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

uhhhhhhhhhh chemical symbols.
alchemical symbology if you want to get very technical. The circle thing might indicate hermetic leanings, if not necessarily but
http://www.alchemylab.com/dictionary.htm
there

 

Tarot's always done well by me! But I think drawing tiny sharpie representations of the Major Arcana or w/e sounds like it would be a pain. I've seen lots of non-tarot symbol decks for divination--I'd try looking through some of those and grab any symbol or idea you think might be useful.

My friend John has a set of rocks that he's chosen each one to represent a particular planet (in the astrological/hermetic magic tradition), and he casts them on like a table or a cloth and reads the pattern.

Heh, do you use any fan-aspects also? Or classes?

@IvyLB -- oh man thank you for linking this! I was just about to 'actually, there's loads and loads of symbols used in alchemy--and most of them have a mix of 'so like here's the physical/chemical substance or process it represents,' and 'so here's the secret special meaning,' so they all have layers, which is good.

You can also like....gradually accumulate symbols/ideas that you would need or find useful (maybe on a deck of index cards first?), and start drawing those on the back of little glass tokens.

 

Oh. Hrmm. Using the Homestuck aspects might be good, yeah. This reminds me of those element systems I had come up with using the aspects for an AU of mine. There were three of them. One four element consisting of the beta kids' aspects, one eight element consisting of the beta and alpha kids', and one twelve element consisting of all twelve canonical aspects.

 

I do like alchemical symbols! I do have some reservations about them in that several important ones are just the upside-down versions of each other (earth/air and fire/water) and others are complex and fiddly such that I'm not sure of my ability to draw them on the curved surface of the glass gems. Continuing to think on it. Maybe if I used different colors...?

 

there's multiple versions of the elemental ones for precisely that reason, and with the amount of multiples youc should be able to arrange a set in a way that would make them easy to toss? But colors are a good idea! Also I Do note that that list has a LOT of duplicate/alternate symbols for the same thing (I think there are like seven just for... it was either lead or silver omg i can't remember) so you could easily choose the least fiddly one of those!

 

Also remember how my wolf spirit wants me to keep a pot of heather? I stiiiiiiiill haven't gotten around to it (We just moved into the new house with a garden this weekend) but trying to decide on the kind of heather I was googling and... well apparently heather IS a healing herb. For. Rheumatism.
Fenrir likes being sneaky about his helpfulness apparently. >_>

 

Sneaky, sneaky, spirits!

Do you work with any other (individual or archetypical) animal spirits? Does anyone else? It's an area of magic/spirituality that's fascinated me for the very longest time, but I feel like I struggle to maintain relationships once I've made contact, or to be clear or certain about what the significance of an interaction is.
The analogy in my head is, it's like meeting a super-cool person at a meetup or a convention and clicking, but afterwards you can never bring yourself to look up their contact info again, or they use a messaging service/social network that you forget to download/log into/dislike using.
I really -want- to maintain those relationships (...ditto for gods, really), but ADHD makes it tough.

 

Fenrir is i think a pretty special case because his pendant is imprinted on me pretty thoroughly (I poured it and I'm the first person who touched it. Mine.)
I'm also wearing his pendant constantly (literally haven't taken it off since putting it back on like half a year ago except where I really had to for medical reasons) so at this point it's more that he decides when to come visit me? He's just there occassionally it feels like being wrapped in a big warm fur blanket and he sometimes keeps bad shit from me.
And in exchange he wants the pot of heather (which apparently was just a lowkey nudge towards something that will help me too, go figure) and sometimes he tries to nag at me that he'd like me to get a tattoo for him. He wants a black ring around my right wrist because mythology around the Fenriswolf amuses the hell out of him apparently, but if he gets that it will be a bit more prettied up than just a black line :P

 

Popping in to ask questions that I've had for a long time but had no group to mull around thoughts instead of just singular people because its been AGES if that's ok...?

Spoiler: Hoo boy that's a lil text wall there.

