Blog

I’ve recently created my first, and possibly last Spirit Pot. “Spirit Pot” is a term I picked up from reading a very little bit on hoodoo and root work. It basically presents a dwelling place for a particular spirit to live in.

I first thought of this while reading an excellent article by Aaron Leitch in the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition. In it he discusses the links between the Solomonic tradition and Folk Magick. He pointed out that there is a brass vessel discussed in the Lemegetton that has similarities to the Spirit Pot of hoodoo traditions, and I set about creating a spirit pot for one of the entities from the Goetia.

I selected Bune/Bime as the spirit I wished to have in my pot. He is the 26th spirit of the Goetia, and has two seals that can be used to get in touch with him. I went to 777 to see what types of things to include in the pot. Bune is associated with key-scale 24, if I remember right, and I found that the plant for this key is rush, a type of grass, and the incense was lignum aloes. The magickal weapon is the arrow, and the astrological sign is Sagitarius.

I purchased a length of woven rush grass and wound it around the base of my spirit pot. I included dates and raisins, some incense containing lignum aloes and sandalwood, and carved a small arrow out of cedar, using the needles of the branch as the fletching. I drew up a Seal of Solomon from the Goetia, and set it in the lid of the pot. I drew one seal by hand, and included another seal I had printed off the internet. As I drew the seal, I felt the spirit’s presence begin to build up in the area. I created a triangle of manifestation, placed the seals in the pot, and the pot in the triangle of manifestation. I then began lighting blue tea lite candles for about a week, which burn for about five hours as offerings to get the spirit’s attention.

On a Sunday night when the moon was right, I performed the conjuration. I did it rather simply, and made very quick contact with Bune. I spoke to him about why I wanted to work with him, showed him the pot, and asked if he would live in it. He was VERY agreeable.

Since then I have begun to experiment with the Spirit Pot. I chose Bune because he is allegedly related to my sun sign in my natal chart and because one of his abilities is to bring treasure, and I very much desire to be wealthy.

I have also included the hebrew words found on the sides of the brass vessel in the Goetia, written in Celestial script from Agrippa’s third book of Occult Philosophy.

I’ve had some interesting conversations with members of the Ritual Magic yahoo group, and I hope to provide an interview with one of the members in an upcoming post regarding his views of the Spirit Pot as a spiritual condenser.

[Edit 6-27-06]

Mr. Doctor Professor Patrick (OMG, total Spongebob moment… hang on… whew, ok…) Brought up a question on the previous blog that ought to be further expounded upon.

Dee’s Aztec Obsidian Mirror came to Europe between 1527 and 1530, according to the British Museum’s notes on his magic mirror.

I don’t know if he ever used it in scrying the Enochian stuff, but he did use it for scrying some things.

So, Tezcatlipoca…

He’s been popping up across my searches, weaving his smoke and mirrored way into my reality. I just sort of felt lead to put the mask on the skull, and it looks nice.

Tezcatlipoca, among other things, is the God of the night. He appeared in the form of a jaguar in many tales (get it, jaguar tales… tails…), and did other cool stuff that I can’t remember. It’s a cop out, I know, but Wikipedia’s got a big article on him here, and I’m exhausted from putting together my garage today. Pulled all the accumulated crap out, and then neatly put it back in after sweeping. It doesn’t SOUND like an 8-hour job, but it was.

The Garage, with all its cool space and alchemistical stuff is now officially “The Lab.” I may be running local workshops on making talismans out of copper and tin. Eventually.

Anyway, I’m tarred (that’s “tired” for the yankees). So no more typey.

Behold the BLURRY CRYSTAL SKULL OF DOOOOOOOM!!!

The best camera in the house is my daughter’s cell phone camera at 2.0 megapix. And she’s twelve. But hey, I gots pictures! I ain’t complaining!

For size comparison, that is a twelve-year-old girl’s hand holding the crystal above a hardwood floor. The wood planks are about two inches wide, if that helps. It’s rather … smallish.

My spouse said it was “cute.”

Nevertheless!!! It’s awesome. I had worked after conjuring my Agatha Daimon and the Goetic spirit Bune. I was tingling from the whole experience, physically, and spiritually.

Quartz has some pretty cool occult properties on its own. Carving quartz is delicate work, it cracks and shatters. That’s partially why it turned out so small. It’s my first effort, and I learned a lot.

The heat from grinding it down was all focused at the tip of the crystal point, while it had one. I also dowsed it using a pendulum before carving it, and I’ll be dowsing it when it’s all the way finished too. It still needs more polishing, and the “mask” needs more work.

