Marax oil: anointing for astronomy, the liberal sciences, and faithful familiars
Marax, Earl of the Goetia, and what he is called for
In the Grimoire Companion data, Marax is an Earl who teaches astronomy and all liberal sciences, and grants wise and faithful familiars. That is a precise office, and it is worth taking precisely. Marax is not a general spirit for general wishes. He is a spirit of learning, of the order of the heavens, and of companions in the work who can be trusted.
Astronomy here means the older sense of the word: the study of the stars and their courses, and the knowledge that follows from understanding them, not a modern hobbyist's interest in telescopes. The liberal sciences are the arts of a free and educated mind: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy itself. A practitioner who calls on Marax is therefore asking for help with study, with understanding, and with the kind of knowledge that has to be learned properly, over time, rather than acquired in an evening.
The familiars Marax grants are described as wise and faithful. Faithfulness is the quality to notice. A familiar that is clever but unreliable is a liability in any working. A familiar that is wise and faithful is a companion to the work itself, and that is what Marax is said to give.
Why an oil, and what anointing does in this work
An oil is a different kind of tool from incense or a seal. Incense fills the room. A seal is held and carried. An oil goes on the skin, on the seal, or on the tools, and it stays there for a time after the working. Anointing is a deliberate, physical act: a small amount, applied with attention, naming the purpose in your own words. It marks the working as begun, and it marks the thing anointed as set apart for that purpose.
Athena hand makes all of her own perfumes, colognes, and oils from only pure essential oils, roots, and herbs, with the odd gemstone thrown in as well. She uses no extraneous ingredients or fillers, and no synthetics. That matters for an oil more than for almost any other tool, because an oil is put on the body. A practitioner with sensitive skin, or with a practice that calls for anointing the forehead or the hands, needs to know what is in the bottle, and a short, honest ingredient list is part of that trust.
All colognes, perfumes, and oils are in a half-ounce bottle, about twice as large as the little health food store essential oil bottles, unless otherwise stated. A half-ounce bottle is enough for many workings, used sparingly, and it is small enough to keep with the working tools rather than on a general shelf.
Study as a magical practice
There is a temptation, in spirit work, to treat learning as a preliminary that can be skipped. Marax work corrects that temptation directly. If the office of the spirit is teaching, then study is not the preparation for the working. Study is the working, or at least a large part of it. A practitioner who calls on Marax and then does no reading, takes no notes, and practices no discipline of study has not really engaged the spirit's office at all.
That is why a record matters so much in Marax work. Note what you studied, when, for how long, and what you understood that you did not understand before. Note the questions that arose, and whether they were answered in the work or left open. Over weeks, that record shows whether the study is deepening or merely circling, and it gives the practitioner something real to bring to the next working, rather than a vague feeling that something should have happened.
Be specific about what you want to learn. Reflection about being specific about what you want is part of good practice generally, and it is especially important here. 'Teach me everything' is not a petition. It is a shrug. 'Help me understand this text, this science, this part of the work' is a petition a practitioner can actually pursue, and a teacher, spirit or human, can actually answer.
Anointing the seal, the tools, and yourself
In a Marax working, the oil can be used in several ways, according to your own practice. Anoint the seal, if you work with one, deliberately, before the working begins. Anoint the tools that will be used for study or for the rite. Anoint your own hands or forehead, if your practice calls for that, in a small amount, naming the purpose. Each of these is a separate act, and each should be done with attention, not hurried through as a preliminary.
Do not anoint carelessly, and do not use an oil as a perfume for ordinary wear unless that is part of your practice. A working oil kept for workings, and used only for workings, stays associated with the work in the practitioner's mind. That association is not superstition. It is how attention is trained: the scent becomes a cue that the working has begun, and the mind follows the cue.
After the working, close properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the oil away with the working tools. Keep the bottle closed and upright, away from heat and light, so that it keeps its scent and strength for the next working.
Marax incense, the companion to this oil
Marax also has a matching incense, at $44 CAD, for spirit work and spellwork with Marax, hand made in small batches when you order. Incense and oil are companions in this work, not substitutes for one another. The incense fumigates the room, the seal, and the tools, and rises while the words are spoken. The oil anoints, and stays on what it has touched. Used together, in a working that calls for both, they mark the rite in two different senses at once: the air, and the skin.
This article is about the oil, so it does not turn into a second article about incense. But it is worth knowing the companion exists, because a working that uses only one sense, when the practice calls for both, is a thinner working than it could be. If your practice calls for fumigation, use the incense for that. If it calls for anointing, use the oil for that. Let each tool do the job it was made for.
One more caution belongs in Marax work, and it is a practical one. Do not anoint with an oil you have not tested on a small area of skin first, if you have sensitive skin or any known sensitivity to essential oils, roots, or herbs. A working interrupted by irritation is a working whose attention has been broken, and attention is the one thing a rite cannot do without. Test first, in the ordinary world, and then use the oil in the working with confidence, knowing that the tool suits you as well as it suits the rite.
Marax Goetia evocation oil
For study, for the sciences, and for faithful companions in the work, an oil made for Marax is a tool for anointing. This is the oil I offer for that work: Marax Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD. View the product
I hand make this oil myself from only pure essential oils, roots, and herbs, with no fillers and no synthetics, and I bless each one 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.
Marax also has a matching incense, at $44 CAD, for spirit work and spellwork with Marax.
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