In the previous posts in the Simple Magick for Better Living series, we talked about some easy methods for obtaining the basic, and often most distracting needs of life. Drawing wealth and favor, love and companionship are relatively easy things to do, and hearken back to the earliest practical purposes Magicians, sorcerors, and shamans used to take care of themselves and their communities.
Sometimes, we don’t need to draw things to us to get where we want to be, instead we need to remove the things, people, and situations that are blocking us from accomplishing, or even being able to learn our True Wills.
When I was a younger and angrier man, my first reaction to obstacles in my path was to get angry and lash out at whatever, or whomever was blocking my intentsions. Over time, I learned that destruction is the least useful method of getting things out of your way. Even when you succeed in obliterating whatever it is that dares to stand between you and your desires, you still have to clean up the mess. And a couple years later, you find yourself in a position where that person, situation, or relationship would come in handy. It’s awfully hard to use a boss as a reference for a particularly challenging part of your skill sets when your direct, or indirect methods of getting past him resulted in his eternal hatred of you and everything you represent.
These days, as a slightly less-young and definitely less-angry man, I try not to break things just because they’re in the way. Instead, I just do what I can to move things around, to create other options, or to move people somewhere else where they can be more useful. My personal preference for this type of magical working is, once again, the planetary pentacles from the Greater Key of Solomon.
As with all things relative to the concept of “flow,” I turn to the planet Mercury for moving stopped progress. Other magicians work with other planets, spirits, powers, or concepts to deal with obstacles, but I have found that I am most effective when I work with Mercury. Whether it’s getting a promotion, solving a perplexing bit of code that has me stumped, or helping a friend sell their house when it’s sat stagnant on the market for years, the planetary spirits of Mercury are there for me.
Today we’ll be talking about the Pentacles found in images 46 and 48. Pentacle 46 is described as “serving to invoke the spirits subject unto Mercury; and especially those who are written in this pentacle.” The four spirits named on this Pentacle are Coccaviel, Hecmadiel, Savonia, and Ghedoria. Mathers corrects these to Kokaviel, Dhedoriah, Savania, and Chokmahiel. I prefer to use the names as they are found on the seal, myself.
When you create this talisman, start with the pentacle shown in image 46. You can use paper and a silver gel pen or paint pen to good effect, or engrave the seal in a silver disk using an engaving tool, or a Dremel. Begin in a Mercury hour of Wednesday. When you have finished with image 46, move on to draw the pentacle in image 48 on the opposite side of your talisman.
The Pentacle in image 48 is described as “serving to open doors in whatever way they may be closed, and nothing it may encounter can resist it.” In my opinion, it’s the four spirits of from image 46 that do the work, and the image on the other side that forms the intent you are aiming them towards.
Once you have this talisman created, with image 46 on one side, and image 48 on the other, the use is pretty much the same as the approach described in the previous post in this series. Begin by crafting an Oration that frames your intent. Something along the lines of “I stand before a closed door, and call upon you to open a way through this door, which cannot stand against you. This door is [describe the situation, person, or obstacle you’re facing in life]. I ask that you remove it, move it, or otherwise resolve it in such a way that I may attain [describe what you’d have happen if the obstacle were suddenly gone.]
In a Mercury hour on a Wednesday, and it can be the same one in which you created the talisman, set up your ritual space. You’ll need something like a mantle or small table or altar where you can put the talisman, a tea light candle, a stick of incense, and a shot of some decent gin. I’ve found Hendrick’s to be super appreciated by Mercury spirits, perhaps because the juniper berries that go into it are sacred to Zeus, and Hermes gets off on getting Zeus’s offerings.
Call on the four spirits of the talisman in Figure 46:
“Coccaviel, Hecmadiel, Savonia, and Ghedoria, I call upon you to send those spirits you control that I may accomplish my Will, that this door be opened, and the path from here to my desired goals be made straight and clear of all obstruction.
[Insert your Oration]
“Receive these gifts of fire [light the candle], and may the aroma of this incense bring you pleasure [light the incense]. Receive this libation, which I drink in your names [drink most of the gin, leaving some for the spirits].
“I thank you for your presence, as you came in peace, go forth now to manifest my desires in power.”
If you can safely, let the fire burn out naturally, let the incense burn out on its own, and clean up the shot glass when the gin has evaporated.
As you go through life, there’s very little that can stand in your way that cannot be dealt with fairly easily with this talisman and these spirits. I end up leaving the talisman near a statue of Hermes, and just leave a candle holder and a shot glass on the mantle. Whenever needed, I light some incense, a candle, and replenish the gin. The picture in this post is exactly what I do. The silver disk is my talisman, and if you look closely, you’ll see the names of the spirits I work with.
