Personal Links

Since this blog is named Strategic Sorcery, it’s probably about time that I actually wrote a bit about practical Sorcery strategic or otherwise. Tonight the topic is the magickal link.

When people, especially neo-pagans, tell me about spells that didn’t work out for them, it’s very often the lack of a good magickal link that is to blame. When I work with clients, this is also one of the hardest things to get people to understand, especially my Caucasian clients, even the ones that are themselves magicians. Go figure.

Basically a magickal link can be divided up into two categories:
1. links from a target that are brought to a spell
2. link from a spell that are brought to a target

This post will focus on the first category. Tomorrow I will write about the second category.

The important thing to remember is that it’s not about whether a link works or not, but how well it works. Generally speaking I rate links in two categories: how personal a link is, and how related to the working it is.

The first think that everyone thinks of is a picture, partly because they can be sent via e-mail, which is how I do most business with people, but also because so much modern magick is focused on visualization at the expense of more traditional elements. Pictures are great as a secondary link, but suck as a primary link. If you know the person well, they work ok because they stimulate the energetic link between you, which is a link in and of itself, but if you don’t, than they suck. If you have nothing but a picture, you can sometimes make it work with their name and birthdate, or their name and their parents names, but in general its not such a hot thing. There are after all, a lot of people that look like that.

I tell people to “think bloodhound”. If the link is something that you could give to a bloodhound, than it’s probably a good link. The more personal an item is the better. The classical hair and fingernails are great. Bits of clothing are good. If they are unwashed it’s even better. Underclothes are better than outer clothes. Unwashed underwear with visible bodily fluid stains are like hitting the magickal link jackpot!

In African magick the feet are said to be especially susceptible to magick. While most magick that is done this way falls into the “spell brought to the target” category, shoes and foot-tracks make really good links if you can get your hands on them, especially for spells that drive traffic to business or get someone to move. I once instructed a client to walk across the company lawn while having a business related talk with a target so that he could later turn around and dig up a foot track that he would mark with a dropped coin. Almost every New Orleans spell to drive trade to a whore house, be it a wash, bath, powder or Gris Gris bag, seems to involve the ashes from a burnt mans left shoe. In this case, its not just to get him back, but to get more like him – another good use of magickal links!

Moving downwards, personal belongings are pretty good, again, the more personal the better. If you are shy about petty larceny (pussy) than papers that the target has signed are good. In fact, even photocopies of signatures seem to work better than pictures; the magick of names I guess. I was able to summon the famous Dr John of New Orleans using just the copy of his signature from his mortgage deed. Business cards are a last resort and are not even as good as pictures.

The quality of a link changes if it is directly related to the type of spell you are doing. Someone’s checking account statement is not that great of a link, but if you are trying to effect their prosperity, for good or ill, it goes up a notch. Fecal matter, and yes there are ways of getting it, are good for curses. Hair from a head is good for influencing decisions. For sex spells you might want to aim for hair a bit lower down.

If you cannot get a physical link at all, and cannot plant something on your target, you can exploit the energetic link. All beings are linked at a very subtle level. When you meet someone this link becomes more tangible and grows stronger the more personal you get with someone. Certain beings have a very strong link present from previous lives, but not often. If you can conjure that person sufficiently in the mind, than you can effect magick through this link. In a group ritual to affect a target, such as a distance healing circle, I always ask that just one person who is closest to the target conjure them in their mind, everyone else feeds that one person. Too many people focused on many images of the same person are not as clearly focused.

If you can actually enter the “astral vision” at a level where you can see the links between people, you can effect the line directly, like tapping into a call. This is actually a trick I learned using some of the night side tech that I wrote about in the last post. If you can lucid dream, another option is to seek the person out in the Onieros and use them in the spell. A student at my class on Dream sorcery last month told me that what was taught to do was approach the person from behind and enter their dream body like it’s a mask, than make them see whatever he wanted them to see. I like that one and will try it out as soon as I can.

Look for part 2 tomorrow.