Death on the Horizon

The Virgin of Mount Carmel or simply La Virgin del Carmen in Spanish. Mary as the Queen of the Dead. She has the power to free souls from Hell and Purgatory.

A few days ago, I got a nasty feeling. My land lady is a Romani woman. One of her animals almost died. And the red scarf around her neck that she uses to protect herself from the evil eye was loosening. Some nasty person whom she is already aware of had sent her a curse.

And said animal absorbed it. After the incident, I started getting a warning from my own spirits. And I am now doing special protective rituals for myself.

Leading the lost and angry souls out

Not too long after that, I received a blog post notification from an Orisha Temple in California. And they had a very interesting thing to say. They were warning of sudden death.

IFA To Overcome Death from OTURAOYEKU

In Yoruba religion, we have sacred signs. And they have different stories attached to them. They tell various stories that are sacred texts. But this sign I did not recognize. It’s called Oturaoyeku.

I had to call up an old Santero from Cuba to look it up. Apparently it’s referred to as “the devil’s mark” and a “sign of demonic power”. It means there are people plotting mischief or harm of some sort. Betrayal that could lead to murder. Curses from unethical practitioners.

Strange deaths, bad luck of every sort, the works. I looked it up later for myself and yes. This is a sign of corruption and vice. It symbolizes the “rot of corpses”. It means “even the Devil has a protective Egun” (spirit of the dead, a spirit guide).

This is a metaphor reminding us that everyone, even bad people, have spiritual protectors. And these evil spirits aid them in causing harm to good people. Speaking from past experience, that’s very true. Also we have a Mercury Retrograde headed our way next Saturday (Jan 30th, 2021). Which means Hermes is headed towards his cthonic aspect of Terrestrial Hermes.

Terrestrial Hermes, the guide of the dead

Hermes as a God of the dead. Their guide and protector. Hermes is a God of many things. From magic to technology, to languages, and business. Not just communication.

So when he enters his reaper aspect, everything he’s in charge of goes in reverse. Marriages break down, businesses go down, friends become enemies, etc.. And of course money problems. So now is not a time to make projects. Now is not a time to argue with anyone or try to prove yourself right. It will all backfire on you.

Now is the time to honor your dead through Hermes. Ask for his guidance. Retrogrades happen for a reason. And that reason is that things need to be corrected. And given the clusterfuck of a year we had in 2020, that’s an understatement.

Meditate, be a hermit. And stay the hell out of trouble. If someone mouths off to you, ignore them. Be polite and move the fuck on. It isn’t worth it.

Because all it takes is one confrontation. Just one, and you could get beat up. Or arrested, cursed, hell even killed. It isn’t worth it.

Leading them to their eternal resting places

So we all need to slow down. Don’t go out as much. Try to avoid dangerous situations. During a normal retrograde, accidents happen. But given that the Babalawos have sensed death in the air this isn’t something you want to tempt. And have a lot of patience because you need it.

They prescribe using Iyerosun. It’s a type of magical powder that comes from a tree named the Iyosun tree. Loosely translated it means Iyosun powder. It’s wood dust normally made by termites. And it’s blessed with ashe (divine grace) by the Babalawos.

The instructions are in their post. However, you should only do this if you are either a Babalawo or have some kind of knowledge on it. For non initiates that will be a lot harder. Unless you can find someone in your area who practices. If not I would suggest doing an offering to Orula and Odudawa for some heavenly protection.

You don’t have to be a Santero for that. I’ve seen Rootworkers pray to Orula and give him offerings. Do a divination and ask for help. Ask them what they want as an offering. Or even look it up.

It won’t have the exact same effect as what is prescribed. But the Orishas always listen to those who wish for help. Same with other divine beings. Just make sure you respect the culture and heritage. If you have questions book a reading with the Babalawos.

I normally offer that myself. But in these matters, these are high priests and have greater knowledge and spiritual authority. Or if you have a God you already feel comfortable with or a Saint or whoever, ask them. This isn’t a contest. Everyone has their own spirituality that works for them.

If you wish to work in your own culture, but need a few tips, book a reading with me. Studying folk magic prepared me for helping others to carve out their own rituals. Make it there’s. Regardless, there’s a few things that the Santero I spoke with gave me as advice during this time.

– He said I should pray to Orula and Odudawa. For protection of myself and family.

– Make offerings to Babalu Aye and Oro.

Babalu Aye handles disease. Oro is a very strange being that didn’t quite make it to Cuba. Essentially he is a God of the dead and necromancy, and he punishes the wicked. When he kills them, their ghosts join his group or entourage and they punish people for him

him.

