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

Happy equinox, to those who it matters to! o/

edit: I should not post as soon as I wake up, wow. Thanks for the correction!

 

Equinox, friend, not solstice.

 

This thread has been quiet. Too quiet. So question time. Anyone here have any special gestures they perform? Maybe special signs made with hands, maybe special ways you sit or stand up, maybe ritualistic bowing. Things of that variety.

Personally I've got quite a few. Respect wise I always kowtow before I approach Buddha images and the like. Ones that have been consecrated at least. You have to do the bows in sets of threes. It's a respect thing.

Away from ritual and more to FANCY MAGICAL THINGS there are the mudras. Of which a few I make at times. First one I learned was the samadhi mudra. It promotes concentration. There's a lot of variety on it too. Other one I very commonly make is the chin mudra. This one symbolizes and promotes wisdom and knowledge. So while it can mean "Yes, this is a wise person" or "I desire wisdom", I also interpret it as a sort of aggressively telling unskillful behavior and thought to fuck off. You're serious and getting in the zone with this mudra. I do this a lot randomly with my hands for some reason. I don't really know why. Other two I use are the abhaya mudra and the karana mudra. The abhaya mudra is the fearlessness mudra. It displays that you are no threat to the other person, but also symbolizes that you have no fear of them. It's a very peaceful mudra and is reputed to be able to calm. The karana mudra meanwhile is the demon warding off mudra. It's a sort of aggressive fuck off sign to Mara and his ilk, as well as a symbol of one's own gumption to not partake in wrong action. Mara being a sort of malicious god, the Prince of Desire. He is a huge sexist asshole and no one likes him. Though karana mudra would also probably work on other such malicious entities like rakshasas and bootas.

 

Yeah. They can be good for that. Even if you don't quite get it it can get you in the game, so to speak. Not sure if that is THEIR MYSTICAL POWER TRANSCENDING BARRIERS or just a quirk of the human brain. Either way it works so...

I myself don't know too much about them. Other than the symbolism and usage for a few of the more common ones you see in Buddhist art and practice. Like the weird crazy theory behind and why they work? Nope. Don't know a thing about that. Save that the systems probably have to deal with things like prana and chakra at more complicated and actually explained levels. Well, when they aren't just being treated as A SYMBOL.

 

Does it count that I like to kiss my tools? Not so much with specific purpose in mind (though sometimes it's a kind of thank-you gesture) as because the lips are a very sensitive part of the body and I like to touch things to them...

 

I'd say so yeah. Reminds me that I like to touch things to my forehead at times too? It's a respect thing. Like bowing to it basically? The idea being hold the item up and bow the head down till it touches. It's a thing I do before offerings a lot.

 

There is this ritual I was taught by the... Chakra/Spiritual Worker/????? I saw when I was living in Bolivia. I haven't done it in a year but I really should. It's kind of touching base with oneself, processing and accepting one's emotions and situation, but mostly ensuring that one does not draw negative emotions into the body and instead works on releasing it out. I remember clearly feeling that I had a huge black ball of Guilt, and it was right on my spine in the middle back. After a few sessions it felt smaller. I could literally feel the color, something like a stormy mess of charcoal coalescing in a big weight.

One starts by tapping a certain part of the hand repeatedly, and saying what you are feeling three times (I feel stressed, I feel really angry and it hurts, etc), before moving to a different part of the body (the forehead) and changing the sentence to say what you want "I don't want to be stressed" moving in to tap a different part of the face and go through modulation a of the same thing "I don't want this stress in my life". You change the sentence slightly with each new spot you move to tap, and slowly work ones way down ones body, tapping either with one hand or both ( I prefer both) and usually closing ones eyes while chanting ("I want this stress to go away" " I want the stress to leave every part of my body"), and often the tapping also goes right on a chakra, until you finish on the torso and move to tapping the arm but in different parts and in a particular sequence. Then often you start again, doing this top to bottom tapping until the last turn, where you finish tapping on the crown of your head and inhale-exhale deeply and stay quietly there. Sometimes if the emotions are still very strong one has to go through it again.

This isn't very exact, but I wrote it down with helpful diagrams so I wouldn't forget it, and I really really should be doing it.

Another ritual, often used more in moments where the first one can't be used for location or time problems, is to close your eyes and picture a multi-coloured wheel of fire turning in the darkness one sees, and repeat to oneself "the wheel of fire burns away negative emotions". Ok that isn't the exact sentence I have to check that too.

 

Local secularist mumbling, but during my peak homestuck era I did the Signlessist Hand Gesture (basically making the cancer sign with your hands, you see it in fanart with some frequency) whenever people were too Aggressively Christian at me.

 

Pff. That's amusing. I wonder how many homestuck pagan's do that thing. That and how many in general are Sufferists, I guess you could call them. I know at least one person who is basically that.

