"WTF is Magick?" By Gabriel Roberts

I found this explanation of magick to be interesting, particularly the self improvement aspect. Head on Over to Disinfo.com to read the full blog post. I had forgotten about this quote exchange from the "Black Pullet":

“Do you feel, my son, do you feel this heroic ambition which is the sure stamp of the children of wisdom? Do you dare to desire to serve only the one God and to dominate over all that is not God? Have you understood what it is to prove to be a man and to be unwilling to be a slave since you are born to be a Sovereign? And if you have these noble thoughts, as the signs which I have found on your physiognomy do not permit me to doubt, have you considered maturely whether you have the courage and the strength to renounce all the things which could possibly be an obstacle to attaining the greatness for which you have been born?”

At this point he stopped and regarded me fixedly as if waiting for an answer, or as if he were searching to read my heart.

I asked him, “What is that which I have to renounce?”

“All that is evil in order to occupy yourself only with that which is good. The proneness with which nearly all of us are born to vice rather than to virtue. Those passions which render us slaves to our senses which prevent us from applying ourselves to study, tasting its sweetness, and gathering its fruits. You see, my dear son, that the sacrifice which I demand of you is not painful and is not above your powers; on the contrary, it will make you approach perfection as near as it is possible for man to attain. Do you accept that which I propose?”

"6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person" By David Wong

A brutally honest  rant to kick you in the ass for the beginning of the year. 

"2014, motherfuckers. Yeah! LET'S DO THIS.

"Do what?" you ask. I DON'T KNOW. LET'S FIGURE THAT OUT TOGETHER, MOTHERFUCKERS."

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/#ixzz2pL3nwdc4

"The Society Trap" By Joe Rogan

This rant by Joe Rogan nails it!I just had to share this with you all. It's a trap, and I want as many of us to get out of it as possible. Myself included. I currently suffer through a day job myself (it's hard out here for a sorcerer/stand up comic), but I know that I can get out. So can you.

Napoleon Hill "Laws of Success

I'm currently reading Napoleon Hill's " Outwitting the Devil". I 'm going to post a review of that soon, bit in the meantime here is a great video of him explaining his philosophy. It's long, so let it play in the background while you are doing something else. Enjoy!

La Santa Muerte in Tepito

Check out this great little article on Her Most Holy Death, and Tepito Mexico. The pictures really show the diversity of her followers, and the creativity that they put into creating personal statues to her. It has inspired me to create my own.
http://www.vice.com/es_mx/read/en-tepito-hasta-los-santos-son-rudos

100!

I made it to my 100th post and it only took me.....Well never mind how long it took me to get there. I am the "Silent Bob" of occult blogging. I only speak when I feel that I have something worth saying. I truly appreciate everyone that has tuned into read, comment, share, and support this blog over the past couple of years. I don't post a lot of content (clearly), so I appreciate everyone that has stayed engaged.

I would like to take this time to re-introduce myself. My name is Charles T. Ellis Jr, aka "Brother Ash". This blog is my attempt to explore what sorcery means to me, and what it takes to get the results that we desire. My views on this topic have changed since I started the blog, and continue to evolve. I once fancied myself a worker, but now just don't have the desire, or time to devote to client work. I am always willing to answer questions, and help out someone looking to do their own work, so feel free to email me with any questions that you might have.

If anyone is curious what I have been up to, I have been at work researching my upcoming booklet "Conjuring the Devil" which I have now moved the release date to next spring. I decided that this project needed a little more a scholarly touch than the "High John" booklet called for and has left me contemplating some interesting questions that I hope answer for myself and the reader. I will be launching a website specifically for that book as well, so be on the lookout for that. I have already previewed some of the material from the booklet through my newsletter (Subscribe to your left ------->), and will probably include some directors cut material through there as well, that doesn't make it into the book.

I have also apparently been becoming a stand-up comedian in the past year as well. Since the first time that I took the stage  , I have since one that same competition twice, and placed in the top three quite a few times. In this month's competition I was voted crowd favorite, which landed me a guest spot last night with the hilarious Brad Williams. It's been a interesting year for sure. I have been putting a lot of time into getting better with my comedy, and looking to branch out start getting more gigs soon, and come to a town near you. Tonight I am performing as Jules in a stage reading of "William Shakespeare presents: Pulp Fiction". That should be fun.

Thanks again for reading, you all rock!

What the F*#@ Did You Just Say?

