Volume I
Chronicle Three

Magic, Power, and the Little Details

To many, magic is a series of hurdles and obstacles, but it doesn't have to be this way. If you are no longer in the karmic stage of your life and have progressed into the freewill stage, magic should be as natural to you as breathing.

I wish not to insult anyone by implying that they are one of these people, but the fact still remains that there are people out there who are simply useless when it comes to magic. When they make a talisman, it has a teeny tiny charge. Their Banishings couldn't stop a charging credit card and their psychic visions read like tabloid newspaper predictions. It is most unfortunate and a sorry sight to see on various levels.

Although it may seem that the Almighty has played a pretty cruel joke on these people, it is not by the hand of God that things are the way they are. They're all doing it to themselves, and the tragedy of this cruel joke is that they don't even know that they are doing it.

Magic requires faith and the right mind state. Apparently, they posses both or their magic wouldn't manifest at all. So, the question still remains, "Why is it that some do not posses power in their magic?".

This is a really interesting topic and I highly suggest that you seek the answer on your own as I am sure you would find this pursuit for the truth most fascinating. If you do not posses the time and would rather have the answer immediately, the answer is as follows. If you put garbage in, you get garbage out. I know that the answer sounds a bit simplistic, but the secret to magical power is so simple; it is baffling that it stands to be even a problem.

There are those that perform their rituals like folding laundry. They light their lamps and candles as if it was a cigarette. I have seen sigils drawn like the scribblings of a young child. I have seen pentagrams and hexagrams drawn in such haste, I had no idea what it is that was just drawn.

Through the course of my magical studies, I have been privileged to many rituals and from what I have experienced and seen, the more you put in, the more you get out. If all you care about is getting the ritual done to reap the rewards, the mind state that you are really putting out there is that you don't care how what you are doing is made and that you just want to get it done. Like anything else that is made by a person who doesn't care about what he is making, the end product is of poor quality and is not very good.

I often tell people that it takes me 60 seconds to light my alter lamp. Many laugh and think that it is hilarious, but who is the true victim of this cruel joke? I for one, am reaping the rewards of 60 seconds well spent.

Things you can do to improve your ritual

Physical Preparation

Everything that you will need to do the ritual must be carefully considered and taken care of. This includes having a place for every object during the ritual.

You should never have to reach into your pocket in a middle of a ritual. You should never have to stop to find something in the middle of a ritual. To do such things are mental distractions and only interfere with acquiring the right mind state.

Mental Preparation

Never expect anything less than perfection in a ritual. Even if you are unable to attain such perfection, you still must strive for perfection, because the intention to create perfection is equally significant to the perfection itself. Every Symbol must be a blazing light and every word must be a thundering roar. It doesn't matter if your ritual space is a closet and you're surrounded by noise detecting neighbors, your rituals must still be magnificent and down right awesome.

To do this requires mental preparation. You need to make the decision that this will be done and think about what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. Before the ritual is even started, you need to know exactly what will take place and how it will happen. The ritual is not the appropriate place to be making these decisions.

Creative improvisation does have a place in ritual and it can be very effective, but it's place is not to cover up mistakes and to replace mental readiness with irresponsible guess work.

Respect

Everything in a ritual must be shown respect. This is not only due to the fact that there are many things in a ritual that deserve respect. The main reason that respect must be given to every aspect in a ritual is because by assuming this humble state of mind we place ourselves in the proper place in relation to the universe.

The funny thing about magical power is that the more you attain, the more you realize how little you possess. It's as if the very abilities that you acquire allows you to see a larger picture of the universe. Along with this larger picture, you also see the power and the glory that is out there and to see such power is quite a sobering experience.

Although as magicians, we must maintain our authority over our ritual space, we must also do so with humility, compassion, and respect. It sound contradictory, but it goes back to the passive-aggressive duality of existence. You cant have the authority unless you possess the wisdom to use the power that comes with it responsibly.

Clarity of Purpose

There is a direct link of cause and effect between the ritual and the outcome. Everyone knows this but for some reason the actions of many do not reflect this information. Perhaps the end result is not important to them, but I don't believe that. I suspect that they have not truly considered how important the ritual is to the final outcome.

Care and Effort

The two things that will make the biggest difference in the results of your magic is care and effort. Every step you take must be carefully considered. Every hand gesture and body position must be well thought out. Your words and incantations must be clearly articulated and your symbols and sigils must be drawn large and bright.

Pay attention to acknowledge when you begin something and when you complete something. Every movement or action must be completed in it's entirety before the next may be initiated.

To do things perfectly and correctly will improve the results. To improve the results even more, slow down the rituals so that you are able to invest more care and effort into them.

