Part Two: Dining with a Demon (100th post!)

If you haven’t read it here’s part one.

It may have been more appropriate to call this drinking with a demon…we ate food, mostly after hanging out with the demon. But the demon was only interested in the booze. You know, you bring someone out for a nice evening and then you realize in the end they only want one thing…I guess that’s just how it goes.

Anyway. This ritual was an interesting experience, leading up to it, during, and after. The original ritual, the one in which we originally bound the demon, was cool too. But it had less of a lead up, probably because we didn’t have a relationship with the demon being called beforehand, whereas this time we had two years of work with the spirit who was literally taking center chair.

When we did the original ritual I had spent weeks prepping. Making the incenses, the paint, collecting and consecrating tools, preparing myself. Building the space for the experience and drawing together the forces to create it. Again, nothing too interesting happened as part of that process though, at least nothing that jumps to mind two years later.

During the ritual itself we had a couple pretty cool moments though. Particularly, visions the scryer had of the spirit responding to things I was doing of which she was unaware, and then multiple people having visions of the same spirit. Several other people came up and told me that they had interesting experiences communing with the spirit. Part of me has always kind of wondered about people individually communing with a spirit simultaneously. In most smaller group rituals I’ve run people take turns interacting with the spirit or interact through a central person. I never really heard what people got out of the ritual in this case. But again, since multiple people had the same vision of the spirit maybe the spirit can talk with more than one person at a time. It makes sense from certain angles.

This ritual was different from that though.

This time we were calling on a spirit with whom we have a very involved relationship. He is housed prominently in our lodge space with his own altar. His altar receives decorations and gifts during parties. He’s fed according to his contract every event and sometimes more often than that. He has a close relationship with his two primary caretakers. He has been involved with one of them previously in possession work during a spirit fete hosted by a guest organization. So the spirit is pretty closely tied to us, and in particularly closely tied with the woman who would be his vessel.

The things that happened before we called the demon were pretty minor. Coincidences, synchronicities. Maybe they were nothing. Maybe they were the demon poking at things.

With this ritual I did not do weeks of preparation. I barely had time to put the ritual together. I had hoped to. But it just wasn’t the time. Everything seemed to lead me away from preparation, so I ended up running around just before the ritual frantically grabbing things…but then also realizing…I needed a lot less for this.

One of the things I needed was perfume. While prepping the ritual the thought entered my head that this wasn’t a Holy Water ritual. It should be sensual. Perfumes and colognes should replace the Holy Water. Robes should be replaced, for most people, by freedom to dress or undress as they so desired. It should be an opportunity to, as certain goats say, live deliciously.

I did not want to bring the Old Spice I had at home. I wanted new cologne. So I went to the store and discovered all the perfumes and colognes were locked up…except…for the Old Spice. It was the day before Fathers’ Day and they did not even have colognes in the Fathers’ Day aisle. I only had a few minutes and there were no sales people. I was stuck with Old Spice. It was weird because the Old Spice was about $8 and some of the locked-up colognes went as low as $4. There was no logic.

When I got to the Lodge somehow the Old Spice ended up on the table in the meeting room, all my other supplies were still in the single box I carried into the temple. When I happened into the meeting room our Vessel was questioning why it was there and if someone was pranking her. When I explained what it was and how we ended up with it, she explained that her father generally smelled of Old Spice and Deet. She’d been outside at an event all day and was covered in Deet and now I’d be baptizing her in Old Spice. Due to past trauma she has no contact with her father or other members of her family. Based on some other conversation and interaction with the spirit this was taken potentially as a prank at his arranging and it was determined to stick with the plan rather than adjust.

Almost immediately after this, the Lodge’s Abramelin oil was found to be missing. So we had to switch the anointing oil to High John the Conquerer, which honestly seemed more appropriate for reconfirming the demon. High John has associations with blues and blues musicians are children of the devil – their own words not mine. The magic associated with High John has more connection to figures like the crossroads devil, than the temple and angelic associations of the Abramelin Oil.  

