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

@Zuki @Aviari Yeah, that is kind of what I was thinking. I have some Norwegian in my ancestry (which could be Icelandic too, I just haven't gotten far enough back), and I've always thought the mythology and history was really neat. I've been doing some research for a paper on Icelandic music and magic, and discovered the galdrastafir... I particularly like the Vegvísir and the Lukkustafir, as well as the syncretist Róðukross Ólafs konungs Tryggvasonar (King Olaf's crucifix) and The Rings of Charlemagne.

I'm still antsy about incorporating other traditions into my faith. It's kind of ... weird. I don't know. I really do like and appreciate the mysticism of Christianity, and I think it's sadly overlooked. I love the ritualistic aspects of it. I feel like there's more to the world than what meets the eye, and ... oi, I don't know, I guess I got really strongly brought up in the "don't mess with witchcraft, it's dangerous and you will seriously regret it" which, while making it a lot easier for me to believe it exists and can affect things, also firmly made its way into my head as Do Not Touch.

But ... I'm curious. I don't know. Agh.

Also, I looked at the Helm of Awe, but it's really not resonating with me. Protection is nice but ... it feels too war-like?

 

@Kaylotta

I have a soft spot for the Vegvísir myself--it was one of the first ones I'd thought of when you brought it up. I had a manager at the bookstore I used to work at, he had it tattooed on the inside of his forearm.

This is so, so, true! I'm a happy polytheist, but that stuff is pretty cool.

Honestly, if you look at the history of folk magic, the rituals and charms and lore used by everyday people--those people were not uncommonly Christian! Like, the Key of Solomon, one of the classic old medieval grimoires about magic? Almost certainly written by a Christian, or at least someone living and surrounded by that culture and religion, regardless of their personal theology!

There's all kinds of renaissance-era stuff, there's all kinds of stuff about reaching out to and connecting with with different angels and archangels (and maybe you'll need to do some personal filtering to separate out something that's too fluffy or too Jewish, in the case of some Kabbalah, etc.), there was all sorts of magic about summoning up demons and spirits and then invoking the power of god and the holy spirit to bind them and help you find buried treasure or learn the science of astronomy, etc. (Pls see Roach's great 'ABC Demon' sticker series for some lovely examples.) This is where we get the goetic demons that D&D borrowed the names of for their vestiges, etc.

On the more modern side, you've got like the stuff the Order of the Golden Dawn and the O.T.O. did, although I'm honestly not sure how much they have to do with god as you move more and more into 19th-century mysticism and hermetic secret orders.

Point is? Christians have been doing magic and wielding the Weaponized Placebo Effect and other stuff we like to lump under 'witchcraft' today for centuries, and that's not even touching the rich history of like you said, syncretism. Once you get into the Americas and you have west african people mixing with indigenous americans mixing with european colonizers all over the Caribbean, Latin, and South America, it gets delightfully complicated all over again.

And then there's more US-American stuff like hoodoo, or the kinds of folk magic tradition that doesn't have a clearly-defined name that comes out of like rural Appalachia. The more magical and esoteric side of say, working with plants and herbalism, has quite possibly been going on continuously for centuries even as religions and cultures change around it.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, there have been christian witches and folk healers and cunning men and women who knew how to make a bargain at midnight on a crossroads on a dark moon night, for a heck of a lot longer than there have been, say, neopagan witches. That stuff didn't exist until Gerald Gardner created Wicca in the 1940's! While he drew inspiration from older material (mostly stuff Masons did tbh), I really think that the contemporary idea of a non-christian, neopagan, possibly-goddess-worshipping?, 'witch,' originates with him.

So. I guess what I'm trying to say here is, you have just as much right to explore all this and learn how to make use of it, as anyone else.

 

@Zuki Thanks for this awesome post. I really appreciate your reassurance that I'm not totally crazy for being curious about the spiritual world in ways that aren't ... dammit what's the word. Prescribed. There we go. I don't have a lot of words right now to explain my spaghetti brain, but please accept my heartfelt thank you. :)

 

This all just making me think about how djinn are considered beings with free will. So like us they have to learn how to worship God again and convert.

