Cernobog said, “With the ritual concluded, how do you feel?”
Me: “I feel effects, but I’m not sure what they are.”
C: “You will and you will continue to. And at the end of the year, you will renew your pack – for you will find a value in it just as we will find value in you.”
He stepped backwards and two others appeared that I did not know. They just bowed and one went to the left, one went to the right. Many others did this and I realized that this was because I wouldn’t be working with them in great detail for some time, if at all. Some I recognized, some I didn’t. All three of the Tower members I’ve been introduced to and mentioned in previous posts came.
Lady Nykarleth approached, but Astrael came in front of her.
Astral: “You have some work to do and now we can get down to business. Pledge to me sometime soon and I will continue to increase your abilities.”
(These involved some experimentation I’ve been doing with material from Eye of the Oracle)
Hecate came out of my field of vision to show me she had been watching the ritual. She nodded her approval and then left. I had asked her before the right to make sure this was something I should still do. She wasn’t overtly for it, but did indicate I would find value in it.
N: “Now that you have done that you will find that you’re linking to the shadow realm will become much easier and much more potent. Start forming this more potent version into more useful tools and setting them on their way.”
C: “This is a big step and although we do not require you to take the Shaitanic (specific path), you may consider it for it will benefit you too. Even if you were confused about whether you should serve the Light or the Darkness. One cannot truly serve both but you can Master them.”
There are two different versions of the Blood Pact that I’m aware of. One is from the Black Scriptures. The other from The Left Hand. I recommend the Black Scriptures. The reason is that even though it is longer and has more oration, it does not explicitly include anything other than the Maergzjirah current. The Left Hand version includes language in the vow that includes the Cabal which I would not recommend anybody without serious consideration.
My pact was accepted last night and will last for a year. After this year I will need to renew it and I will make a genuine reassessment of what I am gaining from the current. It also explicitly said that this pact excludes the Cabal, which I consider to be a social control add-on to the underlying Maergzjirah current.
I did have a significant deviation to the ritual itself involving the holy water. The holy water I bought said “external use only”. I didn’t think much of it. Underneath the sticker the ingredients were listed as water and “preservative”. No mention of what this preservative was or how much of it was in there. I only knew that I probably wasn’t going to get answers in time for the ritual. Thus I only splashed a little bit into the beer I used in place of it after I had desecrated it as described in the ritual. I had contemplated calling the ritual off and getting another version of holy water, but was told that these changes would be good enough. I did feel nauseous when I swallowed a wet tongue’s worth of the hold water, but this passed and didn’t return.
Some of the effects that I experienced were interesting. In the ritual itself after the magician has sacrificed part of themselves into the holy water (and beer in my case), Cernobog sacrifices part of his energy as an acceptance of the pact. Part of this energized water is then ingested. I felt this come down my stomach then settle along the center line of my body. It was sort of similar to an inner energetic marking rather than a sentient construct. It’s like an anchored mark and it does allow for faster connections to the two anchors I have already in my ritual space, for the Towers of Umbra and the Iron Throne. The connections were much faster with less effort than before simply by concentrating on that anchor inside of me and putting the intent to open them. Since I have practice doing this numerous times for attunement I can say that this was much, much faster.
I did wake up a lot last night. A lot more than normal and I attributed this to the amount of liquid that I ingested close to bedtime. But during one of these wake ups, Nykarleth came to me and said that she would start working with me in dream. As I drifted off back to sleep I was to go ahead and connect to myself to that anchor point inside and if let myself drift off with the intent of her in my mind and she would then start instructing me. I have no memory of what those dreams were, but that does seem to be an interesting way to learn something that was not offered until after the Pact.
Another interesting occurrence happened as Cernobog was sacrificing some of his energy into the drink. There was a part of it that remained clear it was shaped like a heart. “I will let you keep this”, he said and I was quite grateful. The wording in the pack itself, the one that I did, does have some overly dramatic dark, edgy, all that is good at me is dead and things like that. Having a family meant that I was a little concerned with that because I do take some of these pacts at their word and while intention does play a large part given the language difficulties between spirits and humans, some of those literal words are meant literally. I was glad to see that I would not necessarily have to sacrifice my home front or damage it in a significant way. I’ve gone to great lengths in the past to make sure there was a separation between my family and the paths that I tread down can much darker than average magicians would choose to follow. Those protections and medications have been pretty important and largely effective. But they aren’t foolproof. Cernobog’s offer was definitely appreciated.
I will keep updating the blog as things come about and effects are noticed.
