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

@chaoticArbiter I hate that with posts on any topic! ARGH.

I was poking around PCM again and am finding myself oddly drawn to Discworld's Herne the Hunted. He seems rather more relatable than a lot of gods.

 

Is it Weaponised Placebo Effect that I can apparently make bowling balls adjust trajectory by waving at them and going "Practice practice practice... Real real real!" a la Homer Simpson? I swear it seems to work! Not terribly well, but it really seems to make me do better than if I don't do that.

 

I was stuck at work all day on the solstice, but I did sing the sun down even though I was trapped in traffic. It felt good to do even such a small thing, I've been neglecting my practice something fierce recently.

 

My Midsummer went very well. It was cloudy and rainy the entire day, atypically for the area we're in according to moirail/ boyfriend. Good sign for Manannán's presence. He was around to collect the rent. We went on a walk to find some reeds to pay the rent. Found some near the pond near his place. Got those and went on a longer walk. Was like 3 hours almost? Long time. We found a small waterfall. Also a geocache hidden away in a tree. Saw four deer wandering around and heard tons of frogs. Heard a barred owl too with its distinct "who cooks for you?" call. We did get lost but that's ok. It was fun getting lost. Got back home and made some pork chops and mashed potatoes, which is fitting for Manannán. I wrote a poem later in the night. I am a bit dissatisfied with a bit of wonky grammar in the one verse, overall I am fine with it and Manannán seemed happy with it. Also gave An Morrígan milk, but that was unrelated to Midsummer shenanigans and more "this is just what I must do" shenanigans. And it was just really nice to be able to do holiday things and do them with someone else. He wasn't able to join me in my drowning the reeds today, but that is ok. I had a nice walk out. Rained a bit when I first got out, but was fine by the time I got to the woods. Thankfully not terribly flooded. So I was able to get the reeds to the creek and wander around a bit on the bike path.

 

I sort of want to call on the Small Gods.

 

question
does anyone have any, I dunno, general witchcraft blogs they follow that they would recommend to others?

 

In terms of witch blogs I personally follow breelandwalker and Mrs. K Cottage Witch. The latter is more specifically Gaelpol in orientation, but it is a general witch craft blog. Carpe Magicae is a more ritual magic blog run by a Catholic man, but it is a good magic related blog. Blackthorn and Iron is a good friend of mine. Another Gaelpol but she does post witch and magic stuff from time to time. Might take a bit of searching to find that though because it's a personal blog and not specifically a witchcraft one. I'm very fond of her theology and methodology though, and thus trust her magical shit.

 

Folks who make oils and things: what do/would you put in money draw oil? I'm just finishing up my first batch and am curious about what people use. I'm using mint and basil to make an infusion with olive oil, and adding nutmeg and ginger. It's been sitting out under a silk cover in the sun while the moon waxes, and I'm about to bring it inside and see how it turned out.

It's my first time doing anything like this with herbs and oils, and definitely something I think I'll be experimenting with in the future.

 

My spell book came.

 

Do guided meditations help any of you guys with drawing magic or contacting spirits/deities? They kind of help my anxiety and I wonder if it would help me spiritually too.

 

They help me a lot. Without them, I tend to feel really distracted, unfocused and anxious because I need some direction. Unfortunately, it's really hard to find guided meditation that works for me? But yeah, it's helpful.

 

They can help some, yeah. Really with contacting deities I feel it's very much a personal preference thing unless your tradition or practice has very strict protocol on that front. I personally don't do them, but that's more because I can't do guided meditations at all than anything to say about whether they work at all. I'll personally do simple samadhi type meditation for certain things when I need to get into contact with them. Though my biggest thing is I'll recite poetry and poems. That really helps me get into the mood, but it might not help you. Feel free to try it out though and really whatever weird things you can.

Any deities or spirits in specific you're looking at? If I know about them I might be able to help with more specific techniques of getting in contact with them.

 

Not really, I'm kind of taking the Moist von Lipwig approach. ("I commend my soul to any god that can find it.") Trying to see if I get drawn to any in particular.

 

Ah. That I don't know about save trying what you've asked about. That being guided meditation. I tend to be more on the side of "finding specific sets and using the accepted methods of contacting them". So my advice is more pointed and specific towards particular religions.

 

So I have a watercolor tarot deck (it is lovely and I love it) and an opalite rune set (also lovely and I love them). Any tips/help for reading/casting?

 

I'd take a good hard look at all the cards individual personally. Write down some keywords that they all make you think of. Then maybe head to, say, tarot.com and look up some explanations of what the cards generally mean. If you can look up a few different places because tarot's highly variable in terms of how it's read. Both on a deck by deck basis, and a person by person basis. The best piece of advice though I feel is that there is no right way to read tarot. It's a highly individualized process and if someone's method isn't working for you then it doesn't work for you. Play around. Find what works for you and don't cow to the reproaches of "Oh but it's SUPPOSED to be done THIS way."

 

Also don't feel bad if you have to make a reference book and refer back to it. Some people have a weird fixation on having everything memorized, but that's nonsense. I've been reading the cards since I was a teenager but I've still got a little book that I keep with my cards and refer back to with a combination of the "official" meanings and my own notes. You may find you don't need it after a time, you may not, but either way you're not doing it "wrong".

 

Been praying to and chatting with the spirit lady for the past few months, making offerings of foodstuffs whenever she asked.
(She asked for my last remnants of mead I had saved for a special occasion. Welp.)

Considering she was also fucking pissed when I killed a spider that had startled me, I'm fairly certain she's some sort of spider goddess. Her name is not Vriska, nor is it Lolth. I asked.
And another noisy spider has moved in. She sounds younger, and requests different things. Took a while until I had that figured out.

In the meantime, I'm sewing an altar pouch/blanket thingie. Still need to buy the silver wire to embroider a spider on it though. And I marked a cup and a plate with a Q, for altar use only.

 

hey all! uh, im branching out a bit? trying to figure out spirituality a bit more and experimenting! i made a wordpress and a storenvy (the latter of which isn't really up and running yet, i'll let yall know when i do - im planning on selling quartz pendants and tarot readings n the like, and for kintsugi peeps you'll get a discount), but i also made a witch-adjacent tumblr to go along with it, so if you guys are interested in that stuff id love it if you gave it a look ;o;
physicsmetaphysics.tumblr.com, the wordpress and storenvy have the same url if you wanna check.....!

 

Spoiler: spider spirit politics

Because apparently I now have four of those.
There's the first, who still refers to herself as the Queen of Swords, and is empathically neither Nerthus nor Lolth.
Then there's one who sounds a bit older, who introduced herself as Lorthus (...yes, I noticed the contraction of the two other names, it might be deliberate). QoS and Lorthus can't stand each other and would like me to stop talking to the other.
And then there's two who are actual spiders, they're on Lorthus side of the deal.
QoS said that Lorthus usurped her altar.

And I am at a loss what to do.
Augh.

Lorthus demanded I remove some stuff that was originally for QoS, but sorry, lady, QoS was here first.