The understanding of ritual is the understanding of a spiderweb.

The easiest way to put it, is to say one is using a myriad of symbols to create a message that is sent to the subconscious. The subconscious then modifies either the energies in the environment, the actions of the caster, or both in order to bring about the desired results. The myriad of symbols used are those things which excites certain responses in the mentality through sensual suggestion. The most basic of these suggestions, and probably one of the most dominant for humans, is using the sense of sight, specifically color, to trigger certain ideas. A common example is using the color green, such as a green candle or green cloth, to trigger ideas such as luck and money. Different people however, may use different colors for different things. A good example is the color black which, in the western world anyway, often signifies negativity. Due to this association it is often used for working with negativity, especially absorbing negative energies in an area. By contrast, the orient has a completely different set of ideas about the color. In Korea black signifies knowledge, more specifically a kind of complete knowledge. This is true also in the martial arts where one seeks to attain the black belt. In china and japan black signifies the idea of a feminine, yielding, receptive idea in black's association with yin. Even two people from the same hemisphere may have different ideas. Earlier it was mentioned the green was commonly used to represent luck and money. Some people, on the other hand, prefer to use purple for money, wealth, and success because in history the color of royalty was a deep purple. Still others associate purple with ideas of nobility and honor rather than wealth and money for similar reasons. Therefore, it is often best to figure out what different colors means to the caster rather than working off of the ideals of someone else. Generally there are 8 colors which should probably be considered, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, and of course White. Brown, Grey, and Pink are often used in many spells as well, so too many people use light blue and dark blue in different ways. It may be best to consider, for each spell, what ideas you want to represented and what color or colors you associate with those ideas. It might also be a good idea to keep a journal of what you've associated with each color. Be careful though as a person's associations often change throughout life and while you once used green for money you may develop a closer link of purple, silver or even gold or yellow which will serve you better where you once used green. Aside from simple colors, images and symbols can be used to trigger the same ideas. An octagon to many people reminds them of a stop sign and may be used as such to halt or slow down events in motion. Other people may think of the 8 directions of a compass rose, the 8 fold path of enlightenment of Buddhism, or any of a number of other ideas. Again it is best to consider for each spell what images one wants to use. Moving beyond sight, hearing can be a strong inducer of thoughts and emotions helping the caster focus more and more on the spell. Things such as music, chants, and drum beats are all effective mind triggers to use in ritual work. Smell and taste can be incorporated into incenses, sachets, foods, and drinks to help with the practitioner's focus. A rich meal by candle light using green candles and listening to Mozart may trigger ideas of high society living to help with a money spell. If one then changes the green candles for red, mozart for something romantic, and the meal replaced by chocolate covered strawberries; throw in a little perfume or cologne and you have a good start to an excellent spell to attract love or at least a little romance. Using the senses to trigger emotions and excite the subconscious to action is only the bare surface of a ritual. While rituals based only on these ideas might work they will not be as affective as they could be with the proper study and information. There are many added benefits that one can include in craft-work that can help to enhance the effectiveness, power, and precision of one's spell work. Understanding the uses of herbs, stones, runes, sigils, numerology, and zodiacal influence can all come into play to either help or hurt the effectiveness of spell-work. Perhaps the first among these are certain ideas which have collectively been called the Law's of Magic.