There was also some strange luck with the floor circles in which I was confused about which King I was calling. Each spirit we called had a circle drawn on the floor placed based upon its role or nature. After drawing the circles on the floor based on my mistake…it turned out the circle was accidentally in place for the correct King, before I realized I needed to correct which King. It also improved the position for the Ancestors. The fortuitousness ended there as I looked up the wrong seal, but it worked out.

At least a few days before these things happened, it seems that another spirit may have helped organize one of the gifts given to the lodge’s familiar. The lodge recently did a ritual to the Witches’ Devil which resulted in people being given familiars. There were some physical signs around the demon’s altar that this ritual happening excited him. One of the main caretakers for our demon explained how his familiar wanted to get a particular item as an offering, when it didn’t work out his familiar told him not to worry about it that he’d taken care of it otherwise. Someone else ended up attending, and this hard to find item was the gift he gave. Apparently it arrived the same day he had been drawn to a bunch of items which related to the caretaker’s familiar. This person was previously unaware of the other familiars.

Like I said, small stuff. Maybe nothing, maybe something. I’m being a little vague on the gift one, which is unfortunate because of the small things it’s the most interesting.

When we conjured the demon there were two elements to the final conjuration. One was me using names from the Hygromanteia to open the Vessel while she used a modified conjuration from the PGM. The two ended up fitting perfectly, the last word of each ending at the same moment. When the connection between the Demon and the Vessel solidified he announced his presence by shooting back a full goblet of whiskey. This kind of kicked off the rest of the process. Which was largely drinking…a lot.

The Vessel isn’t a fan of bourbon, and is allergic to wormwood. In the span of about 40 minutes or so she did “shots” but those shots were full goblets of whiskey and some absinthe. There were probably fifteen or so of these. During the ritual it wasn’t striking the insane amount of alcohol she consumed but later on it dawned on me. She remained lucid, coherent, stable, completely unaffected for about two hours until the possession ended. When it wrapped up there were two intense rounds of projectile vomiting of massive amounts of dark vomit. Significantly more than seemed reasonable. I’ve done heavy alcohol rituals with this woman before with no vomiting and I’ve seen her drunk on a lot less. Honestly, she probably shouldn’t have been standing by the end of the ritual let alone the time after the ritual. Once we wrapped up the spirit continued to speak to people privately through her. She requested an agreement with the spirit beforehand that he not indulge so much that she wouldn’t be able to function at an outdoor event the next day. The next day she was completely fine and able to function.

A few days later we spoke about the experience, and she explained she had no memory of anything after the point where we were doing the prayers together until the point where she was laying on a couch after vomiting. Not in a black out drunk kind of way. Her awareness ended before that started.

While the spirit was interacting with people, standing a few feet away from him was like standing in waves of sickening fire. But when the spirit was excited and focused on talking with someone the fire focused in and relented. His aura would then reextend with its waves of discomfort when he became less focused again. It was kind of an interesting experience. I was glad for the assistance of the Benedictine Rosary consecrated to Hekate, Mary, and the Dead which I was wearing.  

The spirit also went on a long speech about why he was sent to us, and the work we’d been doing. In doing so he began answering questions I debated asking but had elected not to and hadn’t discussed with anyone. He touched on themes that had come up in dreams and spirit experiences since I was a child, which I hadn’t discussed with the lodge members. He even used descriptions that matched how I understood certain spiritual powers and which related to some of my more private magical work. Some of the description even touched on key words that overlapped both an important dream from my 20s and an unpublished translation of a medieval text I did a couple years ago.

All in all the ritual seemed a success. I’d never worked with instigating a possession before. The ritual was definitely more demoniacal than was the norm for me, and to some degree as we prepared for it that stood out more than it did when just reading it. My understanding is that at least one participant had a pretty intense experience of one of the powers which were invoked to prepare the ritual. I would definitely try it again. It was a useful and workable way for interacting with the spirit. For the most part nothing material was asked for outside of the spirit’s normal work. If anyone tries a varied version of this with other spirits I’d love to hear how your results go, especially practical ones.

If you enjoyed this and want to see more of my thoughts on spirit magic please order my book, Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits. (A great way to celebrate our 100^th post!)

If you want to keep up with more of my posts, follow me on Facebook. And please share this with your friends and in your forums!

