This was written primarily for the Loresraat archives but I want to post it here for anybody that may find it useful.
Notes on and record of my use of “The Voice of the City” Charm:
In the “Utility” section of the charm one finds that “It can also act as a boost for other magical ceremonies of a ritual, shamanistic or devotional nature so that the voice and will of the city join the intention of the magical user who makes use of it.” It is in this capacity that I used it on July 3rd, 2023.
My intent when beginning was to build up power within myself and gain the blessings of the pantheon and city spirits/energies as a preamble to a more specific working (namely creating “good luck spots” at the local park where people would be gathering the next day for Independence Day celebrations). Whether or not this operation was an objective success I cannot say, but I can relate details of technique and how I felt while going about the work.
I set out from my house roughly 2 hours before sundown (primarily because I wanted to get to the park around sunset so there would be fewer people to observe my work), giving the knocks upon my door and calling upon Maakari before crossing the threshold and set off in the direction I had planned (I had ideas of where would work within walking distance for each invocation, the only materials I carried with me were a printout of the ritual and a box of chalk for leaving my marks).
The first intersection I came to was on Main Street on the southern edge of our downtown area and on my way I had the thought that I should leave the sigil of Hexorius in chalk at each spot of invocation – there was a perfect gap in traffic and I made the invocation as I crossed the road and chalked the sigil on the sidewalk of the other side of the road and continued a block up to the Old Courthouse for the invocation of Hexorius (I’ve used this spot in the past for workings to draw is influence in to the wider city – the tower of this building is also the official Seal of the City, featured on pretty much all official paperwork and communications for the city). After chalking the sigil there it also occurred to me that I should find something from that site that I could bring with and spread to every other invocation site to create a physical connection between them alongside the energetic connection made by my efforts – to this end I grabbed 5 chunks of wood from the stump of a tree on the grounds and broke them down as necessary to spread them in the other locations.
I headed to the public library next for the invocation of Scientia since it’s less than a block from the old courthouse (I switched the order of invocations to suit convenience), from that point on the ritual took on the feel of a scavenger hunt where I followed a combination of logic and intuition to find the right spaces to do the work – there’s a small garden with a meandering path and some chess tables behind the library and it was covered in chalk drawings from children playing and learning there during their summer vacation from school. This struck me as a perfect place to leave my marks as well, someone had drawn a butterfly and ever since I designed what became the sigil of Arcadia I’ve thought it strongly resembled a butterfly (wonderful symbolism for Arcadia in my opinion) so I left her sigil as well as that of Hexorius at this spot. I stopped to take a few pictures of bricks with messages stamped in them that seemed fitting to the spirit and then mingled the wood from the courthouse with woodchips in the area and headed to the post office for the invocation of Eleora.
I originally planned on invoking Musa at the art museum but then considered doing it at Settlers Park because that was the central focus of another ritual I had in the works. When I arrived there were some people there and I took it as a sign that it wasn’t the proper place for this invocation so I headed to the museum as I had originally planned – this worked out well and took me in the direction of the park that was the ultimate focus of this extended working. I took the bike trail from there (it sits behind the museum and leads almost directly to the park).
There’s an off-ramp of this trail that leads to the shore of the Milwaukee river and then directly to the park – I made my invocation of Arrakis here at the turning off point given the symbolism of that sigil and the Golden Path and how it relates to choice and some other personal reasons relating to past workings in that area.
I had no idea at this point where would be suitable for the invocation of Valdas, but walking down that off-ramp I remembered there used to be a lot of graffiti on that bridge that spans the river and thought it would do in a pinch. I came to a metal art installation that sits at the bottom of that path in the shadow of the bridge near the river’s edge and it struck me as the proper place (it’s a U shaped magnet and is said to symbolize finding your way – the 2 prongs point skyward and reminded me of twin towers/ skyscrapers and reminded me of the relation between Valdas and Hexorius as the mirrored cities above and below).
I followed this river path to the park and made my invocation of Arcadia there, asking to aid in my endeavor to create these zones of good luck – to find the proper places and infuse them with that energy. I also made my invocation of Groguh here since there was a fleet of garbage and recycling cans spread across the field – it strongly reminded me of soldiers lined up and ready to do their duty (I also cleaned up some litter throughout my journey and with Groguh in mind) I picked out 7 spots and drew out the circles, gave thanks and headed home and concluded the ritual with the invocations of the paramentals and the closing upon re-crossing the threshold. Looking back, I feel I should have made this invocation of the paramentals before creating the good luck zones, asking for their aid in the creation thereof.
Observations of potential effects: While entirely subjective I did see some promising signs when I returned to the park the following afternoon and saw that there were only a few spots staked out by people so far and all of them were within 10 yards of the zones I had created. The zones I created in the middle of the walking path were largely worn away when I returned again in the evening to observe how people were interacting with them – I used thin sticks of chalk and I would recommend using the thick ones that are typically used for chalk art instead. Those that were a bit further out of the way survived and the one I have pictured in front of a bench had someone’s feet in it every time I passed by – so there was no hint of people trying to avoid it thinking it was anything they should keep away from.
My personal experience is that this ritual can be used to build up personal power in a similar manner to casting a magick circle and “raising the cone of power”. Get creative and have some fun with it; it also strikes me as a simple but powerful way to get to know the pantheon if one hasn’t done much active work yet in that manner yet, a sort of scavenger hunt mixed with a meet and greet.
I also advise calling upon the spirit of your city itself before the invocation of the paramentals, asking it to work with you in your operation and then completing your work with its blessing.
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