Image: Oxana Mazur

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Socrates

Last week a very kind soul messaged me on Dear Wicked and said that she had a suggestion, and she hoped I wouldn’t take offense to it. So, the curiosity took over and I welcomed what she had to say. She told me that if I want to challenge my writing then I should write a beginner’s guide of my suggestions to those new to the path. At first I thought the suggestion was brilliant, but when I wrote the outline, and sat with this idea in my head, I realized that I do not want to tell people what to read, or do. That will only make me feel as though I am preaching, or as if I am on a superiority complex, ego trip. So, I have decided to tell you what I did, and why it worked for me. You may each take from this what you want. This is my experience of what brought me to the Left Hand Path.

The first thing that needs to be established before we can even talk about reading material, or Magickal workings that should be mastered is personal Philosophy. This deals with how you see and view the world around you, everything you know to be “real”.  I think everyone needs to know a general idea of the path they want to follow. The first thing I knew to be true for me was that there is no personal God, and this was for a few reasons; I knew that more than one God existed, but I also knew that there is a Divine Feminine in Goddess form, and I had the strongest inclination that there was even something bigger than them. I have Roman Catholic roots, and to be honest I am grateful for this time spent in the church. My time inside that wretched place was filled with giggles from my friends on the other side, and I learned a lot. I believe that my knowledge of the lies in the Bible helped me on my path in the Occult world, and helped me better understand how much my beloved Daemons have been demonized themselves. The church also steered me in the direction of becoming a feminist, once I saw how women are considered less than in every aspect, I wanted nothing more than to fight for our cause. I left the church at 11, and have not looked back since.  The other thing I knew to be my truth was that the world is to be seen on a Universal level but to also realize that everything I know to be “real” is just a collective of everyone’s perception of how it is “supposed to be”; If you remove these intentions of what the world is supposed to be, what do you actually see? Try it some night during meditation.

The key to Magick is as simple as this: “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the Universe, so the Soul…”  Hermes Trismegistus

The main portion of Hermes’ teachings is: As I see it, so it is. I know this is a hard concept for many to even begin to master, hell, I have a hard time with it, but if we all work towards a common goal to remove the illusions put in place centuries ago, I believe a change can be made. The Laws of Attraction, and Manifestation are not complicated, but it takes a bit of getting used to. Society has drilled it into our heads that the world we live in, the world we see, is real by every definition but it isn’t.

I believe that establishing a personal Philosophy will help you tremendously on your path. Are you attracted to a Pagan path? Are you drawn to a theistic, or atheistic point of view? Do you seek comfort in worship, and ritual or will you make it individualized and do what you will? There are many factors that should be considered before establishing a set path. I have struggled with the title Pagan since I started on my journey; I do not fit into the mold of what Pagan’s represent. I have for the most part always been awake, so there was a deeper spiritual side of me from a very young age. I was drawn to all belief systems in the sense that I read about as many of them as I could, I also am a history nerd so reading about ancient civilizations was fun for me. I wanted to know why people are drawn to Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Wicca, Atheism, Satanism; I read about them all. Even after all of this Seeking, I still felt like I didn’t fit in, I still felt like there was something missing; I felt like I fit everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I stumbled upon Theistic Luciferianism and finally there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I mean the whole path itself can be quite confusing because we do not have guidelines, per se, of what it is to be a Luciferian. I have seen the majority break it into two groups: One who follows the ideology of what Lucifer represents: Self, Pride, Knowledge, and Rebellion; One who seeks Self. The other group is one who actually worships Lucifer. The latter seems to be counterproductive in my eyes, and is becoming less popular but it is still around. I feel that the worship of Lucifer is going against what he actually wants us to do. He has never allowed me or anyone else I know that works with him to bow in his presence, so why exactly would there be a path to worship such a Divine being? A being that wants nothing more than to spread knowledge of how the story really went.

Once you have some kind of personal belief in place, the next step is to start putting them into practice. My workings consist of Demonolatry, Hoodoo, and Hinduism (My form of meditation and yoga is of a Hindu origin, and I have worked with Ganesh, Kali, Shiva, and Krishna) For me, Demonolatry was something that was just a given for me to do, I knew I had the natural talent to work with such powerful beings. I just want to note that I do not consider this practice a religion, I know there is much discussion as to if it is, or is not one. My choice was to master the talent of working with Daemons first, so I personally began with Jinn; they would help clean my house. From here I went up in the hierarchy, and I have said in the previous post, the big boys are much more diplomatic but can and will squash us like the bugs that we are if we waste their time. The lower level Daemons seemed to be much more aggressive, and unruly. The times when I am drawn to cast Magick, I take what I need from each path, and look at the ingredients I have; I make all my castings personal. If I had to say what type of Magick it is, it would be Dark Arts with a splash of Hoodoo. I believe war water is a phenomenal tool, and that dragon’s blood ink is the key to strong Magick. I know many who have elaborate altars, and entire altar rooms. I know some who have artifacts, skulls, and fancy athame’s to help add to the motif, or mood. I, however, do not have fancy tools, I stick with the basics and allow my power to be the catalyst. On my altar I have banishing salt, and I will tell you how simple the recipe is. I took equal parts pink himalyan salt, and coarse sea salt, then I added pieces of dried sage; just buy a sage bundle and put the salt and sage into your mortar and pestle and voila, you have banishing salt. I have a stock of moon water; this is water that has coarse sea salt in it, and was charged in Moonlight, you may add herbs for specific healing purposes, or protection, calming, banishing, etc. This water has multiple every day uses, it is good for cleansing crystals, and your body when bathed in it, but for someone like myself who uses a method of water scrying it adds a nice kick of energy and added sight. I use taper candles in various colors; beeswax are the best, I have unscented plain wax candles because sometimes the beeswax one’s are out of my budget. (Stock up when you can) I have cinnamon, I think this is an underestimated tool. Not only does cinnamon represent abundance, and prosperity but the mixture of a stick and ground powder is a great tool for banishing unwanted or negative energies from a space. I have a small mirror I use for its literal purpose of a “looking glass”. And, I of course have paper with a black marker. I am not in a place where I am able to draw my sigils with chalk, so I have come up with a way that suits me. When I need to summon, banish, conjure up, anything and/or everything, I use paper and marker; works like a charm.

I think the problem we have is that people are forced to believe that Magick is about the tools you have, and that in order to become a Master of Self that you need to read all of these fancy books, and practice “fancy” forms of Magick with even fancier tools. The most important tool you have is yourself and the intentions that you give out, the rest are just amplifier’s to make life a little bit easier. There is no right or wrong way to practice, just as there is no right or wrong way to start your journey, the key is to start. The Universe will make sure everything else comes to you when you are ready, or when you are at the point where you can Manifest it yourself.

If you have even begun to question this world, and know that you are “different” then you have already made the first step, the rest will get easier with time. Also, I will always be a novice in my Magickal career, there is always room for improvement and there is always room for more knowledge; No one knows everything, and no one ever will.

The only thing we can Master is Self…