Maybe you are right Ruth.

Maybe it is to teach us to be grateful of our lives each day.

Maybe the soul that endures such punishment and pain at such a young age gets rewarded for better times or experiences in the next life.

Maybe there is no reason and it just happens. A accident at best.

Whatever the reason is, I surely don't enjoy watching it, but this isn't the first time I have seen suffering. I have seen it many times before around the world at the job I use to practice. Each time I see it after all these years still gives me a queezy stomach,and a dizzy, emotional, tired, and weakness feeling. I become slightly nauseus and depressed, but that is after I have visited or seen the person. I never show it while visiting. It is a normal human reaction I figure for most.

Then questions begin to formulate afterwards when I drive back home. I guess I felt inspired to show a bit of frustration and sadness with those questions a moment ago.

Well thank you for the warmth you offer me Ruth.

Now let us get this thread hyped up again with a joke or something. I didn't mean to bring such sorrow in such a beautiful thread!

Where is Lilypetal posting beautiful pictures?

Where is kindred2wicked posting little stories of wisdom.

Where is LightVoice wishing us all good blessings and happiness.

Where is.... you get the point.

Have a good one everyone and see you soon.

Friday, the 18th is the Dark Moon. It is my favorite time of the month as it the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. All deaths mean a new beginning.

While many witches celebrate the full moon with a ritual, I celebrate the dark moon. It is a very simple ritual where I invite the Goddess and then write down what it is I want to get rid of in my life and then throw the paper into the fire.

I am enjoying my new book. It is chock full of magickal orchestrations.

Hello to everyone.

I'm currently reading Christopher Penczak's "Temple of High Witchcraft". I'm taking notes so I thought I'd just share them here for whatever they are worth. The only caution I would offer to the readers of these posts is that these notes on entirely coming from my own perspective. I'm not in anyway attempting to convey Penczak's teachings directly. I will try to suggest what I believe his intent to be from my perspective. However, for the most part, these notes will contain my personal perspective focusing on what I believe to be important for me. I assure you that other readers of this book may very well have entirely different perspectives that are just as legitimate.

Allow me to explain what I mean above in just a little more detail. Penczak states in his initial four introductory chapters two main themes. One theme is that he completely supports total flexibility and abstraction. He even suggests that the "Qabalah" is nothing more than a 'reality map". He further suggests that it's merely ONE of many reality maps. He advocates the idea that it's not the only one and the idea that many other "Reality Maps" may exist that do not even remotely resemble the Qabalah. However, at the very same time he presents the Qabalah in it's traditional detail which is quite dogmatic and culturally oriented.

So there are two ways this book can be taken. One way is to accept it as an abstraction that came from various cultures and may be freely manipulated to fit your own world view. The other way is to accept it as a very dogmatic formalism demanding that all of the god's names are preserved precisely and all of the rituals associated are duplicated in precise detail. I freely confess, and openly admit that I opt for the first choice. I intend do use this information quite abstractly and will freely change the names of the gods etc, to fit the pantheon that I have already chosen.

You may ask, "Why even bother studying the Qabalah if you're just going to ignore the dogmatic details? My answer to that question is quite simply. It's the "Bird's-eye" view of the overall magickal map that is important. The details are truly irrelevant IMHO. I sincerely believe that the "gods" will be quite pleased with any names or pantheons you choose to use to visualize them. I believe those things to be unimportant to the "gods". All that is important to the "gods" is that you turn to them for guidance and help. They don't care if you see them as being a Moon Goddess, or a Jealous Mediterranean Godhead throwing lightening bolts or a Norse God carrying a hammer. Those are all human visions. The "gods" are not stuck in a particular persona or form like humans are. So however you choose to visualize them it up to you. This is what I have chosen to believe for myself. And thus this is how I approach the Qabalah.

What is the Qabalah?

