Untying Yourself With No Ingredients Necessary

Life can be a tangled mess at times. We bind ourselves up to other people's messes or sometimes just to other people. When we try to move forward in life it seems like we are tripping ourselves up constantly. Magic doesn't seem to work or at the very least progress seems extremely slow. We know something is wrong but we aren't sure how to fix it, or maybe our budget is so tight we can't even spare the change to get what we need.

But I'm Totally Broke...

When you are broke or unable to light candles and do magic remember: there is always prayer. Prayer costs you nothing and can give you real relief from your problems. The only things that you need to prayer are your mind, your tongue, your heart, and a glass of water. Many important spirits live in water so it's important that you have a glass of water for them to manifest in.

How Do I Pray?

Many don't know how to begin their prayers so I outlined a simple formula for you to follow here. First, take a moment to relax yourself as completely as possible by tensing and releasing your muscles. Then perform the kabbalistic cross and follow with middle pillar ceremony. It's okay if you have to write down the words in the beginning but you should strive to memorize it as quickly as possible. Take a moment after the middle pillar and collect yourself and call to mind your grief and troubles so that you can give them up into prayer.

Who Should I Pray To?

For those that feel stuck and unable to move forward in their life I recommend praying to Mary Undoer of Knots.  Mary is a powerful intercessor, and will quickly intercede for anyone that prays to her with an open heart. By the virtue of her willingly taking on the command to give birth to the Son of God she undid the first knot that was created by Eve when she defied God by eating of the Tree of Knowledge. As the Undoer of Knots she can help remove those things that are holding you back in your life. Whether the knots in your life are feuding between lovers, quarrelsome neighbors, financial troubles, a lack of peace at home she can help you.

O Virgin Mary,

Mother who never refuses to come to the help of your children in need,

Mother whose hands never stop working for the welfare of your children,

moved as they are by the loving mercy and kindness that exists in your Immaculate Heart,

cast your compassionate and merciful eyes on me and see the snarl of knots that exists in my life.

Oh Mother! You know the difficulties, sorrow and pain that I’ve had because of them.

O loving Mother, I place the ribbon of my life and this knot (these knots) into your loving hands,

hands which can undo even the most difficult knot.

Most holy Mother, come to my aid and intercede for me before God with your prayers.

I cast this knot into your hands (mention your intention/need) and beg you to undo it,

in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, and for the glory of God, once and for all.

Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, pray for us!

9 Days of Prayer

Novenas are powerful Catholic prayers that take place over nine days. It is important that you pray at the same time each day to get the fullest effect. Consistency is key to getting results in desperate times. Her Novena can be found here.

The Power of Psalms

You may also feel that you have extra baggage weighing you down as well. The Book of Psalms has useful prayers that can help remove blockages and negative energies in your way. The most powerful psalm I have found is fifty four as it works quickly to send evil back to its source. However, if you are having issues trying to end a toxic relationship I would recommend number fifty six. If you are worried about your living situation and stressing over bills I recommend number seventy three.

Be Consistent

The most important part of working through prayer alone is consistency. Prayer is a direct means of communication with your spirits, therefor you want to be a consistent as possible. Make sure that you pray at the same times each day. Setting reminders on your phone can be very helpful. The more consistent you are the faster and more consistent your results will be. 

An Easy Way To Increase Your Daily Blessings

Probably one of the greatest practices that someone who works conjure or magic can do is the practice of charity. As one of the greatest of virtues Charity opens the heart to those in need, heals, and demonstrates worthiness of prosperity from the spirits. As an act of penance it can alleviate the weight of misdeeds and misfortunes and return missing blessings.

What Is Charity?

Charity is the act of generosity towards those less fortunate than yourself. It is recognition of empathy that you have towards the suffering of another person and acting upon it. The act of giving a few extra dollars from your pocket to the person on the street corner, or buying a hungry person a sandwich is an act of charity. Taking the time to assist an elderly or disabled person is also an act of charity. In fact, most act of goodness towards other humans can be charitable, especially if you are someone who has a hardened heart or little sympathy.

Why Should I Be Charitable?