These laws are less like actual laws and more like ideas that can be used to help create the desired affect and expand one's awareness of spiritual truths. They come from a variety of sources and inspirations including, modern science, philosophy, psychology and anthropology. Perhaps the most important laws relative to ritual are the Laws of Contagion and Similarity. Together they or the primary Laws of Association. These laws are anthropological laws first proposed by George Frazer in his book The Golden Bough. These laws are primarily used by anthropologists to understand ceremonies and rituals of various religions and the symbols behind the actions and tools used in those ceremonies. Using these laws as a frame of reference is invaluable in studying other ritual workings, while applying the ideas within these Laws to one's own spells can help increase the influence of a spell. The Law of Contagion states that any two objects or person's which have been in contact with one another continue to have influence over one another unless that link is specifically broken. Furthermore the longer and more intense the contact between the two objects the stronger the link between them and the stronger the influence. From the law of contagion we get the ideas of using things linked with a specific person to cast spells on or around that person. A lock of hair, a drop of blood, a locket or ring special to that person are all examples of objects that can be used to affect the person. It is also said that the longer or more intimate the contact between the person and the object the greater the influence. Let's say for example that a person has a wedding ring they have worn for 10 years and a necklace they recently got from a friend. The wedding ring used in a spell has a stronger connection and therefore a greater influence over the person than the necklace would. We can also take this further and apply it to things like hair, which isn't just an adornment but was previously part of them, or even blood, fingernails, etc. All of these have a extremely close contact and allow for a greater influence over the person. The law of similarity on the other hand says that two objects which resemble one another can be influenced to affect one another. This is extended by the axiom, results resemble causes. Its from this law or this line of thinking that we get the ritual of the classic voodoo doll. A doll often made of wax, dough or clay is made and and used to affect the person or object in question. Often times these dolls have things attached to them which represent the person such as a picture, but they can also be in contact with things that have been in contact with the person such as a locket, or the hair of the doll being made from the hair of the person the caster wants to affect. This latter example, however, in incorporating the Law of Contagion into the ritual. Combining the two laws into a single ritual is preferred when ever possible. Beyond the idea of imagery such as dolls and photos for similarity actions can be a similarity as well. Throwing water into the air and letting it fall like rain can be effective for causing rain. In bygone ages people would run through freshly planted corn rows jumping as high as they could in order to get the corn to grow higher and produce better. One modern example listed in The Witch's Magical Handbook by the Frosts, is a witch who wanted to to get a little closer to one of her coworkers. In order to do this she used two candles one which represented her and one which represented her coworker. She placed the candles in opposite corners of the room and each day she would perform a ceremony where she would draw the candles a little closer together until they were side by side. At this point she bound them with a string and let melt together until they burned out. This example is valuable for a multitude of reasons. While it displays the ideas of actions as similarity it also shows that we need to be careful when planning the actions. While the spell worked and she did get involved in a long relationship with her coworker, the relationship quickly went downhill and became a very negative influence in both her life and the life of the coworker. She had made the mistake of letting the candles melt together and burn out which means the spell would have been very difficult if not impossible to undo and she had to wait until the spell had ran its course which put her through several years of misery.

The next Law that should be included here is the Law of Knowledge. Put simply, the greater the knowledge one has over an entity or situation the greater control one has over it. This means understanding not only the person or events your trying to manipulate, but understanding the motivations, causes, and effects, or in the case of a person the drives and fears of not only them but the people around them. The greater the understanding the greater the affinity and greater the influence. It might also be said the more you understand the less you need to do in order to get the affects you want instead of a big shove it may only take a little nudge to get things headed in the direction you want them to go. Magic is about manipulating the forces of nature in conformance with one's will and desire. Going beyond the basics there are other ideas which act as catalysts to these manipulations. Herbs are one of the most common catalysts one can use with spells but the knowledge of herbalism is not a