We’ve seen three Jeff Dunham videos, now. If you’ve never heard this guy, he is one amazing standup comic! He does ventriloquism with several different puppets: Walter (the crotchety old man), Achmed (the dead terrorist), Peanut (some strange creature with purple skin), and Sweet Daddy (the black P.I.M.P. [Player In the Management Proffesion]). He’s absolutely hillarious!

We’re also have some fabulous drinks! They’re made from flavored rum, and tastes like Pina Coladas.

I’ll write more later, when we return home!

Alan

When I started doing research on the house cleansing rituals of Hoodoo, I thought I would find nearly the same material I have seen everywhere else. I thought that the three-step process of cleansing, sealing and blessing would be used. And while it may well be used, I think it is used in a slightly different way, perhaps combining the three steps into one simple washing technique.

Bottom line: doing a house cleansing ritual is not the easiest thing in the world.

How much time does a full house cleansing ritual take? Most people would say to take a full day to do a House Cleansing Ritual. I split mine up into three days, partially because it is a lot of work, and partially because the number three figures prominently in Hoodoo. On Day One, I did the Kitchen and Guest Bedroom. On Day 2, I did the Bathroom and the Hallway. And on Day 3, I did the Dining Room, Master Bedroom and Living Room. I chose this order because the idea is to clean from top to bottom, and from front to back.

Did I use any special washes? Of course! I made up a special wash that consists of three ingredients: Thyme, Cinnamon and Irish Moss. Thyme is good for healing and anti-nightmares, as well as making money grow and keeping it. Cinnamon is also good for money, as well as protection and purification. Irish Moss is all about continuous luck. I made up a batch of sachet powder out of the ingredients first. I used three teaspoons of each item, put them in a small container and shook until they were well mixed. Then, each time I change my wash water, I added some of the mixture to it. I used a special little trick though. I saved a bit of my first morning’s urine (about 1/8th of a cup) and put it into the full 5-gallon bucket, as well. So while some may say this seems “gross” or “disgusting,” it is traditional Hoodoo in some respects. Additionally, when I changed the water, I did not dump it all – I left probably about 1/8th of a gallon in the bucket, before adding fresh water and herbs.

After finishing each room, and before leaving it, I lit a tea-light in a special spot (usually on a table or counter close to the center of the room). I surrounded the tea-light with a mixture of the same herbs – i.e., with the herbs, I made a circle around each tea-light before lighting it. Then I lit the tea-light and read Psalm 23 aloud. Psalm 23 is the one that goes: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want …”

Of course, you may be asking yourself one important question by now. If Alan is not a Christian, why is he praying the Psalm? For many a long year, I have had personal issues with Christianity. You probably know that I did the Charismatic Pentecostal thing, where I led worship for four years in a church, and attended Bible College. All of those things are fabulous. Nevertheless, the thing is, at this point in my life, I really do not care what Deity’s name is – I just believe there is one. I do not care if you believe there are a million and five deities and someone else believes there is only one deity. It does not matter. I have never believed that Deity has ever really cared what name we give her/him/it/them. What I do believe is that the foundation of life is freedom, and the purpose of life is joy. In other words: if it makes you full of joy and bliss, then it is what Deity wants for you, regardless of what you call Deity. Deity wants you happy – period. Moreover, if having an altar to Catholic Saints makes you think less of me as a person and not want to be my friend, then it is your loss, bub.

So as difficult as it may be, the benefits of a house cleansing ritual are endless. It uses the power of nature to cleanse, bless and protect your home and anyone who dwells within it. What could be bad about that, right?

Three ingredients in the wash, three days of work. And the energy in my house is already so much lighter and happier!

Well, I have to say, it has been one heck of an ordeal.

Just yesterday, I invited some of my friends to visit my website, and guess what? Some of them did! And guess what else! When they did, it was GONE! So I started trying to get to my site … to no avail.

Last night, I emailed my host … again, to no avail.

So today, after I did most of my “cleaning ritual,” I ended up taking down databases, putting databases up, rearranging folders, and finally, uninstalling and reinstalling WordPress AGAIN.

Thank goodness I had a backup database of my posts, so this time, I didn’t have to just start everything from scratch again!

But, the pages aren’t included, which means the static pages (formerly entitled “The Usuals”) have to be re-written. But that’s better than having to start all over!

So far, so good —- your current usernames and passwords should still work. Email me privately if you have any issues and we’ll work them out.

