Todays take:
Nothing has been more damaging to modern sorcery than correspondence lists
Is it bad that I tend to only commit to my spirituality when I'm stressed or anxious?
When I'm happy and content in life, I seldom practise my craft, I barely try to learn new things.
Part of me thinks that's because I'm burnt out by university and that this will eventually go away and my motivation will grow again. But another part thinks it's somehow bad and hypocritical because I kind of use my craft as a distraction from stress and work overload.
It could be that right now you are just dealing with too much stress and anxiety overall and when you have some time away from those, your mind and body are trying to recover from the stress and don't want to do anything new. I think a lot of us came to witchcraft during times of stress and need.
When you get past the stress and have reached a state of more balance, you may find that how you want to practice changes. You may not continue doing the same things but rather find new ways to add to your practice.
Alternative take:
Your craft loves you.
Your craft is always there for you, supporting you and walking with you in your happiest times. And when you're stressed, it's honored and excited that you come to it directly for extra help.
Your path isn't a taker. It doesn't demand things from you when you have nothing to give.
Your craft is honored to be your shelter in the storm, and looks on you with love during sunnier days, when you explore everything else the world has to offer.
It's ready to be here for you now, and it will be here for you in the future, no matter how much time you have or how many changes you want to make.
Additional take:
In times of trouble, we often lean into the things that bring us comfort. We need ways to redirect and decompress when we're feeling stressed and burnt out. Turning to your craft for relief and a pleasant distraction is just as valid as someone who takes a study break and goes for a walk to de-stress.
There's nothing bad or hypocritical about seeking help and comfort when you need it, and you're not neglecting your craft when things are good - you're just focused elsewhere. And the relative time spent on your witchcraft studies may change as you grow and your circumstances alter. All of this is completely normal.
Be patient with yourself and know that the craft meets you where you are and makes no judgment.
Why are so many self proclaimed paranormal experts so unbelievably stupid about magic, witchcraft, divination, and spirit work.
The subject attracts charlatans.
“A witch lived here in the 80s and practiced unprotected psionics while worshipping FALSE GODS of agriculture and your house is possessed because she opened an EVIL PORTAL with her FOOLISH PENDULUM and her HERETICAL observance of seasonal changes. We found EVIL BOOKS in the attic by SCOTT CUNNINGHAM about POISONOUS HERBS and SPOOKY PHOTOGRAPHS of her EVIL GRANDPARENTS taken before COLOR PHOTOS prevented photography from STEALING SOULS and so her grandparents are still TRAPPED IN YOUR HOUSE and ALL YOUR HEALTH PROBLEMS are probably because of her. We also found a MURDER happened about EIGHTY EVIL MILES down the SPOOKY ROAD from your EVIL HOUSE 100 EVIL YEARS AGO and we believe the SPIRIT OF THE MURDERER taught her WITCHCRAFT and the EVIL PORTAL has kept HIS EVIL SPIRIT AND ALL HIS VICTIMS HERE and his VICTIMS want to help but hes TOO STRONG AND EVIL so we have to SAGE your house but we might PISS OFF THE SPIRITS and its HARD TO BREATH in this EVIL HALLWAY”
I mean
If I died and decided to haunt my house instead of doing anything else more interesting and the people who lived in it thought I was some scary ghost and called in the paranormal people who proceeded to go off on a tear like this I'd be fucking delighted. Like fuck yes I want to IDK push over a fucking Hummel figurine Beanie Babie Pop Vinyl figurine out of ghostly boredom and ultimately cause a freak-out that causes very stupid people to yell on cable television that my spirit is too evil and powerful, and Jbird if you say you don't want the same fucking thing then you're a dirty goddamned liar and I know it.
@jbird-the-manwich Not enough 666's in there 🤣
I'd just want to hang around and whisper "Everything you know is wrong." In their ears over and over. See how fast it gets to them.
Take this dialect quiz! X
Bruh why is this so specific 😫
Not only is it spot on, it's SO spot on that I have lived in all three of the cities listed, and CURRENTLY LIVE IN ONE OF THEM. That's freaky as hell.
Going to preface this by saying that this is something that has helped ME, MYSELF, AS A SINGULAR PERSON, and is not meant to be a blanket recommendation or a broader truth or any kind of medical advice. I am also not looking for advice of any kind.
I have a hard time finding the mental and physical spoons to exercise. I have a day job that requires me to be sedentary, a side hustle that requires a lot of mental energy, and way too much housework and home repair stuff to deal with. All this plus ADHD. Between the battle with executive dysfunction and the energy needed to get through all my Have-To's, adding one more thing to my weekly routine or making time to go to the gym is just not an option.
But at the same time, I've got 40,000 miles on this chassis and a history of health problems in the family, so I need to be taking care of myself.
So what I've started doing is adding little bodyweight exercises to my day while I'm at work. If I'm sitting, it's arm circles or leg raises a few times an hour. If I get up for something, it's squats or wall presses. If it's lunchtime, it's a lap around the building. All stuff that gets me moving, engages muscles that aren't getting used enough, and can be done quickly more or less anywhere.
