I was recently asked a question via email about the “Pentagram of Solomon” found in the Goetia, and how to properly use it. This is a Pentacle made in gold, with the Seal of the Spirit you are summoning inscribed on the opposite side, and worn around the neck of the exorcist as a lamen.
The person who contacted me said they were assured by “a well known magician” that the Pentagram is supposed to face outward, with the sigil of the Spirit laying against your chest. Now, if the “well-known magician” happens to be reading this, I apologize in advance, but this instruction is just plain wrong. 😦 (It’s also possible I have made this very mistake at some point in my own writings – especially back when I was still trying to figure out this whole goety thing. If so, what I’m saying now will supercede anything I said then!)
The Pentagram of Solomon is what is known as a “spirit-warding” symbol. That is, it is the kind of symbol you display in order to drive spirits away. (You might have seen similar symbols inscribed over Amish barns – and that’s a folk practice that goes all the way back to the time the grimoires were written, and beyond.) You can see another example of this in the grimoires in the 5th and 6th Books of Moses, with the “Helig” Pentagram.
You could hang a copy of such a Pentagram over your bed to drive away nightmares. Or over the bed of a woman in labor. Or in your kid’s room if they complain of ghosts in their closet or under their bed. Or wear one in general to protect you from curses or spirit-attachment. Essentially, look into the lore of spirit-warding and you’ll find a thousand-and-one uses for this kind of talisman!
Back in the Goetia, we are told how to make the Pentagram of Solomon, and that it should be worn around the neck – but nothing else is said. It is by understanding the lore of spirit-warding (something the author of the Goetia would have taken as granted) that we know how to use it properly. If we summon a spirit with the Pentagram facing outward, we run the risk of either offending or driving away said spirit. On the other hand, wearing the lamen with the spirit’s sigil facing outward will be accepted as a kind of respect shown to the entity.
One could also make the argument that the inward-facing Pentagram, laying against your chest, acts as a kind of “buffer” between the spirit and your heart-center; but I’m not convinced the author of the Goetia would have been thinking in this type of “energy-model” manner. What seems more likely is the Pentagram is simply supposed to remain hidden (on the back of the spirit’s own sigil) so as not to offend the summoned being, but can be quickly revealed if things suddenly go south during the ritual. With just one flick of the wrist, the exorcist can go from respectfully displaying the demon’s sigil on their chest, to now displaying a golden warding symbol while demands to either leave or behave are recited. (In the latter case, the lamen can be flipped back once more to display the spirit’s seal before continuing with the ritual.)
Before I sign off, I’d like to address one more point of confusion about the spirits’ seals in the Goetia. We are told to fashion the seals in the proper planetary metals of the spirits, but the only other mention of those seals in the grimoire is in relation to the Pentagram of Solomon, which is made in gold. This would provide little issue for Solar spirits, whose metal is gold. But what of the other six Planets and their metals?
Basically, the grimoire is talking about two different Talismans here. One, the Pentagram of Solomon, is to be fashioned from gold with the spirit’s sigil inscribed on the opposite side. I would assume the author intended the exorcist to make one of these for every spirit you wish to summon – which is another great indicator that we were never intended to summon all 72 of these beasties – as 72 individual gold lamens would become prohibitively expensive! However, a modern innovation would be to create a lamen that is gold on the Pentagram side – maybe using gold-leafing – with the other side allowing for different sigils to be drawn in or attached for each spirit.
Meanwhile, the talisman that is made from the spirit’s proper metal – without the Pentagram on the obverse – would be either placed upon the table of practice during the ritual, or (even better, in my opinion) place inside the Triangle of the Art. If you are using a brass vessel as well, I would place it inside that vessel, along with other objects and ingredients sacred to the spirit/planet as I have explained in Modern Grimoire Magick (http://jwmt.org/v1n10/modern.html).
I hope this short essay has been enlightening and helpful in your own Work!
A few weeks ago, I began an unusual process for a client: the consecration of a LARGE number of Planetary (and other) Talismans. These aren’t Talismans that either Carrie or Eli Cohen created, but I was hired to perform their consecrations.
It’s not unusual for me to consecrate objects for people – it’s a standard service we offer at Doc Sol’s. But it is very unusual for someone to invest in such a large number of consecrations! Thankfully, it was possible to do most of them in groups – so that all Jupiter Talismans were consecrated together, then all Venus Talismans were done together the next day, etc. Thus, in the end, the client was only paying for seven consecration rituals – rather than the nearly 20 for each individual Talisman!
