I get a lot of hits on my blog from across the realm of the Internet, many of which are from links on Facebook, Twitter, or RSS readers. To you guys who follow me: thank you! You give me many happies. However, I also get a huge number of new visitors daily to my blog from people who search around the Internet for various search terms. As part of a monthly project, here are some short replies to some of the search terms people have used to arrive here at the Digital Ambler. This focuses on some search terms that caught my eye during the month of December 2013. As most of you know, the 49 Days of Definitions project continued through and finished up in this month, forming the bulk of the posts, but there was time for other people to get to my blog through other terms.
“how does 2nd decan libra embrace their charm?” — Seeing as how I’m one of these myself, it’s hard to tell others how I can truly embrace my own devilishly awesome charm. It has to do a lot with drinking diet cola and not giving a shit, generally. Also being a magician. Also being humble.
“fill me with your anointing lord” — Oh baby, I’ll fill you with my holy spirit, alright. Get down on your knees and pray for it. Jesus is coming; grab a towel. (Sorry I’m not sorry.)
“favorable geomantic figures” — Personally, I dislike simply saying that a particular figure is always favorable or always unfavorable, but rather see how individual figures agree or disagree with a particular query or situation. For instance, if one wants a quick escape out of a situation, the figure Fortuna Maior (which, although greatly useful) is terrible for this since it indicates having to overcome something and conquer it instead of simply sidestepping it. That said, there are two systems I know of for determining favorable figures generally. In Robert Fludd’s system, there are three types of figures: good, which are Fortuna Maior, Laetitia, Caput Draconis, Albus, Puella, and Acquisitio; moderate, which are Populus, Via, and Coniunctio; and bad, which are Fortuna MInor, Tristitia, Caput Draconis, Rubeus, Puer, Amissio, and Carcer. An older Arabic system has good figures as Populus, Albus, and Laetitia; better figures as Cauda Draconis, Fortuna Minor, and Laetitia; the best figures as Acquisitio and Fortuna Maior; bad figures as Puer, Coniunctio, and Via; worse figures as Cauda Draconis and Amissio; and the worst figures as Carcer, Tristitia, and Rubeus. Generally speaking, I find Fortuna Maior, Acquisitio, Caput Draconis, Fortuna Minor, Puella, Laetitia, Albus, and Coniunctio to be favorable figures, from the most favorable to least favorable.
“mancy vs kinesis” — I can tell that some of the people who get to my blog are interested in comic book or RPG magic, that’s for sure. Since both of these roots come from Greek, they’re used in some words to make “schools of magic” or whatnot seem that much more fantastical. Briefly put, anything that ends in “mancy” means a divination system, and anything that ends in “kinesis” means a control or movement of something. Thus, “pyromancy” is divination with fire, such as scrying or looking at burnt patterns in wood, while “pyrokinesis” is the supernatural harnessing of flames, fire, and heat according to one’s will. In some arts, the line between divination and magic is blurred, such as in necromancy; though it ends in “mancy” and was originally and ultimately intended to gain information from the dead or by means of spirits of the dead, a lot of necromantic technique involves methods to raise the dead and commune with them in nonspecific ways, so a good deal of death magic was confused with the gaining of knowledge from the dead. In video games and RPGs, however, a lot of “mancies” are actually “kineses”; anyone who moves earth with their mind is more properly a “geokineticist” and not a geomancer.
“meditation to obtain a kinesis” — Lots of meditation, sure. I’m sure you’d eventually develop some awesome powers if you become a master of meditation in the meanwhile, but that shouldn’t be the point of meditation, in my opinion.
“orbs around my altar” — You might want to banish your shit or, like, use some disinfectant. That, or stop taking crappy photos of your altars and dust your bedroom more.
“what spirit should I summon” — That’s like asking “what prayer should I pray” or “what food should I eat”. It’s really up to you and what you feel appropriate and safe with. I mean, I could just suggest Bael or Asmodeus or Yahweh, but I don’t feel like being that mean at the moment.
