July 2012
23 posts
You Are Essentially What You Wear →
huffingtonpost.com
In the case of clothing, a recent study by researchers from Northwestern University demonstrated that wearing a white coat triggered more diligent attention on a task if the participants were told that it was a doctor’s coat than if they were told that the same coat was a painter’s coat. Apparently, we are more likely to associate thoughts of a doctor as signifying detailed mental focus than the thoughts related to an artistic painter. The important point was that there was no effect unless the participants wore the coat. Simply seeing the doctor’s coat was not enough to induce a shift in performance on the attention task. Embodied cognition is certainly an advance in explanation over simple associative priming, but why does wearing the clothing have such an important influence on our thoughts?
I can see this being useful in chaos magic like whoa nelly. Convince yourself that a coat used to belong to some great wizard or that a pendant used to belong to a priestess…
Glamour.. and it’s uses :)
I love using worn objects for magic, even if it’s not exactly magic-magic. It’s still amazing the effect you can get by putting on a certain article of clothing or a certain accessory. (But hey, I believe in the concept of lucky underwear, so there you go.) So this article really doesn’t surprise me. Still makes me grin, to see the recognition of the power therein being acknowledged.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it.
But there was a goat in our yard the other day.
Now, I live in a decently rural area. There’s farmland nearby, there’s a feed farm down the hill (by “down the hill” I mean through the 1.5 acres of woodland that constitutes my back yard), seeing farm animals around is not that unusual.
What is unusual is seeing them out roaming around for no reason instead of behind a fence or otherwise contained.
We have no idea where the goat came from. He showed up in our yard, decided he was staying, and just chilled out for the entire day like he owned the place. Big white male, horns and everything.
Then he just kinda wandered off overnight. Apparently he decided to go chill at the feed farm and munch on the spare/spilled feed; at least, that’s where he was reported being seen next.
I’ve had some weird experiences with wildlife being signs or messages from deities.
This? I think Thor was just fucking with me.
I just wanted to let you know that no matter what happens you are beautiful and amazing.
Oh dear. Thank you, anon! You’re lovely. <333
the sign of a true magickickian
- Anshin: my method of rune magic is very technical and precise
- Anshin: 1: draw rune
- Anshin: 2: glare at the thing it is suppsed to be affecting
- Anshin: 3: glare harder if it doesn't work
Under The Influence (OR: You Ethics Mean Shit To Me)
Go with me on this.
After months and months of job hunting in an economy that seemingly makes hunting for unicorns a more achievable goal than hunting for jobs, you finally land an interview. Prospects either look good, or dismal depending on your situation. But either way, you’re going to make sure you do your damnedest to get that job.
So perhaps, if you can afford it, you go out and buy yourself a nice suit or some other type of professional looking outfit. You brush up on your interviewee “best-applicant-for-the-job” shit-eating grin, practice a firm handshake with your dog, whatever. The morning of the interview, you wake up early. You take a shower, groom yourself to perfection, eat a healthy and/or hearty breakfast and head off into the sunset to meet your destiny. Or whatever.
This is just one of the ways you exert your will over that of another individual’s.
I know, I know. I hear you. “Zee! Some of us already have jobs. And even if we don’t, we’re not going to a different interview every single day!”
No. But you do interact with other humans on a day-to-day basis. And even then, you constantly warp, contort, twist, pervert, shape and sometimes downright bastardize reality.
If you want to make friends, you try to appear more inviting, happy, witty and fun than you might actually be (or be feeling at that moment). If you don’t want to make friends and/or socialize, you put on your best “don’t fuck with me” face, shove your headphones on and exude an aura of “GO THE FUCK AWAY” as best you can.
And that is all perfectly well and fine. Natural, even. Human beings have an innate drive to not only survive, but to thrive. Which means we’re constantly using our will to influence the wills of others to bend in our favor. That ranges anywhere from being nice (or hell, mean) to that customer service rep to telling a little white lie to your friend when, yes, their hair really does look a mess, but god damn it you’re late to the party and you just wanna leave already.
Which is what absolutely kills me when I see people constantly bemoan, bewail, lament and beat their chests in rage over the idea that someone would dare use witchcraft to manipulate someone else for the crafter’s gain.
What makes that so much more atrocious when done with magic? Seriously. I want to know.
If you want to pretend you’ve never exerted your will over another human being in even the most mundane ways, fine. That’s your prerogative, Bobby Brown. And if you are against personally using witchcraft to do the same, again—you can do whatcha wanna do.
But stop acting like this isn’t a natural human endeavor that happens all the time, and stop shaming those who do it.
</rant>
Loki Project: Day 10: Thunder and Lightning.
Still playing catchup. Sleepy tonight; I’m leaning toward just posting one entry tonight, and saving the last catchup burst for tomorrow.
Just as Thor is the Friend of Man, vinr verlidha, so too is Loki Thorravinr.
I think this gets forgotten easily in a lot of the modern discourse. It’s not a very sexy or dramatic fact; it’s a lot more fun to see Loki as dark and dangerous and sexy or sweet and loving, rather than the fun-loving adventuresome god who’s Thor’s roadtrip pal and occasional drinking buddy.
Casually reblogging this because I like the way this is put.