Part One: Dining With a Demon

          In 2017 I was asked to put together a ritual for William Blake Lodge, OTO’s 25^th anniversary party. My blog doesn’t usually deal with Thelema or the OTO too often, I talk a lot more about more traditional magic. One of the nice things at WBL is we have a lot of people interested in exploring traditional magic. Those of you who know me probably also know that I like to help spread that interest where I can. So when I was given the opportunity to give the ritual which would cap the night for the celebration, which would have a bunch of people attending, I knew I needed to do something which brought together the OTO’s system with traditional spirit magic.

          I used Jake Stratton-Kent’s _Goetic Liturgy_ as my inspiration but instead of combining a grimoire with an A.’.A.’. ritual, I found ways to connect with the OTO and the EGC while building a ritual that drew on _The Cambridge Book of Magic_, _The Heptameron_ and _Discouerie of Witchcraft_. This post isn’t about that ritual though. We conjured a demon from the Book of the Offices of Spirits and requested from it a familiar spirit. We bound that spirit to an animal skull in a jar using iron nails, blood based paint, herbs incense soil and more. The familiar spirit was charged with aiding the Lodge.

          Most Lodge members, even some who surprised me in doing so, seem to have recognized the positive effect the familiar has had since 2017. We had some rough stuff going on just prior to that, but things have turned around and improved and people are happy. A lot of that has to do with our Lodge Master, in my opinion, but the effects of the spirit are definitely there too.  Additionally there has been a really great magical environment in general. I recommend that other OTO bodies and occult lodges may want to consider binding a familiar in a manner which ties it into their current.

          Since people have been happy with the spirit’s work we decided to celebrate the spirit’s “birthday.” While the ritual to conjure it was a fairly formal, in a circle, wearing lamens, participants doused in Holy Water sort of conjuration…this was something else. We wanted something more witchcrafty, more diablerist. Not demonalatrous but comfortable for a demon. Something “The Other Magicians” would have done. We called upon the same spirits and powers that we invoked when binding the spirit, but in more simple fashions. Instead of a circle we drew their symbols on the floor in flour and made offerings to them while singing their prayers.

We gave people wine, anointed them in perfume, invited them to chant and dance and drink, and we offered a beautiful woman in a diaphanous white night dress as a vessel for the demon to possess. She sat enthroned on the seals arrayed as portals for the spirits. We sang and poured out offerings on the floor. We called names from the Hygromanteia and used prayers from the PGM, and the demon came.

In this post I will share the ritual we used for the celebration. The script is the formal part. But the space should be open for the people to sign, dance, chant, drink, enjoy themselves like a sabbat. It’s hard to get that to happen though without a few people who are used to engaging that energy and living it.  The scripted part should be a celebration, it should be solemn but engaging, the Gatekeeper and the Priest need to fully embody the space of the work they’re doing. The Vessel needs to be open, and preferably to have a relationship with the spirit.

In the next post I’ll talk a little about the experience, things that happened surrounding the ritual.

If you enjoy this check out my book _Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits_ and follow us on Facebook. If you really like this and want to help out, please share this with your friends or groups. Thank you.

A Demon’s Sabbat

Fr. VH

Officers

            Priest – Performs invocations.  

            Vessel – A Medium for the Demon. Is dressed in something alluring, preferably white

Gatekeeper – A Priest or Priestess of Hekate to facilitate in the Crossroads. The Gatekeeper is armed with a dagger.

            Drummers – Drum to raise the people to a state of activity and to call up the spirits

Tools

            Dagger

            Candle

            Wine Glass

            Red Cloth

            Silver Coin

            Grape Wood Wand

            Incense

            Five Incense burners

Two Coins

Temple

The temple is mostly empty. There is plenty of space for people to move around and dance and celebrate. On one side is a table for gifts and offerings, on the other is a table for drinks. At the apex of the temple is a pillar or stand of some sort, before it is a throne and before that an altar. Incense is set burning on the altar and on the four quarters of the room. A candle and a wine glass are set on the altar along with the spirit’s house. Outside of the temple is a table of perfumes and oils, and a selection of alcoholic beverages and glasses.

