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waning-knives · 14 days ago

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Loki and Children

I have been having some thoughts about the original mythological Loki and the thought that has been on my mind most is this:

Loki is

1. Surprisingly great with kids

2. Is addicted to parenthood

Let me explain.

As to the first bit, well, yeah, it’s surprising. Or it should be at first glance. Because, seriously, this is fucking Loki. Standing in close proximity to him for longer than a minute is bound to result in theft, arson, a splash of bloodshed for color, and at least one confused party waking up in bed with the fucker. He’s a chaotic, manic, and generally hazardous force to be reckoned with.

To us. That is, adults.

Mortals, gods, giants, trolls, dwarves, et cetera–but only those who are mature.* *Read: there is Something to be Gained from conning, seducing, or otherwise messing with us. Whether it’s to save his own skin, or to get some sweet petty vengeance, or to steal a bauble, or to satisfy some carnal itch, or to just fuck up somebody’s day for the Hel of it, Loki only ever targets those he can take something worthwhile from.

And what is there to take from kids?

Plenty of folks on his extremely extensive Enemies List have children, of course. No one in the Norse mythos was especially mindful of dropping their seed. So. Children.

Children–easy to fool, easy to make a hostage, easy to charm and siphon their parents’ secrets and treasures from–should be great big bullseyes to the God of Mischief and Trickery and Assorted Other Unscrupulous Things. Yet there isn’t a single Edda or snippet of lore in which Loki makes cruel use of them. Not once.

But what’s the big deal? Most of the rude and/or villainous characters in Norse mythology don’t bother with harassing kids either. Except in the case of stories like Loka Táttur.

Loka Táttur is a tale about how a farmer loses a bet with a vicious troll who swears to kill the farmer’s little boy. The farmer calls upon three gods in turn. Odin, Hoenir, and Loki. Odin and Hoenir both disguise the boy and hide him away, but the troll is too clever and each time manages to sniff out the boy’s hiding place. Ultimately it is Loki who hides the kid–pulling an Idunn-in-a-Nutshell gag and hiding him as a speck on the eye of a flounder in the water–and then, rather than stepping back as Odin and Hoenir did from their work, he sits in his boat and lets the troll see him.

The troll, being suspicious, asks what Loki’s business is. Only fishing, obviously. The troll demands to join him. Lo and behold, they bring up a wealth of flounders, including the one where the boy’s hidden. Loki manages to change the boy back to his true shape and hide the kid behind his back without the troll noticing. As Loki brings the boat back to shore, and to the farmer’s boathouse with the latter’s doors open, Loki tells the boy to run through the boathouse. He goes, the troll gives chase, and the troll becomes wedged in the entryway.

At which point Loki proceeds to chop off the troll’s legs and stick an iron stake in the bastard’s skull. Then he walks the kid back home. The grand payoff for Loki after all this?

The boy is safe. The troll is dead. The End.

Huh.

Now, much as Loki may have been the catalyst for a lot of corpses pre-Ragnarok–see his business with Thor getting his hammer back and leading more than one giant into a death trap–Loki is actually very rarely, if ever, one to get his hands dirty by killing a victim himself. Even Baldr was done in by an arrow he aimed with blind Hod’s fingers. So why did Loki personally orchestrate this plan in such a grisly way? For what gain?

What, other than the satisfaction of personally slaughtering the would-be child-killing prick troll?

In a less bloody narrative, we see his hand in getting Thialfi and Roskva, a pair of mortal siblings, taken into Thor’s service. While the exact ages of the two aren’t mentioned, they are young enough to still be in the care of their parents. When Thor and Loki are travelling it’s their father who invites them under their roof. Thor’s goats are slaughtered for the evening meal and–in some tellings–it is Loki who entices the son, Thialfi, into breaking a leg bone to taste the marrow. When morning comes and Thor resurrects his goats, one has a broken leg.

Thor’s visibly pissed—never ever a good thing–and so the family offers to make some compensation.

Loki, coughing through his hand: ThialfibroketheboneheshouldpledgeservicetoThor

Thialfi: Uh–

Loki, clearing his throat: Alsotakethesistertwoforonedeal

Rosvka: But I didn’t do anything—

Loki, en sotto voce: Kids, consider your options. Teensy mortal lifetime of toil on Midgard, harvesting dirt and snow on one hand. Potentially immortal lifetime, I don’t know, scrubbing giant blood off Mjolnir in Thor’s hall on Asgard on the other. Verdict?

Both: Sold.

Loki: Excellent! Really, Thor, you’re a master dealmaker, a born barterer, I’m in awe.

Thor: Wh—

Loki: AND WE’RE BACK TREKKING LETS GO

Cue laugh track.

Point being, Loki has been shown to purposefully go out of his way to help kids because…because. Yet how does this translate to the idea of him being good with kids?

I ask this purely hypothetically and am trying not to laugh as I do, because really. Really. How in the hell is a kid not going to be entertained by the Norse god of revelry and recreation?

Oh yeah, that bit’s often left off the résumé.

