Practice

The Thinning Veil, the Shorn Hedges, or Whatever Else You Want To Call It

Posted on by Blue Huntington

Most spiritual practitioners will tell you that there are places that can only be described, for certainty, as not being here; these places are the residences of various kinds of spirits. Hedgewitches will refer to “jumping the hedge” as a term for interacting with these other places; other pagans will refer to these places as being on the other side of “the Veil”. Many spiritual travelers still describe a kind of mist between the realms. What it comes down to is that, whatever you call it, there are barriers between this place where we live and the other places where other beings live. Lately, as other practitioners around the online pagan community have been discussing, these barriers have been seriously thinned or even nonexistent in places. (John Beckett has a great post from back in 2020 discussing the Veil itself and its recent thinning–as this has been seriously noticeable, at least to me, since early 2020.)

Imagine a big club sandwich, stacked with all kinds of ingredients…and then imagine that each ingredient layer is a spiritual realm (including our physical home). Ideally, these ingredients are all nice and crisply stacked in their place. However, let’s say that this sandwich of worlds was left in the rain for a day; some ingredients have held up better than others (maybe your meat’s still pretty alright aside from being wet), some ingredients are just a runny mush that’s now mixing with all the other ingredients (your bread is probably now a soggy mess that’s running into every other layer of the sandwich). This is essentially what we’re working with right now–some realms have held up alright, while others are nearly married with their neighbors.

The consequences of this have occupied much of my time during 2020, thus my blogging hiatus. Many of the spirits taking advantage of the unusual circumstances are opportunists who don’t have much interest in the well-being of humans, or even have a vested interest in harming or feeding off humans. Some of them are looking for new real estate in our world, and this may mean attaching to a tasty-looking human who can serve as their sustenance and anchor here.

I’ve had strange spiritual encounters in our world that don’t make sense, I’ve found many spirited items and lost spirits strewn about, and I’ve been attacked by hedge-hopping spiritual trespassers. I’ve moved much of my energy and practice into focusing on spiritual defense and energetic cleansing, to keep myself as safe, healthy, and sane as possible–and I would also recommend to other practitioners out there to be sure your spiritual defenses are in place and you’re taking care of yourself spiritually as well as mentally and physically.

So, best of luck to everyone in 2021 and best of hopes that we can all keep moving forward! And if you are or have been seeing and experiencing some weird shit, just remember that you’re not alone and you’re not crazy.

Let’s Talk About Help

Posted on by Blue Huntington

Sooner or later, you will likely need it. But as the saying goes, it’s hard to find good help these days. With so many people trying to simply cash in on the current magical trends, I thought it might do us well to take a moment to reflect on the red flags and qualifications you could keep an eye out for when looking for professional spiritual assistance.

The reasons that you may need a spiritual professional are as diverse as the specialties of the professionals out there. The most common are probably readers—those whose profession relies on some method of divination. Another common generality of specialty you may find in professional practitioners is practical magic; these practitioners may be hired to perform spells or create magical items for everyday needs, such as getting a job or protecting a home. One more general specialization I would like to mention, and perhaps the most harmful when performed poorly, is those whose professional spiritual practices involve spirit work. Most obviously, these are the people who are often sought out when harmful spiritual conditions are at work, such as a malevolent spirit invading someone’s home or attaching directly to the person. Sometimes, burning a bit of white sage just isn’t going to cut it; you need a professional.

