In the last chapter, we looked at the difference between a curse and a magical attack. A curse is created and directed, usually to encourage the recipient to conform to a boundary (most magical curses involve the protection of secret texts or rituals, partnerships, or ritual objects). A magical attack, however, is usually a torrent of magic fuelled by emotion, be it hatred, fear, anger, etc. The deeper the emotion, the nastier the magical attack. Another well of emotion that has become more frequent than it used to be (which poses interesting societal questions) is the emotion of inadequacy—there are more and more attacks within magical lodges/groups from members and leaders who assert themselves in a violent magical way to prove their power (which in itself is a very large flag that says ‘small willy’).

Most of the attacks in the western world of magic/ occultism/paganism centre around issues that relate to magical lodges/groups/magical partnerships. It’s all about being powerless and it’s all about territory. If someone is a practicing magician and resorts to using magic to resolve some grievance, that tells us that the person has no emotive skills, no real power that can be used, and has the mental capacity of a Macburger.

I was shocked when I returned to Britain last year at the degeneration that has happened in so many of the magical communities. A substantial amount of them are heavily embroiled in magical conflicts, usually over who is the ‘real one and only true,’ or conflicts over who will be the ‘magus’ or conflicts between a lodge and someone who has spilled the secrets. Maybe it has always been there and I just didn’t notice before.

The other types of magical attacks are personal, i.e. when someone has been jilted, slighted, marital disputes—the list is endless, as are the methods of attack. They can range from highly ritualised complex attacks, to beings sent after someone, to simple utterance with intent. All are annoying and some can be dangerous.

There is a saying that if you don’t believe in the reality of a magical attack it cannot harm you. That is bullshit and is said by someone who does not know how magic works. Someone can be attacked and not know it, and have terrible consequence. In fact, most people who are attacked are not aware that the attack is where their problems are coming from. Then there are the people who blame everything that goes wrong for them on a magical attack—both are imbalanced and the reality is somewhere in the middle.

This is a good example of a magical attack based on east African magic: Many years ago, in my youth, I was booked on a dance tour in the U.S.A. with a couple of other dancers. I had never been to the States before and I was very excited. The other dancers on the tour with me were from Uganda. All went well for the first week but the second week, it all went quickly south.

We all shared a room and one night I was deeply asleep and dreaming happily. A voice in my dream told me to run and it was a voice I recognised as a personal guardian that I knew rather than a character in my dream. I found myself running down the street and into the house where I was staying.

In the dream I also saw a large shapeless black form speeding towards the house, its power levels beyond anything I had any experience of at that time. It came in to the house, up the stairs and into the room, and it looked quickly at the bodies on the beds. It saw the dancer next to me and dived straight for her.

I woke up screaming from terror and the dancer next to me did the same. We both sat terrified in the dark and neither of us were physically able to move. It was as if we had been pinned down. The third dancer got up and put the light on.

The following day, the dancer who had been attacked had a fever and started to act strangely. She became hostile to all around her and began to behave in a very nasty way with anyone who came into contact with her. We were, while on tour, supposed to meet with her possible future in-laws (she was Muslim and in the process of negotiating an arranged marriage) and when we did finally meet them, the dancer behaved in the most outrageous manner which put the perspective in-laws off. This was totally out of character for this girl who was usually a normal, happy young woman.

When we returned to Britain and I got on my home ground, my sight restored itself fully (it would always seem to lessen when I left the land) and I could see very clearly a demonic being within her, riding her, eating her energy, and ruling her life. I broached the subject to her and she brushed it off. I was very frustrated at being able to see something destroying her and not being able to do anything about it. These days I would have waded in and grabbed the bugger, but as a young woman, I did not have that confidence.

So her life fell apart, she couldn’t get a marriage partner, she lost her job, became slightly nuts, lost her beauty—it was a terrible thing to watch. I did some discreet questioning around the ex pat Ugandan community where she and I lived, and I found out that the man she was supposed to marry had instead married another local girl whose mother practiced magic. Hmmm… He was a good catch and obviously there was a little magical three step going on. That particular community was very free in its use of magic for gain. I cut my teeth dismantling Ugandan curses in the early 80’s…great fun, learned a lot.