Pre-Ritual

The Priest draws the Ponto for Hekate and for the Ancestors and the Seal for the King, for the Angel and for the Demon so that they are surrounding the more largely drawn seal for the spirit. The Pillar, Throne and Altar will sit on top of the seal for the spirit. The Gatekeeper censes the temple making a four armed crossroads in each quarter and across the temple floor then returns the incense to the altar. The Priest and Gatekeeper leave the temple. They return with the Vessel. The Priest carries the wine glass, the Vessel following after him carries the spirit house, the Gatekeeper follows the Vessel and carries the candle which has been lit. They form a triangle around the altar. The Priest places the glass on the altar, he takes the candle from the Gatekeeper and places it on the altar, then he takes the spirit house and places it on the pedestal. He retrieves the alcohol which will be offered to the spirit and puts a small amount in the wine glass. The Priest takes the glass and goes to each quarter and sprinkles he then returns to the altar and sprinkles there before returning the glass. As he does this the Gatekeeper seats the Vessel on the throne. When this is completed the Gatekeeper admits the drummers who begin to play. Once they have begun the Gatekeeper admits the people one at a time.

**Ceremony of Admission**

Rather than purification those attending may anoint themselves with oils or perfumes, they may strip out of undesired clothing or change into clothing more fitting for the celebration.

As they approach the doorway they should take a drink and bring their glass into the temple.

At the doorway they are stopped by the Gatekeeper with his dagger

Gatekeeper: Why do you approach this sacred and secret place?

Congregant: To go under cover of night, away from the village, to celebrate with devils and demons, faeries and angels the deeds of the demon.

Gatekeeper: [removes dagger, and admits the congregant] Welcome

Ritual

**Hekate**

The Gatekeeper begins by lighting the incense and circles over the circles with it. He then places two coins on the ground.

Priest: Charon accept this payment, and bring forth those who came before us that they may partake of this offering and share in it with you, and with those gods Hades, Persephone, Demeter, Dionysos, Iris and Hekate!

The Gatekeeper begins chanting names and epithets for Hekate. The congregation joins in. This continues throughout the conjuration of each of the spiritual forces. Throughout this the people may drink and dance.

The Gatekeeper continues chanting names and goes to the Ponto for Hekate. He lights the candles and blows incense over it. He pours oil over it and makes an offering of alcohol and of blood. While this is done the Priest sings the Hymn for Hekate.

Priest: I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame,

Of earthly, watery, and celestial frame,

Sepulchral, in a saffron veil arrayed,

Leased with dark ghosts that wander through the shade;

Persian, unconquerable huntress hail!

The world's key-bearer never doomed to fail;

On the rough rock to wander thee delights,

Leader and nurse be present to our rites

Propitious grant our just desires success,

Accept our homage, and the incense bless.

**Ancestors**

The Gatekeeper continues chanting the names but moves to the Ponto for the Ancestors and repeats the process of opening it while the Priest prays:

Priest: Lord of Life and Joy, that art the might of man, that art the essence of every true god that is upon the surface of the Earth, continuing knowledge from generation unto generation, thou adored of us upon heaths and in woods, on mountains and in caves, openly in the marketplaces and secretly in the chambers of our houses, in temples of gold and ivory and marble as in these other temples of our bodies, we worthily commemorate them worthy that did of old adore thee and manifest they glory unto men

**Angel**

The Gatekeeper moves to the Seal of Cassiel and begins to open it as the Priest prays:

Priest: Hear me you Angels, Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Gabriel, be my aid in these petitions and my aid in all my affairs!

In the Name of the Most High God, in the Name of the Lord of Hosts, I conjure and confirm upon you, Cassiel, Machator, and Seraquiel, strong and powerful angels by the Name Adonai Tzaveot, that you will attend this celebration, I adjure you by my appeal to the throne of the Lord, By the Holy and Mighty God who is our Aid Against Death, He who is the Beginning and the End through his three secret names AGLA, ON, YHVH, by which you will fulfill today those things which I desire. I conjure upon you, Cassiel, who is chief ruler of the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, that you will attend us and aid us in this celebration.

