St. Philip Neri: Trickster Saint

"Let me get through today, and I shall not fear tomorrow."-St. Philip Neri

As you can probably see from the title of this blog, I have a special connection to the trickster spirits. I am blessed to have been "adopted" by them. 

From Catholic.org:

"Humility was the most important virtue he tried to teach others and to learn himself. Some of his lessons in humility seem cruel, but they were tinged with humor like practical jokes and were related with gratitude by the people they helped. His lessons always seem to be tailored directly to what the person needed. One member who was later to become a cardinal was too serious and so Philip had him sing the Misere[*] at a wedding breakfast. When one priest gave a beautiful sermon, Philip ordered him to give the same sermon six times in a row so people would think he only had one sermon.

Philip preferred spiritual mortification to physical mortification. When one man asked Philip if he could wear a hair shirt, Philip gave him permission -- if he wore the hair shirt outside his clothes! The man obeyed and found humility in the jokes and name-calling he received" 

LOL <3

Here's the wiki article. 

Look at that Pomeranian. Do you die? :D

St. Philip Neri is awesome to work with when either the joy has just run out of your life, you feel anxious, or you're depressed and uninspired. He will also come to your aid when you need to soften a humorless grump or knock down some cocky bastard who's harming you or other people. An example of the latter would be a supervisor at work who is him/herself lazy and incompetent, but who holds you back by being harshly critical of your performance when reviewing your work with higher ups in an effort to make themselves look good by comparison. He can also be called upon to handle a gossiper.

He's usually depicted wearing orange and gold vestments--how appropriate! I would suggest orange or yellow candles. You don't actually need herbs or special products when working with the saints, all those saint oils and incenses are just made-up, non-traditional, and marketer driven. I'm not saying that you can't make a saint oil to work with a saint if you wish, I'm just saying they are absolutely neither traditional nor necessary. All you need is prayer and maybe some blessed olive oil.

As far as offerings go, candles, a glass of water, lilies, and either a book of jokes (which he was fond of in life) or print-outs of some good ones. This should go without saying but... keep 'em clean, he is a priest! I don't have him on my altar yet, but when I set him up I will totally get a little Pomeranian figure for him :)

Word of advice: Do not tell him you are a perfectly good person or that you are totally innocent. You must be completely honest and humble when approaching him, admitting that you are neither perfect nor without sin. St. Philip Neri can be very, very serious when it comes to humility. The "I'm totally the victim here, I don't deserve ANY of this" (despite you also having said hurtful things) act won't fly with him.

(Note: He is not one of the dozen of so saints traditionally worked with in conjure. I am sharing my own personal experience.)