Plants of magick, plants of sight,
banish now this anxiety and fright.
My fears can’t harm nor cause stagnation,
dissolve my woes with fire of transformation.
On the tops of your hands and feet, draw the symbol of Jupiter. Next, do your best to tie together your hands and feet using the twine. Bind your feet at the ankles and your hands at the wrists. Afterward, wrap your knotted hands and feet together, locking yourself in a wrists-to-ankles position. Fall to the floor. “Struggle” against the cords as if you are attempting to escape the binding. Say:
Fears of restriction, fears of pain,
leave me now as I say his name!
At this point, bellow “Jupiter” very loudly 4 times. Immediately spring out of the binding, ripping apart the twine.
Light each “fear paper,” one by one, placing the burning paper atop the herbal blend. When the flame of each paper goes out, say:
In the name of Jupiter, BEGONE!
Once all the papers are burnt, place the stones on top of the ashes and close the circle as you normally would.
Let the spell sit for 4 days (mark the calendar). When you return, pick up the stones and place each at a corner of your bed (under the mattress or under the entire bed). Go outside and throw the entire mixture to the winds of change.
One of the planet Mercury’s characteristics is travel—this is also an aspect of Jupiter. Because Jupiter is expansive and progressive, the planet’s energy is far-reaching. For this ritual, the practitioner will be journeying back through time and location in order to reclaim energies that were once left behind. This is a significant and potentially deeply healing ritual.
Energy drainage can result from traumatic experience. Shamans tend to believe that trauma can frighten away fractions of a person’s soul. Though this spell won’t be diving into soul retrieval, it’s somewhat similar to the practice of recapitulation. Practiced by Mexican shamans (in the Toltec tradition), psychologists, and a wide variety of spiritualists, a person recapitulates by mentally rewinding their experiences. Many people perform the practice of rewinding and reviewing their day’s experience when preparing for sleep. Others rewind longer periods of time in their life at specific intervals. In many ways, this mirrors the long-held notion of a person getting a flashback of their entire life at the moment of death. For this reason, regularly performing recapitulation is said to both lessen the difficulty of the dying process and enrich one’s life experience by pulling back threads of energy to the present moment.
When we go through instances of extreme difficulty and stress, psychological imprints can result. These imprints can create fears and neuroses (touched on in the previous spell) that affect us our entire lives. Behaviors associated with traumatic energy trappings will naturally keep surfacing until faced. Avoiding our experiences, no matter how difficult, is avoiding our imperative spiritual life-lessons.
When our spirits are shocked or instantaneously jolted, a part of our energy remains trapped—this ties into the shamanic view of the soul. Through a process of cultivating acceptance and regressing through experience, the psyche can transmute the instances to a higher benefit, integrating and accepting experience into the present moment. Healing difficult experiences can make a person grow in strength and can give them courage to face the future. When a person learns from experience, they can teach others who are in similar circumstances.
This spell is focused on reclaiming your energy from certain places and times. Tapping into the intersection of these two factors is what drives this spell’s success. In the spell, you’ll be journeying to different places where your energy may be trapped and meditatively time-traveling to the experience to pull your energy back to yourself, even if the location of the experience is different from where you currently live (see Notes).
Stepping Back & Further Application
When thinking about experiences you wish to work on energetically reclaiming and transforming, you’re going to want to pick the most significant four. Depending on your experiences, these can be anything from an abusive situation or a physical accident to high school or a bad drug experience.
The traumatic experiences being worked with in this spell do not have to be momentary occurrences. They can be pain felt over periods of time. For example, if you had a bad relationship and think your energy may be trapped on the property you shared with the other person, consider using that location as one of the points. Get creative and think back to determine where the essence of your spirit may be trapped.
Finally, think of ways you can reclaim your energy from these experiences in other ways. Can you talk to certain people involved? Seek therapy? Meditate on where you would be had the experiences not happened? Even the most difficult of experiences do not occur without spiritual reason.
Supplies
• 4 small mirrors (inexpensive and unframed if possible)
• a black permanent marker
• 4 pieces of amethyst
• a small garden shovel
• a bag of wormwood
Notes
• Various suggestions of places to leave mirrors and perform this meditation include the following: your childhood home, a former school (elementary, middle school, high school, college, or other), a former acquaintance’s house, a park or playground, or the location of a specific traumatic incident or time in your life.
• If you have since moved to a new location and feel as though the majority of your “stuck” energy may be in a different location or locations from where you currently reside, try finding or creating items that represent these places. For example, say that you’ve lived in a number of cities over time and feel that you may have unknowingly deposited a significant amount of energy in four particular locations. To draw back these energies, place the mirrors outside of your house facing the directions of these locations. Additionally, place an item from or representing those locations beneath each mirror. For example, you could use a towel that you bought in Portland for one mirror, a seashell from L.A. for another, a map of London for a third, and a sketch of downtown Cleveland for the fourth. Get creative to tap into the energy pattern of a particular faraway area.
