I personally use print-outs of the sigils in DoM. I will also trace over the black Hebrew letters, as doing so helps connect you to the sigil further, but even this is not strictly necessary. I’ve used images on a computer screen, and they’ve worked just fine.
Any time of day or night will work, as will any day of the week. Some magick is more dependent upon astrological correspondences, but that is not the case with Goetic work. You can incorporate astrology if you are knowledgeable of the subject, but it is by no means required or necessarily better for this magick.
Incense and candles are also completely optional. I like to use candles at night to help with the atmosphere and immersion in the magick, but I have performed evocations with my normal lights on and the ritual was still successful. Some use incense to aid in physical manifestations, but this is not something you need to concern yourself with at the moment. Your focus should be on the imagination.
Offerings are a topic of more controversy than you may expect, and I will give you my honest opinion here. I believe that, with demons of Goetia, you are best served by offering physical experiences or fame. You do not simply leave food on an altar to rot, but feast upon it in the demon’s presence, so that it may enjoy the pleasures of the experience through you and with you. As for fame, you could create a thread thanking the demon for the results, or post in one of the “success stories” threads that are already here.
In the first ritual, where you are asking the demon for a result, you do not yet give the full offering. Instead, you imagine what it will be like to consume the food or drink, or consider how you will spread word of the demon’s power. This will serve as both motivation for the demon, and a point of expectation for you. Later, when you receive your results, you call forth the demon once again and deliver the gift that you have promised.
Some will insist that you must bleed for the demons and smear their sigils with your life force. They believe that this is necessary to give the demons the energy they need to complete their work, or that doing so will somehow make the ritual more powerful. I disagree. I have engaged in such work, in the past, and all I found is that it made the spirits more eager to take my blood and demand that I must work with them and them alone.
This is not the balance of power that will bring you success. You are in control, not the other way around. If a demon rebels and causes havoc because you fear that you did not sate its apparent need for gore, then you have made a grievous error. In such situations, the demons, if indeed they are true demons, are the ones who benefit the most while you are left weak, confused, and without results.
Emotion is far more effective a fuel for your magick than cutting yourself or giving yourself track marks from draining litres of your life substance. The first change that is made in any ritual is change within your own mind, and while seeing the glistening red splatter of blood in a ritual context can create quite the altered state of consciousness, there are more effective and more sustainable ways of working.
Again I will state that this is merely my opinion, though it has been borne out of experience and theoretical study, and that you are free to believe what you want to believe. I also hope that this does not frighten you away from this work, or lead you to believe that magick is all about occultists squabbling among themselves. I encourage you to enter into the magick, cautiously, though with great curiosity and boldness, and I think you will discover for yourself the wonders that may be experienced by those with magick.
