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

That makes a lot of sense, actually. Thank you. Christ, though, I'm sick of this bullshit; I was hoping I could do some serious moving forward this year, rather than just punch my way through the same old shit. I'm so tired. Hopefully it was serious about the rest and peace.
Guess I'll have to really work on the thinking critically and the emotion thing. Hm.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for what the weirder things on mine might mean? Especially the "aspirations" ones, none of which made a damn bit of sense. And the Lovers. And that friggin' Queen of Cups.

 

based on the double princess of pentacles, though, i wonder if you will be moving towards/through new things? it did come up twice...

@OnnaStik I'll take a look, hang on...

 

Good point. Thanks for pointing that out. xP

 

...FTR, @unaccustomedSyncretist, I asked mangadeck if your interpretation was right and something I should listen to and it gave me the Tower. Erm.

EDIT: Asked it could it clarify, was there a better interpretation, and it gave me the Fool. Booklet descriptions for both are as follows:

The Tower: Ashes. Ruin, destruction, things that go up in smoke. Reconstruct from the ashes, let things go. Pick yourself upafter defeat. Abandon something important or in which you believe. Change ideas, even if you are confused. The storm breaks only that which does not bend.

The Fool: Space. A young woman dressed in clothes once lavish, now torn, moves closer to the edge of a ravine. Flowers sprout where she walks. It is the nature of things that space desires to be filled.

 

@TwoBrokenMirrors interesting! i definitely don't want to set myself up as the be-all and end-all of interpretations. i could interpret the tower in that context as letting go of the old interpretation and moving on with the new, or as "nope raze that to the ground and salt it". with the context of the fool... that's really really interesting. the fool is an idealist and a dreamer, often lacking in experience. sounds like me tbqh. idealism may or may not be misplaced. seems to me like your deck is, at the very least, recommending you take some time to think about my interpretation before jumping in with both feet.

@OnnaStik okay, i've done some thinking and connecting. maybe this will make some sense?

Spoiler: for length

ten of pentacles. makes sense. my life got flipped, turned upside down

wheel of fortune. sure, okay, equivalent exchange sort of idea? i can roll with that

king of pentacles. given this is marcus vansten, i wonder if it's really an aspiration to move past material wealth. from what i remember he didn't seem super happy about his money, and seems much happier as an erika.

devil. i got this in my aspirations spot! i know this feel! i drew a clarification card just to see if my deck had anything to say and i came up with justice, reversed - which to me says unfairness, intolerance, conflict, dishonesty - bias getting in the way of justice. possibly a problem or confusion with business, or maybe someone has been taking advantage of you. in any case things aren't going your way. i went and looked up what this card is in the night vale deck, and it's A Story About You/The Dark Planet Lit By No Sun. this is interesting. the maker of the deck says they took inspiration from Your personal choice and how the consequences come around to affect You. back to the devil, the man in the tan jacket. i don't know, i don't really see him as evil. just outside of the realm of humanity. now i haven't read the novel yet, so maybe more is in there that might shed some light on this association. in my reading about the devil card, it's also not an evil card - more focusing on where your personal focus lies, specifically talking about focusing on material possessions and warning about becoming convinced that those are the only way to success. this makes sense to me given your aspirations card of king of pentacles, and the twisty way marcus vansten connects to it. i feel like your deck might be telling you that focusing on material/financial gains is a good idea, but be careful not to let it become an obsession. this makes sense to me with the added card of justice reversed - you have a choice, and there will be results either way.

ace of pentacles. fascinating. this doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the traditional ace of pentacles meaning. but if you look at the yellow helicopters? now that's interesting. StrexCorp certainly got in the way of a lot of stuff. and marcus vansten bought them out once he became an erika.

ten of swords. my reading on this suggests that current plans have failed, but new beginnings come after endings. yes this is the rock bottom card, but you can only go up from rock bottom. since your deck tossed the knight of cups at you, let's look at that - someone new may be coming along, someone really good, someone inspiring. feels to me like your deck is letting you know that even though it's looking like you'll hit bottom, there's good stuff coming once you come back up.

lovers reversed. distrust or manipulation in a relationship, unfulfilling relationship, unrealistic expectations. could also be as simple as frustration in a relationship. adding in the whispering forest makes a lot of sense for the reversal of this card. it's not really malicious but it's certainly manipulative. given that this is about career, i wonder if the deck is warning you to be wary of yes-men, or of unrealistic expectations, or of people who want to use you to get ahead. not sure. this one feels like it's deliberately opaque.

ten of wands reversed. self-doubt may be getting in your way; change is necessary, but support will be there, possibly unexpected support. your burdens are on their way out. this seems pretty nice.

six of wands. you're going to kill a librarian and mount it on your wall, tentacles and all. taking it more seriously: if we take inspiration from the summer reading program, the battle is going to be hard. but you're going to win. maybe this looks like finding a meaningful spiritual discipline or path?

