Building magical incenses and herbal blends is a very satisfying way to work magic, that is easily accessible and consistently works well.  The power that scent has to trigger some of the deeper parts of our mind has been studied and verified by both scientists and magicians alike.  The use of incense and scented blends as a magical tool is as old as magic itself.

I have been doing a bit of thinking about the concept of planetary hours and planetary correspondences lately.  I do so love renovating my old Victorian house - it gives me lots of time to let my mind wander along such delightful fascinations.

I have come to appreciate the planets and the planetary hours in a sort of academia - a collegiate sort of way.  So, I drift back to my college days and I consider the gods of the planets as the faculty staff of Cosmos University.

I feel that atheists are often quite malaligned. OK, some of my atheist friends think what I do is a little wacky. That's cool. I think they often don't see the bigger picture and are needlessly limiting their perceptions. That's cool, too. However, I find that on about 95% or more topics, I am in complete alignment with the way they view and approach things. That's WAY better than anyone else!

Clouds of heady incense fill the room, the curling smoke lapping against the flesh.  A low bassline rumbles through the floor as a woman's voice sings to the angels of love.  The breath fills the belly and the chest, deeply inhaling of the universal energy current which is there for all to swim in.  The sparkling air fills me, invigorates me, and ripples through the body, alighting the glistening skin.  A wailing violin courses through my veins, and the energy flows out my arms which create a mysterious sine wave, snaking through the incense.  The bass brings one hip to roll and another, arcing my hips into a hypnotic figure eight.

Scrying is easy once you get the hang of it, much like riding a bike.  Scrying is a divination technique that basically works by turning random patterns into meaningful ones, or by depriving the mind of sensation until it starts to impose its own input.  We are going to be learning it so that we can use it to catch glimpses into the world of spirit, for among all of the divination techniques, it is the most common one associated with communication and connection with non-corporeal realms and entities.

When I mention alchemy to most people, their first response is, "Yes, it would be wonderful to be able to transform lead into gold."  Now, when I read deeper into alchemy, it becomes evident that through the pursuit of early versions of chemistry, the alchemists were learning spiritual truths in their sciences, and scientific truths in their spiritual pursuits.  The materials they worked with all had spiritual as well as physical properties.  Those who have studied alchemy have often come to the conclusion that "turning lead into gold," was a reference to turning the lead of the base, unawakened man into the gold of the awakened, spiritually rich man.