Western Almadel

   

   Creation of the Fall Green/Silver Almadel came at a time where I am juggling my maximum of magical undertakings. The making of the tablets has never been 'easy' and this time I was making two sets. ( For private reasons unique solely to this occasion) .  The operation took all day from sunrise and was very rigorous despite my experience making these items twice now.

this much pure bees wax costs a fortune!

   Despite the prolonged labor, I've been excited for this set of operations due to my inherent agreeability toward the colors and mentioned angels. 
   Green and silver I'm particularly fond of, and this Almadel asks for the wax to contain both! I spent the early weeks debating how I wanted to add the 'silver color to the wax. Metallic colors are usually 'painted' on the outside of candles and not easy to produce by simple color dye. I did find a wax based metallic silver that worked perfectly and created mesmerizing swirls with the light green as I stirred it in.

The tapper candles proved the most difficult this time around and came out looking quite peculiar.

ohhh swhirrly

  The end result was rather curious and unique compared to my other two tablets. Actually each seems to be quite unique in look and feeling which I enjoy. I cannot wait to get these operations underway in the midst of my other magical endeavors. Once I complete all four tablets and operations, I may again write up a booklet of all my experiences and guild lines. That is, if interest for such things arises. 

 All in all I love how everything came out and happy that the two colors 'mixed' after all.  Lord knows how the magi did it back in the day. 
   The Almadel operations have been very 'reconnecting' for me. They are congruent to the 'classical' correspondences I've been use to since my lodge enthusiast days and really give a deeper edge on the spiritual connection to nature and the elements. After initial contacts, its great to ask/receive the angels consideration harnessing your elemental prowess through your chosen implement.

My 'Water' Chalice

The break with the flim-flamy modern methods comes with a reconsideration of just how and why your implement works for you. Only way to get a new perspective is to get new advice. These angels are great for that. Scrying angelic beings is probably one of the most fulfilling  acts of ritual magic with the least amount of headache (after you get everything made!)

Completed Western Almadel

NO worries to my DRAWING SPIRITS INTO CRYSTALS fans, I'm still making sure all is set and ready before offering it out. Stay posted!

By the way, these two systems are GREAT for becoming a top rate scryer, and perfect for delving into angelic communication of various degrees.

HEY BOB!

One of these days I'd love to tackle an experiment for housing a spirit in a skull.

I've read in a few sources of where this particular 'item' was used by magicians ranging from the early renascence to the ancient middle east. How many classical images of wizards or alchemist have you seen that contain at least one human skull on a table or tucked on some dusty bookcase somewhere?  Ever wonder as to the nature and use such things were put to?

 Though undoubtedly originating from multiple cultures in various parts of early history, my particular interest stems from Old Hebrew magic. From what I've researched, there have been over two thousand 'skulls' found with Ancient Hebrew or Aramaic scrawled with various enchantments.

The concept of the human skull spirit is what is alluded to as an ‘Oboth’ (“The ones who return”) or ‘Yiddeonim’ ( "The knowing ones”) in ancient Jewish culture. Basically, its referring to a familiar spirit who works for the magician/necromancer, accomplishing a variety of tasks.

Later, you find these as inscribed ceramic or iron pots where the familiar spirits were tended and consorted for a number of reasons.

    In the original Hebrew verses, it is this oboth or yiddeonim which is ( most likely) referred to when King Saul contacts the ‘woman of Endor’ (Leviticus 20:27 9) A couple of modern magical books go into detail behind ‘spirit pots’. Aaron Leitch, RO, and Jake Stratton-Kent have written about this subject a few times in great detail.

  In the ‘Dresden Files’ novels, Harry has a skull named ‘Bob’ that is basically a magical encyclopedia and storehouse of occult knowledge. This idea further sparked my interest in being able to create a real version of this familiar spirit. "Bob" helps Harry solve a plethora of occult mysteries and riddles with his vast occult knowledge that makes up the entire purpose of the spirit.

From the Dresden Files TV show

Based off the Dresden Files Novels

 Basically, the skull is a spirit in a spirit pot which is thus used as an oracle or astral information source. This practice has many common threads through ATRs and older necromantic methods. The dilemma will be: 'Do I house a 'ghost' of a human who I work with and teach to accomplish such things, or find a spirit being which was never physical to begin with? Which is more appropriate to this type of spirit pot? Hmmm



   Some of my original research and consideration for this operation came from ‘Communing with Spirits: The Magical Practice of Necromancy by Martin Coleman. I really love this book for the practices and ideas it has set up for working with spirits who were human.

    The ritual and procedure to create a veritable oboth or yiddeonim ( the one I have in mind )would take quite a bit of time and resource, not to mention finding a suitable skull. On it, I would inscribe the most potent binding litany of what sort of spirit would be housed in the skull along with appropriated sigils and symbols.