Loki, God of Mischief, is also God of Recreation. Play, in other words. Because playtime is a thing that is Chaotic rather than a product of Order, and so Loki is naturally all over it. There are some who even credit him with having added that trait to the first humans, Ask and Embla, while Odin, Vili, and Vé were carving them and breathing character into their souls.

On top of that, he’s also the god of flyting—poetic shit-talking.

So we have a shapeshifting, storytelling, magic-wielding, game-spinning, trickster god who can also teach young ears every bad word they could ever hope to learn, and he’s expected not to be a hit with kids? This is all without even mentioning the fact that Loki is a bit of a hyperactive attention hog all on his own. What better audience for him than a gaggle of credulous little onlookers who are too young to sneer at his antics rather than take delight in them? Children are wee balls of mischief themselves, muddled in with imagination and wonder and an eagerness to be wowed or made to laugh themselves into weeping.

All of which brings me to point number two:

Loki is a kidaholic.

Like, even though a lot of his and/or her sleeping around the Realms can be chalked up to an insane libido, there’s also just the sheer number of kids they’ve produced to factor in. Maybe more than even Odin or Thor could boast. At least half being born from Loki herself. Not because Loki was helpless against the workings of nature—it’s impossible to believe that Loki wasn’t smart enough or powerful enough to get around producing new Lokisons and Lokisdottirs with every other bedmate—but because Loki wants more kids. There will never be enough kids.

The guy’s got a case of severe paternal/maternal hoarding going on. I mean

Loki: I need another one.

Odin: You really don’t.

Loki: You’re right. I need two other ones.

Odin: I am positive that you do not.

Loki: Three. Triplets. Need them. Right now.

Odin: Loki.

Loki: Four? Four. Definitely four.

Odin: Loki, please.

Loki: Yeah, let’s go with four. I can give or get. I’ll flip a coin.

Odin: Loki, as Allfather, I am expressly forbidding you to impregnate or be impregnated for at least a century.

Loki: Fine.

Odin: …

Loki: …I’ll settle for three.

Odin: What did I just say?

Loki: Three’s a good number, isn’t it? All good things come in threes. You and your brothers—

Odin, fighting an aneurysm: You and your brothers—

Loki: So you agree!

Odin: I did not—

Loki: Three it is!

Odin: Loki—

Loki: Be back when I feel like it

Odin: Loki—

Loki: Give my love to Sleipnir

Odin: LOKI—

Loki, pantsless, vaulting over the wall, cartwheeling towards Jötunheimr’s Ironwood forest: Bye

It’s in that Ironwood that he meets Angrboda and fathers a giant wolf, a giant snake, and the literal corpse-faced queen-goddess of the dead by her. Being that Loki’s scope of attractiveness/aesthetic acceptability is elastic enough to let all sorts of species between his legs, I find it hard to believe that his kids’ unique looks would repulse or even faze him. They’re his children. Therefore they’re great.

And we all know how that happy family ended up. Ditto his second family with Sigyn and his two little twin boys.

Enter Ragnarok, warfare, general Bad Times, and so on.

Anyway.

Comical as it is to envision a Loki who cringes at the notion of parenthood and/or fears his more monstrous children, I just don’t believe it lines up with what we know of the Loki of myth.

Myth Loki is a god who would spend hours entertaining a child, simply entertained that the child is entertained.

Myth Loki is also a god who would hunt down and methodically dismember whichever idiot thought it would be okay to make a child cry within said god’s earshot.

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waning-knives · 1 month ago

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Three of Swords. Art by Mariya Tobischek, from the Ukrainian Night Tarot.

#Mariya Tobischek #art

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waning-knives · 1 month ago

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From a purely sorcerous perspective (not veneration, worship etc) I think that there's maybe no actual connection between our perception of value and the sorcerous impact of an offering.

In my paradigm offerings serve to deliver energy or resources, basically taking up the niche of food and money in the human world.

Even offerings we perceive as being very cheap can readily deliver energy (like mass-produced pressed incense being prayed over so it's filled with power, and burned to send this power to the spirit).

Similarly, an offering can be cheap or easily obtained for us and still contain resources (like a glass of water devoted to the spirits, so they can directly nourish themselves from it).

I believe that as a Witch, the miracle comes from your ability to pluck things from the physical world and give them to the spirits.

It's not a miracle that the cheap pressed incense can deliver necessary nourishment and fine things to the spirits.

The miracle is that you can put things valuable to the spirits inside of incense, and through your power deliver it to them.

It's not the substance but you which are the fulcrum of power. Witches stand with one foot in each world, as they say - this can be taken quite literally; you can take magical power, condense it, and deliver it from this world to theirs, or from theirs to ours.

The pressed incense is nothing but the cardboard box it's all delivered in. You know?

Witches are so magical. I love it so much.

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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The plan: hedge crossing / witch flight / whatever you like to call it. I'm just going to explore a bit, see what happens. No big deal. Not planning anything dangerous. Probably no need for any big precautions.

There's a birch (?) tree in the graveyard that pinged me when I tranced there a few days back. Seems like a good place to start. People talk about doors in trees, yes? Graveyards are thresholds and make any sort of crossing easier, yes?