I had someone email me recently asking for advice on a spell because they were new to casting. They explained the steps that they had taken, and two things stuck out to me. The first was that the spell called for 3 drops of blood, but no mention on who it was meant to pay, feed, or be an offering to. Secondly it had an incantation, "Helistami Balu Stika". It didn't take me long to find the site that the person had found this spell on, What I did not find however, was any explanation of who or what it called upon. I also could find no real translation, other than Helistami may mean "to call" in Estonian. I am going to do a more detailed post on blood soon, so we will tackle that later. But I can't stress enough the importance of never saying anything out loud during a working, that you aren't aware of the full meaning or implications of. In a working, words are important, be they written or vocalized. Take care of everything that you say. You wouldn't want to have a Professor Raymond Knowby type incident would you?

 "Kanda… Es-trada.. Montos… Ea-grets… Gat… Nos-feratos… Kanda… Amantos… Kanda." - Professor Raymond Knowby, The Evil Dead 

"Eshu and the black/red hat"

This is a great tale of the trickster spirit Eshu from the blog of Dr. Catherine Svehla that I found via Disinformation. Since my next booklet is about "The Devil" in conjure, Eshu will of course have to make an appearance. This gives some insight into an aspect of this mysterious spirit. Enjoy..

Eshu and the black/red hat

Photo James C. Lewis of http://noire3000studios.com

This is one of the most famous stories about Eshu. I'll be surprised if, after you've read it, you can't think of at least one instance in which you've met this Trickster...

Once there were two men, fine friends who lived in the same village. They had known each other since boyhood and loved each other like brothers. They lived next door to each other. They eat their meals together. They even kept fields in close proximity to each other; one farmed the land on the south side of the road that led out of the village and the other farmed the north side. These two were inseparable. Every morning, the two men met outside with their lunch and tools in hand and walked up the road together. All morning long one would hoe and chop in one field and the other would hoe and chop in the field just across the road and at lunchtime they would stop and come together under a big tree and eat lunch together. After lunch, and maybe a nap, they would go back to work until the end of the day and walk back home together. The people in the village were so used to seeing them like this that they could barely think of one man without thinking of the other.

One day, Eshu came to the village. And he saw the two men greet each other in the morning and he saw how close they were and he decided to have a little bit of fun with them. That day the two friends, who loved each other like brothers, walked up the road as always and one man went into the field on the south side of the road and the other went into the field on the north side of the road. They chopped and they hoed and they chopped and they hoed and it was a really hot day, so at one point they both paused to wipe the sweat from their brow.

A stranger was coming down the road. It was a really nice looking man on a horse. The man was wearing a cap. Now there was not a lot of traffic on this road, the village was small and not many people had their fields out that direction. So the passing of this stranger was kind of an event. Both of the men stopped and noticed the man and he waved at them and they waved back. 

When it was time to stop for lunch the two friends, who loved each other like brothers, met under the tree and opened up their lunch and started talking about their morning. The man with the field on the south side of the road said, “My dear friend, did you see that fine looking man come by on the horse?” and the man with the field on the north side of the road said, “I certainly did. He was a fine looking man on a fine horse, and I really liked his black cap.” His friend looked at him and said, “I liked the cap too brother, but it wasn’t black, it was red.” And his friend who loved him like a brother  said, “No, the cap was black.” And the other man, who had never disagreed with his friend before insisted, “I tell you, the cap was red.” “Black.” “Red.” “Black.” “Red.” “It was a black cap and you know it, why are you being obstinate?” “It was a red cap and why are you being stubborn?” “Black, and you must be a fool.” “Red, and you must be blind.” The two men got quite angry and before you know it they were cuffing each other and rolling around in the dirt yelling and insulting each other at the top of their lungs. 

People way down in the village heard them and came running up the road to see what was going on. They were shocked to find these two friends, who loved each other like brothers, fighting in this way. They jumped into the fray and pulled the men apart to find out what was the trouble. The man with the field on the south side of the road said, “A man on a horse came by in a fine red cap and this fool insist that the cap was black.” The man with the field on the north side of the road said, “Well, this idiot needs to do something about his eyes because the cap was black.” 

The people stood around scratching their heads and they weren’t sure which was more confusing, the bit about the cap or the sight of these two dear friends fighting. In the midst of the confusion, up rides Eshu, wearing his cap. The two men saw him and said, “There he is, there is the man.” Eshu waved at them and they waved back. Then Eshu slowly turned his head to the right and he slowly turned his head to the left. The two men were dumbfounded. The cap was red on one side and black on the other. They got down on their knees in front of Eshu and asked, “Eshu, why did you mess with us like that?” 

Eshu replied, “Causing discord is my greatest joy.” He rode away.