So here I am, going back to work for the same client day after day for an entire week. (It’s nearly done as I type this, just before the Moon begins to wane again, but I still have a few to consecrate the next time the Moon waxes.) Each time, I have to read the rather lengthy list of Psalms over the Talismans – essentially performing a “service” over them, if you will. And this has led me to a brand new AHA! moment:
I decided to alter the Psalms I was praying to include the name of my client. More specifically, any time a Psalm spoke in the first person, I would change the pronouns to make it third-person (except, of course, where it’s God speaking!), and where appropriate I would change “I” to the name of the client.
Now, those of you who are my students, or members of my Solomonic Group on Facebook, have likely seen me talk about this very thing before. Altering the wording of a Psalm to make it more specific to your needs is a practice found in the grimoires – often done when adopting portions of Psalms into longer invocations. But, for some reason, I just never thought of doing it for the longer “service-like” lists of Psalms required for many Solomonic consecrations – and specifically when doing these for clients! (When doing them for yourself, all the first-person makes more sense.)
So, let’s just say Something “urged” me to make that very change this time. And it wasn’t easy! A big part of “ritual magick” is repetition – you establish “astral grooves” and settle into them, and that’s where the real magick happens. But, sometimes, your Familiars and/or Guardians will teach you, give you suggestions, tell you how to make things better. So, even though I struggled and stumbled over my words a few times, after a couple of days I was able to establish and settle into a whole new groove.
And, let me tell you, it was like flipping a switch! It instantly changed the entire ritual I was performing from a generalized church service to a very intimate ceremony dedicated to that one single person. The Psalms address every aspect of what the Talismans should do, the spiritual state of the person you’re praying for, and a whole lot more. It took everything those Psalms have ever meant to me and shot it out like a laser beam directly to the client! It has been a pretty mind-blowing experience.
And, now, I will be doing this every time I consecrate objects for others. 🙂
This Easter holiday was a rare and unique opportunity for working with Venus energy. It happened, by chance, to fall on April 1st – and that is the traditional Roman feast day for the Goddess Venus. The date also fell just after Venus entered one of the two zodiacal signs she rules (Taurus, in this case) and fell just within the Moon’s full-phase. The convergence of Spring Equinox, Venusian, and Easter symbolism was too perfect to give a pass.
Working with Anael has been a surprising and deeply moving experience. For most of my occult career, I haven’t paid much attention to her in particular. My focus upon the Divine Feminine has been directed toward figures such as the Wiccan Goddess, Asherah, the Gnostic Sophia, etc. I knew that Venus had very intimate connections with the most ancient Goddess figures, such as Inanna, Ishtar, and Astarte. But there was very little information to be found about Anael herself, and nothing much had directed my attention toward her specifically. (I may be speaking on behalf of my wife here, as she had a similar experience in this regard.)
But all of that changed once we decided to erect an altar to her in our home. More than any similar altar we have ever erected, this one literally built itself! It turned out we had most of what she wanted on her altar already in the house, and more sacred objects and decorations began to arrive nearly of their own accord. (Literally! Many of them were gifts from friends who heard we were building a Venus altar.) That altar just exploded – and is now the largest and most elaborate one in the house. When we built it, we had assumed I would tend it like I do most (but not all) of the other Archangel altars. However, once it was established, it was apparent it belonged to my wife, Carrie, and she has tended it ever since.
The most striking thing about all of this is the energy that has come through Anael’s altar. Every single things we have ever done in relation to the Divine Feminine – from our original paths through Neopaganism, to my Gnostic priestly devotion to Sophia and Mary, to the mysteries of sacred sex – all of it now pours fourth from Anael’s altar. From the symbol of Venus encompassing the entire Tree of Life, to the Cycle of the Seasons, to the descent of Ishtar into the Underworld – it’s all right here in Anael’s charge.
