The Raven’s Crucible
Musings on magic, divination, and the occult.
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Ritual Innovation
We’ve nearly wrapped up our examination of Solomonic methods of spirit conjuration. At this point we should have a working knowledge of how to make contact with a spirit, set the terms of engagement, and participate in the resulting communication. There’s one more element, often overlooked, that’s worth covering in our discussion of the Ligatio…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: The Spirit’s Reply
In previous posts we’ve covered all the elements that go into summoning a spirit. We’ve now made it up to the penultimate stage in our Solomonic conjuration framework: Ligatio. In this phase, all the preliminaries are complete, the spirit has appeared, and the terms of the engagement (if any) have been set. The main thing…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Defining the Boundaries
We’ve now made it up to step four in our Solomonic conjuration framework: Constrictio. We’ve performed all our invocations and evocations, and made contact with the spirit. From here on out the ritual will proceed quickly; the main hurdle has already been overcome. The constrictio step is a reiteration of the boundaries you wish to…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Calling the Spirits
We’re now through all the preparatory phases in our deep dive on Solomonic conjuration. We’ve talked about setting the stage, consecrating our tools and completing the requisite purifications. We’ve talked about spirit names and seals, and the various different ways a spirit may show up when called. We’ve invoked various divinities, patrons, and gatekeepers for…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Making Contact
So far we’ve talked about the steps that need to be taken before summoning a spirit. This week we’re going to explore a slightly different facet: when to stop. One of the biggest objections to Solomonic conjuration among modern practitioners is its dominating tone. Threatening a spirit with hellfire and damnation unless it appears before…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Choosing a Spirit
Let’s recap where we are in our Solomonic ritual. We’ve consecrated our tools, our spaces, and ourselves. We’ve drawn out our circle. We’ve invoked various powers (God, angels, intermediary spirits, patrons, directional guardians, etc.) to set the stage. Now we’re ready to actually summon the spirit we are trying to contact. Before we can get…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Calling the Powers
So far in our Solomonic magic series, we’ve covered the first step of our conjuration ritual framework: Consecratio Dei, the consecrations to God. We’ve talked about preconsecration of tools and materials, personal purification, and creation of ritual space. Now we’re ready to step into the circle and begin the actual ritual of conjuration. The next…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Personal Purity
We’re now several posts deep into an exploration of consecrations in the Solomonic tradition. We’ve discussed consecrations of tools and of physical space. There’s one final piece of the puzzle to talk about when it comes to consecration: consecration of the magician themselves. And this is one of the most important elements, as the thing…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Drawing the Circle
Over the last few weeks we’ve explored the idea of consecrations in the Solomonic tradition. That everything brought into the ritual space is exorcised and blessed ahead of time, to give the magician a spiritually clean environment in which to work. There are two final pieces we haven’t talked about yet: the purification of space,…
-
Solomonic Magic in Practice: Blessings and Consecrations
In the last post we talked about the first step in consecrating Solomonic tools and materials: exorcism of any unwanted influences that might be present to start with. But there is a second stage required for a consecration. We need to bring those influences or psychic impressions we do want into the item as well.…