Magic for the Resistance
Page 18
Lucky Stone Charm
When you find a special stone in your travels, use the following conjuration adapted from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.37
Hold the stone in your hand to the sky and say,
Spirit of good omen,
Who art come to aid me,
Believe I had great need of thee.
Since thou hast come to aid me in my need,
I pray of thee do not abandon me:
I beg of thee to enter now this stone,
That in my pocket I may carry thee,
And so when anything is needed by me,
I can call unto thee: be what it may,
Do not abandon me by night or day.
Therefore, O Sprite!
I beg thee in this pebble make thy home!
So in my company thou shalt ever be,
And thou and I will ne’er part company!
Add the stone to your altar, keep it in a special place, or carry it with you for good luck.
Fuck Fascists
This multipurpose, hard-core binding jar spell may be used against neo-Nazis, fascists, anti-Semites, white supremacists and nationalists of all varieties, and the alt-right. It may be used to target an individual or a group, as necessary. It should only be performed in the evening during the waning or new moon, optionally at midnight.
It is rather complex, so you may want to write or type the steps out (in print large enough to read by candlelight) as a script to have on your altar.
If you are part of an African-based magical tradition, call upon your “hot” deities to aid you in this working.
This spell is one of the most severe bindings in this book, but remember: the targets are people who would exterminate those they consider inferior because of skin color, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religion.
Working magic against such toxic targets can leave you feeling icky and energetically sticky, so be sure to take a purifying salt bath after this ritual.
Components
Pen or marker
Representation of your target: printed photo of an individual, logo or symbol of group, or small square of paper (5 × 5 inches maximum)
Pin or nail
Small white candle stub (no taller than 3 inches)
Small container of vinegar
Large black candle
Hyssop Oil or Power Oil (see pages 143–144)
Two High John the Conqueror roots (optional)
Incense charcoal
Incense (frankincense or copal)
Small glass jar with tight-fitting lid
9 sewing needles
9 pins
Small piece of glass, shiny metal, or mirror
Small container of salt
Small container of red pepper (ground or flakes)
Phone or camera (optional)
Gather all of the materials at your altar. If you don’t have the printed photo, logo, or symbol of your target, write the name of the person or group on a piece of paper.
With the pen or marker, write the following, adapted from Psalm 1:4–6 across the image, logo, or name:
The ungodly are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Using the nail, carve the name of your target individual or group, along with their symbol (if they have one) into the white candle.
Dress the white candle with vinegar (applying it with the fingers of your right hand) and set it upright on the center of your altar. Leave your workspace, wash and dry your hands, and return.
Dress the black candle with Hyssop or Power Oil, using the fingers of your right hand. With the remainder of the oil on your fingers, say a prayer for protection to your deity as you anoint the top (crown) of your head, your third eye, and the centers of your palms.
Place the large black candle behind the white candle, dominating and overshadowing the white candle. If you’re using the John the Conqueror roots, place one to each side (left and right) and touching the black candle.
Do the Centering Ritual and begin.
Light your charcoal and add your incense.
Light the black candle and say, emphasizing the energy of the words,
Power. Strength. Virility. Courage. Truth.
Light the inscribed white candle. Say, with contempt and ridicule,
You, (name of person or group), are powerless. You are weak. You are impotent. You are cowardly. You are a liar.
Laugh at the pathetic white candle.
Pick up the white candle carefully and drop it in the glass jar. Put the lid on the top of the jar (don’t screw it on) and watch as it burns out. Remove the lid and set it aside.
Pick up the needles. Say,
I bind your anger, that it may pierce you.
Drop the needles into the jar.
Pick up the pins. Say,
I bind your wicked tongue(s), that your words may bite you.
Drop the pins in the jar.
Pick up the piece of glass, shiny metal, or mirror. Say,
I bind your hateful thoughts, turning them back on you.
Drop the pieces in the jar.
Pick up a pinch of salt. Say,
I bind your false ideology, that it may be mocked and rejected.
Drop the salt in the jar.
Hold up the red pepper. Say,
I bind you and drive you away from all you would dare to harm.
Drop the red pepper in the jar.
Pick up the container of vinegar. Say,
I bind you and all those who share your malignant ideology, that you may turn against each other.
Pour a small amount of vinegar into the jar.
Finally, pick up the photo, symbol, or name paper. Say,
I bind you, (name of person or group), and call upon the spirits, protectors, and ancestors of all those you hate to contain your poison and prevent you from doing harm to anyone but yourself.
Fold the paper up tightly and drop it in the jar.
Pick up the jar lid and screw it on tightly. Say, with power,
And thus you are bound! Amen, selah, so mote it be.
