Losar, House Cleaning, and Kicking Out Crud

During secular New Years I was incapacitated due to a minor case of the plague, so I never got around to my New Years House Cleaning. While I may do a major House Cleaning throughout the year, whenever I feel that stuffs needs to be cleared out, I always do one at New Years, so I know it’s done. I didn’t, and it took me a while to recover, and by the time I did it had slipped my mind. When I started having uncharacteristically bad dreams near the end of January a friend asked about my Wards, and I realized that I had missed this year. I decided to wait until Losar (Tibetan New Years, today) to perform the rituals, it’s customary in Losar to house clean, do some banishing rituals, and celebrate. While I have issues about adopting Tibetan customs (over Vajrayana ones) I figured it would be an appropriate time to work.

Now I’ve spoken about the type of house clearing rituals I perform before and this one follows much the same pattern. Though the details change it is always the same four steps: Warning/Dismissal, Shakeup the Energy, Igne Interficiatur, and Blessings.

Now before I began I cleaned the house; not the complete house for various reasons, but the dining room, the kitchen, and my room were properly cleaned, and everything else tidied up. I reupholstered the chairs in my dining room, and cleaned off the table for the first time in ages. I was amazed at how much it improved the energetic flow of the room. All of this is more relevant for another post, but in general, clean up, and improve before you majorly clear a place.

Warning/Dismissal: I don’t banish right away. Spirits wander by, spirits get trapped, not everything unwanted is malicious, so to start off they get a warning, a push, and a way out. I start in the farthest darkest corner of my basement. I’ve meditated and assumed a Wrathful aspect, a terrifying astral form, right now it’s more about strength and intimidation. In Vajrayana (and Mahayana) figures have a Wrathful and a Peaceful aspect. I call to everything in the house that it is time to go, I’m giving them plenty of warning, but it’s time to leave my house. If they’re friend/family/Family/ally they can retreat to my altars, but if not it is time for them to GTFO. I then dropped several drops of Quadrivium’s Banishing Oil in my furnace’s humidifier. I find airducts and furnaces are somewhat like veins and hearts, so by placing some of the Banishing Oil (which smells wonderful to me) into the furnace as the water is spread through the house it is “breathing” out the oil and the effect. Then from that dark far corner I start burning my incense of sulphur, tobacco, and dragon’s blood. In my Wrathful aspect with a strong Voice I continue to proclaim a warning and to announce the upcoming eviction of the spirits. I walk from room to room, all the doors in the house are open, all the lights are on, and I spread this smoke and command through the house. I end up at the front door where I leave the rest of the incense to burn, and I return to the far dark corner.

Shakeup the Energy: I refocus myself and take on a Peaceful aspect, one that is more placid and friendly, but still filled with strength, if a different type. Using my singing bowl, in what I’m sure is a very untraditional manner, I begin making it sing. There is something about the hum of the bowl that I can connect to, it’s like the hum is an extension of my energy and responds to me in much the same way. I fill the room with the sonic energy and then I rattle it, I shake it, I make the bowl chatter, and the energy in the room flakes a bit, it comes loose. What is trapped in the dark stagnant areas is shaken free and pulled away from the hidden places. What is really loose I cast forward, using the sound as a force to move it ahead of me, until it’s been cast out the front door, and if anything can’t be pushed out it will be dealt with in the next step. Again, it’s room to room, every place, all the closets, no place is spared.

Igne Interficiatur: I have the bottle of Banishing Oil in my pocket, and I’m wearing my domta, a Tibetan ritual hat which among other things increases my energetic perception. Back in that dark far corner I resume the Wrathful aspect, and begin. Rainbow fire streams from the hands in this form, burning whatever it touches, or clawing forward the few most stubborn parts that can’t be burnt so easily. In every room, more than once in large rooms, or rooms with a noticeable division point, once the area has been burnt I cry out “Phat,” a complex and powerful syllable in Tibetan, with it appears a flash of fire which gets most of what remains, and I leave a glowing crystal Phat in the place where I cried it. I continue from room to room, leaving a collection of crystal Phats dangling in the air, reflecting rainbow light from clear light. When I’ve completed the entire house I sit down in the Heart of the Home, it is literally the centre of my house on the ground level, right beside a Grandfather clock (so it even has a heart beat) and with a slow and shallow Phat I connect myself to each of these centres. I call forth a Clear Wisdom Fire, a purifying energy, and I radiate it out from each of these points, scouring every room at once of whatever has left, stubborn or hidden. I put some Banishing oil on my finger, and go to the back door, I draw in oil and flame sigils of protection on the door frame, and do the same at the front door casting the charcoal and incense out into the snow.

