The Sorcerer's Stoned

The Gemstone Reset Spell─Commentary

2010-06-27T07:50:00.005+08:00

*Because I wasn't able to post during the May Full Moon, as scheduled, I shall have two June posts to make up for it.

*Please refer to The Gemstone Reset Spell

I became a fan of gemstones only recently, being introduced to them by my friend and shaman Mark. He gave me my first set of stones. He also told me to wash them first over running water before I could claim them as my own. This forced me to create The Gemstone Reset Spell.

The purpose of washing the stones over running water was to cleanse it of any energy it still retained from its previous owner. Comparable to being given a used laptop, the new owner must first delete all the files, or reformat the entire thing, if possible. It would be best to have all the stones' energy come from you, the new owner. Theoretically, even running water from a tap will do, but I decided to use the biggest body of moving water in the world─the sea. Technically even a river would be as effective, but it'd be better if it was a mighty river, like the Agno, or the Marikina River. For maximum manna, you should use a mighty river, or the sea.

I added the element of burning them in the sun first, to satisfy the element of Fire. Then I also added the step of letting live ants crawl over the stones, to satisfy the element of Life. There are other ways to acquire these elements, and imagination is your only limitation. But of course, more experienced spellcasters will have more creative and more powerful ways of selecting manna.

The Gemstone Reset Spell

2010-06-27T07:04:00.002+08:00

*Because I wasn't able to post during the May Full Moon, as scheduled, I shall have two June posts to make up for it.

Spell type: Out-Obj
Pref: Out-AM

Equipment:
Live ants (Li)
Running water (Wa)
Sun (Fi)
Gemstones (Ea)
Own breath (Wi)
Cloth

Go near the edge of the water. Lay down the piece of cloth. Face the sun. Hold the gemstone in your casting. Say the first incantation.

Fires of the sun
Burn this (Turquoise)
And may its energy
Dry up and shrivel.

After muttering the incantation, lay down the stone on the piece of cloth, so that it soaks up the sun. Repeat if you have more than one stone, but make sure that when you lay your several stones on the cloth, their shadows do not fall on any of the other stones. Leave the stones for ten (10) minutes under the sun.

After ten (10) mins, pick up your stones (in the order they were lain down on the cloth), then take them to the running water. Hold the stone in your hand, then speak the second incantation.

Waters of the (South China)
Wash over this (Turquoise)
That it be cleansed of its memory
And its energy reset
And begin a new life
With me.

Then hold the stone and let the running water wash over it. Repeat for other stones, maintaining the same sequence.

Take the stones where there are live ants. Mutter the third incantation.

Majestic ants
Guardians of the earth
Pass over this (Turquoise)
And give it life.

Then place the gemstone along the ants' path. Make sure that live ants actually pass over the gemstone and make contact. Repeat for the other stones, maintaining the same sequence. Leave them on the ants' path for ten (10) minutes before picking them up.

*Commentary for this spell in the next post.

On Palmistry

2010-04-29T23:58:00.001+08:00

1. Can you do palm reading? How can you tell if a palm reader is the real deal?

No, I never studied palm reading. You can tell if a palm reader is the real deal if he/she can also do other forms of divination aside from palm reading, such as reading tarot cards, tea leaves, and even animal entrails. Knowledge of other forms of divination will show that he/she is familiar with the basic concepts of divination, and is not limited to merely the lines on one's hands.

*This is one of the questions that have been asked on my formspring page, regarding the art of divination.

What's with 2012?

2010-04-02T10:19:00.003+08:00

*FM + 3

A lot of people are concerned about the Mayan prophecy of 2012. End of the world, they say. Repent, the end is nigh.

First of all, the Mayans have no monopoly on correct prophecies. Other prophecies are also as trustworthy.

Second, the Mayans do not even mention anything about the end of the world, or death, or destruction even.

So what happens in 2012?

The winter solstice of 2012 will mark the end of the Mayan calendar. Thus ends one age, and another begins. The Mayan calendar, by the way, has a very long range. It spans millenia. This is because it counts the earth's biorhythm.

What's biorhythm, you ask? Break it down first. Bio + rhythm. Rhythm is a repetitive cycle. Bio is life. The female menstrual cycle is an example of biorhythm. The seasons are another example. And so on. And so forth.

The Earth is a living thing. Well, not exactly an organism in the cellular living thing-sense. But you get what I mean. Anyway, anything living has biorhythm. And the planet Earth is no exception. It just happened that we're alive and will get to witness, or feel, the biorhtym's pulse. (Un)lucky us? Who knows.

Well, if you're still a skeptic after hearing the biorhythm explanation, just read the papers. Earthquakes in Haiti. In Chile. And in the Philippines. Drastic changes in the weather. That's either biorhythm in action, or the end of the world. You choose.

Magic Words

2010-03-05T17:15:00.004+08:00

*FM + 6

When you hear "Magic Words", the first thing that usually comes to mind is "Abracadabra". Readers of the more recent Harry Potter novels will know "Wingardium Leviosa", "Expecto Patronum", or "Avada Kedavra" (which I believe is a variation of Abracadabra).