Well, as I stated earlier it's a "Reality Map". It's an abstract map of reality. It viewed as a 'Tree' and often referred to as the "Tree of Life". It has much history that Penczak believes started with the ancient Babylonians. It contains culture influences attributed to the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Israelites and many other cultures including the Christian Culture which influenced it much later (obviously after the time of Christ), and finally it has many Celtic additions that came along as Christianity and Judaic religious folklore and traditions spread across Europe and encountered the "Celts" who had originally been practicing pantheistic religions more closely associated with the Far Eastern and Asian mysticism.

How is the Qabalah spelled?

Well, for the Witchcraft traditions it's basically spelled the way I've been spelling it thus far, "Qabalah", and this is the spelling the Penczak uses almost exclusively throughout his book. However he points out that this is not the original spelling. The original name for this representation of the Tree of Life is unknown. It is believed by some to have originally been inspired from mandalas used in India. The Israelites originally named their version of it the Kaballah, Kabalah, or Kabbalah. They were indeed given credit also for having created this particular graphic representation (call a "glyph" which I'll eventually post a picture of).

Later when Christianity took over they renamed it, Cabalah (using a "C" for Christ). They also changed it up quite a bit and eventually abandoned it altogether around the 1600's as being "witchcraft".

The Celts introduced the "Q" and typically write it as Qabalah. (although some people still use a double 'b" or double "l' as in Qabbalah, or Qaballah.

I've personally chosen Qabalah as my favorite, and I see that Penczak has adopted that spelling as his favorite as well, as he uses this spelling primarily throughout the book with the exception of the times when he specifically references the Jewish Kabbalah which he spells as I just did here.

So as you can see, this particular Reality Map has already been through the culture "ringers". My personal goal is to discover the fundamental abstract truths behind it, and I'm not the least bit concerned with preserving any dogmatic cultural-specific details. I choose to use the Celtic spelling, Qabalah, simply because I find it most pleasing to my eye. I choose what attracts me intuitively.

Wow, this is turning into a rewrite of his whole book huh?

Actually this information came from the first four chapters, so we're about to begin addressing the actual Qabalah now.

Owl be back later with my actual 'notes'. All of the above was mostly an introduction for your sake so you could have some clue of where all this is coming from.

In my next post I'll get into explaining the actual Qabalah.

James, do you find the accompanying cd sets useful or no?

Yes and no.

Yes, I found them useful, and I still use them from time to time. However, since they are 'carved in stone' and never change they become redundant really quick.

I also have a few quirky things that I don't like that Penczak does on every frigg'in last disk. So I'm finding them more and more difficult to use because of these little annoyances. They may not annoy you though so I can't speak to that.

I did find them useful as "examples". But you could certainly get away there by just listening to one of them. Maybe you could borror the CDs via Library loan? Try that.

The Temple books are to valuable to have laying around all the time to be borrowing them. But the CDs are something you won't mind returning, trust me.

You're better off investing your money in just pure meditation music.

Although, everyone is different and so I can't really know how well a 'guided' mediation will work for you. Like I say, they were good in the early going, but now they are just boring old stuff.

I didn't bother getting the CDs for this High Witchcraft book.

I bought all the other CDs and, yes, I'm sorry I did. If you're only going to by one of the sets I'd get the Outer Temple set. They have at least one track of pure sound with no voice-over. I actually use that track alot. It's a circle casting guide and the music can even be played when casting a circle.

I use it for journeying at night a mostly.

Having said all of that I do like guided meditations because they tend to help keep me focused. I wouldn't do them all the time, but they can be helpful for certain things. I've actually been thinking about making my own CDs, taylored for me specifically.

I know what I need to get me into a deep meditative journey and then I can stop talking and just let the music play until I come out of the journey.

I never use "call backs". I just journey for as long as the journey lasts. If I fall asleep in the journey and it becomes a lucid dream all the better. I seldom say my 'farewells' to the spirits because I seldom leave a journey on purpose. I either fall asleep or come out of it naturally because of something that was happening in the journey itself.

