wine-and-madness

[wine-and-madness]

What counts as a spell? Is intent all you need or do you have to do something before to get it all juicy and stuff.

Hi Anon! What a fun question, because there is no answer except this CAN OF WORMS you just opened.

There is no consensus anywhere as to what constitutes a "spell."

There is even LESS consensus as to what makes a spell go.

Intent is a good starting place. It is probably where you should start for all acts of practical magic.

But I find that in it's common form, the idea of intent + willpower = magic has been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Like if we're talking about "intent is everything" I'm reminded most closely of Chaos Magic. But Chaos Magic is not a school of "just set your intent and you've worked magic!". It's a very rigorously developed system.

In Hine's Condensed Chaos, he lists the third Core Principal of Chaos magic as technical excellence, and I quote:

One of the early misconceptions about Chaos Magic was that it gave practitioners carte blanche to do whatever they liked, and so become sloppy (or worse, soggy) in their attitudes to self-assessment, analysis, etc. Not so. The Chaos approach has always advocated rigorous self-assessment and analysis, emphasized practice at what techniques you're experimenting with until you get the results you desire. Learning to 'do' magic requires that you develop a set of skills and abilities and if you're going to get involved in all this weird stuff, why not do it to the best of your ability?

Later in the book, Hine likens "magical powers" to the concept of achievements, and goes on to say:

Something which is an achievement is the result of practice, discipline, and patience.

Shortly after:

Chaos Magic is not about discarding all rules and restraints, but the process of discovering the most effective guidelines and disciplines which enable you to effect change in the world.

(In above quotes, all emphasis my own)

But these ideas get taken - and I'll give a big nod to the LOA which is just the worst kind of brainrot for encouraging the "intent is all that matters" mindset - and the ideas get diluted so much that people are literally out here saying, "so all those people who spend years studying magic in order to get results are buffoons? All I have to do is imagine what I want and it will be delivered to me? All humans since the start of history just have to decide they want something and it will happen in a miraculous manner?"

(Not you, Anon. I'm just in a mood)

In my mind, yes - something beyond intent must occur in order to make spells go.

But what?

Anon, have you ever heard that dumb belief floating around that all herbs in a spell can be replaced by rosemary, and all stones in a spell can be replaced by clear quartz, and these two things are "universal substitutes"?

I am 95% sure that this nonsense was based on two very popular dictionaries Cunningham wrote in the 80s, the Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic, and Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.

In the very long entry for Clear Quartz:

Quartz crystal is used as a power amplifier during magic. It is worn or placed on the altar for this purpose.

And from Rosemary:

Rosemary is generally used as a substitute for frankincense.

And I believe that someone somewhere got the idea that since clear quartz amplifies all other powers, it therefore somehow magically Ditto-copies all other powers, and like a shapeshifter somehow becomes something it is not nor ever was.

And, you know. What's the difference between subbing out frankincense and blackthorn between friends?

These beliefs have become so popular that sometimes when unscrupulous blogs rip off entire Cunningham encyclopedia entries and paste them into tumblr posts (without credit), THEY INCLUDE THE EXTRA MADE-UP BIT ABOUT ROSEMARY BEING A UNIVERSAL SUBSTITUTE.

Anon, your question is "is it just intent or do we need other stuff to make it go," but sadly,

IMO common beliefs about the stuff that makes spells go have also been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Because if I sat here and said, "hey Anon, it's not just intent, you also have to use correspondences ^-^/" then the very first thing you are likely to run into is absolute nonsense about correspondences. IMO, effective utilization of correspondences is a skillset based in research, theory, and technique.

Or if I said, "you also have to raise energy! 👍", this may be mistaken to mean, "set intent but also visualize white light inside of a candle," because the concept of raising energy and visualizing has been (IMO) diluted past the point of utility for most people. I believe that effective utilization of energy work is a song composed of many notes and chords, several of which you must practice before you can utilize it.

And to complicate all of this, which non-diluted things in which combinations you need to make the spell go depends on what paradigm you operate off of, because while there are approximately one billion ways to do magic that works, my currently very dim worldview is that most people who are talking about magic are doing magic that doesn't work,

and in my opinion the actual basis and reasoning, like the rationality behind the magical systems is really important. Because you need that shit to understand what it is within that system that makes the spell go.

And you need to understand what makes the spell go to make the system fit into your life without breaking it, and in order to troubleshoot problems without making things crumble further.

Because when people don't understand the basis and reasoning you end up with "rosemary is a universal substitute" and "imagining white light makes the spell go."

