Keeping the Egg Wet

With all the recent buzz about offerings flying about the occultosphere, I've been asked a couple of times in the last few weeks about my offering practices, so I thought I'd write a little thing about it.

I give offerings for 5 basic reasons.  I'll talk about all of them, but I'm going to focus on the last kind, because it's something I haven't seen written about as much.

Offerings during ritual
Thanksgiving offerings
Maintenance offerings
Sin offerings
Hospitality Offerings (the Wet Egg)

1) Maintenance offerings.  Spirits that I work with regularly get fed at regular intervals.  For example, my ancestors get a candle, a glass of water, a small bowl of grain, oil and honey, and a shot of metaxa once a week.  The Great Lady Undergound gets a candle, oats, olive oil, honey, and an egg every dark moon.  Spirits I work with often sometimes request something else, and I usually give it to them, because I like to encourage communication.  For example, Grammie (an ancestor) recently requested milk. and Helios requested...I didn't know what, so I had to get up, and stare into the fridge for a while, but he finally settled for orange marmalade.  I try to "listen" carefully when I'm at the grocer, to see if I feel any odd inclinations to buy weird stuff.

2) Thanksgiving offerings.  When a spirit has really come through for me, either produced something I specifically asked for, or something I didn't even know I wanted, I make an extra offering.  Usually, this is a whole raw egg cracked into a glass of wine, but sometimes something else I know they like.  When I compact for something, I also promise specific additional offerings when the magic "pays off".  For big stuff, that's often a whole bottle of liquor poured out at the crossroad and a charitable donation to an appropriate charity.

3) Sin offerings.   When I've done something I feel was wrong, I make a sin offering to the Most High which is usually a donation-purchase of livestock with Heifer International.  My practice of sin offerings is strongly informed by ancient Jewish Temple practice.  I sometimes also make sin offerings to lesser spirits, if I've sinned against them (by accidentally defiling their altar, or not making good on a compact or whatever).

4) Ritual Offerings.  I often give offerings during ritual, these are basically bait to get the spirit to show up or down-payment for something I want.  Often times, during the ritual, a spirit might request additional offerings, which I usually haggle over.

5) Hospitality Offerings, or "The Wet Egg".  This is something I didn't think was unusual, but apparently not many people actually do it.  I get frequent comments on it from magician houseguests.

To me, a very important moral precept, perhaps even one of the most important, is that of hospitality.  When someone comes to my home in need, it's incumbent on me to feed/house them.  Pretty much the only thing that can excuse me of my host-responsibility is if they violate the laws of hospitality as they apply to a guest (for example, by attacking me or mine).  When I was a kid, my parents NEVER would have let a guest (announced or not, friendly or not) leave without offering them food and drink.  I'm the same, and I feel the same way about spirits.  Unless a spirit is actively and intentionally threatening, they're welcome in my home.  For me, that even extends to spirits who aren't really friendly or helpful.  If they're hungry, I feed them.  I only banish when I absolutely have to.  (But, I'm not saying other people should do that.  It's a particular calling of mine.)

Here's how I do it.


On a raw egg, I write "Please distribute our offerings to All." with a magic marker.  I put the egg on a small plate.  It gets surrounded by coins, beads, candies, spices, a tiny metal goat, some crystals, and whatever else seems right at the time.  I pour some rum, oil, and honey over it.  Whenever any offering is made in the house (and whenever else I feel like I should), the egg gets wet (with liquor or oil) first.  Every few months, when the egg is light or the plate gets too sticky/gross, I throw out the egg, wash off all the non-perishables, scatter down some fruit or candy or spices and such, and pour more rum/honey/oil over it.  When I used to have a yard, I disposed of offerings at the foot of a large oak tree, but now that I live in the city, I just throw them out, and I haven't gotten any complaints.  The plate pictured above has been out for about a week, so it's not very cluttered and sticky yet.  The mints got added just now, because I wanted to give something in exchange for the photo.  Legba seemed to really like them.

The plate I'm using now is white, and painted in red with Legba's veve.  It was a gift.  I've never worked with Legba in any way except this, and I don't usually call him by name or reference him in any way when I work with the egg, but it seems like the plate for the job.  I mostly think of the egg as being administered by a loose collection of various gatekeeper spirits including Legba, Hermes, and Hekate.  The spirits that "know the name of every spirit" and "open the ways".  Since the offerings are for everyone, it's not so important who does the distributing.

