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

I don't actually know how this witchblr thing usually works but I sure am reblogging a lot of trees

 

Uh. @Starcrossedsky are you sure you posted that in the right thread? Because I am having trouble seeing how it connects to either magic or any of the previous posts .-.

 

they might've been aiming for the out of context quotes thread and missed :pp

 

It was posted on tumblr that giving to the Fair Folk is more like a mafia protection racket and I think that beyond sounding hilarious that idea has a lot of merit. Because even if we go back to the original contract the Irish kings made with them that is the case. The terms were "You give us wheat and milk and we'll watch out for you" yes. But they were also followed up by, "Or we will go back to wrecking your shit." They were chased underground and we gained sovereignty of Ireland's surface, but we have to ask ourselves are we really in control of the situation?

And the answer is no. To work with the Fair Folk is to be trapped in contracts and mountains of obligations lest you have your kneecaps broken. To fail to keep up on the payments is to get sick, lose your belongings, have your time wasted, have your dairy spoil and potentially even die. They're lovely and honorable creatures. Very wise, too. I don't think I stress just how much you aren't in control with them though. Because you're not. You're paying the mob, and the mob has the ability to be anywhere at any time and magically destroy all your food.

 

I think I'll stick to making offerings to Pachamama and the place spirits. Most Andean practices are built on reciprocity.

 

I am 100% in agreement with Fair Folk as racketeers. This is part of why, as much as I'd like to court their favor, I have never left gifts for them because you basically can't ever stop.

 

Yep. I don't regret being in deep, but that is what I am. In very deep. I don't regret it though because, wow, Lugh and Bríghid and Manannán and the Morrígna and Donn and so on.

But I need to keep giving stuff.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts about what my fluorite might be trying to tell me? It's kind of a weird image...

 

... yes. yes it was.

which i suppose makes it the Most Out of Context Quote

 

@OnnaStik based on the stuff you posted upthread? To take it literally, it kind of sounds to me like the process of forming inclusions-- a crystal will grow around a pre-existing stone, and protect the smaller rock as it grows. Unsure how often fluorite actually has inclusions, but a quick google search suggests it's not uncommon.

Just based on that, could take it one of two ways:
--The fluorite is a protective stone, and wants to magically shield you the way you've envisioned physically shielding it
--The fluorite is scared and wants to be protected-- maybe it 'remembers' being lost and doesn't want that to happen again?

 

@Loq Thanks. At first I thought protection-of-me was a really unlikely meaning, since it was rock-inside-me-outside, and also because I used the pearl metaphor advisedly- it was just as much a matter of protecting my body from the foreign object (it's not tumbled or anything, it's got some hard points and edges on it that would probably hurt if, say, I sat on it) as anything else. Only. It occurred to me that it's not just outside things that may call for protection, and I was hoping to work primarily on myself.

I think it being a kind of water filter for the aquarium of my soul fits pretty well, and some cursory research says that fluorite is often a cleanser. I felt surprisingly good at work today with it in my pocket, too. Think I'll settle on that for now.

 

Okay, if anyone doubted it, let it be known that cosmic irony is probably a thing. But, like, literal cosmic irony. The "What happens when you unsarcastically ask what could possibly go wrong" kind.

 

There are certain things that I refuse to say or even think too hard and that is one of them. >_>

 

So what with it being Leap Day, I did a thing!



There are ornamental Sorbus bushes here and there in our neighborhood--better known to you and me as Rowan. I took a little half-and-half, and a slice of really nice wheat bread with butter and honey down, and asked permission to collect/take some berries.

Then I strung nine berries on some red thread, and looped it over my doorknob. I think I might actually want to collect more later, I was hoping nine would be enough to make a bracelet or loop out of and it wasn't. Maybe enough to make a full 27, for 3^3?

 

@Zuki ooh, that's pretty! I've been collecting oak galls recently, but I don't really have any plans for them yet...

Also, I've been considering means of divination recently. I have some of those glass "gems" that I've seen people make runestones out of with a paint pen, and that seems like my style. (Plus the gems were gifted to me as part of a house trailerwarming present, after first having been wedding decorations for some good family friends. Basically, these are the kind of meaningful bits of glass that I'd think would be good for meaningful things. Unless the wedding thing might bias them? Thoughts on this might also be helpful.)

Thing is, I don't feel especially connected to either futhark or ogham, and I'd like to at least see if there are other options out there before I start making anything. Do you guys have any ideas?

 

There's tons of old writing systems that might speak to you more. I'm gonna dig around my resources for a bit brb

 

http://lexicity.com/
This site has a lot of interesting resources for learning old languages!

 

TBH, for divination tiles I just use the Homestuck aspects; they have more meaning to me personally than most other symbolic systems.

 

That's the kind of thing I'd probably go with, but I don't homestuck and I don't think Fullmetal Alchemist has any similar way of categorizing the whole world, sadly. ;)

@IvyLB THIS IS EXCELLENT just lemme roll around in all this linguistics