What then is the logic behind Magic Words?

Verbalizing an idea means putting form into something formless. It is the word that becomes the idea's body. Thus, when you have a concept, and there is no existing word to describe it, you coin a new word.

When sorcerers create spells, they create Magic Words to embody the spell. For purposes of discussion, let us use the Harry Potter example.

Now for example, centuries ago, a sorcerer discovered that he could conjure a Patronus, or a sort of spiritual familiar, which takes the form of animals. And to embody the entire spell that conjures it, he comes up with the words "Expecto Patronum".

Now to the modern sorcerer, "Expecto Patronum" may just be meaningless magical jargon, with a little bit of Latin-sounding flair. But "Expecto Patronum" actually means something, and whatever that meaning is may have been lost in the annals of history. It definitely meant something during its creation.

That's why Magic Words are never translated. They are the original vessels of ideas that came into fruition. To translate a Magic Word is to lose the essence of the idea. A translation has its own character, distinct from the original. The essence of the original becomes lost in the translation.

This is also the same reason why the Roman Catholic Church seems to have an obsession with dead languages. Some people ask, "Why is the Catholic Church obsessed with Latin? Nobody speaks it nowadays."

The reason for this what I have already stated above. Let's take the Holy Mass as an example. It is a ritual that is not biblical in nature, but one that was created entirely by the Catholic Church. The Holy Mass was created by the early Christians, and used the Latin language to embody their thoughts and ideas. Thus, in holding the Mass in Latin, the original essence of the ritual is preserved. Although translating the Mass in the vernacular will help reach more people, the Mass in Latin is the most powerful, and although I have never heard the Holy Mass in Latin, I am sure that my hair would probably stand on end, from the sheer energy of the entire ritual.

The Truth About Zodiacs

2010-02-05T21:22:00.003+08:00

*FM + 6 (Sorry for the delay!)

A lot of people ask me, "Are zodiacs for real?"

I would've wanted to answer yes, because I am pretty sure that there is some truth in it, even if it isn't a hundred percent.

So just to be sure, I asked Osi, another shaman friend of mine.

And so to answer those who keep bothering me:

Yes, zodiacs are for real. They are true only as a general rule. Because like all things, there are exceptions.

Zodiacs rely on when children begin to understand and comprehend the world around them. Child development generally happens at a specific age, at a certain number of months. But again, everyone is unique, so some children develop earlier, some children later.

Let's take the Sagittarians, for example, which is my zodiac sign. (I won't be going into specifics here.) Sagittarians are born from 23 November to 21 December. These are generally the colder times of the year. The general atmosphere during these days of the year affect the general demeanor of society. So in this example, a Sagittarian will develop his/her sensory faculties at around the age of one year, which is roughly around the time before Christmas. During these times, society is generally in a happy and jovial mood. And so a child that develops his/her senses during this period will imbibe the mood of society, and will grow up generally with a happy and jovial disposition, not unlike the time the child developed his/her senses.

That should be okay for now. I shall explain more in the next post.

*pic from charlottezodiacdanceclub.com

Divination: 2010 Forecast, or The New Year Full Moon with Partial Lunar Eclipse

2010-01-01T12:06:00.007+08:00

I thought 2 December 2009 would be the last full moon for 2009. Technically, the twelfth month of 2009 had two full moons. This is known as a Blue Moon.

The modern definition of a Blue Moon is "the second full moon in a calendar month"¹. There is an older definition, which calls a Blue Moon "as an extra full moon that occur[s] in a season; one season was normally three full moons."² But of course, this refers to the parts of the planet which have four seasons. The old definition will not sit well in tropical countries, which do not measure time in four seasons, and the onslaught of global warming might soon affect the planet's seasons anyway. So I go for the modern definition.

A Blue Moon is a rare event. This is experienced usually after approximately 31 months. The last modern Blue Moon before this one occurred in 31 May 2007 (31 months ago)³, and the next modern Blue Moon will occur in 31 Aug 2012 (32 months from now)⁴.

Last night was also a New Year Full Moon. As I mentioned in my earlier post about the Full Moon, the "full moon lasts for three nights. The fullest full moon is on the second night."⁵ It is thus rare for any of the three nights of the Full Moon to fall on the last night of the year. The last night of the year 2001, for instance, was the third night of the Full Moon⁶. The last night on the year I was born (1979) was lit by the first night of the Full Moon⁷. The last night of 2009 was a Full Moon at its peak, or the second night. Although this in itself is a rare occurrence, this actually only becomes special for societies which do not have a lunar-based calendar, like the Westerners, which follow the Gregorian calendar.

And finally, last night was also a partial Lunar Eclipse. It wasn't enough to cover the moon in a distinct shadow, but still, you could really see the spot on the lower left of the Moon's face where the Earth's shadow eats at the corner, creating an unmistakable chip. Again, I do not need to stress that a Lunar Eclipse, no matter how partial, is a rarity.

Now, for all three events (the Blue Moon, the New Year Full Moon, and the Lunar Eclipse) to happen individually is quite rare. But all three events happening at the same time--highly improbable. Therefore, last night's Full Moon should be read as an omen.