The egg plate lives on the kitchen "bar", which is very close to the front door of the apartment.  I say hello to it when I come home, and goodbye when I leave.  "Hello, egg!  I had such a shitty day today.  I'm so glad to be home.  Drink with me!"  "Hello egg!  Today was great.  Drinks are on me!"

I've been doing this for about a year now, and I notice real benefits.  The "spirit ecology" in my apartment is noticeably pleasant and friendly.  Seriously, every single sensitive person who's been in the apartment has commented on it.  Also, several people have told me that I "have a lot of allies in the spirit world who I don't even know".


UPDATE:  Here is a picture of the same egg after a week.  You can see that the candies have (under the constant application of rum) dissolved into a kind of gross pink goo.

UPDATE: As promised, here is a picture of the empty plate.  I have thrown out the egg and spices, and washed all the hard bits clean of goo.  I am about to "restock".

And here it is restocked.  New egg, clean coins (including 3 Mercury dimes), iron key, brass beads, all-seeing eye bead, new frankincense, star anise, and red/white mints.  This time, I left them wrapped, so hopefully they will stay non-goo this time.  I poured olive oil, white rum, and honey over the whole thing, and then a sprinkling of nutmeg (which is a favorite of Hermes).  You can see our watch-dragon in the picture. :)

UPDATE: Here's a video about how I set the egg: http://traifbanquet.blogspot.com/2015/04/wet-egg-instructions.html

NOTE: In the video, I say "herkimer diamond", but I meant "Cape May diamond"

Field Report: Seven Celestial Spheres

This weekend, I had my first ritual with my new working partnership.  It went very well.  I thought I'd offer a field report here.  The complete ritual, as best I can recall, is below.   I played the Aleph role, so those parts I remember a little better. This is just what we did; you could adapt it however you want.  It's not intended to be a script.

Summary:

Three magicians open the gates of the seven planetary spheres.  In each sphere, certain guardians of the powers of the planet are called, and offerings are traded for blessings.  Via the medium (mem) instructions are given to the magicians for further work, either individually or as a group.

The three magicians have specific roles.  In my experience, the most important tricks to group ritual are (1)making sure that, an any given point, one person is clearly in charge, and (2)making sure there's sufficient narration to keep everyone on the same page. When I work by myself, it's mostly just sitting quietly with my eyes closed, thinking and perceiving stuff. But, when people work together, you need the "showmanship" to keep intentions clearly aligned. Also, the props and fancy talk n'at are half the fun! :)

Although the ritual is written for three, it could be adapted to do singly or as a pair.  The three roles are as follows.

Aleph: The priest of the air.  The narrator/summoner/spirit-wrangler.

Mem: The priest of the water. The medium.

Shin: The priest of the fire. The opener/closer.

Timing:

We preformed the ritual for the first time on the evening of Sunday, January the 18th, 2015 beginning in the hour of the Sun and finishing in the hour of Venus. I'm not sure the timing is very important, however I think it would be better when the moon wasn't new. (I'll discuss this more in the moon section.)

Materials:

• large pillar candle, ideally white with three wicks.
• cauldron (or large pot) with a lid (The lid is in case of fire.)
• salt, sand, or dirt to fill cauldron. This is important for fire safety! We used road salt.
• (faux) gold dust (I use this)
• holy oil (we used Shin's oil, which seemed to be myrrh, frankincense, and gold flakes in almond oil. When I make it, it's cinnamon, myrrh, cassia, and cannabis in olive oil. I'll write a recipe soon, if you ask.)
• colored paper in purple, orange, green, yellow, red, blue, and black.  one of each per person. I like origami paper for this. you could also do all white paper (if you're lame)
• Safe space where you won’t be interrupted large enough for the three magicians to sit comfortably in a triangle.
• ideally, a low table or such to put the cauldron on. side table of offerings
• seven candles (we used tea lights, but I would have used 7day jars in appropriate colors if I was by myself)
• offerings (we offered polenta with browned butter, eggs, cherries, and honey whiskey)
• Seals of each planet for scrying (our medium doesn't use a mirror, but I would have used a dark mirror rather than the seals if I was mem'ing

Preparations:

These can be done anytime in advance of the ritual, and should be done individually by each person.

