Find Some Stuff To Do Magic About (feat. Practicing Sorcery Is Fun And Good)

find some stuff to do magic about (feat. practicing sorcery is fun and good)

Do you want to do magic? Yes. Do you know what to do magic on? Maybe not. Here is a post for that. Take what you like and leave the rest behind.

Confront your learned helplessness face on because I'll bet money that there's a shit ton of stuff in your life you'd change if you hadn't trained yourself to pave it over just to make your highway of life a little less bumpy.

Let me tell you something I believe. I believe that most all of us have been trained to think that:

wanting things to go well,

wanting to be happy,

wanting little joys and pleasures in life,

and wanting not to be aggravated by the small things

somehow makes us weak, lacking, immature, or insecure,

or even worse,

that putting up with bullshit is somehow automatically makes us a better person, as if we've all got a cosmic thermometer that won't ding "good person!" until we've had it up to here with bullshit and then still force ourselves to grin and bear it.

"If I do magic to shorten the Starbucks drive-through doesn't that make me impatient? I don't want to use magic as spiritual bypassing in order to avoid my flaws."

Well then. Far be it from me to decry the kratophany of Prometheus getting his liver pecked out by eagles every day, manifest in your sacred sacrifice of having your minutes pecked out of your day, one by one, as you wait in line.

Make a list. Keep it with you. On paper, on your phone. Doesn't matter. It's a list of things you'd like to change. Little fleeting things that rear their head only for a second or so before our industrial-powered steamrollers smash it into the ground. Big things that you stew over day to day.

No problem is too petty. No splinter in your side is too insignificant. Betty at the office blows her nose every day at 8:15am and if you have to hear it one more time you are going to burn the building down? Put it on the list.

Do you have to leave 20 minutes early for work on Thursdays because a freight train blocks the freeway for five minutes and your city backs up like Betty's nose? What is magic going to do, rearrange the city's entire traffic patterns? Maybe so. Who cares. That's magic's problem, not yours. Put it on the list.

Have your eye on quite a cute designer bag? Does it cost your monthly rent? Put it on the list.

Learn to stare your life in the eye again with the verv of someone who has just found a reality-warping gun with unlimited ammunition. Game night gets cancelled too often? You never remember to use your pizza coupons? You can never remember to get ginger ale at the store? Put it on the list.

Feed yourself what ails you like a crab going absolutely bonkers in a plankton-filled tank.

just do some of that normal "witchy" stuff, why not

Find Some Stuff To Do Magic About (feat. Practicing Sorcery Is Fun And Good)

Protections: Not only for spirits and stuff!

Against unwanted solicitors

Against your room mate's creepy partner coming over

Against debt collectors finding your new phone number

Against surprise quizzes in your course

Against nightmares

And from time to time a sorcerer does like a good house ward. Experiment with yours, why not? Waiting until you're under attack to learn how to put up protections is like waiting until you're drowning to learn swimming. Sure, the sheer adrenaline-fueled terror might get you somewhere - or it might get in the way.

You don't normally use altars? Build one, why not. Build secret ones in shoe boxes. Experiment with altars and compound magic.

Perhaps you'd like a mini spellcasting kit to go? I don't know if making one counts as doing magic, but it's fun to make them.

Why not develop and prepare an oil or incense blend that must steep for a few months before it's ready? You don't need it now, right? So that means it's prime time to make things that are supposed to "mature" before use.

And hey, what's the deal with cleansing? A lot of people make fun of it now. Some people say it's important and necessary. Why not get really into cleansing and develop your own take? Practice gentle cleansing, nuclear cleansing, cleansing with pure energy and cleansing with candles, cleansing with cleaning products and cleansing with joy.

casting a spell right now is not the same thing as activating it right now and you can still gain a lot of experience in magic without releasing spells into the wild

I think that a lot of people think of spells as I light the candle and the spell is activated and it goes and does the thing, so if there is no Thing right now, then I can't cast the spell,

whereas if you reframed it as I am creating a spell-creachur that will hibernate in this little vessel until I spill it out into the world,

you may actually find that there are dozens of spells for you to actively develop, experiment with, cast, learn from, and passively benefit from - without necessarily needing any of them right now.

And the benefit is, if you don't actually need it right now, that takes a ton of pressure off of you. If you're not acting out of desperation, experimentation can be very fun indeed.