The Blue Moon: Signifies doubling. Being the second Full Moon of a calendar month, the Blue Moon acts like a mathematical exponent, raising something to the second power.

The New Year Full Moon: Signifies bounty, or fullness. A New Year Full Moon heralds good fortune and bounty for the incoming year.

The Lunar Eclipse: Signifies specialty, or added value. It adds flourish, sort of like an autographed hardbound edition of your favorite book, or your favorite song as an encore at a concert of your favorite band. In workers' terms, it is a bonus. A huge, hefty bonus.

Therefore: The Year of Our Lord, Common Era, two thousand and ten, will be a year of bounty and good fortune, filled with bonuses (or is it boni?), multiplied by the power of two. And I'm sure most of you felt this in the air last night.

And if you still doubt how special last night was, read this story.⁸

*pic from iomastronomy.org

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon
2 Ibid.
3 http://www.celestialtimings.com/articles/blue-moon.html
4 Ibid.
5 http://thesorcerersstoned.blogspot.com/2008/04/full-moon.html
6 http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=145&month=12&year=2001&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1
7 http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/index.php?month=12&year=1979&css=moon.css&Submit=Go
8 http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/partiallunareclipseandbluemoonnewyearseve

Spell Preferences 2: Time

2009-12-08T07:15:00.002+08:00

*This delayed post is seven days after the last full moon for the year 2009.

Spells are either daytime or nighttime spells. Daytime spells are cast in the morning, and nighttime spells are cast at night. Obviously.

So combined with the knowledge learned from the previous post (Locations), a spell should note the preferred time and place of its casting.

Example:
In-AM: Indoors morning
In-PM: Indoors night
Out-AM: Outdoors morning
Out-PM: Outdoors night

An AM spell (daytime) is a spell that requires the energy of the sun, while a PM spell (nighttime) requires other light energy sources, such as moonlight, starlight, or no light at all.

Some of you may ask, "What's the difference between sunlight and moonlight?" The answer is of course their light wave. If you were to plot out sunlight and moonlight in wave form, they would look totally different. They would have very different energy signatures, because they are in fact emitting very different types of energy (see previous post on manna). So the choice of using sunlight or moonlight will actually depend on what type of energy you wish to harness for your spell.

Manna

2009-11-03T07:55:00.002+08:00

Manna, simply put, is energy. In modern layman's terms, specifically Star Wars jargon, manna is The Force. Manna is the energy that surrounds everything.

Energy is needed to cast a spell. If the spellcaster is gifted with an unlimited supply of manic energy (and science actually calls that a disorder), then he/she can cast a spell without having to tap manna. But for regular humans like us, attempting to cast a spell using only the energy in your body will drain you. Which is why we need to tap an external energy source.

Different places have different types of manna because they produce different energies. To illustrate: A forest clearing, surrounded by all the huge trees, blades of grass, mushrooms, insects, and birds, produces a different energy, and consequently has a different type of manna from, let's say, a collegiate basketball game during the finals. Spells can actually be cast in both these places, but depending on your spell, you have to choose which energy source you will tap. If your spell needs more---aggression---then cast it in the basketball game. If your spell requires more tranquility, cast it in the forest, or on the seashore. It all really depends on the type of spell and its requirements.

*pic from forums.tabcrawler.com

Spell Preferences 1: Location

2009-10-06T09:22:00.002+08:00

Spell Preferences are the time and location when a spell may be cast. Spells may actually be cast any time of the day, but depending on the type and intent of the spell, maximum effect may be utilized by following spell preferences.

Spells are cast in either two locations: Indoors (In), or Outdoors (Out).

Indoor locations are usually used for In-Subj spell types. This is because the walls that enclose the caster help redirect the energy back to the caster. When a spell is cast, energy is released, and configurations are changed. Enclosing the caster indoors will make sure that the released energy and the configurations changed will remain with the caster, and will not accidentally affect third persons.

Outdoor locations on the other hand are usually reserved for Out-Obj spell types. With no walls to hold the energy, everything is spewed outward. Add that to the fact that the great outdoors gives you unlimited access to all the manna you need. Well, not really unlimited access, but it does allow you all the manna you may require to cast a spell successfully.

The time when a spell may be cast depends on the light source, which is usually the main source of manna for a spell. This will be discussed in the next post.

Spell Types

2009-10-06T09:05:00.001+08:00

*Because I wasn't able to post during the September Full Moon, as scheduled, I shall have two October posts to make up for it.

These are the three basic spell types:

Out-Obj: Outward-Objective
In-Subj: Inward-Subjective
Recp: Reciprocal

An Outward-Objective spell or charm is directed obviously outside yourself. Toward others. A spell to make someone fall for you (this is just an example, however. I would not advise anyone to attempt a spell to make someone fall for you. There are other approaches for that), being directed at a specific third person, is an Out-Obj spell. So are spells to influence the behavior of others, or to change someone's mindset.