Procedure
Begin by casting a circle, calling the quarters, chanting, or raising energy as you normally would, performing protective exercises, and altering your consciousness. Clear your mind, bring focus to your breath, and meditate for at least a few minutes. When ready, begin the spell.
Assuming you’ve spend a good amount of time determining exactly which experiences you’re going to work with (and have gotten representations of the distant locations if applicable), start by sitting down in front of your altar and placing the mirrors behind you.
Thinking about the first experience, grab a mirror and mark it somehow (using the marker) to represent the location or experience. Meditate on the experience briefly, determining exactly why you wish to reclaim the energy of the experience. Set the mirror aside, face up, placing an amethyst on top of it.
Do this with each mirror. When finished, stack the mirrors on top of each other and hold them in your left hand. Put the stones together and cup them in your right hand. Declare:
I now begin this process of transformation!
From near and far, I reclaim and pull back my lost self.
Mirrors of psyche, reflections of the past,
transmute and transform these torments of mind!
Through time and space, through region and place,
I rework my soul to illuminated wholeness.
So shall it be!
Close the circle as you normally would and go to the location of the traumatic incident the first mirror represents (or use the representation of the location). When there, sit down and look at your reflection in the mirror. Glance up and visually scan the area, and look back down at the mirror. Co
ntinue this process and close your eyes whenever you wish.
As you are slowly reflecting, begin to think back about the event or events. Remember the pain, the trauma. If you need to cry, do so and put your tears on the mirror. Reflect on the experience deeply and accurately.
When you are ready, begin moving the mirror in a widdershins motion, facing the area. Feel as though you are transported back in time, reliving the incident. Imagine the energies of the experience funneling into the mirror. See the memories being sucked up through the surface of the mirror. If it helps, assign a certain color to the experience and visualize it whirling into the mirror.
When you feel ready, take the garden shovel and dig a hole about 4 inches deep in the ground. Liberally sprinkle wormwood in this hole. Place the mirror in the hole and cover it with the dirt. Place the amethyst on top of the “grave” as a marker. Look at the stone and say:
Stone of Jupiter, stone of healing,
transfer your essence into this mirror.
Transform this experience to my benefit.
I am ready to accept, embrace, and integrate my past.
So mote it be.
Repeat this process in each of the four locations. Be sure to take your time—as long as is necessary for successfully reworking the energy. Once you have conquered all locations, relax and take it easy for the next 4 days. During this time, contemplate the ins and outs of the experiences—and particularly ponder how they could have benefited you in the present day and how you’ve changed since.
After 4 days have passed, return to each location and unearth each mirror. In its place, leave the amethysts as offerings, buried in the ground. When you’ve gathered all the mirrors, draw a large X on the face of each, and gaze at your smiling reflection in each mirror before discarding them in the trash, knowing that you’ve worked to reclaim your vibrations trapped in time.
One of traditional Wicca’s questions upon initiation is “Art thou willing to suffer to learn?” This speaks a deep truth: oftentimes the most vital life lessons are learned through difficult experiences. It’s often within the most trying experiences that the greatest lessons are waiting to be learned.
Many of the spells in this chapter are concerned with working through difficult experiences. Part of Jupiter’s energy, which is greatly expressed through Sagittarius, is that of slingshotting through restrictions (similar to Mars, and quite unlike Saturn). Jupiter is a sign of expanded growth and knowledge, on which this particular spell is also focused. Jupiter aids in the development of personal truth. Sometimes it is up to the practitioner themselves to induce personal pain to aid in the development of inner wisdom.
There are many ways to push one’s limits to an expanded state of consciousness. For an in-depth description and exploration of these mechanisms, I suggest reading the section on fasting and self-sacrifice in my book Shadow Magick Compendium; the information covered there is too much to recite in these pages. Instead, the following ritual will utilize various “smaller” techniques for constructively bringing about stress for the sake of spiritual development.
This spell is not an initiatory experience, nor is it necessarily designed to induce Gnosis. Gnosis—the experience of oneness or unity with God (Spirit)—is accessible in many ways and is indeed something that people of many cultures aside from our own experience regularly. Instead of attempting to push readers to a Gnostic state of consciousness, this working will serve as an introduction to other ways of personally seeking spiritual connection. One must come to know their limits before they can push them.
Mindfully pushing one’s limits can be a springboard to expanded consciousness. Western culture is often lazy, apathetic, and filled with excessive desire (for physical “things”). Such a state of being is not conducive to the spiritual experience. Altering one’s experience beyond familiar and comfortable boundaries can break down psychological barriers and induce states of consciousness that are divorced, even slightly, from normal operative thought.
Though some of the methods within this spell may seem silly at first, they’re in place for good reasons. I can only hope that this serves as a pleasant (well, pleasant-ish) introduction to the vast world of self-sacrifice and its benefits.
Stepping Back & Further Application
It can seem daunting or strange to push oneself past places of comfort. It should be understood that countless cultures around the world recognize the spiritual benefits of fasting and restriction. Their main goal is the increase of wisdom and connection to the Divine.