Of course, I haven't met any spirits yet that I felt connected with well enough to need to say goodbye, other than Raol, and even that relationship is only just beginning. I just have an intutive feeling that she's not going anywhere anyway so she knows that we'll always meet again.

So from a financial point of view, I would say the accompanying CDs are definitely something you can pass on. But do try to see if you can get them via interlibrary loan.

Which books are you buying?

I wouldn't buy the High Witchcraft book if I were you.

The only reason being is that it's hard to read, a bit "stuffy", and I'm going to be basically telling you all about it right here.

At least my perception of it anyway.

In fact, owl be translating it, and actually morphing it into something that may be far more meaningful to you as a witch.

Qabalah Basics

This is the basic glyph (graphic) of the Qabalah or "Tree of life"



I'll break this up for you in a moment, but first let me just describe it. It's a 'tree' of spheres called sephiroth (plural) or sephirah (singular).

Each sphere contain the name of a "God" or "Goddess". These are also related to consciousness associated with each of the plants or other 'heavenly' bodies. Well, get into that later. It doesn't really matter because it all boils down to these "god" concepts. All of these "god" concepts actually represent various forms of consciousness or mental states.

Allow me to list the Gods from the top down and what they represent

The Divine Triad

1. Kether - the Great Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Ultimate Creator.
2. Chokmah - the Father Spirit, the Horned God, The Yang
3. Binah - the Mother Spirit, The Crone, The Yin

These three define the Holy Triad.

The Abyss

No number: Da'ath - this isn't truly part of the tree. It's an 'abyss'.

Notice that I put a horizontal dashed line across here. I put that in to show that Da'ath represents a divisional abyss that exists between the creators and the created. This is not an un-crossable abyss. It's just an important point of passage that will be discussed later.

Notice that the divine triad (triangle) points up toward the heavens away from Da'ath (the abyss). This is important to note.

The Soul Triad

4. Chesed - the God of Mercy, (also Emotions in particular love and compassion)
5. Geburah - the God of Might, (also of purity and forgiveness though)
6. Tiphareth - the Sun God, (the god of balance and harmony)

This triad represent the human soul. Mercy and Might, (Mercy and Severity) need to be brought into balance via Tiphareth the God of harmony and balance.

Notice that this triad (or triangle) points down toward the Earth or physical manifestation and also away from Da'ath (the abyss).

The soul tends toward earthly things. The divine tends toward heavenly things.

Both tend to "flow" away from Da'ath (the abyss).

The idea here is that until you cross the abyss you will always have a tendency to be drift toward earthy things. Things of 'self', things of 'ego', things of earthy form. However, once you have crossed the abyss of Da'ath then your natural tendency will be to move toward divine purpose.

The Persona Triad

The next triad is considered to be the realm of everyday waking consciousness. In this comparison the soul triad could be thought of as the subconscious, and divine triad as the divine consciousness (the cosmic mind of "god").

In this everyday waking consciousness there are three sephiroth. These represent our fundamental waking persona or personality and are quite consciously malleable. In other words, we have full waking consciousness of these three sephiroth.

7. Netzach - the god of Victory, (also of achievement, accomplishment, triumph)
8. Hod - the god of Glory, (also of splendor, praise, approval, understanding)
9. Yesod - the god of Foundation, (also of manifestation, wisdom, guidance)

Notice that this Triad also points down toward the Earth. This also implies that the ego is at work here and the main goal of the persona is to indeed become a personality that has been manifest in physical form.

The 'ego' should not be thought of in a derogatory way here. There is nothing wrong with being oriented toward focusing on the persona that is being physically manifest. In fact, we should purposefully work on this. We should work on creating an 'ego' that is alignment with the Divine Will. We don't need to 'lose' the ego. On the contrary, the ego is a GIFT from the Gods. It is the individual personality in physical form that life is all about.

So our goal is not to rid ourselves of an ego, but rather to take genuine control of it via our divine will that is in our SOUL. (see Soul the triad above).

