City Magick: Urban Rituals, Spells and Shamanism - Christopher Penczak 2001

Magical Formulas
Tools of the Trade

Using the tools of your home, you can create magical charms. Use the information here as a guideline and follow your intuition to personalize these works of magick. Incense, Oils and Brews (Llewellyn), by Scott Cunningham, was one of the first resources that encouraged me to create my own formulas. It is an excellent book and I highly recommend it to those who like to get their hands dirty. Such creations are used in ritual as a focus for more specific spell work, carrying the intention and vibration you originally infused into it.

Ritual Oil

Many traditions use holy water or a protective potion used to bless items and the self before entering the temple. Now you can make your own and anoint yourself with it before and during the ritual to bring your focus back to the task at hand and to keep your mind from wandering with the daily distractions around you. The oil can also be used to anoint tools before you consecrate them. This ritual oil contains substances for protection, purity, and harmony, the ideal intentions for most rituals. Since I love making potions and getting messy, I usually make them in small quantities, so I can experiment again, and to prevent large quantities from spoiling in my altar cabinets. To lengthen the shelf life of any potion or oil, add a tablespoon or two of salt to each cup of base oil. Sea salt or kosher salt is the best to use. The salt prevents the mix from fermenting. I’ve had some potions last for years, while others didn’t last nine months. The salt definitely extends their shelf life, however. For now, start with a base of 1 cup olive oil. Charge each of these ingredients and add them to the oil:

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon bay

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon sage

Some people like to warm this mixture gently over low heat on the stove as they make it, while others prefer to let it sit in a dark place for a few weeks and let the oil and herbs steep before using it. The advantage to heat is that you can use the oil as soon as it cools. Stir or shake it, as needed. Once you are ready to bottle the oil, strain the herbs from it with a cheesecloth. Keep it away from the light and use it in your ritual practices.

Sacred-Space Incense

This incense is used to raise the vibration level of your ritual area, bringing a sense of peace and spirituality, while simultaneously removing any unwanted energies. Most of us are used to buying incense in stick or cone form, already complete with charcoal inside the mixture. Simply light it and let it burn. Raw incense is a bit more demanding, but the rewards are worth it. I simply like to use tools I’ve crafted myself, including incense.

To use raw incense, get self-igniting charcoal discs. These are found in most metaphysical and New Age shops in silver rolls, like large coins. Hold the charcoal over a candle flame with flameproof tongs. Metal sugar cube tongs work nicely. Do not hold it with your fingers. (I know it sounds silly to warn you, but I’ve known many people who have done it.) Once the charcoal is ignited, the flame spreads throughout, so holding the part furthest from the flame does not help you. Place the charcoal in a heat-proof container, like a bowl filled with sand. Then sprinkle the raw incense on it and let it burn. Be warned, when making your own recipes, that burning herbs smell a lot different from their dried counterparts.

Mix and grind equal parts of the following three herbs, putting the intention of sacred space into them. Then burn them prior to or during your ritual.

cinnamon

cloves

rosemary

Prosperity Incense

Use this blend of incense to promote the powers of prosperity, abundance, good fortune, and luck when doing magick in harmony with those intentions. Incense can be like a battery or power cell. You’ve stored up the energy of prosperity in this incense, and you can release it when you need to do a specific money or career spell.

Mix and grind these herbs together, charging them with the intention of prosperity. Charge them again in your ritual circle prior to use.

1 part allspice

3 parts cinnamon

2 parts clove

1 part nutmeg

Love Oil

Although they are not part of your kitchen cabinet spice rack, roses are not too hard to find in the city. You can obtain rose petals in potpourri and flower shops. There is nothing more magically romantic than a rose when doing love magick. This love potion will attract love to you and promote the powers of love within you, which is the first and most important step. After your love oil is created, using a method similar to the one for creating ritual oil above, you can wear it like a perfume or use it to anoint other tools. If you are doing a specific love spell to attract someone correct for you, anoint a pink, green, or red candle with the oil, charge the candle with your intention, and let it burn. The flame will attract the person who is right for you.

Start again with 1 cup olive oil and 1 to 2 tablespoons of sea salt. Add and charge each of the following:

Petals of 1 red rose

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 pinch sugar

1 whole vanilla bean, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 12 drops vanilla essential oil

Stir or shake, charging the entire oil for love, for attracting and generating love that is correct for the user of the potion. Strain when done and use in your magick.

Psychic Oil

Since most of us were not raised from childhood believing in our psychic gifts and other powers, we’ve closed down part of that reality. These different incenses, oils, and charms can help make us aware of our own natural abilities. Many substances are reported to open the psychic pathways and increase awareness of our gifts. You can use this oil to bless your third-eye and throat chakras, and to open your psychic seeing and hearing. They are powerful when used with tarot cards, runes, I Ching, or any other divination device.

Make the oil in the same way as the ritual oil, either heating or steeping the herbs. Charge each one as you add it to the base oil.

2 teaspoons bay leaves

1 teaspoon cloves

3 teaspoons lemon peel

1 teaspoon thyme

If possible, keep this mixture on your windowsill or rooftop on the night of the Full Moon. Let the oil absorb the power of the moonlight, which increases intuition, magick, and psychic powers.

Speaking-Easy Charm

For those in any business where you must speak, the prospect of making presentations in front of large groups of people can be fearsome. Many are calm, cool, and detached under pressure, but for the majority of the world, public speaking is difficult. I give many lettures, classes, and workshops on magick, witchcraft, and healing, but it took me a long time to get comfortable speaking to large groups of people. Sometimes, smaller groups are even worse. If you teach, letture, or present in a boardroom, you may face similar problems. This charm eases those anxieties, while promoting eloquence, peace, and harmony within.

Take a small blue bag or piece of blue cloth and tie it into a charm bag. Do not make it too big. You want to be able to carry it in your pocket when making your presentations. Blue is the color of the throat chakra. Charge and add these herbs:

1 part allspice

1 part mace

1 part marjoram

1 part rosemary

Tie the bag tightly and seal it with a vision of yourself being calm and detached, speaking eloquently in front of any crowd. The words simply flow off your lips. Charge this in a magick circle and carry it with you when you are speaking to the public.