Psychic Sign - TheCommonSignSign by TheCommonSign

Let’s take this one step at a time: first, let’s say you think you may have a serious spiritual problem. There are a variety of professional readers you can seek out to divine the nature and severity of your problem; gathering information is a good first step to finding the most effective solution. But finding a reliable reader can be daunting when everyone and their pet dog is now an expert after buying their first tarot deck; unfortunately, as with other types of practitioners, we don’t have any quantitative, empirical method that would allow us to rate the credibility of a reader. There are a few organizations out there that offer training and their own certification, but these still aren’t common to find when shopping around the psychic market, and plenty of gifted readers don’t belong to any such organization. Your best tool here is your own judgment; ask questions. An honest, trustworthy reader will likely be willing to tell you anything you may need to know regarding their public practice; evasiveness regarding the subject the reader is expecting you to pay money for is not usually a good sign. How long have they been practicing, and how long have they been doing so professionally? Where did they learn, or who did they study under? How does the particular method of divination they use work, or how is it interpreted? (Remember, allow for divination methods that are more intuitive rather than strictly structured, such as scrying for a popular example.) Another valuable source of information can be other clients. Did the reader behave professionally when dealing with them or speaking about them? Was the reader able to offer advice or remedies if problems appeared in the reading? In the age of the internet, you can buy everything online, even psychic readings; look to see if this reader has any client reviews available. If you can’t glean any useful information from either asking the practitioner or asking the clientele, then I would consider the practice suspect. (Keep in mind, you may not always be able to question the clientele; they may be unwilling to discuss the matter, or they may be unavailable. In the case of the folk practices I perform, although I personally do not do so professionally, I know that many practitioners can be hard to find and often require asking your friend’s acquaintance’s hairdresser for directions, as many practitioners in my tradition are more secretive.) At the same time, I have of course learned to be skeptical of any practitioners who seem to spend more time building themselves up and advertising than they do actually practicing.

Now you’ve found your professional reader, and your reading is underway. Often times, professional magical practitioners will offer divination as only a facet of their services, also performing spells or other works as other available services. This is where you may encounter the age-old scam of the vague, impending doom, a doom from which only the reading practitioner can preserve you, provided you pay further fees for the other work that averting this otherwise-sure doom requires. In short, this is a good time to seek out another reader. A fellow conjure practitioner once advised me, if I have a candle reading performed, to look at the bottom of the candle beforehand and ensure the wick is centered so that the reading is not being mundanely influenced to appear more severe. Put plainly, use sense and healthy skepticism to ensure that you’re not being taken for a ride. On the opposite end of the spectrum, also pay attention to the reader’s mannerisms and keep in mind that they are likely reading you as well. Do they come across as genuine and sincere? Or are they just telling you what they think you want to hear, so that you will come back again and pay for another happy reading?

Now you’ve probably seen one or two readers, and gotten reliable readings that felt right and gave you some useful information about your particular spiritual problem. It’s time to find someone who can offer the remedies you need based on this information; you may return to your reader for further work if they offer it and you feel comfortable with them, or you may seek out another spiritual practitioner altogether. (Again, ask the same types of questions when considering this practitioner as you did when considering your reader.) When seeking spiritual aid, ideally, we would all like to find a professional practitioner whose practice is in the same or similar tradition as our own, but we won’t always have that luxury. If you truly do have an emergency, I advise finding a practitioner who seems qualified and experienced in the type of problem you’re having, rather than putting off treatment until you find the practitioner you’d most enjoy having to dinner after. On another note entirely, it is a sad truth that when searching through available magical practitioners–as practice is part of the work, and thus may necessitate your involvement–you may come across one of the creeps who unfortunately lurk in this business out of a desire to create an illusion of power and authority about themselves. Do not let a practitioner coerce you into doing something that you are very uncomfortable with or put pressure on you. Ask about an alternative method to remedy your problem; if they offer none, find another practitioner and get a second opinion.

Last, a note about payment. Many people today may be able to offer you spiritual assistance of various means for no charge whatsoever. For this discussion, however, I am focusing on those professionals for whom their practice is a major source of income. That being said, although many people nowadays don’t seem to want to pay magical practitioners any more than they want to pay artists and graphic designers, being charged for a spiritual consultation with a professional spiritual practitioner is not a red flag by any means. Like the rest of us, these people are doing a job and need the income from that job to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Personally, the rent on my apartment is a few hundred dollars, not a few hundred acts of kindness–and we all have to be able to pay the bills, even spiritual practitioners. (Were this not the case, perhaps I would become a professional practitioner myself!) Another thing practitioners must pay for, especially if you’re receiving a spiritual remedy that requires spellwork, is the tools and ingredients used for that spell. If someone asked me to perform love work for them, using my new red figure candles that just cost me $10 each at the only local magical shop that stocks these items and the small amount of saffron I have in my herbal stash (still probably about $10-15 worth as it’s such an expensive herb), then I certainly would not be willing to do so for free. But another important, though often overlooked, effect of paying for spiritual consultation is that it assigns value to the assistance being received–something is being given for that which is being received. It discourages those who would simply waste the practitioner’s time, and leave without truly taking to heart anything that has been offered.

At last, I would like to leave you with a final note underpinning all of this: trust your intuition when dealing with people.

