A Druid's Handbook to the Spiritual Power of Plants: Spagyrics in Magical and Sexual Rituals - Jon G. Hughes 2014
The Nature of The Complex
Workings and Rituals
Before you start harvesting your first plants and crafting your first complex and incense, there are a number of considerations you will need to address.
Why do I need to craft a complex?
What will I use it for?
When should I begin crafting a complex?
What results or benefits may I expect from employing the complex?
In order to answer these and the other questions that may be concerning you, first visit your own motives and beliefs. Without a strong belief in what you are creating, it will be impossible for you to focus your own energies and attention on the crafting of any complex. It takes a long time to craft the final complex, together with a fair amount of arduous work, and it is unlikely that you will be able to maintain your enthusiasm for the work if you have doubts about its outcome.
I have quite deliberately used the word benefits many times when referring to the outcome of employing complexes. From this you will gather that there is always the intention of good in the work the Druidic practitioner does. Complexes, like all the other tools and techniques of Druidism, are intended for positive ends only.
There is, of course, a darker side to Druidic practice, one that focuses its activities on negative energies and attributes. This darker practice also extends itself into the crafting of complexes, and, as we have already observed, the plant kingdom is capable of providing these dark practitioners with all the raw material they need.
There is one piece of reassurance that I may offer those wishing to avoid this darker practice at all costs. It is not possible to craft a dark potion by error or misfortune. There are very definite rituals and workings that must be undertaken in order to direct one’s work to that darker side, and it is impossible to do these accidentally. It is possible, however, to create poisonous cardinals by error, so you must be constantly vigilant regarding the plants you use and never use any plant or other material about which you are not thoroughly knowledgeable.
I have not, and will not, include any information regarding the negative side of Druidic practices; it has always been a part of my work to counteract and eradicate these elements. Too much time and energy is used up by most Druids and practitioners of other natural magic traditions in working to put right the ills created by dark-magic practitioners for any of us to want to promote the use of such techniques. It is my sincere wish that no reader ever come into contact with this negative area of practice.
We have seen that if you are embarking on the path of crafting a complex, you must first cleanse and purify your body, mind, and spirit. Spirit, in the context of Druidism, may be defined as the part of the universal collective energy that temporarily inhabits your corporeal body. It may also be defined as “personal” or “internal” energy, and it is the channeling of this internal energy that allows us to influence the collective energy.
Energizing the channeling of your personal, internal energy with the attributes and latent energies that are inherent in the various plant species we harvest is why we craft a plant’s complex and incense. Other herbal traditions would have it that the physical effect of each plant’s active ingredients—by which they mean their chemical composition—is the only benefit that may be gleaned from any particular species. This is not the case within Druidic plant lore.
It has always been apparent within the Druidic tradition that the physical benefits of the plant extracts we use can and will manifest themselves in both physical and mental improvements when used to address ailments for which they are suited. But because of their energizing and refinement, Druidic plant complexes and incenses have properties that extend their influence far beyond the purely physical realm. It is because of these powerful, far-reaching influences that we must consider very carefully how and why we opt to craft and use Druidic plant complexes and incenses.
The intensity of the power of these complexes and incenses and the immense potency of the combination of complex and incense at the moment of congress is the very reason that we choose to use plant complexes in our work. The unique combination of their physical and spiritual/magical properties means they may address a problem at all levels simultaneously, providing physical and spiritual/magical effects in the perfect balance that nature intends.
Why, then, do we need to use plant complexes and incenses? Quite simply, it is because they are by far the best tool to deal with complicated physical and/or magical disturbances.
As with all powerful remedial treatments, other, less potent remedies should always be tried first. Uncomplicated problems respond to uncomplicated treatments. Only when we are convinced that the sole way to proceed is by the use of a complex should we begin to plan its use.
Bearing in mind always the responsibility we are taking upon ourselves when we use these potent agents, we must remember that we employ them only in the correct circumstances. When dealing with any spiritual/magical agents, we must be sure of all of the circumstances surrounding the episode and also consider the ramifications of the success (or failure) of the working or ritual we intend to undertake. We must be careful not to create a new problem when solving the old and that we are not beginning a sequence of events we may lose control of and regret later.