simple thing. Its not as simple as tossing a plant leaf into a spell or even using an oil extract. Each herb has its own powers, alignments, and resonances that come into play. Hollyhocks, for example, are good to use when calling upon spirits for assistance. However, one must understand that hollyhocks have a resonance with the powers attributed to Venus. While it is not necessary to go into the ideologies of planets and their meanings here, it is enough to say that hollyhocks, while helpful for summoning any type of spirits are more likely to summon spirits associated with the powers of Venus such as love, lust, and beauty, and feminine spirits such as dryads, naiads, and nymphs. Hollyhock then is not likely to be very helpful when calling on spirits of ancient warriors (except in cases such as the amazons and even then there are better ones). Another example of a widely used herb is mugwort which is used for protection. The nature of mugwort however is related to the element earth, making in a solid unyielding element good for protections, but it is also feminine which means it may not work well against presently active intrusions but rather keep energies from trying to intrude into one's life in the first place. Once an energy starts trying to intrude the feminine side of mugwort may make it too yielding to be an effective protection. Given this information we then begin the study of potions and incenses made from a variety of herbs which blend together towards a single purpose. Give the example of mugwort above we might combine mugwort with frankincense which is characterized as having a fiery disposition and a masculine manner. It is active and projective but it is also used for protection and it would be a good use for a protection that actively repels present would-be intrusions. Mixing mugwort and frankincense in equal parts then results in a potion, incense, or oil which has the properties of earth and fire but is energetically neutral the feminine of mugwort and the masculine of frankincense. It also has the protective energies and associations of both items. This spell can be further expanded to include air, and water elements to bring about an ideal balance which is good for a protection spell. On the other hand not all spells should be balanced. A spell for money one would probably want to be balanced towards earth. This does not mean you can only use one earth herb and be done with it. Mugwort, while being used for protection is also used for wealth and money. How then do the energies we assemble key in to the ideas we wish. By balancing the equation. Using mugwort to give us a money use with an earthy element is a good start. Using another herb that maybe fire oriented and still another that is water helps cancel the elements of fire and water out (or combines them into a neutral form depending on how you want to look at it) leaves only the earth behind. If the fiery herb is used for protection and money and the water herb is used for money and love then we have the idea of money or wealth keying in from all three with the earth being the only element not neutralized. The resulting mixture is then keyed towards our purposes and our ideal elements. Using the formula above seems to reduce magical potion making to an act of mathematics. You can reduce a cake recipe in the same way but somehow, even if you follow the recipe, the cake is never quite as good as what your grandmother or mother used to make. Why? You may ask. The ingredients are the same, the timing, the temperature why isn't it the same? The problem comes in a couple of factors. In the case of magical potions, knowing the associations of an herb from a book and

understanding the nature of the herb from familiarity are two entirely different things. True the herbs will still perform as intended but a person who has an intimate familiarity with the herbs will be able to coax a greater effect out of them. For this reason many practitioners tend to have a selection of a very few herbs they use regularly and even grow themselves in order to have that level of understanding with the herb. Other practitioners prefer to experiment with new herbs all the time trying to find the combination that grants the best results. Stones, like herbs, each have their own meanings and alignments. There is virtually no difference between stones and herbs in their magical abilities, only in how their used. Stones usually do not readily mix into potions, but the presence of stones during a spell and focusing on those stones and their properties can coax energies out of the stones in the same way one uses the energies inherent within herbs. Furthermore while herbs are usually mixed into an incense or oil, stones are usually used as more permanent decoration and decorated themselves with runes and sigils. Since we mentioned runes and sigils, they are also the next level of magical application. While plants and stones have an inherent power and inherent sympathies based upon things like structure and the like, runes have developed their power over centuries of people pouring belief into their special abilities. These are the classical runes, ideograms, alphabets, and glyphs from the ancient world. Perhaps the most well known among practitioners is the Elder Futhark, while the most well known among lay people is usually Egyptian hieroglyphs. In either case each rune or glyph has its own symbolism and unlike our alphabet today, can not only represent a letter or