I realize that this sounds like a spiritual journey practice, and it could be, but I am referring to getting to know your spiritual neighbors where you live. I believe that spirits are everywhere and in everything and thus everything is spiritually alive. Even the most mundane man made item has spirit. Not all spirits are active and awake however and most of them are what you could call asleep. But those places where spirits are present and active almost always leave a mark on humanity, especially where we live and our environments and interactions. Even if you live in what you think is the most mundane and boring place, there is often a hidden or “occult” current of “weird” phenomena that can be tracked down, and where those places are, spirits can often be found there. Other places may not be thought of as weird, but may be seen as spiritually powerful and connected and just stepping into them people often find they feel refreshed and restored.

Where to start
I recommend digging up folklore and history of the place where you live. History can be easy. Often a library or the internet can have information about the history of a place, and the people who lived in it. A local historical society may also have information, with them having done a lot of the research for you, especially into historical figures relevant to the places around you. Have you ever wondered why your town or city has certain street names and where they come from? Quite often it’s from people who played a role in the past in building up the city and making it the way it was.

Folklore can be a bit harder to find. Some things may be in the history, but other things may just come from talking to people, especially if they have lived there for a while, or have had multiple generations living there. Historical societies again may be beneficial here, and sometimes the internet may turn up interesting things, although that will tend to be limited to well known subjects, Haunted buildings and locations for example.

If you live in the USA, or anywhere in the America’s, you should also look into information about the original residents ie Native Americans. They often had their own sense of place and stories that go with it. Some of these might have been preserved, and of course, some of the older cultures in the Americas had fallen and been replaced long before Europeans ever came to these shores. As you do so, remember to be respectful. You are most likely a stranger to these cultures, and you’re also probably not a trained archeologist. Don’t go tramping onto the known location and don’t try hitting up the spirits there, and don’t assume to speak for those spirits if they make themselves known. Some locations may actually be protected sites, but lacking the funds and fame to secure them from trespassers. 

Once you have accumulated some of this knowledge, now you should take a look at the current layout of your environment. Check to see if historical places are accessible, as well as places that have built up folklore or urban legends around them. You can schedule a visit during accessible hours, and if it’s your first time, you should definitely go during the day and several times before trying to make contact.

Of course, some places may not have any lore built up around them, but can still have a vibe all of their own. Most of these are man made structures, but by having been around for a while and serving a specific purpose can be a means of reaching out to the spirits drawn to those places. The most obvious of these are churches and cemeteries. Churches are the traditional and common place of spiritual interaction in Western Occulture for a long time. Of course not all churches seem to vibe the same, but you can usually tell which ones are the right ones to go to. They will often be older and just have a “vibe” around and in them. This also applies to synagogues, mosques, and temples of other religions that may be in the area.
Cemeteries are also obvious, as the place where most communities lay their dead to rest. The oldest cemeteries in the area will often have the graves of community founders whose names dot the streets and buildings that they built, or their descendants built to memorialize them. These are excellent places to commune with the spirits of the dead of an area. Some may also have potter’s graves, the sites where people who died without a name, family, or next of kin. Giving respect to these dead, and bringing them offerings can often be beneficial in opening up communication channels, as the respect given may spread among the spirits.

The next places are places of knowledge and learning. Libraries, Schools, Universities, especially older ones of each will attract the rarefied spirits who are drawn to such intellectual endeavors. Getting to know the public library that was built over 100 years ago, or visiting the Medieval university that was built centuries ago and connecting with those spirits. These places have always been a place of unusual ideas and running into spirits who understand magic and can teach you some rare tricks, or lead you to metaphysical or occult texts in the building that may be of interest to you.

Another place to get familiar with are area hospitals. Hospitals are places where often many people are born and die every day. These intense human experiences which can shape are life, and also the entrance and exit from existence for most people. These places have intense experiences, and intense emotions and honestly are not for the faint of heart. If you want to meet some of the spirits that are attracted to hospitals, prepare yourself.

Courthouses, Government buildings, and Police Stations are other loci of spiritual power. For the obvious reasons that these places deal with law, order, and structuring society. Even the most mundane of city council buildings or local civic building can help connect you with spirits that deal with these parts of life, which impact everything that people do constantly, even in ways that are not always obvious to most people. After all, if you’re lucky you never have to visit a court house or a police station for unpleasant reasons, but you will have to visit government buildings and often in your life. From filing paperwork, to picking up birth and death certificates, voting in elections, or participating in local government and how the laws and those who make them, enforce them, and interpret them can affect a community profoundly. It is better to have those spirits on your side, then working against them.

Another manmade location are crossroads, any place where two or more roads cross. Anyone listening to this show is probably familiar with crossroads and all the ways they can be worked with, and the spirits that can be found there.

