When the Moon Talks Back

 Dear Readers, I thought I would check in and talk about something that happened to me this evening. I like to give myself a long walk from my place of work before I catch a bus to my neighborhood and home. The route I take is a somewhat wooded, winding road on a high hill. 

This evening I was walking the path when I spotted a person walking toward me. As they got closer I saw it was a rotund, older man with his shirt off. It wasn’t particularly hot out but he had climbed the hill. He was bald and white and looked all together lunar. Just as we were about to pass each other, I met his eye to give a greeting but before I could he said, “take care of yourself, you are valuable.” I was dumbstruck and barely mumbled out a greeting.

Did the Moon just tell me I was valuable? I have very little idea why this human man would say that, but was the Moon speaking through him? If I had been doing Martial work for years and a soldier or a cop in uniform were to tell me I was valuable, or any message really, I would think I would take it to heart. The Moon went Full earlier today, just a few hours ago, and here was a man with the figure of the Moon giving out messages. Talking directly to me. On a Monday, no less.

What does it mean to be valuable to the Moon? It certainly sounds like the Moon is not displeased with the work I’ve been doing and I am encouraged that my efforts are bearing fruit. 

As I continued walking I came across a discarded bit of paper, slightly folded in half and standing on its edge. I recognized it right away as a fortune cookie fortune and I picked it up. Did I ever tell you about my fortune cookie fortune collection? I have multiple jars of hundreds of discarded fortunes I've picked up outside Chinese restaurants over the past 20 years. I’ll tell you more about that later. Anyway, I picked up the fortune today and it read, “Commitment is what turns a promise into reality.”  

Keep working, keep believing, is what I hear there and again, I take it as directly from the Moon. I am now greatly encouraged about my spiritual and creative work. 

Let’s bring this back to the Moon. Today, the Moon went Full while it was in Al Fargh al Awwal, the Upper Water Spout. Al Fargh al Awwal rules water as a spiritual medium, the subtle waters, the lustral waters, the waters of light and absolution. Holy water and the waters we bless for spiritual cleansing are all part of Al Fargh al Awwal. Its image is a woman washing her hair in a basin. I like to imagine she is cleansing herself in an act of spiritual purity. To have these events happen to me on this day tells me I am awash in blessings. 

What Are You Even Doing?

 Hello, loyal blog followers. It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I hope you are well. I’ve been pretty good but I have neglected this blog. Life gets crazy with all the responsibilities that come up and take priority over other things in life. My magical and spiritual practice in some ways has taken a back seat to keeping up with my day job, my volunteer responsibilities, and family.  

Or, more accurately, ritual has taken backseat. Magic has not left the fore of my mind. I think and study and pray every day. Sometimes that can make me feel like I've lost a thread or that I'm not doing enough but we learn the lessons we are supposed to learn. I have not been doing nothing, I just don't have a list of mind-blowing, fireworks level magical results to report. Perhaps an apt metaphor would be the slow seeping of water from the ground to fill a valley to make a lake. At any one moment there is imperceptible movement but step back and the results are vast. 

What I have been doing is working on a practice that fits my everyday life. I don't have a ritual space and I don't have a ton of solitary time to dedicate to practice. The winter of 2023 into 2024 was a little difficult for me for a variety of reasons and a few projects got put down and have yet to be picked back up. I am going to get back to the original intent of this blog and use it as a way to stay motivated to do stuff so that I have something to report to you. I am feeling like I am getting back into a headspace in which long form writing is not a wholly daunting prospect. 

And, as I think about it all now and write about it I am coming to realize that I have a lot more to talk about than I thought. Making a practice part of everyday life tends to make the practice melt into the fabric of routine to the point it almost disappears. 

My study of the Mansions of the Moon has led me through new vistas with ideas that may or may not bear fruit. Here are some of the proverbial irons in the fire:

• I am slightly more than 10% done with making a set of cards for the Mansions of the Moon similar to my Decans deck and tarot deck. My goal is to complete 56 images, a beneficial and a wrathful image for each Mansion. I have 6 done. At this rate, however, Lord only knows how long it will take to finish. 
• The divination system, Zoroastor's Telescope, features the spirit names of the Mansions of the Moon very prominently and so I've been looking into it. I am most of the way through making a set of the tiles to be able to practice the system. 
• Similarly, the Faustian grimoire Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis also features the Mansion spirits. Are these important to my study or were the names simply used without context? 
• I have a bunch of incense ingredients gathered to make incenses specific to each of the Mansions but have not yet worked out the formulas. My goal is to make cones using make powder. 
• I still want to develop "mini-rites" for each of the Mansions based on the rites in the Picatrix and my own divination. My experiments have not gone well so far but it remains a goal. Perhaps I will write about the failures and the developments as they happen.
• I need to do more writing about the Mansions in general. I have years of research and practice churning to get out of me. That will be another important function of this blog; a place to practice and work out ideas that is easy and not so formal.  
• For all my study of the Mansions and congress with their spirits I have precious few actual talismans. This is an areas ripe for experimentation. 

And this is just off the top of my head. Undoubtedly, more things will come up as my study progresses. I am excited that I am in a place again in which I am able to come back to it and talk about it.  

Just remember, fellow magician, magic is something you are, not something you do. Even in fallow times magic is within you and alive.