A Coke and a Smile

I just came across the last blog post by Brother Moloch titled "The Wise & the Ignorant". In it he makes some good points about the importance of communication skills to sorcery. Which is certainly something that I plan on talking about more in the future. Further in the post the following statement is what really caught my attention:

"Hoodoo is typically the Occult practice of the ignorant and superstitious. Most of the folks who practiced it back in the day were illiterate and highly superstitious. "You need to tear paper and not cut it so you can use it in Hoodoo"... really? Who is the moron that believes that shit. What, scissors too high tech for you? Or my personal favorite, "You need to use a paper or wooden match to light things with in Hoodoo"... pure horse shit. A lighter works just fine. Why? Spirits don't give a damn about matches or whether you cut/tear your paper. Hello???"

First off, it can be said that all forms of folk magic were the Occult practices of the ignorant and superstitious. Hoodoo is not alone in this fact. Also there is particular reason that scissors aren't used in making name papers, and it has nothing do with them being too high tech. I already covered that reason here. All forms of folk practice have methods that seem ridiculous to the outsider, but have a specific reason and purpose. In my opinion, most of spell casting is just superstition, rather we want to admit it or not.

 Superstition 

1 a :  a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic              or chance, or a false conception of causation.
    b : an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God                    resulting from superstition.
2 :   a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary

When it comes to conjure, and sorcery in general, I am no purist in any sense of the word. Everyone is free to take what fits their practice and omit things that don't. But don't feel that what you have decided to keep is somehow more true or the core of what's needed to work. I take a "to each their own" mindset to sorcery, and encourage others to do the same. The fact is that little or none of what I do in my spells or rituals can be proved to be the cause of the results that I obtain. There have been some studies that show "why rituals work".  There was even a study showing  that people are more likely to trust a ritual or spell that seems more complicated, or has more steps. So it doesn't matter if if one insists on wooden matches, or not not using scissors. It's all just personal belief. My belief is that we all have the ability to influence the world around us and effect outcomes. But I can't prove that my rituals, or any one step in them are the cause, nor do I care to. Any quest to do so would more than likely be plagued by confirmation bias. While typing this I thought of the bit in Eddie Murphy's "Raw" where he recalls the story of being called up by Bill Cosby, who tells him that his act is too dirty. After talking to Cosby Murphy called Richard Pryor, and part of the conversation went like this:

"Do the people laugh when you say what you say?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you get paid?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Well, tell Bill I said have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up."

The point being, that the end results are what matter,  You go about achieving those results using whatever techniques you see fit, if they work for you. If anyone wants to talk trash about it you tell them that Ash said to have a Coke and a smile, and to...You know the rest.

Midday Veil - REMEMBER CHILD (Official Video)

Starting off my day with this little trippy video.

"Remember child: you are a universe within yourself

All the sun and moon and stars above all have their parallels

Inside each microcosmic vessel of your human cells

You are the alpha, the omega, heaven and hell"

Introducing the Crossroads of Sorcery E-List!

Ladies and gentlemen step right up! Please direct your attention to the right sidebar where you will notice a sign up box for the brand new Crossroads of Sorcery E-lists. Why would you want to sign up for this E-list, you ask? Well because you will receive exclusive content not available on the blog starters. Starting next Friday I will be previewing content of my upcoming pamphlet, "Conjuring the Devil" every week. You won't want to miss that. I will also have exclusive deals and contests only available through the e-list. So check it out!

Coming Forth By Day

I mentioned in the early days of my blog that I was at one time involved with a “Vampyre” organization known as the Strigoi Vii. I am not active in the community anymore, but I did meet some exceptional and dynamic individuals there. While I don’t include any of their esoteric concepts in my work anymore, one thing that did stick with me was the notion of the “Dayside”. This is something that was inspired by and borrowed from the “Temple of the Vampire”. They describe it as follows:

The Vampire by Day

The Dayside is a fundamental part of our religion.The practical side of the Temple is our Dayside. This is the common sense view of reality shared by most people. This perspective includes our emphasis upon achieving and maintaining success with regard tosix critical issues in life. These include:

• ·        Emergency survival planning and skills acquisition.
• ·        Increased self-understanding and self-acceptance.
• ·        More effective communication skills and strategies.
• ·        Gaining control over personal finance and achieving wealth.
• ·        Improving and protecting your physical health.
• ·        Scientific life extension leading to physical immortality.

