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

Maybe we could start out as just friends? Whatever that means in the context of gods.

Maybe I should look into Hermes. Actually now that I think of it, it's one of those obvious things. I think of him a little bit whenever I put a coin in my penny jar. I don't feel intimidated by him; I've known him since I was a child in a way. I don't think he would act like he's better than me. He doesn't care about hierarchies and rules. Or rather, he's all about crossing boundaries and breaking rules and existing outside and between. Travelers, thieves and smartasses. (Being that he himself is all three of those things.)

Et voila, the god I'd devote myself to is the one I was secretly tied to all along. What do you call a person who's devoted to Hermes? It can't be "hermetic," that's a different thing.

 

I don't know of anyone word for it. You could potentially ask a Hellenic recon person about if there's a word for it. If there is they'd be the ones to know. My heart says "Hermesian" but that's probably wrong. "Devotee of Hermes" would work as a phrase though.

 

In my case (after several months of dithering) I'm dedicated to Loki for a year, just to see how it goes. No oaths, very little structure aside from "do these two things for me every day and kick down the occasional offering." It's very much like being friends and not some big intense thing. It could've been a shorter trial period, like a month or two, since a year is still a lot of time to commit.

 

i think i'm still too adhd/unstructured to make for a good devotee

the spirit ladyperson i've been talking about sometimes nags me for food & drink so i get her some, and she chills around my wooden chest. she asked for a burning tealight a few days back, and didn't set the place on fire so i think we're still cool.

 

Yeah. I sometimes forget to do a daily devotional thing and it's hard for me not to spiral into a full scrupulosity spiral. Brain stuff definitely complicates matters. I kind of get the feeling that the gods aren't THRILLED about it but if they wanted somebody with no brainweird and good executive function, they could find one, and they still want me around. It's a work in progress and I can totally see how it wouldn't work for everybody.

 

@paintcat im a hermes person too! hi :) i definitely feel the same way about him that you do, and so whatever "offerings" i do are really just super chill things that kinda help me out, too. like, i re-purposed an old mints tin with paint and sigils to be my lil hermes box and filled it with stuff thats useful when travelling, or just lil tokens in general! like, i keep a few pills in there in case i forget to take one in the morning, also some aspirin, a coin i found that reminds me of hermes...

 

it's funny, too; the most "logical" choice for a god to be interested in, for me, would probably be athena/minerva because a lot of what she represents is stuff that i value very highly. and i do like her a lot! i have a small alter to her on my work desk. but i dont feel the same "pull" to her that i do to hermes. hermes is very about change and fluidity and that being okay, which is something i really need in my life, and just... letting things happen, going with the flow, yknow? shrug

maybe we're drawn to what we need most rather than what we value most :P

 

quietly hums rolling stones
but if you try sometimes
you just might find...

 

When something bad happens to me, I sometimes consider it karmic payment for something else going well. Does this sound healthy? Does it fit with any of the craft's variations? Like, I lost a handmade pencil case I was very proud of in my final year of school, and decided to consider it a sacrifice for getting out of school alive and with good qualifications. Today I hit my head and burnt my finger, but some other things are going really well, or maybe it's the strike-back from whatever's happening to the person I asked Aondeug to curse?

 

From my side of things, as I was the one that actually composed the satire and recited it I'm the one that gets the blowback. Even then Gaelpol doesn't really have karma. You can get fucked over terribly by being unjust or not keeping to geasa though, of course. They don't like that sort of shit. In terms of "Was this just?" given what you've shared with me prior to my doing it I feel it was. Either way I'm the one that actually spoke the words and I did sain everything again and perform offerings as protective measures.

As far as worrying about karmic feedback loops...I personally find that to be something unhealthy to worry about. That sort of shit isn't a web you're going to be pulling apart yourself, so it's more just a sort of anxiety game on your end really. I'm thinking specifically of Buddhist karma in that fashion, though. It's really hard not to wonder about that sort of thing, though. That I know. Still I feel like it's important to not get too caught up in fretting about that.

