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

What is this, exactly? Sounds p interesting. (And I keep most of my witchy notes in the cloud myself, haha.)

 

basically, just incorporating tech into your magic however you can. for example, I've coded sigils into my programming projects, and have made programming projects that have magical intent behind them, and I keep my sigils and grimoire online, and I charge my sigils using my phone charger. I have lots of sigils geared towards making tech work properly, and I have spells I've done to get things like wifi wherever I go, or to make sure my phone signal is strong no matter what (actually this one worked/is still working, I am the only one with a strong phone signal at my house....despite my dad and mom and I have the exact same company).

 

I am the most lapis lazuli drawn person ever. Like In a pile of rocks the lapis will practically sing to me to get me to pick it up. When I was having a terrible time in middleschool I wore three pieces of lapis lazuli ALL the time like I didn't even take the necklace, earrings and ring off to shower, just for PE class because my teacher was enforcing the rules. The ring broke and i lost one of the earrings but I might find the necklace somewere idk.

Other highlights include: the moss agate i could physically not put down and almost accidentally stole because it wanted to be with me so bad and The bismuth that just lights a fire in my chest idfk i'm scared it's radiation but I think it's just queer alien rainbow energy recharging me so hard I start glowing or some shit.

I am also weird in case you couldn't tell :P

 

strictly speaking, bismuth is in fact radioactive, but it's half-life is something like a billion times the age of the universe so it is almost certainly not spitting out any, you know, actual radiation during the time that you have owned it.

#gettin science in the magic thread #again

 

(please keep gettin science in the magic thread, it is nice to have a more reliable source than The Internet)

#I say #to someone on the internet

 

...Thank you for introducing me to the concept of infused water, whoever first mentioned that (too lazy to go back and look). I hate drinking plain water most of the time but spend half my time dehydrated because i also don't notice that I'm thirsty, so if I could carry around something that actually tasted good but wasn't unhealthy that'd be a+

 

hey, does anyone here know much about enchanting? I kinda want to enchant the ring I wear often with some kind of 'don't be noticed'/'invisibility' kind of enchantment and I've no idea how to go about doing it.

 

i know and personally i like queer space magic energy much more as the source of my chest feeling like I'm charging up for a laserbeam or something :D

 

Ahhh. A good bulk of the things I do involve gods or other beings to some degree so. Yes. Anyway...Projects. Smallest project I have is to make offerings. Basically just setting up the relationship and being like "Hello there I am interested in you." As you said though figures doesn't really work for you though which is fine. Anyway.

If you're up to blessing things you could sain your home. Basically get some water that you've set aside for ritual purposes and take this and sprinkle it all around the borders of your home. You want to take especial care to douse the windows and doors. Basically any hole something could get in needs more water than, say, the walls. You want to travel your home a total of three times sunwise. Saining is done while beseeching Brighid's aid for me personally. So for that light a candle (or the fireplace if you're fancy!) and set out some milk. Introduce yourself politely, explain what the occasion is for, and get to saining. I suppose you could go without that though.

In general you want to do things sunwise. Stirring? Stir sunwise. Drawing spirals? Draw them sunwise. Walking in circles for some reason? Do it sunwise. Has to do with the sun and fire being strengthening and powerful protectors against the malicious. Other thing you can do for protection is to carry something that's iron on you. Especially if it's a knife with a black handle. Additionally holding at least a small thing made of gold can also be protective, though I've only heard of that specifically warding off dullahans. Which are basically the headless horseman but from Ireland. They steal souls. Iron though is your multi-purpose fuck off thing metal of choice though.

Keeping a "hearth" lit year round is protective as well. Always keep it going. Even when you're sleeping. I personally use electric candles to be a sort of symbolic hearth. That and because it is safer when you're asleep. When sick it's especially important to make sure that a fire is going. Also always keep dairy products inside the home when sick. This all again has to do with Brighid, as well as the Fair Folk. You don't want them mucking about when you're sick after all.