Archangel Anael
Anael (also known as Hanael) – Joy of God, or Grace of God – is the Archangel of Venus and Friday, ruler of the third heaven, lady of passion (for both love or war), sex, inspiration, and the arts. As Hanael, she is also the Archangel of Capricorn. She appears very little in the midrashim (legends), but her nature and attributes are very clearly similar to Love Goddesses such as Venus and Aphrodite, as well as Mother Goddesses such as Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Asherah, and Isis. As a manifestation of the Mother Goddess current, she also has close relationships with figures such as Sophia, the Shekinah, and Mother Mary. And as a manifestation of the Goddess of Sex, she has close relationships with figures such as Anath, Hathor, and even Lilith. As the angel of the arts, she can be regarded as similar to the Greek Muses. For an angel who has remained largely obscure in the Western Mystery Tradition, her position and function is extremely exalted.
John Dee made contact with this Archangel in the early 1500s, as he had read in the Arbatel of Magic the Angel of Venus was the current supreme ruling angel of the cosmos. (Each of the seven angels rules in succession for 490 years. The rule of Venus was to last until 1900 CE, when the Angel of Mercury would take over.) Anael appeared to Dee’s then-skryer Barnabas Saul, and introduced Dee to the angelic intermediary Uriel. Anael never appeared to Dee again, but Uriel thenceforth directed the sessions that would come to be known as the Enochian workings.
Offering Ritual for Archangel Anael
It is best to choose a Friday when Venus is well aspected in the heavens, and she should be above the horizon at the time of working if possble. Dawn is best. The most powerful times of year to do this ritual are when Venus resides in either the sign of Taurus or Libra. The Moon should be in increase.
On Thursday evening, cover a table or altar with a green or white cloth. Place a talisman and/or image of Archangel Anael upon the altar. (If it is a talisman, place it in the center. If an image, set it toward the east facing westward.) You will need a censor and an incense of Venus:
I use three ingredients:
1 part Sanalwood
1 part Benzoin
1/2 part Red Rose Petals (some of which come from roses offered on Anael’s altar)
Also prepare all elements of the offering to Venus: Seven green candles, seven glasses of water, a glass of champagne, , a glass of half-and-half cream, seven pieces of bread covered with honey, fruit (in this case an apple cut into seven slices), and a mix of spring flowers and roses. And lots of candy! (Since this invocation was done on Easter, we took advantage and offered seven green jelly beans, seven gold-foil wrapped chocolate eggs, seven green Peeps, and seven dark-chocolate eggs wrapped in green and red foils, and a Dove chocolate bunny in gold foil. My wife and daughter also decorated seven real Easter eggs with red and green dyes, which we added to the altar. Plus a lot of Easter decorations.)
Finally, for her meat, we grilled seven pieces of halal goat meat – as goat is sacred to Venus, and was once sacrificed to Venus and Aphrodite at their Temples. (We cook it well done, of course – no blood! And we only offer meat once a year at this larger feeding rituals.) The meat should be grilled over myrtle – or hazel-tree wood. Otherwise grill it over natural wood or wood charcoal, and add sandalwood, benzoin, and rose petals to the fire. Season the meat with saffron.
On Friday just before sunrise, wash yourself and don a white or green robe. At sunrise, set the offering to Venus upon the table. Place six of the green candles around the edges, and one in the center – directly upon the talisman if there is one. Set a glass of water beside each candle. Around this arrange the food offerings. You may also add any gift offerings for Anael, or items you wish for her to touch – such as copper jewelry or trinkets, talismans, stones, oils, make-up, written prayers or petitions, etc.
Light the censor and candles with their proper exorcisms, and add fresh incense to the coal. Then exorcise and consecrate the offerings with holy water and the censor.
Then move to the eastern side of the working space, facing outward. If you have a consecrated bell or trumpet, sound it and recite the following call (or one similar to it):
In whatsoever place ye may be, ye spirit(s), who are invited to this feast, [NNN] come ye and be ready to receive our offerings, presents, and sacrifices!
Move to the south and repeat – first sounding the bell or trumpet, then the call. Do this again in the west and the north.
Finally, return to standing west of the altar facing eastward, and recite the following invocations:
Prayer to YHVH Zabaoth
YHVH Zabaoth, God of the Hosts of Heaven, Great Lord of the spirits of passion, the sphere of Victory and of the Lovely Venus, She who is Beautiful, Passionate, Pleasing, Powerful, Fruitful, the Queen of all Delights. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God of Hosts, anoint us with the oil of gladness. The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace. YHVH Zabaoth, I ask in Thy Holy Name that you bless and sanctify this offering, that it may be pleasing unto You and Your Angels. Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen +
The Song of Songs
[Normally, I would have read seven Psalms or other verses related to Venus at this point. However, we instead chose to read the entire Song of Songs. It is eight chapters rather than seven, but the entire book is centered upon Venus. My wife and I read the Song together – me reading the male portions and her the female. It was a rather moving and intimate experience!]