In general cities and buildings have their own spirits too. Reaching out the spirits of your home or building and connecting with them can be a way to help protect your home. These spirits will tend to be subtle with residents, but can be quite obvious to visitors, or even unwelcomed interlopers. Some of them may also be guardians set by other workers to protect their homes, and may make their presence known if they think you’re violating a boundary. 

Finally are natural locations. Depending upon where you live, certain types of spirits are going to be more prevalent. Do you live near the ocean or other bodies of water, or a large river? You can expect water spirits to be present. Do you live in the mountains? Expect mountain spirits to make themselves known. Living in a forested area and the many spirits of trees and plants will be present. A rural farming region will often have seasonal spirits whose natures change depending upon the season, but also earth spirits who are tied to the fertility of the land. And everywhere you go one can connect with spirits of wind, sky and weather, as they are always overhead and about. Protected wilderness refuges may also have spiritual guardians and if you’re engaging in spiritualist practices near them, you may peak their interest. 

Once you have familiarized yourself with the lay of the land around you, and you have visited these locations and made your introductions, one way you can deepen your connection to these sites and spirits is by buying dirt from these locations. Much like buying graveyard dirt to work with a spirit of the dead, you can buy dirt from the spirits of the land around you. You should prepare offerings that could be acceptable. In some places, the desired offering may just be water that you have spiritually enriched. Other places and their spirits may desire more, or accept an offering of spiritual energy without physical supports. By visiting these places before hand you should have an idea of what to expect. Take your offerings and go to the location, and pick a suitable spot to relax and commune with the location. Openly or silently recite an invocation asking the spirits if you can have a boon of earth from their place and their power with it. Silence yourself and wait for an answer. You may feel it quickly, or some kind of natural phenomenon may arise which will give you the answer. If it is no, tell them thank you for hearing your request and still leave the offering as gratitude for communing with you. If they say yes, collect a small amount of soil from the place. Some of these may come from planters on the location, especially if you are in a very urban location. Others may be collected from any open earth location or area of lawn. Leave the offering where you took the earth from and thank the spirits for their gift. The earth can help bring those spirits into your personal sphere in your home and ritual space. That same earth can also be used in magic related to their sphere of influence. Earth from a church can be used in spells for holiness, blessing, and protection. Courthouse or government dirt can be used in legal spells, or when needing to influence government employees and officials. Library earth is useful in spells for knowledge, learning and clarity.  

Today at 4 pm PT/7 PM ET Tune into Mystics, Mages and Magical Places. Listen to Rev. Art and Rev James and me, Brother Christopher as I talk about Mapping out your Spiritual Geography!

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/lmcradionetwork/2023/04/17/mystics-mages-and-magical-places-episode-008–special-guest-brother-christoph

May the quickening energy of spring bring blossom to all your endeavors!

While driving home this evening, I had a moment to look up at the western sky and I saw that the barest narrow crescent was visible,  delicately hanging above the horizon, a pale yellow sliver that just disappeared into the clouds hanging on the edge of the horizon. This marks the Turn of the Moon, or the Return of the Moon. After the 3 day period when the moon is not visible in the sky because it is too close to the sun and it’s light and thus vacant from the night sky. This dark period was usually known as the dark of the moon. Today it’s often called the new moon. The real new moon however was when the first sliver appeared in the night sky, after the dark period, the moon was renewed and thus the return or the turn of the moon. This time has an association with renewal, new beginnings, and fresh starts. In the timing of spells it is a good time to do work to start anew, refresh things, and having a fresh start. Depending upon the placement in the sky with the sign of the zodiac, or the lunar mansion or aspects with other planets you can focus on starting anew with certain things. Try working with the turn of the moon to set new beginnings in your life.

Influence Spell

You will need:

Crown of Success Oil
Influence oil
A glass jar with a metal lid
Sweetener of choice
A picture and/or name paper of the target
Yellow candle

Anoint yourself with Crown of Success oil, especially on the temples and brow.

Take the picture/name paper of the target and place it into the jar. Cover it with a sweetener of your choice. Taste the sweetener and say “As this honey is sweet to me, so “Sally Johns” will be sweet to me and favor my requests. Close the jar.

Take the yellow candle and dress it with Influence oil. As you dress it, express what your desire is for the target to do for you and to follow your request and to favor you. Set the candle onto the jar and light it. While the candle burns, for at least 15 minutes, see hooked lights rising up from you and reaching out to the target of the spell. They flow into the target’s eyes, mouth, ears, nostrils etc,  and enter into the target and fill their mind and heart with images of you and that they are granting your request. They are happy with doing so, and feel happy from being able to help you and grant your request. When you are finished, let the candle continue to burn until it goes out. 