queen of cups. happy and balanced. artistic, creative, nurturing, intuitive. possibly a healer or advisor. loves deeply and generously. i think this is basically telling you to not be afraid to love, pulling in the balance of earlier when it was advising you to be like marcus vansten/the man in the tan jacket. i think it's advising that you move forward in seeking financial/material gains, but work on balancing that with being empathetic and generous to others. this would certainly help with not falling into the devil's trap of becoming obsessed with material gain.

page of swords reversed. someone may be trying to undermine you. this reminds me of the lovers card. don't get cocky and bite off more than you can chew...and don't get comfy and ignore what's going on around you. surround yourself with people who truly support you. sounds to me like the biggest lesson coming your way is how to balance moving forward with being open and caring, while being aware of your surroundings.

seven of swords reversed. deceit has happened, either from you or towards you. there is confusion. you want to change and move forward but old habits die hard. it's not going to be easy - maybe you won't get the deus ex machina of the old oak doors, hence the reversal - but you still want to move forward.



overall thoughts. i'm definitely seeing a pattern of moving forward in seeking material gains, but be careful to balance it out with generosity and openness. you'll hit some really low points, but you'll move on and up to much better things - both in relationships/emotions, and in spiritual pursuits. don't let your ambitions and drive become your sole purpose. also, there's a pattern of you being responsible for your actions, so there's an even stronger recommendation to be balanced and cautious. the overall direction suggested by the reversed seven of swords seems to me to say that you'll move forward, but it's not going to be by leaps and bounds.

 

Yeah, that's about the sense I was getting. Regardless, reckon I'm gonna be doing a lot of reassessing and thinking this coming year, and new stuff'll be coming along, which is... I suppose basically what I thought anyway. Just gotta keep ploughing forward- I think that message is clear enough anyway.
Thank you for your insights btw! It's been super fuckin' interesting. =D

 

:) cool

 

thank you so much @unaccustomedSyncretist

Spoiler: also cut for length

I never got that impression about Marcus, but it's undeniable that he did move past it, even if by force (and came to do considerable good with what he had).

This makes some sense, but I'm not sure what a caution would be doing in the empowerment spot, nor why this particular caution would be directed at me when, again, I'm honestly not that preoccupied with money. Worried about it, sometimes, but I'm much more concerned with shedding the stress of working!

..."exploitation by an evil megacorp" does make much more sense and applies much more to my life, true.

(To clarify why I originally suspected that these three might be bullshit- though it's fairly new still, so I can't say I know it very well, the only times I've tried to clarify or re-ask a question, the response has been very did I fucking stutter? and when I asked it about itself, I got a deception-type card... in general, I feel it would be likely to get very sarcastic and bullshitty with me if it thought a question was stupid. Such as asking it what I want when I already have a pretty good idea of that.)

I hope it knows I'm aro.

I REALLY hope it knows I'm aro! Anything that looks like it's talking about love makes me twitchy....

I'm a bit skeptical of anything that suggests I'm in danger of letting my ambitions and drive get out of hand, given how much I struggle to have any shred of motivation at all, but the rest of this looks completely reasonable and thanks so much for the help.

 

@OnnaStik no worries! i'm happy to exercise my brainmeats and maybe help a friend out

Spoiler: a couple extra thoughts

about the aro concern - I don't think the cards really pointed strongly to romantic love, more just...generosity of spirit. if that makes you feel any better?

also, i'll freely admit i don't know you super well, so you may well be right on the money about not having a problem letting ambition get in your way :) i also agree that getting a caution in the empowerment spot is odd. i definitely felt that way about getting the devil in my aspirations... so i dunno!

cards are weird, man

 

@TwoBrokenMirrors Worth noting if we're going with the eye of th storm metaphor uS mentioned, that's the midpoint. So even if it's "more of this bullshit," it's still "working out of this bullshit rather than getting deeper into it."

 

That's a lovely thought. Thank you.

 

At the risk of inviting discourse, I've just realized what's actually been bothering me about tumblr wix culture and how curse-happy it is.

They're so fucking mall ninja about it. You could rewrite the Navy Seals Copypasta to be about hexing and it would feel eerily familiar.

 

please rewrite the navy seals copypasta to be about hexing

 

Small unrelated: Is it weird that I want to do dragon-themed magic but get frustrated at the current paradigm of all dragon-associated magic having to do with Astral Dragons and Spiritual Guides and all that stuff that's very Not my practice?

I just want dragons damnit...

 

Finally got the charm tree all put together! A little bummed that I was only able to finish the charms on New Years and not put together the entire tree then, but I was out of town anyway so it's probably fine.

Spoiler: the tree

The ribbons at the base are purple for grounding, black for strength, pink for my energy/me since I'm the witch who made the tree, and green for luck.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it! I'm probably gonna post pics on my witchblog eventually too, but Idk when that will be.