 

Crash Course Mythology (hosted by the charming and eloquent Mike Rugnetta of Idea Channel) is giving me many pagan feels. It's nice how he addresses various mythical figures (like his silent animated co-host Thoth) like they're real and alive.

 

Kinda bad at the whole worshiping thing, but here goes. I don't really worship any major gods or goddesses atm, but I do have a shrine by my windowsill for my genius. Kinda just gonna nab the definition from Wikipedia over here:

"A genius is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing. Much like a guardian angel, the genius would follow each man from the hour of his birth until the day he died. The rational powers and abilities of every human being were attributed to their soul, which was a genius."

So the basic idea is that your genius is kind of the force behind a lot of your creative/intellectual endeavors. Like, you know that sudden burst of awesome motivation to finish a fic, or a really really really good idea that you just had for a new AU? That's your genius helping you out over there. I don't know if it's standard practice to leave out offerings for your genius or something, but I do it anyway (nothing big, maybe a hard candy or a lolipop on their offering plate).

 

That's interesting. For me things like a sudden, fierce inspiration to work on things or to get up and go are my gods speaking to me or otherwise helping me along. Or, in some cases, directly making use of me. As in like the Morrígan shows up and is like "Ok, you're mouth is now mine and these are the words I feel like speaking out of it." So a form of possession, basically. That's much rarer than the speaking to me, though. And even that is kind of rare? The sort of inspiration I'm thinking about is like...very, very fierce. It's strong. It can't possibly be ignored. It is very loud in your head and very THERE. This is the Imbas Forosnaí, divine inspiration.

 

A couple days ago I started to get the feeling that I should put up an altar to Odin next to Loki's. A very, very strong feeling backed up by several divination smacks to the head.

This led to me yelling at my cards "dude, you don't even go here!"

 

I think the Queen-of-Swords/helpful spirit might be Nerthus.
There was a distinctly different reaction to that name than to any of the others I tried. All the others resulted in a "hell no", while 'Nerthus' results in uncomfortable silence. Which is why I'm not calling her that.
But from what I gathered it's a gone-by name, like the cult of Nerthus is long gone and not much is left.

Years ago when I had read a book about pre-christian German mythology, the name 'Nerthus' stuck with me. A goddess in a carriage, travelling the land. Associated with death, if I remember correctly, but not only that. I have to read that book again (Don't have it here).
...
I have the feeling I was scouted earlier than I had thought. I just hadn't noticed, wasn't ready yet.

It's a strange feeling, knowing that the old gods are still there, over a thousand years after their last worshippers had gone. A strong feeling.

ETA: I mentioned before she's very much a "stop moping, start doing" personality. She asks of the occasional baked good from me, and that I create.
Although she displayed interest in paper tissues a while back, so now she has a packet each of normal and super-soft on the altar-space.
Gods are weird.

 

Hey friendos I have a question!
Other than Scott Cunningham and Raymond Buckland, who are some pagan/wiccan authors you think are actually legit?
I ask cause some just seem to be.... really wrong

 

Morgan Daimler, Morpheus Ravenna, Annie Loughlin, Kathrynn nicDhána, and Erynn Rowan Laurie. I find Loughlin and nicDhána to be questionable as people due to drama concerning the sexist and transphobic nature of Gaol Naofa but their research is legit. Just take their shit and run, leaving citations in your wake. These are also all Celtic reconstructionists.

Also many authors are incredibly wrong, yes. Which is why I tend towards academic sources for my secondary sources. Wiccan sources in particular I am very iffy on due to issues surrounding its largely made up historical claims.

 

I already avoid Silver Ravenwolf like the fucking plague LOL

 

Yeaaaaaaaah. Yeah. That's one of the big names of NOPE NO NO.

 

sometimes I hate when blogs post magic stuff under a readmore because if they like. delete or something. this post is now gone forever and I will never know what it said.
....I may have just been scrolling through a Homestuck blog and there was a thing from a pop culture pagan blog that was like, talking about symbols that can be used to represent things, and the start of what I read seemed cool, so I clicked the readmore and--the blog's gone. it deleted. THE POST IS GONE.