Some treasure-hunting adventures:
1. Wanted a big crystal. Did invocation of the Earth Spirits and drew an Abramelin square on the ground in a place I expected would have crystals. Got a huge one, whose tip was buried about half an inch below where my claw pick first cut the soil, chipping off the tip.
2. Used a Ouija board, called out "Satan, come to us!" three times and asked for buried treasure. Was told to go find a buried map at "DNWR" with egrets that I wrote down as "regrets," and look for a marked larch tree. No clue. Moved out of state, local park happened to be called Del Norte Wildlife Refuge and there were egrets. Found a larch tree that looked to be painted with a Hades helmet which turned out to be lichen. Discovered a collapsed hollow at tree base, but investigating it revealed potentially lethal dangers. Never excavated.
3. Conjured a spirit to locate anything valued at "millions of dollars" in some place accessible within a day trip. Was directed to a place called Danger Point, and a gold ore deposit. I made a nearly vertical climb of about a thousand feet to get to the spot, and got shot at by locals, who I later heard were pot ranchers. I tried to buy the land, which was about 8 million dollars. A venture capital group agreed to fund it, but were more interested in issuing certificates than mining anything, and it felt very much like getting kicked out of my own project. My efforts to drum up financing alerted people from a large national bank who threatened to kill me and my whole family over it, so I left the state. The US government spent 1.8 Billion dollars "renovating the road" adjacent to the remote location.
This whole episode was a huge chunk of my life. It allowed me to very easily distinguish friends from enemies. People who got on board, asked for verification, did anything contributive.... awesome. The people who were dismissive or antagonistic? Fools. I got to learn about Medium-Term-Notes, VC's, and a whole bunch of other money-land nonsense. Anyone who ever thinks some magician needs to find a massive treasure that would support the entire global magic community for generations.... that was your chance.
4. Conjured spirit in 2011 to find lost Potosi mine gold. Was told of a place in remote desert area near White Rock, had to scale some cliffs, locate a specific petroglyph. All landmarks found, along with a sand pit. Was getting dark, left without digging in the sand. Retelling the adventure quite a while later turned up an actual Potosi relic, a gold cross, which I buried behind a utility shack on US 95 outside of Las Vegas when I left the city.
5. Again conjured for hidden treasures, because that's what the spirits are supposed to do. Was told that I would get a "treasure of paper" which I assumed to be cash since my home had stash cubbies all over the place. I dug up my whole living room floor. Not a goddamn thing. But the guy who came over to help me replace the floor set me up as the recipient of all the unclaimed books from everyone who died in the Las Vegas area.
Lesson of the day: Don't stop at treasure-finding. That's only half the battle. The lore instructs you to conjure the spirits guarding the treasure so you can take it home with you once it has been found. You might be tempted to think, "Oh Ho, I only need to find my gold, and then no one can get it from me!" but it doesn't really work like that.