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

Finally did the interview spread with my new Victorian Fairy Tarot which I got from @Witch of Empty (I never thanked you, but the deck is so gorgeous and I love it oh my God!!!). It very much reflected the energy I got from it: it's lovely and full of warmth and joy, but also very truthful, and will help me not just with good times but also with hard questions. Its main weakness is that it's not so much a deck to make readings for others, it has a hard time sharing and is best used as a personal tool. To work with it I should be warm, quizzical and willing to explore my life boldly, and as the result of our partnership it gave me the Ten of Summer (Cups) so HELL YEAH.

 

I'm so glad you like it and that it works at least relatively well for you! And Ten of Cups, yay!

 

So. Wards. My witchplants are thriving (except the one the cat keeps eating) but here's the deal.

The main one that wards the front door keeps getting knocked over or torn up. It's a little unnerving because it's just the main one, even though there's another right next to it. Could be the dogs, but then why just the one? Even when it's tucked away out of trample range?

Suggestions? I've already repotted and redone the whole spell once with the same plant. Wondering if I should redo it with completely new plants, cleanse the pot, etc.

I just want to stop whatever is wrecking the poor thing. It's trying so hard.

 

Do you have someone in your life who's being super negative or boundary pushing right now? Not to get woo woo conspiracy or anything but that sure /looks/ like someone or something fucking with your wards. :/

 

Emotionally abusive Mom but that's been on for years. 3yrs no contact from my end in October! Woo! Not that she hasn't stopped trying to contact me every few months. Nothing recent though.

And yeah don't worry about the ~woo~ it looks like fuckery to me too.

 

Well idk about your practice but id probably do a secondary perimeter with salt and iron nails and maybe that firey wall powder stuff if i had a bad feeling, and then id start making discrete inquiries to find out what manner of fuckery was afoot elsewhere. Also maybe change the lock on my front door, its not that big a pita.

 

I've got salt + herb line on all the windows/doors but that's fairly mild. Firey wall powder sounds intriguing. And I'm a fan of cold iron.

 

I know nothing of ward construction but would each individual plant be say... A pillar holding the ward up? Because perhaps adding another pillar through a complementary plant that helps the first plant by sharing the load could help. Also if you don't already have a talisman you carry around with you everywhere it might be good to make or buy one.

 

if you want cold iron in a more spreadable form, I've used crushed-up iron tablets before

 

Ehhhh. Sort of. Each one is a different spell.
5 stalks, one for each point of the pentagram + labradorite + smokey quartz.
Height of the stalk represents strength/amount of draw on the element.

Ex: Main ward's tallest stalks are Earth for protection and fire to cleanse, vs the one in my library is Air, Water and Spirit to soothe and inspire.

Love the iron tablets idea @Lib, was worried iron filings would get licked up by dim dogs.

 

Charcoal dust can also probably help if you're looking for something symbolic of fire. It's what I usually mix in salt for my wards.

 

Could also go in the happy thread but this one has better context:

Was talking to dad about the astral temple and stuff, since I learned from someone not him. And it turns out in the branch of ceremonialism he was into before he went chaote that's.... serious high magic? Like, years of training working up to it (since you need a pretty good understanding of yourself to build a mental Safe Warm Place that really fits you) and he was genuinely impressed I managed it at 11-12. My dad is pretty damn close to being a Literal Genius, and while he's not stingy on earned praise it's rare to see him flat out amazed like that, especially wrt magic because both my parents are Crafty and so far ahead of me so I always feel like a bumbling kid compared to them and their experience/knowledge. It just made me really happy to hear!

 

I am now thinking about how I have a spot on my altar that is specifically for the Morrígna and that there are things on it specifically put there to represent her. Also that if and when I get room for another altar she is the one who gets a private personal one first. Well I guess it is still technically shared since there are least three sisters and as many as five but still. Though I keep my distance and she doesn't poke at me much I feel like she needs a space. Specifically. Strange altar feels.

 

Im happy for you and seriously grats? But it makes me so angry that there are apparently people who will be like "oh no, you mustnt do that until we say you're READY, you have to TRAIN and learn our SYSTEMS." Generally high magic bs makes me ragey anyway but just.

I didnt build a temple. I built a goddamned /hide/. Having that place to retreat, to keep parts of me safe no matter what, that meant everything to me when i was a kid. It started as literally nothing but a tiny quiet space in the dark with howling winds and shredding thorns on every side, and everything it is now is built foot by clawed back foot from that storm and the day i could open the doors to sunshine is STILL one of the proudest of my life, and how DARE any fussy old men think they have any right to say i shouldnt have that, that i didnt goddamned well earn every bit of it? Fuck them. FUCK them.

 

Definitely. I think that's why dad left, actually. He kinda knows firsthand that people are capable of doing/learning things even if it isn't the Right Way and even though he's very structured in his magic I don't think he'd have a lot of patience for "yeah you did the Thing but it doesn't count because you didn't do it the way we want." Like, I gave the understanding of yourself bit because that was what they said the training was for, but I also know entirely too well that you get a damn good look at what you're made of when you're picking up the pieces.

(Sadly I don't know who/what group dad originally trained under. Neither of my parents talk much about that aspect of the lives before they got together and if mom's anything to go by he probably has a good reason. She also let slip a couple details that make it easy to guess he got screwed over bad because part of the reason they initially got together was mutual protection and a "fuck you" at their associates. Mom because dad was non-Lilan and dad because mom practiced low magic ohno.

-sigh- Sometimes talking about my family sounds like a bad YA novel.)

 

I would read that

 

This is why id never magic in a group. Jfc, people get crazy enough over fandom, or churches where they think they're powerless. i can't even deal with the kind of drama covens cook up.

 

I've been taking inspiration from it for my writing for years, no joke.

 

I'm pretty sure your family IS a bad YA novel. I could probably write something inspiredby.

That said, I utterly agree with all that's said upstead re: "omg no you're doing magic wrong" being a thing I absolutely deny. None of that, no siree. I'm mostly solitary, though I don't think I'd have any objections to working in a group that agreed with my way of doing things? The thing is that my way of doing things is so obnoxiously secular that there's basically only like three people who do anything similar.

 

@Lazarae I love your childhood stories and would read the hell out of that YA novel (I kind of want to hear about the Terrifying Something you discovered but it's cool if you don't want to share that one).