The Crafts: Wixes, Spells, and the Weaponized Placebo Effect

I had a thought one day that my job is magic in a very literal sense. I use various runes and words to manipulate energy to produce an intended effect. My username is actually more apt because of it.

(I'm a programmer.)

I'm thinking about building a digitized altar. Because it's very me.

 

OH BOY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT TECHNO MAGIC? Because that's legit my favorite non-mainstream form of magic.

Even though the most I do with it is shuffle interpretations.

 

So last night something really cool happened. I'd had less than 4 hours of sleep and half-woke feeling ready to face the day (this isn't unusual when I drill into my head the night before that You Are Going To Have Little Sleep) but then I realized I had time to actually sleep in, so I did. At which point Sollux Kitty came under the bedcovers to cuddle with me, and I, still half-asleep, kinda went "yes this is just what the spell needed to have positive energy". And so I clutched him close to me and effectively... cast a spell in my sleep... using the kitty as a medium? I woke up as soon as it was done, and so did he, wanting lots of cuddles and pettings. I have no idea what the magic was, I just know it was something really potent and really warm and loving and full of joy. :3

Out of curiosity: Sollux is an orange kitty I adopted on impulse on Oct. 31 when he was a very tiny baby, barely a month old. I knew from adopting him that he was a familiar, not a pet. I guess this experience just confirms that!

 

I want to Talk About Things in this thread, but my experiences delving into this are very Judeo-Christian-mysticism driven. Specifically what draws me in is the concept of the Qabal/Tree of Life (to the point where I want a beautiful black-ink diagram tattooed on my back even though I am petrified of tattoos). I also do a lot of belief-interfacing with Tarot, though that's on and off and I'm not near as pinged by it as I am by the Qabal. Problem: I can't think of where I would start to find resources for Qabalistic magic. And I'm also pretty obsessed with the Book of Enoch and angels being the fucking terrifying beings they were always meant to have been; I'd love to reach out to some, but forming a belief system around that seems Dangerous.

I can tell you what I do right now that I consider a minor form of magic, though: I use essential oil blends (specifically from here, but some also from here) to facilitate changes in my own personal disposition. Is it voudou? I can't tell and I kind of don't care. What I can tell you, though, is that when I wear Lionheart, not only does it calm me the fuck down, but I also feel super-connected to Strength/Leo. I'm kind of really sad because this place used to have Sephirot/Qliphot oils and Tarot oils, but they were discontinued over a decade ago. Might be something for me to look into if I'm going to delve into the Tree of Life, though, seeing if other places offer something like that. Because this oils shit works for me.

 

I realize I am probably going to say this a lot: Your perspective is welcome.

Like, no joke, I'm a huge generalist and am interested in how other people interface with the occult.

Hon, I was chosen by a war goddess, regularly crack joke about gods all over the spectrum that I am told drew my second patron.

I'm still in one piece, interfacing with angels can't be nearly as dangerous as tempted gods' wrath.

I associate most oil stuff with woo, but if it works, that's the important part.

 

@pixels Echoing ADM, bring whatever flavor of perspective you like in here. Hell, I do fandom-based magical stuff (largely based in music which is funny since I am so bad at music) so like. Yeah. Come and be welcome.

You could also look into creating your own oil mixtures? That's something I intend to do later on (though also potentially with a tarot theme) specifically in my case for throwing into bath-bomb type stuff.

 

Also echoing ADM; any (non-asshole) perspective is welcome!

 

Oh gods yes there is a place for my madness. Most of said madness currently is...little superstitions? I'm very mindful of corvids in general now and I sit and watch crows and ravens very intently and listen to them. I need to start writing it all down really and make note of things that happened to me in the day or week, as well as my feelings. Sometimes I just get these vibes. Very strong ones that are like "THE BIRD SAYS NO. LEAVE. NOW IS BAD". Other birds too, but especially hawks and water fowl in the non-corvid department. Rabbits I tend to run from as well, though not because they're "messengers" but because they might be mischief makers in disguise. I want to look into reading clouds too? And ogham. I must continue with that thing. I've made sets of dice with the letters on them that I use for my readings now. They feel very "right". All these things to watch for that may or may not mean things. Usually they don't. But still. Have to watch out. This all falls into divination so I feel it might count, though it's not me really "doing" magic. It's me asking an intermediary for help or keeping an eye on things that might be sending messages. It's definitely magical though? Perhaps. Things.


All my stuff is Gaelic recon stuff, for context I suppose. All that reading and figuring out how to get things to apply to my life.