The result:

There is not a door in the tree. I cannot pass through the tree. I cannot talk to the tree.

I can, however, flow into the tree.

I can entangle with the tree.

I can not disentangle from the tree.

When I try to (politely) pull away from the tree (not straight away, but after I decide I have maybe experienced tree entanglement enough for the day), I am no longer inside the tree, but the tree is still inside of me.

Somewhere deep inside of me is a sense of fear, of violation; equally strong, or maybe stronger, is a sense of obligation/reciprocity. What right have I to deny the tree my (body), after I was in its? This is a fair and equal arrangement. I experience the tree, and the tree experiences me.

The small, scared, violated part of me wants to remove the tree and be myself again. To defend a boundary I hadn't thought to establish. But that would be incredibly rude.

It takes me a full half hour to come out of trance, to be able to move my body again. Even if I am happy to let the tree experience sight/movement with me, my muscles do not respond.

There isn't a clear break. Eventually, bit by bit, and with considerable effort, I can move again, and I feel less entangled, and I can thank the tree and move on and while I no longer feel entangled with it I have no idea if there's a root still in me.

There is not regret, but there is a greater appreciation for fucking around meaning finding out.

Lessons learned:

Maybe basic precautions are a good idea. Your basic ward, maybe. Boundaries should be established in advance.

A connection will almost certainly go both ways.

There must be a way to get to know people (or spirits, trees, what have you) slightly more gradually than just fully merging with them on the first date.

#witchblr #witchcraft #borrowing #witch flight #hedge crossing #grownasswitches #a story of myself

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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I just read an interesting post about someone who specifically practices witch-flight. I've been doing something similar if not identical in nature for years, but tbh reading other people slap warnings about losing pieces of yourself, getting lost, or needing some protective charm on your person before heading into the Otherworld has me probably looking like the most reckless witch ever. I mean, I have a "waystation" that I return to, and I use it at the end not only as a return point, but to check myself for hangers-on, re-ward, or cleanse before fully coming back. My protection otherwise is the presence of my familiar and rarely anything else. If I'm feeling anxious every once in a while, I throw some oil blends with protective qualities into the bath I'm likely floating in.

I suppose my question is: what do others mean by the specific dangers of witch-flight/hedgeriding/etc when they say things like "getting lost" or "getting hurt?" I definitely get the notion of things following you or clinging to you if you're not careful, but is the worry about metaphysical pieces of ourselves that won't return with us? Warnings about leaving the body itself unattended without protection implies some vague threat there as well. What are the visible signs post-flight--the symptoms, if you will--that even tell us something has happened? (The post I was reading mentioned something like lethargy and wooziness if they didn't wait and check for all the pieces of themselves to regroup before returning.) If you screw up, how do you do damage control or restore yourself?

I have my ideas of the answers just from my own experience and some informed guesses, but I've never directly asked, especially given the gravity sometimes heaped upon the potential dangers. I'm curious what others have in their own heads.

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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Finding entrances to the otherworlds in order to engage in astral travel

(At this time I don't differentiate between astral travel and hedge crossing. I define astral travel as being undertaken in a trance state where some degree of awareness of your physical body is retained. This post contains UPG)

To travel to spirit worlds or otherworlds, you typically go through a door or a passage. Some sort of 'road trip' is often required. You can't just go through the door in the tree trunk; you have to go down the trunk, and through the other door, and down the path, and down the well, and through another door.

This isn't just head games. You are traveling somewhere. Sometimes these entryways are blocked and require sorcerous technique (or diplomacy) to traverse.

Doors are everywhere. They are affixed within physical times and physical places. Some doors open during certain times and are fixed shut during other times. Some doors will lead to one location for a while, and then suddenly lead elsewhere. A single path, known and familiar, can one day lead to a different location, or grow longer with more things in-between.

They are fairy roads and fairy doors, if you like. They do not operate by boring rules.

The following troubleshooting is based on the assumption that in order to travel to an otherworld, you've got to find a door that leads there. Therefore if you're struggling with travel, it may help to troubleshoot your door.

Guided meditations can be useful ("...you are standing before a tree with a door in the trunk"). We can imagine that we're being guided to build our own doors and roads, which of course people have the power to do - that's what laying a compass or calling the quarters is.

In any particular guided meditation, try it a few times just to make sure you've given yourself enough chances to build the road. For the purposes of troubleshooting, consider that you're literally build-discovering your own actual portals to otherworlds. This takes time and energy. You may be too tired to do it all at once, or it may be a bigger project than expected. This is why it's useful to keep re-using the same ones once you've built them. Between various meditations, try sticking with your same old tree, or hole in the ground, and so on. It's hard to make a blanket if you start a new one every time you sit down to work.

It can be remarkably helpful to align attempts at a guided meditation with times of power. Full moons do pretty well for this. Or, give it a try at midnight.

Other methods of creating and opening your own doors include drawing a door with chalk, knocking on it, and calling forth the path. A holey stone makes a fine door, just as a braid makes an excellent ladder to climb up or down. Many enchantments can be created which either function as doors, or which facilitate travel itself.

