A bath for work with Alloces: astronomy, the liberal sciences, and faithful familiars

Why a bath, before a working

A bath before a working is preparation, not indulgence, and it is worth saying so plainly, because the two are easily confused. An ordinary bath washes the body. A magick bath, taken before a working, washes the day off the practitioner: the errands, the arguments, the noise of ordinary business. You step out of one state and into another, and the water is the threshold between them.

That threshold matters most when the working itself is a matter of study and attention, rather than a matter of force. A practitioner who arrives at a working still carrying the day will bring the day into the working, and will spend the first part of it trying to settle. A bath taken deliberately, with the purpose named beforehand, does much of that settling in advance, so that the working can begin where it should begin.

This article is about a bath made for work with Alloces, a spirit of astronomy and the liberal sciences, and about how such a bath is used: added to water, taken over three days, and kept as part of a preparation, not as a substitute for the working itself.

Alloces, and what working with him is for

The Grimoire Companion entry for Alloces is a teacher's entry: Alloces is a Duke with thirty-six legions, who teaches astronomy and all liberal sciences, and who grants good and faithful familiars. That is a teaching spirit, first of all, and the bath made for his work belongs in that frame.

Astronomy, in this tradition, is not stargazing for pleasure alone, though pleasure is part of it. It is a liberal science: a disciplined study of the heavens, their motions, and their places, learned over years, with observations kept in a record and judgments tested against what is seen. A bath before astronomical study does not replace that study. It prepares the student for it, by clearing the mind for the long, quiet attention the night sky demands.

The liberal sciences, more broadly, are the arts of a free mind: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, in the older reckoning. They are learned, not downloaded, and they reward the student who returns to them daily. A bath taken over three days fits that rhythm: it is a preparation repeated, not a single gesture, and repetition is itself part of what the sciences teach.

Good and faithful familiars complete the entry, and the adjectives matter. Good, in this context, means suited to the work and sound in it. Faithful means steady over time, not brilliant for a night and gone by morning. A familiar of that kind is given to a practitioner who has shown the same qualities in study: steadiness, attention, and a willingness to return daily. Neither familiars nor teaching is promised here, and neither is a reason to take a bath and then do nothing else.

What the bath is, and how it is used

That is a statement about materials, and it is worth taking at face value: a bath made from roots and herbs, not from synthetic fragrance, will smell like roots and herbs, and will behave like them in water, leaving bits behind.

To use any of these baths, you simply add them to a pot of water, approximately one litre or so. If you do pour everything in, including the bits of herbs, just use either a strainer to get the chunks out after your bath, or one of those fish tank nets, or a bird catching net. It is best to take each bath each day for three days in a row.

Those instructions answer the practical questions before they are asked. A litre of water is the preparation, not the bath itself: the herbs are steeped, and the preparation is added to the bath. The strainer or net is for afterwards, so that the tub is not left full of herb matter. And three days in a row is the course, not a single bath taken when convenient. A course taken properly has a shape: a first day of beginning, a second day of continuing, and a third day of completing, and that shape is part of the preparation.

Taking the bath as preparation

Take the bath as you would prepare for any serious working: set the time aside, do not rush it, and name the purpose beforehand, in your own words. What study are you preparing for? What question are you bringing to it? What, exactly, are you asking Alloces's teaching to clarify? If you cannot answer those questions before you step into the water, sit with them first, and take the bath when you can.

During the bath, do less, not more. Do not fill the time with reading, with music, or with planning the working in detail. Let the water do the work of settling, and let the mind quieten. The working itself will have its own time, and it will be better for not having been rehearsed to exhaustion in the bath.

After the bath, dry, dress in clothes set aside for the working, and go to the working itself, whether that is study at a desk, observation under the sky, or a rite at the altar. Note, in your record, the day of the course, the purpose in one sentence, and what you noticed in the working that followed. Over three days, that record will show whether the preparation is settling you, or whether something else in the day needs changing first.

A note on what is not promised

Nothing in this article promises a result from taking a bath, and nothing here should be read as medical advice or as a substitute for medical care. A magick bath is ritual preparation, done by a practitioner, alongside ordinary care where that care is needed, not instead of it. If you need medical attention, get that attention first, in the ordinary world.

The bath is also not a substitute for study. Alloces's teaching, in the Grimoire Companion entry, is a teaching of sciences that take years to learn, and a bath taken for three days does not confer them. What it can do is prepare the student, day by day, to learn them properly. That is a modest claim, and it is the honest one. Take it in that spirit, keep the record, and judge the preparation by whether your study itself becomes steadier.

Alloces Goetia bath

I offer a small sample of the magick baths I carry, made only from one hundred percent pure roots, herbs, and sometimes essential oils, with no synthetics used. This one is for work with Alloces, taken as a course over three days. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made from pure materials, for this work. A matching Alloces oil and a matching Alloces incense are also offered, for spirit work and spellwork with Alloces, if your practice calls for them.

Alloces Goetia bath, $44.00 CAD. View the product

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