An Inward-Subjective spell or charm is directed toward yourself. These include spells to make you quit smoking, spells to make you quit drugs, or spells to help you pass an exam.

A Reciprocal spell or charm is a combination of an Out-Obj and an In-Subj. It is one which affects both a third person, as well as the caster. Technically, all spells are Reciprocal, since the caster cannot pull one off without making a sacrifice. But more specific examples of a Reciprocal spell include spells to make peace with your enemy, or spells for success in group endeavors.

The Soul-Bind Spell

2009-08-05T22:14:00.005+08:00

The spell to bind yourself to your soul-mate.

Most powerful when cast on a Full Moon.

Spell type: Recp
Pref: Out-PM; FM

Equipment:
Headgear
Magic Wand
Potion 120ml (Li)
Water (Wa)
Firestarter (Fi)
THC (Ea)
Peace pipe (Wi)
Photograph of the subject

Don the headgear, and walk onto an open field as the Full Moon rises. The headgear must not be removed during the duration of the spell.

Drink the potion. You will have 20 minutes before the effects are felt. Take the photograph, then place it on the ground in front of you. Use the tip of your magic wand and draw a circle on the ground around the photograph. Stare at the photograph and mutter the incantation nine times:

Mergis eternam te anima meæ

With the firestarter, set fire to the photograph, and use its flame to light the peace pipe. Inhale deeply, and as you blow the smoke out, speak the name of the subject, your soul-mate. Then wash your mouth with water, and the spell is completed.

* * *

*This spell was based on a short story of the same title.
**This spell would work best with a consecrated wand.
***This spell also requires a trade (not specified). The souls will continue to be bound as long as the caster maintains fidelity to the other soul.

Identifying the Enlightened

2009-07-09T23:50:00.003+08:00

Part 3 of the Enlightenment Series

How do you know if someone is enlightened?

Definitely, it's not like in pictures or paintings, wherein the enlightened people have golden halos around their heads. Close, though.

Enlightened people are good people. Emphasis on the word good.

Linguistically, the word good may seem like a weak word. Synonymous with the words nice and kind. But they are not the same.

A person may be nice, but not good. A person may also be kind, but not good. But a good person is both nice and kind.

You will know a good person when you see one. It's in the way they smile, the way their eyes look at you when they're talking, and the way they stare at you when they're listening. It's also in the way they talk. Good people will never mutter expletives. For them, there is always a perfect word to embody your emotion. If you resort to using the words fuck or shit to refer to something, then that just shows how lazy you are to think of that perfect word. You can actually tell a lot about people by the words that come out of their mouths.

Good people always think about others first before themselves. When they have food, they will share. Et cetera, et cetera. You already know that.

Not all good people are enlightened. But all enlightened people are good.

This is the composition of human goodness: The most numerous are the normal people. Normal meaning they can succumb to the dictates of the flesh, they think ill of other people, they will save their own asses before others. You cannot blame them for that; that is the natural human state. After the normal people, we have the good people, who are only a small fraction of the number of normal people.

And from the pool of good people, we have the enlightened ones. They are the ones who walk the path of righteousness, never straying, twenty-four seven. Which is something very difficult to do. And there are only very, very, very, very few of them.

*DISCLAIMER: I am not enlightened. But I wish I was.

Who is God?

2009-06-08T06:18:00.003+08:00

Part 2 of the Enlightenment Series

Once, I got into a debate with someone who was trying to recruit me into his bible study group. We were discussing about God, and I asked him, "So what do you think God is, some old man in heaven dressed in white, with a long, flowing beard?"

Of course, I asked this with sarcasm, so I was surprised when he answered, "Yes." And this guy was already in college.

So who or what is God?

(I shall use the pronoun "He" with a capital H, not because I believe God is a man, but because of standard usage, since I am Roman Catholic by tradition. God has no gender, nor does He have any form.)

God is the Force. The Almighty. The fiber that holds the universe together.

I told bible-study guy to look at one single blade of grass. I told him to admire it, to adore its softness, and its greenness. Then I told him that that single blade of grass was unique. I told him to look at the blade of grass beside it. Those two blades of grass may look similar, but they are different; they are not the same blade of grass. Then I told bible-study guy to look at the entire field, made up of probably thousands, nay, millions of blades of grass, all similar, but none of them exactly the same. That, I said, was God. The power that can create a million similar yet different blades of grass. The power that can cause running water to wear down a rock. The power that cause an eighteen year-old to die from an automobile accident, or an eighty year-old to die of old age. The power that can create life, that can create twins and triplets inside a womb.

In order to be enlightened, this is the first step, the first hurdle, that you must overcome. You must find God. Some people scoff at such an idea, and say that God does not exist. But these people have not tried to find God. They have not tried to reconcile the conflicting ideas in their heads. The Force is always there, and only the Jedi are sure the Force even exists. And only those who believe in God can tap into His reservoir of unlimited energy to be able to work magic.

A few days after that encounter with bible-study guy, I chanced upon him again, wandering the campus alone. He no longer carried his bible, and he was always alone, staring into space. He seemed lost. And I believe I was partly to blame. I shattered the only God he ever knew, the one with the white robes and flowing beard, and I didn't guide him to the truth. Well, wherever you are, bible-study guy, if you ever read this...I apologize. And I hope you are fine.

