Homemade
Consecration Ritual
Be this consecrated Spear
A thing of cheer, a thing of fear!
Cheer to me who wield it! —-
My heart, its vigour shield it!
Fear to them who face it —-
Their force, let fear disgrace it! {121}
Be a ray from the Most High,
A glance of His unsleeping eye!
That shall be fought this dreadful day!
“Consecration of the Spear”
from An Evocation of Bartzabel the Spirit of Mars 31
I hope you are beginning to see what these magical weapons really are. Any pointy thing can be a wand, and any container can be a cup, but if the pointy thing has no meaning, no connection to your will; if the container has no meaning, no connection to your capacity to love and be loved; if the sword has no meaning or connection to your mind, your wit, your imagination; if the disk has no meaning or connection to your body, your material life, your ability to function in this world; then there is no magick in any of these objects.
Once you’ve constructed, purchased, or otherwise obtained your magical weapons, the final step is to magically charge and dedicate them to the service of your Great Work. This is done with a consecration ceremony—sort of a graduation ceremony for magical tools. But no matter how formal or informal your ceremony is, it will be worthless, ineffective, and a complete waste of time if it doesn’t actually mean something to you—unless it is uniquely your own—unless it is homemade.
The consecration ceremony can be as simple as holding the weapon in your hand and announcing to the cosmos, “This is my disk (sword, cup, wand)! I hope it works!” or as elaborate as a highly structured qabalistic ritual complete with purifications, banishings, and multiple invocations of archangels, angels, spirits, and elementals.
Your sincerity in the matter is the key to the success of the operation. Crowley and the magicians of the Golden Dawn point to what they call the “formula of the Neophyte” as the format for a proper consecration ritual. The magician simply treats the object being consecrated as if it were the candidate in an initiation ritual.
The landmarks of such a ritual are as follows:
• The candidate is blindfolded and kept outside the temple in the outer darkness.
• Until the hour you have set aside for the consecration ritual, keep the object to be consecrated wrapped in a black cloth
or bag.
• The candidate is brought into the temple.
• For most of my magical life, my temple has been my bedroom or (when the family is out) my living room. For general workings, the temple is a circle (real or imagined) demarcated by the four quarters. For elemental workings, such as the consecration of magical tools, the south is associated with fire and the wand; the west is associated with water and the cup; the east is associated with air and the sword; and the north is associated with earth and the disk or pantacle.
• The candidate is examined, interrogated, allowed to pass, or, if for any reason found unprepared, temporarily turned away.
• Carefully inspect the object to be consecrated one last time to make sure it’s finished and ready for use. If you are still dissatisfied in any way with the appearance of your tool, now is the time to make those final touch-ups.
• The candidate is cleansed and purified (at least once) with water.
• Thoroughly clean the object to be consecrated and sprinkle it (even the cup) with pure water.
• The candidate takes an oath to remain loyal to the organization and to abide by its regulations.
• Because the object to be consecrated can’t actually take such an oath, you’ll need to compose a “charge” detailing in your own words exactly what you expect from the tool. Spend some time carefully composing this charge, because if you are unclear in your own mind what the purpose of your magical tool actually is, it will be of little or no use to you.
• The candidate is dedicated to the Great Work by a divine
invocation.
• This invocation can be as brief or as elaborate as you see fit. At the very least, you must make some kind of symbolic gesture or prayer invoking the presence and the benediction of the highest divine power you are capable of imagining (even if you consider the highest divine power to be yourself).
• After the invocation, you might want to evoke the appropriate elemental spirits: salamanders for the wand, undines for the cup, sylphs for the sword, and gnomes for the pantacle. There are many wonderful and inspiring classical examples of such operations in magical literature. One of my favorites is Eliphas Levi’s “Prayers to the Elementals.”32 The full text is given at the end of this book.
• The candidate is given a magical name, anointed, and robed, then takes his or her place among the initiates.
• If you so choose, you may select a name for each of your magick weapons. The consecration ceremony is the most appropriate time to formally bestow that name. At the very least, you should seal the ceremony by anointing the weapon with sacred oil (olive oil if you have nothing else), and then place it in a new bag: a red bag for the wand, a blue or silver bag for the cup, a yellow bag for the sword, and a green bag for the disk.
Note: Even if you end up purchasing your wand, cup, sword, or disk, I strongly advise that you sew the storage bags yourself. Anyone—even I—can buy and cut a rectangular piece of colored cloth, fold it in half, and hand-sew two sides with colored thread. The minutes you spend doing this are priceless magical moments that will be stored in your magical memory, forever linking to your weapons and the powers they embody.
Use your magical tools often—for your daily rituals and anytime you arrange your altar. Keep them constantly in the forefront of your consciousness. Regularly take them out of their bags and oil, polish, and clean them. Even these simple acts of maintenance are magical meditations of the highest order. Care for your wand, cup, sword, and disk as you would your most sacred and priceless treasures in the universe, for that is exactly what they are.
And please, try to not accidentally sit on them!