It is best to do this spell a day ahead of any meeting that you may have with the target regarding your request. When you go to meet the person, you should anoint yourself again with Crown of Success oil.
This spell can be slightly altered to serve different purposes. If you want to use it for love, use Bewitching oil or Look me Over instead of Crown of Success. If you want to influence troublesome people to go away peacefully, use Cast off Evil or Crucible of Courage. 

Domination Spell

You will need

Master Oil
Domination oil
A purple candle
A personal curio (hair from the head of the target, or their personal handwritten signature, or a drop of their blood)
A sharp implement to scribe into the candle

WARNING – The personal concern is absolutely necessary for the success of this spell. If you cannot acquire an intimate personal concern appropriate to the target, don’t do this spell. If you want to dominate a family member or loved one that you live with, you should go to acquire their hair or blood. If you want to dominate a co-worker or boss, then you should acquire their signature in their own hand.

Once you have the concern, anoint yourself with Master oil. Take the purple candle and with a scribing tool, write your request in a spiral around the candle, including the target’s name, like the stripe on a candy cane. For example “I dominate you Johnny Jackson, so you will listen to me and do your part in maintaining our home and raising our children. Or “I dominate you Sarah Sampson, to stop standing around by the water cooler and do your damn job.” Once you have finished writing your request, anoint the candle with Domination oil, repeating your request as you do so. Take the personal concern and place it under the candle. Light the candle and for 15 minutes see your request as a glowing chain flowing into the target. As it flows in, the chain wraps around their heart and their brain, wrapping around them tighter and tighter until both are essentially gone and replaced by your glowing chain, filling their entire being until only your will and desire remains inside them and all they can do is act upon and think of what you want them to do. The target is now just a subservient machine that will carry out what you desire. Once you have finished the 15 minutes, let the candle finish burning.  

January 6 marks Epiphany or Three Kings Day. in some parts of Christianity this is the day when gift giving is done, as it is the three kings who bring presents to good children, as they brought presents of Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense to newly born Christ.
In some lines of Christianity, this day marks the end of Christmastide, and is the day when people will put away their Christmas decorations. Others may keep the decoration up until Candlemas on February 2. Epiphany also marks the beginning of Carnevale season. This is the period building up to Lent and then Easter. The last day of Carnevale is always a Tuesday, thus the name Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday.
While many people are familiar with the Fasting period during the 40 days of Lent, less remembered is that the period of Advent leading up to Christmas was also a shorter period of fasting as well. That is part of the reason why the 12 days was associated with such feasting, after a 24 day fast. But that is also why the period from Christmas to Lent was also filled with feasting and celebrating for all. Besides the obvious lack of farm work that could be done, and the many holy days about the story of the childhood of Jesus, from his birth, to his circumcision and naming, to his presentation at the Temple while Mary was being purified after having given birth, to the story leading up to Jesus teaching, and traveling and his 40 days of resisting the temptations of Satan until his crucifixion, with a short period of feasting surrounded by rather long period of serious fasting.
Many cultures celebrate Epiphany with special sweet breads or “cake” where an item is hidden inside the cake and whoever finds it is considered lucky. This item may be a simple bean, a coin, or now days a plastic baby that is hidden by the baker or the purchaser for people to find. In addition to being lucky, the finder often now has to throw the party on the next Epiphany in the following year.
There is also a great debate over what exactly the kings of wisemen who came were and what they represented. While their names are generally agreed upon, their origins are less known, and in one example they are called Magi, which in Greek refers to the Persian priest of Zoroastian religion, who were educated and often thought to watch closely the night sky and understand the stars, as specially capable astrologer priest. That is also why they found the Christ child by following a star, as their role as astrologers allowed them use that information to predict and find the Christ child.
Of course, they are also now preserved in the stars as well. While commonly known as Orion’s belt, the three stars are also identified with the Three Magi.
Another custom that is common with Epiphany day is called Chalking the door. The top of the front door to the home is chalked with the initials of the Three Magi, separated by crosses, and with the numbers of the year at opposite ends. for this year it would look like this
20+C+B+M+23
this is said to blessing the home, protect it from harm, and bring prosperity and plenty to the inhabitants.
As referenced in the title, this day is also a question in the order. Some traditions of Christianity start the 12 days on Christmas day, Making January 5, the last day. Others count from December 26, Making January 6 the 12 day. So, sometimes this day is the 12th day, and yet in other observances, this day is 13th day, separate from the 12 days, but still part of the ongoing Christmastide which won’t end for many more days. It seems that the English Twelfth Night was actually a way of saying Epiphany Eve, that is the night before the 12th day, which was Epiphany.