Spend some time and decide on intentions for each of the seven planetary spheres.  You can make more than one wish per sphere.  Here are some suggestions:

Moon: increased psychism, sex, powerful/insightful dreams, healthy menstruation, childbirth, and nursing, fertility, fecundity, a good harvest

Mercury: communication, artistic/intellectual inspiration, academic success, professional success for anyone in the “information trade”, travel, luck

Venus: love, community, friendship, influence, status

Sun: beauty, grace, charisma, health, purpose, faith

Mars: victory, power, purpose, resolve, endurance, lust, force

Jupiter: wealth, power, dominion, parenthood, leadership, blessings/protection those whom you are set over (children, students, employees, etc)

Saturn: protection, connection to ancestors, binding, depth, quietude, banishing, connection to the land, access to the underworld

Write your wishes on the appropriate colored paper.  You can write petitions or sigilize the intentions. Personally, I made sigils, and then painted them on in Abramelin oil. Mem & Shin wrote petitions.

Fill the caldron with dirt halfway.  Put the candle in the middle of the cauldron.  Add another several inches of dirt, so the candle is quite stable.  Ready the lid in case flames need smothering.

Arrange a circle with the cauldron in the middle.  The three magicians should be able to comfortably hold hands around the cauldron, and all should be able to read the cauldron.  A low table or milk crate beneath the cauldron facilitates this.

Mix the gold dust into the holy oil to make a sort of paint.

Each magician should individually wash, cleanse, banish, and ground herself before beginning.   

Prologue:

Shin casts a circle.  My shin did the Adamantine Temple (which is a technique you learn in Jason Miller's sorcery classes along with a fire mantra. He also set an aleph-mem-shin triangle. Because we worked in my apartment, which is already "well tended" the circle is just to hold the energy in, and prevent "leakage". In a "unowned" space, you might want more.

Mem consecrated the time. Honestly, I'm not really sure how he did that. I couldn't feel whatever he did.

Aleph should consecrate the participants by drawing the appropriate letter on their forehead in the gold oil, just at the third eye.  Additionally, Mem's ears get consecrated, Shin's hands, and Aleph's lips (note: tastes gross)

Aleph: Lights cauldron candle. (If outside, make a bigger fire.)

Eternal, unique, first, everlasting, holy and ineffable ONE, we call on you!  

ARARITA, opener of gates, we call on You!  

You, whom all gods worship!  El Elyon, God of Gods, we call on you!

You, who moment by moment breathe What Will Be into That Which Is!  

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, we call on you!  

ARARITA, our call pierces through the veil!  

El Elyon, our call shakes loose the aethyrs!  

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, our call was, is, and ever will be.

As we speak it, so it comes to pass, so it has always been.

Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh.

Gate of Saturn:

Shin: Traces the seal of the planet (the usual one, not the lovely Matthew Brownlee ones used here; they are hard to trace) over the cauldron. He vibrates omega (awe) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

In the dark of the moon, in deepest winter, in the hour of the midnight Sun we begin our journey through the spheres here, at Sha’are Olam ha Olam, The Gates of Eternity, Sha’are Olam ha Ba, the Gates of the World to Come.  

Atika Kadisha, Holy and Ancient ONE, Grandfather of Time, Antediluvian Spirits of the Depths of the Universe!  Open for us the seven gates, luminous and eternal, and let us tread the celestial paths.

Past death, past darkness, past void, past fear we walk, until we come to the Outer Gate.  Guardian of every Gateway, Keeper of every Key, Defender of every Door, Warden of the Sphere of Saturn, we pour out offerings to you!  

Shin makes offering. imaginary clouds of awesomeness. and food. and light. and heat. and smoke. and liquor. so much offering!

Aleph: Make way!  Make way!  Open to those who call on you!  Guardian of the Powers Saturn, open your portals of power!  Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Zaphkiel, Cassiel, Orifiel, Aratron, every angel of the sphere of Saturn, we call to you to make our path smooth!  

Saturn, Lord of Time, Lord of Bindings, shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of peace and rest, gifts of eternity and stability, gifts of clarity, connection, and depth.  Grant us life everlasting and ennobling purpose.  Every blessing of the powers of Saturn bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, each in the best possible, every wish a blessing, threefold and abundant.

Each throw black wish paper into fire.

Aleph: Before the medium lies open your seal.  Awaken it!  Inhabit it!  Enliven it!  The mother of water lies ready to interpret your word.  Open his mouth to speak your teaching!  Come, come, come!  Speak, speak, speak!

Mem: gets a little possessed and says some Saturn stuff. I'm not comfortable giving the details of our communications here, but Cassiel is who did the talking here. I have a pre-existing relationship with Cassiel; he appeared quickly and easily,

Shin asks for a “speed dial” word to recall the spirit.  Give license to depart.  Seals the gate.