The last aspect that will improve a ritual in regards to care and effort is creative improvisation. Now, I am not saying to make things up as you go along, or to do the ritual backwards just to be creative. The proper place for creative improvisation is to enhance your rituals by adding style, grace, or flare to them. In other words, personalize your rituals, without altering the main core of the ritual that makes it work. Change the way you walk, the way you talk, the way you draw your sigils. Change your demeanor and the way that you promote yourself. Change anything and everything that doesn't change the ritual. Make the ritual your own and it will become a part of you.

Although I have previously stated that the physical elements are not necessary to produce magic. Once you choose to do the physical elements, you have just made them an integral part of the magic process. By your choice, you have made those physical elements necessary and they have to be done well.

The reason that I have chosen this moment to review rituals is because the next topic will be a ritual. I sincerely prefer not to see any shabby magicians out there casting Achromancy with a powder puff intensity. Henceforth I have provided you with the knowledge to make the craft become alive and it is up to you to choose to do so or not.

In order to understand the next ritual you must understand what is a ritual, therefore we shall briefly review what is happening when you perform a ritual. A ritual is a situation where everything in the environment, both physically and mentally is properly controlled. This is done in order to manifest the precise mind state that the ritual is meant to create. The reason that rituals are used to produce specific mind states is because the mind state initiates a specific force of energy to manifest, thus rituals are used to produce this specific force of energy.

Rituals are not done for the pure enjoyment of doing rituals and they are not done because you want to perceive the world in a certain way. Rituals are done to produce magic. The ritual is not only equal to the mind state, but it is also equal to the force of energy that the mind state produces. The ritual is the force of energy.

By approaching the forces that exist behind rituals in this fashion, you acknowledge their existence and recognize their potential. This allows you to handle, control and use these forces as you would with any other force of energy.

The ritual that we shall explore is called the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram which is the invoked equivalent of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. What this ritual accomplishes is by approaching the energy forces behind the LBRP ritual as a recognizable force, we are then able to project this force. By doing so, we shall create an ethereal entity. Much like creating an artificial elemental, an ethereal entity is given it's existence through us and as such, we determine it's duration and task. In other words, we shall create a defensive shield that lasts for as long as we see fit.

In order to accomplish this task, you will require knowledge of the LBRP or an equivalent ritual. The LBRP (for those of you unfamiliar with this ritual) is a banishing ritual that casts out lower level energies such as negativity as well as other unwanted earth dwelling entities. It thwarts off psychic attack and brings peace of mind in an otherwise chaotic world. Should you not posses this ability or any like it, I suggest that you acquire it first before proceeding with this ritual, seeing that it is difficult to work with an energy that simply is not present.

Another ability that you will require is the ability to control and direct energy. Types of rituals and crafts that accomplish this are Invocation, Evocations (Wiccan), Talismanic Magic, Channeling, and Elemental Magic. Again, should you not posses this ability, I suggest that you acquire it first before proceeding.

The Invocation Ritual of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram

STEP ONE. Prepare yourself for initiating a ritual as you would normally prepare. Perform any relaxation or cleansing Rituals at this time.

The suggestions that I had given at the beginning of this chronicle should have already been incorporated into your rituals if that is your decision to do so. Now is too late to decide to incorporate any of those suggestions into this ritual. Changes will have to wait for another ritual.

STEP TWO. Perform the opening of your ritual as you would normally do. Obviously, only you would know how you initiate your rituals so there is not much help I can give you here.

STEP THREE. Perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

You will need to claim a large area in doing this ritual. As you cast the circle, place it at least twenty feet from your alter. The pentagrams that go along with it will also need to be that far away. The reason for this is that you are going to need a lot of room to perform the invocation.

The importance of this ritual is to serve as a defensive barrier for the duration of the overall ritual. It is a standard LBRP ritual.

If you simply do not have twenty feet around your alter as many do not, do not allow the walls that confine your alter confine your magic. We are not dealing with an item on your alter, we are dealing with an object in the ethereal. The twenty feet I speak of is a visualization and is not connected to the physical plane.

Since space does not exist on the ethereal, you are not blowing through your neighbor's wall and infringing on your neighbor's space. Physically, we may be near each other, but etherically that doesn't matter.

Remember that the circle that you cast represents your existence and your area of influence. It is a double sided wall, where you can no more infringe on your neighbor's area than he can infringe on yours. As you cast your circle beyond your walls, I suggest that you visualize an open field representative of the ethereal plane in which the circle exists. I do not recommend envisioning your neighbor's area on the other side of the wall or you very well may have a pentagram blast through into your neighbor's home.