syllable but an entire complex set of ideas that is associated with it. For example the rune of Fehu is the Norse letter F. Beyond that the name of the rune, fehu, translates to literally mean cattle. But in the minds of the Norse and many generations since up until quite recently cattle also stood for wealth, prosperity, ownership and property. The rune kennaz is the Norse K and literally translates as torch, but it also translates as the verb, to know. From this we can glean the kennaz doesn't necessarily simply mean torch but enlightenment, wisdom, illumination and foresight. Indeed each of the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark can similarly be expanded. Furthermore the runes are divided into 3 groups of eight letters known as aetts. Each aett is presided over by a rune whose symbolism bleeds through each of the 8 letters in its house. One of the groups is known as Tyr's aett for example. Tyr was a sky god and god of victory especially in battle. Can you consider what affect this might have on the meanings of the runes under Tyr's aett? Beyond the Elder Futhark are a myriad of meaning in other runic systems as well. From the Elder Futhark we get the Younger Futhark containing only 16 runes and the Anglo-Saxon Futhark which contains upwards of 35 letters each with their own meanings. The Irish Ogham is similar. These runes as well as glyphs in several other languages have developed a power all their own over the centuries. Many practitioners find themselves drawn to a particular set of glyphs whether its the European runes, the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Hebrew davidic scripts, or the ancient cuneiform writings. Much like herbs each glyph will perform for a practitioner and some practitioners are driven to understand each system to some extent to find the one post potent for each practice. Such a practitioner might use Egyptian for spells relating to knowledge and wisdom especially in mathematics or healing as the Egyptians had no shortage of specialty on both in the ancient world. They might then turn to the elder Futhark for affecting the physical world especially in contests either of legal natures or sports as the vikings were known for the strength in battle. And then turn to the Hebrew system of character's to help them transcend this world in astral projection through the qabbalistic tree of life. Another practitioner may stick with a single system and like the herbalist who sticks with a certain set of herbs all the time will develop the ability to coax more out of their set than the broader practitioner will out of the same set. Still all in all they generally balance out. Understanding the runes or glyphs themselves are only the beginning of such image magic. From the runes we then evolve into sigil magic. Complex symbols incorporating multiple glyphs into a single symbol keyed to a whole idea. In this respect it might be thought of as each rune being a single

herb and the combination of runes into a sigil develops into a true potion. Some sigils far more complex than others but generally they have many of the same elements. Here the Author see's fit to divide sigils into three hierarchies; bind runes, cartouche's and sigils. These three categories are not recognized by any literature known to the author but breaking them down seems to be a way of making the whole process simpler for the student. Bind Runes being the first and simplest to make are a combination of 2 glyphs overlaying one another to form a single character. A good example would by the Latin capital letters A and E when placed side by side form which is a singular complex symbol a binding. One could easily expand this by using the letter M between the two so it would be binding the letters AME into a single idea. Such art is often used in modern logos for companies or organizations. Bind runes on the other hand are not about binding sounds together or images but ideas. Fehu is the symbol for wealth, Isa is the symbol for ice in elder Futhark which rune-masters have come to relate to unchanging ideas. So a person with wealth or a person whose wealth is threatened might protect it by binding Isa and Fehu together. On the other hand Hagalaz is the symbol for hail and generally signifies destructive forces Isa bound with Hagalaz may mean something about eternal disasters or inscribed differently Isa may form a barrier between the practitioner and impending doom. Creating bind-runes is generally limited only to the elder Futhark and its derivatives the Anglosaxon and younger Futhark This does not mean that a practitioner must limit themselves thus. The Egyptians were known on occasion to overlay one hieroglyph with another to create a new glyph with an entirely new meaning and an entirely new power derived from the meanings of the separate glyphs. While the classification is bind runes, the subject matter can be virtually anything including incorporating planetary signs with the zodiac signs. Overlaying the sign of Venus over an elder Futhark rune may create the perfect idea one wants to convey and bring the influences of both signs into play. The 2nd category of sigils is the cartouche. Named for its Egyptian counterpart the cartouche does not overlay symbols but stacks them in a prearranged pattern. For example creating a box and dividing it into four sections with a different symbol in each section that leads to a working idea is a cartouche. More importantly this allows the inclusion