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A Magickal Household

  
 
Papess
00:06 / 15.09.02
I am trying to balance some energies in my home and have looked at a few systems to do this, feng shui, witchcraft, dowsing...etc. I would like to learn about other methods as well, particulary chaos or shamanistic methods. It would be cool to learn about personal methods as well. Basically,what do you do to make your space and home magickaland what traditions or systems do these methods come from?

As much as I like feng shui, I find it difficult to apply to my home. Maybe, someone knows another system of mapping the home? I have an altar, but it bothers me that I cannot seem to move it anywhere but near the television. There are other places where the energy stagnates so much, I just can't seem to get the flow to move through it on a consistent basis. Is there something that can be done to keep the current flowing, unobstructed? BTW, there are no windows in this room! My bedroom sits in a hillside and there is a water table that sits very close to the surface underneath it. The window is facing the west and the only sun it recieves is the setting sun and then moonlight. The feeling in there is like being on a sunken ship! Maybe that is why I dream of being in that underwater city all the time.

Those are just a few of the situations I am dealing with. I do not want to move because I know, there are inherent weaknesses in the desogn of most dwellings. So, I would rather just stay and make the best of this place.

I was wondering about a servitor for some of these problems, would that work? Maybe an invoked force? I have even thought of using sigils but, those are supposed to be forgotten right?

Anyway, some advice and suggestions would be great and you do not have to keep it to my issues. Maybe others have found different methods of dealing with various household nuisanses that may help someone else too.

How do you keep your home, your sanctuary?

~MT
 
 
Sebastian
02:26 / 15.09.02
the television

Above all, and the only thing I will recommend here, is that you get that awful thing out of human sight, as much as possible, when it is not being used of course. For years I had the only TV at home inside a closet and believe me they where the most beautiful years of my life in this respect. There are some neat and elegant furniture pieces to this end, but you can also consider dropping it inside and leaving it just as it finds it itself. Then close the door. Either you do it know or I will if I ever get to visit you, May.

Now, back to topic please.
 
 
gravitybitch
04:44 / 15.09.02
Maybe some of the principles of feng shui would help? Even if you don't "do" your entire place? Putting a light or something brightly colored or moving (maybe even just a strong vertical visual element!) where the energy gets stuck may help.

Personally, I walk through my apartment with a bell to wake everything up, a candle to chase away the crud that accumulates, and then either some incense or a big feather fan (if my lungs aren't up to dealing with the smoke and scent) to bring in pleasant stuff and sacred energy. It's a ritual that I cooked up on my own a long time ago, and I couldn't tell you what traditions I borrowed to build it.

Another thing that's fun is to do something similar to the "Fountain of Light" ritual - pull energy from your favorite source and fill the room with a big swirl of effervescent bubbles. This is great if you have a stairway or a long hallway to work with....
 
 
illmatic
10:11 / 15.09.02
I'd second Seb's reply about the telly, Something I recall from the TV Magick booklet, mentioned in the Mediamancy thread is that if aliens were to descend and look at our living arrangements, they'd think TV's were our altars, the way our home spaces are set up around them.
 
 
fondula
10:45 / 15.09.02
I'd suggest you don't sleep above an underground waterstream. As a kid I slept on a crossroad of those, an suffered from severe insomnia. I think such spots make a perfect placec for an altar. When my parents build their house some twentyfive years ago, they brought in a alternative healer to check out such things, he used a simple dowsing rod (and found the underground streams) and a huge electronic device to check for energy fluctuations of some kind.

For the last ten years, I moved alot around the country; I always have the same personal objects in the same geometric way scattered across my main room and bedroom, everywhere I furnish my house; most of these objects are fetishes. I add some ritual to that (sort of banishing) and use meditation (to outline places I consider holy and thus safe, like my bed) and regularly burn incense with all windows and doors wide open. One of the things I once did, was spending an entire week in my new house, sleeping on a different spot every night, just to get the feel of all rooms.

I think feng shui is worth looking into, as it's based on ages-old knowledge and still widely applied. Don't have any experience with it though.
 
 
Papess
14:04 / 15.09.02
Sebastian wrote:
...you get that awful thing out of human sight, as much as possible, when it is not being used of course. ...There are some neat and elegant furniture pieces to this end...Either you do it now or I will if I ever get to visit you, May.

Yes sir!, right away Sir! ...hehehe

I completely agree with you on this point Sebastian. I still watch TV sometimes and my son watches Sesame Street (geez, is that healthy? hmm, maybe that is another thread?) so, I have opted to just have basic cable instead of 55 channels of shit. It is such a distraction! One way I found to deal with the telly was to drape a tablecloth over it but my son, now a toddler, is inclined to pull on anything loose like that. Especially if he thinks he might get a hold of The Endless figures I have a shrine for.
Interestingly enough though, a friend of mine is moving from a very large home to an elegant yet much smaller condo and has asked me to go through their home for peices I might like to have. I believe there is a chest I could convert to house the TV in, out of sight and under the control of my will instead of the remotes!

That brings me to the point that Mr Illmatic made about the TV seeming like a shrine to aliens. You know, I do not think that they would be too far off the mark! I have heard this comment before although I cannot remember where. The voice and face of G.O.D (graphic on-screen display)....lol! It would be no wonder either. Most homes have the TV as the focal point of the room they are in and often, there will be a TV in most rooms! This is exactly what I am trying to avoid. I want to downplay the dominant presence a TV can have so it does not become a slovenly edifice that distracts me from my magickal work.

