Steady and Faithful Honeyjar

People think honeyjars are weak. I disagree, they only seem weak because their power works very subtly and slowly. But so steady and long.

The first hoodoo thing I ever did was of a honey jar spell. I would say it was… five long years ago. Maybe because it was my first, it did not seem to work at all. I recall working on it for a month or two. I burnt candles on it daily in the mornings whenever I woke up at roughly the same time. At the time I just used plain olive oil on the candles along with plain and simple herbs for the inside of the jar, no specially made fancy hoodoo condition oils or any of that. I did not use coloured candles either, just plain white paraffin ones like how they used in conjure during the old days.

Then I gave up and kept it away. Six months later when I had forgotten all about it, I started seeing movement and then results. Within a year I saw its full effects, and then another year passed I realised that the effects of this honey jar was quite permanent even though I kept it away.

Although I have always believed in magic and what prayer can do, I sometimes still get amazed at how much a difference and change it can make.

I disposed of the honey jar in a non-hoodoo way though. I emptied out its contents in the middle of a field to let the herbs and honey return to nature via decomposition.

I have learnt, that sometimes even though no candles or incense is burning, magic is still working, unseen and in its mysterious way. Patience is a quality every mage should have.

So, by all means go ahead and do that honey jar to change that undesirable situation. As long as the wish is not humanely and unnaturally impossible, you will be pleasantly surprised at what a seemingly unsuspecting and subtle honey jar can do. (Especially so regarding jars of which you ironically think aren't working or were not done properly.)

Don't forget to thank the spirits of the herbs and the bees for their help. And he who is full of grace our almighty God.

The Power of Incense

Incense has been used all over the world in spiritual practices for thousands of years. Incense first appeared in China during Neolithic times, just when cave men were starting to become "civilised" learning farming, domesticating animals and started using copper tools instead of stone hand axes. That would be over ten thousand years ago.

So here we go. Incense is older than the candle. Hard to say historically whether incense or the Neolithic stone oil lamp came first… But these are very old and ancient things. Almost like holding a piece of the origin of civilisation in one's hands when one uses either of these.

When you burn incense and pray, watch as the smoke rises up into the air and dissolves into the spirit world. Incense is used for purification and for scaring away evil spirits.

Over here, it's not magic, just known as "prayers" at a temple. I think the words prayer and magic is blurred here. Magic is, to make change by force of will, maybe considered an advanced form of prayer for the Gods and spirits to hear it and help.

In Taoism, magic can be done simply by using incense alone. It's akin to hoodoo, using a petition paper.

Huge spiral incense hung from ceilings is like how a vigil candle takes days to burn so does huge spiral coil incense. Some can take as long as nine days to burn, like these ones pictured here. Be careful when visiting such temples, I would not suggest looking upwards it can sting abit when the ash falls onto you.

I guess we could be considered really hardcore about incense here in the Orient. There are so many kinds here. Straight stick without a core. Stick with a thin bamboo core (joss sticks). Ready-made cones. Coil incense (small sized for home use) my personal favourite. Incense disks. In reality I have no idea what they are called in English, but they are set alight altogether much like charcoal disks, but they burn by themselves and smoke alot. (Incense that needs charcoal disks are known as "indirect incense.")

Pictured here is disk incense.

 The whole thing is torched (perhaps over a stove) then placed in a heavy censer, and it smokes a great deal. It can and will burn one's table if the censer is too small or thin. These are used in temples, very seldom used by people at home. If they are used at home, it would be for a special prayer or little ceremony. For example smoking a person's body to scare off an evil spirit. Unlike small coil incense for daily use over here:

 In hoodoo, incense is very effective for use in long-distance work. When the target/client/victim is far away from you or out of reach. Smoke is associated with the soul and spirits see, so it makes perfect sense, it bridges distance. So far for use with hoodoo, I hold container spells over the burning incense while praying my intent, moving my hand in a clockwise or counter clockwise motion depending on my intent.

(Clockwise is for increasing or drawing, counter clockwise is for decreasing or repelling. The symbolism of spirals is such.)

Damn I just love smoke and fire.

Oil Lamp Wicks

Of material there are two kinds, cotton and fibreglass. Fibreglass is more expensive and lasts almost forever and draws the oil up better than cheaper cotton wicks.

The only drawback is that fibreglass is an "unnatural" material, in which some magicians say it might be less powerful than something natural. (Like how some magicians swear by beeswax candles instead of ordinary wax ones.)

Of wick shape, there are also two kinds. The typical and common round sort, and the more unusual flat sort, like that of a tape. "Flat" wicks mostly come in cotton, and these draw up the oil better than ordinary round wicks due to their larger surface area. They are also less likely to get clogged so quickly with impurities. (E.g. Hoodoo condition oils.)

Wick holders are mostly made of thermal glass and can be ritually cleansed and reused once the spell is complete. To remove the soot I just use a metal skewer to scrape with.