Blessing: Taking the Peaceful aspect again I have a mix of incense that includes copal, red sanders, Green Tara incense, Abramelin incense, and mastic (and others, but that’s the bulk of it). From that dark far corner I start my rounds again, this time filling the air with pleasant evocative incense smoke (enough to suffocate a small child). In the Peaceful form I radiate out Clear Light and blue-crystal light, while I’m also calling to my spirits, coaxing them back out of the altars to walk my house freely, to take the smoke and energy and transform them into beneficial forms.

My Losar altar, cause I’m proud of it, and you read a lot to get here, so have a picture.

Because it is also Losar, once I completed this, I put the incense on my Losar altar, lit all the candles, filled the offering bowls, lit the incense, and began my rituals and my feast.

The house feels calm, still, quiet and beautiful. Like that still silence in a power out, when you realize that you’re surrounded by a dozen background noises (fridge, lights, fans, computers) and suddenly they’re gone. That’s what it feels like now. Still, silent, and beautiful. Clean and fresh for the New Year.

Wednesday Webshares: Spirits, Temples, and Titles

Have you missed an episode of Occult Spectrum, the radio show my friend Jackie and I host? Well I just set up an archive so you can go back and listen to the old episodes.

9 Sacred Sites You Won’t Believe Exist I would love to go to the Hanging Monastery at some point.

Naya over at The Silver Spiral has been writing up an awesome storm. I don’t know what to recommend, but I suggest looking over her recent I Believe In Otherkin and Body Shame: Not my Virtue. One looks at the notion of Otherkin, and the other about modern Western society’s emphasis on shaming the body, particularly the bodies of women.

In Dharmasala, based on the insistence of the Dalai Lama, the education of monks now includes modern sciences in some depth. Your move Vatican. For a while the monks have studied physics, but this is just adding even more depth to their studies.

Moloch gives a great rant on the nature of spirits and divinity. Forging relationships, understanding their nature, and limitations.

Another great talk on spirits, this time from Scylla.

Scylla gives a run down on titles and initiations, what they do and don’t mean, and why a lot of people are doing them wrong.

A member of Japan’s Olympic equestrian team is a Buddhist Monk. I could make more horse-Buddhist jokes if he were Tibetan.

Sorry to continue with the Buddhist stuff, but as the Buddha himself said “One good turn deserves another.” He didn’t say that? Well if you’re like me and always seeing quotes from Buddha (generally on inspirational or artistic images) and aren’t sure if they’re true, check out Fake Buddha Quotes and see if it is mentioned. I’ve busted several on my twitter and facebook with this already.

A young Buddhist tulku is giving up monastic life to produce videos. This is actually a really awesome and insightful article. More and more tulkus are doing just this and it is interesting to see the hows and the whys of it. If the notion of tulkus leaving the monasteries intrigues you, check out the documentary Tulku by Gesar Mukpo the son of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

An article on the importance of words as magick in Ancient Judaism

Last but not least. America’s Best Christian explains YHWH’s view on abortion for the rest of us

Maybe Black Misa? That Was A Joke – Conversations with Dead People

I haven’t spoken to a friend in eleven months, nothing happened, it’s just we’ve been busy. Suddenly I get a facebook message “I’m holding a misa. Want to come talk to dead people with me?” Now if you don’t know what a misa is (which I didn’t before I was invited) to simplify it, it is a séance of sorts in the spiritualism/espiritismo tradition, and used and performed by people in the Santeria community. Said friend is a priestess in Lukumi and was running the event, so getting to talk to dead people and getting to try something new, of course I was game.