The Earth

The last sephirah is called Mulkuth (better know as Gaia by the Greeks). Mother Earth.

10. Mulkuth - the Kingdom, (The God of Earth, Gaia, The physical world)

The Lord's Prayer to Kether

And now I would like to share with you a secret that Penczak revealed in his book. Of course even Penczak confesses that there will be controversy over this, but this is what he suggests:

The very popular "Lord's Prayer" that was attributed to Jesus has actually existed as part of the Qabalah tradition long before Christianity even came to be (at least in part)

The following prayer is supposedly an ancient Qabalah Tradition that existed long before Jesus was born:

"For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, Amen"

Kether is the God being prayed to here and the "Kingdom" is the Earth.

Heaven is at hand. (Sound familiar?)

My Personal Re-organization of the Qabalah

Before moving on to discussing the difference between "High" versus "Low" magic I would like to take this opportunity to rearrange the Qabalah as I personally use it. This is an on-going thing for me so this isn't carved in stone. However, I offer my re-organization here for the witches. I reorganize it using witch traditions and my own intuition.

The names of changed, but the "Realty Map" is the unchanged.



All I've done here is rename the sephiroth using ideals and concepts that are better suited to the traditions of witchcraft. Although the names have changed the concepts of consciousness have not. So this is still the same "Reality Map", it's just translated into a language that makes more sense to me, and potentially to any witch.

The Divine Triad

1. The Great Spirit - This is the underlying force or spirit of all creation
2. The Father God - However you view this deity (it's basically Yang)
3. The Mother Goddess - Again however you think of her (it's basically Yin)

This is the same concept, just renamed to a more familiar "pantheon".

(I'm going to flip this horizontally as well, as a personal preference in a moment so watch for that)

The Mother Goddess be thought of as "all three" aspects of the Moon Goddess if you like.

The Abyss

Just skip Da'ath altogether for now. Just recognize that there is an 'abyss' between the soul and spirit that needs to be 'crossed'.

The Soul Triad

4. The Crone - this is the wise aspect of the Moon Goddess. (at least for me)
5. The Horned God - this is Father God in nature.
6. The Sun God - I see this as just yet another aspect of the Father God as well, but in harmony with the Goddess too.

The Sun God is a reflection of the "Great Spirit" above. Think of this Soul Triad as being a direct 'reflection' of the Spirit triad.

This is one reason why I'm going to flip the Divine Triad horizontally. So the Crone reflects the Mother Goddess, the Horned God reflects the Father Goddess, and the Sun God reflects the Great Spirit.

In fact, let's do that now. I'm just flipping the Divine Triad about the horizontal axis so it better reflects this new pantheon. It's just a flip of Yin and Yang. And for me personally this just makes so much more sense in so many ways. But then I change up some other stuff too as I'll point out.




In fact I've also renamed the two outer pillars. I call the Yang side, the pillar of Logos (logic/rational) and the Yin side, the pillar of Pathos (emotional/intuitive)

Now we have a "Reality Map" that is more easily recognizable to the witch.

I personally recommend changing this up in whatever way feels best for you. The key idea here is to recognize the triads and what they mean, Spirit, Soul, and Persona, with the manifestation of the physical body being at the root.

Which way does this tree Grow?

Well, the great spirit created the universe from the top down. However, as humans in bodily form we work from the bottom up. Although it's not our purpose to physically make that journey but rather to make it consciously.

As humans we will always be rooted in the body temple.
As humans we will always be a manifestation of our persona
As humans we will always have an 'ego' (a sense of individuality)

Yet the idea is to recognize that we can use that individual for the higher good of all individuals. For the higher good of all souls. For the higher good of all spirit. For the divine purpose.

What is the divine purpose?

"For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever, Amen"

From the Labyrinth Way (which is basically this very same Reality Map done up quite differently) we learn our purpose from Capricorn:

"Our purpose in life is to create Heaven on Earth"

It's the same thing as the "Lord's Prayer to Kether". The same thing that the writer's of the gospels attributed to the teachings of Jesus.