But remember the road trip - it's not just passing through a door. You also usually have to walk a little while. Therefore, also just walking a little while can get you there.

In a trance state, while your body is at rest, send your mind walking out of your room, to the vent over the stove, and climb up into the air ducts. Keep climbing up and try to find the exit. The exit might lead to the top of your domicile, but it certainly may not.

Alternatively, climb down the plumbing. Or, mentally walk yourself out of your house, to the nearest tree, and climb up it. Or down it, through a hole in its roots. Maybe an angry gopher is at the roots. Back away and try a different tree.

Perhaps your nearby environment won't do. That's alright, there are doors everywhere. Go and find one while you're out and about. To go downwards, find holes. To go upwards, find things that are tall. Suppose there's a water tower in your town. Go there and really take a good look at it. Dwell in the present moment with that water tower, as much as you can.

At home, in a trance state and while your body is at rest, remember going to the water tower. Relive exiting transit, going closer to the tower, and looking at it. Start remembering something new. Remember how you started climbing it. Climb and remember how you climbed this water tower to find a door that would lead you to an upperworld.

Is there a door at the top of the water tower? Well, maybe not. But there might be one along the way that you'll creep into if you keep your focus on finding a door that takes you to where you want to go.

Always keep a very strong focus on finding a door that leads to your desired location. And I mean that you should know exactly where you're trying to end up at, don't insert "*desired location" as a wildcard.

They are fairy doors and fairy roads. A memory of a water tower from this morning will do. What about a memory from 30 years ago, from when you were a kid? That mountain you'll never forget at the place you'll never return to. That's fine. A good memory makes a fantastic porch for a door. Relive the memory. But when you get to the part when you looked at the mountain for the last time, don't turn away. Remember that you walked towards it. Remember that you started climbing up it.

Remember that you climbed up the mountain to find a door.

Spirit helpers can be of immense assistance in all manner of travel, including finding doors, the "road trip," navigating the otherworlds, and safely returning. I don't mean to pray to your ancestors for guidance. I mean to engage an individual spirit helper to literally walk in front of you, show you the way, and even carry you.

Just now I drew a sigil on a piece of paper. I did energy work to charge the sigil, which represents a door. I placed the paper on a tray on the rug, and knocked on it. Then I went to lie down in bed. I practiced progressive relaxation to facilitate trance. When I felt relaxed and fuzzy, I chose to remember drawing the sigil, putting it on a tray, and knocking.

I remembered that when I knocked on the paper, there was a scratch at my door. I had opened the door and my spirit helper was there. I turned around - I remember it clearly - and the paper wasn't normal paper any more. The sigil was a doorway, it appeared like magic. My spirit helper reminded me to become small, so I did and sat on xer back.

Xe walked through the portal, and we both change sizes. I sit on xer back as we pass through a dark hallway, then a natural cave, and then the cave opens into something I'm about to see for the first time---

The bed is soft underneath me and it's dark in this room, and soon for the first time I will see what's on the other side of the cave.

If a guided meditation door doesn't work, make one using sorcerous techniques. If that doesn't work, find a natural amulet - like a holey stone. If that doesn't work, find one in the world around you. Try a few different ones. They really can be blocked, and that's got nothing to do with your skill. If that doesn't work, try traveling during special times. If that doesn't work, try engaging the help of a familiar spirit who is willing to teach you how to travel, and who will assist you while you travel.

Remember:

Know where you are trying to get to

Keep a strong focus on trying to get there

Most people are not able to leave their body fully behind

Your level of immersion depends on travel skill and trance skill

Seeing can feel low-resolution despite Knowing remaining strong. Do not discount valid travel experiences because your spirit eyes are weak.

Always strive to go back the way you came and return through the same door. Spirit helpers can carry you out if you get too tired or are about to fall asleep. Forgetting to do this isn't the end of the world.

Astral travel is distinct from daydreaming but those who struggle with maladaptive daydreaming may want to invest in building an infrastructure of discernment between the two activities

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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Been tossing this idea around in my head but for spirit-working witches I lowkey think a good place to start is going around to make introductions to a variety of helpful spirits, either benevolent or neutral in moral dignity, who can be called on at any time.

Literally going around and meeting the archangels/monarchs/guardians/gatekeepers (etc/whatever) of the four elemental roads. Just shaking hands and saying hi. Asking for their support, patience, and grace in working with them and their domains.

Brief introduction to the structure you live in, or absent of that, the land you live on.

Choosing your top 5 personal favorite kitchen spices, one or two nice rocks, and the nearest convenient tree and just doing a series of private rituals to meet them one by one.

Because then by the time you want to get started with other stuff, like finding familiar spirits, learning new skills, or solving problems, you already have met several spirits who are likely to be easily invoked to stand by your side and offer protection, assistance, and guidance for the task at hand.