A Babalawo first told me about him. But good luck getting any real information. His cult in Nigeria is a mystery religion, for men only. It’s a secret society. And when they do their night time rituals, people know to stay in doors.

There was a controversy in Nigeria a few years ago. It was over a Muslim woman at was out on the road at night. The cult was doing a procession in the streets with drums. People are supposed to stay in doors. But she was out at night and had encountered the men doing their rituals.

A taboo that hasn’t been broken in a long time. I can’t remember too much except that I think she got hurt. And it made a huge religious debate. The question was raised about whether or not everyone in a community, should be subject to taboos from religions they don’t practice. Regardless, Oro’s cult and it’s secrets are known only to those who initiate.

What I do know from a Paranormal case where I asked a Babalawo for help, is that Oro and Babalu Aye are often called upon together. They’re given offerings and called upon for protection from evil spirits. From Black Magic. From cursed lands and weird deaths etc.. So it makes sense this old Santero would tell me to call upon them. Apparently we are to ask from protection from them as well.

– Wear a Cross or Protective Charm around your neck.

He says that at this time, the Devil’s power will be at it’s strongest. That in his day, he was told to wear holy items around his neck if something like this came about. It wasn’t always a cross either. Sometimes he would wear some kind of amulet in the form of a small charm bag around his neck. At other times a tiger’s eye stone, or a medal of a Saint.

So no matter the religion, wear something protective around your neck. A crystal, a small bag or ring. He even mentioned having small family heirlooms blessed. You could wear that around your neck and it would work too. He didn’t go too deep into it except that it was a taboo he observed.

In my case I don’t have my necklace because it broke recently. So I am using a red band blessed by by the Romani woman with the medals of St. Benedict around my wrist. The use of charms is a very important taboo to follow now.

– Avoid all forms of negative thinking, action, or speech

What he was told when he was a young man, was that the bad spirits can hear you more clearly under this sign. So if you complain about something, or just say something nasty in general, they’ll make it worse. They’ll take it as an open invitation to come bother you. Even if it’s something nasty about a person who is nasty themselves. Don’t speak on it.

Don’t do curses or just retribution spells. Instead do offerings to your higher powers and let them handle stuff for you. These beings want to give you enough rope to hang yourself with. Don’t give them that satisfaction. And with a retrograde, that is likely to happen almost anywhere.

So don’t just quarantine because of the pandemic. Staying out of the streets is a good thing even if we didn’t have a plague on our hands.

– Beware of betrayal. And beware of gifts from enemies.

You have no idea what they’re really giving you. A special emphasis was made on witches who curse objects they gift you. These objects are supposed to turn your life upside down.

– Beware when divining

He mentioned something about these spirits trying to reach us when we divine. If we must divine it should only be in daylight hours. Never in the night. And only if we know how to block negative spirits from messing with our visions and messages. This is something very prevalent in this sign.

Especially with the use of cards I am told. Which is probably some kind of psychic interference these entities do in this sign. They seem to cause confusion and misinformation. Which leads me to the next taboo.

– Don’t make decisions with a bad mind

The bad spirits will make life more stressful. They will try to spin you every which way. To get you off guard so that you can make a mess out of your life. These are things that sound a lot like a Retrograde. But unlike a retrograde, this is not for your own good.

It’s meant to take you backwards in life.

– Beware of dark spirits

Specifically, beware of Eggun Buruku or “dark dead”. These are the angry ghosts of people who either weren’t good in life. Or they died in horrible ways, were forgotten and lost by their descendants etc.. They’ll be roaming the streets more than usual. Many cultures or faiths have their own version of dark ghosts. The Japanese even had their own books detailing what kinds of Yūrei (angry ghosts) were out there.

So probably brush up on your banishing rituals and recharge your charms. And when walking into your house, walk backwards with your back entering the home. Otherwise, certain spirits can follow you inside. This is something they do in Trinidad to break your tracks so entities can’t follow you in.

– Avoid being out at night if you can. If you have to be out, ward your car and yourself with charms and prayers.

– Treachery from children. Whatever that means.

There’s a bunch of other stuff associated with this sign and all of it is bad. But I think I made my point. Oh and one last thing, cleansing baths. And the use of holy water. To cleanse your soul and mind.

Or if you are good with herbs, cleanse with that. Cleanse daily to avoid dark energy in yourself and your body. Be safe everyone,

– M

Tales from the Continent : Cursed Part 1

From Animal Planet

As promised, I decided to deliver to all of you my newest series : Tales from the Continent. Where I bring to you stories from all over Turtle Island. What many call the Americas. It took me sometime to find the emails. And more time to translate them from Spanish to English.