Those that seek the help of their ancestors, saints, and spirits are seeking the charity of beings that don't have to give of their time and energy. Beyond a merely transactional relationship with spirits, there can be an underlying element of trust being developed. The spirits watch you carefully as they bless you to see what you do with their generosity. Do you share the blessings that they give to you or do you hoard it? When the spirits give you real power do you use it to heal or to harm? These answers to these questions define your character to the spirits and may affect your future blessings.

What About The Drug Addicts/Alcoholics I see?

Charity does not discriminate what suffering is worthy or not worthy of your assistance. Even if you come upon a person in the throws of addiction, and you know that any aide that you give them may lead to them continuing in their self-abuse, you should still offer what you can to alleviate their suffering. Despite what may appear as obvious to you, your kindness to them may have an impact on their future decisions. This will not always be the case, but it's better to err on the side of goodness.

The Suffering You Alleviate May Be Your Own

There is a common expression in Afro-Caribbean Traditions that states that a single act of evil requires ten acts of good to correct. When someone that has felt powerless or has been victimized is introduced to power it is not uncommon to see them become cruel and intolerant. This type of sickness is more common than most are willing to admit. The purpose of power is to heal and correct sickness and imbalance. When the heart is hardened by life acts of charity help to open it and soften it to the world. Charity also offers a path of atonement for your misdeeds as well.

How Charitable Should I Be?

This is a difficult thing to answer for each individual. The basic guideline is to give what you can after you have taken care of yourself. It's important to remember that if you are not taking care of your own needs you will not be able to help others. Some fall into a sickness of developing a savior complex and spend their money and time fretting over the needs of others without first helping themselves. Your security in life grants you the ability to be generous with others. 

Charity Opens The Path To Blessings

As you practice the act of generosity towards others, you may notice that the spirits begin to bless you in ta variety of ways. This prosperity is meant to be shared with others around you and in your community. As you become blessed you should also bless those you encounter, not just with money alone, but with generous and kind expression. 

Edit: I change the title of this blog to get you to read about this important practice. The word "charity" should never be an aversion to you. Many of you want to claim to be empaths so start demonstrating your empathy towards others through your actions.

Why A Peaceful Home Is Important

Facebook conjure groups are riddled with questions and requests for love spells, revenge spells, money spells, and so on. I can't remember the last time someone asked, "How do I make my home peaceful?"

A peaceful home is the foundation upon which you create a quality life for yourself.

If your home is chaotic your relationships will be in turmoil, unexpected bills will keep cropping up, and your enemies will seem to be around every corner. A home that lacks peace will never let you feel restful and at ease when you need it most. Your nights may even be disturbed with restless sleep and maybe even nightmares.

Clean House

In order to cultivate a peaceful environment you must first have a clean and tidy environment. Go through your house and do your best to clean up and organize your space. The deeper you clean the better your results will be, don't be shy about getting into all the nooks and crannies to clean. That closet that you never open because of the mess? It's time to get in there.

Burn incense

Next, you want to clean the air with some form of incense. Frankincense is great for this purpose. It will raise the energy and sweeten the home. If you feel that you need something a bit more heavy duty you may wish to try burning some bay, garlic skins, and salt, but I recommend following up with frankincense. Make sure when you fumigate the house that you open all the windows first. Go deliberately from room to room and fan the smoke into the corners, cabinets and closets.

Sweeten the Home

Once you have fumigated the home you may wish to come back with some perfumes and waters to continue sweetening things. I mix some Florida water, sweet herbal waters (sorry its a proprietary recipe!), a little liquor, and seven strong men (for some extra oomf) in a spray bottle. In the same fashion as before go from room to room lightly spritzing each room and speaking your desires for peace and prosperity. 

Pray and Meditate

Your home should be feeling pretty good by this point. Now, you should place yourself before your spiritual or ancestral altar and begin to pray and meditate. Thank your ancestors, guides, and guardian spirits for bringing peace and prosperity into your life as sincerely as you can. You may also wish to clean yourself with a spiritual bath as well to fully get in touch with these energies.

Keep the Peace

At this point you are likely feeling really good about the vibe you have in your home, but what happens from this point forward will dictate how well you maintain it. A peaceful home is as peaceful as the people that cross through your threshold. 

• Be mindful of who you allow into your home. 
• If you have friends that love drama maybe it's better to meet at their place or somewhere else. 
• Consider putting up wards above your door or in your home to better protect your peace. 
• Burn incense regularly to keep the air sweet
• Keep up on the tidiness

If you can maintain your peace you will be free from distraction and allow yourself to prosper.

