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

Thirteen-hour demon repelling rituals do sound like the Cthulhu level, but I don't know very much about how it's generally done for real and naturally I got nervous. What's the more usual way of repelling bad things, if necessary?

 

It'll depend on the thing but usually ranges from simply telling them to leave, to warding your home with salt, smoke, and/or oils

 

Actually getting the thing to leave I couldn't say, but I keep a focus* on the wall near a particular area of the house that gives me... eh, bad feelings sounds so vague and handwavey, but. I charge the focus up every few weeks with feelings of strength, protection, life, etc. and let it do its protective thing. (It also gets recharged if I start getting spikes of negativity from that area, no matter what the schedule says.)

Spoiler: tangential rambling

Teeechnically the focus I use is a poster, but the composition has really strong lines of movement that I follow the same way I would a sigil's. Interestingly, I realized after a few charges that the lines I follow are pretty close to algiz (albeit with four prongs instead of three), which is apparently associated with protection and sanctuary??? Either I learned this thing as a wee nerdlet and my subconscious pulled it out For Funsies, or something weird happened.


The sigil in question ^

"Something weird" just might be my own associations, though-- a lot of the calming/stability imagery I use involves trees and rooting, and that's been a thing since before I decided I was done putting up with whatever was so angry it needed to bother me.

 

How would I know if I needed to do this, or if I'm nervous should I do it preemptively?

 

I would actually recommend doing it pre-emptively, it can both nip bad things in the bud and also help you feel less nervous about the whole thing. But if you start getting Bad Feels about something, like @Loq, that can be a sign. You can also do divination, or have someone else do divination, if you're suspicious.

 

@ChelG With the Fair Folk you'll want iron around. Brandishing it at them gets them to leave you be. A black handled knife of iron in particular is very good at warding them. Saining your home with water or smoke, especially on the Quarter Days, is a good bet. Keeps your barriers safe. There are also some specific kinds of fae with specific repelling methods. A dullahan for example is only stopped by brandishing bits of gold at it. However in some cases the option isn't warding it off as it is giving them stuff. Because sometimes, unknowingly or not, you are the asshole. If you're dealing with a house fae you will be wanting to give them shit. Milk, any sort of food you made, non-iron tools, and a variety of shinies tend to be good at getting into their favor. If you do give them food you are NOT allowed to eat it. It must be burned, buried, or drowned instead. Being honorable and hospitable tends to be how to avoid getting on their badsides in general. Do not lie. Always offer them something to eat if they come to visit you and aren't being outright dickish (unless it is your house spirit in which case you give them shit regularly and just deal with it). Brag about shit but always be able to prove good on your boasts. Do not make vows without being able to make good on them. Do not make deals without being able to make good on them. If you're scared of them do not deal with the Fair Folk and avoid them. Someone's likened them to a mafia protection racket and that's honestly very accurate.

As far as Buddhist based shit goes you'll want to learn a few simple mudras, or hand signs. The karana and abhaya mudras will be your most basic things here. Abhaya mudra shows that you mean no harm and want piece. Karana mudra is a mudra of telling something malicious to fuck off. You can also pick up a few short Paritta chants or devotional chants like the Namo Tassa or Itipisso chants. These you can either use preemptively or actively. If things get too hot to handle you can also call upon the names of the Bodhisattas and they may help out if they can. We also have house spirits with Thai Buddhism. Again you are to feed that fucker and be nice to them. An important thing to remember with non-human beings of our mythos is that just like you they are beings who suffer and want to be happy. So it might actually be good to be merciful to them and put up with some pain. Might. Either way don't be malicious towards them. Even if you're telling them fuck off.

In general I feel whatever the case it is good to be good to your house spirit. If something weird is happening in your home or you're constantly getting sick it might not be a ghost (yay bhutas and pettas!) or something that needs to be told to fuck off. It could just be the spirit that lives in your home. Be good to them and they'll be good to you. Not just in not fucking up your crap, but by actually being helpful. It's their home too and if you're a good roommate they'll want you to stick around so they'll look out for you and the home.

