#spell vessels

[windvexer]

Hi, Chicken!

Perhaps a silly question, but maybe you know: is the chemical composition of stones (regular rocks picked up on a beach, or in a forest) somehow important in spells? Can I just use them in a protection spell if I associate them with something solid and safe? Or can I use a rock whose shape reminds me of the moon in a spell related to the moon?

I'm not really into crystal magic, but I like picking up pretty rocks and putting them on my windowsill, so I thought about using them.

Good morning! You can certainly do anything you like. Here is some theory you may find to be helpful.

We might consider that any object can have three bodies: its physical body, it's mental body, and its astral body. (this is an oversimplification).

These bodies stack together like matryoshka dolls. The physical body is the anchor that holds the mental body, and the mental body is the harbor that accepts and shelters the astral body.

The physical body is just as you describe in your post: the chemical composition and the shape of the rock.

Many rocks found in the forest or beach only have a physical body, and do not have mental or astral bodies,

The mental body is something people create by assigning meaning and possibility to the rock.

The mental body can be thought of as a gossamer vessel nestled within an object that can hold the even more subtle energies of astral (magical) power.

The concept of adding a mental body to something is more or less the same thing as "programming" or "setting intent."

Physical body: Rock that looks like a moon Mental body: "This rock looks like the moon, therefore it's good at hosting lunar energies." Astral body: Lunar energy channeled into the rock, filling the mental and physical bodies like sand filling up a shapely glass bottle

In this paradigm, the process of developing and setting the mental body is vital for acts of magic; in fact, if you're in a rush, you can skip the physical altogether.

Technically - and to actually answer your question, Anon - you can apply any mental body to anything and it will work, at least for a little while.

Specifically, all mental bodies last until they are worn down and eroded by the astral ecosystem, and the ecosystem of human thoughts (as, after all, all humans can create mental bodies - not just practitioners).

if the mental body is in harmony with its physical body, then the physical body provides support that shelters the mental body. This is like building a swimming pool at the bottom of a natural basin.

The natural curve of the land holds and supports the cement. But even if the swimming pool cement cracks, the water isn't going anywhere fast - the physical environment of the construct supports its purpose, so the effects of the construct last much longer without maintenance; and the rain supplements water in the natural basin anyway.

If the mental body is rooted in a hostile or unsupportive environment, it will fade much more quickly. This is like building a swimming pool at the top of a precarious volcano. Yes, you can do it. And it will hold water. But the extreme environment of the volcano heat cracks the cement, and when the cement cracks the water will spill out and tumble away. It may rain, but the pool is not at the bottom of a basin to collect rain - it will only get what falls right into it.

When people talk about "you don't need any tools or ingredients, all you need for magic is yourself and your energy," in my praxis what they are probably saying is, "you don't need the physical body of objects; you can skip that and work only with mental structures that you directly energize."

And this is true. You can attach mental bodies to anything, regardless of their suitability to host that type of magic.

If all of this is true, then which found rocks are the best for any given purpose?

I think starting with rocks that you associate with things (like solid protection, or the moon) is a very good start.

Work enough with found objects and perhaps you will find a system developing for yourself; rocks with a bluish tint always seem well-suited for hosting the Moon, and big heavy black rocks with mica sparkles always seem best for protection, and so on.

However, more work can always be done.

In my opinion, the single most impactful thing the average practitioner can do to increase the power and efficacy of a spell is to just decorate the physical spell vessel in alignment with the spell intent.

If you have a nice sturdy rock and you paint a protective symbol on it, then the mythical landscape of that rock changes. It becomes an environment more in harmony with a protective mental body.

Please forgive me as we delve here a little deeper:

What is the ideal form of your protective spell? Should it be like a placid moat that becomes infinitely wide and confusingly misty for intruders?

This is different from a protection which is like a goat made of fire which has a battle scream and headbutts intruders.

These two protections ought to have different physical bodies, because they are very different things.

Still you would choose the rock based on initial impressions: "doesn't this rock sort of remind you of an angry goat?"

But then you can take it home and paint it.

The symbols you choose for the placid moat might include the color blue, long waving lines, the alchemical symbol for water, and the symbol of the moon to represent illusions; words themselves make good decorations, as do sigils. (Painting the physical body with a symbol that directly translates into the mental body... a good decoration, I think).

All of these decorations terraform the mythical landscape of the stone to prepare it to hold the mental construct. And indeed, as you decorate the stone, you are also simultaneously building the mental body.

But you don't necessarily need to create permanent changes. Using knot magic and tying up the stone in a net, adding it to a jar or pouch with other ingredients, or placing it on top of specially prepared sigils or artwork can also function as decorations that modify the physical body.

Then, when the time for enchantment comes, I hazard your found stone will make a significantly better protection than someone who just bought and cleansed some celestite off of Etsy.

But what about the chemical composition of the stone? There are always attributes in any object we can't change.