Just because you don't know any spirits on a friendship level doesn't mean you have to be alone. You can still have spirits standing with you to help and ensure things go well. You can lay a compass, call forth the elemental gods, and ask them to provide assistance for the duration of the ritual. You can ask them to send a teacher or a guide to you to help you with something important.

Etc.

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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Hello! Any advice on making the whole "putting down roots" thing easier when you're at least one story above ground level?

See if you can get them to go down a drainage pipe. The kitchen sink has a tunnel attached to it that ends up going all the way down into the earth.

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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Brief notes on permanency in Witchcraft and the treatment mindset

A broad opinion my friends, take or leave it as you prefer:

Most witches, especially beginners, should not expect to be able to cast a single spell on anything and have the effects be permanent, forever.

Many witches, and beginner witches, work with perfectly good and fine magic, call power unto themselves, employ technique with skill, and achieve results. This is good!

Then, after a few weeks or months the effects will wear off, and that same person doing good work will just sort of say, ahhhh well. I tried, didn't I. That's too bad I can't really do magic that good, then.

Unless you are either remarkably talented at what you're doing, or unless you are neck-deep in techniques of permanency, most magic - especially stuff you find for free online - is best regarded as a treatment, not a cure.

Spell vessels run out of energy and must be recharged

Oils, incenses, and pertinent substances once applied lose potency and must be refreshed

One-shot spells, like a ringing bell, reverberate out into the world and then eventually fade away

The living world, both physical, magical, and beyond, continues to grow - and trees chopped down send up new saplings, old root balls start lapping up water, and termites wriggle their way into fresh wood piles

Therefore:

If something worked great for a while and now you need to do it again, then you should do it again.

If you worked hard at a spell and it got you some of the way there, but not all the way, you should rest up and do it again to get more of the way there.

If a frenzy of casting solved some of your problems, but not all of your problems, wait until you are rested and begin casting again.

If an old spell used to work, but upon recasting doesn't work, consider that the exact environment around you in your living world may have changed, and consider adjusting your spell before trying again.

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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tips for adhd witches!

[[before you expand: LONG text post!!]]

I got diagnosed only a couple months ago, but I have been practicing witchcraft for a little bit now. So in retrospect, here is stuff that I realized I have been doing to cope the whole time, and some new things I'm tinkering with :) Please feel free to leave your own tips or thoughts!

At all costs, avoid promising gods and spirits that YOU WILL uphold a rigid routine.

Just do not promise to give daily offerings! JUST DON'T DO IT. If you struggle with upholding a regular routine, do not promise gods or spirits you will uphold a routine for them. You should only promise things you are confident you can deliver. ((If you identify as a beginner witch it's my personal belief that you should not be promising anyone anything.))

Delete from your mindset that all witches are supposed to uphold rigid routines.

Give yourself breathing room: if you want to give scheduled offerings, maybe do one on the full moon. Or, plan it to coincide with other activities that interest you, and that you're likely to show up for.

Unless you have a few hours a week to devote to your practice, you should probably not be dedicating yourself to doing daily anything.

Rigid routine is not the only way to get regular experience with magic, build relationships with gods or spirits, or improve in your craft! You simply do not have to promise yourself or anyone else that you will do X actions at Y times.

Instead of having "do X for Y minutes on Z days" routines, try developing a streamlined ritual you can fit in anywhere for the really important stuff.

Maybe there are some really important things in your practice that you want to do on a regular basis. Maybe these are things like:

Quick personal shielding

Acknowledging and honoring spirits

General offering

Prayer for guidance

Instead of saying "I'll do shielding for 5 minutes every day after breakfast, then of course my offering ritual-", you can put a streamlined (short, easy) ritual together where you do all four of these things at once.

Deep breaths, acknowledge and honor the spirits, ask for assistance in raising a shield, offering excess raised energy to them, and praying for guidance in the upcoming task.

It should take maybe like, 2 minutes tops.

Then, slot this streamlined ritual in before most practice activities. Like:

Before other energy work

Before divination

Before spellwork

Or, use it as a sort of 'generic' access point of connection and perform this ritual:

When you shower, to calm down from the day

When you're on transit to prepare for the upcoming day

When you're feeling grateful and want to share the moment with the spirits

When you're feeling sad and need support

Instead of forcing important actions into routines that may be hard to follow, find a way to carry these actions around with you in an accessible ritual, like carrying snacks around in a bag. This way you can use other exciting activities, or other life events, as a reminder to practice your ritual of important things :)

Build a clear system of omens for yourself. Omens can intrude on your daily life and get your attention.

Maybe you have alarm blindness, forget to do divination, forget to check in with spells - so asking for omens can be a huge help. They are spontaneous messages that catch your eye. Helpful!

Research cultural omens

Research omens in your magical tradition

Journal and brainstorm personal omens

Write out, for yourself, a short list of personal omens.

Solid black pigeons mean a spirit wants attention. Seeing your favorite tree species means a spell was successful. Three gray dots means a spell failed. The scent of cinnamon buns means fortune is headed your way.

Perform a ritual announcing your chosen omens to the Powers That Be. Invite those Powers, Yourself, Life, the Universe, and Everything to send you true, accurate, and helpful messages through these omens.