There are a few circumstances where you can totally strip technique from theory and be successful, but there are also a hell of a lot of people out here feeling shit about their practice because their spells never seem to work.

So.

I really just recommend choosing what school of magic you would like to learn about and participate in, and reading an introductory book on it.

This is because it is the job of introductory books to explain the principles and theories behind a system of magic, and most importantly, what makes the magic go, and a step-by-step primer on what you, the practitioner, are supposed to do to make that kind of magic go.

Despite above rambles I'm really not a Chaote, so I can't recommend a strong primer. As far as I'm aware, Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll is a core text.

For Traditional Witchcraft, try The Crooked Path by Kelden.

For something more Wiccan, I can't recall having anything bad to say about Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn.

If either of these things are too Witchcrafty for you, try Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, which is still witchcraft, but it hits different.

For a general primer on helping your spells go, try Elements of Spellcrafting by Jason Miller.

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I have two, very different ones lol

First is single crochet, since I recently took up making weird little guys using nothing but single crochet, no pattern. It feels magical that I can sit down, then have a small figure emerge, not knowing what they'll be like until they already exist 💜

The other is.... Some sort of bobble stitch? I forget the name, but I saw it in a big book of crochet stitches. It involves wrapping your yarn around the hook 9 times, which feels very magical, and it's very useful for decorating things with. I feel like it could be used in a lot of symbolic or structural ways, and 9 is always a magical number (and it works with 6 and 3 just as well, in different sizes)

witches who crochet: what is the most magical stitch to you? for me it's treble or half-double. the number three just works for magical uses for me personally.

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Painting by Peter Solarz

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something about Dionysus' leopards being depicted eating grapes in contrast to the maenads who tear apart animals (and people)

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Oldest Wine Ever Discovered in Liquid Form Found in Untouched Roman Tomb

A 2,000-year-old Roman funerary urn unearthed in southern Spain has been shown to contain the oldest wine ever found still in liquid form.

Discovered during home renovations at a property in Carmona in 2019, the contents of the urn were analyzed by a team of scientists from the University of Cordoba in a study published Monday.

Study lead author José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola, a professor of organic chemistry at the university, said that the urn was found to contain cremated remains, burned ivory thought to come from a funeral pyre and around 4.5 liters (1.2 gallons) of reddish liquid.

“When the archaeologists opened the urn we almost froze,” he said. “It was very surprising.”

The team then carried out a chemical analysis of the liquid and found that it was wine.

This was a big surprise, because wine normally evaporates quickly and is chemically unstable, Ruiz Arrebola said.

“This means it is almost impossible to find what we have found,” he said, explaining that the wine had been preserved by a hermetic seal that prevented it from evaporating, but it is not clear how the seal formed.

Further chemical analysis allowed the team to identify the liquid as a white wine, as it didn’t contain syringic acid, a substance only present in red wines, Ruiz Arrebola said.

It also has a similar mineral salt composition to the fino wines produced today in the region, he added.

“It’s something unique,” said Ruiz Arrebola. “We have been lucky to find it and analyze it – it’s something you only see once in your life.”

The researchers believe their discovery dethrones the current holder of the record for oldest wine in a liquid state, the Speyer wine bottle, found in Germany, which is thought to be around 1,700 years old. However, the age of the Speyer bottle has not been confirmed by chemical analysis.

The vessel was one of six funerary urns containing remains found in the mausoleum.

The discovery of a gold ring and other valuable artifacts suggest it was built by a family of considerable wealth, Ruiz Arrebola said.

However, little else is known about their lives, because cremation would have destroyed any DNA, he explained, adding that this means it is impossible to say whether the six people were related.

Ruiz Arrebola now plans to try to work out which modern-day local wine it was most similar to, although there are hundreds to work through.

By Jack Guy.

[wine-and-madness]

for like the fifth time I'm going to try and say my feelings on "you have to do physical support actions or your magic won't work"

if you're not familiar with this it basically means performing regular ""mundane"" actions that correspond with your magical intent. Cast a house protection spell, but also lock the doors. Cast a job spell, but also apply for jobs.

At face value it does not seem like very bad advice and in fact I do think that for many people it's decent advice, in fact I suspect it's helpful for many,

but I find an intense difference between these two statements:

"Mundane supportive actions can be a helpful technique for manifestation. It's something you might try as part of your magical experiments or for troubleshooting when your magic isn't working well,"

and,

"You must perform corresponding physical actions or your magic will not work."

And I think that most people just sort of automatically assume some version of this to be true without ever really thinking about it. And today I'd like to tug at some of this base assumption yarn and see what the cardigan looks like when we're done.

