Sky Mathis and Ike Baker open with a practical—but foundational—topic for the modern magician: purification and cleansing. Ike frames purification as not just "nice to have," but a required prerequisite for magic and especially initiation—and something that never truly ends. It becomes a repeated method of spiritual hygiene: you purify, consecrate, and then you do it again, deepening over time. In a ritual context, purification is described as a threshold-act: it separates the operator from the day's residue (stress, appetite, distractions, "minute-to-minute personality") and brings magical consciousness to the forefront. Ike points to the Golden Dawn's traditional recommendation of a ritual bath (or shower), emphasizing that symbolism isn't decorative—it actively shapes the psyche and the state needed for work. The discussion then moves into the classic esoteric formula of twofold purification: water and fire. Water washes, refreshes, and clears; fire refines, elevates, and transforms—sometimes water comes first, sometimes fire, depending on the operation and what's being "sacrificed" or outgrown. Ike anchors this with examples from temple symbolism (washing, burnt offerings as the sacrifice of animal nature) and ancient Greek/Homeric sacrificial logic (burnt offerings and scent as an offering "language"). From there, they explore incense in a grounded way. Ike says he's not automatically sold on the simplistic "burn plant → spirits flee" idea, but he takes seriously the testimony of practiced grimoire magicians (he mentions Stephen Skinner) that spirits respond to smell, and that incense plays an operational role—not just an aesthetic one. He also notes that "incense" historically wasn't modern sticks, but smoldered herbs/resins used as purifiers of air and atmosphere. The conversation expands into older occult physics: mesmerism/theosophy-style ideas of etheric charge—cold water as a "de-charger," charged water as a therapeutic medium—then circles back to practical ritual continuity: Catholic and Orthodox rites that cense and asperge (fire + water) show that purification remains embedded in mainstream ritual religion. Ike emphasizes purification is often multi-layered: psychological, etheric, and astral, and he explicitly distinguishes etheric vs astral as not the same thing. He calls this a threefold purification when opening a true temple space. They then pivot into soap-making as a living metaphor: lye, water, and fat undergo saponification—an "alchemical" transformation into something new—mirroring how purification rituals can reshape the operator. That leads into the Golden Dawn's paired formula: purify by water, consecrate by fire. Consecration is described as dedication—making a space or substance "for holy use." Sky asks about holy water and sources (tap vs spring). Ike answers that source matters less than the rite: you first "exorcise" the water (removing unwanted influences rather than assuming literal demons), then consecrate it—often through Trinitarian language and laying on of hands, understood as a transfer of subtle charge. Ike adds personal context: he regularly consecrates water/incense and speaks from experience as a deacon in a Gnostic tradition, emphasizing that purity of the operator matters; otherwise you risk transmitting your own disorder into the work (he uses Reiki as an example of why discernment matters). A key critique emerges: many people engage esotericism as secular escapist cosplay—suspending disbelief without doing the purificatory work, then attempting intense operations or energy work without asking what's actually moving through them. Ike argues everything must be purified because, ultimately, everything is meant to be spiritualized. Sky asks about the limits of consecration (a jar vs a river; potency and dissipation). Ike replies: the limit is "the limits of thy strength." Consecratory capacity scales like training—through purification, discipline, and development of the "mundane" magical powers: attention, will, imagination, focus. He reframes "magical powers" away from fantasy into human faculties refined by practice. This opens a thread on saints as magicians—miracles as the fruit of restraint, dedication, and disciplined life—and the classic maxim: nothing is impossible, but nothing is free; power requires price.