*pic from myspace.com

Secret to Enlightenment

2009-05-10T06:31:00.002+08:00

Part 1 of the Enlightenment Series

There are actually several paths to enlightenment. One can use the path of Siddharta Gautama, but it is a difficult path, and not for the average person. Or one can use the enlightenment of Jesus of Nazareth, by fasting for forty days. This I plan to try in the future.

The paths I mentioned above are paths to enlightenment popular thousands of years ago. Although they can still be used today, the mindset of the world right now is so different from what it was then. And so humans have discovered other paths of enlightenment.

Some people might argue that the use of psychedelic drugs is one path to enlightenment. They might even cite the extensive body of work of anthropologist Carlos Castaneda. Let me correct them.

Psychedelics may clear your inner demons. They may give you the energy to deal with emotions long suppressed. They may show you your path in life, or reveal your destiny. They may make you a better person. But that is not enlightenment.

At most, psychedelics may show you the door. But to walk through the door, and tread the path of goodness, that is what enlightenment is. One must walk the path, and never stray. But that is hard work, and very, very difficult to sustain. It requires pure devotion. Which is why enlightenment cannot be achieved by everyone.

On Casting Spells

2009-04-10T17:19:00.004+08:00

Two important things to remember when casting spells:

1. All spells require a trade.

Most people have probably heard the saying "You can't touch a butterfly without rearranging the stars," or "The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a hurricane in Texas." Or something like that.

There are actually several variations of that philosophy. But the main idea behind that is that one's actions will create a ripple in the universe's flow of events.

So, if you cast a spell, and want a certain event to happen, you have to make a trade. Some spellcasters make live offerings; others sacrifice their connections with other human beings. Whatever.

A true spellcaster knows what to offer in exchange for something specific to happen. All it requires is creativity.

2. As a general rule: Never, ever tell anyone that you cast a spell. The moment you tell someone else about it, the spell will not work.

That is, of course, a general rule. And like everything else, there are exceptions.

Eye Candy

2009-03-11T06:18:00.005+08:00

This is the science of eye candy.

Eye candy is something that stimulates the visual senses into an almost visual overload. Although it applies to anything visual, it is usually used to describe movies, or people.

Note that although scenes like golden fields blowing in the wind, or a sunset over a white sand beach, are both serenely beautiful, they are not necessarily eye candy.

And like everything else, eye candy is energy. To illustrate, let us take the best example for movie eye candy, and that's Speed Racer, directed by the Wachowski brothers.

It relies on the visual bombardment of color. Since color is merely a signature of light, it is energy. Color emits more energy than mere black or white. And the human eye is naturally drawn to wherever energy is strongest. The human eye is in fact naturally drawn to three things: light, motion, and color. And this movie has it all.

Human eye candy is slightly different, as it is the beauty of the person's face as a three-dimensional construction that makes it eye candy. And the human eye is likewise drawn to it, because it is unfamiliar. It is energy configured in a beautiful way, like the Aurora Borealis (which I have not yet personally laid eyes on).

That is the so-called science of eye candy.

The Sound of the Universe

2009-02-09T16:09:00.000+08:00

This is the story of how I heard the sound of the universe.

This happened sometime in 2001 or 2002, I don't really remember. I was with three other friends, all of us psychonauts. We were in another psychonaut friend's apartment, although the friend who owned the apartment wasn't with us that night (he sometimes lets us use his place). All of us ingested Jekyll, lay down on a mattress, and went on a spirit walk.

This was my vision:

I was heavily clothed, surrounded in total blackness. All around me was nothing but black, total darkness, except for myself, which I could see clearly. I was not floating in empty space; my feet were touching solid ground, although it just looked black to me.

Then I started running in the blackness. Just running, to nowhere in particular. I didn't seem to be crashing into any barrier; I was just running through endless space.

Then a voice inside me told me to take off the baseball cap I had on my head. It wasn't really a voice, for it did not speak. But it was something foreign to me, and it spoke not in words, but in images, and it communicated at the speed of thought. And it told me to take off my cap.

So still running, I took off my cap. As I held the cap in my hand, I saw that it had some designs on the front. As I looked closer, I could see that the designs were of faces. They were the faces of my immediate family---my brothers and sisters, and my mom and dad.

Then the voice told me to throw the cap away. Still running, I tossed away the cap, and watched it disappear into blackness. Then the voice told me to take off my jacket.

Upon taking off the jacket, I also noticed that the jacket was printed with faces---the faces of everyone in my neighborhood. All of them: my childhood friends, the store owner at the street corner, the pesky kids across our house, basically everyone I know from my neighborhood. The voice also told me to toss the jacket, and it too disappeared into nothingness.

The voice told me to remove every article of clothing I had (like I said, I was heavily clothed). Printed on each article of clothing were the faces of people I knew during the course of my entire life thus far: my grade school classmates, my high school buddies and teachers, my uncles and aunts, my cousins, literally everyone I knew was shed off. Soon I was down to just my boxer shorts.