Here are some things I see said about this:

"Magic follows the path of least resistance [assumption of its own, but let's roll with it] and taking mundane supportive action reduces resistance against the spell."

Well, does it though?

Let's assume that magic takes the path of least resistance

(and gods, spirits, and entities always, universally, and unfailingly function in a way that simply takes the least amount of energy possible and never behave in unique and unpredictable ways according to their personality and whims)

and that the path of least resistance for a job spell is that the delivery person is going to hand you a package at your door and say, "hey, we're hiring, I get a bonus referral if you call this number by Friday."

Okay, so that's the path of least resistance. By, like, a huge margin. Let's say that path has 5 resistance points (low!).

And you applying for jobs online or in person has 750 resistance points (holy shit, that's quite high).

Like, right now, for whatever reason, you're just not getting hired when you submit your resume (*your "best friend" hid swear words in your job experience column as a "joke").

For this thought experiment, the spell is simply going to manifest by the delivery person handing you a referral printout.

So let me ask you this

Is going out to apply to jobs with your resume actually reducing "resistance" in a way that matters at all?

In fact, in some scenarios, is it possible that the actions you take (turning in your tainted resume) increase resistance, even though from our perspective it is supposed to be helping?

In this thought exercise, these mundane actions which are supposed to be helping are either irrelevant to the path the spell is actually going to take, or are actually increasing "resistance."

So -

Are mundane actions always necessary to compel spells to manifest?

And if they are always necessary, what is the mystical function which links unrelated and unhelpful actions to the actual manifestation of the spell?

I've never seen anyone explain that part. Because I think people would say something like

The Universe wants to see you work towards your own goals

In which case, that is the spell, I've already done that, it was me casting the spell!!!!!

(Also I'm not New Age, I do not believe in a conscious or co-creating Universe in a way that matters, and my spiritual beliefs about the Universe do not intersect with my magic)

or maybe they'd say like

Splashing around in the pond of Applying For Jobs somehow causes ripples in the Jobs pond that makes it easier for the spell to manifest,

like apparently there's some sort of surface tension that we need to break in order to allow the spell to manifest at all.

And to be perfectly honest,

yeah.

I believe in that one.

I believe it helps!!

It's the equivalent of a cartoon where a big cloud of dust kicks up and then something important is swapped out behind the scenes but we don't really know how it happened.

But!

I don't believe it helps all of the time!

I don't believe it is necessary all of the time!

When facing a very stagnant or resistant situation, I personally find that a valid magical technique is splashing about in the pond and getting the silt stirred up and then bippity boppity, the change happened!

This of course implies that such actions may be unnecessary and even very unhelpful when:

Situations are rapidly changing and fast-paced

Situations are very delicate and it was already never safe for you to take the only available mundane options

...you didn't need to do so, because the spell was going to manifest just fine anyway

The splashing is actually getting directly in the way of causing manifestation

Let's revisit that job spell where your ""friend"" fucked with your resume.

Now let's say that your job spell has specific requirements.

Let's say that you must have a work from home position in your niche field.

The only way to get these jobs (besides in-person networking, which you can't do because you are disabled) is to apply online.

And in this field you do not fill out little job apps. You always send in your resume.

Every single time you send in your resume, you are unknowingly sending a tampered resume that uses extremely inappropriate language.

Because you have been told you must take mundane supportive action or your spell will not manifest, you actively seek out employers and send them your resume. They never reply.

Once you send in your resume, even employers who were talking to you stopped contact.

Someone on Twitter reaches out to you! Unexpected! Great lead! You send in your resume (you must perform physical supportive actions or your spell will not manifest) and...

They block you.

"Now hold on," perhaps you are saying, "this is such a specific situation. And not very reasonable, either. A majority of people will be able to perform physical supportive actions that are actually helpful."

In which I return to point #1, where if the only way the spell was going to manifest was via the delivery driver, how do you know any specific action you are taking is actually helpful?

And waving back to point #2, which is, it is reasonable, actually, for people to be doing everything appropriate and reasonable to support their spellwork, but unknownst to them there is some hidden problem that is causing mundane actions to fuck up manifestation,

whether or not it is a simple and obvious problem like a fucky resume, or whether it is a very obscure and esoteric problem,

But then also let's roll right into point #3, which is,

I just don't believe that a majority of practitioners, even very good practitioners, are so adept at spellwork that they know exactly the "path of resistance" their spells are going to take,

because for some reason when people say "path of least resistance" apparently they're envisioning like 2 or 3 huge macro channels we can get in there and dig out with shovels,

and not ten thousand cracks the size of spider legs smashed into the mirror of reality,

each one almost as equally likely as one another,

running into each other like colors in a liquid prism,

many of which may not respond at all to our clumsy actions,

may be specifically resistant to our actions,

or operate on planes of existence so Other that it is a miracle the intersect with physical reality at all, and yet are as alike as any crack to shunt our manifestations to our feet.

