Inertia is a terrible force when contemplating an extended working that covers the period of four months. It also seems that the preparations for the Portae Lucis working are fraught with difficulties and issues that have bedeviled me from the very start. While I have managed to be hale and healthy for the next working in this series, there were other events that could have either postponed or even terminated this working. Let me tell you what I had to endure in order to complete the second talismanic working.
I had been working with an occultist friend who runs an online shop to purchase three inch metal disks. I chose brass for the Sun, silver for the Moon, lead for Saturn, and Zinc for Mercury. The brass and zinc disks were sent in a reasonable amount of time, but the silver and the lead disks had not yet arrived (I am still waiting for the lead disk as I write this article). I had corresponded with my supplier, but still the required disks didn’t show up. About ten days before the working was scheduled, I sent out a request to get my order filled as quickly as possible and received no reply. In fact I hadn’t heard from my supplier in around two weeks, so I started to worry about the working, and in fact, decided to assemble a plan B to fabricate the disks myself. I discovered an obscure warehouse on the other side of town that provided me with one foot square 18 gauge nickel silver and brass plates. I then needed to figure out how to cut out the three inch disks from the metal plates.
I was busily working on plan B in the days before the working, which hadn’t turned out so well for me. I decided that I might have to go to a machine shop to get disks punched out with a machine die cutter, but decided to try my hand it anyway. I managed to cut my hand attempting to hacksaw out one of the disks, so I went and got myself a high powered Dremel with cutting disks. While I was trying to figure out how to use the Dremel, I finally got an email from my supplier letting me know that the silver disk was mailed out that day, just seven days before the working. I was relieved, but still I managed to cut out one very rough disk that will need a lot of work before it could ever be used.
What I needed to finish it was a bench grinder but I had none at the time. However, on Monday, two days before the working was to be performed, the silver disk arrived in the mail, although it had been obviously cut in a hurry and the edges were rough and slightly jagged. I did what I could to smooth it out and polish it, and then I etched the mansion ruler angel sigil on it with an electric diamond tip etching pen. The disk was ready for the working with only a single day to spare, but at least I could complete that part without having to delay or reschedule. All in all, it was a bit nerve wracking to say the least.
Then, on Wednesday night I performed the second talismanic working for the revised Portae Lucis. For this working I generated a fourfold empowered silver talisman of the Moon, under the auspices of the Lunar Mansion, Al Simek (Spike of Virgo, the Unarmed). This time, with a revised version of the rite that combines the elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth to the planetary intelligence (Olympic Spirit), the working went quite well. Nothing was forgotten or had to be spontaneously evoked at the moment, which is what happened last time. However, what I did notice all too well was the power of inertia affecting me in no small way. I might have not been recently ill like the last time, but I did get a headache and felt fatigued early in the evening. I even found myself wondering if I could just perform the rite at another time and take it easy that evening. I made certain that such thoughts were sufficiently quelled (or laughed off) and I took a couple of Tylenol pills to get rid of the headache. Considering everything that I had gone through to get the silver disk prepared and ready, the thought of not doing the working was patently absurd.
I performed the Mass of the Goddess before the 9:47 pm CDT time when the planetary hour of the Moon would begin. The Mass rite was used to charge the five sigils and the silver talisman to make them ready for the actual working. A little after 10:00 pm, I set the magick circle and locked in the planetary hour of the Moon, and then performed the rites to invoke the combined four-fold talismanic elemental of the Moon. It went successfully well, except that there was one unusual issue that I felt compelled to rectify before actually starting with the talimanic invocation.
Just before I began the actual invocation, I heard a rather loud feline yowling just outside the door of my house. I suspected that some kind of altercation was about to occur, and that it sounded like the bully-boy cat named Faust was about to have a row with some other cat just outside my door. I didn’t want that to interrupt my working or distract me from what I was doing, so I cut a door in the circle and sealed it as I left to investigate. I went barefoot and in my robes outside in the cool moonlit night and saw Faust crouched down near another cat who was also crouched down. It was a temporary standoff, but it would soon become a full blown cat fight because Faust was an inveterate brawler. The other cat was my favorite (and the source of most of the house cat mischief), named appropriately, Jynx. I gave out my notorious big cat hiss and after making more racket than they were making, I managed to scare off both Faust and Jynx. The night returned again to the tranquility that I had desired for my working, and I went back in the house, opened a door again into the circle and then sealed it after I passed through.
The rest of the talismanic invocation went smoothly without interruptions, although I had a little bit of a problem with the programmed music. I felt the power build up to a proper crescendo and then it was focused into the silver talisman. All four talismanic elemental intelligences had been successfully invoked and fused into a single intelligence and force, and that was projected into the silver talisman. Once the rite was completed, I covered the talisman with a special cloth and began the incubation period of three successive days. The spirit gateway was closed, the power structures in the circle were sealed and the rite was properly ended. However, I felt completely drained of all physical power, and I was dead tired, mentally tipsy and barely on my feet. It was just around 11 pm when this working ended, so it had only taken me less than an hour to perform, but I felt like it had taken a lot longer and it was much more draining than I had thought it should be. All of this portends quite well for the final unveiling of the second talisman in this series.
You might be curious about how and why I am incubating the talisman after it’s charged. I incubate the talismans for around 72 hours or three days to allow for the charge to be completely absorbed into the talisman. Three days is very likely a traditional period of time for incubating a talisman, since the number three is typically found in most forms of invocative workings. How I do this is to stack the sigils together and place them in the center of my central altar where the septagram trigon is ensconced. I then place the metal talisman disk over the stacked sigils, and then I cover it with a small cloth. A vigil candle burns nearby and I also burn at least one or two sticks of incense daily to keep the atmosphere sacred and magically empowered. This incubation then continues in this manner, with candlelight and incense, for a full three day period. Once the incubation is complete, then I anoint the back of the talisman with a specially charged oil and place it into an appropriately colored velvet pouch. The talisman is kept in that pouch until it is needed, so in this manner it is protected from any contamination or harm.
Since I had charged the solar talisman at the end of February, I have been meditating on it every single night nearly without fail. I keep it in a special ocher velvet bag, and the back is anointed with Sandlewood oil. I will anoint the new Lunar talisman on Sunday Easter morning (with Lotus oil), and will continue the meditation sessions after that point with both talismans. Around April 30, the Saturn talisman will be charged, and I will then meditate using all three talismans. I will continue to do this until the time when I have to deploy them in the final Portae Lucis working, which is scheduled for June 19. I look forward to continuing this working and experiencing the final stage just prior to the Summer Solstice. I suspect that this event will be likely the most auspicious and potent that I have ever experienced before. It may even make the coming summer to be glorious and quite a celebration of life itself.
Frater Barrabbas
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