Perhaps the most common ailment magicians working on behalf of others have to face is the Case of the Cursed Client. Someone contacts you, and they’ve been cursed. Usually by an ex-partner, other times by their own family members, once in a while an evil magician who’s super evil, the evilest of all magicians. Other times, they’re just regular Janes having a run of really bad luck. Their dogs die, their partners leave them, they lose their job, their kids are disrespectful, and they’ve developed an allergy to shellfish. Nothing goes right for them, and their friend who reads tarot cards told them they were definitely cursed.
Most of the time, there simply is no curse, other than good people making bad choices and then having to face the consequences. Ethical folks tell these types to smudge with sage, drink some detox tea, pour a hot bath with holy water or florida water, and try to make better choices in life. Maybe get some therapy and job training, take your pets to the vet, don’t tell your boss what you really think of him if you need to pay your mortgage, cut back on the drinking, and stop dating mean people.
And that yes, you are an amazing, underappreciated artist, but a job pays the rent.
But then again, once in a while, people really do get cursed. Especially in the occult community. While 99.999% of those dweebs online couldn’t conjure their way out of a paper sack, sometimes you just troll the wrong magician. Jason Miller has a book called Protection and Reversal Magick, and in it he explains that it’s not even just people who get you into a cursed, or a crossed condition. Most of the best Eastern stories of romance and daring do include at least one or two nature spirits that the protagonist manages to offend, knowingly or unknowingly. Magicians can be as forgetful as anyone else, and may renege on a deal with a spirit they’ve made, and the spirit’s upset.
Things happen, and we do, occasionally, get cursed.
It pays to have a good defense in place. Once again, I personally prefer the Planetary Talismans from the Greater Key of Solomon to fill this role in my life. This time, as one might suspect, we turn to the Pentacles related to the Planet Mars.
Today we’ll be talking about the Pentacles found in images 25 and 30. Pentacle 25 is described as “proper for invoking spirits of the nature of Mars, especially those which are written in the pentacle.” The four spirits named on this Pentacle are Madimiel, Gheuriel, Isiel, and Barchesiel. Mathers corrects these to Madimiel, Bartzachiah, Eschiel, and Ithuriel. Much as I trust Mathers, and I do know that names got corrupted over time in these manuscripts, I still like to use the names on the seal itself. It’s a preference, and it hasn’t failed me yet.
When you create this talisman, start with the pentacle shown in image 25. You can use paper and a red gel pen, or engrave the seal in a silver disk using an engraving tool, or a Dremel. Silver is the metal of the Moon, and as the Moon revolves through the forces of all the planets daily, it is considered to serve as an excellent base for any planetary talisman.
Begin in a Mars hour of Tuesday. When you have finished with image 25, move on to draw the pentacle in image 30 on the opposite side of your talisman.
The Pentacle in image 30 is described as having “so great virtue that being armed therewith, if thou art attacked by any one, thou shalt neither be injured nor wounded when thou fightest with him, and his own weapons shall turn against him.” I’ve found this talisman to be incredibly effective against all kinds of personal bad luck. I may or may not irritate people regularly on the internet, after all.
Once you have this talisman created, with image 25 on one side, and image 30 on the other, the use is pretty much the same as the approach described in the previous posts in this series. Begin by crafting an Oration that frames your intent. Something a little more simple than the Mercury or Venus attempts works well. “Thou spirits of Mars, turn back any and all attacks on my person, wherever they may come from, and use their own weapons against them.”
In a Mars hour on a Tuesday (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 whiskey, or a glass of some red wine that tastes like blood. Mixing in cinnamon, and red or black pepper can make it a more apt offering, but remember you have to drink it later.
Call on the four spirits of the talisman in Figure 25:
“Madimiel, Bartzachiah, Eschiel, and Ithuriel, I call upon you to send those spirits you control that I may accomplish my Will.
[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 wine, 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 glass when the wine has evaporated.
Whether you’re experiencing the effects of an actual magical attack, or crossed condition won’t really matter to these spirits. If the situation is all in your head, you’ll have taken steps that will at least make you feel better. If it’s an actual attack, you’ll have dealt with it, and its source.