Generally, complexes are used in one of two ways. They are either taken internally or applied to the skin. When taken internally, they may be used in a physical or practical sense, to address physical, mental, or spiritual disturbances. In these circumstances they would be included in a tincture, syrup, or mulled beverage such as wine or cider. Or they may be used in a magical sense, as when included in a ritual libation or in a particular magical draft prescribed to affect the individual’s internal energy in some predetermined way.
Similarly, they may be applied to the skin in a physical or practical method, as a salve, poultice, or hot fomentation (hot compress), or as a magical unguent to energize and increase the internal energy, as in the sex magic ritual we’ll be looking at later.
The crafting of these various salves, unguents, and fomentations is described in the section, “Mediums to Carry the Complex,” where the relevant dosages and quantities are also discussed.
Once you are certain that the solution to the particular problem you face lies in the use of a plant complex, you may begin to consider its crafting in detail. In doing this, the first thing is to decide on the plant species that has the energies and attributes you seek. In most circumstances, there is more than one plant that harbors the features you will be looking for, so the next consideration is the plant’s availability. This will be influenced by such things as geographic location, the plant’s life cycle, and the time of year. Usually, the consideration of all these aspects points us toward a suitable species, so now we must go out and find our donor plant in order to plan our harvesting. We have spent a good deal of time exploring the factors influencing our choice of donor plant in the previous parts of this book, so I will not retrace those footsteps here.
Once a suitable plant has been selected, the sequence of harvesting and crafting may begin. We have seen that the harvesting and crafting processes may take between two and four months to complete, and it would not be unreasonable to add another month to that period to allow sufficient time for the original functions of deciding which plant species you need and targeting the specific plant to harvest. Thus, from initial research to finished complex may well take as long as five months.
We can see from this that the process does not lend itself to immediate needs or rapid response. For these circumstances it will be necessary to build up a store of the most commonly used complexes in their cardinal essence and incense form, in anticipation of needs.
The response, then, to the question, “When should I begin crafting a complex?” is—as with all things—follow nature. At the beginning of each year consider the plans of your Gathering(s) and identify any complexes you may want to use. Spend time meditating on your needs and try to anticipate which complexes you will require. Consider those around you and those people you serve within your community. Are there any recurring needs for long-term treatments? Can you see any approaching illnesses (physical, mental, or spiritual) on the horizon? Are you planning to enter into any new areas of practice in the forthcoming year? If so, will you require additional complexes to help your work? Look back at the previous year and consider whether you had sufficient complexes for your needs. Should you increase the quantities you craft or broaden the range of the complexes you use? Did you have the necessary complexes when you needed them (remembering that some complexes may be crafted only at certain times of the year)?
By considering these questions and any others that are relevant, you’ll be able to plan your year’s harvesting and crafting in a structured way. Even if this only meets 50 percent of your needs, the following year you may again learn from the experience and amend your plans accordingly.
As your stock of cardinal essences and incenses grows, you will find yourself in a stronger position to deal with the wide variety of challenges that you will inevitably come up against. If your cardinal essences and incenses have been crafted and stored in the proper manner, they will last for eighteen to twenty-four months, and even at this age, when they are reunited they will produce the most potent of complexes.
My experience tells me that by using these complexes in the correct circumstances and for legitimate needs, the results will be exactly what you wish them to be. If the correct energies and attributes are channeled toward and focused on the right challenge, the outcome will be certain. Most of the failures I have witnessed were the result of either misreading the portents and indicators, not matching the right energies and attributes to the problem at hand, or improper crafting techniques and storage. Re-crafting the appropriate complex and then empowering it in the correct fashion rectifies nearly all of these failures.
Corresponding the appropriate energies and attributes of the plant to the needs of the challenge is by far the most difficult task that faces the Druidic practitioner. Only research, safe experimentation, and experience will arm him or her with the knowledge needed to identify the most suitable plant for the occasion.