Years later, many years later, on a return visit to that area, I drove past the house where she had lived. I saw her bent over in the garden and recognised her from the back. I got out of the car (and keep in mind she had not seen or heard of me for nearly twenty years) and without turning around, a voice that was not hers said, “Josie.” The person with me looked at me and got spooked—the demon within her recognised me and spoke through her. She then turned, not aware that she had spoken and became surprised, hello, etc.

The fact that the demon was still there and knew me by name was enough for me to get my ass out of there as quickly as possible. I know that she would not have let me take it out (she didn’t believe in such things) and because the demon knew me by name and remembered me made it all a little dangerous. It was obviously not interested in attacking me but I didn’t want to get into conversation with it through her so I quietly withdrew from the situation. That being will stay with her until she dies and will trash her life every time she tries to pick herself up. It is not a curse, and not really a straightforward possession. It was sent in magical attack and will be kept up by someone—someone is paying for it to stay there and trash her life. There are enough feuds in that community (along with bored women with big chips on their shoulders and large grudges) to keep attacks like that going indefinitely.

Because it searched specifically for her in such a way, it will have had a marker, like hair, nails, etc, and her name. Somewhere there will be a poppet or a picture of her keeping it going.

Poppets

Poppets can be very useful in the event of magical attacks as not only do they direct attack, they can also deflect attack. Here is another story of magical attack, this time using a poppet for protection. (I’m in a storytelling mood…can’t you tell?)

When I lived on the Flathead Reservation (Confederate Salish and Kootani tribes) in Montana, I was sometimes called out to tribal members who were having cursing/attack issues. One particular one was really nasty: a tribal member was in prison and was dying for no apparent reason. A sumeshan (medicine man) had said that the tribal member was being attacked by Cheyenne medicine and he would not help him.

I went to the old lodge area and asked the ancestors there for advice. They were very vocal and showed me how to protect him from the magical attack. I had to get a picture of him and something that he had worn for a long time. I went to the isthmus in the river, where the old medicine dances were done and made a man out of the earth and pebbles. In the earth man I placed the picture and the ring of his that I had been given and then I baptised the earth man in the name of the tribal member (he was a Catholic). I covered it with weeds and sticks to protect it, and then stood over it thinking about the attacks and seeing them coming to the earth man.

I then called upon the medicine spirits to send an animal to guard the earth man and a spirit bear appeared. The bear walked around and around the earth man before settling itself down to rest. As I left the river, one of the tribal contacts told me I had learned well and a gift was on the path for me. I kept my eyes peeled and about a few yards from the earth man I saw something strange in the dust. Bending over I saw it was a little bone bear with one leg broken off; it had obviously been discarded a long time ago and had probably fallen off a dancer during a medicine dance. I was very pleased with the gift and said thank you. I had a call two days later to say that the tribal member was getting better and was going to be moved out of the prison hospital the following day.

The earth man lasted long enough to take all the flak from the magical attack, and the attackers eventually gave up when they realised it was no longer working. They became worried that the tribal member had gotten help and might attack them in return (which he didn’t).

The bear had a nice little postscript, too. A friend of mine (who works within tribal magic) told me that the bears had all but vanished from her area and she was making a bear shield to draw them back in. Did I have anything from the mountains that would go on a bear shield? Yup I said, I have just the thing…. So the little bear went onto the shield and it joined in her magic which worked very well—bear poop started to appear in the woods by her house.

Now those are examples of magical attacks from tribal communities. As in all magical attacks, deflection is better that counter attack—redirecting or ignoring is best of all.

Redirecting

Methods of redirecting range from the use of poppets and pictures, to using elements. One way of using elements is to use a candle flame.