 

Whenever we move into a home we try to do a limpia, a cleansing. The minimum you want is using incense and wafting it in every room in the house, but especially at the boundaries, like one stays longer with the incense in the walls that form the perimeter of the house. If any room gives any particularly bad vibes, stick the incense there and let it burn out (last time we put the incense in a pot to avoid problems in the "something flammable" sense).

To... Bless a home, one invokes Pachamama and does a Sacha for her. Basically it's like christening the house? Take a glass of a strong spirit (I guess wine works?) and let some drops fall to the ground. Ideally one does this in the cardinal points at the outer walls and at corners, but since the layout might not be an easy rectangular shape aligned to the compass, it's kind of finding the outermost rooms and doing it there. At the end one drinks what is left in the glass.

I know of some people who use salt or salt water for basic warding, preferably with sea salt. Since drawing a line at the outer windows or doors with actual salt kind of invites the lines getting broken, I'd recommend making salt water and using your finger to draw lines with it, trying to impregnate the act with thoughts of protection and strength. One can do more lines in weak areas too, kind of like concentric barriers.

If there is a plant associated with strength and protection growing that at different areas could help too.

 

Yesterday, I made an ointment/salve for the first time! Vervain/verbena is really relaxing and for me it's great for getting into that meditative/gentle trance state of mind that makes for good divination or listening to your intuition, but it's aughphbbbt yuck no bitter. So I infused some in olive oil with a mini-crock-pot, melted some beeswax with the same crock pot, and poured the infused oil and the melted wax together into a tin. I think I'm even getting the same sort of effect when applied topically, but it's weaker, I think, because it takes longer to be absorbed and it's a smaller dosage. Still! I feel witchy as tits, and I can perfect this technique to do other awesome herbalism later!

 

Got a new tarot deck for birthday!
Steampunk deck, really nice art. Idly shuffling it some to get to know it and such, and I've had three cards flop right out and basically go PAY ATTENTION TO ME.
Six of swords, eight of wands and ten of wands.
According to the book that came with, six of swords is essentially 'escaping a bad situation with help', eight of wands is 'swift movement' with the connotations of plans coming to fruition/things Beginning to Happen, and ten of wands indicates that the current situation sucks because of your own actions but you can learn from them and get ahead.
...
Steampunk deck is very GO GO GO apparently

I mean the last time I think I had a deck throw a card at me, it was my tsundere traddeck and it just wanted to call me an idiot for shuffling it instead of sleeping.

 

Saw a post today on tumblr and you know what I agree. Cows need more love. Yes, yes wolves are great and all but cows. Cows are awesome. Cows are the best. They factor into lots of mythologies and such. Granted I am probably biased because cows are such hot shit in Gaelic mythology and folklore but.

COWS.

LOVE THE COW. WORSHIP THE COW. FEED THE COW NICE TREATS.

Though really feed Bríghid's cow nice treats when they visit on Imbolc.

 

I misread that.

 

Please don't feed her cow teats.

 

cows are good and important.
my high school was full of good cows and I miss them.
they were so wonderful. and cuddly.
a little jersey once fell on me cause I was brushing her and she got too into it. fortunately, no one was seriously injured and the brushies did not stop.

 

Cows are cute.

Does any tradition have a ferret spirit? Cats get all the credit in the small carnivore field.

 

I never really say this, but I miss high school.
I want to pet cows, guys. There's no cows here.

 

Not that I know of?

 

Ditto, not that I'm aware of.

cows can be so fluffy it's great
Look at these pure creatures



So in other news I got my reiki II attunement yesterday, aww yee!

This means, among other things, that I can now practice sending Reiki energy long-distance. You know, to all those friends on the internet that live far away. I'm looking forward to practicing this, heck yeah.

 

i need to cuddle that cow

 

Highland cattle are my favorite kinds of cows. So precious...

 

I'm very attached to jersey cows and belted galloways
jerseys cause I took care of a bunch of them for school and they were the sweetest of the bunch.
oreo cookie cows because I did a project on them, and one of my teachers used to work with a herd of them during college.