I think I’m finally starting to get a hold of this Jovian energy and power from the Gate rite a few weeks back.  In a fit of creativity and energy this past weekend, I decided to spend all day Saturday woodburning and staining several projects, up to and including a Triangle of Art (using Hebrew names instead of the faux-Greek names from the Key of Solomon, check the Crafts page) and a plaque of Nyan Cat for a friend in New York.  I love my crackhead friends.

In addition to that, I perked my lovely astrologer and Tarot reader sister‘s interest in conjuration, since getting in contact with the beings who actually manage the stuff she reads on could be a valuable resource for her to get more information.  Plus, she’s had a long-term interest in qabbalah and other similar interests as mine (she’s the one who got me hooked on Alan Moore’s Promethea, which you should TOTALLY read).  Since she didn’t have the tools for conjuration, I decided to make for her a Table of Practice and wand as early Christmas gifts.  My skills have improved since I did my own Table of Practice and wand, so she’s got a nicer set than mine.  The wand I made for her is slightly more “to code” per Trithemius’ Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals in that it has “AGLA ✡ ON ✡ TETRAGRAMMATON ✠” as well as “EGO ALPHA ET OMEGA” engraved and inlaid with gold leaf; my own wand has the letters simply woodburned on and lacks the latter phrase entirely.  Of course, since I don’t have any ebony dowels handy, I had to do with a few light coats of ebony stain.  (Protip: stain first with several thick coats, THEN engrave and inlay.)  The Table of Practice is nearly the same as mine, but I engraved the signs of the Zodiac on the bevel since there was just so much empty space and, well, my sister is an astrologer, after all.  Like this, the Table is a complete model of the cosmos: the sphere of the fixed stars, the seven planets, the four elements, and the three modes of existence all neatly represented on an upside-down wooden plate.

Since I was making a wand for her, I decided to make a wand for myself that was similarly “to code”.  However, the dowel I was using looked and felt weird, and it took a bit before I realized that it was particlewood and dropped it mid-burn in disgust.  Besides, I had already made a wand earlier that day, and a fancy one at that.  While investigating the logistics of carrying a magical staff around with me (as part of a kind of magician monasticism), I thought it appropriate to make a cane: suitable but still innocuous enough to not draw too much attention to myself.  Its construction was simple: take a 3′ dowel and affix some fancy wooden bits as a handle and butt with wood glue and a steel nail (there’s a hole in either cap).  It’s got the “AGLA ✡ ON ✡ TETRAGRAMMATON ✠” on it, but instead of “EGO ET ALPHA ET OMEGA”, I tried something different.  I remembered the word Azoth, the essential spirit in alchemy, related to the Ain Soph and the divine spark within all things.  It’s composed of the first letter of the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman scripts (A/א) and the final letters of each of these alphabets (Roman zed, Greek omega, and Hebrew tav).  I inscribed the letters Z, Ω, and ת around the butt of the cane, and the Egyptian hieroglyph for ox (which eventually became Phoenician alp, thence Hebrew aleph, etc.) on the top of the handle.  Envisioning each letter as a point in space, they form a triangular pyramid, the Platonic solid associated with fire.  For a final touch, I engraved the Shema (trans. “The LORD is our God, the LORD is one”) around the handle.  It’s a nice cane, but a damned awesome occult tool and has plenty of connections to fire (pine wood, gold inlay, steel nails, triangular pyramid form).  I’m excited to try it out, even if it is a bit big for indoor use.

Now I only need to learn canne de combat, and I’m gold.

Anyway, crafting all this made me realize that the space in my room and closet is not, in fact, boundless, and eventually I’m going to have too much stuff.  I don’t see any intrinsic problem with selling or gifting what I need to get rid of when it comes to occult tools, though, so in the future I’ll be posting about goods you might be interested in.  For instance, this staff I found it upright in a forest and modified.  It’s about 5’6″, shaved and oiled, engraved with “AGLA + ON + IHVH” on one side, the symbols from the Key of Solomon for the staff engraved on the other, A and Ω engraved at the top, and has a quartz crystal point glued into the top of the staff.  I’ve never used it and probably won’t, at this rate, but if anyone wants it, shoot me an email; price is $50 plus S+H.