To redirect through a candle flame you need to have good mental focus and concentration. The exorcist (or person being attacked) lights a candle flame and ‘sees’ the attack in its manifestations forming in the flame. Any feelings of pain, emotions, and the problems it is causing are all imagined into the flame. The burden of the attack is placed in the flame and when you are sure that all of it is in there, you blow the candle flame out, blowing the flame and its contents into the void. This should be done a few times a day for a few days until the attack eases. It can be done for a while, but it must always be directed at the void and nowhere else.

Another very simple redirecting that works with lesser attacks, is by thought and speech. It is so simple, but can build great power when done correctly. Every hour or so the victim should stop what they are doing and sense the feeling of the attack and where it is coming from. Once they have the sense of it, then they say ‘no, I don’t accept it’ and blow it down into the earth or out of the window. It sounds simple, almost too simple, but with straight forward attacks that are not too heavy and not powered by a group, it can work quite powerfully as it is built up. As it builds up over days, the focus becomes very strong and the blowing begins to mediate the power of air, so that elemental beings begin to join in with you. As before, ensure that it is put into the earth or the void, not at any being, not even the one who sent it.

Not sending back

I have covered this before in the chapter on cursing, but it is so important I must mention it here, too. Do not send an attack back. There are many reasons for this. First is, you don’t really know who will receive your return post. Second, by taking on the responsibility of sending it back, you are not allowing other, more powerful beings to engage in the situation to create balance.

And this leads on to a deeper and more magical truth: it is all about balancing the books, keeping the tension equal between positive and negative, and not getting drawn into things that are beyond your understanding. Fate works in weird ways, as does inner magical training.

When you redirect, slough off or wash away bad things sent to you without wishing anyone harm, a greater power comes into play and a greater magical learning begins. It can sound all very moral, which in reality it is not—it is about how energy works, about job placement, and working within the complex web of inner beings as a priest/priestess.

If someone is constantly attacking you, then that bad energy is placed on your scales. If it tips your scales too far down, then they need rebalancing. If as an initiate you have submitted to justice, then the rebalancing is done for you in the way of protection and healing. It’s a really slow process and very frustrating, but it does engage a lot of magical learning and maturing which is priceless. Beings do intervene to take off or divert the worst and what is left abrades you as a priest. This is not something an exorcist can do for someone else, but it is advice that can be given, and holds more power if you as an exorcist have gone through it yourself.

As an exorcist, also be aware that being magically attacked is like getting the measles or chickenpox: it really sucks while you in the depths of it, and it can be dangerous, but if you survive it without lots of drug intervention, your immune system becomes very strong.

I was magically attacked for years (still happens occasionally—I have a tendency to piss people off by saying what I think rather than what is politically correct or polite). The net result of all those attacks is that I have the hide of an elephant and most magical attacks these days are like little pinpricks with calling cards attached. I read the calling card and file it in my idiot file.

If the magical attacks are being aimed at someone who does not have the ability or strength to protect themselves, then that is a different matter. As an exorcist you will need to assess what the attack is and how best to protect the victim.

Most common types of attacks an exorcist will have to deal with

The most common forms of attack an exorcist is called out to are from communities that have magic interwoven within the culture and religion, rather than magical communities themselves (magicians and witches just love a fight and they tend to get into counter attack…idiots…too much time on their hands and not enough brain cells).

If the person is really able to deal with it themselves but just wants to defer to someone else, then you have to firmly but kindly withdraw and let them deal with it. It is a common reaction to want someone else to fix things, but that does not help someone’s magical development. As a very good author said to me once, if you are given lemons, make lemonade! But if the victim in the attack is a layperson then it is time to step in as an exorcist and do your job to ease someone’s suffering.

If you are called out to such an attack first you need to ascertain what is caused by the attack and what is not. It becomes very easy to blame everything on the attack, and you also need to weed out what is a secondary effect of the attack and not a direct result of. Sometimes an immune system will react to an attack but the attack itself may be directed at their relationships, property, magical ability, etc.

