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

The rent has been paid. It was a good day.

 

Does anyone have any good anti-anxiety rituals or spells? I'm full of dread because Brexit and my anxiety keeps singing the song of 'YOU DIDN'T DO ENOUGH IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT'

Idk, some kind of mindfulness dealy? I need to feel less awful about all this so I can actually make myself go outside this week.

 

Today's reading had two really fricking clear things to say. I don't know if there were neon signs, but there sure was some capslock...

Page of Cups crossed by Death, featuring also 2 of Cups, 3 of Cups, 3 of Wands, Knight of Wands, and 10 of Pentacles: Don't wait. You are more compassionate and capable and patient than you think. Find yourself in losing yourself in another.
7 of Pentacles, Hierophant, 10 of Pentacles, Queen of Pentacles: Your longterm fears and doubts stem from knowing yourself to be a burden on others, but there are ways you can grow into interdependence, into helping others also. Intuition leads you to the path, perseverence pulls you forward.

 

I did forget to bring the plant with me though. I asked him what he wanted done with it and the consensus appears to be "Stick it on the desk". So now Manannán has some bamboo.

As far as anxiety rituals...Meditation is the first thing that comes to mind? If you have trouble with sitting meditation you could trying walking meditation. Just get a short, straight, clear path to walk across. Focus on the steps, the movement of your muscles, the change of weight. When you reach the end of the path focus on the standing. Focus on your intent to turn around. On your turning. Focus on your intent to walk. Walk. Repeat this a couple times. Maybe then if you're calmer you can then try and move right into sitting meditation. Then move out of it back into walking.

Chanting also helps me a lot but I don't know if you have something you can just repeat like that?

 

I recently did a rubber-band-ball thing against anxiety. Basically get a tiny nucleus that has something to do with your worry, like a crumpled-super-small scrap of paper, and just mummify the shit out of it with the rubber bands. Think of it like coating an irritant in pearl so it can't get to you anymore. Add to the process whatever candles and meditations and whatever that you want. Put it in the back of a little-used drawer or something, so it's not around you to remind you of Things but you can get at it to add more rubber bands if the bad feelings start to come back.

 

So I've been thinking about Buddhism themed tarot spreads. Most of them thus far fall into the realm of "How to improve your life you shitstain" variety of spread.

First one and one of the ones I have more sorted out in how it works is the Three Unwholesome Roots spread. Or the Akusala-Mula spread. So what the hell are these roots? They are dosa, hatred and aversion; moha, confusion and ignorance; and lobha, greed and desire. Dosa includes all sorts of hatred and anger. Even small irritations are considered within the realm of dosa. Lobha meanwhile consists of all want and desire, no matter how slight. It is also want for pain to cease or be avoided as well as want for pleasure. Moha is the hardest to figure out as this deals with your lack of understanding of how the universe works or, in many cases, your outright refusal to accept truths that you know to be true. The basic purpose of the spread is to consult spirits and gods and ask them for information regarding specific problems you have with each of the Akusala-Mula or how to proceed on specific things you know you have issues with in regards to them. It is a simple three card spread, one for each root. You can arrange these however you'd like. I pick a straight line.

The flipside of the Akusala-Mula spread is the Kusala-Mula spread, or the Three Wholesome Roots spread. The three wholesome ones are adosa, amoha, and alobha. Adosa is all compassion, kindness, mercy and softness. It is sympathy and a lack of hatred. It is an understanding even for those you dislike. Alobha meanwhile is frugality, carefulness with supplies, dispassion, and a lack of desire. Amoha is, like moha, the hardest because it deals with knowledge and wisdom. With the absolute understanding of how reality and life work. Think of this spread as being the more positive flipside. Instead of looking for flaws and trying to find things to cultivate to counteract those you ask about what you are already succeeding at. You ask for the gods to point you in the way of things to cultivate more and more. How to strengthen your budding strengths!

The final three card spread I have thought of is the Three Marks or Tilakkhana spread. The three marks are a series of three absolute truths about reality. These are things that cannot be avoided. It comes with being alive. These three are dukkha, anatta, and anicca. Dukkha which is suffering and discontent. It is dissatisfaction, grief, misery, lacking and so on. Anatta is no-self and no-soul. This does not mean you lack a soul completely or that rebirth isn't real. It simply means that there is no permanent, never changing self. That you have absolutely no inherent quality of you-ness. That nothing about you is lasting or unique or even important. Anicca meanwhile is impermanence. It is the temporal nature of all things. It is the fact that all things, save the most base Mahabhuta, break down and die and are reused and are changed and so on. The purpose of a spread focused on these is to ask the gods for advice. Perhaps you are asking them what problems with these truths you have in particular. Or perhaps you are asking them for an insight about them. Either way you use a single card for each.

I am also thinking of a Mahabhuta spread and a Beisama Boundary Stone spread. I am not sure how to get those working yet though sadly. Though the Mahabhuta one I do feel would be used to figure out how to balance your Mahabhuta. A vital thing to keeping healthy and ok!