 

It's been a damn long time since I've done any witchy stuff so I'm all out of practice and out of tune

Hopefully this thing I've done to try and motivate me into being productive all night works anyway

 

It still might! It was still worth the effort, I figure--the same way any writing or drawing or music-ing is worth the effort of the practice.

What did you do? I'd be interested to hear about productivity/focus/'Get Shit Done' charms.

 

I charged a pen with intent ("Creativity, Productivity"), drew a symbol with that meaning on myself with that pen, and then charged the symbol with the same intent

I managed to nearly finish the thing I needed done (got to the last scene and just straight up ran out of words), but it was probably a placebo thing rather than any actual affect. I've had it work before, but this time I just could not tap into the energy for it at all. I need to get back into regular basic energy-work practice.

ETA
The symbol, if you're curious:

Spoiler: symblology

 

Neat! Is that meant to resemble the rune Laguz, or is it a coincidence?

I need to get back in practice myself--I'd really like to get my Reiki II cert and learn how to send it long-distance (not that I haven't tried anyways...), but I feel so rusty. I was considering practicing with my plants.

 

It's a coincidence. The symbol is a spear, and also a calligraphy pen

I've tried working with runes before, and apparently I am Not Allowed

 

That's exactly the kind of energy work I like and really want to get back into doing regularly

I was raised as a wiccan (specifically dianic wiccan, coming out as trans was a real fun time) but I started straying from that pretty early. The highly structured ritual style definitely works for some people, but I am not one of them.

 

So there's going to be a Celtic polytheist video chat this weekend. If anyone's interested. Behold! Information. Related there's also a Celtic polytheist chat if you want. Link is to the blog about it.

 

Oh light, you must have had a hell of a time. Sympathetic noises from this corner, dealing with the generic neopagan brand of Wicca is hard enough as a transfolk, I can't imagine having to do the Family Coming Out to Dianics.

 

Thankfully my dad is a kind of vaguely Norse agnostic, and he took it quite well. My mom is struggling with it still, although her beliefs seem to gave softened a bit in the last couple years. I don't think she can quite shake the feeling that I've ~Betrayed The Sisterhood~ with my masculinity.

For myself, I've been drifting more and more away from anything organized and toward a sort of eclectic hedgewitchery as time goes on

 

Urgh, yeah. I'm listening to a book on Wicca out of idle curiosity, and the strong focus on gender is really ... discomfiting. THE UNIVERSE IS MADE UP OF BABYMAKING AND PENISES, DRESSED UP IN COSTUMES, THERE IS NOTHING ELSE.

Hope it's gotten better. XP

 

Yeah, I mean the attitudes towards gender vary pretty widely from one group to the next but there's definitely a trend towards essentialism. Dianic Wicca in particular is infamous for it, largely because Z. Budapest is a huge transphobe. It's in many ways born out of the same corner of second wave feminism that spawned the lesbian separatist movement

Speaking of which, my mom got me a copy of the holy book of women's mysteries when I turned 13, and I've been stumped about what to do with it for some time now. It's really not something I want to keep carrying around with me, but I can't bring myself to throw it out (and giving it to a thrift store would more than likely end with it in the garbage anyway as most of them are Christian).

 

My copy of The Táin just arrived!

 

:D

I hope you have fun with it. It's a lovely story. A REALLY LOVELY ONE.

 

I'm waiting on having enough money to buy myself a copy but at the rate I keep buying OTHER THINGS that might be a long while in coming

 

Jeez. Yeah, I can imagine that would be hideously messy.

Send it to a Kintsugijin to MST3K it? :D

 

Don't send it to me, I still have a DJConway to finish!

and I might do a Ravenwolf out of spite, because she called one "to Light a Sacred Flame" and Tales of the Abyss is a spiteful fandom.[/spoiler]