Gunpowder Magic

Heh, I love Gnostic Conjure. Today he's got a post on Frenemies. And it uses GUNPOWDER!

I love using gunpowder in my magical rites. I miss Goetia because I had a lot of opportunities to use it with those spirits in particular. Bune loved it in his spirit pot, and there's something about the smell of just-burned gunpowder that reminds you of hell.

Do I need to point out that it's dangerous, extreme caution must be used, a (very very) little goes a really long way, and don't be stupid? Probably. So pretend I did.

I like the way he suggests you use it, with the candle igniting the little charge. I'm absolutely positive someone somewhere is going to use too much, ignoring his emphasis on a tiny little pinch, and it's going to blow the candle, shards of shattered jar, and molasses all over the room.

And I feel really bad for that person, for sure.

So where do you get gunpowder, you ask? WalMart, of course! In the sporting goods section, because how can it be a sport without gunpowder? At least, that's where I got mine last time I bought it. And it's not really gunpowder, it's flash powder for black powder guns. But it works. In college, an acquaintance invited me out to a quarry to blow up some pipe bombs he'd made from the stuff, and a good time was had by all.

My local occult and Wiccan supply shop would never sell gunpowder. They do, however, sell both sulfur and salt peter in small amounts, which combined in proper proportions with powdered charcoal (plain old Kingsford, not match light, not self-igniting-incense coals) makes gunpowder. I'm not giving out the exact proportions, but it wouldn't take long to find it on the internet.

As an ingredient, it's best used when you want some explosive results. If you're going to put it into a spirit pot, use a very, very small amount, and make sure it's mixed in well with the soil so it doesn't explode when your house catches on fire.

Kammael's influence should be included with this ingredient because he's the Archangel of Mars, and it's important to have some intelligence involved when you're doing magic with gunpowder. I mean, obviously the intelligence isn't coming from the magician, eh? You're playing with explosives for Christ's sake! Not frickin' smart!

But fun.

Trace the seal of Kammael over the powder when you've made it. Only make what you need for the rite. Do not store the left overs. Do not dispose of the leftovers by tossing it on the charcoal briquette just to hear it sizzle and pop. Do not pack it in PVC pipes and toss them on the Samhain bonfire when no one's looking, and then start screaming, "It's SATAN, I knew it!!!" when it blows up.

If there are any leftovers, mix it up (gently) with dirt or its equal weight in more carbon, and then sprinkle it finely in your garden, plants, or in the grass. Plants like potassium nitrates and sulfur and carbon.

Levitation Fail

So I was thinking about how enlightened I am today. Not totally, I have some issues, a ways to go for a while yet, but I've made some decent strides, accomplished a lot, and picked up a few tricks.

So I figured I'd try levitating. You know. Because I'd like to fly.

So I stood up from my chair at the desk here at work, flexed a muscle in my lower-right abdomen I didn't know I had, and kept right on going up. I was freakin' thrilled, loving it, I was totally flying, in the office, not even Jesus had done that, and I looked down and saw my body falling back into the chair, and as my butt hit the seat, my consciousness slammed back into the flesh. Seems I popped out through the crown chakra thing and left the meat suit behind.

Sigh. I'm kind of getting sick of the "needs spiritual sight to see how cool I am" aspect of this enlightenment thing. I get it, I understand it's like this for a reason, but why can't I be exempt from the rules?

Probably because I'd master invisibility and rob a bank, and then fly away with the loot.

Just guessing.

Not quite as enlightened as I'd like to think.

Apparently, My Readers are Responsible Members of Society

And have mostly already registered. Well done!

If you haven't registered, it only takes a minute.

Oh, and I was wrong yesterday, my readers are roughly spread out across the political spectrum pretty evenly. That's good to know. Apparently Magic is something we can all come together on, setting aside political differences and focusing on the Work. Good show!

Three! Three Registered Voters, Ah Ah Ah!

Ok, so three of you fine readers have gone through my voter registration button. That's right, I'm keeping tabs on you. Three people so far care enough to vote this election. Now, judging by the comments, most of you readers are commie pinko liberals. I am a sane and rational capitalist conservative. And you read my blog anyway! Ha!

We conservatives outnumber you roughly three to one here in America. If you want to keep your alien president (whose aunt is an illegal immigrant who thinks America owes her citizenship) and the house and congress, you'd better get crackin' and register to vote. We're coming out of the woodwork, and frankly, my fellow conservatives make me a little nervous. Kinda skeered, if you catch my drift. 

So if you want to keep this country heading in a Socialist direction, you'd better be registered and prepared to vote. Otherwise my nutter friends will take back congress and the house. And then we'll win the White House, and it will be George Bush all over again. And not the wimpy-didn't-start-a-war-with-all-of-Islam Bush, I'm talking about the Haliburton-funded-cocaine-off-a-hooker's-ass Bush. 

So get registered.

MagianRumination.Blogspot.com

Scribbler is a good friend, blogging companion, and fellow graduate of a series of personal and empowering Lunar Mansion initiations that have left us brothers in a very small spiritual family.

He also regularly gets my jokes, and I would love him for that alone if nothing else.

Today's post is awesome. The last couple of my posts (the more-serious ones, not the smartass ones) have been about finding the freedom to choose what to give a shit about, without getting stuck in the giving a shit process. As usual, Scrib lives out the things I try to write about without even thinking there's anything special about it.

Last week I cooked "Fauxganoff," my own creation consisting of egg noodles, browned ground beef, salt-pepper-garlic, concentrated cream of mushroom soup and sour cream. It's a family favorite and a lot of fun to say. "Whatcha doin?" "Fauxganoff."

But while cooking it I started to realize some things about the Planetary attributes of the ingredients, and how the recipe was very much a ritual, and the results among my family were right what you'd expect from a Saturn-Lunar rite with egg noodles. The magic of cooking was right up in my face, and today Scrib's taken it to another level. Satori while cooking is, apparently, pretty common. And his analysis of magical tools, the part of ritual played by cellular consciousness of the implements used in traditional magic is pretty awesome.

And he mentioned something about the blogosphere that sums up my own experiences too. Good stuff. So go read it. It's time well spent.