What about the most intense jaw-breakingly stupid strong protective amulet you've ever conceived of? Make it, why not. Make five prototypes on your journey to the strongest danged protection amulet this side of social media.

Who cares if you don't need them? Maybe some day you'll meet someone who does. Or, you know, magic is fun and doing it is its own reward.

What about a talisman for dreamwork and astral travel? Make something that reeks so intensely of the moon that it launches people out of their bodies just by walking past it.

Decide to perfect the most dazzling money-drawing candle spell. Make that your thing. You don't need cash right now? No worries; donate it to charity.

Have fun. Experiment. Made something that came through a little too hard and now it's causing problems? What a wonderful opportunity to learn how to disassemble a spell vessel.

Make yourself a cabinet full of enchantments. Learn how to contain the energy radiating off of all those enchantments. Realize you need more space and learn to combine multiple similar enchantments into one vessel.

make trusting friends who will let you cast on them.

(self explanatory)

Herb Correspondences - M-R

Mandrake - Spell strengthener. Use for protection, happiness and wealth. It aids money multiplying. Element Earth.

Marigold - See Calendula.

Marjoram - Use for cleansing, purification, and dispelling negativity. Also aids grief and sadness. Element Air.

Marshmallow Flower - Cleansing, protection, love, sex and fertility. Used in handfasting's. Elements Water.

Marshmallow Root - Protection and psychic powers. Use in tea to aid sore throats. Handfasting herbs and cleansing. Element Water.

Meadowsweet - Used to increase the chances of getting a job. Helps peace, love and happiness. Aids divination. Element Air.

Mint - Promotes energy, communication and vitality, protection and draws custom. Element Air.

Mistletoe - Also called Witches Broom. Used for fertility, creativity, and protection from negative spells & magic. Hang at handfasting to kiss beneath and promote peace. Element Air.

Mountain Ash Berry - Also called Rowan Berry. Strong fairy and Goddess connections. Aids protection and meditation help to clear the mind. Element Fire.

Motherwort - Mother’s Herb. Love and fertility. Grounding helps against bad luck. Protection and good fortune. Element Fire.

Mug wort - Use for strength, protection and healing. Mug wort amplifies magic. Aids astral projection, and psychic power. Element Earth.

Mullein - Represents the crossroads. Offers protection from nightmares & hexing. It attracts love and keeps evil energies and spirits at bay. Element Fire.

Mustard Seed - Courage, faith, and endurance. It is a good luck amulet. Aids mental power and offers protection. Element Fire.

Myrrh - Spiritual, meditation, and healing. Supports youthfulness and protection. Luck and peace. Element Earth.

Nasturtium - Banishing and releasing fear. It helps create your own reality. Aids creativity and independence. Element Air.

Nettle - Uses include dispelling darkness & fear, and curse breaking. Healing and protection and increase lust in partners. Renewal. Element Fire.

Nutmeg - Magical uses include attracting money/prosperity, and luck. Use for fortune telling and when you need favorable decisions to be made. Element Fire.

Oak - Connected to Litha and the most sacred of all trees. Oak supports success, good luck and healing. Stability and potency and attract money. Element Water.

Orange Peel & Flower- Attracts abundance, luck. Love and happiness strengthen divination. Element Fire.

Oregano - Aids astral projection, health, and vitality. Increase joy and justice and protect against evil. Use at Handfasting's. Element Air.

Parsley - Use this herb to help with contacting the dead. Increases strength, vitality and passion. It is uplifting and helps spiritual growth. Element Air.

Passionflower - Attracts friendship and passion. Calming, peace and instills passion into stale relationships. Good for house blessings too. Element Water.

Patchouli - Used in spells for connecting with spirits. Money attracts increases fertility and lust. Calming and peaceful. Element Earth.

Pennyroyal - Use for peace, harmony and tranquility. Carry to avoid seasickness or for physical strength & endurance. Element Earth.

Peppermint - Use for headaches and other forms of healing. Increases sleep and love. Use for increasing psychic power and divination. Element Air.

Pilewort - See Celandine.

Pine/Needles - Prosperity and success. Protection, purification and divination. Throw it in the fire to dispel negativity. Use in house and business blessings. Element Fire.

Plantain - Increases fertility and libido. Healing, protective and offers strength. Use to have power over supernatural events. Element Earth.

