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

oh also, sidebar:
im compiling a library of a bunch of occult/witchy resources that i have either used before or want to have available to check out in the future, thought it might be something you all would be interested in ;v; im eventually gonna put it on my tumblr probably but its nowhere near done so.....tadah
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17KQogCqHVKTKwQMOx2HYNjN0lIeKjgLVNy7A9y3bxl0/edit#gid=0

 

Can anyone here who's experienced with incense give me a tip? I got some dragon's blood chips, and I need to grind them to powder or at least smaller bits to make the infusion I want, but it's like trying to break up rocks. I tried freezing it and that didn't help.

 

I have no experience with that kind of incense but FOOD PROCESSOR.

Or put it in a bag and take a hammer to it? That doesn’t sound right though, is it old or newly purchased?

 

Newly purchased. I tried the bag-and-rolling-pin routine and that didn't work either. I don't have a food processor and it's only a 10g amount so it would probably be too small for that to work. Powder is coming off it but it's really difficult to break up the chips.

 

do you have a pestel and mortar???

 

Ordered one but it's gonna take a while to get here and I'm impatient. I can wait, but I was wondering if there was a way I could do now.

 

let me do some digging through my old
notes back when i had the same problem (no pestel or mortar), but I’ll have to do it when I get home.

 

Okay I looked through my notes, and what I used to do was get a large flat rock, and another, sturdy rock I could easily hold in my hand. Wrap what I needed to grind in a towel that iant going to fray, and grind it through the towel with the rocks.

But an easier way would be to just use a coffee grinder/mill, set to fine.

 

i will say if u use a coffee grinder or mill make sure to clean it thoroughly or better yet have a cheap garbo one just for this, dragon's blood is edible but like any other medical type herb it could interact with shit

 

A potentially interesting UPG, or magic headcanon, about ghosts:

I do think most hauntings etc are from other causes, but some are definitely real. I... Just don't think they're actual dead people's spirits. I think what happens is that sometimes, particularly strong emotions can end up leaving some imprint on the environment around where they happened. A bit like if there were just too many things to fit into one person and stuff started bleeding out around them, not just emotions but also bits and pieces of memories and personality.
And, well, there aren't that many feelings stronger than the primal fear someone usually gets when they're about to die and know it, some kind of bug/feature of the human survival instinct. But that does mean someone doesn't necessarily have to die for a ghost to happen.

Spoiler

I might have some anecdotal evidence supporting this being a thing in at least some cases. I've got to say I thought I'd leave more of a concrete presence rather than just messing with people's emotions and perception, honestly.

 

stone tape theory!

 

? can't google rn but if you have time to explain id love to hear !

 

Basically what Palin said; the idea that certain environments can absorb strong emotions and replay them later in the form of apparitions when the circumstances are right.

 

...I kinda want to write a book now where the "ghost" isn't dead and it's really just an imprint from a really extreme thing that happened or smth

 

... Okay, so, there's something I just noticed that, aside from ethical implications etc, is really fucking annoying.
So, binding spells. They're like curses but you're not actively hurting the person so it's okay! Whee! I mean, except that technically, not being able to do something is something that can actively ruin your life.
A possibility, given that I noticed there was something like that going on and am pretty sure, generally speaking, of what it's supposed to be doing, is powering through by forcing myself to do the thing. However, said thing is actually bad, not just some random arbitrary shit. I, however, sure would like to not, you know, be forced not to do it by a third party. So, can y'all think of any way to help with that?

 

i think the idea is that binding is generally used to help stop someone from hurting themselves/others?

 

Stopping people from hurting others is generally how I conceive it being used and what I personally would use it for. Harm is mitigated by way of preventing specific actions. I don't ever use it to stop people from hurting themselves, though? And it's not really a usage that comes to mind when I think about it. Granted I'm also devoted to the Morrígan so more justice focused purposes for magic come to mind.

 

Is it possible to do a binding spell on yourself?

 

Presumably. Closest I've gotten to that is deals that have gotten geasa laid on me. That wasn't me placing them though, just doing something that allowed something else to place them.

 

Do we really want to tell people it's okay to go all Judge, Jury And Executioner with something that's relatively popular on Tumblr, though? And even if the things are unambiguously abusive and the person doesn't even want to do that in their usual state of mind, that's still not your fucking call. As a pretty hyperbolic example, you don't get to forcibly sterilize someone because "they'd be a bad parent", and then say it was okay because they thought that too and didn't want children.