 

I'm not really part of any particular affiliation (I guess the best label for me would be "agnostic deist with a sort of connection to the occult" or something), but I've realized that making little good luck charms and doing spells of that sort (just minor things) actually does help me. I'm 99% sure that in my case it's a placebo thing, that they just give me a little extra confidence and thus help me suck less at stuff, but they do help. *shrug*

Also, Weird Acey Fact: For all I side-eye the fuck outta fictives, pop culture paganism actually kinda makes sense to me in a lot of ways. I mean, I have a lot of characters of my own and it does often feel like they're separate entities, so maybe divine inspiration there is a thing. And frankly it's a lot less weird to me to worship a character than to think you are that character--it's like worshipping the Judeo-Christian God vs. thinking you are the Judeo-Christian God, I guess? And...um, this is probably incredibly weird but my love for certain characters (cough cough aradia megido cough) does give me some sort of strength in the same way that religion does for a lot of people.

Then again, I can also find some degree of sense in most religious beliefs, even the ones that are kinda out there...

(Also, I've never understood why digital stuff wouldn't count...)

 

@Acey Makes sense to me. I mean... oversimplifying dramatically but. Worshipping a character seems like acknowledging their archetypical roles and aspects, and saying 'these are things I want in my life'. Like, going 'Aradia represents to me being comfortable with and cheerful in the presence of death, and persevering through great trials, which are things I admire'.

Thinking you are a character seems like acting like that that character in and of themselves A Super Special Unique Person, free of archetypical or cultural baggage. Like, 'Kankri is a REAL PERSON THAT LIVES IN MY HEAD, and his actions are all realistic,' without acknowledging that he's part of an ongoing dialogue about social justice, and that much of what he's doing is a joke.

They seem rather opposite to me.

 

I've pointed it out before to other people but the Monkey King is worshiped and he's a fictional character from a fictional story. Veneration of the fictional is just a thing that's happened before, so for me I don't really see pop culture polytheism/paganism/whateveryouwishtotermit all that odd. It's personally not my sort of thing, though I find relating religion to fictional things very fun and also kind of helpful in a devotional sense.

Really I find it rather interesting to see these things growing. That and seeing people have e-shrines and what not. I really like to view my gods as being living, growing beings. The world doesn't stay the same, so why should they and worship? There's a definite value in tradition and especially when that tradition traces back to "We agreed to give you guys milk because treaties" but why not use the internet and digital things as a medium for worship?

 

I would be very, very surprised if there weren't some Ulmo worshipers out there.

 

Yeah, for me it's more like..."these characters are like figureheads, they represent qualities I admire and respect and would like to have in my life." I don't worship them per se (I have a shrine to Aradia set up, but I made it as a joke--I kept it up because it's pretty and because it's oddly comforting), but I do feel a connection and devotion towards the characters in question, and have a deep admiration for some of the qualities they represent, and if that helps me with my life...well, I can't really argue with that.

Oh, and on an unrelated note...does anyone here know if "smudge spray" smells anything like sage incense? I hope to move out in the relatively near future, and I find that the smell of sage incense helps me focus on stuff (like, on specific tasks--I'm ADHD as fuck so this is A Handy Thing), but it's entirely possible that I'll end up moving somewhere where I'm not allowed to burn shit, so yeah. Not asking for ritual purposes, but I figured some of y'all might know.

 

Could be like hero worship for people like, say, Cú Chulainn? Or perhaps how figures like Guanyin or the Buddha are "worshiped". They aren't venerated like Abrahamic God by any stretch, but they're viewed as very respectable teachers who you aim to be like and whose advice you seek out at times if the person is still around, like in Guanyin's case.

 

Sort of like that, I guess. The difference is that I don't believe Aradia et al are actual entities (I mean, as a fiction maker person myself, my characters do kind of have minds of their own, so I can't totally rule out the idea that fictional characters are actually real in a sense, but yeah). I guess you could call it concept worship, in a way? Shruuuuug.

 

Ah. All right then. I am just poking around and what not because I do find this rather interesting.

 

I have thoughts about the above but I'm on a bus. Reminding myself to come back later.

 

I belatedly realize I should probably specify for clarity that Ulmo is the interesting one of Tolkien's "deities." (there's some interesting weirdness with the pseudo-Norse pantheon Tolkien made conflicting with his Catholicism and him trying to resolve that, hence the scare quotes, but that's neither here nor there)

 

Oh. People definitely worship the Valar. I've seen at least one on a polytheist forum. People also worship people from Narnia too. Not just Aslan. Some worship, say, the White Witch or the Pevensies. The BFFs were so Christian but the polytheists were charmed.

Also Ulmo needs to step the fuck aside because Manannán mac Lir is the far better ocean god. Also a god. And real. And boss as fuck.

What I am saying is you should all at least read abut him.

 

Confession: Every time I see you guys mentioning Ulmo, I misread it as Elmo and think you're talking about the cute little Muppet from Sesame Street for a sec.