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.
Ignite the black candle and sprinkle a handful of rue all around you. Next, place a good amount of rue and black salt in the muslin bag and the black bag. Add the herbal mixture and fill both to the brim. Tie the bags shut and state:
Herbs of uncrossing, herbs of hex-breaking,
be all around me and lift this black magick.
Set the bags aside—the muslin bag will be used in the bath and the black bag should be hung above the most-entered doorway of the house.
Place the black hen feathers and a pinch of the remaining herbs (including rue) on the waxed paper in front of you. Take the black candle and drip almost all of its wax onto them. As you’re doing this, use your other hand to form the wax, feathers, and herbs into a big round ball. (Don’t let the wax dry without your sculpting it!) The wax ball should contain the herbs and feathers all throughout it. When the candle has almost burned down completely, set it aside.
Get naked (if practical) and rub the ball of wax all over your body. Envision any and all negativity sent from others absorbing into the wax, freeing you of the burden. See your aura shining brightly after the wax touches certain areas. Focus hard while you do this. If the case is extreme and deep-seated, ask another practitioner to help you draw the energies into the ball.
After you spend some time doing this, close the circle as you normally would and go draw yourself a bath. Place the wax ball on the side of the tub. Throw in the sea salt and add some of the Four Thieves Vinegar. Place the citrus fruit halves in the tub and remember to squeeze them on your body throughout the bath. Finally, put the muslin bag in the bathwater and submerge yourself. Work the bag with your hands and squeeze water from it all over your body. (If you don’t have a tub, simply dump the vinegar and salt on yourself and squeeze the saturated bag all over you in the shower.) Keep repeating:
Broken jinx!
Uncrossed cross!
Severed bind!
Lifted curse!
When finished, drain the bathwater and allow yourself to air dry rather than towel dry. This ensures that the spell’s energy is fully adhered to one’s person and isn’t absorbed into the towel. When fully dried, get dressed and go downtown to the most prominent intersection of roads (one that sees the most traffic, both human and vehicular). When no one is looking, sneakily throw the ball into the middle of the crossroads. Walk away without looking back.
Social norms are a tricky one. The term social mores (pronounced MORE-ays) refers to commonly accepted social customs in a group of individuals. The West has all sorts of mores, influenced from a number of sources over time. Every culture and society has their own set of mores, most of which aren’t even recognized as being exclusive to the society in which it occurs. Cultural taboos and deviations from socially acceptable behavior are viewed as antisocial and often cost a person respect from others. At the same time, various subcultures exist within greater societies all across the world, making particular group behaviors more acceptable within each individual unit.
Everyone is socially conditioned. No one is entirely free from social conditioning. Most conditioning is unconscious. Behaviors and viewpoints deemed “acceptable” and “normal” are constantly reinforced. If someone gets out of line, society tries to put them back in the box. I once heard a quote (I don’t know the source) that said “the sheep don’t even need a shepherd; they herd themselves!” At times this is extremely beneficial (as in the case of violent crime and such), and other times it’s exceedingly harmful to individuality. Being “different” in the world requires a certain amount of sacrifice and usually comes with questioning and even cruelty from those who have been conditioned a certain way. People keep themselves in various closets for fear of being socially ridiculed or humiliated. This working is designed for those who feel restricted and trapped by social labels, social demands, and social inequality. It can help instill confidence in uniqueness.
This is a very strange magickal working and can be creatively modified in an endless number of ways. Because of its eccentricity—which is in place for a very good reason—I suggest that this working be performed alone and that there’s no risk of you being seen or heard.
One of the most interesting aspects of this working is the inclusion of glossolalia. Glossolalia is also called “talking in tongues,” and is the act of entering an ecstatic trancelike state and speaking in incomprehensible “languages.” Yes, it’s gibberish: a piecing together of various familiar sounds and syllables. Some musicians use glossolalia as a vocal instrument (bands like Dead Can Dance, Sigur Rós, and Cocteau Twins do this frequently), but “tongue-talking” is most commonly known for occurring within sects of Evangelical Christians—most of whom don’t realize that glossolalia isn’t exclusive to their ecstatic religious acts. Engaging in an odd practice like glossolalia can help combat commonly enforced modes of behavior.
Stepping Back & Further Application
This spell alone is not enough to completely undo a lifetime of social conditioning! Such a thing is basically impossible, and coming close to an entire “undoing” takes a heavy amount of work, self-awareness, and even extended counseling and therapy. Shame, deep depression, regret, and all sorts of other emotional negatives are results of heavy social conditioning and greatly affect those who are inherently “different.”