Being part of the spiritualism tradition it was fairly Catholic, so I ended up saying my first Hail Mary ever…about 30 times over the evening. When trying to decide where to sit my friend says “I know, sit at the other end of the table, you can be the anchor.” “The anchor?” “Yes, if the spirits are going to come through or possess anyone it will be the anchor.” We smirked and I took the position, unfortunately no possessions occured. After a long period of prayers to angels, guides, relatives, and whatever else we sat there silently waiting for messages to come through.

Slowly I got the sensation of communication, weaker than when I talk with things in most ways, but more visual than I get unless I’m skrying. Then the fun and annoyance happened. It was largely going to be my friend and my self talking to the spirits, they might communicate with others, but we were more of the focus point. My friend started talking, and internally I started cringing because she sounded like a TV medium “I’m getting the sense of an Aunt, or a Great-Aunt, some relationship like that. She says…” I didn’t know if my friend was cold-reading (which isn’t her style), making it up (which is possible for anyone on accident), or actually communicating with something.

Unfortunately my communications came through similar in the beginning, names that shifted in my head, messages vague enough to apply to six different things, so I was very reluctant to talk about what I saw/heard because it all sounded like a vague medium scam. But after the first two or three, I was in the space, as was my friend and stuff started coming through clear. It was an interesting experience; I talked with, delivered messages from, and accurately described people’s family members, or known spiritual companions. Part of it still had that TV medium feel as we pass what information we can back and forth trying to figure out who the spirit is. That’s something I’d love to figure out how to navigate better.

It was weird for me. I work with the dead, and I talk with the dead, but I’ve rarely talk to the dead for someone else, and it was awkward at times. Both feeling what the spirit is trying to relay emotionally, and in one case describing the one spirit who I could only describe as “a stereotypically sassy black older lady” which felt so odd to see and describe, but she gave me her name, and the person knew exactly who she was. She also said this person really was that stereotypical. Usually my confirmation of talking with the dead involves research and such afterwards, but it was nice to be able to talk with someone, describe the spirit, say the name, and have them know exactly who it was. Also everyone else at the misa is involved with Santeria, except for me, so their spirits are often from that tradition. What surprised me was a few times I would relay something a spirit had said to me, which made no sense to me, linguistically or spiritually in different cases, but apparently made perfect sense in the Santeria system. Instructions that felt silly or bizarre to me, turned out to be real practices.

Not surprising to me in the slightest, but none of “my spirits” came through, which surprised my friend. All in all it was an interesting evening, and I liked the chance to try my hand at working with the dead in another system. It might not be a method I’d use on my own but I’m glad to have a chance to try it, and another opportunity to flex those psychic muscles. If you’ve never been to a misa and are invited, I’d suggest checking them out. I doubt they’d change your world, but they are an interesting experience if stuff is actually happening.

Water Offerings

I hate twitter. It keeps trying to rope me into conversations, that you can’t really have on twitter. Hence this post.

Water Offerings.

Water Offerings are a Tibetan Buddhist method leaving offerings for essentially any and all spirits. Offering water is nearly a universal practice showing up in pretty much all religions, though with different ideas, and methods. The method I use and describe is essentially one of the standard Tibetan systems, with two tweaks I’ll discuss.

Why offerings? Well there are hosts of reasons why it is a great idea to give offerings, sometimes it is payment, sometimes it is respect, sometimes friendship, other times simply compassion. Always parallel it to real life, if you want help from someone, they’re more likely to help if you’ve given them something, helped them out, fed them, and respected them, why would spirits be that different? Wouldn’t you share your good fortune with friends and family? Why are spirits that different?

Why water offerings? If I were to designate offerings as simple, complex, and medium, water offerings would be medium. Simple offerings would be ones of pure intention or energy, and they definitely have their places. Complex could be as “simple” as the eight traditional offerings, involving having flowers, bells, food, incense, and more, and can be a lot more than that. Water offerings are the best of both worlds. Energy offerings tend to dissipate, the moment your focus wavers it starts to go. Water serves to “stabilize” the intention into a form and lets it persist, so you get the versatility of an intention/energy offering, but with more of the solidity of a complex offering.