Just be lucky that no one from Brazil has emailed me. Otherwise Portuguese would be harder to email. So I was checking both my emails. Specifically my business email first. And there I received an email from a man named Marcel.

Almost right away I noticed that this man probably had natural gifts as a psychic. He emailed me his story and asked what my opinions were on the matter. He never told me which country he came from. The email starts out like this.

“Hello M,

I’d like to know if perhaps you could diagnose me. To tell me what the roots or root of my problems are. Everything started when I was 6 yrs old, this was before my Christian Baptism. I had gone to Church. And there ate the bread of Christ without having been baptised (I hadn’t known I wasn’t supposed to do that).

That very same night, I went to a friend’s birthday. And I saw a strange creature. It took the form of a large, fat (as in muscular) bull with glowing red eyes. It was right next to the house (apparently he was the only one who could see it). It looked like a living caricature.

From that day forward, I began to witness and go through horrible things. Including persecution by an evil spirit. One day at about 10am, I woke up to find a strange being staring at me. It was black from head to toe. And it had a tail and wings.

It just stood there smiling at me. Stuck it’s tongue out at me. And then vanished, it seemed to blink out of existence. Sometimes they would speak in my mind. They would say things like,

‘You are special Marcel. If you tell anyone, things will go badly for you,’

I’m not sure what happened to me. But from the time that I was 9 yrs of age till 13 I have a mental lagoon. It seems like I have problems remembering things during those years. In fact, I only began to remember all this after I turned 14. One day I started to walk to my college.

I remember it was around 1:16pm that I walked out of my house. I only made it to one block before my entire body was paralyzed. And I saw in my mind’s eye an eye that opened in my forehead. And another voice seemed to come out of mine. It was mine, but far deeper.

I chalked the voice up to puberty. I felt as if my mind expanded. It was when I finally was able to move that the deeper version of my voice emerged. When I turned 16, the strange things began happening again. I began to notice the phenomenon little by little.

After a few months my memories began to return. And the (spirits) became a constant bother to me. Every house my family and I moved into in the Capital was filled to the brim by evil spirits. And while they didn’t effect us physically, they did effect us economically. Our financial situation went from bad to worse in just the matter of a few months.

On top of that, there was a strange thing that seemed to be walking on top of our house on the roof,”

Here I need to stop to explain a few things. It’s a common belief amongst a large portion of Catholics, that if you eat from the communion wafers you must be baptized. Otherwise you’ll be “cursed by god” or some other such nonsense. Or that at the very least, you’ll attract some kind of bad luck. Now there seems to be debate between Catholics as to whether this is a real church sanctioned belief, or superstition.

I personally don’t believe in this.

I have even heard of unbaptized people using them to ward off evil from a property. Or even some who eat it without baptism before going to Paranormal investigations to be protected by God. There is no evidence that eating these blessed wafers will have any kind of adverse effect from eating them without being baptized. This is nothing new. If using them without being initiated into the Catholic faith, brings bad luck, then there would trails of dead or cursed people.

The fact is, there’s no evidence for such a belief.

Now to continue, in the Spanish speaking portion of Turtle Island, it’s common for evil spirits to walk on the roof of a house. I suppose they do this to inspire fear and terror in the hearts of their victims. It’s not super common. But it does still happen. Even in the urban areas.

Going back to Marcel’s account,

“My neighbor went out one night. And he was shocked to see an enormous Cat the size of a large dog. And he had two glowing yellow eyes. The man had died a week later from some strange disease. He was dried up like a prune.

And his wife followed him to the grave soon after. She was walking down the street, and then suddenly fell dead. The harassment of these spirits (and death of my poor neighbors) cause me so much stress that I abandoned the house. It was as if God himself had abandoned me. I no longer felt at peace,”

Here I want to stop again. I have heard of this before. That there are demons who can manipulate a person’s destiny, their karma, to cause death to happen faster. The Demonologist and Catholic Bishop, Alphonso de Spina who had refered to a sect of demons in his demonological hierarchy called Fates. These entities were demons that could alter a person’s destiny.

The Demon’s purpose was to cause a person to leave the good path in life. To become corrupt or to get sick or even die before their time. They seemed to have near limitless power to change a life. And it could happen even to holy people. Not all demons are strictly in the fate business.

But I have found that certain high level demons, can manipulate fate as well.

“As time passed by, they began to tell me  to commit suicide. That it would be easier. Eventually they even tried to possess me. Both times I heard something laughing in my mind both times. They won’t allow me to forget them.

If I try to forget them, they manifest before me. Or they do other things to torment me. I eventually told them that if they spoke to me and answered my questions, I would allow them the use of my body. Then I heard them laugh in my mind.