Everyone has something to learn about themselves and about reality—otherwise we wouldn’t be here! If you’ve come to this spell, it’s likely that you’re feeling a pull to develop your spiritual wisdom. Some of the methods used here can be of benefit in this process, but the real limits to which you allow yourself to be pushed are up to you. It’s been said that people who are blind have increased senses of hearing, that people who are deaf have increased senses of sight, and so on. Keeping this in mind, think of physical self-restrictions as techniques for aiding in the development of the nonphysical (spiritual) self.
If this spell resonates well with you, I’d suggest reading the in-depth information on such practices in Shadow Magick Compendium and consider performing longer self-sacrifices such as sustained fasting (from food, sight, technology, touch, communication, speech, and so on).
Supplies
• a blindfold
• a drum or drum-like instrument
• a blue candle
Notes
• The ideal amount of time to fast before this ritual is 16 hours. This amount of time can include the hours you slept the night before. However, you may also wish to fast from sleep for a night to aid in consciousness alteration. When fasting from food, permit yourself water or juice.
• If any of the activities herein could potentially be legitimately threatening to your health (such as fasting if diabetic, etc.), speak with your health care professional before attempting. The ritual (and longer, sustained self-sacrifices) are not designed to sabotage a person’s health, but to push oneself beyond the ordinary.
• Allow yourself upwards of 2 or 3 hours to engage in the ritual. If you get spontaneous (yet non-risky) ideas for self-sacrifice while in ritual, play with the techniques. If you enter a state of trance and receive visions, allow these to occur.
• Though this spell could be placed in Saturn for its “restrictive” aspects, I’ve chosen to place it here to utilize the Jupiter energy of expansion and growth, which can be cultivated as a result of ritualizing.
Procedure
Fast all day before this ritual (see Notes). Begin by casting a circle, calling the quarters, chanting, or raising energy as you normally would, performing protective exercises, and altering your consciousness. Clear your mind, bring focus to your breath, and meditate for at least a few minutes. When ready, begin the spell.
Having fasted all day (from food and/or sleep, depending on your choice), your energy should be light and ethereal. Your consciousness should be slightly shifted enough to get the most out of the following activities. To begin, light the candle and declare:
Spirits of vitality and expansion! I am willing to suffer to learn!
Expand my wisdom, allow my knowledge of self to bloom!
My body is temporary and my spirit is eternal!
Immediately blindfold yourself. You will remain blindfolded throughout. Now bring focus to your other senses. Inhale deeply through your nose, smelling the air. Bring focus to your hearing, making even the slightest noises audible. Bring your awareness to the taste inside your mouth. Touch the floor and the altar, feeling every detail. Spend at least a few minutes navigating each sense.
Stand up and lift up one foot. Bend your other knee to maintain balance. (Situate yourself in a corner or by a wall, if necessary, to ensure that you don’t lose balance.) Stay in t
his position for many minutes if possible. When it starts to hurt or feel extremely uncomfortable, bring focus to your breath and allow yourself to keep standing on one leg. Bring focus away from the pain and discomfort.
When you finally feel that no more can be taken, collapse to the ground and give yourself a rest. Repeat the process with the other foot.
Next, put yourself in a moderately strenuous yoga position (if you know one). Otherwise, put yourself in “push-up” position (only the hands and balls of the feet touching the ground). Remain in this stance for many minutes, pushing yourself beyond the discomfort. Again, don’t give in to the pain: bring focus to your breath.
When no more can be taken, collapse and take a break. Next, grab the drum and maintain a steady beat with 4 counts between each. The rhythm should resonate “(beat)-1-2-3-4 (beat)-1-2-3-4” and so on. Continue doing this for as long as possible, maintaining the precise rhythm and silently counting the beats. I recommend performing this for at least 20 minutes. During this time, you will notice yourself entering a trancelike state. Still maintain the rhythm. Allow yourself to lose track of time and space.
When you lose the plot (so to speak), take a break and soak up the silence. Lay on your back on the floor. Take extremely deep belly-breaths in and out of your mouth. Do this very quickly. While doing this, the increase in oxygen will induce altered consciousness. Do this for only about 20 seconds, to avoid passing out.
Relax in fetal position and return to normal consciousness. When balanced, take off the blindfold, light the candle, and stare at the middle of the burning candle (not at the flame directly). Stare at the candle without glancing away, even slightly. Stare at it and clear your mind. If you look away for even a split second, start over again. Your only movement should be blinking. Don’t allow your eyes to blur or shift in any way, maintaining the direct eye contact with the candle.
When you can no longer maintain eye contact, close your eyes and return to usual consciousness. If you have any manifestation spells or prayers to perform, this could be a good time because you are currently energetically “empty” in a sense, and thus more receptive to invocative energies. Consider trying this ritual and discerning variations of it later or on a regular basis. Thank the spirits and close the circle as you normally would. Ground your energy with healthy food and sleep.
Planetary Spells & Rituals Page 18