**King**

The Gatekeeper moves to the Seal of Egyn and begins to open it as the Priest prays:

Priest: Oh great and potent spirit Egyn, King of the North, who rules the Northern region of the world, I adjure you, I call upon you, and most powerfully and earnestly I urge you by, in, and through the virtue power and might of these efficacious and binding names, YHVH+, EHIH+, Adonai+, AGLA+, El+, Tzvot+, Elohim+, of the Almighty, Immense Incomprehensible and Everliving God, the omnipotent Creator of heaven and Earth. I

call upon you, Oh you powerful and regal spirit Egyn, by the power of Elohim+ in the presence of Gabriel+ to attend us, in all mildness, peace, and friendliness, without any hurt, disturbance, or any other evil whatsoever, either to us, or this place. Mighty Egyn courteously and obediently you fulfill our desire and be present for this celebration, Oh Royal and Potent spirit Egyn, in the name of Shaddai+

**Demon**

The Gatekeeper moves to the Seal of Doolas and begins to open it as the Priest prays:

Priest: By the might of the Angel Cassiel, by the name of the Most High God, Lord of Hosts, Adonai Tzaveot, by the might of the King Egyn, by the hand of his emissary Lambricon, we ask that Doolas be brought forth. By the pact we have made before, and by the swift work of Lambricon we invite Doolas to enter herein, to join in this celebration and to reaffirm the bonds which bind Tobias to us.

**Spirit**

Praising the Spirit

The Priest raises the jar from the pedestal and carries it around the Temple before the people. He extemporaneously thanks and praises the work of the spirit. When he is done he will shout “Hail Tobias!” and the Vessel will repeat this and encourage the people to switch to chanting for Tobias. The Gatekeeper continue chanting or meditating upon Hekate and opening the door ways and roads.

The Priest brings the jar back to the altar and places it there with the candle the incense and the wine glass. He pours a libation into the glass, whiskey or absinthe or wine. He places incense onto the coal.

Priest: Tobias we give you these offerings of thanks and invite your presence here.

Anointing the Jar

The Priest takes perfume and anoints the rim of the jar

Priest: We recall your baptism

The Priest takes oil and anoints the rim of the jar

Priest: We recall your confirmation to our purpose

The Priest takes blood and anoints the rim of the jar and also retraces the seals on the jar

Priest: With this blood we strengthen you and we strengthen the bonds which tie you to us

           

Washing and crowning the Vessel

The Priest takes perfumed water and pours it over the head of the Vessel as is baptizing her:

Priest: May you be made open and ready to receive the spirit

The Priest takes oil and anoints the forehead and the crown of the Vessel’s head.

Priest: May the fires of the spirit stir within you

The Priest takes the blood and anoints the forehead and the crown of the Vessel’s head.

Priest: May the blood which binds him to us be a bond between him and you.

The Priest lays the red cloth over the crown of her head and places his hands upon the cloth, standing behind her.

Calling the Spirit

While the Vessel calls upon Tobias the people continue chanting his name. The Priest keeps his head upon the cloth and chants these names.

Priest: Atzam, Tzoalakoum, Geamai, Satzyne, Kalesaines, Ton, Tapesmas, Taphydou, Elylpe, Syltan, Gialoti, Mpalontzem, Thara, Pakhakhesesan, Sylbakhama, Mousamoukhana, Araga, Rhasai, Rhagana, Obras, Ouboragoras, Tzoupa, Biapophkha, Tambalakhakem, Parakhematzoum, Tou, Itana, Baphoutia, Pakhakhe, Tanretokous, Nastratie, Parakhematzoum, Tou, Itana, Baphoutia, Pakhakhe, Tanretokous, Nastratie, Pakhakhyelea, Tybalotze, Enkaika, Parpara, Oumebras, Khematzoum

The Vessel looks at the jar. In one hand she holds the grape wood. The other hand touches the jar.

Vessel: Hail serpent and stout lion, natural sources of fire

Hail clear water and lofty-leafed tree

And you who gather up clover from golden fields of beans

And who cause gentle foam to gush forth from pure mouths.