‘Now he wants to talk wheeee,’

Another voice said,

‘We were just waiting for you to die,’

“At this point, I was already having strange dreams of snakes that were chasing me everywhere. And I began to see white and black silhouettes. As well as dreams in which I saw fragments of my own future. Of things that will happen to me. Then I saw a large black dog with red eyes.

He would tell me to look for my own power. One night I had a strange dream where I tried to meet with a young woman. She was older than me though. She was chained up and surrounded by shadows. I tried to help her.

But she said I was just like them. Years later I asked a group of male witches for help. They tried to intercede on my behalf. But they told me they saw me spiritually chained and bound by seven shadows. And one of them was Baphomet the black sabbatical ram.

They saw me bound in the form of a Pentagram. And they told me (here the message was rather strange. I couldn’t understand what was meant here. Something about how he shouldn’t be born again). At this point the message became less coherent.

I began to wonder if he were oppressed or wasn’t already through a full or partial possession. I’ll talk about what happened afterwards tommorow.

– M

For my first readers

Hello new reader, This is my brand new blog. To tell you a little about me. I’m a Gnostic Magus, pretty much that means I believe all religions come from one source. My own view of Gnosticism is very different from the traditional version. But I’ll talk about that another day.

I believe all Deities and their spirits are real. I am a practitioner of African, European, and some Native American magic. I also study Christian and Jewish Mysticism among the magic and religions I study. I worked for years in the Paranormal trying to help other people. I believed that it was the mission of every magic user to help people in every aspect of life.

Especially in Spiritual Warfare. To say that I was disapointed was an understatement. I learned that most people in the Paranormal were out to get money. Even if it meant faking Para Activity at locations. Sometimes performing experiments on clients to make Activity worse for the sake of documentation.

I learned the Paranormal had an ugly side. A lot of Christians, mostly of Protestant denominations, were fanatical zealots. They enjoyed talking down to Pagans or other faiths in some of these groups. I had a position in a group as an organizer and moderator and I found that I constantly had to tell so called “Para Christians” to stop being nasty to Hindu or Wiccan members. Whenever I did my job, the other moderators (You guessed it, all Christian!) decided to jump on me and tell me I was being sensitive.

One time, I started making Christian jokes to see how long it would take for me to get called out (not even a minute). I was prepared with screen shots of what I was being “sensitive” about and then asked if my jokes were as bad as what they were saying. Every Pagan jumped on that Facebook thread and called out the hypocrisy.  After that, those moderators stopped jumping on me while I seemed to be one of the few actually moderating. But  I was also marked.

I got called out whenever I stepped out of line and that was it.  I was eventually made to leave because I refused to unblock a moderator that was being abusive and speaking ill of me behind my back (the irony was, this  guy was a Wiccan). I learned before I left that sadly there are just as many power hungry and greedy magic users as there were Christian zealots. People who claim to be love and light in public, and are hexing other users that they saw as threats in private.

Later I found out that he was messing around with the then, leader of the group. So I said, to Hell with it. Then later I worked with good friends on an amazing blog that is no longer really posting anymore. Again I was the one trying to keep another project alive and working while ignoring my own vision. For a time, I was also part of two different Paranormal Crisis Teams.

A group of Wiccan US Army Veterans formed Covens that were dedicated to Exorcism and Curse Reversals. We tangled some of the nastiest cases you could imagine. Even one with a Haunted Painting that someone had cursed to kill children. There was change in the group structure and a faction from the same group led by another soldier made his own group. He invited me to join and for reasons of my own I did.

But soon I found that it wasn’t for me and I left two weeks later. At the same time, the rest of that new group fell apart. I felt so alone. And so confused. I realized my life was taking me somewhere else.

I began to take apprentices. I taught some very promising new students in different states. I started to go into hermit mode. A group of investigators and I were supposed to get a show on ScyFy about the work that we did. And that hadn’t panned out either.

I suffered from a horrible disease that left me doubled over in pain most days because I couldn’t afford the operation I needed. I looked into the skies one night crying and I said “If you can’t heal me, kill me then,” and I meant it. Suicide had finally become an alternative in my mind now. One day, I was studying magic, for that was one of the only joys I had left at this point and something kept happening. I kept thinking about the Crossroads.

I started looking up my old spell books and I found a pact to do with Papa Legba for knowledge on the Crossroads. That anything you wanted to learn ever, you would do this pact and “things would come for you,” that they would teach you things. If you want to learn Hoodoo? They’ll teach you Hoodoo. You want to learn some other kind of magic? It’s yours. I just needed a specific item and I had to leave it in the Crossroads at Midnight on a Wednesday. So I did as I was told.

