A protective ritual of a different kind, the first part is cast before and the second part after a ritual of unsure outcome. It encases the ritual in between as in a shell. While you will suffer negative effects, those are mostly predictable. The trade-off: The ritual in between will hardly hurt you, much less kill you. Certain aspects of the Parentheses ritual can be read to judge the 'real' outcome of the ritual.
INGREDIENTS:
ELEVEN STURDY CANDLES. They should be able to burn for a long time and not be easy to knock over. Scented candles you enjoy might help with the side effects.
IRON FILINGS. A good handful, maybe even more. The kind doesn't really matter. The important attribute is a visible reaction to magnetism. (Scrap dealers, machine shops, internet - some stores sell it for physics experiments involving magnetic flux lines.)
A STURDY CASE. Symbolism again is important. An old leather briefcase of some kind. A really hard to open box. Whatever you perceive as stable place to put something away temporarily. It needs a flat top.
SOIL FROM A GOOD PERSON'S GRAVE. This seems to be up to your subjective judgement. You need only a handful which can be easily slipped into a bag while you are planting a new flower on their grave.
AN IDOL. An object which symbolises the in-between ritual. Could be an ingredient or just something you associate with it. You shouldn't be terribly attached to it.
DRAWING MATERIAL.
CHOCOLATE. Or something else that will calm you and cheer you up. A cig for the smokers. Wouldn't try it with a blunt or other drugs. A picture of your SO, a plushy with nice childhood memories attached to it, stuff like that instead.
FIRST PART:
1. Put the case on the floor. Arrange the candles in a circle around it and lighten them.
2. Take the idol. You need a name for the in-between ritual in your mother tongue. Just make one up. Tell it: "I see you. Your name is [ritual]." In your mother tongue as well. (If you grew up bilingual, just use the language you're most comfortable with.)
3. Seal the idol in the case and loosely scatter the iron filings on its top. Be sure not to let them fall off.
4. Take the soil and rub it against your forehead, throat (about where your larynx is) and chest (about where your heart is). This is okay to fall off.
5. Do at least two steps away from the case and use the rest of the soil to form a line between it and you.
NOW CAST THE REAL RITUAL. BE SURE TO GET EVERYTHING RIGHT. If you get something wrong, the Parentheses will only show the readings of what happens then, not the readings of the real ritual.
SECOND PART:
6. An amount of candles will be blown out. Count those silently.
7. Address the idol in the case in your mother tongue: "As with the old and long gone, your name is forgotten. Return to the dust from hence you came."
8. Create a breach in the line of soil on the floor with the tip of your foot. Pass only through this breach to get to the case.
9. The iron filings will have arranged in a particular manner on top of the case. You may want to copy the way they have arranged with pen and paper. While to this date I have not tried taking a photograph of it, it does not sound like a danger.
10. Blow out the other candles (if there are some burning still), arrange them into a line behind the chest. If they are still burning, you might want to squeeze the wick between wet fingers to eliminate fire hazard.
11. Leave the area. Pass the breach in the line of soil on your way out. Do not touch the ingredients for a day. Just to be sure.
12. Cheer yourself up immediately, then try to keep a certain mood level up constantly for your own safety and comfort.
READING:
Candles - What horrible havoc this ritual (subjectively) wreaks on the caster in return. Two or three candles are side effects easy to deal with for you. Nine to eleven candles mean the worst things you can imagine happening to you in return for casting the ritual.
Iron filings - The actual effect of the ritual. The pattern probably be very unique and clear in some parts. Follow your intuition when looking at them, jot down the first things they remind you of, or what kind of picture you see. Example: Search Out yields an eye staring at a half-hand, half-claw thing. Disperse yields a shape with a jinni-like lower body and its upper body exploding into little bits.
There are also other details than the pictogram which can be important. Ruffled lines point towards a potent ritual, smooth lines towards a rather low-key one. Lots of twirls, lines and pointy bits point towards an aggressive, examining ritual (probably noticable by the entity it's aimed at), solid forms show a defensive purpose. There is more to it but I can't list it all right now. Post pictures of the shapes in here and we'll figure out the details.
SIDE EFFECTS:
A feeling of sorrow, despair and pointlessness. Usually coupled with apathy, a low energy level and a certain slowness of thinking so you don't do anything stupid (besides spending the next few days like a depressed vegetable). Be sure to have a caretaker around anyway. Prepare lots of cheerful things for afterwards to soften the blow. With the right preparation, it can be manageable, although it is very hard to fight against something like apathy. It might trigger depressive episodes in people with certain clinical backgrounds. People who have fought depression before might on the other hand find this emotional state easier to handle.
Joint pains and a raw feeling of the skin beneath your clothes do happen, as well as a feeling of vulnerability and a lingering need to hide somewhere. At the same time, you feel isolated from people and their words hardly reach you. You might find you care less about people's opinions and behave rather abrasively towards even close friends or family.
You might have lucid visions of the in-between ritual and its effects. While this is useful for research, it puts a real strain on your daily life. Be sure to have a few explanations for shortly blacking out of conversations and such ready.
After a week at least, the effects should have worn off. Most of the time, that happens earlier, though.
Those should be the most prominent effects. It seems to be mostly about the mindset and energy you have.
Because parts of the readings are highly subjective, it is smart to have many different people check out a ritual.
Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:06 am