for them, do that. But it can be just going to visit their graves and giving libations and flowers, and telling them how your life's going, sharing memories together, remembrance, or just to listen. It can also be going to the beach or a river, and same thing, pour a drink and talk to them, and listen back. It can be your plant allies, while you're watering them, or putting eggshells or honey or sugar water or other good nutrients and fertilizers on their soil. It can be visiting your ancestors in dreams, and spending time with them there. There's so many ways to do this.

The second level to this is letting them sit in your body too. Listen. Become familiar with how they make you feel. With the signs of their arrival and presence. With the signs they communicate with and what they mean to you. With how they let you know they have a message, or that they're in for a visit. And let them in. Dance to your grandma's favorite beats. Sing your grandpa's favorite songs. Make a family recipe and share a meal with them, enjoy it for them and with them.

Ancestral reverence isn't just the big rituals and they're not the most important aspect of it, it is the everyday coexistence, in your little but constant everyday ways.

Do as you do but also as they did. You're an extension of them and they're an extension of you. They not only walk with you, you carry them within you.

If you've seen any of my spell recipes, you know I love Sun Oil -- it's one of my most used ingredients. Charged up with the loving power of the Sun, this oil can be used for so many intentions, including success, happiness, strength, protection, health, & more. It is a quick and easy way to harness the Sun's magic in any kind of spell.

Do magic that helps you to do more magic.

Do magic that gets you motivated to do all of the other magic you've been meaning to do.

Do magic that gives you that extra burst of energy and ability to ignore your pain for long enough to do magic more often.

Do magic that creates a shortcut into doing other magic.

português:

I’ve been playing around with magic (as in the metaphysical kind, not stage magic) for the past while, and even though I’m not very good at it yet, I think I have a way of explaining how it works that’ll make sense within a Western paradigm of reality. I’m not sure if the model I have is accurate in any way, but I think it’s a start.

First, I need to address the way we depict magic in movies and TV, because these depictions threw me off the scent for what magic is for a long time. Magic isn’t a “stuff” people have inside of them that they wield, nor is it a “stuff” that exists in the universe that we can harness and command. It also isn’t something people are born with, nor is it something that only the “chose few” have. And most importantly, it isn’t some kind of power we force out of our hands or out of a wand through pure conviction or sheer force of will.

Instead, magic is an art. It’s like painting or woodworking or knitting, where it’s the act of manipulating a specific medium to achieve an intended outcome.

The medium magic uses is the imagination. Children know exactly what this is, whereas most (Western) adults have completely forgotten what it is, confusing it with “creativity” or “innovativeness” or “our powers of visualization” or even just “fantasizing” when it’s none of these things. The imagination is the field we do all of our thinking through, whether that thinking is based in visuals, language, feelings, or otherwise. Someone does magic by moving their mind through this field like they’d move their body through physical space.

This isn’t going to make sense unless you try it, so let me give an example using a therapy technique: Let’s say you’re stuck worrying about something. The way you can diminish this worry is to imagine or pantomime sticking the thing you’re worried about in a bottle and putting that bottle away somewhere (make sure you’re bottling the subject-matter worrying you, not the emotion you feel because of it). By doing this action, you move your mind through an arc of events that tells your body “the situation has changed, and here’s how,” which causes the body to adapt accordingly.

We don’t call these kinds of therapy techniques “magic” because magic is about manipulating the universe, not just ourselves. Psychology only goes so far with this because it follows a Western approach to cognition, which assumes our minds are housed in our brains and therefore can’t/don’t extend beyond them.

But the truth is that we actually have no idea where our minds live. We have no clue if they’re produced by our biology, or if our biology is just a filter for our minds in some way. Some cultures assume the mind lives outside the body the same way Western society assumes it lives inside of it, and base their concept of reality around that.

In my personal experience, magic will always be incomprehensible and mysterious UNLESS you understand your mind has no borders and expands into the universe all around you. Once you understand yourself this way, then it’s possible to experience a reality where magic is as real as any other art.

Whenever we look at magic being performed, we see rituals, chants, drumming, and the use of candles, crystals, and other ingredients. Logically and visually these activities make no sense. But that’s because they’re just facilitating the actual manipulation taking place on the plane of the imagination, which we can’t see with our eyes. It’s like watching someone code a program when we a) can’t see the display, and b) aren’t aware that the display even exists.