Also makes me think of wheel turning at aggressively Christian towards in a rude fashion.




The idea of the thing is that it symbolizes the first sermon the Buddha gave. Which is the Turning of the Wheel Sutta. It also symbolizes the "turning of the wheel of Dhamma" in general. I feel it's note worthy that it is performed with two chin mudra, which as I noted is the gesture symbolizing wisdom and knowledge. Which are two separate things in Buddhism. So two chin mudras could be like the perfect synthesis of wisdom and knowledge together.

Also thing on his hand in that picture is a Dhammacakka, the wheel of the teaching. The Buddha is held to have had Dhammacakkas on his palms and the soles of his feet, which was one of the Major Features of a Great Man that he had. Of which he had all 32 reputedly.

 

Generally the fandom division is Signlessists = the nice peaceful ones, Sufferists = the ones who take the Vast Expletive seriously. Or that might just be the particular fandom circles I come from, since I've been involved with two of major Troll Religion worldbuilding people.

And I actually also split knowledge and wisdom and find it weird that anyone wouldn't. INT vs WIS, from my DND background.

 

Ah. That's interesting. Most of the homestuck pagans I see are more...generally devoted to the cast in general? As a sort of hero worship thing from what I can tell. Kind of like worshiping Sun Wukong.

 

I'm going by in-universe descriptions based entirely on fandom trends, but. The only Homestuck pagans I've met followed the *system* more than the cast, as in the aspects and so forth.

Pop culture paganism is definitely a thing, though, and a really interesting one.

 

Oh, yeah. I've seen people using the system too. Ones I see mix the two. So they kind of interpret the domains of the characters based off what we see of them and also the system. There's some other stuff using real world dates too. Like the various "families" of trolls have festivals when the reign of their signs start. There's also the birthdays and wriggling days that get celebrated I've seen. It's really interesting to see that they've managed to set up definite holidays, along with things like a magical system.

Another neat thing in that regard is I know someone who set up a festival calendar for Valar worship. Based on picking apart stuff from the books. Really cool stuff there.

 

ooh ooh oooh oooh!
Tell me more!

 

(although it is interesting how the relationship of the elves to the Valar in canon seems often more political than devotional or ritual)

 

I sadly don't know much about how he goes about. He just kind of explained how he made it. Wasn't comfortable with sharing the specifics because personal reasons.

And yeah that is interesting though it does make sense. The Elves had more direct contact with them than other races did. The ones who went to the Undying Isles in particular. Humans seem to have a far more devotional type thing going on? The Rohirrim are super big on Orome for example. I forget what they named him. Also if I recall right the humans were noted as treating the Valar more as gods when they weren't actually gods. More like archangels? At least this was mentioned in one of the earlier drafts we have I believe? I think Lost Tales.

 

I've downloaded a meditation app. I like it having a sort of "check in with yourself" inventory of how you're currently feeling and suggesting sessions that might be good for those. What I don't like is that, when I try to be mindful, all I seem to become aware of is a variety of small itches that I had previously been too distracted to notice. I am not good at this stuff.

 

Ah. Yeah starting out can be rough. Especially in regard to becoming weirdly aware of small shit you normally ignore. It does get easier with time for many though? So part of my advice is sadly just struggle on through. Other suggestion though is maybe try a meditation that isn't sitting meditation? Which is what a lot of people teach. You could try walking meditation or meditating while stretching for example. Walking also helps maintain longer sessions of meditation too. Because it gives your feet and ass time to recover from sitting on the floor.

 

I'm quite late to this thread, and also not a witch, but what are everybody's thoughts on using someone else's theoretically sincere belief in witchcraft against them?

Background: I follow (but don't interact with) someone who I once knew RL who has major issues. They're kind of toxic and aggressive and they've been diagnosed with BPD, and I'd have more sympathy for them if they hadn't hurt one of my close friends in a very bad way. They have an attitude of "everyone is out to get me, I'm completely justified" mixed with "I'm the worst kind of person and it's your fault for not taking that into account." I'm sure you know the type.

Anyway, this evening they were on Tumblr asking for help with an evil spirit that was supposedly possessing their relationships and turning people against them, based on the Cunning Man from I Shall Wear Midnight. I laid out a spell (I am not a believer, except in the power of the human mind) that amounted to "burn a candle for each relationship that you feel is threatened. Meditate on the good things in that person and relationship. Whenever you feel it is threatened, focus on those good memories to call up protection against the Burning Man."

My hope is that by making them focus on the good things, it will be harder for that person to engage in splitting and they'll be less likely to sabotage those relationships on their own. I'm no witch, but that seems to be how spells work when others describe them. Did I do the right thing?

 

Eh? Grey area. I mean, you're just hiding sound advice in language they'd understand. It's a bit manipulative, but, eh.