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

@Lazarae See, I'm the other way around. I have a very closed off/distrusting nature and I don't think I could connect with a deck that someone else picked out as a gift. (Me picking it out and then someone else buying it is different, though.) Plus in spite of my small hoard here, I'm notably picky about my tarots.

What I really want is a set of mahjong tiles, to use in a kind of similar way to runes. I'd have to do pretty much all my own correspondence work for them, though; there's a weird lack of any information on fortunetelling with them that I've been able to find, which is pretty unusual for shuffle-things-and-draw type games. Found this and one book, but that's about it. My grandmother used to have a set that I always felt pretty connected to; I should hit up (the aunt that doesn't suck) and find out what happened to them. They were the proper ceramic and so smooth.

This set is gorgeous, though. So's this one

 

Do whatever feels correct for you re: the mahjong set.

It will be valid.

 

Yeah I meant getting people ones they'd picked out themselves. I'm no good at picking decks for others. Something like "hey here's a deck I've been wanting, get it for me and I'll get one you want."

I don't think I've heard of mahjong being used for divination, but it wouldn't surprise me. Also agree with hoarmurath, but I tend to make shit up as I go and work by instinct soooo.

I used tumbled stones when troubleshooting relationships. I had a stone for everyone in my circle of friends, plus a few that represented certain things, and I would jumble and throw them. I'd usually do it three times or so and use the average distances. It's hard to explain.

 

I'd think the numerical tiles (bamboos/coins/characters) would work similarly to the suit cards (1-10) in tarot/playing cards, in the idea of them being a story arc sort of thing - the 1/ace is the beginning, the last one signifies completion, etc. And coins lends itself to being pretty similar to pentacles in meaning (material goods/finances), the other two I'm kind of. Shrug????

And then there's the directions/dragons/seasons/flowers which are presumably like the major arcana in that they have more specific meanings. I also imagine the seasons tiles would be good for time-related questions, but.

Rolls around. Someone remind me to harass my parents to get Other Aunt's phone number off them.

 

So, I just bought an ankh, of unknown metal, that I want to make a charm, but don't know which direction to take that.

The obvious solution is using it as a shielding charm. But it's classically used as a symbol of life/eternal life, and I could see using it as a confidence booster, or drawing opportunity in either of those aspects. Any suggestions?

 

D) all of the above! /chaote.

It's also symbolic of the womb, iirc.

There's also the whole Pharaonic line thing, with the mortality/divinity thing. If I were to use it as a confidence booster I'd focus there, making it a link between the external mundanity and the internal power.

Of course I'm also on 0 hrs of sleep and hopped up on mocha.

 

Dear witchblr

If you are posting twenty dollars for a single freshwater pearl, unless it's absolutely flawless and as big as your fingernail, you're a fucking idiot and deserve the price gouging you are getting.

Otherwise, learn to abuse jewelry wholesale for your witchcraft.

This message brought to you by Nai "I'm not only a sea witch, I'm a MOLLUSC" Van Lastname.

Ps I know the difference between real and fake pearls, thank you very much. Those are real pearls. I saw them in prison to take that photo. I TOUCHED THEM WITH MY HANDS. Thank you.

 

You could get *literally one hundred pearls* for that price.

(I'm more of a fluorite girl, myself.)

 

@Vacuum Energy Well this all originates from my post like a week ago being confused about why people don't use pearls in sealing magic, so.

 

General Warning: Rant about Ouija and shitty fucking people

So, I've noticed rumors about this "Charlie Charlie" thing going around, which short version: Use a ouija board to call a demon for advice/help? Whatever. Pretty typical spellwork practice, except the explicitly calling a demon thing.

Someone in one of the FB groups I'm in asked about the "dangers of Ouija". Now, I generally tell people to avoid spirit boards (If you're smart enough to use a spirit board, you're also smart enough not to ask about its safety), but Ouija boards are plastic and cardboard toys. Effectively useless in a magical sense to most people. Like many foci it's usable, but there are probably better things. This isn't about ignorance though, this is about the HUGE INFLUX of assholes "It's fake!" "It's lies!"