Magic is very hard to describe from the doer’s perspective. I need to get better at it before I attempt to explain.

Some Final Thoughts

In case it hasn’t become obvious already, magic isn’t capable of breaking the laws of physics. Like technology, it involves intelligently using the mechanics of the universe to achieve a result normally not found in nature. The only reason why magic looks miraculous is because we can’t understand how it works just by watching someone do it, nor can we replicate the results by simply imitating the motions that person made with their body. It’s like how we can watch Bob Ross paint, and even mimic what Bob Ross does, and still not understand how he Did That™.

I also want to talk about the role “belief” plays in magic. Believing in magic can make it easier for someone to accept it as part of reality, but it’s not what makes magic powerful. Powerful magic is like powerful art; it comes with time, practice, discipline, and the development of skills. I know this isn’t as enchanting or inspiring as the idea of magic (or, frankly, art) being some kind of inborn ability someone’s blessed with, but it does means anyone in the world can learn it.

The idea is quite simple and is based on the logic described in the Picatrix and De Imaginibus of establishing a celestial link for two things for which one wishes to establish an earthly link.

In this type of election, the main requirements involve a) strengthening the lord of the Ascendant, which represents the magician or the person to whom one wishes to benefit, b) strengthening the Lord of the House which represents what is desired, and c) placing a positive aspect between them. Thus, to symbolize this type of relationship in a magical working you would take a candle of the color related to the planet that rules the ascendant and a candle of the color related to the lord of the house in question. You would write your full name on the first candle, and the name of what you desire on the other. You would anoint both with an oil that represents the type of connection you want to establish (love, prosperity, etc.) or an oil that represents the Lord of the Ascendant itself. Finally, you would reinforce this link by tying the two candles or their holders together with a string of some relevant color before lighting them.

Draw the square of Jupiter in the appropriate hour and day, recite his hymn and give offerings.

Continuing to recite the hymn take two loadstones and rub them together, feed them with anvil dust and a mixture of success, money, luck and charming/beguiling herbs. Fold the kamea toward you to make a packet. Place into a charm bag, anoint with mint oil and suffumigate it.

Yet now we see the manufacturing of a schism between a supposed traditional craft and initiated Wicca. It is an attempt to separate the inseparable and rewrite a history of shared protagonists, as the example of The Regency demonstrates (…). The new strands of ‘old’ witchcraft show where Wicca was remiss, namely plant lore, low magic and folklore. But to define oneself in opposition to your closest allies in a battle of authenticity seems fatally flawed, especially when most of our history is chronicled by our enemies and further spans the shifting landscapes of literature, poetry, vision and dream.”

Hello!

No offence taken. I find it very interesting that you thought to ask me this because he and I were literally just talking about this the other day.

I'll say right off the bat that I know it is not Lucifuge. Rofocale is a different "species" of spirit that exists in the darkest, coldest pockets of reality and flee away from all light. In my experience, they are extremely different in temperament and nature.

I think what you're noticing with Lucifer is something a bit more technical than that. Allow me to get a bit alchemical for a minute.

Consider the following:

Most spirits have multiple layered faces or epithets they may manifest on depending on the purpose. Think Aphrodite Pandemos or Ourania as compared Aphrodite Areia.

Alchemically, Venus corresponds to the element of Copper, but Lucifer as the morning star actually corresponds to the element Phosphorus, and for good reason. White phosphorus is highly reactive with air, glows in the dark, is used to create fire, and has been referred to as the "devil's element," linking the chemical's properties to the theological figure.

I highly suspect that the most common entry level form of Lucifer that most people meet is this White Phosphorus face. This is the blonde, highly transgressive, explosive, bright, firey, hot, flirtatious and manipulative, princely Lucifer we've all read about. He is the one that was so consumed by his own fire that he fell, and the one that immediately combusts in contact with air (thought).