Gate of Jupiter

Shin: Traces the seal of the planet over the cauldron. He vibrates upsilon (eww) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

The gates of Kingship we make our way, pulsing cobalt galaxy gate.  Jupiter!  Our Father, Our King!  Lord of the Thundering Cloud!  Grandfather of the Vast Blue Sky!  Emperor, Father, beloved King,  hear our cry. We pour out offerings to you!

Shin makes offering as he thinks best.
See Saturn for method of opening and offering

Aleph: Zadkiel, Barakiel, angels of the Most High, make ready our path, lie open the way!  Open the Gates of Jupiter to those who call on you!  Guardian of the Powers of Jupiter, hear our cry!  Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of wealth and power, gifts of majesty and sovereignty, gifts of success and honor.  Grant us dominion over all we encounter, and make us a great blessing to those entrusted to our care.  Every blessing of the powers of Jupiter the King bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, threefold and abundant.  

Each throw blue wish paper into fire. (our papers flared up all blue-green. lovely!)

Aleph:  Before the medium lies open your seal.  Awaken it!  Inhabit it!  Enliven it!  The mother of water lies ready to interpret your word.  Open his mouth to speak your teaching!  Come, come, come!  Speak, speak, speak!

Mem: Mem and I both have relationships with Barakiel, and he came through very strong. We got an extremely good sigil for "quick action" and much good advice.

Gate of Mars

Shin: Traces the seal of the planet over the cauldron. He vibrates omicron (oh) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

Mars!  Victorious Warrior!  Lord of rushing blood and pounding drums!  Battle-born sword that breaks the line. Tempered shield that holds the pass. You who walk fearless the field of combat! We pour out offerings to you!

Shin makes offerings

Aleph: Angels of Mars, Gevorial, Camael!  Open to those who call on you!  Guardians of the Powers of Mars, hear our cry!  Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of victory and strength, gifts of defense and protection, gifts of resolve and endurance.  Let us walk the ways courageous and strong.  Let us endure and prevail in every conflict.  Every blessing of the powers of Mars bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, threefold and abundant.  

Each throw red wish paper into fire.

Aleph:  Before the medium lies open your seal.  Awaken it!  Inhabit it!  Enliven it!  The mother of water lies ready to interpret your word.  Open his mouth to speak your teaching!  Come, come, come!  Speak, speak, speak!

I am deeply conflicted in Mars (astrologically, but also just as a matter of temperament) I had a lot of trouble holding the Mars energy; it overflowed all over everyone. Shin nearly got possessed. I had to drum it back down, and at one point it required solomonic compulsion to behave itself. It was very powerful, and very possessive, and very wyld, and super sexy. It spoke to my wish and Shin's wish explicitly (which, recall, Mem didn't know). Whatever it told Mem, he didn't vocalize that part. There was growling and chanting. Good times. It left me exhausted. I should have made us take a break before moving onto the sun, but I didn't.

Mem: Talks Mars.

Shin sealed the gate.

Gate of the Sun:

Shin: Traces the seal of the planet. He vibrates iota (ee) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

Sol Invictus!  Shining Sun!  Light of the Day and Fire of Goodness!  From you all goodness pours forth!  From you all life finds strength!  You, who stand at the center of things, we pour out offerings for you!

Shin makes offerings

...

Aleph: Michael, Dardiel, Auriel! Sorath, Sorath, Sorath! Shamash! Shamash! Shamash!  Open to those who call on you!  Guardian of the Powers of Sun, hear our cry!  Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of grace and healing, gifts of power and spirit, gifts of growth and warmth and shine.  Let us too stand at the center of things, the great powers of the world in orbit around our sphere.  Every blessing of the powers of the Sun bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, threefold and abundant.  

Each throw yellow wish paper into fire.

Aleph:  Before the medium lies open your seal.  Awaken it!  Inhabit it!  Enliven it!  The mother of water lies ready to interpret your word.  Open his mouth to speak your teaching!  Come, come, come!  Speak, speak, speak!

The Sun energy that came through was very giggly and almost juvenile, fat and happy and pregnant with the Sun. It was all "love everyone! I love everyone!" We got a "secret name". I requested blessings. Then I demanded more. Then more and more and more until it looked like Mem was going to pass out, and then we gave license to depart.

The Gate of Venus

Shin: Traces the seal of the planet (the usual one, not the lovely Matthew Brownlee ones used here; they are hard to trace) over the cauldron. He vibrates eta (ay) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

Descending now to the greenest forest, the gate of the heart, the gate of light and life and love!  Venus! Evening Star!  Helal, son of Shahar!  Lightbringer!  Beloved! Peacock Queen, beloved shining star, IO, IO Evoke, IO IO Astarte....