It is important to know what are the primary effects of the attack so that you can figure out what the intention is and what powers/beings are being used. The way to diagnose the attack is, as usual, by inner vision, taking a statement of effects, and by reading with the deck. It is very important to know how the attack is being generated and by what means it is being delivered.

If beings are being used, they tend to be thought forms, parasites, lesser demons, faery beings, or elementals. When you have identified what being if any is involved, then you need to figure out if it is being bound into action against its will or if it is participating for a price.

Thought forms are easiest in that you can dismantle them, though that in itself can be a messy, time-consuming, and draining job. You need to first disconnect it from the egregore that feeds or drives it, and to do that you can either use an angelic contact to work with you, or a ritual blade to sever the umbilicus. Then the thought form itself will quickly need dismantling before it can reconnect itself.

To do that you will need to separate it from the victim and take it either into the underworld, the desert of the Abyss, or the void. Do not let the thought form plant the suggestion within you that it is a sentient being—it is not and does need to be taken apart. If you look at it in vision, you will see how it has been constructed and what energies/elements have been used to create it. Use counter elements/energies to negate it. Basically you rip it apart with your own hands or with ritual implements and put the parts, which will turn energy/thought back into recycling, hence the use of the underworld.

Once that is done, the victim will need ritual cleansing and a talisman protection fuelled to work for a couple of months to give them time to get their strength back. It would also be a good idea to check their home for objects that create access points—get rid of them and put up protective images, sigils, etc, in the home.

If they have a religious image in the home, make sure it is plugged into real power (which most are usually not) and bring the power of that deity/energy through for them so that it will engage protection within the home and family.

If the being is not a thought form but a real being, then you may need to act in the same way as a possession and disengage it from the energy source that is driving it. It may also need unbinding and setting free back in its own realm. If it is a faery being, then you may need to get into bargaining which can mean that the victim has to agree to do something for the faery in return for backing off the attack. Faeries are the original ‘chancers’ and are always on the look out for a better deal. Sometimes the deal can be quite simple, sometimes it can be a real stretch—this is where the power of haggling comes in!

If it is an elemental, like an earth being or fire being, then such consciousness is not too close to humanity and therefore cannot be so easily bargained with. Often they appear to us as quite stupid, which they are not. They just have a very different consciousness than we do.

Gently redirecting them away can sometimes work, as can engaging them by helping them and their kind in service, which automatically puts the victim in good graces with the being and it will back off.

In all circumstances where beings are involved, it is best to find the calmest and most peaceful way to put them back where they belong rather than attacking them and getting into a war.

When you are dealing with a minor demon that is carrying a magical attack for someone, first check to see if it is bound in service, in which case it will need unbinding. Do not do this in your own realm—take it to the edge of the Abyss and then unbind it while you have angelic beings working with you. Then you can put it straight back where it came from without chance of it hopping off to have fun at human expense.

Attacks with no beings involved

These types of attacks are the most common of all and are generated by ritual, recitation, and elements. The first job is to see the attack pattern on the inner and follow it back to the source. Then you will need to find the beacon that is being used to identify the victim, like a personal possession of theirs, i.e., a bit of hair/nails/blood, etc. You will find them like a sniffer dog—get a sense of their energy marker and look for it at the end of the trail. When you find it, take the inner energy of it out and put it in the void. Just be careful that you go through the void first before doing this, and dress up while in the void in armour or a disguise that covers your own energy marker—that way whoever is doing the attacking will not see you or will not recognise you and go after you.

Once you have gotten rid of the energy marker, then you will need to ritually cleanse the victim, take off any ritual sigils or patterns on them and clear the house of any object that might be acting as a doorway. Then you will need to make them invisible. This can be done by doing a tailor-made talisman to protect them and make them invisible to an attacker. It will need to be on them at all times and will draw upon their energies. If it keeps falling off or breaks, that means it has done all that it can and needs a replacement. It may take months until it all stops.