Oh wow that description... That's exactly how it's like for me when I get the impression that a god-or-what-have-ye is communicating with me. Seeing it in someone else's words kind of makes me feel more like it's actually real.
This is making me grin. Glad to know I’m not the only one—I mean, I know, but it’s different hearing someone else say so. XD Thanks for the comment! ^_^
I found your blog via your post about bath crayons, and out of curiosity I have to ask- When Loki is pestering you/when Thor comes to ward him off/etc, how do you see them? Do you see them vividly? Are they images in your mind? Can you hear them speak clearly or is it more of an echo in your head? I ask because from your description it seems like they're right there with you and I'm curious for clarification/to hear what it's like. Thanks! -Kat
Okay, it’s taken an age and a day to answer this. Terribly sorry! I haven’t been up for talking much lately; been going through some stuff offline that’s been eating my ability to form coherent responses. @_@
Anyway.
Here’s a little thought experiment for you. Picture the colour red in your mind. Get a good focus on what that colour is, pure and undistilled with the associations you might have with it. Now. You know what the colour red looks like, right? (Or what any colour looks like, or what a specific sound sounds like, or whatever sense you are most familiar with and most comfortable focusing on in your mind.) But even though it’s clear and vivid in your mind, you aren’t actually seeing the colour in front of you. Your brain is still reacting as if you’re seeing it, and what you’re getting is the impression of the colour, formed from familiar experiences and pathways connecting, and it might as well be tangible and in front of you, for all the ways your brain is reacting to imagining it.
It’s a little like that.
It comes from without and within at once. I can’t actually see them where they are, not in the physical sense, but at the same time, it’s not a projection of my mind or images in my head. It’s an impression of their images. It’s as if they’re there but on a plane slightly above or below or to the left of the one I’m in, and if I could see through that veil, I’d be able to physically see them. The same goes from when they’re talking. I don’t actually hear their voices outside of myself, but it’s not exactly in my head either. It’s in that strange state in between. (Thor very rarely talks to me, actually—what I get from him is not the impression of his voice, but the impression of his touch—a hand on my shoulder or an arm around me or the like.)
So what it boils down to is that they are right there with me, just…not quite in the same realm of reality that I am. At least, that’s the way I interpret my perceptions of them, because it seems real in every sense except for the physical, and really, if my brain is insisting it’s physical when my eyes disagree, who am I to argue? I figure my brain (and whatever part of me could be considered to perceive the spiritual) knows better than my eyes do about this anyway.
I hope that clarification makes sense! If it doesn’t, feel free to ask again and I’ll try to explain a little better.
Witchy's Healing Comfrey Salve →
etsy.com
Ingredients: Dried Comfrey, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Local Beeswax from Milton, WI
Homemade in small batches on a witch’s stove, this Comfrey ointment is good for most any bumps, bruises, sprains, and aches. Comfrey is renowned for its healing abilities, known in folklore as “knit-bone” for its near magical ability to heal fractures and sprains.
Not for internal use or use on deep open wounds, as Comfrey has been shown to affect the liver when ingested. Safe for children and those with sensitive skin.
Keep refrigerated and it will last for a year or longer!
“At this very moment there are elves reading this who are realizing for the first time that there are others out there. Nearly every month we receive letters from brothers and sisters who thought they might be the only elf left on the planet.”
—Excerpt from The Silver Elves, “The solitary path,” originally posted ca. 1984-1998. Republished in The Magical Elven Love Letters, Vol. 1 (Sebastopol, CA: Silver Elves Publications, 2001), p. 175. (via frameacloud)
I see what you're saying. I had that same sort of "awaking" when I realized I was a witch. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. <3
No problem. ^^ Feel free to ask if you’re curious about anything else.
How exactly do you know if you're otherkin? Like, I know you're born otherkin but how do you come to know who you truly are? If you don't mind my asking.
That’s a little harder to answer.
Some people have what’s called an “awakening”, which is just where they reach a point in their life where things click into place and their identity makes sense. Much the same way someone might come to an understanding of their sexuality or gender, and I say that as someone who’s queer, nonbinary, and otherkin—though to be fair, I’ve always known I was otherkin, but didn’t realise I was queer until I was a teenager and didn’t realise I was nonbinary until I was in my twenties.
Some people just know, like I did. Some people go through a long process of exploration and trying on new labels and new ways of looking at themselves until they find one that clicks and feels right. It’s different for everyone.
What do you mean by "Genderfluid"?
“Genderfluid” is a genderqueer or nonbinary identity. It basically means my sense of gender shifts around from day to day or month to month, and I find it easier to use a blanket term (that is, to call myself genderfluid) than it would be to say “today I’m a boy” on Monday and on Tuesday say “today I’m androgyne” and on Wednesday say “today I’m agender”. (My shifts don’t happen that quickly or to that extreme, usually, but you get the idea.)
Hi, if you don't mind me asking...what is 'otherkin'? c:
Otherkin is another term for nonhuman. It seems to be something of a political term these days (as opposed to nonhuman, which is a much more innocuous term), and is sometimes used more exclusively for people who are “fantastical” or “mythical”, for lack of a better way to put it—Elves, dragons, fae, etc., or even elementals or celestials, whereas the term “therian” refers to those who are animals commonly found on earth.
