the-broken-stones - Tumblr blog

[the-broken-stones]

The internet seemed curious about how I use movement to cast spells. Here is what it looks like, though I should have moved back a little bit so you can see the full movements.

(Still a bit conscious of the camera.)

What I'm doing here is creating lines with my body that mimic the lines in the sigil I based the movements on. When I'm making a sigil, sometimes a song will come to mind for me to dance to and I will use that song for the work. This informs the lines that I make in the pen and paper version.

The one I'm basing my movements off of is below:

You can see where I'm creating angles, swirls, and the isolated boxes into a 3D shape with my hands, using the shape of my palms like a calligraphic brush.

I have an internal system of gesture that I use for these kinds of pieces that's somewhat hard to explain, but there is a little bit of pantomime as well. You see it sometimes in my performed choreo, but I try to keep myself from doing too much woo on the stage unless its that kind of show.

Anyways, that's a thing!

[the-broken-stones]

Oh so irritated.

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Hmm... thinky thoughts about spells and such.

I know that the most common rhetoric is that intent powers the spell, but I also think that it's possible to overthink and psych yourself out. Like I know that a lot of people who have told me that their first spell worked really well, followed by somewhat of a lull as they studied more.

And it's like art, I think. Like yeah, you can study for years about the theory but you can still get gunshy when it comes to putting pencil to paper. But you're a little kid and you're given paint pots and a sheet of paper and you just get to go at it with your fingers and toes and you make... something. Is it art? By technical definition, yes. Are you proud of it? Hell yeah, I made this part with my foot.

And I think... I think that my most successful spells are the ones where I didnt pay attention to the rules (such as there are rules in spellcrafting) and just kind of did my own thing, measured with my heart.

So maybe it's not intent. Maybe it's just the pure chaotic energy of someone with a spice rack and a fuck around and find out spirit.

[the-broken-stones]

On the night of the 2016 election, before the results were in but we all sort of knew, I felt the presence of what is best described as an ancestor at the foot of my bed. He told me not to worry because 'we have weathered worse and we will weather worse.' And I told him that it wasn't much of a comfort to know that even worse is coming, and he didn't say anything after that.

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Maybe it's not a ferryman anymore. Sometimes you have a dream about your grandma getting in a train and that's how you know.

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