   I figured a ‘fetch’ or spiritual informant resource would be most handy: A spirit who could retrieve other spirits to communicate with me or garner information that was obtainable in the spirit world. There are quite a few possibilities with this one.

Novel 'magick' skull I bought years ago

There is a fantastic specimen and article on such a skull in a few web sites I found.

Look at the one here for the full article on the Skull with magic inscription:
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=5950

In the website article above, a collector named Shlomo Moussaieff “acquired two earthenware bowls, the open ends of which were adjoined to form a kind of case—inside the case was an ancient human skull. A magic incantation, written in Aramaic, was inscribed on the skull.”
I guess there are more than than two thousand magic incantation bowls that have survived from third–seventh-century C.E. It says, “Jewish communities in Babylonia.a The incantation bowls were made at the same time and in the very communities that produced the most intricate, complex and revered accomplishment of rabbinic Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud.”

The article goes on to state: “Although some have deemed the incantation literature to be inconsistent with the spirit of the Talmud, recent research has shown it to be, rather, complementary and representative of aspects of life reflected within the Talmud.1” Quite fascinating indeed!

"The fact remains that belief in demons was widespread at this time among Jews as well as other peoples. Incantation bowls are known not only from Jewish communities but from other communities as well. The Jewish versions are written in what is commonly known as Jewish Aramaic."

The researchers deemed the "bowls and inscribed skulls were typically used to, “To combat demons—who cause medical problems as well as other mishaps and ills—people invoked numerous magic rites and formulae. The magic rites could also serve as a love charm. Your desired one would surely fall in love with you if the proper incantation was invoked. The reverse was also true. To bring disaster on your personal enemy, you would invoke a curse text. These often-strange and mystifying incantations were usually inscribed in cramped writing in a spiral on the interior of the bowls. Not all magic incantation texts were written on bowls. Sometimes they were written on parchment, tin, lead, copper, silver and even gold. Occasionally we find one on even more exotic materials such as eggs. Now from the Moussaieff collection comes one written on a skull.”

“BY MEANS OF A SKULL.” It is difficult to write on the idiosyncratic surface of a skull; reading a skull inscription can be equally difficult. Like the inscriptions on incantation bowls, the skull text is surrounded by a squiggly line. Although the inscription on the Moussaieff skull is very hard to decipher, one thing is clear: It contains names of people for whom the incantation was made. One of the names, Shilta, is derived from an Aramaic word meaning “after-birth.” The skull itself was probably that of a woman. The exact manner in which this skull was used, however, remains a mystery. A contemporaneous source, the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 65b, offers a possible clue: “There are two kinds of necromancy: the one where the dead is raised by naming him, the other where he is invoked by means of a skull.”
These are the main sources for my interest and curiosity. Of course WHO KNOWS when I’ll have time to tackle this project..I need to finish with the ones I’m doing now first……my wife says so lol!
Rare Magic Inscription on Human Skull
www.redicecreations.com
Red Ice Creations - Explore - Observe - Be Here (K)Now



There's no cut and dry directions for creating  the 'Spirit in the skull' but alas (poor Yorik!..I think that's what I'll name the spirit) I'll find a way!


Now.......Who knows where I can get a decent skull under $500.00?
That's the real magick question.

'Bob' prop from the Dresden Files TV Series

 I wanted to update this site since I’ve been devising and developing the skull spirit project further which includes methods of old Jewish folk magic, classical conjuration and sigilistic binding spells used in an elaborate ceremony of several different sections; one developing building on another to have a lasting and very potent working spirit.  In this I’ve still been particular in selecting my skull and how I wish to proceed. I’ve debated on whether or not I wish to carve and engrave the bone myself or commission the help of a professional. In this I’ve recently come across a highly skilled artisan whose work is perfectly suited to this endeavor. I wished to promote his business here and share with you some of his art work. 

You can find his site at: http://shop.realhumanskull.com/main.sc

http://shop.realhumanskull.com/main.sc

If you have the means and the serious attitude toward what owning something like this would entail I’d suggest contacting the artist to commission a work for you. I highly discourage any flippant purchasing or half thought out design as this should be a most serious undertaking in my assessment. However, one can appreciate beyond any macabre sense how skillful the artwork is. 

I'm excited to see this project develop in due time as I work in

collaboration toward its final end. It would be quite an immense magical undertaking and one based on systematic blending of grimoric and folk traditions.  Hopefully I will be ultimately successful in my undertaking and have something much more than a uniquely crafted piece of artwork.