Wicks are almost always white. But sometimes if I am lucky I happen to spot coloured wicks. Here is a blue-coloured cotton wick of which I shall be using for healing shortly.

But of all wicks, it is the flat sort that has been capturing my attention the most. Your petition can be sewn right into it with the correct coloured thread. Even better if the target has long hair, the hair can be sewn into words as the petition itself into the flat cotton of the wick with a needle.

Hoodoo Guinea Pig: Power Spell

It would appear one's talents in magic can be reflective of one's inner self. For example a person who has a great capacity to love would be talented in love work, a lucky person or a fluke can be great at gambling and money work et cetera.

As a person who knows myself very well, I seem to be good at work related to personal development and growth.

A while back, I cast a power spell for my female friend. Of whom has gladly volunteered herself as my hoodoo guinea pig. The situation was for her that at work she kept getting picked on, and being the sensitive lady that she is, she's often very affected by it and cries about it.

I thought against a protection spell it would mean me having to cast one over and over again. I thought a power spell with the petition, "Don't be affected by what people say" was best.

I went full steam ahead. For her, I petitioned Guan Yin, The Goddess of Mercy. (My friend has always prayed to her.) Then in hoodoo tradition in paying Saints for their work I paid her with a pink lotus flower at her temple at Waterloo street. Back in the day during British Colonial times, the British called her, "The Mother Mary of the East." And they couldn't have been more appropriate.

I decided on a simple purple candle spell and container spell, with petition paper filled with mostly wisdom herbs and some orris root powder for power.

The petition paper. I used brown paper torn from a BodyShop paper bag. (Since my friend is really into eco-friendly stuff.) I used maroon DMC string to symbolise strength and vigour instead of the usual purple.

I have developed a habit of tying petition papers filled with personal concerns and herbs in this manner. The way the string crosses and holds the paper, feels like that of a crossroads in hoodoo…

I prepared the container (in this case a tin) by simply setting it near the lit purple candle so that it could be charged by its light. I sang over the altar with the "Great Compassion Mantra" in Tibetan. I used Jasmine coil incense, because I thought it would nicely compliment the feminine power of orris root. After the candle spell was done (the next day), I poured the herbs used in its holder along with the petition paper into the tin and closed it.

I did not get any signs at all within the stipulated three days, but by a week there was movement. I was surprised by the results because I expected my friend to learn how to be tougher and more confident, and that the insults at her workplace would continue. Instead she reported to me that people just abruptly stopped bullying her. Then it was followed by her work superiors praising her.

I continued lighting purple candles every other day on my hoodoo guinea pig's power tin. I used power oil, King Solomon's wisdom and crucible of courage on the 4-inch candles.

Then it became her being more noticed and often chosen to lead for certain projects. And now more recently she has been chosen for awards in outstanding service. (Her profession is in a male dominated one.) She says she has never felt more appreciated and received such recognition in a long time. She described its effects as "crazy." Even I am dumbfounded. I have to do alot of self-reflection on what I did right.

Magic works not always in the way you thought it would.

From Candles to Oil Lamps

Dear Blog,

Lately I have been much drawn to working more with oil lamps than with candles. Why? Being in the Orient, if I need ritual shape candles or figural candles I would have to have them shipped over from the United States. In which the shipping itself costs more than the candles, and the wait is insufferable. (2-3 weeks to get here or sometimes even a month!) Not very wise. Also by the time the candles got here much time would have been wasted and the situation calling for the spell may have changed and you may not even need what you were waiting for!

PS: Here, the candle colours available from spiritual shops of various religions are mostly red, yellow, white and sometimes black. Other colours are hard to find and are expensive.

It first began with me making my own oil lamps out of used glass bottles. I use paraffin oil, it burns well with no smell. To make sure that the small glass wick would not fall through the large mouth of the bottle, I used a metal washer. The sort they sell in DIY stores for use with nuts and bolts.

I would tie my petition paper rolled up with herbs, and with the appropriate string colour tie it right to the end of the wick of the oil lamp. I would mix a few drops of hoodoo condition oil into the paraffin lamp oil.

Then I started getting even more creative. Since I could not practically get figural candles conveniently...

Here's a closer look at the tightly rolled petition paper with herbs inside so that it can fit through the narrow neck of the bottle.

Here is a female-shaped bottle.

Yes. Dear friends. I strongly encourage you all to try using oil lamps in Hoodoo. From personal observation, magic using oil lamps seem to manifest faster. Come to think of it this would be considered a type of container spell. (And come on! It looks too cool!) Meaning the results should be long lasting, like that of a honey jar…

I must experiment further... Paraffin oil comes in virtually every colour.

How I Screwed Up With The Intranquil Spirit

Alot of people do not know the seriousness or amount of trouble conjuring the spirit of intranquility can cause. No joke. What it really is, is spirit conjure. (This magic here is of Hoodoo.)