Another day with congregation recognizing local saints, today out of the list of saints I chose Saint Phosterios. Another pre-organized church saint, this saint was a Hermit. As his name implies (Phosterios indicates something that gives off light, but also radiance and splendor) this hermit saint so dedicated himself to Christianity that it was said he gave off radiance from being so close to the holy spirit. He also dedicated himself to helping the poor and that he made his home on the top of a mountain, and his food was given to him by angels, As his name and words of his healing miracles spread, people came to him, and he would distribute loaves of bread that an angel gave to him so that none went hungry. Eventually so many people gathered around him, that an abby was built to house them all, as they chose to adapt his lifestyle and live near him.

On a blog dedicated to Orthodox Christianity, a great story about the dedication of Saint Phosterios describing him as shining with the holy spirit, because he had purified himself with so much hardship, and that when alone an angel would bring him bread, but when he had guests, or guests coming, extra bread would always be present for when the guests arrived. When he had many followers seeking to live by his example, and they all needed food, he put aside his ascetism and took to teaching them how to care for themselves and others, working and living by his own hand. When he was called to participate in a synod to discuss matters of faith, his own grace came through as eloquence, and so many who had adhered to heresy saw their folly and embraced orthodoxy that he and others lived by. While he achieved many miracles while alive, after his passing, many more miracles were placed at his influence, which is why he was sainted. Unfortunately there aren’t any images of him to share, but being a very mystical saint, with a great name referencing light, and that he was thought to shine with the light of the Holy Spirit,

The last two days before Epiphany do not have any specific saints given to them that are assigned to them in line with the nativity. I am not sure why. Instead, these days seem to have local saints that are popular who will be observed. I couldn’t find any information regarding which specific saints are used, so I went searching for saints associated with January 4 and 5, and I found some interesting saints given feast days on those days.
For January 4, I came across Saint Hermes of Moesia also known as St Hermes the Exorcist. There are a few other saint Hermes that are recognized by the Catholic or Orthodox church, but none of them had a feast day on January 4. There are no images of him, and he was recognized as a saint before the churches were organized. I found on one website that an image commonly used for him is that of a man casting a devil out of another man or a child. The only information about him was that he died in Italy, and that he was an exorcist. His name “Of Moesia” refers to the old Roman name for an area in what is now Serbia, South of the Danube. While what writings I could find about him say he was born in Italy, his name “Of Moesia” tells me that probably wasn’t the case, or maybe he was born there, but his family from Moesia originally, and he continued to be identified by that through his life, until his death in 300 AD. He was allegedly killed for his faith, and is thus a martyr.
The main things that interest me is that he was an exorcist. Of all the information that was kept, this one pops out to me, as well as his name. Hermes. Apparently Christianity couldn’t keep the god of messengers down. and that one of his namesakes would be an exorcist of the church in the early days, thus showing he had the gift of the spirit to cast out unclean spirits at the very least, and this tells me that there is something mystical about this saint.
After some more searching, I found his name included in a Litany of Saints, St Hermes of Moesia (also known as St Hermes the Exorcist) Pray for us. As far as I can tell this Litany with the names of saints known as exorcists was specifically composed as a litany to aid in casting out evil spirits.

The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is in Catholic tradition, currently observed on January 3rd by those who chose to celebrate it. Originally, it was part of the January 1 observation as part of the Octave of Christmas, which as Jesus would have also been circumcized and official received his name at the same time. However with Vatican II, and the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary made on January 1, this feast in the Catholic church was moved to January 3, mainly as an alternative although certain churches and groups within the church may observe it primarily. One such group is the Jesuits, who always recognized the Holy Name of Jesus on January 3.
The image I included in this post refers specifically to how the Holy Name is presented. That logo is the symbol of the Holy Name, and it has been used periodically in Holy Name reverence, from chaplet, to Altars dedicated to the Holy Name.
Devotion to the Holy name is found in the Bible in the books of Acts and Philippians. The monogram IHS comes from the Greek writing of Jesus, but shortened, and later was thought to be an acronym for a Latin phrase Iesus Hominum Salvator. Various Christians throughout the ages have promoted the idea of devotion to the Holy Name until it became recognized in the 15th Century, and various monastic orders were given permission to observe a day to the Holy Name. This eventually became electing a feast day for the whole of the church. This also happened in Eastern Christianity and a short prayer known as the Jesus Prayer also focuses on the use of the Holy Name as a focal point. This focus also extended to Mary as well, and that was given a Feast Day option on September 12.
Some people write this monogram IHS with a cross on either side on a piece of paper and whatever is written on it is something that is being prayed over and aid is sought in resolving it. The Holy Name is also given various powers from being able to cast out evil, to make a baptism, performing any miracle, and protecting from harm. An interpretation of the scripture form the Gospel of John that reads “Ask anything of the Father in my name, and he will give it to you.” One could write the monogram on a slip of paper, make a request, and that could be all of the petition that you need to achieve your goal.