"Magic follows the path of least resistance" is a delightful nod at Newtonian physics, and doesn't actually imply that, like, these paths are things we can necessarily interact with in a way that matters,

are large enough that we can adeptly manipulate them with our mountainous, clunky bodies,

are channels we recognize or personally believe in,

or even exist within our realm of comprehension.

The "path of least resistance" could be nine hundred thoughts flitting through a series of retail worker's minds, one secret shopper not being able to find the right brand of salsa, a dropped cigarette, and an exasperated manager finally turning to Annoying Chad and saying, "you said you can get your friend to work here, right?"

well, anyway.

Thoughts like these are why I question this magical "law" as being a law in the first place, and why some of the stuff we take for granted in manifestation not really mattering at all, sometimes.

I just believe that magic is supposed to work.

I do think that very often, and for mysterious reasons of mystery, mundane support actions can help. (splashing in the pond, &etc)

I think that if you are personally having trouble manifesting, or if you are new to magic and you're not sure what to try first,

experimenting with mundane support actions is just dandy.

I think that if you're more experienced in magic and looking to try something new, experimenting with magical support actions is a nifty way to flesh out your personal praxis.

But I think that unless you are specifically working with a magical tradition that requires mundane support actions,

then this is not an actual rule or law at all. It's just a technique, and like any other can help, harm, or do nothing at all.

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Replies are restricted so it's going in a reblog!!

Tbh I didn't fully read the post, I have no use for it (yet!), but I love the initial thoughts on the good energies of a home and wanted to share a story I learned recently 💜

So my highschool teacher lives in my dad's childhood house, totally by accident. He was one of my favourites too, so this is generally great. We found this out because my dad is a tile setter, and teacher needed new tiles.

So because they're all the sorts of people who do this, Gran and dad have been getting to know teacher and re-visiting their old house.

And teacher told them, when he moved in, the first winter he was there he got a knock on his door. "You've gotta come help make the ice rink, the previous owner of this house always organized it"

Teacher, being the awesome guy he is, just slot himself right into the void left in the community by Gran and grandpa (who are both very social people). I think in that case, theoretically and if were they magical people, cleansing those energies not only would have been sad for the house, but also potentially fucked up the energies of the surrounding houses. Mostly I think the concept of maybe doing a... Reading? On the energies of the place you find yourself in? Would be really cool. Really neat to figure out what you're working with, decide whether it's a good cast iron pan or one covered in rust, then proceed accordingly.

Hi! If you don’t have the capacity to answer questions like this thats totally okay but I was wondering if you have any thoughts/resources on house cleansing rituals? My family and I are soon moving into the home my parents will likely live in for the rest of their lives, and I’m feeling drawn to consecrate the space with some cleansing and protection magic but unsure of where to start. We are of Irish and Danish descent living on Coast Salish land, I’m sure there’s some rich folk magic I could draw from but I have no teachers or guides to show me the way! I deeply admire your work and appreciate any advice you might offer :) Thank you!

Hello there, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond! I've got a whole bunch of messages I've been meaning to respond to.

I definitely get that urge to "magically nest" into a new home.

I'll start by addressing the cleansing aspect of your question. When it comes to a new home (or really, any new space or item that you're going to be exposing yourself to energetically over time) there is often an urge to cleanse in some way, which is understandable. However, I encourage you to check in with yourself and your intuition of the space, asking if it feels truly pertinent to cleanse it. I bring this up because, some things—and homes especially, in my opinion—can actually benefit from and be strengthened by the accrual of energy in them. For instance, sometimes you move into a place, and it just feels gross and wrong on a visceral level, as if it was covered in "energetic grime." In a situation like that, cleansing makes total sense, as the goal is to remove that influence so that you can begin to imbue it with energy of your own. However, other times, you move into a place and immediately feel the warmth, love, and care that has been steeped into it, in which case, why would you want to remove such a rich and supportive energetic foundation from which to build upon?