It is known that the spirit of intranquility is a random one of which the caster calls up from the pits of hell. It is known that if the caster did not do adequate protection the spirit can possess or attach itself to the caster as well as the target.

I got the latter, as well as something slightly rarer, a haunting in my room.

I had conjured up a strong spirit, one strong enough to have poltergeist abilities/do things in the physical plane. It levitated a candle flame, wax, wick and all while I was doing honey jar work.

I was doing my usual thing of chanting over some love and harmony honey jars, I was focusing very intently at the honey jar on the left of the picture. The candle had burnt right down to a drop of wax, while the flame still burnt, the whole thing suddenly levitated like a little fairy and floated past my oil lamp, brushing past it leaving a mark of red wax and gently settling upon the table at the foot of another honey jar where it burnt clean.

The white arrows show its path.

The top of the honey jar where the candle was, was totally clean with no wax residue at all save for a stain of the red dye used in the manufacturing of the candle.

The small mark of wax left on my oil lamp.

The place where it landed, to show you, I have scraped what little wax there was left with my nail.

Being new to Hoodoo initially I thought the incident was a good sign in which a spirit associated with love did that. I asked my Hoodoo teacher and she did a reading, and told me it was the intranquility spirit of which I conjured up– that it was haunting my premises. (It was probably trying to burn down my house.)

It also explained my crazy and erratic behaviour for the past few weeks. When possessed by the spirit, one has a tendency to be short-tempered and sometimes even vicious much like the target. Also due to my depression my suffering was magnified. (This is a warning for casters who are in depression to take extra caution with the spirit of intranquility.)

I had to perform an exorcism. I did a protection spiritual bath. I used disk incense for purification and chanted psalm 91 while fanning the smoke with the bible, I walked about everywhere, opening cupboards and drawers as well smoking them thoroughly.

After that I laid salt in the corners of the room to keep the intranquility spirit out.

Also I had to do a 13-Day Uncrossing bath prescribed to me by my teacher. To get rid of all the nasty bad luck and vibes being possessed by the spirit gave me. I should have listened to teacher and not done the intranquility vigil. But no, I thought it would be "fun." I can imagine her slapping her head in exasperation reading my blog.

Taoist Ritual Calling For Divine Justice

This is very heavy subject matter for a first post, but who cares. Here goes.

A few years back, I imagine regarding prayers and magic this is certainly the worst thing I had ever done. Of course my intent was not of the disturbing results that came of it, it was after all the Gods who decided upon it. But still… that was something unforgettable.

This story involves a very bad man. Akin to a rapist, who never got caught by the law. Let's call the hypocritical man, "Uncle Simon." I need not go much more into specifics on what this man did to deserve negative attention from my spiritual community. He used to be part of the community in fact, almost like a monk wearing a wooden Buddhist mala around his neck saying "amitabha" to everyone he saw.

I lost my temper with him. We had tolerated alot, and that little thing was the last straw.

Prayer to the Gods is best done on a full moon. But I did not wait, and I did it in broad daylight. I went straight to the nearest joss paper shop (shop that sells Taoist spiritual supplies) and bought big joss stick incense, incense disks (not charcoal disks) gold-leaf paper with the correct Taoist scriptures on them. Lots of them. After the joss paper shop, I went straight to the market to buy some fragrant steamed rice, roast duck, deep fried pork, marinated sweet pork and roast chicken. (An offering to the Gods.)

I took a small foldable table with me along with my supplies and went right into the middle of a large field. The sky was slightly overcast and greying. Out in the field, was where I could be close to the spirits of the earth, wind and grass.

On the foldable table I laid out the food. A little ways aside I stuck the three big incense sticks/joss sticks I bought into the ground along with a pair of wooden candles. Each incense stick, over an inch in width traditionally represents, Earth, Heaven and Hell. So that my prayer would be heard in all three realms.

After I had finished setting up the altar in the open, I knelt there on the grass and began to pray. I worked myself up into an insane fury, and started shouting, lighting the candles and incense sticks. I lit the gold leaf paper by the wooden candles and got a large and fierce fire going. All the while I cried and shouted myself hoarse for divine justice. Once the fire was large enough I threw in the disk incense for purification.

I had been yelling so loud that in the distance at the edge of the field some people were watching. By that time I was very tired and slightly giddy from focusing my intent. I ended the ritual when I felt that spirits had "eaten" what they wanted from my offerings laid out upon my little folding table, and I helped myself to some of it. (Some people leave the food, some people eat it.) In this case I had to, I needed to ground myself and bring my mind back from the spirit world into the physical plane. By then thunder was beginning to rumble and the cool rain started falling.

A few months later, Uncle Simon died in his home. He had a serious gangrene infection, on his privates, and told the doctor he would, "rather die" than have it cut off and save his life. He very well got what he wanted.

Signing off,

Smoke