Scarab who drive the orb of fertile fire, O self-engendered one

Because you are Two-syllabled, AE, and are the first appearing one

Nod me assent I pray, because your mystic symbols I declare,

EO AI OY AMERR OOUOTH IYIOE MARMARAUOTH LAILAM SOUMARTA

Be gracious unto me first-father and May you yourself send strength as my companion.

I conjure you holy light, holy brightness, by the wholy names which I have spoken and am now going to speak. By IAO SABAOTH ARBATHIAO SESENGENBARPHARAGGES ABLANATHANALBA ALRAMMACHAMARI AI AI IAO AX AX INAX remain by me in this present hour, until, I pray to the god, and learn about the things I desire.

At this point the Vessel makes an extemporaneous prayer to Tobias to come to her and be known through her. It is best that this is an affectionate plea for contact and co-agency. She continues this and the chanting continues until she feels the spirit with her or until the spirit makes it self known though communion with her.

Gifts and Oracles

The ritual continues as a party. People take turns coming up and making offerings to the spirit and asking for his blessing for themselves and for the Lodge. The spirit may provide oracles or general or specific blessings as it desires or not if it does not desire so.

Visible Appearance and Physical Manifestation in Spirit Magic

Recently I was at a pretty cool lecture and the presenter made the comment that perhaps it's time to toss out the idea of evocation to physical appearance because it just isn't real. He suggested it was an example of something in magic where people are either lying or fooling themselves. The thing is, with the exception of Crowley, and Joseph Lisiewski, there aren't many magicians who I've gotten the impression meant to suggest that they conjure spirits to physically manifest as material creatures. Most magicians don't talk about visible appearance often or physical manifestations, but when it comes up and people are open about their experiences it's usually pretty clear that we're talking about sensory experiences and physical occurrences that are signs of the presence of the spirit rather than creatures building bodies out of nothing.

As far as conjuring spirits goes the important part has never been whether or not you conjure to physical appearance but whether or not you get results from your spirit work. If anything that is what I would stress. Visible appearance is so not an issue that when we look at historical magical works we don't see this concept clearly presented as a criteria for judging success, in fact we see crystallomancy frequently presented as a means of interacting with spirits. So yeah, results, not spontaneous generation of physical bodies.

That said, some pretty cool, pretty clear things happen sometimes which indicate the presence of spirits or the reality of their work. I was talking with a friend the other day and he asked about physical stuff with spirits. It seemed useful to him to hear some stories, and I figured talking about stuff that happens and what physical manifestations are might help newer conjurors who are worried about whether or not they're missing out by not having partial legs materialize in their triangles.

So let's tackle evocation to visible appearance first. Spirits making bodies out of incense. This is kind of true, but not in the sense of turning smoke into flesh. Since Poke Runyon a lot of people have interpreted the incense, and the mirrors, and the crystals as a way of tricking the mind and allowing for a psychological projection that we can interpret as a spirit. But, spirits aren't just psychological projections, and the results of real conjure work are more impressive than squinty distorted misapprehensions.

Incense is traditionally burned as an aromatic offering for spirits. There is a traditional view that prayers were carried upward on incense, but intermediary spirits were also once thought to be the means by which this is done. So incense has a traditional connection to the working of spirits. Traveling through the air also being a traditional association of spirits incense connects back to this nature giving substance to the otherwise insubstantial air. It connects to three of the four abodes of spirits, aerial in the smoke released, terrestrial in the material burned, and infernal in the fires which stir the smoke from the body of the incense. As an offering, with its intermediary spiritual nature, incense becomes a material focal point for the spirit which is gifted to the spirit and therefore feeds the spirit adding a material component to the force of its manifest interaction with the physical world. So no, the incense doesn't give a materium from which the spirit can build a physical body, it provides a physical substance the spirit is able to draw on in strengthening its anchor to act in the world. Crystals and mirrors likewise have physical and esoteric properties that allow them to serve as links between the spirit world and the physical world making them, like incense, useful tools in interacting with spirits. But not tools for transubstantiation ala Weird Science.