Replace the word vampire with sorcerer, and you have a decent list of areas to focus on outside of, or to be backed up by your magical work.  I don’t put much focus on scientific life extension, or survival planning myself. I have actually been on a magical hiatus for the summer and been focusing on dayside concerns which I have let slack for the last couple of years.  Within both the ToV and Strigoi Vii system, Dayside mastery is meant to come before any Nightside practice. The reason begin that when a person has their day to day affairs in order, especially financially, it makes for sounder base to begin magical practice. Far too often, I talk to people that are sure spell casting is their path to riches and success. That someone where out there is a spirit, or spell that will solve all of their problems.  I could be wrong, but in my experience there isn’t one.  To make matters worse, usually the same people that are looking to strike it rich through sorcery often end up spending vast amounts of money on unnecessary tools, books, and charms, in their pursuit. This money could have been invested in more worthwhile ventures, and then backed up with a little magic as well. To me, a good working can come from strong desire, but not from desperation. A sorcerer is a master commanding their universe, not a slave begging from it. 

To some readers of this blog it may seem that I have been losing my “faith” in sorcery. Honestly for a while there I did. I needed to take a step back from it for a while and reevaluate my reasons for practicing. I see it as a weapon in my arsenal of personal advancement, and success. It’s not always the best tool for the job, or needed in every case. I also feel that the same sense of power that one might feel during ritual should carry over into every aspect of their life. If not, what’s the point in doing this in the first place? I don’t consider myself a powerful sorcerer. I consider myself a powerful person that utilizes sorcery as one way of directing that power.

That got a bit rant like at the end. So yeah, consider your Dayside.

Brother Ash

As always.....

“Don’t quote me boy, cuz' I ain’t said shit.” Eazy-E

Doing Magick and Getting Results by Grant Morrison

This is an "oldie but goodie" that has been around for a while. It's an excerpt from Grant Morrison's talk at the first Disinfo.Con back in 2000. Every once in a while I come across it again and get inspired to do some magic. This short section focuses on the basics of sigil magic. If you have some time, watch the full 45 mins talk as well.

All in a day's work

I found this online the other day. It is supposedly the daily schedule of Benjamin Franklin, who in my opinion was a certified bad ass. It points to one of most underrated (at least in the "magical" community) aspects of getting things accomplished; Time Management. This is a particular skill that I have lacked for some time. One of my good friends is excellent at it, and he accomplishes a lot in one day's time. It almost seems magical how much some people can get done, you would swear that they had a doppelganger. I personally don't do well with structure. But it works, and it's necessary.  I am not the one to start giving advise on how work this out (yet), but I highly recommend that you take stock of your own habits and make adjustments where you can. 

I don't foresee myself every having that structured of a day. I am working on adding a bit time management, and for me the best time for me to do it is in the morning. I dig entrepreneur Noah Kagan and some of the products put out on his website AppSumo. I came across an interview with him and Tim Ferris, where Noah mentioned what he calls G.E.B.Y (Gratitude, Exercise, Breakfast, You). The concept is that you start your day first by acknowledging 3 things that you are grateful for, engage in some form of exercise, eat breakfast, and then do one thing that is just for yourself. The "you" part of this equation seems a bit vague, but I am going to experiment with it, and see what kind of results that I get. Oddly enough, it seems to go right along with numbers 5-7 of Franklin's list. Of course, Franklin's is a lot more spartan. 

Something interesting on Franklin's morning regimen is to "address Powerful Goodness".  As a sorcerer, you probably already have something spiritual, in your daily routine (don't you?), if not it is also something to consider.I found this prayer that I feel he probably recited everyday. I am just going to leave you with it, because it could be a whole blog post by itself. 

“O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me. ” 

La Santisima Muerte

Her Most Holy Death at the
Voodoo Spiritual Temple in New Orleans. 

November 15^th is recognized by some followers of La Santisima Muerte as one of her feast days. In the Catholic tradition this day is the “Assumption of Mary”. I have been on a magical hiatus of sorts, so had not been doing altar work. Her most Holy Death made sure to remind me that she had a feast day coming up, and gave me the opportunity to re-establish our connection. The more that you work with spirits, you will find that they can be very patient, sometimes in spite of their notorious reputations, and don’t always require cult like devotion. You do have to be open to “hearing” their request when they reach out to you, and honor their wishes. Of course if you are petitioning spirits to aid your work, you get what you put in. Just like any relationship. So slack on your end, and expect them to do the same.