What Should Be On My Ancestor Altar?

An altar is a place where you commune with particular spirits. It is a place where offerings are made or magic is done. In a very real sense it is a representation of your relationship with spiritual beings. So, before placing things haphazardly in this area some considerations must be made.

Who Are My Ancestors?

Your ancestors are the countless generations that preceded you in this life. They are those that struggled and toiled so that you could have the existence that you have today. Ancestors are generally the direct genetic line to you but also sometimes extended family. For those that are adopted they generally will have two set of ancestors those they were born with and those of their adoptive family. in general, your ancestors are there to assist you with life's difficulties. 

How Do I Build An Altar?

With all spiritual relationships, things should be taken one small step at a time. The very first step is to establish a place in your home where you can commune with them. This place should allow privacy for both you and your ancestors. If you are limited on space I recommend getting a simple cabinet where you can open and close the doors when you work with them. 

On the altar for them you should place a white plate of a cloth, I prefer to use a plate as it is generally fire safe for you to burn candles upon. You may want to put up some pictures in the area of deceased. I placed a casket cross from my great grandmother's funeral here as well. Try not to clutter the space, and be mindful that you may want some room to do magic. 

Salute Your Ancestors

Now that the place has been neatly and mindfully arranged you can salute your ancestors here. Take a moment beforehand and clean and organize your home first. It's a little bit of something extra to let them know you are taking them seriously, it will also ensure that the energy moves smoothly during the ceremony. It helps if you do some simple quiet relaxation before hand as well.

How Often should I Give Offerings and What Should I Give?

In the beginning, a weekly tea light and a glass of water is all that is necessary. This is because you are greeting them into your life, elevating them, and asking them to help. However, there is nothing wrong with giving a small offering to them such as some tobacco, liquor, white flowers, or even some incense. Generally, in giving flowers to your ancestors its best to give white flowers, leaving them on the altar until they wilt. For incense I recommend burning frankincense for it's harmonizing and purifying qualities. 

Let me emphasize that less is more! You can bog down your ancestors with frequent and large offerings. A small amount is all that is necessary, and it should be removed after 24 hours. More offerings doesn't mean that you will get what you want because offerings are not bribes, they are signs of appreciation and respect.

Every Relationship Is Different
When you start this process it may begin blissfully, and seem like life will be smooth sailing. For some this may be true, but for others they may encounter difficulties. Stubborn and difficult ancestors do exist, and they may seem like they are blocking your progress. These ancestors require extra attention and need to be purified through your service and acknowledgement of them. You don't have to like each other, but if you help them elevate they will no longer be an obstacle for you. Your job here is illumination and elevation.

Initiation: What You Should First Consider

Initiation has long been a grail of sorts in the West. This is likely because there is no demarcation in Western culture that marks our maturity from childhood to adulthood. For example: unless you were raised in a religious family such as Catholicism and went through catechism, its fair to say that there was no signal in your life that brought you into adulthood. 

This strange paradigm or lack thereof, may likely account for having a generation the laps up nostalgia from their childhood. Most certainly it is behind why many adults have difficulty processing their emotions and also make a fascination of "adulting." At no point in their life were they made aware that their childhood innocence is behind them and now they must be aware of a world of consequence. 

In African based cultures, initiation helped to bring the youth into adulthood. These various rites were put in place to not only mark the individual as a full member of the society but also to stave off the effects of puberty on psychism. More than that it helped to reveal a destiny for the individual in order to live the longest most fruitful life available to them. Beyond such rites within societies initiation brought individuals into the powers of medicine and even trade and commerce as expressed in the Lemba society. Sometimes initiation was the medicine for people with afflicted conditions to save them from misfortune and death. 

In it's simplest form, true initiation is a process of death and rebirth. The initiate is stripped of their past life and reborn into their new life. From my perspective the only meaningful initiation beyond this scope is the initiate being mounted by a spirit, thereby sealing their destiny and being gifted with the spiritual tools needed for self-improvement and mastery. What is done with the gifts after this point rests solely on the shoulders of the initiate.

Initiation is not open to all

Not every person is called to be initiated nor are all those who are called to be considered worthy of initiation. Each house, society, and elder have their own standards by which they judge the prospective initiate and few may live up to those standards. Some houses pride themselves (and rightly so) on how few people pass through their doors. 