Not sure where I stand, or who/what I stand with or for. I feel the energy, I feel the strength and the call, but I'm so disillusioned by my life and had my beliefs and hopes destroyed so many times that I don't even know where to look to for the pull's source without cringing and looking down like an abused dog. I've got no idea which path to explore and walk down, and whatever is calling me isn't giving any hints aside from a distinct YOU GOTTA, but no idea if I'm getting hotter or colder in my search, just a strong "THIS ISN'T IT, TRY HARDER." And that's intensely frustrating to have that feeling of security and hoe dangled like a carrot on a string out of reach. 8I; Esp with how few spoons I tend to have and how often that's backfired for me trying to approach directly. So far the strongest thing I've gained aside from grubfuck rage carrying me through normally impossible things is a fairly strong feeling for my pendulum works and a decent accuracy rate when I work with it, and a lot of frusrating gut feelings that come out of nowhere but have good results. Affinity for water unchanged despite my inability to be anywhere near nature for several years. Thoughts?

When I dorked around and ran a fortune telling booth several years ago (palms and pendulum, but mostly basic palms. I went with gut instinct on a lot and read the person, because this was a tiny town in the mountains with religious people who would a year later decide I was too accurate and completely block my existence out where it could be so ymmv.) I had a strange encounter. A woman came in for funsies, got a reading, and her dog piddled on my foot/skirts. We laughed it off and she came back eventually with a worn deck of tarot and did a reading for me, informing me that I had two powerful guardians but wasn't able to tell who or what they were. Nate assumed my parents, but I have sincere doubts given our track record. 8I; Funnily enough, after a shuffle she did my friend's reading who used to be close as a brother to me. He drew the exact same cards, but all in reverse aspect. Who da fuq is watching me and how might I poke them gently?

Mom told me there had to be some kind of a curse, but was only half joking, on herself and her mom. And now, me to a degree. It's like Murphy's law but very intense, and usually at the worst possible moment or when things are average it goes right for the vitals. Grandma: divorced mother of 6 in very hard times, never recovered from that, plagued with health problems and relationship problems till her death. Mom, plagued with relationship and health problems till her death. Me, relationship is a-ok, but health problems started very young instead of middle to old like those two. My dad commented to her at one point "I don't know if I can stay. I love you, I want to marry you, but it's SO BAD... How is it always so bad! It doesn't make sense!" (He stayed and later died from his alcoholism, and they were chaotic levels of unhealthy for each other, both from his drinking and her being vicious.)

Also saw/still see shadows and for several years was stalked by one that terrified me, but that's a tie between brainweird or just shadow walkers that I should ignore. No clue.

There's more but just writing those two out has my brain doing hints of television static and I'm not able to tell if I'm just babbling or if I've even dropped this in the wrong thread like a drip. ;7; so. ... yes. :skitters:

 

I have some time before class and I don't feel like shoveling down another 50 some odd pages of Milarepa's biography at the moment. So I guess I'll ramble about the aspect element systems I came up with.

The four element system is the most common, in that its elements and their basic natures and functions are found through the other larger systems. In fact the larger systems contain derived or dependent elements. Without the first four the other four or eight can't exist. The first four are thus a part of every last thing in the world to some degree or another. Not so either the other potential eight.

Our first element is that of Space. Space is form and matter. Everything that has a form has Space. The Space also is present in the things seemingly without form, such as gases and winds. Space is also the guide of the various rules and laws over these. Things like physics are of the domain of Space, and those who practice it as an Aspect gain the ability to alter and cancel out those rules. Space is literally considered to be, well, Space itself. The cosmos is Space in its most pure state as we can know it.

Next is the element of Breath. Breath is the element of movement and flow. Without Breath nothing can move. It is the Breath that carries along all. So things like wind are obviously Breath. But when you walk, say, your limbs are being moved by small atoms comprised mostly of the element of Breath. Breath is also pressures in the world. If your head feels tense it is because of an overabundance of Breath, for example. Breath weirdly also handles the jobs of what in other element systems may be termed as Water. So Breath is also the glue of the world and that which gives it flow. Breath is literally the wind.

