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

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. 

The Compleat Sorcerer

The Eye of Agamotto

I have been going through another one of my quiet phases where I don't have much to say. Recently I have thought of something that I want to so say, but not sure if I had the right words to say it. So instead of waiting for the right words, I am just going to rant this one out the best that I can. First I will start with an apology of sorts. When I started this blog my goal was simple:

"...to do my best to present my views on the art of sorcery and give clear instruction on my methods that can be reproduced by those that are willing to roll up their sleeves and do work."

I do not feel that I have been successful in that aspect, and for that I apologize. The main reason I have not been successful is because most of my posts were focused simply on how to cast spells. While I believe that spell work is a very powerful tool for a modern sorcerer/ess to achieve their goals, it is not by far the only tool that they should possess. Far too many people turn to magic in hopes of finding an easier way to realize their dreams. Easier, as in less real world effort. It is of my opinion that there is no "magic" bullet.  I get so many requests from people asking for spells to make them rich. The only way to get rich with spells is by telling other people that you can make them rich with a spell, and then charging them a lot of money that they probably do not have to do so. Or I will get request for love spells from men that are afraid to actually approach and speak to their love interest. You get the idea

But this post isn't about people that want to have someone do work for them. This post is directed at individuals that wish to direct their power and control their fate. The key word here is POWER, which seems to be the missing ingredient from a lot of people's lives. I have met quite a few people that can proficiently talk about spell casting for hours, and will even try to convince you of how "powerful" and successful their workings have been. However none of that power seems to carry over into their presence outside of their working space or altar room, in my opinion, that is not sorcery. For me sorcery is every action that you take to manipulate situations, people, and circumstances to conform to your desire. Spell casting is only small tool in the arsenal of a competent sorcerer. There's other things like understanding body language/no verbal communication, being able to establish rapport, goal setting, and time management, just to name a few. I just don't believe that anyone is knocking it out of the park 100 or even 80% of the time with spell casting alone. In fact I will say that in my opinion and experience, sorcery is actually about 30% spell casting, and the rest is other forms of empowerment and manipulation. There are clues hidden in the lore of legendary conjure and cunning folk that this has been a secret part of the formula for some time. 

The focus of my post for the near future will focus on what I call becoming a Compleat Sorcerer™. Trust me you will be hearing more of this phrase in the near future. I am by no means saying that I have mastered these other tools. I have been experimenting, and will continue to researching, and share what I learn with you all. 

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
- Ernest Hemingway

Ask Brother Ash #4

Question: "Brother Ash — There are so many Conjure methods of attracting money. What is your favorite? Or which is the most effective? Thanks!"

Personally I favor mojo hands and money charms that can be carried with me. I don't think that any one method is more effective than another, it's all a matter of preference and taste in my opinion. I have also had good results with "Trained Hunting Money", you can find that method here . Maintaining a money altar can be beneficial if you have the space and time for it weekly. I have one, but must confess that I am not as diligent with working it as I could be. I also highly recommend Jason Miller's book "Financial Sorcery". It is the most in depth book on the subject and covers much more than just spells and conjure. When it comes to making money, knowledge is power. To me money magic is equal parts knowledge or financial literacy, spell work, and good ol' fashioned hustle. The conjure methods that you chose should be in line with how you plan on acquiring the money, it could through a raise at work, gambling, expanding business, getting a loan, etc. Be flexible in the conjure methods that you employ.

Outside of spell knowledge I would suggest Tim Ferris's "Four Hour Work Week", Gary Vaynerchuk's "Crush it!", and I dig a little bit of Ramit Sethi as well.

I hope that helps answer your question a bit. 

Frag Out!

About a week or so ago I came across someone asking what they were doing wrong when it came to spell casting and in particularly casting to get a job. Of course he was bombarded with replies to the tune of "you are doing it wrong", or "you may have astrological elements against you" etc. These things may indeed be a factor. The person also mentioned that they only cast one spell which in this case was a candle spell. I advised that he cast multiple targeted spells and recounted my own process that I used last year to acquire a job. Here is that process.

1. First I fixed and burned a 7 day glass candle for a job spell. I laid copies of my resume under the candle. Within the week I had two interviews. For each interview I took one of the resumes that was charged under the candles.

2. I carried charged gravel root in my pocket on the interviews which is traditionally used in getting a job .

3. One job I liked in particular so I decided to do another spell directed at the hiring manager. During the interview I got her full name , she also commented on me being a libra so I knew her sign as well. I decided to do a "sweetening" spell on her. In a shallow bowl I laid down a name paper with her name and my desire anointed with libra oil. I then covered that with job getting herbs and poured honey and commanding oil and fast luck powder over it. I stood a white candle up in the middle of the honey anointed with commanding oil and set it light on my Baron Samedi altar. I let that candle burn all the way down and lit a new candle in it's place each following day. I got the job 3 days later but kept lighting candles on the spell until the new hire paperwork was all finished. Of course I called on the aid of Baron Samedi which was certainly a help, but this spell stands on it's own. One could also direct prayers to a saint, angel or higher power of your choice.

That's pretty much the entire process I took. While you can completely knock it out of the park with one spell it never hurts to utilize a number of strategically targeted workings to achieve your goal. Of course backing these magical acts with as much physical/"real world" effort as possible. Jason Miller champions this sort of approach as Strategic Sorcery and I highly recommend that you check out his blog and book for a better understanding of his technique. I like to call it the sorcery frag grenade myself.

As always...

With Regards,

Brother Ash
"You must have the Devil in you to succeed in the arts." Voltaire
"Don't quote me boy cuz I ain't said shit." Eazy-E