Cultural Context, and Why It’s Helpful

Posted on by Blue Huntington

For many followers of minority religions in America, we are converts who likely didn’t grow up in a similar culture to that from which these religions originated. For this reason, when desiring to have an effective and smooth relationship with a spirit from another part of the world (and often another time), it is going to be very helpful to study the culture they’re originating from and the practices they are accustomed to for communicating with their devotees.

This topic came to my attention again recently when I was looking for a better statue to use for Dà Yé, only to find that many people were confusing him with Tù’er Yé. You see, “Dà Yé” is an endearing title modernly given to the spirit often known as Tù’er Shén, a name that translates as “Rabbit God”. As you can guess, the name Tù’er Yé translates similarly. Now, this is where cultural and historical knowledge would have made the difference between these two spirits glaringly obvious. Tù’er Yé is named such because he is actually a rabbit; he lives on the moon with the goddess Cháng’é and is often depicted as a somewhat anthropomorphic rabbit riding a tiger or other mount. Tù’er Shén is not literally a rabbit god, god of rabbits, or anything like that; “rabbit” was once a slang term in China for a gay man, and this is what Tù’er Shén truly refers to. Because this slang term means that “Tù’er Shén” would be comparable to saying “Fag God” in America, he is often more respectfully addressed as Dà Yé instead. Accordingly, he is also represented as a man.

And this is what cultural context is, and how it’s applied.

Iconography usually cannot be taken at face value; imagery found in Hinduism or Buddhism are great examples, as the representations and items/symbols present often tell a spirit’s entire story or relate their area of focus, if you know how to read it. More importantly, if a potential devotee can be thrown off this easily with just a glance, then reading myths or trying to understand practices is of course going to seem nonsensical without any cultural understanding for all the things written between the lines. For instance, if you come across common hoodoo practices involving using gator paws for luck or holding onto your money, but you personally come from a place where gators are just a foreign danger, you may be wondering what gators have to do with money; part of this is because, in the cultures where these practices (and the gators in question) can commonly be found, a gator is good eating and leather.

In short, do your homework. It’ll come in handy.

On Taking Things One Step at a Time

Posted on by Blue Huntington

Want to have all of the fun, with none of the work? Then magic likely isn’t for you. If you do interact with other magical practitioners, you’ve probably seen someone try to do something that left you with many questions–foremost among them often being, probably on multiple levels, “Why?”

Across magical traditions, I’ve watched people attempt feats for which they were ill-prepared. It seems to elude some practitioners, especially newer ones, that magic is a skill like any other and requires practice to progress. I’ve played Operation a few times, but I highly doubt you’d want me rummaging around in your giblets with that as my only practicing qualification. Perhaps the tendency of many modern authors to water down practices or draw rocky cross-culture parallels is partially to blame. After all, you don’t go to a pediatrician for neurosurgery just because it’s “technically all medicine, so it’s close enough”.

My preferred illustration of all-enthusiasm, no-preparation endeavors is many peoples’ use of the spirit board, if only for its sheer frequency and modern infamy. Now ubiquitously recognized as the ouija board (“ouija” originally having been a particularly successful brand of the board), this tool is understood by many modern spiritualists to work by channeling the energy of spirits. (Skeptics insist the spirit board and similar divinatory methods work via the ideomotor phenomenon, but that is irrelevant to our discussion.) Due to their modern notoriety, I doubt I need to list any examples of possible problems that can arise when the uninformed use them, and I’ve met plenty of practitioners who refuse to touch a spirit board out of fear, despite the fact that they can be used just as safely as any other divinatory device, should you take the time to learn how. Yet, while many tools have consequences associated with misuse, it seems that these consequences are overlooked entirely in most cases; for example, almost any method of divination opens spiritual contact, which means that even tarot cards likewise have a small chance of welcoming an undesirable spirit.

There also seems to be a notion that everything should just be available to everyone, all the time. This makes for a dangerous mindset, for what should be obvious reasons; similar reasons for which we wouldn’t want dangerous weapons to be constantly and freely available to all. In some traditions, the serving of certain spirits or participation in certain practices is withheld until necessary or a certain level of training/initiation has been reached, not for the purpose of being exclusionary (as often seems to be the assumption), but for the purpose of protecting people from attempting to handle spirits or practices that they are unprepared for and that could backfire badly on themselves or others. I know a metaphysical shop owner who, when asked by a customer what Goofer Dust even was, simply advised against the woman buying it; this is because, if not used carefully, Goofer Dust can have more severe effects than intended on the target or cross the practitioner using it. (Also, I’ve seen a few people online talk about using Goofer Dust for protection; this is decidedly inadvisable, and not the purpose of it.)