STEP FOUR. Perform a second Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram within the first Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. There must be a clear distinction between the first and the second LBRP and the energy manifested should be kept separated. With this in mind, attempt to make the second LBRP as large as possible. The larger the ritual, the more energy it will require to manifest and this energy is then contained in the ritual. The more energy it contains, the more force it possesses to devote to it's task.

The task of the second LBRP is to generate the energy that shall be utilized and formed into the ethereal entity. The reason for two LBRP rituals to be performed is that if you were to utilize the energy from one source to do more than one task, one task or the other must suffer. You cannot commit the entire effectiveness of the LBRP to a task if there are more than one task.

STEP FIVE. Perform the Mind State Identification Method. You will need to perceive and recognize this specific form of energy. If you cannot feel it's presence you can't control, project or focus it.

STEP SIX. Standing behind your alter, hold your hands straight out in front of you with the palms facing towards each other. Visualize a translucent sphere that forms between your palm. This sphere should be about a foot and a half in diameter. Once it has been formed, increase it's size to a size that you desire to be your shield size. Your hands should still be raised but it should not interfere or penetrate the sphere.

STEP SEVEN. Focus on the energy of the inner LBRP. Take a deep breath and inhale this energy through your nasal passage. As you exhale, project this energy through your mouth and blow it into the sphere. As this energy is trapped in the sphere, you should feel it's presence emanating against the palms of your hands.

Continue in this fashion until all of the energy of the inner LBRP has been stored in the sphere. The power emanating from the sphere should be exceedingly powerful due to it's concentration into the sphere.

STEP EIGHT. Release the sphere by returning your hands to your side. As you do so, the sphere will float in it's same location in front of you. Say the following incantation:

I created you so you must protect me for amount of time.

If this incantation sounds really bad to you, it is because I just lied when I said that you should say this incantation. The truth is that I want you to create your own incantation. Good magicians must be able to think and create on their own. Take my incantation and rewrite it to best suit what you feel and want to say. Also indicate that the sphere is to follow your physical body and surround it at all times of it's duration period. Also, be precise on the length of the duration period.

STEP NINE. Step back from your alter and allow the sphere to center on your alter. Do not step beyond your outer circle. If you had made your outer circle as big as I instructed you to, this should not be a problem.

STEP TEN. Step into the sphere and as you do so, visualize the hole you have just made sealing behind you. You should once again feel the energy of the inner sphere as well as the energy of the outer circle that hasn't gone anywhere and should still be present.

STEP ELEVEN. Close your ritual and release any and all entities from your ritual space, except that of the sphere which has a specific purpose and must remain.

STEP TWELVE. Return to your normal state.

The duration period of this invocation should not be extensive. The invocation of the LBRP is a training ritual that is designed to teach what it feels like to have your defenses in place. It can be very addicting as it does so much for your peace of mind that should you become dependant on this state, you would be unable to function without it.

We live in a society and it is by our choice that we do so. By making this choice, we have an obligation to others in society. We must not only help when we can, but also to interact with them.

This means that we must allow others to reach us and for us to reach others. This can not be done if the LBRP is operational at all times.

There are those who believe that it is not by their choice that they must live within a society. Such people are either not magicians or misguided. Magicians take charge of their environment and their lives. It is by their Will that they determine what is or isn't to be their destiny. 

Departing Thought:
Shoplifting, Bad Karma or Bad Vision

I know of this shop and they are so consumed with the fear of shoplifters that they plaster their walls with the familiar, "Shoplifting plays hell on your karma" warning. They are constantly on the lookout for potential shoplifters. The funny part is that they are always surprised when they realize that they've been robbed.

I have news for these people and others who live in fear. When all you are able to see is shoplifters, your visions will tend to come true and you will attain exactly what you fear. In this case it is shoplifters and whether you realize it or not, you are self-prophesying your own demise. It's called creative visualization and it manefests things in the negative if your are not carefull.

Remember that the Universe had a reason for you to possess whatever you possess. If this object is stollen, does this diminish the reason that you possesed this object in the first place? If the answer is no, guess what? The reason that you needed the object is still valid and the Universe will replace it. No one can trully steal from you because the Universe is a limitless provider.

To dwell on what you had sends the message "This is all that I will ever have". This once again, is because there is no existence of time in the ethereal where you are sending this message and it is magically effecting your life.

To dwell on what you currently possess is sending the message "This is all that I will ever have". This is because you're saying the same thing as in the previous paragraph only in the present tense and it translates the same in the ethereal. What you are doing in both statements is placing a limit or a cap on what you possess. What you are saying is that what I possess is a finite amount that can be perceived and this is it, right here. Nothing more, just this right here.

My advice to you all is: Don't do that. It's not healthy. Focus on your potential and what you perceive is possible. Never look back and never regret. Everything is possible and your destiny lies in your hands. Go for it all!