Alternative Maps

So now we have a Qabalah glyph that makes a little more sense to a witch.

This is also closely associated with the "Labyrinth Garden" that I've created but haven't yet completed as a 'web site'. It is completed in my mind and in my notes, but it's not completed as a 'web site'.

In any case, I'll offer one last picture of the Qabalah that I had created previously using other sources of information.

This map is more detailed with planet symbols and tarot connections for the pathways between the triads. This is all covered in Penczak's book, including the Tarot connections. Although Penczak's final Qabalah isn't going to match up with my final Qabalah because I've taken the liberty to put mine in terms that are far more meaningful to me. I won't hesitate to move things around until they make more sense to me. After all, I see the big picture. I understand what's going on here. It's all about consciousness and learning how to willfully attain a new state of consciousness via intent. It's a MAP of consciousness. So feel free to organize your own map in the way that works best for you.

Here's my map, and it may change in details as I learn more. (it's a work in progress)

I have inner and outer temples from a long time ago. I read them years ago and I did have the cd for the inner temple. I loaned out the cd and never got it back. Come to think of it, I think I loaned out the book as well but replaced it.

I vaguely remember the cd so that's why I asked you. And now that I hear you talking about it I remember thinking that it would only be good for a few times before it got too repetitive. So thank you for reminding me.

I was looking for the shamanic one at the bookstore which they didn't have. But they had another and now the name escapes me. It was a part 2 book that focused on the Sun God. So I assumed part 1 focuses on the Moon Goddess.

I am very excited to be getting back to my studies again and I appreciate your posting on the High Witchcraft book.

Well, I was planning on writing all this stuff up anyway for my own benefit. After having been a teacher I found that the very best way to actually learn something is to teach it. Or at least share it, and especially by writing it up and organizing it. That process helps to organize it in my own brain as well.

By the way, if you would like to create your own version of the 'Qabalah Tree' You could send me the names or labels that you would like to see in each sephirah and I could just stick them into one of these graphics for you.

In fact, you'd like to modify the Qabalah tree that I created with the Tarot paths I could do that for you too (using the same basic artwork, just rearranging the path names to better suit your needs).

I've changed some tarot names.

Like I call the Hierophant "Guru". I call Justice "Creativity", I call Judgment "Enlightenment", I call the Hanged Man the "Hanged Fae".

I have reasons for my madness.

I'm not sure how far I'll go with the actual Qabalah glyph. R. J. Stewart had suggested various forms of meditations that can be created from various "Triads". There are actually many "Triads".

The three major ones, Spirit, Soul, and Persona are the main idea.

But then any three sephiroth can be connected as a triangle and used as a meditation (or playground of consciousness).

For example you can meditate on the pathos triad:



or the logos triad:



Or the "Stellar" or "Divine" triad:



Or the "Solar" or "Soul" triad:



Or the "Moon" or "Persona" triad"



The idea is that these various glyphs and conscious concepts can be helpful at various times.

The more you use them, the more you recognize which ones are meaningful for you.

Also, never be afraid to change things up if they aren't right. Like moving tarot paths around, etc.

This whole reality map is just a man-made thing that is the culmination of many different cultures and there is no precise way to set it up. Especially with respect to Tarot. I've seen so many different versions of the Qabalah assocaited with Tarot I just tossed my hands in the air and decided to create my own version.

I did use one I found as a starting point. But I changed it up quite a bit actually.

And like I say, this is just another way of creating a "Labyrinth Path". The Qabalah is more like a "Maze Path" because instead of haiving one long single path, it's a maze of a bunch of paths that all intersect at various sephiroths.

The important thing to get out of the Qabalah is nothing more than the idea that it is a TOOL to be used to help organize your own conscious journey.

So just like any other tool it should be used in a way that best fits your own personal needs.

Taking notes here.

