Can u just buy a statue and pray to it give it stuff that the dirty likes. Like rum or cigars and get results? I’ve seen people in systems like palo Mayombe and Santeria that do this. Even though they have thier Prendas and Orishas. Is prayer that powerful?
Prayer combined with faith is a powerful thing. It can literally do miracles.
I don’t have any initiations in any traditions, however both spirits I have statues of hear me, speak to me, teach me, and even help me with problems I have. Granted there was a “getting to know you” phase.
The statue is typically consecrated first, to make it a true idol.
But yeah, a lot of spirits with like that. I’ve had results just giving them food. It’s not necessarily prayer, it’s the spirit and their historical ways of being worked.
Normally, they’re spirits close to the earth, such as the dead. Look at the tradition of saints. Novenas are basically candle magic, and you can accomplish a lot with it.
I had to edit that typo in the subject line, it was giving me the willies… please ignore me and carry on!
The cleansing and consecration of the statue/fetish and the space it resides are more important than the literal object. You can give a statue all the gifts you want but if you have no connection with that spirit and more importantly no desire to build a connection you might as well not waste your time. I have statues and altars for a few spirits and they are served weekly with offerings and prayers regardless of if I’m working them for a goal or not to keep my connection with them strong. Nine out of ten times if I ask for something I get it (within reason and common sense of course.)
I have dedicated bottles of alcohol on each altar and they get served weekly with the understanding that if they want more they need to “bless” me with the ability to continue to serve them. I sit and talk with them, smoke with them and tell them about what I have going on and what I wish to do and any help I may need in accomplishing that goal.
Offerings may be used to heat up, cool down or sweeten them etc according to the work you may be doing with them. The statue/fetish itself may be part of the work being done, if you need to dominate someone you may place the statue on top of a photo or name paper of the target, if somoene needs protection or assistance you may place those items on the spirits hand (many statues will have a removable object in one hand so this can done), placing somone behind a statue can offer protection from prying eyes and gossip as they are in the shadow of the spirit. Anointing the statue in specific places for certain purposes may be done as well lips and ears may be dressed to assist in communication or the feet to help gain movement or open the way for a goal.
Start out small with physical offerings, do not load the spirit down with offerings otherwise they have no incentive to work since they have already been paid. Once you have built a connection and relationship with the spirit then you can get more frequent and pay before a job is done or do weekly service. I honestly do not advise doing this type of magic unless you plan to keep it up on a long term basis and have a real call to work with that spirit as they have a way of getting you back in front of their altar one way or another, be it in thanks or because things start falling apart for you.
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Excellant advice from the TWF there, I totally agree…
Yes you certainly can use figures and statuettes for prayer. This however is just the surface level of what is taking place. It starts with building a good rapport with a spirit of your choice, one you really wish to work with. You then start with ritual at the altar for you need to establish a place where you can come and build a relationship with the chosen spirit. To cut a long story short though, once you have established rapport with the spirit you can then ask if it would like to reside within a particular structure or object and then you can take it from there.
All of this becomes a great foundation for so much of what ritual magic is all about as you are building a relationship, you are speaking and giving the spirit gifts, these gestures act as a transfer of energy…the more you give and show attention to the entity then the more stronger it becomes (volume however isn’t as important as the thought behind your gift) We spoke of this on another thread, which you may wish to read about here.
So much of this worship goes back to ancient Dahomey in West Africa where the first religion of earth developed. Here the natives used the ritual of the shrunken head to act as a fetish. They would build a great relationship with it and bring it many gifts.
It can become very powerful magic as you are charging the statuette or object with your prayers and attention. If the spirit guides you to make something for it to reside in then so much the better, as the more time and energy you place into this the better. One tip I would give you here is to make the atua (house of spirit) as attractive as possible because if it attracts your attention then it will certainly attract the attention of the spirit.
The making of the fetish is a principle aspect of magic, which is rarely mentioned but it offers many advantages to the practicing magician. I used this principle years ago with very good results; these days I follow similar methods with entities I manufactor myself. They become very faithful servants indeed if you show respect and feed then properly.
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Well TWF pretty much already covered what I was going to say about consecrating the statue first to give it life or else it’s just an empty statue, so I won’t repeat it all here. Good advice TWF.
I agree with what TWF but i would add. You can do weekly service with just light and wawter until you have a link of trust between you and the spirit. Once the spirit becomes a regular “worker” ie. needs little motivation on your part to do things for you, then you can start adding little bits to your service such as coffee, liquor, and tobacco. As a rule only leave your offerings out for 24 hours, the exception being water which should be dumped when it gets cloudy. Leaving offerings out for more than 24 hours causes the spirited to become fixated on the offerings rather than tasks.