of another symbol. For example one method that has been used for a cartouche incorporates a bind-rune in it as well. Take for example the pentagram. The 5 pointed star is commonly thought of as a symbol of Satan worship. Wiccans however, will say that it is a sign of protection and balance among the five elements (earth, air, fire, water, and spirit) but the most ancient use for the 5 pointed star is a representation of Venus This definition, going back some 6 thousand years makes the 5 points star perfect to use in love rituals. You can take various symbols of love, lust, fertility, potency, and fidelity and place one in each of the point. The phallus for potency, the alchemical sign of Venus for love, etc and over lay them to create a bind well defined bind rune in the center. This is a transition phase that is almost enough to be considered a sigil but the format is still that of a cartouche. If runes are words, then bind-runes are sentences and cartouches are paragraphs then sigils can be made into entire books. Sigils can use virtually anything to give them power from the standard rune up to the cartouche. Some sigils are actually multiple sigils united in some way to make a more complex form. Simple sigils, however, are made with some certain guidelines. Like a cartouche a sigil usually has a boundary an edge. Most often this is a circle, although squares, diamonds, and ovals are often found as well. In the sigils created during the middle ages and early renaissance these sigils were divided into sections so that you had a double ring around the outside. Within that ring was often inscribed various symbols, usually zodiacal in origin, or quotes from biblical sources usually the old testament. Within the double ring was often an image with its own associations, an old man for wisdom, a unicorn for love, etc, and more symbols were added into these. In the case of one grimoire the center of several sigils had a table that was 4x4 or 5x5 or some such and in it was inscribed magical names or words of power one letter to each box of the table. The table itself forms a glyph set within a

circle around which is a corresponding verse from the old testament. One of the most notoriously complex sigils of the renaissance was inscribed by Dr. John Dee in the early part of the 1600s. Dee took the sigil from an older 12th century manuscript and modified it making more complex than its original. The whole of the diagrams is a double circle around which is inscribed runes based on the Hebrew alphabet. The runes are placed in such as way as to create a cypher of various angelic names. Within the outer circle is a 7 sided figure with further names inscribed in Latin Within the 7 sided figure is a 7 sided star this also done in a double line so that between the lines are 7 sacred names. Within each point are more names. In the center of the star is another heptagon with still more names and in the middle of that a cartouche of a pentagram with names forming a circle around it. Within this single sigil you have another sigil, the heptagon within the circle within until you eventually reach a cartouche in the very center of the star. This sigil, known as the Sigillum Dei Aameth is one of the most complex, and most mysterious to come out of the western occult tradition. Sigils, bind runes, and cartouches have a variety of purposes. In one system Hebrew based cartouches are placed under each of the legs of a table to separate it from the earth and prevent other forces from interfering with the ritual on the table. Larger sigils such as summoning circles are used to protect the practitioner(s) or to imprison a dangerous spirit. Individual runes have been used for generations to impart their power on a variety of objects from having the full set of 24 runes engraved on a blade in the Norse lands, to having prayer scrolls encased in a necklace as a talisman or charm. Each of these uses of image magic adds a new level of power, focus, control, and precision in the practitioners casting. Number's play an important role in magic. Magicians understood early on that numbers were the key to unlocking the universe, but rather than concentrating on the mathematics, they concentrated on similarities between numbers and the universe around us. The number 4 is often important in the magic of the western hemisphere for according to the ancients there are 4 directions; north south east and west; 4 elements, earth, air, fire, and water; 4 seasons winter, spring, summer, and fall; in fact the ancients had a long list of associations with the number 4. Understanding and generalizing these associations became an entire branch of study in occultism. 