I stopped running then, aware that I would be asked by the voice to strip naked and toss away my boxers. I looked down at my last piece of clothing: printed on it were the four faces of the psychonauts who took the spirit walk with me.

I thought to myself, "These four people are physically in the same room with me (each of us having our own spirit walk), and they are my last connection to real world. Once I shed my boxers, I would have severed all my connections to the physical world." That meant that I would have crossed over to the unknown, having no idea at all what would happen if I did.

The voice assured me that there was nothing to be afraid of, and I knew that everything was good, for I felt no fear nor hesitation. So I stripped off my boxer shorts, and threw them away.

Then I felt myself falling through a portal, like being sucked into a straw, and when I came out the other end, I was back in my body, back in my friend's apartment, lying down on the mattress surrounded by my friends. But something was different. I could see the energy around me.

If you've seen The Matrix, it's similar to how Neo sees the Matrix code in everything around him. In my case, I could see literally thousands upon thousands of fibers of energy, each fiber having different color signatures. The energy configuration of my friends were different from the energy configuration of the furniture, or the stereo, or the mattress we were lying on. The energy of living things was different from the energy of the inanimate objects, but you could be certain that everything was energy, manifested in different forms.

And as I looked around in wonder, I became aware of a low humming sound that I could hear. It was very similar to the hum of a high-voltage cable with a powerful current running through it. It was also kind of like the hum of a Jedi's lightsaber, only it was continuous and uninterrupted.

That, my friends, is the sound of the universe. It is the sound of the buzzing and the humming of the energy around you. This sound is not new; it is as old as the universe itself.

Hinduism and other religions that practice meditation are no stranger to this sound. They have heard it before, and have incorporated them in their meditative practices.

The sound of the universe is written as one syllable, with three letters: AUM. Sometimes it is spelled "Om". John Lennon mentioned this in his song "Across the Universe."

Later on I did some research and found out that "Aum" is regarded by some as the highest sound, by others as the voice of God. And until I heard that sound with my own ears, I never even knew it existed.

Blank

2009-01-15T23:18:00.000+08:00

Sorry. No sorcery during the last full moon.

Too much emotional interference throws my magic off.

Also, I think the neighbors are starting to suspect that I do voodoo hocus-pocus what-not.

Anyway, once I get my rhythm back, enemies, beware... My magic will be much stronger than before. I shall send the wrath of Karma in full force against my enemies. You all know who you are.

But first, I have to get my rhythm back. In the meantime, I must act as inconspicuous as possible so as not to arouse suspicion.

Must...act...normal...

Jekyll (formula)

2008-12-14T12:40:00.000+08:00

Someone asked me for the formula for Jekyll, which is a hallucinogen extracted from over-the-counter drugs.

A. 120 mL DXM
B. 120 mL NH3
C. 60 mL C4H10
D. 1.5 g C6H8O6
E. 60 mL H2O

Mix A, B, and C in a container. Allow 10 minutes to settle.
Separate the bottom layer (red).
Mix this with D dissolved in E. Separate the top part.
Boil to decrease the water.

Invoking Your Ancestors

2008-11-17T11:55:00.001+08:00

*This delayed post is four days after the full moon.

In the movie The Lion King, King Mufasa tells his young cub that the spirits of their ancestors look down on them from the stars. In the T.V. series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Airbender Aang invokes his predecessor, the Avatar Roku, for wisdom and guidance. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker converses with the spirit of the departed Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I could go on and on with many more examples of this phenomenon of invoking one's ancestors in popular culture, but that would be a very tiresome task. But there is truth to this practice, since our ancestors have been invoking their ancestors, who also invoked their ancestors before them. Your ancestors were once life forms on this planet; they once walked this earth, breathed our air, and drank our water. They were alive, and were once live forms of energy. When they died, they merely changed forms. Their knowledge, and their entire energy configuration, has joined the Force, or the super energy field that encompasses everything.

So when one invokes their ancestors, one is not merely calling out to your dead relatives; one is actually tapping into the eternal energy source. There are actually many other methods of tapping into the great energy, and calling on your ancestors is simply one way of going about it. It is one of the easiest ways where ordinary people can feel the awesome power of the universe without resulting to anything that borders on the occult.

For proof of the truth of this phenomenon, read my law school blog. And then try it out yourself. But you must be sincere. Any slight hint of skepticism will guarantee failure from the onset.

Lucid Dreaming

2008-10-16T15:43:00.000+08:00

Someone asked me for some tips on lucid dreaming.

There are actually different ways to go about it. My way is not the only way, and I'm not even saying it's the correct way. Anyway, here we go.

1. Lie down. Duh. Obviously, this includes closing your eyes. It would be advisable to lie down on your back, legs slightly spread, and arms on your sides, with the palm facing up. It must feel completely natural for you; if it feels uncomfortable or unnatural in any way, move around a bit to find your position.

2. Relax every muscle in your body. Visualize the relaxation starting from your feet, moving upwards, to the legs, the torso, the arms, and then the neck, then the face.