Traditional set of seven

So in the version I perform I use eight small cups, plus a ninth to bring the water to the altar. This is one of my differences, the number. Water offerings have different amounts, I prefer eight, because I already do the eight offerings and I’m familiar with them, and while several forms of water offerings do use the eight offerings they decide randomly to include a candle instead of the one cup, I use water for everything. I find the single candle mixed in with all the cups disrupts the flow in my head. You can either offer this to anything and everyone, or call up a specific spirit to dedicate it to, even if you “produce” far more than you think they need.

Place all the cups (or bowls) in a row from left to right and fairly close together, the width of a grain of barley or rice they say. Slowly pour the water into the first bowl, each drop, each particle of water represents a basin of warm clean water to wash the feet after a long journey. It is a symbol of rest and relaxation. As you pour repeatedly say “Om Ah Hum” and if you can visualize it, the Om creates the offering, the Ah multiples it many times, and the Hum distributes it to those in need. If you’re more Western A-I-O works instead. My personal tweak is once I’m done pouring the offering, I just focus on that cup. I really focus on making a clear visual, as big and as many as I can. Om, an ocean of water to wash the feet as far as my mind’s eye can see. Ah, a universe of these oceans. Hum, those in need throughout all the universes get what they need.

Once you are done, then take that cup and slowly pour most of it into the next cup, leaving some in the cup you’re pouring from. This time as you say Om Ah Hum (or A-I-O) the particles of water are glasses of fresh cold drinking water. Again finish with a really big offering and copious amounts of the offering.

You follow this pattern with all the following cups. The next offerings are flowers, incense, candles/light, scented water, food, and musical instruments. When you are done visualize the eight cups and repeat the multiplication and distribution for everything.

If you’re doing this for a specific entity each of the offerings can be customized for them. When offering in this manner for Tzamaron, my Mercurial Angel, the flowers and candles are orange, the incense is amber, etc. When offering to a peaceful being the food never contains meats. If offering to a specific departed person if I know them I offer their favourite drinks, food, scents, music, and the like. Things like this can make it more specific and appropriate.

I do a water offering in the morning, and in my nightly rituals I thank the spirits, pour everything back into one cup, and dispose of it; in a potted plant, in the backyard, even down the sink if done respectfully. Generally you should leave it out for a while, so the spirits can make use of it. You don’t drink it though, it was given to someone else, it is not yours. When you’re done dry all the cups and stack them upside down, this keeps them clean and makes sure each offering is fresh.

May you, and yours find benefit in this simple and elegant offering.

Cleaning House: Exorcisms, Astral Tidying, and Blessing

Due to the plague I ended up home alone for New Years. Wasn’t my first choice, but not bothered by it and I did what any normal person would do when home alone on New Years, exorcise the house. With the New Year, New You prompt I had cleaned up the house, but it was time to take care of the other side of things. I usually cleanse the house whenever I feel it needs it, but I always do a major run down near New Years.

No babe, you can stay, I like them flexible.

For me a major clearing out the house takes a couple of steps, and while how I do each step tends to change from year to year the overall process is the same: Warning/Dismissal, Shakeup the Energy, Igne Interficiatur (sometimes more literally than others), and finally Blessings.

Before anything starts I turn on a light in every room and closet, and open every door, internal and external. The idea is I want to expose everything, not forget anywhere, but I also want the paths to be clear for anything that wants to escape. For the Warning/Dismissal phase I fumigate the house with incense containing such things as sulphur, dragon’s blood, myrrh, and tobacco. I tell spirits to leave, I’m not banishing anything at this point, I’m polite with spirits, I’m letting them know I’ll be banishing soon and if they don’t want to get caught by it to get out. The incense makes them uncomfortable, but doesn’t force them out. I go room to room announcing it is time for them to leave, and what is coming next. I leave the incense burning in the front door frame until the final step.

Then I Shakeup the Energy. When energy flows get trapped -in mess, in unused area, in ignored spots- it solidifies a little, caked-on astral gunk. In this stage I basically get everything moving, some of it gets tossed out, but for the most part it’s just to loosen everything up, like the pre-soak before you scrub something. This step is pure Kalagni, something I’ve done for a decade, never been taught, never seen anything like it, probably horribly untraditional. Again I go room to room, this time with my singing bowl. Sound is a big thing in my paradigm and I find the hum of a singing bowl releases a type of energy I can manipulate, or it focuses me, or something. Anyways I use the energy-sound from the bowl to reach out into the corners, the crevices, and anywhere there is stuck energy, and I pull it loose and into the centre more. Some I toss before me, like sweeping out the heavy, some I just let sit, it will be taken care of in the next step.

