Success, prayer, and Azazel

Spirits, Evocation & Possession
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Back in April, I was crossing my fingers to get hired full time by the company I was working as a temp for, and decided to do some of the wealth candle magick written about in WoD. I was promptly let go the next day. I sighed, rolled my eyes, but figured this was the universe’s way of telling me that job was a dead end.

Finding myself with a whole lot of extra free time on my hands, I spent some of it working with Azazel to figure out where I was going with my life, including an evocation for, well, another job.

Soon after, I got an offer for another temp job. Better hours and money than my last one, but still not exactly what I was looking for. Around that time I was reading Brother Molech’s blog, and I saw an entry where he used the NAP angels to get a new job, but he gave them specifics as to what he was looking for.

And I was thinking “Why do I have to specify a permanent job with benefits?”, Azazel is smart enough to know what I want. And he told me yes, spirits usually do know what you want, but it’s a matter of respect. Spirits won’t disrespect your autonomy by not following exactly what you ask for, and they shouldn’t be forced to work around assumptions, because no one likes doing that.

Ok, fair enough. Now up until this point, I had been wondering how much psychic connection magicians have to the spirits they work with. Meaning, after getting in contact for the first time, is full evocation/invocation necessary to be able to hold a conversation? I’ve never believed that to be the case. Hell, millions upon millions of people of various faith believe that prayer is a real thing (I’m using “prayer” to mean psychically communicating with a spirit/deity), but for some reason many CMs believe this to be “mental masturbation”, a phrase that is often favored by them to look down on those who don’t practice exactly by the grimoire.

To test this, I “prayed” to Azazel and thanked him for the work he had brought so far, but I was looking for something far more substantial, with benefits, 401k, commissions, and most importantly, something permanent. No candles, no incense, no trance, just talking to him like I used to talk to Jesus.

Only a few days later I heard from a company I had applied to previously. Long story short, I ended up with a job with everything I had asked for, and then some (a bunch of paid holiday, monthly bonuses, etc). I’m not bringing home six figures just yet, but I am in a substantially better place than I was a month ago. Hell, given that in my part of the world companies are demanding a BA simply to apply for secretary positions, I’m pretty damn ecstatic.

So a shout out to Azazel for being badass as usual, and I’m wondering what my fellow BALGers think about “prayer”, and your experiences with it, whatever you choose to call it. It’s not something that is often talked about outside of christian mysticism/paganism, at least not that I’ve seen.

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Up until a week or so ago I was working with the Archangel Michael and everyday would start out by saying a prayer to him with just a red candle lit on the altar next to his sigil.

I also started experimenting more with hoodoo and using the psalms.

I was on the verge of being evicted and at the last minute had my ass saved by the trustee who agreed to pay my rent in full.

I plan on posting more about my situation later but long story short yes I believe prayer is VERY beneficial and may be overlooked by a lot of occultists/majicians because of the stigma attached to it by christianity.

It was weird at first because I was brought up christian and hadn’t prayed to anything in many many years but once I got past the roadblocks that were put up by my psyche it’s fast become one of my current favorite methods of well…getting shit done.

I think it was easier for me because I started out using it to communicate with Michael so it didn’t seem that weird but now I’m finding a lot of uses for it.

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I’m glad I’m not the only one, Musta, I was starting to feel like I might have to turn in my black magician card and go full Hermetic.

Would love to hear more about your hoodoo experiences, I still feel full out bizarre using bible verses in magick.

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The entities I’m in serious pacts with have images on my altar (devotional altar, aka interface with spirits, not working altar) and my primary method of communication with them most time is prayer, as in, speaking my thoughts to them without breaking out a full-on evocation.

That’s because the link’s already well and truly been forged, and we’re working in alignment with a shared goal. I think this kind of contact is perfectly appropriate and effective for situations like that and I’m not surprised Azazel responded, since you already built that link.

As a child I’d evoke (didn’t know it was called that then) various beings into images or little statues made of modelling clay and sooner or later the image would become like an “open line” to the being.

This still happens, and it works and delivered results - to put it another way, if it was “coincidence” then I’m a statisticians nightmare.

Different levels of telepathic communication have happened for me with different beings as well, the Ahriman current in my spine is constantly there and I can kind of wake it up and communicate with it… the sad old phrase “mental masturbation” is, as you said, a slapdown on anyone who’s useing a less showy method a lot of the time, in the end it comes down to resaults and no-one can argue with yours there! :slight_smile:

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Just to be clear, you make your own “idols” for your alter? I had been looking recently for some statues of demons and was having trouble finding something to my liking, making it myself hadn’t occurred to me xD Is this something you bake and paint too? I was an art student for several years, but I always get so jealous of you crafty magicians, if it’s not an actual drawing I just suck at it.

And, as usual: the sad old phrase “mental masturbation” is, as you said, a slapdown on anyone who’s useing a less showy method a lot of the time, in the end it comes down to resaults and no-one can argue with yours there! :slight_smile: Amen, Lady Eva, amen! I hear all the time how one method or another shouldn’t work, but surprisingly the results seem to occur regardless…hmmm…

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I used to make images with modelling clay when I was younger, these days I mainly do drawings or even touch up existing art in Photoshop (a truly godlike tool!) - the image I posted on the thread for my PD is the kind you can take and edit, I just searched for a line drawing of a “handsome male face” and that one came up.

But I’ve printed images out and they worked fine, whether or not they were made as actual devotional images they seem to work as that, the best ones allow you to make eye-contact with the image.

And one of the statues I used for one of my personal spirits was a generic seated female figure, a wood-carving of a female in a meditative pose, and I painted on eyes and a mouth for the plain carved image which worked really well, so you don’t have to be Michaelangelo - I know I’m not! :wink:

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Yeah, I have to tell you, that I got much better results from spirit’s workings, when I was daily talking to it’s sigil, meditating and so on. When I left it… he just started to leave me as well I think… because the effects I started to ask him, stopped in some point…

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My idol I have for Satan is just a black devil figural candle loaded with materia in the bottom. It works quite well. I plan to do something similar with a woman candle for another demon. Statues can be relatively easy to make if you don’t have the money to but an expensive one made of bronze!

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Lady Eva, Euoi,

Do either of you consecrate these items before using them as icons/idols? Thus far my alter is only composed of candles and opened sigils, using physical items (aside from sigils) for communication purposes would be new to me.

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You must. Otherwise, it’s just a piece of wax. My ritual of consecration, I went through a parodyof the Catholic mass, using the statue as the body of Satan. I even gave him an iron cauldron to stand in.

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[quote=“blacklamb, post:9, topic:3766”]Lady Eva, Euoi,

Do either of you consecrate these items before using them as icons/idols?[/quote]
Yes, I always do, I consecrate anything used to make them (and dispose of any scraps with care) or if I’m buying something, I set the intent beforehand to find something that’s a suitable container and then consecrate it once it’s completed - if I’m painting or drawing something, I do the eyes and pupils last, and consider that the stage at which it’s truly completed - I wrote some stuff about that in more detail here.