Working with Crocell: geometry, the liberal sciences, and rushing waters

A teacher of measured things

Crocell is a Duke in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion entry for him joins two subjects that, at first glance, seem far apart: he teaches geometry and the liberal sciences, and reveals the mysteries of rushing waters. Read together, those two halves make a single portrait, and it is a portrait of a teacher of measured things.

Geometry is the science of measure: of lines, angles, figures, and proportions, learned by drawing, by construction, and by proof, not by impression. The liberal sciences, more broadly, are the arts of a free mind, learned over years, with discipline and repetition, and they reward the student who returns to them daily. Rushing waters are also measured things, in their own way: they have a course, a speed, a sound, and a place, and they can be observed, listened to, and learned from, over time, as they change with season and weather.

Crocell work, then, is study work, and observation work. It is not a way to skip the study, or to be given a mystery without doing the observing that the mystery requires. A spirit who teaches geometry does not hand you geometry in a single evening. He teaches it, which means you still have to draw the figure, work the construction, and check it, with your own hand. A spirit who reveals the mysteries of rushing waters does not replace the river. He points you toward it, and toward the attention it demands.

Geometry, learned by drawing

Geometry is learned by drawing, and that simple fact shapes how Crocell work should be done. A figure described in words is not the same as a figure drawn on paper, with a straight edge and a compass, or with whatever tools your practice uses. Drawing forces precision. A line that looked straight in your head will show its wobble on paper. An angle you thought was right will show itself as wrong, when you measure it.

That discipline of drawing is itself part of the working. Set aside time for plain drawing, before any ritual, and keep the drawings. Date them, note what you were trying to construct, and note where the construction failed, and why. A pile of dated drawings, with failures noted honestly, is a better record of geometric study than a pile of perfect copies, because it shows what you actually learned, and where you actually struggled.

Geometry also teaches proportion, and proportion is a useful habit beyond the drawing board. A working, a room, a petition, and a life all have proportions: too much of one thing, and too little of another, and the whole figure is out of true. Learning to see proportion in a drawn figure trains the eye to see it elsewhere, in a working that is overlong, in a petition that tries to cover too much, or in a study plan that promises everything and delivers nothing.

When you bring Crocell into geometric study, bring a clear question with you. Not "teach me everything," but something you can actually work on: a construction you cannot yet complete, a passage in an old text that does not yet make sense, a figure you cannot yet draw cleanly. A specific question gives the working a shape. A vague question gives it nothing to hold.

The liberal sciences, learned daily

The liberal sciences are learned, not downloaded, and they reward the student who returns to them daily. Grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, in the older reckoning, are arts that build on one another, and that cannot be hurried without loss. A student who tries to learn them all at once, in a single burst, will learn none of them well.

That daily rhythm is worth building into Crocell work. A short, regular study, done every day, with notes kept, will teach more, over a season, than a long, irregular burst, done once and then abandoned. The same is true of ritual preparation for study work: a room set aside, a time kept, a book opened at the same hour, and a record kept afterwards, in plain language.

Be specific about which science you are studying, and why. A working for "the liberal sciences" in general is too broad to read afterwards. A working for geometry, this month, with a named construction to learn, can be read: did you learn it, or did you not, and what stood in the way? That specificity is not a limitation on the working. It is what makes the working legible, months later, when you look back at the record.

Rushing waters, observed, not imagined

Rushing waters are best learned by going to them, and that advice sounds obvious, until you notice how often it is skipped. A river, a stream, a rapid, or a fall has a sound, a speed, a colour, and a course that change with rain, with melt, and with season, and those changes are the material of its mysteries, in the practical sense: they are what there is to observe, and to learn from.

Go, and sit, and listen, and watch, without trying to force a meaning onto the water in the first ten minutes. Note the date, the weather, the level of the water as you can judge it, and what you actually saw and heard, in plain language. Return to the same place, in a different season, and note what changed. That returning, and that noting, is the study, and it is a study that cannot be done from a book alone, however good the book is.

Rushing water also teaches a useful caution for ritual work. Water in motion does not wait, and it does not repeat itself exactly. A working that tries to hold a moving matter still, by force, will fail in the same way a hand trying to hold a river fails: not because the water is hostile, but because holding is the wrong relation to a moving thing. Some matters are to be studied as they move, and worked with as they move, rather than frozen. Learning to tell a moving matter from a still one is part of what rushing waters teach, and it is a lesson that applies to study, to projects, and to workings alike.

