The Element Encyclopedia of 1000 Spells: A Concise Reference Book for the Magical Arts. Judika Illes
are used in a similar way to hair, however with slightly less impact. Frequently they are used together, each to reinforce the power of the other.
Saliva
Saliva has profound controlling and protective magical capacities. Like menstrual blood, saliva is believed capable of repelling malevolent spirits and magic spells, hence the custom of spitting in the face of perceived danger. Saliva is also used magically to transmit desire.
Sexual Fluids
Male and female sexual fluids are considered intimate items of extreme power and vulnerability. Although these sexual fluids leave you vulnerable to the most notorious of love spells, they also have other uses. Semen is often invoked in healing spells (topical application allegedly cures headaches), while women’s sexual juices provide access to the life-force: it was not an uncommon ingredient in ancient Chinese alchemists’ potions. Women’s vaginal secretions, both sexual juices and menstrual blood, were frequently the preferred food for vampires seeking increased sexual vitality and/or life-force.
Sweat
Sweat is most frequently used in love and sex spells. It is the closest natural substance men possess that compares to the magical power of menstrual blood.
Urine
While hair and nail clippings used in spells most frequently derive from another person, urine is almost inevitably your own. Many spells will instruct you to urinate on something. This is not intended as desecration, more in the fashion of a dog marking territory. Urine is believed to create a dominating effect.
There are plenty of spells involving fecal material, too. However, you won’t find them in this book. Every author has her limits. The ancient Egyptians cultivated a science that distinguished between the powers inherent in the fecal material of various species—crocodiles, donkeys, humans, cats, all sorts of animals.
Casting Spells Using Names
The magical perspective does not always correspond with the modern scientific view as to what constitutes the human body, or where it begins and ends. Most magical systems acknowledge
WARNING!
Spells involving intimate items may rank among the oldest in the worldwide magical repertoire. For this very reason, however, they may reflect a different world with different dangers. Magic is always about improving life and circumstances. Behave responsibly. If you possess any physical condition (HIV, hepatitis, or anything else) that could be passed on by these substances, then these spells are plainly not for you.
the existence of a subtle body, the aura, a radiant presence that surrounds the human body, so far undetectable by science. A person’s name or names may also be considered magically as part of an individual’s intrinsic identity and thus a source of great power and vulnerability.
Knowing someone’s true name renders him or her vulnerable to your power. Think about Rumpelstiltskin. Once upon a time (and it still happens in some places), people were given various names, one for public use, one for ritual use, and another to be kept secret. Mothers would whisper names into their babies’ ears, never to be repeated, so that one name would always be kept secret. In ancient Egypt, to describe someone possessing exceptional magic power it was said that even their mother didn’t know their name.
That connection between name and mother is crucial magically. As the ancient world became increasingly male-oriented, patriarchal cultures identified people by their own name and their father’s name, so that someone might be called, for instance, Dana, child of Bill. The mother is rarely mentioned. There’s one important exception: magic spells and magical documents. There, it’s the mother’s name that counts. Many consider that this reflects some sardonic humor; for the magical spell to be effective, the name has to be right. Because a mother is never suspect but may however harbor unsuspected secrets, the only way to guarantee true identity was to use the mother’s name instead of the father’s. This tradition is maintained in the directions in this book; follow it if you choose. Unless otherwise advised, the magical formula to write or call someone’s name is: “[Name], child of [their mother’s name].”
Names of Power
Angels, demons, and spirits of all kinds are summoned by calling their true name. Supposedly they can’t resist the call. Much summoning magic depends upon this premise.
Of course, there is a caveat; this information was once transmitted orally: to be effective the names are supposed to be pronounced correctly. One has only to observe the conflict between historians, magical practitioners, and scholars of all kinds over how the names of relatively famous Greek and Egyptian deities are pronounced to appreciate the inherent problem.
There is a style of spell-casting that incorporates reeling off series of magical names. The Magical Papyri have some of these spells: there’s nothing to indicate that the practitioners of their time recognized these names any more than we do. They don’t figure in surviving mythology; these names completely lack context.
Call me cautious, but I’m not comfortable summoning someone to enter my home (and life) if I’m not personally familiar with them, or at least have a little background information. Something about not talking to strangers. I wouldn’t recommend it to you either. Where the original version of a spell veers off on a tangent of reciting a long list of Names of Power, I’ve indicated this but omitted the names. My recommendation is to insert your own Names of Power—those Spirits whom you trust, ancestral spirits, even perhaps living people whose assistance would be appreciated and whom you feel you can trust.
Spell-casting Using the Power of Planets
Because they’re old systems that pre-date modern astronomy, in magical and astrological parlance, the luminaries, the sun and the moon, are considered planets just like other heavenly bodies, although this does not concur with modern scientific classifications. Modern astrologers know that technically the sun and moon are not planets, however both astrology and magic are geocentric systems, meaning that everything is perceived as revolving around Earth, even when this is not literally the case.
Some spell-casters rely heavily on astrological wisdom. Every day, every hour, every topic, every category has a planetary correspondence. The same applies to Chinese and Hindu magic, although their respective astrological systems differ from the Western system, which is based on the Babylonian astrology that so influenced Egyptian and Greek versions.
If you would like to synchronize your magic with the planets to this degree, information is easily obtainable from astrological sources and from many traditional grimoires.
Every planet possesses an astrological and magical influence (ancient Greek and Roman curse tablets were under the dominion of Saturn, for instance), however the planets most strongly identified with magic are our own, Earth, and its satellite, the Moon.
Earth
While the moon represents psychic ability, then Earth is our general vitality. Both are required for optimal magic power. According to many worldwide traditions with little else in common, Earth is the material from which humans are created. Earth is our mother: we are born from her body, and are then returned to her to await rebirth while the corporal body decays and becomes part of Earth once more, in a never-ending cycle. Without actual extended consistent physical contact with Earth our vitality, and hence our magic power, suffers and diminishes.
Earth is also very literally the dirt under our feet. Dirt may be used to empower us and empower our spells. There are various traditions that pursue actual physical healing by packing the patient into