5 another important number 5 points to the pentacle representing Venus, balance, or protection, depending on which age you want to look at. 5 senses to the body, sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Further more as is noted by Davinci's figures there are 5 protrusions from the center mass of the body of a man 2 legs, two arms, and a head. We could go on 6 is a number often symbolizing balance, the hexagram, also called the star of David, is often related to the eastern yin-yang symbolizing the union of opposites such as masculine and feminine, active and passive, etc. The list of numbers and their symbols continues on up the list. It doesn't simply stop at whole number's either. The golden ratio is approximately 1:1.16 and has been considered sacred for much of man's history. It appears everywhere, in the spiral of the universe to the spiral of a conch shell. It occurred in ancient constructions pretty regularly too. Many of the ancient marvels from central America to china to the middle east are built according to the golden ratio. Pi is another example of a number the ancients were aware of and considered sacred. Many people only attempt to incorporate numerology in their sigils but the Norse incorporated it into their chance. The few pre-christian magical spells we have from the Norse are chants that are composed in 7 or 9 syllables per line for example. Astrology in another major interest in the occult world. Astrology is the study of the heavens and the positions and courses of planets, constellations and other heavenly bodies and relating these celestial events to terrestrial ones. True astrology is far beyond what most people think of today. Many know their sign, which is actually only their sun sign. That is to say what zodiac constellation the sun rose in on the day of their birth. But so much more comes into play, depending on this further information all things from the sun sign may be completely negated even though it is the most

prominent of all the symbols. Among these other symbols is the moon sign, the position of the planets and their relationships to each other and to the zodiac. For example one may have the sun sign of Scorpio, but if the moon is in Leo many of the aspects of Scorpio are seriously weakened and if mars resides with Gemini they are weakened even further. Astrology isn't just about where things are at your birth, that only creates a picture of you, with an astrological chart we place this picture within the environment of where the stars are or will be today and that gives us interactions which help astrologists to predict things a person may want to avoid and other things a person may want to seek out. But this is only natal astrology. In occult astrology, or the astrology that is most often practiced within magic the same influences with roughly the same meanings come into play. But we are looking for where these events cause the energies in the earth to align with what we wish. If we want a love spell having we may want Venus in ascension. On the other hand if we want a spell of victory for a court case we may want mars and Jupiter to be influenced by Leo or Taurus before we cast our spell. By the time you pull together the basic mind triggers, combined with potions to anoint any candles or objects you may be using, incorporated the laws of similarity and contagion, included any runes or sigils and calculated the correct time to cast the spell, one has put in a lot of work into it. Understand that simply coming up with the ideas of the spell, putting them together and going through the motions isn't enough. Native Americans, at least in the past, had a religion that is totally foreign to us today in many ways. To us religion, faith, and spirituality is a sometimes thing. It's a Sunday thing, its a sabbath thing, its a thing when we need or want something. For the native Americans it was an all the time thing. The men went out and hunted, they began the hunt with a prayer for a good hunt, when they hunted every step they took as the traveled through the grass or forest was a step on the path of the sacred. When they took game such as a deer or rabbit they thanked the rabbit for sacrificing its life so they could eat. The traveled home and celebrated and gave thanks for a good hunt to their spirits. The rabbit was skinned and dressed, this act was an act performed as if every pass of the skinning knife had to be done properly and mindful of the spirit of the rabbit and the spirits of the ancestors to see that it was done correctly. Every act in the tribal life was an act of their religion. Orthodox Jews today sometimes have just as much religion. And to many of us it is alien and sometimes even funny. Many of us may give thanks for a meal or pray for a win at the big game. The Jews have a prayer to thank god for giving us holes in our bodies so that we can urinate. Think about what would happen if we didn't have those holes in our bodies? While the author here is not necessarily suggesting that you have to live all life in a religion manner such as the native or go around praying for everything such as the Jew; At least when you working on a spell, writing it, drawing the runes, mixing the potions, anointing the candle even if your not actually casting the spell, only doing the preparations for the spell it would be good to approach these acts as the natives approached skinning the rabbit. Every herb is sacred, and should be handled that way. Every candle is sacred and the anointed oil is sacred and should be handled that way when anointing them. Before using a pencil to inscribe runes onto a sheet of paper use a quick blessing and purification on the pencil and treat it, and the act of drawing as sacred, as though if you fail to make the perfect circle, then you fail not only the spell, but the spirits around you. That is not to say the circle or rune has to be perfect, but it should be your best. When you treat the act as sacred then you impart energy into the act. The longer you work on designing and constructing the spell the more energy you put into the spell. It like winding a spring tighter and tighter with each new act of preparation then the spell itself releases the spring. The tighter you've wound it the more energy that is released.