So what things happen when a spirit shows up? Sometimes the temperature changes. I've been in rituals where it's gotten dramatically warmer typically, but a few where it's gotten cold. Sometimes the incense will shift and start to form a more consistent cloud in one area rather than become diffuse through the room. Sometimes there is a shift in the air, almost like when you see rippling from heat off a black top. I was leading a conjuration once where afterwards I spoke with several people who attended and they noticed the same thing I noticed, a particular part of the room where the spirit showed up during a particular part of the ritual (not near the designated area or when he was called directly) and initially he seemed to give off a sense of criticizing the method we were using until we got to the God names, at which point he moved to the appropriate spot and seemed more attentive. About 5 people all had this same response and discussed it independently, but nothing visible or physical happened on this particular conjuration. I've had stuff turn off or on, fall over, candles produce concerning amounts of fire, things like that. But usually it's mostly just a “Hey, I'm here, what's up...oh, ok finish conjuring me and then we can talk” kind of impression that cues me in to the presence of a spirit rather than the cool physical signs.

Much cooler than those kinds of physical signs are ones that occur as a sign that stuff is going on rather than announcing the presence of the spirit.

A really neat one I had several months back actually had to do with the spirit leaving. We had finished the interaction, there was fire burning as a place for the spirit to be present. When we were wrapping up the interaction I wondered about if it was appropriate to just put out the fire or let it burn out. When the spirit left, the fire immediately went from a decent size fire to sputtering and going out.

A couple months back I was about to get cozy with someone on my couch, reached in my pocket to grab the Venus talisman I carry, and at the time I had just recently done work with Hagith, the Olympic spirit of Venus, and Hagith's seal was still on my altar, with my crystal sphere sitting on it. The sphere sits there every day undisturbed, the planetary disk on which it sits has a ridge to hold it in place. With nothing disturbing the altar when I reached to grab the talisman in my pocket the sphere rolled off the disk, off the altar, and across the floor to the coffee table in front of us.

Years ago, and this one is one of my favorites, I was leading a conjuration of Raphael in his office of Archangel of the Sun, for my local OTO lodge. We were focusing on healing in the community. The ritual left me pretty drained, it was one of my first few Solomonic conjurations and the first one of an archangel. I believe it was my first public one as well. We went to a Pagan coffee house event afterwards. On my way home, in the three miles or so between getting off the highway and driving across town to my house I passed six ambulances. Not only were there six, the number of the sphere of Tifaret, but all six were at homes actively helping people. Usually when I see ambulances while driving they are driving around, but in this case all six were stopped at homes with medical personal deployed into these homes. Clearly not a sign of “physical manifestation” of the spirit during the conjuration, but a neat manifestation of that force within the community surrounding the place where we did the invocation. Also, several people reported their healing intentions having worked out...but, numerologically significant ambulances are WAY cooler.

Last fall I was building an altar for a spirit I was working with who resides in some liminal places. I had gotten most of what I needed but he wanted a walking stick. I couldn't find a good one in the places I went and so I resolved to get it within the next few days. The next morning I was heading to work, got to the end or my street and in the middle of the cross roads was an old black wooden cane which was exactly what I needed.

Sometimes it's pretty physical signs that work is being done to fulfill what you asked for. Another recent incident involved asking the gnomes for money for some stuff and the next morning getting in my car to go to work and finding a $50 bill in the door. Sometimes you do work with a spirit and then find something which is a traditional emblem or offering for them. Sometimes they teach you stuff and then books turn up, or you find stuff you weren't looking for in books you happen to be reading that confirms or further explains what they were showing you.

I'm not someone who goes on a lot about synchronicity. I think if you lead a magical life in the sense of developing yourself and your world to be harmonious and in synch yeah you'll start having a lot of synchronicity because the work you're doing will be harmonious with how your world is moving.

Work with spirits is different.

You'll have stuff happen that is a byproduct of the spiritual presence (like the ambulances), but you'll also have stuff happen that is the direct hand of the spirits showing you they're doing the work you asked for even if it isn't immediately done yet (like with the gnomes).

Personally I think having invisible friends who can make cash appear in my car and throw rocks across a room to high five my efforts to get it on is way cooler than having an Owl wearing a crown of diadems astride a crocodile with ape fur manifest in a ball of smoke.