3. Once you've relaxed everything, all the activity should be concentrated in your brain. And this is where the fun begins.

4. Now imagine your mind as one big stadium covered by a huge dome right above you. You can think of the dome as your cranium. Then imagine some lights on the dome's surface, corresponding to the areas of your brain where mental activity is going on (kind of like a CT scan). This requires some concentration, as you must try to locate which areas of your mind are still receiving electrical impulses.

5. Once you've determined which areas are still active, imagine the stadium starting to vibrate and shake. The stadium is actually one huge flying saucer, and the ground vibrating beneath you is actually the boosters and engines starting up.

6. Then imagine the whole stadium, including the dome plus all the lights on its surface, suddenly rise vertically into the sky. You will know when you are doing it right when you feel your body as just pins and needles, the sensation of it slowly fading while your mind slowly enters a different plane.

7. Sustain for as long as possible.

The purpose of this of course is to take all your mental activity to a different plane, into the alternate universe of dreaming. You will be leaving your body behind on auto-pilot, and it will undergo its daily rest and cell regeneration and what-not. But your mind and your consciousness will be elsewhere.

Always remember that all this requires energy. To separate your mind from your body requires a tremendous amount of energy, so if you are exhausted when you hit the sack, chances are you will just just drift off to dreamland, without control, of course. And even if you successfully manage to enter the dream state, it will take even more energy to stay there.

This post only discusses entering the dream state. Sustaining it is another matter.

Collective Power

2008-09-14T19:32:00.000+08:00

Someone asked me: What's the purpose of going to Church, when you can just pray on your own at home?

I answered: Collective power. And I mean "power" in the supernatural sense, that mystical energy that you feel through the air.

One person protesting the government by shouting through a megaphone in the streets will not be quite persuasive enough. Two hundred thousand people can overthrow a president.

One person listening to the Eraserheads on his iPod might evoke nostalgia. Thirty thousand fans singing together can bring tears to the eyes.

One person praying at home is one thing. Hearing Mass in Quiapo Church is a different thing altogether.

Have you even seen the wall on the east side of the church? It has the names of the parish priests since 1582. That's anno domini fifteen hundred and eighty-two. The names are carved in stone, and it's so old you can barely read the letters (so it's not true that what is written in stone is permanent).

So it all boils down to this: more people, more energy; more energy, more power. The universe is one big ball of energy. It's just a matter of redirecting it.

Prayer for Heath

2008-07-17T12:19:00.000+08:00

In the darkness of the movie theater, bow your head, close your eyes, and repeat these words:

Heath Ledger, actor extraordinaire,
we are saddened by your loss
and humbled by your death.
Blow us away with your performance.

Amen.

Enjoy the show.

Consecrating a Wand

2008-06-19T16:14:00.001+08:00

Spell Type: Out-Obj
Pref: Out-PM; FM

Equipment:
Wand
Cup, Wood, Clay, or Ceramic (E)
Firestarter (F)
500mL Water (Wa)
1 Egg (Li)
THC

Take the wand. Walk out onto an open field. Face West, select the most level part of the field.

As soon as the moon rises, get down on one knee. Stretch your wand-arm forward and using the tip of the wand, draw a circle on the ground in the direction of your wand-arm (if you are right-handed, trace in a clockwise direction). Do not lift the wand until it reaches the exact point you started from, thus closing the circle.

Again, using the tip of the wand, dig a small hole in the center of the circle, and plant the wand in it, so that it points directly up.

Place your mouth near the wand tip, and whisper to the wand the following prayer:
Father Almighty
This is my wand
An extension of my arm
An extension of myself
May it magnify the power I naturally possess
Then raise your head over the wand and spit on the wand tip, making sure that your spit drops on the wand's center. All this should be performed without getting up from your kneeling position.

Leave the circle, and take note of the time.

Come back when the moon is directly overhead. Do not step into the circle you traced earlier. The second half of the spell will be performed from outside the circle.

Raise the egg over the wand, and repeat the prayer, this time addressing it to the moon, not to the wand. After the prayer, crack the egg over the wand tip, and make sure the yolk drops on the wand's center, so that it drips over the sides of the wand.

Using the firestarter, blaze up the THC, and every exhale of smoke (Wi) should be directed towards the wand. Try to blow the smoke over the entire wand. You can place your head close to the wand, but no part of your body may touch the ground inside the circle.

When the THC is consumed, and all the smoke has been blown, leave the wand again. Come back in the morning when the moon is gone from the sky. You may now step inside the circle. Pour water over the wand, to wash away the sticky residue. After that, point the wand to your forehead, close your eyes, and repeat the prayer one last time.

(Warning: you may look really stupid when doing this, so it's best to do it alone.)

The Five Elements

2008-05-19T21:40:00.000+08:00

Another full moon.

Before going into the details of spellcasting, we need to learn the basic elements of a spell. The most important element of the spell: the ingredients.