Poppy Seeds - Pleasure, love and luck. Aids sleep and insomnia. Use in astral projection and flying magic. Increases fertility and happiness. Element Water.

Pumpkin Seed - Use in lunar magic to honor the moon. Also healing and increases divination. Element Fire.

Raspberry Leaf - Used for healing, protection, love. Raspberry leaf not to be eaten by pregnant women until due date, as it induces labor. Helps to reduce the pain involved in childbirth. Supports sleep, dreams and love. Element Water.

Red Clover - Aids success, love and money. Increases fidelity. Use in exorcism. Element Air.

Rose - Use for divination, increased psychic power, love, lust and healing. It helps strengthen close friendships. Place it around sprains and bruises to help them heal faster. Element Water.

Rose Hips - Used in healing spells or to bring good luck and invoking good spirits. Aids stronger love. Element Water.

Rosemary - Use in healing poppets and love/lust spells. Improves memory. Increases sleep, mental power and protection. Burn to help purification and remove negativity. Associated with faery magic. Element Fire.

Rowan - See Mountain Ash.

Rue - Use in healing, health and love. Also, protection against the evil eye. Increases mental power and clarity of the mind. Used in exorcism. Element Fire.

616 notes View Post

foggedupforsaken

1 year ago

a couple of my fav non-true crime related mysteries:

Cracks: a bunch of people remember a creepy Sesame Street short from their childhoods that seems to have been buried by the network. sounds like some kind of Candle Cove nonsense but is actually real.

Geedis and the Land of Ta: someone stumbles on what seems to be merch for a piece of 80s fantasy media that does not exist.

The Case of the Missing Hit: a guy vividly remembers a song he's convinced was a big hit in the 90s; no-one else has heard of it & he can't find any evidence online

The disappearance of William Cantelo: ok stretching the definition a bit here bcos i guess this guy might have been murdered but this is genuinely such an odd story about a guy who straight up had a doppelganger

Who is the world's biggest purchaser of glitter? guys. who is buying all the glitter. it might have been solved but the glitter manufacturers aren't confirming or denying anything so i will be thinking about this until i die.

8K notes View Post

foggedupforsaken

3 months ago

7K notes View Post

foggedupforsaken

1 year ago

tbh i think the funniest phenomena that's been happening in the last couple years is "youtuber, having gone too deep into the research hole, has been made an investigative journalist against their will"

159K notes View Post

foggedupforsaken

1 year ago

Wait, so you said that you can learn to trust others by building friendships, but how does one go about doing that? Wouldn't someone I don't know be creeped out or annoyed if I suddenly walked up and started talking to them?

Friendships are built of repeated low-stakes interactions and returned bids for attention with slowly increasing intimacy over time.

It takes a long time to make friends as an adult. People will probably think you're weird if you just walk up and start talking to them as though you are already their friend (people think it's weird when I do this, I try not to do this) but people won't think it's weird if you're someone they've seen a few times who says "hey" and then gradually has more conversations (consisting of more words) with them.

I cheat at forming adult friendships by joining groups where people meet regularly. If you're part of a radio club that meets once a week and you just join up to talk about radios, eventually those will be your radio friends.

If there's a hiking meetup near you and you go regularly, you will eventually have hiking friends.

Deeper friendships are formed with people from those kinds of groups when you do things with them outside of the context of the original interaction; if you go camping with your radio friend, that person is probably more friend than acquaintance. If you go to the movies with a hiking friend who likes the same horror movies as you do, that is deepening the friendship.

In, like 2011 Large Bastard decided he wanted more friends to do stuff with so he started a local radio meetup. These people started as strangers who shared an interest. Now they are people who give each other rides after surgery and help each other move and have started businesses together and have gone on many radio-based camping trips and have worked on each other's cars.

Finding a meetup or starting a meetup is genuinely the cheat-code for making friends.

This is also how making friendships at schools works - you're around a group of people very regularly and eventually you get to know them better and you start figuring out who you get along with and you start spending more time with those people.

If you want to do this in the most fast and dramatic way possible, join a band.

In 2020 I wrote something of a primer on how to turn low-stakes interactions with neighbors and acquaintances into more meaningful relationships; check the notes of this post over the next couple days, I'll dig up the link and share it in a reblog.

17K notes View Post