The act of taking on an initiate is akin to adopting someone into your own family. A family with a sense of pride may not be so quick to take on someone who doesn't share their moral and ethical views. What's more, the spirits of that house may reject the candidate for any reason at all. Maybe the candidate doesn't live up to the spirit's standards or the spirit sees a flaw that humans do not. 

Take the time to get to know your future god-parents

In an age of social media, it's easy to mistake someone's online presence as representative of who they actually are. Many are in such a rush to be initiated that they don't seem to notice that their motives are never questioned by their would-be god-parents. They produce the money, which is taken with a smile, and they are rushed through initiation given not much more than a pat on the head and forgotten about. They spend the next few years attempting to juggle their spiritual practice and life with little to no supervision and have little offered to them in terms of knowledge. After sometime they will experience buyers remorse and realize that they didn't get what they were promised.

Worse yet, are those that find out their god-parent who had seemed at once hip and knowledgeable turned out to be cruel and uncaring. I have heard horror stories of people being extorted financially, berated publicly, even found themselves being worked on by their own god-parents. That is not to imply that you may not occasionally invoke the wrath of your god-parent, they are there to ensure you grow up right and you may need to be straightened out from time to time. However, you should not live in fear of your god-parent.

Watch out for those that love drama on and off social media. Those that seek too much attention in public spaces. Get to know other initiates in the house or society, talk with them and share your concerns. Do they seem happy? Do they share your values? These are very important questions that you need to have answers for.

Initiation doesn't make you all powerful

A common misunderstanding that is widely repeated is that becoming initiated will grant all sorts of serious juju on you. While it is true that you will have a spiritual connection that the average person does not have, you must still learn how to use it properly and wisely. Most are looking to get paid, get laid, and get even since life up to that point may not have seemed very just to them. Many will get themselves into all sorts of trouble trying to flex their newfound yet untamed abilities on perceived enemies. 

Even if these battles are won, the amount of time wasted is irreplaceable. A first year could have been better spent in introspection, purification, and service to the spirits. Imagine the growth that could take place if someone just slowed down in this fast paced world and focused on their own needs. 

Initiation is a healing process but not a cure-all

Many come to get initiated in hopes that their problems will be solved or that their disease will be healed. While this thinking is not wrong as the process opens doors for healings and the spirits will oftentimes produce miracles, however, some things may not initially improve. Certain problems may be crutches that you will have to bear throughout your spiritual journey and part of the journey may be learning how to cope. The spirits will supply you with the tools you need heal but you may also need to do the work yourself.

Also, not everything can be healed. While alleviation of the disease is likely, it may not provide a "cure" that is being sought. For instance: certain psychological disorders that are the result of structural issues with the brain will likely not be cured, the spirits can help you to cope with the condition.

Initiation is a commitment for life and longerin a world of instant gratification and short attention spans, people have a habit of putting things down when they seem repetitive or difficult. A person might buy a musical instrument and not be gratified with results that are not instantaneous and the instrument will spend the rest of it's time collecting dust in a closet. Unfortunately, once you are initiated there is no putting the spirit back in the box. A deep connection is forged on a spiritual level tying yourself to the ancestors of that society through the rest of your life and even through death. This is not something to take lightly!

When you pass through the gates of initiation your soul is altered and you will forever be changed on a spiritual level. The stakes in the game get considerably higher and you are no longer living a life for yourself as now there are generations of ancestors and spirits that are now with you. These beings are very patient and will seem to let you getaway with a great deal, however, it should always be remembered that eventually you will meet and answer for your behavior

In conclusion

I feel as though I have gone much broader in scope than what I initially intended, but I hope that I gave some eager people pause to assess their desires. There is no rush to get to your spiritual goals, furthermore, rushing will only slow you down in the long run. If you are considering initiation or on your way towards it, I hope you take the time for introspection and determine if it is truly the path for you. Most of the time your problems can be resolved with competent work and not necessarily initiation. A proper cleaning and pocket piece or guard can go very far.

The wisest thing a brother from another tradition told me (among many other words of wisdom) that still rings in my head, "Remember brother, initiation for us is a crutch. We need the spirits just to meet our potential, but not everyone does. We are there for those people."