If you find yourself taken with the idea that you should do something for which you’ve lacking or nonexistent training, think carefully about why you’re doing it and the potential ramifications if there’s a problem that you lack the knowledge to remedy. Why do you want to perform this practice? If it’s just to feel cool, then it may not be worth the potential consequences of the practice backfiring. Do you really need to perform this practice, and do you need to perform it now? There are situations for which you might have an urgent need of magical assistance, perhaps in the case of a health crisis, wherein you would simply be left to make a sincere try using your best judgment. Do you need to be the one to perform this practice, rather than seeking a trained professional? I understand that, for many within pagan and other minority faiths, finding a local clergy member or such is simply impossible. However, thanks to the internet, you may be able to find an online contact who could at least advise you on the matter; even finding a good literary source to review will help.

Keep in mind, none of this is in any way an attempt to discourage any particular person or practice, but simply an appeal to practicality. There are many useful magical skills that can be acquired and shared, but they take time to master. Everything in life is a process. There’s no race in magic, or need to compare to others. Take your time. Understand the tools and practices, and understand how they work and how to spot a problem, before diving into the deep end.

In the ever-wise words of Professor Oak, “There’s a time and place for everything.”

Magical Items, Physical Properties

Posted on by Blue Huntington

A while back, I read two amusing, if simultaneously slightly concerning, posts from a blog called Cajun Conjure: It Ain’t Aromatherapy and And Remember Kids, “Please, Don’t Eat The Hoodoo.”

I am sharing this because–along with inhaling and eating unfamiliar things being a generally bad idea–I realized afterward that it’s apparently a more common problem than I would have thought. For example: while later discussing this blog with a fellow conjurewoman nearby, she shared her own story of a clueless customer involving magical dressing oils. Most practitioners who are familiar with candle work are familiar with the common action of dressing the candle in specialized oils to strengthen their purpose. However, this customer saw a colorful glass bottle of roughly 4 oz. of essential oils and herbs, and approached the conjurewoman with the assumption “This goes on a salad, right?”

Mistletoe is famous for its association with love. Steep it for your intended as a love tea, however, and the only thing they’ll likely be cuddling is the toilet due to gastrointestinal distress. But while mistletoe’s less-ingestible aspects are fairly well-known, consider for a moment the many more obscure herbs we employ for their magical properties. For instance, have you ever worked with rue? It’s also occasionally known as witchbane or herb of grace, due to the power of its purifying associations. Did you know that it, too, can prove toxic in certain amounts? Likewise, while lobelia can be a fun storm-raising herb (not to mention an attractive flower), be sure not to leave your magical ingredients where pets can get into it while you’re working, should it poison them. And of course, ingestion isn’t the only concern with materials, especially when essential oils have become so popular; we must also remember that many substances can cause adverse reactions when absorbed through the skin.

There’s more to working than being able to build a formula based on magical associations; it also pays to be familiar with the physical properties of your tools. Delivery is part of the work, and you need to know what method of delivery is best for each ingredient and intention. Does it burn well, and is it safe to inhale? Is it safe to ingest or leave on the skin, and is it a common allergy that you would want to be in the habit of informing any potential partakers of?

Also make note of your own physical tendencies. Do certain incenses irritate your respiratory system? Perhaps consider the quality and ingredients of the particular incense you’re using, or use a perfume or scented candle if the smoke is what irritates you. Are you one of the many people who find that essential oils irritate your skin? Perhaps try steeping the desired herbs in a gentle carrier such as olive oil. Remember still (as Cajun Conjure’s post mentioned) that many practitioners spend years perfecting their formulas and, as such, don’t wish to throw them out to the world, so if you’re a customer of someone making oils or incenses, take responsibility for yourself to ask if it includes any ingredients you may be sensitive to.

In short–as someone who personally may have sulfur, snake shed, or any number of other things you may want to limit certain forms of contact with in my formulas–I simply wish to offer a friendly (and hopefully obvious) reminder that while we are spiritual beings, we are also physical beings as well.

Do not put my dressing oils on your salads.