The Primordial Party Girl

Igne Interficiatur, always my favourite. Spirits have been warned, energy has been loosened, time to actually clean house. Armed with my bell and my vajra (dorje) I become Singhamukha. While I’ve done this before, this is the first time I’ve done it since I’ve received proper training and as a figure connected to it (and let me say training and initiation make a difference). Ringing the bell constantly I say the 14 syllable mantra of exorcism (my lama would be upset I didn’t dance while saying it) and for each recitation I tap a wall, floor, or ceiling three times with the vajra, leaving a point of light behind. Once each surface has been marked while standing in the centre the mantra is said again and the points of light, which are really very small vajras, multiple and spread out across the surface. After the room is surrounded by vajras then lines of vajras appear between the initial marks, then between all the vajras in the lines and the marks, and all the vajras and the wall. Eventually the room is just a solid jumble of vajras, but wait, there is more, there are still gaps of space inside and between the vajras, so another mantra fills the space with a wind of fire that burns everything left behind. After this is done in every room then standing in the spiritual/psychological centre of the house (kitchen in this case) a vajra taller than the house is created, then one wider, then one longer, until the house has a triple vajra pointing in every direction sticking out of it. Like with the walls the spaces between the tips fill up with vajras, then space between vajras, until the entire house is contained in this vajra cube, and again the fiery wind. Glass of water as that step is tiring.

For the Blessings with incense including stuff like copal, frankincense, cedar, cloves, red sanders, and guar gum, I offer the smoke to the spirits. To friends, families, allies, spirits who work with me and walk with me, to angels, (obedient) demons, gods, goddesses, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Dakinis, Dakas, constructs, elementals, shidak/shadak (local spirits), to disincarnate and disembodied of all types, as long as they are welcome. I move from room to room offering them the incense, inviting them back or to stay, and asking they help protect and bless the house. As I go through the house any door that doesn’t need to be open is closed, and light not needed is turned off. This incense is left to burn out at the front door too, there is serves as an invitation for those I called.

That’s pretty much it. I admit it’s far from the streamlined/minimalist approach, but it’s once a year I can spare the hour, hour and a half, it takes. I was disappointed; I only had one bizarre occurrence this year. When I closed the back door, as soon as I turned away from it something slammed against it from outside, hard. I reinforced the area so I could open the door and look out. It’s the door of the inside section of the porch, so I thought maybe I left the outside door open and the wind got it. No, the back porch was sealed and still, no breeze, but something slammed against the door. By far not the most interesting or creepy manifestation I’ve had while banishing my house. Maybe astral uglies don’t love me anymore.

What about you, what do you do to clear your house? Are yearly (or scheduled) cleansings worth it?

Saturday’s Spooky Spirit Census and Psychotherapy

It looks like you aren’t to call Ghostbusters anymore. This is fine by me, as much as I love the movies and theme song I tend to be a bit nicer with people who lack bodies than Egon and the rest. Two stories from different sources have recently come across my desktop and engaged me, both for different reasons, so time to share.

First off there is an undertaker in Medellin, Colombia who has decided to launch a “ghostly census.” He calls it a census but from the description it sounds like he’s just documenting cases and mild investigations, sadly I can’t find much more information on this yet. What I’m curious about is down the line is the book and the explanation of their project and why they aren’t doing it as documentaries or anything like that. I wonder what he hopes to get out of it. He sounds like he thinks he is doing something different, but I wonder if he is. I especially like my mental image of undertakers in uniforms with clipboards walking around apparently haunted places ticking off checkboxes for the census. “How many deceased in this household? How many under the age of 18 at the time of death? How many have been haunting for less than 18 years?” Here is the question for the census, if you died a minor are you always a minor? Perpetual puberty seems as good of a hell as any.