Everyone is uniquely individual. Yet, no one is individual—we are all the same. This paradox may seem contradictory at first; however, esoteric truth quite often lies between seemingly opposing ends of the spectrum. Keeping perspective can help a person remain balanced.
If you’d like to further study ways of undoing social conditioning, I suggest Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation and Other Devices by Christopher Hyatt, as well as Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life by Roger-Pol Droit. Please note that Hyatt’s book is heavily occult-based, and Droit’s is centered on fun and lighthearted experimental psychology.
Supplies
• a white or beeswax candle
• dragon’s blood ink and a paintbrush
• an empty cardboard box large enough for you to fit in
• a blindfold
• a full jar of honey
• a discarded beehive or wasp’s nest (see Notes)
• any combination of the herbs eyebright, High John the Conqueror, lotus, mistletoe, mullein, Solomon’s Seal root, and thyme
Notes
• Be sure that you don’t let other people see or hear you performing this spell. Also, it’s best to begin this spell about 20 minutes before sunrise.
• If you don’t currently have a discarded beehive or wasp’s nest, don’t go searching; it can be very dangerous (and disruptive) if there are any creatures still living inside them. Instead, substitute some hive-shaped beeswax or a beeswax candle.
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.
Strip naked and light the candle. With the ink, write only on the inside bottom of the box:
TOKH
HTOK
KHTO
OKHT
On every other side of the box, both inside and out, draw a large symbol of Uranus. When the ink has dried, tie the blindfold tightly over your eyes. Pick up the honey and beehive, one in each hand, and step inside the box. Leave the candle far away from the box and put the bowl or bag of herbs next to the box (wi
thin arm’s reach).
Still standing, put yourself in a trance state, using your familiar method or methods. Additionally, jump up and down and visualize yourself standing on top of the world. As you jump, see your head driving high into space and your feet landing on the top of the Earth. Stop jumping and start humming. Start your hum in a very low, resonant pitch and eventually work the pitch up higher and higher. Do this repeatedly.
When you’re somewhat tranced out, take the honey (eyes still closed) and dump it all over your body. Do not focus on trivial things like making a mess. Instead, simply feel its sticky consistency covering you high and low. Smear it all over your body using the contents of the entire jar. Say:
This honey is society’s demands and expectations sticking to me!
Let a feeling of discomfort rush over you. Invoke disgust and paranoia at the thought of society’s norms, expectations, and demands being placed all over you. As this sensation arises, break apart the beehive and stick it in random locations on your skin.
Grab the herbs and pour them all over you as well (the excess should fall into the box). Now that the herbs and hive are stuck to you, say:
These herbs invoke freedom! Dissolve this mess! I am not like the rest!
Rub the herbs all over you, mixing with the honey. Feel their harshness against your skin, but absorb their energies of freedom and transcendence into yourself. Next, crouch down into the box and close the lid. If this is not possible, overturn the box so you’re under it completely and covered in darkness.
Feel a sense of sadness rush over you. Think about various instances in which people have tried to make you fit in or have ridiculed you for being unique. Remember those feelings. Recall instances of your attempting to fit into various molds but failing because they didn’t suit you. Think about the box that others try to put you in.
At this point, start saying random things. Say partial words. Say things that don’t make sense. Say random syllables. Whisper and scream. Clap and pound. Chant and act crazy. Don’t even think about what you’re saying or how loud you’re saying it. Don’t say anything that “makes sense.” Just speak! Let your emotions conduct your voice. Feel and experience. Enter an ecstatic state of trance and keep yourself in it by acting “insane” and erratic. Go all out. Be crazy.
Once you’ve reached a peak of extreme disconnection from reality and your vocal cords are tired, hit your chest and continually shout:
I am me! I am free! I am that which I am!
Aggressively break yourself out of the box. Tear it apart at the seams. Throw pieces of the box around the room. Rip off the blindfold. Free yourself. Keep repeating the above words. When you’ve ripped apart the box and have stood up, take deep breaths to calm down. Once grounded back into the moment, smile to yourself and feel a renewed sense of self. Before closing the circle and taking a shower, pick up the mess, ending with a powerful:
So mote it be!
Society works in labels. Young, old, boy, girl, right, wrong, sane, crazy, true, false, black, white, straight, gay, good, evil, and everything else under the Sun. Though these are examples of polar opposites, even the array of “gray area” in between each is subject to definition and categorization. Everywhere we turn there are descriptive—and limiting—definitions for everything. Usually if a group of people agree on one definition as “correct,” others are influenced to believe the same (this is the group mind).
So, how are you labeled? How do you label yourself? How do other people label you? This can include “obvious” physical descriptions like girl, short, muscular; active terms like athletic, talented, indecisive; and adjectives like optimistic, naïve, delusional, and so on. Some labels are positive and complimentary, while others are cruel and patronizing. This spell will focus on both.