The mask, by the way, is a reference to the Aztec God of Sorcerors, Tezcatlipoca. I remember it by repeating Tez-Cat-Lip-Polka. His name translates as “Smoking Mirror,” and he was the god they would work with to perform scrying acts in their obsidian mirrors. The god was often depicted either wearing the mirror, or having it for a foot. He had lost the foot luring the crocodile from the waters that he and Qetzelcoatl made the land out of in some of the Aztec creation myths.

The mirror used by John Dee was one of these Aztec Mirrors made out of Obsidian and brought from the New World. Chances are pretty good that it was at one time used by someone of high importance under the auspices of Tezcatlipoca.

So, we’ve got a nod to the god of scrying from the Aztec cosmology. Why? Because. The Google expedition on crystal skulls in general lead me to very specific skulls that were masks of Tezcatlipoca. I also got engrossed in Aztec creation myths, and I read most of the Popul Vu codex. Comparative theology never ceases to entertain me.

Since beginning to carve the skull, it has appeared unasked for in a visit to my astral temple, sort of like Bune was just there one day after I put my spirit pot together for him. I’m not surprised, as Bune has worked on this skull with me, laying down a communications network for the spirits of the dead. My Agatha Daimon was also on hand to imbue it with pure Divine Light, so it’s more likely to draw whomever uses it towards God rather than away.

I’m going to keep this for a while and play with it, see what comes out of my Work with it. I performed some basic psychometry on the crystals before choosing them, and found the ones that would be the best candidates based on their “vibe.” I’ll be testing them again, and maybe even writing up some of the Great Work lessons I learned from grinding the skull itself. Shaping a brittle crystalline matrix using a rotary tool and diamond bits requires a finesse and a strength combined that is hard to explain off the top of my head.

Sorry if I’m all over the map on this post, I’m kind of excited.

Behold the BLURRY CRYSTAL SKULL OF DOOOOOOOM!!!

The best camera in the house is my daughter’s cell phone camera at 2.0 megapix. And she’s twelve. But hey, I gots pictures! I ain’t complaining!

For size comparison, that is a twelve-year-old girl’s hand holding the crystal above a hardwood floor. The wood planks are about two inches wide, if that helps. It’s rather … smallish.

My spouse said it was “cute.”

Nevertheless!!! It’s awesome. I had worked after conjuring my Agatha Daimon and the Goetic spirit Bune. I was tingling from the whole experience, physically, and spiritually.

Quartz has some pretty cool occult properties on its own. Carving quartz is delicate work, it cracks and shatters. That’s partially why it turned out so small. It’s my first effort, and I learned a lot.

The heat from grinding it down was all focused at the tip of the crystal point, while it had one. I also dowsed it using a pendulum before carving it, and I’ll be dowsing it when it’s all the way finished too. It still needs more polishing, and the “mask” needs more work.

The mask, by the way, is a reference to the Aztec God of Sorcerors, Tezcatlipoca. I remember it by repeating Tez-Cat-Lip-Polka. His name translates as “Smoking Mirror,” and he was the god they would work with to perform scrying acts in their obsidian mirrors. The god was often depicted either wearing the mirror, or having it for a foot. He had lost the foot luring the crocodile from the waters that he and Qetzelcoatl made the land out of in some of the Aztec creation myths.

The mirror used by John Dee was one of these Aztec Mirrors made out of Obsidian and brought from the New World. Chances are pretty good that it was at one time used by someone of high importance under the auspices of Tezcatlipoca.

So, we’ve got a nod to the god of scrying from the Aztec cosmology. Why? Because. The Google expedition on crystal skulls in general lead me to very specific skulls that were masks of Tezcatlipoca. I also got engrossed in Aztec creation myths, and I read most of the Popul Vu codex. Comparative theology never ceases to entertain me.

Since beginning to carve the skull, it has appeared unasked for in a visit to my astral temple, sort of like Bune was just there one day after I put my spirit pot together for him. I’m not surprised, as Bune has worked on this skull with me, laying down a communications network for the spirits of the dead. My Agatha Daimon was also on hand to imbue it with pure Divine Light, so it’s more likely to draw whomever uses it towards God rather than away.

I’m going to keep this for a while and play with it, see what comes out of my Work with it. I performed some basic psychometry on the crystals before choosing them, and found the ones that would be the best candidates based on their “vibe.” I’ll be testing them again, and maybe even writing up some of the Great Work lessons I learned from grinding the skull itself. Shaping a brittle crystalline matrix using a rotary tool and diamond bits requires a finesse and a strength combined that is hard to explain off the top of my head.

Sorry if I’m all over the map on this post, I’m kind of excited.