Theme: Discernment
Date Started: September 3, 2015
Date Completed: September 18, 2015
Contributors: Becks, Jade Rose, mrsdavid1975, Seraphin and silversong
If you have any questions please do ask!
This spell draws its inspiration from the ancient Egyptian Weighing of the Heart ceremony in which the person's heart is weighed against the principle of truth and justice, known as Ma'at, represented by a feather. This whole ritual requires you to weigh your Self -- being aware of what you show or hide to other people, mastering your thoughts and emotion, and above all, as the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi exhorts us to do, "know thyself". Once achieved, it will make your discerning ability detached, impartial, sensible and feels clear, true and very powerful as once you have trained your Self to fully weigh and analyze yourself you will be ready to do the same to others.
You will need:
For the Water (Ego-Self) Purification
Dirt
A goblet or chalice of water
Alum powder
Salt
For the Spice/Gem Box and Bag
One teaspoon of caraway
One teaspoon of rosemary
One teaspoon of sage
One teaspoon of thyme
One half teaspoon of clover
One half teaspoon of cinnamon bark
One half teaspoon of bay leaves
One half teaspoon of myrtle leaves
Honeysuckle oil
Selenite
Bloodstone
Celestite
Emerald
Iron pyrite
Peacock ore
Box
Drawstring bag
For the Weighing of Soul/Heart Ritual
Balance scale*
Raptor's feather
The goblet or chalice of purified water
Sword/ Athame
Bowl of fruits
Mirror
Other Material/Tools
Candle (personal choice)
Match
Spoon and teaspoon
Wand
Dropper
Best performed: On a Tuesday night. Preferably when the moon is in Libra and/or waxing.
Before anything else, clear you area, set up your altar, cast a circle and invite the Truth and Justice Deities (Ma'at, Thoth, Ganesha, Minerva, Odin, etc)* . Once you have done all of these then it's time to get started.
Envision all of the thoughts and emotions which are blocking your inner eyes to have a reliable perceptive insights. Focus on the darkness, murkiness and filthiness that surround them. This is your materialist orientation, egoism and your reactive consciousness that doesn't initiate new things and refuse to take a wider view and just become entrenched in conditioning and habit. Imagine all of these facades, screens and veils pulsating within you in the form of a dark gray light, barely visible, but clouding and obscuring your sight.
Imagine the gray light moving downwards from your third eye chakra towards your arms, feeling all of the facades and clouds traveling down your arms and eventually to your hands. Imagine the gray light streaming from your hands and into the dirt in your hands, saturating and infusing it completely. Feel the veil lift slightly as murkiness and filth are captured in the dirt.
Next, put a small amount of dirt into the goblet or chalice of water. The dirty water symbolizes your ego-consciousness (Yesod). Visualize your materialism and egoism swimming around in and pervading the liquid. Take a spoonful of alum powder and drop it into the water. Add a little bit of salt too to purify it and using your athame or your wand, stir the water clockwise, about 10 seconds to dissolve the alum and salt and in about three minutes stir again while saying:
Water and alum, take this obscurity of mine
Here, bound and shut in this confine
And thus dissolve and wash away
Facades and filth without delay
See the water becoming clearer and clearer. As you do, visualize all the facades and clouds in your third eye dissolving and finally unveiling your eyes. You have now moved away from ego ("yesod"). Feel the light of your third eye chakra glowing as brightly as it can glow. The gray light is removed.
As you turned the dirty water into a clear purified liquid, the water now represents your real Self ("tiferet"), the unique person who lives inside your personality.
Now, put the herbs in the box and drizzle ten drops of honeysuckle oil into it. Lift the box and inhale its pleasing smell, giving you a supernatural endowment to perceive personally the greater good and avoid pain and destruction. Thank the Mother Earth for the lovely aroma which reminds you of the sweetness, spice and diversity of life and the continual blend of the physical reality (the gems and the spices) and mental reality (the scent).