The second story I found really curious. A spiritualist group in Havana, Cuba is performing therapy for the dead. As someone who has half-jokingly called part of my spirit work as talk-therapy for the otherside I enjoyed reading the story.
What has me fascinated me is the two birds with one stone approach. By inducing some form of medium trance possession (it isn’t my system so I don’t feel I can properly label it without observing it) and then offering their counselling to the deceased they believe they are helping both the disincarnate and the host. I can actually see the merit there, it ties into some of the Buddhist practices I have regarding assumption of suffering (literally compassion) and joint healing this makes possible. Fortunately my university library gives me access to the article but without such privileges it will cost you $34. I do not understand pricing with academic journals at all. I’m saying this so people understand where my information is coming from that isn’t on mindhacks.

I enjoy seeing a group that holds the same (silly?) idea I do that just because you don’t have a body doesn’t mean you’re not a person…or with slightly less of a triple negative- dead people are people too and if they are a conscious entity they can and most likely will have most of the same issues as anyone else. If you’re angry and scared in life it can easily transition to the otherside. Often there is a mellowing-out I find, but the issues and personality are still there. My grandmother became far more agreeable when she passed on, but she’s still cranky and paranoid. The full article introduces some interesting ideas that I disagree with, but enjoy entertaining as hypothetical.

An example is that the protective spirits are part of your identity, they aren’t you, they were living people, but they compose a part of you, so in order for you to maintain health you must maintain theirs. I have my own personal issues with protective/guardian spirits, I don’t deny their potential existence but have seen no evidence of them within my life, with the exception of spirits I put into my service which is different. While I disagree with the idea of them being a part of you (unless you take a loose or expanded idea of what “you” are, which is fine), the idea that guardian spirits should be maintained for your health is something I can get behind. The spirit environment around you tends to “bleed” into you so if you have dead things around you it is possible to pick up a lot from them. So helping them out benefits you, plus if they are protective spirits if they’re at their best they’re more efficient, a security guard is no good if he’s drunk or afraid of confrontation.

One of the group’s leaders, Servando Agramonte, said “often to solve your own conflicts you must attend those of your spirits first” ((251)) Yet in contrast to this the mediums aren’t necessarily working on their spirits, but someone else’s. This I find a curious turn of events. Why? Well if I were to model this all as psychological (1) my first instinct would be to assume that someone’s “spirit” is really a mental projection and reframing of a personal issue and when possessed by the spirit/issue you can work on it. Having someone else host your issue though makes less sense here. How would your fear of the dark trauma work itself out when someone else is housing the spirit that represents the issue? I can see some merit from having other people roleplay your problems but I wouldn’t have considered it as affective.

Now let me add another issue into this. I’m taking a very literal one-for-one language of problems here, but I understand it isn’t probably one-for-one and more complex and subtle. Assuming either the spiritual or psychological model enter the assumption that the spirit causes or represents an issue like fear of the dark. Now if you are possessed by your own protective spirit, and work on their problem, it helps you too, either by actually helping the guardian out if they’re an objective spirit (whatever that would be) or helping yourself by dealing with an issue through projection, or a bit of both. Now someone else plays host to the spirit and this helps you out apparently, what about the host? If said host also has a fear of the dark, by being possessed by your afraid of the dark spirit and helping them out, will they be helped too?

My mind is having fun running circles with this, but I currently have no need or time to explore this in any practical way, it is just something I find interesting. I’m sure it will come up in a post somewhere but I do psychological spirit work, treating mental processes as I would spirits, so it’s an idea I’m used to. I just wonder if this group is doing that, actually helping disincarnates, a bit of both, or even neither. My take is assuming they’re doing one and not the other is a mistake. It’s probably a complex combination of self-created “demons” and spirit’s with problems.

Part of their objective is something I would never have thought of, but it is to help people “metabolize” their own issues when they’re alive, so that when they die they are better functioning ghosts. Pre-emptive ghost therapy! Sometimes this world is just fascinating. From the article it appears like this organization seems to keep records and is very professional, I would love to see follow-ups and how effective this practice this.

Sorry for the ramble there, but the idea of an organization tackling this is just neat to me.

(1)I don’t necessarily believe it is, but I believe there is a value from interpreting magickal phenomena from different models