I've managed to turn this into a habit using an app, alongside reducing the sodium in my diet and eating more fruit, and I'm starting to feel less tired and more limber. I still have trouble with fatigue sometimes, but this routine change does seem to be sticking, which is a big win for me. Plus I don't have to waste money on gym fees and then feel bad when I'm too tired to actually go and use the equipment.
It's no picnic hitting your forties and realizing you have to start paying serious attention to all your bits and bobs because the warranty is DEFINITELY expired by now and you can't just ignore your blood pressure anymore, especially because three bouts of COVID have done a number on your heart and lungs. While I'm not going to turn into a fitness model or pick up jogging anytime soon, it sure was nice to go to a LARP event and not feel winded after combat.
Turning 40 ain't easy. But it damn sure beats the alternative.
I just bought @hybridcalisthenics book to do the same thing. I have the exact same issue (mostly sedentary job, ADHD, hate exercising in the first place), so I'm hoping I can convince myself to do little things throughout the day to work me up towards bigger things.
We can do the thing!!!!
Do you guys remember how a while ago we were talking about what counts as "advanced" witchcraft and the approved metric was how many uses for black pepper you could think of?
Well I think I have a new one!
I believe witchcraft has rules.
The mark of advanced witchcraft therefore being:
When you discard all the fake rules you made up or accepted as being true,
And embrace the real rules unique to you.
There's something else I really can't get off my mind, which is:
Occult knowledge loses so much value when it's stripped from its context.
There is so much watering down of occult knowledge and a major part of that is that nobody seems to know where anything comes from.
Taking what someone writes, copy/pasting that info onto a separate platform, and refusing to share who actually wrote it, is actively deteriorating the pool of occult knowledge.
You aren't "archiving" or "saving" anything. You're muddying the waters.
Acting like you can stripmine people's beliefs for what looks good to your followers, or what makes you seem like you're knowledgeable, is functionally "core witchcraft" in the vein of "core shamanism." You're saying context, beliefs, culture, spirituality, and community don't matter - all that matters is a ritual or technique split from its source.
How can you claim to be a helper to the community when you are feeding people stolen knowledge stripped from its own necessary context?
Trying to maintain my own context on this platform with my name attached to everything is difficult enough. Like last year, when I was kicking and screaming about how my witchcraft is not paganism.
And not to mention, like...
People should be able to avoid individuals in the community they don't like. Imagine if someone is deeply uncomfortable with devil-adjacent witchcraft, and due to their spiritual beliefs, doesn't want to work with anything written by a diabolist.
And then someone comes along and copy/pastes my posts about reading tarot, or energy work, or other content that I learned by working with a devil. And now, the context is lost that this content was learned by channeling a devil entity, and people may work with it who would never, ever choose to engage with that material if they knew where it came from.
That's messed up, right?
Like, idk.
I truly do not understand how hard it is to copy/paste the URL. You're already there copying paragraphs of text at a time. Why would you not want people to know where information comes from?
Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions
I love that four different people on my feed scheduled this joyous person to reblog by 8am on June 1. I look forward to seeing this a dozen more times today.
This started in 2020 to give people access to books during the pandemic. The program has been continued to combat censor ship. Please spread the word.
Publishing companies are currently suing to try to end digital lending from all libraries, stemming from their suit against the Internet Archive's lending program. If they win, the Brooklyn library/any library won't be able to provide this kind of imperative service anymore. DON'T LET GREEDY PUBLISHERS WIN!
THAT IS SUCH A MOOD
I relate to this animal more than I ever thought possible.
Slapping your belly like a seal to get the attention of the seal gods be like
Anonymous asked:
hello Lailoken. I've been practicing my craft for over 6 years now and I've spent so much time researching, experimenting and worshipping. I take my craft very seriously. but no matter how hard I work, I can't seem to see my gods and spirits visually. I feel them in omens and in the way magic works when they're called on, and I even interact with them in dreams. but no matter what I do, I can't see them manifested visually when awake. do you think i'm doing something wrong? 😔
I'm sorry you're struggling with these doubts, dear Anon, but know that you are not alone. I have had multiple people express similar concerns to me in the past. The thing is, what you are describing about your interactions is what actual communion with numinous weights looks like for the vast majority of seekers!
I'm not totally sure how the concept of spirits taking consistent physical shape has become at all widespread, though my guess would be that much of it comes from very literal readings of mythology and representations of spirits in fantasy media. The truth, however, is that such interactions with spirits are not the norm by any stretch of the imagination. I won't claim that this isn't the case for anyone, as I don't like to claim certainty of most things, and people can be quite unique. But to be extremely frank, if you are seeing a lot of practitioners talking about seeing their spirits as if they are clearly and physically visible, they are almost certainly lying in order to self-aggrandize or experiencing some sort of psychosis. I realize that's a fairly serious statement, but I firmly stand by it.
Can spirits be gleaned as if physically seen? Yes, I think so. There may even be some people who are more prone to seeing such things than others. But I think those sorts of experiences are extremely rare, and people who say otherwise should be treated with wariness.