Alan

I have a Client who is a regular. She usually asks me for little things, like how to do a particular type of magical working, or asks me to make a particular kind of mojo or something like that for her. Nevertheless, she has been having trouble with a particular organization for a while now. She used to be involved in a cult (and I am using the word as most of us use it these days, to describe an organization or group who is extremely fanatical about their beliefs and holds to the premise that “once you’re in you’re always in or you die”). While I am of the school of thought that “psychic attack” is rare (because most folks are just too stupid to try it, to be frank), this is a case of just such a happening. For some reason, the quote is that, “they have threatened me, saying that no matter what I do, I won’t be successful because their magic is so much stronger.” But my thing is this: if their magic is so much stronger, then why do they have to resort to this kind of working in order to maintain their numbers? All that aside, there is a simple process that I recommend which I know firsthand gets the most amazing results.

It is really just a three-step process, and a very simple one, at that. Of course, when you are writing your own rituals like this, you can use whatever cultural entities you want to use. In addition, you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like. However, if you utilize this basic three-component process, you are bound to get results.

The first step is to cleanse, and quite thoroughly. I do not just mean psychically or magically here, even though that is part of it. I mean physically, as well. Make a floor wash and clean your floors, your walls, your furniture, and anything else you can imagine. If you have influences that you are trying to get rid of, then take everything that represents them and get it out of your house. Make sure your altars are clean and dust-free, organized and neat. If you are like me and you have a bunch of old papers stashed in drawers and the like, do some filing. Get that stuff organized. If you have used floor washes, scents, perfumes and the like, then this step is finished. There is no need to try cleansing the environment further, because the actual washing of the building with powerful magical ingredients has already done that work for you.

Your next step is to seal the place. Here, you are trying to make sure that no unwanted outside influences can get back in, so it is wise to do this part as soon after the cleansing as possible. Whatever your favorite symbol is, use it. I like the pentagram. Other people like crosses. Some people like the hexagram. Whatever symbol represents the Divine to you is the one you want to use here. Using holy water or blessed water or holy oil, draw that symbol on every door and every window that leads to the outside. Pray each time you draw that symbol. Make sure to get everything. Even include your computer, the modem and the router. Include the cable box and the phone. Anything that leads to communication with or entering into the outside world needs sealing.

Once everything is sealed, your final step is to bless. As I said earlier, use whatever cultural influence or entity you want to use here. You can call on God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. You can call the Virgin Mary. You can call on various Saints. You can call on LWA or Orisha. Anything that is Divine to you is what is important. Nevertheless, the one thing I recommend that you absolutely MUST do is call on your Ancestors! You can use whatever prayer, chant, incantation or affirmation you can find. You can use a prescribed one, or you can make it up as you go along, or you can write one out for yourself. The key here is that you have to feel it in your heart of hearts. If you do that, you are much more likely to get a “direct hit.” Pray, chant or whatever until you feel the presence tangibly of whatever entities you are calling on. Then straight up ask them to bless your home with luck, wealth, money, love, abundance, health and the like. Also, ask them to keep away whatever influences you want to abolish. Obviously, you can use a formal ritual format for this if you like and close it off when you feel appropriate, or just leave it as-is, thanking whatever entities you have called on.

Now here is the final and most important part: do not just leave this at a house blessing! Do it on yourself and any family member that will allow it! Cleanse your spirit, soul and body with a spiritual bath. Seal your spirit, soul and body by anointing yourself. In addition, bless yourself by asking for the blessings of your Ancestors and whatever other entities, just like you did in the house blessing portion. If you do not do this part, then you are likely to just carry the influences right back into your life. Do not leave out this important step!

Know that this can take some time. You should probably do what I do and take a whole day just to do this kind of work. Once it has finished, it does not have to be done again for a very long time (usually years, most of the time a full decade or more), but I try to do make sure I do it once a year. Obviously, I cannot guarantee anything, but I certainly believe in this process. It has worked wonders in my life on more than one occasion.

No matter how fabulous or amazing a person or a group of people says their “powers” are, the plain and simple truth is that NOTHING can overtake the powers of your own magic. Unless you let it.

I have been practicing a set of beginning exercises for a while now. Obviously, it may not be months, but it certainly seems like it. Beginning exercises always get boring and then start to seem as if they are useless ritual by rote. It almost feels like “busy work,” like you used to be assigned in “study hall” in high school.

Nevertheless, rest assured, beginning exercises do serve a very distinct set of purposes, three of which I talk about here.

Beginning exercises might be simple, but they are not “easy.” Memorization is the key. If you can memorize a beginning exercise so that you can do it without notes, then you are on your way to making radical change. Time is one of the key factors in the beginning stages. It might seem easy to do, but it is not – when you are doing a beginning exercise, all kinds of life pops up to say “You don’t have time.” So do your best to make time, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to you. Boredom will eventually set in. It is inevitable. New exercises are exciting, but once you have done them for a while, it seems that they take on a rather stagnant feel to them. Push through this, and you will be rewarded considerably. Be forewarned: “ease” is so not the same thing as “simplicity!”