Invitation to Anael
O’ Anael, bright morning and Evening Star! Lady of Beauty and Majesty, Passion and Strength!
Anael! Celestial Bride! Virgin and Whore! Mother and Daughter! Lucifera! Aphrodite!
Anael, Queen of Heaven and Mother of Mankind! Thou who art Sophia and Mary!
Anael, Great Goddess who smiles upon the Earth and vegetation springs forth, cattle increases, and men find love!
O’ Anael, you hide your face and the world sleeps!
Wondrous Anael, Archangel of Venus, bringer of inspiration, beauty, and art.
You have been with us from the very beginning, blessing the steps we have taken upon our path. You are the High Priestess through whom the Light of God has shone into our lives. You have been our comfort and our help. Come thou forth and partake of these offerings, which we have prepared in thy honour and to the glory of the God of the Heavenly Hosts! May you find them pleasing and empowering. We ask that you offer your blessings to our home and family, and bear our offerings and prayers of thanksgiving to the Divine Court. We petition thee for inspiration and beauty in all of our undertakings, to be beloved by our community, and that the light of thy wisdom should guide and keep us at all times. In the name of YHVH Zabaoth. Amen.
Repeat the Invitation seven times. Then, share in the feast you have offered to the Angel – taking bites of each food item, sips of the liquids. Leave the offerings in place until the green candles burn completely away (or no less than seven days). Place the remains in a natural place, into running water or at a crossroads.
– End –
Ritual of Anael Journal Entry
It would have been wonderful if this could have happened on a Friday – the day sacred to Venus. However, Easter can’t happen on a Friday – and this year neither did her established Feast Day. So we went with it, and performed our invocation ritual that Sunday on an hour of Venus. It has become our family tradition to give each of our seven resident Archangels (yes, we now have established altars to all seven planetary Archangels!) a very large annual feeding. This empowers them to work for us for the entire year, plus they get smaller candle/incense offerings and thanksgiving offerings as we regularly work with them.
We cleaned and prepared the Temple room, and gathered most of the ingredients the night before Easter, though we ran out of time to find the goat meat. Fortunately for us, Arabic butchers are open on Easter, so we were able to acquire that on the day of the ritual. The meat was even halal.
Given that this took place on Easter day, it wasn’t practical for me to fast. We went to a friend’s house and had a wonderful Easter dinner while the kids played together and hunted for eggs. It was a wonderful time, really – and even without fasting it felt quite appropriate. (“All acts of love and pleasure…”) When we got home I performed my evening Abramelin invocations, then set up the altar for the Anael invocation:
A green Venus altar cloth that was a gift from our friend Kathy at AzothArt.com, Anael’s statue, icon, censer, Agrippa Venus Incense from Doc Solomon’s (plus some special Anael incense of Carrie’s own creation), and several talismans and other objects directly from her established altar, the seven candles (one being a fixed Anael Novena) and glasses of water, plus the food offerings, candy, fresh flowers, and a few Easter decorations (including the real Easter eggs) to celebrate the season. We also had an impressively elaborate and beautiful Venus Wand to place on the altar for a client, so it would be blessed and empowered by Anael. And of course Carrie added all of her Anael and Love oils from Anubeion Creations, and her special jewelry. Once all the food, drink, and candy was added, the altar was literally overflowing!
We got the meat grilled just after the nighttime hour of Venus began (about 10:40pm), and began the invocations while the meat was still sizzling hot.
I followed the ritual as you see it above. I lit the candles and censor with the proper Solomonic exorcism and used the Agrippa incense and holy water to consecrate everything on the altar. I then made the calls in the four quarters, and performed the invocations (my wife joining me for the Song of Songs), burning the special incense my wife had made for Anael. We decided to share in the seven-fold recitation of the invitation to Anael – trading off so she recited it three times and myself four times.