In my lifetime of practice, I have had visual experiences of this sort only a handful of times, and none of them was anywhere near as cinematic or dramatic as some might claim. I have seen hazy, luminous, and humanoid shapes in the periphery of my vision when working with the Fae, which were gone as soon as I tried to look at them. I have seen shadows coalesce in the benighted woods to take on the hyperrealistic look of an eerily grinning face, only to dissipate as candlelight revealed the scene further. I have seen the foam of running water take on shockingly distinct animal shapes when working with a river spirit, which turn to rushing foam again as soon as I focus on them. Aside from one bizarrely palpable experience I had as a young child—which has never been repeated, despite my explorations— these are what physical manifestations look like for me, and even these situations are few and far between.
When my Kith interact with me, I, too, experience it through omens, feelings, and dreams, and they are not any less real or powerful for it. In fact, I would argue that dreams are the place where one has the best ability to truly interact with spirits in a tangible way; its just a matter of training yourself to recognize and interpret different types of dreams. Working on lucid dreaming can also be extremely useful.
So, to answer your last question: no, I don't think you are doing anything wrong. It sounds to me like you are cultivating a meaningful and honest relationship with your spirit kith, and I encourage you to keep at it without comparing yourself to others on the internet. After all, it's difficult to determine when someone is offering earnest wisdom or just playing dress up, but you know your own experiences.
Most of my experiences are the same way - prickles of emotions, sometimes the sense that "something" is there. The only visual experience I've had was when I used my senses to see the Caileach walking through our cul-de-sac in 2022 - and that was just before embarking on my fourth year in the craft. Not seeing spirits is pretty normal.
And a small addition to the last reblog: syncretism is not a new age phenomenon, drop spreading misinformation that it is.
WORD.
Syncretism (the blending or amalgamation of two or more differing religions, beliefs, cultures, or schools of thought) has been occurring for centuries, going back beyond the classical era. There are traces of it in every major religion extant in the world today.
Nothing exists in a vacuum. Nothing completely reinvents the wheel. Every belief system carries traces of the ones that came before it, changes based on the events that occur during its’ development, and is affected by other beliefs and cultures which it encounters along the way. And this process does not stop.
The idea that the phenomenon of syncretism, either religious or philosophical, restricted to a single movement begun in the 20th century is utterly laughable.
I made a gofundme, if anyone would like to help me pay for my surgery to unfuck my nose. I understand that nobody has money, but if you could share this that would also be helping me out.
On June 26th I'll be getting surgery to straighten my septum and remove a large bone spur which is currently blocking airflow to my left nostril. This could potentially help with my frequent migraines, but even if it doesn't, the ability to breathe through both nostrils will have various health benefits. It's also just really irritating to have one nostril that's constantly blocked.
I'm not sure yet what the surgery will cost in total, though I've no doubt that it will be more than my starting goal. Due to the way it's billed I haven't been able to get a quote from either the provider or my insurance, but I will be updating my goal once I know the total.
Seal digital watercolor experiment.
Reference photo from “Roly-Poly Round Seals!” by Chiho Kuwada. Photo by Chiho Kuwada.
I got the book the photo was from!!!
Jasper Reviews "Psychic Witch" By Mat Auryn - A Fucking Dredge To Get Through
This is a book that's for a very specific audience.
This is a book for Wiccans or Wiccan-adjacent witches who can visualize, who practice "meditation" of some form, who believe in the very specific energy working system that the author describes, and who believe in the same sorts of magic/animism as the author does, i.e.:
- four elements plus "quintessence" aka spirit,
- a weird mangling of the concept of an inner child and shadow self brought on by modern people thinking that Carl Jung's shadow work was solely about "negativity" and "bad vibes",
- everyone having a higher self,
- everyone having a divine purpose,
- three levels of souls,
- auras,
- cleansing and protecting before any and all actions even in your own space,
and so on.
I am none of those people. Mat Auryn's approach does not work for me, and I hated having to slog through 7 pages of introduction (aka Mat Auryn's backstory) only to get to the actual content and be sorely disappointed in this book that claims it can "be adjusted" to other people's spiritual/religious/magical viewpoints only to discover that it really can't. A lot of the things claimed to be universal (e.g. definitions of intuition versus psychic ability) are, in fact, not universal. I would argue this author up one side and down the other about this. Not in that the author is inherently wrong in their own definitions, but in that it's somehow universal.
I am also, as usual, docking a point for spelling magic with a K. I'm glad I own this copy, because I could go through with a pen and scribble out the unnecessary K.
This is not a useful book to someone who has already developed their own understanding of energy and energy work. But at the same time, it's so boring and stale (even with exercises all over the place) that I wouldn't want to give it to a beginner either.
Official Jasper Review: 3/10, not what I needed, and I don't want it.
Maybe other people get something from this book, but I just couldn't.
I bought this book in 2020 and to this day I have not made it past like, chapter 2 for all of these reasons.
The exercises are boring and the book doesn't address people who naturally feel things but don't yet understand that they are feeling things. I thought I was a spiritual potato for the longest time because I didn't understand that I already had a built in sense, it was just ALWAYS ON and therefore I didn't realize that I was feeling things other people didn't.