Take ordinary care around real water. Go in daylight, go with sound footing, and do not put yourself, or a tool, in danger for the sake of a working. A working that requires you to stand in a dangerous place has been planned badly, and a better plan, from a safe bank, will teach you more, because you will be able to attend, rather than to worry about falling.

Preparation, and a clear question

Preparation for Crocell work is preparation for study and observation. Clear the space you will use, and set it aside for this purpose. Gather what you need before you begin, so you are not hunting for a book, a drawing tool, or a seal halfway through a working. Bathe, or wash your hands and face, and change into clothes set aside for the work. That change marks, for yourself, that this time is set apart from ordinary errands.

Then write your question down, in one clear sentence. If you cannot state it in one sentence, you are not ready to light incense yet. Leave the sentence overnight, come back to it, and see if it still reads true. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it.

Be specific about what you want to learn, and honest about what you already know. A petition that says "help me learn this construction, and understand this passage about waters" is a working petition. A petition that says "reveal all mysteries" is a wish, and wishes are hard to read afterwards, because any outcome, or no outcome, can be fitted to them.

Why incense, and how it is used here

Incense fills a room, and for study work that room-filling quality has a plain use. It marks the space, and the time, for the working, and it separates that time from ordinary time. While the incense burns, the working is in progress. When it is done, the working closes, and ordinary time resumes. That bounded time matters for study, because study without bounds becomes either endless drifting, or a chore that is never finished.

Incense is also used, in this tradition, for fumigating tools and talismans that will be used in a working, and for starting a working. If your practice calls for fumigating a seal for Crocell, pass it through the smoke in the order your system teaches. The incense is the material; the method belongs to the system you work in, and a general article is not a substitute for proper teaching in that system.

Light the incense and let the room settle before you speak your petition. Do not rush from lighting to speaking. Give the room a moment to change, and give yourself a moment to notice that change.

How the Crocell incense is made here

We offer a small variety of very rare and very useful incense. We hand make each batch of incense when you order it, unless we have just recently made some, of course. The incenses that we make are of a quality that we use them ourselves for magical work. They work well enough that I use them successfully for spirit work, work for clients, as well as my own spellwork.

Because each batch is hand made when you order, the incense has not been sitting, opened and closed, through other people's orders. It is made for your order, and then blessed by me myself before it is sent out. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this work, and not mass produced.

A simple working order, to adapt to your own practice

The following is a general order, not a fixed script. Adapt it to the system you already work in, and to the instructions you already follow for Goetia work. Do not treat a general article as a substitute for proper teaching in the system.

First, prepare the room and yourself, as above, and have your one-sentence question written down. Second, set out the seal, book, drawing tools, or other materials you will use, and the incense. Third, light the incense and let the space settle. Fourth, speak your petition, clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses its shape. Fifth, do the study or observation itself: draw, read, listen, and take notes, rather than filling the time with more words about the study. Sixth, sit quietly for a time when the study is done, and note what stood out, in plain language. Seventh, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the tools away in their proper place.

Afterwards, keep the record going. A study record is kept over days and weeks, not just on the night of a working. Note the date, the question, what you did, and what you noticed, and revisit it when the same figure, text, or water comes up again. That revisiting is where learning shows itself, or fails to show itself, and either result is information.

Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop

Keep a short record for each working: date, question in one sentence, incense used, what you studied or observed, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. If nothing changes, that is also information. It may mean the question was unclear, the study was too broad, the timing was wrong, or simply that the subject needs more ordinary study before another working.

Do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force understanding. Do the work properly, once, observe, study in the ordinary world between workings, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different question, or a longer period of plain study is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise.

Crocell incense

If you are doing spirit work with Crocell, the incense is for filling the room and setting the working apart, not for show.

I hand make Crocell incense myself, in small batches when you order, and I bless it myself before it is sent out. It is made for spirit work and spellwork with Crocell, for geometry, the liberal sciences, and the mysteries of rushing waters, in the Companion's words. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this work, and not mass produced.

If you want the incense for that work, this is the one I offer: Crocell Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product

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