Labels provide easy reference and categorization. Descriptive terms are constantly used in spoken and written words, and have been since the beginning of time. Labels are important. At the same time, they can be extremely limiting. As I’ve discussed, words hold an immense amount of power. They convey symbolism and communicate mental ideas based on a person’s understanding of the terms. Different terms mean different things for different people. The most important aspect of this particular spell is what certain terms mean to you.
Because labels are easy points of reference, they will never be done away with socially. They are unavoidable. For this reason, they should be worked with rather than entirely escaped. The intention with which labels are used is the most important factor. This spell requires the participant to think about both self-imposed labels and labels from outside sources.
Stepping Back & Further Application
If there are only a few labels you specifically wish to banish, modify the spell by writing them repeatedly on numerous strips of tape. Otherwise, spend a good amount of time thinking about different labels that you’ve given yourself or that have been put on you—these should be both complimentary and insulting.
For example, I have no problem with terms like male, Priest, Witch, Goth, queer, tall, artist, and other things being used in reference to my character (either by myself or others), so I wouldn’t want to banish them if I was performing this spell. Because they carry positive meanings for me—even if they have negative connotations to other people—these are terms I have no issue with keeping affixed to my character. Still, I mustn’t allow myself to become attached to these labels—they’re only descriptive in terms of reference and don’t encompass the entirety of my being. Indeed, the soul is transcendent!
Use the above example to mentally sort your own labels and descriptions. Decide which labels are inhibiting and release them accordingly. Pay particular attention to this question: what inhibiting labels do you give yourself, and how might they be restricting your personal development?
Supplies
• 2 paper plates
• a black permanent marker
• a roll of heavy transparent packing tape
• scissors
• a large bowl of the herb mullein
• a small piece of yellow calcite (or optical/clear calcite)
Notes
• When tearing the tape from your body, you will be ripping off some body hair and dead skin, and so will experience a small amount of pain. These factors are important because the hair and skin will link you to the labels and the small amount of pain will help project energy.
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.
On one of the paper plates, draw a large circle that covers the whole area of the plate. On the other plate, write the following in large characters (on both sides of the plate):
anwnumiva
anwnumi
anwnum
anwnu
anwn
anw
an
a
Strip naked. Now is the time to express your labels. Think about labels that have been put on you over time, either by yourself or others, and divide them into the categories (labels!) of beneficial and harmful. When you think of labels that are complimentary, positive, and beneficial to you, write them inside the circle on the first plate. Cram as many in there as come to mind, even if you have to overlap words.
When you think of labels that are critical, negative, and belittling to you, write them individually on pieces of tape using the black marker. The pieces should be at least a few inches long. Write only one label on each piece of tape. As you write them, stick them on your body. Put them on your arms, legs, neck, back, tummy, and upper body (but not on your hair, armpits, or genitals, of course).
After you feel as though you’ve gotten out as
many possible labels as you can, move on to the next step. Begin chanting:
These are not me! These must flee! As I will, so mote it be!
Rip off one label. Feel the sting. Read it and immediately dip the sticky side into the bowl of mullein. Now that pieces of the herb are stuck to the label (along with some of your body hair and dead skin), put it on the second paper plate (the one with the Greek on it). Assert:
[Label], you are not me. You must flee. As I will, so mote it be!
Continue doing this with all of the other labels. Stack them in a sandwich formation on the “banishing” plate, making sure that you stick each label in the mullein, stack it on top of the previous label, and say the words of power.
Once you’ve done this with all negative labels, put a handful of mullein on the uppermost label and declare:
These are not me! These must flee! As I will, so mote it be!
Crumple the plate around the labels and mullein, and throw it in the trash after ritual. Fold up the “positive” plate with the piece of calcite in the middle, and store it somewhere in your bedroom, to keep that energy present in your sphere. Close the circle as you normally would.
A fun and simple form of magick on the physical plane is working with the weather. New Witches often have fun with this because it can quickly provide results and can help connect the practitioner to the larger natural world.
Cloudbusting is a fun form of magick practiced by young Witchlings and metaphysically inspired children (and those of us who are forever young at heart). With this, a person finds a tiny cloud in the sky and imbues it with an intention they wish to banish. After projecting that negative energy into the cloud, the practitioner sits or lays on the grass and stares at the cloud, intending it to break apart and disappear. The practitioner can blow wind toward the cloud and use their fingers to wave it away. Soon the cloud disappears along with the intention it was imbued with.
Planetary Spells & Rituals Page 23