I expected it to be like the movies where you see creatures so lucidly that they become physical. I expected it to happen right away. I was disapointed but decided on patience. After almost month I started realizing that I had learned new things. I had no idea where I had learned this magic from.

It wasn’t in any of my books. I hadn’t learned it from my mentors nor did I learn it from podcasts or online articles. I just knew. I finally realized I was being trained in my dreams. But I couldn’t remember my dreams and had no idea how long I was being trained and by who.

I knew though, that “they” for I knew it was a They, had the power to answer my questions in real time. That they could actually manipulate the world around me to give me my answers. Whatever they were. Sometimes I would get a random phone call from someone with my answer. Other times, my human masters would check up on me and advise me.

And sometimes it would be the Cosmic Masters themselves as I learned they were called. I started doing research and found that in the Spiritualist movement there were people who believed that there were transdimensional entities. And that these entities could speak to a Medium and teach them things. Doreen Virtue claimed she was a Cosmic Medium and that she could channel these creatures. I don’t claim to somehow be possessed by these entities.

Or that I am the chosen one who will reset the Matrix! Pazzah! No, I’m just a regular Magus. But I had learned to develope psychic gifts I didn’t have before. I learned things from many cultures that only later I would discover were in books or taught by people in other traditions. Like I said, I view it all from the perspective that it’s all the same common knowledge. So I use many methods in my work. The Masters also sent me human mentors to aid me in my work.

And my disease was slowly being weakened. I still suffer from it, but not as bad as I once did. I began to treat people in my Community for Paranormal issues once again.  I started connecting with people of communities like the Vodunsi and the Vodunon of West African Vodoun. The Hellenic communities of Greek Pagans, Native American Shamans, Powwowers and Yarb Doctors from Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Mountains, and even the Witches of the West Country in England.

I also like to study with Celtic practitioners of the old Faerie religion. Both from this country, Canada, and the UK. It has been quite a journey. A journey I never would have thought I would ever have had so many amazing experiences. The final piece of the puzzle came when I visited a Hindu Guru’s house here in Miami.

Her home had many disciples everywhere. I met a Cuban Criolla (Creole) woman who was dedicated to not just Hinduism but also Buddhism. Specifically, to Kuan Yin. I felt an instant repport with this woman. I ended up telling her most of what I have already written here. She then went on to tell me something similar about her.

The Gods eventually told her that she needed to leave the city for a while and go to the mountains. She said,” but how will I help anyone?” Kuan Yin herself told her that she needed time to herself and that the Gods would send her people that needed her new set of skills. When she asked what skills she was talking about? The conversation abruptly ended. So, she spent years living the life of a literal Hermit and became powerful from the knowledge she had learned during her years of introspection. She told me that from what I had told her, I was also being put in a similar situation.

A rebirth she called it. And so I finally realized why nothing that I tried before was working. I wanted all the wrong things and wasn’t appreciating what was being offered to me. I no longer had clients from other states or countries, but I had enough here. People who seriously needed help.

They taught me the value of being paid for my work. Not all of them paid with money, some paid with groceries, my electric bill, and even the occasional movie ticket. But they refused to allow me to help if I didn’t take something. They said it wasn’t  right for a Pueblo’s Brujo (village or town sorcerer) to be helping people without a reward. So, I started charging.

And behold my life became more satisfying. I now have the ability to pay my bills and gasps* not starve! I had secular jobs including cleaning places and washing dishes. But thanks to the economy going under, more and more millennials like me were being fired instead of hired. I even had to drop out of college because I could not longer afford it. We were told to return to college to get degrees that would help us get work. Yeah didn’t happen.

I even went to a trade school but my instructor died, and the school decided to only have teenage students. They effectively terminated the adult student program. So I was without work and without school either despite all the advise the older generation was giving about picking up a trade instead of a degree and blah, blah, blah. Of course they were right about one thing : degrees are worthless. After doing  my daily Road Opener rituals with Elegua, the Yoruba Orisha (Deity) of the Crossroads he asked “Why don’t you just make your own blog? Expand your magical business,”

And that’s what I did. I had believed that my business in magic was only temporary. But, as my Madrina (Godmother) in Santeria had already told me, from the very beginning, “Your true career is in magic. Stop wasting your time with these other endeavors,”. So here I am.

Trying to do my business and to help where I can.  I’d like to give a shout out to T.P. Ward who was one of the many who believed in me and helped me on my spiritual path. So, I hope to get to know all of you and to help you all on your path, whatever that may be.