Working with omens in this way is a skill that evolves over time. Your personal omen system will evolve over time if you use it. Think of it as another form of divination!

(Tip: Combine symbols with colors for an advanced system that's easy to remember. Oak trees are prosperity, but black means slow movement, red means powerful, and white means failure. After a spell you see a plumbing truck with a red oak tree logo; powerful prosperity. Etc.)

Build all your spells, rituals, and everything with the foresight that you are probably going to forget about it or not return to it for a long time.

Employ foresight and:

Encode retirement/shutdown functions into your spells!! Do you want the spell to burn out completely and leave the vessel hollow so you don't have to deal with the vessel later on? Specify that! Do you want the spell to go to 'power saver mode' and hibernate so you can save the vessel and recharge it later? Specify!

ENCODE OMENS INTO SPELLS TO REMIND YOU TO TAKE ACTIONS! "This spell brings me financial benefit, and when it runs low, I will see my omen of slow growth - a solid black tree."

Assume that you are going to completely forget that you're able to take care of this problem, so encode the spells assuming you will never remember to deal with this again:

Spell for people that will remember they want to deal with Monica (they will also be working with wards, divination, and subtle cunning): "Stop Monica at the front desk from assaulting me with her dark energies, or else limit how much of her energy can reach me."

Spell for people that are going to completely forget this is an issue they can take care of and won't do another spell on it for maybe 18 months: "Stop Monica from assaulting me with her dark energies, or reveal to everyone in the office her dark nature, but if neither of these things is possible, change something in the office so that we never interact again."

Assume you will forget about individual spells, that you will accumulate way to many spells than you can individually attend to, and that you may never take final steps like cleansing and deconstructing old spell vessels.

Build a spellcasting altar, or a spell recharging altar, where you store up all your vessels. Recharge them all at once, as often as you remember to.

Poor plan: "And when this vessel runs down I will recharge it with the waxing moon as I stand under the orange tree-" More tenable plan: "And when this vessel runs down let it drink energy from my altar; let it take up any energy that suits it; let it feed on what is available to it, according to its needs."

Focus on learning how to tie spells to external energy sources so they will stay charged for way longer.

For easy deconstruction, set blanket conditions for every vessel that it be undone and the magic erased if you take a simple action. This is called a kill code. You bake it into spells and it makes deconstruction way easier.

Try developing a barbarous word of undoing and using it every time you want to undo a vessel or a spell; this word will gain power and can become very helpful in other ways.

Once again, plan spells with the foresight that it will be difficult/unlikely for you to re-engage for formal deconstruction procedures. So, anticipate your future needs during spellcasting: "And if I ever open this jar and take out the things inside it, let this spell be released and return to the earth, let it fade away without trouble and nourish anything around it as fallen logs nourish the forest floor." This way, you know that if you accidentally forget about a spell or just take it apart, the magic already has instructions to safely dissipate and you don't have to worry.

Develop a visual language to remind you of what collected objects and spell vessels are.

This folds in real nice with a personal omen system!!

Use a combination of colors, established symbols (planetary, alchemical), and personal symbols to develop a visual conlang that helps you keep track of what things are.

If applicable, decorate or modify spell vessels so you can tell at a glance what the spell is for (violet symbol of Venus next to a paw: a spell to improve relationships with the spirits that help you with psychism)

Build a system that makes intuitive sense to you, perhaps folding in with your color correspondence associations, magical headcannon, or any other mnemonic device:

All the spells in jars are protective

Everything that's tied into a witch's ladder is about prosperity

If it has a red X on it, that's a hex

If it has a 7-pointed star, it involves your dragon guide

If you store it in a bag that has blue on it (blue print, blue button, blue tie-string) then that object is related to cleansing

Your personal visual language will gain its own power over time if used regularly, in the way that egrigores or sigils can gain power if used consistently over time :) It can become a real magical tool, not just a mnemonic device!

During spirit work, just clearly communicate that your sporadic presence has nothing to do with your dedication 🤷

When you conjure/talk to/pray to gods, spirits, or anything, address the fact that your communication/rituals/etc ARE going to be sporadic. Explain yourself and ask the spirits to extend understanding.

Some spirits/gods/etc are going to demand regular routine. AND IF THEY EXPECT THAT, then you guys need to get on the same page ASAP as to whether or not that's possible.

Spirits can be incredibly forgiving and understanding, but unless you tell them why you are sometimes around and sometimes not, they do not necessarily know what's going on.

Your spirit guide may have not read the DSM-5. Obelon the Fox-Man might not be up-to-date with the 2025 diagnosis criteria for ADHD, and Obelon might not recognize that you are struggling with a disorder that can mimic inattentiveness. Obelon might be asking why you appear to be so enthusiastic, and yet only call for him once every 5 weeks.

Just explain!! Explain what you are comfortable explaining. Give them reassurances and ask them to not misinterpret your ability to be present.

At all costs, avoid making your path a carrot that you dangle in front of yourself to try and force yourself to fix your brain through sheer force of will.