Well, I'm going to go through this book at warp speed I'm afraid.

I think I've already posted the bulk of actual "useful" information.

I just finished another chapter. It's a difficult chapter to summarize. Mainly because Penczak offers so many different views on it. He's basically summarizing every culture's view and they all see it differently.

I also just looked at how he has laid out the Tarot in the pathways, and they are totally different from the way I laid them out. I don't care for the way he has them laid out at all. (I doubt that he even laid them out, he probably got that idea from somewhere else).

In any case, he doesn't go into much depth with the tarot. It's more of just a passing comment to mention that people do this.

I like the Tarot paths because I understand Tarot. And now that I understand something of the Qabalah I can merge to two together in a way that is meaningful for me. I'm not looking for any dogmatic precision. It's all just man-made maps anyway.

I think the Qabalah is a cool and useful idea, but I'm not buying anyone's claim that particular forms of it are any closer to being 'divine' than any other form.

So everything I post is pretty much my own ideas, although I am trying to convey some of what Penczak has to offer.

This book is supposed to be a year-and-a-day "course". But I think I will have finished it by next week.

I'm not going to 'study' any dogmatic details. I'm just not interested in that. It's been riddled with too many different ideas from different cultures.

But like I say, overall, it still has "Map" value that I find worthwhile.

James, this is good stuff!

And if you've already given us all the useful information out of the book then I'm glad I'm not buying it.

A lot of writers who write amazing books, say 2 to 4 books, like Cunningham, are put under a lot pressure by publishers to keep producing. (Or they really want to stay in the spotlight, but I never saw Cunningham like that) So, they write books that rehash what's already in their other books or they write books where they just don't have enough to say.

I don't know if that's the case here or not, but it may be.

Anyway, I will be happy when my new computer arrives next week so I can start printing this stuff out. And stop reading on my Blackberry. Very hard to take it all in on this little device.

Well, what I've posted thus far is at least the "Most" useful, for me.

I hope I can glean some more useful information as I go.

But like Penczak stated at the onset:

The basic KEY to the Qabalah is that it's a "Reality Map" of Conciousness

All the rest is just dogmatic cultural details, that may or may not apply to any given individual.

Also like I said, it's not really too much different from the tarot's journey of the Fool, or my Labyrinth Garden witch is just the Journey of the Fool with the addition of the Planet God/desses, and the Zodaic "tossed in". But tossing those in truly seemed to fit well and even fill in some critical gaps.

At least I felt so.

I do like the way these 'Triads' in the Qabalah help to sort out the concepts of Spirit, Soul, and Persona though.

There is still much insight to be had.

I could write my own book on "High Witchcraft" already.

At least based on what I've read from Penczak (and previously from R. J. Stewart's "The Miracle Tree") And also from a book I have called the "Faery Teachings" which does this whole thing in yet another approach using the realms of the Fae.

But it's all the same idea.

The Buddhists do it two via their "Mandalas".

He even mentions a form used by the American Indians.

Owl be back later with more posts on the Qabalah, and "High Magick"

I think there is more to glean here about "High Magick"

In fact, I have an entire post to make on that topic yet as well.

I'm tying to get the Qabalah "Basics" out of the way first.

A Ritual to Help you “Lighten Up”

You can adapt this for basically any purpose you like, but this one is particular is for when you need a lift; for when you need to see a little humor in your everyday life. It really is a lot of fun, and when life gets you down, you need a little fun.

Set up your altar, but make a horrid mess of it. Make the surface of your altar reflect the chaos that you’re feeling at the moment…get in touch with that frustration and allow yourself to feel it. If you want to dress in your grubbiest of clothes, take off your make-up and take down your hair, do it! It’s important that you fully allow yourself to feel all of these things.

Stand in front of your altar and hold your hands up high. Accept the fact you need a little help and reach out for it. Say something like:

All the powers of the elements, Earth Air Fire Water and Spirit
I welcome you to my circle of chaos!

