#suffumigation

It can take nine months of daily LBRP practice to clear out your 'sphere of self', and a good three to five years of daily practice to clear out a house. It exists as a ritual to flush that stuff away gently, like eye-irrigation techniques are used to flush away abrasives that might scratch the cornea of the eye.

You can get charcoal briquettes, and an incense burner filled with sand, from a shop... then make a powder that's 1/2 star anise and 1/2 cloves, and burn that over the charcoal and carry it through the house going, "hey, ghosts! Get out! Stop bothering us!" You can also add in the names from the LBRP, going "get out by YHVH, get out by YEHESHUHA!" etc.

As a general rule, you can buy cloves and star anise whole, and then use a coffee grinder or spice grinder to macerate and powder them. The coffee grinder will be useless for coffee after you've done this — you will never get it clean enough to grind coffee without weird aftertastes again — so get a used one from the local thrift shop or what-have-you. Grind the two ingredients separately, and then put them into a mortar and pestle and ceremonially grind them by hand to put your energy into them directly; then combine the powder either by weight or by volume as your tools allow (If you have to grind a resin, like frankincense or dragon's blood, freeze the resin in the fridge for a couple of hours to overnight, and grind in small batches or your motor will jam as the resin coats your grinder).

If you are prepared to strip the positive energies of your house as well as the negative ones, and have to rebuild the whole of your own energetic footprint, you can make an incense that is approximately 1/3 star anise, 1/3 cloves, and 1/3 dragon's blood resin — your house will smell like a Thai restaurant with a meth lab in the basement, but your ghost problem will be gone. You will also be starting the energetic build-up of your temple/LBRP space from scratch.

If all else fails, asafoedita incense should be considered... but this is a nuclear option. I can't stress this enough: burning asafoedita powder as incense is going to create a stench in your house that may require you to absent yourself for a day or two; have a hotel room booked. It's a common ingredient in many Indian foods and curry powders, but most westerners find the smell grievously offensive.

Before using incense, make a prayer to the god or to the gods you worship, to consecrate and bless the incense. Put any incense you DON'T use into a labeled container and store in a cool dry place.

—

Grind together:

2 parts Salt,

3 parts Witchgrass,

3 parts Laurel,

1 part Buckeye nuts,

1 part Fern Spores*

When you have reduced the mixture to a powder, mix it in with 3 parts of Graveyard Dirt obtained on a Saturday, inside of a copper vessel.

On the night of a New Moon, place the vessel on a tree-stump from which the Crescent of the Moon is visible. Do not create the stump yourself by cutting down a tree. If one is unavailable nearby—go and look until you find one, or abandon the rite for the time being.

Give Orisons of thanks and admiration to the Moon, and to the Tree that Was, and then leave the vessel to bask in the scant light of the newborn crescent. Before the sun breaks the horizon, cover the vessel and take it inside, then repeat the process each night for approximately two weeks. Each night, take the copper vessel to sit beneath the Waxing Moon on the same stump and give your thanks, with the Full Moon marking the last night of the mixture’s lunar curing (as I like to call it.)

On the eve of the Full Moon, take the vessel back to its stump, and this time add a single drop of your blood to the contents therein. Use your hands to stir and churn the mixture while gazing intently upon the Moon, and as you stir, invoke the power of your Spirit Allies—through means appropriate to your Craft—to aid you in activating and sealing the accumulated generative energies of the Waxing Moon.

With the powder properly constructed and activated, let it remain thereafter in the copper vessel it was forged within, and use as needed. When you want to employ it, roll a small clump of Styrax (Benzoin) through the vessel, completely covering the sticky surface with the powder. Having done this, kneed the resin some, and repeat the process as needed to thoroughly incorporate the powder into the resin. Place the Charged Styrax on a burning coal to create a fumigation that will amplify and hone the power of any Generative Magic that makes use of it. Such examples might include (but are not limited to) Healing Magic, Fertility Magic, and acts of Manifestation. If successfully created, it will also bolster your general strength of will within any magical undertakings, which can be quite useful in workings that you find daunting or difficult to go through with.

Agathodemoning – asking good spirits to do our magical bidding Alchemy – changing the fundamental substance of elements (or matter) Angelspeak  – communicating with lesser deities and messengers (angels) Apotropaism & countercharms – defense against demons, ghosts, and evil sorcerers using magic Apportation or bilocation (psychic ability to be in two places or more at once) Astral projection…

Manu­script V.b.26, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC:

Suffumigation is the practice of bathing an object in incense smoke in order to purify and consecrate it to some purpose.  The word comes from the Latin verb suffumigare, meaning “to bathe in incense smoke” (as opposed to fumare, which simply means ‘to smoke’ like a fire).  The practice of suffumigation is similar to the practice of smudging, which as Tumblr magic-side people have been told ad-infinitum is a closed-tradition practice of some Native American cultures; and we’ve been told repeatedly that we should call incense-bathing “smoke cleansing” rather than smudging.  