 If you have ever felt drawn to this saint, I would say that she is worth exploring. I highly recommend "Santisima Muerte: How to Call and Work with Holy Death" by Conjure Man Ali from Hadean Press. It’s a short pamphlet packed with basic information on hers history, how to establish an relationship with, perform a novena to, and work spells with her. It makes a great companion to "Saint Cyprian: Saint of Necromancers" from the same author. If you are a follower of hers,  I would love to hear from about your experiences with this powerful spirit. 

Statue in a local Richmond, Va botanica. 

Joseph Campbell on Right Hand Path and Left Hand Path

A quick video clip explaining the Left Hand Path that I found by way of the Temple of Set on Facebook. Perfect inspiration for me to continue my writing on the "Devil" in Conjure.

13 Reasons

I came across this pic on imugr the other day while I was being guilty of reason#10. I wanted to share this with my readers because I feel that being aware of things such as this are just as important as honing your spell craft.


#1 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Laziness

I don’t think there’s an easy way to put this. I have to assume that you’re lazy. Every single successful person works their butts off to get where they are. It’s ok to be lazy. Just admit it. But don’t whine about not being rich and successful, ok?#2 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – EntitlementOnly a few people in the world are part of the lucky sperm club. You and me? We gotta work to get what we want. Quit thinking you are owed something. You’re not. Get to work. #3 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Fear

You are afraid, plain and simple. Afraid of looking silly. Afraid of what your friends and family will say. Afraid of everything. Look, you’re either going to stop being afraid, or you’re not. Nobody can convince you to stop. Imagine though... what awaits you when you stop with the fear excuses? #4 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Negativity

You may not realize it, but the people you associate with might be negative [orifices]. They could be soul-sucking beings who don’t want anyone to be successful. Get rid of them, now! Surround yourself with successful people. People you want to be like. 

#5 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Stop Thinking

How much do you want to bet you have paralysis by analysis? You think way too much about what you could or should do. Doers get what they want, and everyone else gets what they get. Stop analyzing and start doing. #6 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – No Goals

You plan nothing. You believe that someway, somehow, everything you always wanted will just magically happen. So you “play it by ear” and wait. You need goals to shoot for. Otherwise, you’re just treading water. #7 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – “They”

There’s no “they”. There’s no secret group of people that controls your success or failure. You’ve made that up to make you feel better about yourself. The truth is you, and you alone, control your success in life/business/everything. It’s easy to blame “them” though, isn’t it? Weak. #8 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – No “X” Factor

You can’t do it because you’re not pretty enough. Or don’t have a strong personality? You don’t have the “X” factor? Wow, what an unbelievably lame excuse. The truth is even jerks, idiots and boring people can be just as successful as anyone else. Your problem is you don’t believe it yet. #9 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Time Waste

You’re a classic time-waster. You spend hours and hours every day working on not-working. You do things that aren’t productive. How are you ever going to get anything done, or reach any goal if you keep wasting time? You’re not. So you might as well give up now if you’re going to keep this path. #10 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Social B.S.

You spend way too much time in social media land.  You waste probably about 50% of your productive hours of the day doing this. The sad part is, you know it, but you can’t stop. So you can’t get anything done that matters. #11 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Think Small

You think way too small. You are constantly looking only a day or a week ahead instead of years ahead. Because of this, you never get anywhere, and you never lead; you always follow. #12 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Don’t Want It

You don’t really want to be successful. Sure, you like to dream about it like everyone else. But in your heart you are afraid of what might happen if you really get it. That’s B.S. fear your brain is feeding you. Success is change, and it feels really, really good. Tell your brain to shut the [foolishness] up.

#13 Reason You’re Not As Successful As You Should Be – Don’t Believe

You never believed that it’s possible. Society taught you that only a few “exceptional” people get what they want. Everyone else should just settle. If you really want to believe that, go ahead. The rest of us will be at the front of the line because we believe.

http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-item?cmsid=61035

Thank You High John the Conqueror!

I wanted to make a post to thank High John the Conqueror for all of the work that he has done for me. He has brought much success into my life, and I am grateful. I also want to open this post up for other people to thank High John as well as some have been doing on my Saint Expedite post . So if you have worked with High John using the methods in my booklet, or your own personal methods, please feel free to thank him here for his work. 

"Your body language shapes who you are"

I dig Ted Talks, and stumbled across this one by the other day on Netflix. If you have a Netflix account and have watched all the "Dr. Who" episodes, take some time to enjoy a few of these great talks. This talk covers the way that your body language can not only have a subtle internal effect on you, but also the way that those changes can effect the way that other people perceive as well. This is the kind of technique that could be backed up with some commanding, power, or "bend over" conjure workings. Check out the video. I am a fan of the phrase" fake it until you become it". That's a good mantra.