In response to "Magic on the Small Scale "

 Magus Gilbert had an excellent post on his 'THE OCCULTIST' Blog: http://gilberttheoccultist.blogspot.com/2011/09/magic-on-small-scale.html#comment-form

I was unable to post my response on his page due to some technical difficulties, but he wished it posted so here it is:

This is a great topic to bring up. It’s definitely something most of us have gone through, and other magicians have at least pondered. RO can attest to huge changes he underwent with a previous physical location. Although I don’t remember him mentioning so, I imagine he must have lost some magical equipment as well. Regardless, he jumped right back in the game after a very difficult ‘transition.’
I dread having to go through such an experience myself as I’ve amassed such a collection of magical goodies that I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. My room is a haven and immediate removal (escape) from the mundane. Complete luxuries but not necessities….Unless I am doing traditional grimoric work that is.
If I had to start all over it would be a while before I’d be doing any Goetia, Alamdel (any Lemegeton work besides the Notary Arts), Solomonic or otherwise. I’ve no real interest in simplified, abridged, forms of these types of magic so it would be heartbreaking for me, I admit.

In this sort of ‘outer temple closing’, I would be forced to really change my magical focus for a time as I could not just start over right away. I wouldn’t have the heart, nor near the money to do so anyway. ::shivers:::

Many times, it’s not just the physical loss of a working space or equipment, but emotional or circumstantial issues which also arise. Situations which take priority for a time and disrupt routine practices are not rare. None of us are monks who have removed themselves from society and social obligations. We each have personal relationships, other employment to attend to, and family to keep in healthy working order. What matters is that we ‘keep going’ and eventually pick up where we left off. A magician is someone who continues to do magic even after a crisis, a dry spell (pun…sorta intended), a physical loss, or a personal upheaval. There’s a breaking down point, but eventually they rebuild. Why? Because magic is in the very nature of the individual. Just like a true athlete or martial artist, they will continue to train even after an injury or even when they felt like they weren’t improving…they keep going. A true practitioner is one who continues on after disaster or failure.

Another phenomena which Joseph L. describes in his book ‘Howlings’ is a period where intense magical practices eventually take a toll on the individual and there is a shut down period. During this time, a person cannot bring themselves to conduct even the simplest of magical exercises. I think I’ve hit that point before earlier in my life when I was doing the same rigorous practice day in and day out. Just like we need sleep, sometimes we need a resting point in our practices to let energies stabilize within, naturally. Apparently, sometimes we need upheaval as well to reset our priorities and manner of working. Life/God/ The universe seem to present situations where they are needed. Not always warranted but sometimes necessary.

During a fairly difficult point in my life, magically and otherwise, I had moved out of my first apartment, had all of my magical gear packed away in a storage unit, and lived at my dad’s cabin. I worked at a lumber yard for about a year while trying to get my life back in order. I had very few possessions which were mine at my Dad’s place. Life seemed rather bland and wearing at that time. I ceased all of my daily exercises and training.
I remember talking to my Sensei around that time, complaining how I didn’t feel like I was “fulfilling my purpose”. He told me to pay attention to where I was so that I didn’t miss the lesson I was currently supposed to be learning. “You won’t be at this job forever Bryan so don’t worry about it, learn what you’re here to learn, then, when you’re ready, you’ll move on.”

I didn’t do much of anything magical during that time, and didn’t experience much of anything either which really made me feel depressed. My whole involvement in the magical arts was inspired from the numerous experiences I had while growing up. All through my adolescence and teen years, things happened to me and my family which didn’t seem to happen to other people. It defined my role in the world early on and continued into my early twenties. Extended periods of not witnessing anything left me feeling ‘cut off’ and ….plain.
I’ve learned to be more patient in my current state as I rarely find myself alone in the deep forests, or examining disturbed houses for local folks like I use to. My wife lets me have my magical lab, make expensive magical implements, and conduct rituals which sometimes drives her nuts. I’m very spoiled in my freedom to explore grimoric arts at the moment.

Nothing ever stays the same though and I’ll have to adapt to whatever lies ahead. {Types this all the while knocking on wood and chanting anti-irony spells}

So to answer more simply to what happens when a true occultist is forced to pack up, and close the outer temple:
They grieve, struggle on, and eventually discover their new arena of working.
To fulfill the “many are called, but few are chosen” axiom, each will be presented with the new way in which their gifts can be utilized, the true occultist decides to act on this discovery. –A priest, still a priest even when his miter is knocked from his head-

- For all those who have been waiting, know that I am nearing completion of my book.

   What started out as a simple 'How to' booklet has evolved into quite a large work of how to really create every detail of this art in entirety. All of my spare time has been spent creating, practicing, recording and organizing... in the desire to offer interested magicians a solid guide on how to complete these rituals successfully. Its has truly been fantastic and a very active arena for old school communication with planetary angels and beings.

   There is still much work that needs to be done in order to get this book to be as complete and straightforward as possible. I keep adding more elements as I discover them. I should have a next draft up for review in the week ahead. I'm excited to offer my first ever public work of magic!