Stones are slow and heavy. To me, at least. I'm never going to decorate a stone hard enough that it doesn't make a spell slower and heavier.

But at a certain point, the details become fine enough that they stop having an impact.

What if the refined white sugar I use is beet sugar, not cane sugar? What if the sugar beet was from a heritage cultivar, not a modern one? What if the cultivar of the beet was genetically modified? What if the package of brown sugar from beets is dark brown sugar, not light brown sugar?

To me, it's brown sugar.

To me, it's a heavy black rock with some mica in it.

You can go all the way down if you want. You can get really into isotope witchcraft, that would be cool.

But once I paint a big red X on it, I believe most of those fine details are superseded.

And even if you don't want to modify the physical body at all, you can attach a mental body to anything.

Once you develop your path enough to get symbols that directly link the physical to the mental (like, wolves mean protection, and red means protection, and an X means protection), you can start to really modify physical vessels to very closely match the intent of the spell.

And when the physical vessel and the intent are totally harmonized, and you add magical/astral energies that are lockstep with intent and form, the floodgates are opened and magic starts flowing through in very powerful ways.

But not all spells need to be like powerful, raging rivers.

You can dig a pond into any object, and fill it with energy. If it's a bad spot you will probably have to keep reconditioning the pond and hauling water to it, but it'll still work.

[aveloka-draws]

Enlightenment

[lil-vibes]

update so good i finally drew the goat

[spycemel]

You know what, fuck you. *Turns the funny Angel and Machines into bugs*

My brother forced me to play through the Pantheon of Hallownest while I was taking a break from trying to P-Rank Layer 7. So now these exist.

I'm also planning to do Minos and Sisyphus Prime eventually, alongside maybe-possibly some enemies and the Earthmover.

HALLOWNEST IS DEAD FULL

SOUL IS FUEL

[angelsdean]

the way that nick spell in 14x17 makes it canonically SO easy to open a portal to the empty. it drives me insane. dean literally HAD cas's blood. on his jacket. it was all right there. it was set up perfectly. why show us nick opening a portal to the empty and specifically showing that the main ingredient was BLOOD then. not using that. dean was meant to rescue cas!!!!! full circle moment. i'm the one who gripped you tight a raised you from perdition. what's the matter, cas? you don't think you deserve to be saved? i love you, too. of course i love you. SMOOCH. anyways.

[blue-lollipops-and-ice-clouds]

No Pauldron Vessel.

(Source - the loveliest anonp0et once more, brought to us by the amazing jdpunisherphotography)

[littlebittyhollowbugs]

They drive me insaaaaaaane !!!!!!!!!!!!

[eyes-inthe-dark]

HI HELLO I HAVE AN OFFERING FOR THE SLEEP TOKEN CROWD

because you can never have enough silly cryptid creature vessel pics

[dumbbullet]

a while back i saw this piece of art by waricka, and then later had a conversation about alphonse mucha and art nouveau and so, Mucha inspired TOG tour poster.

Edit: heres Mucha's original work i used for reference!

[catboygirljoker]

hey you ever think about how its implied that you have to be turned into a nobody to get norted, like, every member of the real org13 who isnt literally xehanort or literally possessed by xehanort is a nobody (except maybe vanitas but *gestures* thats a . different can of worms), and the people who were recompleted had to then become nobodies again in order to be in the real org13 and serve as a vessel for xehanort, like perhaps your heart has to be removed in order to make room for another heart,

and then do you ever think about the one character who canonically got norted before becoming a nobody and is still norted even after being recompleted and thus canonically didnt need to become a nobody in order to be norted, and then lose your mind a little bit

[mizzyislost]

something something how horribly tragic both the broken vessel and lost kin fight feel something something idk man this is hard

[moondrifterr]

excellent news! i may have found a beast simera form i finally enjoy! rejoice!!!

but keep in mind he is a terrifying magical beast and dangerous creatures the likes of him should be taken seriously

he likes tomatoes and green bananas

[vesselenjoyer]

silly poll time because im curious

[perhapsiamaplant]

when he said "YOU MAKE ME WISH I COULD DISAPPEAR YOU MAKE ME WISH I COULD DIIISSSAAPPPPEAAAARRRRR" I felt that

[sleepanonymous]

Something extremely funny and not at all annoying about writing Sleep Token fanfiction is when the fake names you’ve chosen for the Eepy Guys— names that you’ve actually grown fond of and have trained yourself to use when writing so that it comes naturally and you’re no longer accidentally writing the forbidden Real Names™— end up being names shared by less than savory people in this fandom.

I’ve literally never had a writing crisis like this before. Like, I’m half tempted to just ignore it and be like “Do you eepy babes wanna read a oneshot that's almost finished about Vessel and III and attraction panic?” because I’ve been using these names for almost six months now.

[blue-lollipops-and-ice-clouds]

(Source)