Tag: grimoires
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St. Cyprian: Magic’s Unlikely Saint
I’m generally circumspect when it comes to naming specific spirits I work with in my own practice. The one exception is St. Cyprian of Antioch, who was one of my earliest patrons. St. Cyprian of Antioch1 is a fascinating figure for those interested in magic, particularly magic in the Solomonic tradition. He was dropped at…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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.…
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Solomonic Magic in Practice: Exorcism and a Clean Slate
Last week we talked about some high-level theoretical frameworks of Solomonic magic. This week we’re going to be diving into the details of putting them into practice. Starting with the first step in nearly every Solomonic operation: consecrations. Why are tools and materials in Solomonic traditions consecrated prior to an operation? There are a couple…
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Solomonic Magic In Practice: A General Framework for Conjuration
I’d like to start a series of posts that dig deeper into the practical aspects of Solomonic magic. It’s a form of magic that seems to be frequently mischaracterized in some modern circles, as needlessly adversarial or coercive towards spirits. I find that view to be somewhat shallow. Solomonic magic has a tremendous amount to…
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On the Role of Grimoiric Traditionalism
I’ve encountered a couple folks recently asking what are essentially variations on the same core question: “I’m reading grimoire X, and there are a lot of heavy-handed Christian elements that seem excessive or make me uncomfortable. Can I modify these bits or take them out?” It’s a great question, and the answer (as with most…