 

i did a new years spread toooo (late bc i was dying on new years proper lol)

1. 2016 in summary: 5 of Cups, inverted
2. What I've learned in 2016: Death
3. What I aspire to in 2017: The Fool
4. What empowers me: King of swords
5. What may stand in my way: Strength
6. Relationships and emotions in 2017: 10 of Coins, reversed
7. Career, work and finances: 5 of Swords
8. Health and well-being: The Star
9. Spiritual energy/inner fulfillment: 4 of Swords
10. What I need to focus on most in 2017: Justice
11. Most important lesson in 2017: 5 of Cups
12. Overall direction: The Magician

i dont feel like typing up all the meanings rn, may do that later in an edit. however, i might just do another read entirely? because when i went to record the cards id pulled i somehow ended up with 13 instead of 12, the one that i dont remember pulling and analyzing being the wheel of fortune. this may be significant unto itself. shrug!

 

faith and magic things that have been up with me during my unplanned kintsugi hiatus:

• have actually been doing kindling and smooring of the hearthflame regularly, complete with a hymn in the morning and a prayer in the evening. i have the hymn & the prayer actually memorized by now. this is the first time i've managed to memorize anything GaelPol, so i'm pretty happy about it!
• we also as a family finally succumbed to the long-arriving pop-culture-pagan connection we have to Tolkien lore, and it's all the fault of fanfiction.

i should probably try doing a new year's reading too! still only about halfway through my first study of my Tolkien deck, so i'll probably just use my little cards.

 

well that got really personal with my psyche so i'm putting it under a cut for people who don't want to deal with that bc wow

Spoiler: new year's reading

did this using a spread one of my gaelpol friends designed around the idea of the world tree
disclaimer: this particular deck uses pretty nontraditional art, and i have a long and weird history with it, so i go kind of off the reservation with some interpretations

trunk/the center of the inquiry: inv IV of Swords. feeling trapped/afraid. burnout. unable to move forward. (this could apply to many things, but most obviously it applies to the intertangled trio of my abuse recovery, my family plans, and my activism).

roots:

• XIX the Sun: positivity, radiance, abundance (aka my primary character traits in childood into teenagerhood before mental health/disability/trauma fucked me up but good)
• inv XX Judgement: doubt, self-judgement (it's of note that this deck shows a butterfly wielding a key. i'm stuck/afraid to come out of my cocoon and finish transforming.)
• inv VI of Pentacles: debt, selfishness, one-sided giving (this is definitely a Thing, both in terms of actual financial debt and in terms of recurring situations where i feel like or am told explicitly that my contributions are nowhere near reciprocal in various relationships)

branches:

• Land branch: II of Wands. traditionally about planning and progress (but with the art and just the vibe involved i'm getting a strong sense of dissociation being a factor here, which isn't really surprising.) this is followed up by three leaves-
  • IV of Wands: harmony, home, marriage, nesting. (one of my favorite cards! it's true that my home, marriage, and immediate family is one of the good solid things going in my life.)
  • V of Swords: betrayal, conflict, tension, win-at-all-costs (which is exactly what killed my roommate housing situation last year.)
  • inv IX the Hermit: isolation and loneliness (it has been difficult, logistically and emotionally, to connect with communities.)
• Sea branch: inv VI of Wands. lack of confidence, fall from grace, disrepute. (so many of the things i have attempted, and so many of the relationships i have valued, and so many of the values i hold dear, have failed. this colors my entire emotional and relational outlook.) followed by three leaves -
  • inv XVII the Star: lack of faith, despair, discouragement. (of note - i have a Thing about stars, and this card has showed up in several readings done for myself by both me and my wife, so it is simultaneously significant to have it appear here, and also kind of 'yeah i know you've told me.')
  • King of Swords: clear decision-making, intellectual power and authority. (i almost cried when i saw the inverse, which i did not receive, represents manipulation, tyranny, and abuse, because i have a lot of But What If The Problem Is Really Me struggles.)
  • inv X Wheel of Fortune: bad luck, out of control (i feel out of control a lot)
• Sky branch: inv Queen of Swords. honestly, i feel like this is telling me that i run the risk of being too emotional and of over-correcting into being too cold. (i'm struggling to find a reasonable, livable balance between acknowledging my trauma and my depression and not drowning in them.) followed by three leaves-
  • inv III of Pentacles: lack of teamwork, disregard for skills (...has been a crucial focus of all three of the abusive relationships i've had in the past few years, and is also something i fear a lot in societal shifts in general because let's be honest who really values the disabled housewife and the kind of intellectual and emotional labor that is simultaneously the only thing i am capable of semi-reliably doing?)
  • III of Swords: heartbreak, grief, rejection (and i have had so much of that... but i'm distinctly getting the additional vibe of 'overwintering,' of a fallow period to regain resources. which makes me impatient because i am so tired of waiting to heal and i feel like i'm running out of time but anyway)
  • inv Queen of Cups: struggling to express myself effectively. notably, the only Cup in this reading.

*********

so that sure was a reading. um. i'd been hoping for more of a 'where do i go from here' and got an in-depth review of the places where i'm fucked up, which. is actually pretty typical when i try to ask that question in readings pretty much ever. my takeaways here are that i really ought to complete my transformation, that my much-battered optimism is just as valuable as my hard-taught fear, and that as much as i am horrified by the posibility of becoming the abusers i've faced again and again, i am at the very least not there yet. so!

yeah.

 

GAELPOL WITH TOLKIEN PCP THINGS YOU SAY