Afterward we shared in the feast with Anael – sampling all the foods and liquids on the altar. (Carrie skipped the bread of course.) We invited our daughter in to do the same, and I anointed all three of us with Anael’s oil. (Our daughter may also share a special relationship with Anael. You would be amazed at the artistic streak she has manifested over her short life!)
The offerings will sit on the altar for seven days, or until the candles burn out. We will of course remove any food items that go bad in the meantime – though it is not usual to see that happen. (Except for milk items. We’ll remove the cream after a couple of days.) As things progress, and if there is anything of interest, I will update this entry.
Without question, the most popular post on my blog is (and has been for years) my post on Limpias – aka “Egg Cleansings.” It involves using an egg to absorb energies from a person and then either disposing of the egg, or cracking it open to divine the insides. The word Limpia just means “cleansing”, and not all ritual cleansings involve eggs, of course. However, the variety that uses an egg for the purpose has become an extremely popular practice, especially in areas with large Latino populations. And that popularity seems to be growing every single year – spreading with the rising awareness of the ATRs like Santeria and Cadomble.
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Sadly, it is also absolutely infested with scam artists and frauds. My Limpia post generated so many responses from people who were obviously being scammed out of THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS by these pathetic creeps, I eventually had to create this post as a loud warning to those seeking readings:
And now even that post has been flooded with comments from people being scammed. Thankfully, the tone of the comments in this post has shifted from “have I been scammed??” to “oh hell I’ve been scammed!!” I just wish the post could have reached those people before they lost their money. Some of them have “only” lost a few hundred, some have lost thousands, and not one of them could truly afford a dollar of it. 😦
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Even still, there are some comments in the thread with people scratching their heads and unsure of what is and is not a scam. Therefore, I just posted this basic explanation of what a Limpia reading really is:
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An egg cleansing is simply a modern, and more humane, version of the far more ancient technique of using a live animal to cleanse yourself. The way it was shown to me, a bird was taken and held so its wings were free to flap as it was passed all over/around the person’s body. The bird was then released, with the understanding that it would have taken negative energies and magick out of the person and fly away with them – presumably to eventually die. It wasn’t mentioned to me at the time, but I suspect something similar was done in the ancient Temples – with the bird being left at the Temple as an offering. (There was also the famous “scape-goat” that took on all the sins of Israel and was released into the desert to die. Not to mention ancient techniques of reading animal livers, entrails, etc.)
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In the Limpia, the egg is simply an analog to that bird (or goat or whatever). It is a living biological material that can, to some degree, absorb energies from you. When you crack it open, it is a divination. There are certain things you might see when you crack and egg into water – how it floats or sinks, bubbles, tendrils, blood spots, etc, etc. These are random factors that fall into place – just like Tarot cards are shuffled and fall into place – to give us a reading.
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A Limpia is NOT a magick trick. Nothing is going to “appear” inside the egg because it “passes through your aura.” You are not supposed to find hair and tar and stones inside the egg. They have no divinatory meaning beyond “this reading is a scam” – period.
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I also added this comment for someone who asked how to recognize the scam artists:
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Finding a curse right away is always a red flag. (They ALWAYS find a curse. Always.) But, of course, that doesn’t mean an honest reader won’t find something like that too. Just look for the usual pattern: pay for cleansing/reading, find something wrong, ask for more money, what they do changes nothing, discover its because you need more work, ask for even more money, and on and on and on.
If it feels like things are developing that way, get out of there. And keep this in mind: If you were to pay a legit worker for a consult, then for a talisman, and THEN for a ritual to consecrate it AND even an evocation of an angel, you would STILL not pay more than $1000. So when someone starts asking for thousands – get out!
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Keep these things in mind, folks, preferable before you cough up thousands of dollars to someone who isn’t doing a thing but depositing your money.
I would like to talk about grimoires. Not a specific grimoire, like the Key of Solomon, or Heptameron, or Lemegeton. This isn’t even about their contents, or their history. No, what I want to talk about are the actual physical grimoires – those dangerous things made of paper and cardboard, with arcane scribbles of ink on their pages. Books that at various time and places (including to this very day) could get you arrested and worse. That pretty thing you might like to display prominently on your bookshelf, or perhaps hide away from prying eyes. Most of what we know about the medieval and Renaissance Solomonic tradition comes from those books, and they continue to be a treasure trove of new insights (and magical formulas) as more and more texts are discovered and translated into English (or other modern tongues). They are truly the heart and soul of the modern Solomonic movement; the foundation upon which the tradition ultimately rests.
