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

What is even the point of doing any kind of magic that'd be recognizably evil? Ive never understood that--like, you can't put energy out there that doesnt come back at you sooner or later. So wouldn't 'black' magic be sort of like punching yourself in the face?

That said, Ive done some work Im not sure was 100% kosher. I have a pretty strict rule about no magic on anyone without their consent. But also have foot-print spell for behaving peacefully and feeling calm on my front door, and i dont always tell people before they come in. I figure I can live with that coming back at me, even if its probably wrong.

 

I don't think there are such things as "white" or "black" magic. There's intentions, there's process and there's results, but the magic itself is not inherently either good or evil; it is part of the natural world and has no morality whatsoever. Wind, water, fire and stone do not have morality. Neither does magic. I think the idea of black vs. white magic is a Christian holdover.

I don't personally believe that things return necessarily, either. Plenty of people do wickedness in their entire lives, magical or not, and they die happy in their beds. If we wish evildoers to feel consequence, we must impose said consequence ourselves, rather than expecting it to just happen.

 

I havent seen a lot of people who do harm actually be happy. Actually, most of the people I know who do the most harm are desperately UNhappy, and do harm because they don't know how to be happy. I know a guy, the type who screws people out of their homes so he can go to hawaii again this year, hes got everything and /looks/ like he should be great but it doesnt matter, he's still miserable. His wife hates him, his girlfriend only puts up with him cause he buys her things, none of his kids will talk to him. Hes convinced that if he buys another sports car he'll magically be happy, and it just...doesnt work that way? But buying a car is easy for him and refraining from being a huge asshole isnt, so. Thats sorta what I mean about it returning.

If you spend all your time and energy hating and wanting harm to come to people, how are you going to feel after, how is that going to make you act, what is that going to make you bring into your life?

 

I agree with that, but I don't think it's inevitable that they suffer, and generally even if they do, they don't understand it.

 

With you 100% on the not understanding it. Very frustrating to watch, that.

 

A majority? I would say the difference between different kinds of spellcraft is generally a useful thing. I just find morality based classifications. . . suspect.

See my basic ideas of positive/negative forces. I think of shielding different from drawing spells, or even things like what I'll refer to as wards (Spells on places, things like @Lissiel's footprint spells.)

I think classification is important in an academic sense. But in the end it's about doing what works.

 

It's my personal experience, and I mean more in regard to dividing spells by How You Cast Them than by What They Do.

 

(Technically its not a spell on a place, its more like, walk on the paint now your feet are red, kind of thing? I also have traditional wards up, 'want to do harm? Ok but not here' things, but this is sorta different as I understand it. Changes people directly, not the place. Not your point I know but yeah. >.>)

 

This is kind of why I like classification, because I wouldn't see the two as different, personally, but obviously they are for reasons I wouldn't see.

 

I guess I see it as like, where does the change happen. Say I have a walkway: on one side I lay red chalk dust and the other side I build a wall. The first case, people can come and go if they want, nothing's preventing them, but if they do there will be a change to them, they'll have red feet. The second doesnt do anything to them specifically, it just makes the environment such that its not passable. So they're organized, to my mind, as spells on a person and spells on a place, respectively.

Edit: this only matters to me because of my rules for my work. I can put a wall up on my space anywhere I like, but its not super cool to red someone's feet without at least a heads up, if that makes sense?

 

It makes perfect sense. I think I got what you meant the first time, but the clarification is cool.

 

Guys, does anyone have tips/resources for dipping into crystal magic? I've been feeling a really strong pull towards it, but have no clue where to even start (as in, which crystals do what, how do they do the what, etc).

 

No idea but I know someone who is ... I'll send them an email and see if they can recommend anything.

 

Cunningham's Encyclopedia Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic is a pretty good start.

 

Less in the information sources so much as in the... literal sources, but: Don't buy crystals from pagan shops. Buy them from bead sellers. Pagan shops have anywhere from a 50% to a x5 markup, depending on what you're getting.

Yes, it's much harder to find "this is a crappy sapphire but I can still use it for the power of sapphire without having to pay for the cost of a gem-quality stone" type deals, but as far as the common stuff (quartz of all kinds, most prominently), buy from jewelry people. For more exotic stuff, try geology-focused trade shows; if you're in the DC area, hit up the rock-oriented giftshop stowed away in the Museum of Natural History (the markups on those can be fairly large, but it supports the museum, and you CAN get great specimen deals so).

Basically: Buy from anywhere that isn't a pagan/witchy shop as much as you can, because you're paying for aesthetic there.

 

I bet there are good online dealers too, though I don't personally know which.

 

OMG all of this.

I actually took up jewelry when I first started doing gem magic. It's much more interesting to me.

 

Hmmmm. This thread is making me think interesting thinky thoughts, but they're kinda... blunt, and my relationship to a lot of neopagan stuff is a bit tetchy.
Would anyone be interested in reading my probably kinda rude, decidedly non-spiritualist but pretty aesthetics-focused ramblings? If I do post them, I'll put them under a spoiler because of aforementioned rude and blunt.

 

I'd read them.

I'm a blasphemous fuck, though, so. . .

 

Go ahead as far as I'm concerned. Most I'll do is politely disagree unless you set out to be an asshole, which I really strongly doubt!