Iszillabelle, I really like the bell idea. I have used one before while practicing Tibetan buddhism but it may have had other functions then. I think I can incorporate this into my morning ritual. Do you think it would be better to use a large bell with deep tones or a small, higher pitched bell? Oh yes, do you or anyone else have a link to the Fountain of light ritual?

Now the most difficult problem of the watertable. I do not exactly have much choice about my bedroom. It is where it is but, I was thinking of turning my bed so that it is inline with the flow of downhill current of the water or is that not such a good idea? Is there some way to use other elements to balance this out? I really do understand the point you made about the influence it has on your sleep, Fondula. I find it hard to sleep and when I do it is quite deep and not conducive to dreaming practice. Unfortunately, I have to sleep in that room.

Oh!, and Sebastian, if you are ever on the Eastcoast of Canada feel free to let me know. A visit from you would be most welcome.
I will be sure to have the TV tucked away by then!

~MT
 
 
gravitybitch
16:21 / 15.09.02
I think it depends on what you want to do, and what you associate with the different pitches. Try them both, see how they feel to you.

For me, the higher pitched bell would function almost as sort of a picador - it pokes into all the corners, shakes things up, wakes up whatever is there (then I have to do something with all that loosened energy, which is why I follow up with the candle and fan) while the deeper toned bell might smooth/condition the energy by just rolling over whatever is in place. But these are just my associations; your mileage will vary...
 
 
gravitybitch
16:59 / 15.09.02
The Fountain of Light is usually used to close the Middle Pillar ritual (http://www.tarot.nu/gd/mdlpllr.htm, see step 23).

When I first started working with manipulating energies, I was living in a household run by a skilled witch. She had warded the flat pretty thoroughly, and was content to let me find my own path, gave advice only when I asked for it... As a result, I felt pretty free to muck around without worrying about pulling in malign influences. I'd do a grounding exercise, then use that to pull earth energy up as high as I could, use that as a path to pull energy from the universe down into the earth, keep the two flows going at the same time, and use their crossing in the room I was in as a place of "cross-fertilization" to get effervescence. No banishing, no chakras, no Enochian anything... And it worked anyway - the house was always much lighter and invigorating after I'd finished. I was a budding (but ignorant) Chaos magickian 15 years ago, didn't know it!
 
 
Papess
17:53 / 15.09.02
D'oh!

Of course! Moving white light through the chakras and then the spiral...drawing it up and spraying it out the top of your head...yes, yes...I know what you mean...

I have been using the Fountain of Light in conjunction with the MIddle PIllar for so long, I forgot they are actually two different exercises! That is just how I was initially taught the Middle Pillar though.

NOw that I think of it, that is a really cool idea Iszillabelle. One could even find the "chakras" within the home using the method that Fondula mentioned. Maybe that is a possible other system of mapping the home!?

Damn! I love this place! Always here to keep my creative juices flowing. Keep it coming!

~MT
 
 
Stone Mirror
04:34 / 18.09.02
Do you think it would be better to use a large bell with deep tones or a small, higher pitched bell?

In my experience, the best bells for space-clearing are the very small, heavy Tibetan cymbals called tingshas. Good sets are tuned to very slightly different notes, which makes a kind of interference tone.

Also very good, but much harder to get hold of, is the Tibetan kangling, a trumpet made from a human thighbone (after the human in question has finished up with it, of course). I have one, and were I in the neighborhood, I'd offer to come by and do a few good blasts with it, but it's a bit out of my way (not that the prospect of meeting the magickal May in the flash isn't a tempting one).
 
 
Papess
12:29 / 18.09.02
Stone Mirror wrote:
Also very good, but much harder to get hold of, is the Tibetan kangling, a trumpet made from a human thighbone

I have actually had my lips on one of these. They are very difficult to make a sound with. One has to blow very hard and evenly. I got a sound out but, it was pitiful. Most of us there, couldn't even get it to make a sound!

How very kind of you to offer your kangling, too bad the distance or I would be there in a "flash".


~MT
 
 
ciarconn
13:37 / 18.09.02
I do not not anything on feng shui and the like. But I grew up seeing Sezame street, and I think it´s good. (Hey, I endend up being a barbelithian)
 
 
cusm
16:39 / 18.09.02
Note that there are two schools of Feng Shui. Roughly, one measures everything with a ruler and compass and sets things up according to strict astrological correspondences. The other is to mroe generally try to balance energies with things like color, shape, and hue. The later approach is very similar to a witches approach, and is very common sense. For instance, in your case the room is way too Yin. So, you need bright colors, lights, and maybe noisy things like a radio or chimes about to balance the yang. I'd suggest a TV, but somehow I think that'd be right out

The underground water thing is an interesting challange. Perhaps it would help to relieve the visits from Cthulu and the feeling of being on a sunken ship to paint your ceiling in a sky scape. Light blue, puffy clouds, sunburst around the light, maybe even glow in the dark sticky stars. That'll make it feel more like you're outside. Shift from being on a sunken ship to one bobbing happily atop the waves. Rather than trying to shield out the earth and water (which I'll bet is hopelessly difficult there), strengthen air and fire to balance.
 
 
gravitybitch
18:48 / 18.09.02
Or imbue the bed with the quality of "boatness" ... paint eyes near the head of the bed or affix a little goddess figure at the "prow" - let you float above the water serenely.
 
 
cusm
19:39 / 18.09.02
Sailing the seas of dream. Hm. I wonder if you could use a dreamcatcher as a makeshift sail...
 
 
Papess
20:08 / 18.09.02
A dreamcatcher as a sail? Eyes on my headboard? The night sky on my cieling?

Damn!, I am redecorating!

MT :P
 
  
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