But the modern movement has lost something that was paramount to the old-world Solomonic tradition: the grimoires themselves. And, once again, I’m talking about the actual physical read-y things that require manual page-flipping to fast-forward or rewind them. You see, in the medieval era, it was believed that a book containing magical spells, names and descriptions of spirits, seals and characters was itself an object of magical power. There were even spells intended to empower and enliven your grimoire – as preserved in books like the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy and the Key of Solomon. However, common thought at the time was that such a ritual was not necessary for a grimoire to be possessed by the spirits listed within it, or even a living demon in its own right. There are medieval records of public occult book-burnings, where witnesses swore they heard the screams of the spirits issuing from the flames as the books were consumed.
The Leitch family gathers the offerings set out for our House Gods, Archangels, and protecting Spirits during Hurricane Irma, and takes them to the Hillsborough River. It is important to take your offering leftovers to a river or crossroads after the work is done, in order to send the energy back out into Nature.
Thanks given to my Holy Guardian Angel, Archangels Michael, Iophiel, Samael, and Raphael, Thoth, Hathor, Bast, my Familiars, and my wife’s Nganga and ancestors. As well as to the various Genus Loci who aided in the effort. We came through without injury, property damage, or even losing power, phones, or internet (until the next day!)
We further ask for blessings and relief for everyone caught in the path of this and other storms. Not everyone was so lucky!
Join Carrie Leitch on her morning walks. As these videos progress, we will look for omens and gifts from the spirits, find useful plants and herbs, encounter sacred animals, share southern folklore, and more!
Herbal washes and waters are among the most popular tools used in traditional forms of shamanism and folk magick around the world. They have existed for as long as humans have known how to make herbal teas, but their uses go far beyond medicinal beverages. In fact, they are exceptionally powerful tools in any witch‘s arsenal—it might just be easier to list the ways in which herbal waters cannot be used than to list all of their diverse applications. Visit any botanica (shops that cater to African and Caribbean Traditions, such as Santeria, Voodoo, and Hoodoo) and you will typically find several shelves fully stocked with herbal washes for as many purposes as you can imagine.
Yet, for some unfathomable reason, they have been slow to work their way into modern forms of witchcraft. Perhaps this is due to the less-than-amicable relationship between most indigenous folk traditions and modern Neopaganism. In past decades, some aspects of the older systems (such as their focus on the dead and underworld, and their use of animal sacrifice) made many Neopagans uncomfortable. As a result, many things—even very useful things—that originate in those traditions were overlooked by Western practitioners.
Today’s witches and ritual magicians are much more open to magical items that might be found on shelves next to skulls and coffin nails. However, some of these, like herbal washes, are new and mysterious to modern students, who are often unsure exactly how they are intended to be used.
I have just updated my page on how to make Herbal Holy Waters specific to the Planetary forces. And, along with that, I thought you might like to see some photos from my most recent efforts to make some. 🙂 These were taken during the last waxing moon, on the days/hours of Luna and Jupiter respectively.
The following two pictures show the plants I gathered for the process. On Monday I gathered nine plants sacred to the Moon: Jasmine, Honeysuckle, Water Lily (inc. Lotus), Juniper, Geranium (Citronella), Willow (Bottle-brush), Spearmint, Aloe, and a couple of other Succulents:
Nine plants sacred to Luna.
On Thursday I gathered four plants sacred to Jupiter: Cedar, Pine, Bay Laurel, and Honeysuckle:
Four plants sacred to Jupiter.
In each case, my wife and I went out to find these plants in our own hometown. This ensures they are fresh and intimately connected with our own genus loci (local spirits). Then, on the proper planetary hour, I lit a candle of the appropriate color and submerged the green plants into a gallon of pure spring water:
Lunar Plants in Spring Water – before ripping and tearing.
Then, as my daughter or wife held the Bible open for me, I proceeded to read the Psalms I had chosen for the ritual. (I used four Psalms for Jupiter, and nine for Luna.) While I chanted, I proceeded to rip and tear the plants with my bear hands in the water – slowly but surely turning the water opaque with the “blood” of the plants:
Lunar Water just before straining. Notice how dark the water has become.
