Though I have not publicly recorded my dreams since beginning this challenge, dreams I have had. As they lacked any significance to the matter at hand, I noted the events and continued on. Over the past week, I have had serial dreams where the events on one night would pick up where the previous night left off. This is nothing new to me (or to long term readers).
As I went about beginning to braid the new cord to be dedicated for the making of ceremonial magic circles, I had to wind the three lengths of hemp cord onto pens to keep them from entangling as I found my braiding groove. When I had completed two feet of braiding, I noted the captive pens looked like spindles.
Immediately after that realization, I had to place the work down to keep from dropping it as the previous five nights’ worth of dreams rushed into my mind as one single story.
The complete story of the five nights was a tale of interaction with extraterrestrial aliens. Even though that sounds as non-esoteric as can possibly be, I have long understood that when dreaming “normal” dreams, “extraterrestrial aliens” are actually my personal dream-code for “ancestral dead”. (So far back in the past, they are from the future.) The aliens taught me to use their technology to capture and control the forces of nature.
While for the most part I used the tech to deflect natural threats, there were three times in the dreams where I used the alien tech to gather and focus a natural force into a small piece of handheld material that looked much like a shard of glowing quartz. The aliens called such shards “spindles”, and after I had created three of them, had me use their combined power to create a circular barrier that would protect me and those I care about.
And what was I staring at on the table? Only three “spindles” of cord that I had wrapped to gather and control them, and the braid I was making from them that would become a circular barrier that would protect me, and by proxy, protect those I care about.
Well, then.
Unavoidable obligations prevented me from completing the nine feet of braiding I required to replace the current material I was using for laying out the circle. Exhausted from the day, I went to bed and dreamt of being asleep.
There is only one place in the conjuration most necessary where the name Jehovah is spelled with an extra ‘h’. I have been pronouncing “Jehovahh” with a deliberately loud exhale on the last syllable to not only expand the sound of the name into the space around me, but to make the name an expression of the deity as well. For that moment of exhalation, I feel I am not alone in the circle. This does not frighten me.
The name “Phaa” only occurs three times. I allow the ending vowel to linger as if the entirety of the name was a prayer, psalm, and command all at once. It strikes a chord deep within me, like a unremembered memory that I should know but have forgotten it such that I have even forgotten the forgetting of it.
Speaking the phrase, “the mighty name Agla, the wonderful name Adonay, the strong name, El, and the name On,” fills me with a strange fire of joy that almost scares me. Even though I am not visualizing anything during this sequence, each time I repeat it, I have the sense of something like four walls or barriers being placed around me. Perhaps after this challenge, I will look into this particular combination of names, along with “Phaa”, and the supposedly misspelled “Jehovahh”.
[Patient Caller] encouraged me not to be dismayed that I could not braid the “simple cord” in one afternoon. That I have stepped over my fears and my excuses to actually begin was the more important portion of the task. The new cord was as good as done as far as he was concerned, even if it took an additional two nights instead of the one I am planning.
He remains a shadowy figure with the exception of the glint of his rings. He no longer bears the scent of green, and I suspect that the intensity of the color was due to having seen the priest as Mass in that same color. He reminded me of the hazel rod I have stored away, and noted that should the rod not be suitable for working and modification, I would have to obtain a length of hazel by “any means necessary and any cost affordable”. He was quick to note the hazel rod was not required for future working with him, but would be a necessary tool should I decide to continue “with this foolishness”.
I asked him about his aversion to synthetic materials and pointed out the cord that the pewter Solomon’s Seal amulet is tied to is nylon. If my current circle material is unacceptable due to the synthetics, when why is the amulet effective against him and others?
“The only purpose of the cord is to hold the seal in place. You have already completed the work to make the amulet itself effective for your needs. You have yet to complete the work to make the cord for the circle. I suggest you do so without unnecessary delay.”
Okay. Fine.
Total ritual time: 37 minutes.