 

ive got the sneaking suspicion that there's some sort of entity listening to me when i voice little things like "can i please finally catch this damn pokemon" or "can the weather please stop being awful", these things have been accumulating in the past few days, but how would one go about finding out what (kind of) entity is doing this, and what they want / what i could offer as a thank you?

 

I went to say hi to the river because it's been Too Long and I was in the area, and just

It was so happy and welcoming and I wish I had more than two minutes to spend, I know what I'm doing with my next day off

 

Food seems like a good test offering sort of thing. That or drink of some sort. Give it to them, say hi, thank them. That sort of thing. Do some divination of your choice to see what they think of the offering. After a bit of that do some more divination to find out more about them. Keep notes on them too, even if just mental ones.

 

thank you ::3

...
noob question, how does one go about making a food/drink offering? do you place the offering somewhere, and for how long? what do you do with it after that time has passed?

 

I've set up an altar for that sort of thing, but really you can leave them wherever so long as it's polite. Tradition about this sort of thing does vary given what you're dealing with though. Thai housespirits are given actual physical homes where their offerings are left, for example. How long is a personal question, but I tend to leave them for a few hours. As for what to do with them after that...That REALLY depends. You've got a few basic methods. Consumption, burying, burning, and drowning for example. Now depending on what you're dealing with you may or may not be allowed to eat the food. That's a thing you'd need to ask them about. It's very important though because like some beings want you to eat the offerings. Others like the Fair Folk will get very offended by it. Also you'll get sick because they consumed the toradh, or substance, of the food. So ask about that.

 

You could do some divination beforehand to try to narrow down what might be acceptable to do with an offering

 

That... makes a lot of sense. The asking about it.
Thank you! ::3

I did a 7 card tarot spread b/c that's the only form of divination I've got on hand at the moment, and apparently whoever it is is generally benevolent?

Spoiler: spread

got this spread from an old tarot handbook i filched borrowed, it's not like she's using it anyways, from my mother (... whoops)
1st card: past, roots of the current dynamic, past things that still have influence
2nd card: current state/mood of the inquirer
3rd card: the future, in general terms. indirectly connected to the problem at hand via its overlap with said problem
4th card: sought advice. most central card of the spread.
5th card: surroundings of the inquirer
6th card: obstacles
7th card: proposed solution, possibilities, options

what i got:
Reversed Tower
3 of Cups
Ace of Swords
Justice
4 of Coins
Wheel of Fortune
Reversed Fool

attempt at reading: past inner turmoil regarding belief, currently not quite sure on that front. entity in question is generally benevolent, but i should do things Right. change will come, and i'm not quite happy with this.

pretty sure that doesnt narrow it down to anything specific .._.."

will ask for offering type next, let's see if i can find a better spread for that...

 

Sure thing! And good luck with things.

 

I've been meaning to post here but I kept forgetting. I found my Homestuck Tarot deck! It was in storage in the states from when I graduated college, but after going through all my things there I brought it back with me. It's got a nice little home with a silk pouch I have, and I'll be doing a cleaning with palosanto to make sure it isn't carrying anything after living in a box in a garage for three years, and then I will have to get to know my deck. I hope that the Homestuck imagery will help me understand it a lot more than a normal deck.

 

Gods. Now I am realizing that I've taught the gods about Homestuck. Others probably have too but still I have basically gone "So let me tell you about Homestuck" to my gods.

Wow.

 

I need to get back into more full-time witchery, but here's a good one if there are any other potters out there - my pottery tutor, when we were doing raku/outdoor glazing, would pour good strong milk tea under the blowtorch heating the kiln, as libation. She believes in no particular gods, but she believes in pleasing things that might otherwise wreck your shit.

Since then I've left little offerings on the cage that keeps idiots from blundering into the massive indoor kiln while she's working her great internal dragon magics. A few feathers, perhaps. Or a twist of wood and coloured paper, each time I had a piece in there I hoped would come out right. Representations of stuff that I think she might like to eat, were she allowed to be a free fire.

 

Though actually that makes me curious. Everyone if you do tarot how do you think it works. And why. What are the metaphysics and theory behind it. And other divination too if you feel. For me the cards are basically a medium which the gods use to respond to my questions or conversation. There's nothing special about the cards at all for me. They are just cards. I can just as easily use regular playing cards, dice, sticks, or whatever else. Still, we're used to the tarot cards and so I use them a lot. The way in which it works is that they influence the outcomes of how the cards get shuffled. They basically pick which cards they want to use to answer and those end up being drawn and placed.

 

Personally, I just think there's a great deal to be said about belief. And also that the world is much larger and weirder and more wonderful than you will ever hope to comprehend.

 

...the shitty Homestuck in me is just going MIRACLES right now. Anyway, so it works because you believe it works? And that it is a mysterious process?