The complete Ghost Flower Ritual is available for you.

Simply start by clicking the "Start the Ritual" button below. If you want to learn more about the background and my experiences with the ritual click the "More" button.

If you want to see before and after pictures of me -- and an explanation of some of the benefits of the ritual click "Before and After."

You don't need to know the background information to do the ritual, but if you take the time to prowl the Ghost Flower blog and all its links, you'll find a lot of magick.

What the ritual  can do for you:

* Help with healing and trauma.
* Shower you with artistic and creative inspiration.
* Teach you magick.
* Help you overcome obstacles.
* Reveal latent knowledge and talents. 

And lots more....

A Facebook friend of mine  just had his life upset in some very serious ways. He made a post asking if it might be possible that he was under a magical curse of some kind. I'm sure we've all felt like this from time to time.

The good news is: it's easy to get rid of any curse or malevolent, "clinging" parasites or magickal energies that might be vibrating your way.

Here's what you do.

1) Get a small (white) candle, like a birthday candle or a chime candle.
2) Get a small bowl.

Go to a private place and take off all of your clothes. Rub the candle on your body, starting with your head and rolling toward your extremities. So, start at your head and roll the candle down toward your fingertips on one side, then the other. 

For below the shoulders roll toward your feet. 

Get every nook and cranny. Always roll away from your body toward an extremity. Once you've finished with your entire body, put on some fresh clothes.

Take the candle and slightly melt the butt end so it will stand up inside your small bowl. Once it's standing, put water in the bowl. 

Burn the candle until it goes out. Watch the flame and the water to see signs of who (if anyone) is trying to harm you magically.

Now put the water in a small container and go somewhere away from your home. Dump the water out over your left shoulder. 

Walk away and don't look back. 

That's it.  You're now free of any curses. Works best during a waning moon.

Me before the Ghost Flower Ritual. 

Me after completing the Ghost Flower Ritual.

Prior to the ritual I hadn't written or published a poem since 2008. Since completing the ritual, I've published over a dozen poems in journals like California Quarterly, The Cape Rock, The Santa Clara Review, Plainsongs, and The MacGuffin, and I've written over 250 yet-to-be -published poems. 

I've also launched a YouTube music channel with original music, finished (and posted) a number of essays on philosophy, perceptual psychology, and poetry. 

I have two, possibly three, books scheduled to be published this year in 2022. All that while still carrying on a  full-time freelance writing career and keeping about a dozen crazy hobbies afloat.

Of course, dramatic results take time. In my case, years, and they're still unfolding. 

But even if all you do is experience the ritual itself, I believe you'll experience a sense of exaltation and peace that's all too rare in our world these days. And if you choose to follow the spirits and angels you meet along the way further, there's literally no limit on what you can experience and achieve. 

The next morning I could remember nothing, not even a letter, of the flower's name.

Later that afternoon, I went into my study, retrieved the wilted violet, and dumped it, unburned, into the garden. I half-hoped this would rid me of the shadow's presence. 

A week or so passed before I found myself with a  few moments to spare. I resumed my research into Yeats and came across a remarkable scholarly work entitled "W.B. Yeats and the Vegetable Phoenix."  This fascinating study reviewed Yeats' Ghost Flower ritual from the point of view of palingenesis, an archaic, alchemical notion regarding the resurrection of a plant's spirit through arcane processes of distillation.

I soon came across the following lines: "Vallemont indeed warns that, ‘We must not expect a solid Body in this Apparition: ’tis only a Shadow; and if any one should rashly go about to touch this resuscitated Rose, it would fare with him as with the sacrilegious Ixion, who thinking to embrace Juno, found only a flitting Cloud, without any Consistency’." 1

This set my heart racing. Mann's dissertation on palingenesis reignited my determination to perform the full Ghost Flower ritual.

I'd seen the shadow that Vallemont spoke of. I'd forgotten it's name, but not its message. Something inside me still reeled with anger and shame at the shadow's warning against pornographic thoughts. I felt dirty, small, and in many ways pathetic.

That said, my heart soared with the beauty of synchronicity and the mystery of having seen such a wonderful thing.

I would burn another flower. This time I would take proper steps to do it right.

1. Mann, Neil. "W.B. Yeats and the Vegetable Phoenix." Yeats Annual 17, ed. W. Gould (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 3–35.
  

When I got home, I placed the sad little violet in a glass box. I decided to let it dry out and then burn it a week or so later. I had serious doubts as to whether it would generate enough ashes to even give the ritual a chance to work.

I felt deflated. All but a drop of my original enthusiasm had leaked away.

That evening I looked online for a proper bell-jar and decided it wasn't worth the money to buy one. Instead, I'd simply place the glass box in moonlight after I'd burned the scrubby violet.

By the time bedtime came around, I'd forgotten all about the Ghost Flower ritual and my mind was absorbed with plans for my day to day life. I got under the covers and hoped for a good night's dream.

The moon was visible through the partially open curtains of our western facing bedroom window. Its silver light leaked a latticework into the bedroom. I was watching the moonlight and the moon and thinking about how many times the moon had punctuated important events in my life. Once I had a vision of the moon as a Watchman who passed on regular rounds and cared for the earth and everything that lived on it.

​For some reason I could never seem to shake that vision.