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Why are my
Natural Magick products superior? I
don't fudge or cheat, not on ingredients or in my
process. You get high quality, natural products
made according to strict traditional guidelines.
Natural Magick takes cues directly from Nature and
diligently researches literature and lore.
Here are the elements of traditional ritual
production that are guaranteed in my products:
Magickal Timing
We take our cues from
Nature. Some activities are favored by
the New Moon, some by the Full Moon, others by the
Dark Moon. Since Babylonian times, the days of the
week have been said to be "ruled" by the seven
visible planets: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
Venus, and Saturn. This is why we have seven days
of the week, in fact! Although called by different
names, the essential properties and powers of the
planets have been understood to be the same all
this time. Natural magicians have used this system
since ancient times for everything from planting of
crops to business decisions to creation of magic
incenses, oils and brews. Natural Magick strictly
adheres to a combination of this planetary and
lunar influence. For example, Success is ruled by
the Sun, and is a state of fullness. Therefore,
Success oil is made on the Sunday on or just before
the Full Moon. Blessing is a function of the Moon,
Venus, or the Sun, and it is a quality of freshness
and newness, so Blessing incense is made on Monday,
Friday, or Sunday on or just after the New
Moon.
Elements
Earth, Air, Fire and
Water are the classic alchemical "elements," and
this system of correspondence is also used in
Natural Magick products. It governs the
selection of ingredients, and even the direction I
face while making the product. Protection is a
function of the Fire element, so I choose fiery
ingredients for this oil, and face the South as I
blend it.
Knowledge of Ingredients
For some reason, I have
always been interested in the names of
plants. I started this path as a native
plant botanist. Unfortunately, magical texts are
fraught with the use of common names rather than
scientific Latin names. I was frustrated by this,
and so I have for over a dozen years looked at
references and compared the ingredients. Also I
just seem to care more about botanical accuracy
than other folks in this tradition. If I say "Bay"
you will know if I mean Bay Laurel (Laurus
nobilis), Bay "Rum" (a blend of Pimenta dioica
"Bay" and other spices) Bayberry (any of several
Myrica species) or Sweet Bay (Magnolia virginiana),
to give one fairly confusing example! Although all
of them can be used to season boiled crawfish, they
all have different magical properties!
Correspondences
Magical formularies are
filled with tables of correspondence,
generally based on the principal of "Doctrine of
Signatures." Where no correspondence
information can be found in literature, I can
figure it out. For example, what phase of the moon
corresponds to the goddess Iris of the Rainbow? The
answer is in the bow of the rainbow. It was dark
during the storm, now it is light with the rainbow
in the sky. Therefore Iris is made during the
bow-shaped New Moon which follows the Dark Moon.
The colors of the rainbow are used to make art;
Venus rules the arts, therefore Iris is made on
Fridays.
Here is another example
of how I use correspondences and Doctrine of
Signatures in my work. I have an
Anacacho Orchid tree (Anacacho bauhinia) in my
yard, which has sweetly smelling white flowers. Was
it a Moon or Venus tree? Bearing white flowers is
often a Moon signature, whereas Venus rules
perfumery. The answer came one Full Moon night as I
wandered through my tangled forest gardens. I
stopped to enjoy the fragrance of the flowers, and
there was none! This tree's flowers are only
fragrant in the daylight hours; therefore it must
not be ruled by the Moon but by Venus, the Morning
and Evening star. Then I looked at the leaves which
are heart shaped, clearly a Venus signature and
thought to myself, "Well, duh!"
Just the way things
smell, their colors, or their common names, is
often enough information. Chamomile
essential oil is blue, as is yarrow, making them
excellent choices for a water element formulation.
Cedar wood smells like a coffin, which is why I
combine it with Blood Orange in the Vampyre oil.
Money is made where? At a mint, and mint the plant
is much associated with prosperity. I try my best
to find these correspondences and use them for the
most potent Natural Magick.
Deosil or Widdershins?
Deosil, pronounced
JESH-ul, means clockwise, and is the direction of
the motion of the Sun. It is used for all purposes
of creation, making, blessing, and
increase. Widdershins, surprisingly
pronounced the way it is spelled, is the
counterclockwise direction, and is the direction
for magic of unmaking, getting rid of, banishing,
uncrossing and if you must, cursing. The direction
of rotation is most important while grinding
Natural Magick incenses. Exorcism is the only
incense I grind widdershins. All the others are
magics of increase and therefore they are ground
deosil. Also, the mother stock of my oil blends is
made into a round bottle, swirled in the
appropriate direction.
Numbers
Early on, mathematics,
science and magic were all one and the same
study. For better or worse, science
split from magic, but magical tradition retains a
reverence for numbers. Threes nines, and thirteen
are considered moon and goddess numbers, so I use
three essential oils in multiples of thirteen for
the dark goddess Hecate. Five is the pentacle, and
the number of fingers on my hand, so it is used for
purposes of protection and human power. Sevens is
for luck and prosperity, and planetary favors.
When this Natural Magic
system is used, the choice of ingredients becomes
like choosing words, and the way those ingredients
are put together becomes grammar and
syntax. This is the language that
Natural Magick uses to communicate our intentions
to the Universe, reflecting the clues we find in
Nature back to the Source. So Mote It Be!
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