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

Aww...

That is understandable though. *hugs*

 

that is definitely understandable, yeah.

also, an update: i have set out tea for my house spirit on the counter next to the window! i didn't use my favorite tea since one tea sort of jumped out at me as the tea to use, and i forgot that i don't really have a favorite of my bagged tea.

...i am probably going to start making tea on a more regular basis, since i forgot how much i enjoy it (the tea i gave the house spirit smelled really good).

 

I've had difficulty figuring out what I want to do with an offering once done with it. I can't bury it in the park, and I could try in the plant pots but uh, I feel like that would not last long as a viable place for burying. No local areas of water, so no drowning. Since the last time I offered something it was flowers, I left those on the balcony's quirquiña pot, and let those wilt up and dry and become part of that area.

I like the windowsill shinies idea. I'll see what I can do there.

 

Regarding food offerings, especially drink offerings - would it be acceptable to just let them evaporate? I live on the 9th floor and the only place I could currently put offerings in the soil near the foundation would be right in front of the door, and, nope ::/
(I do have flower pots if flower pot soil counts, though)

 

I ended up mentally asking the house spirit if I could throw the offering from last night in the sink and I didn't get any strong vibes saying not to, plus I didn't have any trouble locking the door, but that was probably because I didn't have any time this morning (I didn't want to be late for work). So it could depend on the house spirit too? But I'm new to this and I'm still not really sure what I'm doing, soooo there's also that to consider.

 

Again that depends on tradition and the beings you are dealing with. Though in my experience the gods don't mind if I let things evaporate. Also I'd say flower pot soil counts as a place to pour libations.

As for things depending on individual house spirits...Oh definitely. While there are some common threads (such as scissor theft) they are thinking individuals. Of course they are going to be different from one another. As far as not being sure...You could try divination methods and ask them about it? Granted that isn't surefire and requires discernment but still it's a thing you can do. Though I do feel that relying on gut instinct is entirely valid. I apparently have decent readings of my gut reactions to things concerning the Gods and Ungods. In my experience at least.

 

yesterday I suddenly realised that this one necklace I have was super connected to the sea somehow and went looking for it to put on an altar for Manannan.

And then while looking for it I found a bunch of decorative seashells in a box. Which are now also on the altar.

I feel mildly poked.

 

Gut feeling says if I do get an altar of some sort, it needs to go on my wooden storage chest. Which is kinda fitting because that's where I keep my jewellery and my incense and my candles and the tealight teaheater thing, but also kind of suboptimal because the only free space is space I have to clear if I want to get to the stuff inside the chest.
Blrgh. Might need to wiggle some stuff around.

 

SEE. I tell you he is very loud and clear when he wants to say something. He is just so

Noisy and insistent.

It's nice though because I don't have to wonder with him.

 

Soooo I got my new tarot deck and. Got the Moon as my outcome card for my interview spread??? Which makes the anxious part of my brain nervous because the book said to be wary of the Moon as an outcome card. However, another part of my brain is pretty sure that this deck made it clear from the first card I drew that it's going to be honest with me (I got the queen of swords for my first ever card draw).

Also the deck is an optimistic romantic, soooo unless it's lying about that, I don't foresee it being a problem.

I personally feel like the Moon in this case means to be cautious, and that if I'm patient I'll find some amazing things I wouldn't get to see otherwise.

 

been working with the rider tarot i grabbed from my late grandma's stuff a little bit. tricky readings, possibly residue from her? not that she ever did tarot as far as i know. (grandma was... who even know what that woman was thinking. knowledgeable, but prejudiced and superstitious about certain topics. narc.)
will probably need some time to get used to it, and for it to get used to me.

on the other hand, i took the time to look at the art for the minor arcana, and decided to completely ditch the attached booklet as well and go for intuition with that deck -- what sticks out is the queen of swords, at least in the readings i did. the booklet has her as a dour figure of loss, but she's actually quite comforting for me. she's no-nonsense, but someone i can approach with a problem and be sure that i'll be taken seriously, not get a "suck it up, theyre [x] you cant blame them, do better instead uwu" as a response. her responses are honest, and not sugar-coated at all, but if i get a "suck it up and do better" from her, i know that she has come to this conclusion not by refusing to acknowledge the problem, but by looking at the problem and coming to the conclusion that the best revenge is a life lived well.
she's a very powerful card, for me. fall down, stand back up, right the crown, continue on. and, if necessary, stick that sword into the asshole who stood in your way.

 

Get a TV tray and set the altar up on that so you can easily lift it to the side to access the chest without screwing it up? That's what I have on my bedside table/improper-season-clothes-bin right now.

(Well technically they're screenprinting trays but, same difference.)

 

I'm getting my death anxiety again and I feel like contacting spirits would soothe it, but I've never been able to get this stuff to work and when the problem is that the not believing in it is being an ass to me that's going to make it even less likely to work. Bleh.

 

Hrmm. I am not really sure how to help with that. Out of relevant beings you could ask for at least some sort of response on this topic Manannán deals with death. He's a psychopomp. He's also very, very loud. I tend to find that he's the easiest to recognize with the exception of maybe the Morrígan. Though beyond suggesting particularly noisy peeps I am just not really sure how to help.

Hugs?

 

(fwiw, in my experience, Manannán does not care in the least if you 'believe' in him or not - if he finds you interesting or if you're poking around he's gonna say hi)

(also hugs if wanted, yes)

 

*accepts hug* Funny thing is I don't trust accepted sceptic wisdom either. If the weird shit working can be faked easily, it not working can also be faked easily. I don't think I'd ever trust it unless I had my own experience, and a couple of weird things have happened to me but nothing I find conclusive. I've had either a premonition or a tactile hallucination exactly once; even if it was a hallucination the fact that it came at the specific time it did was weird enough. (I was lying awake in bed one morning, age five or six, and felt something hard rattling in my mouth which turned out to be nothing. That lunchtime my second-or-third-ever loose tooth fell out and I swallowed it, and had hysterics over the tooth fairy not coming. She did though ;P) I'm also good at picking out patterns and symbols in things like song lyrics, and my obsession with astrology though I can't see any way in which it would actually work comes from there. I feel like I should just sit back and enjoy but my brain keeps on screwing with me over it.

 

The Morrigan also deals with death and has been sorta-kinda-reassuring to me in the past.

...That sounds like a silly description, I know; I don't find her to be reassuring like Brighid, in the sense of kindness-comfort-soothing, but more in the sense of giving me the strength to do shit and occasionally making my brain not consider certain things to be an option.

 

He is such a noisy man. He just blusters into my home at times and fills me with HORRIBLE GREAT SEA FEELS because he wants tea.

I get what you mean by the Morrígan being reassuring, Lib. Like she's terrifying and deals with all the things that frighten me most but she's very reassuring. Yes she is glaring at me while I'm on the floor screaming about my broken leg but damn if she isn't soothing in all her scariness. Because she's damn good at getting you up to do things. She's damn good at reminding you of how strong you are and teaching you, if painfully, how much stronger you really are.

 

meanwhile, I have heard exactly nothing from Brigid in forever. maybe it's because I'm taking forever in trying to get her altar together. (I'M SORRY MY PARENTS TAKE ALL MY MONEY AND I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH LEFT TO BUY THINGS OKAY I'M SORRY) I haven't even gotten the wand I intended to get yet...sighs.

 

With regards to warding, should one perform a smudging/exorcism beforehand to avoid locking the negative being/energy in instead of out?