Shin makes offerings

...

Aleph: Haniel, Astariel, Ishtar!  Open to those who call on you!  Guardian of the Powers of Venus, hear our cry!  Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of love and beauty, gifts of friendship and community, gifts of influence and enchantment.  Make all our movements through the worlds graceful, and our dances with others a constant delight.  Every blessing of the powers of Venus bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, threefold and abundant.  

Aleph:

Each throw green wish paper into fire.

Mem speaks for Venus.

I was pretty wiped by this point, so my summoning might not have been as clear and precise as it should have been, and I don't think Mem was properly banished after the bam-bam Mars-Sun combo, so the communication was kind of muddled. I had to physically blow her in a couple of times, and keep chanting to hold the connection. The Venus we got was very lush and very girly, but surprisingly nonsexual. [UPDATE: I think that the surprising sexiness of Mars and non-sexiness of Venus was about our medium being male, so it seemed backwards to me, but probably not to him] I didn't recognize the spirit, who was neither Anael nor Ishtar nor any Venus I know [UPDATE: Certainly of the "pandaemos" and not the "ouranos" variety, however]. Mem was a little punch drunk at this point. She was very syrupy and voluptuous. She was all "love me! celebrate me! aren't I a special snowflake!" The boys ate that shit up, but I did not really care for her. She kept telling me to not be so serious. Which is probably valid advice. :) I had trouble holding the conjuration. We almost lost her, but Shin got a secret name, and that helped us hold her. She made a request of me, which I declined, but then she recommended the Babalon Working I've been pondering, so I guess I'm doing Babalon at the Vernal Equinox. (I would LOVE to hear from women who've done that work (playing Jack Parsons's part, not Marjorie Cameron's) If there were specific messages for Mem or Shin, I didn't understand them.

The Gate of Mercury:

Shin: Traces the seal of the plane over the cauldron. He vibrates epsilon (eh) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

Mercury!  Quicksilver Star!  Fleet-footed messenger, beloved teacher!  Keeper of the Celestial Crossroads!  My love, my god, my first and last and every, Hermes, Thrice Great, Silver Tongued, artificer, liar, thief, mischievous twinkle-eyed boy, Kriophorus, Initiator, Oneiropomp...

Shin makes offering

Aleph: Open to those who call on you!  Guardian of the Powers of Mercury, hear our cry!  Ophiel, Hermes, Thoth! Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of magic and eloquence, gifts of intellect and inspiration, gifts of and wit and charm and luck.  Speed our machinations in the worlds and carry our wishes to the edges of the universe .  Every blessing of the powers of the mercury bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, threefold and abundant.  Come, Come, Come! Speak, Speak, Speak!

Aleph:

Each throw orange wish paper into fire.

Mercury wanted me to talk for him (I'm his girl), but I declined, and he was a little petulant. Also, he did not care for his offering. He gave me very specific instruction (VERY specific and mundane, about my job) and then told some stories and instructed the others a bit. We were all pretty burnt out by this point, and Mem was definitely still somewhat Venus-touched. Next time, we're going to need to explicit clean him out in between I think. (He is the member of our triad with the least experience).

Shin seals gate.

The Gate of the Moon:

Shin: Traces the seal of the planet over the cauldron. He vibrates alpha (ah) and opens the gate while Aleph says (something like):

Aleph:

Luna!  Levanah!  Shining Moon!  Doorway to the other worlds, first of the celestial spheres!  Whiteness in Night!  We pour out offerings to you!

Shin makes offering.

Aleph: Open to those who call on you!  Guardian of the Powers of the Moon, hear our cry!  Awake to us!  Attend to us!  Shower us in blessings, awaken within us your gifts; gifts of vision and prophecy, gifts of sex and wonder, gifts of blessed rest and moving dreams.  Harmonize our movements through time and our paths through the aethers.  Every blessing of the powers of the moon bring forth for us!  Grant now our wishes, threefold and abundant.  

Each throw purple wish paper into fire.

We didn't get a very good lunar connection. Basically, she just said "go away, I'm sleeping. I'll talk to you in your dreams. Leave me in peace." Which, really, is to be expected

After that, Shin just sealed the work, and we decompressed.

Overall, it was a very successful first working, and I expect it to get much better as we have more practice working together.  I've got to get right with Mars.