Posted by Ok, ok. Not Horcruxes. Consecrated Hermai, actually– but check out what I did, here.
So, you might be asking yourself, “what’s the point of this five senses ritual you’ve got going?” The idea in invoking the five senses directly, in the same way that someone else might wield the four (or five) elements, is that you are directly acting upon perception, namely your own. This will hopefully change the way that you perceive a deity, or deities, perhaps leading to more intense and multi-sensory experiences.
First, I assembled a few different objects, representing the five senses:
I did a modified version of this ritual for an opening.
Then, I laid out the dishes of stones and the tools in question in the five directions.
For Sight, I laid out a dish of stones which were clear and engraved with colorful ink. When held up to the candle, representing the power of Sight, the stones would change their visual appearance.
I held them up to the light of the candle, and consecrated them to Hermes, channeling the power of sight into the stones for his use.
For Sound, I laid out the stones in a sort of bell shaped container.
The tuning fork was struck and touched to the stones with it, using this to channel the power of Sound into the stones, which were then likewise consecrated.
For Taste, I had a quaich designed for drinking out of.
I dipped my finger into the wine then touched the stones to transfer the power of that sense into them. The stones were then likewise consecrated to Hermes.
For Touch, I included some coins in the dish, to represent the material pleasures gained through money, soft silks, feathers, finery, professional massages, etc.
I ran the feather as well as the sharp tip of this quill over my skin to summon up the visceral sense of touch and channeled that power into the stones, which were then, again, consecrated to Hermes.
Lastly, I laid out blue stones, which reminded me of the sky and therefore air, for Smell.
I blew the smoke onto the rocks, since, by this point, the whole room smelled of incense, and thereby channeled the power of Smell into the stones.
These five dishes were then laid out in five discrete spots in one particular room in my house.
If this shows promise, results-wise, I’ll write an update, and maybe post the ritual I used to consecrate the stones.
Magick From Scratch 
I want to do this for Loki now. I have all the items on the altar and can tailor the ritual for that.
Do! And let me know how it goes, too!
I just did your prior summoning the senses ritual where you trace the glyphs in the air . I dreamed recently that a portal opened like a mirror image of my room where it was mostly dark except for faint blue light. There were animal guides around me including a familiar golden retreiver who smiled at me when I pet him in a doorway. If this has happened just naturally without me even doing anything imagine what this ritual will do. Loki has claimed my house already and He is urging me to do more ritual, now I can see why. Things are weird and delightfully crazy here but Im being careful not to leave the barndoor open at the same time.
Wow.
Yes, obviously hang on to your sanity, and stay safe. Part of my consecration of these Hermai included the intention of not only permitting Hermes to manifest, but the intention that no other non-physical creature should be able to do so without his permission, so this also had a protective aspect built in.
It’s my contention that ritual is a performance art to engage the five senses in order to focus them on the sacred work, and the more of your senses you engage, the better your experience and the more effective the magick. I said so in my book and included an exercise to develop your five senses and engage their input. It’s neat to see another person in a different Pagan tradition working on this independently, especially because you’re coming at it from a different angle. I will watch anything related to this series with keen interest. (I suppose great minds think alike; or maybe fools seldom differ.) 😉
Heh.
That is interesting! I should probably get ahold of the book in question and take a look at your approach. It there an e-book?
If you have not already done so, take a look at the glyphs that Hermes and I designed for the senses(https://magickfromscratch.com/2015/07/14/glyphs-for-the-5-senses/), and the subsequent ritual where they are employed (https://magickfromscratch.com/2015/07/16/first-ritual-of-five-senses/).
I thought to myself, as I was working on it, that the correct approach if I was Wiccan (or still practicing the Golden Dawn system), would be to place the glyphs at the center of pentagrams to invoke them.
There is also a bit of the same concept in my example opening in this ritual: https://magickfromscratch.com/2015/05/03/apotheosis-finding-your-mythic-self/
… while the correspondences there are meant to reflect the deities I generally talk to, matched up with the senses using a sort if model of best fit, the notion of evoking the senses under the auspices of various divinities seems like a very satisfying notion, ritually speaking.
Wow, lots to ponder here. Okay, more detailed response coming but I love your ritual to separate your inner mystic self from that of the gods, and I love the sentiment behind it. Reminds me of the ritual of the Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Also love your sensory pictograms. I will give it a more thorough analysis than this however; just might take some time to write it.
Yes, there’s an e-book. Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Witchs-Eight-Paths-Power-Witchcraft-ebook/dp/B00KOD9CXY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1406258907&sr=1-1. But there’s also a Google pdf available etc. I would actually love to hear a Polytheist’s thoughts on it (it is written from a Wiccan perspective, but my goal really was to break magick down to its component elements that make it work; which is obviously what you’re also trying to do so that’s cool!)
Have you written a book on this? And if not, are you going to? The more I read about this sort of work that you’re doing, the keener I am on it. 😀
I look forward to hearing your thoughts in more detail, and to taking a look at your book. It’s definitely awesome to look at the same work being done from a different perspective.
No books yet. I started this blog as a scrap-book for my ideas, but also to help
identify my audience, and figure out which of my cockamamie ideas I should be writing about.
Right now, I’m writing a book on apotheosis in Greek mythology, and the Mythic Self, which is sort of the Greek Polytheist’s version of the HGA.
If and when I get my work on sensory manifestation to do what I want it to, I’ll put out a book on that, too.
Thank you so much for the encouragement. 🙂