Then there is the element of Light. Light is a weird element. It is the element of fate. Nothing can last forever and all things have their times, as will come up soon. Light is the element that actually guides when those times come. Think of Light as being the lawmaker of causality. Light is present in things like adrenaline rushes that save people from otherwise certain death, as an example of what it can do. Light is also considered quite literally in that it's what illuminates the world. So things like colors are of the domain of Light.

Lastly of the base four there is Time. While Space can be rightly considered life and creation, Time can be rightly considered death and destruction. Time is the ender of all. Each thing in the world has a so-called clock and when the sands of said clock run out the thing ceases to be. However, Time isn't just death. Time is also life in a fashion because Time is heat and energy. Time is the fires of life. All energy, even vital energy, is just a flame and heat. These are stoked by Time. Time is also literally considered to be fire.

In life we have a combination of all four. Time and Space come together to give a being both vital heat and form. Then comes Breath to move the being through Space and Light to move the being through Time.

This is found in all the element systems, with some slight variations here and there.

EDIT: One more note I want to add is that the chief inspiration for this system is the Mahabhuta and lesser bhuta as found in the Pali Abhidhamma. I'm thinking of working on a similar thing for Zelda too because reasons.

 

@Aondeug I just got smacked in the face with "Too Homestuck For This" compounded with holy shit Hussie did a lot of research.

 

I'm honestly skeptical he did any, beyond wiki-walking and doing what seemed cool at the time. If there is any part of Homestuck that wasn't thrown up on the website as soon as it was finished, I'd be very suprised. He had to go back and put the horns on trolls sometimes.

OTOH, there is stuff like that. And this poem: http://airlighttimespace.com/

I always felt that it captured something of what was so compelling about Homestuck, and about Sburb.

 

True, but even if it was wiki-walking only, dude logged some miles, with all the intricacy.

 

Ahhh. I have no idea if Hussie did any research on things like the Mahabhuta. That madness up there is entirely mine and it was written up for a fanfic of mine. Basically taking some things I've noticed from the comic and then building off it in the fashion of old element systems like the Mahabhuta of Theravada. The first form of the system was literally just a reskinned Mahabhuta, complete with Light being Apo because what the fuck else is going to Apo? WELL?

But then I decided that's stupid.

For more fun, Light moves things through Time and Breath moves things through Space matches up with the Derse and Prospit sibling pairs of the beta kids. This I just find weirdly fitting in a way.

If curious the system was made for an epic poem written in-universe in an AU. A poem detailing the trials of Rose Lalonde, the Seer of Light, who defeated the evil Condesce and saved the human kingdom of Prospit. There's a bunch of other stupid cultural and religious detail like this that also would never have shown up in the poem itself. Though they were parts of the world that the poem was written in. Things like Dersites and Prospitians arguing about how important Rose's Dersite heritage is. The basics of that being that the Lalonde family is from Derse and a good deal of the info written down about them and her suggest that culturally they remained Dersite. The Prospitians choose to focus more on her being human though, which is viewed as entirely tossing away the fact that she's actually Dersite. So for the Prospitians her actions are the triumph of humanity over an evil troll queen for the good of all humanity and Prospit in particular. For Dersites though it's the continued cleverness and legacy of their people. Also proof that Prospit fucking OWES them. Rose of course is not here to comment because she's busy being a religious figure on the level of Jesus.

 

My herbs have started to sprout! *happydances* And now that that's happened, and also that it's warmer, I've moved the pots outside. I've got mint (actually a transplant from mom's garden, so that was already growing), sweet basil, and chives which I don't think are especially witchy but, hey, they're food.

Planning on adding lemon balm and rosemary once mom has some transplant-ready, and maybe make sure I can take care of those for a while and add others next year if all goes well.

 

Any recommendations on herbs or living things in general that can grow well with very limited sunlight? No porch or outside access and the only windows are in cat range.. and cat is an asshole that knocks things off counters unless they're in the kitchen. >n> Which has no natural light.

 

maybe a moss terrarium? they shouldn't be put in direct sunlight and are very fussless once they are set up

 

Oooh. Excuses for moss are always good. OuO I will have to research that more.

 

Mint, as far as I can tell, will survive the apocalypse, never mind an unsunny kitchen.

 

Heh, I was going to say mint too