Pick up the black candle and, carefully tilting it, use the dripping wax to create a seal around the lid. As you’re doing so, imagine your target trapped inside the jar. Hear the anguished cries and the anger fading as you continue to seal the jar.
When the jar is sealed with black wax, place the black candle back in its place. Place the sealed jar in front of it. Let the black candle bask in power and victory for a few minutes as you sit in silence. Say,
May love prevail.
Blow out the black candle. Clap your hands three times, ending the ritual.
Ground. If desired, take a photo of the jar.
Take a purifying salt bath to rid yourself of any sticky negativity. Pray to your deity.
When possible, dispose of the jar by burying it in a desolate location far from your home or leaving it in a garbage can or dumpster by a crossroads.
Optional
If you are technically savvy enough, use an application to remove all EXIF data from the photo and post to an anonymous image site labeled with the name of the target.
Share the Wealth Spell
Components
9 dollar bills (or nine equivalent bills in your national currency)
Pen or marker
Green candle
Hyssop Oil or Power Oil (see pages 143–144)
Tower tarot card
Emperor tarot card
Fool tarot card
Incense (frankincense or copal, or your preferred prosperity incense)
On each of the dollar bills write Share the wealth on the front and Feed the poor on the reverse in small lettering with a
regular pen.
Dress the green candle with Hyssop Oil or Power Oil.
At the far end of your altar, place the Tower and Emperor cards next to each other. Place the 9 dollar bills around the cards. Set the green candle so that it touches the Tower and Emperor cards. Closer to you, place the Fool card.
Light your incense.
Do the Centering Ritual and begin.
Light the green candle. Say,
Wealth that is hoarded is wealth that is stolen
From the hungry, the wretched, the poor, the cold, and naked
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat
But it withereth the grass
And the flower thereof falleth and perisheth
So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways 38
Move the candle and place it atop the Fool. Say,
Those who give to the poor will lack nothing
But those who close their eyes to them receive many curses 39
Slide the dollar bills across your altar to the Fool. Say,
Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will arise and protect them from those who malign them.40
Hold your hands, palms down, over the dollar bills. Feel the energy of compassion and generosity streaming from your palms. Say,
May the mountains bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. May the afflicted be defended, may the children of the needy be saved, and may the oppressors be crushed.
Spirits (or deity), bless this money, that it may take away wealth from those who hoard their riches and rob the needy. Bless this money, too, that it may provide refuge to those in distress, shelter from the storm, shade from the heat, food to hungry mouths, and medicine for the sick.
Visualize the bills spreading from hand to hand, drawing wealth from the rich and multiplying exponentially as it helps the poor.
Blow out the candle and say,
So mote it be.
Take the bills and keep them with you separate from your other money. Give them out, one dollar at a time, to homeless people you see on the streets. Be sure to smile at them and acknowledge them as human beings.
Cease Fire Shrines:
Invocation of EirEnE
Create cease-fire shrines in your community. You can set these up around your community where people are suffering from crime (or fear of crime). Of course, exercise appropriate caution, and don’t create shrines in unfamiliar or potentially unwelcoming communities.
Eirēnē (pronounced “ay-RAY-nay”) is the Greek goddess of peace and the spring. She is also one of three keepers of the gate of heaven, along with her sisters Dike (Justice) and Eunomia (Good Order). She is frequently portrayed as a beautiful young woman with a cornucopia in her left hand and an olive branch or staff of Hermes in her right. As the goddess of peace, this spell calls on her to bring peace to troubled places and the souls of those who have suffered violence.
You can charge multiple candles and rose quartz crystals at the same time before creating altars in multiple locations.
Components
Rose quartz crystal
Fresh flowers (any kind)
White candle (glass prayer candle if possible)
Hyssop Oil
Piece of paper with CEASE FIRE written on it
Incense (frankincense, rose, cinnamon, or your favorite peace or healing incense)
Arrange the rose quartz, flowers, and white candle at the center of your altar. Place the CEASE FIRE paper with the words facing up beneath the white candle. Anoint the top (crown) of your head, your third eye, and the centers of both palms with a tiny bit of Hyssop Oil.
Light your incense and do the Centering Ritual to begin.
Light the white candle and say,
Oh great goddess, Eirēnē,
You who bring peace to the troubled
And abhor slaughter
Accept my offerings
Of flowers and sweet incense
And hear my prayer
Pick up the rose quartz and hold it between your palms. Bring your hands clasped together in front of your heart. Say,
Bless this stone, great goddess
May it carry your blessing of peace
May it end the slaughter
And the violence
And bring healing to my community
Close your eyes and feel the goddess’s energy surging from your heart, through your arms, into your hands, and into the rose quartz. Say,
May your peace grow
In the hearts and minds of all
Like green shoots from the earth
May your shrines
Sprout like flowers in the spring
So mote it be
Clap three times and blow out the candle. Ground.