As an example, when my in-law's first moved into the house we later inherited, it was shortly after the house's first tenant had died within it. She was a very kind and funny old woman who really liked my in-laws and helped make it possible for them to buy it following her death. For the first ten years or so of living in the house, they still strongly felt a sense of her caring nature present in the home, which makes sense given how long she lived there. What's more, though, any time my in-laws would argue or struggle with tension, they would begin to smell cigarette smoke and hear distant country music they couldn't find the source of (two things the original homeowner loved and indulged in daily), which would always lead to them laughing and patching things up. The energetic residue left by this woman could theoretically have been cleansed upon moving into the house, but I believe that would have been a sad loss for the house and the family.

With that little rant out of the way, let's say that you do have reason to want to cleanse the home and address that approach. There are many different ways one could use to energetically cleanse a building, but the main ones that seem worth mentioning here include Fumigations, Washes, and Recitations.

Purifying Fumigations involve invoking the excisive virtues present in a given material or mix of materials (such as Rue, Sage, or Vervain) and then burning said materials to release the ritually activated and aligned virtues of excision to aid you in cleansing the space. Practically speaking, this looks like wafting smoke through the home.

A Cleansing Wash involves steeping the excisive virtues of pertinent materials (such as Salt and Chile Pelper) into a solvent base (such as Water, Vinegar, or Oil), invoking and aligning said virtues ritually, and then using the homemade solution to physically cleanse the space (using the different solvents depending on your need—i.e. use oil for polishing wood, use vinegar for cleaning glass, etc.)

Recitations of Banishment involve walking through the house reciting or reading words of power aloud that call for the expulsion of unwanted energies or entities. This method will generally benefit from a close connection to the source material and/or a close working relationship with one's spirit allies.

In many cases, a mixture of two or more of these approaches will be used in conjuctjon to purify a home.

As for domestic protection magic, that's another subject with innumerable approaches. Additionally, most useful domestic protection magic I've encountered seems to focus on particular facets of protection (which is why my home is layered with multiple wards). As such, I struggle a little bit to think of a concise and clear way to discuss this aspect of your question. However, here are some links to previous posts in which I've discussed things like:

Protecting the home from Intruders

Protecting the home from Storms

Protecting the home from Fire

Protecting the home from Malefic Forces

A Generalized Property Ward

Additionally, I believe that developing a close working relationship with the spirirt of one's home—called a Genius Domi in my tradition—is probably one of the best ways to establish magical guardianship of the house.

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So I'm feeling a little down and very low energy, and writing and helping brings me joy, so here's some "it's far too overcast and cold for me to be mentally well" witch ideas:

Light incense. Don't visualize or do magic. Light it up and say, "yay, I like incense."

Make tea. Sloosh it around in your mug a little. Say, "it's just like the ocean." Drink the ocean.

If you are a little cold, say, "I manifest warmth." Go find a bigger, cozier sweater or a blankie. Get warm. Your spell has manifested. You are magic.

Find some of your clickity clackity rocks. Make a crystal grid of no more than three rocks. No matter what grid you make, the intent is, "I have just done a productivity." When you are done, your spell has simultaneously been cast and become manifest.

Wash one dish. Look at it and know that it loves you. You and the dish are friends now.

Imagine what kind of cat you would like to have, if you did want a (new) cat. Think about its appearance and personality. Give it a name. It is now your thoughtform. Enjoy.

Watch that one Netflix show you've been saving forever for a time when you're ready to focus. Do or do not focus. When you are done watching the show, say, "I knew it."

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New Wine

colored pencils on pink paper, A3

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Guys do you think he’s spooky

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I'm going to put a stop to this shit right now.

The gods are not going to punish you for the way the election turned out.

There's already a trend I'm seeing where people are claiming the gods are mad, and mad at us specifically, and I NEED you to please, please try and listen to me when I say that this is a part of grief. We are scared and looking for someone to punish us, to tell us that we're bad, to validate how scared we feel.

This is even MORE prevalent if you've grown up with abusive parents.

Listen, I cannot speak on behalf of the gods, nobody can, especially random people on tiktok.

Try to see that this is a part of doom-scrolling, it's also a part of the grieving process, it's also a part of fear.

You are not in trouble.

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✞ 666 ✞

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Karin Hopkinson - Winelands, 2024 - Oil on canvas

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Naomi Native depicted as Oshun, Yoruba goddess of love, beauty, and fertility

Created by A.J. Hamilton

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soju may taste like juice but theres no way the memes aren't ridiculously exaggerated. this bottles only 5 units it cant affect me that considerably

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Fuck my stupid baka life this goddamn twink with androgynous swag keeps running around my countryside and driving the women mad someone needs to fucking arrest this guy

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type of guy that's addicted to glimpses of something higher