Another small protective thing you can do is pour out bits of what you're drinking when outside. Signals that you're a hospitable and friendly type so the Folk may be less likely to fuck with you. Or maybe even help out. A lot of my "magic" is little habitual things like that.

From the Buddhism side of things you could start practicing loving kindness meditation to transmit merit to others. Or you could take up Paritta chanting, basically chanting of Buddhist texts. Chant a small thing like the itipisso to, again, transmit merit to others while also basically going FUCK YOU to troublemakers. If you are up for mudras there is the warding away of evil mudra. Basically do that devil horns hand gesture thing but keep your thumb against the side of your hand, instead of folded across your middle two fingers. The fearless mudra you hold up right hand like your waving. It is a gesture of reassurance and offers divine protection. The meditation mudra is performed by laying the right hand on top the left hand flat, back to the palm. Your thumbs join and touch together at the tips. This is then held above your navel. This is to stimulate concentration.

 

spends hours staring at crystals on etsy

 

[waits impatiently for the local crystal show in march]

 

there are no crystal shows where I live
I cry
I must buy all my gemstones on etsy
they are expense

 

I didn't think there were any in my area, but suddenly Random Flyer In The Mail! It's... like half an hour away, but so's a lot of stuff. (Perks of living in a rural area :P)

 

nice. and yeah, I get that, I live in a rural area too...
maybe there would be something in my area, I dunno, I'll have to look around, I guess.
....but if there aren't then BACK TO ETSY
curious question, though, why are lab created/really small ones generally inexpensive? like, there's a pink sapphire I'm looking at, and it's...apparently natural, claims to be an actual pink sapphire, really small, .29cts, and it's like...ten bucks. and I would expect it to be fake or something because of this?? are gemstones usually in this price range when they're small or lab created and I just don't know enough about gems? or are they likely to be fake? because I suspect likely to be fake, but I dunno.

 

Basically, if it's neither jewelry-quality nor usable for industrial purposes (like, say, diamond dust), you can probably find it on the cheap if you're shopping online. Most stores sell at a markup because most people who come in looking for Specific Stones are either jewelers (who will pay for jewelry-quality stones even if it's kind of expensive) or New Agey crystal majykk people who haven't done a lot of research on how much these things cost and just want The Most Perfect Pure Crystals.

If you're super-worried about the stone being a fake, then yeah, I'd suggest buying in person if at all possible, but if the stone's just really small and happens to be cheap? Go for it. It's not like you're blowing your life savings on it :P (I was really surprised when I first started looking around online too :'D But if your seller has decent reviews and isn't ganking their images from elsewhere, you're probably good.)

 

huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.
that's interesting!
I'm not like....suuuuuper worried about it being fake? the person has decent reviews, and a couple people claim to have confirmed the stones they got to be real. it's just really small and happens to be cheap and it's pretty and I like it. so like...why not, right? and it's not like I'm looking for jewelry quality--just pretty loose stones.

 

@chaoticArbiter Yeah, go for it! Pretty loose stones are always nice to have around c:

 

If you're wearing something with pockets, those work too for keeping your shinies close-- I know "girl pants" in particular sometimes have those tiny coin-sized pockets that are actually pretty decent at holding onto small stones. (I am not allowed to have a bag with me at work, so until my citrine gets put on a necklace it stays in my pocket :P)

 

hmmmm. if I'm gonna be buying these itty bitty loose baby gemstones, I need...pouches. in which to keep them. so I do not loose them.

 

Little drawstring bags are pretty easy to make if you have outgrown clothes and sewing supplies lying around, and pretty easy to find if sewing's not your thing. Pretty much anywhere that sells loose gemstones will have 'em lying around, and most craft stores will have bitty drawstring "gift bags" for party favors and such. (Look near spooled ribbons, or ask a store... worker... person whose title I can't remember right now.)