Like, magical skeptic, I get treated things with a certain amount of detachment. But 90% of magic isn't about SCIENCE!, it's about the weaponize placebo effect. The other 10% is "I have no fucking clue, but it seems to work". Which isn't rigorous and I think we are all okay with that?

Just. Ugh.

 

But that's the thing, though? Either there is no way to ever contact* an actual demon** with a Ouija board, in which case they are all harmless fun and nobody needs to worry, or it *is* possible to use them to contact demons, in which case they become potentially incredibly deadly objects that should be kept out of the hands of people who don't know what they're doing. The relative fakeness attribute is kind of vital to the risk assessment.

*I'm not assuming demons don't exist here, just that Ouija boards are insufficient to contact them without some additional knowledge or circumstances.

**I am going by the traditional depictions of demons as some sort of non-human being that is conscious, intelligent, with some degree of power or influence over humans, and highly malevolent, at least from the human point of view.

 

My problem is the people posting wikipedia articles going "There's no way they're real" meaning all practice.

But yeah, RE: spirit boards:

I think pretty much anyone in this thread could use a Ouija board as a spirit board and get as good of an effect of any other spirit board. But most everyone involved in this thread has practiced the elements that would make any real portion of the magical formula work even with something "fake" like a Ouija board.

But it's nothing inherent to the cardboard and plastic that makes Ouija a THING. Where as a spirit board made with intent and ritual and meaningful symbols is going to be more useful for even the uninitiated.

Though. . . that does create the question of does the very idea of ouija and the wanna be hoodoo symbols and their place in general society's zeitgeist make them culturally significant enough to power ritual?

Thinks the eclectic pagan thinks.

 

I would in fact say that they're culturally significant enough that, like hypnosis, they don't fail unless you're being actively skeptical at the time.

What bothers me about them is that you have no way of confirming what kind of spirit you actually get when you call with them, and I'm pretty sure that's why most of witchblr is so actively against them. (I personally wouldn't use one anyway because working with the dead that way is a big nono to me.)

 

So, I had a severe anxiety or panic attack today. It took hours to cool off. . . until I started fiddling with my ankh and became cognizant of its short term history. I removed it and got better very quickly. (It helped that I was with good friends.)

I bought the ankh from a crafter/artist on etsy who was having car issues that threatened their livelihood. I was wearing an uncleansed, uncharged, personally significant symbol created by a person in a state of anxiety. As a spell worker, I am ashamed of myself.

Re Spirit Boards: Yeah, of ways to interact with spirits/the dead, they are low on my "ways to handle this".

 

That is probably the first case of a situation where I would cleanse something, yeah. Usually since I get mass-market stuff, I don't bother (I view the whole process of mass market transportation and sale as fairly cleansing itself, in a "too many hands leave no readable fingerprints" kind of way) or it's from somewhere where there's positive intent that I don't really want to erase in the first place.

But in that case, yeah I can definitely see how that's a thing.

 

Oh and double posts all day erry day, but I discovered this artist at folklike yesterday and their runes are gorgeous! They have a couple different varieties too (more than what's on their shop pages) though they've got some problems with Everything is Wicca style craft and one of the rune sets they had was referred as "witch/gypsy" runes which, um.

But still. Nice runes, support indie artists, etc, etc.

 

Very nicely done runes, that's for sure. I need some more, I don't really get along with the sets I have.

 

They're a good size, too, which doesn't really come across in the photos but is a Thing. I'd probably want to special orders mine, though, for rounded corners as opposed to square ones.

(I'd also need to ask what specific variety of maple they use, because maple and I. We have a history. It's gotta be correct.)

(Though honestly I'd like just a set of the tiles with one in each of a bunch of different woods.)

 

Hmm, I wonder if they'd do the Anglo-Saxon Runes for me?

 

I think I did see those are the stall, yes! Like 98% sure there.

(Note that the artist is a Dude, I'm using "they" because there was also a woman helping him run the stall and she was the one I interacted with most. Actual Plural They is not always the default around here so.)