Light the candle and standing facing the altar with arms raised above your head, say:
Truth in matters hard to see,
In clouded times, find clarity,
Undisturbed by hasty thoughts,
Honest, fair decisions wrought.
Pour half the mixture into the drawstring bag along with the crystals, visualizing that you are receiving the provision of discernment, "the ability to distinguish the identities of Selfs". Cover the box containing the other half in a place where you will be able to enjoy the fragrance. Keep the bag with you at all times and sleep with it under your pillow.
Having just sharpened your discerning ability with the help of the spices and gems, look at yourself as if from outside. Ask questions to your self; anything you want to know, you want to understand and you want to discern about youself ('knowing thyself'). Wait your Self to answer you and hold the comment about yourself. It is sometimes helpful to talk yourself by name (this cannot be attained easily and thus requires conscious awareness and repetition). This is a powerful way to work on inner dicomforts and fears as well as inner pleasures and happinness.
After making reasoned observation of yourself, take the raptor's feather which symbolizes the 'truth' and your scale which represents 'justice'. Place the scale on your altar in a vertical position and put the feather on the surface of the balance scale that is closer to you. Then take the chalice of purified water while processing your reflections or self-observations in your mind. Using a dropper, drizzle a drop of water into the other scale surface and say:
[Goddess/God/etc.]*, I pray to Thee
That in this task, You might help me:
Making judgements that are right,
Bring the truth into the light.
Help me discern what is true,
That I might know what to do.
As you do this, visualize yourself weighing all data and assessing the situation. A dual process might also exist in which you listen both to your Deities' counsel and carefully hears your own intuition. Feel the vibrancy of being truly wide awake and aware of your Self.
Keeping this phrase in mind, "We can only discern others what we have discerned in ourselves", if you want to discern something from a person to make a sound judgement and wise decision, then put yourself in the person's shoes and be that person in a particular scenario, observe yourself for a minute, step out and watch yourself and determine and understand why 'you' as this person act that way or feel that way. Since you are in the shoes of the person, go ahead and read the condition of his mind and emotions, see through the outer appearance and determine his intentions, feelings, motives and character. After making observation, repeat or perform the Weighing of Self ritual.
Now in order to avoid inaccurate inspirations and misguided directives, you have to make sure you are balanced in certain aspects. Get your sword or athame which symbolizes judgement, discernment, discipline, strength and discrimination. Position it on the left side of the altar, near the scale surface which contains the drop of purified water. Look at the sword, what emotions does it bring out?
Then take the bowl of fruits which symbolizes unconditional love, mercy, kindness and compassion. Place it on the right side of the altar, take a look at it, what emotions do you feel? Which of two objects pulls you the most emotionally?
Extend your hands toward the sword and the fruits, palms facing them. Close your eyes and focus strongly on your heart chakra and repeat to yourself
"balance, balance".
Together, judgement ("gevurah") and mercy ("hesed") balance and control your emotions and decisions, either consciously and unconsciously. Without mercy, your discernment can be easily tempted by pride, criticism and presumption. True discernment always operate with love and mercy. Working in tandem, they depict the discerning qualities of a human being – integrity and the capacity for true love and courage. And together with your True Self, they form your Soul.
Smile and take a good look of yourself in a mirror. What do you see? If it is clear image of you, you are balanced. If it is a fierce image you see, you may be overbalanced toward too much judgement; if its an innocent angelic image, you may be overfocused toward mercy. Repeat the process of balancing of judgement and mercy until you see a clearer image of you.
Once you have finished doing the ceremony, it is important to visualize an approaching insight about the underlying nature of a difficult situation or personal problem. You should have an enhanced ability to understand not only of the problem at hand, but also of your Self or other Self's heart and mind. There are times, discernment and wisdom will not come right away but will come from other people’s mouth that, when heard, has immediate relevance and potency. Arrive at a Truth-guided conclusion and feel the strength to take evasive action if change is required.
If you feel you are done, close the magick making in your usual way.
Footnotes:
* For improvised balance scales take a look at this link. There's a bunch of ways to make this.