“beings that require bones for.conjuring summoning evocation -game” — I don’t know of any in the Western tradition that require bones, exactly, though they’re not exactly frowned upon, either. Bones are a part of the body ruled by Saturn, being the densest part of the body as well as giving it structure. Spirits of the dead as well as certain animals appreciate bones, especially if they’re the bones of the body of the spirit when it was still alive. Bones are generally good for communing with gods of the dead, too, but they’re not required in terms of offerings or sacrifices, either. Other traditions place a large importance on bones and their spiritual uses, but I’m not as familiar with them. As far as summoning goes, very few spirits require bones to get their attention. Candles, incense, and orations get you much farther and for a cheaper, cleaner cost.
“geomancy ifa” — Ah, the two great divinatory arts of Europe and Africa. Geomancy, as I’m sure you’re well-aware, is a pretty old and well-developed form of European divination that has its roots in the Saharan Desert, going back about a thousand years. It spread from there both to the east through the Middle East and Greece as well as to the west through Spain into the rest of Europe, where it was practiced virtually nonstop from then onward. It went underground for a while in the past few centuries, but it’s starting to become more popular again. However, the roots of geomancy also went south from the Sahara into the rest of Africa, where it was practiced in Madagascar as sikidy and by the Yoruban peoples as ifá and diloggun. This was brought over with the slave trade into the Americas, where it’s practiced closely with the Santería religion and some other ATRs. While geomancy and ifá share the same origin, they developed quite independently of each other, so it’s hard for me to claim any knowledge on ifá save that it’s pretty deep. Only a select few people are meant to learn ifá (babalawos, generally), so unless you’re part of Santería communites, you’re better off sticking with geomancy.
“what is an aquarius/libra decanate land aries/leo decanate together like?” — Another decan/decanate question, woo! I’m honestly going to ignore the part about romantic pairings because, really, it’s just about pointless to answer a question like that based on Sun signs alone. Considering the importance of the other planets, the rising sign, house placements, and the like, Sun signs (though important) are only a fraction of the information a proper horoscope can give you. As for the decans themselves, this query indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of them. The decans of the signs are ruled by planets, not other signs! There are different methods to assign the planets to the decans, however, with the Chaldaean ordering being traditional in Western astrology but the Vedic system (which is associated more closely with the signs than the planets alone) has been popular of late.
“where to buy consecrated chalk” — Regrettably, I haven’t found a supplier for this, and none of the local stores around me sell common items that have already been blessed. To that end, I wrote up a short ritual for blessing your own chalk, which you’re free to use on whatever chalk you might get for yourself. Alternatively, you could probably just buy a pack of chalk and ask a Catholic priest to bless it for you. If you live near a botanica (Hispanic Santería/ATR magic store), I suggest getting a cake of cascarilla, or eggshell chalk, which is pretty good in its own right.
“how to make a real snowflake using magic without even chanting.anything” — I’m amused that this query assumes that all of magic requires chanting, but surprise, it doesn’t! Just close your eyes, go to the kitchen, open the freezer, and knock off some of the ice from those leftovers you put in two months ago. There you go, a real snowflake! And yes, the magic of refrigeration is truly a miracle and allows otherwise inhospitable places to become endurable (e.g. the entire southern US).
“is anyone transalting munich manuel of demonic magic” — I have a few sections of the Munich Manual translated, though translating any more is currently on hold for the time being. The Latin from Kieckhefer’s critical edition of the Munich Manual is pretty clear and well-organized, so anyone with even rudimentary skill in Latin and a good dictionary can get good progress on their own. I have some other projects to translate in the meanwhile, but if there’s a particular section that you’re just absolutely dying to have translated ASAP, let me know and I’ll see what I can do about getting it put into English in the near future.
Also, Happy New Year! Go get drunk, call on the stars and your ancestors, and bring in 2014 right!