Take the candle, the flowers, the rose quartz, and the CEASE FIRE paper and find a place in your community to set up a shrine to Eirēnē. Try to find a spot that won’t be molested, such as a nook in a wall, a quiet corner, or in the crook of a tree. You may also set up shrines at places where someone has been murdered or add them to the shrines already in place. Light the candle, say a quiet prayer to the goddess, and extinguish the flame before leaving.
If possible, check on your shrines occasionally, bring them new flowers and rose quartz, and pour a libation to the goddess.
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31. Peter Grey, Apocalyptic Witchcraft (London: Scarlet Imprint, 2013), loc. 280 of 2906, Kindle.
32. Originally published on Medium as “Hex the NRA: A New Spell for the #MagicResistance,” February 15, 2018, https://medium.com/@michaelmhughes/hex-the-nra-a-new-spell-for-the-magicresistance-5be06f113c41.
33. Tom Dickinson, “How the NRA Paved the Way for Mass Shootings,” Rolling Stone, June 15, 2016, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-nra-paved-the-way-for-the-orlando-shooting-20160615.
34. Dickinson, “How the NRA Paved the Way for Mass Shootings.”
35. Nancy Dillon, “Top 15 recipients of gun group campaign donations and their NRA grades as firearm bills keep getting shot down,” New York Daily News, December 10, 2017, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/15-top-recipients-donations-gun-rights-groups-nra-grades-article-1.3687802.
36. John Wagner and Elise Viebeck, “‘I am going to come through for you,’ Trump vows to NRA,” Washington Post, April 28, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-am-going-to-come-through-for-you-trump-vows-to-nra/2017/04/28/3258b3e6-2c20-11e7-a616-d7c8a68c1a66_story.html.
37. Charles G. Leland, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (London: David Nutt, 1899), 27–28.
38. Adapted from James 1:11.
39. Adapted from Proverbs 28:27.
40. Adapted from Psalm 12:5.
Conclusion
Go to Work
Why do we resist?
Why do we march in the cold rain when we could be sitting at home with a bottle of wine watching a great new series on TV? Why do we spend time knocking on doors and trying to convince people to vote for someone when we could be reading good book? Why do we give up time with our friends and families and risk arrest in direct political action?
And why do we do resistance magic when we could be doing magic for love, money, and pleasure?
Because, for most of us, we can’t not do those things. As spiritual beings, we feel deeply embedded in the ecology of souls around us. We have empathy and compassion for our brothers and sisters who are suffering, oppressed, and marginalized. As sentient organisms on a living planet circling a star, we understand our fates are interwoven with trillions of other organisms, from the microscopic to the macroscopic, in a lush, interpenetrating, interdependent, interrelated tapestry of consciousness and life.
When you become truly conscious of this interconnectedn
ess, you realize there is no line between you and a child on the other side of the planet, the animals, insects, trees, plants, bacteria, rocks, clouds, rain, oceans, and even the atoms and subatomic particles. And as we become acquainted with higher aspects of reality, including the noncorporeal beings around us, our family grows exponentially larger.
And right now, our family really needs our help. Collective spiritual CPR, stat.
So I hope you will use this book to help carry the bright glow of your spiritual power into the nitty-gritty world of resistance and activism. Never forget that you are the embodiment of the creative, evolutionary force of the cosmos, an emissary of the Divine, a teacher of compassion, and a pioneer of a powerful new way of active, engaged, mindful, courageous, compassionate living.
Now light a candle and get to work.
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Appendix
Every book of practical magic seems to need a table of correspondences. But let me suggest that the most powerful and useful correspondences are those already embedded in your consciousness. When adding fire energy to a spell, your favorite hot sauce may make more sense than a difficult-to-find plant cited in a medieval magical text. Be creative, follow your intuition, and don’t be afraid to build your own table of correspondences.
The exception is when there is historical documentation of a particular correspondence. The statue of Hermes on my altar gets cassia (cinnamon) incense because it is noted as an offering to him in the Greek Magical Papyri.
Also note that some items have paradoxical or contradictory associations: for example, a black candle can represent African American power or fertility and regeneration as well the traditional dark or negative linkages found in many traditions. Magic embraces paradox.
Correspondences
Herbs and Resins
Abre Camino: Road-opener, removing obstacles, power.
Angelica: “Archangel root,” feminine, guardian, protection, healing.
Asafoetida: Banish evil (and everyone else with its pungent stench).