If the way you talk to yourself about your path sounds like someone struggling with unhealthy dieting, maybe it's time to readjust.

"I just need to do my daily offerings, on schedule, for two weeks. Then I will have earned researching tarot spells."

Maybe it's not a good idea to intentionally include witchcraft in a cycle of reward and denial that will ultimately drain joy from the process until your passion is a withered husk.

Witchcraft isn't going to force your brain to change any more than Stardew Valley was going to force your brain to change. Or that time you got super into succulents. If your time spent studying wool quality in heritage European sheep breeds didn't cure your disorder, witchcraft won't either.

Witchcraft, I think, deserves to be something that is a part of your joy - not a part of a system of stressful attempts at making yourself into someone you're not because "real witches" all do such-and-such routine (I assure you, they do not) so you must force yourself to do it too.

(Incidentally, if you have a 'streamlined ritual for the important stuff' and it becomes a barrier that prevents you from practicing, then maybe that's not a good idea for you - or maybe it's not as simple and streamlined as you need it to be)

STOP trying to build a static path. Lean into temporary hyperfixations.

There is SO MUCH to learn in witchcraft. It's never-ending. The more you learn, the more doorways open for you with more things to learn behind them.

This is not college, you do not have to declare your major. You don't have to wait to decide on your 'magic specialization' before you start learning.

This is not college, you don't have to take semesters of boring general ed classes before you're allowed to start studying what interests you.

Unless you are getting into very serious initiations, learning stuff, advancing your skills, and building your path is not going to shut doors and prevent you from getting into something else.

If something excites your interests, GET INTO IT! Don't force yourself to ignore what you're passionate about because you think serious, responsible witchcraft is supposed to be rigid, boring, and tedious. (It isn't!)

Avoid declaring your major. As in, maybe the idea of energy glamours is super exciting, so on day 1 you create a lesson plan that will realistically take you 70 weeks to complete. Based on your history, is it reasonable that you will maintain this specific interest in glamours for over a year?

Avoid making lesson plans that intentionally slow you down and make shit boring for no good reason. If energy glamours interest you, are you (*scrolls up*) using energy glamours as a carrot to force yourself to engage in a tedious magical workout routine? Is the reason the lesson plan takes 70 weeks because you decided to spend weeks slowly moving through each phase so you have time to spam energy work exercises?

You know yourself better than I know you. Maybe wanting to slow down and engage in your focuses in a new way is the goal. Of course, listen to yourself first!

But if you have a temporary burst of energy and focus to learn a new skill, and learning that skill won't require you to make unhealthy personal or financial decisions, why not just lean into it and explore it moment by moment, wherever your interests take you?

I think you'd probably learn a lot more doing and undoing 20 glamours in a week, because you're freaking out about how fucking cool it is, than if you practice 1 basic glamor exercise once a day because that's what real disciplined witches do, and then 11 days later you forget it once and never do it again and now your interest has faded because glamouring is just another boring chore.

Invest some time and energy into figuring out exactly what your bare minimum of responsibility and upkeep actually is.

How often do you need to recharge your wards to keep them functioning normally?

Once you've explained your own needs and limits, how often do your spirits actually request offerings?

Are you 100% sure the spirits you're working with expect offerings in the first place?

Are those offerings expected to be physical, or do thoughts and prayers suffice?

How often should you perform a personal cleansing to keep yourself feeling magically refreshed?

Feeling anxious or guilty over whether or not you're supposed to be taking certain actions is NO FUN.

It is much less fun if you don't actually know how often you need to do these things. Then it's just all guessing, all the time, and nothing is ever good enough.

If at all possible, avoid putting yourself into a situation where you feel that you are supposed to be doing something responsible in your practice, but you're never sure exactly what it is.

Spend some practice time, learn some skills, and make notes, to discover whether or not you do have any minimum engagement requirements in the style of practice you want. And most importantly, having clear 'deadlines' so you don't have to keep guessing at what you're forgetting about this time.

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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Hi Chicken!

I hope you are doing well.

Wondering if you know a simple binding spell?

There's someone in my life whose family dynamic is deeply rooted in negativity, and after a recent, vivid dream, I’ve come to understand that her mother holds a controlling and spiritually disruptive influence over the entire family. I now recognize that this energy is being channeled through my friend, and I want to protect myself from any further spiritual interference. I’m seeking a binding spell, not to harm, but to firmly set energetic boundaries and prevent their influence from reaching me again.

Thanks so much!

When people want to protect themselves, I almost exclusively recommend protection spells. When people want to bind behavior, I recommend bindings. These two things can have overlap but are not interchangeable.

If your friend is taking actions that spiritually interfere with you, then binding may help. You could bind them to stop lecturing you, for example.

If your friend is unknowingly channeling an energy, trying to bind that energy away from them could be deeply disruptive and destabilizing for them. People are inherently energy-sensing and the energies that move through us can be a part of our identity, stability, and ability.

Do keep in mind that binding someone's actions does not necessarily mean they will stay in your life but stop performing those actions. It can also mean they keep performing those actions and exit your life. Binding someone's actions can accidentally mimic banishing them.

