Peas

In the annals of magic, there is an episode where a great Magus resorted to an act of low magic with brilliant success. That such a magus would resort to simple magics was almost unheard of... that it worked was even more so. Samuel Mathers, from his home in France, baptized a handful of peas with the names of his detractors in the London lodge of the HOGD. He then let the peas pass through a seive, and as each one fell through, his enemies faded away.

I understand this sort of magic on an intellectual level. From a CMT point of view it is rather elegant. I haven't done magic like this since I was a teenager. I put away the mojo and the juju some time ago, so long ago that half of what I knew is probably lost. The washes and powders, soaps and gris-gris, the pennies and nickels, all seem to be vague memories.

The other day I was asked "Aren't you a bit too white to know all of that hoodoo stuff?" I had to sit back and think on it for a while. I took to it like a fish to water, but I can't even begin to tell you where most of it came from. A book here, a conversation there, many a lost hour in a botanica just listening and asking questions. I am an absolute dullard when it comes to wort-cunning. I never had a knack for it. I can't tell St. Johns Wort from Orris Root (well, I can but I am trying to make a point here) but when it comes to gris-gris... the mixing of various items to formulate a spell... there are few out there who are my equal.

While I am on this new quest in my life, I think these old skills may be of some use.

I need to buy some red flannel.