Another aspect of magic which many people don't consider when writing their ceremonies and rituals is the model of magic they use. As far as the author herein can tell the only person which has created this structuralist view of magic is a german magician called U:D: Frater. This is not his real name as far as I can tell but more a title. Many years ago I found a document creating a structuralist view of the history of magic attributed to him. Whether or not he was the one to actually write it, I have never been able to verify, but its ideas have been invaluable in my studies. Most of the next pages will be paraphrases and summarizations from this excerpt. The models of magic are an attempt at classifying magic into various groups to work with based on the practitioner's understanding on how magic works. Frater presents 5 models, they are the spirit model, the energy model, the psychological model, the information model, and the meta model. Each of these models have a different perspective of magic and how it works. By considering one's own belief system one can attribute themselves to one model or another, although most practitioners fall, ultimately, in the metamodel. By understanding the different aspects of each model one can then better write spells to work with their systems. The Spirit Model is perhaps the oldest form of magic and still a very powerful system. In the Spirit Model all things which occur occur because of spirits, whether those spirits are physically manifest such as humans and animals, astral projections such as dryads which are the projections of trees, or completely unmanifest such as ghosts and faeries. Disease, which we know today to be caused by micro-organisms such as germs, viruses, and bateria, was once thought to be caused by disease spirits. In a more modern outlook both systems may still be taken as true. The microbs, being unintelligent as we define the word, are manifested and controlled by the spirit of the disease. Luck, inspiration, wisdom, knowledge, and love are all worldly manifestations of a spirit. The greeks believed love to be a manifestation of aphrodite and/or Eros (venus and cupid in roman). Inspiration, depending on the form may be the result of contact with a daemon or genius which are two classifcations of ancient spirits whose names have survived with different meanings into the modern world. When a person demonstrated in the hellenistic or roman world that he was gifted with science or mathematics he had a genius. Poets were inspired by the more well known muses. Many tribal societies today work their magic based on the spirit model. The Native Americans, Africans, and Aboriginees all work magic in much the same way. Their shaman has contact with good spirits and evil, helpful and harmful spirits. When a person comes down with a sickness it is the shamans job to get rid of the disease spirit residing within them. The shaman does this through rituals wherein they demand the name of the disease spirit inhabiting the victim. If the shaman already knows the name of the spirit then he uses the name to control the spirit through a combination of force of will and the power of the possessing spirits true name. Their are several ways a shamans ceremony might work. Among the Lakota (sioux) tribes of the United States, a crow or raven is often brought in and as the shaman demands the spirit leave the crow is set free. There are a number of examples of birds being used in healing in the spirit model systems. The intended purpose of the bird is somewhat different depending on the civilization, for example in one culture the bird is supposed to inspire the disease spirit to take flight as the bird takes flight leaving the victim. In another culture the spirit is driven into the bird, or into the bird's grasp who then carries the offending spirit away. If the shaman does not know and cannot obtain the true name from the spirit the shaman will have lists of names of other entities which he may use to combat the possessing spirit and drive it out. Aside from using these names the ritual is further enhanced by the uses of burning herbs and oils. Again different cultures use the herbs, incense, and oils in different ways. In the hebrew traditions the herbs were often burned on the belief that the disease spirit cannot, for some reason, stand the smell and will be driven out by the burning of certain herbs. Among other however, the spirit is not looked on as malevolent so much as a spirit is exacting justice for a crime comitted by the person. In this case herbs are burned as offerings to placate the attacking spirit so that it will become peaceful again.