Beginning exercises initiate change. You will begin to drop old habits and self-limiting thought patterns as you continue to push through that “stagnant” stage mentioned above. Even if you do not notice the change right away, rest assured it is there. You will notice it, because over time, you will realize that certain amounts of time have come and gone, and big things have taken place in such a gradual way that they seemed “easy” to get through. When those changes start to happen, you may feel frustrated, discouraged, or (in some extreme cases) that your life is falling utterly to pieces. Again, this is something that you have to push through to get to the reward. Do not give up in the middle of your exercises and change things mid-stream. Change is never easy, but always necessary.

Beginning exercises lay a foundation. In actuality, the foundation that is laid is a foundation for just such change as I mentioned above. The foundation will stay with you throughout your practice with a specific system or technique. However, you have to realize, through all of this, that the foundation is the most significant aspect of making these radical movements in your life. Foundations often protect. In a house, foundations protect the floor from the elements, to some degree, so that it is not bombarded with destructive forces. Likewise, the foundation that you lay in these beginning exercises will increase your resolve and fortitude, allowing you to combat and ricochet the external forces that may seek to do your “home” damage. Always work hard at laying that foundation. The more you put in, the more you get out. If you put in drab, emotionless, ritual by rote, you will get that back out of it once you push through that aforementioned “membrane of stagnation.”

So regardless of how long it takes you, I suggest really pushing through to the other side of those beginning exercises. As tough as it may seem to make the time, lay the foundation and initiate the change, it is so worth it in the end!

Busy-work or not, go ahead and do it. You will not regret it!

So I have undertaken the work of moving through Golden Dawn grades, all on my lonesome, with the help of Lyam Thomas Christopher and his book “Kabbalah Magic.” For those who do not know, this involves moving towards accomplishing the Great Work, the goal of which is to literally become Divine. (Although I already consider myself Divine as a basic teaching of the path that I have followed to date, I am not perfect, nor am I “united with” the Divine, in certain ways.)

This kind of work obviously causes some major changes, and in fact, I am almost a bit frightened by what could lie ahead of me. However, I suppose that old adage applies “No risk, no reward.”

I have had many goals throughout my lifetime, as I am sure most of you have, as well. They have ranged from “move to a better home” to “find a life partner” to “be wealthy enough to work from home without major financial hardships.” At one point, I believe I even had the goal of “be wealthy enough to donate to three favorite charities every month in the amount of $1,000.” Obviously, that goal crashed. I have moved to a better home, however, in a different city from where I grew up. My life partner and I have been together since February 2005. Nevertheless, I am not “wealthy enough to work from home …” and I have to admit, at one point, magick was all about money and power to me. It still is to some degree, but nowhere near what it once was. Not to mention, my thoughts are these – if I do not do the work, I will not get the results. Frankly, I think I have been shirking on the work. So this is why I am undertaking the system presented in Christopher’s book and moving forward. While I do not expect it to be the fix-all end-all system, I do know that, at some point, the system presented has to make sense and balance out for me all of the whack energies that are flying about my life right now.

Another tome that is required reading for Christopher’s course is Dion Fortune’s “The Mystical Qabalah.” Now, admittedly, this book stared out to be a hard read for me. I was not used to her methods of articulation, I suppose. It took me a chapter or two to actually start comprehending what Fortune is saying. I do think, too, that she perhaps “psychologizes” the whole thing a bit too much. Sure, it is great to use the Tree of Life as a catalog system to organize correspondences, but I am certain there is more to it than just that. Perhaps further on in the book I will get more out of it. As a person who likes to organize on paper, though, I am having fun with the book, cataloging various god forms and the like. It’s very interesting to note that, while “The Mystical Qabalah” is required reading for Christopher’s course, he doesn’t seem to be the type to psychologize ritual quite as much as Fortune seems wont to do.

Christopher gives you a daily ritual routine and asks you to stick with it. He seems to be good at encouraging you, letting you know that there are going to be some moments where you feel you are not accomplishing anything, that you are stagnant, and that the ritual is boring. However, he urges you to push through it, to the other side of this “halting membrane” and breaking through to the stuff that lies beyond.

I know there are changes coming. In this post, I have told you about some of the basic changes I have had to make so far. Not only have my goals changed up a bit, but also I have had to make actual changes in the type of material that I read, and the level of study that I put into my work. All that is good and I am quite sure these are only superficial changes, especially compared to the ones that are on the horizon.

Moreover, perhaps, once I am moving further into this system, the power available to me will be much different, and much more readily available. And while Lyam Thomas Christopher recommends not veering off into some wild tangent of discovery leading you down twelve different paths at once, I’m sure that some of my own additions to this work will only help move it forward at a faster pace.