All the powers of Chaos, of Laughter, Fun and Mischief,
I honor you!

Thank you for my lost house keys, the washing that keeps falling off the line, the cat hair on my good jacket, and the burnt toast this morning.

Thank you for reminding me that confusion and chaos makes me ask what I need to know and examine what I do know.

Tomorrow I will have my day in court. For 2 years I have let my ex get away with not paying child support because I don't like confrontation. What can I say, I'm a Cancer.

Of course, I am just sick thinking about it. But I am ready. After 2 months of threatening to take my children and cause me as much trouble as possible he has finally consented to pay. Now its just a matter of what the court orders him to pay. He has submitted papers claiming hardships he doesn't have. But I have a lot of evidence documented and ready to go. I have everything I need and this should go very smoothly.

I have a spell all ready to for a successful case. However I am opting not to use it. Mercury is retrograde and I have had things go awry when I have done spells during Mercury retrograde in the past. I don't want to screw up a great case by doing a spell that backfires.

I'm not posting this for any reason other than it helps me to talk about things when I'm scared or upset. And I figure this is a good place to post it. I don't think anyone comes in here.

I will try using some claming techniques all day to keep myself focused and keep the upset stomache away. And maybe something to help me sleep tonight. Exercise is good. Maybe I will swim some laps.

That's a good ritual John! I seriously need to do that one here. But I don't need to mess up my altar. My whole HOUSE is a mess. Owl just cast a circle around the whole thing and invite any spirits who are willing to help me clean it up.

Yes, this place is like the nice little quaint table in the back corner of a resturant out of the direct lighting and commotion with only candlelight to illuminate those who share their deepest darkest secrets.

Good luck Ruth although I doubt seriously your ex will be relieved from paying child support. I am sure he will have to rather he wants to or not. I also astonish myself that a man or a woman does pay child support??? Your child needs the money to make it in the world. Clothes, food, dentist, etc. etc.

Probably why I never have a huge savings, because I even help children that are not mine. It is just in my nature.

Yes this is the friendliest thread on Mingle2. We are here for you and I hope the family is here for me also!


James I found that ritual on a website. I will have to look for it again so I can give you the link.

It might be a great way to remind ourselves to not always be so serious. At least at times when I have the time to reflect back, I get this way. I need to lighten up and really take it easy at times. I also need to understand I can't help everyone either.

Just as a personal comment, if I were in this situation I wouldn't even think in terms of doing a spell. The reason being that you're not directing forces of nature here. You're intereacting with other spirits. It's my personal 'belief' (or maybe a ethical thing) that it niether within my power, nor my scope of authority to direct the 'spirit' or 'will' of another person via magick.

I is proper for me to attempt to 'convince' another spirit to consider certain actions. This is what you are doing when you present your case. You are attempting to convince the judge to consider a particular solution.

Two things come to mind here.

First, you are not "up against" your ex. You are merely attempting to impress a judge. It's only you and the judge. In your mind you ex doesn't even need to be part of it. You're not arguing with your ex. You're merely impressing a judge.

So don't fall into the trap of becoming angry toward your ex, because that only appears to the judge as being anger directed at him or her.

Just totally ignore your ex, and direct all of your consciouness to the judge in perfect love and perfect trust.

Before you go simply ask the God, Goddess, and Great Spirit that the judge be FAIR.

That is the only spiritual thing you need to do in this case.

Then go and present your case to the judge. Stay focused on the judge and smile a lot to the judge. And speak only to the judge and never direct any comments to your ex unless it is absolutely required.

You are going to meet with a judge. Your ex is but a fleeting shadow flickering in the background.

That is the consciousness you need to meditate on and carry with you to this meeting.

You LOVE the judge! (well don't flirt with him, but you get my drift I hope)

He's on your side. Meet with him in perfect love and perfect trust. Ignore the 'shadow' of the past. His meeting with the judge is his own journey. You are seperate from him.

Go meet with the judge.