Ose: Liberal Sciences, Secret Things, and Transformation of Form

Ose, and what working with him is for

Ose is a President in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion entry for him is specific: he makes one wise in all liberal sciences, gives answers of divine and secret things, and grants transformation of form. That is a wide office, and it is worth breaking into its three parts before any working, because each part asks for a different kind of petition, and a petition that tries to cover all three at once will usually cover none of them well.

The liberal sciences are ordered studies: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, in the old division, and by extension any disciplined subject with principles that can be learned in order. Wisdom in such a science does not mean a sudden download of facts. It means understanding that holds together: knowing why a principle works, not only that it is stated in a book. A working with Ose for study, then, should name the subject and the point of difficulty, not merely ask to be wise in general.

Answers of divine and secret things is a different matter. This is divination in its serious sense: asking a clear question about something hidden, and being prepared to receive an answer that is not the one you wanted. Transformation of form is different again. It concerns change in shape, in presentation, in the way a thing or a person appears and is received. Before you work with Ose, decide which of the three you mean, and write it in one sentence. That sentence is the petition, and it is what you will judge afterwards.

Incense is not background scent

Incense is not background scent for this work. It is part of the working itself. That corrects a habit many practitioners bring into the room without noticing it. We are used to scent in ordinary life being pleasant, or atmospheric, or something that makes a room feel nicer. In ritual work, incense does a different job. It marks the time as set apart, it fills the space you are working in, and it stays with you through the working, in a way a spoken word does not.

When you light incense for spirit work and spellwork with Ose, you are not adding decoration to a working that would be the same without it. You are changing the room you are working in, and you are changing your own attention along with it. The smoke, the scent, and the act of lighting itself all tell you, in a physical way, that you have begun. That beginning matters, because a working that has no clear beginning often has no clear end either, and it drifts.

The incenses offered here are hand made in small batches, each batch made when you order it unless some has just recently been made, and they are of a quality Athena uses herself for magical work: for spirit work, for work for clients, and for her own spellwork. That is a practical point, not a boast. An incense you would not use in your own working is not an incense to offer to someone else for theirs. Use it as it is meant to be used: lit deliberately, at the start of the working, in a room prepared for it, not burned casually in the background while you do something else.

Asking a clear question about a secret thing

Divination with Ose stands or falls on the question. A question that is really three questions, or a question that already contains the answer you want, will produce an answer that is hard to read honestly. Before you light the incense, write the question down, in full, in one sentence. Then read it back and ask yourself whether it is actually the question you need answered, or a safer version of it.

There is a second discipline here, which is to decide beforehand how the answer will come. Will it come through a tool you already use, such as cards or a pendulum, through a dream recorded on waking, or through a sign you have agreed in advance to notice? A method agreed beforehand is a method that can be judged. A sign noticed afterwards, from among everything that happened that week, can be made to fit almost anything, and a reading that can fit anything has told you nothing.

Record the question, the method, and the answer in the same entry, on the same day, before you have had time to revise your memory of what was asked. Then leave it alone for a while. Secret things are rarely clarified by staring at them. They are clarified by the record, read back later, when the excitement of the working has cooled and the answer can be weighed against what actually happened.

Study, and transformation, as ordinary disciplines

For the liberal sciences, the ordinary discipline is study in order. Prepare the passage, the problem, or the question you will work on before the incense is lit, so you are not deciding what to study after the working has already begun. Work through it while the incense is burning, and note where you get stuck, in plain language. A working that supports study is judged by whether the study moves: whether the passage yields, whether the problem clarifies, whether you return to the subject the next day without having to force yourself.

Transformation of form needs the same plainness. What form, exactly, is to change? A manner of speaking, a way of presenting yourself, a shape a project takes, a role you are stepping into? Name it. Then name the ordinary steps that belong to that change: the practice, the dress, the speech, the habit. The working frames those steps and holds them steady. It does not replace them, and a magician who expects a change of form without any change of conduct is asking the rite to do something no rite can honestly be said to do on its own.

In both cases, the incense serves the same function. It marks the time, fills the room, and tells you that you have begun. What you do in that marked time is the working, and the record of what you did is the evidence, weeks later, for whether the working was well aimed.

The seal, and how it is worked with

Ose has a seal, shown above, and a seal is a tool, not a picture. In the general way of working with seals, you may hold it, place it under a candle, put oil on it, carry it with you, wear it as a pendant, or show it to your desired person, depending on the nature of the working. For Ose work centred on study or divination, the fitting uses are the quiet ones: holding the seal while you settle to the question, placing it under the candle lit for the working, or keeping it beside the book or the divination tool you are using, so it is present where the work happens.

Keep the seal clean and in a place where it will not be damaged or lost among unrelated objects. A tool you cannot find when you need it, or that you have to hunt for while the incense is already burning, is a distraction built into the working before it starts. Preparation includes knowing where your tools are.

Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop

Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, incense and any oil used, what you did, 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 petition was unclear, the question was wrong, the work was not appropriate, or simply that the situation needs a different approach.

Do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force a result. Do the work properly, once, observe, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different approach, or no further working is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise.

Ose Goetia incense

An incense for spirit work and spellwork with Ose, hand made in small batches when you order it, of a quality used for magical work, for spirit work, for client work, and for spellwork.

If you want incense for Ose work made in this way, this is the one I offer: Ose Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product

Companion tool for the same work: Ose oil, for anointing in Ose work, $44 CAD. View the product

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