Suffumigation is a form of smoke-cleansing attested to in H.C. Agrippa and other European magical sources.  In Hermetic magical practice, this usually is the name given to the practice of burning different incense types on different days of the week, in order to honor and praise the Seven Wanderers, also called planets or deities or archangels (depending on whether one is practicing Hellenic reconstructionist or Hellenic revival Hermeticism, or Renaissance reconstructionist or revivalist Hermeticism).

The incenses which are usually used are the following (again, attested to in magical sources like Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy [I particularly recommend the first one in each list]:

Monday: Jasmine, Lily, Rosemary

Tuesday: Dragon’s Blood, Basil or Cherry, Pine, Tobacco

Wednesday: Lavender, mace

Thursday: Cedar, Nutmeg

Friday: Rose, Vanilla (or more recently ylang-ylang)

Saturday: Myrrh or Sandalwood 

Sunday: Frankincense (or more recently copal), cloves, cinnamon

When these incense scents are combined in the same enclosed place over a long period of time, the combined scents fill the space with Temple Aroma.  This temple aroma is not, to my knowledge, attested to in European literature.  But it is one of the obvious side-effects of working magic in honor of the seven planetary powers — it’s virtually impossible to miss, actually, if you step into a space that’s been used for magical work in this way.  This scent overpowers the smell of sweaty socks and laundry baskets.  It overpowers gym clothes if the incenses are burned daily for long enough (although you should wash those gym clothes, really).  It will even replace the smell of cat pee if the magic of the incenses is burned long enough.

And it has a really cool effect on your magical work, as well.  You see, if you have a space that you can set aside for regular magical work (I have a closet that used to house the cat box, so I know that this works to dispel cat-pee scent), merely entering a room that has been consistently suffumigated puts you in the right mindset for magical work.  Scent is one of the most powerful tools for connecting both with deep memory and deep imagination — the olfactory nerve is hardwired into parts of the brain dealing with both memory and imagination. Remember that scene in Ratatouille, where Anton Ego is instantly transported back to his mother’s kitchen when he tastes that perfect, astounding dish?

Imagine what it’s like when you have a room that transports you into communion with the gods or the archangels like that. 

Additionally, suffumigation is a simple and easy way to consecrate and purify objects such as talismans; waving an object in a column of smoke arising from an incense stick or from loose incense while intoning, say Thomas Taylor’s translations of the Orphic Hymns to the seven planets (or my Neo-Orphic Hymns, though I won’t insist) is hugely powerful.  Suffumigating yourself is equally powerful.

And perhaps most critically, this practice of suffumigation is open to all, and it helps you cultivate a daily practice of smoke cleansing as part of daily ritual work that joins you to the work of the Seven Wanderers — regardless of whether you think of them as Planetary Powers, or as associated with Archangels, or as Hellenic deities. 

suf·fumigation

noun 1 :the act or process of suffumigating (as in magic rites or in treatment) 2 :a fume, smoke, or vapor used in suffumigating

Origin

LL suffumigation-, suffumigatio, fr. L suffumigatus + -ion-, -io -ion

suf·fumigate

verb transitive verb :to fumigate from below :send fumes upward upon

Origin

L suffumigatus, past part. of suffumigare to fumigate from below, fr. sub- + fumigare to fumigate

Smudging is a smoke cleansing ritual performed by First Nations and Native American cultures. It is an act of suffumigation but there is so much more to it than simply waving smoke about a space. What herbs to use for what purpose with what ceremony or rite varies from culture to culture but they are sacred to those cultures.

Smoke cleansing is a good name for burning a bundle of herbs to remove negativity. Suffumigation is much more fun to say, but both work equally well.

I know, Paganism (umbrella term) and witchcraft tend to be a hodge podge of different cultures and different ideas, but there are boundaries that should be respected. When you’re first starting out it can be difficult to know where all the lines are, and some are likely to be crossed without you realizing it. Others will help point them out and we’re not trying to be mean, we’re just trying to help you not be an ass.

Let’s be honest, sometimes even us old farts have to have the lines pointed out. What was “okay” 15 years ago may have finally been pointed out as assholery.

When it’s brought to your attention don’t get pissy, simply apologize and don’t do it again. If you’re not sure about something just ask somebody, there are so many awesome blogs on here with knowledgeable people willing to help because when you’re a dick it makes the rest of us look bad.

Bottom line? Cultural appropriation is not nice. It’s like me coming and stealing your clothes out of your closet because I think they’d look good on me.