The other thing that can be used once the talisman is on the victim, is to make a poppet of her, direct the attack to the poppet, and place it somewhere safe in her house. She will need to make sure that the poppet stays where it is and is not disturbed. If it is broken, the attack can cascade down upon her which would be terrible. In some cases she would need to keep the poppet until her death and then have it burned ten days after the death.

The best solution of all though—particularly if the attack is not an all-out nasty—is to teach the victim how to brush it off without stopping it. Teach her how to redirect, how to do her own ritual bath, how to create her own talismans for really bad times, but in general to appeal to deities within her religion, or spirits from her land to help, advise, and strengthen her. There is nothing more frustrating to an attacker than to see the victim not only surviving the attack, but thriving. She will slowly get stronger and build a kind of immunity which is important if she lives in that sort of community. An angelic contact that can be invoked to help with learning to cope is Achaiah, an angel who helps with patience in the face of extreme difficulty. It is not a good idea to call upon angels right left and centre, but in extreme circumstances where the victim is doing her very best, these beings will step in and help to do what the victim cannot.

If the magical attack is an all-out dangerous and powerful one—that is to the death and powered by group energy, then it would be a good idea to take the victim in vision to the Abyss and call for the angel of justice to intervene and offer a balancing of the scales. The victim will be able to interact with the angel of the scales and not only will it down the attack, but it will give her a chance to develop herself spiritually.

Another possibility if the attack is a particularly bad one is to take her in vision to the edge of the Abyss or into the void and call upon specific angels to intervene and protect the victim. This will work if the attack is far more than the victim can cope with, and if it is many against one. It is particularly effective if the victim is innocent—then there are a whole host of angelic contacts you can call upon for help.

The big dudes are the Erin, who are the judges of God, and then there are the Barakiel who champion the innocent, along with Sariel, warriors of goodness. All of these angels are major beings, hive beings that can be worked with through vision or invocation to protect the innocent. Just make sure that the victim is truly innocent, because if she is not, she will suffer immediate judgement and consequence. The way it works with these beings is that they balance the scales and what is done to the attacker is also done to the victim. Any evil or major harmful thing that the victim has done to another will be held up against her and she will have to suffer the consequences in this life—calling upon these beings will shorten the balancing dynamic.

This can be a good thing in a way; if you have done wrong, then best to learn the lesson as quickly as you can and move on to learn better ways of operating. By invoking these beings that dynamic comes into play. It is not about punishment, but about bringing immediate consequence of action, so that someone has the opportunity to learn.

How this will work for the attacker is that once these beings are involved, the attacker will feel and experience the consequences of his actions almost immediately, so that he will learn what it feels like and what it actually does to another human being. If he continues his actions, he will continue to feel the effects. If he is really stupid, he will not understand what is happening and will either feel that he is being counter-attacked, or that someone else is attacking him.

An attacker with even a fragment of intelligence will make the connection and back off by realising that such action is not just, and is not the best way to rebalance the books, so to speak. If he does back off, he will be shown more productive ways to settle his disputes that will teach all involved a healthy lesson and allow everyone to move on.

Objects

If a victim is attacked by way of an object—i.e., an herb and skin/bone wrap that is buried in the garden of the victim (a Ugandan favourite)—a good way to deal with it is to disengage it and then pin it to the front door of the victim. The victim should touch it every time he passes through the door and refuse it on his territory. It teaches the victim to recognise the feel of such an attack and immunise himself to it, and it sends a very strong message to the attacker.

If it is an object that was left in the house, then it should be pinned to pin down the magic and placed in the front window for the attacker to see—same dynamic, known as fuck-off magic.

In summary, make sure you know what it is you are handling, what is driving it, and keep an eye on the situation after you have dealt with it to make sure it does not return. As an exorcist, make sure that you clean yourself properly and do not leave magical trails for the attacker to find—you may end up getting annoying crap yourself from the attacker and in this line of work, you do not have time or energy to waste on such silliness.