For the second day of my “Magickal Week”, I made my second attempt to complete the altar top we plan to use for the upcoming Solstice ritual.
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Yesterday, after the chiropractor, I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a piece of 24″ x 48″ plexiglass, which when cut in half will be the perfect size for the altar. Though they also sell tools to cut plexiglass, I saw no reason why a regular old utility knife wouldn’t work just as well, so just picked up a pack of cheap blades instead (as I’d run out some time ago)…
So today, with a metal straight edge clamped down I went to work scoring the plexiglass over and over. Though I know at a certain depth the glass could just be snapped off, I was paranoid and thought I’d err on the side of caution and cut almost all the way through the width first.
However, after the first dozen or so passes I began to notice the blade getting extremely dull. Now, I know plexiglass isn’t the greatest material to cut through, but regardless, I really thought these blades dulled fairly quickly. Still it was less than two bucks for a pack of ten, so for what I was up to, I can’t really complain. I ended up going through two and a half blades before I felt comfortable I’d scored the thing deep enough to break it off.
And yep, I let the side crack under its own weight, and it came off clean. I still sanded the edge down before peeling back the protective film to wrap the sides and top edge in copper tape.
I’d also stopped by Jo-Ann Fabric recently and picked up a yard of some really nice black felt. I then broke out the beautiful set of Gingher Shears which my mom had given to Jenny as a gift a few years ago. They are quite possibly the world’s best scissors, and we treat them like a sacred object, in that they are only used to cut fabric (and even then, only when precision is key…).
I then used a staple gun to attach the felt to the 2′ x 2′ wooden board I’d picked out (also from Home Depot). The process reminded me of stretching a canvas for an oil painting, the advantage here being I could stretch it as tight as I wanted, and as its against a solid board rather than semi-flexible stretchers, there was no risk of it warping.
There… tight as a drum.
Now, the whole point to making an altar this way was actually inspired by a video that Wimsaur posted a few months ago, as recently we’d also specifically been talking about how various Tarot layouts can actually generate different sorts of energy. He does seem to get a lot of orbs when he does these different layouts, so for example, here I’ve lain the cards out so that the planets correspond with the houses they will be in at the time of the Solstice (the actual 20th, not the Saturday we’re performing the ritual). I then place them under the protective glass, and we have (in theory) a very potent altar here. I used the Rider-Waite deck here as an example, but for the actual ritual, Wimsaur is going to use the more Thelemically sound Thoth Tarot deck, though for size purposes he may use the pocket-sized cards instead… and as for the actual spread the day of, I’m leaving that to him.
I left the protective film on the top side for now to keep from it getting smudged in transit, but completed the ensemble by taping together these little end pieces (top to bottom) I also got from Jo-Ann’s to make the corners, though eventually I want to glue them together instead.
And of course, when I peeled back the film’s corner to do this… I got my smudgy fingerprints on the nice clean top… exactly what I was trying to avoid…
Anyway, I’ve also spray painted gold the lid to my second Honey Jar, and marked the sides with the sigil of Infinite Fraternal Success. I plan for that piece of fluorite on top there to serve as an energetic antennae of sorts for the final charged item. I’m also using magnets to attach the candlestick there to the lid of the jar we’ll use in ritual which is for Lodge. I can use the candle to life the lid in ritual, but can also remove the candle from atop the lid when it’s time to seal it shut with the angelic one.
I also happened to notice in my Facebook feed today that Reaper Miniatures has posted their next Official Quarterly Reaper Group Bones Painting Contest and as I was actually a “Vampire” level supporter of their Kickstarter, I actually have the figure to be painted for the contest. I’ve actually earmarked that figure to paint “some day” to represent a character that exists in my Blackspire Campaign world (the vampire frost giant called “The Snow Queen”) and so I think I’ll actually paint her as that. The contest deadline isn’t until September 2nd, so I have plenty of time to think about it (later).
I also did the Maya Fienes 2nd Kundalini yoga routine today, and during one of the Mula Bandha exercises I ended up “somewhere else” again. This time, when I came back, though I felt the same blackout experience as yesterday, I wasn’t convulsing this time, just sitting there quietly. So, when the routine came back around for us to do the root lock again, this time (focusing on the 3rd eye at her suggestion) I fought tooth and nail to remain conscious… and the results were absolutely phenomenal. My 3rd eye “exploded”, my whole body was abuzz, and I was just swimming in energy. I felt this way before about them, but will always highly recommend her videos for anyone interested in doing some very effective energy body work.
This week is going well so far…
Tuesday 6/14/16-
Sun: Gemini-
Moon: Libra-
For my disclosure on this or any of my post or pages… please visit my Disclosure page.