Again, I would like to stress that spellcasting is not as rigid and fixed as in ye olde days, where each step had to be done precisely and exactly like the book said. Modern spellcasting involves flexibility, improvisation, and personalization. In other words, each spell is unique, and no two spells are exactly alike.

1. Ingredients must be made of natural elements. This can include materials processed from naturally occurring substances. To illustrate, a car tire can be a spell ingredient, because it is processed from natural rubber. Plastics, however, like the one used in water bottles, cannot be used, as they are totally synthetic.

2. Ingredients must represent all the five elements, in any ratio, depending on the spell type.

Now what are the Five Elements? These are Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Life. I know that it sounds a lot like that cartoon series "Captain Planet", but just because something is found in a kid's cartoon show doesn't mean it's not right. In fact, most of the ancient knowledge have become so commonplace that they have permeated popular culture, and people tend to take them for granted. But that's actually a good thing, as it protects the knowledge from those prying unbelievers.

The Five Elements are not the same elements that we know, meaning they are not the same elements on the periodic table. The Five Elements are actually the five basic groups of materials found on this earth. So from the very top, we begin with the Element Air, which is basically everything from the stratosphere to the surface, but which also includes breath.

The second Element is Earth, which includes all the rocks and minerals. Most of the elements we know, such as gold, silver, bronze, mercury, etc., fall under Earth.

The third Element, Water, includes, but is not limited to, anything liquid. This includes sea water, fresh water, rain water, coconut milk, and urine.

The fourth Element is Fire. This mostly includes anything with a physical flame, although anything with an extremely high temperature would also fall under this category.

And finally, the fifth Element is Life. This includes anything that is alive: trees, animals, insects, and humans.

Now, there are some materials that can be classified into more than one Element, so where to classify it would depend on the spellcaster's skill. For example, blood can be either Water, or Life, depending on the spell. But it cannot be both.

All the ingredients of the spell must represent the Five Elements, so you should have at least five ingredients before attempting to cast a spell. Again, due to the unique nature of every spell cast, some spells may even be cast with less than five Elements present, but that is for the advanced spellcasters, and again depends on the intent of the spell. The basic spells use all Five Elements in different ratios. Also, the spells that use all five are generally considered more effective.

Full Moon

2008-04-20T18:15:00.001+08:00

Tonight is the peak of the full moon.

The full moon lasts for three nights. The fullest full moon is on the second night, which is tonight.

Magical lore has always mentioned the power of the full moon, but most people refuse to recognize the power of that satellite out there in space. They think it's just an etymological coincidence that the word lunatic derives from the Latin word for moon.

The thing is, it's okay for those people to take the moon for granted, because the moon is an untapped source of power, and the fewer the people who can tap into that power, the better.

Light is energy. Energy has a mark, which can be measured. Like sound waves, light waves can be graphed visually. Different light sources emit different signatures. As the sound wave of a dog's bark is different from the sound wave of Lionel Richie's voice, so is the light wave of sunlight different from the light wave of candlelight.

Now moonlight is simply reflected sunlight. But because it is reflected, it does not have the exact same properties as sunlight because of the reflective surface, which is moon rock. So of course, moonlight will be totally different from sunlight.

Light is one of the strongest magical elements, but the ones used the most in magic are firelight, moonlight, and---not as popular---sunlight. A huge percentage of spells are designed to be cast in the moonlight. But in order to maximize the power of the moon, you must first learn and understand the behavior of moonlight. You literally have to "feel the magic in the air". It is a skill that requires a lot of training.

In order to cast really powerful nighttime spells, your wand must first be consecrated for nighttime use---that is, under the light of the full moon. The spell for consecrating wands varies between spellcasters, but there is one basic structure or flow that must be followed.

If you already have a night-ready wand, then now would be a good time to try casting spells which require a full moon (not all spells require a full moon; some are designed for the half, crescent or new moons). If your wand is not yet night-ready, and you don't know the consecration spell, I'll publish the spell on the next full moon. And if you don't have a wand yet, you have twenty-eight days more to get one.

Magic Wands

2007-09-29T07:48:00.000+08:00

Magic wands are not what the Harry Potter books portray them to be.

They do not shoot fire, or jets of light, and they do not act like some all-powerful ray gun that you can point at your opponent. And you definitely should not use a wand for dueling. It's just a stick. It will not kill.

Now what are magic wands for? They are simply media used to channel energy, when casting a spell, charm, or curse.

Magic wands must be natural, meaning they must not be made of synthetic materials. Examples of natural materials are wood, paper, and ivory. An ivory wand would be good, but it would probably be very expensive, while I don't think anyone would want to perform magic using a wand made of paper. Hence, wood still remains as the most popular choice.

Ideal magic wands would be as long as your forearm. It is possible to have it shorter, even as short as a pen, depending on the caster. But anything longer than your forearm would be cumbersome, and might even be mistaken for a weapon.

In my case, being a musician, my magic wand is an old drum stick. My brother is a drummer, and he gave me his old sticks, which I turned into a wand.

Before a wand can be used effectively, it must first be consecrated. That's right, I said consecrated. It must be blessed by yourself. The procedure for consecrating wands will be dealt with in succeeding posts.