Jupiter Water just before straining. Not every plant results in dark green color – but the water here is still opaque.
Once I simply could not tear or squeeze the plants any further, and the water had become dark, I added in several ounces of Solomonic Holy Water; for an extra blessed kick. 😉 I then allowed the results to sit for some time until the candles had completely burned out. Finally, I poured the finished herbal waters into gallon jugs for storing in the refrigerator. The final picture below is of the finished product as it appears on my Doc Solomon’s website. (The middle bottle is the Lunar Water, and the right-hand bottle is the Jupiter.)
The finished product.
If you are interested in the page at Doc Solomon’s where I am currently selling these Herbal Waters, just click here and enjoy! 🙂
We specialize in the creation of obscure and unique ritual tools and ingredients for traditional Solomonic and grimoire workings. We carry holy water, maiden-spun thread, hazel and oak wands, aspergillums, ritual knives, herbal-infused blood substitutes, talismans, parchment, beeswax and beeswax candles, holy oil, incense, and much more.
Everything we sell is made according to the exacting instructions required by the grimoires (Key of Solomon the King, the Book of Abramelin, etc) – all materials, timing, consecrations, ritual protocols and proscriptions are meticulously observed in the creation of our ritual items.
Hand-Crafted Ritual Tools and Items
The grimoires are infamous for requiring rare, obscure and hard to obtain items: such as thread hand-spun by a young maiden, ritual tools blessed by a priest, rare herbs and incenses, objects made from specific metals and other materials, rare virgin woods etc. They also require meticulous rituals and consecrations during the time of their making – extending from exactly how and when the materials are gathered to exactly how and when the tools are constructed. Some tools can only be made at certain times of the year, and others require rituals extending over several days or even weeks. We follow all of these requirements to the letter, and we provide a certificate of authenticity with every ritual tool.
Please Note: Some grimoiric tools require specific timing, rare materials, or lengthy rituals in their creation. In these cases, we do not carry a large stock of pre-made items. Instead, we make your ritual tool upon order. And, depending on your requirements and our resources, we will consider special orders upon request. Please be aware that there may be a waiting period while we do our work, though we will stay in touch with you throughout the process. Also, some especially rare items may result in limited availability of some tools.
All of our items are made, blessed and/or consecrated by Fr. Aaron Leitch, an ordained Gnostic priest of the Ecclesia Beatae Mariae Angelorum. Most of the fine art-work is done by Carrie Leitch, a Deacon of the same Church. Wood and metal-working done by Jon Zuilkowski
Father Aaron Leitch and Deacon Carrie Leitch
What is a Grimoire?
Grimoire is a French word meaning “grammar” or “basic instruction book.” It refers especially to a genre of occult texts and spellbooks from medieval and renaissance Europe that combined Church liturgy and ritual with exorcism, witchcraft and folk magick. A great number of them focus specifically upon the evocation of spiritual entities through whom spells can be cast and from whom magickal secrets can be learned. These books represent the culmination of the Western Occult Tradition up to that time, preserving the last remnants of the Old Magick before the rise of the quasi-Masonic Magickal Lodges of the nineteenth century.
What is Solomonic Magick?
Most of the old grimoires are attributed to Biblical heroes such as Moses, Noah, Enoch and King Solomon. (Though this is merely legend, as the grimoires were written thousands of years after these Biblical figures lived.) Without question, it is the Solomonic grimoires that have had the greatest impact on the Western Tradition. Today, even grimoires attributed to other figures are considered part of the overall “Solomonic” tradition. Books like the Key of Solomon the King, The Lemegeton (including The Goetia, Pauline Arts, The Almadel of Solomon and more), The Heptameron, Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Liber Juratis, John Dee’s Enochian Diaries, The Magus, The Grand Grimoire and Grimoirum Verum (to name only a few of hundreds of such texts) are all considered sub-sets of the Solomonic tradition.
Ritual of Anael Journal Entry
Given that this took place on Easter day, it wasn’t practical for me to fast. We went to a friend’s house and had a wonderful Easter dinner while the kids played together and hunted for eggs. It was a wonderful time, really – and even without fasting it felt quite appropriate. (“All acts of love and pleasure…”) When we got home I performed my evening Abramelin invocations, then set up the altar for the Anael invocation:
Ananael (The Secrets of Wisdom) 