In the way I sort the words, "binding" someone's energy from reaching you doesn't work like that. You want a protection spell - a ward, a wall, a shield.

A basic protection amulet like this one will suffice, especially if made specifically against one person or one specific type of energy. You must carry it with you when your friend is around.

Alternatively, create a poppet of yourself and give the amulet to it. (You can also use these poppets in healing magic and other beneficial endeavors).

Alternatively, create a container protection spell that sits in one place and projects a protection on to you. I recommend containers for this purpose because it's easier to include necessary taglocks that tie the spell to you. Technically, any sort of vessel will work.

A basic experiential binding:

Find a nice cord. Paracord or something thicker is ideal because it is of huge benefit to be able to untie the knot later on, just in case things go belly up. (Untying a knot is not necessary to undo this style of binding but it simplifies things)

Perform your preferred ritual preparations to prepare the cord to be used in an act of magic (consecration).

Dwell over the situation at hand. Channel this situation through yourself and bring it into your present moment. Think, write, sign, speak, sing, dance, remember, relive, or perform any action to draw this situation up around you like a thick mist.

Bring forth everything involved - the mother, the influence, the control, the friend, the interference. What it has done in the world, how you feel, what you want. Try to feel for your ideal outcome - it may already exist, shrouded behind the miasma of the unbound energies. Can you see a good ending? Does an ideal outcome seem to come attached to this bad situation?

Spend as much time doing this as you need to. Perhaps your conjuring will be rapid and the situation will flood forth to choke you. Perhaps it takes time to work past your own barriers and draw these things forth.

The cord has been prepared to be a magical object, or is already a magical object. Within the mists of fate you have poured into your present, it is a living and powerful agent. What it does impacts the real.

Feel out the exact things you want to bind. Actions, energies, influences - they're all around you right now. Think, sign, write, speak, sing, dance, remember, or relive them together into a single bundle.

In the physical world, tie a knot in the cord. Observe, believe, feel, understand, or know that this knot is binding up the unwanted things. In the magical world, these things are bound as the knot is tied. Physical and magical realities are now bound together at a single point in timespace: the knot in the cord is permanently attached to these energies, the energies are attached to the knot. The knot performs a binding and imprisoning function.

Most ideally, this action of binding comes with immediate emotional release. If an ideal outcome seemed to peak out at you through the conjured mists of unwanted influence, that outcome should now beam forth.

If the situation merely feels bound up and hollow, consider taking further steps to conjure or implant an ideal outcome into this situation.

When doing this style of working, a space and personal cleansing are deeply recommended.

A basic knot and paper binding:

Consecrate a cord.

Say, think, sign over the cord during or after the act of consecration: "I name you Binder of [Friend's] Unwanted Influence. You are Binder of [Friend's] Unwanted Influence." Repeat this phrase three times.

Write a journal page, or create a sigil, which fully expresses the influence you want to have bound. Work over it until being near the paper makes you feel like you're right in the middle of the situation.*

Say, think, sign over the paper: "I name you [Friend's] Unwanted Influence. You are [Friend's] Unwanted Influence." Repeat this phrase three times.

Tie the cord around the paper, pulling it tight. As you do so, say, think, sign: "I bind [Friend's] Unwanted Influence. I bind it from reaching me, affecting me, or influencing me." Repeat this phrase three times.

Observe that you have elevated a cord beyond the physical, so that it can interact with fate. Observe that you have called forth the situation, so that it exists in the paper you hold and that you can hold it in your hands. Observe that you have made your concerns tiny, confined to paper, and trapped in a knot.

Cover this spell and put it away in the back of the closet. Pillow cases work great. Covering is not strictly necessary but will help if the spell gives you weird vibes.

(*If you don't 'feel' in this manner, don't worry - just analyze if you've captured the pertinent points of the situation, and ensure you include details about what you have observed, what you believe, and what you think about this situation.)

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waning-knives · 2 months ago

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Finding entrances to the otherworlds in order to engage in astral travel

This isn't just head games. You are traveling somewhere. Sometimes these entryways are blocked and require sorcerous technique (or diplomacy) to traverse.

They are fairy roads and fairy doors, if you like. They do not operate by boring rules.

It can be remarkably helpful to align attempts at a guided meditation with times of power. Full moons do pretty well for this. Or, give it a try at midnight.

But remember the road trip - it's not just passing through a door. You also usually have to walk a little while. Therefore, also just walking a little while can get you there.

Remember that you climbed up the mountain to find a door.

The bed is soft underneath me and it's dark in this room, and soon for the first time I will see what's on the other side of the cave.

Remember:

Know where you are trying to get to

Keep a strong focus on trying to get there

Most people are not able to leave their body fully behind

Your level of immersion depends on travel skill and trance skill

Seeing can feel low-resolution despite Knowing remaining strong. Do not discount valid travel experiences because your spirit eyes are weak.

Astral travel is distinct from daydreaming but those who struggle with maladaptive daydreaming may want to invest in building an infrastructure of discernment between the two activities

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