Low Magick by Lon DuQuette (the reading strategies book TXT) 📕

to Slug-Shlug immediately upon its appearance in the Triangle, thus binding it to me for the duration of the ceremony. Etched on the reverse side of the medallion is the image of the Pentagram of Solomon. It is the symbol of the microcosm and the magician’s mastery of himself (or herself) and the world of the elements. It is the second image the magician displays to the spirit on its appearance—sort of like a police officer showing his or her badge to the bad guy. It is also a handy thing to flash if the spirit becomes obstinate … or worse.

I drew another version of the sigil within a triangle on the top sheet of a new pad of yellow 3 × 3 Post-it Notes. I will soon explain why I used a Post-it Note for this purpose. For now, please be satisfied with knowing that I would place this pad in the Triangle during the ceremony of evocation, and that it would later play a prominent role in the exorcism itself.

I now had everything I needed to evoke the demon Slug-Shlug. Marc was due to pick me up in less than two hours. I needed to work fast. This would not be a straightforward evocation whereby I simply evoke the spirit, introduce myself, give it its assignment, then order it to run along like a good fellow and do its duty. On this occasion, I was to do something that I had never done before, even in my past capacity as exorcist. This time I would formally conjure the spirit at one location (my home), then, without dismissing it from the Triangle, and without me stepping out of the protective precincts of my Circle, I would transport my activated temple (including myself inside the Circle and the demon inside the Triangle) to another location (Our Lady of Sorrows high school). There, in the middle of the night, I would resume the operation and proceed with the exorcism.

I will now describe how it was done.

Part III

Preliminary Evocation

“… for his Robe hath he not a nightdress; for his instrument a walking stick; for his suffumigation a burning match; for his libation a glass of water?”

Liber Astarté108

I’m afraid the following description of my hurriedly composed and extempore evocation of the demon Slug-Shlug will be somewhat of a disappointment to magicians (and would-be magicians) who are enraptured by the glamour of the elaborate trappings of the ancient art of evocation. I assure you that in the last thirty-five years, I have on many occasions taken great pains to adorn myself with the most proper vestments, arm myself with the most proper weapons, and erect the most proper pieces of temple furniture (including a most proper Circle and Triangle festooned with the most proper divine names and words of power). The essence of the structure is hard-wired in my psyche and I dare say I could reconstruct the essential setup in my dreams. Now that I think about it, I have on occasion done just that.

For this working, however, I needed to operate quickly and under extraordinary conditions. My working area and weapons by necessity needed to be spartan and portable. These are the consecrated109 magical items I used on this occasion:

A wand of almond wood seventeen inches in length.

A thin silken cord approximately eleven feet long. When the ends are tied together and it is laid out on the floor, it forms a circle approximately three and a half feet in diameter.

A carpenter’s segmented ruler which, when its segments are fully extended and then folded into three equal segments, forms a perfect triangle of twenty-two inches per side.

The copper medallion (with chain) bearing the seal of Slug-Shlug on the front, and the Pentagram of Solomon on the back.

The Post-it Note with the image of the seal of Slug-Shlug within a Triangle.

A clip-on juror’s badge I once “accidentally” wore home from jury duty. To this ill-gotten prize I glued a paper image of the Hexagram of Solomon. The Hexagram is clipped to my robe to display to the spirit that I have made an unbreakable link with the macrocosmic deity, and that I am operating under the auspices of the Most High.

For the evocation ceremony itself, I wore a purple yarmulke on my head, and my plain black robe, over which I hung my bishop’s stole—a long, wide band of richly embroidered material that hangs around the back of the neck and falls over the front of the body. My stole displays on its wide red and gold bands images of the Greek Cross, the Eye in the Triangle, the descending dove, and the Holy Grail. Later, for the exorcism at the school, I would wear the yarmulke and the stole over street clothes (black slacks, white dress shirt, and a plain black tie).

I quickly cleared a space on the floor in my office (itself a Herculean labor akin to that of cleaning the Augean stables). I banished and purified the temple pretty much as I described in chapter 6. I unfolded and arranged the carpenter’s ruler to form a triangle and placed it on the floor. I put the Post-it Note pad bearing the sigil of the spirit in the center of the Triangle. (Please remember, the image on the Post-it Note also contains a Triangle within which the sigil is drawn.) I placed a stick of burning incense in a small burner in the Triangle next to the sigil. I tied together the ends of the silk cord and arranged it on the floor to form a crude Circle. My Temple was ready.

I sat down in the Circle, wand in hand. I took a moment to gaze into the Triangle at the yellow Post-it Note sigil of Slug-Shlug. Everything looked comically serene—the demon’s sigil resting there next to the stick of burning incense, its tiny red coal politely spitting up an undulating serpent of smoke. I closed my eyes and proceeded to mentally chant my Ganesha mantra and visualize the cosmic