I believe this is the most common Lucifer because it is the one that most intensely embodies his core principles of "light bringing", fire, sovereignty, and being extremely difficult to control. This Lucifer is the most "dazzling" to witness, he is also the most difficult to maintain a long term relationship with. He is short lived- he burns until there is nothing left-, and he is extremely unstable. In the grimoire tradition it is often said that Lucifer uses servitors or lesser demons to interact with the practitioner rather than personal intervention. I suspect this behaviour comes from White Phosphorus the most. If that specific high intensity spark isn't technically needed, he may avoid manifesting it in smaller situations. The only way to keep white phosphorus stable in storage is under water. There's some metaphor in there about how realization sleeps in your subconscious or something along those lines.

The Lucifer I am most familiar with (and possessed by) is actually Black Phosphorus. Black Phosphorus is a very interesting allotrope. It is the most stable form of Phosphorus there is, it has a highly ordered crystalline structure and is vulnerable to air and water on its surface. Black phosphorus is formed by putting white phosphorus under a lot of pressure. This is actually why I think he typically manifests as being a bit older than his white phosphorus face.

Black phosphorus does not glow in the dark like his white counterpart, it rather absorbs, conducts and converts light. White is like a battery that leaks energy severely. Black soaks up light and converts it into electricity. Black phosphorus can absorb different types of light including those we cannot see. In extremely simplified terms, its keeps the energy organized within the crystal structure, and that energy can only be accessed through a circuit.

His personality reflects this perfectly. This Lucifer is known for being a bit of a prude. He can seem sort of bossy, uninterested, and highly intellectual. He's actually straight up told me this is more of an administrative face, it's one he uses very often when "working", especially with other spirits. I think this face is a bit more rare and private in his temperament. The black hair and overall "cooler" (as in colder) vibe I think is just like... maturity? He is more self contained, literally less reactive, and more concerned with maintaining his own space (maybe because he is vulnerable to "surface imperfections" and environmental degradation). He is ironically less involved with the "front facing reputation" of the morning star that deals with humanity most often, whilst also being far more grounded and "human like" than his white counterpart when he does manifest.

He is very ordered and stable, he doesn't need to be in a high energy state to manifest, and he is generally more suited for longer term contracts and situations. You can only really obtain the light from this Lucifer if you "introduce a current" into him (ie, peak his interest). Black phosphorus is a semiconductor while white phosphorus is not. A semiconductor only allows electricity to flow under specific conditions. I imagine this is the Dark Initiator.

I think of black phosphorus as a face of Lucifer that has been tempered by the "pressure" of the underworld, or maybe even his time on earth itself. Lucifer after the fall.

Red Phosphorus is kind of a medium between the two. I'm not exactly sure why, but I associate this Lucifer the most with the Draconian aspect of his character. Not as stable or rare as black phosphorus, it only ignites when heated, and doesn't glow in the dark. Good for when you need the spark, but only when you strike it. Far less toxic than white, far more relaxed, and generally just more utilitarian for common interactions.

Violet is an even more refined and stable form of black phosphorus. It is described as being incredibly stubborn and non reactive, but may be sensitive to impact. It is nearly impossible to make, extremely allusive, and only recently discovered. This is the best correspondent for the "hidden" or other worldly Lucifer we just don't understand and very rarely see. Even I am unfamiliar with violet, and I highly suspect his nature is very alien and Erdrich like.

For a long time I thought the ways that spirits manifest was kinda random or case dependent, but since continuing to read more into demonology lore in places like Stella Daemonium and the 3 books by Agrippa, it actually seems more plausible that the forms spirits take subtly reveal their fundamental nature.

I remember having a conversation with him once about his hair, I made some comment that he changed it, because it was black now instead of blonde, and he sort of made a confused shrug and explained that he was felt relaxed and wasn't frustrated. And that confused me, because ?? I just asked you about your hair. What does that have to do with how stressed you are?

But stress here is more defined by the integrity of his manifestation. I remember him once telling me that he purposely made the active decision to use his black face when dealing with me due to its greater ability to act as a stable mentor/father figure.

So! Tldr, alchemically speaking, (and obviously according to my own upg) there are a minimum of four core faces Lucifer (Phosphorus) may manifest as. I think white phosphorus is the guy most are familiar with when they encounter the BRIGHT golden energy, and black phosphorus is the more allusive, quiet, borderline nomad who works more in the background.