Shamanic rituals often make greater use of music, not simply chanting but musical songs intended to contact the spirits and placate them. Shamanic rituals use herbs heavily but often only a few types local to the area in which the shaman works. The true names of spirits the shaman knows is usually learned in a long apprenticeship to another shaman and often remain very secretive. For this reason much spirit model magic has been lost over the years. Still many names are available in books from around the world but it may take much hunting and seeking to locate them. Otherwise it would probably be best to enter into an apprenticeship under a shaman to learn them, or at least some of them. While these shamanic rituals sound like a wonderfully natural system to use for spells there is a darker side to them as well. That darker side reached its height around the 1600s or so when the entirety of europe was fascinated with all things spiritual, including demons and the power to summon them and control them. The grimoires of the middle ages and renaissance are pact with spells and rituals to summon demons and constrain them to the practitioner's will whether or not the demon was willing. This magnificent feat of magic was accomplished through using symbols and sigils and true names not only of the demon but sacred names of the Christian god. The basic format of the ritual involved spending days, months, or years, purifying oneself and praying to god for forgiveness and favor. Many included ritual fasting or abstaining from sexual intercourse to purify the mind and the body. Once this lengthy portion of the ritual was complete the supplicant or magician would enter into a specially prepared place inscribed with complex sigils like the one by john dee described earlier. The sigils were meant to serve as a protection for the practitioner. He would then, using other instruments, have many prayers for god. After these prayers he would command a demon by the power of god and thy true name. to manifest itself. After the incantation adjuring the demon to manifest itself the practitioner would again pray to god using many sacred names such as Jehova, Adonai, Elohim etc. And again command the demon or on occasion spirit to come forth and make its presence known. This darker side of the spirit model was powerful in an age when people didn't understand the power of it. Simply forcing a spirit or demon to appear against its will often angered the spirit. In these cases things could go terribly wrong if the protection sigil was not good enough. They could also go wrong later after the magician released the spirit the spirit may come back for revenge on the practioner or his friends or family. As such this form of summoning spirits rather than asking them for aid is often considered to be the darker side of magic and best to be avoided, at least until one has become knowledgeable and practiced in the lighter arts. A third version of the spirit model involves a type of impersonation. It is well documented among the greco-egyptian magical papyrii that magicians would, during a ceremony claim to be a god. I poseidon do command you, or some such. This wasn't simply an impersonation or attempting to trick a spirit into doing what the practitioner said, no. This was a way for magicians to channel divine energy. The ritual itself began much as those from the middle ages with fasting and prayer and abstaining from a variety of things. During the final ritual however, the magician recited long complex incantations that included secret sacred names of a god and recited the stories of that god according to certain formula. The idea was to identify one's self with the god. To truly, at least for a moment become the god by uniting with the deity in a spiritual union which imparts part of the deities authority to the practitioner allowing the practitioner to command the various spirits the deity normally would. Poseidon for making a sea voyage safe, aphrodite for invoking love, Zeus to provide wisdom etc. Of course in order to invoke a deity like this one must first believe the deity exists and has the power to do what the practitioner wants to do. The Energy Model of magic is second in age only to the spirit model and even that is somewhat in question. In the orient the energy model seems to have grown into existance along side the spirit model with practices such as Chi Gong and Tai Chi Chuan. Also the oriented started with a very early understanding of elements and the ideas of Yin and Yang. In the western hemisphere the idea of the

energy model didn't begin to develop until around the 17th century and still didn't really take hold until the 1800s nearly two centuries later. The pure form of the energy model of magic states that all things happen as a result of interacting energies. The power of will is in and of itself a form of energy and this energy can be used to affect other energies. In Chi Gong one learns to use the powers of focus and will to manipulate one's own chi or life energy. One can then use this energy to create spectacular effects. On the other hand chi is an energy constantly flowing through the body and if that flow is interupted it can manifest itself in less desirable ways such as bad luck, clumsiness, insanity, or disease. To continue along the comparison line we will use disease as the example here again. The practitioner of the energy model would not see a possessing spirit but a negative energy, nothing with will or intention but simply an imbalance caused by an influx of too much of some type of energy which then must be syphoned off or a lack of a certain type or type(s) of energy which must be boosted in order to restore the body to its naturally functioning state. Other forms of disease are caused by blocking the flow of energy and in this case the blockage itself must be removed in order to cure the patient. Traditions such as Reiki and Acupuncture from the ease specialize in this form of manipulation and have massive volumes of books dedicated to understanding the flows of energy through the meridians (kind of like veins and artery's for spirit energy) through the body. They then use needs, herbs, and rituals to work out and restore balance to the body allowing it to return to its natural functions. The Energy Model is probably the most accepted model of practitioners today. Most likely because we cannot envision a life so ruled by other intelligences as that of the spirit model. Also because the energy model seems more scientific and logical while still satisfying humanities need for the mysterious and mystic. Energy model practitioners are often the types that are eager to experiment with new resources such as new herbs, stones, and sigils and runes that can help them get the most out of each spell. Because pure energy model practioners don't work with spirits they often scoff at spirit practioners thinking that the practioners are a superstitious bunch attributing human mannerisms and personalities to dumb energy. Some of the resulting practice problems of this was mentioned in the cake example above.